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

money with the general for safe keeping, until the end of their term of service; see Vegetius 2.20 and for fuller details Grenfell, Hunt, and Hogarth, Fayoum Towns and Their Papyri, pp. 252 ff., where the accounts of two soldiers of about the year 180 are published. ↩

That is, raised the amount from nine to twelve aurei. The aureus contained 100 sesterces and was equal to a little over a pound sterling, or five dollars. ↩

That is, to gain favour with influential men or their advocates; cf. Tiberius, 33. ↩

Cf. Nero, 17. ↩

That is, all who sat in judgment on the same case. ↩

As censor. ↩

De nefanda Venere. ↩

Georgicon 2.537. ↩

Probably referring to new senators, entering the House for the first time. ↩

Nothing is known of this law. Livy, 21.63.3⁠–⁠4 mentions a law of Q. Claudius, which forbade senators to engage in business, and that law may have had a chapter referring to the scribae quaestorii and other “civil servants;” or, as some suppose, Publius Clodius may have passed such a law. ↩

That is, charges which resulted in the confiscation of the goods of the accused to the privy purse. ↩

See Domitian, 3.1. ↩

Implying unfairness on the part of Domitian, who favoured the Thracians; cf. Pliny, Panegyricus Traiani. XI and XXXIII. ↩

There is an added insult in parmularius, “one armed with the buckler,” “a Thracian,” as applied to a Roman citizen (pater familias). ↩

See Domitian, 1.3. ↩

Part of a course of training; cf. Nero, 20.1. ↩

See Nero, 49.2. ↩

A tax of two drachmas a head, imposed by Titus in return for free permission to practise their religion; see Josephus, De Bello Judaico 7.6.6. ↩

These were doubtless Christians, whom the Romans commonly confounded with the Jews. ↩

See Vespasian, 3. ↩

Iliad, 2.204. ↩

Pulvinar here means the couch for the images of the gods; cf. Augustus, 45.1. ↩

See Domitian, 4.5. ↩

See note on Augustus, 53.1. ↩

See Domitian, 4.4. ↩

Arci is a transliteration of the Greek word ἀρκεῖ with a pun on its resemblance in sound to arcus, “arch.” ↩

See Domitian, 7.2. ↩

Cf. Ovid, Fasti, 1.357. ↩

A toga ornamented with horizontal stripes of purple, worn by knights on public occasions, as well as by the early kings and the consuls; Tacitus Annals 3.2; Val. Max. 3.2.9. ↩

According to Pliny, Natural History XXXVI.163, a hard, white, translucent stone discovered in Cappadocia in the reign of Nero. According to Tzetzes, On Lycophron 98, φεγγίτης= σεληνίτης, “moonstone.” Pliny also mentions similar mirrors of black obsidian; Natural History XXXVI.196. ↩

Cf. Nero, 40.2. ↩

Cf. Nero, 49.4. ↩

It was evidently on a metal plate, attached to the marble base. ↩

See Vespasian, 5.4. ↩

Fortuna Primigenia; cf. Tiberius, 43.1. ↩

Including the burning of the body, to prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy. ↩

Niece of Domitian. ↩

See Augustus, 7.1. ↩

This in its connection suggests the blush of modesty, but cf. Tacitus Agricola 45, ille vultus et rubor quo se contra pudorem muniebat; and in general, Seneca Epistles 11.3. Doubtless Domitian’s ruddy complexion was a recommendation in his youth. ↩

Iliad, 21.108. ↩

Cf. Titus, 5.2. The bow and arrow were not included by the Romans in the term arma. ↩

Cf. Domitian, 2.2. ↩

The great library of Ptolemy Philadelphus at Alexandria was destroyed during Caesar’s Alexandrine war. The Pergamene library was given by Antony to Cleopatra and transferred to Alexandria, where it was kept in the temple of Serapis. It was frequently damaged during civil disturbances. Burman thinks that the reference is to the latter; but the plural suggests both. ↩

Named after C. Matius, a friend of Augustus and a writer on cookery and gardening. ↩

Cf. Juvenal II.32 f. ↩

Votive shields, adorned with the emperor’s image; see Caligula, 16.4. ↩

The Capitoline hill was sometimes called mons Tarpeius, from the Tarpeian Rock at its southwest corner. It was not, however, the original name of the hill, as some Roman antiquarians supposed. ↩

Colophon

The Lives of the Caesars
was written between 117 and 119 by
Suetonius.
It was translated from Latin in 1913 by
John Carew Rolfe.

This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
David Grigg,
and is based on a transcription produced by
Bill Thayer
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.

The cover page is adapted from
The Triumph of Titus,
a painting completed in 1885 by
Lawrence Alma-Tadema.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.

The first edition of this ebook was released on
October 25, 2019, 9:06 p.m.
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