Chapter XXIII: The Return of the Emperor (1)

=394. Character of Hadrian: Prosperity and Good Government of His Reign.=--Purposely we had visited Rome in the absence of Hadrian; our interest had been in the city and its people, not in the versatile, ever-wandering Cæsar and the administration of the Empire. But before Publius Calvus could set forth for his Tuscan villa he and all other Senators had to attend a great state ceremony--the reception of the Emperor returning from his travels.

More than any other Roman ruler Hadrian had been an insatiable traveler. The frontiers of Britain, Syria, and Africa, the garrison towns on the Rhine, and the Danube--he knew them all. The peaceful cities of Gaul, Spain, and Egypt reaped the benefits of his intelligent benevolence when he visited them. Twice he had sojourned in Athens, the city which perhaps he loved the best in all the world, finishing the great Temple of Olympian Zeus left uncompleted since the days of the Peisistratidæ and otherwise beautifying the now sleepy old university town, so that its grateful dwellers acclaimed him as a second founder like unto the original Theseus.

Hadrian’s personal life had been indeed marred with certain acts of arbitrary caprice and even of cruelty; many senators grumbled at his long absences from Rome and they somewhat dreaded his sudden judgments, but the Empire at large had been incalculably happy under his sway. The legions were under firm discipline, wars there were not save petty rumblings on the frontiers and the embers of the last struggle of the unhappy Jews, while peaceful commerce whitened the Mediterranean, and merchants’ caravans wound confidently over the great road system with little fear of bandits.

Under such an Emperor laws were scientifically administered without fear or favor. The provincial governors were, despite an occasional plunderer such as we saw haled before the Senate, men of genuine intelligence, probity, and zeal. If the Senate was becoming a venerable debating club, if the other forms of political liberty were either dead or dying, under Hadrian despotism was showing its fairest face--with a highly capable monarch earnestly devoting himself to his subjects’ good. What man, surveying the august fabric and social and governmental machinery of the Empire, could have failed to echo the current notion--that the dominion of Rome was divinely ordained and find that her departed Cæsars were worthily ranked among the gods?[251]

=395. Return of Hadrian to Italy.=--But Hadrian had been growing old and a little weary of his philanthropic wanderings. And now at length a peaceful armada had borne him back from Greece to Puteoli. Hence with an enormous cortège he had traveled by easy stages along the “Queen of Roads,” the Via Appia, to the outskirts of the capital. And now to welcome him back to the Palatine the obsequious magistrates arranged the inevitable public spectacle.

The Emperor is not returning as a conquering _triumphator_. No formal triumph can therefore be ordained in his honor. He cannot wear laurel as he rides in a gilded chariot, preceded by the long files of fettered captives and, followed by the cohorts of his acclaiming army, drive his car through the Porta Triumphalis near the Circus Flaminius, next take a long circuit through the Circus Maximus and then down the Via Sacra and across the Forum and finally mount upward to pay his vows to Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitol. A magnificent procession, nevertheless, is possible. At the third milestone from the city along the Via Appia all the senators and equites in gala robes meet the advancing Imperator. His Empress Sabina is greeted with equal ceremony by the wives of the entire aristocracy.

In the city all the vast colonnades are hung with garlands of spring flowers, all business is suspended; all the fora and streets along the line of march are packed with throngs in brilliant costumes and equally brilliant chaplets. One grows weary counting the magnificent litters everywhere passing, followed by the gorgeously liveried retinues of the wealthy.

=396. Imperial Procession Entering Rome.=--At last after duly impressive delays the imperial procession starts from the spot known as the Three Fountains.[252] The Prætorians are there in full force, the City Cohorts, and heavy drafts of the vigiles, all the tribunes, centurions, and privates parading in silvered or gilded armor with scarlet plumes and mantles. The magistrates and ex-magistrates all wear the colorful toga prætexta.

The ruler himself, “Holder of the Tribunician and Proconsular Power, Pontifex Maximus, Cæsar Augustus, Father of his Country, First Citizen and Imperator”; that is to say Hadrian in person rides in the glittering chariot wherein Augustus rode in his triumph after the battle of Actium. Four snow-white horses draw the car, and beside the slim Greek charioteer stands the object of universal envy, the man who is all but a god even in Italy, who is the “Son of the Divinity,” Trajan, and who is actually worshiped as a deity before a thousand altars throughout the subjected East.

Hadrian is a handsome bearded man of stature above the average. The gray of advancing age is streaking his hair, but he retains that graceful presence and piercing glance which would make him a notable figure had he never donned the purple. Before him, bound to the end of staves, are carried placards in large letters reciting the benefits he has conferred on hundreds of communities; there is also a large roll of papyrus symbolic of the “Perpetual Edict” which he has inspired the learned jurist Salvus Julianus to compile preparatory to the codification of the vast Civil Law.

Directly before the Emperor there is borne upon an open car a gilded image of the beautiful youth Antinöos, Hadrian’s favorite companion, whose mysterious death in Egypt the monarch has never ceased to mourn; while behind the imperial chariot rides the marveling envoy of Chosröes the Parthian King who has received peace at the hands of the Cæsar. The hundreds of senators and thousands of equites marching in the procession, now and again, perhaps at some signal, raise shouts of applause to the master and sun of that glorious human universe wherein they rejoice as the fortunate stars.

=397. Hailing the Emperor.=--So the procession enters Rome. At sight of the tall, majestic Imperator, whose purple mantle gleams with gold, all the streets and plazas burst into tumults of cheering. “_Io Triumphe! Io Triumphe! Ave Cæsar! Ave Hadriane!_” while not a few in ecstatic loyalty make haste even to salute him as “_Dominus et Deus!_”

As the imperial car passes each crossing of the streets, victims are sacrificed, while loud prayers are raised for the monarch’s safety. The air grows heavy with the perfumes of the incense burning on hundreds of improvised altars. From the balconies matrons rain down masses of roses; and at many a turn great volumes of saffron are sprinkled over the marchers.

Onward Hadrian rides, his handsome features curling perchance with pleasure but looking not to the right hand nor the left. Perhaps he recalls that were this a formal triumph, a slave would have been required to stand behind him whispering at intervals, “Remember, you are but a man!”

=398. The Donatives, Fêtes, and Games.=--The procession thus sweeps along the Sacred Way, pauses for a moment that the Emperor may survey the latest touches upon his new Temple of Venus and Rome, passes the holy House of Vesta and then turning away from the Forum and the Capitol ascends into the Palatine. Here the gorgeously arrayed companies of the official bureaucracy swell again the “_Io Triumphe!_” and Hadrian dismounts from the car to offer his own special thanksgiving for safe return, and to burn his own incense within the Temple of Apollo of the Palatine.

All that afternoon the fête continues. The great public baths stand open, absolutely free, not even the petty quadrans being exacted from the plebeian visitors. The grain and bread doles are doubled; the ticket holders receiving to boot measures of oil and wine. The Prætorians drink deeply the imperial health--for a special donative of 1000 sesterces ($40) per man has been ordered for the entire corps.

In the Flavian Amphitheater Hadrian himself presides in the podium while a lioness contends with an elephant, the most famous and skilful netters and Thracians slaughter one another, and a desperate robber is done to death by three panthers. Late into the evening the streets are illuminated; there is feasting, dancing, reveling all through the wide parks and the bosky groves stretching across the Campus Martius to the Tiber. Everybody is praising the greatness and glory alike of Emperor and Empire; and as for Rome, Imperial Rome, the center of all the earth, who doubts that her power is ordained to stand forever?

=399. A Christian Gathering.=--Not all Rome this night is given over to roses, wine, and reveling under the torchlight. In one of those subterranean burial galleries near the Via Appia, which a later age will call “Catacombs,” in a spot where a chamber of some dimensions has been excavated, a group of soberly clad folk have gathered. They have met stealthily,--posting sentries to give the alarm, for the vigiles may not have become too drunk that night to be active.

The leader of their service is the Bishop Higinius whose name will stand as the eighth Pope following the Apostle Peter. During their simple liturgies some strains of boisterous music from the luxurious, sensual, pitiless metropolis outside interrupt their hymns, and the good bishop signs to one of the deacons. The latter opens the scroll of the Book of Apocalypse where under the cryptic name of “Babylon” is forewarned the fate even of imperial Rome; and thus he reads:

“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities; therefore shall her plagues come upon her in one day, death and mourning and famine; and the kings of the earth who have committed wickedness and lived deliciously with her shall bewail and lament her when they see the smoke of her burning.

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more;--the merchandise of gold and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and all rare woods and all manner of vessels of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, _and souls of men_.”

INDEX

[References are to pages.]

_=Acta Diurna=_, 282 ff.

=Advocates=, methods of, 345;
great importance of, 355;
cheap pettifoggers, 356;
high abilities of some lawyers, 358.

=Agrippa=, Baths of, 361.

=Aliens=, vast numbers of, 123;
colonies of, in Rome, 145.

=Amphitheater=, 394 ff.;
(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Antiques=, often spurious, 58.

=Apicius=, the gourmand, 100.

=Aqueducts=, 303–304.

=Arch=, use of, 13.

=Architectural Forms=, usually Greek, 12;
use of arch and vault in, 13.

=Architecture=, very grandiose, 258.

=Arena=, arrangement of, 392;
(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Armor=, of legionaries, 318.

=Army=, real master of the Empire, 307;
held under stiff discipline, 308;
stationed on frontiers, 308–309;
legions in, 309 ff.;
size of, 331;
efficiency of, 332;
no reserves to, 332;
(_see_ Legionaries).

=Arria= (wife of Cæcina Poetus), 76.

=Atrium=, 42, 43.

=Auctions=, 226.

=Audiences= with emperors, 296.

=Augurs= and augury, 418–419.

=Augustus=, tomb of, 372;
deified, 439.

=Auspices=, taken in Senate, 340.

=Auxiliary cohorts=, 327–328.

=Ball games=, 206.

=Banks= and bankers, 227 ff.;
a great banker, 228;
forms of investment, 229;
trust business of, 229;
savings banks, 230;
safe deposits, 230;
deposits in Temple of Vesta, 231.

=Banquets= (_see_ Dinners).

=Barber shops=, 90, 91.

=Basilica Æmilia=, 271.

=Basilica Julia=, 272–274.

=Baths=, popularity of, 358;
luxurious private, 359;
private-owned, 360–361;
large government-owned, 360;
great Baths of Trajan, 361 ff.;
crowds at, 362;
often a kind of club house, 362–363;
entrance to, 363;
interior of, 364;
cold room (_frigidarium_), 365;
swimming pool, 365;
_tepidarium_, 365–366;
hot baths (_caldaria_), 366;
extreme luxury of, 367;
restaurants and shops at, 367–368;
parasites at, 368.

=Beards=, revival of, 91.

=Beast fights=, 399.

=Beggars=, multitude of, 252.

=Bonuses= (_donativa_), 245.

=Books=, 209 ff.;
format of, 210;
mounting and rolling of, 211;
copying of, 212;
publication of, 212, 213.

=Bread=, 103, 104.

=Breakfast= (_jentaculum_), 110.

=Building materials= used in Rome, 10.

=_Bulla_=, 186.

=_Caldaria_=, 366.

=Camp= of prætorian guard, 311.

=Camps=, military, 330.

=Campus Martius=, view from, 7;
general description of, 280;
great porticoes along, 368;
public buildings upon, 369.

=Carriages=, varieties of, 455–456.

=Catacombs=, used by Christians, 473.

=Cemeteries=, 179–180.

=Cena= (_see_ Dinner).

=Centurions=, in legions, 323–325.

=Chairs=, forms of, 55–56.

=Charioteers=, 383;
(_see_ Circus).

=Chests=, 57.

=Children=, legal status of, 184;
exposure of, 184;
very desirable, 185;
ceremonies after birth, 185;
names given, 186–189;
care in educating, 189;
toys and pets, 190;
taught Greek, 191;
schooling and education, 192 ff.

=Christianity=, pagan account of, 449;
persecution of, 450–451;
charges against, 451;
attitude of educated men towards, 452.

=Christians=, gathering of, in the Catacombs, 473.

=Circus=, popularity of, 382;
charioteers in, 383;
racing factions in, 383;
wagering in, 384;
_Circus Maximus_, 384 ff.;
race track, 384;
procession before races, 385–386;
beginning of races, 386;
dangers in races, 387;
proclaiming victors, 387–389.

=Circus=, Flaminian, 370.

=_Circus Maximus_=, 384 ff.

=Citizenship=, desirability of, 146;
case of St. Paul, 147.

=Claudius Etruscus=, powerful freedman, 142.

=Clientage=, old type, 147–148;
new type, 148.

=Clients=, morning salutation by, 148–149;
doles given, 150;
attend their patron, 151;
undergo insults, 151, 152.

=Clothing= (_see_ Garments).

=Cohorts=, city (_cohortes urbanae_), 313.

=_Collegia_=, 249 ff.

=Color=, used upon sculpture, 259.

=Column of Trajan=, 278–280.

=Concrete=, great use of, 11.

=_Congiaria_=, 244.

=Cookery=, refinements in, 109, 110.

=Correspondence=, 208.

=Couches=, general use of, 54.

=Country=, around Rome, 5;
view of, 5, 6.

=Country-life=, Roman love of, 453–454;
(_see_ Villas).

=Court=, imperial;
(_see_ Emperor).

=Courts=, law, 353 ff.;
(_see_ Legal Procedure).

=Crowds=, typical, upon a Roman street, 21.

=_Curia_=, 272.

=Curia Julia=, arrangement of, 339.

=Cybele=, worship of, 441.

=Daily Gazette= (_Acta Diurna_), 282 ff.;
entries and gossip in, 284, 285.

=Decurions=, provincial nobles, 152.

=Deified Augustus= and later emperors, 439.

=Dining room= (_triclinium_), 45, 46.

=Dinner= (_cena_), 111 ff.;
time for, 111;
standard number for, 113;
preparing for, 114;
arranging couches, 115;
serving of, 116;
courses at, 117;
drinking bout after, 118;
garlands and perfumes at, 119;
very elaborate banquets, 120;
simple home meals, 121.

=Dinner hunters=, 112;
at baths, 368.

=Discomforts= of life in Rome, 33.

=Doles=, public, of grain, 242, 243;
distribution of, 244.

=_Domus_= (mansions), 39 ff.;
often several owned by one magnate, 39;
plan of early, 40;
plan of developed, 40, 41;
price of a handsome, 41;
entrance to, 42;
atrium of, 42, 43;
decorations of, 43;
_peristylium_, 44;
_triclinium_, 45, 46;
special rooms in, 47;
garden behind, 47;
slaves’ quarters, 48;
floors and windows of, 49;
frescos in, 50;
statues in, 51, 52, 53;
furniture in, 54 ff.

=_Donativa_=, 245.

=Drinking bout= (_commissatio_), 118.

=Eagle= of legion, 325.

=Eating-houses=, 235, 236.

=Education=, selection of school, 192;
extent of literacy, 193;
instruction of girls, 193;
for lower classes, 193, 194;
low-grade schools, 194;
cruelty in schools, 195;
superior types of schools, 196;
methods of teaching, 197;
reading and writing, 198;
arithmetic, 199;
grammarians’ high schools, 199;
passion for oratory, 200;
rhetoric schools, 201;
mock debates, 202;
popularity of rhetorical studies, 203;
philosophy, study of, 204.

=Egypt=, worship of its gods, 442.

=Emperor=, center of social life, 294;
“friends of Cæsar,” 295;
audiences with, 296;
ruin through disfavor of, 296, 297;
favor most valuable, 298.

=Emperors=, cult of the deified, 439–440.

=Emporium=, 240.

=Encampments=, military, 330.

=Entrance= to house, 42.

=Epicureanism=, popular, 407.

=Equites=, second class nobles, 153;
qualifications and honors of, 154, 155;
review of, 156.

=Escorts=, of rich nobles, 25.

=Factions=, in circus, 383.

=Fame=, passion for, in letters, 214, 215;
in poetry, 216.

=_Familia_= of slaves, 129, 130;
organization of, 131.

=Festivals=, great number of, 374;
passion for spectacles, 375;
(_see_ Games, Public).

=_Fetiales_=, 422.

=Fire department=, 304 ff.

=Fish=, great demand for, 106.

=Flamens=, 420.

=Flavian amphitheater=, 394–397.

=Floors=, of houses, 49.

=Flowers=, varieties supplied from villa gardens, 458.

=Flute-blowers=, guild of, 251.

=Fora=, centers of Roman life, 254;
series of, 256;
crowds in, 256, 257;
centers for new, 257;
grandiose architecture in, 258;
use of color on sculptures, 259;
entrance upon the series, 260;
Temple of Venus and Rome, 261, 262;
colossal statue of Nero, 262;
Arch of Titus, 262;
Temple of Vesta, 265;
Temple of the Divine Julius, 265;
Old Forum, 265 ff.;
of the Emperors, 275 ff.

=Foreign= cults, numerous in Rome, 437;
why popular, 438;
cult of Cybele or “Great Mother,” 441;
Isis worship, 442;
ceremonies at Temple of Isis, 443;
Serapis worship, 445;
Mithras worship, 445;
nobility of Mithras cult, 446;
_Taurobolium_ ceremony, 448–449;
Christianity, pagan view of, 449 ff.

=Fortresses=, frontier, 330.

=Forum=, morning visit to, 111;
of Julius, 276;
of Augustus, 277;
of Nerva, 278;
of Trajan, 278;
(_see_ Old Forum _and_ Fora).

=_Forum Romanum_=, 265 ff.;
(_see_ Old Forum).

=Fountains=, public, 20.

=Freedmen=, how created, 140;
status of, 140, 141;
humble types of, 141;
wealthy, 142;
importance of, 143.

=Frescos=, in a Roman house, 50, 51.

“=Friends=” of Emperor, 295.

=_Frigidarium_=, 365.

=Fruits=, 104, 105.

=Fullers=, 89.

=Funeral monuments=, 179, 182.

=Funerals=, great interest in, 172;
preliminaries to, 173;
procession of “ancestors,” 174;
exhibits in procession, 175;
orations at, 176;
tombs, 177–180;
funeral pyre, 180, 181;
for poorer classes, 182.

=Gain=, passion for, 220.

=_Galli_=, 441.

=Gambling=, mania for, 375.

=Games=, children’s, 204;
played on boards, 205, 206;
out-door, 206.

=Games=, public, passion for, 375;
mania for gambling at, 375;
vast scale of, 375–376;
great expense of, 376;
popularity of, 377;
seating at, 378;
(_see_ Theater, Circus, _and_ Amphitheater).

=Gardens=, public, around Rome, 372.

=Garlands=, at dinners, 119.

=Garments=, types of, 80 ff.;
toga, 81;
tunica, 84;
capes, cloaks, and gala garments, 85;
women’s stola and palla, 86, 87;
materials of, 88;
use of silk, 89;
changing styles of, 89.

=Gladiators=, notice of display of, 29;
popularity of, 392;
(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Gladiator contests=, enormously popular, 389;
at funerals, 390.

=Gladiator schools=, 390;
inmates usually criminals, 391;
severe training in, 392;
typical arrangement of, 393;
Flavian Amphitheater, 394–395;
its interior arrangements, 395–396;
procession before contests, 397;
criminals thrown to beasts, 398;
fights with wild beasts, 399;
interval in sports, 400;
distribution of lottery tickets at, 400;
beginning of regular, 401;
chariot warfare, 402;
cavalry combats, 403;
signals for ruthlessness and signals for mercy, 403;
“Netters” and “Thracians,” 404–405;
reward of victors, 405–406.

=Glass=, used in windows, 49.

=Gluttony=, 100–102.

=Golden Milestone=, 269, 270.

=Gourmandizing=, delight in, 100.

=Government= of Rome, 299 ff.;
city præfect, 300;
curators and commissioners, 301;
water supply of, 301–302;
great aqueducts, 303;
police and fire department, 304–305.

=Grain=, trade in, 242;
doles of, 243;
distribution of, 244.

=Grammarians’ schools=, 199.

“=Great Mother=,” 441.

=Greek language=, constantly used in Rome, 22, 23.

=Guests= at dinner, proper number nine, 113;
arrangement on couches, 115.

=Guilds=, 249;
very ancient ones, 250;
importance of, 251;
festivals of, 252.

=Hadrian=, prosperity of his reign, 1, 468;
tomb of, 370;
his return to Italy, 469;
his procession entering Rome, 470;
how saluted, 472;
presides over fêtes, 472–473.

=Hairdressing=, women’s, 93;
ornaments on hair, 93.

=Heating= of houses, 49.

=Hills=, Seven, of Rome, 9.

=Hospitals=, almost nonexistent, 168.

=Hotels=, (_see_ Inns).

=House fronts=, on typical Roman streets, 18.

=Houses= (see _Insulæ_ and _Domus_).

=Idlers=, vast number of, 27.

=_Imagines_= (death masks), 54.

=Impeachment trial=, before Senate, 343 ff.

=Industry=, quarters for, 238;
conditions of labor in, 238, 239;
organization in guilds, 249 ff.

=Inns=, usually sordid, 231;
type of, 232;
reckonings at, 233;
frequenters of, 234;
eating houses, 235 ff.

=_Insulæ_= (tenement houses), 34 ff.;
typical _insula_, 35;
flats in, 36;
cheap attics in, 37;
dangers of, 37, 38.

=Isis=, cult of, 442 ff.

=Janus=, 413.

=_Jentaculum_= (breakfast), 110.

=Jesus=, legal status of, 144.

=Jewels=, 96 ff.

=Jews= in Rome, 145.

=Kissing=, habit of, in public, 27.

=Kitchens=, 109.

=_Lacerna_=, 85.

=Lacus=, Curtius, 274.

=Lares= and Penates, 414.

=_Latrunculi_= (game), 205.

=Lawyers= (_see_ Advocates).

=Legacies=, 170;
hunting for, 171;
public bequests, 172.

=Legal procedure=, highly scientific, 353;
great tribunals for, 354;
forms of verdicts, 355;
importance of advocates, 355;
cheap pettifoggers, 356;
character and slave witnesses, 357;
use of written evidence, 357–358.

=Legate= of the legion, 329.

=Legionaries=, enlistment of, 314;
organization of, 315;
training of, 316;
weapons of, 317–318;
armor of, 318;
rewards and punishment of, 319–320;
retiring bonuses for, 329;
pay and rations of, 320;
training of, 321;
non-military labors of, 322;
petty officers of, 322–323;
centurions of, 323–324;
_primipilus_ of, 325;
eagle of, 325.

=Legions=, number of, 309;
organization of, 315 ff.;
location and names of, 326;
commanders of, 328;
(_see also_ Legionaries).

=Letters=, 207, 208.

=Libraries=, size of, 217;
private, 218;
public, 219;
of Trajan, 280.

=Literary fame=, passion for, 214 ff.

=Luncheon= (_prandium_), 111.

=Magistrates=, public honors paid to, 24.

=Mansions= (see _Domus_).

=Manumission=, 139, 140.

=Marble trade=, 241.

=Marriage=, men often reluctant to marry, 61;
usually arranged by girls’ parents, 63;
marriage treaties, 64;
betrothal before, 65;
dowries, 66;
dressing bride, 66, 67;
actual ceremonies of, 67 ff.;
contract of, 68;
wedding procession, 69;
ceremonies at bridegroom’s house, 70;
often unhappy, 72;
divorce, easy and frequent, 74;
happy marriages, 75.

=Masks=, death (_imagines_), 54.

=Matrons=, honors paid to, 71, 72;
(_see_ Women).

=Meals= and meal times, 110 ff.

=Meat= and poultry, 105.

=Medicine= (_see_ Physicians).

=Mimes=, 380.

=Mithras=, worship of, 445–446.

=Morning=, how spent by gentlemen, 110.

=Morra=, game of, 205.

=Mosaics=, in Roman mansion, 43.

=Names=, intricacy of, 186;
irregular, 187;
of slaves, 188;
of women, 188;
confusion of, 189.

=Nero=, colossal statue of, 262.

=Notices=, public, 29.

=Old Forum=, 265 ff.;
noble traditions of, 266;
impression created by, 267;
crowds in, 268, 269;
area of, 268, 269;
western end of, 269;
Rostra, 269;
Golden Milestone, 269, 270;
Tullianum, 270, 271;
Basilica Æmilia, 271;
Temple of Janus, 271;
Senate House, 272;
Basilica Julia, 272;
Lacus Curtius, 274.

=Olive oil=, 107.

=Omens=, belief in, 419–420.

=Oratory=, passion for, 200;
training in, 201 ff.;
in Senate, 343 ff.

=Ostia=, trade through, 239;
shipping at, 247;
naval shipping at, 248;
harbor town at, 249.

=_Pænula_=, 85.

=Palace=, imperial, 288 ff.;
magnificent aspect of, 289;
famous buildings in, 290;
triclinium and throne-room of Domitian, 291–292;
enormous luxury of, 292;
swarm of officials present in, 293.

=Palatine=, view from, 260;
history of, 286;
fine residences upon, 287;
Augustus settles upon, 287–288;
commanding view from, 288;
imperial palace upon, 288 ff.

=_Palla_=, 88.

=Pantheon=, 280–282.

=Pantomimes=, 381;
high art in, 382.

=Papyrus=, 209, 210.

=Parasites=, swarm of, in Rome, 27;
at dinners, 112, 113;
at baths, 368.

=Park system= around Rome, 280;
toward Tiber, 369.

=_Patria Potestas_=, 184.

=Paul=, legal status of, 147.

=Pavements=, in Roman streets, 18.

=_Pax Romana_=, blessings of, 1.

=Pearls=, 97.

=Perfumes=, 98;
at dinners, 119.

=_Peristylium_=, 44.

=Pet animals=, 58;
of children, 190.

=Philosophy=, study of, 204.

=Physicians=, no training required, 160;
superior class of, 161;
fashionable doctors, 161, 162;
instruments and books of, 163;
famous remedies of, 164;
absurd medicines, 164;
theriac, 165;
fear of poisons, 165, 166;
disciples of, 166;
quack doctors, 167.

=Placards=, public, 28, 29.

=Plebeians=, the “mob,” 145.

=Pliny the Younger’s Tuscan villa=, 459;
charming location of, 460;
view from, 461;
terraces and porticoes of, 462;
bed-chambers of, 463–464;
gardens of, 465.

=Poetry=, passion for, 216.

=Police department=, 304–305.

=Pontiffs=, 417.

=Population= of Rome, 3, 4.

=Porticoes=, along Campus Martius, 368–369.

=Portrait busts=, trade in, 246.

=Præfect=, of city of Rome, 300;
of the police (_vigiles_), 306;
of the camps, 328.

=Prætorian guard=, 309–311;
præfect of, 311;
camp of, 311–312;
organization of, 313.

=Prætorian præfect=, 311.

=Prayer=, formal, at sacrifice, 428.

=Priests=, duties of, 417;
(_see_ Flamens).

=_Primipilus_=, 325.

=Processions=, attending great nobles, 24.

=Provincials=, status of, 143.

=Public games=, 375 ff.

=Publishers of books=, 213, 214.

=Punishments=, of slaves, 136;
of soldiers, 320.

=Regia=, 265.

=Regions= of Rome, 15.

=Religion=, signs of, everywhere, 407;
upper classes sceptical, 407–408;
Stoicism popular, 408;
revival of, under Empire, 409;
many foreign cults, 410;
plebeians very superstitious, 411;
based on old Italian agriculture, 412;
native Italian gods, 413;
Lares and Penates, 414;
personified virtues as gods, 415;
legalistic character of, 416;
priests not sacrosanct, 417;
_Pontifices_, 417–418;
_Augurs_, 418;
Flamens, 420;
_Salii_, 421;
_Fetiales_, 422;
Arval Brethren, 423;
rustic, 424;
soothsayers and astrologers, 424–425;
sacrifices, private, 425;
ceremony at temple, 426;
slaughtering the victim, 427;
formal prayer, 428;
Vestal Virgins, 429 ff.;
(_see_ Foreign Cults).

=Restaurants= (_see_ Eating-Houses).

=Rhetoricians=, 201;
schools of, 202 ff.

=Rings=, 96.

=Robbers=, game of, 205.

=Roman Empire= very prosperous under Hadrian, 1.

=Rome=, beautified by Augustus and later Emperors, 3;
reaches architectural perfection about 135 A.D., 3;
population of, 3, 4;
crowded condition of, 4;
country around, 5;
view from Campus Martius, 7;
Seven Hills of, 9;
regions and social quarters of, 15;
typical street in, 16;
discomforts of life in, 33;
vast alien population in, 122;
divisions of society in, 123 ff.;
great Jewish colony in, 145;
plebeians in, 145, 146;
life in, extravagant and expensive, 221;
a city of investors and buyers of luxuries, 222;
great shopping quarters in, 223;
industrial quarters in, 210 ff.;
city government of, 299 ff.

=Rostra=, 269.

=Sacrifices=, private description of, 425 ff.

=_Salii_=, 421.

=Salutations=, form of, in public, 26.

=Sandals=, 95.

=Saturnalia=, 437.

=Schools= (_see_ Educators).

=Scribblings=, upon every wall, 30, 31.

=Sculptures=, trade in, 246;
often colored, 259.

=Seat of honor=, at festivals, 378.

=Secretaries=, 209.

=Senate=, outward glory of, 334;
actual weakness of, 335;
actual authority of, 336;
organization and procedure of, 337–338;
_Curia_ (Senate House) for, 338;
arrangement of seats, 339;
precedence in, 339–340;
opening of session, 340;
auspices in, 340–341;
routine business in, 341;
taking of vote, 342;
impeachment before, 342–343;
use of water clocks, 344;
oratory in, 344;
advocates before, 345;
shouts and invectives during debates, 347;
taking the opinion of, 348 ff.;
speeches from floor of, 349;
uproar in, 350;
formal division in, 351;
decree of banishment, 352;
end of session, 352.

=Senate House=, 272.

=Senatorial order=, 156;
includes relatives of senators, 158.

=Senators=, social glories of, 157;
form a high aristocracy, 158;
insignia and titles of, 158;
great importance of, 159.

=Serapis=, worship of, 445.

“=Seven Hills=” of Rome, 9.

=Shipping=, merchant, 247, 248;
naval, 248.

=Shoes=, 95.

=Shop fronts=, 18.

=Shops=, vast number of, 18;
shopping districts in Rome, 223, 224;
arrangement of shops, 224;
of barbers, 225;
superior retail stores, 226.

=Shrines=, upon streets, 20.

=Siege warfare=, 331.

=Siesta=, custom of, 112.

=Silk=, use of, 89.

=Slaves=, notice to, 42;
vast numbers of, 124;
power of master over, 125;
city slaves and country slaves, 125–126;
purchase of, 126, 127;
auction of, 128;
sale of superior, 129;
size of household of, 129, 130;
workmen as, 130;
duties of, 131;
organization of, 131;
discipline of, 132;
frequently idle, 133;
degradation of slave system, 133;
evil results on masters, 134;
punishment of, 135;
branding of, 136;
pursuit of runaways, 137;
torture of, 138;
manumission of, 139.

=Society=, divisions of, 123, 124.

=Soldiers= (_see_ Legionaries).

=Soothsayers=, 424.

=Statues=, vast multiplication of, 51;
portrait busts, 52, 53.

=_Status_=, in Roman society, 123.

=Stoicism=, popularity of, 408.

=_Stola_=, 87.

=Streets=, typical in Rome, 16;
very narrow, 17;
paving of, 17, 18;
shops upon, 18;
shrines and fountains upon, 20, 21;
crowds in, 21;
noise and turmoil of, 23;
dark and dangerous at night, 32;
extremely noisy towards dawn, 33.

=Suicide=, not condemned, 168.

=Tables=, 56;
costly, of citrus wood, 57.

=Tablets=, writing, 207.

=Tactics=, in battle, 330.

=_Taurobolium_=, 447.

=Taverns= (_see_ Inns).

=Temple=, of the Divine Julius, 265;
of Janus, 271;
of Mars Ultor, 277;
of Peace, 276;
of Venus and Rome, 261, 262;
of Vesta, 265.

=Tenement blocks= (_insulæ_), 34 ff.

=_Tepidarium_=, 365.

=Theater=, not extremely popular, 378;
stage in, 379;
spectacles in, 380;
mimes, 380;
pantomimes, 381;
high art in latter, 382.

=Theaters= upon Campus Martius, 369.

=_Thermopolia_=, 236.

=Tiber=, and valley of, 6;
barges upon, 240;
trip down to Ostia, 247;
shipping upon, 248.

=Time=, measured by water clocks, 344.

=Titus=, arch of, 262.

=Toga=, 81–84.

=Toilets=, very elaborate, 94.

=Tombs=, 177–180;
of Hadrian, 370;
of Augustus, 372.

=Toys=, 190.

=Trade=, through Ostia and Campania, 239;
Emporium and wharves, 240;
upon Tiber, 240, 241;
in marble and grain, 241, 242;
in sculptures and portrait statues, 246.

=Trajan=, forum and column of, 278–280;
baths of, 361 ff.

=Travel=, modes of, 454–456.

=Traveler’s escorts=, 25, 26.

=_Triclinium_= (dining room), 45, 46.

=_Trigon_= (ball game), 206.

=Triumph=, ceremonies of a, 470.

=Tullianum=, 270, 271.

=_Tunica_=, 84.

=Turia=, story of, 78.

=Vegetables=, 104.

=Veterans=, care and rewards of, 329–330.

=Vesta=, Temple of, as safe deposit, 231.

=Vestal Virgins=, 429 ff.;
origin and sanctity, 430;
temple and residence of, 431;
how chosen, 432;
duties of, 433;
senior vestal (_Maxima_), 433;
punishment of, 434;
great honors of, 435.

=Via Sacra=, 261, 263 ff.

=Victory=, statue of, in Senate, 340.

=_Vigiles_=, city police, 28;
description of, 304 ff.

=Villas=, several owned by one senator, 39;
greatly enjoyed, 453;
comfortable travel to, 454–456;
multiplication of, 456;
by the sea shore, 457;
in the mountains, 457–458;
near Rome, 458;
great estates in the hills, 459;
Pliny’s Tuscan villa, 459 ff.

=Vitellius=, imperial glutton, 102.

=Wall scribblings=, 30.

=War=, ceremony of declaring, 423.

=Water clocks=, 57;
in Senate, 344.

=Water supply of Rome=, 301 ff.

=Wealth=, vast premium upon in Rome, 220, 221.

=Weapons=, of legionaries, 317, 318.

=Wills=, 169.

=Windows= of houses, 49.

=Wines=, 107, 108, 109.

=Writing tablets=, 207.

=Women=, honorable status of, 60;
rights and privileges when married, 61, 71, 72;
have control of property, 62;
selection of husbands for girls, 63;
marriage treaties, 64;
betrothal ceremonies, 65;
dowries of, 66;
marriage of, 66 ff.;
frivolous type of, 72, 73;
nobler types of, 75;
famous and devoted wives, 76, 77;
case of Turia, 78, 79.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Outside of these limits were, of course, wide and populous suburbs whose inhabitants might be included in the estimated total of 1,500,000.

[2] At present, of course, largely a treeless waste, very sparsely populated and afflicted with malaria.

[3] These are modern heights; since the days of the Empire there has been much leveling down. All the hills were then somewhat higher.

[4] He wrote his great “Geography” not long after 1 A.D.

[5] This and many other terms for Roman building materials are from the modern Italian.

[6] Very possibly the Etruscans were the actual inventors, although the principle of the arch was known in the Old Orient.

[7] He died about 110 A.D.

[8] A well-known avenue in Pompeii was called “Mercury Street.”

[9] In describing Roman street life and its scenes let it be said once and for all that many very obvious things were so disgusting and revolting to modern notions that any description thereof is perforce omitted. Ancient life contained a great deal of social dross and filthy wickedness. There is no need to dwell on such matters, but their existence should not be forgotten.

[10] If a magistrate had met any persons on horseback, they also would have been bound to dismount on meeting him.

[11] If a praetor had been acting as governor, he would probably have had six lictors instead of merely two while he was a judge in Rome.

[12] The wall placards and inscriptions quoted in this and the following section are all substantially as found at Pompeii.

[13] For quotations of election notices at Pompeii see the author’s “Readings in Ancient History,” Vol. II, “Rome,” pp. 261–262.

[14] These figures seem to come from the fourth century, but there is no reason to think that housing conditions in Rome had changed very much since the second century.

[15] Rentals in Rome, for all classes of lodgings, were unreasonably high, as compared with the relative cost of other necessities: just as is now complained to be the case in New York, Paris, and other great cities.

[16] A familiar description of such a place by Juvenal.

[17] In small provincial cities like Pompeii the proportion of the people who could live in separate houses was much greater than in Rome; in fact separate residences were somewhat the rule. The Pompeiian houses were usually of two stories and nearly all were decidedly small. In Rome itself real estate was far too valuable to permit separate houses except for the wealthy.

[18] That was the price that Cicero paid for his town house, at a time when Roman real estate was worth probably much less than in the days of Hadrian.

[19] Petronius represents his rich upstart Trimalchio as having four ordinary dining rooms and also a special second story dining room.

[20] This heating by _hypocausts_ was used much more in Roman villas in Gaul, the Rhinelands, and Britain, where winters were severe, than in Italy. In Rome itself people ordinarily managed to shiver through the relatively short cold spells by means of portable _charcoal braziers_, placed in the more important rooms, and by piling upon themselves extra tunics.

[21] One can make a long list of the marbles constantly used at Rome: _e.g._ white marbles from Carrara, Paros, and Pentelicos; crimson-streaked from Phrygia; orange-golden from Numidia; white and pale green from Carystos; serpentine from Laconia; porphyry from Egypt, etc.

[22] At this writing the number of wall paintings rescued from the excavations of Pompeii runs well up to 4000; and Pompeii was a city perhaps only a fortieth the size of Rome.

[23] Most of the finer scenes in Roman frescos seem to have been pretty good copies of famous paintings from Greek mythology originally produced by the masters of the Hellenistic age.

[24] It may be noted that the Romans seldom had built-in upholstery upon their couches and chairs. They depended upon removable cushions and apparently they had no metal springs.

[25] It had been suppressed for all practical purposes soon after 14 A.D.

[26] Witness, as most famous example, the case of Cornelia, mother of Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Very many other instances could be cited.

[27] Readers of Plutarch will recall the story of how Appius Claudius, then “Princeps Senatus,” proposed to Tiberius Gracchus at an evening banquet of the College of Augurs that he should marry Claudius’s daughter. Young Gracchus promptly accepted and the older nobleman rushed home in delight (Tiberius being a great “catch”). On entering his house Claudius called out with loud voice to his wife “Antistia, I’ve got a husband for Claudia!” “What’s all the hurry about,” answered she, “unless he’s Tiberius Gracchus?” Antistia evidently had to be informed first; the glad news could be broken to her daughter later.

[28] This anecdote and the quotations are all from the letter of Pliny the Younger to his friend Mauricius advising the latter (as per request for counsel) to seek the hand of Minucius Ancilianus for his niece.

[29] All silk was imported by extremely long caravan routes from China. If this veil was actually of pure silk and not mixed with cotton, it was of enormous value.

[30] Possibly meaning “Hurrah for Talassus, the marriage god!” but the exact significance of this time-honored shout had probably been long since lost.

[31] Both of these instances are from Pliny the Younger.

[32] For a complete quotation of this highly interesting tablet, see Fowler’s “Social Life at Rome,” pp. 159–167.

[33] The use of this garment gave his familiar nickname to the Emperor Bassianus, “Caracalla,” who reigned 212–217 A.D. The Gauls also had kind of trousers. This was counted against them as a token of sheer barbarism: _bracatæ nationes_ (“trouser-wearing peoples”) was a term of extreme contempt in Italy.

[34] Probably there were simpler and more complicated forms of togas. The first were apparently shaped like an irregular semi-circle. We hear of extremely large togas (in bad taste) whereof the total length was four yards before draping. Experiments in certain American universities at making and then draping a toga corresponding in effect to many well-known statues have amply illustrated the great difficulty of putting on the garment gracefully, and the real art required of a Roman nobleman’s valet.

[35] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 44.

[36] There were various simpler garments, similar to the stola, permitted to common women and to young girls. The distinctive feature of the stola, forbidden to all save honorable matrons, seems to have been the lower flounce, reaching to the feet.

[37] About twenty years after the reign of Hadrian, Chinese annals record that certain “Roman” (Græco-Levantine?) traders actually reached China, and gave themselves out as envoys to the “Son of Heaven” from “Antun” (Antoninus Pius).

[38] Very like a modern copying press.

[39] Apuleius, writing probably a little later than this time, asserts that a lady, with no matter how fine clothes or jewels, cannot be considered really handsome unless an equal amount of attention has been bestowed upon her hair.

[40] Called the “luna” (crescent); but the origin is really unknown, although attempts were made to trace it back to some institution of Romulus.

[41] Diamonds were not unknown, but they were so hard to cut and so scarce that they figured rather seldom in Roman jewelry. They do not appear in the list of the twelve precious stones given in Revelation, XXI: 19–20.

[42] Stories about pearls are easily multiplied: _e.g._ how the son of Asopus, a famous actor, on coming into a vast patrimony, deliberately dissolved a large pearl in vinegar, then drank it down, in order to boast that he had “tossed off a million sesterces ($40,000) at one gulp!”

[43] Even less profitable, it would seem, is to try to list the cosmetics wherewith many Roman ladies, like their sisters of all times, covered their faces. Rouge was used in great quantities, and effeminate young men were known to have employed it. Eyebrows were blackened with antimony; lips were reddened, and of course hair dye was a familiar article. Propertius suggests that some women went so far as to trace over the veins in their temples with blue. Other women indulged in small black patches somewhat as did English ladies in the days of Queen Anne:--“There is nothing new under the sun.”

[44] In Capua there was a whole great square of the city, the Seplasia, given over to perfumery shops and their wholesale trade.

[45] Vitellius was by no means alone in this disgusting practice. Seneca denounced the numerous gluttons who “Vomit that they may eat, and eat that they may vomit.”

[46] The difficulty of preserving fresh meat, once butchered, would militate against its use as compared with poultry easily killed for each customer.

[47] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 20.

[48] _Posca_ was probably the drink in which the sponge was steeped, that was extended to Jesus as He hung on the cross.

[49] A long and curious list of gourmand’s precepts are enumerated ironically by Horace in a familiar Satire (_Sat._, bk. II. 4).

[50] The very imperfect means of illumination alone available with olive-oil lamps, would make many modern evening entertainments out of the question. The ancient lamps were beautiful in shape but utterly ineffective for lighting large halls, indoor theaters, etc.

[51] The love of “first-seats” at feasts, denounced in the New Testament, was anything but a strictly Jewish vice; Greeks and Romans were every whit as bad as Orientals.

[52] So given because here dispatches, etc., could be most readily handed to a consul or other great officer if he were among the guests.

[53] Sometimes a guest’s personal valet brought a special towel for his own master. Diners of an objectionable variety were occasionally charged with stealing the towels or napkins if the host supplied them.

[54] This, of course, was a very simple private dinner. For the menu of a really extensive banquet, see the citation from Macrobius, in the writer’s “Readings in Ancient History,” Vol. II (Rome), p. 253.

[55] Brought, of course, from the summits of the Apennines with infinite labor.

[56] They could not, of course, wear the toga, or, if female slaves, the matronly stola.

[57] The ancients had intense fear of epilepsy, supposedly a visitation of the gods. The questions given were the points on which slave-venders had to give assurance, or formally to waive all responsibility.

[58] This is almost precisely the slave auctioneer’s speech in Horace. (_Epodes_, bk. II, 1.)--If the dealer had failed to mention that the boy had once tried to run away, he would have been legally liable.

[59] Probably, however, it would be counted discreditable to sell a slave born in one’s house (a _verna_) unless the fellow was wholly reprobate, or the master was in great financial straits.

[60] Slave unions had no legal status, but only a harsh and tactless master would ordinarily break them up.

[61] Of course, in a large slave household frequently there were unruly elements who often had to be punished privately, when, if free men, their actions would have landed them in the police courts. The stripes might be inflicted as a mild correction with the cane, or leather strap, or more severely with the terrific _flagellum_ (loaded whip), usually with three chains set with metal. A sound lashing with this could cause death (see below, p. 137). The prejudice against brutal whipping and the like was growing steadily, thanks to the advance of the Stoic philosophy, even before the triumph of Christianity. Juvenal denounces those who inflict outrageous floggings for slight faults. “Does a man set his son a good lesson by calling in the torturer and having a slave branded for stealing a couple of towels? Does such a man hold that the bodies and souls of slaves are of the same elements as our own?”

[62] “Three Letter Man” or “Man of Letters” became a common taunt among slaves.

[63] A slave might be lashed to a _furca_ for some hours, as a minor penalty without desire to put him to death.

[64] An actual proclamation from Petronius.

[65] There would be just enough of negroes in Rome for them to cease to be great curiosities.

[66] It is impossible to estimate the proportion of the population “enfranchised” finally by the oft-discussed edict of Caracalla in 214 A.D. It must have been over one half of the entire total.

[67] Apparently it was quite possible for impecunious persons to sleep much of the year under the public arches and porticoes, and thus even dispense with the need of paying rent!

[68] These hopes had practically died out by Hadrian’s day.

[69] That St. Paul was presently released after trial at Rome is the consensus among very many competent scholars.

[70] Women as well as men could sometimes be enrolled as clients. Comical stories abounded; how a husband appeared with a litter claiming that his “sick wife” was inside--“and would the steward please hurry with the fee”--when, on brushing aside the curtains, the litter was found to be empty.

[71] Especially in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa; in the Eastern provinces the city governments were not run so strictly in the Roman mold and often kept their native characteristics.

[72] Hence they were often called _Curiales_ from their seat in the local Senate House (_Curia_).

[73] This name is not wisely translated as “Knights,” unless there is complete disassociation from the idea of the mediæval baron in armor.

[74] Apparently at this time two thirds of the jurors were equites and one third senators, but the point is not quite certain.

[75] The Republican censors could also give the order, “Sell your horse” without stigma to equites who appeared in the review when too old or too fat!

[76] By the age of Hadrian we see signs of that rigid separation between upper-class citizens (_majores_) and lower-class (_minores_) which marked the Later Empire. The equites tended to be mingled with the senators in the _majores_.

[77] Marcus Aurelius confirmed this legally about 170 A.D.

[78] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 77.

[79] Antoninus Pius, the ruler succeeding Hadrian, formally enjoined the remission of civic burdens for “community physicians” in the Province of Asia; five in small cities, seven in larger ones, and ten in the largest.

[80] Establishments selling ready prepared salves, plasters, and other standard remedies were not unknown, and must have supplied many doctors.

[81] Chemical analysis was, of course, unknown.

[82] These titles and much more of the data here given are from the writings of the great Galen--the master physician of the imperial age; who wrote his books under Commodus about 185 A.D.

[83] As in the case of the death of Cæsar Germanicus (19 A.D.) whose death at Antioch was probably natural, but which all his friends attributed to poison given by his personal enemy, the Proconsul Piso.

[84] Probably there were such in the eastern provinces.

[85] Without clinical thermometers or second-watches, the taking of temperature, timing of pulse, etc., must have been a very tedious and disagreeable as well as uncertain process.

[86] Apparently the organization of _public hospitals_ in the fourth century of our era, was among the earliest and worthiest of the distinctly Christian charities, after the toleration of Christianity by the Roman government.

[87] Two similar cases are recorded in Pliny the Younger; in one of them the person contemplating suicide, on being assured by the physicians that his case was not quite desperate, “agreed to fight on a little longer.”

[88] The legal status of women made it needful to resort to various legal fictions when they drew wills, but they could execute effective testaments also.

[89] Still greater revenge could be taken by making insulting references in wills to old enemies, making them bequests of no value, or burdened with unwelcome conditions, or even explaining at length, without fear of a slander suit, why no bequest was left to them at all!

[90] An actual tomb inscription.

[91] A hundred imagines of curule ancestors would be a very respectable but not an extraordinary showing. When young Marcellus (Augustus’s nephew) died, _six hundred_ imagines of noble ancestors were borne in his procession.

[92] Under the Empire only the Emperor could actually ride in a triumph; but his lieutenants could enjoy the “triumphal ornaments.”

[93] The granting of an actual funeral pyre inside of Rome was an extraordinary honor--reserved only for emperors and other unusually favored personages.

[94] This, of course, was the monument which Trimalchio, Petronius’s famous character, arranged for himself.

[95] Compare “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 57.

[96] The father might have “taken up” the child earlier to indicate his intentions not to expose it, but some later act of legal acknowledgment before witnesses was necessary.

[97] And hardly anybody outside the Claudian gens was ever named Appius.

[98] Literally “Number Ten”; but that meaning had disappeared.

[99] Very many such lengthy names are found under Hadrian.

[100] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 63.

[101] These verses have been preserved to the present age by being inscribed upon the foot of the colossal statue of the “Speaking Memnon” in Egypt, during the visit there of Hadrian and Sabina.

[102] Of course, there would be many lower class Italians who, although fairly at ease with Latin, would be entirely unfamiliar with Greek.

[103] The writing end of the stylus (bone or metal) was sharp. The opposite end was blunt and flattened for erasing on the soft wax.

[104] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 64.

[105] These are the words of Eumenius, a teacher of about 300 A.D., but they would have been equally proper in the age of Hadrian.

[106] Persons who could recite the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey from memory were not unknown, although they were usually learned slaves, not Romans of the higher class.

[107] A tombstone for a boy who died at the age of ten boasts that its subject “knew the dogmas of Pythagoras and the teaching of the books of the learned.” He was also alleged to have read all of Homer and to have studied Euclid “tablets in hand.”

[108] Senators, degraded and banished for reasons good or bad, could earn a living in the provinces by opening rhetoric schools. Thus Lucinianus did so in Sicily in Trajan’s time. Pliny the Younger records that he began his first set oration by declaring: “O Fortune, what sport you make to amuse yourself! You make professors into senators, and senators into professors.”

[109] An actual case for young orators as explained by the Elder Seneca. Less advanced pupils could be pitted in arguments as to “Whether country life is better than city life,” or “married life better than celibacy.”

[110] The zeal for philosophy and rhetoric, or at least for the patronage thereof, is shown by the story of how Trajan, a very simple-minded soldier, used to invite the great rhetorician Dion Chrysostom to visit him and take long journeys with him. The Emperor, greatly impressed by the other’s learning, openly declared to him, “I don’t in the least understand what you keep talking about, but for all that I love you like my own soul!”

[111] It is impossible to recover the exact details of these two games. We know of “solitaire” forms of these games, with the board made of terebinth wood, and with crystal pieces, or with gold and silver coins in place of the common black and white counters.

[112] In very early Roman days public records seem to have been kept on books of _linen_; but these soon disappeared.

[113] We hear, however, of a single copy of Thucydides that required 578 pages, making a roll about 100 yards long--a most cumbersome volume.

[114] The use of flat opening books of the style later so familiar came in before the fall of the Roman Empire, but they were apparently used only for merchants’ ledgers, etc., in the time of Hadrian.

[115] This was the probable method of multiplying popular books, but we lack very precise knowledge.

[116] Pliny the Younger had a favorite reader Eucolpus. When he fell ill his master was sadly tormented: “Who will read my books and take such an interest in them? Where can I find another with so pleasant a reading voice?”

[117] Hadrian’s famous and pathetic poem “To his own soul” was not, of course, composed until he lay on his death bed (138 A.D.).

[118] These men were well-known poets according again to Pliny the Younger. The world undoubtedly gained when their verses perished.

[119] The record for a private collection--62,000 rolls, owned by the senator Serenus, dates about 235 A.D., but there is no reason to suppose that there were not libraries equally large under Hadrian.

[120] Concerning the actual arrangement of these public libraries we know very little.

[121] Of course, by Hadrian’s time an increasingly large proportion of the privates of the army was being recruited in the provinces.

[122] All these hucksters’ stalls as well as the beggars and the playing children are depicted in certain very informing frescos in a house at Pompeii, showing life in the forum of that little city.

[123] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 24.

[124] This form of advertisement is given in Petronius.

[125] 12 per cent (one per cent per month) was the lawful and normal rate of interest. Greater interest could be demanded on risky ventures, especially those by sea. Rates of 36 and 48 per cent, heard of under the Later Republic, were excessive, and usually unlawful.

[126] These verses are from the wall of an inn in Pompeii, and the foregoing description is that of an actual Pompeiian inn.

[127] This scene is a familiar one from Juvenal.

[128] Another scene taken from an actual bas-relief and inscription.

[129] Marcus Aurelius belonged to this rich family on his mother’s side.

[130] The real name of such a vessel.

[131] The expression “Sharer in the Public Grain Doles” appears on many tombstones of worthy burghers, to indicate that they enjoyed the full rights of citizenship.

[132] It became so under the Later Empire.

[133] When Commodus became Emperor in 180 A.D., the congiarium came to the ruinous sum of 725 denarii per citizen. This was $96.00 each, if the coins were of full weight and fineness, which probably at that period they were not.

[134] Figures given by Lucian for a craft of this type.

[135] See “A Day in Old Athens,” pp. 125–134.

[136] There was practically no naval warfare worth mentioning in the whole course of Roman history from the battle of Actium (31 B.C.) to 323 A.D., when considerable naval fighting took place at the time Constantine captured Byzantium from his rival Licinius.

[137] As at Ephesus where Demetrius used the guild of the silversmiths to start his riot against St. Paul. (Acts, 19:25.)

[138] Such improvised gaming-boards have been discovered by the archæologists.

[139] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 216.

[140] Later than the age of Hadrian this area was occupied by such famous structures as the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Basilica of Constantine, etc.

[141] A difficult archæological question is connected with the exact site of the Rostra _before_ Julius Cæsar’s time. Probably its original position was nearer the other end of the Forum.

[142] Janus was about the only Latin deity for whom there could not be assigned a Greek counterpart.

[143] Later visitors to the Forum would, of course, be impressed with the fine, if ornate, _Arch of Septimius Severus_, erected about 211 A.D. at the northwest corner of the plaza.

[144] The column of Marcus Aurelius, erected about 180 A.D. in much the same style as that of Trajan, although a magnificent monument, is not equal in execution to the older column.