The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
Suetonius, to have been in very common use at Rome: kai su geron ei, kai
moros.]
[Footnote 494: A.U.C. 798, or 800.]
[Footnote 495: There was a proverb to the same effect: “Si non caste,
saltem caute.”]
[Footnote 496: Ptolemy appointed him to an office which led him to assume
a foreign dress. Rabirius was defended by Cicero in one of his orations,
which is extant.]
[Footnote 497: The Sigillaria was a street in Rome, where a fair was held
after the Saturnalia, which lasted seven days; and toys, consisting of
little images and dolls, which gave their name to the street and festival,
were sold. It appears from the text, that other articles were exposed for
sale in this street. Among these were included elegant vases of silver
and bronze. There appears also to have been a bookseller’s shop, for an
ancient writer tells us that a friend of his showed him a copy of the
Second Book of the Aeneid, which he had purchased there.]
[Footnote 498: Opposed to this statement there is a passage in Servius
Georgius, iii. 37, asserting that he had heard (accipimus) that Augustus,
besides his victories in the east, triumphed over the Britons in the west;
and Horace says:--
Augustus adjectis Britannis
Imperio gravibusque Persis.--Ode iii. 5, 1.
Strabo likewise informs us, that in his time, the petty British kings sent
embassies to cultivate the alliance of Augustus, and make offerings in the
Capitol: and that nearly the whole island was on terms of amity with the
Romans, and, as well as the Gauls, paid a light tribute.--Strabo, B. iv.
p. 138.
That Augustus contemplated a descent on the island, but was prevented from
attempting it by his being recalled from Gaul by the disturbances in
Dalmatia, is very probable. Horace offers his vows for its success:
Serves iturum, Caesarem in ultimos Orbis Britannos.--Ode i. 35.
But the word iturus shews that the scheme was only projected, and the
lines previously quoted are mere poetical flattery. Strabo’s statement of
the communications kept up with the petty kings of Britain, who were
perhaps divided by intestine wars, are, to a certain extent, probably
correct, as such a policy would be a prelude to the intended expedition.]
[Footnote 499: Circius. Aulus Gellius, Seneca, and Pliny, mention under
this name the strong southerly gales which prevail in the gulf of Genoa
and the neighbouring seas.]
[Footnote 500: The Stoechades were the islands now called Hieres, off
Toulon.]
[Footnote 501: Claudius must have expended more time in his march from
Marseilles to Gessoriacum, as Boulogne was then called, than in his
vaunted conquest of Britain.]
[Footnote 502: In point of fact, he was only sixteen days in the island,
receiving the submission of some tribes in the south-eastern districts.
But the way had been prepared for him by his able general, Aulus Plautius,
who defeated Cunobeline, and made himself master of his capital,
Camulodunum, or Colchester. These successes were followed up by Ostorius,
who conquered Caractacus and sent him to Rome.
It is singular that Suetonius has supplied us with no particulars of these
events. Some account of them is given in the disquisition appended to
this life of CLAUDIUS.
The expedition of Plautius took place A.U.C. 796., A.D. 44.]
[Footnote 503: Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv.]
[Footnote 504: The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the
monuments of the family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the Via
Lata, outside the gate.]
[Footnote 505: The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus,
begun by Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were
mustered and their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. When
the Romans went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they
were conducted by officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one and
the same building may have been used for both purposes.]
The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius.
The Roman college now stands on its site.]
[Footnote 506: A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and Quintus
Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]
[Footnote 507: The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in the
Farther Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the
difficulty of constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared
to that encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters
in the Alban lake, completed A.U.C. 359.]
[Footnote 508: Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. xxi.]
[Footnote 509: Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi.]
[Footnote 510: Suetonius calls this “the great obelisk” in comparison
with those which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus
Martius. The one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus,
afterwards called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis, having been
dedicated to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris,
in acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by Pope
Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre
of the area before St. Peter’s, in the Vatican, not far from its former
position. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without
hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182
feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet.]
[Footnote 511: Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: “A
fir tree of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command
of Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican
Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothing
certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel;
120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it
nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent
there by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as
four men could embrace with their arms.”--B. xvi. c. 76.]
[Footnote 512: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. It appears to have been often a
prey to the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx.]
[Footnote 513: Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the
emperor without acclamations.]
[Footnote 514: A.U.C. 800.]
[Footnote 515: The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C.
736. See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the
occasion.]
[Footnote 516: In the circus which he had himself built.]
[Footnote 517: Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which
abounds in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is
employed in all common buildings.]
[Footnote 518: In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation:
see before, c. xi.]
[Footnote 519: Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun
upon his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon.]
[Footnote 520: See before, c. xvii. Described is c. xx and note.]
[Footnote 521: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]
[Footnote 522: To reward his able services as commander of the army in
Britain. See before, c. xvii.]
[Footnote 523: German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief
seat was at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg.]
[Footnote 524: This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is
said to have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that
consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls into
the river. The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, and
gradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was in
course of time covered with buildings. Among these was the temple of
Aesculapius, erected A.U.C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem of
that deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague. There is a
coin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preserved
copies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cures
which were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379.
It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in the
temple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life.
Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained their
freedom.]
[Footnote 525: Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves. This
prohibition had for its object either to save the wear and tear in the
narrow streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town.]
[Footnote 526: See the note in c. i. of this life of CLAUDIUS.]
[Footnote 527: Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who being
conquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged the
supremacy of Rome.]
[Footnote 528: Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi., mentioned
the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms the
conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely
alluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity and
Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the
authorities to interfere. Thus much we seem to learn from both passages:
but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed on
the stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we find
Suetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century of
the Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh,
and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplanting
Christ from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius,
although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius.
St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by
the emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, but
only forbad their religious assemblies.
It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus,
as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans. Among
others, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8.]
[Footnote 529: Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, and
was transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1. Julius Caesar asserts just the
contrary, Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 11. The edict of Claudius was not carried
into effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during the
reigns of Nero and Alexander Severus.]
[Footnote 530: The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred from
Athens to Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and although
Aurelius Victor says that Adrian effected it.]
[Footnote 531: A.U.C. 801.]
[Footnote 532: A.U.C. 773.]
[Footnote 533: It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of “the
Great,” had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whom
it was first conferred.]
[Footnote 534: A.U.C. 806.]
[Footnote 535: A.U.C. 803.]
[Footnote 536: This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. xxiii. and
xxiv., before whom St. Paul pleaded. He is mentioned by Josephus; and
Tacitus, who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. v, 9.
6.]
[Footnote 537: It appears that two of these wives of Felix were named
Drusilla. One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was the
sister of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of the
Emessenes. The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth,
being the granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. Who the third wife
of Felix was, is unknown.]
[Footnote 538: Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brother
of Felix, and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on his
tomb.]
[Footnote 539: A.U.C. 802.]
[Footnote 540: The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, were