Letters of Pliny
41 (return) [ "Windows made of a transparent stone called lapis
specularis (mica), which was first found in Hispania Citerior, and
afterwards in Cyprus, Cappadocia, Sicily, and Africa; but the best caine
from Spain and Cappadocia. It was easily split into the thinnest sheets.
Windows, made of this stone were called specularia." Smith's Dictionary
of Antiquities.]
42 (return) [ A feast held in honour of the god Saturn, which began on
the 19th of December, and continued as some say, for seven days. It was
a time of general rejoicing, particularly among the slaves, who had at
this season the privilege of taking great liberties with their masters.
M.]
43 (return) [ Cicero and Quintilian have laid down rules how far, and in
what instances, this liberty was allowable, and both agree it ought to
be used with great sagacity and judgment. The latter of these excellent
critics mentions a witticism of Flavius Virginius, who asked one of
these orators, "Quot nillia assuum deciamassett." How many miles he had
declaimed. M.]
44 (return) [ This was an act of great ceremony; and if Aurelia's dress
was of the kind which some of the Roman ladies used, the legacy must
have been considerable which Regulus had the impudence to ask. M.]
45 (return) [ $3,350,000.]
46 (return) [ A poet to whom Quintilian assigns the highest rank, as a
Writer of tragedies, among his contemporaries (book X. C. I. 98).
Tacitus also speaks of him in terms of high appreciation (Annals, v.
8).]
47 (return) [ Stepson of Augustus and brother to Tiberius. An amiable
and popular prince. He died at the close of his third campaign, from a
fracture received by falling from his horse.]
48 (return) [ A historian under Augustus and Tiberius. He wrote part of
a history of Rome, which was continued by the elder Pliny; also an
account of the German war, to which Quintilian makes allusion (Inst. X.
103), pronouncing him, as a historian, "estimable in all respects, yet
in some things failing to do himself justice."]
49 (return) [ The distribution of time among the Romans was very
different from ours. They divided the night into four equal parts, which
they called watches, each three hours in length; and part of these they
devoted either to the pleasures of the table or to study. The natural
day they divided into twelve hours, the first beginning with sunrise,
and the last ending with sunset; by which means their hours were of
unequal length, varying according to the different seasons of the year.
The time for business began with sunrise, and continued to the fifth
hour, being that of dinner, which with them was only a slight repast.
From thence to the seventh hour was a time of repose; a custom which
still prevails in Italy. The eighth hour was employed in bodily
exercises; after which they constantly bathed, and from thence went to
supper. M.]
50 (return) [ $16,000.]
51 (return) [ Born about A. D. 25. He acquired some distinction as an
advocate. The only poem of his which has come down to us is a heavy
prosaic performance in seventeen books, entitled "Tunica," and
containing an account of the events of the Second Punic War, from the
capture of Saguntum to the triumph of Scipio Africanus. See Smith's
Dict. of Gr. and Roin. Biog.]
52 (return) [ Trajan.]
53 (return) [ Spurinna's wife.]
54 (return) [ Domitian banished the philosophers not only from Rome, but
Italy, as Suetonius (Dom. C. X.) and Aulus Gellius (Noct. Att. b. XV.
CXI. 3, 4, 5) Inform us among these was the celebrated Epictetus. M.]
55 (return) [ The following is the story, as related by several of the
ancient historians. Paetus, having joined Scribonianus, who was in arms,
in Illyria, against Claudius, was taken after the death of Scribonianus,
and condemned to death. Arria having, in vain, solicited his life,
persuaded him to destroy himself, rather than suffer the ignominy of
falling by the executioner's hands; and, in order to encourage him to an
act, to which, it seems, he was not particularly inclined, she set him
the example in the manner Pliny relates. M.]
56 (return) [ Trajan.]
57 (return) [ The Roman, used to employ their criminals in the lower
ones of husbandry, such as ploughing, &c. Pun. H. N. 1. 18, 3. M.]
58 (return) [ About $500,000.]
59 (return) [ About $800,000.]
60 (return) [ One of the famous seven hills upon which Rome was
situated.]
61 (return) [ Mart. LX. 19.]
62 (return) [ Calpurnia, Pliny's wife.]
63 (return) [ Now Citta di Castello.]
64 (return) [ The Romans had an absolute power over their children, of
which no age or station of the latter deprived them.]
65 (return) [ Their business was to interpret dreams, oracles,
prodigies, &c., and to foretell whether any action should be fortunate
or prejudicial, to particular persons, or to the whole commonwealth.
Upon this account, they very often occasioned the displacing of
magistrates, the deferring of public assemblies, &c. Kennet's Ron,.
Antig. M.]
66 (return) [ Trajan.]
67 (return) [ A slave was incapable of property; and, therefore,
whatever he acquired became the right of his master. M.]
68 (return) [ "Their office was to attend upon the rites of Vests, the
chief part of which was the preservation of the holy fire. If this fire
happened to go out, it was considered impiety to light it at any common
flame, but they made use of the pure and unpolluted rays of the sun for
that purpose. There were various other duties besides connected with
their office. The chief rules prescribed them were, to vow the strictest
chastity, for the space of thirty years. After this term was completed,
they had liberty to leave the order. If they broke their vow of
virginity, they were buried alive in a place allotted to that peculiar
use." Kennet's Antiq. Their reputation for sanctity was so high that
Livy mentions the fact of two of those virgins having violated their
vows, as a prodigy that, threatened destruction to the Roman state. Lib.
XXII. C. 57. And Suetonius inform, us that Augiastus had so high an
opinion of this religious order, that he consigned the care of his will
to the Vestal Virgins. Suet, in vit. Aug. C. XCI. M.]
69 (return) [ It was usual with Domitian to triumph, not only without a
victory, but even after a defeat, M.]
70 (return) [ Euripides' Hecuba,]
71 (return) [ The punishment inflicted upon the violators of Vestal
chastity was to be scourged to death. M.]
72 (return) [ Calpurnia, Pliny's wife.]
73 (return) [ Gratilla was the wife of Rusticus: Rusticus was put to
death by Domitian, and Gratilla banished. It was sufficient crime in the
reign of that execrable prince to be even a friend of those who were
obnoxious to him. M.]
74 (return) [ In the original, scrinium, box for holding MSS.]
75 (return) [ The hippodromus, in its proper signification, was a place,
among the Grecians, set apart for horse-racing and other exercises of
that kind. But it seems here to be nothing more than a particular walk,
to which Pliny perhaps gave that name, from its bearing some resemblance
in its form to the public places so called. M.]
76 (return) [ Now called Frascati, Tivoli, and Palestrina, all of them
situated in the Campagna di Roma, and at no great distance from Rome.
M.]
77 (return) [ "This is said in allusion to the idea of Nemesis supposed
to threaten excessive prosperity." (Church and Brodribb.)]
78 (return) [ About $15,000.]
79 (return) [ About $42,000.]
80 (return) [ None had the right of using family pictures or statues but
those whose ancestors or themselves had borne some of the highest
dignities. So that the jus imaginis was much the same thing among the
Romans as the right of bearing a coat of arms among us. Ken. Antiq. M.]
81 (return) [ The Roman physicians used to send their patients in
consumptive cases into Egypt, particularly to Alexandria. M.]
82 (return) [ Frejus, in Provence, the southern part of France. M.]
83 (return) [ A court of justice erected by Julius Cæsar in the forum,
and opposite to the basilica Aemilia.]
84 (return) [ The deceniviri seem to have been magistrates for the
administration of justice, subordinate to the praetors, who (to give the
English reader a general notion of their office) may be termed lords
chief justices, as the judges here mentioned were something in the
nature of our juries. M.]
85 (return) [ About $400.]
86 (return) [ This silly piece of superstition seems to have been
peculiar to Regulus, and not of any general practice; at least it is a
custom of which we find no other mention in antiquity. M.]
87 (return) [ "We gather from Martial that the wearing of these was not
an unusual practice with fops and dandies." See Epig. II. 29, in which
he ridicules a certain Rufus, and hints that if you were to "strip off
the 'splenia (plasters)' from his face, you would find out that he was a
branded runaway slave." (Church and Brodribb.)]
88 (return) [ His wife.]
89 (return) [ Hom. II. lib, I. V. 88.]
90 (return) [ Now Alzia, not far from Corno.]
91 (return) [ Nevertheless, Javolentis Priscus was one of the most
eminent lawyers of his time, and is frequently quoted in the Digesta of
Justinian.]
92 (return) [ In the Bay of Naples.]
93 (return) [ The Romans used to lie or walk naked in the sun, after
anointing their bodies with oil, which was esteemed as greatly
contributing to health, and therefore daily practised by them. This
custom, however, of anointing themselves, is inveighed against by the
Satirists as in the number of their luxurious indulgences: but since we
find the elder Pliny here, and the amiable Spurinna in a former letter,
practising this method, we can not suppose the thing itself was esteemed
unmanly, but only when it was attended with some particular
circumstances of an over-refined delicacy. M.]
94 (return) [ Now called Castelamare, in the Bay of Naples. M.]
95 (return) [ The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world
was to be destroyed by fire, and all things fall again into original
chaos; not excepting even the national gods themselves from the
destruction of this general conflagration. M.]
96 (return) [ The lake Larius.]
97 (return) [ Those families were styled patrician whose ancestors had
been members of the senate in the earliest times of the regal or
consular government. M.]
98 (return) [ Trajan]
99 (return) [ The consuls, though they were chosen in August, did not
enter upon their office till the first of January, during which interval
they were styled consules designati, consuls elect. It was usual for
them upon that occasion to compliment the emperor, by whose appointment,
after the dissolution of the republican government, they were chosen.
M.]
100 (return) [ So called, because it formerly belonged to Camillus. M.]
101 (return) [ Civita Vecchia.]
102 (return) [ Trajan.]
103 (return) [ An officer in the Roman legions, answering in some sort
to a captain In our companies. M.]
104 (return) [ This law was made by Augustus Cæsar; but it nowhere
clearly appears what was the peculiar punishment it inflicted. M.]
105 (return) [ An officer employed by the emperor to receive and
regulate the public revenue in the provinces. M.]
106 (return) [ Comprehending Transylvania, Moldavia, and Walaehia. M.]
107 (return) [ Polycletus was a freedman, and great favourite of Nero.
M.]
108 (return) [ Memmius, or Rhemmius (the critics are not agreed which),
was author of a law by which it was enacted that whosoever was convicted
of calumny and false accusation should be stigmatised with a mark in his
forehead; and by the law of the twelve tables, false accusers were to