Roman Imperium

Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights, XIII.XV, 1-7

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In the edict of the consuls by which they appoint the day for the centuriate assembly it is written in accordance with an old established form:

“Let no minor magistrate presume to watch the skies”.
Accordingly, the question is often asked who the minor magistrates are. On this subject there is no need for words of mine, since by good fortune the first book of the augur Messalla ‘On Auspices’ is at hand, when I am writing this. Therefore I quote from that book Messalla’s own words:
“The auspices of the patricians are divided into two classes. The greatest are those of the consuls, praetors and censors. Yet the auspices of all those are not the same or of equal rank, for the reason that the censors are not colleagues of the consuls or praetors, while the praetors are colleagues of the consuls. Therefore neither do the consuls or the praetors interrupt or hinder the auspices of the censors, nor the censors those of the praetors and consuls; but the censors may vitiate and hinder each other’s auspices and again the praetors and consuls those of one another.
The praetor, although he is a colleague of the consul, cannot lawfully elect either a praetor or a consul, as indeed we have learned from our forefathers, or from what has been observed in the past, and as is shown in the thirteenth book of the Commentaries of Caius Tuditanus; ‘for the praetor has inferior authority and the consul superior, and a higher authority cannot be elected by a lower, or a superior colleague by an inferior.’
At the present time, when a praetor elects the praetors, I have followed the authority of the men of old and have not taken part in the auspices at such elections. Also the censors are not chosen under the same auspices as the consuls and praetors. The lesser auspices belong to the other magistrates.
Therefore these are called ‘lesser’ (minores) and the others ‘greater’ (maiores) magistrates. When the lesser magistrates are elected, their office is conferred upon them by the assembly of the tribes, but full powers by a law of the assembly of the curiae; the higher magistrates are chosen by the assembly of the centuries.
The praetor is a colleague of the consul, because they are chosen under the same auspices. They are said to possess the greater auspices, because their auspices are esteemed more highly than those of the others.”

Aulus Gellius’ ‘Noctium Atticarum’, XIII.XV, 1-7

Macrobius, about Cicero

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Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)
In his second book, chapter two, Macrobius relates a number of anecdotes concerning Marcus Tullius Cicero: consul 63 B.C., orator, writer, philosopher.

I.When he (Cicero) was dining at the house of Damasippus, his host produced a very ordinary wine, saying, “Try this Falernian; it is forty years old.”
“ Young for his age,” replied Cicero.

II.Seeing his son-in-law Lentulus (who was a very short man) wearing a long sword, he said: “ who has buckled my son-in-law to that sword?”

III.The consulship of Vatinius which lasted for only a few days gave Cicero an opportunity for some humorous sayings, which had wide currency. “Vatinius’s term of office,” he said, “has presented a remarkable portent, for in his consulship there has been neither winter, spring, summer, nor autumn.”

IV.And again, when Vatinius complained that Cicero had found it too much trouble to come to see him in his sickness, he replied:” It was my intention to come while you were consul, but night overtook me.”

V.Pompeius found Cicero’s witticisms tiresome, and the following sayings of Cicero were current: “I know whom to avoid, but I do not know whom to follow.”

Again, when he had come to join Pompeius, to those who were saying that he was late in coming he retorted: “ Late? Not at all, for I see nothing ready here yet.”

VI.Then, when Laberius toward the end of the Games received from Caesar the honour of the gold ring of knighthood and went straightaway to the fourteen rows to watch the scene from there - only to find that the knights had felt themselves affronted by the degradation of one of their order and his offhand restoration - as he was passing Cicero, in his search for a seat, the latter said to him:

“ I should have been glad to have you beside me were I not already pressed for room”; meaning by these words to snub the man and at the same time to make fun of the new Senate, whose number had been unduly increased by Caesar. Here, however, Cicero got as good as he gave, for Laberius replied: “ I am surprised that you of all people should be pressed for room, seeing that you make a habit of sitting on two seats at once,” thus reproaching Cicero with the fickleness of which that excellent and loyal citizen was unfairly accused.

VII.To Cassius, one of the man who murdered the dictator, he said: “ I could wish you had asked me to your dinner on the Ides of March. Nothing, I assure you, would have been left over. But, as things are, your leaving make me feel anxious.”

(Meaning: if Cicero had been in on the plot to murder Caesar, Marcus Antonius too would have been killed)

Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights, vol.iii, bk.XVI, XIII.p.177

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1. Municipes and municipia are words which are readily spoken and in common use, and you would never find a man who uses them who does not think that he understands perfectly what he is saying.
But in fact it is something different, and the meaning is different.
2. For how rarely is one of us found who, coming from a colony of the Roman people, does not say what is far removed from reason and from truth, namely, that he is “municeps” and that his fellow citizens are “municeps”?
3 .So general is the ignorance of what “municipia” are and what rights they have, and how far they differ from a “colony”, as well as the belief that coloniae are better off than municipia.
4. With regard to the errors in this opinion which is so general the deified Hadrian, in the speech which he delivered in the senate “In behalf of the Italicenses”, (De Italicensibus. Italica was a city in Spain on the river Baetis, opposite Hispalis (Seville). It was founded by Scipio Africanus maior and peopled by his veterans; whence the name “the Italian city”.) from whom he himself came, discoursed most learnedly, showing his surprise that the municipia, among whom he names the citizens of Utica, when they might enjoy there own customs and laws, desired instead to have the rights of colonies.
5. Moreover, he asserts that the citizens of Praeneste earnestly begged and prayed the emperor Tiberius that they might be changed from a colony into the condition of a municipium, and that Tiberius granted there request by way of conferring a favour, because in there territory, and near their town itself, he had recovered from a dangerous illness.
6. ”Municipes”, then, are Roman citizens from free towns, using their own laws and enjoying their own rights, merely sharing with the Roman people an honorary munus, or “privilege”- from the enjoyment of which privilege they appear to derive there name-, and bound by no other compulsion and no other law of the Roman people, except such as their own citizens have officially ratified.
7. We learn besides that the people of Caere were the first municipes without the right of suffrage, and that it was allowed them to assume the honour of Roman citizenship, but yet to be free from service and burdens, in return for receiving and guarding sacred objects during the war with the Gauls. Hence by contraries those tablets were called Caerites on which the censors ordered those to be enrolled whom they deprived of their votes by way of disgrace.
8. But the relationship of the “colonies” is a different one; for they do not come into citizenship from without, nor grow from roots of their own, but they are as it were transplanted from the State and have all the laws and institutions of the Roman people, not those of their own choice. 9. This condition, although it is more exposed to control and less free, is nevertheless thought preferable and superior because of the greatness and majesty of the Roman people, of which those colonies seem to be miniatures, as it were, and in a way copies; (their government was modelled on that of Rome, with a senate (decuriones), two chief magistrates (ii viri iure dicundo), elected annually, etc.) and at the same time because the rights of the municipal towns became obscure and invalid, and from ignorance of their existence the townsmen are no longer able to make use of them.

Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius

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was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)

In his second book, chapter two, Macrobius relates a number of anecdotes concerning Marcus Tullius Cicero: consul 63 B.C., orator, writer, philosopher.

I.When he (Cicero) was dining at the house of Damasippus, his host produced a very ordinary wine, saying, “Try this Falernian; it is forty years old.”
“ Young for his age,” replied Cicero.

II.Seeing his son-in-law Lentulus (who was a very short man) wearing a long sword, he said: “ who has buckled my son-in-law to that sword?”

III.The consulship of Vatinius which lasted for only a few days gave Cicero an opportunity for some humorous sayings, which had wide currency. “Vatinius’s term of office,” he said, “has presented a remarkable portent, for in his consulship there has been neither winter, spring, summer, nor autumn.”

IV.And again, when Vatinius complained that Cicero had found it too much trouble to come to see him in his sickness, he replied:” It was my intention to come while you were consul, but night overtook me.”

V.Pompeius found Cicero’s witticisms tiresome, and the following sayings of Cicero were current: “I know whom to avoid, but I do not know whom to follow.”

Again, when he had come to join Pompeius, to those who were saying that he was late in coming he retorted: “ Late? Not at all, for I see nothing ready here yet.”

VI.Then, when Laberius toward the end of the Games received from Caesar the honour of the gold ring of knighthood and went straightaway to the fourteen rows to watch the scene from there - only to find that the knights had felt themselves affronted by the degradation of one of their order and his offhand restoration - as he was passing Cicero, in his search for a seat, the latter said to him:

“ I should have been glad to have you beside me were I not already pressed for room”; meaning by these words to snub the man and at the same time to make fun of the new Senate, whose number had been unduly increased by Caesar. Here, however, Cicero got as good as he gave, for Laberius replied: “ I am surprised that you of all people should be pressed for room, seeing that you make a habit of sitting on two seats at once,” thus reproaching Cicero with the fickleness of which that excellent and loyal citizen was unfairly accused.
VII.To Cassius, one of the man who murdered the dictator, he said: “ I could wish you had asked me to your dinner on the Ides of March. Nothing, I assure you, would have been left over. But, as things are, your leaving make me feel anxious.”
(Meaning: if Cicero had been in on the plot to murder Caesar, Marcus Antonius too would have been killed)

M.Pupius M.f.Piso Frugi Calpurnianus

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born about 114/113 B.C., son of L.Calpurnius Piso Frugi,
praetor Hispania ulterior ca. 113-112 B.C.
perished in 111 B.C.
He was the adoptive-son of M.Pupius M.f.Scap.,
senator in 129 B.C.

Pupius Piso Frugi, quaestor in 83, praetor in 72 or 71, consul in 61 B.C., Cicero’s mentor, he was about eight years the elder friend and companion in Athens. An expert in rhetoric and philosophy, he had a notable military career which included a triumph for successes as proconsul in Further Spain (Hisp.Ult.) (71-69) and service as Pompeius’ legatus pro praetore in 67-62 during the battle against the pirates in the Propontis and the Bosporus, and later against Mithridates. In 63 he was present as legate during the siege of Jerusalem.
In politics as in war he was Pompeius’ lieutenant; but he started as a Marian, husband of Cinna’s widow and L.Scipio’s quaestor. After his consulship he vanishes.

Pompey’s legate M.Piso who raised troops in Delos in 49, was in all probability his son, praetor in 44. (Cic.Phil.III.25)

(R.Syme in ‘A study in nomenclature’ in Roman papers p.1360-1377, idem Historia 7.1958 p.172-188.
“This man’s father, the consul M.Pupius Piso, was a Calpurnius Piso by birth, adopted by a certain M.Pupius. The son, it appears, was eager to suppress the undecorative nomen ‘Pupius’, and emphasized his noble lineage.
Technically not a member of the gens Calpurnia, he could not call himself ‘Calpurnius’, but he took the ancestral cognomen ‘Piso’ and converted it into a name)

According to R. Syme: Pro praetore Hispania Ulterior about 63-62.
But, says Syme, Piso Frugi, praetor 72/71 B.C. could possibly be a younger brother of L.Piso Frugi, praetor in 74 B.C., he is than possibly born in or before 114 B.C.

Cic.ad Att.I.13,2; Cic.Pro Plancio V.12; Ascon.15.15; Brut.230.

Types of Marriage

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The first and most traditional type of marriage was called confarreatio. This was a marriage limited to patricians whose parents were also married with confarreatio. The wedding was an elaborate ceremony with the Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus presiding, as well as ten witnesses present. The woman passed directly from the manus of her paterfamilias to that of her new husband. Divorce for confarreatio marriages, diffarreatio, was a difficult process and therefore rare.

Not much is known about how diffarreatio was carried out except that there was a special type of sacrifice that caused the dissolution of the relationship between the man and woman. She would then pass back into the manus of her paterfamilias.

The second and more common type of marriage with manus was called coemptio.
It represented a "bride purchase," as the groom paid nummus usus, a penny, and received the bride in exchange. While this purchase was not a real sale, it symbolized the traditional bride purchases of earlier societies. Only five witnesses were required and the wedding ceremony was much less formala than confarreatio, but the bride still passed to her husband's manus.

A third type of marriage is a bit more unusual and was obsolete by the end of the Republic. Usus was a practical marriage that did not require an actual wedding ceremony; it was a transfer to the manus of the husband by default after cohabitation. There was probably some honorable intention stated at the beginning of the cohabitation, an adfectus maritalis. The only requirement for an usus marriage was that the man and woman cohabitate for one full year. The woman would then pass into her husband's manus. There was one loophole, however. If, within that year, the woman was away for three consecutive nights, she would not pass into the manus of her husband.

There were also marital unions that did not require the women to pass into her husband's manus. One, for instance, was free marriage. The wife would retain her independence as filiafamilias to her paterfamilias. If the father was dead, and had so stipulated in his will, she would be suae iuris, responsible for herself. She, under suae iuris, could then manage her own property and even initiate a divorce. Concubinatus was another alternative to marriage. A concubine, or paelex, was a woman who had regular sexual relations with a married man. Often the man and his paelex would live together, but without the adfectus maritalis that characterized usus marriages. Children of this type of union were not legitimate, indicating that the relationship was not itself legitimate. If, however, the couple did have adfectus maritalis and there were no legal disqualifications to marriage, the relationship could become a matrimonium.

a. The Flamen Dialis and Pontifex Maximus, for instance, were not required at the wedding ceremony for coemptio marriages.

(Courtesy of Mrs. J.J.Goodall Powers.)

The Mausoleum of Augustus

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Pour me a double measure, of Falernian, Callistus,
and you Alcimus, melt over it summer snows,
let my sleek hair be soaked with excess of perfume,
my brow be wearied beneath the sewn-on rose.
The Mausoleum tells us to live, that one nearby,
it teaches us that the gods themselves can die.

Martialis.Book V:64.

IMacrobius relates anecdotes concerning various people:

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Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)

1.Sulla’s son Faustus hearing that his sister was having an affair with two lovers at the same time, with Fulvius (a fuller’s son) and Pompeius surnamed Macula (a stain), declared: “I am surprised to find my sister with a stain, seeing that she has the services of a fuller.”

2.Servilius Geminus happened to be dining at the house of Lucius Mallius, who was held to be the best portrait painter in Rome and, noticing how misshapen his host’s sons were, observed: “Your modelling, Mallius, does not come up to your painting.” “Naturally,” replied Mallius, “for the modelling is done in the dark but the painting by daylight.”

3.Marcus Otacilius Pitholaus, on the occasion of the consulship of Caninius Revilus which lasted only one day remarked: “We used to have Priest of the Day but now we have consuls of a day.
(The point of the jest is the punning reference to the Priests of Jupiter (or Diespiter, i.e.”Father of the Day”; (see Aulus Gellius 5.12), who was known as the Flamen Dialis, and to the connection of the word Dialis with dies, “day.”)

4.Macrob. puts Symmachus the following verse by Plato in de mouth.
While with parted lips I was kissing my love and drawing his sweet fragrant breath from his open mouth, my poor, my lovesick, wounded soul rushed to my lips as it strove to find a way to pass between my open mouth and my love’s soft lips. Then, had the kiss been, even for a little while, prolonged, my soul, smitten with love’s fire, would have passed through and left me; and (a marvel this!) I should be dead- but alive within my love.

5.The lawyer Cascellius has a reputation for a remarkable outspoken wit, and here is one of his best-known quips. Vatinius had been stoned by the populace at a gladiatorial show which he was giving, and so he prevailed on the aediles to make a proclamation forbidding the throwing of anything but fruit into the arena. Now it so happened that Cascellius at that time was asked by a client to advise whether a fir cone was a fruit or not, and his reply was:” If you propose to throw one at Vatinius, it is.”

6.Then there is the story that, when a merchant asked him how to split a ship with a partner he replied:” If you split the ship, it will be neither yours nor your partner’s.”

7.A jest that went the rounds was one directed by Marcus Lollius at the distinguished speaker Galba, who (as I have already remarked) was hampered by a bodily deformity:” Galba’s intellectual ability is ill housed.”

8.To others who used to play at ball with him Gaius Caesar had made a gift of a hundred thousand sesterces, but Lucius Caecilius got only fifty thousand. “ What is the meaning of this?” said Caecilius, “ Do I play with only one hand?”

9.When Publius Clodius told Decimus Laberius that he was angry with him for refusing to produce a mime for him at his request, Laberius said:” What of it? All that you can do is to give me a return passage to Dyrrachium”
(– a mocking allusion to Cicero’s exile.)

VIII. THE STIFF UPPER LIP (To Lesbia, by Valerius Catullus

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Poor Catullus! Cease your madness!
Realise that love is dead.
Once your days were gay with gladness
As you followed where she led.

Never will another lady
Know such great abiding love:
In those gardens, cool and shady,
With the bright blue sky above.

Did you voice your burning passion
As you whiled the hours away,
And your lady, in her fashion,
Lured you on, nor said you nay?

Now, her lovely self denying,
Cease to seek her, cease to mourn;
Turn your thought away from dying,
Slave of passion, all forlorn!

Be courageous in your sorrow.
Bear your loss with constant mind.
Haply you will meet to-morrow
Someone else as sweet and kind.

Farewell, Lady! Now your poet,
Strong once more, resumes his task.
He'll not seek you; now you know it,
Nor your languid favours ask!

Some day you'll be sad and lonely -
What remains in life for you?
None will think you lovely - only
Fear the things they know you do.

Who would take the love you offer?
No man's mistress will you be!
And, Catullus, though she proffer
Peace, stand firm in enmity!

English verse by
J.A.B. HARRISSON MBE DSC (1909-1983)

Optimates and Populares

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Optimates and Populares; according to Cicero in his ‘Republic’ 3,23

“When certain men control the state by virtue of their wealth, their distinction, or any form of power, this is a faction, but they call themselves ‘Optimates.” (the best people)

Infact that title was applied to the clique of more reactionary nobiles and their supporters who were concerned to reserve for themselves the right to control the decisions of the Senate and the electoral and legislative assemblies by the traditional means of amicitiae and clientela.
To an Optimate the theoretical sovereignty of the Roman people should always be subordinate in practice to the authority of the Senate; the Senate should be controlled by those whose family traditions and wealth fitted them to provide the senior magistrates of Rome and to guide their decisions. Any politician who did not enjoy the support of the Optimates, or who wanted to propose reforms or programmes contrary to their interest had to find ways of counter their formidable power. Many of the most successful methods had been demonstrated by the Gracchi brothers Tiberius and Caius during their tribunates of 133 and 123-122, and by C.Marius and the tribune L.Appuleius Saturninus in 103 and 100.
Tribunes had the right of proposing legislation in the council of the Plebs (consilium plebis), which was in fact the Assembly of the People excluding the members of the very few Patrician families. They could also veto the proposals of other magistrates.
As 10 tribunes were elected each year, and they did not require the qualifications of age and previous office which consuls required, it was not difficult for ambitious and active men to secure election.
They could, without the consent of the Senate, get far-reaching legislation passed in the Plebeian council which, on their interpretation of the constitution was perfectly legitimate.
The word Popularis, which is often used as the opposite of Optimate, describes rather the method used by politicians than their policies, which might be designed to further the selfish interest of a few individuals just as much as to put right glaring social injustices.
The populares were by no means a political party, even in the sense that the Optimates were, and, although it is possible to trace a certain continuity of thought and even ideals in the actions of men whom their contemporaries called populares, the faction which opposed the Optimates from time to time nearly always centred round one leading personality, whose motives should not necessarily be construed as democratic or idealistic.
(Pompey the Great (1978), by John Leach)

Servilia, mistress of Julius Caesar

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Servilia, born about 100 B.C. and died after 42 B.C., was the daughter of Q.Servilius Caepio, praetor in 91 B.C. and of Livia, daughter of M.Livius Drusus, consul 112 B.C.
(which made Livia the sister of M.Livius Drusus, the famous tribune of the plebs of 91 B.C.)

Servilia had been married to M.Junius Brutus, tribunus plebis in 83 B.C. and bore him a son, M.Junius Brutus, the so-called ‘Liberator’, whose ashes were sent to her by Marcus Antonius after the battle of Philippi (42 B.C.)

After Gn.Pompeius Magnus had treacherously killed her husband at Mutina in 77 B.C., she had married D.Junius Silanus, consul 62 B.C.
After putting up with her unfaithfulness for quite some time Silanus finally divorced her in 61 B.C.

The couple had three children:
1. Junia (prima), married to M.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 46 B.C., future triumvir.
2. Junia (secunda), married to P.Servilius Isauricus, consul 48 B.C.
3. Junia (tertia), also calledTertulla, married to C.Cassius Longinus who perished at Philippi in 42 B.C. Tertiae survived her husband for 64 years and died in A.D.22 during the reign of the Emperor Tiberius at the age of 93.

Servilia was the sister of:
(1) Cn.Servilius Caepio, tribune of the soldiers in the war against Spartacus in 72, died in 67 B.C. at Aenus in Trace, on his way to Asia.
He had been married to Hortensia, daughter of Q.Hortensius Hortalus, consul 69 B.C. and Lutatia.

(2) Servilia (minor),married in 66 with L.Licinius Lucullus, consul 74 B.C.
Lucullus married her after his divorce from the notorious Clodia.
This Servilia too didn’t stay faithful to her husband and a divorce followed.

Our Servilia became, by the second marriage of her mother, step-sister to M. Porcius Cato Uticensis who was dominated by her.

She was during some twenty years the mistress of Caius Julius Caesar the dictator.
Judging by graffiti found on a wall her contemporaries weren’t much impressed by this formidable and influential lady.
The text read: “Caesari Servilia Futatrix”
(“Servilia is Caesar’s bitch”)

Both her son Marcus Junius Brutus and her son-in-law C.Cassius Longinus were the leaders of the conspiracy and murder of her lover Julius Caesar.

Search while you’re out walking

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Just walk slowly under Pompey’s shady colonnade,
when the sun’s in Leo, on the back of Hercules’s lion:
or where Octavia added to her dead son Marcellus’s gifts,
with those rich works of foreign marble.
Don’t miss the Portico that takes its name
from Livia its creator, full of old masters:
or where the daring Danaids prepare to murder their poor husbands,
and their fierce father stands, with out-stretched sword.
And don’t forget the shrine of Adonis, Venus wept for,
and the sacred Sabbath rites of the Syrian Jews.
Don’t skip the Memphite temple of the linen-clad heifer:
she makes many a girl what she herself was to Jove.
And the law-courts (who’d believe it?) they suit love:
a flame is often found in the noisy courts:
where the Appian waters pulse into the air,
from under Venus’s temple, made of marble,
there the lawyer’s often caught by love,
and he who guides others, fails to guide himself:
in that place of eloquence often his words desert him,
and a new case starts, his own cause is the brief.
There Venus, from her neighbouring temples, laughs:
he, who was once the counsel, now wants to be the client.

Ovidius, book I part III.

Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights, bk.III, XVIII.1-10.

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There are many who think that those senators were called ‘pedarii’ who did not express their opinion in words, but agreed with the opinion of others by stepping to there side of the House.
How then? Whenever a decree of the Senate was passed by division, did not all senators vote in that manner?
Also the following explanation of the word is given, which Gavius Bassus has left recorded in his ‘Commentaries’.
For he says that in the time of our forefathers senators who had held a curule magistracy used to ride to the House in a chariot, as a mark of honour; that in that chariot there was a seat on which they sat, which for that reason was called curulis; but that those senators who had not yet held a curule magistracy went on foot to the House: and that therefore the senators who had not yet held the higher magistracies were called ‘pedarii’.

Marcus Varro, however, in the Menippean Satire entitled ‘Hippokuon’ ,says that some knights were called pedarii, and he seems to mean those who, since they had not yet been enrolled in the Senate by the censors, were not indeed senators, but because they had held offices by vote of the people, used to come into the Senate and had the right of voting. In fact, even those who had filled curule magistracies, if they had not yet been added by the censors to the list of senators, were not senators, and as their names came among the last, they were not asked their opinions, but went to a division on the views given by the leading members. That was the meaning of the traditional proclamation, which even to day the consuls, for the sake of following precedent, use in summoning the senators to the House.

The words of the edict are these:
“Senators and those who have the right to express their opinion in the Senate” (Senatores quibusque in senatu sententiam dicere licet)
I have had a line of Laberius copied also, in which that word is used; I read it in a mime entitled ‘Structurae’: “The age-man’s vote is but a tongueless head.”
(Caput sine lingua pedari sententia est.”)
I have observed that some use a barbarous form of this word; for instead of pedarii they say pedanii.

A hymn to Venus. (Aphrodite)

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O Venus, beauty of the skies,
To whom a thousand temples rise,
Gaily false in gentle smiles,
Full of love-perplexing wiles:
O goddess! from my heart remove

The wasting cares and pains of love.
If ever thou hast kindly heard
A song in soft distress preferr'd,
Propitious to my tuneful vow,

0 gentle goddess! hear me now.
Descend, thou bright, immortal guest,
In all thy radiant charms confess'd.
Thou once didst leave almighty Jove,

And all the golden roofs above:
The car thy wanton sparrows drew,
Hovering in air they lightly flew;
As to my bower they wing'd their way,
I saw their quivering pinions play.

The birds dismiss'd, while you remain,
Bore back their empty car again:
Then you with looks divinely mild,
In every heavenly feature smiled,
And ask'd what new complaints I made,
And why I call'd you to my aid?

What frenzy in my bosom raged,
And by what cure to be assuaged ?
What gentle youth I would allure,
Whom in my artful toils secure?

Who does thy tender heart subdue
Tell me, my Sappho, tell me who?
Though now he shuns thy longing arms,
He soon shall court thy slighted charms;

Though now thy offerings he despise,
He soon to thee shall sacrifice;
Though now he freeze, he soon shall burn,
And be thy victim in his turn.

Celestial visitant, once more
Thy needful presence I implore!
In pity come, and ease my grief,
Bring my distemper'd soul relief,
Favour thy suppliant's hidden fires,
And give me all my heart desires.

Sappho, from Lesbos, Greece. b.615- d.around 550 B.C.
English translation by Ambrose Philips, 1711

Sextus Julius Frontinus

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Sex.Julius Frontinus, author of the famous work on the aquaducts of Rome, was, we may infer from his praetorship in 70, born around the year 35.

After holding the prestigious praetorship of the City he became consulsuffectus in 73. In the following year he was dispatched as Legatus Aug.pro praetore to the province of Britain where he subdued the Silures, a powerful and – from a Roman point of view – warlike tribe of Wales. In 78 he returned to Rome and may have written his lost treatise on ‘The art of war’ soon hereafter.
As proconsul of Asia he governed this province in 82/83 (according to W.Eck 86/87). After his return to Rome he may have started to write his ‘Strategemata’ (according to Gundermann he wrote this work between the years 84 and 96.)
At some time in the early eighties he was coopted into the college of Augurs which greatly enhanced his status and political influence.
In 97 he was appointed to the post of water commissioner (Curator Aquarum), the office whose management gives him probably his best title to eminence, and during the tenure of this he wrote ‘De aquis urbis Romae’’, his famous work on the aquaducts of Rome. He proved himself to be a faithful civil servant with a sharp eye to the public service and a frugal use of the public funds.
On February 20th, A.D. 98 he was given the honour of the suffectconsulship as colleague to the Emperor Traianus as consul II, replacing Domitianus, and the extraordinary honour of consul ordinarius III in A.D.100, again with Traianus as his colleague. Frontinus passed away in 104 and was succeeded in his Augurate by Pliny Minor.

Sex.Julius Frontinus was the father of Julia Frontina, married to Q.Sosius Senecio, consul II, in 107; grandfather of Sosia Polla, married to Pompeius Falco, consul 108; great-grandfather of Q.Pompeius Sosius Priscus, consul 149; great-great-grandfather of Pompeia Sosia Falconilla, married to M.Pontius Laelianus, consul ord. 163, and of Q.Pompeius Senecio Priscus, consul 169, married to Ceionia Fabia, daughter of L.Ceionius Commodus = L.Aelius Caesar.

See. Plin.ep.4.8, 3 (augur, pr.urb., d. 103/4); 5.1,5; 9.19,1; Plin.Pan.61/62,2 (electus a senatu); Tac.hist.4.39, 2; Agr.17 (in Britain.)
Frontinus’ ‘Strategemata’, 4.3,14 (war against Julius Civilis in Gallia)
Ditto 1.102 (cur. Aq.); Martial.10.48, 20,58 (cossuff.98)
See also R.Syme in Gnomon 29 (1957) p.518 sq.; Tacitus p. 642, 657, 790

According to W. Eck and Pangerl in Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik 2003, Frontinus has been also Legatus legionis in Germania inferior.
This based on the finding near Oppenheim in Germany of an inscription dedicated by Julia Frontina, presumably the daughter of Julius Frontinus, and a second inscription found near Vetera Castra (Xanthen) is dedicated to Jupiter, Juno and Minerva in recognition of the recovery from illness of Sextus Julius Frontinus, and there is also a lead pipe, said to have been found near the modern Via Tiburtina (Leading from Rome to Tibur (Tivoli), inscribed SEXT. IULI FRONTINI.

The tomb of Paris the actor.

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Traveller, who treads the Flaminian Way,
don’t pass this noble marble by.
the wit of the Nile, the city’s delight,
grace and art, and pleasure and play,
the worth and grief of the Roman stage,
and every Venus, and every Cupid,
here in Paris’s tomb, together, buried, lie.

Martialis, book XI:13.

Macrobius: Anecdotes about Julia, daughter of Augustus

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I. She (Julia Aug.f.) came one day into her father’s presence wearing a somewhat immodest dress. Augustus was shocked but said nothing. On the next day, to his delight, she wore a different kind of dress and greeted him with studied demureness. Although the day before he had repressed his feelings, he was now unable to contain his pleasure and said:” This dress is much more becoming in the daughter of Augustus.” But Julia had an excuse ready and replied:” Yes, for today I am dressed to meet my father’s eyes, yesterday it was for my husband’s.”

II.At a display of gladiators the contrast between Livia’s suite and Julia’s had caught the eye, for the former was attended by a number of grown-up men of distinction but the latter was seated surrounded by young people of the fast set. Her father sent Julia a letter of advice, bidding her mark the difference between the behaviour of the two chief ladies of Rome, to which she wrote this neat reply:” These friends of mine will be old men too, when I am old.”

III.Her hair began to go grey at an early age, and she used secretly to pull the grey hairs out. One day her maids were surprised by the unexpected arrival of her father, who pretended not to see the grey hairs on her women’s dresses and talked for some time on other matters. Then, turning the conversation to the subject of age, he asked her whether she would prefer eventually to be grey or bald. She replied that for her part she would rather be grey. “Why, then,” said her father, thus rebuking her deceit, “ are these women of yours in such a hurry to make you bald?”

IV.To a seriousminded friend who was seeking to persuade her that she would be better advised to order her life to conform to her father’s simple tastes she replied:” He forgets that he is Caesar, but I remember that I am Caesar’s daughter.”

V.To certain persons who knew of her infidelities and were expressing surprise at her children’s likeness to her husband Agrippa, since she was so free with her favours, she said:” Passengers are never allowed on board until the hold is full.”

Aulus Gellius’ Attic Nights, XIII. 14,1

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The augurs of the Roman people who wrote books On the Auspices have defined the meaning of pomerium in the following terms:
“The pomerium is the space within the rural district designated by the augurs along the whole circuit of the city without the walls, marked off by fixed bounds and forming the limit of the city auspices.”
(That is to say, the pomerium separated the ager Romanus, or country district, from the city. The auspices could be taken only within the pomerium. When a furrow was drawn and the earth turned inward to mark the line of the city walls, the furrow represented the pomerium).
Now, the most ancient pomerium, which was established by Romulus, was bounded by the foot of the Palatine hill. But that pomerium, as the republic grew, was extended several times and included many lofty hills. Moreover, whoever had increased the domain of the Roman people by land taken from an enemy had the right to enlarge the pomerium.

Aulus Gellius’ Noctium Atticarum,XIII. 14,1

Cornelia, wife of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus the Censor, here described as speaking from her grave. (abridged).

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Cease, Paullus 1, importuning my tomb with tears; the gate of darkness is not opened to any prayers. What help was there in my marriage to Paullus, in the triumphs of my ancestors, in such illustrious offspring that are witnesses to my fame!
The Fates 2 were no less cruel to Cornelia 3, and I am but a handfull of dust…
If ancestral trophies have ever brought fame and glory to anyone, our statues bespeak ancestors at Numantia 4, a second line gives equal share to the Libones 5 on my mother’s side, and my house is upheld on both sides by their own achievements.
Later, when my girl’s attire gave way to marriage, another kind of ribbon caught up and bound my hair. I was joined to your bed, Paullus, destined to leave it thus: read it on this stone, she was wedded to one alone.
I call to witness the ashes of my ancestors, revered by you, O Rome…
Cornelia never tarnished such spoils of war…
Nay, even in that great house hers was a role to be emulated. My life was never altered, it is wholly without reproach.
I have lived with distinction between the torch of marriage and the torch of death. Nature gave me laws derived from blood, not to be virtuous through pressure of fear or criticism… Nor have I shamed you, my sweet mother Scribonia. 6.
What would you have wished changed in me except my fate? I am praised by my mother’s tears and the laments of the city, and my ashes are covered also by the grief of Caesar 7.
He is saddened because I lived as a worthy half-sister to his daughter 8, and we saw tears come from a god.
And yet, I deserved the dress of honour that is the mark of a fertile woman, nor was I snatched away from a sterile house. You, Lepidus 9, and you, Paullus 10, are my solace after death. My eyes were closed in your bosom.

We have also seen my brother 11 in the curule chair twice, and I, his sister, was snatched away in the happy time when he was consul. And, you, my daughter 12, born to be the token of your father’s censorship, be sure you imitate me and have but one husband.

And, my children, support the house with a line.
I am ready for the boat of death to sail, now that I have so many who will prolong my deeds. This is the highest reward of a woman, her triumph, that common talk praises her in death after a life well lived. And now to you, Paullus, I comment our children, our mutual pledges, this concern of mine still breathes, burned even into my ashes. Father, play the part of a mother’s role; the host of all my children must be the burden of your shoulders. When you kiss them as they weep, add the kisses of their mother. The whole house has begun to be your burden now. And if you are going to weep, do it far away from their eyes. When they come, cheat their kisses with dry cheeks…

Propertius. Elegies. Book IV, no.XI. (Abridged)

Notes:
1.Lucius Aemilius Paullus Lepidus, consul in 34 B.C. and censor in 22 B.C.
Paullus, married again with Marcella the Younger, who was a widow since 12 B.C., and the daughter of C. Claudius Marcellus, consul 50 B.C., and of Octavia the Younger, sister of Augustus.

2. The Fates: The Three Goddesses, The Parcae, The Three Sisters.
The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin,
measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread.
Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.

3. Cornelia, born about 50-46 B.C., died in 16 B.C., her father was P.Cornelius
Scipio, consulsuffectus in 35 B.C. Cornelia was the second wife of Paullus Aemilius Lepidus, the censor.

4.The victory of P.Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus (An ancestor of Cornelia) over
Numantia in Spain in 133 B.C.

5. Libones: The ancestors of Cornelia, a branch of the Scribonii, the senatorial family.

6. Scribonia, the mother of Cornelia, who later married to Augustus and bore him his only child, Julia. When Julia was banished in A.D.2, Scribonia voluntarily stayed with her until Julia’s death in A.D.16.

7.Augustus: Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew C.Octavius, whom he adopted as his son.

8. Julia, daughter of Augustus and Scribonia, half-sister of Cornelia.

9.M.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 6. Born 30/29 B.C., died A.D.33.(Tac.ann.VI.27,4)

10. L.Aemilius Lepidus, consul 1. Born about 28 B.C., died A.D.13/14.

11.Publius Cornelius Scipio, brother of Cornelia, consul in 16 B.C.

12. Aemilia Lepida, born in 22 B.C. Nothing else is known about her.

Fulvia, wife of Marcus Antonius

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Fulvia, the daughter of M.Fulvius Bambalio and Sempronia Tuditani filia, played a significant and deliberate political motivated role in events particularly during the consulship (44 B.C.) of her husband Marcus Antonius and his brother Lucius Antonius’ struggle against C. Octavianus in the Perusine War (41-40 B.C.)

Fulvia, described by Octavianus’ mendacious and gross propaganda as domineering, jealous, impatient and war-mongering, appears to have been one of those high-spirited very influential and powerful Roman matrons like Servilia, the mother of M.Brutus and Caesar’s mistress.

(Quoting Syme’s rehabilitation: “Octavianus exaggerated the role of Fulvia at the time and later, putting her person and her acts in a hateful light; and there was nobody afterwards, from piety or even from perversity, to redeem her memory.”)

These formidable Roman ladies commanded political influence in their own right.
But however formidable a lady, Fulvia’s ability to act in political affairs was – due to the male-dominated political society - limited to influencing the men around her, more specifically her husbands. All three had active political careers, appear to have been rather close friends, and all three had supported Julius Caesar.

Fulvia married thrice, the first time c. 62-60 to P.Clodius Pulcher, tribune of the plebs in 58 B.C. whom she bore two children:
1.P.Clodius P.f.Ap.n.Ap.pron.Pulcher, quaestor, praetor, augur, and
2.Clodia, who married C.Octavianus in 42, their marriage never
seems to have been consumated and ended in a divorce in 41.

Clodius got killed near Bovillae in January 52 B.C. during a skirmish with adherents of his political enemy Milo.

Her second husband, whom she married at least late in 52, was C.Scribonius Curio, trib.plebis 50 B.C. In an attempt to conquer Africa for Caesar he got killed by the forces of king Juba during the battle in the valley of Bagradas near Carthage in 49, and once again she became a widow. Their son C.Scribonius Curio was executed by order of Octavianus after the battle of Actium (31 B.C.)

Marriage number three was in 46 B.C. to Marcus Antonius, III vir.r.p.c.
Out of this marriage were born the ill fated Antonius Antyllus and Iullus Antonius.
Antyllus, born in February/March 44 B.C. was strangled by order of Octavianus at Alexandria in 30 B.C.

Iullus, born in 42, married Marcella maior, daughter of C.Claudius Marcellus, consul in 50 B.C. and of Octavia minor, younger sister of Octavianus, the future Augustus.

Iullus was charged of having an adulterous affair with Julia, Augustus’ daughter, and executed in A.D.2. The real reason was more likely because of a conspiracy against Augustus’ rule.

Fulvia died in the 2e half of 40 B.C. at Cisyon in Macedonia, where she had fled to after the fall of Perusia in the spring of 40 B.C.

Nowhere in the ancient sources is a hint given of her age at anytime. However, contrary to the husband no variation attends upon the marriage age of the bride under the Republic or the Empire, fourteen or fifteen can be taken for normal in the upper order. While instances occur of twelve or thirteen, anything over sixteen will be regarded as exceptional.
Her first marriage was in c.62-60 which would make her date of birth c.75 B.C.,
thus she would have been about 35 when she died.

She seems to have been the last of the Fulvii and the Sempronii Tuditani, both families of very old plebeian nobility who, as so many other noble families, were dying out by the end of the Republic.

Sappho: Ode to a loved one.

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LEST as the immortal gods is he,
The youth who fondly sits by thee,
And hears and sees thee, all the while,
Softly speaks and sweetly smile.

'Twas this deprived my soul of rest,
And raised such tumults in my breast;
For, while I gazed, in transport tossed,
My breath was gone, my voice was lost;

My bosom glowed; the subtle flame
Ran quick through all my vital frame;
O'er my dim eyes a darkness hung;
My ears with hollow murmurs rung;

In dewy damps my limbs were chilled;
My blood with gentle horrors thrilled:
My feeble pulse forgot to play;
I fainted, sunk, and died away.

Sappho, from Lesbos, Greece. b.615- d.around 550 B.C.
English translation by Ambrose Philips,1893

Macrobius: Anecdotes about the Emperor Augustus

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Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius was a Roman grammarian and neoplatonic philosopher during the reign of Honorius and Arcadius (395-423)

The most important of his works is the Saturnalia, containing an account of the discussions held at the house of Vettius Agorius Praetextatus (praetorian prefect from May 21 - Sept. 9, A.D. 384) during the holiday of the Saturnalia starting on December 17. It was written by the author for the benefit of his son Eustathius (or Eustachius)

In his second book, chapter four, Macrobius relates a number of anecdotes concerning the Roman Emperor Augustus:

I.Augustus replied to a prefect of cavalry who had been relieved of his command but nevertheless claimed a pension, saying that he made the request not for the sake of the money but that it might be thought that he had resigned his commission and had been adjudged worthy of the gift by the emperor, Augustus retorted:
” Tell everybody that you have had it. I shall not deny that I gave it.”

II.To an ugly hunchback named Galba, who was pleading in court before him and kept on saying:” If you have any fault to find, correct me,” he said:” I can offer you advice, but I certainly can’t correct you.”

III. A certain Vettius had ploughed up a memorial to his father, whereupon Augustus remarked:” This is indeed cultivating your father’s memory.”

IV. As a young man he neatly made fun of one Vatinius who had become crippled by gout but nevertheless wished it to be thought that he had got rid of the complaint. The man was boasting that he could walk a mile, “ I can well believe it,” said Augustus, “ the days are getting somewhat longer.”

V. An unkind quip made by a man from one of the provinces is well known. In appearance he closely resembled the emperor, and on his coming to Rome the likeness attracted general attention. Augustus sent for him and on seeing him said:
” Tell me, young man, was your mother ever in Rome?” “No”, replied the other and, not content to leave it at that, added:” But my father was- often.”

VI. During the triumvirate Augustus wrote some lampoons on Pollio, but Pollio only observed:” For my part I am saying nothing in reply; for it is asking for trouble to write against a man who can write you off.”

VII.As censor, too, Augustus showed a remarkable tolerance, which won him high praise. A Roman knight was being reprimanded by him on the ground that he had squandered his property but was able to show publicly that he had in fact increased it. The next charge brought against him was failure to comply with the marriage laws. To this he replied that he had a wife and three children and then added: ” I suggest, Sire, that in future, when you have occasion to inquire into the affairs of respectable persons, the inquiry be entrusted to respectable persons.”

P.Lentulus P.f.Spinther

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P.Cornelius P.f.P.n.Lentulus Spinther, born about 73-72 B.C. was the son of P.Cornelius Spinther, consul 57 B.C.

In 57 he received the toga virilis, was coopted into the college of augures, and adopted into the gens of the Manlii Torquati but never used that name.

Probably in about 53 B.C. he married Caecilia Metella, daughter of Q.Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul 60 B.C. and of the notorious Clodia, daughter of Ap.Claudius Pulcher, consul 79 B.C.

No doubt he accompanied his father to Greece in 49, but he was back in Italy in the summer of 45 where he divorced his wife on account of her adulterous affair with P.Dolabella. An affair which to Cicero’s fury - whose daughter had been married to Dolabella until 46 - had started in at least 47 B.C.

Approving Caesar’s murder, in which he falsely claimed to have taken part, he went to the East in 43 as quaestor to C.Trebonius, the proconsul of Asia 44-43 B.C., and after his chief’s murder at Smyrna (Izmir) in January 43 by P.Cornelius Dolabella, proconsul of Syria, he took over the administration of the province as pro quaestor pro praetore. During the years 43 and 42 he served under Cassius against Rhodes and was in command of Myra in Lycia under Brutus.

He seems to have been put to death after the battle of Philippi by Marcus Antonius and Octavianus in Oct./Nov. 42 B.C., probably because of his claiming a part in the murder of Caesar.

(Cicero’s letters: XI.13; XII.52,2; Appian B.C.II.119; Plut.Caes.67; for Metella XI.23, for her parents, ad Att.V.412-13, for her divorce, Horace, Sat.II.3.239)

His own reports of his activities in the Aegean area survive in letters to Cicero and to the Senate (ad Fam.XII.14, 15)

A short introductionary note

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Catullus’ lyric poems have been translated in
English by many, but few, if any, have done
it so lovingly and ably, and have been so
successful in keeping the essence of the original
latin verse as the late J.A.B. Harrisson MBE, DSC.

To honour the man and his labour of love I have thought it appropriate to start
the New Year with some of his translations of Catullus’ poems to Lesbia, his love.
I wish you well dear reader and hope that they will warm your heart and soul
in these cold, chilly, days!

Lesbia, or, to call her by her real name, Clodia - Catullus chose the name Lesbia for her because of his admiration for Sappho the great poetess of Lesbos - was one of the three sisters of P.Clodius Pulcher, tribune of the plebs, the sworn enemy of Cicero who, in his letters to Atticus, refers to her in a not uncomplementary way in Greek as Boôpis, 'The Cow Eyed'; after the Goddess Hera in Homer’s Illiad.

The notorious mistress of Catullus was probably the one wed to and since 59 widow of Q.Caecilius Metellus Celer, consul 60 B.C.

After breaking up with Catullus, who was never blind to his love's failings, and snidely speaks of her, she had an affair with M.Caelius Rufus which lasted for about two years, after which she accused him in 56 of attempted poisoning.
Since the summer of 56 she had an affair with L. Gellius Poplicola, consul 36 B.C., and halfbrother of the famous Messalla Corvinus. This affair with Catullus’ “friend” lasted till winter 55/54 B.C.
She was called Quadrantaria, ‘Lady Farthing’ by Caelius Rufus after the smallest copper coin, because one of her lovers had deceived her by putting copper money instead of silver into a purse and sending it to her.

This amoral and abandoned woman has - some people might say undeservedly become immortal, made so in Catullus' immortal verses, which are among the most beautiful love-poems in existence. In language as direct as it is exquisite he lays bare his heart, revealing his utter infatuation and his joy in it; his doubts and fears; his revolts against the tyranny of love; the quarrels; the reconciliations and the final rupture.

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V. THE LOVERS' CREED

Lesbia, let us love and live,
While the greybeards shake their fingers!
Not a penny will we give
For their talk while life still lingers.

Suns may set and suns may rise,
But, as soon as we are bidden,
We must close in sleep our eyes
For ever, and our light be hidden.

Kiss me then a thousand times
Give me yet a hundred kisses
Kiss, until the number climbs,
And till one or other misses!

Then, when all the kissing's done,
Lest some jealous fellow see it,
We'll destroy the tally run,
Set the number loose, and free it!

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VII. HOW MANY KISSES?

Lesbia, you often ask
How many kisses, light as air,
Lovely, tender little kisses
Are sufficient and to spare.

As many as the sands afar
Between the oracle of Jove
And Battus' tomb in Libya:
As many as the stars above.

Which, when the peace of even falls,
Behold the secret loves of men,
For mad Catullus are enough
As many kisses and again.

Which Peeping Thomas may not count,
So swiftly do they flutter by,
And lying tongues, which seek to harm,
Though jealous, may not falsify!

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XLIII. AN UNFLATTERING PORTRAIT

My service to you, lady ! Why, your nose is far from small;
Your feet are hardly graceful, and your eyes aren't black at all,
Your fingers do not taper and your lips are never dry,
And I never heard such language, heaven smite me if I lie!

So you, a bankrupt's light o'love, are thought as chaste and fair
As is my lady Lesbia, whose charm's beyond compare!
That's what they think in far Provence? It makes it clear to me
What tasteless, senseless, witless fools the people there must be!

Poor Catullus! Cease your madness!
Realise that love is dead.
Once your days were gay with gladness
As you followed where she led.

Never will another lady
Know such great abiding love:
In those gardens, cool and shady,
With the bright blue sky above.

Did you voice your burning passion
As you whiled the hours away,
And your lady, in her fashion,
Lured you on, nor said you nay?

Now, her lovely self denying,
Cease to seek her, cease to mourn;
Turn your thought away from dying,
Slave of passion, all forlorn!

Be courageous in your sorrow.
Bear your loss with constant mind.
Haply you will meet to-morrow
Someone else as sweet and kind.

Farewell, Lady! Now your poet,
Strong once more, resumes his task.
He'll not seek you; now you know it,
Nor your languid favours ask!

Some day you'll be sad and lonely -
What remains in life for you?
None will think you lovely - only
Fear the things they know you do.

Who would take the love you offer?
No man's mistress will you be!
And, Catullus, though she proffer
Peace, stand firm in enmity!

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LI. A LOVE-LETTER

He seems to me to be akin to God -
Greater than God indeed, if such may be,
Who, sitting always at thy side may hear,
And ever and again may look at thee.
The music of thy laughter! All my mind
Is ravished, Lesbia! Nought of me is left
Do I but look at thee! My limbs aflame
With films of fire, my very tongue bereft
Of speech; my ears ring with strange melodies,
Not of this earth, nor yet of azure skies,
And night, dark night, with double gloom descends,
And closes swiftly o'er my dazzled eyes!

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LXX. AN EPIGRAM

My girl-friend says there's nobody
That she would rather wed
Than me, though Jupiter himself
Came panting to her bed.

That's what she says, but certain 'tis
Avowals of Eve's daughters
Should written be upon the wind,
Or swiftly flowing waters!

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LXXII. TO LESBIA, IN DOUBT

You used to say, oh, long ago!
The only man you wished to know
Was your Catullus; that your grace
Would never yield to Jove's embrace.
I loved you then, not as a lover,
But as a parent may discover
Love for his sons or sons-in-law;
I now know what in times before
I did not know. My passion's flame
Flares up more wildly. All the same,
You poor, deluded, worthless thing,
Of you I cannot help but sing!
And why? Such treatment fans the fire
Of passion, but it chills desire!

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LXXV. THE PRICE OF TREACHERY

There's none, my Lesbia, can say
That she was ever loved so well
As you have been from day to day
By me, and truly I can tell
Not so much faith was manifest
In any compact ever signed
As in the love that fills my breast:
Yet to this pass you bring my mind
With thinking of your treachery
That in devotion it is lost,
Though bedded in uncertainty,
A wandering vessel, tempest-tossed.
I neither like you now, though you
Should faultless be - Oh! gods above!
Do as you please - nor, it is true,
Can I desist from hopeless love!

2010-01-01T11:09:00.002+01:00

LXXVI. A DEAD DESIRE

I suppose it must be true that man takes pleasure
Remembering good deeds that he has done,
Considering his conduct as a treasure -
No promise broken - not a single one -
No god's commandment to him ever broken.
No fellow-man deceived in any fashion;
For you, Catullus, yet is many a token
Of pleasure from your ill-requited passion.
For all the kindness man can show to any
In word or deed, that you have done, I find:
Your kindly words and deeds have been so many -
Yet vainly lavished on a thankless mind,
Why not desist from further bitter scourging
Yourself? Resolve to banish all delusion;
Cease to be sad, defying heaven's urging;
Withdraw yourself completely from illusion.
Ah yes! it's hard, I know, the sudden parting
From one whose voice like bells of heaven sings,
But you must do so. Come now, let's be starting -
Work out how you may best accomplish things.
For your own safety's sake you have to do it -
Impossible or not, it must be done:
O gods above! Have pity! Help me through it
From bitter start to when the goal is won!
Preserve me from this plague, this desolation
(If you consider that my life's been pure
Enough). Oh, save me from a situation
That rots me from within, and now, for sure,
Drives from my heart all trace of former gladness.
No longer do I seek her love. Indeed
Her chastity or otherwise no sadness
Brings to me now. No longer do I heed!
Heal me, O gods above, from this abhorrent
Distemper. Let my virtues be rewarded
Let healing grace flow o'er me in a torrent,
And peace of mind at long last be afforded!

2010-01-01T11:02:00.001+01:00

LXXXIII. CONSOLATION

Lesbia, when her husband's present,
Utters comments most unpleasant,
And this to him, poor fool, is sheer delight.
You senseless idiot! lf she
Had totally forgotten me,
Then you could say for sure that she's alright:
But now, because she snarls and curses,
I'm on her mind, but what's much worse is
Her attitude! it's one of ceaseless ire -
And so the more that Lesbia natters
At me, the less to me it matters -
For where there's talk there's thought, which breeds desire.

2010-01-01T10:56:00.001+01:00

LXXXVII. MY TRUE LOVE HAS MY HEART

There's none can say that she was ever loved.
(At least, with truth) as you've been loved by me.
I tell you, Lesbia, there never was
In any bond so great a loyalty
As that which I'd the fortune to discover
When first I had the luck to be your lover!

2010-01-01T10:49:00.001+01:00

XCII. TIT FOR TAT

Lesbia's always sounding off -
She never can keep quiet!
I suppose it means she loves me:
To prove the point, I'll try it!
For her I'll have no word that's kind,
Though I love her just as much I'll find!

2010-01-01T10:36:00.001+01:00

CIX. THE PROMISE

Sweetheart, you promise that our love shall be
A thing of beauty and a joy for ever.
Oh, may the gods grant this was honestly
Your purpose - that the bond be broken never,
And that we two be bound for ever Though I love her just as much I'll find! fast
In bonds of love so long as life shall last.

The 'Ara Pacis Augustae'

2009-12-01T15:44:00.001+01:00

The ‘Ara Pacis Augustae’ (Peace Altar of August), built to commemorate Augustus’ victorious return from Spain and Gaul, stood in antiquity on the Via Flaminia (now the Via del Corso) under what is now the Palazzo Fiano on the corner of the Via in Lucina. Since 2006 the Ara is housed in an airy glass-and-concrete building beside the Tiber; the Museo dell'Ara Pacis, Lungotevere Augusta, Rome.

The lavish sculptural decoration of the Ara Pacis is among the finest examples of Roman art; reliefs representing the ceremonial procession at the altar's dedication are the first in Western art that can strictly be called documentary. The faces are no mere conventional masks, idealized beyond recognition. These are portraits from life and they still retain their freshness showing identifiable individuals in a contemporary event.

Augustus, in his ‘Res Gestae’ (My Deeds), written during the last years of his life says:
“On my return from Spain and Gaul in the consulship of Tiberius Nero and Publius Quintilius [13 BC] after successfully arranging affairs in those provinces, the senate resolved that an altar of the Augustan Peace should be consecrated next to the Campus Martius in honour of my return, and ordered that the magistrates and priests and Vestal virgins should perform an annual sacrifice there.”

The decree of the Senate authorizing the foundation of the Ara Pacis Augustae was passed on July 4, 13 B.C., and it was consecrated on the 30th of January 9 B.C.

(Ovid's Fasti, Book I, 709�722)

Gather the roses in the morning

2009-12-01T14:27:00.001+01:00

Ah, what sorts of roses have I seen bloom in the morning!
They were still being born and the age was not equal for all.
The first covering was leading clusters of berries shaped like buds,
the next lifted crimson peaks from a projecting stone,
the third had now revealed a whole circle of flower baskets,
the fourth likewise shined with the bud of a new flower.
While one lifts its head and the other unties a knot,
thus, while virgin modesty is unwrapped with clothing,
gather the roses in the morning lest they die:
quickly does a maiden grow old.

Annaeus Florus, XI

Pliny the Younger

2009-12-01T14:17:00.001+01:00

C.Plinius L.f.Ouf. Caecilius Secundus, born in Comum (Como, Italy) in A.D. 61 or 62, was the son of L.Caecilius C.f.Secundus, praefectus fabrum, and of a Plinia.

Plinius, better known as Pliny the Younger, was the adoptive-son of C.Plinius, praefectus classis, uncle on his mother’s side.

His father died at an early age before A.D.76; Pliny the Elder, writer of the encyclopaedical Naturalis Historia, helped raise and educate him and they were both witnesses to the eruption of Vesuvius on August 24, 79, the day of the elder's death.

After the death of Pliny the Elder the famous L.Verginius Rufus, of Mediolanum (Milan), consul III in 97, who had suppressed the revolt of Julius Vindex and refused the Imperial power, was appointed as guardian to Pliny the Younger, helped by two more consulars, Julius Frontinus, curator aquarum, and Corellius Rufus, cossuff.78, all family friends.

His career is rather normal:
Decemvir stlitibus iudicandis (presiding in the Centumviral Court, where he was to spend a great part of his public life)
Early in Domitian’s reign (82/83) he served as tribunus militum in the legion III Gallica in Syria under the leg. Aug. T.Atilius Rufus.
Quaestor Augusti 87 (89?) (these were regularly chosen (elected without contest) from the candidati Caesaris)
Tribunus plebis 91. Praetor 93 (in this year he first took part in a public prosecution, acting with Herennius Senecio for the people of Baetica when they successfully accused Baebius Massa of extortion)
Praefectus aerarium militare ca. 94-96.
Praef. aerarium Saturni 97-99 (the Chest and Record Office of the senatorial administration, appointed before the death of Nerva, and was continued in office by Trajan)
Consulsuffectus Sept.- Oct.100. Augur 103 or 104 (instead of Julius Frontinus;
Plinius was already flamen divi Titi at Vercellae)
Curator alvei Tiberis et riparum et cloacarum urbis 104-106 ? (consular curator of the Tiber banks and the city sewers)
Legatus Augusti pro praetore consulari potestate Bithynia and Pontus from Sept.110 or 111 till Febr. 112 or 113.
(Title is sign of transition from senatorial to imperial rule)

His first wife is unknown.
His second marriage was to the daughter of Pompeia Celerina (Celerina’s husband is unknown; Celerina – to whom Pliny gave his house in Alsium left to him by Verginius Rufus - was the daughter of L.Pompeius Vopiscus C.Catellius Celer, cossuff. 77)

Plinius wife died in 96 or 97.

Married 3. in ca.100-102 with Calpurnia, daughter of Calpurnius, son of L. Calpurnius Fabatus. eques from Comum, who had also a daughter, Calpurnia Hispulla, aunt of Plinius’ third wife.

Plinius is known for his hundreds of surviving letters which, carefully composed and arranged in a non chronological order as they are, miss the spontanious outspokenness of Cicero’s letters, but they are an invaluable historical source for the period. The first nine books contain 247 personal letters, the tenth book his official correspondence with Trajan (or his ab epistulis) from Bithynia. Also preserved is his Panegyricus, an in accordance with tradition thanksgiving and praising of Trajan for granting him the consulship.

Plinius was the somewhat condescending benefactor of the historian Suetonius for whom he arranged a small estate at a reasonable price.

Pliny the Younger probably died in A.D.112 or 113 in Bithynia, being the time that his correspondence with the Emperor Trajan suddenly stopped.

Tacitus, Rome’s greatest historian, spoke an eulogy on the occasion of his friends death.

He is more than a hero

2009-12-01T14:01:00.001+01:00

He is more than a hero
he is a god in my eyes—
the man who is allowed
to sit beside you — he

who listens intimately
to the sweet murmur of
your voice, the enticing

laughter that makes my own
heart beat fast. If I meet
you suddenly, I can't

speak — my tongue is broken;
a thin flame runs under
my skin; seeing nothing,

hearing only my own ears
drumming, I drip with sweat;
trembling shakes my body

and I turn paler than
dry grass. At such times
death isn't far from me.

(Sappho, from Lesbos, Greece, b. 615- d.around 550 B.C.)

Titus Pomponius Atticus

2009-12-01T13:46:00.002+01:00

Titus Pomponius Atticus, born in 109 B.C., lost his father in 88 or earlier,
but not later than the autumn of 86 B.C.

In 58 B.C. he became by way of a testamentary adoption son and heir to Q.Caecilius, an uncle on his mother’s side, making his official designation, Q.Caecilius Pomponianus Attica.

“L.Lucullus (Ponticus), who married Servilia’s sister was not only the friend and benefactor but also the prospective heir of Atticus’ uncle Caecilius. History does not tell Lucullus reactions to the scandalous discovery in 58 that Caecilius had in fact left his millions (ca. 10 mill.) and name to his nephew instead of to his noble patron. Public reprobation of Caecilius’ duplicity was such that they dragged his body through the streets.” (Valerius Max. VII.8, 5)

On December 2th, 56 B.C. Atticus wedded a certain young lady named Pilia, who bore him in 51 a daughter, Caecilia Attica.

In 47 Atticus published his Annali containing the names of every curule magistrate of each year, the laws, peace treaties, wars, and the genealogies of famous countrymen. On request of Marcus Brutus he wrote a genealogy on the Junii Bruti including their magistracies and dates. On request of Claudius Marcellus he did the same for the Marcelli, ditto for Cornelius Scipio (Scipio Africanus minor, an Aemili by birth), Fabius Maximus and the Aemilii.

He was the life-long friend, and publisher of Cicero’s volumeminous work. Of their correspondency during many years only Cicero’s letters have come down to us, thanks to his secretary and freedman, Tiro.

When his friend was murdered in 43 by the triumviri he obviously bore no hard feelings toward those responsible for his friend’s death for he remained on friendly terms with his murderers for the rest of his life. So much so that in about 37 he gave his daughter in wedlock to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa: friend, general, consul, future son-in-law, co-ruler and designated successor of Augustus.

In 42, when Atticus was 67, his mother died at the age of 90 years, which should make her date of birth about 132 B.C.

Atticus’ adagium was: Tranquillitati serviebat (peace of mind).
During the Civil Wars and all the political feuds he stayed strictly neutral in each and every conflict and from time to time subsidized both sides indiscriminately.
He had however through his large fortune and many connections great indirect influence.

Atticus owned a house on the Quirinalis built by Tamphilus, which was left to him by his uncle. Furthermore, since 68, an estate in Epirus near Buthrotum on the coast opposite Corfu. Also properties at Arretium and Nomentum.

Atticus died on March 31th, 32 B.C., three months after his 77th birthday.
Attended on his deathbed were his son-in-law Agrippa, L.Cornelius Balbus, and Sex.Peducaeus.

He was buried in the tomb of his uncle on mothers
side, Q.Caecilius, on the Via Appia
near the 5e mile stone.

Discovery of Imperial insignia

2009-11-07T16:09:00.007+01:00

In December 2006 archeologists under direttore Clementina Panella, archeologist at the University of La Sapienza in Rome, made the find of their life.

During excavations on the North-eastern slope of the Palatine Hill they discovered in an underground storage space the remains of an antique wooden chest.

In it they found among other things: Imperial Roman standards (signa imperii), three sceptres; the most important find was a scepter of a flower holding a blue-green globe, which is believed to have belonged to the Emperor Maxentius himself because of its intricate worksmanship, metal javelin heads (pilum), two perfectly round spheres of gold and green coloured glass and one sphere made of azure-blue chalcedon.

These objects are on unkown grounds ascribed to Maxentius’ reign (306-312), and are supposed to have been hastily hidden there on the eve of the battle of Milvian Bridge on October 28th 312 in which Constantine (the Great) defeated Maxentius.

These extraordinary finds are now on display in the Museo Nazionale Romano at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome.

C. Asinius Pollio, poet, orator, and historian

2009-11-01T12:04:00.006+01:00

C.Asinius Cn.f.Pollio the noted orator, poet, critic, and historian, was born in 76 B.C. and died in Tusculum in A.D.5.
He was the grandson of Herius Asinius of Teate, praetor of the Marrucini.

He had joined Caesar, and was with him when he crossed the Rubicon in January 49
(Julian calendar Nov.22, 50 B.C.), possibly as one of his legates. He then went to Africa with Curio, after whose defeat and death he crossed over to Greece, and fought on Caesar’s side at Pharsalus (48). In 47 he was chosen as one of the tribunes of the people. Having accompanied Caesar as legate in his African and Spanish campaigns (46-45), he returned with him to Rome.
As praetor 45 he was sent back as governor of Further Spain to resist Sex.Pompeius, and was there when Caesar was assassinated in 44.
When Lepidus and Octavian joined Antonius in 43, Pollio joined them. Antonius gave him the administration of Gallia Transpadane for the years 42-41, it was then that Pollio saved from confiscation the property of the poet Virgil.
In 40 Pollio became consul and assisted in the reconciliation between Antonius and young Caesar at Brundisium in September 40.
Both consuls abdicated shortly afterwards.Towards the end of the year or early in 39 he was sent by Antonius as proconsul to Macedonia to fight the Parthini, an Illyrian people, whom he defeated, and was rewarded with a triumph. The rest of his life he devoted to literature, and died at his Tusculan villa in AD 5, at the age of 80/81.

The good life

2009-11-01T11:46:00.005+01:00

These, my dearest Martialis, are
the things that bring a happy life:
wealth left to you, not laboured for;
rich land, an ever-glowing hearth;
no law, light business, and a quiet mind;
a healthy body, gentlemanly powers;
a wise simplicity, friends not unlike;
good company, a table without art;
nights carefree, yet no drunkenness;
a bed that’s modest, true, and yet not cold;
sleep that makes the hours of darkness brief:
the need to be yourself, and nothing more;
not fearing your last day, not wishing it.

Martialis. Book X:47.

Suet.divus Iulius 50.

2009-11-01T11:20:00.003+01:00

When Caesar was selling by auction the property of certain citizens, Servilia, (the mother of Marcus Brutus) bought a valuable estate quite cheaply and so became the victim of a jest of Cicero’s, who said: ” Of course you will the better understand Servilia’s bargain if you realize that a third was knocked off the purchase price of the estate” (tertia deducta).

Note.
Servilia had a daughter, Junia Tertia (the wife of C.Cassius), whose favours- as well as her mother’s - the dictator was then, according to malicious gossip, enjoying.
The play upon the two meanings of deducere –“to deduct” and “to conduct a bride to her husband” can hardly be kept in English.

Seneca Maior Controversiae 2,4,11

2009-10-26T19:41:00.003+01:00

Cassius Severus, an able orator, resembling a gladiator in appearance, was hated and feared for his bitter tongue.
Seneca Maior in his Controversiae 2,4,11 tells of a rather virulent remark of Cassius who defined the character and capacity of Paullus Fabius Maximus(a powerful aristocrat with connextions in the highest possible circle),
Cassius said:“ quasi disertus es, quasi formosus es, quasi dives es:unum tantum es non quasi, vappa"
(" You are eloquent in a way, handsome in a way, loaded in a way;and a villain in every way”)

(For this, and many other verbal attacks on men in powerful positions, among whom even Augustus himself, Cassius was prosecuted, condemned, and banished to the island of Crete, (possibly in A.D.12?) but he remained a nuisance to the regime and after twelve years they removed him to the barren rock Seriphus in the Aegian Sea where he lived and died in misery)
(Tacitus, Ann. 1,72, 4,21; Dio, 56.27,1; Suet.Vitellius, 2,1, Augustus 56 ect.)

Of the lineage and names of the Porcian family.

2009-10-26T19:36:00.002+01:00

When Sulpicius Apollinaris and I, with some others who were friends of his or mine, were sitting in the library of the Palace of Tiberius, it chanced that a book was brought to us bearing the name of Marcus Cato Nepos. We at once began to inquire who this Marcus Cato Nepos was. And thereupon a young man, not unacquainted with letters, so far as I could judge from his language, said: "This Marcus Cato is called Nepos, not as a surname, but because he was the grandson of Marcus Cato Censorius through his son, and father of Marcus Cato the ex-praetor, who slew himself with his own sword at Utica during the civil war. There is a book of Marcus Cicero's about the life of the last-named, entitled Laus Catonis, or A Eulogy of Cato, in which Cicero says 65 that he was the great-grandson of Marcus Cato Censorius. Therefore the father of the man whom Cicero eulogized was this Marcus Cato, whose orations are circulated under the name of Marcus Cato Nepos."
Then Apollinaris, very quietly and mildly, as was passing his custom when passing criticism, said: "I congratulate you, my son, that at your age you have been able to favour us with a little lecture on the family of Cato, even though you do not know who this Marcus Cato was, about whom we are now inquiring. For the famous Marcus Cato Censorius had not one, but several grandsons, although not all were sprung from the same father. For the famous Marcus Cato, who was both an orator and p465a censor, had two sons, born of different mothers and of very different ages; since, when one of them was a young man, his mother died and his father, who was already well on in years, married the maiden daughter of his client Salonius, from whom was born to him Marcus Cato Salonianus, a surname which he derived from Salonius, his mother's father. But from Cato's elder son, who died when praetor-elect, while his father was still living, and left some admirable works on The Science of Law, there was born the man about whom we are inquiring, Marcus Cato, son of Marcus, and grandson of Marcus. He was an orator of some power and left many speeches written in the manner of his grandfather; he was consul with Quintus Marcius Rex, and during his consulship went to Africa and died in that province.
But he was not, as you said he was, the father of Marcus Cato the ex-praetor, who killed himself at Utica and whom Cicero eulogized; nor because he was the grandson of Cato the censor and Cato of Utica was the censor's great-grandson does it necessarily follow that the former was the father of the latter. For this grandson whose speech was just brought to us did, it is true, have a son called Marcus Cato, but he was not the Cato who died at Utica, but the one who, after being curule aedile and praetor, went to Gallia Narbonensis and there ended his life. But by that other son of Censorius, a far younger man, who, as I said, was surnamed Salonianus, two sons were begotten: Lucius and Marcus Cato. That Marcus Cato was tribune of the commons and died when a candidate for the praetorship; he begot Marcus Cato the ex-praetor, who committed suicide at Utica during the civil war, and when Marcus Tullius wrote the latter's life and panegyric he said that he was the great-grandson of Cato the censor. You see therefore that the branch of the family which is descended from Cato's younger son differs not only in its pedigree, but in its dates as well; for because that Salonianus was born near the end of his father's life, as I said, his descendants were considerably later than those of his elder brother. This difference in dates you will readily perceive from that speech itself, when you read it."
Thus spoke Sulpicius Apollinaris in my hearing. Later we found that what he had said was so, when we read the Funeral Eulogies and the Genealogy of the Porcian Family.

Attic Nights, by Aulus Gellius. Book XIII. 20

Lesbia

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Doors open wide, unguarded, when you sin
Lesbia, you don’t conceal your tricks,
you like a watcher better than a lover
you’re not thankful for obscure delights.
Whores conversely don’t want witnesses,
curtains, bolts, no cracks, reveal the brothels.
At least you might learn modesty from them,
the foulest find a place behind the tombs.
Do you really think that what I say’s too harsh?
I don’t say don’t fuck, Lesbia: don’t be seen.

Martialis, book I:34.

I have seen Lollia Paulina

2009-10-26T19:20:00.004+01:00

I have seen Lollia Paulina, the wife of the Emperor Caius1 - it was not at any public festival, or any solemn ceremonial, but only at an ordinary wedding entertainment - covered with emeralds and pearls, which shone in alternate layers upon her head, in her hair, in her wreaths, in her ears, upon her neck, in her bracelets, and on her fingers, the value of which amounted in all to forty millions of sesterces; indeed she was prepared at once to prove the fact by showing the receipts and acquittances.
Nor were these any presents made by a prodigal potentate, but treasures which had descended to her from her grandfather, and obtained by the spoliation of the provinces. Such are the fruits of plunder and extortion!
It was for this reason that M. Lollius was held so infamous all over the East for the presents which he extorted from the kings; the result of which was, that he was denied the friendship of Caius Cæsar2, and took poison; and all this was done, I say, that his grand-daughter might be seen, by the glare of lamps, covered all over with jewels to the amount of forty millions of sesterces!

Pliny maior, Nat.Hist. Book IX, Lviii, 117/118

1.Caligula, emperor 37-41 A.D.

2.Caius Caesar, elder brother of Lucius Caesar and Agrippa Posthumus, sons of Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa and Julia, daughter of Augustus.
Caius and Lucius (and eventually also Agrippa Posthumus) were adopted as his sons by their grandfather Augustus.

Erotion the slave-girl

2009-10-26T19:14:00.002+01:00

To your shades Fronto, and Flacilla, this child
I commend: she was my sweet and my delight.
Little Erotion shall not fear the darkened shades
nor the vast mouths of the Tartarean hound.
She’d have completed her sixth chill winter,
if she’d not lived a mere six days too few.
Now let her frisk and play among old friends
now let her chatter, and so lisp my name.
And let the soft turf cover her brittle bones:
earth, lie lightly on her: she lay lightly on you.

Martialis: book V:34

How the Carthaginian Hannibal jested at the expense of king Antiochus.

2009-10-26T19:10:00.002+01:00

In collections of old tales it is recorded that Hannibal the Carthaginian made a highly witty jest when at the court of king Antiochus. The jest was this: Antiochus was displaying to him on the plain the gigantic forces which he had mustered to make war on the Roman people, and was manoeuvring his army glittering with gold and silver ornaments. He also brought up chariots with scythes, elephants with turrets, and horsemen with brilliant bridles, saddle-cloths, neck-chains and trappings.
And then the king, filled with vainglory at the sight of an army so great and so well-equipped, turned to Hannibal and said: "Do you think that all this can be equalled and that it is enough for the Romans?" Then the Carthaginian, deriding the worthlessness and inefficiency of the king's troops in their costly armour, replied: "I think all this will be enough, yes, quite enough for the Romans, even though they are most avaricious.” Absolutely nothing could equal this remark for wit and sarcasm; the king had inquired about the size of his army and asked for a comparative estimate; Hannibal in his reply referred to it as booty.

Attic Nights, by Aulus Gellius. (Book V.5)

Claudian, Carmina Minora (XX)

2009-10-26T19:01:00.002+01:00

"Happy he who has passed his whole life mid his own fields, he of whose birth and old age the same house is witness....For him the recurring seasons, not the consuls, mark the year; he knows autumn by his fruits and spring by her flowers."

Letter from Marcus Antonius to Augustus

2009-09-20T12:49:00.011+02:00

"What has made such a change in you? Because I lie with the queen? She is my wife. Am I just beginning this, or was it nine years ago? What then of you — do you lie only with Drusilla? Good luck to you if when you read this letter you have not been with Tertulla or Terentilla or Rufilla or Salvia Titisenia, or all of them. Does it make any difference to me who made you horny, or when? “