Chapter M: Agrippa. L. F. Cos: Tertium. Fecit (3)

[Footnote 676: Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person who foretold futurity, or interpreted omens. There was at Rome a body of priests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretell future events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, and from other appearances. They were of the greatest authority in the Roman state; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either at home or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them. The Romans derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards they were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of the senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]

[Footnote 677: See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper, and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected the tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued the army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments were inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has been already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the soldiers swore.]

[Footnote 678: See NERO, c. xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for its completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]

[Footnote 679: The two last words, literally translated, mean “long trumpets;” such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore, “What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious ceremonies!”]

[Footnote 680: The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen, eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]

[Footnote 681: This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron, crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums, tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by great indecencies.]

[Footnote 682: Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions. His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victims offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured into a ditch.]

[Footnote 683: A town between Mantua and Cremona.]

[Footnote 684: The temple of Castor. It stood about twelve miles from Cremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action. Hist. ii. 243.]

[Footnote 685: Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode of spelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb, Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremona and Verona.]

[Footnote 686: Lenis was a name of similar signification with that of Tranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work. We find from Tacitus, that there was, among Otho’s generals, in this battle, another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; with whom our author’s father must not be confounded. Lenis was only a tribune of the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentioned by Tacitus, Hist. xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrow stripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was a general, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filled that Office A.U.C. 818. There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus was the same general who distinguished himself by his successes and cruelties in Britain. NERO, c. xviii., and note.]

Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author’s having already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. xix.); besides other sources from which he drew his information. He tells us that he himself was then a boy. We have now arrived at the times in which his father bore a part. Such incidental notices, dropped by historical writers, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on the genuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events.]

[Footnote 687: A.U.C. 823.]

[Footnote 688: Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io, the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in which metamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection of Argus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, she recovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris. Her husband afterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under the name of Isis. She was represented with a mural crown on her head, a cornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in the other.]

[Footnote 689: Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over the original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being the first. Virgil makes his wife’s name Marica--

Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum
Laurente Marica Accipimus.--Aen. vii. 47.

Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have no other accounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of the traditions handed down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellian family.]

[Footnote 690: The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting the heights in the neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil describes them, Aen. vii. 746.]

[Footnote 691: Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, in treating of the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, which Strabo calls a town in Apulia.]

[Footnote 692: Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. lvi.; CALIGULA, c. xvi., etc.]

[Footnote 693: A.U.C. 785.]

[Footnote 694: A.U.C. 787.]

[Footnote 695: He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness to the Jews. See, particularly, Antiq. VI. xviii.]

[Footnote 696: A.U.C. 796, 800.]

[Footnote 697: A.U.C. 801.]

[Footnote 698: A.U.C. 797. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.]

[Footnote 699: A.U.C. 801.]

[Footnote 700: A.U.C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperor Augustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years older than Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to the imperial dignity.]

[Footnote 701: He was sent to Germany by Galba.]

[Footnote 702: See TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]

[Footnote 703: Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for gold in the Capitol, Junius, c. liv. The tin which we here find in use at Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands. whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians and Carthaginians from a very early period.]

[Footnote 704: A.U.C. 821.]

[Footnote 705: A.U.C. 822.]

[Footnote 706: Vienne was a very ancient city of the province of Narbonne, famous in ecclesiastical history as the early seat of a bishopric in Gaul.]

[Footnote 707: See OTHO, c. ix.]

[Footnote 708: See OTHO, c. ix.]

[Footnote 709: Agrippina, the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus, founded a colony on the Rhine at the place of her birth. Tacit. Annal. b. xii. It became a flourishing city, and its origin may be traced in its modern name, Cologne.]

[Footnote 710: A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar, being the anniversary of their great defeat by the Gauls on the river Allia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome. This disaster happened on the 16th of the calends of August (17th July).

[Footnote 711: Posca was sour wine or vinegar mixed with water, which was used by the Roman soldiery as their common drink. It has been found beneficial in the cure of putrid diseases.]

[Footnote 712: Upwards of 4000 pounds sterling. See note, p. 487.]

[Footnote 713: In imitation of the form of the public edicts, which began with the words, BONUM FACTUM.]

[Footnote 714: Catta muliere: The Catti were a German tribe who inhabited the present countries of Hesse or Baden. Tacitus, De Mor. Germ., informs us that the Germans placed great confidence in the prophetical inspirations which they attributed to their women.]

[Footnote 715: Suetonius does not supply any account of the part added by Tiberius to the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, although, as it will be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus, Caligula, and Nero. The banquetting-room here mentioned would easily command a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley. Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian’s brother, was prefect of the city.]

[Footnote 716: Caligula.]

[Footnote 717: Lucius and Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius, were slain near Terracina; the former was marching to his brother’s relief.]

[Footnote 718: A.U.C. 822.]

[Footnote 719: c. ix.]

[Footnote 720: Becco, from whence the French bec, and English beak; with, probably, the family names of Bec or Bek. This distinguished provincial, under his Latin name of Antoninus Primus, commanded the seventh legion in Gaul. His character is well drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style, Hist. XI. 86. 2.]

[Footnote 721: Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a city of the Sabines. Its present name is Rieti.]

[Footnote 722: It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Roman armies was held by the evocati. They are mentioned on three occasions by Suetonius, without affording us much assistance. Caesar, like our author, joins them with the centurions. See, in particular, De Bell. Civil. I. xvii. 4.]

[Footnote 723: The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti.]

[Footnote 724: In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto; its modern name being Norcia.]

[Footnote 725: Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy.]

[Footnote 726: We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry a very common practice in ancient as well as in modern times. At present, several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from the duchies of Parma and Modena, bordering on the district mentioned by Suetonius, to the island of Corsica; returning to the continent when the harvest is got in.]

[Footnote 727: A.U.C. 762, A.D. 10.]

[Footnote 728: Cosa was a place in the Volscian territory; of which Anagni was probably the chief town. It lies about forty miles to the north-east of Rome.]

[Footnote 729: Caligula.]

[Footnote 730: These games were extraordinary, as being out of the usual course of those given by praetors.]

[Footnote 731: “Revocavit in contubernium.” From the difference of our habits, there is no word in the English language which exactly conveys the meaning of contubernium; a word which, in a military sense, the Romans applied to the intimate fellowship between comrades in war who messed together, and lived in close fellowship in the same tent. Thence they transferred it to a union with one woman who was in a higher position than a concubine, but, for some reason, could not acquire the legal rights of a wife, as in the case of slaves of either sex. A man of rank, also, could not marry a slave or a freedwoman, however much he might be attached to her.]

[Footnote 732: Nearly the same phrases are applied by Suetonius to Drusilla, see CALIGULA, c. xxiv., and to Marcella, the concubine of Commodus, by Herodian, I. xvi. 9., where he says that she had all the honours of an empress, except that the incense was not offered to her. These connections resembled the left-hand marriages of the German princes.]

[Footnote 733: This expedition to Britain has been mentioned before, CLAUDIUS, c. xvii. and note; and see ib. xxiv.]

Valerius Flaccus, i. 8, and Silius Italicus, iii. 598, celebrate the triumphs of Vespasian in Britain. In representing him, however, as carrying his arms among the Caledonian tribes, their flattery transferred to the emperor the glory of the victories gained by his lieutenant, Agricola. Vespasian’s own conquests, while he served in Britain, were principally in the territories of the Brigantes, lying north of the Humber, and including the present counties of York and Durham.]

[Footnote 734: A.U.C. 804.]

[Footnote 735: Tacitus, Hist. V. xiii. 3., mentions this ancient prediction, and its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms as Suetonius. The coming power is in both instances described in the plural number, profecti; “those shall come forth;” and Tacitus applies it to Titus as well as Vespasian. The prophecy is commonly supposed to have reference to a passage in Micah, v. 2, “Out of thee (Bethlehem-Ephrata) shall He come forth, to be ruler in Israel.” Earlier prophetic intimations of a similar character, and pointing to a more extended dominion, have been traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there is reason to believe that these books were at this time not unknown in the heathen world, particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagint version. These predictions, in their literal sense, point to the establishment of a universal monarchy, which should take its rise in Judaea. The Jews looked for their accomplishment in the person of one of their own nation, the expected Messiah, to which character there were many pretenders in those times. The first disciples of Christ, during the whole period of his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled in him. The Romans thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian, and Titus having been called from Judaea to the seat of empire. The expectations entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in and appropriated by the first converts to Christianity, having proved groundless, the prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritual sense.]

[Footnote 736: Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, with the title and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, as the native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection and with the alliance of the Romans. Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, the successor of Felix.]

[Footnote 737: Cestius Gallus was consular lieutenant in Syria.]

[Footnote 738: See note to c. vii.]

[Footnote 739: A right hand was the sign of sovereign power, and, as every one knows, borne upon a staff among the standards of the armies.]

[Footnote 740: Tacitus says, “Carmel is the name both of a god and a mountain; but there is neither image nor temple of the god; such are the ancient traditions; we find there only an altar and religious awe.”--Hist. xi. 78, 4. It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offered sacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. vii., predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails.]

[Footnote 741: Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engaged in these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon at Jotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before which Vespasian was wounded.--De Bell. cxi. 14.]

[Footnote 742: The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewish prophecies mentioned in the note to c. iv., which he, like others, applied to Vespasian.]

[Footnote 743: Julius Caesar is always called by our author after his apotheosis, Divus Julius.]

[Footnote 744: The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius. See OTHO, c. ix; VITELLIUS, c. x.]

[Footnote 745: Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt, which was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance that Vespasian should secure it at this juncture.]

[Footnote 746: Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the Egyptians, and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him officiating at Mount Carmel, c. v. This is so incompatible with his being a Roman freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word “libertus.” although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into the text by some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears, like Philo Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been half-Greek, half-Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic school of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 747: Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed Basilides to have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health, but at the distance of several days’ journey from Alexandria. But (for his greater satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether Basilides had entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he met, whether he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched messengers on horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified, Basilides was more than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasian comprehended that the appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his prayers given through him, were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. iv. 82. 2.]

[Footnote 748: The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasian is fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in the details, except that, in his version of the story, he describes the impotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, and adds an important circumstance in the case of the blind man, that he was “notus tabe occulorum,” notorious for the disease in his eyes. He also winds up the narrative with the following statement: “They who were present, relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing to be gained by lying.” Both the historians lived within a few years of the occurrence, but their works were not published until advanced periods of their lives. The closing remark of Tacitus seems to indicate that, at least, he did not entirely discredit the account; and as for Suetonius, his pages are as full of prodigies of all descriptions, related apparently in all good faith, as a monkish chronicle of the Middle Ages.

The story has the more interest, as it is one of the examples of successful imposture, selected by Hume in his Essay on Miracles; with the reply to which by Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity, most readers are familiar. The commentators on Suetonius agree with Paley in considering the whole affair as a juggle between the priests, the patients, and, probably, the emperor. But what will, perhaps, strike the reader as most remarkable, is the singular coincidence of the story with the accounts given of several of the miracles of Christ; whence it has been supposed, that the scene was planned in imitation of them. It did not fall within the scope of Dr. Paley’s argument to advert to this; and our own brief illustration must be strictly confined within the limits of historical disquisition. Adhering to this principle, we may point out that if the idea of plagiarism be accepted, it receives some confirmation from the incident related by our author in a preceding paragraph, forming, it may be considered, another scene of the same drama, where we find Basilides appearing to Vespasian in the temple of Serapis, under circumstances which cannot fail to remind us of Christ’s suddenly standing in the midst of his disciples, “when the doors were shut.” This incident, also, has very much the appearance of a parody on the evangelical history. But if the striking similarity of the two narratives be thus accounted for, it is remarkable that while the priests of Alexandria, or, perhaps, Vespasian himself from his residence in Judaea, were in possession of such exact details of two of Christ’s miracles--if not of a third striking incident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion in the works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any one of the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place in a part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations. The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting the notion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass over such events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only other inference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them. But as this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed to Vespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that the coincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous. It may be added that Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors, gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healing a blind man.]

[Footnote 749: A.U.C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831.]

[Footnote 750: The temple of Peace, erected A.D. 71, on the conclusion of the wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome. Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoils which were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. They were consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire, towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191. It stood in the Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, were traditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, until Piranesi contended that they are part of Nero’s Golden House. Others suppose that they are the remains of a Basilica. A beautiful fluted Corinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from this spot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a great idea of the splendour of the original structure.]

[Footnote 751: This temple, converted into a Christian church by pope Simplicius, who flourished, A.D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancient character. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circular form; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the other and intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its former magnificence.]

[Footnote 752: This amphitheatre is the famous Colosseum begun by Trajan, and finished by Titus. It is needless to go into details respecting a building the gigantic ruins of which are so well known.]

[Footnote 753: Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in Spain, to have come into this part of Italy. One of his companions, the supposed founder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus.]

[Footnote 754: Vespasian and his son Titus had a joint triumph for the conquest of Judaea, which is described at length by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii. 16. The coins of Vespasian exhibiting the captive Judaea (Judaea capta), are probably familiar to the reader. See Harphrey’s Coin Collector’s Manual, p. 328.]

[Footnote 755: Demetrius, who was born at Corinth, seems to have been a close imitator of Diogenes, the founder of the sect. Having come to Rome to study under Apollonius, he was banished to the islands, with other philosophers, by Vespasian.]

[Footnote 756: There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposed name being derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed that Anticyra, the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. xxix.) is meant; but the probability is, that the expression used by the imperial chamberlain was only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonly adopted in the present day.]

[Footnote 757: Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a philosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and Arrian.]

[Footnote 758: Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retail trade--Off. i. 24.]

[Footnote 759: The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny of English money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, five thousand pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in the succeeding chapter, one thousand pounds. From this scale, similar calculations may easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius’s statements from time to time. There appears to be some mistake in the sum stated in c. xvi. just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether it represented the floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire.]

[Footnote 760: See AUGUSTUS, c. xliii. The proscenium of the ancient theatres was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted and varied as our stage-scenes.]

[Footnote 761: Many eminent writers among the Romans were originally slaves, such as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physicians and artificers. Their talents procuring their manumission, they became the freedmen of their former masters. Vespasian, it appears from Suetonius, purchased the freedom of some persons of ability belonging to these classes.]

[Footnote 762: The Coan Venus was the chef-d’oeuvre of Apelles, a native of the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, who flourished in the time of Alexander the Great. If it was the original painting which was now restored, it must have been well preserved.]

[Footnote 763: Probably the colossal statue of Nero (see his Life, c. xxxi.), afterwards placed in Vespasian’s amphitheatre, which derived its name from it.]

[Footnote 764: The usual argument in all times against the introduction of machinery.]

[Footnote 765: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]

[Footnote 766: At the men’s Saturnalia, a feast held in December attended with much revelling, the masters waited upon their slaves; and at the women’s Saturnalia, held on the first of March, the women served their female attendants, by whom also they sent presents to their friends.]

[Footnote 767: Notwithstanding the splendour, and even, in many respects, the refinement of the imperial court, the language as well as the habits of the highest classes in Rome seem to have been but too commonly of the grossest description, and every scholar knows that many of their writers are not very delicate in their allusions. Apropos of the ludicrous account given in the text, Martial, on one occasion, uses still plainer language.

Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis:
Nam faciem durum Phoebe, cacantis habes.--iii. 89.]

[Footnote 768: See c. iii. and note.]

[Footnote 769: Probably the emperor had not entirely worn off, or might even affect the rustic dialect of his Sabine countrymen; for among the peasantry the au was still pronounced o, as in plostrum for plaustrum, a waggon; and in orum for aurum, gold, etc. The emperor’s retort was very happy, Flaurus being derived from a Greek word, which signifies worthless, while the consular critic’s proper name, Florus, was connected with much more agreeable associations.]

[Footnote 770: Some of the German critics think that the passage bears the sense of the gratuity having beer given by the lady, and that so parsimonious a prince as Vespasian was not likely to have paid such a sum as is here stated for a lady’s proffered favours.]

[Footnote 771: The Flavian family had their own tomb. See DOMITIAN, c. v. The prodigy, therefore, did not concern Vespasian. As to the tomb of the Julian family, see AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]

[Footnote 772: Alluding to the apotheosis of the emperors.]

[Footnote 773: Cutiliae was a small lake, about three-quarters of a mile from Reate, now called Lago di Contigliano. It was very deep, and being fed from springs in the neighbouring hills, the water was exceedingly clear and cold, so that it was frequented by invalids, who required invigorating. Vespasian’s paternal estates lay in the neighbourhood of Reate. See chap i.]

[Footnote 774: A.U.C. 832.]

[Footnote 775: Each dynasty lasted twenty-eight years. Claudius and Nero both reigning fourteen; and, of the Flavius family, Vespasian reigned ten, Titus three, and Domitian fifteen.]

[Footnote 776: Caligula. Titus was born A.U.C. 794; about A.D. 49.]

[Footnote 777: The Septizonium was a circular building of seven stories. The remains of that of Septimus Severus, which stood on the side of the Palatine Hill, remained till the time of Pope Sixtus V., who removed it, and employed thirty-eight of its columns in ornamenting the church of St. Peter. It does not appear whether the Septizonium here mentioned as existing in the time of Titus, stood on the same spot.]

[Footnote 778: Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina.]

[Footnote 779: A.U.C. 820.]

[Footnote 780: Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and burnt, by Titus, after a two years’ siege, on the 8th September, A.U.C. 821, A.D. 69; it being the Sabbath. It was in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, when the emperor was sixty years old, and Titus himself, as he informs us, thirty. For particulars of the siege, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vi. and vii.; Hegesippus, Excid. Hierosol. v.; Dio, lxvi.; Tacitus, Hist. v.; Orosius, vii. 9.]

[Footnote 781: For the sense in which Titus was saluted with the title of Emperor by the troops, see JULIUS CAESAR, c. lxxvi.]

[Footnote 782: The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, which was celebrated A.U.C. 824, is fully described by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii. 24. It is commemorated by the triumphal monument called the Arch of Titus, erected by the senate and people of Rome after his death, and still standing at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on the road leading from the Colosseum to the Forum, and is one of the most beautiful as well as the most interesting models of Roman art. It consists of four stories of the three orders of architecture, the Corinthian being repeated in the two highest. Some of the bas-reliefs, still in good preservation, represent the table of the shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, the vessel of incense, and the silver trumpets, which were taken by Titus from the Temple at Jerusalem, and, with the book of the law, the veil of the temple, and other spoils, were carried in the triumph. The fate of these sacred relics is rather interesting. Josephus says, that the veil and books of the law were deposited in the Palatium, and the rest of the spoils in the Temple of Peace. When that was burnt, in the reign of Commodus, these treasures were saved, and they were afterwards carried off by Genseric to Africa. Belisarius recovered them, and brought them to Constantinople, A.D. 520. Procopius informs us, that a Jew, who saw them, told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable to carry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remain anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them. This, he said, was the reason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army had in turn taken that of the Vandal kings. Upon this, the emperor was so alarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches at Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 783: A.U.C. 825.]

[Footnote 784: A.U.C. 824.]

[Footnote 785: A.U.C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832.]

[Footnote 786: Berenice, whose name is written by our author and others Beronice, was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus, grandson of Herod the Great. Having been contracted to Mark, son of Alexander Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married her to Herod, Mark’s brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperor Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying, Berenice, then a widow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuous intercourse with him. It was at this time that, on their way to the imperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and were present when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before the tribunal of the governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to shield herself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of Cilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. That union also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem, and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus by her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the termination of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where she lived with Titus, “to all appearance, as his wife,” as Xiphilinus informs us; and there seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for the strong prejudices of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tells us with what pain they separated.]

[Footnote 787: The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. See VESPAS. c. ix.]

[Footnote 788: The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of the ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas. Considerable remains of them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast dimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, still in good preservation. Titus appears to have erected a palace for himself adjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in this palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins.]

[Footnote 789: If the statements were not well attested, we might be incredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles to which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliest account we have of such an exhibition, was A.U.C. 502, when one hundred and forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny, who gives this information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A.U.C. 652; but these were probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he was praetor, brought forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants, and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time. At the dedication of Pompey’s Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition of beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred lions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and ten panthers, etc. A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time. This was A.U.C. 701. The art of taming these beasts was carried to such perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage. Julius Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A.U.C. 708, showed a vast number of wild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard. A tiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre of Marcellus, A.U.C. 743. It was kept in a cage. Claudius afterwards exhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication of the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largest ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that including wild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand were killed. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given to these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In this instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflions from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild boars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian.]

[Footnote 790: “Diem perdidi.” This memorable speech is recorded by several other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles.]

[Footnote 791: A.U.C. 832, A.D. 79. It is hardly necessary to refer to the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian, perished. And see hereafter, p. 475.]

[Footnote 792: The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the reign of Titus. It consumed a large portion of the city, and among the public buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of Neptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and Pompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the temple of Jupiter in the Capitol.]

[Footnote 793: See VESPASIAN, cc. i. and xxiv. The love of this emperor and his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in the Sabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment of such tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae, or the libidinous orgies of Capri.]

[Footnote 794: A.U.C. 834, A.D. 82.]

[Footnote 795: A.U.C. 804.]

[Footnote 796: A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called, probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had made free growth on the spot.]

[Footnote 797: VITELLIUS, c. xv.]

[Footnote 798: Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that Domitian took refuge with a client of his father’s near the Velabrum. Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.]

[Footnote 799: One of Domitian’s coins bears on the reverse a captive female and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.]

[Footnote 800: VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.]

[Footnote 801: Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus (AUG. xliii.), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a rude way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of Domitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d’Espagna, and was larger and more ornamented.]

[Footnote 802: A.U.C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]

[Footnote 803: This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us that it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in the city bounds.]

[Footnote 804: The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the great fire mentioned TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the Marian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign of Vitellius.]

[Footnote 805: This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva, adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great height, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone, very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered with its direction.]

[Footnote 806: The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a temple. See c. i. of the present book.]

[Footnote 807: The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for races both of men and horses.]

[Footnote 808: The Odeum was a building intended for musical performances. There were four of them at Rome.]

[Footnote 809: See before, c. iv.]

[Footnote 810: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]

[Footnote 811: See NERD, c. xvi.]

[Footnote 812: This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c. xiv.]

[Footnote 813: This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and other pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the people. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]

[Footnote 814: Geor. xi. 537.]

[Footnote 815: See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.]

[Footnote 816: See VESPASIAN, c. iii.]

[Footnote 817: Cant names for gladiators.]

[Footnote 818: The faction which favoured the “Thrax” party.]

[Footnote 819: DOMITIAN, c. i.]

[Footnote 820: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]

[Footnote 821: This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.]

[Footnote 822: Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or, perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them. See the note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was two drachmas per head. It was general throughout the empire.]

[Footnote 823: We have had Suetonius’s reminiscences, derived through his grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x. We now come to his own, commencing from an early age.]

[Footnote 824: This is what Martial calls, “Mentula tributis damnata.”]

[Footnote 825: The imperial liveries were white and gold.]

[Footnote 826: See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is quoted; eis koiranos esto.]

[Footnote 827: An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the consecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.]

[Footnote 828: The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for “enough,” and the Latin word for “an arch.”]

[Footnote 829: Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with Paris, the actor, and afterwards taken back.]

[Footnote 830: The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from the poet Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great enemy of vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:

Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,
In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.]

[Footnote 831: Pliny describes this stone as being brought from Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent, cxxiv. c. 22.]

[Footnote 832: See note to c. xvii.]

[Footnote 833: The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish (Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.]

[Footnote 834: See VESPASIAN, c. v.]

[Footnote 835: Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the foreign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first who introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter days of Augustus.]

[Footnote 836: Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their “impiety,” by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of favouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having become a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said to have been of this family.]

[Footnote 837: A.U.C. 849.]

[Footnote 838: See c. v.]

[Footnote 839: The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find from this passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]

[Footnote 840: This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny, took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who first introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who brought into vogue the practice of clipping groves.]

[Footnote 841: Julia, the daughter of Titus.]

[Footnote 842: It will be understood that the terms Grammar and Grammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey in modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]

[Footnote 843: Suetonius’s account of the rude and unlettered state of society in the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might infer, and with the accounts which have come down to us, of a community composed of the most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the neighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. But Cicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long before the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the teaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.]

[Footnote 844: Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his extraction, was born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in the consulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius Tuditanus, A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the historian, who flourished in the Augustan age.]

[Footnote 845: Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the year after the consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at least his seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he wrote the twelfth book of his Annals.]

[Footnote 846: Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered that island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there, and brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.]

[Footnote 847: Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son of Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the surname of Homericus.]

[Footnote 848: Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, whose son he educated.]

[Footnote 849: A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.]

[Footnote 850: Cicero (De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1) places the death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other authorities; but this differs from the account given in a former note.]

[Footnote 851: The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned by Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.]

[Footnote 852: Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.]

[Footnote 853: Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his triumph over Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro’s tutor, accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C. 653.]

[Footnote 854: Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by Cicero, Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny, xxv. 4.]

[Footnote 855: Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have been brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius’s cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis; therefore the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics, and the inventor of the rude music of the reed.]

[Footnote 856: Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book on Forest Trees.]

[Footnote 857: Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in the same line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleius mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi., where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.]

[Footnote 858: Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was the learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove; observing, that “the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts, rather belongs to the tribe of apples.”]

[Footnote 859: Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius. His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consul A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people, A.U.C. 659.]

[Footnote 860: Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that Cicero was among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below, fixes the time when Gnipho flourished.]

[Footnote 861: This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived from a cork arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. He was a poet of Mitylene.]

[Footnote 862: See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.]

[Footnote 863: A.U.C. 687.]

[Footnote 864: Suetonius gives his life in c. x.]

[Footnote 865: A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which we have no very exact idea.]

[Footnote 866: Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:

Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium tractare. Epist. xi. i. 70.

I remember well when I was young,
How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.]

[Footnote 867: Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid and Martial.]

[Footnote 868: This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of statues erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity. Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and with the gown of the Greek philosophers.]

[Footnote 869: Tacitus (Annal. cxi. 75) gives the character of Atteius Capito. He was consul A.U.C. 758.]

[Footnote 870: Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.]

[Footnote 871: Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not appear,]

[Footnote 872: Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in Egypt, under three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentions him. See xvii. p. 576.]

[Footnote 873: Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the same age as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.]

[Footnote 874: Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.]

[Footnote 875: Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first Ptolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.]

[Footnote 876: For Crates, see before, p. 507.]

[Footnote 877: We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days before his death, in completing the twenty-second book of his Commentaries; and, foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of Lucullus, who, with the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged them. Epicadius also wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.]

[Footnote 878: Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose conduct of Mucia, Pompey’s wife, during her husband’s absence.]

[Footnote 879: Fam. Epist. 9.]

[Footnote 880: Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.]

[Footnote 881: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.]

[Footnote 882: Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust. Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of him,

Libertinarum dico;
Sallustius in quas
Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.]

[Footnote 883: The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero addressed his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was the name of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be found, so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was an uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their patrons.]

[Footnote 884: Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii. Her name was Pomponia.]

[Footnote 885: See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.]

[Footnote 886: He is mentioned before, c. ix.]

[Footnote 887: Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction with Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C. 2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius, Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.]

[Footnote 888: Cinna wrote a poem, which he called “Smyrna,” and was nine years in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.]

[Footnote 889: See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii. lxix.]

[Footnote 890: Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor, was born at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius, was brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him, with the name of his patron. He flourished in the time of Sylla, and composed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome. Suetonius has already told us (AUGUSTUS, xxix.) that he had the care of the Palatine Library.]

[Footnote 891: No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; and it is supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague of Cn. Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War.]

[Footnote 892: Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family was still preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial, Quintilian, and others.]

[Footnote 893: Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.]

[Footnote 894: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix. p. 93, and note.]

[Footnote 895: The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of a different fashion from the toga.]

[Footnote 896: See before, c. x.]

[Footnote 897: See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i. and note.]

[Footnote 898: Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary with Pliny and Quintilian, who speak highly of him.]

[Footnote 899: Now Vicenza.]

[Footnote 900: “Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon.”--Eccl. iii. 50.]

[Footnote 901: All the editions have the word vitem; but we might conjecture, from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, a vineyard: in which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, but casks. The amphora held about nine gallons. Pliny mentions that Remmius bought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenth mile-stone from Rome.]

[Footnote 902: “Usque ad infamiam oris.”--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the notes.]

[Footnote 903: Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria. It was one of the colonies founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80,000 Roman citizens to foreign parts.--JULIUS, xlii.]

[Footnote 904: This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.]

[Footnote 905: Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.]

[Footnote 906: See NERO, c. x.]

[Footnote 907: As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]

[Footnote 908: This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.]

[Footnote 909: See Cicero’s Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.]

[Footnote 910: “Hordearium rhetorem.”]

[Footnote 911: From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old custom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply the place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his time.]

[Footnote 912: The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is lost.]

[Footnote 913: Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii. 25.]

[Footnote 914: Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705, and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]

[Footnote 915: A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno, which discharges itself into the bay of Naples.]

[Footnote 916: Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the corrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.]