Chapter IX: Section VII

[a] The translation is not quite accurate in this place. The original says, when I obtained the _laticlave_, and the English calls it the _manly gown_, which, it must be admitted, is not the exact sense. The _toga virilis_, or the _manly gown_, was assumed, when the youth came to man's estate, or the age of seventeen years. On that occasion the friends of the young man conducted him to the _forum_ (or sometimes to the capitol), and there invested him with the new gown. This was called _dies tirocinii_; the day on which he commenced a _tiro_, or a candidate for preferment in the army. The _laticlave_, was an additional honour often granted at the same time. The sons of senators and patricians were entitled to that distinction, as a matter of right: but the young men, descended from such as were not patricians, did not wear the _laticlave_, till they entered into the service of the commonwealth, and undertook the functions of the civil magistracy. Augustus Cæsar changed that custom. He gave leave to the sons of senators, in general, to assume the _laticlave_ presently after the time of putting on the _toga virilis_, though they were not capable of civil honours. The emperors who succeeded, allowed the same privilege, as a favour to illustrious families. _Ovid_ speaks of himself and his brother assuming the _manly gown_ and the _laticlave_ at the same time:

Interea, tacito passu labentibus annis,
Liberior fratri sumpta mihique toga;
Induiturque humeris cum lato purpura clavo.

Pliny the younger shews, that the _laticlave_ was a favour granted by the emperor on particular occasions. He says, he applied for his friend, and succeeded: _Ego Sexto latumclavum a Cæsare nostro impetravi._ Lib. ii. epist. 9. The _latusclavus_ was a robe worn by consuls, prætors, generals in triumph, and senators, who were called _laticlavii_. Their sons were admitted to the same honour; but the emperors had a power to bestow this garment of distinction, and all privileges belonging to it, upon such as they thought worthy of that honour. This is what Marcus Aper says, in the Dialogue, that he obtained; and, when the translation mentions the _manly gown_, the expression falls short of the speaker's idea. Dacier has given an account of the _laticlave_, which has been well received by the learned. He tells us, that whatever was made to be put on another thing, was called _clavus_, not because it had any resemblance to a nail, but because it was made an adjunct to another subject. In fact, the _clavi_ were purple galloons, with which the Romans bordered the fore part of the tunic, on both sides, and when drawn close together, they formed an ornament in the middle of the vestment. It was, for that reason, called by the Greeks, [Greek: mesoporphuron]. The broad galloons made the _laticlave_, and the narrow the _angusticlave_. The _laticlave_, Dacier adds, is not to be confounded with the _prætexta_. The latter was, at first, appropriated to the magistrates, and the sacerdotal order; but, in time, was extended to the sons of eminent families, to be worn as a mark of distinction, till the age of seventeen, when it was laid aside for the _manly gown_. See Dacier's _Horace_, lib. i. sat. 5; and see Kennet's _Roman Antiquities_, p. 306.

[b] Marcus Aper, Julius Secundus, and Curiatius Maternus, according to Brotier and others, were natives of Gaul. Aper (section x.) mentions the Gauls as their common countrymen: _Ne quid de Gallis nostris loquamur._ If that was the fact, a _new man_ at Rome would have difficulties to surmount. Ammianus Marcellinus (a Latin historian of the fourth century) says, that at Rome the people despised every thing that did not grow before their eyes within the walls of the city, except the rich who had no children; and the veneration paid to such as had no heirs was altogether incredible. _Vile esse quidquid extra urbis pomærium nascitur, æstimant; nec credi potest qua obsequiorum diversitate coluntur homines sine liberis Romæ._ Lib. xiv. s. 5. In such a city a young man and a stranger could not expect to be favoured.

[c] All causes of a private nature were heard before the _centumviri_. Three were chosen out of every tribe, and the tribes amounted to five and thirty, so that in fact 105 were chosen; but, for the sake of a round number, they were called CENTUMVIRI. The causes that were heard before that jurisdiction are enumerated by Cicero, _De Orat._ lib. i. s. 38.

[d] The translation says, _the wills and codicils of the rich_; but it is by no means certain that those words convey the meaning of the text, which simply says, _nec codicillis datur_. After due enquiry, it appears that _codicillus_ was used by the Latin authors, for what we now call _the letters patent of a prince_. Codicils, in the modern sense of the word, implying a supplement to a will, were unknown to the intent Roman law. The Twelve Tables mention testaments only. Codicils, in aid to wills, were first introduced in the time of Augustus; but, whatever their operation was, legacies granted by those additional writings were for some time of no validity. To confirm this, we are told that the daughter of Lentulus discharged certain legacies, which, being given by codicil, she was not bound to pay. In time, however, codicils, as an addition made by the testator to his will, grew into use, and the legacies thereby granted were confirmed. This might be the case in the sixth year of Vespasian, when the Dialogue passed between the parties; but it is, notwithstanding, highly probable, that the word _codicilli_ means, in the passage before us, the _letters patent of the prince_. It is used in that sense by Suetonius, who relates, that Tiberius, after passing a night and two days in revelling with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso, granted to the former the province of Syria, and made the latter prefect of the city; declaring them, _in the patents_, pleasant companions, and _the friends of all hours_. _Codicillis quoque jucundissimos et omnium horarum amicos professus._ Suet. _in Tib._ s. 42.

[e] The common people are called, in the original, _tunicatus populus_; that class of men, who wore the _tunic_, and not the _toga_, or the _Roman gown_. The _tunica_, or close coat, was the common garment worn within doors, and abroad, under the _toga_. Kennet says, the _proletarii_, the _capite censi_, and the rest of the dregs of the city, could not afford to wear the _toga_, and therefore went in their _tunics_; whence Horace says (lib. i. epist. 7).

Vilia vendentem tunicato scruta popello.

The TOGA, however, was the peculiar dress of the Roman people. VIRGIL distinguishes his countrymen by their mode of apparel:

Romanos rerum dominos, gentemque togatam.

But, though this was the Roman habit, the lower citizens were obliged to appear abroad is their _tunica_, or close garment. The love of praise is so eager a passion, that the public orator is here represented as delighting in the applause of the rabble. Persius, the satirist, has said the same thing:

Pulchrum est digito monstrari, et dicier. HIC EST.