The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
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[Footnote 214: See c. xxxii. and note.]
[Footnote 215: The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals of
drinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, the
tesserae and tali. The former had six sides, like the modern dice; the
latter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded. In
playing, they used three tesserae and four tali, which were all put into a
box wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon the
gaming-board or table.]
[Footnote 216: The highest cast was so called.]
[Footnote 217: Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruins
of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine.]
[Footnote 218: Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban
Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked.]
[Footnote 219: It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of
apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the
sun.]
[Footnote 220: This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It was
common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment
called the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, "O mare! O littus!
verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?" O
sea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do
you not discover to us, how much do you teach us!--Epist. i. 9.]
[Footnote 221: Mecaenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill,
celebrated for their salubrity--]
Nunc licet Esquiliis habitore salubribus.--Hor. Sat. i. 3, 14.]
[Footnote 222: Such as Baiae, and the islands of Ischia, Procida, Capri,
and others; the resorts of the opulent nobles, where they had magnificent
marine villas.]
[Footnote 223: Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, in
which he hoped to spend his declining years.
Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet
Jupiter brumas: . . . . .. . . . .
. . . . . . . . ibi, tu calentem
Debita sparges lachryma favillam
Vatis amici. Odes, B. ii. 5.
Adrian also had a magnificent villa near Tibur.]
[Footnote 224: The Toga was a loose woollen robe, which covered the whole
body, close at the bottom, but open at the top down to the girdle, and
without sleeves. The right arm was thus at liberty, and the left
supported a flap of the toga, which was drawn up, and thrown back over the
left shoulder; forming what is called the Sinus, a fold or cavity upon the
breast, in which things might be carried, and with which the face or head
might be occasionally covered. When a person did any work, he tucked up
his toga, and girt it round him. The toga of the rich and noble was finer
and larger than that of others; and a new toga was called Pexa. None but
Roman citizens were permitted to wear the toga; and banished persons were
prohibited the use of it. The colour of the toga was white. The clavus
was a purple border, by which the senators, and other orders, with the
magistrates, were distinguished; the breadth of the stripe corresponding
with their rank.]
[Footnote 225: In which the whole humour of the thing consisted either in
the uses to which these articles were applied, or in their names having in
Latin a double signification; matters which cannot be explained with any
decency.]
[Footnote 226: Casum bubulum manu pressum; probably soft cheese, not
reduced to solid consistence in the cheese-press.]
[Footnote 227: A species of fig tree, known in some places as Adam's fig.
We have gathered them, in those climates, of the latter crop, as late as
the month of November.]
[Footnote 228: Sabbatis Jejunium. Augustus might have been better
informed of the Jewish rites, from his familiarity with Herod and others;
for it is certain that their sabbath was not a day of fasting. Justin,
however, fell into the same error: he says, that Moses appointed the
sabbath-day to be kept for ever by the Jews as a fast, in memory of their
fasting for seven days in the deserts of Arabia, xxxvi. 2. 14. But we
find that there was a weekly fast among the Jews, which is perhaps what is
here meant; the Sabbatis Jejunium being equivalent to the Naesteuo dis tou
sabbatou, 'I fast twice in the week' of the Pharisee, in St. Luke xviii.
12.]
[Footnote 229: The Rhaetian wines had a great reputation; Virgil says,
------Ex quo te carmine dicam,
Rhaetica.
Georg. ii. 96.]
The vineyards lay at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps; their produce, we have
reason to believe, was not a very generous liquor.]
[Footnote 230: A custom in all warm countries; the siesta of the Italians
in later times.]
[Footnote 231: The strigil was used in the baths for scraping the body
when in a state of perspiration. It was sometimes made of gold or silver,
and not unlike in form the instrument used by grooms about horses when
profusely sweating or splashed with mud.]
[Footnote 232: His physician, mentioned c. lix.]
[Footnote 233: Sept. 21st, a sickly season at Rome.]
[Footnote 234: Feminalibus et tibialibus: Neither the ancient Romans or
the Greeks wore breeches, trews, or trowsers, which they despised as
barbarian articles of dress. The coverings here mentioned were swathings
for the legs and thighs, used mostly in cases of sickness or infirmity,
and when otherwise worn, reckoned effeminate. But soon after the Romans
became acquainted with the German and Celtic nations, the habit of
covering the lower extremities, barbarous as it had been held, was
generally adopted.]
[Footnote 235: Albula. On the left of the road to Tivoli, near the ruins
of Adrian's villa. The waters are sulphureous, and the deposit from them
causes incrustations on twigs and other matters plunged in the springs.
See a curious account of this stream in Gell's Topography, published by
Bohn, p 40.]
[Footnote 236: In spongam incubuisse, literally has fallen upon a sponge,
as Ajax is said to have perished by falling on his own sword.]
[Footnote 237: Myrobrecheis. Suetonius often preserves expressive Greek
phrases which Augustus was in the habit of using. This compound word
meant literally, myrrh-scented, perfumed.]
[Footnote 238: These are variations of language of small importance,
which can only be understood in the original language.]
[Footnote 239: It may create a smile to hear that, to prevent danger to
the public, Augustus decreed that no new buildings erected in a public
thoroughfare should exceed in height seventy feet. Trajan reduced it to
sixty.]
[Footnote 240: Virgil is said to have recited before him the whole of the
second, fourth, and sixth books of the Aeneid; and Octavia, being present,
when the poet came to the passage referring to her son, commencing, "Tu
Marcellus eris," was so much affected that she was carried out fainting.]
[Footnote 241: Chap. xix.]
[Footnote 242: Perhaps the point of the reply lay in the temple of
Jupiter Tonans being placed at the approach to the Capitol from the Forum?
See c. xxix. and c. xv., with the note.]
[Footnote 243: If these trees flourished at Rome in the time of Augustus,
the winters there must have been much milder than they now are. There was
one solitary palm standing in the garden of a convent some years ago, but
it was of very stunted growth.]
[Footnote 244: The Republican forms were preserved in some of the larger
towns.]
[Footnote 245: "The Nundinae occurred every ninth day, when a market was
held at Rome, and the people came to it from the country. The practice
was not then introduced amongst the Romans, of dividing their time into
weeks, as we do, in imitation of the Jews. Dio, who flourished under
Severus, says that it first took place a little before his time, and was
derived from the Egyptians."--Thomson. A fact, if well founded, of some
importance.]
[Footnote 246: "The Romans divided their months into calends, nones, and
ides. The first day of the month was the calends of that month; whence
they reckoned backwards, distinguishing the time by the day before the
calends, the second day before the calends, and so on, to the ides of the
preceding month. In eight months of the year, the nones were the fifth
day, and the ides the thirteenth: but in March, May, July, and October,
the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the fifteenth. From the
nones they reckoned backwards to the calends, as they also did from the
ides to the nones."--Ib.]
[Footnote 247: The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion of
the Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probably
from its monotheistic and exclusive character. But we find from Josephus
and Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews.]
[Footnote 248: Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt near
Lycopolis. Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea of
theologoumenon, in defence of some very strange religious rites, of which
the example in the text is a specimen.]
[Footnote 249: Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensive
views of the Pontine marshes and the sea.]
[Footnote 250: Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where Julius
Caesar fought a battle. See c. lvi.]
[Footnote 251: The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon the
etymology of the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, in
Greek, signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious.]
[Footnote 252: Aesar is a Greek word with an Etruscan termination; aisa
signifying fate.]
[Footnote 253: Astura stood not far from Terracina, on the road to
Naples. Augustus embarked there for the islands lying off that coast.]
[Footnote 254: "Puteoli"--"A ship of Alexandria." Words which bring to
our recollection a passage in the voyage of St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 11-13.
Alexandria was at that time the seat of an extensive commerce, and not
only exported to Rome and other cities of Italy, vast quantities of corn
and other products of Egypt, but was the mart for spices and other
commodities, the fruits of the traffic with the east.]
[Footnote 255: The Toga has been already described in a note to c.
lxxiii. The Pallium was a cloak, generally worn by the Greeks, both men
and women, freemen and slaves, but particularly by philosophers.]
[Footnote 256: Masgabas seems, by his name, to have been of African
origin.]
[Footnote 257: A courtly answer from the Professor of Science, in which
character he attended Tiberius. We shall hear more of him in the reign of
that emperor.]
[Footnote 258: Augustus was born A.U.C. 691, and died A.U.C. 766.]
[Footnote 259: Municipia were towns which had obtained the rights of
Roman citizens. Some of them had all which could be enjoyed without
residing at Rome. Others had the right of serving in the Roman legions,
but not that of voting, nor of holding civil offices. The municipia
retained their own laws and customs; nor were they obliged to receive the
Roman laws unless they chose it.]
[Footnote 260: Bovillae, a small place on the Appian Way, about nineteen
miles from Rome, now called Frattochio.]
[Footnote 261: Dio tells us that the devoted Livia joined with the
knights in this pious office, which occupied them during five days.]
[Footnote 262: For the Flaminian Way, see before, p. 94, note. The
superb monument erected by Augustus over the sepulchre of the imperial
family was of white marble, rising in stages to a great height, and
crowned by a dome, on which stood a statue of Augustus. Marcellus was the
first who was buried in the sepulchre beneath. It stood near the present
Porta del Popolo; and the Bustum, where the bodies of the emperor and his
family were burnt, is supposed to have stood on the site of the church of
the Madonna of that name.]
[Footnote 263: The distinction between the Roman people and the tribes,
is also observed by Tacitus, who substitutes the word plebs, meaning, the
lowest class of the populace.]
[Footnote 264: Those of his father Octavius, and his father by adoption,
Julius Caesar.]
[Footnote 265: See before, c. 65. But he bequeathed a legacy to his
daughter, Livia.]
[Footnote 266: Virgil.]
[Footnote 267: Ibid.]
[Footnote 268: Ibid.]
[Footnote 269: Geor. ii.]
[Footnote 270: I am prevented from entering into greater details, both by
the size of my volume, and my anxiety to complete the undertaking.]
[Footnote 271: After performing these immortal achievements, while he was
holding an assembly of the people for reviewing his army in the plain near
the lake of Capra, a storm suddenly rose, attended with great thunder and
lightning, and enveloped the king in so dense a mist, that it took all
sight of him from the assembly. Nor was Romulus after this seen on earth.
The consternation being at length over, and fine clear weather succeeding
so turbulent a day, when the Roman youth saw the royal seat empty, though
they readily believed the Fathers who had stood nearest him, that he was
carried aloft by the storm, yet struck with the dread as it were of
orphanage, they preserved a sorrowful silence for a considerable time.
Then a commencement having been made by a few, the whole multitude salute
Romulus a god, son of a god, the king and parent of the Roman city; they
implore his favour with prayers, that he would be pleased always
propitiously to preserve his own offspring. I believe that even then
there were some who silently surmised that the king had been torn in
pieces by the hands of the Fathers; for this rumour also spread, but was
not credited; their admiration of the man and the consternation felt at
the moment, attached importance to the other report. By the contrivance
also of one individual, additional credit is said to have been gained to
the matter. For Proculus Julius, whilst the state was still troubled with
regret for the king, and felt incensed against the senators, a person of
weight, as we are told, in any matter, however important, comes forward to
the assembly. "Romans," he said, "Romulus, the father of this city,
suddenly descending from heaven, appeared to me this day at day-break.
While I stood covered with awe, and filled with a religious dread,
beseeching him to allow me to see him face to face, he said; 'Go tell the
Romans, that the gods do will, that my Rome should become the capital of
the world. Therefore let them cultivate the art of war, and let them know
and hand down to posterity, that no human power shall be able to withstand
the Roman arms.' Having said this, he ascended up to heaven." It is
surprising what credit was given to the man on his making this
announcement, and how much the regret of the common people and army for
the loss of Romulus, was assuaged upon the assurance of his immortality.]
[Footnote 272: Padua.]
[Footnote 273: Commentators seem to have given an erroneous and
unbecoming sense to Cicero's exclamation, when they suppose that the
object understood, as connected with altera, related to himself. Hope is
never applied in this signification, but to a young person, of whom
something good or great is expected; and accordingly, Virgil, who adopted
the expression, has very properly applied it to Ascanius:
Et juxta Ascanius, magmae spes altera
Romae. Aeneid, xii.]
And by his side Ascanius took his place,
The second hope of Rome's immortal race.]
Cicero, at the time when he could have heard a specimen of Virgil's
Eclogues, must have been near his grand climacteric; besides that, his
virtues and talents had long been conspicuous, and were past the state of
hope. It is probable, therefore, that altera referred to some third
person, spoken of immediately before, as one who promised to do honour to
his country. It might refer to Octavius, of whom Cicero at this time,
entertained a high opinion; or it may have been spoken in an absolute
manner, without reference to any person.]
[Footnote 274: I was born at Mantua, died in Calabria, and my tomb is at
Parthenope: pastures, rural affairs, and heroes are the themes of my
poems.]
[Footnote 275: The last members of these two lines, from the commas to
the end are said to have been supplied by Erotes, Virgil's librarian.]
[Footnote 276: Carm. i. 17.]
[Footnote 277: "The Medea of Ovid proves, in my opinion, how surpassing
would have been his success, if he had allowed his genius free scope,
instead of setting bounds to it."]
[Footnote 278: Two faults have ruined me; my verse, and my mistake.]
[Footnote 279: These lines are thus rendered in the quaint version of
Zachary Catlin.
I suffer 'cause I chanced a fault to spy,
So that my crime doth in my eyesight lie.
Alas! why wait my luckless hap to see
A fault at unawares to ruin me?]
[Footnote 280: "I myself employed you as ready agents in love, when my
early youth sported in numbers adapted to it."--Riley's Ovid.]
[Footnote 281: "I long since erred by one composition; a fault that is
not recent endures a punishment inflicted thus late. I had already
published my poems, when, according to my privilege, I passed in review so
many times unmolested as one of the equestrian order, before you the
enquirer into criminal charges. Is it then possible that the writings
which, in my want of confidence, I supposed would not have injured me when
young, have now been my ruin in my old age?"--Riley's Ovid.]
[Footnote 282: This place, now called Temisvar, or Tomisvar, stands on
one of the mouths of the Danube, about sixty-five miles E.N.E. from
Silistria. The neighbouring bay of the Black Sea is still called the Gulf
of Baba.]
[Footnote 283: "It appears to me, therefore, more reasonable to pursue
glory by means of the intellect, than of bodily strength; and, since the
life we enjoy is short to make the remembrance of it as lasting as
possible."]
[Footnote 284: Intramural interments were prohibited at Rome by the laws
of the Twelve Tables, notwithstanding the practice of reducing to ashes
the bodies of the dead. It was only by special privilege that individuals
who had deserved well of the state, and certain distinguished families
were permitted to have tombs within the city.]
[Footnote 285: Among the Romans, all the descendants from one common
stock were called Gentiles, being of the same race or kindred, however
remote. The Gens, as they termed this general relation or clanship, was
subdivided into families, in Familias vel Stirpes; and those of the same
family were called Agnati. Relations by the father's side were also
called Agnati, to distinguish them from Cognati, relations only by the
mother's side. An Agnatus might also be called Cognatus, but not the
contrary.]
To mark the different gentes and familiae, and to distinguish the
individuals of the same family, the Romans had commonly three names, the
Praenomen, Nomen, and Cognomen. The praenomen was put first, and marked
the individual. It was usually written with one letter; as A. for Aulus;
C. Caius; D. Decimus: sometimes with two letters; as Ap. for Appius; Cn.
Cneius; and sometimes with three; as Mam. for Mamercus.]
The Nomen was put after the Praenomen, and marked the gens. It commonly
ended in ius; as Julius, Tullius, Cornelius. The Cognomen was put last,
and marked the familia; as Cicero, Caesar, etc.]
Some gentes appear to have had no surname, as the Marian; and gens and
familia seem sometimes to be put one for the other; as the Fabia gens, or
Fabia familia.]
Sometimes there was a fourth name, properly called the Agnomen, but
sometimes likewise Cognomen, which was added on account of some
illustrious action or remarkable event. Thus Scipio was named Publius
Cornelius Scipio Africanus, from the conquest of Carthage. In the same
manner, his brother was called Lucius Cornelius Scipio Asiaticus. Thus
also, Quintus Fabius Maximus received the Agnomen of Cunctator, from his
checking the victorious career of Hannibal by avoiding a battle.]
[Footnote 286: A.U.C. 474.]
[Footnote 287: A.U.C. 490.]
[Footnote 288: A.U.C. 547.]
[Footnote 289: A.U.C. 304.]
[Footnote 290: An ancient Latin town on the Via Appia, the present road
to Naples, mentioned by St. Paul, Acts xxviii. 15, and Horace, Sat. i. 5,
3, in giving an account of their travels.]
[Footnote 291: A.U.C. 505.]
[Footnote 292: Cybele; first worshipped in Phrygia, about Mount Ida, from
whence a sacred stone, the symbol of her divinity, probably an aerolite,
was transported to Rome, in consequence of the panic occasioned by
Hannibal's invasion, A.U.C. 508.]
[Footnote 293: A.U.C. 695.]
[Footnote 294: A.U.C. 611.]
[Footnote 295: A.U.C. 550.]
[Footnote 296: A.U.C. 663.]
[Footnote 297: A.U.C. 707.]
[Footnote 298: These, and other towns in the south of France, became, and
long continued, the chief seats of Roman civilization among the Gauls;
which is marked by the magnificent remains of ancient art still to be
seen. Arles, in particular, is a place of great interest.]
[Footnote 299: A.U.C. 710.]
[Footnote 300: A.U.C. 713.]
[Footnote 301: A.U.C. 712. Before Christ about 39.]
[Footnote 302: A.U.C. 744.]
[Footnote 303: A.U.C. 735.]
[Footnote 304: See before, in the reign of AUGUSTUS, c. xxxii.]
[Footnote 305: A.U.C. 728.]
[Footnote 306: A.U.C. 734.]
[Footnote 307: A.U.C. 737.]
[Footnote 308: A.U.C. 741.]
[Footnote 309: A.U.C. 747.]
[Footnote 310: A.U.C. 748.]
[Footnote 311: Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber, about thirteen miles
from the city, was founded by Ancus Martius. Being the port of a city
like Rome, it could not fail to become opulent; and it was a place of much
resort, ornamented with fine edifices, and the environs "never failing of
pasture in the summer time, and in the winter covered with roses and other
flowers." The port having been filled up with the depositions of the
Tiber, it became deserted, and is now abandoned to misery and malaria. The
bishopric of Ostia being the oldest in the Roman church, its bishop has
always retained some peculiar privileges.]
[Footnote 312: The Gymnasia were places of exercise, and received their
name from the Greek word signifying naked, because the contending parties
wore nothing but drawers.]
[Footnote 313: A.U.C. 752.]
[Footnote 314: The cloak and slippers, as distinguished from the Roman
toga and shoes.]
[Footnote 315: A.U.C. 755.]
[Footnote 316: This fountain, in the Euganian hills, near Padua, famous
for its mineral waters, is celebrated by Claudian in one of his elegies.]
[Footnote 317: The street called Carinae, at Rome, has been mentioned
before; AUGUSTUS, c. v.; and also Mecaenas' house on the Esquiline, ib. c.
lxxii. The gardens were formed on ground without the walls, and before
used as a cemetery for malefactors, and the lower classes. Horace says--
Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiari.--Sat. 1. i. viii. 13.]
[Footnote 318: A.U.C. 757.]
[Footnote 319: A.U.C. 760.]
[Footnote 320: A.U.C. 762.]
[Footnote 321: Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic;
"nec fortuitum cernere cespitem," as Horace describes it.--Ode 15.]
[Footnote 322: A.U.C. 765.]
[Footnote 323: The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing on
the side of the Forum nearest the Capitol. It consists of six Ionic
columns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with bases
and capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles. The temple
of Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. c. x.]
[Footnote 324: A.U.C. 766.]
[Footnote 325: A.U.C. 767.]
[Footnote 326: Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequently
quoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one. It is so
obscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are not
agreed on its drift.]
[Footnote 327: A verse in which the word in italics is substituted for
cunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus.]
[Footnote 328: Iliad, B. x. Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where he
asks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp.]
[Footnote 329: Tiberius had adopted Germanicus. See before, c. xv. See
also CALIGULA, c. i.]
[Footnote 330: In this he imitated Augustus. See c. liii. of his life.]
[Footnote 331: Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window,
equivalent to our phrase, "if you open the door."]
[Footnote 332: Princeps, principatus, are the terms generally used by
Suetonius to describe the supreme authority vested in the Caesars, as
before at the beginning of chap. xxiv., distinguished from any terms which
conveyed of kingly power, the forms of the republic, as we have lately
seen, still subsisting.]
[Footnote 333: Strenas; the French etrennes.]
[Footnote 334: "Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image
to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests."--Joseph. Ant.
Jud. xviii. 4.]
[Footnote 335: Similia sectantes. We are strongly inclined to think that
the words might be rendered "similar sects," conveying an allusion to the
small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generally
confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some
peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and
magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little even
the well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in the
only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c.
xxv., NERO, c. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture. All the
commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text.
Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the
expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.--Ant. xviii. 5.]