318 (return)
[ A.U.C. 757.]

319 (return)
[ A.U.C. 760.]

320 (return)
[ A.U.C. 762.]

321 (return)
[ Reviving the simple habits of the times of the republic; “nec fortuitum cernere cespitem,” as Horace describes it.—Ode 15.]

322 (return)
[ A.U.C. 765.]

323 (return)
[ The portico of the temple of Concord is still standing on the side of the Forum nearest the Capitol. It consists of six Ionic columns, each of one piece, and of a light-coloured granite, with bases and capitals of white marble, and two columns at the angles. The temple of Castor and Pollux has been mentioned before: JUL. c. x.]

324 (return)
[ A.U.C. 766.]

325 (return)
[ A.U.C. 767.]

326 (return)
[ Augustus interlards this epistle, and that subsequently quoted, with Greek sentences and phrases, of which this is one. It is so obscure, that commentators suppose that it is a mis-reading, but are not agreed on its drift.]

327 (return)
[ A verse in which the word in italics is substituted for cunctando, quoted from Ennius, who applied it to Fabius Maximus.]

328 (return)
[ Iliad, B. x. Diomede is speaking of Ulysses, where he asks that he may accompany him as a spy into the Trojan camp.]

329 (return)
[ Tiberius had adopted Germanicus. See before, c. xv. See also CALIGULA, c. i.]

330 (return)
[ In this he imitated Augustus. See c. liii. of his life.]

331 (return)
[ Si hanc fenestram aperueritis, if you open that window, equivalent to our phrase, “if you open the door.”]

332 (return)
[ Princeps, principatus, are the terms generally used by Suetonius to describe the supreme authority vested in the Caesars, as before at the beginning of chap. xxiv., distinguished from any terms which conveyed of kingly power, the forms of the republic, as we have lately seen, still subsisting.]

333 (return)
[ Strenas; the French etrennes.]

334 (return)
[ “Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests.”—Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 4.]

335 (return)
[ Similia sectantes. We are strongly inclined to think that the words might be rendered “similar sects,” conveying an allusion to the small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generally confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little even the well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in the only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c. xxv., NERO, c. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture. All the commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text. Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.—Ant. xviii. 5.]

336 (return)
[ Varro tells us that the Roman people “were more actively employed (manus movere) in the theatre and circus, than in the corn-fields and vineyards.”—De Re Rustic. ii. And Juvenal, in his satires, frequently alludes to their passion for public spectacles, particularly in the well-known lines—

337 (return)
[ The Cottian Alps derived their name from this king. They include that part of the chain which divides Dauphiny from Piedmont, and are crossed by the pass of the Mont Cenis.]

338 (return)
[ Antium, mentioned before, (AUG. c. lviii.) once a flourishing city of the Volscians, standing on the sea-coast, about thirty-eight miles from Rome, was a favourite resort of the emperors and persons of wealth. The Apollo Belvidere was found among the ruins of its temples and other edifices.]

339 (return)
[ A.U.C. 779.]

340 (return)
[ Terracina, standing at the southern extremity of the Pontine Marshes, on the shore of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded by high calcareous cliffs, in which there are caverns, affording, as Strabo informs us, cool retreats, attached to the Roman villas built round.]

341 (return)
[ Augustus died at Nola, a city in Campania. See c. lviii. of his life.]

342 (return)
[ Fidenae stood in a bend of the Tiber, near its junction with the Anio. There are few traces of it remaining.]

343 (return)
[ That any man could drink an amphora of wine at a draught, is beyond all credibility; for the amphora was nearly equal to nine gallons, English measure. The probability is, that the man had emptied a large vessel, which was shaped like an amphora.]

344 (return)
[ Capri, the luxurious retreat and scene of the debaucheries of the Roman emperors, is an island off the southern point of the bay of Naples, about twelve miles in circumference.]

345 (return)
[ Pan, the god of the shepherds, and inventor of the flute, was said to be the son of Mercury and Penelope. He was worshipped chiefly in Arcadia, and represented with the horns and feet of a goat. The Nymphs, as well as the Graces, were represented naked.]

346 (return)
[ The name of the island having a double meaning, and signifying also a goat.]

347 (return)
[ “Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos ‘pisciculos’ vocabat, institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur, ac luderent: lingua morsuque sensim appetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores, necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret: pronior sane ad id genus libidinis, et natura et aetate.”]

348 (return)
[ “Foeminarum capitibus solitus illudere.”]

349 (return)
[ “Obscoenitate oris hirsuto atque olido.”]

350 (return)
[ “Hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire”]

351 (return)
[ The Temple of Vesta, like that dedicated to the same goddess at Tivoli, is round. There was probably one on the same site, and in the same circular form, erected by Numa Pompilius; the present edifice is far too elegant for that age, but there is no record of its erection, but it is known to have been repaired by Vespasian or Domitian after being injured by Nero’s fire. Its situation, near the Tiber, exposed it to floods, from which we find it suffered, from Horace’s lines—

This beautiful temple is still in good preservation. It is surrounded by twenty columns of white marble, and the wall of the cell, or interior (which is very small, its diameter being only the length of one of the columns), is also built of blocks of the same material, so nicely joined, that it seems to be formed of one solid mass.]

352 (return)
[ Antlia; a machine for drawing up water in a series of connected buckets, which was worked by the feet, nisu pedum.]

353 (return)
[ The elder Livia was banished to this island by Augustus. See c. lxv. of his life.]

354 (return)
[ An island in the Archipelago.]

355 (return)
[ This Theodore is noticed by Quintilian, Instit. iii. 1. Gadara was in Syria.]

356 (return)
[ It mattered not that the head substituted was Tiberius’s own.]

357 (return)
[ The verses were probably anonymous.]

358 (return)
[ Oderint dum probent: Caligula used a similar expression; Oderint dum metuant.]

359 (return)
[ A.U.C. 778. Tacit. Annal. iv. The historian’s name was A. Cremutius Cordo. Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. p. 619. Brutus had already called Cassius “The last of the Romans,” in his lamentation over his dead body.]

360 (return)
[ She was the sister of Germanicus, and Tacitus calls her Livia; but Suetonius is in the habit of giving a fondling or diminutive term to the names of women, as Claudilla, for Claudia, Plautilla, etc.]

361 (return)
[ Priam is said to have had no less than fifty sons and daughters; some of the latter, however, survived him, as Hecuba, Helena, Polyxena, and others.]

362 (return)
[ There were oracles at Antium and Tibur. The “Praenestine Lots” are described by Cicero, De Divin. xi. 41.]

363 (return)
[ Agrippina, and Nero and Drusus.]

364 (return)
[ He is mentioned before in the Life of AUGUSTUS, c. xc.; and also by Horace, Cicero, and Tacitus.]

365 (return)
[ Obscure Greek poets, whose writings were either full of fabulous stories, or of an amatory kind.]

366 (return)
[ It is suggested that the text should be amended, so that the sentence should read—“A Greek soldier;” for of what use could it have been to examine a man in Greek, and not allow him to give his replies in the same language?]

367 (return)
[ So called from Appius Claudius, the Censor, one of Tiberius’s ancestors, who constructed it. It took a direction southward of Rome, through Campania to Brundusium, starting from what is the present Porta di San Sebastiano, from which the road to Naples takes its departure.]

368 (return)
[ A small town on the coast of Latium, not far from Antium, and the present Nettuno. It was here that Cicero was slain by the satellites of Antony.]

369 (return)
[ A town on a promontory of the same dreary coast, between Antium and Terracina, built on a promontory surrounded by the sea and the marsh, still called Circello.]

370 (return)
[ Misenum, a promontory to which Aeneas is said to have given its name from one of his followers. (Aen. ii. 234.) It is now called Capo di Miseno, and shelters the harbour of Mola di Gaieta, belonging to Naples. This was one of the stations of the Roman fleet.]

371 (return)
[ Tacitus agrees with Suetonius as to the age of Tiberius at the time of his death. Dio states it more precisely, as being seventy-seven years, four months, and nine days.]

372 (return)
[ Caius Caligula, who became his successor.]

373 (return)
[ Tacitus and Dio add that he was smothered under a heap of heavy clothes.]

374 (return)
[ In the temple of the Palatine Apollo. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.]

375 (return)
[ Atella, a town between Capua and Naples, now called San Arpino, where there was an amphitheatre. The people seemed to have raised the shout in derision, referring, perhaps, to the Atellan fables, mentioned in c. xiv.; and in their fury they proposed that his body should only be grilled, as those of malefactors were, instead of being reduced to ashes.]

376 (return)
[ Tacit. Annal. lib. ii.]

377 (return)
[ A.U.C. 757.]

378 (return)
[ A.U.C. 765.]

379 (return)
[ A.U.C. 770.]

380 (return)
[ A.U.C. 767.]

381 (return)
[ A.U.C. 771.]

382 (return)
[ This opinion, like some others which occur in Suetonius, may justly be considered as a vulgar error; and if the heart was found entire, it must have been owing to the weakness of the fire, rather than to any quality communicated to the organ, of resisting the power of that element.]

383 (return)
[ The magnificent title of King of Kings has been assumed, at different times, by various potentates. The person to whom it is here applied, is the king of Parthia. Under the kings of Persia, and even under the Syro-Macedonian kings, this country was of no consideration, and reckoned a part of Hyrcania. But upon the revolt of the East from the Syro-Macedonians, at the instigation of Arsaces, the Parthians are said to have conquered eighteen kingdoms.]

384 (return)
[ A.U.C. 765.]

385 (return)
[ It does not appear that Gaetulicus wrote any historical work, but Martial, Pliny, and others, describe him as a respectable poet.]

386 (return)
[ Supra Confluentes. The German tribe here mentioned occupied the country between the Rhine and the Meuse, and gave their name to Treves (Treviri), its chief town. Coblentz had its ancient name of Confluentes, from its standing at the junction of the two rivers. The exact site of the village in which Caligula was born is not known. Cluverius conjectures that it may be Capelle.]

387 (return)
[ Chap. vii.]

388 (return)
[ The name was derived from Caliga, a kind of boot, studded with nails, used by the common soldiers in the Roman army.]

389 (return)
[ According to Tacitus, who gives an interesting account of these occurrences, Treves was the place of refuge to which the young Caius was conveyed.—Annal. i.]

390 (return)
[ In c. liv. of TIBERIUS, we have seen that his brothers Drusus and Nero fell a sacrifice to these artifices.]

391 (return)
[ Tiberius, who was the adopted father of Germanicus.]

392 (return)
[ Natriceus, a water-snake, so called from nato, to swim. The allusion is probably to Caligula’s being reared in the island of Capri.]

393 (return)
[ As Phaeton is said to have set the world on fire.]

394 (return)
[ See the Life of TIBERIUS, c. lxxiii.]

395 (return)
[ His name also was Tiberius. See before, TIBERIUS, c. lxxvi.]

396 (return)
[ Procida, Ischia, Capri, etc.]

397 (return)
[ The eagle was the standard of the legion, each cohort of which had its own ensign, with different devices; and there were also little images of the emperors, to which divine honours were paid.]

398 (return)
[ See before, cc. liii. liv.]

399 (return)
[ See TIBERIUS, c. x.; and note.]

400 (return)
[ The mausoleum built by Augustus, mentioned before in his Life, c. C.]

401 (return)
[ The Carpentum was a carriage, commonly with two wheels, and an arched covering, but sometimes without a covering; used chiefly by matrons, and named, according to Ovid, from Carmenta, the mother of Evander. Women were prohibited the use of it in the second Punic war, by the Oppian law, which, however, was soon after repealed. This chariot was also used to convey the images of the illustrious women to whom divine honours were paid, in solemn processions after their death, as in the present instance. It is represented on some of the sestertii.]

402 (return)
[ See cc. xiv. and xxiii. of the present History.]

403 (return)
[ Ib. cc. vii. and xxiv.]

404 (return)
[ Life of TIBERIUS, c. xliii.]

405 (return)
[ See the Life of AUGUSTUS, cc. xxviii. and ci.]

406 (return)
[ Julius Caesar had shared it with them (c. xli.). Augustus had only kept up the form (c. xl.). Tiberius deprived the Roman people of the last remains of the freedom of suffrage.]

407 (return)
[ The city of Rome was founded on the twenty-first day of April, which was called Palilia, from Pales, the goddess of shepherds, and ever afterwards kept as a festival.]

408 (return)
[ A.U.C. 790.]

409 (return)
[ A.U.C. 791.]

410 (return)
[ A.U.C. 793.]

411
[ A.U.C. 794.]

412 (return)
[ The Saturnalia, held in honour of Saturn, was, amongst the Romans, the most celebrated festival of the whole year, and held in the month of December. All orders of the people then devoted themselves to mirth and feasting; friends sent presents to one another; and masters treated their slaves upon a footing of equality. At first it was held only for one day, afterwards for three days, and was now prolonged by Caligula’s orders.]

413 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, cc. xxix and xliii. The amphitheatre of Statilius Taurus is supposed to have stood in the Campus Martius, and the elevation now called the Monte Citorio, to have been formed by its ruins.]

414 (return)
[ Supposed to be a house, so called, adjoining the Circus, in which some of the emperor’s attendants resided.]

415 (return)
[ Now Puzzuoli, on the shore of the bay of Naples. Every one knows what wealth was lavished here and at Baiae, on public works and the marine villas of the luxurious Romans, in the times of the emperors.]

416 (return)
[ The original terminus of the Appian Way was at Brundusium. This mole formed what we should call a nearer station to Rome, on the same road, the ruins of which are still to be seen. St. Paul landed there.]

417 (return)
[ Essedis: they were light cars, on two wheels, constructed to carry only one person; invented, it is supposed, by the Belgians, and by them introduced into Britain, where they were used in war. The Romans, after their expeditions in Gaul and Britain, adopted this useful vehicle instead of their more cumbrous RHEDA, not only for journeys where dispatch was required, but in solemn processions, and for ordinary purposes. They seem to have become the fashion, for Ovid tells us that these little carriages were driven by young ladies, themselves holding the reins, Amor. xi. 16. 49.]

418 (return)
[ Suetonius flourished about seventy years after this, in the reign of Adrian, and derived many of the anecdotes which give interest to his history from cotemporary persons. See CLAUDIUS, c. xv. etc.]

419 (return)
[ See TIBERIUS, c. xlvii. and AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.]

420 (return)
[ This aqueduct, commenced by Caligula and completed by Claudian, a truly imperial work, conveyed the waters of two streams to Rome, following the valley of the Anio from above Tivoli. The course of one of these rivulets was forty miles, and it was carried on arches, immediately after quitting its source, for a distance of three miles. The other, the Anio Novus, also began on arches, which continued for upwards of twelve miles. After this, both were conveyed under ground; but at the distance of six miles from the city, they were united, and carried upon arches all the rest of the way. This is the most perfect of all the ancient aqueducts; and it has been repaired, so as to convey the Acqua Felice, one of the three streams which now supply Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xx.]

421 (return)
[ By Septa, Suetonius here means the huts or barracks of the pretorian camp, which was a permanent and fortified station. It stood to the east of the Viminal and Quirinal hills, between the present Porta Pia and S. Lorenzo, where there is a quadrangular projection in the city walls marking the site. The remains of the Amphitheatrum Castrense stand between the Porta Maggiore and S. Giovanni, formerly without the ancient walls, but now included in the line. It is all of brick, even the Corinthian pillars, and seems to have been but a rude structure, suited to the purpose for which it was built, the amusement of the soldiers, and gymnastic exercises. For this purpose they were used to construct temporary amphitheatres near the stations in the distant provinces, which were not built of stone or brick, but hollow circular spots dug in the ground, round which the spectators sat on the declivity, on ranges of seats cut in the sod. Many vestiges of this kind have been traced in Britain.]

422 (return)
[ The Isthmus of Corinth; an enterprize which had formerly been attempted by Demetrius, and which was also projected by Julius Caesar, c. xliv., and Nero, c. xix.; but they all failed of accomplishing it.]

423 (return)
[ On the authority of Dio Cassius and the Salmatian manuscript, this verse from Homer is substituted for the common reading, which is,

424 (return)
[ Alluding, in the case of Romulus, to the rape of the Sabines; and in that of Augustus to his having taken Livia from her husband.—AUGUSTUS, c. lxii.]

425 (return)
[ Selene was the daughter of Mark Antony by Cleopatra.]

426 (return)
[ See c. xii.]

427 (return)
[ The vast area of the Roman amphitheatres had no roof, but the audience were protected against the sun and bad weather by temporary hangings stretched over it.]

428 (return)
[ A proverbial expression, meaning, without distinction.]

429 (return)
[ The islands off the coast of Italy, in the Tuscan sea and in the Archipelago, were the usual places of banishment. See before, c. xv.; and in TIBERIUS, c. liv., etc.]

430 (return)
[ Anticyra, an island in the Archipelago, was famous for the growth of hellebore. This plant being considered a remedy for insanity, the proverb arose—Naviga in Anticyram, as much as to say, “You are mad.”]

431 (return)
[ Meaning the province in Asia, called Galatia, from the Gauls who conquered it, and occupied it jointly with the Greek colonists.]

432 (return)
[ A quotation from the tragedy of Atreus, by L. Attius, mentioned by Cicero. Off. i. 28.]

433 (return)
[ See before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxxi.]

434 (return)
[ These celebrated words are generally attributed to Nero; but Dio and Seneca agree with Suetonius in ascribing them to Caligula.]

435 (return)
[ Gladiators were distinguished by their armour and manner of fighting. Some were called Secutores, whose arms were a helmet, a shield, a sword, or a leaden ball. Others, the usual antagonists of the former, were named Retiarii. A combatant of this class was dressed in a short tunic, but wore nothing on his head. He carried in his left hand a three-pointed lance, called Tridens or Fuscina, and in his right, a net, with which he attempted to entangle his adversary, by casting it over his head, and suddenly drawing it together; when with his trident he usually slew him. But if he missed his aim, by throwing the net either too short or too far, he instantly betook himself to flight, and endeavoured to prepare his net for a second cast. His antagonist, in the mean time, pursued, to prevent his design, by dispatching him.]

436 (return)
[ AUGUSTUS, c. xxiii.]

437 (return)
[ TIBERIUS, c. xl.]

438 (return)
[ See before, c. xix.]

439 (return)
[ Popae were persons who, at public sacrifices, led the victim to the altar. They had their clothes tucked up, and were naked to the waist. The victim was led with a slack rope, that it might not seem to be brought by force, which was reckoned a bad omen. For the same reason, it was allowed to stand loose before the altar, and it was thought a very unfavourable sign if it got away.]

440 (return)
[ Plato de Repub. xi.; and Cicero and Tull. xlviii.]

441 (return)
[ The collar of gold, taken from the gigantic Gaul who was killed in single combat by Titus Manlius, called afterwards Torquatus, was worn by the lineal male descendants of the Manlian family. But that illustrious race becoming extinct, the badge of honour, as well as the cognomen of Torquatus, was revived by Augustus, in the person of Caius Nonius Asprenas, who perhaps claimed descent by the female line from the family of Manlius.]

442 (return)
[ Cincinnatus signifies one who has curled or crisped hair, from which Livy informs us that Lucius Quintus derived his cognomen. But of what badge of distinction Caligula deprived the family of the Cincinnati, unless the natural feature was hereditary, and he had them all shaved—a practice we find mentioned just below—history does not inform us, nor are we able to conjecture.]

443 (return)
[ The priest of Diana Nemorensis obtained and held his office by his prowess in arms, having to slay his competitors, and offer human sacrifices, and was called Rex from his reigning paramount in the adjacent forest. The temple of this goddess of the chase stood among the deep woods which clothe the declivities of the Alban Mount, at a short distance from Rome—nemus signifying a grove. Julius Caesar had a residence there. See his Life, c. lxxi. The venerable woods are still standing, and among them chestnut-trees, which, from their enormous girth and vast apparent age, we may suppose to have survived from the era of the Caesars. The melancholy and sequestered lake of Nemi, deep set in a hollow of the surrounding woods, with the village on its brink, still preserve the name of Nemi.]

444 (return)
[ An Essedarian was one who fought from an Esseda, the light carriage described in a former note, p. 264.]

445 (return)
[ See before, JULIUS, c. x., and note.]

446 (return)
[ Particularly at Baiae, see before, c. xix. The practice of encroaching on the sea on this coast, commenced before,—