The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
in the midst of his disciples, “when the doors were shut.” This incident,
also, has very much the appearance of a parody on the evangelical history.
But if the striking similarity of the two narratives be thus accounted
for, it is remarkable that while the priests of Alexandria, or, perhaps,
Vespasian himself from his residence in Judaea, were in possession of such
exact details of two of Christ’s miracles--if not of a third striking
incident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion in
the works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any one
of the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place in
a part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations.
The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting the
notion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass over
such events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only other
inference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them. But
as this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed to
Vespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that the
coincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous. It may be added
that Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors,
gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healing
a blind man.]
[Footnote 749: A.U.C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831.]
[Footnote 750: The temple of Peace, erected A.D. 71, on the conclusion of
the wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome.
Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoils
which were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. They
were consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire,
towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191. It stood in
the Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, were
traditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, until
Piranesi contended that they are part of Nero’s Golden House. Others
suppose that they are the remains of a Basilica. A beautiful fluted
Corinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from this
spot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a great
idea of the splendour of the original structure.]
[Footnote 751: This temple, converted into a Christian church by pope
Simplicius, who flourished, A.D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancient
character. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circular
form; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the other
and intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its former
magnificence.]
[Footnote 752: This amphitheatre is the famous Colosseum begun by Trajan,
and finished by Titus. It is needless to go into details respecting a
building the gigantic ruins of which are so well known.]
[Footnote 753: Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in Spain, to
have come into this part of Italy. One of his companions, the supposed
founder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus.]
[Footnote 754: Vespasian and his son Titus had a joint triumph for the
conquest of Judaea, which is described at length by Josephus, De Bell.
Jud. vii. 16. The coins of Vespasian exhibiting the captive Judaea
(Judaea capta), are probably familiar to the reader. See Harphrey’s Coin
Collector’s Manual, p. 328.]
[Footnote 755: Demetrius, who was born at Corinth, seems to have been a
close imitator of Diogenes, the founder of the sect. Having come to Rome
to study under Apollonius, he was banished to the islands, with other
philosophers, by Vespasian.]
[Footnote 756: There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposed
name being derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed that
Anticyra, the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. xxix.) is meant;
but the probability is, that the expression used by the imperial
chamberlain was only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonly
adopted in the present day.]
[Footnote 757: Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a
philosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and
Arrian.]
[Footnote 758: Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retail
trade--Off. i. 24.]
[Footnote 759: The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny of
English money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, five
thousand pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in the
succeeding chapter, one thousand pounds. From this scale, similar
calculations may easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius’s
statements from time to time. There appears to be some mistake in the sum
stated in c. xvi. just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether it
represented the floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire.]
[Footnote 760: See AUGUSTUS, c. xliii. The proscenium of the ancient
theatres was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted and
varied as our stage-scenes.]
[Footnote 761: Many eminent writers among the Romans were originally
slaves, such as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physicians
and artificers. Their talents procuring their manumission, they became
the freedmen of their former masters. Vespasian, it appears from
Suetonius, purchased the freedom of some persons of ability belonging to
these classes.]
[Footnote 762: The Coan Venus was the chef-d’oeuvre of Apelles, a native
of the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, who flourished in the time of
Alexander the Great. If it was the original painting which was now
restored, it must have been well preserved.]
[Footnote 763: Probably the colossal statue of Nero (see his Life, c.
xxxi.), afterwards placed in Vespasian’s amphitheatre, which derived its
name from it.]
[Footnote 764: The usual argument in all times against the introduction
of machinery.]
[Footnote 765: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]
[Footnote 766: At the men’s Saturnalia, a feast held in December attended
with much revelling, the masters waited upon their slaves; and at the
women’s Saturnalia, held on the first of March, the women served their
female attendants, by whom also they sent presents to their friends.]
[Footnote 767: Notwithstanding the splendour, and even, in many respects,
the refinement of the imperial court, the language as well as the habits
of the highest classes in Rome seem to have been but too commonly of the
grossest description, and every scholar knows that many of their writers
are not very delicate in their allusions. Apropos of the ludicrous
account given in the text, Martial, on one occasion, uses still plainer
language.
Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis:
Nam faciem durum Phoebe, cacantis habes.--iii. 89.]
[Footnote 768: See c. iii. and note.]
[Footnote 769: Probably the emperor had not entirely worn off, or might
even affect the rustic dialect of his Sabine countrymen; for among the
peasantry the au was still pronounced o, as in plostrum for plaustrum, a
waggon; and in orum for aurum, gold, etc. The emperor’s retort was very
happy, Flaurus being derived from a Greek word, which signifies worthless,
while the consular critic’s proper name, Florus, was connected with much
more agreeable associations.]
[Footnote 770: Some of the German critics think that the passage bears
the sense of the gratuity having beer given by the lady, and that so
parsimonious a prince as Vespasian was not likely to have paid such a sum
as is here stated for a lady’s proffered favours.]
[Footnote 771: The Flavian family had their own tomb. See DOMITIAN, c.
v. The prodigy, therefore, did not concern Vespasian. As to the tomb of
the Julian family, see AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]
[Footnote 772: Alluding to the apotheosis of the emperors.]
[Footnote 773: Cutiliae was a small lake, about three-quarters of a mile
from Reate, now called Lago di Contigliano. It was very deep, and being
fed from springs in the neighbouring hills, the water was exceedingly
clear and cold, so that it was frequented by invalids, who required
invigorating. Vespasian’s paternal estates lay in the neighbourhood of
Reate. See chap i.]
[Footnote 774: A.U.C. 832.]
[Footnote 775: Each dynasty lasted twenty-eight years. Claudius and Nero
both reigning fourteen; and, of the Flavius family, Vespasian reigned ten,
Titus three, and Domitian fifteen.]
[Footnote 776: Caligula. Titus was born A.U.C. 794; about A.D. 49.]
[Footnote 777: The Septizonium was a circular building of seven stories.
The remains of that of Septimus Severus, which stood on the side of the
Palatine Hill, remained till the time of Pope Sixtus V., who removed it,
and employed thirty-eight of its columns in ornamenting the church of St.
Peter. It does not appear whether the Septizonium here mentioned as
existing in the time of Titus, stood on the same spot.]
[Footnote 778: Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina.]
[Footnote 779: A.U.C. 820.]
[Footnote 780: Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and burnt, by Titus, after a
two years’ siege, on the 8th September, A.U.C. 821, A.D. 69; it being the
Sabbath. It was in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, when the
emperor was sixty years old, and Titus himself, as he informs us, thirty.
For particulars of the siege, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vi. and vii.;
Hegesippus, Excid. Hierosol. v.; Dio, lxvi.; Tacitus, Hist. v.; Orosius,
vii. 9.]
[Footnote 781: For the sense in which Titus was saluted with the title of
Emperor by the troops, see JULIUS CAESAR, c. lxxvi.]
[Footnote 782: The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, which was
celebrated A.U.C. 824, is fully described by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii.
24. It is commemorated by the triumphal monument called the Arch of
Titus, erected by the senate and people of Rome after his death, and still
standing at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on the road leading from the
Colosseum to the Forum, and is one of the most beautiful as well as the
most interesting models of Roman art. It consists of four stories of the
three orders of architecture, the Corinthian being repeated in the two
highest. Some of the bas-reliefs, still in good preservation, represent
the table of the shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, the
vessel of incense, and the silver trumpets, which were taken by Titus from
the Temple at Jerusalem, and, with the book of the law, the veil of the
temple, and other spoils, were carried in the triumph. The fate of these
sacred relics is rather interesting. Josephus says, that the veil and
books of the law were deposited in the Palatium, and the rest of the
spoils in the Temple of Peace. When that was burnt, in the reign of
Commodus, these treasures were saved, and they were afterwards carried off
by Genseric to Africa. Belisarius recovered them, and brought them to
Constantinople, A.D. 520. Procopius informs us, that a Jew, who saw them,
told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable to
carry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remain
anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them. This, he said, was the
reason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army had
in turn taken that of the Vandal kings. Upon this, the emperor was so
alarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches at
Jerusalem.]
[Footnote 783: A.U.C. 825.]
[Footnote 784: A.U.C. 824.]
[Footnote 785: A.U.C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832.]
[Footnote 786: Berenice, whose name is written by our author and others
Beronice, was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus,
grandson of Herod the Great. Having been contracted to Mark, son of