The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
where Suetonius has before informed us that Julius Caesar intended to
erect one (p. 30). It stood between the portico of Octavia and the hill
of the Capitol. Augustus gave it the name of his nephew Marcellus, though
he was then dead. Its ruins are still to be seen in the Piazza Montanara,
where the Orsini family have a palace erected on the site.]
[Footnote 157: The theatre of Balbus was the third of the three permanent
theatres of Rome. Those of Pompey and Marcellus have been already
mentioned.]
[Footnote 158: Among these were, at least, the noble portico, if not the
whole, of the Pantheon, still the pride of Rome, under the name of the
Rotondo, on the frieze of which may be seen the inscription,
M. AGRIPPA. L. F. COS: TERTIUM. FECIT.
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,