GLOSSARY

ABSOLVO The term employed by a jury when voting for the acquittal of the accused. It was used in the courts, not in the Assemblies.

aedile There were four Roman magistrates called aediles; two were plebeian aediles, two were curule aediles. Their duties were confined to the city of Rome. The plebeian aediles were created first (in 494 B.C.) to assist the tribunes of the plebs in their duties, but, more particularly, to guard the rights of the Plebs to their headquarters, the temple of Ceres in the Forum Boarium. The plebeian aediles soon inherited supervision of the city’s buildings as a whole, as well as archival custody of all plebiscites passed in the Plebeian Assembly, together with any senatorial decrees (consulta) directing the passage of plebiscites. They were elected by the Plebeian Assembly. Then in 367 B.C. two curule aediles were created to give the patricians a share in custody of public buildings and archives; they were elected by the Assembly of the People. Very soon, however, the curule aediles were as likely to be plebeians by status as patricians. From the third century B.C. downward, all four were responsible for the care of Rome’s streets, water supply, drains and sewers, traffic, public buildings, monuments and facilities, markets, weights and measures (standard sets of these were housed in the basement of the temple of Castor and Pollux), games, and the public grain supply. They had the power to fine citizens and non—citizens alike for infringements of any regulation appertaining to any of the above, and deposited the moneys in their coffers to help fund the games. Aedile—plebeian or curule—was not a part of the cursus honorum, but because of its association with the games was a valuable magistracy for a man to hold just before he stood for office as praetor.

Aeneas Prince of Dardania, in the Troad. He was the son of King Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans). When Troy (Ilium to the Romans) fell to the forces of Agamemnon, Aeneas fled the burning city with his aged father perched upon his shoulder and the Palladium under one arm. After many adventures, he arrived in Latium and founded the race from whom true Romans implicitly believed they were descended. His son, variously called Ascanius or Iulus , was the direct ancestor of the Julian family.

aether That part of the upper atmosphere permeated by godly forces, or the air immediately around a god. It also meant the sky, particularly the blue sky of daylight.

Ager Gallicus Literally, Gallic land. The exact location and dimensions of the Ager Gallicus are not known, but it lay on the Adriatic shores of Italy partially within peninsular Italy and partially within Italian Gaul. Its southern border was possibly the Aesis River, its northern border not far beyond Ariminum. Originally the home of the Gallic tribe of Senones who settled there after the invasion of the first King Brennus in 390 B.C., it came into the Roman ager publicus when Rome took control of that part of Italy. It was distributed in 232 B.C. by Gaius Flaminius, and passed out of Roman public ownership.

ager publicus Land vested in Roman public ownership, most of it acquired by right of conquest or confiscated from its original owners as a punishment for disloyalty. This latter was particularly common within Italy itself. Roman ager publicus existed in every overseas province, in Italian Gaul, and inside the Italian peninsula. Responsibility for its disposal (usually in the form of large leaseholds) lay in the purlieus of the censors, though much of the foreign ager publicus lay unused.

Agger An agger was a double rampart bearing formidable fortifications. The Agger was a part of Rome’s Servian Walls, and protected the city on its most vulnerable side, the Campus Esquilinus.

agora The open space, usually surrounded by colonnades or some kind of public buildings, which served any Greek or Hellenic city as its public meeting place and civic center. The ,Roman equivalent was a forum.

Ague The old name for the rigors of malaria.

Allies Any nation or people or individual formally invested with the title “Friend and Ally of the Roman People’’ was an Ally. The term usually carried with it certain privileges in trade, commerce and political activities. (See also Italian Allies, socii).

AMOR Literally, “love.” Because it is “Roma” spelled backward, the Romans of the Republic commonly believed it was Rome’s vital secret name, never to be uttered aloud in that context.

Anatolia Roughly, modern Asian Turkey. It incorporated the ancient regions of Bithynia, Mysia, Asia Province, Phrygia, Pisidia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Paphlagonia, Galatia, Pontus, Cappadocia, and Armenia Parva.

Ancus Marcius The fourth King of Rome, claimed by the family Marcius (particularly that branch cognominated Rex) as its founder—ancestor; unlikely, since the Marcii were plebeians. Ancus Marcius is said to have colonized Ostia, though there is some doubt as to whether he did this, or whether he took the salt pits at the mouth of the Tiber from their Etruscan owners by force of arms. Rome under his rule flourished. His one lasting public work was the building of the Wooden Bridge, the Pons Sublicius. He died in 617 B.C., leaving sons who did not inherit the throne—a source of later trouble.

animus The Oxford Latin Dictionary has the best definition, so I will quote it: “The mind as opposed to the body, the mind or soul as constituting with the body the whole person.” There are further definitions, but this one is pertinent to the way animus is used herein. One must be careful, however, not to attribute belief in the immortality of the soul to Romans.

arcade A long line of shops on both sides of a narrow walkway within a roofed building. The Covered Bazaar in Istanbul is probably very like (if much larger than) an ancient arcade.

Armenia Magna In ancient times, Armenia Magna extended from the southern Caucasus to the Araxes River, east to the corner of the Caspian Sea, and west to the sources of the Euphrates. It was immensely mountainous and very cold.

Armenia Parva Though called Little Armenia, this small land occupying the rugged and mountainous regions of the upper Euphrates and Arsanius Rivers was not a part of the Kingdom of Armenia. Until taken over by the sixth King Mithridates of Pontus, it was ruled by its own royal house, but always owed allegiance to Pontus, rather than to Armenia proper.

armillae The wide bracelets, of gold or of silver, awarded as prizes for valor to Roman legionaries, centurions, cadets and military tribunes of more junior rank.

Arvernian Pertaining to the Gallic tribe Arverni, who occupied lands in and around the northern half of the central massif of the Cebenna, in Gaul-across-the-Alps.

Assembly (comitia) Any gathering of the Roman People convoked to deal with governmental, legislative, judicial, or electoral matters. In the time of Sulla there were three true Assemblies—the Centuries, the People, and the Plebs. The Centuriate Assembly marshaled the People, patrician and plebeian, in their Classes, which were filled by a means test and were economic in nature. As this was originally a military assemblage, each Class gathered in the form of Centuries (which, excepting for the eighteen senior Centuries, by the time of Sulla numbered far in excess of one hundred men per century, as it had been decided to limit the number of Centuries). The Centuriate Assembly met to elect consuls, praetors, and (every five years usually) censors. It also met to hear charges of major treason (perduellio),and could pass laws. Because of its originally military nature, the Centuriate Assembly was obliged to meet outside the pomerium, and normally did so on the Campus Martius at a place called the saepta. It was not usually convoked to pass laws or hear trials. The Assembly of the People (comitia populi tributa) allowed the full participation of patricians, and was tribal in nature. It was convoked in the thirty-five tribes into which all Roman citizens were placed. Called together by a consul or praetor, it normally met in the lower Forum Romanum, in the Well of the Comitia. It elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. It could formulate and pass laws, and conduct trials until Sulla established his standing courts.The Plebeian Assembly (comitia plebis tributa or concilium plebis) met in the thirty-five tribes, but did not allow the participation of patricians. The only magistrate empowered to convoke it was the tribune of the plebs. It had the right to enact laws (strictly, plebiscites) and conduct trials, though thelatter more or less disappeared after Sulla established his standing courts. Its members elected the plebeian aediles and the tribunes of the plebs. The normal place for its assemblage was in the Well of the Comitia. (See also voting and tribe.)

atrium The main reception room of a Roman domus, or private house. It mostly contained an opening in the roof (the compluvium) above a pool (the impluvium) originally intended as a water reservoir for domestic use. By the time of the late Republic, the pool had become ornamental only.

auctoritas A very difficult Latin term to translate, as it meant far more than the English word “authority” implies. It carried nuances of pre-eminence, clout, public importance and—above all—the ability to influence events through sheer public reputation. All the magistracies possessed auctoritas as an intrinsic part of their nature, but auctoritas was not confined to those who held magistracies; the Princeps Senatus, Pontifex Maximus, other priests and augurs, consulars, and even some private individuals outside the ranks of the Senate also owned auctoritas. Though the King of the Backbenchers, Publius Cornelius Cethegus, never held a magistracy, his auctoritas was formidable.

augur A priest whose duties concerned divination. He and his fellow augurs comprised the College of Augurs, an official State body which had numbered twelve members (usually six patricians and six plebeians) until in 81 B.C. Sulla increased it to fifteen members, always intended thereafter to contain at least one more plebeian than patrician. Originally augurs were co-opted by their fellow augurs, but in 104 B.C. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus brought in a law compelling election of future augurs by an assembly of seventeen tribes chosen from the thirty-five by lot. Sulla removed election in 81 B.C., going back to co-optation. The augur did not predict the future, nor did he pursue his auguries at his own whim; he inspected the proper objects or signs to ascertain whether or not the projected undertaking was one meeting with the approval of the gods, be the undertaking a contio (q.v.), a war, a new law, or any other State business, including elections. There was a standard manual of interpretation to which the augur referred: augurs “went by the book.” The augur wore the toga trabea (see that entry), and carried a curved staff called the lituus.

auxiliary A legion of non—citizens incorporated into a Roman army was called an auxiliary legion; its soldiers were also known as auxiliaries, and the term extended to cover cavalry units as well. By the time of Sulla’s dictatorship, auxiliary infantry had more or less disappeared, whereas auxiliary cavalry was still very much in evidence.

Bacchic Pertaining to the god Bacchus (in Greek, Dionysos), who was the patron of wine, and therefore by extension the patron of carousing. During the early and middle Republic excesses of a Bacchic nature were frowned upon, and even legislated against; by the time of Sulla, however, some degree of tolerance had crept in.

barbarian Derived from a Greek word having strong onomatopoeic overtones; on first hearing these peoples speak, the Greeks thought they sounded “bar—bar,” like animals barking. It was not a word used to describe any people settled around the Mediterranean Sea, but referred to races and nations deemed uncivilized, lacking in an admirable or desirable culture. Gauls, Germans, Scythians, Sarmatians and other peoples of the Steppes were considered barbarian.

basilica A large building devoted to public activities such as courts of law, and also to commercial activities in shops and offices. The basilica was two—storeyed and clerestory—lit, and incorporated an arcade of shops under what we might call verandah extensions along either length side. Though the aediles looked after these buildings once erected, their actual building was undertaken at the expense of a prominent Roman nobleman. The first basilica was put up by Cato the Censor on the Clivus Argentarius next door to the Senate House, and was known as the Basilica Porcia; as well as accommodating banking institutions, it was also the headquarters of the College of the Tribunes of the Plebs. At the time of this book, there also existed the Basilica Aemilia, the Basilica Sempronia, and the Basilica Opimia, all on the borders of the lower Forum Romanum.

Bellona The Italian goddess of war. Her temple lay outside the pomerium of Rome on the Campus Martius, and was vowed in 296 B.C. by the great Appius Claudius Caecus. A group of special priests called fetiales conducted her rituals. A large vacant piece of land lay in front of the temple, known as Enemy Territory.

bireme A ship constructed for use in naval warfare, and intended to be rowed rather than sailed (though it was equipped with a mast and sail, usually left ashore if action was likely). Some biremes were decked or partially decked, but most were open. It seems likely that the oarsmen did sit in two levels at two banks of oars, the upper bank and its oarsmen accommodated in an outrigger, and the lower bank’s oars poking through ports in the galley’s sides. Built of fir or another lightweight pine, the bireme could be manned only in fair weather, and fight battles only in very calm seas. It was much longer than it was wide in the beam (the ratio was about 7:1), and probably averaged about 100 feet (30 meters) in length. Of oarsmen it carried upward of one hundred. A bronze—reinforced beak made of oak projected forward of the bow just below the waterline, and was used for ramming and sinking other vessels. The bireme was not designed to carry marines or grapple to engage other vessels in land—style combat. Throughout Greek, Republican Roman and Imperial Roman times, all ships were rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves. The slave oarsman was a product of Christian times. Boreas The north wind.

Brothers Gracchi See Gracchi.

caelum grave et pestilens Malaria.

Calabria Confusing for modern Italians! Nowadays Calabria is the toe of the boot, but in ancient times Calabria was the heel. Brundisium was its most important city, followed by Tarentum. Its people were the Illyrian Messapii.

Campus Esquilinus The area of flattish ground outside the Servian Walls and the double rampart of the Agger. It lay between the Porta Querquetulana and the Colline Gate, and was the site of Rome’s necropolis.

Campus Lanatarius An area of flattish ground inside the Servian Walls on that part of the Aventine adjacent to the walls. It lay between the Porta Raudusculana and the Porta Naevia. Here were extensive stockyards and slaughtering yards.

Campus Martius The Field of Mars. Situated north of the Servian Walls, the Campus Martius was bounded by the Capitol on its south and the Pincian Hill on its east; the rest of it was enclosed by a huge bend in the Tiber River. In Republican times it was not inhabited as a suburb, but was the place where triumphing armies bivouacked, the young were trained in military exercises, horses engaged in chariot racing were stabled and trained, the Centuriate Assembly met, and market gardening vied with public parklands. At the apex of the river bend lay the public swimming holes called the Trigarium, and just to the north of the Trigarium were medicinal hot springs called the Tarentum. The Via Lata (Via Flaminia) crossed the Campus Martius on its way to the Mulvian Bridge, and the Via Recta bisected it at right angles to the Via Lata. Capena Gate The Porta Capena. One of Rome’s two most important gates in the Servian Walls (the other was the Porta Collina, the Colline Gate). It lay beyond the Circus Maximus, and outside it was the common highway which branched into the Via Appia and the Via Latina about half a mile from the gate.

capite censi Literally, the Head Count. See that entry.

career A dungeon. The other name for the Tullianum was simply Career.

Carinae One of Rome’s more exclusive addresses. Incorporating the Fagutal, the Carinae was the northern tip of the Oppian Mount on its western side; it extended between the Velia and the Clivus Pullius. Its outlook was southwestern, across the swamps of the Palus Ceroliae toward the Aventine.

cartouche The personal hieroglyphs peculiar to each individual Pharaoh of Egypt, enclosed within an oval (or rectangular with rounded corners) framing line. The practice continued through to rulers of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Cassiterides The Tin Isles. Now known as the Scilly Isles, off the southwestern tip of Cornwall, England. The tin mined in Cornwall was shipped to the Cassiterides, which was used as a way station. Crassus’s father voyaged there in 95 B.C.

Castor The never—forgotten Heavenly Twin. Though the imposing temple in the Forum Romanum was properly the temple of Castor and Pollux (also called the Dioscuri), it was always referred to by Romans as Castor’s. This led to many jokes about dual enterprises in which one of the two prime movers was consistently overlooked. Religiously, Castor and Pollux were among the principal deities worshipped by Romans, perhaps because, like Romulus and Remus, they were twins.

cavalry Horse—mounted soldiers. By the time of the late Republic, all cavalry incorporated into Roman armies was auxiliary in nature: that is, composed of non—citizens. Germans, Gauls, Thracians, Galatians and Numidians commonly formed Roman cavalry units, as these were all peoples numbering horse—riding tribes among them. There seems at most times to have been adequate volunteers to fill cavalry ranks; Gauls and Numidians apparently were the most numerous. The cavalry was formed into regiments of five hundred horsemen, each regiment divided into ten squadrons of fifty troopers. They were led by officers of their own nationality, but the overall commander of cavalry was always Roman.

cavea See the entry on theaters.

cella A room without a specific name (or function, in domestic dwellings). A temple room was always just a cella.

Celtiberian The general term covering the tribes inhabiting northern and north—central Spain. As the name suggests, racially they were an admixture of migratory Celts from Gaul and the more ancient indigenous Iberian stock. Their towns were almost all erected upon easily fortified crags, hills or rocky outcrops, and they were past masters at guerrilla warfare.

censor The censor was the most august of all Roman magistrates, though he lacked imperium and was therefore not entitled to be escorted by lictors. Two censors were elected by the Centuriate Assembly to serve for a period of five years (called a lustrum); censorial activity was, however, mostly limited to the first eighteen months of the lustrum, which was ushered in by a special sacrifice, the suovetaurilia, of pig, sheep and ox. No man could stand for censor unless he had been consul first, and usually only those consulars of notable auctoritas and dignitas bothered to stand. The censors inspected and regulated membership in the Senate and the Ordo Equester, and conducted a general census of Roman citizens throughout the Roman world. They had the power to transfer a citizen from one tribe to another as well as one Class to another. They applied the means test. The letting of State contracts for everything from the farming of taxes to public works was also their responsibility. In 81 B.C. Sulla abolished the office, apparently as a temporary measure.

census Every five years the censors brought the roll of the citizens of Rome up to date. The name of every Roman citizen male was entered on these rolls, together with informationabout his tribe, his economic class, his property and means, and his family. Neither women nor children were formally registered as being Roman citizens, though there are cases documented in the ancient sources that clearly show some women awarded the Roman citizenship in their own right. The city of Rome’s census was taken on the Campus Martius at a special station erected for the purpose; those living elsewhere in Italy had to report to the authorities at the nearest municipal registry, and those living abroad to the provincial governor. There is some evidence, however, that the censors of 97 B.C., Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Antonius Orator, changed the manner in which citizens living outside Rome but inside Italy proper were enrolled.

centunculus A coat or quilt made out of patches in many colors.

Centuriate Assembly See the entry under Assembly.

centurion The regular professional officer of both Roman citizen and auxiliary infantry legions. It is a mistake to equate him with the modern noncommissioned officer; centurions enjoyed a relatively exalted status uncomplicated by modern social distinctions. A defeated Roman general hardly turned a hair if he lost even senior military tribunes, but tore his hair out in clumps if he lost centurions. Centurion rank was graduated; the most junior commanded an ordinary century of eighty legionaries and twenty noncombatant assistants, but exactly how he progressed in what was apparently a complex chain of progressive seniority is not known. In the Republican army as reorganized by Gaius Marius, each cohort had six centuriones (singular, centurio), with the most senior man, the pilus prior, commanding the senior century of his cohort as well as the entire cohort. The ten men commanding the ten cohorts which made up a full legion were also ranked in seniority, with the legion’s most senior centurion, the primus pilus (this term was later reduced to primipilus), answering only to his legion’s commander (either one of the elected tribunes of the soldiers, or one of the general’s legates). During Republican times promotion to centurion was up from the ranks. The centurion had certain easily recognizable badges of office: he wore greaves on his shins, a shirt of scales rather than chain links, a helmet crest projecting sideways rather than front—to—back, and carried a stout knobkerrie of vine wood. He also wore many decorations.

century Any grouping of one hundred men. Most importantly, the Roman legion was organized in basic units of one hundred men called centuries. The Classes of the Centuriate Assembly were also organized in centuries, but with steadily increasing population these centuries came eventually to contain far more than one hundred men. chlamys The cloaklike outer garment worn b^ Greek men.

chryselephantine A work of art fashioned in gold and ivory.

chthonic Pertaining to the Underworld, and ill—omened.

Cimbri A Germanic people originally inhabiting the upper or northern half of the Jutland peninsula (modern Denmark). Strabo says that a sea—flood drove them out in search of a new homeland about 120 B.C. In combination with the Teutones and a mixed group of Germans and Celts (the Marcomanni—Cherusci—Tigurini) they wandered Europe in search of this homeland until they ran foul of Rome. In 102 and 101 B.C. Gaius Marius utterly defeated them, and the migration disintegrated.

Circus Flaminius The circus situated on the Campus Martius not far from the Tiber and the Forum Holitorium. It was built in 221 B.C., and sometimes served as a place for a comitial meeting, when the Plebs or the People had to meet outside the pomerium. It seems to have been well used as a venue for the games, but for events pulling in smaller attendances than the Circus Maximus. It held about fifty thousand spectators.

Circus Maximus The old circus built by King Tarquinius Priscus before the Republic began. It filled the whole of the Vallis Murcia, a declivity between the Palatine and Aventine Mounts. Even though its capacity was about one hundred and fifty thousand spectators, there is ample evidence that during Republican times freedman citizens were classified as slaves when it came to admission to the Circus Maximus, and were thus denied. Just too many people wanted to go to the circus games. Women were permitted to sit with men.

citizenship For the purposes of this series of books, the Roman citizenship. Possession of it entitled a man to vote in his tribe and his Class (if he was economically qualified to belong to a Class) in all Roman elections. He could not be flogged, he was entitled to the Roman trial process, and he had the right of appeal. The male citizen became liable for military service on his seventeenth birthday. After the lex Minicia of 91 B.C., the child of a union between a Roman citizen of either sex and a non—Roman was forced to assume the citizenship of the non—Roman parent.

citocacia A mild Latin profanity, meaning “stinkweed.”

citrus wood The most prized cabinet wood of the Roman world. It was cut from vast galls on the root system of a cypresslike tree, Callitris quadrivavis vent., which grew in the highlands of North Africa all the way from the Oasis of Ammonium and Cyrenaica to the far Atlas of Mauretania. Though termed citrus, the tree was not botanically related to orange or lemon. Most citrus wood was reserved for making tabletops (usually mounted upon a single chryselephantine pedestal), but it was also turned as bowls. No tabletops have survived to modern times, but enough bowls have for us to see that citrus wood was certainly the most beautiful timber of all time.

Classes These were five in number, and represented the economic divisions of property—owning or steady—income—earning Roman citizens. The members of the First Class were the richest, the members of the Fifth Class the poorest. Those Roman citizens who belonged to the capite censi, or Head Count, were too poor to qualify for a Class status, and so could not vote in the Centuriate Assembly. In actual fact, it was rare for the Third Class to be called upon to vote in the Centuriate Assembly, let alone members of the Fourth or Fifth Class!

client In Latin, cliens. The term denoted a man of free or freed status (he did not have to be a Roman citizen) who pledged himself to a man he called his patron. In the most solemn and binding way, the client undertook to serve the interests and obey the wishes of his patron. In return he received certain favors—usually gifts of money, or a job, or legal assistance. The freed slave was automatically the client of his ex-master until discharged of this obligation—if he ever was. A kind of honor system governed the client’s conduct in relation to his patron, and was adhered to with remarkable consistency. To be a client did not necessarily mean that a man could not also be a patron; more that he could not be an ultimate patron, as technically his own clients were also the clients of his patron. During the Republic there were no formal laws concerning the client—patron relationship because they were not necessary—no man, client or patron, could hope to succeed in life were he known as dishonorable in this vital function. However, there were laws regulating the foreign client—patron relationship; foreign states or client—kings acknowledging Rome as patron were legally obliged to find the ransom for any Roman citizen kidnapped in their territories, a fact that pirates relied on heavily for an additional source of income. Thus, not only individuals could become clients; whole towns and even countries often were.

client—king A foreign monarch might pledge himself as a client in the service of Rome as his patron, thereby entitling his kingdom to be known as a Friend and Ally of the Roman People. Sometimes, however, a foreign monarch pledged himself as the client of a Roman individual, as did certain rulers to Lucullus and Pompey.

clivus A hilly street.

cognomen The last name of a Roman male anxious to distinguish himself from all his fellows possessed of an identical first ] and family [(nomen)] name. He might adopt one for himself, as did Pompey with the cognomen Magnus, or simply continue to bear a cognomen which had been in the family for generations, as did the Julians cognominated Caesar. In some families it became necessary to have more than one cognomen: for example, Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Cornelianus Scipio Nasica, who was the adopted son of Metellus Pius the Piglet. Quintus was his first name ‘, Caecilius his family name ; Metellus Pius were cognomina belonging to his adoptive father; Cornelianus indicated that he was by blood a Cornelian; and Scipio Nasica were the cognomina of his blood father. As things turned out, he was always known as Metellus Scipio, a neat compromise to both blood and adoptive family. The cognomen often pointed up some physical characteristic or idiosyncrasy—jug ears, flat feet, hump back, swollen legs—or else commemorated some great feat—as in the Caecilii Metelli who were cognominated Dalmaticus, Balearicus, Macedonicus, Numidicus, these being related to a country each man had conquered. The best cognomina were heavily sarcastic—Lepidus, meaning a thoroughly nice fellow, attached to a right bastard—or extremely witty—as with the already multiple—cognominated Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus, who earned an additional name, Sesquiculus, meaning he was more than just an arsehole, he was an arsehole and a half.

cohort The tactical unit of the legion. It comprised six centuries, and each legion owned ten cohorts. When discussing troop movements, it was more customary for the general to speak of his army in terms of cohorts than legions, which perhaps indicates that, at least until the time of Caesar, the general deployed or peeled off cohorts in battle. The maniple, formed of two centuries (there were three maniples to the cohort), ceased to have any tactical significance from the time of Marius.

college A body or society of men having something in common. Rome owned priestly colleges (such as the College of Pontifices), political colleges (as the College of Tribunes of the Plebs), civil colleges (as the College of Lictors), and trade colleges (for example, the Guild of Undertakers). Certain groups of men from all walks of life, including slaves, banded together in what were called crossroads colleges to look after the city of Rome’s major crossroads and conduct the annual feast of the crossroads, the Compitalia.

colonnade A roofed walkway flanked by one row of outer columns when attached to a building in the manner of a verandah, or, if freestanding (as a colonnade often was), by a row of columns on either side. comitia See the entry under Assembly. Comitia The large round well in which meetings of the comitia were held. It was located in the lower Forum Romanum adjacent to the steps of the Senate House and the Basilica Aemilia, and proceeded below ground level in a series of steps, forming tiers upon which men stood; comitial meetings were never conducted seated. When packed, the well could hold perhaps three thousand men. The rostra, or speaker’s platform, was grafted into one side.

CONDEMNO The word employed by a jury to deliver a verdict of “guilty.” It was a term confined to the courts; both courts and Assemblies had their own vocabularies.

confarreatio The oldest and strictest of the three forms of Roman marriage. By the time of Sulla, the practice of confarreatio was confined to patricians, and then was not mandatory. One of the chief reasons why confarreatio lost much popularity lay in the fact that the confarreatio bride passed from the hand of her father to the hand of her husband, and thus had far less freedom than women married in the usual way; she could not control her dowry or conduct business. The other main reason for the unpopularity of confarreatio lay in the extreme difficulty of dissolving it; divorce (diffarreatio) was so legally and religiously arduous that it was more trouble than it was worth unless the circumstances left no alternative.

Conscript Fathers When it was established by the Kings of Rome (traditionally by Numa Pompilius), the Senate consisted of one hundred patricians entitled patres—“fathers.” Then when plebeian senators were added during the first years of the Republic, they were said to be conscripti—“chosen without a choice.” Together, the patrician and plebeian members were said to be patres et conscripti; gradually the once—distinguishing terms were run together, and all members of the Senate were simply the Conscript Fathers.

consul The consul was the most senior Roman magistrate owning imperium, and the consulship (modern scholars do not refer to it as the “consulate” because a consulate is a modern diplomatic institution) was the top rung on the cursus honorum. Two consuls were elected each year by the Centuriate Assembly, and served for one year. They entered office on New Year’s Day (January 1). One was senior to the other; he was the one who had polled his requisite number of Centuries first. The senior consul held the fasces (q.v.) for the month of January, which meant his junior colleague looked on. In February the junior consul held the fasces, and they alternated month by month throughout the year. Both consuls were escorted by twelve lictors, but only the lictors of the consul holding the fasces that month shouldered the actual fasces as they preceded him wherever he went. By the last century of the Republic, a patrician or a plebeian could be consul, though never two patricians together. The proper age for a consul was forty-two, twelve years after entering the Senate at thirty, though there is convincing evidence that Sulla in 81 B.C. accorded patrician senators the privilege of standing for consul two years ahead of any plebeian, which meant the patrician could be consul at forty years of age. A consul’s imperium knew no bounds; it operated not only in Rome and Italy, but throughout the provinces as well, and overrode the imperium of a proconsular governor. The consul could command any army.

consular The name given to a man after he had been consul. He was held in special esteem by the rest of the Senate, and until Sulla became dictator was always asked to speak or give his opinion in the House ahead of the praetors, consuls—elect, etc. Sulla changed that, preferring to exalt magistrates in office and those elected to coming office. The consular, however, might at any time be sent to govern a province should the Senate require the duty of him. He might also be asked to take on other duties, like caring for the grain supply.

consultum The term for a senatorial decree, though it was expressed more properly as a senatus consultant. It did not have the force of law. In order to become law, a consultant had to be presented by the Senate to any of the Assemblies, tribal or centuriate, which then voted it into law—if the members of the Assembly requested felt like voting it into law. Sulla’s reformations included a law that no Assembly could legislate a bill unless it was accompanied by a senatus consultum. However, many senatorial consulta (plural) were never submitted to any Assembly, therefore were never voted into law, yet were accepted as laws by all of Rome; among these consulta were decisions about provincial governors, declaration and conduct of wars, and all to do with foreign affairs. Sulla in 81 B.C. gave these senatorial decrees the formal status of laws.

contio This was a preliminary meeting of a comitial Assembly in order to discuss the promulgation of a projected law, or any other comitial business. All three Assemblies were required to debate a measure in contio, which, though no voting took place, had nonetheless to be convoked by the magistrate empowered.

contubernalis A military cadet: a subaltern of lowest rank and age in the hierarchy of Roman military officers, but excluding the centurions. No centurion was ever a cadet, he was an experienced soldier.

corona civica Rome’s second—highest military decoration. A crown or chaplet made of oak leaves, it was awarded to a man who had saved the lives of fellow soldiers and held the ground on which he did this for the rest of the duration of a battle. It could not be awarded unless the saved soldiers swore a formal oath before their general that they spoke the truth about the circumstances. L. R. Taylor argues that among Sulla’s constitutional reforms was one relating to the winners of major military crowns; that, following the tradition of Marcus Fabius Buteo, he promoted these men to membership in the Senate, which answers the vexed question of Caesar’s senatorial status (complicated as it was by the fact that, while flamen Dialis, he had been a member of the Senate from the time he put on the toga virilis). Gelzer agreed with her—but, alas, only in a footnote.

corona graminea or obsidionalis Rome’s highest military decoration. Made of grass (or sometimes a cereal such as wheat, if the battle took place in a field of grain) taken from the battlefield and awarded “on the spot,” the Grass Crown conferred virtual immortality on a man, for it had been won on very few occasions during the Republic. The man who won it had to have saved a whole legion or army by his personal efforts. Both Quintus Sertorius and Sulla were awarded Grass Crowns.

cubit A Greek and Asian measurement of length not popular among Romans; it was normally held to be the distance between a man’s elbow and the tips of his fingers, and was probably about 18 inches (450mm).

cuirass Armor encasing a man’s upper body without having the form of a shirt. It consisted of two plates of bronze, steel, or hardened leather, the front one protecting thorax and abdomen, the other the back from shoulders to lumbar spine. The plates were held together by straps or hinges at the shoulders and along each side under the arms. Some cuirasses were exquisitely tailored to the contours of an individual’s torso, while others fitted any man of a particular size and physique. The men of highest rank—generals and legates—wore cuirasses tooled in high relief and silver—plated (sometimes, though rarely, gold—plated). Presumably as an indication of imperium, the general and perhaps the most senior of his legates wore a thin red sash around the cuirass about halfway between the nipples and waist; the sash was ritual1^ knotted and looped.

cultarius Scullard’s spelling: the O.L.D. prefers cultrarius. He was a public servant attached to religious duties, and his only job appears to have been to cut the sacrificial victim’s throat. However, in Republican Rome this was undoubtedly a full—time job for several men, so many were the ceremonies requiring sacrifice of an animal victim. He probably also helped dispose of the victim and was custodian of his tools. cunnus An extremely offensive Latin profanity—“cunt.” Cuppedenis Markets Specialized markets lying behind the upper Forum Romanum on its eastern side, between the Clivus Orbius and the Carinae/Fagutal. In it were vended luxury items like pepper, spices, incense, ointments and unguents and balms; it also served as the flower market, where a Roman (all Romans loved flowers) could buy anything from a bouquet to a garland to go round the neck or a wreath to go on the head. Until sold to finance Sulla’s campaign against King Mithridates, the actual land belonged to the State.

Curia Hostilia The Senate House. It was thought to have been built by the shadowy third king of Rome, Tullus Hostilius, hence its name: “the meeting—house of Hostilius.”

cursus honorum See the entry on magistrates.

curule chair The sella curulis was the ivory chair reserved exclusively for magistrates owning imperium: at first I thought only the curule aedile sat in one, but it seems that at some stage during the evolution of the Republic, imperium (and therefore the curule chair) was also conferred upon the two plebeian aediles. Beautifully carved in ivory, the chair itself had curved legs crossing in a broad X, so that it could be folded up. It was equipped with low arms, but had no back.

DAMNO The word employed by a comitial Assembly to indicate a verdict of “guilty.” It was not used in the courts, perhaps because the courts did not have the power to execute a death penalty.

decury A group of ten men. The tidy—minded Romans tended to subdivide groups containing several hundred men into tens for convenience in administration and direction. Thus the Senate was organized in decuries (with a patrician senator as the head of each decury), the College of Lictors, and probably all the other colleges of specialized public servants as well. It has been suggested that the legionary century was also divided into decuries, ten men messing together and sharing a tent, but evidence points more to eight soldiers. As a legionary century contained eighty soldiers, not one hundred, this would give ten groups of eight soldiers. But perhaps each eight legionaries were given two of the century’s twenty noncombatants as servants and general factotums, thus bringing each octet up to a decury.

demagogue Originally a Greek concept, the demagogue was a politician whose chief appeal was to the crowds. The Roman demagogue (almost inevitably a tribune of the plebs) preferred the arena of the Comitia well to the Senate House, but it was no part of his policy to “liberate the masses,” nor on the whole were those who flocked to listen to him composed of the very lowly. The term simply indicated a man of radical rather than ultra-conservative bent.

denarius Plural, denarii. Save for a very rare issue or two of gold coins, the denarius was the largest denomination of coin under the Republic. Of pure silver, it contained about 3.5 grams of the metal, and was about the size of a dime—very small. There were 6,250 denarii to one silver talent. Of actual coins in circulation, there were probably more denarii than sesterces.

diadem This was not a crown or a tiara, but simply a thick white ribbon about one inch (25mm) wide, each end embroidered and often finished with a fringe. It was the symbol of the Hellenic sovereign; only King and/or Queen could wear it. The coins show that it was worn either across the forehead or behind the hairline, and was knotted at the back below the occiput; the two ends trailed down onto the shoulders.

dies religiosi Days of the year regarded as ill-omened. On them nothing new ought to be done, nor religious ceremonies conducted. Some dies religiosi commemorated defeats in battle, on three dies religiosi the mundus (underworld gate) was left open, on others certain temples were closed, on yet others the hearth of Vesta was left open. The days after the Kalends, Nones and Ides of each month were dies religiosi, and thought so ill-omened that they had a special name: Black Days.

diffarreatio See the entry on confarreatio.

dignitas Like auctoritas (q.v.), the Latin dignitas has connotations not conveyed by the English word derived from it, “dignity.” It was a man’s personal standing in the Roman world rather than his public standing, though his public standing was enormously enhanced by great dignitas. It gave the sum total of his integrity, pride, family and ancestors, word, intelligence, deeds, ability, knowledge, and worth as a man. Of all the assets a Roman nobleman possessed, dignitas was likely to be the one he was most touchy about, and protective of. I have elected to leave the term untranslated in my text.

diverticulum In the two earlier books, I used this term to mean only the “ring roads” around the city of Rome that linked all the arterial roads together. In Fortune’s Favorites it is also used to indicate sections where an arterial road bifurcated to connect with important towns not serviced by the arterial road itself, then fused together again, as with the two diverticula on the Via Flaminia which must have already existed by the late Republic, though not generally conceded to exist until imperial times. Did the diverticulum to Spoletium not exist, for example, neither Carrinas nor Pompey would have been able to fetch up there so quickly.

divinatio Literally, guesswork. This was a special hearing by a specially appointed panel of judges to determine the fitness of a man to prosecute another man. It was not called into effect unless a man’s fitness was challenged by the defense. The name referred to the fact that the panel of judges arrived at a decision without the presentation of hard evidence—that is, they arrived at a conclusion by guesswork.

doctor The man who was responsible for the training and physical fitness of gladiators.

drachma The” name I have elected to use when speaking of Hellenic currency rather than Roman, because the drachma most closely approximated the denarius in weight at around 4 grams. Rome, however, was winning the currency race because of the central and uniform nature of Roman coins; during the late Republic, the world was beginning to prefer to use Roman coins rather than Hellenic.

Ecastor! Edepol! The most genteel and inoffensive of Roman exclamations of surprise or amazement, roughly akin to “Gee!” or “Wow!” Women used “Ecastor!” and men “Edepol!” The roots suggest they invoked Castor and Pollux.

electrum An alloy of gold and silver. In times dating back to before the Republic electrum was thought to be a metal in itself, and like the electrum rod in the temple of Jupiter Feretrius on the Capitol, it was left as electrum. By the time of the Republic, however, it was known to be an alloy, and was separated into its gold and silver components by cementationwith salt, or treatment with a metallic sulphide.

Epicurean Pertaining to the philosophical system of the Greek Epicurus. Originally Epicurus had advocated a kind of hedonism so exquisitely refined that it approached asceticism on its left hand, so to speak; a man’s pleasures were best sampled one at a time, and strung out with such relish that any excess defeated the exercise. Public life or any other stressful work was forbidden. These tenets underwent considerable modification in Rome, so that a Roman nobleman could call himself an Epicure yet still espouse his public career. By the late Republic, the chief pleasure of an Epicurean was food.

epulones A minor order of priests whose business was to organize senatorial banquets after festivals of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and also to arrange the public banquets during games and some feast days.

equestrian Pertaining to the knights.

ethnarch The general Greek word for a city or town magistrate. There were other and more specific names in use, but I do not think it necessary to compound confusion in readers by employing a more varied terminology.

Euxine Sea The modern Black Sea. Because of the enormous number of major rivers which flowed into it (especially in times before water volume was regulated by dams), the Euxine Sea contained less salt than other seas; the current through Thracian Bosporus and Hellespont always flowed from the Euxine toward the Mediterranean (the Aegean)—which made it easy to quit the Euxine, but hard to enter it.

exeunt omnes Literally, “Everybody leave!” It has been a stage direction employed by playwrights since drama first came into being.

faction The following of a Roman politician is best described as a faction; in no way could a man’s followers be described as a political party in the modern sense. Factions formed around men owning auctoritas and dignitas, and were purely evidence of that individual’s ability to attract and hold followers. Political ideologies did not exist, nor did party lines. For that reason I have avoided (and will continue to avoid) the terms Optimate and Popularis, as they give a false impression of Roman political solidarity to a party—acclimatized modern reader.

Faesulae Modern Fiesole. Possibly because it was settled by the Etruscans before Rome became a power, it was always deemed a part of Etruria; in actual fact it lay north of the Arnus River, in what was officially Italian Gaul.

fasces The fasces were bundles of birch rods ritually tied together in a crisscross pattern by red leather thongs. Originally an emblem of the Etruscan kings, they passed into the customs of the emerging Rome, persisted in Roman life throughout the Republic, and on into the Empire. Carried by men called lictors (q.v.), they preceded the curule magistrate (and the propraetor and proconsul as well) as the outward symbol of his imperium. Within the pomerium only the rods went into the bundles, to signify that the curule magistrate had the power to chastise, but not to execute; outside the pomerium axes were inserted into the bundles, to signify that the curule magistrate or promagistrate did have the power to execute. The only man permitted to insert the axes into the midst of the rods inside the pomerium was the dictator. The number of fasces indicated the degree of imperium: a dictator had twenty-four, a consul and proconsul twelve, a praetor and propraetor six, and the aediles two. Sulla, incidentally, was the first dictator to be preceded by twenty-four lictors bearing twenty-four fasces; until then, dictators had used the same number as consuls, twelve.

fasti The fasti were originally days on which business could be transacted, but came to mean other things as well: the calendar, lists relating to holidays and festivals, and the list of consuls (this last probably because Romans preferred to reckon up their years by remembering who had been the consuls in any given year). The entry in the glossary to The First Man in Rome contains a fuller explanation of the calendar than space permits me here—under fasti, of course.

fellator Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa! My fault entirely that in the two previous volumes of this series, I managed to give the man on the receiving end the wrong name! It does happen that one becomes confused, as I do by opposites, left and right, and clockwise versus anticlockwise. A cerebral aberration of sorts. The fact remains that I was wrong. The fellator was the man sucking the penis, the irrumator the man whose penis was being sucked. Fellator sucker, irrumator suckee.

feriae Holidays. Though attendance at public ceremonies on such holidays was not obligatory, feriae traditionally demanded that business, labor and lawsuits not be pursued, and that quarrels, even private ones, should be avoided. The rest from normal labors on feriae extended to slaves and also some animals, including oxen but excluding equines of all varieties. fetiales A special college of priests whose duties were to serve Bellona, the goddess of war. Though it was an honor to be appointed a fetialis, during the late Republic the rites of making war or peace as pertaining to Bellona were much neglected; it was Caesar’s great—nephew, Augustus, who brought the college back to full practice.

filibuster A modern word for a political activity at least as old as the Senate of Rome. It consisted, then as now, of “talking a motion out”: the filibusterer droned on and on about everything from his childhood to his funeral plans, thus preventing other men from speaking until the political danger had passed. And preventing the taking of a vote!

flamen The flamines (plural) were probably the oldest of Rome’s priests in time, dating back at least as far as the Kings. There were fifteen flamines, three major and twelve minor. The three major flaminates were Dialis (Jupiter Optimus Maxi—mus), Martialis (Mars), and Quirinalis (Quirinus). Save for the poor flamen Dialis—his nature is discussed fully in the text—none of the flamines seemed terribly hedged about with prohibitions or taboos, but all three major flamines qualified for a public salary, a State house, and membership in the Senate. The wife of the flamen was known as the flaminica. The flamen and flaminica Dialis had to be patrician in status, though I have not yet discovered whether this was true of the other flamines, major or minor. To be on the safe side, I elected to stay with patrician appointments.

Fortuna One of Rome’s most worshipped and important deities. Generally thought to be a female force, Fortuna had many different guises; Roman godhead was usually highly specific. Fortuna Primigenia was Jupiter’s firstborn, Fors Fortuna was of particular importance to the lowly, Fortuna Virilis helped women conceal their physical imperfections from men, Fortuna Virgo was worshipped by brides, Fortuna Equestris looked after the knights, and Fortuna Huiusque Diei (“the fortune of the present day”) was the special object of worship by military commanders and prominent politicians having military backgrounds. There were yet other Fortunae. The Romans believed implicitly in luck, though they did not regard luck quite as we do; a man made his luck, but was—even in the case of men as formidably intelligent as Sulla and Caesar—very careful about offending Fortuna, not to mention superstitious. To be favored by Fortuna was considered a vindication of all a man stood for.

forum The Roman meeting place, an open area surrounded by buildings, many of which were of a public nature. Forum Boarium The meat markets, situated at the starting—post end of the Circus Maximus, below the Germalus of the Palatine. The Great Altar of Hercules and several different temples to Hercules lay in the Forum Boarium, which was held to be peculiarly under his protection. Forum Holitorium The vegetable markets, situated on the bank of the Tiber athwart the Servian Walls between the river and the flank of the Capitoline Mount. There were three gates in the walls at the Forum Holitorium—the Porta Triumphalis (used only to permit the triumphal parade into the city), the Porta Carmentalis, and the Porta Flumentana. It is generally thought that the Servian Walls of the Forum Holitorium were crumbled away to nothing by the late Republic, but I do not believe this; the threat of the Germans alone caused many repairs to the Servian Walls.

Forum Romanum This long open space was the center of Roman public life, and was largely devoted, as were the buildings around it, to politics, the law, business, and religion. I do not believe that the free space of the Forum Romanum was choked with a permanent array of booths, stalls and barrows; the many descriptions of constant legal and political business in the lower half of the Forum would leave little room for such apparatus. There were two very large market areas on the Esquiline side of the Forum Romanum, just removed from the Forum itself by one barrier of buildings, and in these, no doubt, most freestanding stalls and booths were situated. Lower than the surrounding districts, the Forum was rather damp, cold, sunless—but very much alive in terms of public human activity.

freedman A manumitted slave. Though technically a free man (and, if his former master was a Roman citizen, himself a Roman citizen), the freedman remained in the patronage of his former master, who had first call on his time and services. He had little chance to exercise his vote in either of the two tribal Assemblies, as he was invariably placed into one of two vast urban tribes, Suburana or Esquilina. Some slaves of surpassing ability or ruthlessness, however, did amass great fortunes and power as freedmen, and could therefore be sure of a vote in the Centuriate Assembly; such freedmen usually managed to have themselves transferred into rural tribes as well, and thus exercised the complete franchise.

free man A man born free and never sold into outright slavery, though he could be sold as a nexus or debt slave. The latter was rare, however, inside Italy during the late Republic.

games In Latin, ludi. Games were a Roman institution and pastime which went back at least as far as the early Republic, and probably a lot further. At first they were celebrated only when a general triumphed, but in 336 B.C. the ludi Romani became an annual event, and were joined later by an ever—increasing number of other games throughout the year. All games tended to become longer in duration as well. At first games consisted mostly of chariot races, then gradually came to incorporate animal hunts, and plays performed in specially erected temporary theaters. Every set of games commenced on the first day with a solemn but spectacular religious procession through the Circus, after which came a chariot race or two, and then some boxing and wrestling, limited to this first day. The succeeding days were taken up with theatricals; comedy was more popular than tragedy, and eventually the freewheeling Atellan mimes and farces most popular of all. As the games drew to a close, chariot racing reigned supreme, with animal hunts to vary the program. Gladiatorial combats did not form a part of Republican games (they were put on by private individuals, usually in connection with a dead relative, in the Forum Romanum rather than in the Circus). Games were put on at the expense of the State, though men ambitious to make a name for themselves dug deeply into their private purses while serving as aediles to make “their” games more spectacular than the State—allocated funds permitted. Most of the big games were held in the Circus Maximus, some of the smaller ones in the Circus Flaminius. Free Roman citizen men and women were permitted to attend (there was no admission charge), with women segregated in the theater but not in the Circus; neither slaves nor freedmen were allowed admission, no doubt because even the Circus Maximus, which held 150,000 people, was not large enough to contain freedmen as well as free men.

Gaul, Gauls A Roman rarely if ever referred to a Celt as a Celt; he was known as a Gaul. Those parts of the world wherein Gauls lived were known as some kind of Gaul, even when the land was in Anatolia (Galatia). Before Caesar’s conquests, Gaul-across-the-Alps—that is, Gaul west of the Italian Alps—was roughly divided into two parts: Gallia Comata or Long-haired Gaul, neither Hellenized nor Romanized, and a coastal strip with a bulging extension up the valley of the river Rhodanus which was known as The Province, and both Hellenized as well as Romanized. The name Narbonese Gaul (which I have used in this book) did not become official until the principate of Augustus, though Gaul around the port of Narbo was probably always known as that. The proper name for Gaul-across-the-Alps was Transalpine Gaul. That Gaul more properly known as Cisalpine Gaul because it lay on the Italian side of the Alps I have elected to call Italian Gaul. It too was divided into two parts by the Padus River (the modern Po); I have called them Italian Gaul—across—the—Padus and Italian Gaul—this—side—of—the—Padus. There is also no doubt that the Gauls were racially closely akin to the Romans, for their languages were of similar kind, as were many of their technologies. What enriched the Roman at the ultimate expense of the Gaul was his centuries—long exposure to other Mediterranean cultures.

gens A man’s clan or extended family. It was indicated by his nomen, such as Cornelius or Julius, but was feminine in gender, hence they were the gens Cornelia and the gens Julia.

gig A two—wheeled vehicle drawn by either two or four animals, more usually mules than horses. Within the limitations of ancient vehicles—springs and shock absorbers did not exist—the gig was very lightly and flexibly built, and was the vehicle of choice for a Roman in a hurry because it was easy for a team to draw, therefore speedy. However, it was open to the elements. In Latin it was a cisia. The carpentum was a heavier version of the gig, having a closed coach body.

gladiator There is considerable wordage within the pages of this book about gladiators, so I will not enlarge upon them here. Suffice it to say that during Republican times there were only two kinds of gladiator, the Thracian and the Gaul, and that gladiatorial combat was not usually “to the death.” The thumbs—up, thumbs—down brutality of the Empire crowds did not exist, perhaps because the State did not own or keep gladiators under the Republic, and few of them were slaves; they were owned by private investors, and cost a great deal of money to acquire, train and maintain. Too much money to want them dead or maimed in the ring. Almost all gladiators during the Republic were Romans, usually deserters or mutineers from the legions. It was very much a voluntary occupation.

governor A very useful English term to describe the pro—magistrate—proconsul or propraetor—sent to direct, command and manage one of Rome’s provinces. His term was set at one year, but very often it was prorogued, sometimes (as in the case of Metellus Pius in Further Spain) for many years.

Gracchi The Brothers Gracchi, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and his younger brother, Gaius Sempronius Gracchus. They were the sons of Cornelia (daughter of Scipio Africanus and Aemilia Paulla) and Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus (consul in 177 and 163 B.C., censor in 169 B.C.), and the consulship, high military command and the censorship were thus their birthright. Neither man advanced beyond the tribunate of the plebs, due to a peculiar combination of high ideals, iconoclastic thinking, and a tremendous sense of duty to Rome. Tiberius Gracchus, a tribune of the plebs in 133 B.C., set out to right the wrongs he saw in the way the Roman State was administering its ager publicus; his aim was to give it to the civilian poor of Rome, thus encouraging them by dowering them with land to breed sons and work hard. When the end of the year saw his work still undone, Tiberius Gracchus flouted custom by attempting to run for the tribunate of the plebs a second time. He was clubbed to death on the Capitol. Gaius Gracchus, ten years Tiberius’s junior, was elected a tribune of the plebs in 123 B.C. More able than his brother, he had also profited from his mistakes, and bade fair to alter the whole direction of the ultra-conservative Rome of his time. His reforms were much wider than Tiberius’s, and embraced not only the ager publicus, but also cheap grain for the populace (a measure aimed not only at the poor, for he adopted no means test), regulation of service in the army, the founding of Roman citizen colonies abroad, public works throughout Italy, removal of the courts from the Senate, a new system to farm the taxes of Asia Province, and an enhancement of citizen status for Latins and Italians. When his year as a tribune of the plebs finished, Gaius Gracchus emulated his brother and ran for a second term. Instead of being killed for his presumption, he got in. At the end of his second term he determined to run yet again, but was defeated in the elections. Helpless to intervene, he had to see all his laws and reforms begin to topple. Prevented from availing himself of peaceful means, Gaius Gracchus resorted to violence. Many of his partisans were killed when the Senate passed its first—ever “ultimate decree,” but Gaius Gracchus himself chose to commit suicide before he could be apprehended.

The glossary attached to The Grass Crown contains a much fuller article on the Gracchi.

guild An organized body of professionals, tradesmen, or slaves. One of the purposes behind the organization of guilds lay in protective measures to ensure the members received every advantage in business or trade practices, another to ensure the members were cared for properly in their places of work, and one interesting one, to ensure that the members had sufficient means at their deaths for decent burial.

Head Count The capite censi or proletarii: the lowly of Rome. Called the Head Count because at a census all the censors did was to “count heads.” Too poor to belong to a Class, the urban Head Count usually belonged to an urban tribe, and therefore owned no worthwhile votes. This rendered them politically useless beyond ensuring that they were fed and entertained enough not to riot. Rural Head Count, though usually owning a valuable tribal vote, rarely could afford to come to Rome at election time. Head Count were neither politically aware nor interested in the way Rome was governed, nor were they particularly oppressed in an Industrial Revolution context. I have sedulously avoided the terms “the masses” or “the proletariat” because of post-Marxist preconceptions not applicable to the ancient lowly. In fact, they seem to have been busy, happy, rather impudent and not at all servile people who had an excellent idea of their own worth and scant respect for the Roman great. However, they had their public heroes; chief among them seems to have been Gaius Marius—until the advent of Caesar, whom they adored. This in turn might suggest that they were not proof against military might and the concept of Rome as The Greatest.

Hellenic, Hellenized Terms relating to the spread of Greek culture and customs after the time of Alexander the Great. It involved life—style, architecture, dress, industry, government, commercial practices and the Greek language.

hemiolia A very swift, light bireme of small size, much favored by pirates in the days before they organized themselves into fleets and embarked upon mass raiding of shipping and maritime communities. The hemiolia was not decked, and carried a mast and sail aft, thus reducing the number of oars in the upper bank to the forward section of the ship.

herm A stone pedestal designed to accommodate a bust or small sculpture. It was chiefly distinguished by possessing male genitals on its front side, usually erect.

horse, Nesaean The largest kind of horse known to the ancients. How large it was is debatable, but it seems to have been at least as large as the mediaeval beast which carried an armored knight, as the Kings of Armenia and the Parthians both relied on Nesaeans to carry their cataphracts (cavalry clad in chain mail from head to foot, as were the horses). Its natural home was to the south and west of the Caspian Sea, in Media, but by the time of the late Republic there were some Nesaean horses in most parts of the ancient world.

Horse, October On the Ides of October (this was about the time the old campaigning season finished), the best war—horses of that year were picked out and harnessed in pairs to chariots. They then raced on the sward of the Campus Martius, rather than in one of the Circuses. The right—hand horse of the winning team was sacrificed to Mars on a specially erected altar adjacent to the course of the race. The animal was killed with a spear, after which its head was severed and piled over with little cakes, while its tail and genitalia were rushed to the Regia in the Forum Romanum, and the blood dripped onto the altar inside the Regia. Once the ceremonies over the horse’s cake—heaped head were concluded, it was thrown at two competing crowds of people, one comprising residents of the Subura, the other residents of the Via Sacra. The purpose was to have the two crowds fight for possession of the head. If the Via Sacra won, the head was nailed to the outside wall of the Regia; if the Subura won, the head was nailed to the outside wall of the Tunis Mamilia (the most conspicuous building in the Subura). What was the reason behind all this is not known; the Romans of the late Republic may well not have known themselves, save that it was in some way connected with the close of the campaigning season. We are not told whether the war—horses were Public Horses or not, but we might be pardoned for presuming they were Public Horses.

Horse, Public A horse which belonged to the State—to the Senate and People of Rome. Going all the way back to the Kings of Rome, it had been governmental policy to provide the eighteen hundred knights of the eighteen most senior Centuries with a horse to ride into battle—bearing in mind the fact that the Centuriate Assembly had originally been a military gathering, and the senior Centuries cavalrymen. The right of these senior knights to a Public Horse was highly regarded and defended.

hubris The Greek word for overweening pride in self.

hypocausis In English, hypocaust. A form of central heating having a floor raised on piles and heated from a furnace (the early ones were wood—fired) below. The hypocaust began to heat domestic dwellings about the time of Gaius Marius, and was also used to heat the water in baths, both public and domestic.

ichor The fluid which coursed through the veins of the gods; a kind of divine blood.

Ides The third of the three named days of the month which represented the fixed points of the month. Dates were reckoned backward from each of these points—Kalends, Nones, Ides. The Ides occurred on the fifteenth day of the long months (March, May, July and October), and on the thirteenth day of the other months. The Ides were sacred to Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and were marked by the sacrifice of a sheep on the Arx of the Capitol by the flamen Dialis.

Ilium The Latin name for Homer’s city of Troy.

Illyricum The wild and mountainous lands bordering the Adriatic Sea on its eastern side. The native peoples belonged to an Indo—European race called Illyrians, were tribalized, and detested first Greek and then Roman coastal incursions. Republican Rome bothered little about Illyricum unless boilingtribes began to threaten eastern Italian Gaul, when the Senate would send an army to chasten them.

imago, imagines An imago was a beautifully tinted mask made of refined beeswax, outfitted with a wig, and startlingly lifelike (anyone who has visited a waxworks museum will understand how lifelike wax images can be made, and there is no reason to think a Roman imago was very much inferior to a Victorian wax face). When a Roman nobleman reached a certain level of public distinction, he acquired the ius imaginis, which was the right to have a wax image made of himself. Some modern authorities say the ius imaginis was bestowed upon a man once he attained curule office, which would mean aedile. Others plump for praetor, still others for consul. I plump for consul, also the Grass or Civic Crown, a major flaminate, and Pontifex Maximus. All the imagines belonging to a family were kept in painstakingly wrought miniature temples in the atrium of the house, and were regularly sacrificed to. When a prominent man or woman of a family owning the ius imaginis died, the wax masks were brought out and worn by actors selected because they bore a physical resemblance in height and build to the men the masks represented. Women of course were not entitled to the ius imaginis—even Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi.

imperator Literally, the commander-in-chief or general of a Roman army. However, the term (first attested to in the career of Lucius Aemilius Paullus) gradually came to be given only to a general who won a great victory; his troops had to have hailed him imperator on the field before he qualified for a triumph. Imperator is the root of the word “emperor.”

imperium Imperium was the degree of authority vested in a curule magistrate or promagistrate. It meant that a man owned the authority of his office, and could not be gainsaid provided he was acting within the limits of his particular level of imperium and within the laws governing his conduct. Imperium was conferred by a lex curiata, and lasted for one year only. Extensions for prorogued governors had to be ratified by the Senate and/or People. Lictors shouldering fasces indicated a man’s imperium; the more lictors, the higher the imperium.

in absentia In the context used in these books, a candidacy for office approved of by Senate (and People, if necessary) and an election conducted in the absence of the candidate himself. He may have been waiting on the Campus Martius because imperium prevented his crossing the pomerium, as with Pompey and Crassus in 70 B.C., or he may have been on military service in a province, as with Gaius Memmius when elected quaestor.

in loco parentis Still used today, though in a somewhat watered-down sense. To a Republican Roman, in loco parentis (literally, in the place of a parent) meant a person assumed the full entitlements of a parent as well as the inherent responsibilities.

insula An island. Because it was surrounded on all sides by streets, lanes or alleyways, an apartment building was known as an insula. Roman insulae were very tall (up to one hundred feet—thirty meters—in height) and most were large enough to incorporate an internal light well; many were so large they contained multiple light wells. The insulae to be seen today at Ostia are not a real indication of the height insulae attained within Rome; we know that Augustus tried fruitlessly to limit the height of Roman city insulae to one hundred feet.

in suo anno Literally, in his year. The phrase was used of men who attained curule office at the exact age the law and custom prescribed for a man holding that office. To be praetor and consul in suo anno was a great distinction, for it meant that a man gained election at his first time of trying—many consuls and not a few praetors had to stand several times before they were successful, while others were prevented by circumstances from seeking office at this youngest possible age. Those who bent the law to attain office at an age younger than that prescribed were also not accorded the distinction of being in suo anno.

interrex “Between the kings.” The patrician senator, leader of his decury, appointed to govern for five days when Rome had no consuls. The term is more fully explained in the text.

Iol Modern Cherchel, in Algeria.

Italia The name given to all of peninsular Italy. Until Sulla regulated the border with Italian Gaul east of the Apennines by fixing it at the Rubico River, the Adriatic side probably ended at the Metaurus River.

Italian Allies Certain states and/or tribes within peninsular Italy were not gifted with the Roman citizenship until after they rose up against Rome in 91 B.C. (a war detailed in The Grass Crown). They were held to be socii, that is, allies of Rome. It was not until after Sulla became dictator at the end of 82 B.C. that the men of the Italian Allies were properly regulated as Roman citizens.

Italian Gaul See the entry under Gaul.

iudex The Latin term for a judge.

iugerum, iugera The Roman unit of land measurement. In modern terms the iugerum consisted of 0.623 (five eighths) of an acre, or 0.252 (one quarter) of a hectare. The modern reader used to acres will get close enough by dividing the number of iugera in two; if more accustomed to hectares, divide the number of iugera by four.

Iulus Strictly speaking, the Latin alphabet owned no J. The equivalent was consonantal /, pronounced more like the English Y. If rendered in English, Iulus would be Julus. Iulus was the son of Aeneas (q.v.) and was believed by the members of the gens Julia to be their direct ancestor. The identity of his mother is of some import. Virgil says Iulus was actually Ascanius, the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, and had accompanied Aeneas on all his travels. On the other hand, Livy says Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Latin wife, Lavinia. What the Julian family of Caesar’s day believed is not known. I shall go with Livy; Virgil was too prone to tamper with history in order to please his patron, Augustus.

ius In the sense used in this book, an incontrovertible right or entitlement at law and under the mos maiorum. Hence the ius auxilii ferendi (q.v.), the ius imaginis (see imago), and so forth.

ius auxilii ferendi The original purpose of the tribunate of the plebs was to protect members of the Plebs from discriminatory actions by the Patriciate, this latter group of aristocrats then forming both the Senate and the magistracy. The ius auxilii ferendi was the right of any plebeian to claim to the tribunes of the plebs that he must be rescued from the clutches of a magistrate.

Jupiter Stator That aspect of Jupiter devoted to halting soldiers who were fleeing the field of battle. It was a military cult of generals. The chief temple to Jupiter Stator was on the corner of the Velia where the Via Sacra turned at right angles to run down the slope toward the Palus Ceroliae; it was large enough to be used for meetings by the Senate.

Kalends The first of the three named days of each month which represented the fixed points of the month. Dates were reckoned backward from each of these points—Kalends, Nones, Ides. The Kalends always occurred on the first day of the month. They were sacred to Juno, and originally had been timed to coincide with the appearance of the New Moon.

knights The equites, the members of what Gaius Gracchus named the Ordo Equester. Under the Kings of Rome, the equites had formed the cavalry segment of the Roman army; at this time horses were both scarce and expensive, with the result that the eighteen original Centuries comprising the knights were dowered with the Public Horse by the State. As the Republic came into being and grew, the importance of Roman knight cavalry diminished, yet the number of knight Centuries in the Classes increased. By the second century B.C., Rome no longer fielded horse of her own, and the knights became a social and economic group having little to do with military matters. The knights were now defined by the censors in economic terms alone, though the State continued to provide a Public Horse for each of the eighteen hundred most senior equites. The original eighteen Centuries were kept at one hundred men each, but the rest of the knights’ Centuries (between seventy—one and seventy—three) swelled within themselves to contain many more than one hundred men apiece. Until 123 B.C., all senators were knights as well, but in that year Gaius Gracchus split the Senate off as a separate body of three hundred men. It was at best an artificial kind of process; all non—senatorial members of senatorial families were still classified as knights, and the senators were not put into three senator—only Centuries, but left for voting purposes in whatever Centuries they had always occupied. The insoluble puzzle is: who were the tribuni aerarii? A knight’s census was 400,000 sesterces, presumably income, and the tribunus aerarius had a census of 300,000 sesterces. At first I thought they were possibly senior public servants—Treasury supervisors and the like—but I have swung round to thinking that Mommsen was right. He suggested that there were at least two echelons of knight of the First Class: those with a census of 400,000 sesterces, and those with a census of 300,000 sesterces; and that the lesser—incomed knights were the tribuni aerarii. Does that mean only the eighteen hundred knights owning the Public Horse possessed a census of 400,000 sesterces or more? I would doubt that too. There were many thousands of very rich men in Rome, and no census could so neatly divide one income group from another at a round—figure cutoff point. Perhaps it went more that a senior knight dowered with the Public Horse had to have at least 400,000 sesterces income for census purposes. Whereas the other seventy—plus Centuries of the First Class contained a mixture of full knights and tribuni aerarii. The Centuries of juniors, one imagines, contained more census—rated tribuni aerarii than the Centuries of seniors. But no one knows for certain! There was nothing to stop a knight who qualified for the (entirely unofficial) senatorial means test of one million sesterces becoming a senator under the old system, wherein the censors filled vacancies in the Senate; that by and large knights did not aspire to the Senate was purely because of the knightly love of trade and commerce, forbidden fruit for senators, who could only dabble in land and property. When Sulla reorganized senatorial admission by regulating it through election to the quaestorship, presumably the electoral officers (whose duty it was to accept or deny a candidacy) inspected the candidate’s means. But I also suspect that quite a few men firmly ensconced in the Senate did not have one million sesterces income!

Lake Nemi A small volcanic lake in the Via Appia flank of the Alban Hills. In a grove of sacred trees on its shore stood Diana’s temple, served by a priest called Rex Nemorensis. He was an escaped slave who succeeded to the priesthood by first defiling the grove by breaking off a bough from a tree, then killing the existing Rex Nemorensis in combat.

lanista The proprietor of a gladiatorial school, though not necessarily its actual owner. It was the lanista who saw to the overall running of the school; he may sometimes have supervised the training of the men, but that was more properly the duty of the men called doctores.

Lar, Lares These were among the most Roman of all gods, having no form, shape, sex, number, or mythology. They were numina. There were many different kinds of Lares, who might function as the protective spirits or forces of a locality (as with crossroads and boundaries), a social group (as with the family’s private Lar, the Lar Familiaris), sea voyages (the Lares Permarini), or a whole nation (Rome had public Lares, the Lares Praestites). By the late Republic, however, people had come to think of the Lares as two young men accompanied by a dog; they were depicted in this way in statues. It is doubtful, however, whether a Roman actually believed that there were only two of them, or that they owned this form and sex; more perhaps that the increasing complexity of life made it convenient to tag them.

latifundia Large tracts of public land leased by one person and run as a single unit in the manner of a modern ranch. The activity was pastoral rather than agricultural. Latifundia were usually staffed by slaves who tended to be chained up in gangs and locked at night into barracks called ergastula. Latium That region of Italy in which Rome was situated; it received its name from the original inhabitants, the Latini. Its northern boundary was the Tiber River, its southern a point extending inland from the seaport of Circeii; on the east it bordered the more mountainous lands of the Sabines and the Marsi. When the Romans completed the conquest of the Volsci and the Aequi around 300 B.C., Latium became purely Roman.

lectus funebris The imposing couch upon which the corpse of a man or woman of family rich enough to afford a proper funeral was arranged after the undertakers had dressed and improved the looks of the corpse. It possessed legs, was painted black or made of ebony, trimmed with gilt, and covered in black quilts and cushions.

legate A legatus. The most senior members of a Roman general’s staff were his legates. All men classified as legates were members of the Senate; they answered only to the general, and were senior to all types of military tribune. Not every legate was a young man, however. Some were consulars who apparently volunteered for some interesting war because they hankered after a spell of army life, or were friends of the general.

legion Legio. The legion was the smallest Roman military unit capable of fighting a war on its own, though it was rarely called upon to do so. It was complete within itself in terms of manpower, equipment, facilities to make war. Between two and six legions clubbed together constituted an army; the times when an army contained more than six legions were unusual. The total number of men in a full—strength legion was about six thousand, of whom perhaps five thousand were actually soldiers, and the rest were classified as noncombatants. The internal organization of a legion consisted of ten cohorts of six centuries each; under normal circumstances there was a modest cavalry unit attached to each legion, though from the time of Sulla downward the cavalry tended more to be grouped together as a whole body separate from the infantry. Each legion was in charge of some pieces of artillery, though artillery was not employed on the field of battle; its use was limited to siege operations. If a legion was one of the consuls’ legions it was commanded by up to six elected tribunes of the soldiers, who spelled each other. If a legion belonged to a general not currently a consul, it was commanded by one of the general’s legates, or else by the general himself. Its regular officers were the centurions, of whom it possessed some sixty. Though the troops belonging to a legion camped together, they did not live together en masse; they were divided into units of eight men who tented and messed together. See also cohort, legionary This is the correct English word to describe an ordinary soldier (miles gregarius) in a Roman legion. “Legionnaire,” which I have sometimes seen used, is more properly applied to a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, or to a member of the American Legion.

lex, leges A law or laws. The word lex also came to be applied to the plebiscite , passed by the Plebeian Assembly. A lex was not considered valid until it had been inscribed on bronze or stone and deposited in the vaults below the temple of Saturn. However, residence therein must have been brief, as space was limited and the temple of Saturn also housed the Treasury. After Sulla’s new Tabularium was finished, laws were deposited there instead of (probably) all over the city. A law was named after the man or men who promulgated it and then succeeded in having it ratified, but always (since lex is feminine gender) with the feminine ending to his name or their names. This was then followed by a general description of what the law was about. Laws could be—and sometimes were—subject to repeal at a later date.

lex Caecilia Didia There were actually two laws, but only one is of relevance to this volume. Passed by the consuls of 98 B.C., the relevant one stipulated that three nundinae or market days had to elapse between the first contio to discuss a law in any of the Assemblies and the day of its ratification by vote of the Assembly. There is some debate as to whether the period consisted of twenty-four or seventeen days; I have elected seventeen.

lex Domitia de sacerdotiis Passed in 104 B.C. by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, later Pontifex Maximus. It specified that new pontifices and augurs must be elected by a tribal Assembly comprising seventeen of the thirty-five tribes chosen by lot. Until this law, pontifices and augurs were co-opted by the college members. Sulla once dictator repealed it.

lex frumentaria The general term for a grain law. There were many such, commencing with Gaius Gracchus. All grain laws pertained to the public grain supply—that is, the grain bought by the State and distributed by the aediles. Most such laws provided cheap grain, but some took cheap grain away.

lex Genucia Passed in 342 B.C. by the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius. It stipulated that a period of ten years must elapse between one man’s holding the same office twice. There were two other leges Genuciae, not referred to in this book.

lex Minicia de liberis Passed about 91 B.C. There is some doubt as to whether its author was a Minicius or a Minucius. It laid down that the children of a marriage between a Roman citizen and a non—Roman citizen, irrespective of which parent was the Roman citizen, must take the citizen status of the non—Roman parent.

lex Plautia Papiria Passed in 89 B.C. as a supplementary measure to Lucius Caesar’s law granting the Roman citizenship to Italian socii not directly embroiled in the war between Rome and the Italian Allies. This supplementary law laid down that an Italian resident within peninsular Italy but not in his original municipium who had not taken up arms against Rome could be granted the full citizenship if he applied to a praetor in Rome within sixty days of the law’s ratification. Phew!

lex rogata A law promulgated in an Assembly by direct cooperation between the presiding magistrate and the members of the Assembly. In other words, the law was not presented to the Assembly in a cut—and—dried, fully drafted state, but was drafted during contio in the Assembly.

lex sumptuaria Any law regulating the purchase and consumption of luxuries. They were popular laws among magistrates who deplored luxury—loving tendencies, but rarely worked in practice. The most common articles legislated against were spices, peppers, perfumes, incenses, imported wines, and genuine Tyrian purple. Sulla’s sumptuary law even stipulated how much a family could spend on a funeral or a banquet.

lex Villia annalis Passed in 180 B.C. by the tribune of the plebs Lucius Villius. It stipulated certain minimum ages at which the curule magistracies could be held (presumably thirty-nine for praetors and forty-two for consuls), and apparently also stipulated that two years must elapse between a man’s holding the praetorship and the consulship.

LIBERO The word used in Assembly trials to register a verdict of acquittal.

Liber Pater The original Italian fertility god who looked after the sperm of men and the germination of crops. He became identified with wine and good times, with Bacchus and with Dionysos, but he does not appear to have been held lightly. The Italian Allies when pursuing their war against Rome adopted Liber Pater as their tutelary god.

licker—fish A freshwater bass of the Tiber River. The creature was to be found only between the Wooden Bridge and the Pons Aemilius, where it lurked around the outflows of the great sewers and fed upon what they disgorged. Apparently it was so well fed that it was notoriously hard to catch. This may have been why it was so prized as a delicacy by Rome’s Epicureans.

lictor The man who formally attended a curule magistrate as he went about his official business by preceding him in single file to clear a way, or by being on hand as he conducted his business in case he needed to employ restraint or chastise. The lictor had to be a Roman citizen and was a State employee, though he does not seem to have been of high social status, and was probably so poorly paid that he relied upon his magistrate’s generosity with gratuities. On his left shoulder he bore the bundle of rods called fasces (q.v.). Within the city of Rome he wore a plain white toga, changing to a black toga for funerals; outside Rome he wore a scarlet tunic cinched by a broad black leather belt bossed in brass, and inserted the axes into the fasces. There was a College of Lictors, though the site of lictorial headquarters is not known. I placed it behind the temple of the Lares Praestites on the eastern side of the Forum Romanum adjacent to the great inn on the corner of the Clivus Orbius, but there is no factual evidence of any kind to support this location. Within the college the lictors (there must have been at least three hundred of them) were organized into de—curies of ten men, each headed by a prefect, and the decuries were collectively supervised by several college presidents.

litter A covered cubicle equipped with legs upon which it rested when lowered to the ground. A horizontal pole on each corner projected forward and behind the conveyance; it was carried by four to eight men who picked it up by means of these poles. The litter was a slow form of transport, but it was by far the most comfortable known in the ancient world. I imagine it was considerably more comfortable than most modern transport!

ludi The games. See that entry.

Lusitani The peoples of far western and northwestern Spain. Less exposed to Hellenic and Roman culture than the Celtiberians, the Lusitani were probably somewhat less Celtic than Iberian in racial content, though the two strains were mixed in them. Their organization was tribal, and they seem to have farmed as well as grazed.

macellum A market.

magistrates The elected representatives of the Senate and People of Rome. They embodied the executive arm of the government, and with the exception of the tribunes of the soldiers, they all belonged to the Senate automatically from the time of Sulla’s dictatorship downward. The accompanying diagram most clearly shows the nature of each magistracy, its seniority, who did the electing, and whether a magistrate owned imperium. The cursus honorum, or Way of Honor, proceeded in a straight line from quaestor through praetor to consul; censor, both kinds of aedile and tribune of the plebs were ancillary to the cursus honorum. Save for the censor, all magistrates served for one year only. The dictator was a special case explained in this book.

Magna Mater The Great Mother. As Kubaba Cybele, the great earth goddess was imported from ancient Carchemish to Phrygia, where her chief sanctuary came into being at Pessinus. In 204 B.C., toward the end of the second Punic War, the navel stone of the Great Mother at Pessinus was brought to Rome, and the cult of the Great Mother was ever after an important one. Her temple was on the Palatine overlooking the Circus Maximus, her priests were eunuchs, and her rites were flagellatory.

maiestas Treason. The refinements of treason introduced by Saturninus (q.v.) in 103 B.C. were largely cancelled by the law Sulla put on the tablets when dictator; this spelled out with absolute clarity the offenses Rome would hitherto find to be treasonous. See also perduellio.

malaria This pestilential disease, caused by four varieties of Plasmodium and vectored by the female Anopheles mosquito, was endemic throughout Italy. The Romans knew that it occurred in different manifestations: quartan and tertian, and a more serious form having no regular rhythmic recurrence of the rigors. All were the ague. The Romans also knew that malaria was most common wherever there was swampy ground, hence their fear of the Pomptine Marshes and the Fucine Lake. What they did not realize was that infection took place through the bite of a mosquito.

manumission The act of freeing a slave. If the slave’s master was a Roman citizen, this act automatically endowed the freed slave with the citizenship. His vote, however, tended to be worthless. The manumitted slave took the name of his old master as his own, adding to it as a cognomen his own name—hence Lucius Cornelius Chrysogonus, Sulla’s infamous freed—man. A slave might be manumitted in one of several ways: by buying his freedom out of his earnings; as a special gesture of the master’s on some great family occasion like a coming—of—age birthday; after an agreed number of years in service; and in a will. Most slaves found the Roman citizenship highly desirable despite its limitations, chiefly on behalf of their free—born descendants. It was not at all uncommon for men with skills to sell themselves into slavery, particularly among the Greeks. For the rest of his life the freed slave had to wear a slightly conical skullcap on the back of his head—the Cap of Liberty. See also freedman.

Marsi One of the most important Italian peoples. The Marsi lived around the shores of the Fucine Lake, which belonged to them, and their territory extended into the high Apennines. Their history indicates that until the time of the Italian War they had always been loyal to Rome. The Marsi worshipped snakes, and were famous as snake charmers.

measures and weights Most measurements were based upon body parts, hence the foot, the hand, the pace. The Roman foot at 296mm was just slightly short of 12 inches, and it was divided into 12 inches. 5 feet made up a pace, and the Roman mile at 1,000 paces was about 285 feet short of the English mile, thus there were 20 Roman miles for every 19 English—too small a difference to make it necessary in my text to specify miles (or feet) as Roman.

Area was measured in iugera (see that entry).

Grains such as wheat were dry—measured rather than weighed, as they poured like fluids; the dry measures were the medimnus and the modius (see those entries).

The bulk container was the amphora, which held about 25 liters (6 American gallons), and was the volume of a Roman cubic foot. Ships’ cargoes were always expressed in amphorae.

The Roman pound, or libra, weighed about 7/10ths of an English pound at 327 grams, and was divided into 12 ounces . Heavy weights were measured in the talent (see that entry).

medimnus A dry measure for grains and other pourable solids. It equalled 5 modii and occupied a volume of 10 U.S. gallons, and weighed about 65 Roman pounds (47.5 English pounds). This provided sufficient grain for two one—Roman—pound loaves of bread per day for about 30 days, given that the waste husked off the grain in grinding was replaced by water and other ingredients. The ordinary Roman who lived in one or two rooms in an insula did not normally grind his flour and bake his bread at home; he came to an arrangement with his local baker (as indeed was done in many parts of Europe until relatively recently), who took a cut of the grain ration as his price. Perhaps the final result was that one medimnus of wheat provided the ordinary Roman with one large loaf per day for 30 days?

Mentula A choice Latin obscenity for the penis.

merchantman A cargo ship. Much shorter in length and broader in the beam than a war galley (the ratio was about 4:1), it was stoutly built of some pinus like fir, and was designed to be sailed more than rowed, though it was always equipped with a bank of oars for use when becalmed or being chased by pirates. The single sail was cross—rigged; sometimes a smaller sail was rigged forward of the mainsail on a foremast. Steerage was usually in the form of two large rudder oars, one on either side at the stern. High in the poop, it was decked to protect its cargo, and usually had a cabin amidships as well as a cabin aft. Cargo was loaded in amphorae if grain or wine; these large earthenware jars with pointed bottoms were stowed in the hold embedded in sawdust to prevent their shifting in heavy seas. The average merchantman seems to have carried about 100 tons of cargo. Though able to stay at sea night and day—and in the hands of a good captain able to sail across open sea—the merchantman when possible hugged the coast, and its captain was more likely to want to put into port at dusk than to sail on. Perhaps the only merchantmen which regularly stayed at sea and crossed open waters were the ships of large grain fleets. These often doubled as troop transports.

Middle Sea The name I have used for the Mediterranean Sea. My observant readers will notice a new term now creeping into the narrative: Our Sea. Mare nostrum (our sea) is what it came to be called as the Republic neared its end.

miles gloriosus Miles means soldier, and at first glance gloriosus might seem to mean glorious. But it commonly meant boastful or vainglorious, as it did in the hands of the playwright.

Military Man The vir militaris. What might be called a “career soldier.” His whole life revolved around the army, and he continued to serve in the army after his obligatory number of years or campaigns had expired. If he entered the Roman political arena he relied upon his military reputation to catch votes, but many Military Men never bothered to enter the political arena at all. However, if a Military Man wanted to general an army, he had no choice but to attain the praetorship, which was the lowest magistracy carrying command of an army with it. Gaius Marius, Quintus Sertorius, Titus Didius, Gaius Pomptinus, Publius Ventidius were all Military Men; but Caesar the Dictator, the greatest military man of them all, was never a Military Man.

minim A bright vermilion pigment made from cinnabar (mercuric sulphide) which the triumphing general painted on his face, apparently to ape the terracotta face of the statue of Jupiter Optimus Maximus in his temple on the Capitol.

Minutus Meager in size.

modius The customary measure of grain. A modius occupied 2 U.S. gallons or 8 liters, and weighed about 13 (presumably Roman) pounds. The public grain was doled out in increments of 5 modii per month, this equaling one medimnus (see this entry also for information about bread). mos maiorum The established order of things, used to describe the habits and customs of government and public institutions. Perhaps the best definition is to say that the mos maiorum was Rome’s unwritten constitution. Mos meant established custom; and in this context maiores meant ancestors or forebears. To sum up, the mos maiorum was how things had always been done—and how they should always be done in the future too!

mundus A beehive—shaped pit which was divided into two parts and normally kept covered. Its exact purpose is a mystery, but it seems to have been believed in late Republican times to be an entranceway to the Underworld. The lid was removed thrice in the year on dies religiosi (q.v.) in order to allow the shades of the dead to walk the city.

myoparo A small war galley much favored by pirates before they began to band together in much larger ships to sail as properly admiraled fleets capable of attacking and beating professional navies. The myoparo is somewhat mysterious as to its size and type, but it seems to have been an improvement upon the hemiolia (q.v.) and preferred to the hemiolia. The only drawing of it is not informative, though it does seem to indicate that the myoparo had only one bank of oars rowed over the top of the gunwale rather than through ports, and also possessed mast and sail.

nefas Sacrilege; an impious or sacrilegious act.

Nesaean horse See horse, Nesaean.

nobleman Nobilis. A man and his descendants were described as noble once he had achieved the consulship. This was an artificial aristocracy invented by the plebeians in order to cut the inarguably noble patricians down to size; once the first century of the Republic was over, more plebeians reached the consulship than did patricians. Nobility mattered enormously.

nomen The family, clan, or gentilicial name—the name of the gens in (for men) masculine form. Cornelius, Julius, Domitius, Licinius were all nomina (plural).

Nones The second of the three named days of the month which represented the fixed points of the month. Dates were reckoned backward from each of these points—Kalends, Nones, Ides. The Nones occurred on the seventh day of the long months (March, May, July and October), and on the fifth day of the other months. The Nones were sacred to Juno.

non pro consule, sed pro consulibus The famous phrase of Lucius Marcius Philippus when proposing that Pompey be given command of Nearer Spain in the war against Quintus Sertorius. As a piece of hair—splitting it was brilliant, and reconciled many in the Senate to Pompey who were obdurately against a proconsular command going to a man outside the Senate. It said, more or less, “not as a man after his consulship, but as a man acting on behalf of the consuls of the year.”

numen, numina, numinous Pertaining to gods who were absolutely spirits or forces, having no bodies, faces, sex, or mythology. See the glossary of The First Man in Rome for much fuller explanation.

nundinum The interval between one market day and the next; the eight—day Roman week. Save for the Kalends, Nones and Ides, the days of the Roman calendar were not named; on the calendars themselves they are allocated a letter between A and H, with A (presumably) being the market day. When the Kalends of January coincided with the market day, the whole year was considered to be unlucky, but this did not happen regularly because of intercalations and the fact that the eight—day round of letters was continued on without an interruption between last day of the old year and first (Kalends) day of the new year.

nundinus, nundinae (plural) The market day, occurring every eighth day; the singular, nundinus, was less used than the plural, nundinae. Under normal circumstances the courts were open on nundinae, but the Assemblies were not.

October Horse See Horse, October.

Olympia The famous temple and precinct of Zeus was nowhere near Mount Olympus in Thessaly; it lay on the Alpheus River in the district of Elis, in the western Peloponnese.

opus incertum The oldest of several ways in which the Romans built their walls. A facing of irregular small stones mortared together was constructed with a hollow interior or cavity; this was filled with a mortar composed of black pozzolana and lime mixed through an aggregate of rubble and small stones . Even in the time of Sulla, opus incertum was still the most popular way to build a wall. It was probably also cheaper than brick.

Ordo Equester The name given to the knights by Gaius Gracchus. See the entry on knights.

Oscan The language spoken by the Samnites, Campani, Lucani, Apuli, Bruttii and other Italian peoples of the more southern part of the Italian peninsula; it was the chief language of > central Italy even during the latter decades of the Republic. It was Indo—European, but not closely allied to Latin; some of the peoples who spoke Oscan used a Latin alphabet to write it, but more (including the widest group of Oscan speakers, the Samnites) used an alphabet derived from Etruscan. Many Romans could speak and understand Oscan. The Atellan mimes were sometimes staged in Rome with the cast speaking in Oscan.

paean A song or hymn of praise, sometimes composed in honor of a living man, more often relating to the gods.

pantheon, The word used nowadays to encompass collectively the whole array of gods in a polytheistic system of religious belief.

Parvus So small as to be of no account.

paterfamilias The head of the family unit. His right to do as he pleased with the various members of his family was rigidly protected at law.

patrician, Patriciate The Patriciate was the original Roman aristocracy. To an ancestor—revering, birth—conscious people like the Romans, the importance of belonging to patrician stock can hardly be overestimated. The older among the patrician families were aristocrats before the Kings of Rome, the youngest among them (the Claudii) apparently emerging at the very beginning of the Republic. All through the Republic they kept the title of patrician, as well as a prestige unattainable by any plebeian—and this in spite of the nobility, the “new aristocracy” ennobled above mere plebeian status by having consuls in the family. However, by the last century of the Republic a patrician owned little distinction beyond his blood; the wealth and energy of the great plebeian families had steadily eroded original patrician rights. Sulla, a patrician himself, seems to have tried in small ways to elevate the patrician above his plebeian brothers, but did not dare legislate major privileges. Yet entitlement and privilege under the constitution mattered not a scrap to most Romans: they knew the patrician was better. During the last century of the Republic the following patrician families were still producing senators, and some praetors and consuls: Aemilius, Claudius, Cornelius, Fabius (but through adoption only), Julius, Manlius, Pinarius, Postumius, Sergius, Servilius, Sulpicius, and Valerius.

patron, patronage Republican Roman society was organized into a system of patronage and clientship (see also client). Though perhaps the smallest businessmen and the lowly of Rome were not always participants in the system, it was nevertheless prevalent at all levels in society, and not all patrons were from the upper echelons of society. The patron undertook to offer protection and favors to those who acknowledged themselves his clients. Freed slaves were in the patronage of their ex-masters. No woman could be a patron. Many patrons were clients of patrons more powerful than themselves, which technically made their clients also the clients of their patron. The patron might do nothing for years to obtain help or support from a client, but one day the client would be called upon to do his patron a favor—vote for him, or lobby for him, or perform some special task. It was customary for the patron to see his clients at dawn in his house on “business” days in the calendar; at these matinees the clients would ask for help or favor, or merely attend to offer respect, or offer services. A rich or generous patron often bestowed gifts of money upon his clients when they assembled at such times. If a man became the client of another man whom in earlier days he had hated to the point of implacable enmity, that client would thereafter serve his erstwhile enemy, now his patron, with complete fidelity, even to death (vide Caesar the Dictator and Curio the Younger).

Pavo A peacock.

pedarius A senatorial backbencher (see entry on the Senate).

People of Rome This term embraced every single Roman who was not a member of the Senate; it applied to patricians as well as plebeians, and to the Head Count as well as to the First Class.

perduellio High treason. Until first Saturninus and then Sulla redefined treason and passed new treason laws, perduellio was the only form treason had in Roman law. Old enough to be mentioned in the Twelve Tables (q.v.), it required a trial process in the Centuriate Assembly, a most cumbersome affair. It carried an automatic death penalty, of crucifixion on a cross tied to an unlucky tree (that is, a tree which had never borne fruit).

peristyle An enclosed garden or courtyard which was surrounded by a colonnade and formed the outdoor area of a house.

phalerae Round, chased, ornamented silver or gold discs about 3 to 4 inches (75 to 100mm) in diameter. Originally they were worn as insignia by Roman knights, and also formed a part of the trappings of a knight’s horse. Gradually they came to be military decorations awarded for exceptional bravery in battle. Normally they were given in sets of nine (three rows of three each) upon a decorated leather harness of straps designed to be worn over the mail shirt or cuirass. piaculum A sacrifice made as atonement for some offense.

Picenum That part of the eastern Italian peninsula roughly occupying the area of the Italian leg’s calf muscle. Its western boundary formed the crest of the Apennines; Umbria lay to the north, and Samnium to the south. The original inhabitants were of Italiote and Illyrian stock, but there was a tradition that Sabines had migrated east of the Apennine crest and settled in Picenum, bringing with them as their tutelary god Picus, the woodpecker, from which the region got its name. A tribe of Gauls called the Senones also settled in the area at the time Italy was invaded by the first King Brennus in 390 B.C. Politically Picenum fell into two parts: northern Picenum, closely allied to southern Umbria, was under the sway of the great family called Pompeius; and Picenum south of the Flosis or Flussor River was under the sway of peoples allied to the Samnites.

pilum, pila The Roman infantry spear, especially as modified by Gaius Marius. It had a very small, wickedly barbed head of iron and an upper shaft of iron; this was joined to a shaped wooden stem which fitted the hand comfortably. Marius modified it by introducing a weakness into the junction between iron and wooden sections, so that when the pilum lodged in an enemy shield or body, it broke apart, and thus could not be hurled back by the enemy. After a battle all the broken pila were collected from the field; they were easily mended by the artificers.

plebeian, Plebs All Roman citizens who were not patricians were plebeians; that is, they belonged to the Plebs (the e is short, so that Plebs rhymes with webs, not glebes). At the beginning of the Republic no plebeian could be a priest, a magistrate, or even a senator. This situation lasted only a very short while; one by one the exclusively patrician institutions crumbled before the onslaught of the Plebs, who far outnumbered the patricians—and several times threatened to secede. By the late Republic there was very little if any advantage to being a patrician—except that everyone knew patrician was better.

Plebeian Assembly See the entry under Assemblies.

podex An impolite word for the posterior fundamental orifice: an arsehole rather than an anus.

Pollux The ever—forgotten Heavenly Twin. See Castor.

pomerium The sacred boundary enclosing the city of Rome. Marked by white stones called cippi, it was reputedly inaugurated by King Servius Tullius, and remained without change until Sulla’s dictatorship. The pomerium did not exactly follow the Servian Walls, one good reason why it is doubtful that the Servian Walls were built by King Servius Tullius—who would certainly have caused his walls to follow the same line as his pomerium. The whole of the ancient Palatine city of Romulus was enclosed within the pomerium, whereas the Aventine lay outside it. So too did the Capitol. Tradition held that the pomerium might be enlarged, but only by a man who significantly increased the size of Roman territory. In religious terms, Rome herself existed only inside the pomerium; all outside it was merely Roman territory.

pontifex Many Latin etymologists think that in very early times the pontifex was a maker of bridges (pans: bridge), and that the making of bridges was considered a mystical art putting the maker in close touch with the gods. Be that as it may, by the time the Republic came along the pontifex was a priest. Incorporated into a special college, he served as an adviser to Rome’s magistrates and comitia in all religious matters—and would inevitably himself become a magistrate. At first all pontifices had to be patrician, but a lex Ogulnia of 300 B.C. stipulated that half the College of Pontifices had to be plebeian. During periods when the pontifices (and augurs) were co-opted into the college by other members, new appointees tended to be well under senatorial age; the early twenties were common. Thus the appointment of Caesar at twenty-seven years of age was not at all unusual or remarkable.

Pontifex Maximus The head of Rome’s State-administered religion, and most senior of all priests. He seems to have been an invention of the infant Republic, a typically masterly Roman way of getting round an obstacle without demolishing it and ruffling feelings. In the time of the Kings of Rome, the Rex Sacrorum had been the chief priest, this being a title held by the King himself. Apparently considering it unwise to abolish the Rex Sacrorum, the anti—monarchical rulers of the new Republic of Rome simply created a new priest whose role and status were superior to the Rex Sacrorum. This new priest was given the title of Pontifex Maximus. To reinforce his statesmanlike position, it was laid down that he should be elected, not co-opted (the other priests were all co-opted). At first he was probably required to be a patrician, but soon could as easily be a plebeian. He supervised all the members of the various priestly colleges—and the Vestal Virgins. The State gave him its most imposing house as his residence, but in Republican times he shared this residence with the Vestal Virgins, apparently on a half-and-half basis. His official headquarters had the status of an inaugurated temple: the little old Regia in the Forum Romanum just outside his State house. popa He was a public servant attached to religious duties, and his only job appears to have been to wield the big stunning hammer; the cutting of the beast’s throat was the province of the cultarius (see that entry).

population of Rome A vexed question upon which much ink has been expended by modern scholars. I think there is a tendency to underestimate the number of people who actually dwelt inside Rome herself, few if any of the scholars admitting to a number as great as one million. The general consensus seems to be half a million. However, we do know the dimensions of the Republican city inside the Servian Walls: in width, one-plus kilometers, in length, two-plus kilometers. Then as now, Rome was a city of apartment dwellers, and that is a strong clue to the actual population. Of Roman citizens—that is, males on the census rolls—there were perhaps a quarter of a million; plus wives and children; and plus slaves. It was an absolutely penurious household which did not have at least one slave in service; the Head Count seem to have owned slaves too. Then there were the non—citizens, of whom Rome had hordes: Jews, Syrians, Greeks, Gauls, all sorts. With wives, children, and slaves. Rome teemed with people, its insulae were multitudinous. Non—citizens, wives, children and slaves must have pushed that quarter—million well above a million. Otherwise the insulae would have been half empty and the city smothered in parks. I think two million is closer to the mark.

porta A city or town gate. Rome’s gates were all equipped with mighty oak doors and portcullises.

portico The word I have chosen to indicate a large covered porch forming an entrance to a building or temple.

porticus Not a porch, but a whole building incorporating some sort of large central courtyard. The actual building was usually longer than wide, and constructed on a colonnade principle. The Porticus Margaritaria in the upper Forum Romanum was a squarer version of the porticus, and housed Rome’s most expensive shops. The Porticus Aemilia in the Port of Rome was a very long building which housed firms and agents dealing with shipping, import and export.

praefectus fabrum One of the most important men in a Roman army, technically the praefectus fabrum was not even a part of it; he was a civilian appointed to the post by the general. The praefectus fabrum was responsible for equipping and supplying the army in all respects, from its animals and their fodder to its men and their food. Because he let out contracts to businessmen and manufacturers for equipment and supplies, he was a very powerful figure—and unless he was a man of superior integrity, in a perfect position to enrich himself. The evidence of Caesar’s praefectus fabrum, the Gadetanian banker Lucius Cornelius Balbus, indicates just how important and powerful these suppliers of armies were.

praenomen A Roman man’s first name. There were very few praenomina (plural) in use, perhaps twenty, and half of them were not common, or else were confined to the men of one particular gens, as with Mamercus, confined to the Aemilii Lepidi, and Appius, confined to the patrician Claudii. Each gens or clan favored certain praenomina only, perhaps two or three out of the twenty. A modern scholar can often tell from a man’s praenomen whether he was a genuine member of the gens: the Julii, for instance, favored Sextus, Gaius and Lucius only, with the result that a man called Marcus Julius is highly suspect. The Licinii favored Publius, Marcus and Lucius; the Pompeii favored Gnaeus, Sextus and Quintus; the Cornelii favored Publius, Lucius and Gnaeus; the Servilii of the patrician gens favored Quintus and Gnaeus. One of the great puzzles for modern scholars concerns that Lucius Claudius who was Rex Sacrorum during the late Republic; Lucius was not a patrician Claudian praenomen, yet the Rex Sacrorum was certainly a patrician Claudius. I have postulated that there was a certain branch of the Claudii bearing the praenomen Lucius which always traditionally provided Rome with her Rex Sacrorum. The whole subject of praenomina has me in stitches whenever I watch one of those Hollywood Roman epics; they always get it wrong!

praetor This magistracy ranked second in the hierarchy of Roman magistrates. At the very beginning of the Republic, the two highest magistrates of all were known as praetors. By the end of the fourth century B.C., however, the term consul had come into being for the highest magistrates, and praetors were relegated to second—best. One praetor was the sole representative of this position for many decades thereafter; he was obviously the praetor urbanus, as his duties were confined to the city of Rome, thus freeing up the two consuls for duties as war leaders outside the city. In 242 B.C. a second praetor, the praetor peregrinus, was created to cope with matters relating to foreign nationals and Italy rather than Rome. As Rome acquired her overseas provinces more praetors were created to govern them, going out to do so in their year of office rather than afterward as propraetors. By the last century of the Republic there were six praetors elected in most years, eight in others, depending upon the State’s needs. Sulla brought the number of praetors up to eight during his dictatorship, and limited duty during their year in actual office to his law courts.

praetor peregrinus I have chosen to translate this as the foreign praetor because he dealt with non-citizens. By the time of Sulla his duties were confined to litigation and the dispensation of legal decisions; he traveled all over Italy as well as hearing cases involving non—citizens within Rome herself.

praetor urbanus The urban praetor, whose duties by the late Republic were almost all to do with litigation. Sulla further refined this by confining the urban praetor to civil rather than criminal suits. His imperium did not extend beyond the fifth milestone from Rome, and he was not allowed to leave Rome for longer than ten days at a time. If both the consuls were absent from Rome, he was Rome’s senior magistrate, therefore empowered to summon the Senate, make decisions about execution of government policies, even organize the defenses of the city under threat of attack.

Princeps Senatus The Leader of the House. He was appointed by the censors according to the rules of the mos maiorum: he had to be a patrician, the leader of his decury, an interrex more times than anyone else, of unimpeachable morals and integrity, and have the most auctoritas and dignitas. The title Princeps Senatus was not given for life, but was subject to review by each new pair of censors. Sulla stripped the Leader of the House of a considerable amount of his auctoritas, but he continued to be prestigious.

privatus Used within the pages of this book to describe a man who was a senator but not currently a magistrate.

proconsul One serving the State with the imperium of a consul but not in office as consul. Proconsular imperium was normally bestowed upon a man after he finished his year as consul and went to govern a province proconsule. A man’s tenure of a proconsulship was usually for one year only, but it was very commonly

prorogued (q.v.), sometimes for several years; Metellus Pius was proconsul in Further Spain from 79 to 71 B.C. Proconsular imperium was limited to the proconsul’s province or command, and was lost the moment he stepped across the pomerium into Rome.

Procrustes A mythological Greek gentleman of dubious tastes. In his stronghold somewhere in Attica (said to be on the road to the Isthmus of Corinth) he kept two beds, one too short for the average man, and one too long. Having lured the traveler into his lair, he overpowered his victim and then popped the poor fellow on whichever of the two beds fitted least. If the victim was too short for the long bed, Procrustes stretched him out until he did measure up; if the victim was too tall for the short bed, Procrustes lopped bits off his extremities until he did measure up. Theseus killed him by treating him as he had treated all his victims.

proletarii Those Roman citizens who were too poor to give the State anything by way of taxes, duties, or service. The only thing they could give the State was proles—children. See Head Count.

promagistrate One serving the State in a magisterial role without actually being a magistrate. The offices of quaestor, praetor and consul (the three magistracies of the formal cursus honorum) were the only three relevant.

propraetor One serving the State with the imperium of a praetor but not in office as a praetor. Propraetorian imperium was normally bestowed upon a man after he had finished his year as praetor and went to govern a province propraetore. Tenure of a propraetorship was usually for one year, but could be prorogued.

proquaestor One serving the State as a quaestor but not in office as a quaestor. The office did not carry imperium, but under normal circumstances a man elected to the quaestorship would, if asked for personally by a governor who ended in staying in his province for more than one year, remain in the province as proquaestor until his superior went home.

prorogue This meant to extend a man’s tenure of promagisterial office beyond its normal time span of one year. It affected proconsuls and propraetors, but also quaestors. I include the word in this glossary because I have discovered that modern English language dictionaries of small or even medium size neglect to give this meaning in treating the word “prorogue.”

province Originally this meant the sphere of duty of a magistrate or promagistrate holding imperium, and therefore applied as much to consuls and praetors in office inside Rome as it did to those abroad. Then the word came to mean the place where the imperium was exercised by its holder, and finally was applied to that place as simply meaning it was in the ownership (or province) of Rome.

pteryges The leather straps which depended from the waist to the knees as a kilt, and from the shoulders to the upper arms as sleeves; they were sometimes fringed at their ends, and ornamented with metallic bosses as well as tooling. The traditional mark of the senior officers and generals of the Roman army, they were not worn by the ranks.

publicani Tax—farmers, or contracted collectors of Rome’s public revenues. Such contracts were let by the censors about every five years, though it would seem that Sulla when dictator suspended this when he terminated the office of censor. No doubt he provided some other means of letting contracts.

Public Horse See Horse, Public.

public servants The more research I do, the more I come to see that Rome had many public servants. However, the Senate and Assemblies—that is, government—traditionally abominated public servants, and many of Rome’s public transactions were conducted by firms and/or individuals in the private business sector. This privatization was an ongoing thing throughout the Republic, and was usually effected through the censors, praetors, aediles and quaestors. Contracts were let, a price for the particular service was agreed to. All this notwithstanding, of public servants there were many—clerks, scribes, secretaries, accountants, general factotums, religious attendants, public slaves, electoral officers, comitial officers, lictors—not to mention the legions. Cavalry might be considered to be “on hire.” Pay and conditions were probably not good, but aside from the public slaves all public servants seem to have been Roman citizens. The bulk of clerical employees were apparently Greek freedmen.

Pulex A flea.

Punic Pertaining to Carthage and the Carthaginians. It derives from the original homeland of the Carthaginians—Phoenicia.

Pusillus Absolutely infinitesimal in size.

Pythagorean Pertaining to the philosophical system originated by Pythagoras. In Rome of the late Republic he had a reputation as a bit of a ratbag—that is, eccentric enough to be considered slightly potty. He taught that the soul was doomed to transmigrate from one kind of organism to another (even plants) for all eternity unless when imprisoned within a man that man espoused a way of life designed to free the soul: he preached rules of silence, chastity, contemplation, vegetarianism, etc. Women were as welcome to participate in the way of life as men. The Neopythagorean cult practiced in Rome had departed from true Pythagoreanism, but the preoccupation with numbers and a way of life was still strong. Unfortunately among the foods Pythagoreans advocated consuming in large quantities were beans; the result was a great deal of methane in the air around a Pythagorean. He or she was therefore very often the butt of unsympathetic wits. A medical friend of mine maintains that excessive amounts of fava beans can promote excessive bleeding in childbirth.

quaestio A court of law or judicial investigatory panel.

quaestor The lowest rung on the senatorial cursus honorum. It was always an elected office, but until Sulla laid down during his dictatorship that in future the quaestorship would be the only way a man could enter the Senate, it was not necessary for a man to be quaestor in order to be a senator. Sulla increased the number of quaestors from perhaps twelve to twenty, and laid down that a man could not be quaestor until he was thirty years of age. The chief duties of a quaestor were fiscal. He might be (chosen by the lots) seconded to Treasury duty within Rome, or to collecting customs, port dues and rents elsewhere in Italy, or serve as the manager of a provincial governor’s moneys. A man going to govern a province could ask for a quaestor by name. The quaestor’s year in office began on the fifth day of December.

Quinctilis Originally the fifth month when the Roman New Year had begun in March, it retained the name after January New Year made it the seventh month. We know it, of course, as July; so did the Romans—after the death of the great Julius.

quinquereme A very common and popular form of ancient war galley: also known as the “five.” Like the bireme and the trireme (q.v.), it was much longer than it was broad in the beam, and was designed for no other purpose than to conduct war at sea. It used to be thought that the quinquereme had five banks of oars, but it is now almost universally agreed that no galley ever had more than three banks of oars, and more commonly perhaps had only two banks. The “five” was most likely called a “five” because it had five men on each oar, or else if it had two banks of oars put three men on the upper oars and two men on the lower. If there were five men on an oar, only the man on the tip or end of the oar had to be highly skilled; he guided the oar and did the really hard work, while the other four provided little beyond muscle—power. However, five men on an oar meant that at the commencement of the sweep the rowers had to stand, falling back onto the seat as they pulled. A “five” wherein the rowers could remain seated would have needed three banks of oars as in the trireme, two men on each of the two upper banks, and one man on the lowest bank. It seems that all three kinds of quinqueremes were used, each community or nation having its preference. For the rest, the quinquereme was decked, the upper oars lay within an outrigger, and a mast and sail were part of the design, though usually left ashore if battle was expected. The oarsmen numbered about 270, the sailors perhaps 30, and if the admiral believed in boarding rather than or as well as ramming, some 120 marines could be carried along with fighting towers and catapults. Like its smaller sister galleys, the “five” was rowed by professional oarsmen, never slaves.

Quirites Roman citizens of civilian status.

quod erat demonstrandum “That was the thing to be proved.”

Regia The ancient little building in the Forum Romanum, oddly shaped and oriented toward the north, that served as the offices of the Pontifex Maximus and the headquarters of the College of Pontifices. It was an inaugurated temple and contained shrines or altars or artifacts of some of Rome’s oldest and most shadowy gods—Opsiconsiva, Vesta, Mars of the sacred shields and spears. Within the Regia the Pontifex Maximus kept his records. It was never his residence. Republic The word was originally two words—res publica—meaning the thing which constitutes the people as a whole: that is, the government.

Rex Sacrorum During the Republic, he was the second—ranking member of the College of Pontifices. A relic of the days of the Kings of Rome, the Rex Sacrorum had to be a patrician, and was hedged around with as many taboos as the flamen Dialis.

rhetoric The art of oratory, something the Greeks and Romans turned into a science. An orator was required to speak according to carefully laid out rules and conventions which extended far beyond mere words; body language and movements were an intrinsic part of it. There were different styles of rhetoric; the Asianic was florid and dramatic, the Attic more restrained and intellectual in approach. It must always be remembered that the audience which gathered to listen to public oration—be it concerned with politics or with the law courts—was composed of connoisseurs of rhetoric. The men who watched and listened did so in an extremely critical way; they had learned all the rules and techniques themselves, and were not easy to please.

Ria Plutarch (writing in Greek almost two hundred years later) gives the name of Quintus Sertorius’s mother as Rhea; but this is not a Latin gentilicial name. However, even today “Ria” is a diminutive commonly used in Europe for women named “Maria.” It was some years before I discovered that my Dutch housekeeper, Ria, was actually Maria. Maria would be the name of a female member of the Marii, Gaius Marius’s gens. The attachment of Quintus Sertorius to Gaius Marius from his earliest days in military service right through to the end which saw even his loyalest adherents recoil in horror makes me wonder about that name, Rhea. Sertorius, says Plutarch also, was very devoted to his mother. Why then should not Sertorius’s mother have been a Maria called Ria for short, and a close blood relative of Gaius Marius’s? To have her this answers many questions. As part of my novelist’s license I have chosen to assume that Sertorius’s mother was a blood relative of Marius’s. However, this is pure speculation, albeit having some evidence to support it. In this Roman series I have severely limited my novelist’s imagination, and do not allow it to contradict history.

Roma The proper title in Latin of Rome. It is feminine.

Romulus and Remus The twin sons of Rhea Silvia, daughter of the King of Alba Longa, and the god Mars. Her uncle Amulius, who had usurped the throne, put the twins in a basket made of rushes and set it adrift on the Tiber (shades of Moses?). They were washed up beneath a fig tree at the base of the Palatine Mount, found by a she—wolf, and suckled by her in a cave nearby. Faustulus and his wife Acca Larentia rescued them and raised them to manhood. After deposing Amulius and putting their grandfather back on his throne, the twins founded a settlement on the Palatine. Once its walls were built and solemnly blessed, Remus jumped over them—apparently an act of horrific sacrilege. Romulus put him to death. Having no people to live in his Palatine town, Romulus then set out to find people, which he did by establishing an asylum in the depression between the two humps of the Capitol. This asylum attracted criminals and escaped slaves, which says something about the original Romans! However, he still had no women. These were obtained by tricking the Sabines of the Quirinal into bringing their women to a feast; Romulus and his desperadoes kidnapped them. Romulus ruled for a long time. Then one day he went hunting in the Goat Swamps of the Campus Martius and was caught in a terrible storm; when he didn’t come home, it was believed he had been taken by the gods and made immortal.

rosea rura The most fertile piece of ground in Italy lay outside the Sabine city of Reate. It was called the rosea rura. Apparently it was not tilled, perhaps because it grew a wonderful kind of grass which regenerated so quickly it was very difficult to overgraze. Many thousands of mares grazed on it, and stud donkeys which fetched huge prices at auction; the object of the pastoral rosea rura activities was the breeding of mules, these being the best mules available.

rostra A rostrum (singular) was the reinforced oak beak of a war galley used to ram other ships. When in 338 B.C. the consul Gaius Maenius attacked the Volscian fleet in Antium harbor, he defeated it completely. To mark the end of the Volsci as a rival power to Rome, Maenius removed the beaks of the ships he had sent to the bottom or captured and fixed them to the Forum wall of the speaker’s platform, which was tucked into the side of the Well of the Comitia. Ever after, the speaker’s platform was known as the rostra—the ships’ beaks. Other victorious admirals followed Maenius’s example, but when no more beaks could be put on the wall of the rostra, they were fixed to tall columns erected around the rostra.

Roxolani A people inhabiting part of the modem Ukraine and Rumania, and a sept of the Sarmatae. Organized into tribes, they were horse—people who tended to a nomadic way of life except where coastal Greek colonies of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. impinged upon them sufficiently to initiate them into agriculture. All the peoples who lived around the Mediterranean despised them as barbarians, but after he conquered the lands around the Euxine Sea, King Mithridates VI used them as troops, mostly cavalry.

Sabines The Oscan—speaking people of unknown racial origin who lived to the north and east of Rome between the Quirinal Hill inside Rome and the crest of the Apennines. Their ties to Rome went back to the apocryphal “rape,” and they resisted Roman incursions into their lands for several centuries. The chief Sabine towns were Reate, Nersae and Amiternum. Sabines were famous for their integrity, bravery, and independence.

sacer Though it more usually meant sacred to a god, sacer in the sense used in this book meant one whose person and property had been forfeited to a god because some divine law had been profaned; Sulla used the term in his proscriptions because Roma was a goddess.

saepta “The sheepfold.” During the Republic this was simply an open area on the Campus Martius not far from the Via Lata. Here the Centuriate Assembly met. The saepta was divided up for the occasion by temporary fences so that the five Classes could vote in their Centuries.

salii A college of priests in service to Mars; the name meant “leaping dancers.” There were twenty-four of them in two colleges of twelve. They had to be patrician. saltatrix tonsa This delicious political slur was most famously used by Cicero to describe Lucius Afranius, a Picentine adherent of Pompey’s. It translates as a “barbered dancing—girl”: that is, a male homosexual who dressed as a woman and sold his sexual favors. In a day when slander and defamation were not charges pursuant at law, anything went in the political slur department!

Samnites, Samnium Rome’s most obdurate enemies among the peoples of Italy lived in lands lying between Latium, Campania, Apulia, Picenum and the Adriatic, though as a people the Samnites spilled into southern Picenum and southern Campania. The area was largely mountainous and not particularly fertile; its towns tended to be poor and small, and numbered among them Caieta, Aeclanum and Bovianum. The two really prosperous cities, Aesernia and Beneventum, were Latin Rights colonies seeded by Rome. Besides the true Samnites, peoples called Frentani, Paeligni, Marrucini and Vestini inhabited parts of Samnium. Several times during Rome’s history the Samnites inflicted hideous defeats upon Roman armies; no Roman general thought of them lightly. Whenever there seemed a chance that some insurgent movement might overthrow Rome, the Samnites enlisted in its ranks.

Sarmatians A people, probably of Germanic stock, the Sarmatians occupied the steppelands on the northwestern side of the Euxine Sea—the modern Ukraine—though originally they had lived to the east of the Tanais (the Don). They were nomadic in habit and all rode horses. The tribal culture permitted a rare equality of women with men; the women attended councils and fought as warriors. By the last century B.C. they had lost several subgroups which became nations in themselves, principally the Roxolani (q.v.) and the Iazyges, who settled further south. Mithridates used Sarmatae as cavalry troops in his armies.

satrap The title given by the Kings of Persia to their provincial or territorial governors. Alexander the Great seized upon the term and employed it, as did the later Arsacid Kings of the Parthians and the Kings of Armenia. The region administered by a satrap was called a satrapy.

Saturninus Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, tribune of the plebs in 103, 100 and 99 B.C. His early career was marred by an alleged grain swindle while he was quaestor of the grain supply at Ostia, and the slur remained with him throughout the rest of his life. During his first term as a tribune of the plebs he allied himself with Gaius Marius and succeeded in securing lands in Africa for resettlement of Marius’s veteran troops. He also defined a new kind of treason, “maiestas minuta” or “little treason,” and set up a special court to try cases of it. His second term as a tribune of the plebs in 100 B.C. was also in alliance with Marius, for whom he obtained more land for veterans from the German campaign. But eventually Saturninus became more of an embarrassment to Marius than a help, so Marius repudiated him publicly; Saturninus then turned against Marius. Toward the end of 100 B.C., Saturninus began to woo the Head Count, as there was a famine at the time, and the Head Count was restless. He passed a grain law which he could not implement, as there was no grain to be had. When the elections were held for the tribunate of the plebs for 99 B.C., Saturninus ran again, only to be defeated. His boon companion, Gaius Servilius Glaucia, arranged the murder of one of the lucky candidates, and Saturninus took the dead man’s place. He was tribune of the plebs for the third time. Stirred by the famine and Saturninus’s oratory, the Forum crowds became dangerous enough to force Marius and Scaurus Princeps Senatus into an alliance which resulted in the passing of the Senate’s Ultimate Decree. Apprehended after the water supply to the Capitol was cut off, Saturninus and his friends were imprisoned in the Senate House until they could be tried. But before the trials could take place, they were killed by a rain of tiles from the Senate House roof. All of Saturninus’s laws were then annulled. It was said ever after that Saturninus had aimed at becoming King of Rome. His daughter, Appuleia, was married to the patrician Marcus Aemilius Lepidus. For a fuller narration of the career of Saturninus, see the entry in the glossary of The Grass Crown.

Scipio Africanus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus was born in 236 B.C. and died around the end of 184 B.C. A patrician of august family, he distinguished himself as a very young man in battle, then at the age of twenty-six, still a private citizen, he was invested with a proconsular imperium by the People rather than the Senate, and dispatched to fight the Carthaginians in Spain. Here for five years he did brilliantly, winning for Rome her two Spanish provinces. Consul at the early age of thirty-one, he ignored senatorial opposition and invaded Africa via Sicily. Both Sicily and Africa eventually fell, and Scipio was invited to assume the cognomen Africanus. He was elected censor and appointed Princeps Senatus in 199 B.C., and was consul again in 194 B.C. As farsighted as he was brilliant, Scipio Africanus warned Rome that Antiochus the Great of Syria would invade Greece; when it happened he went as his brother Lucius’s legate to fight the invader. But Cato the Censor, a rigid moralist, had always condemned the Scipiones for running a morally loose army, and embarked upon a persecution of Africanus and his brother which seems to have caused Africanus’s early death. Scipio Africanus was married to Aemilia Paulla, the sister of the conqueror of Macedonia. One of his two daughters was Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi. His two sons failed to prosper.

Scythians A nomadic, horse—mounted people of probable Germanic stock who lived in the Asian steppelands to the east of the Tanais River (the Don), and extended as far south as the Caucasus. They were socially well organized enough to have kings, and were famous goldsmiths.

secret name of Rome Rome, presumably in the guise of goddess Roma, had a secret name. This secret name was apparently guarded by a special goddess, Diva Angerona, whose statue (located on the altar in the shrine of Volupia) had a bandage across its mouth. There were arcane rites celebrated in which the name was uttered, but the taboo was strictly enforced and the danger of uttering the secret name was believed in even by the most sophisticated people. It seems most thought the secret name was Amor, which is Roma spelled backward. Amor means “love.”

sedan chair An open chair on a frame designed to be carried by two to four men. A sedan chair could probably be hired like a taxi.

Seleucid The adjective of lineage attached to the royal house of Syria, whose sovereigns were descended from Seleucus Nicator, one of Alexander the Great’s companions, though not one of his known generals. After Alexander’s death he cemented a kingdom which eventually extended from Syria and Cilicia to Media and Babylonia, and had two capitals, Antioch and Seleuceia—on—Tigris, and two wives, the Macedonian Stratonice and the Bactrian Apama. By the last century B.C. the Kingdom of the Parthians had usurped the eastern lands, and Rome most of Cilicia; the kingdom of the Seleucids was then purely Syria.

Senate Properly, senatus. This was originally a patricians—only body which first contained one hundred members and then three hundred. Because of its antiquity the legal definitions of its rights, powers and duties were mostly nonexistent. Membership in the Senate was for life (unless a man was expelled by the censors for inappropriate behavior or impoverishment), which predisposed it to the oligarchical form it acquired. Throughout its history, its members fought strenuously to preserve their pre-eminence in government. Until Sulla prevented access to the Senate save by the quaestorship, appointment was in the purlieus of the censors, though from the middle Republic down the quaestorship if held before admission to the Senate was soon followed by admission to the Senate; the lex Atinia provided that tribunes of the plebs should automatically enter the Senate upon election. There was a means test of entirely unofficial nature; a senator was supposed to enjoy an income of a million sesterces. Senators alone were entitled to wear the latus clavus on their tunics; this was a broad purple stripe down the right shoulder. They wore closed shoes of maroon leather, and a ring which had originally been made of iron, but later came to be gold. Senatorial mourning consisted of wearing the knight’s narrow stripe on the tunic. Only men who had held a curule magistracy wore a purple-bordered toga; ordinary senators wore plain white. Meetings of the Senate had to be held in properly inaugurated premises; the Senate had its own curia or meetinghouse, the Curia Hostilia, but was prone also to meet elsewhere at the whim of the man convening the meeting—presumably he always had well-founded reasons for choosing a venue other than the Senate House, like a necessity to meet outside the pomerium. The ceremonies and meeting and feast on New Year’s Day were always held in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. Sessions could go on only between sunrise and sunset, and could not take place on days when any of the Assemblies met, though were permissible on comitial days if no Assembly did meet. Until Sulla reorganized this as he did so much else, the rigid hierarchy of who spoke in what turn had always placed the Princeps Senatus and consulars ahead of men already elected to office but not yet in office, whereas after Sulla consuls—elect and praetors—elect spoke ahead of these men; under both systems a patrician always preceded a plebeian of exactly equal rank in the speaking hierarchy. Not all members of the house were accorded the privilege of speaking. The senatores pedarii (I have used a British parliamentary term, backbenchers, to describe them, as they sat behind the men allowed to speak) could vote, but were not called upon in debate. No restrictions were placed upon the time limit or content of a man’s speech, so filibustering was common. If an issue was unimportant or everyone was obviously in favor of it, voting might be by voice or a show of hands, but a formal vote took place by the division of the House, meaning that the senators left their stations and grouped themselves to either side of the curule dais according to their yea or nay, and were then physically counted. Always an advisory rather than a true legislating body, the Senate issued its consulta or decrees as requests to the various Assemblies. If the issue was serious, a quorum had to be present before a vote could be taken, though we do not know what precise number constituted a quorum. Certainly most meetings were not heavily attended, as there was no rule which said a man appointed to the Senate had to attend meetings, even on an irregular basis. In some areas the Senate reigned supreme, despite its lack of legislating power: the fiscus was controlled by the Senate, as it controlled the Treasury; foreign affairs were left to the Senate; and the appointment of provincial governors, the regulation of provincial affairs, and the conduct of wars were left for the sole attention of the Senate.

senatus consultant de re publica defendenda The Senate’s Ultimate Decree, so known because Cicero shortened its proper title to senatus consultum ultimum. Dating from 121 B.C., when Gaius Gracchus resorted to violence to prevent the overthrow of his laws, in civil emergencies the Senate overrode all other governmental bodies by passing the senatus consultum de re publica defendenda. This Ultimate Decree proclaimed the Senate’s sovereignty and established what was, in effect, martial law. It was really a way to sidestep appointing a dictator.

Servian Walls Mums Servii Tullii. Republican Romans believed that the formidable walls enclosing the city of Rome had been erected in the time of King Servius Tullius. However, evidence suggests that they were not built until after Rome was sacked by the Gauls in 390 B.C. Down to the time of Caesar the Dictator they were scrupulously kept up.

sesterces The Latin singular is sestertius, the Latin plural is sestertii. Roman accounting practices were established in sesterces, though the denarius seems to have been a more common coin. In Latin writing, sesterces were abbreviated as HS. A small silver coin, the sestertius was worth a quarter of a denarius.

Sextilis Originally the sixth month when the Roman NewYear had begun in March, it kept its name after January New Year made it the eighth month. We know it, of course, as August; so too did the Romans—but not until the reign of Augustus.

Sibylline Books The Roman State possessed a series of prophecies written in Greek and called the Sibylline Books. Legend had it that the famous Sibyl at Cumae offered to sell the books to King Tarquinius Priscus of Rome, and he refused. So she burned one of the books (they were written on palm leaves). He refused again, she burned another book. Eventually he bought the remainder, which were placed in the care of a special college of minor priests, and only consulted when Senate or People commanded it, usually in the face of some major crisis. Sulla raised the number of priests in the college from ten to fifteen; they were thereafter known as the quindecimviri sacris faciundis. The books, however, were lost in the fire which destroyed Jupiter’s temple on July 6 of 83 B.C. Sulla ordered that a search of the world’s sibyls be made and the books reassembled. This was done.

sive Either, or.

sixteener With the sixteener we enter the world of the ancient dreadnoughts, the supergalleys. That there were more than three banks of oars is now not believed possible: two arrangements were feasible, namely a bireme of two banks and eight men per oar, or a trireme of three banks with six men to each of the upper banks of oars and four men on the lowest bank. One bank of oars is equally as impossible as four because the sweep and angle of an oar prevents its being operated by more than eight men. If the oar were designed to be operated by eight men, it would have been about 57 feet long; a six—man oar measured about 45 feet long. With a length growing close to 200 feet, the beam of a sixteener was probably about 25 to 28 feet, which enabled the deck to accommodate a large body of marines and several pieces of artillery, as well as several tall towers. There seems evidence to suggest that the sixteener owned fewer oars than a smaller galley, number of oars being compensated for by the increased power of each oar. The number of oarsmen probably lay in the vicinity of 500 to 800, and the sixteener may have been able to accommodate 400 marines. The supergalley was not of any use in genuine naval warfare; her size and unseaworthiness made her useful only for boarding or for firing missiles, though even the vastest galleys were equipped with rams. King Mithridates VI was enormously fond of sixteeners, as is recounted in The First Man in Rome. For those perusers of the glossary whose curiosity is piqued as to how big the ancient naval architects and shipwrights could make galleys, wait for later books in this series! I might have Cleopatra dig Ptolemy IV s “forty” river barge out of mothballs.

socius, socii A socius was a man of a citizenship having allied status with Rome.

Sol Indiges One of the most ancient Italian gods, apparently (as the Sun) the husband of Tellus (the Earth). Though little is known of his cult, he was apparently enormously reverenced. Oaths sworn by him were very serious affairs.

spelt A very fine, soft white flour used for making cakes, never bread. It was ground from the variety of wheat now known as Triticum spelta.

sponsio In cases of civil litigation where judgement was arrived at by one man rather than by a jury, the urban or foreign praetor could only allow the case to be heard after a sum of money called sponsio was lodged with him before the hearing began. This was either the sum being asked for in damages, or the sum of money in dispute. In bankruptcy or nonpayment of debts cases, the sum owed became the sponsio. Until Sulla was dictator, if the sum concerned could not be found by either the plaintiff or the defendant, the praetor could not allow the case to be heard. This meant many cases which ought to have been heard were not. Sulla fixed this by allowing the urban or foreign praetor to waive the lodgement of sponsio. He had first done this, incidentally, in 88 B.C. when he tried to shore up the constitution before leaving for the war against Mithridates; but these laws were quickly repealed. The law he put on the tablets as dictator remained in effect.

stibium The ancient version of mascara. A black antimony—based powder soluble in water, stibium was used to darken the brows and/or lashes, or to draw a line around the perimeter of the eye. It would be interesting to know just how recently a more benign substance than stibium replaced it, but, alas, no work of reference tells me.

stimulus, stimuli To the Romans a stimulus was a sharpened wooden stake placed in the bottom of a trench or ditch as part of defense fortifications. It could also mean a sharp instrument used to goad an animal. And by extension, a stimulus was something causing acute mental pain or worry.

strategoi A Greek word in the plural. A military commander or general.

Subura The poorest and most densely populated part of the city of Rome. It lay to the east of the Forum Romanum in the declivity between the Oppian spur of the Esquiline Mount and the Viminal Hill. Its people were notoriously polyglot and independent of mind; many Jews lived in the Subura, which at the time of Sulla contained Rome’s only synagogue. Suetonius says Caesar the Dictator lived in the Subura.

Sulpicius Publius Sulpicius Rufus had been a conservative and moderate sort of man throughout his time in the Senate, and including the first part of his tribunate of the plebs in 88 B.C. It would seem that the news that King Mithridates had not distinguished between Italians and Romans when he murdered 80,000 of them in Asia Province caused Sulpicius to change his views about many things, including the limitations conservative and anti—Italian elements in Rome were placing upon the admission of the newly enfranchised Italians into the Roman rolls. Sulpicius turned militant radical, allying himself with Gaius Marius. He passed four laws, the most important of which stipulated that all the new Roman citizens must be distributed equally across the whole thirty-five tribes, but the most disturbing of which took the command of the war against Mithridates away from Sulla; he gave it to Marius instead. This provoked Sulla into marching on Rome that first time. Together with Marius, Old Brutus and some others, Sulpicius fled from the city after Sulla took it over. The rest of the refugees escaped overseas, probably because it was no part of Sulla’s intentions to apprehend them, but Sulpicius was taken in the Latin port of Laurentum and killed on the spot. His head was sent to Rome; Sulla fixed it to the rostra in an attempt to cow the newly elected consul Cinna. All four of Sulpicius’s laws were repealed by Sulla.

sumptuary law Any law attempting to regulate the purchase or consumption of luxuries.

tabled Of a law, and used in the British parliamentary sense. When a drafted proposed law or amendment or paper is tabled, it is “put on the table’’ for inspection, discussion, and thought. It then remains tabled until passed or rejected.

talent This was the load a man could carry. Bullion and very large sums of money were expressed in talents, but the term was not confined to precious metals and money. In modern terms the talent weighed about 50 to 55 pounds (25 kilograms). A talent of gold weighed the same as a talent of silver, but was far more valuable, of course.

Tarpeian Rock Its precise location is still hotly debated, but we do know that it was quite visible from the lower Forum Romanum, as people being thrown off it could be seen from the rostra. Presumably it was an overhang at the top of the Capitoline cliffs, but since the drop was not much more than eighty feet, the Tarpeian Rock must have been located directly over some sort of jagged outcrop—we have no evidence that anyone ever survived the fall. It was the traditional place of execution for Roman citizen traitors and murderers, who were either thrown from it or forced to jump from it. The tribunes of the plebs were particularly fond of threatening to throw obstructive senators from the Tarpeian Rock. I have located it on a line from the temple of Ops.

tata The Latin diminutive for “father”—akin to our “daddy.” I have, by the way, elected to use the almost universal “mama” as the diminutive for “mother,” but the actual Latin was “mamma.”

Tellus The Roman earth goddess, of undeniably Italian origin. After the navel stone of Magna Mater was imported from Pessinus in 205 B.C., worship of Tellus was neglected. Tellus had a big temple on the Carinae, in earlier days imposing; by the last century B.C. it was dilapidated. tergiversator Thank you, Professor Erich Gruen! You have given me much valued information and much food for thought—but “tergiversator” I especially prize, even if it is a small point. “Tergiversator” is a very imposing word for a political turncoat.

tetrarch The chief of a fourth section of any state or territory. The three tribes of Galatia—Tolistobogii, Trocmi, and Volcae Tectosages—were each divided into four parts, and each of the four parts was headed by a tetrarch.

Teutones See the entry entitled Cimbri.

theaters Republican Rome owned no permanent structures devoted to the staging of plays. Whenever the games included theatricals, temporary wooden structures had to be built for the occasion, and dismantled after the games were over. The old conviction that theater was morally degrading, a corrupting force, never quite died. A reflection of this can be seen in the fact that women were not allowed to sit with men, and were relegated to the very back rows of the audience. Only public pressure had obliged the magistrates to include plays in the public entertainments put on during games; the Roman people adored comedy, farces and mimes. The wooden theaters were built like permanent stone ones—amphitheatrical in shape, with a raised stage, wings, flies, and concealed entrances and exits for the actors. The scenae (backdrops) were as high as the top tier of the cavea (auditorium). The cavea was a semicircle of stepped tiers, which left a semicircular vacant space called the orchestra between the front row of the audience and the stage.

Thrace Loosely, that part of Balkan Europe between the Hellespont and a line just east of Philippi; it had coasts on both the Aegean and the Euxine Seas, and extended north as far as the mouth of the Danubius (the Danube). The Romans considered that its western boundary was the river Nestus. Thrace never really got itself organized, and remained until Roman occupation a place of partially allied Germano—Illyrian—Celtic tribes long enough settled in the area to warrant the name Thracian. Both the Greeks and the Romans considered the Thracians utterly barbaric. After 129 B.C. the strip of Thrace along the Aegean seaboard was governed by Rome as a part of Macedonia. For Rome had built the Via Egnatia, the great highway between the Adriatic and the Hellespont, and needed to protect this quickest way to move her soldiers between west and east. Thrace’s largest city by far was the old Greek colony of Byzantium, on the Thracian Bosporus, but it of course was not inhabited by Thracians; nor was any other seaport. The Bessi constituted the most warlike and Roman—hating tribal confraternity, but the Odrysiae were slightly more Hellenized, and had a king who strove to placate Rome.

Tingitanian ape The Barbary ape, a macaque, terrestrial and tailless. Monkeys and primates were not common around the Mediterranean, but the macaque still found on Gibraltar was always present in North Africa.

toga The garment only a full citizen of Rome was entitled to wear. Made of lightweight wool, it had a peculiar shape (which is why the togate “Romans” in Hollywood movies never look right). After exhaustive and brilliant experimentation, Dr. Lillian Wilson of Johns Hopkins worked out a size and shape which produced a perfect-looking toga. To fit a man 5 feet 9 inches (175cm) tall having a waist of 36 inches (89.5cm), the toga was about 15 feet (4.6m) wide, and 7 feet 6 inches (2.25m) long. The length measurement is draped on the man’s height axis and the much bigger width measurement is wrapped around him. However, the shape was far from being a simple rectangle! It looked like this:

Unless the toga is cut as illustrated, it will absolutely refuse to drape the way it does on the togate men of the ancient statues. The Republican toga of the last century B.C. was very large (the size varied considerably during the thousand years it was the customary garb of the Roman). And a man draped in his toga could not have worn a loincloth or other undergarment! toga Candida The specially whitened toga worn by those seeking office as an elected magistrate. Its stark whiteness was achieved by bleaching the garment in the sun for many days, then working finely powdered chalk through it. toga praetexta The purple-bordered toga of the curule magistrate. It continued to be worn by these men after their term in office was over. It was also the toga worn by children of both sexes. toga trabea Cicero’s “particolored toga.” It was the striped toga of the augur, and very likely of the pontifex also. Like the toga praetexta, it had a purple border all the way around it, but it was also striped in broad bands of alternating red and purple down its length. toga virilis The plain white toga of a Roman male. It was also called the toga alba, or the toga pura.

togate The correct English-language term to describe a man clad in his toga.

torc A thick round necklace or collar, usually of gold. It didn’t quite form a full circle, as it had a gap about an inch wide interrupting it; this was worn at the front. The torc was the mark of a Gaul or Celt, though some Germans wore it also. The ends of the torc at the gap were normally finished in some decorative way, with knobs, animal heads, twists, swirls. Smaller versions of the torc were awarded as Roman military decorations and worn on the shoulders of the shirt or cuirass.

transvectio The parade of the Public Horse held on the Ides of Quinctilis (July). Abandoned as part of the aftermath of Gaius Gracchus, it was revived in 70 B.C. by Pompey, who wanted to make it clear that he was a knight.

tribe Tribus. By the beginning of the Republic, tribus to a Roman was not an ethnic grouping of his people, but a political grouping of service only to the State. There were thirty-five tribes altogether; thirty-one were rural, only four urban. The sixteen really old tribes bore the names of the various original patrician gentes, indicating that the citizens who belonged to these tribes were either members of the patrician families, or had once lived on land owned by the patrician families. When Roman-owned territory in the peninsula began to expand during the early and middle Republic, tribes were added to accommodate the new citizens within the Roman body politic. Full Roman citizen colonies also became the nuclei of fresh tribes. The four urban tribes were supposed to have been founded by King Servius Tullius, though they probably originated somewhat later. The last tribe of the thirty-five was created in 241 B.C. Every member of a tribe was entitled to register one vote in a tribal Assembly, but his vote counted only in helping to determine which way the tribe as a whole voted, for a tribe delivered just one vote, the majority of its members. This meant that in no tribal Assembly could the huge number of citizens enrolled in the four urban tribes sway the vote, as the urban tribes delivered only four of the thirty-five ultimate votes. Members of rural tribes were not disbarred from living in Rome, nor were their progeny obliged to be enrolled in an urban tribe. Most senators and knights of the First Class belonged to rural tribes. It was a mark of distinction.

tribune, military Those on the general’s staff who were not elected tribunes of the soldiers but who ranked above cadets and below legates were called military tribunes. If the general was not a consul in office, military tribunes might command legions. Otherwise they did staff duties for the general. Military tribunes also served as cavalry commanders.

tribune of the plebs These magistrates came into being early in the history of the Republic, when the Plebs was at complete loggerheads with the Patriciate. Elected by the tribal body of plebeians formed as the concilium plebis or comitia plebis tributa (the Plebeian Assembly), they took an oath to defend the lives and property of members of the Plebs, and to rescue a member of the Plebs from the clutches of a (patrician in those days) magistrate. By 450 B.C. there were ten tribunes of the plebs. A lex Atinia de tribunis plebis in senatum legendis in 149 B.C. provided that a man elected to the tribunate of the plebs automatically entered the Senate. Because they were not elected by the People (that is, by the patricians as well as by the plebeians), they had no power under Rome’s unwritten constitution and were not magistrates in the same way as tribunes of the soldiers, quaestors, curule aediles, praetors, consuls, and censors; their magistracies were of the Plebs and their power in office resided in the oath the whole Plebs took to defend the sacrosanctity—the inviolability—of its elected tribunes. The power of the office also lay in the right of its officers to interpose a veto (intercessio) against almost any aspect of government: a tribune of the plebs could veto the actions or laws of his nine fellow tribunes, or any—or all!—other magistrates, including consuls and censors; he could veto the holding of an election; he could veto the passing of any law; and he could veto any decrees of the Senate, even those dealing with war and foreign affairs. Only a dictator (and perhaps an interrex) was not subject to the tribunician veto. Within his own Plebeian Assembly, the tribune of the plebs could even exercise the death penalty if his right to proceed about his duties was denied him. The tribune of the plebs had no imperium, and the authority vested in the office did not extend beyond the first milestone outside the city of Rome. Custom dictated that a man should serve only one term as a tribune of the plebs, but Gaius Gracchus put an end to that; even so, it was not usual for a man to stand more than once. As the real power of the office was vested in negative action—the veto—tribunician contribution to government tended to be more obstructive than constructive. The conservative elements in the Senate loathed the tribunate of the plebs. The College of Tribunes of the Plebs entered office on the tenth day of December each year, and had its headquarters in the Basilica Porcia. Sulla as dictator in 81 B.C. stripped the tribunate of the plebs of all its powers save the right to rescue a member of the Plebs from the clutches of a magistrate, but the consuls Pompey and Crassus restored all the powers of the office in 70 B.C. It was too important to do without. See also the entry under auxilii ferendi. And Plebs, of course.

tribune of the soldiers Two dozen young men aged between twenty-five and twenty-nine years of age were elected each year by the Assembly of the People to serve as the tribuni militum, or tribunes of the soldiers. They were true magistrates, the only ones too young to belong to the Senate, and were the governmental representatives of the consuls’ legions (the four legions which belonged to the consuls in office). Six tribunes of the soldiers were allocated to each of the four legions, and normally commanded them. The command was shared in such a way that there was always a tribune of the soldiers on duty as commander, but apparently one of the six (probably by lot or by his number of votes) was senior to the others.

tribuni aerarii These were men of knight’s status whose census at 300,000 sesterces made them junior to the knights of a 400,000 sesterces census. See the entry on knights for further information.

triclinium The dining room of a Roman house or apartment. By preference it was square in shape, and possessed three couches arranged to form a U. Standing in the doorway one looked into the hollow of the U; the couch on the left was called the lectus summus, the couch forming the middle or bottom of the U was the lectus medius, and the couch on the right was the lectus imus. Each couch was very broad, perhaps 4 or 5 feet, and at least twice that long. One end of the couch had a raised arm forming a head, the other end did not. In front of the couches (that is, inside the hollow of the U) was a narrow table also forming a U. The male 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, which was the end having no arm; the guest of honor reclined at the other end of the same couch, in the spot called the locus consularis. At the time of these books it was rare for women to recline alongside the men unless the dinner party was a men’s affair and the female guests were of low virtue. Respectable women sat on upright chairs inside the double U of couches and tables; they entered the room with the first course and left as soon as the last course was cleared away. Normally they drank only water, as women drinking wine were thought of low moral virtue. See the illustration.

trireme With the bireme, the commonest and most favored of all the ancient war galleys. By definition a trireme had three banks of oars, and with the advent of the trireme about 600 B.C came the invention of the projecting box above the gunwale called an outrigger (later galleys, even biremes, often were fitted with outriggers). In a trireme every oar was much the same length at about 15 feet (5m), this being relatively short; only one rower manned an oar. The average trireme was about 130 feet long, and the beam was no wider than 13 feet (excluding the outrigger): the ratio was therefore about 10:1. The rower in the lowest bank the Greeks called a thalamite; he worked his oar through a port in the hull so close to the water line that it was fitted with a leather cuff to keep the sea out. There were about 27 thalamites per side, giving a total of 54 thalamite oars. The rower in the middle bank was called a zygite; he worked his oar through a port just below the gunwale. Zygites equaled thalamites in number. The outrigger rower was a thranite; he sat above and outboard of the zygite on a special bench within the outrigger housing. His oar projected from a gap in the bottom of the outrigger perhaps two feet beyond the ship’s side. Because trh outrigger could maintain its projection width when the hull narrowed aft, there were 31 thranite rowers to 27 thalamites and 27 zygites per side. A trireme was therefore powered by about 170 oars; the thranites in the outriggers had to work the hardest due to the fact that their oars hit the water at a sharper angle. With the invention of the trireme there had arrived a vessel absolutely suited for ramming, and rams now became two—pronged, bigger, heavier, and better armored. By 100 B.C. the genuine ship of the line in a war—going fleet was the trireme, as it combined speed, power, and maneuverability. Most triremes were decked, and could carry a complement of up to perhaps 50 marines. The trireme, mainly built from some kind of pine, was still light enough to be dragged out of the water at night; it could also be portaged quite long distances on rollers by its crew. In order to prevent waterlogging adding to its weight, the trireme was routinely beached overnight. If a ship of the line was well looked after, its warfaring life was a minimum of twenty years in length; a city or community (Rhodes, for example) maintaining a standing navy always provided shipsheds for out—of—the—water storage of the fleet. It is the dimensions of these shipsheds as investigated by archaeologists which has confirmed that, no matter how many the oars, the average war galley never grew to be much larger than 180 feet in length and 20 feet in the beam.

troglodytes In ancient times, people who lived not so much in caves as in dwellings they carved out of soft rocks. The Egyptian side of the Sinus Arabicus (now the Red Sea) was reputed to have troglodytes, and the soft tufa stone of the Cappadocian gorges provided homes for the local peoples from times before recorded history.

trophy Captured enemy gear of sufficiently imposing appearance or repute. It was the custom of the Roman general to set up trophies (usually suits of armor, standards) if he won a significant victory. He might choose to do so on the actual field of battle as a memorial, or as Pompey did on the crest of a mountain pass, or else inside a temple he vowed and built in Rome.

tunic The ubiquitous article of clothing for all the ancient Mediterranean peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans. A Roman tunic tended to be rather loose and shapeless, made without darts to give it a waisted look; it covered the body from the shoulders and upper arms to the knees. Sleeves were probably set in (the ancients knew how to sew, cut cloth, and make clothing comfortable), and sometimes long. The tunic was usually belted with a cord or with buckled leather, and the Romans wore theirs longer at the front than at the back by about three inches. Upper—class Roman men were probably togate if outside the doors of their own homes, but there is little doubt that men of lower classes only wore their togas on special occasions, such as the games or elections. If the weather was wet, a cloak of some kind was preferred to a toga. The knight wore a narrow purple stripe down the right (bared to show the tunic) shoulder called the angustus clavus; the senator’s purple stripe, the latus clavus, was wider. Anyone on a census lower than 300,000 sesterces could not wear a stripe at all. The customary material for a tunic was wool.

Twelve Tables A bit like the Ten Commandments. These twelve tablets (the originals were perhaps made of wood, but the later version was certainly of bronze) were a codified system of laws drawn up about 450 B.C. during the early Republic by a committee called the decemviri legibus scribundis; from them all Roman law descended. They covered most aspects of law, civil as well as criminal, but in a rather small—town way, and must often have amused the schoolboys of the last century B.C. as they learned their XII Tables off by heart. Law by then had become far more sophisticated.

Venus Erucina That aspect of Venus which ruled the act of love, particularly in its freest and least moral sense. On the feast of Venus Erucina prostitutes offered to her, and the temple of Venus Erucina outside the Colline Gate of Rome was accustomed to receive gifts of money from successful prostitutes.

Venus Libitina That aspect of Venus (the goddess of the life—force) which ruled the extinction of the life—force. An underworld deity of great importance in Rome. Her temple was sited beyond the Servian Walls more or less at the central point of Rome’s vast necropolis (cemetery) on the Campus Esquilinus. Its exact location is not known. The temple precinct was large and had a grove of trees, presumably cypresses, as they are associated with death. In this precinct Rome’s undertakers and funeral directors had their headquarters, operating, it would seem likely, from stalls or booths. The temple itself contained a register of Roman citizen deaths and was rich thanks to the accumulation of the coins which had to be paid to register a death. Should Rome for whatever reason cease to have consuls,—the fasces of the consuls were deposited on a special couch inside the temple; the axes which were only inserted into the consuls’ fasces outside Rome were also kept in the temple. I imagine that Rome’s burial clubs, of which there were many, were in some way connected with Venus Libitina.

vermeil Silver plated with gold.

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. Note Servilia’s choice of this epithet to hurl at another woman—the bossy, overpowering Portia Liciniana.

Vesta, Vestal Virgins Vesta was a very old and numinous Roman goddess having no mythology and no image. She was the hearth, the center of family life, and Roman society was cemented in the family. Her official public cult was personally supervised by the Pontifex Maximus, but she was so important that she had her own pontifical college, the six Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgin was inducted at about seven or eight years of age, took vows of complete chastity, and served for thirty years, after which she was released from her vows and sent back into the general community still of an age to bear children. Few retired Vestals ever did marry; it was thought unlucky to do so. The chastity of the Vestal Virgins was Rome’s public luck: a chaste college was favored by Fortune. When a Vestal was accused of unchastity she was formally brought to trial in a specially convened court; her alleged lover or lovers were tried in a separate 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 shared the same residence as the Pontifex Maximus, though sequestered from him and his family. The temple of Vesta was near this house, and was small, round, and very old. It was adjacent to the Regia of the Pontifex Maximus and to the well of Juturna, which in early days had supplied the Vestals with water they had to draw from the well each day in person; by the late Republic this ritual was a ritual only. A fire burned permanently inside Vesta’s temple to symbolize the hearth; it was tended by the Vestals, and could not be allowed to go out for any reason.

vexillum A flag or banner. The study of flags nowadays is called vexillology.

via A main thoroughfare or highway. vicus A good—sized street.

Villa Publica A parklike piece of land on the Campus Martius; it fronted onto the Vicus Pallacinae, and was the place where the various components and members of the triumphal parade forgathered before the parade commenced. viri capitales The three young men of presenatorial age who were deputed to look after Rome’s prisons and asylums. As Rome was a society which did not imprison save on a purely temporary basis, this was not a very onerous task. The viri capitales, however, seem to have lingered in the lower Forum Romanum on days when there were no public or Senate meetings and the praetors’ tribunals were not open, apparently so some sort of public figure of authority was available for citizens in need of protection or help. This Cicero reveals in his pro Cluentio.

vir militaris See the entry under Military Man.

voting Roman voting was timocratic, in that the power of the vote was powerfully influenced by economic status, and in that voting was not “one man, one vote” style. Whether an individual was voting in the Centuries or in the Tribes, his own personal vote could only influence the verdict of the Century or Tribe in which he polled. Election outcomes were determined by the number of Century or Tribal votes going a particular way: thus in the Centuries of the First Class there were only 91 votes all told, the number of Centuries the First Class contained, and in the tribal Assemblies only 35 votes all told, the number of Tribes. Juridical voting was different. A juror’s vote did have a direct bearing on the outcome of a trial, as the jury was supposed to have an odd number of men comprising it, and the decision was a majority one, not a unanimous one. If for some reason the jury was even in number and the vote was tied, the verdict had to be adjudged as for acquittal. Jury voting was timocratic also, however, in that a man without high economic status had no chance to sit on a jury.

Wooden Bridge Rome’s oldest bridge, the Pons Sublicius, spanned the Tiber downstream of Tiber Island, and was the only one made of wood. It was reputed to have been built in the time of King Ancus Marcius.

yoke The yoke was the crossbeam or tie which rested upon the necks of a pair of oxen or other animals in harness to draw a load. In human terms it came to mean the mark of servility, of submission to the superiority and domination of others. There was a yoke called the Tigillum located somewhere on the Carinae inside the city of Rome; the young of both sexes were required to pass beneath it, perhaps a sign of submission to the burdens of adult life. However, it was in military terms that the yoke came to have its greatest metaphorical significance. Very early Roman (or possibly even Etruscan) armies forced a defeated enemy to pass beneath the yoke: two spears were planted upright in the ground, and a third spear was lashed from one to the other as a crosstie; the whole apparatus was too low for a man to pass under walking upright, he had to bend right over. Other people in Italy than the Romans also had the custom, with the result that from time to time a Roman army was made to pass under the yoke, as when the Samnites were victorious at the Caudine Forks. To acquiesce to passing under the yoke was regarded as an intolerable humiliation for Rome; so much so that the Senate and People usually preferred to see an army stand and fight until the last man in it was dead. That at least was honorable defeat.