The expedition of Plautius took place A.U.C. 796., A.D. 44.]

[Footnote 503: Carpentum: see note in CALIGULA, c. xv.]

[Footnote 504: The Aemiliana, so called because it contained the

monuments of the family of that name, was a suburb of Rome, on the Via

Lata, outside the gate.]

[Footnote 505: The Diribitorium was a house in the Flaminian Circus,

begun by Agrippa, and finished by Augustus, in which soldiers were

mustered and their pay distributed; from whence it derived its name. When

the Romans went to give their votes at the election of magistrates, they

were conducted by officers named Diribitores. It is possible that one and

the same building may have been used for both purposes.]

The Flaminian Circus was without the city walls, in the Campus Martius.

The Roman college now stands on its site.]

[Footnote 506: A law brought in by the consuls Papius Mutilus and Quintus

Poppaeus; respecting which, see AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]

[Footnote 507: The Fucine Lake is now called Lago di Celano, in the

Farther Abruzzi. It is very extensive, but shallow, so that the

difficulty of constructing the Claudian emissary, can scarcely be compared

to that encountered in a similar work for lowering the level of the waters

in the Alban lake, completed A.U.C. 359.]

[Footnote 508: Respecting the Claudian aqueduct, see CALIGULA, c. xxi.]

[Footnote 509: Ostia is referred to in a note, TIBERIUS, c. xi.]

[Footnote 510: Suetonius calls this “the great obelisk” in comparison

with those which Augustus had placed in the Circus Maximus and Campus

Martius. The one here mentioned was erected by Caligula in his Circus,

afterwards called the Circus of Nero. It stood at Heliopolis, having been

dedicated to the sun, as Herodotus informs us, by Phero, son of Sesostris,

in acknowledgment of his recovery from blindness. It was removed by Pope

Sixtus V. in 1586, under the celebrated architect, Fontana, to the centre

of the area before St. Peter’s, in the Vatican, not far from its former

position. This obelisk is a solid piece of red granite, without

hieroglyphics, and, with the pedestal and ornaments at the top, is 182

feet high. The height of the obelisk itself is 113 palms, or 84 feet.]

[Footnote 511: Pliny relates some curious particulars of this ship: “A

fir tree of prodigious size was used in the vessel which, by the command

of Caligula, brought the obelisk from Egypt, which stands in the Vatican

Circus, and four blocks of the same sort of stone to support it. Nothing

certainly ever appeared on the sea more astonishing than this vessel;

120,000 bushels of lentiles served for its ballast; the length of it

nearly equalled all the left side of the port of Ostia; for it was sent

there by the emperor Claudius. The thickness of the tree was as much as

four men could embrace with their arms.”--B. xvi. c. 76.]

[Footnote 512: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi. It appears to have been often a

prey to the flames, TIBERIUS, c. xli.; CALIGULA, c. xx.]

[Footnote 513: Contrary to the usual custom of rising and saluting the

emperor without acclamations.]

[Footnote 514: A.U.C. 800.]

[Footnote 515: The Secular Games had been celebrated by Augustus, A.U.C.

736. See c. xxxi. of his life, and the Epode of Horace written on the

occasion.]

[Footnote 516: In the circus which he had himself built.]

[Footnote 517: Tophina; Tuffo, a porous stone of volcanic origin, which

abounds in the neighbourhood of Rome, and, with the Travertino, is

employed in all common buildings.]

[Footnote 518: In compliment to the troops to whom he owed his elevation:

see before, c. xi.]

[Footnote 519: Palumbus was a gladiator: and Claudius condescended to pun

upon his name, which signifies a wood-pigeon.]

[Footnote 520: See before, c. xvii. Described is c. xx and note.]

[Footnote 521: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. xxxiv.]

[Footnote 522: To reward his able services as commander of the army in

Britain. See before, c. xvii.]

[Footnote 523: German tribes between the Elbe and the Weser, whose chief

seat was at Bremen, and others about Ems or Lueneburg.]

[Footnote 524: This island in the Tiber, opposite the Campus Martius, is

said to have been formed by the corn sown by Tarquin the Proud on that

consecrated field, and cut down and thrown by order of the consuls into

the river. The water being low, it lodged in the bed of the stream, and

gradual deposits of mud raising it above the level of the water, it was in

course of time covered with buildings. Among these was the temple of

Aesculapius, erected A.U.C. 462, to receive the serpent, the emblem of

that deity which was brought to Rome in the time of a plague. There is a

coin of Antoninus Pius recording this event, and Lumisdus has preserved

copies of some curious votive inscriptions in acknowledgment of cures

which were found in its ruins, Antiquities of Rome, p. 379.

It was common for the patient after having been exposed some nights in the

temple, without being cured, to depart and put an end to his life.

Suetonius here informs us that slaves so exposed, at least obtained their

freedom.]

[Footnote 525: Which were carried on the shoulders of slaves. This

prohibition had for its object either to save the wear and tear in the

narrow streets, or to pay respect to the liberties of the town.]

[Footnote 526: See the note in c. i. of this life of CLAUDIUS.]

[Footnote 527: Seleucus Philopater, son of Antiochus the Great, who being

conquered by the Romans, the succeeding kings of Syria acknowledged the

supremacy of Rome.]

[Footnote 528: Suetonius has already, in TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi., mentioned

the expulsion of the Jews from Rome, and this passage confirms the

conjecture, offered in the note, that the Christians were obscurely

alluded to in the former notice. The antagonism between Christianity and

Judaism appears to have given rise to the tumults which first led the

authorities to interfere. Thus much we seem to learn from both passages:

but the most enlightened men of that age were singularly ill-informed on

the stupendous events which had recently occurred in Judaea, and we find

Suetonius, although he lived at the commencement of the first century of

the Christian aera, when the memory of these occurrences was still fresh,

and it might be supposed, by that time, widely diffused, transplanting

Christ from Jerusalem to Rome, and placing him in the time of Claudius,

although the crucifixion took place during the reign of Tiberius.

St. Luke, Acts xviii. 2, mentions the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by

the emperor Claudius: Dio, however, says that he did not expel them, but

only forbad their religious assemblies.

It was very natural for Suetonius to write Chrestus instead of Christus,

as the former was a name in use among the Greeks and Romans. Among

others, Cicero mentions a person of that name in his Fam. Ep. 11. 8.]

[Footnote 529: Pliny tells us that Druidism had its origin in Gaul, and

was transplanted into Britain, xxi. 1. Julius Caesar asserts just the

contrary, Bell. Gall. vi. 13, 11. The edict of Claudius was not carried

into effect; at least, we find vestiges of Druidism in Gaul, during the

reigns of Nero and Alexander Severus.]

[Footnote 530: The Eleusinian mysteries were never transferred from

Athens to Rome, notwithstanding this attempt of Claudius, and although

Aurelius Victor says that Adrian effected it.]

[Footnote 531: A.U.C. 801.]

[Footnote 532: A.U.C. 773.]

[Footnote 533: It would seem from this passage, that the cognomen of “the

Great,” had now been restored to the descendants of Cneius Pompey, on whom

it was first conferred.]

[Footnote 534: A.U.C. 806.]

[Footnote 535: A.U.C. 803.]

[Footnote 536: This is the Felix mentioned in the Acts, cc. xxiii. and

xxiv., before whom St. Paul pleaded. He is mentioned by Josephus; and

Tacitus, who calls him Felix Antonius, gives his character: Annal. v, 9.

6.]

[Footnote 537: It appears that two of these wives of Felix were named

Drusilla. One, mentioned Acts xxiv. 24, and there called a Jewess, was the

sister of king Agrippa, and had married before, Azizus, king of the

Emessenes. The other Drusilla, though not a queen, was of royal birth,

being the granddaughter of Cleopatra by Mark Antony. Who the third wife

of Felix was, is unknown.]

[Footnote 538: Tacitus and Josephus mention that Pallas was the brother

of Felix, and the younger Pliny ridicules the pompous inscription on his

tomb.]

[Footnote 539: A.U.C. 802.]

[Footnote 540: The Salii, the priests of Mars, twelve in number, were

instituted by Numa. Their dress was an embroidered tunic, bound with a

girdle ornamented with brass. They wore on their head a conical cap, of a

considerable height; carried a sword by their side; in their right hand a

spear or rod, and in their left, one of the Ancilia, or shields of Mars.

On solemn occasions, they used to go to the Capitol, through the Forum and

other public parts of the city, dancing and singing sacred songs, said to

have been composed by Numa; which, in the time of Horace, could hardly be

understood by any one, even the priests themselves. The most solemn

procession of the Salii was on the first of March, in commemoration of the

time when the sacred shield was believed to have fallen from heaven, in

the reign of Numa. After their procession, they had a splendid

entertainment, the luxury of which was proverbial.]

[Footnote 541: Scaliger and Casauhon give Teleggenius as the reading of

the best manuscripts. Whoever he was, his name seems to have been a

bye-word for a notorious fool.]

[Footnote 542: Titus Livius, the prince of Roman historians, died in the

fourth year of the reign of Tiberius, A.U.C. 771; at which time Claudius

was about twenty-seven years old, having been born A.U.C. 744.]

[Footnote 543: Asinius Gallus was the son of Asinius Pollio, the famous

orator, and had written a hook comparing his father with Cicero, and

giving the former the preference.]

[Footnote 544: Quintilian informs us, that one of the three new letters

the emperor Claudius attempted to introduce, was the Aeolic digamma, which

had the same force as v consonant. Priscian calls another anti-signs, and

says that the character proposed was two Greek sigmas, back to back, and

that it was substituted for the Greek ps. The other letter is not known,

and all three soon fell into disuse.]

[Footnote 545: Caesar by birth, not by adoption, as the preceding

emperors had been, and as Nero would be, if he succeeded.]

[Footnote 546: Tacitus informs us, that the poison was prepared by

Locusta, of whom we shall hear, NERO, c. xxxiii. etc.]

[Footnote 547: A.U.C. 806; A.D. 54.]

[Footnote 548: A.U.C. 593, 632, 658, 660, 700, 722, 785.]

[Footnote 549: A.U.C. 632.]

[Footnote 550: A.U.C. 639, 663.]

[Footnote 551: For the distinction between the praenomen and cognomen,

see note, p. 192.]

[Footnote 552: A.U.C. 632.]

[Footnote 553: The Allobroges were a tribe of Gauls, inhabiting Dauphiny

and Savoy; the Arverni have left their name in Auvergne.]

[Footnote 554: A.U.C. 695.]

[Footnote 555: A.U.C. 700.]

[Footnote 556: A.U.C. 711.]

[Footnote 557: A.U.C. 723.]

[Footnote 558: Nais seems to have been a freedwoman, who had been allowed

to adopt the family name of her master.]

[Footnote 559: By one of those fictions of law, which have abounded in

all systems of jurisprudence, a nominal alienation of his property was

made in the testator’s life-time.]

[Footnote 560: The suggestion offered (note, p. 123), that the

Argentarii, like the goldsmiths of the middle ages, combined the business

of bankers, or money-changers, with dealings in gold and silver plate, is

confirmed by this passage. It does not, however, appear that they were

artificers of the precious metals, though they dealt in old and current

coins, sculptured vessels, gems, and precious stones.]

[Footnote 561: Pyrgi was a town of the ancient Etruria, near Antium, on

the sea-coast, but it has long been destroyed.]

[Footnote 562: A.U.C. 791; A.D. 39.]

[Footnote 563: The purification, and giving the name, took place, among

the Romans, in the case of boys, on the ninth, and of girls, on the tenth

day. The customs of the Judaical law were similar. See Matt. i. 59-63;

Luke iii. 21. 22.]

[Footnote 564: A.U.C. 806.]

[Footnote 565: Seneca, the celebrated philosophical writer, had been

released from exile in Corsica, shortly before the death of Tiberius. He

afterwards fell a sacrifice to the jealousy and cruelty of his former

pupil, Nero.]

[Footnote 566: Caligula.]

[Footnote 567: A.U.C. 809--A.D. 57.]

[Footnote 568: Antium, the birth-place of Nero, an ancient city of the

Volscians, stood on a rocky promontory of the coast, now called Capo d’

Anzo, about thirty-eight miles from Rome. Though always a place of some

naval importance, it was indebted to Nero for its noble harbour. The

ruins of the moles yet remain; and there are vestiges of the temples and

villas of the town, which was the resort of the wealthy Romans, it being a

most delightful winter residence. The Apollo Belvidere was discovered

among these ruins.]

[Footnote 569: A.U.C. 810.]

[Footnote 570: The Podium was part of the amphitheatre, near the

orchestra, allotted to the senators, and the ambassadors of foreign

nations; and where also was the seat of the emperor, of the person who

exhibited the games, and of the Vestal Virgins. It projected over the

wall which surrounded the area of the amphitheatre, and was raised between

twelve and fifteen feet above it; secured with a breast-work or parapet

against the irruption of wild beasts.]

[Footnote 571: A.U.C. 813.]

[Footnote 572: The baths of Nero stood to the west of the Pantheon. They

were, probably, incorporated with those afterwards constructed by

Alexander Severus; but no vestige of them remains. That the former were

magnificent, we may infer from the verses of Martial:

--------Quid Nerone pejus?

Quid thermis melius Neronianis.--B. vii. ch. 34.

What worse than Nero?

What better than his baths?]

[Footnote 573: Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shaved

the beard was marked with particular ceremony. It was usually in their

twenty-first year, but the period varied. Caligula (c. x.) first shaved

at twenty; Augustus at twenty-five.]

[Footnote 574: A.U.C. 819. See afterwards, c. xxx.]

[Footnote 575: A.U.C. 808, 810, 811, 813.]

[Footnote 576: The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victuals

or money were carried. The word was in consequence applied to the public

entertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu of

it.]

[Footnote 577: “Superstitionis novae et maleficae,” are the words of

Suetonius; the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment.

Suidas relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon--“Ye have

loaded me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person.” Tacitus calls

the Christian religion “a foreign and deadly [Footnote exitiabilis:

superstition,” Annal. xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan,

“a depraved, wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition.” Epist. x.

97.]

Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman

Christians by Nero. He says that they were subjected to the derision of

the people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn to

pieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or condemned

to be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to lighten the

darkness, Nero’s own gardens being used for the spectacle. Annal. xv. 44.

Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul at

Rome, under the reign of Nero. The legends are given by Ordericus

Vitalis. See vol. i. of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. pp. 206, etc.,

with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they are

founded.]

[Footnote 578: Claudius had received the submission of some of the

British tribes. See c. xvii. of his Life. In the reign of Nero, his

general, Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat of

the Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty. The successes of

Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably the

cause of Nero’s wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reduced

London, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of the

Romans and their British allies. She was, however, at length defeated by

Suetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities. See Tacit.

Agric. xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. xiv. 29.]

[Footnote 579: The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chain

of the Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans

the Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]

[Footnote 580: It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a

navigable canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the

circumnavigation of the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan,

which, even in our days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and

CALIGULA, c. xxi.]

[Footnote 581: Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by

the narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the

country washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between

the Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north of

Teflis, and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and

the Circassian tribes.]

[Footnote 582: Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his

singing gave an accompaniment on the harp.]

[Footnote 583: It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek

colony, and consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular

tongue.]

[Footnote 584: See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.]

[Footnote 585: Of the strange names given to the different modes of

applauding in the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees;

the second from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third

from the tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.]

[Footnote 586: Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose

incestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, in

consequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she

killed herself. It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero

was performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. “He

is labouring in child-birth.”]

[Footnote 587: A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the

same name in Epirus.]

[Footnote 588: The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was

so called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about

Rome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and

improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it

became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and

surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect

the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius

(c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. This

vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which

religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny,

three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000

spectators; so that Juvenal says,

“Totam hodie Romam circus capit.”--Sat. xi. 195.

This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.

“That on its public shews unpeopled Rome.”--Letter to Lord Halifax.

The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine

and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from

which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that

height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of it

remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a

tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details of

its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton’s

Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]

[Footnote 589: The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c.

xxxvii.]

[Footnote 590: Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty

so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to

her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St.

Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at

Rome. The Apostle speaks of the “Saints in Caesar’s household.”--Phil.

iv. 22.]

[Footnote 591: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]

[Footnote 592: A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]

[Footnote 593: It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with

flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal.

xiv. 2, 3.]

[Footnote 594: Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur,

libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]

[Footnote 595: Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the

freedman’s proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat

equivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. xv.]

[Footnote 596: The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero’s

mother, Agrippina.]

[Footnote 597: See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or

the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor’s

expense.]

[Footnote 598: Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth

of the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by

Pliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages,

as we find in Ordericus Vitalis.]

[Footnote 599: The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the

interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and

their skill in throwing the dart.]

[Footnote 600: The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was

enlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS,

cc. xxix., lvii.). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula

extended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.). Tacitus gives a similar

account with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works

of Nero. Annal. xv. c. xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline

hill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now

stands. We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c.

xv. of his life is the present work.]

[Footnote 601: The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the

house, which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates,

worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city

and temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same;

and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however,

different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, of

human. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who

were not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said,

were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former

also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.]

[Footnote 602: A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while

the Latin morari, from moror, means “to dwell,” or “continue.”]

[Footnote 603: A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.]

[Footnote 604: From whence the “Procul, O procul este profani!” of the

poet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.]

[Footnote 605: See before, c. xii.]

[Footnote 606: Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and

built the amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv. He is

mentioned by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.]

[Footnote 607: Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of

soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances of

the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island of

Pandataria.]

[Footnote 608: A.U.C. 813.]

[Footnote 609: Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of

Caius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the

circumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate,

which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa,

near Rome.--Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.]

[Footnote 610: This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in

which Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c.

xvii. and xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.]

[Footnote 611: See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.]

[Footnote 612: The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have

given an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortly

noticed by Plutarch.]

[Footnote 613: See before, c. xix.]

[Footnote 614: This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the

beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64. It was imputed to the

Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and

the note.]

[Footnote 615: The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813. Xiphilinus

(lxii. p. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with

which the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the

emperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds another

cause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and

soldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir.

His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen

reduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the

Britons flew to arms. See c. xviii., and the note.]

[Footnote 616: Neonymphon; alluding to Nero’s unnatural nuptials with

Sporus or Pythagoras. See cc. xxviii. xxix. It should be neonymphos.]

[Footnote 617: “Sustulit” has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear

away, and put out of the way.]

[Footnote 618: The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was

Paean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.]

[Footnote 619: Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was

swallowing up all Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve

miles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius

informs us, (lib. ii. p. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a very

accurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell’s admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF

ROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn’s Edition.]

[Footnote 620: Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to

have been a musical instrument on the same principle as our present

organs, only that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. ix.)

mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It is

also well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv. The pneumatic organ

appears to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniate

medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon which

one or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the bust of

the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUS

ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is the

organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on each

side.]

[Footnote 621: A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which

was strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their

bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.]

[Footnote 622: The words on the ticket about the emperor’s neck, are

supposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina’s,

or the people’s. It alludes to the punishment due to him for his

parricide. By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any

near relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with

a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a

deep river.]

[Footnote 623: Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.]

[Footnote 624: Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the

propraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The word

also signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence

vindicate, vindictive, etc.]

[Footnote 625: Aen. xii. 646.]

[Footnote 626: The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to

fetch salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near the

gardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis,

Agonalis, and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered.]

[Footnote 627: The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine

town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It was

also called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now

called Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls

of Rome. The country-house of Nero’s freedman, where he ended his days,

stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there

was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]

[Footnote 628: This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easy

for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline

quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it

(after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp

so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the

soldiers.]

[Footnote 629: Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he

drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]

[Footnote 630: Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for

the funeral pile,]

[Footnote 631: This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was

spoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps,

betrays the disturbed state of Nero’s mind.]

[Footnote 632: II. x. 535.]

[Footnote 633: Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian

Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire.

In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of

the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated.

Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others,

that of the “Dying Gladiator.” The situation was airy and healthful,

commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in

Rome.]

[Footnote 634: Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of

the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are

preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit,

carried across the “Collis Hortulorum.” Those ancient remains, declining

from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.--The Lunan marble was

brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer

exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of

Spezzia.--Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades.

It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]

[Footnote 635: See c. x1i.]

[Footnote 636: The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis

deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]

[Footnote 637: A.U.C. 821--A.D. 69.]

[Footnote 638: We have here one of the incidental notices which are so

valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he

writes. See also just before, c. lii.]

[Footnote 639: Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.]

[Footnote 640: The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,

“The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,

And poets sage,”--Spenser’s Faerie Queen.

is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had

this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the

Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and

the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant

of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the

Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the

bay.]

[Footnote 641: The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that

dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family

pretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]

[Footnote 642: A.U.C. 821.]

[Footnote 643: The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the

entrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been a

large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Three

sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, were

marble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the other

two sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of what

each member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium the

nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with her

maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of the

ancient Romans, was their principal employment.]

[Footnote 644: He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.]

[Footnote 645: A.U.C. 604.]

[Footnote 646: A.U.C. 710.]

[Footnote 647: A.U.C 775.]

[Footnote 648: A.U.C. 608.]

[Footnote 649: Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor’s brother, had been

consul A.U.C. 774.]

[Footnote 650: A.U.C. 751.]

[Footnote 651: Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its

original name, lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and

xxxix.]

[Footnote 652: Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.]

[Footnote 653: A.U.C. 751.]

[Footnote 654: The widow of the emperor Augustus.]

[Footnote 655: Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his

own testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by

Caligula. “Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae

Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia

repraesentate persolvit.” CALIG. c. xvi.]

[Footnote 656: A.U.C. 786.]

[Footnote 657: Caius Caesar Caligula. He gave the command of the legions

in Germany to Galba.]

[Footnote 658: “Scuto moderatus;” another reading in the parallel passage

of Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of a

shield.]

[Footnote 659: It would appear that Galba was to have accompanied

Claudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS,

c. xvii.]

[Footnote 660: It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of the

ancients is now the province of Biscay.]

[Footnote 661: Now Carthagena.]

[Footnote 662: A.U.C. 821.]

[Footnote 663: Now Corunna.]

[Footnote 664: Tortosa, on the Ebro.]

[Footnote 665: “Simus,” literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used for

a clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his long

retirement. See c. viii. Indeed, they called Spain his farm.]

[Footnote 666: The command of the pretorian guards.]

[Footnote 667: In the Forum. See AUGUSTUS, c. lvii.]

[Footnote 668: II. v. 254.]

[Footnote 669: A.U.C. 822.]

[Footnote 670: On the esplanade, where the standards, objects of

religious reverence, were planted. See note to c. vi. Criminals were

usually executed outside the Vallum, and in the presence of a centurion.]

[Footnote 671: Probably one of the two mentioned in CLAUDIUS, c. xiii.]

[Footnote 672: A.U.C. 784 or 785.]

[Footnote 673: “Distento sago impositum in sublime jactare.”]

[Footnote 674: See NERO, c. xxxv.]

[Footnote 675: The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at the

top of the Forum, from which all the great military roads throughout Italy

started, the distances to the principal towns being marked upon it. Dio

(lib. liv.) says that it was erected by the emperor Augustus, when he was

curator of the roads.]

[Footnote 676: Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person who

foretold futurity, or interpreted omens. There was at Rome a body of

priests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretell

future events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, and

from other appearances. They were of the greatest authority in the Roman

state; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either at

home or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them. The Romans

derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently

their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards

they were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of the

senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent

to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]

[Footnote 677: See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open

space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper,

and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected the

tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued

the army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments

were inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has been

already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood

the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the

soldiers swore.]

[Footnote 678: See NERO, c. xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for its

completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]

[Footnote 679: The two last words, literally translated, mean “long

trumpets;” such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore,

“What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious

ceremonies!”]

[Footnote 680: The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from

heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It

was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of

the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen,

eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]

[Footnote 681: This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before,

AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called

also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron,

crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of

her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second

Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and

Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums,

tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by

great indecencies.]

[Footnote 682: Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and

Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions.

His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she

was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victims

offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces

bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured

into a ditch.]

[Footnote 683: A town between Mantua and Cremona.]

[Footnote 684: The temple of Castor. It stood about twelve miles from

Cremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action. Hist. ii. 243.]

[Footnote 685: Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode of

spelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb,

Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremona

and Verona.]

[Footnote 686: Lenis was a name of similar signification with that of

Tranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work. We find

from Tacitus, that there was, among Otho’s generals, in this battle,

another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; with

whom our author’s father must not be confounded. Lenis was only a tribune

of the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentioned

by Tacitus, Hist. xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrow

stripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was a

general, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filled

that Office A.U.C. 818. There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus was

the same general who distinguished himself by his successes and cruelties

in Britain. NERO, c. xviii., and note.]

Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author’s

having already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. xix.); besides

other sources from which he drew his information. He tells us that he

himself was then a boy. We have now arrived at the times in which his

father bore a part. Such incidental notices, dropped by historical

writers, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on the

genuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events.]

[Footnote 687: A.U.C. 823.]

[Footnote 688: Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io,

the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in which

metamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection of

Argus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, she

recovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris. Her husband

afterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under the

name of Isis. She was represented with a mural crown on her head, a

cornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in the

other.]

[Footnote 689: Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over

the original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being the

first. Virgil makes his wife’s name Marica--

Hunc Fauna, et nympha genitum

Laurente Marica Accipimus.--Aen. vii. 47.

Her name may have been changed after her deification; but we have no other

accounts than those preserved by Suetonius, of several of the traditions

handed down from the fabulous ages respecting the Vitellian family.]

[Footnote 690: The Aequicolae were probably a tribe inhabiting the

heights in the neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil describes them, Aen. vii.

746.]

[Footnote 691: Nuceria, now Nocera, is a town near Mantua; but Livy, in

treating of the war with the Samnites, always speaks of Luceria, which

Strabo calls a town in Apulia.]

[Footnote 692: Cassius Severus is mentioned before, in AUGUSTUS, c. lvi.;

CALIGULA, c. xvi., etc.]

[Footnote 693: A.U.C. 785.]

[Footnote 694: A.U.C. 787.]

[Footnote 695: He is frequently commended by Josephus for his kindness to

the Jews. See, particularly, Antiq. VI. xviii.]

[Footnote 696: A.U.C. 796, 800.]

[Footnote 697: A.U.C. 801.]

[Footnote 698: A.U.C. 797. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.]

[Footnote 699: A.U.C. 801.]

[Footnote 700: A.U.C. 767; being the year after the death of the emperor

Augustus; from whence it appears that Vitellius was seventeen years older

than Otho, both being at an advanced age when they were raised to the

imperial dignity.]

[Footnote 701: He was sent to Germany by Galba.]

[Footnote 702: See TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]

[Footnote 703: Julius Caesar, also, was said to have exchanged brass for

gold in the Capitol, Junius, c. liv. The tin which we here find in use at

Rome, was probably brought from the Cassiterides, now the Scilly islands.

whence it had been an article of commerce by the Phoenicians and

Carthaginians from a very early period.]

[Footnote 704: A.U.C. 821.]

[Footnote 705: A.U.C. 822.]

[Footnote 706: Vienne was a very ancient city of the province of

Narbonne, famous in ecclesiastical history as the early seat of a

bishopric in Gaul.]

[Footnote 707: See OTHO, c. ix.]

[Footnote 708: See OTHO, c. ix.]

[Footnote 709: Agrippina, the wife of Nero and mother of Germanicus,

founded a colony on the Rhine at the place of her birth. Tacit. Annal. b.

xii. It became a flourishing city, and its origin may be traced in its

modern name, Cologne.]

[Footnote 710: A dies non fastus, an unlucky day in the Roman calendar,

being the anniversary of their great defeat by the Gauls on the river

Allia, which joins the Tiber about five miles from Rome. This disaster

happened on the 16th of the calends of August (17th July).

[Footnote 711: Posca was sour wine or vinegar mixed with water, which was

used by the Roman soldiery as their common drink. It has been found

beneficial in the cure of putrid diseases.]

[Footnote 712: Upwards of 4000 pounds sterling. See note, p. 487.]

[Footnote 713: In imitation of the form of the public edicts, which began

with the words, BONUM FACTUM.]

[Footnote 714: Catta muliere: The Catti were a German tribe who inhabited

the present countries of Hesse or Baden. Tacitus, De Mor. Germ., informs

us that the Germans placed great confidence in the prophetical

inspirations which they attributed to their women.]

[Footnote 715: Suetonius does not supply any account of the part added by

Tiberius to the palace of the Caesars on the Palatine, although, as it

will be recollected, he has mentioned or described the works of Augustus,

Caligula, and Nero. The banquetting-room here mentioned would easily

command a view of the Capitol, across the narrow intervening valley.

Flavius Sabinus, Vespasian’s brother, was prefect of the city.]

[Footnote 716: Caligula.]

[Footnote 717: Lucius and Germanicus, the brother and son of Vitellius,

were slain near Terracina; the former was marching to his brother’s

relief.]

[Footnote 718: A.U.C. 822.]

[Footnote 719: c. ix.]

[Footnote 720: Becco, from whence the French bec, and English beak; with,

probably, the family names of Bec or Bek. This distinguished provincial,

under his Latin name of Antoninus Primus, commanded the seventh legion in

Gaul. His character is well drawn by Tacitus, in his usual terse style,

Hist. XI. 86. 2.]

[Footnote 721: Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a city

of the Sabines. Its present name is Rieti.]

[Footnote 722: It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Roman

armies was held by the evocati. They are mentioned on three occasions by

Suetonius, without affording us much assistance. Caesar, like our author,

joins them with the centurions. See, in particular, De Bell. Civil. I.

xvii. 4.]

[Footnote 723: The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti.]

[Footnote 724: In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto;

its modern name being Norcia.]

[Footnote 725: Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy.]

[Footnote 726: We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry a

very common practice in ancient as well as in modern times. At present,

several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from the

duchies of Parma and Modena, bordering on the district mentioned by

Suetonius, to the island of Corsica; returning to the continent when the

harvest is got in.]

[Footnote 727: A.U.C. 762, A.D. 10.]

[Footnote 728: Cosa was a place in the Volscian territory; of which

Anagni was probably the chief town. It lies about forty miles to the

north-east of Rome.]

[Footnote 729: Caligula.]

[Footnote 730: These games were extraordinary, as being out of the usual

course of those given by praetors.]

[Footnote 731: “Revocavit in contubernium.” From the difference of our

habits, there is no word in the English language which exactly conveys the

meaning of contubernium; a word which, in a military sense, the Romans

applied to the intimate fellowship between comrades in war who messed

together, and lived in close fellowship in the same tent. Thence they

transferred it to a union with one woman who was in a higher position than

a concubine, but, for some reason, could not acquire the legal rights of a

wife, as in the case of slaves of either sex. A man of rank, also, could

not marry a slave or a freedwoman, however much he might be attached to

her.]

[Footnote 732: Nearly the same phrases are applied by Suetonius to

Drusilla, see CALIGULA, c. xxiv., and to Marcella, the concubine of

Commodus, by Herodian, I. xvi. 9., where he says that she had all the

honours of an empress, except that the incense was not offered to her.

These connections resembled the left-hand marriages of the German

princes.]

[Footnote 733: This expedition to Britain has been mentioned before,

CLAUDIUS, c. xvii. and note; and see ib. xxiv.]

Valerius Flaccus, i. 8, and Silius Italicus, iii. 598, celebrate the

triumphs of Vespasian in Britain. In representing him, however, as

carrying his arms among the Caledonian tribes, their flattery transferred

to the emperor the glory of the victories gained by his lieutenant,

Agricola. Vespasian’s own conquests, while he served in Britain, were

principally in the territories of the Brigantes, lying north of the

Humber, and including the present counties of York and Durham.]

[Footnote 734: A.U.C. 804.]

[Footnote 735: Tacitus, Hist. V. xiii. 3., mentions this ancient

prediction, and its currency through the East, in nearly the same terms as

Suetonius. The coming power is in both instances described in the plural

number, profecti; “those shall come forth;” and Tacitus applies it to

Titus as well as Vespasian. The prophecy is commonly supposed to have

reference to a passage in Micah, v. 2, “Out of thee (Bethlehem-Ephrata)

shall He come forth, to be ruler in Israel.” Earlier prophetic

intimations of a similar character, and pointing to a more extended

dominion, have been traced in the sacred records of the Jews; and there is

reason to believe that these books were at this time not unknown in the

heathen world, particularly at Alexandria, and through the Septuagint

version. These predictions, in their literal sense, point to the

establishment of a universal monarchy, which should take its rise in

Judaea. The Jews looked for their accomplishment in the person of one of

their own nation, the expected Messiah, to which character there were many

pretenders in those times. The first disciples of Christ, during the

whole period of his ministry, supposed that they were to be fulfilled in

him. The Romans thought that the conditions were answered by Vespasian,

and Titus having been called from Judaea to the seat of empire. The

expectations entertained by the Jews, and naturally participated in and

appropriated by the first converts to Christianity, having proved

groundless, the prophecies were subsequently interpreted in a spiritual

sense.]

[Footnote 736: Gessius Florus was at that time governor of Judaea, with

the title and rank of prepositus, it not being a proconsular province, as

the native princes still held some parts of it, under the protection and

with the alliance of the Romans. Gessius succeeded Florus Albinus, the

successor of Felix.]

[Footnote 737: Cestius Gallus was consular lieutenant in Syria.]

[Footnote 738: See note to c. vii.]

[Footnote 739: A right hand was the sign of sovereign power, and, as

every one knows, borne upon a staff among the standards of the armies.]

[Footnote 740: Tacitus says, “Carmel is the name both of a god and a

mountain; but there is neither image nor temple of the god; such are the

ancient traditions; we find there only an altar and religious awe.”--Hist.

xi. 78, 4. It also appears, from his account, that Vespasian offered

sacrifice on Mount Carmel, where Basilides, mentioned hereafter, c. vii.,

predicted his success from an inspection of the entrails.]

[Footnote 741: Josephus, the celebrated Jewish historian, who was engaged

in these wars, having been taken prisoner, was confined in the dungeon at

Jotapata, the castle referred to in the preceding chapter, before which

Vespasian was wounded.--De Bell. cxi. 14.]

[Footnote 742: The prediction of Josephus was founded on the Jewish

prophecies mentioned in the note to c. iv., which he, like others, applied

to Vespasian.]

[Footnote 743: Julius Caesar is always called by our author after his

apotheosis, Divus Julius.]

[Footnote 744: The battle at Bedriacum secured the Empire for Vitellius.

See OTHO, c. ix; VITELLIUS, c. x.]

[Footnote 745: Alexandria may well be called the key, claustra, of Egypt,

which was the granary of Rome. It was of the first importance that

Vespasian should secure it at this juncture.]

[Footnote 746: Tacitus describes Basilides as a man of rank among the

Egyptians, and he appears also to have been a priest, as we find him

officiating at Mount Carmel, c. v. This is so incompatible with his being

a Roman freedman, that commentators concur in supposing that the word

“libertus.” although found in all the copies now extant, has crept into

the text by some inadvertence of an early transcriber. Basilides appears,

like Philo Judaeus, who lived about the same period, to have been

half-Greek, half-Jew, and to have belonged to the celebrated Platonic

school of Alexandria.]

[Footnote 747: Tacitus informs us that Vespasian himself believed

Basilides to have been at this time not only in an infirm state of health,

but at the distance of several days’ journey from Alexandria. But (for

his greater satisfaction) he strictly examined the priests whether

Basilides had entered the temple on that day: he made inquiries of all he

met, whether he had been seen in the city; nay, further, he dispatched

messengers on horseback, who ascertained that at the time specified,

Basilides was more than eighty miles from Alexandria. Then Vespasian

comprehended that the appearance of Basilides, and the answer to his

prayers given through him, were by divine interposition. Tacit. Hist. iv.

82. 2.]

[Footnote 748: The account given by Tacitus of the miracles of Vespasian

is fuller than that of Suetonius, but does not materially vary in the

details, except that, in his version of the story, he describes the

impotent man to be lame in the hand, instead of the leg or the knee, and

adds an important circumstance in the case of the blind man, that he was

“notus tabe occulorum,” notorious for the disease in his eyes. He also

winds up the narrative with the following statement: “They who were

present, relate both these cures, even at this time, when there is nothing

to be gained by lying.” Both the historians lived within a few years of

the occurrence, but their works were not published until advanced periods

of their lives. The closing remark of Tacitus seems to indicate that, at

least, he did not entirely discredit the account; and as for Suetonius,

his pages are as full of prodigies of all descriptions, related apparently

in all good faith, as a monkish chronicle of the Middle Ages.

The story has the more interest, as it is one of the examples of

successful imposture, selected by Hume in his Essay on Miracles; with the

reply to which by Paley, in his Evidences of Christianity, most readers

are familiar. The commentators on Suetonius agree with Paley in

considering the whole affair as a juggle between the priests, the

patients, and, probably, the emperor. But what will, perhaps, strike the

reader as most remarkable, is the singular coincidence of the story with

the accounts given of several of the miracles of Christ; whence it has

been supposed, that the scene was planned in imitation of them. It did

not fall within the scope of Dr. Paley’s argument to advert to this; and

our own brief illustration must be strictly confined within the limits of

historical disquisition. Adhering to this principle, we may point out

that if the idea of plagiarism be accepted, it receives some confirmation

from the incident related by our author in a preceding paragraph, forming,

it may be considered, another scene of the same drama, where we find

Basilides appearing to Vespasian in the temple of Serapis, under

circumstances which cannot fail to remind us of Christ’s suddenly standing

in the midst of his disciples, “when the doors were shut.” This incident,

also, has very much the appearance of a parody on the evangelical history.

But if the striking similarity of the two narratives be thus accounted

for, it is remarkable that while the priests of Alexandria, or, perhaps,

Vespasian himself from his residence in Judaea, were in possession of such

exact details of two of Christ’s miracles--if not of a third striking

incident in his history--we should find not the most distant allusion in

the works of such cotemporary writers as Tacitus and Suetonius, to any one

of the still more stupendous occurrences which had recently taken place in

a part of the world with which the Romans had now very intimate relations.

The character of these authors induces us to hesitate in adopting the

notion, that either contempt or disbelief would have led them to pass over

such events, as altogether unworthy of notice; and the only other

inference from their silence is, that they had never heard of them. But

as this can scarcely be reconciled with the plagiarism attributed to

Vespasian or the Egyptian priests, it is safer to conclude that the

coincidence, however singular, was merely fortuitous. It may be added

that Spartianus, who wrote the lives of Adrian and succeeding emperors,

gives an account of a similar miracle performed by that prince in healing

a blind man.]

[Footnote 749: A.U.C. 823-833, excepting 826 and 831.]

[Footnote 750: The temple of Peace, erected A.D. 71, on the conclusion of

the wars with the Germans and the Jews, was the largest temple in Rome.

Vespasian and Titus deposited in it the sacred vessels and other spoils

which were carried in their triumph after the conquest of Jerusalem. They

were consumed, and the temple much damaged, if not destroyed, by fire,

towards the end of the reign of Commodus, in the year 191. It stood in

the Forum, where some ruins on a prodigious scale, still remaining, were

traditionally considered to be those of the Temple of Peace, until

Piranesi contended that they are part of Nero’s Golden House. Others

suppose that they are the remains of a Basilica. A beautiful fluted

Corinthian column, forty-seven feet high, which was removed from this

spot, and now stands before the church of S. Maria Maggiore, gives a great

idea of the splendour of the original structure.]

[Footnote 751: This temple, converted into a Christian church by pope

Simplicius, who flourished, A.D. 464-483, preserves much of its ancient

character. It is now, called San Stefano in Rotondo, from its circular

form; the thirty-four pillars, with arches springing from one to the other

and intended to support the cupola, still remaining to prove its former

magnificence.]

[Footnote 752: This amphitheatre is the famous Colosseum begun by Trajan,

and finished by Titus. It is needless to go into details respecting a

building the gigantic ruins of which are so well known.]

[Footnote 753: Hercules is said, after conquering Geryon in Spain, to

have come into this part of Italy. One of his companions, the supposed

founder of Reate, may have had the name of Flavus.]

[Footnote 754: Vespasian and his son Titus had a joint triumph for the

conquest of Judaea, which is described at length by Josephus, De Bell.

Jud. vii. 16. The coins of Vespasian exhibiting the captive Judaea

(Judaea capta), are probably familiar to the reader. See Harphrey’s Coin

Collector’s Manual, p. 328.]

[Footnote 755: Demetrius, who was born at Corinth, seems to have been a

close imitator of Diogenes, the founder of the sect. Having come to Rome

to study under Apollonius, he was banished to the islands, with other

philosophers, by Vespasian.]

[Footnote 756: There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposed

name being derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed that

Anticyra, the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. xxix.) is meant;

but the probability is, that the expression used by the imperial

chamberlain was only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonly

adopted in the present day.]

[Footnote 757: Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a

philosopher and public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and

Arrian.]

[Footnote 758: Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retail

trade--Off. i. 24.]

[Footnote 759: The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny of

English money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, five

thousand pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in the

succeeding chapter, one thousand pounds. From this scale, similar

calculations may easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius’s

statements from time to time. There appears to be some mistake in the sum

stated in c. xvi. just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether it

represented the floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire.]

[Footnote 760: See AUGUSTUS, c. xliii. The proscenium of the ancient

theatres was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted and

varied as our stage-scenes.]

[Footnote 761: Many eminent writers among the Romans were originally

slaves, such as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physicians

and artificers. Their talents procuring their manumission, they became

the freedmen of their former masters. Vespasian, it appears from

Suetonius, purchased the freedom of some persons of ability belonging to

these classes.]

[Footnote 762: The Coan Venus was the chef-d’oeuvre of Apelles, a native

of the island of Cos, in the Archipelago, who flourished in the time of

Alexander the Great. If it was the original painting which was now

restored, it must have been well preserved.]

[Footnote 763: Probably the colossal statue of Nero (see his Life, c.

xxxi.), afterwards placed in Vespasian’s amphitheatre, which derived its

name from it.]

[Footnote 764: The usual argument in all times against the introduction

of machinery.]

[Footnote 765: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]

[Footnote 766: At the men’s Saturnalia, a feast held in December attended

with much revelling, the masters waited upon their slaves; and at the

women’s Saturnalia, held on the first of March, the women served their

female attendants, by whom also they sent presents to their friends.]

[Footnote 767: Notwithstanding the splendour, and even, in many respects,

the refinement of the imperial court, the language as well as the habits

of the highest classes in Rome seem to have been but too commonly of the

grossest description, and every scholar knows that many of their writers

are not very delicate in their allusions. Apropos of the ludicrous

account given in the text, Martial, on one occasion, uses still plainer

language.

Utere lactucis, et mollibus utere malvis:

Nam faciem durum Phoebe, cacantis habes.--iii. 89.]

[Footnote 768: See c. iii. and note.]

[Footnote 769: Probably the emperor had not entirely worn off, or might

even affect the rustic dialect of his Sabine countrymen; for among the

peasantry the au was still pronounced o, as in plostrum for plaustrum, a

waggon; and in orum for aurum, gold, etc. The emperor’s retort was very

happy, Flaurus being derived from a Greek word, which signifies worthless,

while the consular critic’s proper name, Florus, was connected with much

more agreeable associations.]

[Footnote 770: Some of the German critics think that the passage bears

the sense of the gratuity having beer given by the lady, and that so

parsimonious a prince as Vespasian was not likely to have paid such a sum

as is here stated for a lady’s proffered favours.]

[Footnote 771: The Flavian family had their own tomb. See DOMITIAN, c.

v. The prodigy, therefore, did not concern Vespasian. As to the tomb of

the Julian family, see AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]

[Footnote 772: Alluding to the apotheosis of the emperors.]

[Footnote 773: Cutiliae was a small lake, about three-quarters of a mile

from Reate, now called Lago di Contigliano. It was very deep, and being

fed from springs in the neighbouring hills, the water was exceedingly

clear and cold, so that it was frequented by invalids, who required

invigorating. Vespasian’s paternal estates lay in the neighbourhood of

Reate. See chap i.]

[Footnote 774: A.U.C. 832.]

[Footnote 775: Each dynasty lasted twenty-eight years. Claudius and Nero

both reigning fourteen; and, of the Flavius family, Vespasian reigned ten,

Titus three, and Domitian fifteen.]

[Footnote 776: Caligula. Titus was born A.U.C. 794; about A.D. 49.]

[Footnote 777: The Septizonium was a circular building of seven stories.

The remains of that of Septimus Severus, which stood on the side of the

Palatine Hill, remained till the time of Pope Sixtus V., who removed it,

and employed thirty-eight of its columns in ornamenting the church of St.

Peter. It does not appear whether the Septizonium here mentioned as

existing in the time of Titus, stood on the same spot.]

[Footnote 778: Britannicus, the son of Claudius and Messalina.]

[Footnote 779: A.U.C. 820.]

[Footnote 780: Jerusalem was taken, sacked, and burnt, by Titus, after a

two years’ siege, on the 8th September, A.U.C. 821, A.D. 69; it being the

Sabbath. It was in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, when the

emperor was sixty years old, and Titus himself, as he informs us, thirty.

For particulars of the siege, see Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vi. and vii.;

Hegesippus, Excid. Hierosol. v.; Dio, lxvi.; Tacitus, Hist. v.; Orosius,

vii. 9.]

[Footnote 781: For the sense in which Titus was saluted with the title of

Emperor by the troops, see JULIUS CAESAR, c. lxxvi.]

[Footnote 782: The joint triumph of Vespasian and Titus, which was

celebrated A.U.C. 824, is fully described by Josephus, De Bell. Jud. vii.

24. It is commemorated by the triumphal monument called the Arch of

Titus, erected by the senate and people of Rome after his death, and still

standing at the foot of the Palatine Hill, on the road leading from the

Colosseum to the Forum, and is one of the most beautiful as well as the

most interesting models of Roman art. It consists of four stories of the

three orders of architecture, the Corinthian being repeated in the two

highest. Some of the bas-reliefs, still in good preservation, represent

the table of the shew-bread, the seven-branched golden candlestick, the

vessel of incense, and the silver trumpets, which were taken by Titus from

the Temple at Jerusalem, and, with the book of the law, the veil of the

temple, and other spoils, were carried in the triumph. The fate of these

sacred relics is rather interesting. Josephus says, that the veil and

books of the law were deposited in the Palatium, and the rest of the

spoils in the Temple of Peace. When that was burnt, in the reign of

Commodus, these treasures were saved, and they were afterwards carried off

by Genseric to Africa. Belisarius recovered them, and brought them to

Constantinople, A.D. 520. Procopius informs us, that a Jew, who saw them,

told an acquaintance of the emperor that it would not be advisable to

carry them to the palace at Constantinople, as they could not remain

anywhere else but where Solomon had placed them. This, he said, was the

reason why Genseric had taken the Palace at Rome, and the Roman army had

in turn taken that of the Vandal kings. Upon this, the emperor was so

alarmed, that he sent the whole of them to the Christian churches at

Jerusalem.]

[Footnote 783: A.U.C. 825.]

[Footnote 784: A.U.C. 824.]

[Footnote 785: A.U.C. 823, 825, 827-830, 832.]

[Footnote 786: Berenice, whose name is written by our author and others

Beronice, was daughter of Agrippa the Great, who was by Aristobulus,

grandson of Herod the Great. Having been contracted to Mark, son of

Alexander Lysimachus, he died before their union, and Agrippa married her

to Herod, Mark’s brother, for whom he had obtained from the emperor

Claudius the kingdom of Chalcis. Herod also dying, Berenice, then a

widow, lived with her brother, Agrippa, and was suspected of an incestuous

intercourse with him. It was at this time that, on their way to the

imperial court at Rome, they paid a visit to Festus, at Caesarea, and were

present when St. Paul answered his accusers so eloquently before the

tribunal of the governor. Her fascinations were so great, that, to shield

herself from the charge of incest, she prevailed on Polemon, king of

Cilicia, to submit to be circumcised, become a Jew, and marry her. That

union also proving unfortunate, she appears to have returned to Jerusalem,

and having attracted Vespasian by magnificent gifts, and the young Titus

by her extraordinary beauty, she followed them to Rome, after the

termination of the Jewish war, and had apartments in the palace, where she

lived with Titus, “to all appearance, as his wife,” as Xiphilinus informs

us; and there seems no doubt that he would have married her, but for the

strong prejudices of the Romans against foreign alliances. Suetonius tells

us with what pain they separated.]

[Footnote 787: The Colosseum: it had been four years in building. See

VESPAS. c. ix.]

[Footnote 788: The Baths of Titus stood on the Esquiline Hill, on part of

the ground which had been the gardens of Mecaenas. Considerable remains

of them are still found among the vineyards; vaulted chambers of vast

dimensions, some of which were decorated with arabesque paintings, still

in good preservation. Titus appears to have erected a palace for himself

adjoining; for the Laocoon, which is mentioned by Pliny as standing in

this palace, was found in the neighbouring ruins.]

[Footnote 789: If the statements were not well attested, we might be

incredulous as to the number of wild beasts collected for the spectacles

to which the people of Rome were so passionately devoted. The earliest

account we have of such an exhibition, was A.U.C. 502, when one hundred

and forty-two elephants, taken in Sicily, were produced. Pliny, who gives

this information, states that lions first appeared in any number, A.U.C.

652; but these were probably not turned loose. In 661, Sylla, when he was

praetor, brought forward one hundred. In 696, besides lions, elephants,

and bears, one hundred and fifty panthers were shown for the first time.

At the dedication of Pompey’s Theatre, there was the greatest exhibition

of beasts ever then known; including seventeen elephants, six hundred

lions, which were killed in the course of five days, four hundred and ten

panthers, etc. A rhinoceros also appeared for the first time. This was

A.U.C. 701. The art of taming these beasts was carried to such

perfection, that Mark Antony actually yoked them to his carriage. Julius

Caesar, in his third dictatorship, A.U.C. 708, showed a vast number of

wild beasts, among which were four hundred lions and a cameleopard. A

tiger was exhibited for the first time at the dedication of the Theatre of

Marcellus, A.U.C. 743. It was kept in a cage. Claudius afterwards

exhibited four together. The exhibition of Titus, at the dedication of

the Colosseum, here mentioned by Suetonius, seems to have been the largest

ever made; Xiphilinus even adds to the number, and says, that including

wild-boars, cranes, and other animals, no less than nine thousand were

killed. In the reigns of succeeding emperors, a new feature was given to

these spectacles, the Circus being converted into a temporary forest, by

planting large trees, in which wild animals were turned loose, and the

people were allowed to enter the wood and take what they pleased. In this

instance, the game consisted principally of beasts of chase; and, on one

occasion, one thousand stags, as many of the ibex, wild sheep (mouflions

from Sardinia?), and other grazing animals, besides one thousand wild

boars, and as many ostriches, were turned loose by the emperor Gordian.]

[Footnote 790: “Diem perdidi.” This memorable speech is recorded by

several other historians, and praised by Eusebius in his Chronicles.]

[Footnote 791: A.U.C. 832, A.D. 79. It is hardly necessary to refer to

the well-known Epistles of Pliny the younger, vi. 16 and 20, giving an

account of the first eruption of Vesuvius, in which Pliny, the historian,

perished. And see hereafter, p. 475.]

[Footnote 792: The great fire at Rome happened in the second year of the

reign of Titus. It consumed a large portion of the city, and among the

public buildings destroyed were the temples of Serapis and Isis, that of

Neptune, the baths of Agrippa, the Septa, the theatres of Balbus and

Pompey, the buildings and library of Augustus on the Palatine, and the

temple of Jupiter in the Capitol.]

[Footnote 793: See VESPASIAN, cc. i. and xxiv. The love of this emperor

and his son Titus for the rural retirement of their paternal acres in the

Sabine country, forms a striking contrast to the vicious attachment of

such tyrants as Tiberius and Caligula for the luxurious scenes of Baiae,

or the libidinous orgies of Capri.]

[Footnote 794: A.U.C. 834, A.D. 82.]

[Footnote 795: A.U.C. 804.]

[Footnote 796: A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called,

probably, from a remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had

made free growth on the spot.]

[Footnote 797: VITELLIUS, c. xv.]

[Footnote 798: Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that

Domitian took refuge with a client of his father’s near the Velabrum.

Perhaps he found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.]

[Footnote 799: One of Domitian’s coins bears on the reverse a captive

female and soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.]

[Footnote 800: VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.]

[Footnote 801: Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus

(AUG. xliii.), and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a

rude way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of

Domitian occupies the site of the present Piazza d’Espagna, and was larger

and more ornamented.]

[Footnote 802: A.U.C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]

[Footnote 803: This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us that

it was instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in

the city bounds.]

[Footnote 804: The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the

great fire mentioned TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the

Marian war, after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign

of Vitellius.]

[Footnote 805: This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva,

adjoined the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of

his life. From its communicating with the two others, it was called

Transitorium. Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great

height, and 144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone,

very large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight

line, but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered

with its direction.]

[Footnote 806: The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a

temple. See c. i. of the present book.]

[Footnote 807: The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for

races both of men and horses.]

[Footnote 808: The Odeum was a building intended for musical

performances. There were four of them at Rome.]

[Footnote 809: See before, c. iv.]

[Footnote 810: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]

[Footnote 811: See NERD, c. xvi.]

[Footnote 812: This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c.

xiv.]

[Footnote 813: This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and

other pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the

people. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS, c.

xxxiv.]

[Footnote 814: Geor. xi. 537.]

[Footnote 815: See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.]

[Footnote 816: See VESPASIAN, c. iii.]

[Footnote 817: Cant names for gladiators.]

[Footnote 818: The faction which favoured the “Thrax” party.]

[Footnote 819: DOMITIAN, c. i.]

[Footnote 820: See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.]

[Footnote 821: This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.]

[Footnote 822: Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or,

perhaps, members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them.

See the note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was two

drachmas per head. It was general throughout the empire.]

[Footnote 823: We have had Suetonius’s reminiscences, derived through his

grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x. We

now come to his own, commencing from an early age.]

[Footnote 824: This is what Martial calls, “Mentula tributis damnata.”]

[Footnote 825: The imperial liveries were white and gold.]

[Footnote 826: See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is

quoted; eis koiranos esto.]

[Footnote 827: An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the

consecrated bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.]

[Footnote 828: The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for

“enough,” and the Latin word for “an arch.”]

[Footnote 829: Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with

Paris, the actor, and afterwards taken back.]

[Footnote 830: The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from

the poet Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great

enemy of vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:

Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,

In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.]

[Footnote 831: Pliny describes this stone as being brought from

Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent,

cxxiv. c. 22.]

[Footnote 832: See note to c. xvii.]

[Footnote 833: The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish

(Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.]

[Footnote 834: See VESPASIAN, c. v.]

[Footnote 835: Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the

foreign fruits cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and

almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first

who introduced the date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter

days of Augustus.]

[Footnote 836: Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius

Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their

“impiety,” by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of

favouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of

Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having

become a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said

to have been of this family.]

[Footnote 837: A.U.C. 849.]

[Footnote 838: See c. v.]

[Footnote 839: The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy

Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find from

this passage in Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections

had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty

thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the

number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]

[Footnote 840: This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny,

took its name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who

first introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who

brought into vogue the practice of clipping groves.]

[Footnote 841: Julia, the daughter of Titus.]

[Footnote 842: It will be understood that the terms Grammar and

Grammarian have here a more extended sense than that which they convey in

modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]

[Footnote 843: Suetonius’s account of the rude and unlettered state of

society in the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might

infer, and with the accounts which have come down to us, of a community

composed of the most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the

neighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. But

Cicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long

before the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the

teaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy

in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.]

[Footnote 844: Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his

extraction, was born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in the

consulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius

Tuditanus, A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the

historian, who flourished in the Augustan age.]

[Footnote 845: Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the year

after the consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at

least his seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he

wrote the twelfth book of his Annals.]

[Footnote 846: Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered

that island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there,

and brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a

long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.]

[Footnote 847: Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son of

Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the

surname of Homericus.]

[Footnote 848: Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of

Ptolemy Philometer, whose son he educated.]

[Footnote 849: A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.]

[Footnote 850: Cicero (De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1)

places the death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other

authorities; but this differs from the account given in a former note.]

[Footnote 851: The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned

by Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.]

[Footnote 852: Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.]

[Footnote 853: Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his

triumph over Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro’s tutor,

accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C.

653.]

[Footnote 854: Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by

Cicero, Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny,

xxv. 4.]

[Footnote 855: Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have

been brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius’s

cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis; therefore

the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics, and the

inventor of the rude music of the reed.]

[Footnote 856: Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book

on Forest Trees.]

[Footnote 857: Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in

the same line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know

nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleius

mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi.,

where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.]

[Footnote 858: Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was

the learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;

observing, that “the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts,

rather belongs to the tribe of apples.”]

[Footnote 859: Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius.

His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune

under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consul

A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people,

A.U.C. 659.]

[Footnote 860: Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that

Cicero was among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below,

fixes the time when Gnipho flourished.]

[Footnote 861: This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived

from a cork arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. He

was a poet of Mitylene.]

[Footnote 862: See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.]

[Footnote 863: A.U.C. 687.]

[Footnote 864: Suetonius gives his life in c. x.]

[Footnote 865: A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which

we have no very exact idea.]

[Footnote 866: Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:

Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo

Orbilium tractare. Epist. xi. i. 70.

I remember well when I was young,

How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.]

[Footnote 867: Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid

and Martial.]

[Footnote 868: This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of

statues erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity.

Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and

with the gown of the Greek philosophers.]

[Footnote 869: Tacitus (Annal. cxi. 75) gives the character of

Atteius Capito. He was consul A.U.C. 758.]

[Footnote 870: Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.]

[Footnote 871: Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not

appear,]

[Footnote 872: Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in

Egypt, under three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentions

him. See xvii. p. 576.]

[Footnote 873: Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the

same age as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.]

[Footnote 874: Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.]

[Footnote 875: Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first

Ptolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.]

[Footnote 876: For Crates, see before, p. 507.]

[Footnote 877: We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days

before his death, in completing the twenty-second book of his

Commentaries; and, foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of

Lucullus, who, with the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged

them. Epicadius also wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.]

[Footnote 878: Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose

conduct of Mucia, Pompey’s wife, during her husband’s absence.]

[Footnote 879: Fam. Epist. 9.]

[Footnote 880: Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.]

[Footnote 881: See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.]

[Footnote 882: Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust.

Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of

him,

Libertinarum dico;

Sallustius in quas

Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.]

[Footnote 883: The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero

addressed his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was

the name of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be

found, so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was

an uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this

chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of

Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their

patrons.]

[Footnote 884: Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii. Her name was Pomponia.]

[Footnote 885: See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.]

[Footnote 886: He is mentioned before, c. ix.]

[Footnote 887: Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction

with Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C.

2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius,

Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.]

[Footnote 888: Cinna wrote a poem, which he called “Smyrna,” and was nine

years in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.]

[Footnote 889: See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii. lxix.]

[Footnote 890: Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor,

was born at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius,

was brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him,

with the name of his patron. He flourished in the time of Sylla, and

composed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome.

Suetonius has already told us (AUGUSTUS, xxix.) that he had the

care of the Palatine Library.]

[Footnote 891: No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; and

it is supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague of

Cn. Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War.]

[Footnote 892: Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family was

still preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial,

Quintilian, and others.]

[Footnote 893: Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.]

[Footnote 894: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix. p. 93, and note.]

[Footnote 895: The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of a

different fashion from the toga.]

[Footnote 896: See before, c. x.]

[Footnote 897: See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i. and note.]

[Footnote 898: Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary with

Pliny and Quintilian, who speak highly of him.]

[Footnote 899: Now Vicenza.]

[Footnote 900: “Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon.”--Eccl.

iii. 50.]

[Footnote 901: All the editions have the word vitem; but we might

conjecture, from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, a

vineyard: in which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, but

casks. The amphora held about nine gallons. Pliny mentions that Remmius

bought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenth

mile-stone from Rome.]

[Footnote 902: “Usque ad infamiam oris.”--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the

notes.]

[Footnote 903: Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria. It was one of the

colonies founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80,000 Roman

citizens to foreign parts.--JULIUS, xlii.]

[Footnote 904: This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.]

[Footnote 905: Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.]

[Footnote 906: See NERO, c. x.]

[Footnote 907: As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]

[Footnote 908: This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any

epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.]

[Footnote 909: See Cicero’s Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is

frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.]

[Footnote 910: “Hordearium rhetorem.”]

[Footnote 911: From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old

custom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply

the place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his

time.]

[Footnote 912: The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is

lost.]

[Footnote 913: Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some

treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in

which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here

named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii. 25.]

[Footnote 914: Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705,

and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]

[Footnote 915: A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno,

which discharges itself into the bay of Naples.]

[Footnote 916: Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the

corrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.]

[Footnote 917: The direct allusion is to the “style” or probe used by

surgeons in opening tumours.]

[Footnote 918: Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709.

See before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.]

[Footnote 919: Philipp. xi. 17.]

[Footnote 920: Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the

foundation of which is related by Thucydides, vi. p. 412. Polybius

describes the Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily. Polyb.

vii. 1. And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47.]

[Footnote 921: Novara, a town of the Milanese.]

[Footnote 922: St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius

Plancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator. He founded

Lyons during the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces in

Gaul.]

[Footnote 923: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxvi.]

[Footnote 924: He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, though

geographically a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy the

privileges of the other territories united to Rome, and was administered

by a praetor under the forms of a dependent province. It was admitted to

equal rights by the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar. Albutius

intimated that those rights were now in danger.]

[Footnote 925: Lucius Fenestella, an historical writer, is mentioned by

Lactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who says, that he died towards the close of

the reign of Tiberius.]

[Footnote 926: The second Punic war ended A.U.C. 552, and the third began

A.U.C. 605. Terence was probably born about 560.]

[Footnote 927: Carthage was laid in ruins A.U.C. 606 or 607, six hundred

and sixty seven years after its foundation.]

[Footnote 928: These entertainments were given by the aediles M. Fulvius

Nobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio, A.U.C. 587.]

[Footnote 929: St. Jerom also states that Terence read the “Andria” to

Caecilius who was a comic poet at Rome; but it is clearly an anachronism,

as he died two years before this period. It is proposed, therefore, to

amend the text by substituting Acilius, the aedile; a correction

recommended by all the circumstances, and approved by Pitiscus and

Ernesti.]

[Footnote 930: The “Hecyra,” The Mother-in-law, is one of Terence’s

plays.]

[Footnote 931: The “Eunuch” was not brought out till five years after the

Andria, A.U.C. 592.]

[Footnote 932: About 80 pounds sterling; the price paid for the two

performances. What further right of authorship is meant by the words

following, is not very clear.]

[Footnote 933: The “Adelphi” was first acted A.U.C. 593.]

[Footnote 934: This report is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), who

applies it to the younger Laelius. The Scipio here mentioned is Scipio

Africanus, who was at this time about twenty-one years of age.]

[Footnote 935: The calends of March was the festival of married women.

See before, VESPASIAN, c. xix.]

[Footnote 936: Santra, who wrote biographies of celebrated characters, is

mentioned as “a man of learning,” by St. Jerom, in his preface to the book

on the Ecclesiastical Writers.]

[Footnote 937: The idea seems to have prevailed that Terence, originally

an African slave, could not have attained that purity of style in Latin

composition which is found in his plays, without some assistance. The

style of Phaedrus, however; who was a slave from Thrace, and lived in the

reign of Tiberius, is equally pure, although no such suspicion attaches to

his work.]

[Footnote 938: Cicero (de Clar. Orat. c. 207) gives Sulpicius Gallus a

high character as a finished orator and elegant scholar. He was consul

when the Andria was first produced.]

[Footnote 939: Labeo and Popilius are also spoken of by Cicero in high

terms, Ib. cc. 21 and 24. Q. Fabius Labeo was consul with M. Claudius

Marcellus, A.U.C. 570 and Popilius with L. Postumius Albinus, A.U.C. 580.]

[Footnote 940: The story of Terence’s having converted into Latin plays

this large number of Menander’s Greek comedies, is beyond all probability,

considering the age at which he died, and other circumstances. Indeed,

Menander never wrote so many as are here stated.]

[Footnote 941: They were consuls A.U.C. 594. Terence was, therefore,

thirty-four years old at the time of his death.]

[Footnote 942: Hortulorum, in the plural number. This term, often found

in Roman authors, not inaptly describes the vast number of little

inclosures, consisting of vineyards, orchards of fig-trees, peaches, etc.,

with patches of tillage, in which maize, legumes, melons, pumpkins, and

other vegetables are cultivated for sale, still found on small properties,

in the south of Europe, particularly in the neighbourhood of towns.]

[Footnote 943: Suetonius has quoted these lines in the earlier part of

his Life of Terence. See before p. 532, where they are translated.]

[Footnote 944: Juvenal was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, as

appears by an ancient MS., and is intimated by himself. Sat. iii. 319.]

[Footnote 945: He must have been therefore nearly forty years old at this

time, as he lived to be eighty.]

[Footnote 946: The seventh of Juvenal’s Satires.]

[Footnote 947: This Paris does not appear to have been the favourite of

Nero, who was put to death by that prince (see NERO, c. liv.)

but another person of the same name, who was patronised by the emperor

Domitian. The name of the poet joined with him is not known. Salmatius

thinks it was Statius Pompilius, who sold to Paris, the actor, the play of

Agave;

Esurit, intactam

Paridi nisi vendat Agaven.

--Juv. Sat. vii. 87.]

[Footnote 948: Sulpicius Camerinus had been proconsul in Africa; Bareas

Soranus in Asia. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 52; xvi. 23. Both of them are said

to have been corrupt in their administration; and the satirist introduces

their names as examples of the rich and noble, whose influence was less

than that of favourite actors, or whose avarice prevented them from

becoming the patrons of poets.]

[Footnote 949: The “Pelopea,” was a tragedy founded on the story of the

daughter of Thyestes; the “Philomela,” a tragedy on the fate of Itys,

whose remains were served to his father at a banquet by Philomela and her

sister Progne.]

[Footnote 950: This was in the time of Adrian. Juvenal, who wrote first

in the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, composed his last Satire but one in

the third year of Adrian, A.U.C. 872.]

[Footnote 951: Syene is meant, the frontier station of the imperial

troops in that quarter of the world.]

[Footnote 952: A.U.C. 786, A.D. 34.]

[Footnote 953: A.U.C. 814, A.D. 62.]

[Footnote 954: Persius was one of the few men of rank and affluence among

the Romans, who acquired distinction as writers; the greater part of them

having been freedmen, as appears not only from these lives of the poets,

but from our author’s notices of the grammarians and rhetoricians. A

Caius Persius is mentioned with distinction by Livy in the second Punic

war, Hist. xxvi. 39; and another of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. ii.

6, and by Pliny; but whether the poet was descended from either of them,

we have no means of ascertaining.]

[Footnote 955: Persius addressed his fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus.

He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and lived at Rome in the time of

Nero, by whom he was banished.]

[Footnote 956: Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet, flourished during the reigns

of Nero and Galba. Persius dedicated his sixth Satire to him.]

[Footnote 957: “Numanus.” It should be Servilius Nonianus, who is

mentioned by Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6.]

[Footnote 958: Commentators are not agreed about these sums, the text

varying both in the manuscripts and editions.]

[Footnote 959: See Dr. Thomson’s remarks on Persius, before, p. 398.]

[Footnote 960: There is no appearance of any want of finish in the sixth

Satire of Persius, as it has come down to us; but it has been conjectured

that it was followed by another, which was left imperfect.]

[Footnote 961: There were two Arrias, mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal.

xvi. 34. 3.]

[Footnote 962: Persius died about nine days before he completed his

twenty-ninth year.]

[Footnote 963: Venusium stood on the confines of the Apulian, Lucanian,

and Samnite territories.

Sequor hunc, Lucanus an Appulus anceps;

Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.

Hor Sat. xi. 1. 34.] [Footnote 964: Sat. i. 6. 45.]

[Footnote 965: Horace mentions his being in this battle, and does not

scruple to admit that he made rather a precipitate retreat, “relicta non

bene parmula.”--Ode xi. 7-9.]

[Footnote 966: See Ode xi. 7. 1.]

[Footnote 967: The editors of Suetonius give different versions of this

epigram. It seems to allude to some passing occurrence, and in its present

form the sense is to this effect: “If I love you not, Horace, to my very

heart’s core, may you see the priest of the college of Titus leaner than

his mule.”]

[Footnote 968: Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the ode

beginning