The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
performed in the night, and by women only.]
[Footnote 20: Hispania Boetica; the Hither province being called Hispania
Tarraconensis.]
[Footnote 21: Alexander the Great was only thirty-three years at the time
of his death.]
[Footnote 22: The proper office of the master of the horse was to command
the knights, and execute the orders of the dictator. He was usually
nominated from amongst persons of consular and praetorian dignity; and had
the use of a horse, which the dictator had not, without the order of the
people.]
[Footnote 23: Seneca compares the annals of Tanusius to the life of a
fool, which, though it may be long, is worthless; while that of a wise
man, like a good book, is valuable, however short.--Epist. 94.]
[Footnote 24: Bibulus was Caesar’s colleague, both as edile and consul.
Cicero calls his edicts “Archilochian,” that is, as full of spite as the
verses of Archilochus.--Ad. Attic. b. 7. ep. 24.]
[Footnote 25: A.U.C. 689. Cicero holds both the Curio’s, father and son,
very cheap.--Brut. c. 60.]
[Footnote 26: Regnum, the kingly power, which the Roman people considered
an insupportable tyranny.]
[Footnote 27: An honourable banishment.]
[Footnote 28: The assemblies of the people were at first held in the open
Forum. Afterwards, a covered building, called the Comitium, was erected
for that purpose. There are no remains of it, but Lumisden thinks that it
probably stood on the south side of the Forum, on the site of the present
church of The Consolation.--Antiq. of Rome, p. 357.]
[Footnote 29: Basilicas, from Basileus; a king. They were, indeed, the
palaces of the sovereign people; stately and spacious buildings, with
halls, which served the purpose of exchanges, council chambers, and courts
of justice. Some of the Basilicas were afterwards converted into
Christian churches. “The form was oblong; the middle was an open space to
walk in, called Testudo, and which we now call the nave. On each side of
this were rows of pillars, which formed what we should call the
side-aisles, and which the ancients called Porticus. The end of the
Testudo was curved, like the apse of some of our churches, and was called
Tribunal, from causes being heard there. Hence the term Tribune is
applied to that part of the Roman churches which is behind the high
altar.”--Burton’s Antiq. of Rome, p. 204.]
[Footnote 30: Such as statues and pictures, the works of Greek artists.]
[Footnote 31: It appears to have stood at the foot of the Capitoline
hill. Piranesi thinks that the two beautiful columns of white marble,
which are commonly described as belonging to the portico of the temple of
Jupiter Stator, are the remains of the temple of Castor and Pollux.]
[Footnote 32: Ptolemy Auletes, the son of Cleopatra.]
[Footnote 33: Lentulus, Cethegus, and others.]
[Footnote 34: The temple of Jupiter Capitolinus was commenced and
completed by the Tarquins, kings of Rome, but not dedicated till the year
after their expulsion, when that honour devolved on M. Horatius Fulvillus,
the first of the consuls. Having been burnt down during the civil wars,
A.U.C. 670, Sylla restored it on the same foundations, but did not live to
consecrate it.]
[Footnote 35: Meaning Pompey; not so much for the sake of the office, as
having his name inserted in the inscription recording the repairs of the
Capitol, instead of Catulus. The latter, however, secured the honour, and
his name is still seen inscribed in an apartment at the Capitol, as its
restorer.]
[Footnote 36: It being the calends of January, the first day of the year,
on which the magistrates solemnly entered on their offices, surrounded by
their friends.]
[Footnote 37: Among others, one for recalling Pompey from Asia, under the
pretext that the commonwealth was in danger. Cato was one of the
colleagues who saw through the design and opposed the decree.]
[Footnote 38: See before, p. 5. This was in A.U.C. 693.]
[Footnote 39: Plutarch informs us, that Caesar, before he came into
office, owed his creditors 1300 talents, somewhat more than 565,000 pounds
of our money. But his debts increased so much after this period, if we
may believe Appian, that upon his departure for Spain, at the expiration
of his praetorship, he is reported to have said, Bis millies et
quingenties centena minis sibi adesse oportere, ut nihil haberet: i. e.
That he was 2,000,000 and nearly 20,000 sesterces worse than penniless.
Crassus became his security for 830 talents, about 871,500 pounds.]
[Footnote 40: For his victories in Gallicia and Lusitania, having led his
army to the shores of the ocean, which had not before been reduced to
submission.]
[Footnote 41: Caesar was placed in this dilemma, that if he aspired to a
triumph, he must remain outside the walls until it took place, while as a
candidate for the consulship, he must be resident in the city.]
[Footnote 42: Even the severe censor was biassed by political expediency
to sanction a system, under which what little remained of public virtue,
and the love of liberty at Rome, were fast decaying. The strict laws
against bribery at elections were disregarded, and it was practised
openly, and accepted without a blush. Sallust says that everything was
venal, and that Rome itself might be bought, if any one was rich enough to
purchase it. Jugurth, viii. 20, 3.]
[Footnote 43: A.U.C. 695.]
[Footnote 44: The proceedings of the senate were reported in short notes
taken by one of their own order, “strangers” not being admitted at their
sittings. These notes included speeches as well as acts. These and the
proceedings of the assemblies of the people, were daily published in
journals [Footnote diurna: which contained also accounts of the trials at
law, with miscellaneous intelligence of births and deaths, marriages and
divorces. The practice of publishing the proceedings of the senate,
introduced by Julius Caesar, was discontinued by Augustus.]
[Footnote 45: Within the city, the lictors walked before only one of the
consuls, and that commonly for a month alternately. A public officer,
called Accensus, preceded the other consul, and the lictors followed.
This custom had long been disused, but was now restored by Caesar.]
[Footnote 46: In order that he might be a candidate for the tribuneship
of the people; it was done late in the evening, at an unusual hour for
public business.]
[Footnote 47: Gaul was divided into two provinces, Transalpine, or Gallia
Ulterior, and Cisalpina, or Citerior. The Citerior, having nearly the
same limits as Lombardy in after times, was properly a part of Italy,
occupied by colonists from Gaul, and, having the Rubicon, the ancient
boundary of Italy, on the south. It was also called Gallia Togata, from
the use of the Roman toga; the inhabitants being, after the social war,
admitted to the right of citizens. The Gallia Transalpina, or Ulterior,
was called Comata, from the people wearing their hair long, while the
Romans wore it short; and the southern part, afterwards called
Narbonensis, came to have the epithet Braccata, from the use of the
braccae, which were no part of the Roman dress. Some writers suppose the
braccae to have been breeches, but Aldus, in a short disquisition on the
subject, affirms that they were a kind of upper dress. And this opinion
seems to be countenanced by the name braccan being applied by the modern
Celtic nations, the descendants of the Gallic Celts, to signify their
upper garment, or plaid.]
[Footnote 48: Alluding, probably, to certain scandals of a gross
character which were rife against Caesar. See before, c. ii. (p. 2) and
see also c. xlix.]
[Footnote 49: So called from the feathers on their helmets, resembling
the crest of a lark; Alauda, Fr. Alouette.]
[Footnote 50: Days appointed by the senate for public thanksgiving in the
temples in the name of a victorious general, who had in the decrees the
title of emperor, by which they were saluted by the legions.]
[Footnote 51: A.U.C. 702.]
[Footnote 52: Aurelia.]
[Footnote 53: Julia, the wife of Pompey, who died in childbirth.]
[Footnote 54: Conquest had so multiplied business at Rome, that the Roman
Forum became too little for transacting it, and could not be enlarged
without clearing away the buildings with which it was surrounded. Hence
the enormous sum which its site is said to have cost, amounting, it is
calculated, to 809,291 pounds of our money. It stood near the old forum,
behind the temple of Romulus and Remus, but not a vestige of it remains.]
[Footnote 55: Comum was a town of the Orobii, of ancient standing, and
formerly powerful. Julius Caesar added to it five thousand new colonists;
whence it was generally called Novocomum. But in time it recovered its
ancient name, Comum; Pliny the younger, who was a native of this place,
calling it by no other name.]
[Footnote 56: A.U.C. 705.]
[Footnote 57: Eiper gar adikein chrae, tyrannidos peri Kalliston adikein
talla de eusebein chreon. --Eurip. Phoeniss. Act II, where Eteocles
aspires to become the tyrant of Thebes.]
[Footnote 58: Now the Pisatello; near Rimini. There was a very ancient
law of the republic, forbidding any general, returning from the wars, to
cross the Rubicon with his troops under arms.]
[Footnote 59: The ring was worn on the finger next to the little finger
of the left hand.]
[Footnote 60: Suetonius here accounts for the mistake of the soldiers
with great probability. The class to which they imagined they were to be
promoted, was that of the equites, or knights, who wore a gold ring, and
were possessed of property to the amount stated in the text. Great as was
the liberality of Caesar to his legions, the performance of this imaginary
promise was beyond all reasonable expectation.]
[Footnote 61: A.U.C. 706.]
[Footnote 62: Elephants were first introduced at Rome by Pompey the
Great, in his African triumph.]
[Footnote 63: VENI, VIDI, VICI.]
[Footnote 64: A.U.C. 708.]
[Footnote 65: Gladiators were first publicly exhibited at Rome by two
brothers called Bruti, at the funeral of their father, A.U.C. 490; and for
some time they were exhibited only on such occasions. But afterwards they
were also employed by the magistrates, to entertain the people,
particularly at the Saturnalia, and feasts of Minerva. These cruel
spectacles were prohibited by Constantine, but not entirely suppressed
until the time of Honorius.]
[Footnote 66: The Circensian games were shews exhibited in the Circus
Maximus, and consisted of various kinds: first, chariot and horse-races,
of which the Romans were extravagantly fond. The charioteers were
distributed into four parties, distinguished by the colour of their dress.
The spectators, without regarding the speed of the horses, or the skill of
the men, were attracted merely by one or the other of the colours, as
caprice inclined them. In the time of Justinian, no less than thirty
thousand men lost their lives at Constantinople, in a tumult raised by a
contention amongst the partizans of the several colours. Secondly,
contests of agility and strength; of which there were five kinds, hence
called Pentathlum. These were, running, leaping, boxing, wrestling, and
throwing the discus or quoit. Thirdly, Ludus Trojae, a mock-fight,
performed by young noblemen on horseback, revived by Julius Caesar, and
frequently celebrated by the succeeding emperors. We meet with a
description of it in the fifth book of the Aeneid, beginning with the
following lines:
Incedunt pueri, pariterque ante ora parentum Fraenatis lucent in equis:
quos omnis euntes Trinacriae mirata fremit Trojaeque juventus.
Fourthly, Venatio, which was the fighting of wild beasts with one another,