The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete
or with men called Bestiarii, who were either forced to the combat by way
of punishment, as the primitive Christians were, or fought voluntarily,
either from a natural ferocity of disposition, or induced by hire. An
incredible number of animals of various kinds were brought from all
quarters, at a prodigious expense, for the entertainment of the people.
Pompey, in his second consulship, exhibited at once five hundred lions,
which were all dispatched in five days; also eighteen elephants. Fifthly
the representation of a horse and foot battle, with that of an encampment
or a siege. Sixthly, the representation of a sea-fight (Naumachia), which
was at first made in the Circus Maximus, but afterwards elsewhere. The
combatants were usually captives or condemned malefactors, who fought to
death, unless saved by the clemency of the emperor. If any thing unlucky
happened at the games, they were renewed, and often more than once.]
[Footnote 67: A meadow beyond the Tiber, in which an excavation was made,
supplied with water from the river.]
[Footnote 68: Julius Caesar was assisted by Sosigenes, an Egyptian
philosopher, in correcting the calendar. For this purpose he introduced
an additional day every fourth year, making February to consist of
twenty-nine days instead of twenty-eight, and, of course, the whole year
to consist of three hundred and sixty-six days. The fourth year was
denominated Bissextile, or leap year, because the sixth day before the
calends, or first of March, was reckoned twice.
The Julian year was introduced throughout the Roman empire, and continued
in general use till the year 1582. But the true correction was not six
hours, but five hours, forty-nine minutes; hence the addition was too
great by eleven minutes. This small fraction would amount in one hundred
years to three-fourths of a day, and in a thousand years to more than
seven days. It had, in fact, amounted, since the Julian correction, in
1582, to more than seven days. Pope Gregory XIII., therefore, again
reformed the calendar, first bringing forward the year ten days, by
reckoning the 5th of October the 15th, and then prescribing the rule which
has gradually been adopted throughout Christendom, except in Russia, and
the Greek church generally.]
[Footnote 69: Principally Carthage and Corinth.]
[Footnote 70: The Latus Clavus was a broad stripe of purple, on the front
of the toga. Its width distinguished it from that of the knights, who
wore it narrow.]
[Footnote 71: The Suburra lay between the Celian and Esquiline hills. It
was one of the most frequented quarters of Rome.]
[Footnote 72: Bede, quoting Solinus, we believe, says that excellent
pearls were found in the British seas, and that they were of all colours,
but principally white. Eccl. Hist. b. i. c. 1.]
[Footnote 73: --------Bithynia quicquid Et predicator Caesaris unquam
habuit.]
[Footnote 74: Gallias Caesar subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem; Ecce Caesar
nunc triumphat, qui subegit Gallias: Nicomedes non triumphat, qui subegit
Caesarem.]
[Footnote 75: Aegisthus, who, like Caesar, was a pontiff, debauched
Clytemnestra while Agamemnon was engaged in the Trojan war, as Caesar did
Mucia, the wife of Pompey, while absent in the war against Mithridates.]
[Footnote 76: A double entendre; Tertia signifying the third of
the value of the farm, as well as being the name of the girl, for whose
favours the deduction was made.]
[Footnote 77: Urbani, servate uxores; moechum calvum adducimus: Aurum in
Gallia effutuisti, hic sumpsisti mutuum.]
[Footnote 78: Plutarch tells us that the oil was used in a dish of
asparagus. Every traveller knows that in those climates oil takes the
place of butter as an ingredient in cookery, and it needs no experience to
fancy what it is when rancid.]
[Footnote 79: Meritoria rheda; a light four-wheeled carriage, apparently
hired either for the journey or from town to town. They were tolerably
commodious, for Cicero writes to Atticus, (v. 17.) Hanc epistolam dictavi
sedens in rheda, cum in castra proficiscerer.]
[Footnote 80: Plutarch informs us that Caesar travelled with such
expedition, that he reached the Rhone on the eighth day after he left
Rome.]
[Footnote 81: Caesar tells us himself that he employed C. Volusenus to
reconnoitre the coast of Britain, sending him forward in a long ship, with
orders to return and make his report before the expedition sailed.]
[Footnote 82: Religione; that is, the omens being unfavourable.]
[Footnote 83: The standard of the Roman legions was an eagle fixed on the
head of a spear. It was silver, small in size, with expanded wings, and
clutching a golden thunderbolt in its claw.]
[Footnote 84: To save them from the torture of a lingering death.]
[Footnote 85: Now Lerida, in Catalonia.]
[Footnote 86: The title of emperor was not new in Roman history; 1. It
was sometimes given by the acclamations of the soldiers to those who
commanded them. 2. It was synonymous with conqueror, and the troops
hailed him by that title after a victory. In both these cases it was
merely titular, and not permanent, and was generally written after the
proper name, as Cicero imperator, Lentulo imperatore. 3. It assumed a
permanent and royal character first in the person of Julius Caesar, and
was then generally prefixed to the emperor’s name in inscriptions, as IMP.
CAESAR. DIVI. etc.]
[Footnote 87: Cicero was the first who received the honour of being
called “Pater patriae.”]
[Footnote 88: Statues were placed in the Capitol of each of the seven
kings of Rome, to which an eighth was added in honour of Brutus, who
expelled the last. The statue of Julius Caesar was afterwards raised near
them.]
[Footnote 89: The white fillet was one of the insignia of royalty.
Plutarch, on this occasion, uses the expression, diadaemati basiliko, a
royal diadem.]
[Footnote 90: The Lupercalia was a festival, celebrated in a place called
the Lupercal, in the month of February, in honour of Pan. During the
solemnity, the Luperci, or priests of that god, ran up and down the city
naked, with only a girdle of goat’s skin round their waist, and thongs of
the same in their hands; with which they struck those they met,
particularly married women, who were thence supposed to be rendered
prolific.]
[Footnote 91: Persons appointed to inspect and expound the Sibylline
books.]
[Footnote 92: A.U.C. 709.]
[Footnote 93: See before, c. xxii.]
[Footnote 94: This senate-house stood in that part of the Campus Martius
which is now the Campo di Fiore, and was attached by Pompey, “spoliis
Orientis Onustus,” to the magnificent theatre, which he built A.U.C. 698,
in his second consulship. His statue, at the foot of which Caesar fell,
as Plutarch tells us, was placed in it. We shall find that Augustus
caused it to be removed.]
[Footnote 95: The stylus, or graphium, was an iron pen, broad at one end,
with a sharp point at the other, used for writing upon waxen tables, the
leaves or bark of trees, plates of brass, or lead, etc. For writing upon
paper or parchment, the Romans employed a reed, sharpened and split in the
point like our pens, called calamus, arundo, or canna. This they dipped
in the black liquor emitted by the cuttle fish, which served for ink.]
[Footnote 96: It was customary among the ancients, in great extremities
to shroud the face, in order to conceal any symptoms of horror or alarm
which the countenance might express. The skirt of the toga was drawn
round the lower extremities, that there might be no exposure in falling,
as the Romans, at this period, wore no covering for the thighs and legs.]
[Footnote 97: Caesar’s dying apostrophe to Brutus is represented in all
the editions of Suetonius as uttered in Greek, but with some variations.
The words, as here translated, are Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon. The
Salmasian manuscript omits the latter clause. Some commentators suppose
that the words “my son,” were not merely expressive of the difference of
age, or former familiarity between them, but an avowal that Brutus was the
fruit of the connection between Julius and Servilia, mentioned before
(see p. 33). But it appears very improbable that Caesar, who had
never before acknowledged Brutus to be his son, should make so unnecessary
an avowal, at the moment of his death. Exclusively of this objection, the
apostrophe seems too verbose, both for the suddenness and urgency of the
occasion. But this is not all. Can we suppose that Caesar, though a
perfect master of Greek, would at such a time have expressed himself in
that language, rather than in Latin, his familiar tongue, and in which he
spoke with peculiar elegance? Upon the whole, the probability is, that
the words uttered by Caesar were, Et tu Brute! which, while equally
expressive of astonishment with the other version, and even of tenderness,
are both more natural, and more emphatic.]
[Footnote 98: Men’ me servasse, ut essent qui me perderent?]
[Footnote 99: The Bulla, generally made of gold, was a hollow globe,
which boys wore upon their breast, pendant from a string or ribbon put
round the neck. The sons of freedmen and poor citizens used globes of
leather.]
[Footnote 100: Josephus frequently mentions the benefits conferred on his
countrymen by Julius Caesar. Antiq. Jud. xiv. 14, 15, 16.]
[Footnote 101: Appian informs us that it was burnt by the people in their
fury, B. c. xi. p. 521.]
[Footnote 102: Suetonius particularly refers to the conspirators, who
perished at the battle of Philippi, or in the three years which
intervened. The survivors were included in the reconciliation of
Augustus, Antony, and Pompey, A.U.C. 715.]
[Footnote 103: Suetonius alludes to Brutus and Cassius, of whom this is
related by Plutarch and Dio.]
[Footnote 104: For observations on Dr. Thomson’s Essays appended to
Suetonius’s History of Julius Caesar, and the succeeding Emperors, see the
Preface to this volume.]
[Footnote 105: He who has a devoted admiration of Cicero, may be sure
that he has made no slight proficiency himself.]
[Footnote 106: A town in the ancient Volscian territory, now called
Veletra. It stands on the verge of the Pontine Marshes, on the road to
Naples.]
[Footnote 107: Thurium was a territory in Magna Graecia, on the coast,
near Tarentum.]
[Footnote 108: Argentarius; a banker, one who dealt in exchanging money,
as well as lent his own funds at interest to borrowers. As a class, they
possessed great wealth, and were persons of consideration in Rome at this
period.]
[Footnote 109: Now Laricia, or Riccia, a town of the Campagna di Roma, on
the Appian Way, about ten miles from Rome.]
[Footnote 110: A.U.C. 691. A.C. (before Christ) 61.]
[Footnote 111: The Palatine hill was not only the first seat of the
colony of Romulus, but gave its name to the first and principal of the
four regions into which the city was divided, from the time of Servius
Tullius, the sixth king of Rome, to that of Augustus; the others being the
Suburra, Esquilina, and Collina.]
[Footnote 112: There were seven streets or quarters in the Palatine
region, one of which was called “Ad Capita Bubula,” either from the
butchers’ stalls at which ox-heads are hung up for sale, or from their
being sculptured on some edifice. Thus the remains of a fortification
near the tomb of Cecilia Metella are now called Capo di Bove, from the
arms of the Gaetani family over the gate.]
[Footnote 113: Adrian, to whom Suetonius was secretary.]
[Footnote 114: Augusto augurio postquam inclyta condita Roma est.]
[Footnote 115: A.U.C. 711.]
[Footnote 116: A.U.C. 712.]
[Footnote 117: After being defeated in the second engagement, Brutus
retired to a hill, and slew himself in the night.]