The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
Alexander Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married her
to Herod, Mark’s brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperor
Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying, Berenice, then a
widow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuous
intercourse with him. It was at this time that, on their way to the
imperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and were
present when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before the
tribunal of the governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to shield
herself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of
Cilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. That
union also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem,
and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus
by her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the
termination of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where she
lived with Titus, “to all appearance, as his wife,” as Xiphilinus informs
us; and there seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for the
strong prejudices of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tells
us with what pain they separated.]
[Footnote 787: The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. See
VESPAS. c. ix.]
[Footnote 788: The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of
the ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas. Considerable remains
of them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast
dimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, still
in good preservation. Titus appears to have erected a palace for himself
adjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in
this palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins.]
[Footnote 789: If the statements were not well attested, we might be
incredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles
to which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliest
account we have of such an exhibition, was A.U.C. 502, when one hundred
and forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny, who gives
this information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A.U.C.
652; but these were probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he was
praetor, brought forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants,
and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time.
At the dedication of Pompey’s Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition
of beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred
lions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and ten
panthers, etc. A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time. This was
A.U.C. 701. The art of taming these beasts was carried to such
perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage. Julius
Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A.U.C. 708, showed a vast number of
wild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard. A
tiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre of
Marcellus, A.U.C. 743. It was kept in a cage. Claudius afterwards
exhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication of
the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largest
ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that including
wild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand were
killed. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given to
these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by
planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the
people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In this
instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one
occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflions
from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild
boars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian.]
[Footnote 790: “Diem perdidi.” This memorable speech is recorded by
several other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles.]
[Footnote 791: A.U.C. 832, A.D. 79. It is hardly necessary to refer to
the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an
account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian,
perished. And see hereafter, p. 475.]
[Footnote 792: The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the
reign of Titus. It consumed a large portion of the city, and among the
public buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of
Neptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and
Pompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the
temple of Jupiter in the Capitol.]
[Footnote 793: See VESPASIAN, cc. i. and xxiv. The love of this emperor
and his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in the
Sabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment of
such tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae,
or the libidinous orgies of Capri.]
[Footnote 794: A.U.C. 834, A.D. 82.]
[Footnote 795: A.U.C. 804.]
[Footnote 796: A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called,
probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had
made free growth on the spot.]
[Footnote 797: VITELLIUS, c. xv.]
[Footnote 798: Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that
Domitian took refuge with a client of his father’s near the Velabrum.
Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.]
[Footnote 799: One of Domitian’s coins bears on the reverse a captive
female and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.]
[Footnote 800: VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.]
[Footnote 801: Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus
(AUG. xliii.), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a
rude way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of
Domitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d’Espagna, and was larger
and more ornamented.]
[Footnote 802: A.U.C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]
[Footnote 803: This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us that
it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in
the city bounds.]
[Footnote 804: The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the
great fire mentioned TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the
Marian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign
of Vitellius.]
[Footnote 805: This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva,
adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of
his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called
Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great
height, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone,
very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight
line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered
with its direction.]
[Footnote 806: The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a
temple. See c. i. of the present book.]
[Footnote 807: The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for
races both of men and horses.]
[Footnote 808: The Odeum was a building intended for musical
performances. There were four of them at Rome.]
[Footnote 809: See before, c. iv.]
[Footnote 810: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 811: See NERD, c. xvi.]
[Footnote 812: This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c.
xiv.]
[Footnote 813: This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and
other pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the
people. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS, c.
xxxiv.]
[Footnote 814: Geor. xi. 537.]
[Footnote 815: See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.]
[Footnote 816: See VESPASIAN, c. iii.]
[Footnote 817: Cant names for gladiators.]
[Footnote 818: The faction which favoured the “Thrax” party.]
[Footnote 819: DOMITIAN, c. i.]
[Footnote 820: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]
[Footnote 821: This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.]
[Footnote 822: Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or,
perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them.
See the note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was two
drachmas per head. It was general throughout the empire.]
[Footnote 823: We have had Suetonius’s reminiscences, derived through his
grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x. We
now come to his own, commencing from an early age.]
[Footnote 824: This is what Martial calls, “Mentula tributis damnata.”]
[Footnote 825: The imperial liveries were white and gold.]
[Footnote 826: See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is
quoted; eis koiranos esto.]
[Footnote 827: An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the
consecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.]
[Footnote 828: The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for
“enough,” and the Latin word for “an arch.”]
[Footnote 829: Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with
Paris, the actor, and afterwards taken back.]
[Footnote 830: The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from
the poet Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great
enemy of vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:
Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,
In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.]
[Footnote 831: Pliny describes this stone as being brought from
Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent,
cxxiv. c. 22.]
[Footnote 832: See note to c. xvii.]
[Footnote 833: The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish
(Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.]
[Footnote 834: See VESPASIAN, c. v.]
[Footnote 835: Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the
foreign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and
almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first
who introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter
days of Augustus.]
[Footnote 836: Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius
Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their
“impiety,” by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of
favouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of
Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having
become a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said
to have been of this family.]
[Footnote 837: A.U.C. 849.]
[Footnote 838: See c. v.]
[Footnote 839: The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy
Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find from
this passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections
had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty
thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the
number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]
[Footnote 840: This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny,
took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who
first introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who
brought into vogue the practice of clipping groves.]
[Footnote 841: Julia, the daughter of Titus.]
[Footnote 842: It will be understood that the terms Grammar and
Grammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey in
modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]