The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
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[Footnote 586: Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose
incestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, in
consequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she
killed herself. It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero
was performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. "He
is labouring in child-birth."]
[Footnote 587: A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the
same name in Epirus.]
[Footnote 588: The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was
so called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about
Rome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and
improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it
became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and
surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect
the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius
(c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. This
vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which
religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny,
three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000
spectators; so that Juvenal says,
"Totam hodie Romam circus capit."--Sat. xi. 195.
This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.
"That on its public shews unpeopled Rome."--Letter to Lord Halifax.
The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine
and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from
which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that
height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of it
remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a
tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details of
its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton's
Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]
[Footnote 589: The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c.
xxxvii.]
[Footnote 590: Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty
so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to
her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St.
Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at
Rome. The Apostle speaks of the "Saints in Caesar's household."--Phil.
iv. 22.]
[Footnote 591: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]
[Footnote 592: A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]
[Footnote 593: It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with
flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal.
xiv. 2, 3.]
[Footnote 594: Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur,
libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]
[Footnote 595: Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the
freedman's proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat
equivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. xv.]
[Footnote 596: The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero's
mother, Agrippina.]
[Footnote 597: See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or
the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor's
expense.]
[Footnote 598: Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth
of the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by
Pliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages,
as we find in Ordericus Vitalis.]
[Footnote 599: The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the
interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and
their skill in throwing the dart.]
[Footnote 600: The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was
enlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS,
cc. xxix., lvii.). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula
extended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.). Tacitus gives a similar
account with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works
of Nero. Annal. xv. c. xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline
hill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now
stands. We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c.
xv. of his life is the present work.]
[Footnote 601: The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the
house, which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates,
worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city
and temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;
and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however,
different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, of
human. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who
were not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said,
were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former
also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.]
[Footnote 602: A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while
the Latin morari, from moror, means "to dwell," or "continue."]
[Footnote 603: A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.]
[Footnote 604: From whence the "Procul, O procul este profani!" of the
poet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.]
[Footnote 605: See before, c. xii.]
[Footnote 606: Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and
built the amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv. He is
mentioned by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.]
[Footnote 607: Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of
soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances of
the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island of
Pandataria.]
[Footnote 608: A.U.C. 813.]
[Footnote 609: Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of
Caius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the
circumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate,
which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa,
near Rome.--Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.]
[Footnote 610: This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in
which Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c.
xvii. and xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.]
[Footnote 611: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.]
[Footnote 612: The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have
given an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortly
noticed by Plutarch.]
[Footnote 613: See before, c. xix.]
[Footnote 614: This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the
beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64. It was imputed to the
Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and
the note.]
[Footnote 615: The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813. Xiphilinus
(lxii. p. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with
which the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the
emperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds another
cause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and
soldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir.
His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen
reduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the
Britons flew to arms. See c. xviii., and the note.]
[Footnote 616: Neonymphon; alluding to Nero's unnatural nuptials with
Sporus or Pythagoras. See cc. xxviii. xxix. It should be neonymphos.]
[Footnote 617: "Sustulit" has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear
away, and put out of the way.]
[Footnote 618: The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was
Paean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.]
[Footnote 619: Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was
swallowing up all Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve
miles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius
informs us, (lib. ii. p. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a very
accurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell's admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF
ROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn's Edition.]
[Footnote 620: Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to
have been a musical instrument on the same principle as our present
organs, only that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. ix.)
mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It is
also well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv. The pneumatic organ
appears to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniate
medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon which
one or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the bust of
the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUS
ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is the
organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on each
side.]
[Footnote 621: A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which
was strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their
bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.]
[Footnote 622: The words on the ticket about the emperor's neck, are
supposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina's,
or the people's. It alludes to the punishment due to him for his
parricide. By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any
near relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with
a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a
deep river.]
[Footnote 623: Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.]
[Footnote 624: Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the
propraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The word
also signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence
vindicate, vindictive, etc.]
[Footnote 625: Aen. xii. 646.]
[Footnote 626: The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to
fetch salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near the
gardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis,
Agonalis, and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered.]
[Footnote 627: The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine
town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It was
also called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now
called Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls
of Rome. The country-house of Nero's freedman, where he ended his days,
stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there
was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]
[Footnote 628: This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easy
for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline
quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it
(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp
so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the
soldiers.]
[Footnote 629: Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he
drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]
[Footnote 630: Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for
the funeral pile,]
[Footnote 631: This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was
spoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps,
betrays the disturbed state of Nero's mind.]
[Footnote 632: II. x. 535.]
[Footnote 633: Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian
Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire.
In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of
the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated.
Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others,
that of the "Dying Gladiator." The situation was airy and healthful,
commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in
Rome.]
[Footnote 634: Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of
the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are
preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit,
carried across the "Collis Hortulorum." Those ancient remains, declining
from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.--The Lunan marble was
brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer
exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of
Spezzia.--Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades.
It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]
[Footnote 635: See c. x1i.]
[Footnote 636: The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis
deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]
[Footnote 637: A.U.C. 821--A.D. 69.]
[Footnote 638: We have here one of the incidental notices which are so
valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he
writes. See also just before, c. lii.]
[Footnote 639: Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.]
[Footnote 640: The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,
"The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,
And poets sage,"--Spenser's Faerie Queen.
is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had
this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the
Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and
the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant
of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the
Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the
bay.]
[Footnote 641: The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that
dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family
pretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]
[Footnote 642: A.U.C. 821.]
[Footnote 643: The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the
entrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been a
large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Three
sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, were
marble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the other
two sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of what
each member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium the
nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with her
maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of the
ancient Romans, was their principal employment.]
[Footnote 644: He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.]
[Footnote 645: A.U.C. 604.]
[Footnote 646: A.U.C. 710.]
[Footnote 647: A.U.C 775.]
[Footnote 648: A.U.C. 608.]
[Footnote 649: Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor's brother, had been
consul A.U.C. 774.]
[Footnote 650: A.U.C. 751.]
[Footnote 651: Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its
original name, lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and
xxxix.]
[Footnote 652: Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.]
[Footnote 653: A.U.C. 751.]
[Footnote 654: The widow of the emperor Augustus.]
[Footnote 655: Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his
own testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by
Caligula. "Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae
Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia
repraesentate persolvit." CALIG. c. xvi.]
[Footnote 656: A.U.C. 786.]
[Footnote 657: Caius Caesar Caligula. He gave the command of the legions
in Germany to Galba.]
[Footnote 658: "Scuto moderatus;" another reading in the parallel passage
of Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of a
shield.]
[Footnote 659: It would appear that Galba was to have accompanied
Claudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS,
c. xvii.]
[Footnote 660: It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of the
ancients is now the province of Biscay.]
[Footnote 661: Now Carthagena.]
[Footnote 662: A.U.C. 821.]
[Footnote 663: Now Corunna.]
[Footnote 664: Tortosa, on the Ebro.]
[Footnote 665: "Simus," literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used for
a clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his long
retirement. See c. viii. Indeed, they called Spain his farm.]
[Footnote 666: The command of the pretorian guards.]
[Footnote 667: In the Forum. See AUGUSTUS, c. lvii.]
[Footnote 668: II. v. 254.]
[Footnote 669: A.U.C. 822.]
[Footnote 670: On the esplanade, where the standards, objects of
religious reverence, were planted. See note to c. vi. Criminals were
usually executed outside the Vallum, and in the presence of a centurion.]
[Footnote 671: Probably one of the two mentioned in CLAUDIUS, c. xiii.]
[Footnote 672: A.U.C. 784 or 785.]
[Footnote 673: "Distento sago impositum in sublime jactare."]
[Footnote 674: See NERO, c. xxxv.]
[Footnote 675: The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at the
top of the Forum, from which all the great military roads throughout Italy
started, the distances to the principal towns being marked upon it. Dio
(lib. liv.) says that it was erected by the emperor Augustus, when he was
curator of the roads.]
[Footnote 676: Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person who
foretold futurity, or interpreted omens. There was at Rome a body of
priests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretell
future events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, and
from other appearances. They were of the greatest authority in the Roman
state; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either at
home or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them. The Romans
derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently
their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards
they were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of the
senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent
to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]
[Footnote 677: See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open
space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper,
and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected the
tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued
the army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments
were inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has been
already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood
the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the
soldiers swore.]
[Footnote 678: See NERO, c. xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for its
completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]
[Footnote 679: The two last words, literally translated, mean "long
trumpets;" such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore,
"What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious
ceremonies!"]
[Footnote 680: The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from
heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It
was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of
the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen,
eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]
[Footnote 681: This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before,
AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called
also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron,
crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of
her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second
Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and
Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums,
tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by
great indecencies.]
[Footnote 682: Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and
Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions.
His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she
was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victims
offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces
bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured
into a ditch.]
[Footnote 683: A town between Mantua and Cremona.]
[Footnote 684: The temple of Castor. It stood about twelve miles from
Cremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action. Hist. ii. 243.]
[Footnote 685: Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode of
spelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb,
Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremona
and Verona.]
[Footnote 686: Lenis was a name of similar signification with that of
Tranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work. We find
from Tacitus, that there was, among Otho's generals, in this battle,
another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; with
whom our author's father must not be confounded. Lenis was only a tribune
of the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentioned
by Tacitus, Hist. xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrow
stripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was a
general, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filled
that Office A.U.C. 818. There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus was
the same general who distinguished himself by his successes and cruelties
in Britain. NERO, c. xviii., and note.]
Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author's
having already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. xix.); besides
other sources from which he drew his information. He tells us that he
himself was then a boy. We have now arrived at the times in which his
father bore a part. Such incidental notices, dropped by historical
writers, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on the
genuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events.]
[Footnote 687: A.U.C. 823.]
[Footnote 688: Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io,
the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in which
metamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection of
Argus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, she
recovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris. Her husband
afterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under the
name of Isis. She was represented with a mural crown on her head, a
cornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in the
other.]
[Footnote 689: Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over
the original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being the
first. Virgil makes his wife's name Marica--
Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum
Laurente Marica Accipimus.--Aen. vii. 47.
Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have no other
accounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of the traditions
handed down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellian family.]
[Footnote 690: The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting the
heights in the neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil describes them, Aen. vii.
746.]
[Footnote 691: Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, in
treating of the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, which
Strabo calls a town in Apulia.]
[Footnote 692: Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. lvi.;
CALIGULA, c. xvi., etc.]
[Footnote 693: A.U.C. 785.]
[Footnote 694: A.U.C. 787.]
[Footnote 695: He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness to
the Jews. See, particularly, Antiq. VI. xviii.]
[Footnote 696: A.U.C. 796, 800.]
[Footnote 697: A.U.C. 801.]
[Footnote 698: A.U.C. 797. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.]
[Footnote 699: A.U.C. 801.]
[Footnote 700: A.U.C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperor
Augustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years older
than Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to the
imperial dignity.]
[Footnote 701: He was sent to Germany by Galba.]
[Footnote 702: See TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]
[Footnote 703: Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for
gold in the Capitol, Junius, c. liv. The tin which we here find in use at
Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands.
whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians and
Carthaginians from a very early period.]