573 (return)
[ Among the Romans, the time at which young men first shaved the beard was marked with particular ceremony. It was usually in their twenty-first year, but the period varied. Caligula (c. x.) first shaved at twenty; Augustus at twenty-five.]

574 (return)
[ A.U.C. 819. See afterwards, c. xxx.]

575 (return)
[ A.U.C. 808, 810, 811, 813.]

576 (return)
[ The Sportulae were small wicker baskets, in which victuals or money were carried. The word was in consequence applied to the public entertainments at which food was distributed, or money given in lieu of it.]

577 (return)
[ “Superstitionis novae et maleficae,” are the words of Suetonius; the latter conveying the idea of witchcraft or enchantment. Suidas relates that a certain martyr cried out from his dungeon—“Ye have loaded me with fetters as a sorcerer and profane person.” Tacitus calls the Christian religion “a foreign and deadly [Footnote exitiabilis: superstition,” Annal. xiii. 32; Pliny, in his celebrated letter to Trajan, “a depraved, wicked (or prava), and outrageous superstition.” Epist. x. 97.] Tacitus also describes the excruciating torments inflicted on the Roman Christians by Nero. He says that they were subjected to the derision of the people; dressed in the skins of wild beasts, and exposed to be torn to pieces by dogs in the public games, that they were crucified, or condemned to be burnt; and at night-fall served in place of lamps to lighten the darkness, Nero’s own gardens being used for the spectacle. Annal. xv. 44. Traditions of the church place the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul at Rome, under the reign of Nero. The legends are given by Ordericus Vitalis. See vol. i. of the edition in the Antiq. Lib. pp. 206, etc., with the notes and reference to the apocryphal works on which they are founded.]

578 (return)
[ Claudius had received the submission of some of the British tribes. See c. xvii. of his Life. In the reign of Nero, his general, Suetonius Paulinus, attacked Mona or Anglesey, the chief seat of the Druids, and extirpated them with great cruelty. The successes of Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, who inhabited Derbyshire, were probably the cause of Nero’s wishing to withdraw the legions; she having reduced London, Colchester, and Verulam, and put to death seventy thousand of the Romans and their British allies. She was, however, at length defeated by Suetonius Paulinus, who was recalled for his severities. See Tacit. Agric. xv. 1, xvi. 1; and Annal. xiv. 29.]

579 (return)
[ The dominions of Cottius embraced the vallies in the chain of the Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans the Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.]

580 (return)
[ It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a navigable canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the circumnavigation of the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan, which, even in our days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and CALIGULA, c. xxi.]

581 (return)
[ Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by the narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the country washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between the Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north of Teflis, and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and the Circassian tribes.]

582 (return)
[ Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his singing gave an accompaniment on the harp.]

583 (return)
[ It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek colony, and consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular tongue.]

584 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.]

585 (return)
[ Of the strange names given to the different modes of applauding in the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees; the second from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third from the tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.]

586 (return)
[ Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose incestuous intercourse with her brother having been detected, in consequence of the cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she killed herself. It was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero was performing in Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. “He is labouring in child-birth.”]

587 (return)
[ A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the same name in Epirus.]

588 (return)
[ The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was so called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about Rome. Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races. Claudius (c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the metae. This vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, in the games of which religion, politics, and amusement, were combined, was, according to Pliny, three stadia (of 625 feet) long, and one broad, and held 260,000 spectators; so that Juvenal says,

This poetical exaggeration is applied by Addison to the Colosseum.

The area of the Circus Maximus occupied the hollow between the Palatine and Aventine hills, so that it was overlooked by the imperial palace, from which the emperors had so full a view of it, that they could from that height give the signals for commencing the races. Few fragments of it remain; but from the circus of Caracalla, which is better preserved, a tolerably good idea of the ancient circus may be formed. For details of its parts, and the mode in which the sports were conducted, see Burton’s Antiquities, p. 309, etc.]

589 (return)
[ The Velabrum was a street in Rome. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xxxvii.]

590 (return)
[ Acte was a slave who had been bought in Asia, whose beauty so captivated Nero that he redeemed her, and became greatly attached to her. She is supposed to be the concubine of Nero mentioned by St. Chrysostom, as having been converted by St. Paul during his residence at Rome. The Apostle speaks of the “Saints in Caesar’s household.”—Phil. iv. 22.]

591 (return)
[ See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 37.]

592 (return)
[ A much-frequented street in Rome. See CLAUDIUS, c. xvi.]

593 (return)
[ It is said that the advances were made by Agrippina, with flagrant indecency, to secure her power over him. See Tacitus, Annal. xiv. 2, 3.]

594 (return)
[ Olim etiam, quoties lectica cum matre veheretur, libidinatum inceste, ac maculis vestis proditum, affirmant.]

595 (return)
[ Tacitus calls him Pythagoras, which was probably the freedman’s proper name; Doryphorus being a name of office somewhat equivalent to almoner. See Annal. B. xv.]

596 (return)
[ The emperor Caligula, who was the brother of Nero’s mother, Agrippina.]

597 (return)
[ See before, c. xiii. Tiridates was nine months in Rome or the neighbourhood, and was entertained the whole time at the emperor’s expense.]

598 (return)
[ Canusium, now Canosa, was a town in Apulia, near the mouth of the river Aufidus, celebrated for its fine wool. It is mentioned by Pliny, and retained its reputation for the manufacture in the middle ages, as we find in Ordericus Vitalis.]

599 (return)
[ The Mazacans were an African tribe from the deserts in the interior, famous for their spirited barbs, their powers of endurance, and their skill in throwing the dart.]

600 (return)
[ The Palace of the Caesars, on the Palatine hill, was enlarged by Augustus from the dimensions of a private house (see AUGUSTUS, cc. xxix., lvii.). Tiberius made some additions to it, and Caligula extended it to the Forum (CALIGULA, c. xxxi.). Tacitus gives a similar account with that of our author of the extent and splendour of the works of Nero. Annal. xv. c. xlii. Reaching from the Palatine to the Esquiline hill, it covered all the intermediate space, where the Colosseum now stands. We shall find that it was still further enlarged by Domitian, c. xv. of his life is the present work.]

601 (return)
[ The penates were worshipped in the innermost part of the house, which was called penetralia. There were likewise publici penates, worshipped in the Capitol, and supposed to be the guardians of the city and temples. Some have thought that the lares and penates were the same; and they appear to be sometimes confounded. They were, however, different. The penates were reputed to be of divine origin; the lares, of human. Certain persons were admitted to the worship of the lares, who were not to that of the penates. The latter, as has been already said, were worshipped only in the innermost part of the house, but the former also in the public roads, in the camp, and on sea.]

602 (return)
[ A play upon the Greek word moros, signifying a fool, while the Latin morari, from moror, means “to dwell,” or “continue.”]

603 (return)
[ A small port between the gulf of Baiae and cape Misenum.]

604 (return)
[ From whence the “Procul, O procul este profani!” of the poet; a warning which was transferred to the Christian mysteries.]

605 (return)
[ See before, c. xii.]

606 (return)
[ Statilius Taurus; who lived in the time of Augustus, and built the amphitheatre called after his name. AUGUSTUS, c. xxiv. He is mentioned by Horace, Epist. i. v. 4.]

607 (return)
[ Octavia was first sent away to Campania, under a guard of soldiers, and after being recalled, in consequence of the remonstrances of the people, by whom she was beloved, Nero banished her to the island of Pandataria.]

608 (return)
[ A.U.C. 813.]

609 (return)
[ Seneca was accused of complicity in the conspiracy of Caius Piso. Tacitus furnishes some interesting details of the circumstances under which the philosopher calmly submitted to his fate, which was announced to him when at supper with his friends, at his villa, near Rome.—Tacitus, b. xiv. xv.]

610 (return)
[ This comet, as well as one which appeared the year in which Claudius died, is described by Seneca, Natural. Quaest. VII. c. xvii. and xix. and by Pliny, II. c. xxv.]

611 (return)
[ See Tacitus, Annal. xv. 49-55.]

612 (return)
[ The sixteenth book of Tacitus, which would probably have given an account of the Vinician conspiracy, is lost. It is shortly noticed by Plutarch.]

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

614 (return)
[ This destructive fire occurred in the end of July, or the beginning of August, A.U.C. 816, A.D. 64. It was imputed to the Christians, and drew on them the persecutions mentioned in c. xvi., and the note.]

615 (return)
[ The revolt in Britain broke out A.U.C. 813. Xiphilinus (lxii. p. 701) attributes it to the severity of the confiscations with which the repayment of large sums of money advanced to the Britons by the emperor Claudius, and also by Seneca, was exacted. Tacitus adds another cause, the insupportable tyranny and avarice of the centurions and soldiers. Prasutagus, king of the Iceni, had named the emperor his heir. His widow Boadicea and her daughters were shamefully used, his kinsmen reduced to slavery, and his whole territory ravaged; upon which the Britons flew to arms. See c. xviii., and the note.]

616 (return)
[ Neonymphon; alluding to Nero’s unnatural nuptials with Sporus or Pythagoras. See cc. xxviii. xxix. It should be neonymphos.]

617 (return)
[ “Sustulit” has a double meaning, signifying both, to bear away, and put out of the way.]

618 (return)
[ The epithet applied to Apollo, as the god of music, was Paean; as the god of war, Ekataebaletaes.]

619 (return)
[ Pliny remarks, that the Golden House of Nero was swallowing up all Rome. Veii, an ancient Etruscan city, about twelve miles from Rome, was originally little inferior to it, being, as Dionysius informs us, (lib. ii. p. 16), equal in extent to Athens. See a very accurate survey of the ruins of Veii, in Gell’s admirable TOPOGRAPHY OF ROME AND ITS VICINITY, p. 436, of Bohn’s Edition.]

620 (return)
[ Suetonius calls them organa hydralica, and they seem to have been a musical instrument on the same principle as our present organs, only that water was the inflating power. Vitruvius (iv. ix.) mentions the instrument as the invention of Ctesibus of Alexandria. It is also well described by Tertullian, De Anima, c. xiv. The pneumatic organ appears to have been a later improvement. We have before us a contorniate medallion, of Caracalla, from the collection of Mr. W. S. Bohn, upon which one or other of these instruments figures. On the obverse is the bust of the emperor in armour, laureated, with the inscription as AURELIUS ANTONINUS PIUS AUG. BRIT. (his latest title). On the reverse is the organ; an oblong chest with the pipes above, and a draped figure on each side.]

621 (return)
[ A fine sand from the Nile, similar to puzzuclano, which was strewed on the stadium; the wrestlers also rolled in it, when their bodies were slippery with oil or perspiration.]

622 (return)
[ The words on the ticket about the emperor’s neck, are supposed, by a prosopopea, to be spoken by him. The reply is Agrippina’s, or the people’s. It alludes to the punishment due to him for his parricide. By the Roman law, a person who had murdered a parent or any near relation, after being severely scourged, was sewed up in a sack, with a dog, a cock, a viper, and an ape, and then thrown into the sea, or a deep river.]

623 (return)
[ Gallos, which signifies both cocks and Gauls.]

624 (return)
[ Vindex, it need hardly be observed, was the name of the propraetor who had set up the standard of rebellion in Gaul. The word also signifies an avenger of wrongs, redresser of grievances; hence vindicate, vindictive, etc.]

625 (return)
[ Aen. xii. 646.]

626 (return)
[ The Via Salaria was so called from the Sabines using it to fetch salt from the coast. It led from Rome to the northward, near the gardens of Sallust, by a gate of the same name, called also Quirinalis, Agonalis, and Collina. It was here that Alaric entered.]

627 (return)
[ The Via Nomentana, so named because it led to the Sabine town of Nomentum, joined the Via Salara at Heretum on the Tiber. It was also called Ficulnensis. It entered Rome by the Porta Viminalis, now called Porta Pia. It was by this road that Hannibal approached the walls of Rome. The country-house of Nero’s freedman, where he ended his days, stood near the Anio, beyond the present church of St. Agnese, where there was a villa of the Spada family, belonging now, we believe, to Torlonia.]

628 (return)
[ This description is no less exact than vivid. It was easy for Nero to gain the nearest gate, the Nomentan, from the Esquiline quarter of the palace, without much observation; and on issuing from it (after midnight, it appears), the fugitives would have the pretorian camp so close on their right hand, that they might well hear the shouts of the soldiers.]

629 (return)
[ Decocta. Pliny informs us that Nero had the water he drank, boiled, to clear it from impurities, and then cooled with ice.]

630 (return)
[ Wood, to warm the water for washing the corpse, and for the funeral pile,]

631 (return)
[ This burst of passion was uttered in Greek, the rest was spoken in Latin. Both were in familiar use. The mixture, perhaps, betrays the disturbed state of Nero’s mind.]

632 (return)
[ II. x. 535.]

633 (return)
[ Collis Hortulorum; which was afterwards called the Pincian Hill, from a family of that name, who flourished under the lower empire. In the time of the Caesars it was occupied by the gardens and villas of the wealthy and luxurious; among which those of Sallust are celebrated. Some of the finest statues have been found in the ruins; among others, that of the “Dying Gladiator.” The situation was airy and healthful, commanding fine views, and it is still the most agreeable neighbourhood in Rome.]

634 (return)
[ Antiquarians suppose that some relics of the sepulchre of the Domitian family, in which the ashes of Nero were deposited, are preserved in the city wall which Aurelian, when he extended its circuit, carried across the “Collis Hortulorum.” Those ancient remains, declining from the perpendicular, are called the Muro Torto.—The Lunan marble was brought from quarries near a town of that name, in Etruria. It no longer exists, but stood on the coast of what is now called the gulf of Spezzia.—Thasos, an island in the Archipelago, was one of the Cyclades. It produced a grey marble, much veined, but not in great repute.]

635 (return)
[ See c. x1i.]

636 (return)
[ The Syrian Goddess is supposed to have been Semiramis deified. Her rites are mentioned by Florus, Apuleius, and Lucian.]

637 (return)
[ A.U.C. 821—A.D. 69.]

638 (return)
[ We have here one of the incidental notices which are so valuable in an historian, as connecting him with the times of which he writes. See also just before, c. lii.]

639 (return)
[ Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.]

640 (return)
[ The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,

is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the bay.]

641 (return)
[ The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family pretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.]

642 (return)
[ A.U.C. 821.]

643 (return)
[ The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the entrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been a large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Three sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times, were marble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the other two sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of what each member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium the nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with her maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of the ancient Romans, was their principal employment.]

644 (return)
[ He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.]

645 (return)
[ A.U.C. 604.]

646 (return)
[ A.U.C. 710.]

647 (return)
[ A.U.C 775.]

648 (return)
[ A.U.C. 608.]

649 (return)
[ Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor’s brother, had been consul A.U.C. 774.]

650
[ A.U.C. 751.]

651 (return)
[ Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its original name, lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and xxxix.]

652 (return)
[ Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.]

653 (return)
[ A.U.C. 751.]

654 (return)
[ The widow of the emperor Augustus.]

655 (return)
[ Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his own testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by Caligula. “Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia repraesentate persolvit.” CALIG. c. xvi.]

656 (return)
[ A.U.C. 786.]

657
[ Caius Caesar Caligula. He gave the command of the legions in Germany to Galba.]

658 (return)
[ “Scuto moderatus;” another reading in the parallel passage of Tacitus is scuto immodice oneratus, burdened with the heavy weight of a shield.]

659 (return)
[ It would appear that Galba was to have accompanied Claudius in his expedition to Britain; which is related before, CLAUDIUS, c. xvii.]

660 (return)
[ It has been remarked before, that the Cantabria of the ancients is now the province of Biscay.]

661 (return)
[ Now Carthagena.]

662 (return)
[ A.U.C. 821.]

663 (return)
[ Now Corunna.]

664 (return)
[ Tortosa, on the Ebro.]

665 (return)
[ “Simus,” literally, fiat-nosed, was a cant word, used for a clown; Galba being jeered for his rusticity, in consequence of his long retirement. See c. viii. Indeed, they called Spain his farm.]

666 (return)
[ The command of the pretorian guards.]

667 (return)
[ In the Forum. See AUGUSTUS, c. lvii.]

668 (return)
[ II. v. 254.]

669 (return)
[ A.U.C. 822.]

670 (return)
[ On the esplanade, where the standards, objects of religious reverence, were planted. See note to c. vi. Criminals were usually executed outside the Vallum, and in the presence of a centurion.]

671 (return)
[ Probably one of the two mentioned in CLAUDIUS, c. xiii.]

672 (return)
[ A.U.C. 784 or 785.]

673 (return)
[ “Distento sago impositum in sublime jactare.”]

674 (return)
[ See NERO, c. xxxv.]

675 (return)
[ The Milliare Aureum was a pillar of stone set up at the top of the Forum, from which all the great military roads throughout Italy started, the distances to the principal towns being marked upon it. Dio (lib. liv.) says that it was erected by the emperor Augustus, when he was curator of the roads.]

676 (return)
[ Haruspex, Auspex, or Augur, denoted any person who foretold futurity, or interpreted omens. There was at Rome a body of priests, or college, under this title, whose office it was to foretell future events, chiefly from the flight, chirping, or feeding of birds, and from other appearances. They were of the greatest authority in the Roman state; for nothing of importance was done in public affairs, either at home or abroad, in peace or war, without consulting them. The Romans derived the practice of augury chiefly from the Tuscans; and anciently their youth used to be instructed as carefully in this art, as afterwards they were in the Greek literature. For this purpose, by a decree of the senate, a certain number of the sons of the leading men at Rome was sent to the twelve states of Etruria for instruction.]

677 (return)
[ See before, note, c. i. The Principia was a broad open space, which separated the lower part of the Roman camp from the upper, and extended the whole breadth of the camp. In this place was erected the tribunal of the general, when he either administered justice or harangued the army. Here likewise the tribunes held their courts, and punishments were inflicted. The principal standards of the army, as it has been already mentioned, were deposited in the Principia; and in it also stood the altars of the gods, and the images of the Emperors, by which the soldiers swore.]

678 (return)
[ See NERO, c. xxxi. The sum estimated as requisite for its completion amounted to 2,187,500 pounds of our money.]

679 (return)
[ The two last words, literally translated, mean “long trumpets;” such as were used at sacrifices. The sense is, therefore, “What have I to do, my hands stained with blood, with performing religious ceremonies!”]

680 (return)
[ The Ancile was a round shield, said to have fallen from heaven in the reign of Numa, and supposed to be the shield of Mars. It was kept with great care in the sanctuary of his temple, as a symbol of the perpetuity of the Roman empire; and that it might not be stolen, eleven others were made exactly similar to it.]

681 (return)
[ This ideal personage, who has been mentioned before, AUGUSTUS, c. lxviii., was the goddess Cybele, the wife of Saturn, called also Rhea, Ops, Vesta, Magna, Mater, etc. She was painted as a matron, crowned with towers, sitting in a chariot drawn by lions. A statue of her, brought from Pessinus in Phrygia to Rome, in the time of the second Punic war, was much honoured there. Her priests, called the Galli and Corybantes, were castrated; and worshipped her with the sound of drums, tabors, pipes, and cymbals. The rites of this goddess were disgraced by great indecencies.]

682 (return)
[ Otherwise called Orcus, Pluto, Jupiter Infernus, and Stygnis. He was the brother of Jupiter, and king of the infernal regions. His wife was Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, whom he carried off as she was gathering flowers in the plains of Enna, in Sicily. The victims offered to the infernal gods were black: they were killed with their faces bent downwards; the knife was applied from below, and the blood was poured into a ditch.]

683 (return)
[ A town between Mantua and Cremona.]

684 (return)
[ The temple of Castor. It stood about twelve miles from Cremona. Tacitus gives some details of this action. Hist. ii. 243.]

685 (return)
[ Both Greek and Latin authors differ in the mode of spelling the name of this place, the first syllable being written Beb, Bet, and Bret. It is now a small village called Labino, between Cremona and Verona.]

686 (return)
[ Lenis was a name of similar signification with that of Tranquillus, borne by his son, the author of the present work. We find from Tacitus, that there was, among Otho’s generals, in this battle, another person of the name of Suetonius, whose cognomen was Paulinus; with whom our author’s father must not be confounded. Lenis was only a tribune of the thirteenth legion, the position of which in the battle is mentioned by Tacitus, Hist. xi. 24, and was angusticlavius, wearing only the narrow stripe, as not being of the senatorial order; while Paulinus was a general, commanding a legion, at least, and a consular man; having filled that Office A.U.C. 818. There seems no doubt that Suetonius Paulinus was the same general who distinguished himself by his successes and cruelties in Britain. NERO, c. xviii., and note.] Not to extend the present note, we may shortly refer to our author’s having already mentioned his grandfather (CALIGULA, c. xix.); besides other sources from which he drew his information. He tells us that he himself was then a boy. We have now arrived at the times in which his father bore a part. Such incidental notices, dropped by historical writers, have a certain value in enabling us to form a judgment on the genuineness of their narratives as to contemporaneous, or recent, events.]

687 (return)
[ A.U.C. 823.]

688 (return)
[ Jupiter, to prevent the discovery of his amour with Io, the daughter of the river Inachus, transformed her into a heifer, in which metamorphosis she was placed by Juno under the watchful inspection of Argus; but flying into Egypt, and her keeper being killed by Mercury, she recovered her human shape, and was married to Osiris. Her husband afterwards became a god of the Egyptians, and she a goddess, under the name of Isis. She was represented with a mural crown on her head, a cornucopia in one hand, and a sistrum (a musical instrument) in the other.]

689 (return)
[ Faunus was supposed to be the third king who reigned over the original inhabitants of the central parts of Italy, Saturn being the first. Virgil makes his wife’s name Marica—