The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
of fighting. Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, a
shield, a sword, or a leaden ball. Others, the usual antagonists of the
former, were named Retiarii. A combatant of this class was dressed in a
short tunic, but wore nothing on his head. He carried in his left hand a
three-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net,
with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over his
head, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usually
slew him. But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too short
or too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured to
prepare his net for a second cast. His antagonist, in the mean time,
pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him.]
[Footnote 436: AUGUSTUS, c. xxiii.]
[Footnote 437: TIBERIUS, c. xl.]
[Footnote 438: See before, c. xix.]
[Footnote 439: Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led the
victim to the altar. They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked to
the waist. The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seem
to be brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. For the same
reason, it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thought
a very unfavourable sign if it got away.]
[Footnote 440: Plato de Repub. xi.; and Cicero and Tull. xlviii.]
[Footnote 441: The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who was
killed in single combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, was
worn by the lineal male descendants of the Manlian family. But that
illustrious race becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as the
cognomen of Torquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of Caius
Nonius Asprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from the
family of Manlius.]
[Footnote 442: Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair,
from which Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen. But
of what badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of the
Cincinnati, unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them all
shaved--a practice we find mentioned just below--history does not inform
us, nor are we able to conjecture.]
[Footnote 443: The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held his
office by his prowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offer
human sacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in the
adjacent forest. The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among the
deep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a short
distance from Rome--nemus signifying a grove. Julius Caesar had a
residence there. See his Life, c. lxxi. The venerable woods are still
standing, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girth
and vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era of the
Caesars. The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in a
hollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, still
preserve the name of Nemi.]
[Footnote 444: An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the light
carriage described in a former note, p. 264.]
[Footnote 445: See before, JULIUS, c. x., and note.]
[Footnote 446: Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. xix. The practice
of encroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before,--
Jactis in altum molibus.--Hor. Od. B. iii. 1. 34.]
[Footnote 447: Most of the gladiators were slaves.]
[Footnote 448: The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus and
Tiberius.]
[Footnote 449: Mevania, a town of Umbria. Its present name is Bevagna.
The Clitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed of
white cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures.]
[Footnote 450: Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition to
Britain at the time of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c.
xiii.; but if Julius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in this
island, it was very improbable that a prince of Caligula’s character would
ever seriously attempt it, and we shall presently see that the whole
affair turned out a farce.]
[Footnote 451: It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coast
which was signalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat
redeemed by the erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards called
Gessoriacum, and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe
of the Morini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and which
became the usual place of departure for the transit to Britain.]
[Footnote 452: The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence or
eight pence of our money.]
[Footnote 453: Probably to Anticyra. See before, c. xxix. note]
[Footnote 454: The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invaded
Italy A.U.C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus.]
[Footnote 455: The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled in
Umbria, who sacked and pillaged Rome A.U.C. 363.]
[Footnote 456: By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc., are
meant; so that we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire,
and removing the seat of government, which were long afterwards realized
in the time of Constantine.]
[Footnote 457: See AUGUSTUS, c. xviii.]
[Footnote 458: About midnight, the watches being divided into four.]
[Footnote 459: Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature of
this instrument. Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort of
cymbal or castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancient
statue preserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented with
cymbals in his hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe of
his left foot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way of
an accordion.]
[Footnote 460: The port of Rome.]
[Footnote 461: The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusements
of the circus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had their
favourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished by
the colour of the party to which they belonged. See before, c. xviii.,
and TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]
[Footnote 462: In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula’s
celebrated horse might, perhaps, be translated “Go a-head.”]
[Footnote 463: Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of the
assassination of Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdaining
it, or because an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted to
make his escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind the
palace. Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attract
attention, some of the frescos being in good preservation. See the
account in Josephus, xix. 1, 2.]
[Footnote 464: The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae.
They had gardens on the Esquiline mount.]
[Footnote 465: A.U.C. 714.]
[Footnote 466: Pliny describes Drusus as having in this voyage
circumnavigated Germany, and reached the Cimbrian Chersonese, and the
Scythian shores, reeking with constant fogs.]
[Footnote 467: Tacitus, Annal. xi. 8, 1, mentions this fosse, and says
that Drusus sailed up the Meuse and the Waal. Cluverius places it between
the village of Iselvort and the town of Doesborg.]
[Footnote 468: The Spolia Opima were the spoils taken from the enemy’s
king, or chief, when slain in single combat by a Roman general. They were
always hung up in the Temple of Jupiter Feretrius. Those spoils had been
obtained only thrice since the foundation of Rome; the first by Romulus,
who slew Acron, king of the Caeninenses; the next by A. Cornelius Cossus,
who slew Tolumnius, king of the Veientes, A.U. 318; and the third by M.
Claudius Marcellus, who slew Viridomarus, king of the Gauls, A.U. 330.]
[Footnote 469: A.U.C. 744.]
[Footnote 470: This epistle, as it was the habit of Augustus, is
interspersed with Greek phrases.]
[Footnote 471: The Alban Mount is the most interesting feature of the
scenery of the Campagna about Rome, Monti Cavo, the summit, rising above
an amphitheatre of magnificent woods, to an elevation of 2965 French feet.
The view is very extensive: below is the lake of Albano, the finest of the
volcanic lakes in Italy, and the modern town of the same name. Few traces
remain of Alba Longa, the ancient capital of Latium.]
[Footnote 472: On the summit of the Alban Mount, on the site of the
present convent, stood the temple of Jupiter Latialis, where the Latin
tribes assembled annually, and renewed their league, during the Feriae
Latinae, instituted by Tarquinus Superbus. It was here, also, that Roman
generals, who were refused the honours of a full triumph, performed the
ovation, and sacrificed to Jupiter Latialis. Part of the triumphal way by
which the mountain was ascended, formed of vast blocks of lava, is still
in good preservation, leading through groves of chestnut trees of vast
size and age. Spanning them with extended arms--none of the shortest--the
operation was repeated five times in compassing their girth.]
[Footnote 473: CALIGULA. See c. v. of his life.]
[Footnote 474: A.U.C. 793. Life of CALIGULA, cc. xliv., xlv., etc.]
[Footnote 475: A.U.C. 794.]
[Footnote 476: The chamber of Mercury; the names of deities being given
to different apartments, as those “of Isis,” “of the Muses,” etc.]
[Footnote 477: See the note, p. 265.]
[Footnote 478: The attentive reader will have marked the gradual growth
of the power of the pretorian guard, who now, and on so many future
occasions, ruled the destinies of the empire.]
[Footnote 479: See AUGUSTUS, cc. xliii., xlv.]
[Footnote 480: Ib. c. ci.]
[Footnote 481: Germanicus.]
[Footnote 482: Naples and other cities on that coast were Greek
colonies.]
[Footnote 483: This arch was erected in memory of the standards (the
eagles) lost by Varus, in Germany, having been recovered by Germanicus
under the auspices of Tiberius. See his Life, c. xlvii.; and Tacit.
Annal. ii. 41. It seems to have stood at the foot of the Capitol, on the
side of the Forum, near the temple of Concord; but there are no remains of
it.]
[Footnote 484: Tacitus informs us that the same application had been made
by Tiberius. Annal. iii. The prefect of the pretorian guards, high and
important as his office had now become, was not allowed to enter the
senate-house, unless he belonged to the equestrian order.]
[Footnote 485: The procurators had the administration of some of the less
important provinces, with rank and authority inferior to that of the
pro-consuls and prefects. Frequent mention of these officers is made by
Josephus; and Pontius Pilate, who sentenced our Lord to crucifixion, held
that office in Judaea, under Tiberius.]
[Footnote 486: Pollio and Messala were distinguished orators, who
flourished under the Caesars Julius and Augustus.]
[Footnote 487: A.U.C. 795, 796.]
[Footnote 488: A.U.C. 800, 804.]
[Footnote 489: “Ad bestias” had become a new and frequent sentence for
malefactors. It will be recollected, that it was the most usual form of
martyrdom for the primitive Christians. Polycarp was brought all the way
from Smyrna to be exposed to it in the amphitheatre at Rome.]
[Footnote 490: This reminds us of the decision of Solomon in the case of
the two mothers, who each claimed a child as their own, 1 Kings iii.
22-27.]
[Footnote 491: A most absurd judicial conclusion, the business of the
judge or court being to decide, on weighing the evidence, on which side
the truth preponderated.]
[Footnote 492: See the note in CALIGULA, c. xix., as to Suetonius’s
sources of information from persons cotemporary with the occurrences he
relates.]
[Footnote 493: The insult was conveyed in Greek, which seems, from