Most probably Antony knew the imputation to be unfounded, and made it for
the purpose of excusing his own marriage with Cleopatra.]
[Footnote 202: This form of adoption consisted in a fictitious sale. See
Cicero, Topic. iii.]
[Footnote 203: Curiae. Romulus divided the people of Rome into three
tribes; and each tribe into ten Curiae. The number of tribes was
afterwards increased by degrees to thirty-five; but that of the Curiae
always remained the same.]
[Footnote 204: She was removed to Reggio in Calabria.]
[Footnote 205: Agrippa was first banished to the little desolate island
of Planasia, now Pianosa. It is one of the group in the Tuscan sea,
between Elba and Corsica.]
[Footnote 206: A quotation from the Iliad, 40, iii.; where Hector is
venting his rage on Paris. The inflexion is slightly changed, the line in
the original commencing, “Aith’ opheles, etc., would thou wert, etc.”]
[Footnote 207: Women called ustriculae, the barbers, were employed in
thin delicate operation. It is alluded to by Juvenal, ix. 4, and Martial,
v. 61.]
[Footnote 208: Cybele.--Gallus was either the name of a river in Phrygia,
supposed to cause a certain frenzy in those who drank of its waters, or
the proper name of the first priest of Cybele.]
[Footnote 209: A small drum, beat by the finger or thumb, was used by the
priests of Cybele in their lascivious rites and in other orgies of a
similar description, These drums were made of inflated skin, circular in
shape, so that they had some resemblance to the orb which, in the statues
of the emperor, he is represented as holding in his hand. The populace,
with the coarse humour which was permitted to vent itself freely at the
spectacles, did not hesitate to apply what was said in the play of the
lewd priest of Cybele, to Augustus, in reference to the scandals attached
to his private character. The word cinaedus, translated “wanton,” might
have been rendered by a word in vulgar use, the coarsest in the English
language, and there is probably still more in the allusion too indelicate
to be dwelt upon.]
[Footnote 210: Mark Antony makes use of fondling diminutives of the names
of Tertia, Terentia, and Rufa, some of Augustus’s favourites.]
[Footnote 211: Dodekatheos; the twelve Dii Majores; they are enumerated
in two verses by Ennius:--
Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars;
Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.]
[Footnote 212: Probably in the Suburra, where Martial informs us that
torturing scourges were sold:
Tonatrix Suburrae faucibus sed et primis,
Cruenta pendent qua flagella tortorum. Mart. xi. 15, 1.]
[Footnote 213: Like the gold and silver-smiths of the middle ages, the
Roman money-lenders united both trades. See afterwards, NERO, c. 5. It
is hardly necessary to remark that vases or vessels of the compound metal
which went by the name of Corinthian brass, or bronze, were esteemed even
more valuable than silver plate.]
[Footnote 214: See c. xxxii. and note.]
[Footnote 215: The Romans, at their feasts, during the intervals of
drinking, often played at dice, of which there were two kinds, the
tesserae and tali. The former had six sides, like the modern dice; the
latter, four oblong sides, for the two ends were not regarded. In
playing, they used three tesserae and four tali, which were all put into a
box wider below than above, and being shaken, were thrown out upon the
gaming-board or table.]
[Footnote 216: The highest cast was so called.]
[Footnote 217: Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruins
of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine.]
[Footnote 218: Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban
Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked.]
[Footnote 219: It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of
apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the
sun.]
[Footnote 220: This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It was
common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment
called the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, “O mare! O littus!
verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?” O
sea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do
you not discover to us, how much do you teach us!--Epist. i. 9.]
[Footnote 221: Mecaenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill,
celebrated for their salubrity--]