triclinium The dining room. In a normal family dining room (preferably, the room was square), three couches were arranged to form a U. From the doorway, if one was looking into the hollow center of the U, the couch on the left was called the lectus summus, the couch forming the middle (bottom end) of the U was the lectus medius, and the couch forming the right side was the lectus imus. Each couch was very broad, perhaps 4 feet (1.25 m) or more, and at least twice as long, perhaps more. One end of the couch had a raised arm to form a head; the other end did not. In front of each couch, a little lower than the height of the couch, was a narrow table running its length. The diners reclined on their left elbows, supported by bolsters; they were not shod, and could call for their feet to be washed. The host of the dinner reclined at the left end of the lectus medius, this being the bottom end of the couch; the right hand end of the same couch, at its head, was the place where the most honored guest reclined, and was called the locus consularis. At the time of Gaius Marius, it was rare for women to recline alongside dining men, unless the women were of dubious virtue, and the dinner a men’s party. The women of the family sat inside the hollow center of the U on straight chairs, entered with the first course, and left as soon as the last course was cleared away; normally they drank only water.

Tridentum Modern Trento, in Italy.

Triocala The almost unassailable fortress town the rebel slaves of Sicily built in the ranges behind Sicily’s southern coast. It was invested by Lucius Licinius Lucullus in 103 B.C., but did not fall until 101 B.C.

tripod Any device mounted on three legs. Oracular crones sat upon tripods. Sacrificial fires or augural fires were contained in tripod braziers. Tables were often tripods.

triumph The greatest of days for the successful Roman general. By the time of Gaius Marius, a general had to have been hailed as imperator by his troops, after which he was obliged to petition the Senate to grant him his triumph; only the Senate could sanction it, and sometimes—though not often—unjustifiably withheld it. The triumph itself was a most imposing parade which followed a rigidly prescribed route from the Villa Publica on the Campus Martius, through a special gate in the Servian Walls called the Porta Triumphalis, into the Velabrum, the Forum Boarium, and the Circus Maximus, after which it went down the Via Triumphalis, and turned into the Forum Romanum’s Via Sacra. It terminated on the Capitoline Mount at the foot of the steps of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The triumphing general and his lictors went into the temple and offered the god their laurels of victory, after which happened the triumphal feast.

triumphator The term for a triumphing general.

trophy The trophy was a suit of enemy chieftain’s armor. In a practice instituted by the early Greeks, it was mounted on a frame made from a spear, fixed in the ground of the battlefield, and there dedicated to the gods who had assisted in the winning of victory. The Romans changed this practice by erecting a permanent monument on the battlefield, and carrying all the trophies back to Rome. There the trophies were displayed in the general’s triumphal parade; afterward, they were dedicated to some chosen god and set up permanently in the god’s temple. Metellus Macedonicus built Rome’s first marble temple (to Jupiter Stator) and installed trophies in it; Gaius Marius built a temple to Honor and Virtue, and installed his trophies in it.

Tullianum Also known as Career. This one-roomed little building had a chamber beneath it that served as Rome’s only execution cell. All the important prisoners who walked in the general’s triumph were led off as the parade began the ascent to the top of the Capitoline Mount, and were strangled in the lower chamber of the Tullianum. The term “strangling” does not seem to mean bare hands were used, but a noose or garrote. The victim’s body was then thrown into one of the sewer drain openings in the walls of this lower chamber. It was equally lawful (though not often done) to thrust the prisoner into the lower chamber and leave him there to starve to death.

Tullus Hostilius The third King of Rome, and a very shadowy figure. A warlike man, he attacked, captured, and destroyed Alba Longa, then brought its people into Rome and added them to the populace; Alba Longa’s ruling class became a part of Rome’s patriciate. Tullus Hostilius also built the Senate House, called the Curia Hostilia in his honor.

tunic, Tunica. This was the basic item of clothing for almost all ancient Mediterranean peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans. As worn by a Roman of Gaius Marius’s day, it had a rectangular body, without darts to confine it at the sides of the chest; the neck was probably cut on a curve for comfort, rather than kept as a straight edge continuous with the shoulders. The sleeves may have been woven as rectangular projections from the shoulders, or they may have been set in. Certainly it does not seem beyond the skill of ancient tailors to inset sleeves, for there is mention in the ancient sources of long sleeves, and these have to be set in. The statues do not indicate that the tunics of men important enough to have statues were simply joined up the sides with a gap left at the top for the arms to go through, and the sleeves of the tunics shown on military statues in particular look like proper short sleeves. The tunic was either belted with leather or girdled with a cord, and was always worn longer at the front than at the back, which was some 3 inches (75 mm) higher. Those of the knights’ census wore a narrow stripe on the tunic, those of senatorial census a wide stripe. I believe these stripes were displayed on the right shoulder, rather than on the center of the chest. A wall painting from Pompeii displaying a man wearing a toga praetexta shows the wide stripe down the right shoulder of the tunic. So, I note, do the models employed by Dr. Lillian Wilson.

tunica palmata The triumphing general’s tunic, which may or may not have been purple in color, but was certainly embroidered all over with palm fronds.

Tusculum A town on the Via Latina some 15 miles (24 km) from Rome. It was the first Latin town to receive the full Roman citizenship, in 381 B.C., and was always unswervingly loyal to Rome. Cato the Censor came from Tusculum, where his family had possessed the public horse of Roman knighthood for at least three generations.

tyro In Latin, tiro. A novice, a beginner. Ulysses See Odysseus.

Utica After the destruction of the city of Carthage by Scipio Aemilianus in 146 B.C., Utica became the most important city and port in the Roman province of Africa. Utica was the seat of the governor, and lay at the mouth of the river Bagradas.

Vale of the Salassi The modern Val d’Aosta (see also Lugdunum Pass, Salassi).

Vediovis A very Roman god, mysterious, and without a mythology. Nowadays he is thought to have been a manifestation of the young Jove (Jupiter); even Cicero was vague about Vediovis! Certainly he wasn’t a happy god, was perhaps chthonic (associated with the underworld), and seems to have been the patron of disappointments. He had two temples at Rome, one on the Capitol, the other on Tiber Island; outside Rome he was not worshiped at all as far as we know, save at Bovillae, where some Julius erected an altar to Vediovis on behalf of the whole gens Julia in the year 100 B.C.

Vercellae A small town in Italian Gaul. It lay on the north side of the Padus River, at the opening to the Vale of the Salassi. Outside it were a pair of small plains, the Campi Raudii, on which ground Marius and Catulus Caesar defeated the Cimbri in 101 B.C.

verpa A Latin obscenity used more in verbal abuse than as a sign of contempt. It referred to the penis—apparently in the erect state only, when the foreskin is drawn back— and had a homosexual connotation. On the literary and graffitic evidence, Dr. J. N. Adams discounts the word’s meaning a circumcised penis.

Vesta A very old Roman goddess of numinous nature, having no mythology and no image (see numen). She was the hearth, and so had particular importance within the home and the family circle, where she was worshiped alongside the Di Penates and the Lar Familiaris. Her official public cult was equally important, and was personally supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. Her temple in the Forum Romanum was small, very old, and circular in shape; it was adjacent to the Regia, the Well of Juturna and the Domus Publicus of the Pontifex Maximus. A fire burned in the temple of Vesta permanently, and could not be allowed to go out under any circumstances.

Vestal Virgins Vesta was served by a special priesthood, the college of six women called Vestal Virgins. They were inducted at about seven or eight years of age, took vows of complete chastity, and served the goddess for thirty years, after which they were released from their vows and sent out into the community, and could marry if they wished—though few did, for it was thought unlucky. Their chastity was Rome’s luck; that is, the luck of the State. When a Vestal was deemed unchaste, she was not judged and punished out of hand, but was formally brought to trial in a specially convened court. Her alleged lovers were also tried, but in a different court. If convicted, she was cast into an underground chamber dug for the purpose; it was sealed over, and she was left there to die. In Republican times the Vestal Virgins lived in the same Domus Publicus as the Pontifex Maximus, though sequestered from him.

vexillum A flag or banner.

via A main highway, road, or street.

Via Aemilia Built in 187 B.C.

Via Aemilia Scauri Finished about 103 B.C. Its builder was Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus, censor in 109 B.C.

Via Annia (1) Built in 153 B.C.

Via Annia (2) Built in 131 B.C. There is great debate about whether this was a Via Annia or a Via Popillia. I have marked it Via Popillia on my maps after a count of my sources produced one more Via Popillia than Via Annia.

Via Appia Built in 312 B.C.

Via Aurelia Nova Built in 118 B.C.

Via Aurelia Vetus Built in 241 B.C.

Via Campana No date is available.

Via Cassia Built in 154 B.C.

Via Clodia Built during the third century B.C., but of unknown certain date.

Via Domitia Built in 121 B.C. Its author was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Via Egnatia Built perhaps around 130 B.C.

Via Flaminia Built in 220 B.C.

Via Labicana Too old to date.

Via Lata Too old to date.

Via Latina Too old to date.

Via Minucia Built in 225 B.C.

Via Ostiensis Too old to date.

Via Popillia (1) Built in 131 B.C.

Via Popillia (2) Built in 131 B.C. This road is also called the Via Annia, and there is still doubt as to which man was responsible for it.

Via Postumia Built in 148 B.C.

via praetoria The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran between the camp’s front and back gates.

via principalis The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran at right angles to the via praetoria, and connected one side gate with the other. The general’s tent was located at the intersection of these two main viae.

Via Salaria Too old to date. This was probably the very oldest of Rome’s long roads. A branch road was built in 283 B.C., the Via Caecilia. Yet another branch road was built in 168 B.C., the Via Claudia.

Via Tiburtina The old name for the first part of the Via Valeria, between Rome and Tibur.

Via Valeria Built in 307 B.C.

vicus A small city street, though not necessarily a short one. The word meant not so much the thoroughfare itself as the collection of buildings on either side of the thoroughfare; it originated as the word for a rural hamlet, where the buildings straggled down either side of one street. In any city, street names do not change through the centuries, save when a monarch or a politician honors himself by giving a street his name. Thus, in making my map of the city of Rome, I have used all the street names of Imperial Roman times that did not belong to new districts or Imperial town planning; the Vicus Insteius, Vicus lugarius, Vicus Tuscus, Vicus Patricii, Vicus Longus, and the rest must always have borne these names. Similarly with the Alta Semita and the hills like the Clivus Orbius, Clivus Patricius, Clivus Capitolinus, Clivus Argentarius, Clivus Pullius in Tabernola, etc. It may be, however, that whereas we would say we lived on the Vicus Cuprius, a Roman would have said he lived in the Vicus Cuprius. Some of Rome’s streets were named after the activities going on in them, like the Vicus Sandalarius (“street of cobblers”), Clivus Argentarius (“hill of the bankers”), Vicus Fabricii (“street of artificers”); others bore place names, like the Vicus Tuscus (Etruria); some simply described where they were going, like the Vicus ad Malum Punicum (“street leading to the Punic apple—pomegranate—-tree”).

Vienne, Vienna Modern Vienne. The proper name of this trading post town on the Rhodanus River was Vienna, but it is usually called by its modern name, to save confusing it with Vienna, the capital of Austria.

villa A country residence, completely self-contained, and originally having an agricultural purpose—in other words, a farmstead. It was built around a peristyle or courtyard, had stables or farm buildings at the front, and the main dwelling at the back, of the courtyard. By the time of Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi, wealthy Romans were building villas as vacation homes rather than as farmsteads, and the architecture of the villa had changed correspondingly. Many of these holiday villas were on the seashore.

Villa Publica The parklike piece of land on the Campus Martius, fronted by the Vicus Pallacinae, in which the participants of a triumphal parade were gathered together before the parade set off.

vir militaris See Military Man.

Visurgis River The modern Weser, in Germany.

Vocontii A Celtic confederation of tribes dwelling along the Druentia River in Gaul-across-the-Alps; their lands bordered those of the Allobroges, who were to their north. They took great delight in preying upon Roman travelers on the Via Domitia as it crossed the Alps and wound down the Druentia toward the Rhodanus Valley.

Volcae Tectosages A Celtic confederation of tribes occupying Mediterranean Gaul beyond the Rhodanus River, and extending all the way to Narbo and Tolosa (see also Brennus [2], Tolosa).

Volsci One of the ancient peoples of central Italy. They had occupied eastern Latium, and were centered around the settlements of Sora, Atina, Antium, Circei, Tarracina, and Arpinum; their allies were the Aequi. By the end of the fourth century B.C., the Volsci had been so completely absorbed into the Roman system that their cultural and social identities had largely disappeared. They did not speak Latin, but a language of their own, akin to Umbrian.

wine, vintage wine Wine was an intrinsic part of the life of both Romans and Greeks; in the absence of brewing or distillation apparatus, wine was the only beverage available that contained alcohol. This made it the object of great reverence (hence the gods of wine, Bacchus and Dionysos), and—usually—great respect. Many different varieties of grapes were grown to make wine, of the white and the purple kinds, and wines came in white and red. By the time of Gaius Marius, Roman viticulture in particular was a highly educated business, and had outstripped Greek viticulture decisively. The Romans were always good with plants and planting, with gardens, and with growing; from the time her privileged citizens began to travel abroad, Rome was gifted with many imported plants, both new varieties of old friends and completely new friends. This could be said of the grapevine, certainly, always being added to with foreign importations. Roman viticulture was expert at grafting, and knowledgeable about pest prevention. Asphalt, for instance, dredged out of the Palus Asphaltites (the Dead Sea) in Palestine, was smeared on the woody parts of grapevines to prevent the growth of smuts and moulds. When exactly ready, the grapes were picked, placed in vats, and trodden; the juice which oozed out of the vat at this time was reserved to make the best wine of all. Then, after treading, the grapes were pressed in presses similar to those known today in vineyards where mass-production techniques have not been introduced; this juice was made into ordinary wine. Then the grapes were pressed again, to produce a thin, sour, third-class beverage which retailed so cheaply it was drunk in large quantities by the lowly, and was also given to slaves; this was sometimes fortified to increase its alcohol content, by the addition of boiled-down must after the fermentation process. Fermentation took place with more or less care, depending upon the class of juice and the intent of the vigneron. Vats coated inside with wax (for the best wines) or pitch (which is a resin obtained from pines, so these wines took up some of the resin, and emerged tasting like a modern Greek retsina) held the juices for several months, during which they were skimmed frequently. After fermentation, wines to be drunk at once were put into amphorae or (occasionally) skins. But those wines intended for additional maturation were first strained rigorously through sieves and cloths, then “bottled” in amphorae which were scrupulously stoppered and sealed from the air with melted wax; they were labeled with the year, the vineyard, the type of grape, and the name of the vigneron, and were stored in cool cellars. Wooden casks were also used to store some of these-better wines. Most wines were intended to be drunk within four years, but those wines carefully sealed did not continue to ferment, only to mature, and some could take twenty years to reach their peak drinking moment. These of course were vintage wines. Then, as now, the oenologist reared his head and came out with his stock vocabulary of adjectives and adverbs; of connoisseurs there were many. One such was the great legal advocate Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, who when he died in 50 B.C. bequeathed the staggering number of 10,000 amphorae of wine to some unknown beneficiary; the amphora held 25 liters, or 6 American gallons, which means Hortensius had 60,000 U.S. gallons of wine in his cellar. It was not normal practice to drink wine neat—water was added, in varying proportions. Roman women of Gaius Marius’s time drank little wine; during the early Republic, if a paterfamilias so much as smelled wine on the breath of one of his womenfolk, he was considered fully justified in having her executed immediately. Despite the apparent continence of Roman wine drinkers, watering their intake as they did, alcoholism was as real a problem in antiquity as it is today.

Wooden Bridge The name given universally to the Pons Sublicius, built of wood.

yoke The yoke was the beam or crosstie which rested upon the necks of a pair of oxen or other animals when harnessed to draw a load. In human terms, it came to mean the mark of servility, of submission to the domination of others. There was a yoke for the young of both sexes to pass beneath inside the city of Rome, located somewhere on the Carinae; it was called the Tigillum, and perhaps symbolized submission to the seriousness of adult life. However, it was in military terms that the yoke came to have its greatest metaphorical significance. Very early Roman (or perhaps Etruscan) armies forced a defeated enemy to pass beneath the yoke; two spears were planted upright in the ground, and a third spear was placed across their tops to form a crosstie—the whole was too low for a man to pass beneath walking upright; he had to bend over. Unfortunately enemy armies adopted the idea, with the result that from time to time a Roman army was compelled to pass beneath the yoke. To do this was an intolerable humiliation; so much so that the Senate usually preferred to see a Roman army stand and fight until the last man was dead, rather than sacrifice Roman honor and dignitas by surrendering and passing beneath the yoke. Even the ordinary people of Rome, including those as lowly as the Head Count, deemed passing beneath the yoke an utter humiliation, and clamored too to know why the defeated army hadn’t fought until its last man lay dead.