CHAPTER XXIII

THE RETURN OF THE EMPEROR

=394. Character of Hadrian: Prosperity and Good Government of His

Reign.=--Purposely we had visited Rome in the absence of Hadrian;

our interest had been in the city and its people, not in the versatile,

ever-wandering Cæsar and the administration of the Empire. But before

Publius Calvus could set forth for his Tuscan villa he and all other

Senators had to attend a great state ceremony--the reception of the

Emperor returning from his travels.

More than any other Roman ruler Hadrian had been an insatiable

traveler. The frontiers of Britain, Syria, and Africa, the garrison

towns on the Rhine, and the Danube--he knew them all. The peaceful

cities of Gaul, Spain, and Egypt reaped the benefits of his intelligent

benevolence when he visited them. Twice he had sojourned in Athens, the

city which perhaps he loved the best in all the world, finishing the

great Temple of Olympian Zeus left uncompleted since the days of the

Peisistratidæ and otherwise beautifying the now sleepy old university

town, so that its grateful dwellers acclaimed him as a second founder

like unto the original Theseus.

Hadrian’s personal life had been indeed marred with certain acts of

arbitrary caprice and even of cruelty; many senators grumbled at his

long absences from Rome and they somewhat dreaded his sudden judgments,

but the Empire at large had been incalculably happy under his sway.

The legions were under firm discipline, wars there were not save petty

rumblings on the frontiers and the embers of the last struggle of the

unhappy Jews, while peaceful commerce whitened the Mediterranean, and

merchants’ caravans wound confidently over the great road system with

little fear of bandits.

Under such an Emperor laws were scientifically administered without

fear or favor. The provincial governors were, despite an occasional

plunderer such as we saw haled before the Senate, men of genuine

intelligence, probity, and zeal. If the Senate was becoming a venerable

debating club, if the other forms of political liberty were either dead

or dying, under Hadrian despotism was showing its fairest face--with

a highly capable monarch earnestly devoting himself to his subjects’

good. What man, surveying the august fabric and social and governmental

machinery of the Empire, could have failed to echo the current

notion--that the dominion of Rome was divinely ordained and find that

her departed Cæsars were worthily ranked among the gods?[251]

[Illustration: HADRIAN.]

=395. Return of Hadrian to Italy.=--But Hadrian had been growing

old and a little weary of his philanthropic wanderings. And now at

length a peaceful armada had borne him back from Greece to Puteoli.

Hence with an enormous cortège he had traveled by easy stages along

the “Queen of Roads,” the Via Appia, to the outskirts of the capital.

And now to welcome him back to the Palatine the obsequious magistrates

arranged the inevitable public spectacle.

The Emperor is not returning as a conquering _triumphator_. No

formal triumph can therefore be ordained in his honor. He cannot wear

laurel as he rides in a gilded chariot, preceded by the long files of

fettered captives and, followed by the cohorts of his acclaiming army,

drive his car through the Porta Triumphalis near the Circus Flaminius,

next take a long circuit through the Circus Maximus and then down the

Via Sacra and across the Forum and finally mount upward to pay his vows

to Jupiter Best and Greatest on the Capitol. A magnificent procession,

nevertheless, is possible. At the third milestone from the city along

the Via Appia all the senators and equites in gala robes meet the

advancing Imperator. His Empress Sabina is greeted with equal ceremony

by the wives of the entire aristocracy.

In the city all the vast colonnades are hung with garlands of spring

flowers, all business is suspended; all the fora and streets along the

line of march are packed with throngs in brilliant costumes and equally

brilliant chaplets. One grows weary counting the magnificent litters

everywhere passing, followed by the gorgeously liveried retinues of the

wealthy.

=396. Imperial Procession Entering Rome.=--At last after duly

impressive delays the imperial procession starts from the spot known

as the Three Fountains.[252] The Prætorians are there in full force,

the City Cohorts, and heavy drafts of the vigiles, all the tribunes,

centurions, and privates parading in silvered or gilded armor with

scarlet plumes and mantles. The magistrates and ex-magistrates all wear

the colorful toga prætexta.

The ruler himself, “Holder of the Tribunician and Proconsular Power,

Pontifex Maximus, Cæsar Augustus, Father of his Country, First

Citizen and Imperator”; that is to say Hadrian in person rides in the

glittering chariot wherein Augustus rode in his triumph after the

battle of Actium. Four snow-white horses draw the car, and beside the

slim Greek charioteer stands the object of universal envy, the man

who is all but a god even in Italy, who is the “Son of the Divinity,”

Trajan, and who is actually worshiped as a deity before a thousand

altars throughout the subjected East.

Hadrian is a handsome bearded man of stature above the average. The

gray of advancing age is streaking his hair, but he retains that

graceful presence and piercing glance which would make him a notable

figure had he never donned the purple. Before him, bound to the end of

staves, are carried placards in large letters reciting the benefits he

has conferred on hundreds of communities; there is also a large roll

of papyrus symbolic of the “Perpetual Edict” which he has inspired

the learned jurist Salvus Julianus to compile preparatory to the

codification of the vast Civil Law.

Directly before the Emperor there is borne upon an open car a gilded

image of the beautiful youth Antinöos, Hadrian’s favorite companion,

whose mysterious death in Egypt the monarch has never ceased to mourn;

while behind the imperial chariot rides the marveling envoy of Chosröes

the Parthian King who has received peace at the hands of the Cæsar.

The hundreds of senators and thousands of equites marching in the

procession, now and again, perhaps at some signal, raise shouts of

applause to the master and sun of that glorious human universe wherein

they rejoice as the fortunate stars.

=397. Hailing the Emperor.=--So the procession enters Rome. At sight of

the tall, majestic Imperator, whose purple mantle gleams with gold, all

the streets and plazas burst into tumults of cheering. “_Io Triumphe!

Io Triumphe! Ave Cæsar! Ave Hadriane!_” while not a few in ecstatic

loyalty make haste even to salute him as “_Dominus et Deus!_”

As the imperial car passes each crossing of the streets, victims are

sacrificed, while loud prayers are raised for the monarch’s safety. The

air grows heavy with the perfumes of the incense burning on hundreds

of improvised altars. From the balconies matrons rain down masses of

roses; and at many a turn great volumes of saffron are sprinkled over

the marchers.

Onward Hadrian rides, his handsome features curling perchance with

pleasure but looking not to the right hand nor the left. Perhaps he

recalls that were this a formal triumph, a slave would have been

required to stand behind him whispering at intervals, “Remember, you

are but a man!”

=398. The Donatives, Fêtes, and Games.=--The procession thus

sweeps along the Sacred Way, pauses for a moment that the Emperor

may survey the latest touches upon his new Temple of Venus and Rome,

passes the holy House of Vesta and then turning away from the Forum

and the Capitol ascends into the Palatine. Here the gorgeously

arrayed companies of the official bureaucracy swell again the “_Io

Triumphe!_” and Hadrian dismounts from the car to offer his own

special thanksgiving for safe return, and to burn his own incense

within the Temple of Apollo of the Palatine.

All that afternoon the fête continues. The great public baths stand

open, absolutely free, not even the petty quadrans being exacted

from the plebeian visitors. The grain and bread doles are doubled;

the ticket holders receiving to boot measures of oil and wine. The

Prætorians drink deeply the imperial health--for a special donative of

1000 sesterces ($40) per man has been ordered for the entire corps.

In the Flavian Amphitheater Hadrian himself presides in the podium

while a lioness contends with an elephant, the most famous and skilful

netters and Thracians slaughter one another, and a desperate robber is

done to death by three panthers. Late into the evening the streets are

illuminated; there is feasting, dancing, reveling all through the wide

parks and the bosky groves stretching across the Campus Martius to the

Tiber. Everybody is praising the greatness and glory alike of Emperor

and Empire; and as for Rome, Imperial Rome, the center of all the

earth, who doubts that her power is ordained to stand forever?

=399. A Christian Gathering.=--Not all Rome this night is given over

to roses, wine, and reveling under the torchlight. In one of those

subterranean burial galleries near the Via Appia, which a later age

will call “Catacombs,” in a spot where a chamber of some dimensions has

been excavated, a group of soberly clad folk have gathered. They have

met stealthily,--posting sentries to give the alarm, for the vigiles

may not have become too drunk that night to be active.

[Illustration: VIEW IN THE CHRISTIAN CATACOMBS:

present state.]

The leader of their service is the Bishop Higinius whose name will

stand as the eighth Pope following the Apostle Peter. During their

simple liturgies some strains of boisterous music from the luxurious,

sensual, pitiless metropolis outside interrupt their hymns, and the

good bishop signs to one of the deacons. The latter opens the scroll

of the Book of Apocalypse where under the cryptic name of “Babylon” is

forewarned the fate even of imperial Rome; and thus he reads:

“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her

iniquities; therefore shall her plagues come upon her in one day, death

and mourning and famine; and the kings of the earth who have committed

wickedness and lived deliciously with her shall bewail and lament her

when they see the smoke of her burning.

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her, for no

man buyeth their merchandise any more;--the merchandise of gold and

silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen and purple

and silk and scarlet and all rare woods and all manner of vessels

of ivory, and all manner of vessels of most precious wood, and of

brass, and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors and ointments,

and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and

beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, _and souls

of men_.”

INDEX

[References are to pages.]

_=Acta Diurna=_, 282 ff.

=Advocates=, methods of, 345;

great importance of, 355;

cheap pettifoggers, 356;

high abilities of some lawyers, 358.

=Agrippa=, Baths of, 361.

=Aliens=, vast numbers of, 123;

colonies of, in Rome, 145.

=Amphitheater=, 394 ff.;

(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Antiques=, often spurious, 58.

=Apicius=, the gourmand, 100.

=Aqueducts=, 303–304.

=Arch=, use of, 13.

=Architectural Forms=, usually Greek, 12;

use of arch and vault in, 13.

=Architecture=, very grandiose, 258.

=Arena=, arrangement of, 392;

(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Armor=, of legionaries, 318.

=Army=, real master of the Empire, 307;

held under stiff discipline, 308;

stationed on frontiers, 308–309;

legions in, 309 ff.;

size of, 331;

efficiency of, 332;

no reserves to, 332;

(_see_ Legionaries).

=Arria= (wife of Cæcina Poetus), 76.

=Atrium=, 42, 43.

=Auctions=, 226.

=Audiences= with emperors, 296.

=Augurs= and augury, 418–419.

=Augustus=, tomb of, 372;

deified, 439.

=Auspices=, taken in Senate, 340.

=Auxiliary cohorts=, 327–328.

=Ball games=, 206.

=Banks= and bankers, 227 ff.;

a great banker, 228;

forms of investment, 229;

trust business of, 229;

savings banks, 230;

safe deposits, 230;

deposits in Temple of Vesta, 231.

=Banquets= (_see_ Dinners).

=Barber shops=, 90, 91.

=Basilica Æmilia=, 271.

=Basilica Julia=, 272–274.

=Baths=, popularity of, 358;

luxurious private, 359;

private-owned, 360–361;

large government-owned, 360;

great Baths of Trajan, 361 ff.;

crowds at, 362;

often a kind of club house, 362–363;

entrance to, 363;

interior of, 364;

cold room (_frigidarium_), 365;

swimming pool, 365;

_tepidarium_, 365–366;

hot baths (_caldaria_), 366;

extreme luxury of, 367;

restaurants and shops at, 367–368;

parasites at, 368.

=Beards=, revival of, 91.

=Beast fights=, 399.

=Beggars=, multitude of, 252.

=Bonuses= (_donativa_), 245.

=Books=, 209 ff.;

format of, 210;

mounting and rolling of, 211;

copying of, 212;

publication of, 212, 213.

=Bread=, 103, 104.

=Breakfast= (_jentaculum_), 110.

=Building materials= used in Rome, 10.

=_Bulla_=, 186.

=_Caldaria_=, 366.

=Camp= of prætorian guard, 311.

=Camps=, military, 330.

=Campus Martius=, view from, 7;

general description of, 280;

great porticoes along, 368;

public buildings upon, 369.

=Carriages=, varieties of, 455–456.

=Catacombs=, used by Christians, 473.

=Cemeteries=, 179–180.

=Cena= (_see_ Dinner).

=Centurions=, in legions, 323–325.

=Chairs=, forms of, 55–56.

=Charioteers=, 383;

(_see_ Circus).

=Chests=, 57.

=Children=, legal status of, 184;

exposure of, 184;

very desirable, 185;

ceremonies after birth, 185;

names given, 186–189;

care in educating, 189;

toys and pets, 190;

taught Greek, 191;

schooling and education, 192 ff.

=Christianity=, pagan account of, 449;

persecution of, 450–451;

charges against, 451;

attitude of educated men towards, 452.

=Christians=, gathering of, in the Catacombs, 473.

=Circus=, popularity of, 382;

charioteers in, 383;

racing factions in, 383;

wagering in, 384;

_Circus Maximus_, 384 ff.;

race track, 384;

procession before races, 385–386;

beginning of races, 386;

dangers in races, 387;

proclaiming victors, 387–389.

=Circus=, Flaminian, 370.

=_Circus Maximus_=, 384 ff.

=Citizenship=, desirability of, 146;

case of St. Paul, 147.

=Claudius Etruscus=, powerful freedman, 142.

=Clientage=, old type, 147–148;

new type, 148.

=Clients=, morning salutation by, 148–149;

doles given, 150;

attend their patron, 151;

undergo insults, 151, 152.

=Clothing= (_see_ Garments).

=Cohorts=, city (_cohortes urbanae_), 313.

=_Collegia_=, 249 ff.

=Color=, used upon sculpture, 259.

=Column of Trajan=, 278–280.

=Concrete=, great use of, 11.

=_Congiaria_=, 244.

=Cookery=, refinements in, 109, 110.

=Correspondence=, 208.

=Couches=, general use of, 54.

=Country=, around Rome, 5;

view of, 5, 6.

=Country-life=, Roman love of, 453–454;

(_see_ Villas).

=Court=, imperial;

(_see_ Emperor).

=Courts=, law, 353 ff.;

(_see_ Legal Procedure).

=Crowds=, typical, upon a Roman street, 21.

=_Curia_=, 272.

=Curia Julia=, arrangement of, 339.

=Cybele=, worship of, 441.

=Daily Gazette= (_Acta Diurna_), 282 ff.;

entries and gossip in, 284, 285.

=Decurions=, provincial nobles, 152.

=Deified Augustus= and later emperors, 439.

=Dining room= (_triclinium_), 45, 46.

=Dinner= (_cena_), 111 ff.;

time for, 111;

standard number for, 113;

preparing for, 114;

arranging couches, 115;

serving of, 116;

courses at, 117;

drinking bout after, 118;

garlands and perfumes at, 119;

very elaborate banquets, 120;

simple home meals, 121.

=Dinner hunters=, 112;

at baths, 368.

=Discomforts= of life in Rome, 33.

=Doles=, public, of grain, 242, 243;

distribution of, 244.

=_Domus_= (mansions), 39 ff.;

often several owned by one magnate, 39;

plan of early, 40;

plan of developed, 40, 41;

price of a handsome, 41;

entrance to, 42;

atrium of, 42, 43;

decorations of, 43;

_peristylium_, 44;

_triclinium_, 45, 46;

special rooms in, 47;

garden behind, 47;

slaves’ quarters, 48;

floors and windows of, 49;

frescos in, 50;

statues in, 51, 52, 53;

furniture in, 54 ff.

=_Donativa_=, 245.

=Drinking bout= (_commissatio_), 118.

=Eagle= of legion, 325.

=Eating-houses=, 235, 236.

=Education=, selection of school, 192;

extent of literacy, 193;

instruction of girls, 193;

for lower classes, 193, 194;

low-grade schools, 194;

cruelty in schools, 195;

superior types of schools, 196;

methods of teaching, 197;

reading and writing, 198;

arithmetic, 199;

grammarians’ high schools, 199;

passion for oratory, 200;

rhetoric schools, 201;

mock debates, 202;

popularity of rhetorical studies, 203;

philosophy, study of, 204.

=Egypt=, worship of its gods, 442.

=Emperor=, center of social life, 294;

“friends of Cæsar,” 295;

audiences with, 296;

ruin through disfavor of, 296, 297;

favor most valuable, 298.

=Emperors=, cult of the deified, 439–440.

=Emporium=, 240.

=Encampments=, military, 330.

=Entrance= to house, 42.

=Epicureanism=, popular, 407.

=Equites=, second class nobles, 153;

qualifications and honors of, 154, 155;

review of, 156.

=Escorts=, of rich nobles, 25.

=Factions=, in circus, 383.

=Fame=, passion for, in letters, 214, 215;

in poetry, 216.

=_Familia_= of slaves, 129, 130;

organization of, 131.

=Festivals=, great number of, 374;

passion for spectacles, 375;

(_see_ Games, Public).

=_Fetiales_=, 422.

=Fire department=, 304 ff.

=Fish=, great demand for, 106.

=Flamens=, 420.

=Flavian amphitheater=, 394–397.

=Floors=, of houses, 49.

=Flowers=, varieties supplied from villa gardens, 458.

=Flute-blowers=, guild of, 251.

=Fora=, centers of Roman life, 254;

series of, 256;

crowds in, 256, 257;

centers for new, 257;

grandiose architecture in, 258;

use of color on sculptures, 259;

entrance upon the series, 260;

Temple of Venus and Rome, 261, 262;

colossal statue of Nero, 262;

Arch of Titus, 262;

Temple of Vesta, 265;

Temple of the Divine Julius, 265;

Old Forum, 265 ff.;

of the Emperors, 275 ff.

=Foreign= cults, numerous in Rome, 437;

why popular, 438;

cult of Cybele or “Great Mother,” 441;

Isis worship, 442;

ceremonies at Temple of Isis, 443;

Serapis worship, 445;

Mithras worship, 445;

nobility of Mithras cult, 446;

_Taurobolium_ ceremony, 448–449;

Christianity, pagan view of, 449 ff.

=Fortresses=, frontier, 330.

=Forum=, morning visit to, 111;

of Julius, 276;

of Augustus, 277;

of Nerva, 278;

of Trajan, 278;

(_see_ Old Forum _and_ Fora).

=_Forum Romanum_=, 265 ff.;

(_see_ Old Forum).

=Fountains=, public, 20.

=Freedmen=, how created, 140;

status of, 140, 141;

humble types of, 141;

wealthy, 142;

importance of, 143.

=Frescos=, in a Roman house, 50, 51.

“=Friends=” of Emperor, 295.

=_Frigidarium_=, 365.

=Fruits=, 104, 105.

=Fullers=, 89.

=Funeral monuments=, 179, 182.

=Funerals=, great interest in, 172;

preliminaries to, 173;

procession of “ancestors,” 174;

exhibits in procession, 175;

orations at, 176;

tombs, 177–180;

funeral pyre, 180, 181;

for poorer classes, 182.

=Gain=, passion for, 220.

=_Galli_=, 441.

=Gambling=, mania for, 375.

=Games=, children’s, 204;

played on boards, 205, 206;

out-door, 206.

=Games=, public, passion for, 375;

mania for gambling at, 375;

vast scale of, 375–376;

great expense of, 376;

popularity of, 377;

seating at, 378;

(_see_ Theater, Circus, _and_ Amphitheater).

=Gardens=, public, around Rome, 372.

=Garlands=, at dinners, 119.

=Garments=, types of, 80 ff.;

toga, 81;

tunica, 84;

capes, cloaks, and gala garments, 85;

women’s stola and palla, 86, 87;

materials of, 88;

use of silk, 89;

changing styles of, 89.

=Gladiators=, notice of display of, 29;

popularity of, 392;

(_see_ Gladiator Contests).

=Gladiator contests=, enormously popular, 389;

at funerals, 390.

=Gladiator schools=, 390;

inmates usually criminals, 391;

severe training in, 392;

typical arrangement of, 393;

Flavian Amphitheater, 394–395;

its interior arrangements, 395–396;

procession before contests, 397;

criminals thrown to beasts, 398;

fights with wild beasts, 399;

interval in sports, 400;

distribution of lottery tickets at, 400;

beginning of regular, 401;

chariot warfare, 402;

cavalry combats, 403;

signals for ruthlessness and signals for mercy, 403;

“Netters” and “Thracians,” 404–405;

reward of victors, 405–406.

=Glass=, used in windows, 49.

=Gluttony=, 100–102.

=Golden Milestone=, 269, 270.

=Gourmandizing=, delight in, 100.

=Government= of Rome, 299 ff.;

city præfect, 300;

curators and commissioners, 301;

water supply of, 301–302;

great aqueducts, 303;

police and fire department, 304–305.

=Grain=, trade in, 242;

doles of, 243;

distribution of, 244.

=Grammarians’ schools=, 199.

“=Great Mother=,” 441.

=Greek language=, constantly used in Rome, 22, 23.

=Guests= at dinner, proper number nine, 113;

arrangement on couches, 115.

=Guilds=, 249;

very ancient ones, 250;

importance of, 251;

festivals of, 252.

=Hadrian=, prosperity of his reign, 1, 468;

tomb of, 370;

his return to Italy, 469;

his procession entering Rome, 470;

how saluted, 472;

presides over fêtes, 472–473.

=Hairdressing=, women’s, 93;

ornaments on hair, 93.

=Heating= of houses, 49.

=Hills=, Seven, of Rome, 9.

=Hospitals=, almost nonexistent, 168.

=Hotels=, (_see_ Inns).

=House fronts=, on typical Roman streets, 18.

=Houses= (see _Insulæ_ and _Domus_).

=Idlers=, vast number of, 27.

=_Imagines_= (death masks), 54.

=Impeachment trial=, before Senate, 343 ff.

=Industry=, quarters for, 238;

conditions of labor in, 238, 239;

organization in guilds, 249 ff.

=Inns=, usually sordid, 231;

type of, 232;

reckonings at, 233;

frequenters of, 234;

eating houses, 235 ff.

=_Insulæ_= (tenement houses), 34 ff.;

typical _insula_, 35;

flats in, 36;

cheap attics in, 37;

dangers of, 37, 38.

=Isis=, cult of, 442 ff.

=Janus=, 413.

=_Jentaculum_= (breakfast), 110.

=Jesus=, legal status of, 144.

=Jewels=, 96 ff.

=Jews= in Rome, 145.

=Kissing=, habit of, in public, 27.

=Kitchens=, 109.

=_Lacerna_=, 85.

=Lacus=, Curtius, 274.

=Lares= and Penates, 414.

=_Latrunculi_= (game), 205.

=Lawyers= (_see_ Advocates).

=Legacies=, 170;

hunting for, 171;

public bequests, 172.

=Legal procedure=, highly scientific, 353;

great tribunals for, 354;

forms of verdicts, 355;

importance of advocates, 355;

cheap pettifoggers, 356;

character and slave witnesses, 357;

use of written evidence, 357–358.

=Legate= of the legion, 329.

=Legionaries=, enlistment of, 314;

organization of, 315;

training of, 316;

weapons of, 317–318;

armor of, 318;

rewards and punishment of, 319–320;

retiring bonuses for, 329;

pay and rations of, 320;

training of, 321;

non-military labors of, 322;

petty officers of, 322–323;

centurions of, 323–324;

_primipilus_ of, 325;

eagle of, 325.

=Legions=, number of, 309;

organization of, 315 ff.;

location and names of, 326;

commanders of, 328;

(_see also_ Legionaries).

=Letters=, 207, 208.

=Libraries=, size of, 217;

private, 218;

public, 219;

of Trajan, 280.

=Literary fame=, passion for, 214 ff.

=Luncheon= (_prandium_), 111.

=Magistrates=, public honors paid to, 24.

=Mansions= (see _Domus_).

=Manumission=, 139, 140.

=Marble trade=, 241.

=Marriage=, men often reluctant to marry, 61;

usually arranged by girls’ parents, 63;

marriage treaties, 64;

betrothal before, 65;

dowries, 66;

dressing bride, 66, 67;

actual ceremonies of, 67 ff.;

contract of, 68;

wedding procession, 69;

ceremonies at bridegroom’s house, 70;

often unhappy, 72;

divorce, easy and frequent, 74;

happy marriages, 75.

=Masks=, death (_imagines_), 54.

=Matrons=, honors paid to, 71, 72;

(_see_ Women).

=Meals= and meal times, 110 ff.

=Meat= and poultry, 105.

=Medicine= (_see_ Physicians).

=Mimes=, 380.

=Mithras=, worship of, 445–446.

=Morning=, how spent by gentlemen, 110.

=Morra=, game of, 205.

=Mosaics=, in Roman mansion, 43.

=Names=, intricacy of, 186;

irregular, 187;

of slaves, 188;

of women, 188;

confusion of, 189.

=Nero=, colossal statue of, 262.

=Notices=, public, 29.

=Old Forum=, 265 ff.;

noble traditions of, 266;

impression created by, 267;

crowds in, 268, 269;

area of, 268, 269;

western end of, 269;

Rostra, 269;

Golden Milestone, 269, 270;

Tullianum, 270, 271;

Basilica Æmilia, 271;

Temple of Janus, 271;

Senate House, 272;

Basilica Julia, 272;

Lacus Curtius, 274.

=Olive oil=, 107.

=Omens=, belief in, 419–420.

=Oratory=, passion for, 200;

training in, 201 ff.;

in Senate, 343 ff.

=Ostia=, trade through, 239;

shipping at, 247;

naval shipping at, 248;

harbor town at, 249.

=_Pænula_=, 85.

=Palace=, imperial, 288 ff.;

magnificent aspect of, 289;

famous buildings in, 290;

triclinium and throne-room of Domitian, 291–292;

enormous luxury of, 292;

swarm of officials present in, 293.

=Palatine=, view from, 260;

history of, 286;

fine residences upon, 287;

Augustus settles upon, 287–288;

commanding view from, 288;

imperial palace upon, 288 ff.

=_Palla_=, 88.

=Pantheon=, 280–282.

=Pantomimes=, 381;

high art in, 382.

=Papyrus=, 209, 210.

=Parasites=, swarm of, in Rome, 27;

at dinners, 112, 113;

at baths, 368.

=Park system= around Rome, 280;

toward Tiber, 369.

=_Patria Potestas_=, 184.

=Paul=, legal status of, 147.

=Pavements=, in Roman streets, 18.

=_Pax Romana_=, blessings of, 1.

=Pearls=, 97.

=Perfumes=, 98;

at dinners, 119.

=_Peristylium_=, 44.

=Pet animals=, 58;

of children, 190.

=Philosophy=, study of, 204.

=Physicians=, no training required, 160;

superior class of, 161;

fashionable doctors, 161, 162;

instruments and books of, 163;

famous remedies of, 164;

absurd medicines, 164;

theriac, 165;

fear of poisons, 165, 166;

disciples of, 166;

quack doctors, 167.

=Placards=, public, 28, 29.

=Plebeians=, the “mob,” 145.

=Pliny the Younger’s Tuscan villa=, 459;

charming location of, 460;

view from, 461;

terraces and porticoes of, 462;

bed-chambers of, 463–464;

gardens of, 465.

=Poetry=, passion for, 216.

=Police department=, 304–305.

=Pontiffs=, 417.

=Population= of Rome, 3, 4.

=Porticoes=, along Campus Martius, 368–369.

=Portrait busts=, trade in, 246.

=Præfect=, of city of Rome, 300;

of the police (_vigiles_), 306;

of the camps, 328.

=Prætorian guard=, 309–311;

præfect of, 311;

camp of, 311–312;

organization of, 313.

=Prætorian præfect=, 311.

=Prayer=, formal, at sacrifice, 428.

=Priests=, duties of, 417;

(_see_ Flamens).

=_Primipilus_=, 325.

=Processions=, attending great nobles, 24.

=Provincials=, status of, 143.

=Public games=, 375 ff.

=Publishers of books=, 213, 214.

=Punishments=, of slaves, 136;

of soldiers, 320.

=Regia=, 265.

=Regions= of Rome, 15.

=Religion=, signs of, everywhere, 407;

upper classes sceptical, 407–408;

Stoicism popular, 408;

revival of, under Empire, 409;

many foreign cults, 410;

plebeians very superstitious, 411;

based on old Italian agriculture, 412;

native Italian gods, 413;

Lares and Penates, 414;

personified virtues as gods, 415;

legalistic character of, 416;

priests not sacrosanct, 417;

_Pontifices_, 417–418;

_Augurs_, 418;

Flamens, 420;

_Salii_, 421;

_Fetiales_, 422;

Arval Brethren, 423;

rustic, 424;

soothsayers and astrologers, 424–425;

sacrifices, private, 425;

ceremony at temple, 426;

slaughtering the victim, 427;

formal prayer, 428;

Vestal Virgins, 429 ff.;

(_see_ Foreign Cults).

=Restaurants= (_see_ Eating-Houses).

=Rhetoricians=, 201;

schools of, 202 ff.

=Rings=, 96.

=Robbers=, game of, 205.

=Roman Empire= very prosperous under Hadrian, 1.

=Rome=, beautified by Augustus and later Emperors, 3;

reaches architectural perfection about 135 A.D., 3;

population of, 3, 4;

crowded condition of, 4;

country around, 5;

view from Campus Martius, 7;

Seven Hills of, 9;

regions and social quarters of, 15;

typical street in, 16;

discomforts of life in, 33;

vast alien population in, 122;

divisions of society in, 123 ff.;

great Jewish colony in, 145;

plebeians in, 145, 146;

life in, extravagant and expensive, 221;

a city of investors and buyers of luxuries, 222;

great shopping quarters in, 223;

industrial quarters in, 210 ff.;

city government of, 299 ff.

=Rostra=, 269.

=Sacrifices=, private description of, 425 ff.

=_Salii_=, 421.

=Salutations=, form of, in public, 26.

=Sandals=, 95.

=Saturnalia=, 437.

=Schools= (_see_ Educators).

=Scribblings=, upon every wall, 30, 31.

=Sculptures=, trade in, 246;

often colored, 259.

=Seat of honor=, at festivals, 378.

=Secretaries=, 209.

=Senate=, outward glory of, 334;

actual weakness of, 335;

actual authority of, 336;

organization and procedure of, 337–338;

_Curia_ (Senate House) for, 338;

arrangement of seats, 339;

precedence in, 339–340;

opening of session, 340;

auspices in, 340–341;

routine business in, 341;

taking of vote, 342;

impeachment before, 342–343;

use of water clocks, 344;

oratory in, 344;

advocates before, 345;

shouts and invectives during debates, 347;

taking the opinion of, 348 ff.;

speeches from floor of, 349;

uproar in, 350;

formal division in, 351;

decree of banishment, 352;

end of session, 352.

=Senate House=, 272.

=Senatorial order=, 156;

includes relatives of senators, 158.

=Senators=, social glories of, 157;

form a high aristocracy, 158;

insignia and titles of, 158;

great importance of, 159.

=Serapis=, worship of, 445.

“=Seven Hills=” of Rome, 9.

=Shipping=, merchant, 247, 248;

naval, 248.

=Shoes=, 95.

=Shop fronts=, 18.

=Shops=, vast number of, 18;

shopping districts in Rome, 223, 224;

arrangement of shops, 224;

of barbers, 225;

superior retail stores, 226.

=Shrines=, upon streets, 20.

=Siege warfare=, 331.

=Siesta=, custom of, 112.

=Silk=, use of, 89.

=Slaves=, notice to, 42;

vast numbers of, 124;

power of master over, 125;

city slaves and country slaves, 125–126;

purchase of, 126, 127;

auction of, 128;

sale of superior, 129;

size of household of, 129, 130;

workmen as, 130;

duties of, 131;

organization of, 131;

discipline of, 132;

frequently idle, 133;

degradation of slave system, 133;

evil results on masters, 134;

punishment of, 135;

branding of, 136;

pursuit of runaways, 137;

torture of, 138;

manumission of, 139.

=Society=, divisions of, 123, 124.

=Soldiers= (_see_ Legionaries).

=Soothsayers=, 424.

=Statues=, vast multiplication of, 51;

portrait busts, 52, 53.

=_Status_=, in Roman society, 123.

=Stoicism=, popularity of, 408.

=_Stola_=, 87.

=Streets=, typical in Rome, 16;

very narrow, 17;

paving of, 17, 18;

shops upon, 18;

shrines and fountains upon, 20, 21;

crowds in, 21;

noise and turmoil of, 23;

dark and dangerous at night, 32;

extremely noisy towards dawn, 33.

=Suicide=, not condemned, 168.

=Tables=, 56;

costly, of citrus wood, 57.

=Tablets=, writing, 207.

=Tactics=, in battle, 330.

=_Taurobolium_=, 447.

=Taverns= (_see_ Inns).

=Temple=, of the Divine Julius, 265;

of Janus, 271;

of Mars Ultor, 277;

of Peace, 276;

of Venus and Rome, 261, 262;

of Vesta, 265.

=Tenement blocks= (_insulæ_), 34 ff.

=_Tepidarium_=, 365.

=Theater=, not extremely popular, 378;

stage in, 379;

spectacles in, 380;

mimes, 380;

pantomimes, 381;

high art in latter, 382.

=Theaters= upon Campus Martius, 369.

=_Thermopolia_=, 236.

=Tiber=, and valley of, 6;

barges upon, 240;

trip down to Ostia, 247;

shipping upon, 248.

=Time=, measured by water clocks, 344.

=Titus=, arch of, 262.

=Toga=, 81–84.

=Toilets=, very elaborate, 94.

=Tombs=, 177–180;

of Hadrian, 370;

of Augustus, 372.

=Toys=, 190.

=Trade=, through Ostia and Campania, 239;

Emporium and wharves, 240;

upon Tiber, 240, 241;

in marble and grain, 241, 242;

in sculptures and portrait statues, 246.

=Trajan=, forum and column of, 278–280;

baths of, 361 ff.

=Travel=, modes of, 454–456.

=Traveler’s escorts=, 25, 26.

=_Triclinium_= (dining room), 45, 46.

=_Trigon_= (ball game), 206.

=Triumph=, ceremonies of a, 470.

=Tullianum=, 270, 271.

=_Tunica_=, 84.

=Turia=, story of, 78.

=Vegetables=, 104.

=Veterans=, care and rewards of, 329–330.

=Vesta=, Temple of, as safe deposit, 231.

=Vestal Virgins=, 429 ff.;

origin and sanctity, 430;

temple and residence of, 431;

how chosen, 432;

duties of, 433;

senior vestal (_Maxima_), 433;

punishment of, 434;

great honors of, 435.

=Via Sacra=, 261, 263 ff.

=Victory=, statue of, in Senate, 340.

=_Vigiles_=, city police, 28;

description of, 304 ff.

=Villas=, several owned by one senator, 39;

greatly enjoyed, 453;

comfortable travel to, 454–456;

multiplication of, 456;

by the sea shore, 457;

in the mountains, 457–458;

near Rome, 458;

great estates in the hills, 459;

Pliny’s Tuscan villa, 459 ff.

=Vitellius=, imperial glutton, 102.

=Wall scribblings=, 30.

=War=, ceremony of declaring, 423.

=Water clocks=, 57;

in Senate, 344.

=Water supply of Rome=, 301 ff.

=Wealth=, vast premium upon in Rome, 220, 221.

=Weapons=, of legionaries, 317, 318.

=Wills=, 169.

=Windows= of houses, 49.

=Wines=, 107, 108, 109.

=Writing tablets=, 207.

=Women=, honorable status of, 60;

rights and privileges when married, 61, 71, 72;

have control of property, 62;

selection of husbands for girls, 63;

marriage treaties, 64;

betrothal ceremonies, 65;

dowries of, 66;

marriage of, 66 ff.;

frivolous type of, 72, 73;

nobler types of, 75;

famous and devoted wives, 76, 77;

case of Turia, 78, 79.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Outside of these limits were, of course, wide and populous suburbs

whose inhabitants might be included in the estimated total of 1,500,000.

[2] At present, of course, largely a treeless waste, very sparsely

populated and afflicted with malaria.

[3] These are modern heights; since the days of the Empire there has

been much leveling down. All the hills were then somewhat higher.

[4] He wrote his great “Geography” not long after 1 A.D.

[5] This and many other terms for Roman building materials are from the

modern Italian.

[6] Very possibly the Etruscans were the actual inventors, although the

principle of the arch was known in the Old Orient.

[7] He died about 110 A.D.

[8] A well-known avenue in Pompeii was called “Mercury Street.”

[9] In describing Roman street life and its scenes let it be said

once and for all that many very obvious things were so disgusting and

revolting to modern notions that any description thereof is perforce

omitted. Ancient life contained a great deal of social dross and filthy

wickedness. There is no need to dwell on such matters, but their

existence should not be forgotten.

[10] If a magistrate had met any persons on horseback, they also would

have been bound to dismount on meeting him.

[11] If a praetor had been acting as governor, he would probably have

had six lictors instead of merely two while he was a judge in Rome.

[12] The wall placards and inscriptions quoted in this and the

following section are all substantially as found at Pompeii.

[13] For quotations of election notices at Pompeii see the author’s

“Readings in Ancient History,” Vol. II, “Rome,” pp. 261–262.

[14] These figures seem to come from the fourth century, but there is

no reason to think that housing conditions in Rome had changed very

much since the second century.

[15] Rentals in Rome, for all classes of lodgings, were unreasonably

high, as compared with the relative cost of other necessities: just as

is now complained to be the case in New York, Paris, and other great

cities.

[16] A familiar description of such a place by Juvenal.

[17] In small provincial cities like Pompeii the proportion of the

people who could live in separate houses was much greater than in Rome;

in fact separate residences were somewhat the rule. The Pompeiian

houses were usually of two stories and nearly all were decidedly small.

In Rome itself real estate was far too valuable to permit separate

houses except for the wealthy.

[18] That was the price that Cicero paid for his town house, at a time

when Roman real estate was worth probably much less than in the days of

Hadrian.

[19] Petronius represents his rich upstart Trimalchio as having four

ordinary dining rooms and also a special second story dining room.

[20] This heating by _hypocausts_ was used much more in Roman villas in

Gaul, the Rhinelands, and Britain, where winters were severe, than in

Italy. In Rome itself people ordinarily managed to shiver through the

relatively short cold spells by means of portable _charcoal braziers_,

placed in the more important rooms, and by piling upon themselves extra

tunics.

[21] One can make a long list of the marbles constantly used at

Rome: _e.g._ white marbles from Carrara, Paros, and Pentelicos;

crimson-streaked from Phrygia; orange-golden from Numidia; white and

pale green from Carystos; serpentine from Laconia; porphyry from Egypt,

etc.

[22] At this writing the number of wall paintings rescued from the

excavations of Pompeii runs well up to 4000; and Pompeii was a city

perhaps only a fortieth the size of Rome.

[23] Most of the finer scenes in Roman frescos seem to have been

pretty good copies of famous paintings from Greek mythology originally

produced by the masters of the Hellenistic age.

[24] It may be noted that the Romans seldom had built-in upholstery

upon their couches and chairs. They depended upon removable cushions

and apparently they had no metal springs.

[25] It had been suppressed for all practical purposes soon after 14

A.D.

[26] Witness, as most famous example, the case of Cornelia, mother of

Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. Very many other instances could be cited.

[27] Readers of Plutarch will recall the story of how Appius Claudius,

then “Princeps Senatus,” proposed to Tiberius Gracchus at an evening

banquet of the College of Augurs that he should marry Claudius’s

daughter. Young Gracchus promptly accepted and the older nobleman

rushed home in delight (Tiberius being a great “catch”). On entering

his house Claudius called out with loud voice to his wife “Antistia,

I’ve got a husband for Claudia!” “What’s all the hurry about,” answered

she, “unless he’s Tiberius Gracchus?” Antistia evidently had to be

informed first; the glad news could be broken to her daughter later.

[28] This anecdote and the quotations are all from the letter of Pliny

the Younger to his friend Mauricius advising the latter (as per request

for counsel) to seek the hand of Minucius Ancilianus for his niece.

[29] All silk was imported by extremely long caravan routes from China.

If this veil was actually of pure silk and not mixed with cotton, it

was of enormous value.

[30] Possibly meaning “Hurrah for Talassus, the marriage god!” but the

exact significance of this time-honored shout had probably been long

since lost.

[31] Both of these instances are from Pliny the Younger.

[32] For a complete quotation of this highly interesting tablet, see

Fowler’s “Social Life at Rome,” pp. 159–167.

[33] The use of this garment gave his familiar nickname to the Emperor

Bassianus, “Caracalla,” who reigned 212–217 A.D. The Gauls also had

kind of trousers. This was counted against them as a token of sheer

barbarism: _bracatæ nationes_ (“trouser-wearing peoples”) was a term of

extreme contempt in Italy.

[34] Probably there were simpler and more complicated forms of togas.

The first were apparently shaped like an irregular semi-circle. We hear

of extremely large togas (in bad taste) whereof the total length was

four yards before draping. Experiments in certain American universities

at making and then draping a toga corresponding in effect to many

well-known statues have amply illustrated the great difficulty of

putting on the garment gracefully, and the real art required of a Roman

nobleman’s valet.

[35] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 44.

[36] There were various simpler garments, similar to the stola,

permitted to common women and to young girls. The distinctive feature

of the stola, forbidden to all save honorable matrons, seems to have

been the lower flounce, reaching to the feet.

[37] About twenty years after the reign of Hadrian, Chinese annals

record that certain “Roman” (Græco-Levantine?) traders actually reached

China, and gave themselves out as envoys to the “Son of Heaven” from

“Antun” (Antoninus Pius).

[38] Very like a modern copying press.

[39] Apuleius, writing probably a little later than this time, asserts

that a lady, with no matter how fine clothes or jewels, cannot be

considered really handsome unless an equal amount of attention has been

bestowed upon her hair.

[40] Called the “luna” (crescent); but the origin is really unknown,

although attempts were made to trace it back to some institution of

Romulus.

[41] Diamonds were not unknown, but they were so hard to cut and so

scarce that they figured rather seldom in Roman jewelry. They do not

appear in the list of the twelve precious stones given in Revelation,

XXI: 19–20.

[42] Stories about pearls are easily multiplied: _e.g._ how the son of

Asopus, a famous actor, on coming into a vast patrimony, deliberately

dissolved a large pearl in vinegar, then drank it down, in order to

boast that he had “tossed off a million sesterces ($40,000) at one

gulp!”

[43] Even less profitable, it would seem, is to try to list the

cosmetics wherewith many Roman ladies, like their sisters of all times,

covered their faces. Rouge was used in great quantities, and effeminate

young men were known to have employed it. Eyebrows were blackened with

antimony; lips were reddened, and of course hair dye was a familiar

article. Propertius suggests that some women went so far as to trace

over the veins in their temples with blue. Other women indulged in

small black patches somewhat as did English ladies in the days of Queen

Anne:--“There is nothing new under the sun.”

[44] In Capua there was a whole great square of the city, the Seplasia,

given over to perfumery shops and their wholesale trade.

[45] Vitellius was by no means alone in this disgusting practice.

Seneca denounced the numerous gluttons who “Vomit that they may eat,

and eat that they may vomit.”

[46] The difficulty of preserving fresh meat, once butchered, would

militate against its use as compared with poultry easily killed for

each customer.

[47] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 20.

[48] _Posca_ was probably the drink in which the sponge was steeped,

that was extended to Jesus as He hung on the cross.

[49] A long and curious list of gourmand’s precepts are enumerated

ironically by Horace in a familiar Satire (_Sat._, bk. II. 4).

[50] The very imperfect means of illumination alone available with

olive-oil lamps, would make many modern evening entertainments out of

the question. The ancient lamps were beautiful in shape but utterly

ineffective for lighting large halls, indoor theaters, etc.

[51] The love of “first-seats” at feasts, denounced in the New

Testament, was anything but a strictly Jewish vice; Greeks and Romans

were every whit as bad as Orientals.

[52] So given because here dispatches, etc., could be most readily

handed to a consul or other great officer if he were among the guests.

[53] Sometimes a guest’s personal valet brought a special towel for

his own master. Diners of an objectionable variety were occasionally

charged with stealing the towels or napkins if the host supplied them.

[54] This, of course, was a very simple private dinner. For the menu

of a really extensive banquet, see the citation from Macrobius, in the

writer’s “Readings in Ancient History,” Vol. II (Rome), p. 253.

[55] Brought, of course, from the summits of the Apennines with

infinite labor.

[56] They could not, of course, wear the toga, or, if female slaves,

the matronly stola.

[57] The ancients had intense fear of epilepsy, supposedly a visitation

of the gods. The questions given were the points on which slave-venders

had to give assurance, or formally to waive all responsibility.

[58] This is almost precisely the slave auctioneer’s speech in Horace.

(_Epodes_, bk. II, 1.)--If the dealer had failed to mention that the

boy had once tried to run away, he would have been legally liable.

[59] Probably, however, it would be counted discreditable to sell a

slave born in one’s house (a _verna_) unless the fellow was wholly

reprobate, or the master was in great financial straits.

[60] Slave unions had no legal status, but only a harsh and tactless

master would ordinarily break them up.

[61] Of course, in a large slave household frequently there were unruly

elements who often had to be punished privately, when, if free men,

their actions would have landed them in the police courts. The stripes

might be inflicted as a mild correction with the cane, or leather

strap, or more severely with the terrific _flagellum_ (loaded whip),

usually with three chains set with metal. A sound lashing with this

could cause death (see below, p. 137). The prejudice against brutal

whipping and the like was growing steadily, thanks to the advance of

the Stoic philosophy, even before the triumph of Christianity. Juvenal

denounces those who inflict outrageous floggings for slight faults.

“Does a man set his son a good lesson by calling in the torturer and

having a slave branded for stealing a couple of towels? Does such a man

hold that the bodies and souls of slaves are of the same elements as

our own?”

[62] “Three Letter Man” or “Man of Letters” became a common taunt among

slaves.

[63] A slave might be lashed to a _furca_ for some hours, as a minor

penalty without desire to put him to death.

[64] An actual proclamation from Petronius.

[65] There would be just enough of negroes in Rome for them to cease to

be great curiosities.

[66] It is impossible to estimate the proportion of the population

“enfranchised” finally by the oft-discussed edict of Caracalla in 214

A.D. It must have been over one half of the entire total.

[67] Apparently it was quite possible for impecunious persons to sleep

much of the year under the public arches and porticoes, and thus even

dispense with the need of paying rent!

[68] These hopes had practically died out by Hadrian’s day.

[69] That St. Paul was presently released after trial at Rome is the

consensus among very many competent scholars.

[70] Women as well as men could sometimes be enrolled as clients.

Comical stories abounded; how a husband appeared with a litter claiming

that his “sick wife” was inside--“and would the steward please hurry

with the fee”--when, on brushing aside the curtains, the litter was

found to be empty.

[71] Especially in Gaul, Spain, and North Africa; in the Eastern

provinces the city governments were not run so strictly in the Roman

mold and often kept their native characteristics.

[72] Hence they were often called _Curiales_ from their seat in the

local Senate House (_Curia_).

[73] This name is not wisely translated as “Knights,” unless there is

complete disassociation from the idea of the mediæval baron in armor.

[74] Apparently at this time two thirds of the jurors were equites and

one third senators, but the point is not quite certain.

[75] The Republican censors could also give the order, “Sell your

horse” without stigma to equites who appeared in the review when too

old or too fat!

[76] By the age of Hadrian we see signs of that rigid separation

between upper-class citizens (_majores_) and lower-class (_minores_)

which marked the Later Empire. The equites tended to be mingled with

the senators in the _majores_.

[77] Marcus Aurelius confirmed this legally about 170 A.D.

[78] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 77.

[79] Antoninus Pius, the ruler succeeding Hadrian, formally enjoined

the remission of civic burdens for “community physicians” in the

Province of Asia; five in small cities, seven in larger ones, and ten

in the largest.

[80] Establishments selling ready prepared salves, plasters, and other

standard remedies were not unknown, and must have supplied many doctors.

[81] Chemical analysis was, of course, unknown.

[82] These titles and much more of the data here given are from the

writings of the great Galen--the master physician of the imperial age;

who wrote his books under Commodus about 185 A.D.

[83] As in the case of the death of Cæsar Germanicus (19 A.D.)

whose death at Antioch was probably natural, but which all his friends

attributed to poison given by his personal enemy, the Proconsul Piso.

[84] Probably there were such in the eastern provinces.

[85] Without clinical thermometers or second-watches, the taking of

temperature, timing of pulse, etc., must have been a very tedious and

disagreeable as well as uncertain process.

[86] Apparently the organization of _public hospitals_ in the

fourth century of our era, was among the earliest and worthiest of the

distinctly Christian charities, after the toleration of Christianity by

the Roman government.

[87] Two similar cases are recorded in Pliny the Younger; in one

of them the person contemplating suicide, on being assured by the

physicians that his case was not quite desperate, “agreed to fight on a

little longer.”

[88] The legal status of women made it needful to resort to various

legal fictions when they drew wills, but they could execute effective

testaments also.

[89] Still greater revenge could be taken by making insulting

references in wills to old enemies, making them bequests of no value,

or burdened with unwelcome conditions, or even explaining at length,

without fear of a slander suit, why no bequest was left to them at all!

[90] An actual tomb inscription.

[91] A hundred imagines of curule ancestors would be a very respectable

but not an extraordinary showing. When young Marcellus (Augustus’s

nephew) died, _six hundred_ imagines of noble ancestors were borne

in his procession.

[92] Under the Empire only the Emperor could actually ride in a

triumph; but his lieutenants could enjoy the “triumphal ornaments.”

[93] The granting of an actual funeral pyre inside of Rome was an

extraordinary honor--reserved only for emperors and other unusually

favored personages.

[94] This, of course, was the monument which Trimalchio, Petronius’s

famous character, arranged for himself.

[95] Compare “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 57.

[96] The father might have “taken up” the child earlier to indicate his

intentions not to expose it, but some later act of legal acknowledgment

before witnesses was necessary.

[97] And hardly anybody outside the Claudian gens was ever named Appius.

[98] Literally “Number Ten”; but that meaning had disappeared.

[99] Very many such lengthy names are found under Hadrian.

[100] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 63.

[101] These verses have been preserved to the present age by being

inscribed upon the foot of the colossal statue of the “Speaking Memnon”

in Egypt, during the visit there of Hadrian and Sabina.

[102] Of course, there would be many lower class Italians who, although

fairly at ease with Latin, would be entirely unfamiliar with Greek.

[103] The writing end of the stylus (bone or metal) was sharp. The

opposite end was blunt and flattened for erasing on the soft wax.

[104] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 64.

[105] These are the words of Eumenius, a teacher of about 300

A.D., but they would have been equally proper in the age of

Hadrian.

[106] Persons who could recite the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey from

memory were not unknown, although they were usually learned slaves, not

Romans of the higher class.

[107] A tombstone for a boy who died at the age of ten boasts that its

subject “knew the dogmas of Pythagoras and the teaching of the books of

the learned.” He was also alleged to have read all of Homer and to have

studied Euclid “tablets in hand.”

[108] Senators, degraded and banished for reasons good or bad, could

earn a living in the provinces by opening rhetoric schools. Thus

Lucinianus did so in Sicily in Trajan’s time. Pliny the Younger records

that he began his first set oration by declaring: “O Fortune, what

sport you make to amuse yourself! You make professors into senators,

and senators into professors.”

[109] An actual case for young orators as explained by the Elder

Seneca. Less advanced pupils could be pitted in arguments as to

“Whether country life is better than city life,” or “married life

better than celibacy.”

[110] The zeal for philosophy and rhetoric, or at least for the

patronage thereof, is shown by the story of how Trajan, a very

simple-minded soldier, used to invite the great rhetorician Dion

Chrysostom to visit him and take long journeys with him. The Emperor,

greatly impressed by the other’s learning, openly declared to him, “I

don’t in the least understand what you keep talking about, but for all

that I love you like my own soul!”

[111] It is impossible to recover the exact details of these two games.

We know of “solitaire” forms of these games, with the board made of

terebinth wood, and with crystal pieces, or with gold and silver coins

in place of the common black and white counters.

[112] In very early Roman days public records seem to have been kept on

books of _linen_; but these soon disappeared.

[113] We hear, however, of a single copy of Thucydides that required

578 pages, making a roll about 100 yards long--a most cumbersome volume.

[114] The use of flat opening books of the style later so familiar came

in before the fall of the Roman Empire, but they were apparently used

only for merchants’ ledgers, etc., in the time of Hadrian.

[115] This was the probable method of multiplying popular books, but we

lack very precise knowledge.

[116] Pliny the Younger had a favorite reader Eucolpus. When he fell

ill his master was sadly tormented: “Who will read my books and take

such an interest in them? Where can I find another with so pleasant a

reading voice?”

[117] Hadrian’s famous and pathetic poem “To his own soul” was not, of

course, composed until he lay on his death bed (138 A.D.).

[118] These men were well-known poets according again to Pliny the

Younger. The world undoubtedly gained when their verses perished.

[119] The record for a private collection--62,000 rolls, owned by the

senator Serenus, dates about 235 A.D., but there is no reason

to suppose that there were not libraries equally large under Hadrian.

[120] Concerning the actual arrangement of these public libraries we

know very little.

[121] Of course, by Hadrian’s time an increasingly large proportion of

the privates of the army was being recruited in the provinces.

[122] All these hucksters’ stalls as well as the beggars and the

playing children are depicted in certain very informing frescos in a

house at Pompeii, showing life in the forum of that little city.

[123] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 24.

[124] This form of advertisement is given in Petronius.

[125] 12 per cent (one per cent per month) was the lawful and normal

rate of interest. Greater interest could be demanded on risky ventures,

especially those by sea. Rates of 36 and 48 per cent, heard of under

the Later Republic, were excessive, and usually unlawful.

[126] These verses are from the wall of an inn in Pompeii, and the

foregoing description is that of an actual Pompeiian inn.

[127] This scene is a familiar one from Juvenal.

[128] Another scene taken from an actual bas-relief and inscription.

[129] Marcus Aurelius belonged to this rich family on his mother’s side.

[130] The real name of such a vessel.

[131] The expression “Sharer in the Public Grain Doles” appears on many

tombstones of worthy burghers, to indicate that they enjoyed the full

rights of citizenship.

[132] It became so under the Later Empire.

[133] When Commodus became Emperor in 180 A.D., the congiarium

came to the ruinous sum of 725 denarii per citizen. This was $96.00

each, if the coins were of full weight and fineness, which probably at

that period they were not.

[134] Figures given by Lucian for a craft of this type.

[135] See “A Day in Old Athens,” pp. 125–134.

[136] There was practically no naval warfare worth mentioning in

the whole course of Roman history from the battle of Actium (31

B.C.) to 323 A.D., when considerable naval fighting

took place at the time Constantine captured Byzantium from his rival

Licinius.

[137] As at Ephesus where Demetrius used the guild of the silversmiths

to start his riot against St. Paul. (Acts, 19:25.)

[138] Such improvised gaming-boards have been discovered by the

archæologists.

[139] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 216.

[140] Later than the age of Hadrian this area was occupied by such

famous structures as the Temple of Antoninus and Faustina, the Basilica

of Constantine, etc.

[141] A difficult archæological question is connected with the exact

site of the Rostra _before_ Julius Cæsar’s time. Probably its

original position was nearer the other end of the Forum.

[142] Janus was about the only Latin deity for whom there could not be

assigned a Greek counterpart.

[143] Later visitors to the Forum would, of course, be impressed with

the fine, if ornate, _Arch of Septimius Severus_, erected about

211 A.D. at the northwest corner of the plaza.

[144] The column of Marcus Aurelius, erected about 180 A.D. in

much the same style as that of Trajan, although a magnificent monument,

is not equal in execution to the older column.

[145] He magnanimously allowed Agrippa’s name still to appear as the

builder of the temple. The Pantheon apparently owed its preservation

through the Middle Ages to the fact that it was early consecrated as a

Christian church, and hence was exempt from profanation.

[146] At the end of his reign the Senate so disliked him that (although

he had been in the main an excellent ruler) his successor Antoninus had

much trouble in getting him voted a “_divus_,” as were all good

Emperors.

[147] We have no copy of the Acta Diurna. We possess, however, what

seems a pretty literal parody of its style and contents in Petronius,

and can reconstruct part of an issue with some confidence.

[148] Both of these are actual cases from the reign of Augustus.

[149] Old Latin goddesses.

[150] The only important addition after Domitian was made by

Septimius Severus, who, about 200 A.D., built the very lofty

_Septizonium_, a new palace at the south-east corner of the hill.

[151] As is, of course, well known, such emperors as Tiberius, Nero,

and Domitian were popular with the provinces, which were usually well

governed under them. Their cruelties smote mainly upon the senatorial

nobility.

[152] About 230 A.D. Alexander Severus caught a palace menial

selling gossip, and had him executed by being burned in a fire of damp

wood. “He is punished by smoke,” said the irate monarch, “who sold

‘smoke.’”

[153] The ceremony was not unlike that of the _levée_ of French kings

like Louis XIV, under the Old Régime before 1789.

[154] The Empresses would give a similar reception, however, to the

wives of their husbands’ “Friends.”

[155] Sometimes, with an affectation of democracy, almost any decently

clad person would be admitted to present petitions or merely to pay

respects. Servile prostrations before the Emperor were not encouraged

under the Early Principate; once when a petitioner went through great

bowings and scrapings while presenting a scroll to Augustus, the latter

cried testily, “You act as if you were presenting some money to an

elephant.”

[156] This was the form used by Augustus in announcing to Fabius

Maximus the withdrawal of imperial favor.

[157] Polite chatter, as reported by Horace, such as was vouchsafed by

Augustus and his great associate Mæcenas, to their social favorites.

[158] Hadrian, although not a bloody man, was so averse to being

opposed in argument that the philosopher Favorinus, with whom he took

issue on a point in etymology, promptly announced that “Caesar was

correct,” and so ended the discussion amiably. “But _you_ were

really correct,” protested Favorinus’s friends afterward. “Ah!” replied

he with a laugh, “the master of thirty legions must be allowed to know

better.”

[159] These old “Republican” officers, now six in number, retained a

certain control of the public markets, baths, taverns, etc.

[160] As discovered by modern archæologists.

[161] For the attitude of provincials under Roman rule the student can

with interest read the speech put in the mouth of King Agrippa, the

descendant of Herod, by Josephus (“Jewish War”: book II, ch. 16) in

which he tells the Jews of Nero’s day, (1) that on the whole the Roman

rule is so reasonable and tolerable they have no real cause to revolt

against it; (2) that all nations, including the most warlike such as

Sparta, Macedonia, the turbulent Gauls and Spain, have long since

submitted; (3) that these have not merely submitted but keep obedient

with only a trifling local display of armed force; (4) that resistance

to Rome is so hopeless in any case that a revolt would be impious

suicide.

[162] About 200 A.D. they were raised to 33.

[163] Its site to-day is occupied by the chief railroad station of

Rome, by which most foreign visitors enter the city and depart.

[164] An ever larger proportion of legionary troops had to be enlisted

in the provinces, although preferably in the parts somewhat Romanized.

[165] In Hadrian’s time a change was taking place whereby the first

cohort in a legion contained about twice as many men as there were

in any of the other nine; but this alteration became only gradually

effective.

[166] In the earlier Empire it was only 900 sesterces ($36).

[167] It might be added that Roman legions appear to have had a medical

department under a _medicus legionis_, which cared efficiently

for the health of the troops. Camp sanitation was well understood, and

epidemics in the army were rare.

[168] The only materials for a crown assumed to be available in a

rescued fortress.

[169] The distribution of the legions varied somewhat from one period

to another according to the probable dangers on the exposed frontiers,

but the largest armies were always stationed along the Rhine, the

Danube, and the Euphrates. In Hadrian’s time apparently the main forces

lay thus:

Britain, 3 legions.

Germany (Rhinelands), 4 legions.

Danubian lands and Dacia, 10 legions.

Syria and Palestine, 5 legions.

Cappadocia, 2 legions.

In all the other provinces requiring legionary troops at all

(_e.g._ Egypt, Spain, Numidia, etc.), only one legion.

Apparently in the second Christian century the greatest danger point

seemed near the Danube, and the second greatest along the Euphrates,

with the Rhinelands relatively more secure than earlier, when more

legions had been stationed near them.

[170] Some legions were named for their organizers: Augustus,

Claudius, etc.; some for real or alleged martial qualities, “Ferrata,”

“Fulminata,” “Victrix,” and the like; one, the “Alauda,” from the

lark’s wings worn on the helmets; several which were made by dividing

existing legions were known as “Gemina,” and some from their place of

original recruiting, “Gallica,” “Italica,” etc.

[171] The centurion to whom St. Paul’s custody was intrusted (Acts

XXVII, 1) was of the “Augustan band,” _i.e._ one of the somewhat

numerous cohorts named for Augustus--the special number not being given.

[172] Also we know from the by-laws of these soldiers’ benefit clubs

that every member was entitled to a fine funeral, to an allowance for

travel money if obliged to go on a long journey, and finally to a fixed

sum as consolation money in case he was demoted!

[173] The process of demilitarizing the population went so far that

Trajan even discouraged the organization of regular bands of firemen in

cities of Bithynia “lest they become the prey of factions”--_i.e._

somehow start a movement against the government.

[174] The Roman Empire has been rightly called a “military monarchy,”

but was such only because the disarming of the civilian population

and the extreme efficiency of the professional army put the former at

the mercy of the latter. The imperial army and navy hardly exceeded

350,000 men, and _may_ have been as small as 300,000. At the time

this book was written the United States, with a population not greatly

exceeding that of the Roman Empire, had a total of some 250,000 men in

its standing forces (army, navy, and marine corps) not counting any

organized militia. Almost nobody would have pretended that the addition

of some 100,000 men to this force could have rendered a “military

monarchy” possible in America except as very peculiar conditions

favored it--as they did in the Roman Empire.

[175] Bad Emperors, _e.g._ Domitian, made it a practice to

_speak first_ in the Curia; any senator who later opposed their

opinions was liable to charges of disloyalty. If, however, an Emperor

spoke last he also left the groundlings miserable because they might

unwittingly have opposed him.

[176] The last avowedly constitutional “Princeps” was Alexander Severus

(murdered 235 A.D.); then followed the military monarchy.

Aurelian (270–275 A.D.) took on practically all the trappings

of a despot, and with Diocletian (284 A.D.) the absolute

monarchy existed without concealment.

[177] The law required, however, a minimum of certain specified numbers

for the passing of various important kinds of decrees.

[178] He did this because as holder of the military power it

was unlawful for him to come inside the consecrated city limits

(_pomerium_); so he built a suburban Senate House outside of these

confines.

[179] So called because, being last on the Senate list, and seldom

called upon to speak, they could express themselves with their “feet”

only--_i.e._ by voting when they walked out in divisions of the

house.

[180] Under the later Empire this statue (originally set up by

Augustus) came to be looked upon as the “Palladium” of Rome and its

removal from the Senate House in 384 A.D. by Valentinian the

Second, despite vigorous protests by the pagan party, was looked upon

as an official announcement of the triumph of Christianity.

[181] The other consul in 134 A.D. was Gaius Julius Servianius. The

consuls would settle as to their presidency from day to day either by

mutual agreement, by taking turns in rotation, or by the casting of

lots.

[182] This trial follows closely the account of the prosecution of

Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, before the Senate by Pliny the

Younger and Tacitus the historian; but in Priscus’s trial the mere

oratory actually took three whole days! (See Pliny the Younger: Book

II, 11.)

[183] Any student interested in the coarse and violent personalities

permissible in speeches before the Senate, should read Cicero’s speech

“Against Piso.”

[184] Short-hand reports of the Senate meetings were taken, and

seemingly embodied everything said, including even the applause and the

unfriendly interruptions. We do not know, however, whether they were

taken by senators, or by reporters brought in for the purpose.

[185] Apparently men not of prætorian rank rather seldom got the floor,

although in highly important cases the presiding officer had to call

for _sententiæ_ down through the ex-quæstors.

[186] As did, of course, Cicero in his “Orations against Verres,” and

in other orations.

[187] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 135.

[188] Very few civil cases involving merely private rights would be

heard by the Emperor, although they might by his deputy, the Prætorian

Præfect. Claudius sometimes seems to have sat on the tribunal, out of

a pedantic sense of duty, but often falling asleep until the advocates

bawled “O Cæsar!” loudly enough to wake him.

[189] “Eloquence” was looked upon as indispensable for everybody

expecting any kind of a public career. Even in the army there was much

speech-making prior to a pitched battle. Tacitus speaks of how an army

was so utterly surprised that its general “could neither harangue

his men nor draw them up in battle array”--two operations apparently

equally necessary. (Tacitus, “History,” iv, 33.)

[190] Litigants were required by law to take oath that before the trial

they had not promised any sum to their advocates or entered into any

bargain with them. After the trial they were “allowed” to “offer” their

lawyers not over 10,000 sesterces if they wished.

[191] See “A Day in Old Athens,” p. 138.

[192] Space lacks for a discussion of the formal training of the Roman

lawyer-orators, or concerning those public recitations which sometimes

were the means of winning even greater reputation than any ordinary

successes in the courts.

Some of these recitations in hired halls, with the audience carefully

sprinkled with a paid claque, were worse than pedantic and artificial.

Pliny the Younger, although he denounced the use of a claque, repeated

with pleasure how he gave a reading from his own works and plays which

lasted two days, “necessitated by the applause of my audience”; and

boasted how he “had not allowed himself to skip one word.”

[193] The Roman week, _nundinæ_, had eight days--seven working days,

then a market day. The Jewish week of seven days (_hebdomas_) became

known to the Romans by the time of Pompeius Magnus, but it was not

generally adopted until Christianity became the state religion.

[194] Undoubtedly along with this incessant bathing there often went

the presence of much squalor, dirt, obnoxious insects, etc. which seem

inescapable in Mediterranean countries. Probably many persons injured

their health by excessive and debilitating bathing.

[195] An actual inscription. From the small provincial towns we have

other inscriptions, advertising bath-houses “in city style (_more

urbico_) and fitted with every convenience.”

[196] The great Baths of Caracalla (built _circ._ 215 A.D.) and those

of Diocletian (_circ._ 300 A.D.) were not in existence, of course,

in the days of Hadrian. Their ruins are at present among the most

imposing in Rome, and they were probably somewhat larger than the Baths

of Trajan, which are to-day nearly demolished, but their aspect and

general arrangement were hardly different.

[197] Houses near private baths were counted undesirable for residence

or investment purposes on account of the noise, which, in private

baths, often kept up late into the night.

[198] The famous group of Laocoön and his sons, now in the Vatican, was

found in the ruins of these Baths of Titus and Trajan.

[199] Petronius’s “Satyricon” gives a vivid and informing picture of

the amusements and horseplay in the thermæ.

[200] The tepidarium in the later Baths of Diocletian was about 300

feet long by 92 feet wide, but probably that in the Baths of Trajan was

somewhat smaller.

[201] The Tomb of Hadrian was not actually completed until 139

A.D.--after his death.

[202] Under the Republic the ædiles had to preside over very expensive

games. Augustus, however, turned the _Cura Ludorum_ (“supervision

of the games”) over to the prætors, and the ædiles only gave spectacles

voluntarily.

[203] In the later Empire we hear of the case of Symmachus, an

office-holder whose games cost him 2000 pounds of gold, about $400,000.

[204] Italian audiences stowed very close. According to the marking

upon the stone seats in the theater at Pompeii, only 16 inches were

allowed for each spectator.

[205] High-flying tragedies were indeed ground out by Seneca and

by many inferior literary dabblers, but these “dramas” were hardly

intended to be genuine acting plays, but only to be read aloud.

[206] The ancient orchestra was of course for the dances of the chorus

never for seating the spectators.

[207] This figure seems decidedly too high; but the present ruinous

state of the Circus Maximus makes it very difficult to determine the

number more exactly.

[208] As many as ten cars could contend at once in the greatest games.

[209] The description of the Roman-style chariot race in Lew Wallace’s

famous novel “Ben Hur” is technically as well as rhetorically admirable

and accurate. However, no high-rank Roman, such as Messala is

represented to have been, would have driven a quadriga in the public

circus. The drivers were nearly always low-born men of provincial if

not of servile origin.

[210] The Spanish bull fights at their very worst were a relatively

harmless imitation.

[211] The gladiatorial games were never introduced in Athens. Once

when, in the local council, it was proposed to imitate Rome and build

an amphitheater, a prominent philosopher quashed the whole project by

moving “first to abolish the altar of Pity.”

[212] Actual epithets bestowed on gladiators in the Pompeiian wall

inscriptions.

[213] Taken from the “Gladiator Gossip” at Trimalchio’s Dinner in

Petronius’s “Satyricon.”

[214] As we know from paintings showing the surroundings of the

Amphitheater at Pompeii.

[215] Ordinarily it is stated that there was room for about 87,000

persons in the Flavian Amphitheater. There were seats, however, for

only some 50,000, although possibly 20,000 more could find standing

room in the great upper sections.

[216] The regular gladiatorial oath.

[217] Augustus once protested against the custom of eating in the

amphitheater as being undignified and said he would prefer to go away

and return. “That is all right for _you_,” answered his hearer,

“but _your_ seat is sure to be kept for you!”

[218] There were at least two other types of heavy-armed gladiators

who are often mentioned--the “Samnites” and the “Myrmillones”; but it

hardly seems profitable to examine the small particulars in which their

arms differed from those of the “Thracians.”

[219] An actual Roman epitaph. The Epicurean theory was capable of

statement in much more pleasing language than is given above, but the

effect of such a philosophy upon the ordinary human viewpoint and

conduct was inevitable.

At the Roman colony of Thamugade in Africa, a checkerboard was found

scratched in the pavement of the Forum, and beside it this plebeian

version of the Prætor’s inscription: “_To hunt, to bathe, to gamble,

to laugh--that’s living!_”

[220] In all the extensive correspondence of Pliny the Younger there is

hardly a single reference indicating that he had any religious beliefs,

or took the least interest in religious matters save as they involved

outward ceremonies or official policies.

[221] This apparently continued true until well into the fourth

century, when the whole pagan system was swept away by Christianity.

[222] Janus had no Greek counterpart. It was one of the absurdities of

the late Græco-Latin mythology that his wife Diana (_Dia Jana_ =

“Madame Goddess Jana”) should have been confounded with Artemis.

[223] Under the later Republic these sacred colleges were filled

according to the majority vote of 17 tribes of the people, selected

by lot from the entire 35 tribes into which the Comitia Tributa was

divided.

[224] In early times the Pontifex Maximus also kept a kind of dry

annals of sacred and profane events (_Annales Maximi_), valuable

for the preservation of many facts in early Roman history.

[225] A general in the field had to “take the auspices” to get good

omens for his army, but of course he could not always have an augur

present. Once in the first Punic War, Publius Claudius, a consul about

to engage in a naval battle, was disgusted to be told, “The chickens

will not eat.” “Very well then,” he retorted, “let them drink!” and

flung them into the sea. To his own ruin and to the vindication of

the official religion he was thereupon completely defeated by the

Carthaginians!

[226] These plants (_verbenæ_) seem to have been grown within one

special inclosure on the Capitol hill. They were carried by one of the

fetiales known as the _verbenarius_.

[227] A rustic goddess sometimes also called Ops.

[228] For a translation of this “Song of the Arval Brethren,” see the

author’s “Readings in Ancient History,” vol. II, p. 6.

[229] As is well known Tiberius in his ignoble retirement on the

Isle of Capri surrounded himself with “Chaldæans” and other types of

stargazers and magicians.

[230] There were a few isolated survivals in Italy of the practices of

ancient savagery. For example at Aricia, in Latium about 16 miles from

Rome, there was a holy grove of Diana wherein the priest was always a

runaway slave who obtained his position by killing his predecessor.

He was then safe from pursuit as long as he remained in the grove,

until another fugitive slave in turn killed him--and so on through a

succession of tragedies!

[231] Pigs were very common Roman offerings and were the regular

victims in most of the rustic sacrifices.

[232] Slightly adapted from the form of prayer given in Cato the

Elder’s “Handbook on Agriculture.”

[233] This qualification of patrician birth was sometimes waived under

the Empire, when genuine old-line patricians had become extremely few,

but great pains were taken as to all the other requirements.

[234] Alone of all the important buildings in Rome, the Atrium Vestæ

had no piped water-supply; everything had to be borne in by the vestals

or (for non-religious purposes) by their numerous attendants.

[235] This did not prevent Vestals from attending the arena spectacles.

The gladiators and persons thrown to the beasts had in theory a chance

for life.

[236] It was quite proper to play “April Fool” jokes at the Saturnalia:

_e.g._ to present what seemed a platter of delicious food when all

the viands were actually of clay.

[237] Substantially on the scale of “Christmas presents.”

[238] Owing to rough dealings with the Senate, Hadrian himself came

near missing deification, but Antoninus won his title of “Pius” by

his zeal for vindicating his adoptive father’s memory. Antoninus Pius

himself and Marcus Aurelius after him were, of course, promptly deified.

[239] Much of what we know of these cults of the pagan Orient comes

from early Christian writers who have no hesitation in betraying the

“Mysteries,” but whose statements naturally are often biased and very

incomplete.

[240] The quotations are from Apuleius, “The Golden Ass” (book XI,

_passim_), and are given at greater length in the author’s

“Readings from Ancient History,” vol. II (Rome), pp. 282–284.

[241] Technically he was the highest archangel under the one actual god

Ahura-Mazda, but the Persian “magi” soon attributed to him practical

divinity.

[242] Nearly all our evidence for Mithraism is archæological; we

know little of either its doctrines or its ritual. Apparently it had

a system of priests not unlike the Christian clergy and a ceremony

resembling the Christian sacrament. It owed its success largely to

the real nobility of its doctrines, but could not in the end maintain

itself by appealing simply to a remote myth, while Christianity was

able to appeal to a personal Founder.

[243] Mithras worship was only beginning to be important in the Age of

Hadrian, and the Taurobolium was then still comparatively rare; by 200

A.D. it had become decidedly common; by 300 A.D. it

was very frequent indeed.

[244] From the age of Augustus to that of Nero Judaism had a

considerable popularity in Rome. Its austere monotheism coupled with

the mysterious Mosaic law and ceremonies made a considerable appeal

to public opinion, and many fashionable persons--including apparently

Nero’s Empress, the notorious Poppæa Sabina--gave “Jewish doctrines”

a superficial patronage. It was also somewhat the fad to treat the

Hebrew Sabbath as a kind of “holy day.” All this favor collapsed after

the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus. The Jews became a scattered

and persecuted sect, without influence. As for Christianity, after 70

A.D. it lost nearly all its Jewish element and became pretty

strictly a Gentile religion.

[245] Tacitus undoubtedly obtained his statement about Christ and

Pilate from the official government reports in the Roman Record Office.

There is no reason to suppose that he, any more than his friend Pliny,

investigated Christian sources.

[246] The following are _some_ only of the reasons why the Roman

government insisted on persecuting the Christians, despite its usual

policy of religious tolerance:

1. The Christians persistently refused to sacrifice to the

deified Emperors and to the Genius of the reigning Emperor,

an act practically amounting in common opinion to a denial

of loyalty to the government, or at least capable of that

construction.

2. The Christians demanded the repudiation of the old gods,

including, of course, the official gods of Rome; they were not

content with simply worshiping “Christus” along with Jupiter,

Apollo, etc. as were for example the devotees of Isis.

3. The Christians maintained a tight interior organization,

separate socially from the pagans, under the control of its

bishops, presbyters, and deacons, and so far as possible judging

the disputes of its members. This seemed meddling with political

matters, a ticklish business with any Emperor.

4. The private meetings of the Christians, and the

misconstructions laid upon their ceremonies, gave rise to the

vilest possible stories.

5. The great proportion of slaves and of the lowest grade of

plebeians in the early Church seemed to justify the belief that

here was a subversive, degraded, and illicit movement.

[247] An actual wall-picture. For the charges here given against

Christian assemblies and for many gross details, see Minucius Felix

(“Octavius” VIII, 9.), who quotes the stories in order to refute them.

It seems needless in a book concerned strictly with pagan Rome, to

discuss the actual tenets and liturgies of the Early Christians. The

only point to be understood here is the vile character of the charges

brought against them by the ignorant heathen.

[248] Probably the Roman carriages were more convenient than anything

known later in Europe prior to 1800; and travel facilities in general

were as good, the inns possibly averaging worse but the roads decidedly

better, than at the dawn of the Nineteenth Century.

[249] The following is an abridgment of Pliny the Younger’s well-known

description of his Tuscan villa.

[250] The Romans delighted in formal and highly artificial gardens such

as were in vogue in the Italian Renaissance and the France of Louis XIV.

[251] Well known, of course, is the famous dictum of Gibbon (“Decline

and Fall of Roman Empire”: vol. i, chap. 2. Bury edition, p. 78): “If

a man were called to fix the period during which the condition of the

human race was most happy and prosperous he would, without hesitation,

name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of

Commodus.” From the standpoint of a believer in aristocracy or monarchy

this opinion is largely justifiable.

[252] Where according to firm Christian tradition St. Paul was beheaded

in the days of Nero, having been rearrested after having once been set

at liberty.

[252] Where according to firm Christian tradition St. Paul was beheaded

in the days of Nero, having been rearrested after having once been set

at liberty.

Transcriber’s Notes:

1. Obvious printers’, punctuation and spelling errors have been

corrected silently.

2. Where hyphenation is in doubt, it has been retained as in the

original.

3. Some hyphenated and non-hyphenated versions of the same words have

been retained as in the original.

4. Italics are shown as _xxx_.

5. Bold print is shown as =xxx=.