Chapter M: Agrippa. L. F. Cos: Tertium. Fecit (1)

Agrippa also built the temple of Neptune, and the portico of the Argonauts.]

[Footnote 159: To whatever extent Augustus may have cleared out the bed of the Tiber, the process of its being encumbered with an alluvium of ruins and mud has been constantly going on. Not many years ago, a scheme was set on foot for clearing it by private enterprise, principally for the sake of the valuable remains of art which it is supposed to contain.]

[Footnote 160: The Via Flaminia was probably undertaken by the censor Caius Flaminius, and finished by his son of the same name, who was consul A.U.C. 566, and employed his soldiers in forming it after subduing the Ligurians. It led from the Flumentan gate, now the Porta del Popolo, through Etruria and Umbria into the Cisalpine Gaul, ending at Ariminum, the frontier town of the territories of the republic, now Rimini, on the Adriatic; and is travelled by every tourist who takes the route, north of the Appenines, through the States of the Church, to Rome. Every one knows that the great highways, not only in Italy but in the provinces, were among the most magnificent and enduring works of the Roman people.]

[Footnote 161: It had formed a sort of honourable retirement in which Lepidus was shelved, to use a familiar expression, when Augustus got rid of him quietly from the Triumvirate. Augustus assumed it A.U.C. 740, thus centring the last of all the great offices of the state in his own person; that of Pontifex Maximus, being of high importance, from the sanctity attached to it, and the influence it gave him over the whole system of religion.]

[Footnote 162: In the thirty-six years since the calendar was corrected by Julius Caesar, the priests had erroneously intercalated eleven days instead of nine. See JULIUS, c. xl.]

[Footnote 163: Sextilis, the sixth month, reckoning from March, in which the year of Romulus commenced.]

[Footnote 164: So Cicero called the day on which he returned from exile, the day of his “nativity” and his “new birth,” paligennesian, a word which had afterwards a theological sense, from its use in the New Testament.]

[Footnote 165: Capi. There is a peculiar force in the word here adopted by Suetonius; the form used by the Pontifex Maximus, when he took the novice from the hand of her father, being Te capio amata, “I have you, my dear,” implying the forcible breach of former ties, as in the case of a captive taken in war.]

[Footnote 166: At times when the temple of Janus was shut, and then only, certain divinations were made, preparatory to solemn supplication for the public health, “as if,” says Dio, “even that could not be implored from the gods, unless the signs were propitious.” It would be an inquiry of some interest, now that the care of the public health is becoming a department of the state, with what sanatory measures these becoming solemnities were attended.]

[Footnote 167: Theophrastus mentions the spring and summer flowers most suited for these chaplets. Among the former, were hyacinths, roses, and white violets; among the latter, lychinis, amaryllis, iris, and some species of lilies.]

[Footnote 168: Ergastulis. These were subterranean strong rooms, with narrow windows, like dungeons, in the country houses, where incorrigible slaves were confined in fetters, in the intervals of the severe tasks in grinding at the hand-mills, quarrying stones, drawing water, and other hard agricultural labour in which they were employed.]

[Footnote 169: These months were not only “the Long Vacation” of the lawyers, but during them there was a general cessation of business at Rome; the calendar exhibiting a constant succession of festivals. The month of December, in particular, was devoted to pleasure and relaxation.]

[Footnote 170: Causes are mentioned, the hearing of which was so protracted that lights were required in the court; and sometimes they lasted, we are told, as long as eleven or twelve days.]

[Footnote 171: Orcini. They were also called Charonites, the point of the sarcasm being, that they owed their elevation to a dead man, one who was gone to Orcus, namely Julius Caesar, after whose death Mark Antony introduced into the senate many persons of low rank who were designated for that honour in a document left by the deceased emperor.]

[Footnote 172: Cordus Cremutius wrote a History of the Civil Wars, and the Times of Augustus, as we are informed by Dio, 6, 52.]

[Footnote 173: In front of the orchestra.]

[Footnote 174: The senate usually assembled in one of the temples, and there was an altar consecrated to some god in the curia, where they otherwise met, as that to Victory in the Julian Curia.]

[Footnote 175: To allow of their absence during the vintage, always an important season in rural affairs in wine-growing countries. In the middle and south of Italy, it begins in September, and, in the worst aspects, the grapes are generally cleared before the end of October. In elevated districts they hung on the trees, as we have witnessed, till the month of November.]

[Footnote 176: Julius Caesar had introduced the contrary practice. See JULIUS, c. xx.]

[Footnote 177: A.U.C. 312, two magistrates were created, under the name of Censors, whose office, at first, was to take an account of the number of the people, and the value of their estates. Power was afterwards granted them to inspect the morals of the people; and from this period the office became of great importance. After Sylla, the election of censors was intermitted for about seventeen years. Under the emperors, the office of censor was abolished; but the chief functions of it were exercised by the emperors themselves, and frequently both with caprice and severity.]

[Footnote 178: Young men until they were seventeen years of age, and young women until they were married, wore a white robe bordered with purple, called Toga Praetexta. The former, when they had completed this period, laid aside the dress of minority, and assumed the Toga Virilis, or manly habit. The ceremony of changing the Toga was performed with great solemnity before the images of the Lares, to whom the Bulla was consecrated. On this occasion, they went either to the Capitol, or to some temple, to pay their devotions to the Gods.]

[Footnote 179: Transvectio: a procession of the equestrian order, which they made with great splendour through the city, every year, on the fifteenth of July. They rode on horseback from the temple of Honour, or of Mars, without the city, to the Capitol, with wreaths of olive on their heads, dressed in robes of scarlet, and bearing in their hands the military ornaments which they had received from their general, as a reward of their valour. The knights rode up to the censor, seated on his curule chair in front of the Capitol, and dismounting, led their horses in review before him. If any of the knights was corrupt in his morals, had diminished his fortune below the legal standard, or even had not taken proper care of his horse, the censor ordered him to sell his horse, by which he was considered as degraded from the equestrian order.]

[Footnote 180: Pugillaria were a kind of pocket book, so called, because memorandums were written or impinged by the styli, on their waxed surface. They appear to have been of very ancient origin, for we read of them in Homer under the name of pinokes.--II. z. 169.

Graphas en pinaki ptukto thyrophthora polla.
Writing dire things upon his tablet’s roll.]

[Footnote 181: Pullatorum; dusky, either from their dark colour, or their being soiled. The toga was white, and was the distinguishing costume of the sovereign people of Rome, without which, they were not to appear in public; as members of an university are forbidden to do so, without the academical dress, or officers in garrisons out of their regimentals.]

[Footnote 182: Aen. i. 186.]

[Footnote 183: It is hardly necessary to direct the careful reader’s attention to views of political economy so worthy of an enlightened prince. But it was easier to make the Roman people wear the toga, than to forego the cry of “Panem et Circenses.”]

[Footnote 184: Septa were enclosures made with boards, commonly for the purpose of distributing the people into distinct classes, and erected occasionally like our hustings.]

[Footnote 185: The Thensa was a splendid carriage with four wheels, and four horses, adorned with ivory and silver, in which, at the Circensian games, the images of the gods were drawn in solemn procession from their shrines, to a place in the circus, called the Pulvinar, where couches were prepared for their reception. It received its name from thongs (lora tensa) stretched before it; and was attended in the procession by persons of the first rank, in their most magnificent apparel. The attendants took delight in putting their hands to the traces: and if a boy happened to let go the thong which he held, it was an indispensable rule that the procession should be renewed.]

[Footnote 186: The Cavea was the name of the whole of that part of the theatre where the spectators sat. The foremost rows were called cavea prima, of cavea; the last, cavea ultima, or summa; and the middle, cavea media.]

[Footnote 187: A.U.C. 726.]

[Footnote 188: As in the case of Herod, Joseph. Antiq. Jud. xv. 10.]

[Footnote 189: The Adriatic and the Tuscan.]

[Footnote 190: It was first established by Tiberius. See c. xxxvii.]

[Footnote 191: Tertullian, in his Apology, c. 34, makes the same remark. The word seems to have conveyed then, as it does in its theological sense now, the idea of Divinity, for it is coupled with Deus, God; nunquum se dominum vel deum appellare voluerit.]

[Footnote 192: An inclosure in the middle of the Forum, marking the spot where Curtius leapt into the lake, which had been long since filled up.]

[Footnote 193: Sandalarium, Tragoedum; names of streets, in which temples of tame gouts stood, as we now say St. Peter, Cornhill, etc.]

[Footnote 194: A coin, in value about 8 3/4 d. of our money.]

[Footnote 195: The senate, as instituted by Romulus, consisted of one hundred members, who were called Patres, i. e. Fathers, either upon account of their age, or their paternal care of the state. The number received some augmentation under Tullus Hostilius; and Tarquinius Priscus, the fifth king of Rome, added a hundred more, who were called Patres minorum gentium; those created by Romulus being distinguished by the name of Patres majorum gentium. Those who were chosen into the senate by Brutus, after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, to supply the place of those whom that king had slain, were called Conscripti, i. e. persons written or enrolled among the old senators, who alone were properly styled Patres. Hence arose the custom of summoning to the senate those who were Patres, and those who were Conscripti; and hence also was applied to the senators in general the designation of Patres Conscripti, the particle et, and, being understood to connect the two classes of senators. In the time of Julius Caesar, the number of senators was increased to nine hundred, and after his death to a thousand; many worthless persons having been admitted into the senate during the civil wars. Augustus afterwards reduced the number to six hundred.]

[Footnote 196: Antonius Musa was a freedman, and had acquired his knowledge of medicine while a domestic slave; a very common occurrence.]

[Footnote 197: A.U.C. 711.]

[Footnote 198: See cc. x. xi. xii. and xiii.]

[Footnote 199: One of them was Scipio, the father of Cornelia, whose death is lamented by Propertius, iv. 12. The other is unknown.]

[Footnote 200: A.U.C. 715.]

[Footnote 201: He is mentioned by Horace:

Occidit Daci Cotisonis agimen. Ode 8, b. iii.]

Most probably Antony knew the imputation to be unfounded, and made it for the purpose of excusing his own marriage with Cleopatra.]

[Footnote 202: This form of adoption consisted in a fictitious sale. See Cicero, Topic. iii.]

[Footnote 203: Curiae. Romulus divided the people of Rome into three tribes; and each tribe into ten Curiae. The number of tribes was afterwards increased by degrees to thirty-five; but that of the Curiae always remained the same.]

[Footnote 204: She was removed to Reggio in Calabria.]

[Footnote 205: Agrippa was first banished to the little desolate island of Planasia, now Pianosa. It is one of the group in the Tuscan sea, between Elba and Corsica.]

[Footnote 206: A quotation from the Iliad, 40, iii.; where Hector is venting his rage on Paris. The inflexion is slightly changed, the line in the original commencing, “Aith’ opheles, etc., would thou wert, etc.”]

[Footnote 207: Women called ustriculae, the barbers, were employed in thin delicate operation. It is alluded to by Juvenal, ix. 4, and Martial, v. 61.]

[Footnote 208: Cybele.--Gallus was either the name of a river in Phrygia, supposed to cause a certain frenzy in those who drank of its waters, or the proper name of the first priest of Cybele.]

[Footnote 209: A small drum, beat by the finger or thumb, was used by the priests of Cybele in their lascivious rites and in other orgies of a similar description, These drums were made of inflated skin, circular in shape, so that they had some resemblance to the orb which, in the statues of the emperor, he is represented as holding in his hand. The populace, with the coarse humour which was permitted to vent itself freely at the spectacles, did not hesitate to apply what was said in the play of the lewd priest of Cybele, to Augustus, in reference to the scandals attached to his private character. The word cinaedus, translated “wanton,” might have been rendered by a word in vulgar use, the coarsest in the English language, and there is probably still more in the allusion too indelicate to be dwelt upon.]

[Footnote 210: Mark Antony makes use of fondling diminutives of the names of Tertia, Terentia, and Rufa, some of Augustus’s favourites.]

[Footnote 211: Dodekatheos; the twelve Dii Majores; they are enumerated in two verses by Ennius:--

Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars;
Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.]

[Footnote 212: Probably in the Suburra, where Martial informs us that torturing scourges were sold:

Tonatrix Suburrae faucibus sed et primis,
Cruenta pendent qua flagella tortorum. Mart. xi. 15, 1.]

[Footnote 213: Like the gold and silver-smiths of the middle ages, the Roman money-lenders united both trades. See afterwards, NERO, c. 5. It is hardly necessary to remark that vases or vessels of the compound metal which went by the name of Corinthian brass, or bronze, were esteemed even more valuable than silver plate.]

[Footnote 214: See c. xxxii. and note.]

[Footnote 215: The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals of drinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, the tesserae and tali. The former had six sides, like the modern dice; the latter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded. In playing, they used three tesserae and four tali, which were all put into a box wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon the gaming-board or table.]

[Footnote 216: The highest cast was so called.]

[Footnote 217: Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruins of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine.]

[Footnote 218: Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked.]

[Footnote 219: It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the sun.]

[Footnote 220: This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It was common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment called the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, “O mare! O littus! verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?” O sea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do you not discover to us, how much do you teach us!--Epist. i. 9.]

[Footnote 221: Mecaenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill, celebrated for their salubrity--]

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitore salubribus.--Hor. Sat. i. 3, 14.]

[Footnote 222: Such as Baiae, and the islands of Ischia, Procida, Capri, and others; the resorts of the opulent nobles, where they had magnificent marine villas.]

[Footnote 223: Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, in which he hoped to spend his declining years.

Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet
Jupiter brumas: . . . . .. . . . .
. . . . . . . . ibi, tu calentem
Debita sparges lachryma favillam
Vatis amici. Odes, B. ii. 5.

Adrian also had a magnificent villa near Tibur.]

[Footnote 224: The Toga was a loose woollen robe, which covered the whole body, close at the bottom, but open at the top down to the girdle, and without sleeves. The right arm was thus at liberty, and the left supported a flap of the toga, which was drawn up, and thrown back over the left shoulder; forming what is called the Sinus, a fold or cavity upon the breast, in which things might be carried, and with which the face or head might be occasionally covered. When a person did any work, he tucked up his toga, and girt it round him. The toga of the rich and noble was finer and larger than that of others; and a new toga was called Pexa. None but Roman citizens were permitted to wear the toga; and banished persons were prohibited the use of it. The colour of the toga was white. The clavus was a purple border, by which the senators, and other orders, with the magistrates, were distinguished; the breadth of the stripe corresponding with their rank.]

[Footnote 225: In which the whole humour of the thing consisted either in the uses to which these articles were applied, or in their names having in Latin a double signification; matters which cannot be explained with any decency.]

[Footnote 226: Casum bubulum manu pressum; probably soft cheese, not reduced to solid consistence in the cheese-press.]

[Footnote 227: A species of fig tree, known in some places as Adam’s fig. We have gathered them, in those climates, of the latter crop, as late as the month of November.]

[Footnote 228: Sabbatis Jejunium. Augustus might have been better informed of the Jewish rites, from his familiarity with Herod and others; for it is certain that their sabbath was not a day of fasting. Justin, however, fell into the same error: he says, that Moses appointed the sabbath-day to be kept for ever by the Jews as a fast, in memory of their fasting for seven days in the deserts of Arabia, xxxvi. 2. 14. But we find that there was a weekly fast among the Jews, which is perhaps what is here meant; the Sabbatis Jejunium being equivalent to the Naesteuo dis tou sabbatou, ‘I fast twice in the week’ of the Pharisee, in St. Luke xviii. 12.]

[Footnote 229: The Rhaetian wines had a great reputation; Virgil says,

------Ex quo te carmine dicam,
Rhaetica.
Georg. ii. 96.]

The vineyards lay at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps; their produce, we have reason to believe, was not a very generous liquor.]

[Footnote 230: A custom in all warm countries; the siesta of the Italians in later times.]

[Footnote 231: The strigil was used in the baths for scraping the body when in a state of perspiration. It was sometimes made of gold or silver, and not unlike in form the instrument used by grooms about horses when profusely sweating or splashed with mud.]

[Footnote 232: His physician, mentioned c. lix.]

[Footnote 233: Sept. 21st, a sickly season at Rome.]

[Footnote 234: Feminalibus et tibialibus: Neither the ancient Romans or the Greeks wore breeches, trews, or trowsers, which they despised as barbarian articles of dress. The coverings here mentioned were swathings for the legs and thighs, used mostly in cases of sickness or infirmity, and when otherwise worn, reckoned effeminate. But soon after the Romans became acquainted with the German and Celtic nations, the habit of covering the lower extremities, barbarous as it had been held, was generally adopted.]

[Footnote 235: Albula. On the left of the road to Tivoli, near the ruins of Adrian’s villa. The waters are sulphureous, and the deposit from them causes incrustations on twigs and other matters plunged in the springs. See a curious account of this stream in Gell’s Topography, published by Bohn, p 40.]

[Footnote 236: In spongam incubuisse, literally has fallen upon a sponge, as Ajax is said to have perished by falling on his own sword.]

[Footnote 237: Myrobrecheis. Suetonius often preserves expressive Greek phrases which Augustus was in the habit of using. This compound word meant literally, myrrh-scented, perfumed.]

[Footnote 238: These are variations of language of small importance, which can only be understood in the original language.]

[Footnote 239: It may create a smile to hear that, to prevent danger to the public, Augustus decreed that no new buildings erected in a public thoroughfare should exceed in height seventy feet. Trajan reduced it to sixty.]

[Footnote 240: Virgil is said to have recited before him the whole of the second, fourth, and sixth books of the Aeneid; and Octavia, being present, when the poet came to the passage referring to her son, commencing, “Tu Marcellus eris,” was so much affected that she was carried out fainting.]

[Footnote 241: Chap. xix.]

[Footnote 242: Perhaps the point of the reply lay in the temple of Jupiter Tonans being placed at the approach to the Capitol from the Forum? See c. xxix. and c. xv., with the note.]

[Footnote 243: If these trees flourished at Rome in the time of Augustus, the winters there must have been much milder than they now are. There was one solitary palm standing in the garden of a convent some years ago, but it was of very stunted growth.]

[Footnote 244: The Republican forms were preserved in some of the larger towns.]

[Footnote 245: “The Nundinae occurred every ninth day, when a market was held at Rome, and the people came to it from the country. The practice was not then introduced amongst the Romans, of dividing their time into weeks, as we do, in imitation of the Jews. Dio, who flourished under Severus, says that it first took place a little before his time, and was derived from the Egyptians.”--Thomson. A fact, if well founded, of some importance.]

[Footnote 246: “The Romans divided their months into calends, nones, and ides. The first day of the month was the calends of that month; whence they reckoned backwards, distinguishing the time by the day before the calends, the second day before the calends, and so on, to the ides of the preceding month. In eight months of the year, the nones were the fifth day, and the ides the thirteenth: but in March, May, July, and October, the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the fifteenth. From the nones they reckoned backwards to the calends, as they also did from the ides to the nones.”--Ib.]

[Footnote 247: The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion of the Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probably from its monotheistic and exclusive character. But we find from Josephus and Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews.]

[Footnote 248: Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt near Lycopolis. Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea of theologoumenon, in defence of some very strange religious rites, of which the example in the text is a specimen.]

[Footnote 249: Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensive views of the Pontine marshes and the sea.]

[Footnote 250: Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where Julius Caesar fought a battle. See c. lvi.]

[Footnote 251: The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon the etymology of the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, in Greek, signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious.]

[Footnote 252: Aesar is a Greek word with an Etruscan termination; aisa signifying fate.]

[Footnote 253: Astura stood not far from Terracina, on the road to Naples. Augustus embarked there for the islands lying off that coast.]

[Footnote 254: “Puteoli”--“A ship of Alexandria.” Words which bring to our recollection a passage in the voyage of St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 11-13. Alexandria was at that time the seat of an extensive commerce, and not only exported to Rome and other cities of Italy, vast quantities of corn and other products of Egypt, but was the mart for spices and other commodities, the fruits of the traffic with the east.]

[Footnote 255: The Toga has been already described in a note to c. lxxiii. The Pallium was a cloak, generally worn by the Greeks, both men and women, freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers.]

[Footnote 256: Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of African origin.]

[Footnote 257: A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in which character he attended Tiberius. We shall hear more of him in the reign of that emperor.]

[Footnote 258: Augustus was born A.U.C. 691, and died A.U.C. 766.]

[Footnote 259: Municipia were towns which had obtained the rights of Roman citizens. Some of them had all which could be enjoyed without residing at Rome. Others had the right of serving in the Roman legions, but not that of voting, nor of holding civil offices. The municipia retained their own laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive the Roman laws unless they chose it.]

[Footnote 260: Bovillae, a small place on the Appian Way, about nineteen miles from Rome, now called Frattochio.]

[Footnote 261: Dio tells us that the devoted Livia joined with the knights in this pious office, which occupied them during five days.]

[Footnote 262: For the Flaminian Way, see before, p. 94, note. The superb monument erected by Augustus over the sepulchre of the imperial family was of white marble, rising in stages to a great height, and crowned by a dome, on which stood a statue of Augustus. Marcellus was the first who was buried in the sepulchre beneath. It stood near the present Porta del Popolo; and the Bustum, where the bodies of the emperor and his family were burnt, is supposed to have stood on the site of the church of the Madonna of that name.]

[Footnote 263: The distinction between the Roman people and the tribes, is also observed by Tacitus, who substitutes the word plebs, meaning, the lowest class of the populace.]

[Footnote 264: Those of his father Octavius, and his father by adoption, Julius Caesar.]

[Footnote 265: See before, c. 65. But he bequeathed a legacy to his daughter, Livia.]

[Footnote 266: Virgil.]

[Footnote 267: Ibid.]

[Footnote 268: Ibid.]

[Footnote 269: Geor. ii.]

[Footnote 270: I am prevented from entering into greater details, both by the size of my volume, and my anxiety to complete the undertaking.]

[Footnote 271: After performing these immortal achievements, while he was holding an assembly of the people for reviewing his army in the plain near the lake of Capra, a storm suddenly rose, attended with great thunder and lightning, and enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it took all sight of him from the assembly. Nor was Romulus after this seen on earth. The consternation being at length over, and fine clear weather succeeding so turbulent a day, when the Roman youth saw the royal seat empty, though they readily believed the Fathers who had stood nearest him, that he was carried aloft by the storm, yet struck with the dread as it were of orphanage, they preserved a sorrowful silence for a considerable time. Then a commencement having been made by a few, the whole multitude salute Romulus a god, son of a god, the king and parent of the Roman city; they implore his favour with prayers, that he would be pleased always propitiously to preserve his own offspring. I believe that even then there were some who silently surmised that the king had been torn in pieces by the hands of the Fathers; for this rumour also spread, but was not credited; their admiration of the man and the consternation felt at the moment, attached importance to the other report. By the contrivance also of one individual, additional credit is said to have been gained to the matter. For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled with regret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person of weight, as we are told, in any matter, however important, comes forward to the assembly. “Romans,” he said, “Romulus, the father of this city, suddenly descending from heaven, appeared to me this day at day-break. While I stood covered with awe, and filled with a religious dread, beseeching him to allow me to see him face to face, he said; ‘Go tell the Romans, that the gods do will, that my Rome should become the capital of the world. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know and hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstand the Roman arms.’ Having said this, he ascended up to heaven.” It is surprising what credit was given to the man on his making this announcement, and how much the regret of the common people and army for the loss of Romulus, was assuaged upon the assurance of his immortality.]

[Footnote 272: Padua.]

[Footnote 273: Commentators seem to have given an erroneous and unbecoming sense to Cicero’s exclamation, when they suppose that the object understood, as connected with altera, related to himself. Hope is never applied in this signification, but to a young person, of whom something good or great is expected; and accordingly, Virgil, who adopted the expression, has very properly applied it to Ascanius:

Et juxta Ascanius, magmae spes altera
Romae. Aeneid, xii.]

And by his side Ascanius took his place,
The second hope of Rome’s immortal race.]

Cicero, at the time when he could have heard a specimen of Virgil’s Eclogues, must have been near his grand climacteric; besides that, his virtues and talents had long been conspicuous, and were past the state of hope. It is probable, therefore, that altera referred to some third person, spoken of immediately before, as one who promised to do honour to his country. It might refer to Octavius, of whom Cicero at this time, entertained a high opinion; or it may have been spoken in an absolute manner, without reference to any person.]

[Footnote 274: I was born at Mantua, died in Calabria, and my tomb is at Parthenope: pastures, rural affairs, and heroes are the themes of my poems.]

[Footnote 275: The last members of these two lines, from the commas to the end are said to have been supplied by Erotes, Virgil’s librarian.]

[Footnote 276: Carm. i. 17.]

[Footnote 277: “The Medea of Ovid proves, in my opinion, how surpassing would have been his success, if he had allowed his genius free scope, instead of setting bounds to it.”]

[Footnote 278: Two faults have ruined me; my verse, and my mistake.]

[Footnote 279: These lines are thus rendered in the quaint version of Zachary Catlin.

I suffer ‘cause I chanced a fault to spy,
So that my crime doth in my eyesight lie.

Alas! why wait my luckless hap to see
A fault at unawares to ruin me?]

[Footnote 280: “I myself employed you as ready agents in love, when my early youth sported in numbers adapted to it.”--Riley’s Ovid.]

[Footnote 281: “I long since erred by one composition; a fault that is not recent endures a punishment inflicted thus late. I had already published my poems, when, according to my privilege, I passed in review so many times unmolested as one of the equestrian order, before you the enquirer into criminal charges. Is it then possible that the writings which, in my want of confidence, I supposed would not have injured me when young, have now been my ruin in my old age?”--Riley’s Ovid.]

[Footnote 282: This place, now called Temisvar, or Tomisvar, stands on one of the mouths of the Danube, about sixty-five miles E.N.E. from Silistria. The neighbouring bay of the Black Sea is still called the Gulf of Baba.]

[Footnote 283: “It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue glory by means of the intellect, than of bodily strength; and, since the life we enjoy is short to make the remembrance of it as lasting as possible.”]

[Footnote 284: Intramural interments were prohibited at Rome by the laws of the Twelve Tables, notwithstanding the practice of reducing to ashes the bodies of the dead. It was only by special privilege that individuals who had deserved well of the state, and certain distinguished families were permitted to have tombs within the city.]

[Footnote 285: Among the Romans, all the descendants from one common stock were called Gentiles, being of the same race or kindred, however remote. The Gens, as they termed this general relation or clanship, was subdivided into families, in Familias vel Stirpes; and those of the same family were called Agnati. Relations by the father’s side were also called Agnati, to distinguish them from Cognati, relations only by the mother’s side. An Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not the contrary.]

To mark the different gentes and familiae, and to distinguish the individuals of the same family, the Romans had commonly three names, the Praenomen, Nomen, and Cognomen. The praenomen was put first, and marked the individual. It was usually written with one letter; as A. for Aulus; C. Caius; D. Decimus: sometimes with two letters; as Ap. for Appius; Cn. Cneius; and sometimes with three; as Mam. for Mamercus.]

The Nomen was put after the Praenomen, and marked the gens. It commonly ended in ius; as Julius, Tullius, Cornelius. The Cognomen was put last, and marked the familia; as Cicero, Caesar, etc.]

Some gentes appear to have had no surname, as the Marian; and gens and familia seem sometimes to be put one for the other; as the Fabia gens, or Fabia familia.]

Sometimes there was a fourth name, properly called the Agnomen, but sometimes likewise Cognomen, which was added on account of some illustrious action or remarkable event. Thus Scipio was named Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, from the conquest of Carthage. In the same manner, his brother was called Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. Thus also, Quintus Fabius Maximus received the Agnomen of Cunctator, from his checking the victorious career of Hannibal by avoiding a battle.]

[Footnote 286: A.U.C. 474.]

[Footnote 287: A.U.C. 490.]

[Footnote 288: A.U.C. 547.]

[Footnote 289: A.U.C. 304.]

[Footnote 290: An ancient Latin town on the Via Appia, the present road to Naples, mentioned by St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 15, and Horace, Sat. i. 5, 3, in giving an account of their travels.]

[Footnote 291: A.U.C. 505.]

[Footnote 292: Cybele; first worshipped in Phrygia, about Mount Ida, from whence a sacred stone, the symbol of her divinity, probably an aerolite, was transported to Rome, in consequence of the panic occasioned by Hannibal’s invasion, A.U.C. 508.]

[Footnote 293: A.U.C. 695.]

[Footnote 294: A.U.C. 611.]

[Footnote 295: A.U.C. 550.]

[Footnote 296: A.U.C. 663.]

[Footnote 297: A.U.C. 707.]

[Footnote 298: These, and other towns in the south of France, became, and long continued, the chief seats of Roman civilization among the Gauls; which is marked by the magnificent remains of ancient art still to be seen. Arles, in particular, is a place of great interest.]

[Footnote 299: A.U.C. 710.]

[Footnote 300: A.U.C. 713.]

[Footnote 301: A.U.C. 712. Before Christ about 39.]

[Footnote 302: A.U.C. 744.]

[Footnote 303: A.U.C. 735.]

[Footnote 304: See before, in the reign of AUGUSTUS, c. xxxii.]

[Footnote 305: A.U.C. 728.]

[Footnote 306: A.U.C. 734.]

[Footnote 307: A.U.C. 737.]

[Footnote 308: A.U.C. 741.]

[Footnote 309: A.U.C. 747.]

[Footnote 310: A.U.C. 748.]

[Footnote 311: Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, about thirteen miles from the city, was founded by Ancus Martius. Being the port of a city like Rome, it could not fail to become opulent; and it was a place of much resort, ornamented with fine edifices, and the environs “never failing of pasture in the summer time, and in the winter covered with roses and other flowers.” The port having been filled up with the depositions of the Tiber, it became deserted, and is now abandoned to misery and malaria. The bishopric of Ostia being the oldest in the Roman church, its bishop has always retained some peculiar privileges.]

[Footnote 312: The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received their name from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending parties wore nothing but drawers.]

[Footnote 313: A.U.C. 752.]

[Footnote 314: The cloak and slippers, as distinguished from the Roman toga and shoes.]

[Footnote 315: A.U.C. 755.]

[Footnote 316: This fountain, in the Euganian hills, near Padua, famous for its mineral waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies.]

[Footnote 317: The street called Carinae, at Rome, has been mentioned before; AUGUSTUS, c. v.; and also Mecaenas’ house on the Esquiline, ib. c. lxxii. The gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and before used as a cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes. Horace says--

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari.--Sat. 1. i. viii. 13.]

[Footnote 318: A.U.C. 757.]

[Footnote 319: A.U.C. 760.]

[Footnote 320: A.U.C. 762.]

[Footnote 321: Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic; “nec fortuitum cernere cespitem,” as Horace describes it.--Ode 15.]

[Footnote 322: A.U.C. 765.]

[Footnote 323: The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing on the side of the Forum nearest the Capitol. It consists of six Ionic columns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with bases and capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles. The temple of Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. c. x.]

[Footnote 324: A.U.C. 766.]

[Footnote 325: A.U.C. 767.]

[Footnote 326: Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequently quoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one. It is so obscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are not agreed on its drift.]

[Footnote 327: A verse in which the word in italics is substituted for cunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus.]

[Footnote 328: Iliad, B. x. Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where he asks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp.]

[Footnote 329: Tiberius had adopted Germanicus. See before, c. xv. See also CALIGULA, c. i.]

[Footnote 330: In this he imitated Augustus. See c. liii. of his life.]

[Footnote 331: Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window, equivalent to our phrase, “if you open the door.”]

[Footnote 332: Princeps, principatus, are the terms generally used by Suetonius to describe the supreme authority vested in the Caesars, as before at the beginning of chap. xxiv., distinguished from any terms which conveyed of kingly power, the forms of the republic, as we have lately seen, still subsisting.]

[Footnote 333: Strenas; the French etrennes.]

[Footnote 334: “Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests.”--Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 4.]

[Footnote 335: Similia sectantes. We are strongly inclined to think that the words might be rendered “similar sects,” conveying an allusion to the small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generally confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little even the well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in the only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c. xxv., NERO, c. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture. All the commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text. Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.--Ant. xviii. 5.]

[Footnote 336: Varro tells us that the Roman people “were more actively employed (manus movere) in the theatre and circus, than in the corn-fields and vineyards.”--De Re Rustic. ii. And Juvenal, in his satires, frequently alludes to their passion for public spectacles, particularly in the well-known lines--

--------Atque duas tantum res serrius optat,
Panem et Circenses. Sat. x. 80.]

[Footnote 337: The Cottian Alps derived their name from this king. They include that part of the chain which divides Dauphiny from Piedmont, and are crossed by the pass of the Mont Cenis.]

[Footnote 338: Antium, mentioned before, (AUG. c. lviii.) once a flourishing city of the Volscians, standing on the sea-coast, about thirty-eight miles from Rome, was a favourite resort of the emperors and persons of wealth. The Apollo Belvidere was found among the ruins of its temples and other edifices.]

[Footnote 339: A.U.C. 779.]

[Footnote 340: Terracina, standing at the southern extremity of the Pontine Marshes, on the shore of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded by high calcareous cliffs, in which there are caverns, affording, as Strabo informs us, cool retreats, attached to the Roman villas built round.]

[Footnote 341: Augustus died at Nola, a city in Campania. See c. lviii. of his life.]

[Footnote 342: Fidenae stood in a bend of the Tiber, near its junction with the Anio. There are few traces of it remaining.]

[Footnote 343: That any man could drink an amphora of wine at a draught, is beyond all credibility; for the amphora was nearly equal to nine gallons, English measure. The probability is, that the man had emptied a large vessel, which was shaped like an amphora.]

[Footnote 344: Capri, the luxurious retreat and scene of the debaucheries of the Roman emperors, is an island off the southern point of the bay of Naples, about twelve miles in circumference.]

[Footnote 345: Pan, the god of the shepherds, and inventor of the flute, was said to be the son of Mercury and Penelope. He was worshipped chiefly in Arcadia, and represented with the horns and feet of a goat. The Nymphs, as well as the Graces, were represented naked.]

[Footnote 346: The name of the island having a double meaning, and signifying also a goat.]

[Footnote 347: “Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos ‘pisciculos’ vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur, ac luderent: lingua morsuque sensim appetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret: pronior sane ad id genus libidinis, et natura et aetate.”]

[Footnote 348: “Foeminarum capitibus solitus illudere.”]

[Footnote 349: “Obscoenitate oris hirsuto atque olido.”]

[Footnote 350: “Hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire”]

[Footnote 351: The Temple of Vesta, like that dedicated to the same goddess at Tivoli, is round. There was probably one on the same site, and in the same circular form, erected by Numa Pompilius; the present edifice is far too elegant for that age, but there is no record of its erection, but it is known to have been repaired by Vespasian or Domitian after being injured by Nero’s fire. Its situation, near the Tiber, exposed it to floods, from which we find it suffered, from Horace’s lines--

“Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis
Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
Ire dejectum monumenta Regis,
Templaque Vestae.”--Ode, lib. i. 2. 15.

This beautiful temple is still in good preservation. It is surrounded by twenty columns of white marble, and the wall of the cell, or interior (which is very small, its diameter being only the length of one of the columns), is also built of blocks of the same material, so nicely joined, that it seems to be formed of one solid mass.]

[Footnote 352: Antlia; a machine for drawing up water in a series of connected buckets, which was worked by the feet, nisu pedum.]

[Footnote 353: The elder Livia was banished to this island by Augustus. See c. lxv. of his life.]

[Footnote 354: An island in the Archipelago.]

[Footnote 355: This Theodore is noticed by Quintilian, Instit. iii. 1. Gadara was in Syria.]

[Footnote 356: It mattered not that the head substituted was Tiberius’s own.]

[Footnote 357: The verses were probably anonymous.]

[Footnote 358: Oderint dum probent: Caligula used a similar expression; Oderint dum metuant.]

[Footnote 359: A.U.C. 778. Tacit. Annal. iv. The historian’s name was A. Cremutius Cordo. Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. p. 619. Brutus had already called Cassius “The last of the Romans,” in his lamentation over his dead body.]

[Footnote 360: She was the sister of Germanicus, and Tacitus calls her Livia; but Suetonius is in the habit of giving a fondling or diminutive term to the names of women, as Claudilla, for Claudia, Plautilla, etc.]

[Footnote 361: Priam is said to have had no less than fifty sons and daughters; some of the latter, however, survived him, as Hecuba, Helena, Polyxena, and others.]

[Footnote 362: There were oracles at Antium and Tibur. The “Praenestine Lots” are described by Cicero, De Divin. xi. 41.]

[Footnote 363: Agrippina, and Nero and Drusus.]

[Footnote 364: He is mentioned before in the Life of AUGUSTUS, c. xc.; and also by Horace, Cicero, and Tacitus.]

[Footnote 365: Obscure Greek poets, whose writings were either full of fabulous stories, or of an amatory kind.]

[Footnote 366: It is suggested that the text should be amended, so that the sentence should read--“A Greek soldier;” for of what use could it have been to examine a man in Greek, and not allow him to give his replies in the same language?]

[Footnote 367: So called from Appius Claudius, the Censor, one of Tiberius’s ancestors, who constructed it. It took a direction southward of Rome, through Campania to Brundusium, starting from what is the present Porta di San Sebastiano, from which the road to Naples takes its departure.]

[Footnote 368: A small town on the coast of Latium, not far from Antium, and the present Nettuno. It was here that Cicero was slain by the satellites of Antony.]

[Footnote 369: A town on a promontory of the same dreary coast, between Antium and Terracina, built on a promontory surrounded by the sea and the marsh, still called Circello.]

[Footnote 370: Misenum, a promontory to which Aeneas is said to have given its name from one of his followers. (Aen. ii. 234.) It is now called Capo di Miseno, and shelters the harbour of Mola di Gaieta, belonging to Naples. This was one of the stations of the Roman fleet.]

[Footnote 371: Tacitus agrees with Suetonius as to the age of Tiberius at the time of his death. Dio states it more precisely, as being seventy-seven years, four months, and nine days.]

[Footnote 372: Caius Caligula, who became his successor.]

[Footnote 373: Tacitus and Dio add that he was smothered under a heap of heavy clothes.]

[Footnote 374: In the temple of the Palatine Apollo. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]

[Footnote 375: Atella, a town between Capua and Naples, now called San Arpino, where there was an amphitheatre. The people seemed to have raised the shout in derision, referring, perhaps, to the Atellan fables, mentioned in c. xiv.; and in their fury they proposed that his body should only be grilled, as those of malefactors were, instead of being reduced to ashes.]

[Footnote 376: Tacit. Annal. lib. ii.]

[Footnote 377: A.U.C. 757.]

[Footnote 378: A.U.C. 765.]

[Footnote 379: A.U.C. 770.]

[Footnote 380: A.U.C. 767.]

[Footnote 381: A.U.C. 771.]

[Footnote 382: This opinion, like some others which occur in Suetonius, may justly be considered as a vulgar error; and if the heart was found entire, it must have been owing to the weakness of the fire, rather than to any quality communicated to the organ, of resisting the power of that element.]

[Footnote 383: The magnificent title of King of Kings has been assumed, at different times, by various potentates. The person to whom it is here applied, is the king of Parthia. Under the kings of Persia, and even under the Syro-Macedonian kings, this country was of no consideration, and reckoned a part of Hyrcania. But upon the revolt of the East from the Syro-Macedonians, at the instigation of Arsaces, the Parthians are said to have conquered eighteen kingdoms.]

[Footnote 384: A.U.C. 765.]

[Footnote 385: It does not appear that Gaetulicus wrote any historical work, but Martial, Pliny, and others, describe him as a respectable poet.]

[Footnote 386: Supra Confluentes. The German tribe here mentioned occupied the country between the Rhine and the Meuse, and gave their name to Treves (Treviri), its chief town. Coblentz had its ancient name of Confluentes, from its standing at the junction of the two rivers. The exact site of the village in which Caligula was born is not known. Cluverius conjectures that it may be Capelle.]

[Footnote 387: Chap. vii.]

[Footnote 388: The name was derived from Caliga, a kind of boot, studded with nails, used by the common soldiers in the Roman army.]

[Footnote 389: According to Tacitus, who gives an interesting account of these occurrences, Treves was the place of refuge to which the young Caius was conveyed.--Annal. i.]

[Footnote 390: In c. liv. of TIBERIUS, we have seen that his brothers Drusus and Nero fell a sacrifice to these artifices.]

[Footnote 391: Tiberius, who was the adopted father of Germanicus.]

[Footnote 392: Natriceus, a water-snake, so called from nato, to swim. The allusion is probably to Caligula’s being reared in the island of Capri.]

[Footnote 393: As Phaeton is said to have set the world on fire.]

[Footnote 394: See the Life of TIBERIUS, c. lxxiii.]

[Footnote 395: His name also was Tiberius. See before, TIBERIUS, c. lxxvi.]

[Footnote 396: Procida, Ischia, Capri, etc.]

[Footnote 397: The eagle was the standard of the legion, each cohort of which had its own ensign, with different devices; and there were also little images of the emperors, to which divine honours were paid.]

[Footnote 398: See before, cc. liii. liv.]

[Footnote 399: See TIBERIUS, c. x.; and note.]

[Footnote 400: The mausoleum built by Augustus, mentioned before in his Life, c. C.]

[Footnote 401: The Carpentum was a carriage, commonly with two wheels, and an arched covering, but sometimes without a covering; used chiefly by matrons, and named, according to Ovid, from Carmenta, the mother of Evander. Women were prohibited the use of it in the second Punic war, by the Oppian law, which, however, was soon after repealed. This chariot was also used to convey the images of the illustrious women to whom divine honours were paid, in solemn processions after their death, as in the present instance. It is represented on some of the sestertii.]

[Footnote 402: See cc. xiv. and xxiii. of the present History.]

[Footnote 403: Ib. cc. vii. and xxiv.]

[Footnote 404: Life of TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]

[Footnote 405: See the Life of AUGUSTUS, cc. xxviii. and ci.]

[Footnote 406: Julius Caesar had shared it with them (c. xli.). Augustus had only kept up the form (c. xl.). Tiberius deprived the Roman people of the last remains of the freedom of suffrage.]

[Footnote 407: The city of Rome was founded on the twenty-first day of April, which was called Palilia, from Pales, the goddess of shepherds, and ever afterwards kept as a festival.]

[Footnote 408: A.U.C. 790.]

[Footnote 409: A.U.C. 791.]

[Footnote 410: A.U.C. 793.]

[Footnote 411: A.U.C. 794.]

[Footnote 412: The Saturnalia, held in honour of Saturn, was, amongst the Romans, the most celebrated festival of the whole year, and held in the month of December. All orders of the people then devoted themselves to mirth and feasting; friends sent presents to one another; and masters treated their slaves upon a footing of equality. At first it was held only for one day, afterwards for three days, and was now prolonged by Caligula’s orders.]

[Footnote 413: See AUGUSTUS, cc. xxix and xliii. The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus is supposed to have stood in the Campus Martius, and the elevation now called the Monte Citorio, to have been formed by its ruins.]

[Footnote 414: Supposed to be a house, so called, adjoining the Circus, in which some of the emperor’s attendants resided.]

[Footnote 415: Now Puzzuoli, on the shore of the bay of Naples. Every one knows what wealth was lavished here and at Baiae, on public works and the marine villas of the luxurious Romans, in the times of the emperors.]

[Footnote 416: The original terminus of the Appian Way was at Brundusium. This mole formed what we should call a nearer station to Rome, on the same road, the ruins of which are still to be seen. St. Paul landed there.]

[Footnote 417: Essedis: they were light cars, on two wheels, constructed to carry only one person; invented, it is supposed, by the Belgians, and by them introduced into Britain, where they were used in war. The Romans, after their expeditions in Gaul and Britain, adopted this useful vehicle instead of their more cumbrous RHEDA, not only for journeys where dispatch was required, but in solemn processions, and for ordinary purposes. They seem to have become the fashion, for Ovid tells us that these little carriages were driven by young ladies, themselves holding the reins, Amor. xi. 16. 49.]

[Footnote 418: Suetonius flourished about seventy years after this, in the reign of Adrian, and derived many of the anecdotes which give interest to his history from cotemporary persons. See CLAUDIUS, c. xv. etc.]

[Footnote 419: See TIBERIUS, c. xlvii. and AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]