Into the land of Greece I will transport thee.
[424] Alluding, in the case of Romulus, to the rape of the Sabines; and
in that of Augustus to his having taken Livia from her husband.--
AUGUSTUS, c. lxii.
[425] Selene was the daughter of Mark Antony by Cleopatra.
[426] See c. xii.
[427] The vast area of the Roman amphitheatres had no roof, but the
audience were protected against the sun and bad weather by temporary
hangings stretched over it.
[428] A proverbial expression, meaning, without distinction.
[429] The islands off the coast of Italy, in the Tuscan sea and in the
Archipelago, were the usual places of banishment. See before, c. xv.;
and in TIBERIUS, c. liv., etc.
[430] Anticyra, an island in the Archipelago, was famous for the growth
of hellebore. This plant being considered a remedy for insanity, the
proverb arose--Naviga in Anticyram, as much as to say, "You are mad."
[431] Meaning the province in Asia, called Galatia, from the Gauls who
conquered it, and occupied it jointly with the Greek colonists.
[432] A quotation from the tragedy of Atreus, by L. Attius, mentioned by
Cicero. Off. i. 28.
[433] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxxi.
[434] These celebrated words are generally attributed to Nero; but Dio
and Seneca agree with Suetonius in ascribing them to Caligula.
[435] Gladiators were distinguished by their armour and manner of
fighting. Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, a
shield, a sword, or a leaden ball. Others, the usual antagonists of the
former, were named Retiarii. A combatant of this class was dressed in a
short tunic, but wore nothing on his head. He carried in his left hand a
three-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net,
with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over his
head, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usually
slew him. But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too short
or too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured to
prepare his net for a second cast. His antagonist, in the mean time,
pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him.
[436] AUGUSTUS, c. xxiii.
[437] TIBERIUS, c. xl.
[438] See before, c. xix.
[439] Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led the victim to
the altar. They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked to the
waist. The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seem to
he brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. For the same reason,
it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thought a very
unfavourable sign if it got away.
[440] Plato de Repub. xi.; and Cicero and Tull. xlviii.
[441] The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who was killed in
single combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, was worn by
the lineal male descendants of the Manlian family. But that illustrious
race becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as the cognomen of
Torquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of Caius Nonius
Asprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from the family
of Manlius.
[442] Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair, from
which Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen. But of
what badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of the Cincinnati,
unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them all shaved--a
practice we find mentioned just below--history does not inform us, nor
are we able to conjecture.
[443] The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held his office by his
prowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offer human
sacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in the
adjacent forest. The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among the
deep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a short
distance from Rome--nemus signifying a grove. Julius Caesar had a
residence there. See his Life, c. lxxi. The venerable woods are still
standing, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girth
and vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era of
the Caesars. The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in a
hollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, still
preserve the name of Nemi.
[444] An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the light
carriage described in a former note, p. 264.
[445] See before, JULIUS, c. x., and note.
[446] Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. xix. The practice of
encroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before,--
Jactis in altum molibus.--Hor. Od. B. iii. 1. 34.
[447] Most of the gladiators were slaves.
[448] The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus and
Tiberius.
[449] Mevania, a town of Umbria. Its present name is Bevagna. The
Clitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed of
white cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures.
[450] Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition to Britain at the
time of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c. xiii.; but if
Julius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in this island, it was very
improbable that a prince of Caligula's character would ever seriously
attempt it, and we shall presently see that the whole affair turned out a
farce.
[451] It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coast which was
signalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed by
the erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum,
and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of the
Morini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and which became
the usual place of departure for the transit to Britain.
[452] The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence or eight
pence of our money.
[453] Probably to Anticyra. See before, c. xxix. note
[454] The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invaded Italy
A.U.C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus.
[455] The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled in Umbria,
who sacked and pillaged Rome A.U.C. 363.
[456] By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc., are meant; so
that we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire, and
removing the seat of government, which were long afterwards realized in
the time of Constantine.
[457] See AUGUSTUS, c. xviii.
[458] About midnight, the watches being divided into four.
[459] Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature of this
instrument. Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort of cymbal
or castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancient statue
preserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented with cymbals in
his hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe of his left
foot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way of an
accordion.
[460] The port of Rome.
[461] The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusements of the
circus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had their
favourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished by
the colour of the party to which they belonged. See before, c. xviii.,
and TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.
[462] In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula's celebrated horse
might, perhaps, be translated "Go a-head."
[463] Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of the assassination
of Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdaining it, or
because an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted to make
his escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind the palace.
Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attract
attention, some of the frescos being in good preservation. See the
account in Josephus, xix. 1, 2.
[464] The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae. They
had gardens on the Esquiline mount.
End of Project Gutenberg's Caius Caesar Caligula (Caligula),
by C. Suetonius Tranquillus