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.
actio Plural, actiones. In the sense used in this book, a complete segment of a trial in a court of law. There were usually two actiones, prima and secunda, separated by a period of some days (the exact duration of this intermission was at the discretion of the court president, the index).
adamas Diamond.
adjutage The connection between a water main and the water pipes leading from the main into a building, either publicly or privately owned. The size or bore of the adjutage was strictly regulated by law, and under the authority of the aediles. Romans understood the behavior of water as a volume, but not water pressure. They did, however, appreciate gravity feed, and located their city reservoirs on the highest ground.
adrogatio The legal act of adoption, in which the adrogatus was formally and legally adopted by the adrogator. At least when the adopted person’s status changed from patrician to plebeian or plebeian to patrician, the ceremony of adrogatio had to take place in the comitia curiata, where the thirty lictors representing the thirty Roman curiae witnessed the adoption and passed a lex curiata of consent to the adoption.
advocate The term generally used by modern scholars to describe a man active in the Roman law courts. “Lawyer” is considered too modern.
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 493 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 noncitizens 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 before he stood for office as praetor. As the plebeian aediles were elected by the Plebeian Assembly, I have come to believe they did not hold imperium, and therefore were not entitled to sit in the curule chair or have lictors.
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; therefore the identity of Iulus’s 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, who on the whole seems a more reliable source than Virgil; Virgil was very much under the influence of Augustus.
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 publicus Land vested in Roman public ownership. Most of it was 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 purlieu of the censors, though much of the foreign ager publicus was unused.
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.
Alba Longa The city of the Alban Mount supposed to have been founded by Iulus or Ascanius, the son of Aeneas. In the time of King Tullus Hostilius it was attacked by Rome, defeated and razed to the ground. Some of its most prominent citizen families had already migrated to Rome; others were compelled to do so then at the command of King Tullus Hostilius.
Albanians The members of a tribe occupying the lands between the high Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.
amanuensis One who takes down in writing the words dictated by another.
amicitia A condition of formal friendship between families (or states) of equal status; when status was unequal, the bond was more likely to be a client-patron one. Amicitia was traditional and passed on from one generation of a family to the next.
amphora Plural, amphorae. A pottery vessel, bulbous in shape, with a narrow neck and two large handles on the upper part, and a pointed or conical bottom which prevented its being stood upright on level ground. It was used for the bulk (usually maritime) transport of wine or wheat, its pointed bottom enabling it to be fitted easily into the sawdust which filled the ship’s hold or cart’s interior. It then sat upright during the journey, cushioned and protected. The pointed bottom enabled it to be dragged across level ground by a handler with considerable ease in loading and unloading. The usual size of amphora held about 6 American gallons (25 liters).
amygdala Plural, amygdalae. Something almond-shaped.
Anatolia Roughly, modern Asian Turkey. It extended from the south coast of the Black Sea (the Euxine) through to the Mediterranean, and from the Aegean Sea in the west to modern Armenia, Iran and Syria in the east and south. The Taurus and Antitaurus Mountains made its interior and much of its coastline very rugged. Its climate was continental.
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.
apex A close-fitting priest’s helmet made of ivory. It covered all the hair but left the ears free, and was surmounted by a wooden spike on which was impaled a disc of wool.
Arausio In this book, used to mean the battle fought on October 6 of 105 B.C. near the town of Arausio in Further Gaul. A vast mass of migrating German tribes was moving down the east bank of the Rhodanus River (the Rhone) and was opposed by two Roman armies which the Senate had ordered to amalgamate under the authority of the consul of the year, the New Man Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. But the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio, a patrician, refused to co-operate with Mallius Maximus because of his low birth, and insisted on keeping his army separate. The result was a defeat for Rome worse than the defeat at Cannae; the number of Roman soldiers killed was said to be over eighty thousand.
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 Arsanias 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.
Assembly (comitia) Any gathering of the Roman People convoked to deal with governmental, legislative, judicial, or electoral matters. In the time of Caesar there were three true Assemblies—the Centuries, the People, and the Plebs.
The Centuriate Assembly (comitia centuriata) 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. The Eighteen (q.v.) numbered only one hundred men each, whereas the other Centuries held many more than a hundred men. 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 conduct trials.
The Assembly of the People or Popular Assembly (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 Well of the Comitia. It elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. It could formulate and pass laws; until Sulla established his standing courts, many trials were held in it.
The Plebeian Assembly (comitia plebis tributa or concilium plebis) met in the thirty-five tribes, but did not allow the participation of patricians. Because it contained a part only of the People, the Plebeian Assembly was not “official” in the same way as the Centuriate and Popular Assemblies. The auspices were not taken nor prayers said. 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 the latter were far less common 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 public office. 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.
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; thereafter it usually contained 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, but in 63 B.C. the tribune of the plebs Titus Labienus restored election. 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 (q.v.) and carried a staff called the lituus (q.v.).
auguraculum A station on the Capitol whereat the new consuls stood their night watch to observe the skies before they were inaugurated. a via Grandmother. avus Grandfather.
bailiff Not a word truly applicable to Roman Republican times, but one I have used to describe men deputed to keep law and order if lictors were not employed, and also to describe men employed by moneylenders to harass a debtor and prevent his absconding.
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 sat 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 (rostrum) 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 and Republican Roman times, the ship was rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves.
boni Literally, “the good men.” It was used of those men who belonged to an ultraconservative faction within and without the Senate of Rome. I have sometimes misused it in its Latin grammatical form because it is so clumsy in English always to use it as a noun; hence I have used it as an adjective or adverb from time to time.
Brothers Gracchi See Gracchi.
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, public slaves had their barracks, the Centuriate Assembly met, and market gardening vied with 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.
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.
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 worshiped by Romans, perhaps because, like Romulus and Remus, they were twins.
catamite A youth used for homosexual purposes.
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, but the consuls Pompey and Crassus restored it in 70 B.C. The censor wore a solid purple toga, the toga purpurea.
Centuriate Assembly See Assembly.
centurion The regular professional officer of both Roman citizen and auxiliary infantry legions. It is a mistake to equate him with the modern non-commissioned 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, and a helmet crest projecting sideways rather than front-to-back; he carried a stout knobkerrie of vine wood. He also wore many decorations.
chryselephantine A work of art fashioned in a combination of gold and ivory.
Circus Flaminius The circus situated on the Campus Martius not far from the Tiber and the Forum Holitorium. Built in 221 B.C., it 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, as it could accommodate no more than 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 at least 150,000 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.
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.
clivus A hilly street.
coercitio The right of a curule magistrate to exact obedience to his directives by punitive measures. A citizen could not appeal against a magistrate invoking coercitio unless he was a plebeian and appealed to all ten tribunes of the plebs to rescue him. The customary measures were fines or confiscation of property; for a magistrate to physically chastise was extremely rare.
cognomen The last name of a Roman male anxious to distinguish himself from all his fellows possessed of identical first (praenomen) and family (nomen) names. 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 (praenomen), Caecilius was his family name (nomen); 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, humpback, 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.
comitia See Assembly.
Comitia The large round well in which meetings for 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 two or 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 Caesar, 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 nor conduct business. The other main reason for the unpopularity of confarreatio lay in the extreme difficulty of dissolving it; divorce (diffareatio) 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 Romulus himself), 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 consultum. It did not have the force of law. In order to become law, a consultum 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. 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, the declaration and conduct of wars, and all to do with foreign affairs. Sulla in 81 B.C. gave these particular senatorial decrees the formal status of laws.
contio Plural, contiones. 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.
corpus animusque Body and soul.
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 shoulder 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 ritually knotted and looped. cunnus An extremely offensive Latin profanity—“cunt.”
Cuppedenis Markets Latin: macellum Cuppedenis. 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. It was flanked on its Esquiline side by horrea piperata—warehouses storing spices and aromatics.
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 magistrates.
curule chair The sella curulis was the ivory chair reserved exclusively for magistrates owning imperium. 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.
curule magistrate A magistrate owning imperium and therefore entitled to sit upon a curule chair. custos An official delegated to supervise during a voting procedure in one of the comitia.
Dacia A large area of land consisting of Hungary east of the Tisa River, western Rumania and Transylvania. The racial origins of the earliest peoples are cloudy, but by the time Rome of the last century B.C. came to know anything about Dacia its peoples were Celtic, at least in culture and skill in mining and refining metals. Dacians were organized into tribes, lived in a settled way, and practised agriculture. After the rise of King Burebistas during the 60s B.C., Dacian tribes began incursions into Roman-dominated areas of northern Macedonia and Illyricum, and became something of a concern to Rome.
DAMNO The word employed by a comitial Assembly to indicate a verdict of “guilty.” It was not used in the courts.
Danubius River Also called the Danuvius by the Romans; to the Greeks it was the Ister, though the Greeks never knew its sources or course until the river approached its outflow into the Euxine (Black) Sea. Romans of Caesar’s time knew vaguely that it was a very great and very long river, and that it flowed through Pannonia, the south of Dacia and the north of Moesia. It is variously known today as the Danube, Donau, Duna, Dunav, Dunarea and Dunay.
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 crowd-pleaser.
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 1 silver talent. Of actual coins in circulation, the majority were probably denarii.
diadem This was not a crown or a tiara, but simply a thick white ribbon about 1 inch (25 millimeters) wide, each end embroidered and often finished with a fringe. It was the symbol of the Hellenic sovereign; only the 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.
Didian Law See lex Caecilia Didia.
dies agonales There were four dies agonales in the Republican calendar: January 9, March 17, May 21 and December 11. The exact meaning of agonalis (plural, agonales) is disputed, but what can be established is that on all four dies agonales the Rex Sacrorum sacrificed a ram in the Regia. The gods involved seem to have been Jupiter, Janus, Mars, Vediovis and Sol Indiges.
dies nefasti Some fifty-eight days of the Republican calendar were marked nefasti. On them, citizens could not initiate a lawsuit in the urban praetor’s court or jurisdiction, nor could voting meetings of the comitia be held. However, the Senate could meet on dies nefasti, lawsuits in the standing courts could proceed, and contiones could take place in the comitia.
dies religiosi Unlucky and ill-omened days. There were several kinds, which included the three days of the year on which the mundus (q.v.) was opened to allow the dead to wander; the days when Vesta’s shrine was open in June; and the rites of the Salii (q.v.), priests of Mars. On dies religiosi it was wrong or unlucky to do anything deemed unnecessary, from beginning a marriage or a journey to recruiting soldiers or holding meetings of the comitia. Three of these days each month (the days after the Kalends, the Nones and the Ides) were considered so ill-omened they had a special name, dies atri, or black days.
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 clout 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.
dolabra Plural, dolabrae. This was the legionary’s digging tool, a composite instrument which looked a little like a pick at one end and a mattock at the other. Unless deputed to carry some other kind of tool, each soldier carried one in his pack.
Doric One of the three Greek architectural orders. The capital of a Doric column (which might be plain or fluted) was the plainest, and looked a little like the underside of a saucer.
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.
duumviri Literally, “two men.” It usually referred to two men of equal magisterial rank who were deputed as judges or elected as the senior magistrates of a municipium (q.v.).
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.
edicta Singular, edictum. These were the rules whereby an elected magistrate outlined the way in which he was going to go about and discharge his magisterial duties. They were published by each magistrate at the beginning of his tenure of office, and he was supposed to abide by them throughout his term. That he often did not led to legislation compelling him to do so.
Eighteen In this book, used to refer to the eighteen senior Centuries of the First Class. See also knights.
Elymais A very fertile, large tract of land to the east of the lower Tigris River. It extended from the Mare Erythraeum (q.v.) to the hills around Susa, and lay in the domains of the King of the Parthians.
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 Epicurean yet still espouse his public career. By the late Republic, the chief pleasures of an Epicurean were food and wine.
epitome A synopsis or abridgment of a longer work which concentrated more on packing a maximum amount of information into a minimum wordage than on literary style or literary excellence. The object of the epitome was to enable an individual to gather encyclopaedic knowledge without needing to plough through an entire work. Brutus was very well known as an epitomizer.
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 the 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.
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. A faction formed around a man owning auctoritas and dignitas, and was purely evidence of that individual’s ability to attract and hold followers. Political ideologies did not exist, nor did party lines.
fasces The fasces were bundles of thirty (one rod for each curia) 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, the fasces 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 or proconsul twelve; a master of the horse, praetor or propraetor six; and the curule 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. See also lictor.
fasti The fasti were originally days on which business could be transacted, but the term 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 Plural, fellatores. The person sucking the penis.
ferine 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.
feriae Latinae The annual festival on the Alban Mount, the Latin Festival. It was a movable feast, the date of which was fixed by the incoming consuls of New Year’s Day during the meeting of the Senate called in the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The god was Jupiter Latiarus.
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 Plural, famines. These men 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 Maximus), Martialis (Mars), and Quirinalis (Quirinus). Save for the poor flamen Dialis, 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 have elected to stay with patrician appointments. The flamen was appointed for life.
Fortuna One of Rome’s most worshiped 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 worshiped 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 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. See map on page 37.
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 the two vast urban tribes, Suburana or Esquilina. Some slaves of surpassing ability or ruthless-ness, 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 at least 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 called a Celt 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, Further Gaul—that is, Gaul on the western, French side of the Alps—was roughly divided into Gallia Comata or Long-haired Gaul (neither Hellenized nor Romanized), a Mediterranean coastal strip with a bulging extension up the valley of the Rhodanus River (both Hellenized and Romanized) called The Province, and an area around the port city of Narbo called Narbonese Gaul (though it was not so officially called until the Principate of Augustus). I refer to Further Gaul as Further Gaul or Gaul-across-the-Alps, but it was more properly Transalpine Gaul. The Gaul more properly known as Cisalpine Gaul because it lay on the Italian side of the Alps I have elected to call Italian Gaul. Italian Gaul was divided into two parts by the Padus River (the Po). There is no doubt that the Gauls were closely akin to the Romans racially, for their languages were of similar kind and so were many of their technologies, particularly in metalworking. What had 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 Iulia.
gladiator A soldier of the sawdust, a professional military athlete who fought in a ring before an audience to celebrate funeral games in honor of the dead. During Republican times there were only two kinds of gladiator, the Gaul and the Thracian; these were styles of combat, not nationalities. Under the Republic, gladiatorial bouts were not fought to the death. Gladiators then were not State owned; few of them were slaves. They were owned by private investors, and cost a great deal of money to acquire, train and maintain—far too much money, indeed, to want to see them dead. The thumbs-up, thumbs-down brutality of the Empire did not exist. A gladiator was recruited young, and fought between five and six bouts a year to a total of thirty bouts maximum. After this he was free to retire (though not automatically endowed with the Roman citizenship) and usually drifted to a big city, where he hired himself out as a bouncer, a bodyguard or a bully-boy. During the Republic almost all gladiators were racially Roman, mostly deserters or mutineers from the legions; occasionally a free man took up the profession for the sheer pleasure of it (he was not compelled to give up his citizenship if he did).
Gold of Tolosa Perhaps several years after 278 B.C., a segment of the tribe Volcae Tectosages returned from Macedonia to their homeland around Aquitanian Tolosa (modern Toulouse) bearing the accumulated spoils from many sacked temples. These were melted down and stored in the artificial lakes which dotted the precincts of Tolosa’s temples; the gold was left lying undisturbed beneath the water, whereas the silver was regularly hauled out—it had been formed into gigantic millstones which were used to grind the wheat. In 106 B.C. the consul Quintus Servilius Caepio was ordered during his consulship to make war against migrating Germans who had taken up residence around Tolosa. When he arrived in the area he found the Germans gone, for they had quarreled with their hosts, the Volcae Tectosages, and been ordered away. Instead of fighting a battle, Caepio the Consul found a vast amount of gold and silver in the sacred lakes of Tolosa. The silver amounted to 10,000 talents (250 imperial tons) including the millstones, and the gold to 15,000 talents (370 imperial tons). The silver was transported to the port of Narbo and shipped to Rome, whereupon the wagons returned to Tolosa and were loaded with the gold; the wagon train was escorted by one cohort of Roman legionaries, some 520 men. Near the fortress of Carcasso the wagon train of gold was attacked by brigands, the soldier escort was slaughtered, and the wagon train disappeared, together with its precious cargo. It was never seen again. At the time no suspicion attached to Caepio the Consul, but after the odium he incurred over his conduct at the battle of Arausio a year later, it began to be rumored that Caepio the Consul had organized the attack on the wagon train and deposited the gold in Smyrna in his own name. Though he was never tried for the Great Wagon Train Robbery, he was tried for the loss of his army, convicted, and sent into exile. He chose to spend his exile in Smyrna, where he died in 100 B.C. The story of the Gold of Tolosa is told in the ancient sources, which do not state categorically that Caepio the Consul stole it. However, it seems logical. And there is no doubt that the Servilii Caepiones who succeeded Caepio the Consul down to the time of Brutus (the last heir) were fabulously wealthy. Nor is there much doubt that most of Rome thought Caepio the Consul responsible for the disappearance of more gold than Rome had in the Treasury.
governor A very useful English term to describe the promagistrate—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. 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.), they had the consulship, high military command and the censorship as 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 these lands 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 Tiberius’s mistakes, and bade fair to alter the whole direction of the ultraconservative 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 not exclusively aimed 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” (q.v. senatus consultum de re publica defendenda) but Gaius Gracchus himself chose to commit suicide before he could be apprehended. The glossary attached to The Grass Crown contains a much a fuller article on the Gracchi.
gromaPlural, gromae. An instrument used in surveying.
harpy A mythical Greek monster. If Virgil is to be believed, Romans thought harpies were birds with the heads of women, though the Greeks thought of them as women with wings and talons. They stole people and food, and left their faeces behind as an insult.
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 tribal votes either. 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 oppressed in- an Industrial Revolution context. I have sedulously avoided the terms “the masses” and “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.
horse, Nesaean The largest kind of horse known to the ancients. How large it was is not known, 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 part 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 Turris 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. That a member of the Senate automatically lost his right to a Public Horse is highly debatable.
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.
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 boiling tribes began to threaten eastern Italian Gaul, when the Senate would send an army to chasten them.
imago Plural, 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 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 curule aedile. Others plump for praetor, still others for consul. I plump for praetor, 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. The Chief Vestal Virgin, however, was so entitled.
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.
imperium maius A degree of imperium so high that the holder of it outranked even the consuls of the year.
in absentia In the context used in these books, describes a candidacy for office approved of by the Senate (and People, if necessary) and an election conducted in the absence of the candidate himself. The candidate in absentia 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 absent on military service in a province, as with Gaius Memmius when elected quaestor.
inepte An incompetent fool.
Insubres One of the Gallic tribes of Italian Gaul, concentrated at its western end around Mediolanum and the river Ticinus. Their lands were to the north of the Padus River (the Po), and they did not receive the full Roman citizenship until 49 B.C., when Caesar enfranchised the whole of Italian Gaul.
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 100 feet—30 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 100 feet. See illustration below.