The Lives of the Caesars, Suetonius [best book club books for discussion .TXT] 📗

was proposed to make a farce of his funeral in Atella, the home of the popular Atellan farces. ↩

That is, without holding the intermediate offices; the interval between his quaestorship and consulship was five years. ↩

Cf. Tiberius, 25.2. ↩

Cf. Tiberius, 52.3. ↩

See note on Tiberius, 26.1. ↩

Fuller details are given by Tacitus Annals 2.69.5. Such spells were often inscribed on leaden tablets (defixiones; plumbeis tabulis, Tacitus), specimens of which have come down to us. ↩

See note on Augustus, 101.3. ↩

See note on Tiberius, 7.2. ↩

A title originally applied to the king of Persia and transferred to the king of the Parthians. ↩

The Saturnalia: the principal festival of the Romans, beginning on December 17 and lasting for several days, in honour of Saturn. It was a time of general merrymaking. See also cf. note on Augustus, 71.1. ↩

Cf. Tiberius, 54. ↩

The acta publica or acta diurna, an official publication of important events. ↩

Caligula, 7. ↩

“Little Boots” (though really singular number). The caliga, or half-boot, was regularly worn by the soldiers. ↩

See Tiberius, 76. ↩

They were compelled to fulfil their vows; see Caligula, 27.2. ↩

Cf. Vitellius, 2. ↩

Of Augustus; see Augustus, 100.4. ↩

Originally the title of the commander of the knights who were under forty-five and in active service. Conferred on C. and L. Caesar by Augustus, it became the designation of the heir to the throne, and was later assumed by the emperors themselves. ↩

The consuls in making propositions to the senate began with a set formula (cf. Augustus, 58.2, Julius, 80.2), wishing success to the emperor, or in earlier days to the State. ↩

See Tiberius, 43.1. ↩

Cf. Augustus, 35.2. ↩

See Augustus, 28.1 and 101.4. ↩

Ducentesimam (sc. partem), one half of one percent. ↩

An error, since he was consul in 39, 40, and 41. ↩

See Augustus, 29.5. ↩

To be scrambled for by the spectators. ↩

Africanae, supply bestiae. Panthers or leopards. ↩

On the houses adjoining the Circus; called Maeniana after a certain Maenius, who was supposed to have been the first to build such balconies. ↩

Over three and a half Roman miles. ↩

See Tiberius, 55. ↩

See note on Tiberius, 6.4. ↩

Obviously not a choice, but determined by the degree of success of the contestants. ↩

See Claudius, 20.1. ↩

Cf. Julius, 44.3. ↩

Iliad 2.204. ↩

Under Caligula the so-called “principate” had become an absolute monarchy. Caligula proposed to assume the pomp of a king. ↩

The chryselephantine statue of Zeus by Pheidias; see Caligula, 57.1. ↩

Numidicae and meleagrides are the same. ↩

Iliad, 23.724, where after a long and indecisive wrestling bout Ajax thus challenges Odysseus to settle the contest. Ἀνάειρε is doubtless used in a double sense, perhaps with aposiopesis, “Raise me up (to heaven), or thee I’ll⁠—.” ↩

See Augustus, 16.1. ↩

The stola was the characteristic dress of the Roman matron, as the toga was that of the man. ↩

See note on Tiberius, 37.3. ↩

By adoption; see Caligula, 15.2. ↩

Or perhaps, in short linen tunics. ↩

This remark shows the regard in which the empty title of “consul” was still held. ↩

The reason for the term decimas, if the reading be correct, is uncertain; cf. note on Augustus, 41.2. Obviously his purpose was to lead the rabble to occupy the knights’ seats before the plays began, and thus to start a fight. ↩

The meaning of paegniarii is uncertain; they may have carried arma lusoria or arms incapable of causing death. See Friedländer, Roman Life and Manners, English translation. IV p. 179. ↩

The elogium was the tablet on which the charge against the prisoner was recorded. ↩

It seems probable that there happened to be a bald-headed man at each end of the line; the expression became proverbial. ↩

See Caligula, 14.2. ↩

See Augustus, 60. ↩

“Immobility,” a Stoic virtue. Since in Gaius this took the form of callous indifference to suffering and to public opinion, it became inverecundia. ↩

Accius, Tragedies, 203. ↩

See Caligula, 15.4. ↩

For punishment, or to fight in the arena. ↩

Retiarii: net-fighters who were lightly armed and fought with uncovered heads. They carried a net, in which they tried to entangle their opponents, and a trident and dagger, with which they slew them, if successful. See Friedländer, Roman Life and Manners (English Translation p. 446, ftn. b) IV, 171 ff.