The First Man in Rome

by Colleen McCullough

Arpinum A town in Latium not far from the border of Samnium, and probably originally peopled by Volsci. It was the last Latin Rights community to receive the full Roman citizenship, in 188 B.C., but it did not enjoy full municipal status in Gaius Marius’s time.

  Arx The more northern of the two humps which sit atop the Capitoline Mount of Rome.

  as The smallest in value of the coins of Rome; ten of them equaled one denarius. They were bronze. I have avoided mentioning the as in the book because of (a) its relative unimportance, and (b) its identical spelling to the English adverb, conjunction, or preposition “as”—most confusing!

  Asia Province The west coast and hinterland of what is now Turkey, from the Troad in the north to Lycia opposite Rhodes in the south. Its capital in Republican times was Pergamum.

  Assembly (Comitia) Any gathering of the Roman People convoked to deal with governmental, legislative, or electoral matters. In the time of Gaius Marius there were three true Assemblies—of the Centuries, the People, and the Plebs. The Centuriate Assembly marshaled the People in their classes, which were defined by a means test and were economic in nature. As it was originally a military assemblage, each class gathered in its centuries (which by Marius’s time numbered far in excess of one hundred men, as it had been decided to keep the number of centuries in each class to a certain value). Its Latin name was Comitia Centuriata, and it met to elect consuls, praetors, and (every five years) censors; it also met to hear trials involving a charge of treason. The other two Assemblies were tribal in nature, not economic. The Assembly of the People allowed full participation of patricians; its Latin name was Comitia Populi Tributa, and it met in the thirty-five tribes among which all Roman citizens were divided. The Assembly of the People (also called the Popular Assembly) was convoked by a consul or praetor, could formulate laws, and elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. It could also conduct trials. The Assembly of the Plebs or Plebeian Assembly was known in Latin as Comitia Plebis Tributa or Concilium Plebis. It did not allow the participation of patricians, and was convoked by a tribune of the plebs. The Plebeian Assembly had the right to enact laws (strictly, known as plebiscites), and conduct trials. It elected the plebeian aediles and the tribunes of the plebs. In no Roman Assembly could the vote of one individual be credited directly to his wants; in the Centuriate Assembly his vote was credited to his century of his class, and his century’s total vote was credited as going whatever way the majority did; in the tribal Assemblies of People and Plebs, his vote was credited to his tribe, and his tribe’s total vote was credited as going whatever way the majority of its members decided.

  Asylum A part of the saddlelike depression which divided the two humps atop the Capitoline Mount; it carried the ancient meaning of asylum—that is, a refuge where a fugitive from any form of earthly justice or retribution could dwell without fear of arrest or detention. It was established as an asylum for fugitives by Romulus himself, when he was seeking a greater number of men to live in Rome than he could find by other means.

  Athesis River The modern Adige, in Italy.

  atrium The main reception room of a Roman private house; it mostly contained a rectangular opening in the roof, below which was a pool. Originally the purpose of the pool was to provide a reservoir of water for use of the household, but by the time of Gaius Marius, the pool was usually not used in this way; it had become ornamental.

  Attalus III The last King of Pergamum, and ruler of most of the Aegean coast of western Anatolia as well as Phrygia. In 133 B.C. he died, relatively young and without heirs closer than the usual collection of cousins. His will was carried to Rome, and there it was learned Attalus had bequeathed his entire kingdom to Rome. A war followed, put down by Manius Aquillius in 129 and 128 B.C. When Aquillius set about organizing the bequest as the Roman province of Asia, he sold most of Phrygia to King Mithridates V of Pontus for a sum of gold which he put into his own purse.

  Attic helmet An ornamental helmet worn by Roman officers, usually above the rank of centurion. It is the kind of helmet commonly worn by the stars of Hollywood’s Roman epic movies—though I very much doubt any Attic helmet of Republican times was ever crested with ostrich feathers!

  Atuatuci Also known as Aduatuci. A confraternity of tribes inhabiting that part of Long-haired Gaul around the confluence of the Sabis and the Mosa, they appear to have been more German than Celt in racial origins, for they claimed kinship with the Germans called Teutones.

  auctoritas A very difficult Latin term to translate, as it means much more than the English word “authority.” It carried implications of pre-eminence, clout, leadership, public and private importance, and—above all—the ability to influence events through sheer public or personal reputation. All the magistracies possessed auctoritas as part of their nature, but auctoritas was not confined to those who held magistracies; the Princeps Senatus, Pontifex Maximus, Rex Sacrorum, consulars, and even some private individuals could also accumulate auctoritas.

  augur A priest whose duties concerned divination rather than prognostication. He and his fellow augurs constituted the College of Augurs, and numbered some twelve at the time of Gaius Marius, six patrician and six plebeian. Until the lex Domitia de sacerdotiis was passed by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus in 104 B.C., augurs had been chosen by those men already in the college; after that law, augurs had to be publicly elected. The augur did not predict the future, nor did he pursue his auguries at his own whim; he inspected the proper objects or signs to ascertain whether or not the projected undertaking was one having the approval of the gods, be the undertaking a meeting, a war, a proposed new law, or any other State business. There was virtually a manual of interpretation, so a man did not have to pretend he was psychic in order to be appointed an augur; in fact, the Roman State mistrusted men who did claim to have psychic powers, preferring to “go by the book.” The augur wore the toga trabea (see that entry) and carried a staff called the lituus.

  auxiliary A legion incorporated into a Roman army without its troops having the status of Roman citizens; a member of such a legion was also called an auxiliary, and the term extended to the cavalry arm as well. In the time of Gaius Marius, most auxiliary infantry was Italian in origin, where most auxiliary cavalry was from Gaul, Numidia, or Thrace, all lands whose soldiers rode horses, whereas the Roman soldier did not.

  ave atque vale “Hail and farewell.”

  Baetis River The modern Guadalquivir. A river in Further Spain (Hispania Ulterior). According to the geographer Strabo, the valley of the Baetis was the most fertile and productive in the world.

  Bagradas River The modern Mellegue. The most important river of the Roman African province. Baiae The small town on the bay side of Cape Misenum, the northern promontory of what is now known as the Bay of Naples. It was not fashionable as a resort during the Republic, but was famous for its beds of farmed oysters.

  baldric The belt, either slung over one shoulder and under the other arm, or worn around the waist, which held a man’s sword. The Roman gladius, a short-sword, was carried on a waist baldric, where a German long-sword needed a shoulder baldric.

  basilica, basilicae (pl.) A large building devoted to public facilities such as courts of law, and also to commercial facilities, from shops to offices. The basilica was clerestory-lit, and during the Republic was erected at the expense of some civic-minded Roman nobleman, usually of consular status. The first of the basilicae was built by Cato the Censor, was situated on the Clivus Argentarius next door to the Senate House, and was known as the Basilica Porcia; as well as accommodating banking houses, it also was the headquarters of the College of Tribunes of the Plebs. By the time of Gaius Marius, it had been joined by the Basilicae Sempronia, Aemilia, and Opimia, all on the fringes of the lower Forum Romanum.

  Belgae The fearsome confraternity of tribes inhabiting northwestern and Rhineland Gaul. Of mixed racial origins, the Belgae were probably more Germanic than Celtic; among them were the nations of the Treveri, the Atuatuci, the Cond
rusi, the Bellovaci, the Atrebates, and the Batavi. To the Romans of Gaius Marius’s time, they were legendary rather than real.

  Benacus, Lacus Modern Lake Garda, in northern Italy.

  biga A chariot drawn by two horses.

  Bithynia A kingdom flanking the Propontis on its Asian side, extending east to Paphlagonia and Galatia, south to Phrygia, and southwest to Mysia. It was fertile and prosperous, and was ruled by a series of kings of Thracian origin. Its traditional enemy was Pontus.

  Boiohaemum Bohemia. Modern Czechoslovakia.

  boni Literally, “the Good Men.” First mentioned in a play by Plautus called The Captives, the term came into political use during the days of Gaius Gracchus. He used it to describe his followers—but so also did his enemies Drusus and Opimius. It then passed gradually into general use; in the time of Cicero, the boni were those men of the Senate whose political leanings were ultra-conservative.

  Bononia Modern Bologna, in northern Italy.

  Borysthenes River The modern Dnieper, in the Ukraine.

  Brennus (1) King of the Gauls (or Celts). It was Brennus who sacked Rome and almost captured the Capitol during his siege of it, save that Juno’s sacred geese cackled until the consular Marcus Manlius awoke, found where the Gauls were climbing the cliff, and dislodged them; Rome never forgave its dogs (which hadn’t barked), and ever after honored its geese. Seeing their city reduced to smoking rubble beneath their eyes and having nothing left to eat, the defenders of the Capitol finally agreed to buy their salvation from Brennus. The price was a thousand pounds’ weight of gold. When the gold was brought to Brennus in the Forum, he had it reweighed on scales he had deliberately tampered with, then complained he was being cheated. The Romans said he was the cheat, whereupon Brennus drew his sword and threw it contemptuously onto the scales, saying, “Woe to the vanquished!” (“Vae victis!”) But before he could kill the Romans for their audacity in accusing him of cheating while they were buying their lives from him, the newly appointed dictator, Marcus Furius Camillus, appeared in the Forum with an army, and refused to allow Brennus to take the gold. In an initial battle through Rome’s streets, the Gauls were ejected from the city, and in a second battle eight miles out along the Via Tiburtina, Camillus slaughtered the invaders. For this feat (and for his speech persuading the plebeians not to quit Rome thereafter and move permanently to Veii), Camillus was called the Second Founder of Rome. Livy doesn’t say what happened to King Brennus. All this happened in 390 B.C.

  Brennus (2) A later king of the Gauls (or Celts). Leading a large Celtic confraternity of tribes, he invaded Macedonia and Thessaly in 279 B.C., turned the Greek defense at the pass of Thermopylae, and sacked Delphi, in which battle he was wounded. He then penetrated into Epirus and sacked the enormously rich oracular precinct of Zeus at Dodona, and sacked and looted the richest precinct of them all, that of Zeus at Olympia in the Peloponnese. In retreat before a determined Greek guerrilla resistance, Brennus returned to Macedonia, where he died of his old wound. Without Brennus to hold them together, the Gauls were rudderless. Some of them (the Tolistobogii, the Trocmi, and a segment of the Volcae Tectosages) crossed the Hellespont into Asia Minor, and settled in a land thereafter called Galatia. The Volcae Tectosages who did not go to Asia Minor returned to their homes around Tolosa in southwestern Gaul, bearing with them the entire loot of Brennus’s campaign, which they held in trust against the return of the rest of Brennus’s people; for the gold belonged to everyone.

  Brundisium Modern Brindisi. The most important port in southern Italy, and possessing the only good harbor on the whole Italian Adriatic coast. In 244 B.C. it became a Latin Rights colony, as Rome wished to protect its new extension of the Via Appia, from Tarentum to Brundisium.

  Burdigala Modern Bordeaux, in southwestern France. The great Gallic oppidum belonging to the Aquitani.

  Caesarean section The surgical procedure resorted to when a woman in childbirth finds it impossible to deliver her child through the pelvis. The abdomen is incised, the loops of bowel retracted, and the wall of the uterus cut open to extricate the child from within it. In this manner, so it is said, was Gaius Julius Caesar the Dictator delivered; the procedure still bears his family’s cognomen. I have chosen to ignore the story, for the reason that we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, lived to be seventy years old, and apparently enjoyed good health up until the time of her death. The history of Caesarean section in antiquity was a grim one; though the operation was occasionally resorted to, and the child sometimes saved, the mother inevitably perished. The first truly successful Caesarean section that is well recorded occurred in Pavia, Italy, in April, 1876, when Dr. Edoardo Porro removed a healthy child—and uterus—from one Julie Covallini; mother and child survived and did very well.

  Calabria Confusing for those who know modern Italy! Nowadays Calabria is the toe of the boot, but in ancient times it was the heel.

  Campania The fabulously rich and fertile basin, volcanic in origin and soil, which lay between the Apennines of Samnium and the Tuscan (Tyrrhenian) Sea, and extended from Tarracina in the north to a point just south of the modern Bay of Naples. Watered by the Liris, VolturnusICalor, Clanius, and Sarnus rivers, it grew bigger, better, and more of everything than any other region in all Italy. Early colonized by the Greeks, it fell under Etruscan domination, then affiliated itself to the Samnites, and eventually was subject to Rome. The Greek and Samnite elements in its populace made it a grudging subject, and it was always an area prone to insurrection. The towns of Capua, Teanum Sidicinum, Venafrum, Acerrae, Nola, and Interamna were important inland centers, while the ports of Puteoli, Neapolis, Herculaneum, Surrentum, and Stabiae constituted the best on Italy’s west coast. Puteoli was the largest and the busiest port in all of Italy. The Via Campana, Via Appia, and Via Latina passed through it.

  campus, campi (pl.) A plain, or flat expanse of ground.

  Campus Martius Situated to the north of the Servian Walls, the Campus Martius was bounded by the Capitol to its south and the Pincian Hill on its east; the rest of it was enclosed by a huge bend in the river Tiber. Here on the Campus Martius armies awaiting their general’s triumphs were bivouacked, military exercises and military training of the young went on, the stables for horses engaged in chariot racing were situated, assemblies of the Comitia Centuriata took place, and market gardening vied with public parklands. The Via Lata (Via Flaminia) crossed the Campus Martius on its way north.

  Cannae An Apulian town on the Aufidius River. Here in 216 B.C., Hannibal and his army of Carthaginians met a Roman army commanded by Lucius Aemilius Paullus and Gaius Terentius Varro. The Roman army was annihilated; until Arausio in 105 B.C., it ranked as Rome’s worst military disaster. Somewhere between thirty thousand and sixty thousand men died. The survivors were made to pass beneath the yoke (see that entry).

  capite censi Literally, “Head Count.” The capite censi were those full Roman citizens too poor to belong to one of the five economic classes, and so were unable to vote in the Centuriate Assembly at all. As most capite censi were urban in origin as well as in residence, they largely belonged to urban tribes, which numbered only four out of the total thirty-five tribes; this meant they had little influence in either of the tribal Assemblies, People or Plebs (see also Head Count, proletarii).

  Capitol The Mons Capitolinus, one of the seven hills of Rome, and the only one more or less limited to religious and public buildings. Though the top of the Capitol contained no private residences, by the time of Gaius Marius its lower slopes boasted some of the most expensive houses in all Rome. Gaius Marius himself lived in this location.

  Capua The most important inland town of Campania. A history of broken pledges of loyalty to Rome led to Roman reprisals which stripped Capua of its extensive and extremely valuable public lands; these became the nucleus of the ager publicus of Campania, and included, for instance, the fabulous vineyards which produced Falernian wine. By the time of Gaius Marius, Capua’s economic well-being depended
upon the many military training camps, gladiatorial schools, and slave camps for bulk prisoners which surrounded the town; the people of Capua made their living from supplying and servicing these huge institutions.

  carbunculus The precious stone ruby; the word was also applied to really red garnets.

  career A dungeon. The Tullianum’s other name was simply Career.

  Carinae One of Rome’s more exclusive addresses. The Carinae was the northern tip of the Oppian Mount on its western side; it extended between the Velia, at the top of the Forum Romanum, and the Clivus Pullius.

  Carnic Alps The name I have used to embrace that part of the alpine chain surrounding northern Italy at its eastern end, behind the coastal cities of Tergeste and Aquileia. These mountains are generally called the Julian Alps, the name Carnic Alps being reserved for the mountains of the modern Austrian Tyrol. However, I can find no evidence to suggest that some member of the family Julius of earlier date than Gaius Julius Caesar the Dictator had a mountain range named after himself, and so must assume that prior to Gaius Julius Caesar the Dictator, the Julian Alps were known by some other name. For want of ancient evidence (which is not to say it does not exist, only that I haven’t found it), I have simply extended that name Carnic Alps to cover the Julian Alps as well.

  Carnutes One of the largest and most important of the Celtic tribal confraternities of Gaul. Their lands lay along the river Liger between its confluence with the Caris and a point on about the same meridian of longitude as modern Paris. The Carnutes owed much of their pre-eminence to the fact that within their lands lay the cult centers and Gallic training schools of the Druids.

  Castor The senior of the twin gods Castor and Pollux (to the Greeks, Kastor and Polydeukes), also called the Dioscuri. Their temple, in the Forum Romanum, was imposingly large and very old, indicating that their worship in Rome went back at least to the time of the kings. They cannot therefore simply be labeled a Greek import, as was Apollo. Their special significance to Rome (and possibly why later on they came to be associated with the Lares) was probably because Romulus, the founder of Rome, was a twin.