The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
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?]