Quintus Claudius, Volume 1
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41
Hymettus. A mountain in Attica, famed for its delicious honey. (Horace, Od. II, 6, 14).
42
Polished emerald. (Plin. Hist. Nat. XXXVII, 64) where it is stated that the emperor Nero used such an eye-glass at the public games.
43
The lobster, (cammarus), was less highly esteemed by the Romans than among ourselves. See Plin. Ep. II, 17. "The sea, it is true, has no superabundance of delicious fish; yet it gives us excellent soles and lobsters" – a passage in which lobsters are contrasted with delicious fish.
44
Cut Crystal. Window panes of glass (vitrum) mica plates (lapis specularis) and similar materials were by no means rare in ancient times.
45
Menander, son of the general Diopeithes, B.C. 342. The most distinguished poet of the New Comedy; fragments of his comedies have come down to us.
46
Tibur. A favorite summer resort of the Roman aristocracy, now Tivoli.
47
Cappadocian horses. The province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor was famed for its horses.
48
Litters (lectica). The usual conveyance, somewhat resembling the Oriental palanquin, were supplied with rich curtains (vela) and in other respects became the object of luxurious decorations. The number of litter-bearers (lecticarii, calones) varied from two to eight. In the city of Rome itself, where riding in carriages was not allowed during the day-time, the lecticae took the place of our carriages and hacks, for they could also be hired by the hour, and there were stands of them (castra lecticariorum) in several frequented quarters.
49
Lava Blocks. The usual material for pavements in central and southern Italy.
50
Sicambri. A powerful German tribe, occupying in the time of Caesar the eastern bank of the Rhine, and extending from the Sieg to the Lippe.
51
Red Livery. The usual costume of the litter-bearers in the time of the emperors.
52
Woolly-headed Ethiopians. The name Ethiopian Αἰθίοπες in its more restricted sense, applies to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt; in a more general meaning to the whole population of North-eastern Africa, and South-western Asia. According to Herodotus (VII, 70) the Ethiopians dwelling in the East had smooth, those in the West woolly hair.
53
Baths (thermae, θέρμαι, that is “warm baths”) were public bathing-establishments on the grandest scale, modelled after the Greek wrestling-schools. See Becker, Gallus III, p. 68 and following.
54
Cumae (Κύμη) now Cuma, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy, beyond the mountain range that bounds the bay of Baja on the west; it is only a few thousand paces from Baja.
55
In front walked eight or ten slaves. Such a vanguard was customary among people of distinction, even when they went on foot.
56
Lusitanians. A people living in the region now known as Portugal, between the Tagus (Tajo, Tejo) and Durius, (Duero, Douro.)
57
Caecubum. A district on the shores of the bay of Gaeta, famous for its wine. See (Horace Od. I, 20, 9 and I, 37, 5) where it is said, that it would be positively sinful to bring Caecubian wine from the cellar with other kinds on ordinary occasions (antehac nefas depromere Caecubum cellis avitis, etc.).
58
Erymanthian boar. So called from Mt. Erymanthus in Arcadia, where the animal lived until slain by Hercules.
59
Dionysus. A surname of Bacchus.
60
Libation. Wine poured as an offering to the gods.
61
Vestibulum. The space in front of the house-door (fores) which in the time of the imperial government was frequently covered with a portico.
62
Adopted Daughter. The adoption of a child in ancient Rome was regulated by very strict laws. Adoption in its narrower sense (adoptio) extended to persons who were still under paternal authority; with self-dependent persons the so-called arrogatio took place. With women this last form was entirely excluded.
63
Atrium. From the door of the house a narrow passage (ostium) led to the first inner court, the atrium, so-called because this space, where the hearth originally was, was blackened by the smoke (ater). The atrium, which in the more ancient Roman houses possessed the character of a room with a comparatively small opening in the roof, and afterwards resembled a court-yard, was at first the central point of family life, the sitting-room, where the industrious house-keeper sat enthroned among her slaves. When republican simplicity gave way to luxury, the atrium became the hall devoted to the reception of guests, and domestic life was confined to the more retired apartments.
64
Triclinium, (triple couch) really the sofa on which three, and sometimes even more persons reclined at table; the name was also given to the dining-room itself, which comprised the second inner court-yard, the so-called peristyle or cavaedium.
65
Cimbrian Peninsula, now called Jutland.
66
Guttoni. A German race on the lower Vistula.
67
Aestui. A German race living on the coast of Revel.
68
Scandii. Inhabitants of southern Sweden.
69
The Sense of Contrast was a conspicuous trait in Roman character. They were wont to heighten their appreciation of the joys of life by images of death, and the dining-room was intentionally placed so as to afford a view of tombs.
70
The Golden House (domus aurea). The name given to the magnificent palace of Nero, which extended from the Palatine Hill across the valley and up again as far as the gardens of Macaenas on the Esquiline. It contained an enormous number of the choicest works in statuary. Vespasian had a large part of this building pulled down.
71
The Seven Hills. Contempt for all who lived in the provinces was peculiar to all Romans, even the lowest classes of the populace. Thus Cicero says: “Cum infimo cive romano quisquam amplissimus Galliae comparandus est?” (Can even the most distinguished Gaul be compared with the humblest Roman citizen?) This prejudice extended to later centuries, though under the first emperors numerous inhabitants of the provinces attained the rank of senator and reached the highest offices. It is very comical, when Juvenal, a freedman’s son, treats the “knights from Asia Minor,” (Equites Asiani) condescendingly, as if they were intruders, unworthy to unfasten the straps of his sandals. Inhabitants of the other provinces were held in higher esteem than the Greeks and Orientals. But even Tacitus (Ann. IV, 3.) regards it as an aggravation of the crime committed by the wife of Drusus, that Sejanus, for whom she broke her marriage-vow, was not a full-blooded Roman, but merely a knight from Volsinii.
72
The Formal Gardens of Rome. The taste of the Romans in regard to the art of gardening resembled that shown at Versailles. The eloquence with which individual authors urge a return to nature (Hor. Epist. I, 10, Prop. I, 2, Juv. Sat. III, etc.,) only proves that the opposite course was universal. Clipping bushes and trees into artificial forms was considered specially fashionable. Thus Pliny the younger, in his description of the Tuscan villa (Ep. V, 6,) writes: “Before the colonnade is an open terrace, surrounded with box, the trees clipped into various shapes; below it a steep slope of lawn, at whose foot, on both sides of the path, stand bushes of box, shaped into the forms of various animals. On the level ground the acanthus grows delicately, I might almost say transparently. Around it is a hedge of thick closely-clipped bushes, and around this hedge runs an avenue of circular form, adorned with box clipped into various shapes, and small trees artistically trimmed. The whole is surrounded by a wall, concealed by box.” Then towards the end of the letter: "The box is clipped into a thousand shapes, sometimes into letters, that form the name of the owner or gardener.”
73
Jupiter Capitolinus. The priests of certain divinities were called Flamines and the chief of these was the Flamen Dialis or priest of Jupiter – called Capitolinus from the hill on which the temple stood. Tacitus (Ann. III, 71,) tells us of the prohibition here spoken of.
74
The Praetorship and Consulship were still, under the emperors, an object of ardent desire, in spite of the fact that these offices had been stripped of all power.
75
Gades, now Cadiz, was famous for its dancers of easy morality. (See Juv. Sat. XI, 162.)
76
Thyrsus, (θύρσος) a pole or wand wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, and borne by Bacchus and by Bacchantes.
77
Bridge of Nero. One of this emperor’s mad undertakings was the construction, at an enormous expense, of a perfectly useless bridge aslant across the bay of Baiae.
78
Surrentum, now Sorrento.
79
Caieta, now Gaëta.
80
Urbanitas. Literally: city training.
81
A Pale, Bearded Man. Wearing beards first became general under the Emperor Hadrian. At the time of this story it was still the custom among the higher classes (but not among the lower ones and the slaves) to shave off the beard after the twenty-first year.
82
Stoa. The school of the stoics; so named from the pillared hall (ποικίλη στοά) at Athens, where Zeno, the founder, taught. The doctrine inculcated was the subjugation of physical and moral evil by individual heroism.
83
Coena. The second and last principal meal after the day’s work was over. Under the emperors the coena began about half-past two o’clock in the afternoon, in winter probably somewhat later. It corresponded in its relation to the other hours of the day, to the “dîner” of the French, for the Romans were early risers, and even among the aristocratic classes day began at sunrise.
84
Cavaedium or peristyle was the name given to the second court-yard of the Roman house, which was connected with the first or atrium by one or two corridors. The dining-room, as well as the study of the master of the house, were in the cavaedium. The space between the latter and the atrium, called the tablinum, contained the family papers; it was the business office.
85
Typhon. The evil genius who killed Osiris. (See note 32, vol. 1.) The Greeks regarded him as a monster of original evil, the personification of the Simoom and other destructive hot winds, or of the primeval force of volcanoes.
86
Cithara (κιθάρα). A favorite musical instrument. The strings, usually of gut, were sounded by means of a plectrum (πλῆκτρον) of wood, ivory, or metal. Music was as common an accomplishment among ladies of rank then as now, and they often composed both the words and airs of their songs. Statius tells us that his step-daughter did so, and Pliny the younger says the same of his third wife.
87
Ibycus of Rhegion in Lower Italy (B.C. 528). A distinguished lyric poet, who is the hero of a well-known poem by Schiller. Few of his numerous lyric compositions remain to us. We here give a translation of Emanuel Geibel’s admirable German version of his Spring-greeting. (Classisches Liederbuch, p. 44.)
88
Quince. Cydonia is the modern botanical name of the quince, called by the Greeks and Romans the Cydonian apple, after Cydonia, in the island of Crete.
89
Water-organ (Hydraulus, ὕδραυλος). A musical instrument mentioned by Cicero, Seneca and others. Ammianus observes: "Water-organs and lyres are made so large, that they might be mistaken for coaches.”
90
Baiae was considered from ancient times friendly to Bacchus. (Sen. Ep. 51).
91
Statius. – P. Papinius Statius, born in Naples, A.D. 45, and died A.D. 96, was a lyric and epic poet, often artificial in style, but possessed of a brilliant imagination. His principal works are the epic poem “Thebais,” in which he treats of the battle of the sons of Oedipus before Thebes, and the Silvae (woods), a collection of short poems. He also commenced an epic poem "Achilleis.”
92
Martial. (See note 100, vol. 1.)
93
Cubiculum. A sleeping-room. The cubicula were located in the atrium, peristyle, and upper stories.
94
Note. The Romans wrote their letters either on wax-tablets, (See note 10, vol. 1.) or on paper (papyrus, carta), using in the former case the stylus, in the latter a reed-pen and Indian ink. When the letter was finished, the wax-tablets were laid one above the other, and the papyrus folded several times. A string was then wound around the whole and the ends sealed.
95
The Empress Domitia. The emperor’s wife was Domitia Longina, the daughter of Corbulo, and formerly the wife of Aelius Lamia, (Suet. Dom. 1).
96
Caesar’s friends. Among the “friends (amici) of the emperor,” were included those persons, who not only regularly shared the social pleasures of the sovereign, but were invited to consult with him on all important government business. Within this group of friends there were of course inner, outer, and outermost circles. Quintus, who had little intercourse with the court, can only be included in the outermost circle of all, and even there more on account of his father, who was one of the emperor’s most intimate “friends,” than by virtue of his own relations with the palace. He of course had a right to appear at court, like all persons of his rank, even without a special “relation of friendship” to the emperor. When inner and outer circles of friends are mentioned, this must not be confounded with the different classes of friends. Belonging to the first or second class implied a distinction of rank. Of course, in this sense, Quintus could only be numbered among the first class (primi amici).
97
Cypris. A name given to Aphrodite, the goddess of love, from the island of Cyprus, the principal seat of her worship.
98
A Slave. Domitia had been the mistress of Paris, a slave and actor. When Domitian discovered it, he wished to sentence the empress to death, but at the intercession of Ursus, changed the decree to exile. Paris was massacred in the open street. (See Dio Cass. LXVII 3; Suet. Dom. 3.) Quintus calls Paris a buffoon out of contempt, for the profession of “player” was regarded by the ancient Romans as degrading.
99
Muraenae (μύραινα). Lampreys were esteemed a delicacy (Cic., Plin., Hist. Nat. etc.) The best came from the Lucrine lake, near Cumae.
100
A client in his patron’s house. The clients were originally protégées, faithful followers of their lords (patroni) who on their part were obliged to aid them by word and deed. They represented in a certain degree an enlargement of the family circle. Afterwards this relation degenerated into a mercenary connection of the most pitiful kind. Under the emperors the clients usually became only poor parasites, in comparison with their rich masters. They formed their court, paid them the usual morning-visit at a very early hour, accompanied them wherever they went in public, and received in return a ridiculously small compensation in money or goods.
101
Martial. M. Valerius Martialis, born at Bilbilis in Spain, about 43 A.D. was famous for his witty and clever epigrams. The 1,200 which have been preserved are the principal source of the history of manners and customs of the period in which the scene of this story is laid. He died about the year 102.
102
L. Nonius Asprenas held the office of consul with M. Arricinius Clemens in the 14th year of Domitian’s reign, (94 A.D.) and therefore was still in office "last autumn.”
103
Appian way. The Via Appia, built by one of the Claudia gens (the Censor Appius Claudius Caecus, 312 B.C.) led from Rome across Capua to Brundisium (the modern Brindisi). Statius (Silv. II, 12), calls it the queen of roads (regina viarum). A large portion of its admirable pavement, as well as the ruins of the tombs on its sides, exist at the present day.
104
Health and Blessings! The Romans always began their letters by mentioning the writer’s name, who wishes health and blessings to the person addressed. Thus the commencement of the letter given here, literally interpreted, should have run as follows: Titus Claudius Mucianus wishes his Lucilia, Health and Blessings. T. Claudius Mucianus Luciliae suae, S.P. D.
105
Centennial festival. A brilliant spectacle in the arena, the amphitheatre, etc., which, as its name implies, was celebrated every hundred years. Domitian, however, disregarded the necessity of an interval of a hundred years, by reckoning, as Suetonius (Dom. 4) relates, from the one before the last, which took place under Augustus, instead of from the very last, that was celebrated in the reign of Claudius. In this romance the time of the Domitian centennial festivities is placed somewhat later than they really occurred.
106
Albanum. Domitian (Suet. Dom. 4) had an estate at the foot of the Albanian Hills, and many rich Romans had summer villas near, forming at last the town now called Albano.
107
Palatine. Palatium, the imperial palace on the Palatine Hill. The word “palace” is derived from “Palatium,” as “Kaiser” comes from "Caesar.”
108
Nazarenes. The name usually given to Christians, who, for a long time were regarded by the Romans as a Jewish sect. See the words of Dio Cassius (LXVII, 16): “who inclined to Judaism,” where he refers to the Christians, who were persecuted under Domitian.
109
M. Cocceius Nerva from Narnia in Umbria, born 32 A.D., a senator.
110
Lucius Norbanus. See Dio Cass., LXVII, 15.
111
Praetorian guard. The commander-in-chief’s tent in the Roman camp, was called the praetorium; and from this the general’s body-guard received the name of cohors praetoria. Augustus transferred this title to the imperial guard, and established nine Praetorian cohorts, (each consisting of a thousand men) which were stationed, some in Rome and some in the rest of Italy. The cohorts in Rome were at first quartered among the citizens; afterwards they had barracks of their own (castra praetoria) on the opposite side of the Quirinal Hill. They, with the Praetorian cavalry, formed the imperial guard and body-guard. Compared with the other soldiers, they had many privileges, for instance a shorter time of service, higher pay, higher rank, etc.
112
Clodianus. See Suet, Dom. 17.
113
Recitation. The custom universally prevailed of poets reciting their verses to a select circle, before they were published.
114
The second hour after sunrise. The Romans divided the day, from sunrise to sunset, into twelve hours. These were of course shorter in winter than in summer. The events spoken of in this chapter are supposed to have taken place about the time of the equinox, so ‘the second hour’ would be between seven and eight. The night, between sunset and sunrise, was likewise divided into four vigils or watches of three hours each.
115
The gadfly of Juno. The jealous queen of heaven, Hera, (called by the Romans Juno) transformed the beautiful daughter of Inachus, Io, who was beloved by Jupiter, into a cow, and ordered her to be persecuted by a gadfly.
116
The great city. The population of Rome, under the emperors, was a little less than two millions, but largely exceeded one million. There are no exact statements; but calculations have been made from different standpoints, which give about the same result. The most important points to be considered here, are first the extent of surface occupied by imperial Rome, and secondly the estimates of ancient writers concerning the consumption of grain, which in the time of Josephus amounted to 60.000,000 bushels yearly. Here too, may be mentioned the somewhat hyperbolical passage, Arist. Encom. Rom. p. 199, where it is asserted that Rome would fill the whole width of Italy to the Adriatic Sea, if the stories of the houses, instead of being piled one above another, had been built on the ground.
117
Lacerna. A light woollen cloak, worn either in place of the toga or tunic, or, which was more customary, as an outside wrap over the toga. White lacernae were the most elegant.
118
He raved about the sea. The Romans’ love for the sea is proved by many passages in their literature, but still more by the ruins of their villas and palaces, which bordered its most beautiful shores, and were praised by contemporaries for their views, (Friedlander, Sittengesch., II, p. 129).
119
Pliny the Younger. C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, a nephew and adopted son of the older Pliny, was born A.D. 62, at Novum Comum, now Como, on the Lake Larius, Lake of Como, on the banks of which he had several villas. (Ep. IX. 7.) He died about the year 114. A clever writer, a skilful statesman, an enthusiast for everything good and beautiful, he possessed an amiable character, but cannot be wholly absolved from the reproach of self-sufficiency. His writings, especially his letters, are an important source of information concerning the social conditions of that period. The passage in Pliny to which allusion is here made, runs: "Oh, sea! Oh, strand! Thou beloved Museion! How much ye compose and create for me!“
120
On its pivot. Doors were not usually hung on hinges, as with us, but had on their upper and lower edges wedge-shaped pivots (cardines) which fitted into corresponding depressions in the threshold and upper part of the frame.
121
Friend. Quintus would speak of Eurymachus as the ‘friend’ of Euterpe with intentional double meaning, half in the usual honest sense, but partly too in the sense which the feminine form, amica, had acquired in the course of time; a signification so ambiguous, that the bluntest frankness was better.
122
Sesame cake. Sesamum σήσαμον was a plant with pods, from whose fruit was obtained a savory meal or oil.