The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
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