Chapter M: Antoninus Caracalla. Macrinus. Elagabalus. Alexander Severus (11)

Posthumous Works, vol. XIII. p. 68. “The Romans, from a narrow, moral,
easy, comfortable, bourgeois state had risen to the broad range of the
dominion of the world, without losing their narrow-mindedness.—To the
same source we may trace their luxury. Underbred men who acquire a
great fortune, will always make a ridiculous use of it: their
pleasures, their pomp, their profusion, will be absurd and overdone.
Hence also arises that fondness for the Strange, the Innumerable, the
Immense. Their theatres which turn round with the spectators; the
second population of statues, with which the town was thronged, as
well as the gigantic bowl in after times, in which the large fish was
to be kept entire, are all of the same origin: even the insolence and
cruelty of their tyrants mostly partakes of the absurd.”

Footnote 44:

The so-called Marforio. See Descript. of the city of Rome, III, 1. p.
138.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 45:

Plin. Ep. IV. 22.—Germ. Edit.

Footnote 46:

Aurel. Vict. Imp. Rom. Epit. c. 12.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 47:

195 palms, according to Platner in Bansen’s Description of the City of
Rome, III, 1. p. 289. 10 _Palmi_ = 99 Parisian Lines.—Conf. however,
on this matter, Platner and Urlich’s Description of Rome. Stuttg. and
Tüb. 1845, pp. 24, 25.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 48:

N. namely reads instead of _laudati essent, capitale fuisse_, laudati
capita_les_ fuis_sent_; and previously, in c. 1. instead of _at mihi
nunc_, at mihi nu_per_. See “Two classical Latin Writers of the Third
Century, P. C.” (_Kleine historische und philolog. Schriften_ I, p.
331.)—Germ. Edit.

Footnote 49:

Any one who writes High German, must feel that phrases and words are
wanting, for which the popular dialect has very apt expressions, only
they are not used in High German. This is most keenly felt by an
inhabitant of Lower Saxony, as in Upper Germany people write very
nearly as they speak.

Footnote 50:

That is, from Bonn.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 51:

Alfieri, in one of his pieces, makes Pliny address a speech to Trajan
in which he calls upon him to restore the republic.

Footnote 52:

Three months and six days, according to Dio Cassius.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 53:

Laurentum, according to Herodian I. 12. 1.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 54:

In Rome there is an amulet which has not been described before, a
silver plate with magic inscriptions, having on it the silver
candlestick of Jerusalem and the usual Christian monogram. It is in
Greek, mingled with quite barbarous words in an unintelligible
language. There is written on it, that he who wore this plate, was
sure of being in favour with gods and men. This medley of
Christianity, Judaism, and paganism, is of particularly frequent
occurrence in the beginning of the third century of the Christian era.

Footnote 55:

In the dissertation “Two Classical Latin Authors of the Third Century,
P. C.” (Lesser Historical and Philological Writings, I. p. 321)—Germ.
Edit.

Footnote 56:

One of the _Scriptores Historiæ Augustæ_ (Vit. Maximin. jun. c. 7.) is
as ignorant as to make Maximus and Pupienus two different persons.

Footnote 57:

In Schmitz II, 320, this passage is given in the following version,
“if he had been a Bedouin, he could not have been enlisted in a Roman
legion, but would have remained in the cohorts of the _Ituræi_.” As my
sources already begin to be more scanty, and in the ancients
themselves very few notices are to be found, from which one might
arrive at a correct opinion, I feel particularly bound to quote here
this variation.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 58:

Schmitz has Jotapianus, whereas my MSS., one and all, give the right
version.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 59:

According to the _Fasti consulares_, C. Messius Quintus Trajanus
Decius.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 60:

In some MSS., Cassianius, which form Eckhel lays down as the correct
one.—Germ. Edit.

Footnote 61:

The MSS. give Ælianus and Lælianus, both forms, as is well known,
being found of these names.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 62:

X, 9. Niebuhr, Two Classical Writers, &c. (Lesser Histor. and Philol.
Writings, I, p. 304. sqq).—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 63:

IV. 4.

Footnote 64:

A mistake for Florianus, Quintilius being brother to Claudius
Gothicus.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 65:

Review (_Zeitschrift_) on Historical Jurisprudence. VI. 323. Conf. XI.
20. Walter’s History of the Roman Law (_Römische Rechtsgeschichte_),
I. p. 483. 2d edition.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 66:

Apotheos. 450.

Footnote 67:

Claudianus de tertio consul. Honorii 90.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 68:

Qy! Galiani!—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 69:

P. 765. Conf. Niebuhr’s preface to Merobaudes, p. x.—Germ. Edit.

Footnote 70:

Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus in Gregorius Turonensis II, 8.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 71:

Conf. on this Godofredus’ Prosopography of the Codex
Theodosianus.—Germ. Edit.

Footnote 72:

The words “on the banks of the Danube” are not in the MSS. I have
supplied them merely from conjecture.—Germ. Ed.

Footnote 73:

Johannes, however, is not an exclusively Christian name. Johannes
Lydus certainly was an heathen.

Footnote 74:

The reading Placidius has less authority for it, most of the coins on
monuments have Placidus.

Footnote 75:

More correctly, _nephews_.—Germ. Ed.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Page Changed from Changed to

281 called _Princeps Saracenorum_ called _Princeps Saracenorum_
(from شرق to rise, دشرق (from شرق to rise, مشرق

● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. ● Used numbers for footnotes, placing them all at the end of the last chapter. ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. ● Enclosed blackletter font in =equals=.