The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
instituted by Numa. Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with a
girdle ornamented with brass. They wore on their head a conical cap, of a
considerable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand a
spear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars.
On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum and
other public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, said to
have been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could hardly be
understood by any one, even the priests themselves. The most solemn
procession of the Salii was on the first of March, in commemoration of the
time when the sacred shield was believed to have fallen from heaven, in
the reign of Numa. After their procession, they had a splendid
entertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial.]
[Footnote 541: Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading of
the best manuscripts. Whoever he was, his name seems to have been a
bye-word for a notorious fool.]
[Footnote 542: Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in the
fourth year of the reign of Tiberius, A.U.C. 771; at which time Claudius
was about twenty-seven years old, having been born A.U.C. 744.]
[Footnote 543: Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famous
orator, and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, and
giving the former the preference.]
[Footnote 544: Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new letters
the emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, which
had the same force as v consonant. Priscian calls another anti-signs, and
says that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, and
that it was substituted for the Greek ps. The other letter is not known,
and all three soon fell into disuse.]
[Footnote 545: Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the preceding
emperors had been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded.]
[Footnote 546: Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared by
Locusta, of whom we shall hear, NERO, c. xxxiii. etc.]
[Footnote 547: A.U.C. 806; A.D. 54.]
[Footnote 548: A.U.C. 593, 632, 658, 660, 700, 722, 785.]
[Footnote 549: A.U.C. 632.]
[Footnote 550: A.U.C. 639, 663.]
[Footnote 551: For the distinction between the praenomen and cognomen,
see note, p. 192.]
[Footnote 552: A.U.C. 632.]
[Footnote 553: The Allobroges were a tribe of Gauls, inhabiting Dauphiny
and Savoy; the Arverni have left their name in Auvergne.]
[Footnote 554: A.U.C. 695.]
[Footnote 555: A.U.C. 700.]
[Footnote 556: A.U.C. 711.]
[Footnote 557: A.U.C. 723.]
[Footnote 558: Nais seems to have been a freedwoman, who had been allowed
to adopt the family name of her master.]
[Footnote 559: By one of those fictions of law, which have abounded in
all systems of jurisprudence, a nominal alienation of his property was
made in the testator’s life-time.]
[Footnote 560: The suggestion offered (note, p. 123), that the
Argentarii, like the goldsmiths of the middle ages, combined the business
of bankers, or money-changers, with dealings in gold and silver plate, is
confirmed by this passage. It does not, however, appear that they were
artificers of the precious metals, though they dealt in old and current
coins, sculptured vessels, gems, and precious stones.]
[Footnote 561: Pyrgi was a town of the ancient Etruria, near Antium, on
the sea-coast, but it has long been destroyed.]
[Footnote 562: A.U.C. 791; A.D. 39.]
[Footnote 563: The purification, and giving the name, took place, among
the Romans, in the case of boys, on the ninth, and of girls, on the tenth
day. The customs of the Judaical law were similar. See Matt. i. 59-63;
Luke iii. 21. 22.]
[Footnote 564: A.U.C. 806.]
[Footnote 565: Seneca, the celebrated philosophical writer, had been
released from exile in Corsica, shortly before the death of Tiberius. He
afterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his former
pupil, Nero.]
[Footnote 566: Caligula.]
[Footnote 567: A.U.C. 809--A.D. 57.]
[Footnote 568: Antium, the birth-place of Nero, an ancient city of the
Volscians, stood on a rocky promontory of the coast, now called Capo d’
Anzo, about thirty-eight miles from Rome. Though always a place of some
naval importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour. The
ruins of the moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples and
villas of the town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being a
most delightful winter residence. The Apollo Belvidere was discovered
among these ruins.]
[Footnote 569: A.U.C. 810.]
[Footnote 570: The Podium was part of the amphitheatre, near the
orchestra, allotted to the senators, and the ambassadors of foreign
nations; and where also was the seat of the emperor, of the person who
exhibited the games, and of the Vestal Virgins. It projected over the
wall which surrounded the area of the amphitheatre, and was raised between
twelve and fifteen feet above it; secured with a breast-work or parapet
against the irruption of wild beasts.]
[Footnote 571: A.U.C. 813.]
[Footnote 572: The baths of Nero stood to the west of the Pantheon. They
were, probably, incorporated with those afterwards constructed by
Alexander Severus; but no vestige of them remains. That the former were
magnificent, we may infer from the verses of Martial:
--------Quid Nerone pejus?
Quid thermis melius Neronianis.--B. vii. ch. 34.
What worse than Nero?
What better than his baths?]
[Footnote 573: Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shaved
the beard was marked with particular ceremony. It was usually in their
twenty-first year, but the period varied. Caligula (c. x.) first shaved
at twenty; Augustus at twenty-five.]
[Footnote 574: A.U.C. 819. See afterwards, c. xxx.]
[Footnote 575: A.U.C. 808, 810, 811, 813.]
[Footnote 576: The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victuals
or money were carried. The word was in consequence applied to the public
entertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu of
it.]
[Footnote 577: “Superstitionis novae et maleficae,” are the words of
Suetonius; the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment.
Suidas relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon--“Ye have
loaded me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person.” Tacitus calls
the Christian religion “a foreign and deadly [Footnote exitiabilis:
superstition,” Annal. xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan,
“a depraved, wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition.” Epist. x.
97.]
Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman
Christians by Nero. He says that they were subjected to the derision of
the people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn to
pieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or condemned
to be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to lighten the
darkness, Nero’s own gardens being used for the spectacle. Annal. xv. 44.
Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul at
Rome, under the reign of Nero. The legends are given by Ordericus
Vitalis. See vol. i. of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. pp. 206, etc.,
with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they are
founded.]
[Footnote 578: Claudius had received the submission of some of the
British tribes. See c. xvii. of his Life. In the reign of Nero, his
general, Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat of
the Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty. The successes of
Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably the
cause of Nero’s wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reduced
London, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of the
Romans and their British allies. She was, however, at length defeated by
Suetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities. See Tacit.
Agric. xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. xiv. 29.]
[Footnote 579: The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chain
of the Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans
the Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]
[Footnote 580: It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a
navigable canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the
circumnavigation of the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan,
which, even in our days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and
CALIGULA, c. xxi.]
[Footnote 581: Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by
the narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the
country washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between
the Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north of
Teflis, and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and
the Circassian tribes.]
[Footnote 582: Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his
singing gave an accompaniment on the harp.]
[Footnote 583: It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek
colony, and consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular
tongue.]
[Footnote 584: See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.]
[Footnote 585: Of the strange names given to the different modes of
applauding in the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees;
the second from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third
from the tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.]
[Footnote 586: Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose
incestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, in
consequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she
killed herself. It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero
was performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. “He
is labouring in child-birth.”]
[Footnote 587: A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the
same name in Epirus.]
[Footnote 588: The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was
so called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about
Rome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and
improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it
became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and
surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect
the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius
(c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. This
vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which
religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny,
three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000
spectators; so that Juvenal says,
“Totam hodie Romam circus capit.”--Sat. xi. 195.
This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.
“That on its public shews unpeopled Rome.”--Letter to Lord Halifax.
The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from
which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that
height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of it
remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details of
its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton’s
Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]
[Footnote 589: The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c.
xxxvii.]
[Footnote 590: Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty