tribune, Tribunus. An official representing the interests of a certain part of the Roman body politic. The word originally referred to those men who represented the tribes (tribus—tribunus), but, as the Republic got into stride, came to mean an official representing various institutions not directly connected with the tribes per se.
tribune, military Tribunus militum. Each of the middle officers in the chain of command of a Roman army was classified as a military tribune. The most senior was the elected tribune of the soldiers (see that entry). If the general was not also consul, and did not therefore have the consul’s legions, an unelected military tribune might command his legions. Unelected military tribunes also served as commanders of the cavalry squadrons.
tribune of the plebs This office came into being not long after the establishment of the Republic, when the Plebeian Order was at complete loggerheads with the patricians. Elected by the tribal body of plebeians formed as the Concilium Plebis, or Plebeian Assembly, the tribunes of the plebs took an oath to defend the lives and property of members of the Plebeian Order. By 450 B.C. there were ten tribunes of the plebs; by the time of Gaius Marius, these ten had proven themselves a thorn in the side of the Senate, rather than merely the patricians, even though they were by this automatically members of the Senate upon election. Because they were not elected by the Whole People (that is, by patricians as well as plebeians), they had no actual power under Rome’s largely unwritten Constitution. Their power resided in the oath the Plebeian Order took to defend the sacrosanctity—the inviolability—of its elected representatives. It was perhaps due to the tribal organization of the Plebeian Assembly that these representatives were called tribunes. The power of a tribune of the plebs lay in his right to exercise a veto against almost any aspect of government: he could veto the actions of his fellow tribunes of the plebs, or any—or all—other magistrates; he could veto the holding of an election; he could veto the passing of a law or plebiscite; and he could veto decrees of the Senate, even in war and foreign affairs. Only a dictator (and perhaps an interrex) was above the tribunician veto. Within his own Plebeian Assembly, the tribune of the plebs was truly all-powerful: he could convoke the Assembly; he could call the discussion meeting known as a contio; he could promulgate plebiscites, and even exercise the death penalty if his right to proceed was blocked. During the early and middle years of the Republic, tribunes of the plebs were not members of the Senate, even after the middle years saw them empowered to call meetings of the Senate. Then the lex Atinia of ca. 149 B.C. laid down that a man elected a tribune of the plebs was to be automatically a member of the Senate. This meant that the tribunate of the plebs became an alternative way to enter the Senate; until the lex Atinia, the censors had reigned supreme. However, though by the time of Gaius Marius the tribunate of the plebs was recognized as a true and proper magistracy, it was not given imperium, and the authority of the office did not extend beyond the first milestone. Custom had it that a man served only one term as a tribune of the plebs, entering office on the tenth day of December, and leaving it on the following December’s ninth day. But custom was not legally binding, as Gaius Gracchus proved when he sought and secured a second term as a tribune of the plebs. The real power of the office was vested in the veto, which meant that tribunician function was more often obstructive than innovative.
tribune of the soldiers Twenty-four young men, aged from about twenty-five to twenty-nine years, were elected each year by the Assembly of the People to serve with the consul’s legions as tribuni militant, or military tribunes. Being elected by the Comitia Populi Tributa, the Whole People, these military tribunes were true and proper magistrates. They were assigned to the four legions of the consuls, six per legion, and served as overall commanders. When the consuls had more than four legions in the field, the tribunes of the soldiers were rationed out among however many legions the consuls had under arms.
tribune of the Treasury Tribuni aerarii. There is a great deal of mystery about what the tribuni aerarii actually did. Originally they seem to have been the army’s paymasters (not a very onerous job under the conditions of the old, pre-Marian army), but certainly by the time that Gaius Marius reformed the army, the tribuni aerarii had nothing to do with it, for pay was distributed by quaestors. I have theorized that the tribuni aerarii were civil servants. Though the Senate and People of Rome frowned upon bureaucracy, and strenuously resisted the growth in numbers of public employees, once Rome’s territorial possessions began to accumulate, one branch of the SPQR at least demanded more and more bureaucrats. This branch was the Treasury (the aerarium). By the time of Gaius Marius there must have been a fairly large number of senior civil servants administering the many departments and duties of the Treasury (and this increased dramatically in the years after Gaius Marius). Money had to be exacted for many different taxes, at home and abroad; and money had to be found for everything from the purchase of public grain, to censors’ building programs, to the minutiae like the urban praetor’s pigs distributed throughout Rome at the time of the Compitalia. While an elected magistrate could issue orders about any or all of these things, he certainly did not concern himself with the actual mechanics. For these, there had to have been senior civil servants, men whose rank was somewhat higher than clerk or scribe; no doubt they came from respectable families, and were probably well paid. The existence of a class of them can certainly be supposed at the time Cato Uticensis (in 64 B.C.) made such a nuisance of himself when appointed Treasury quaestor, for it was obvious quaestors had long ceased to concern themselves personally with how the Treasury worked, and by 64 B.C. the Treasury was huge.
triclinium The dining room. In a normal family dining room (preferably, the room was square), three couches were arranged to form a U. From the doorway, if one was looking into the hollow center of the U, the couch on the left was called the lectus summus, the couch forming the middle (bottom end) of the U was the lectus medius, and the couch forming the right side was the lectus imus. Each couch was very broad, perhaps 4 feet (1.25 m) or more, and at least twice as long, perhaps more. One end of the couch had a raised arm to form a head; the other end did not. In front of each couch, a little lower than the height of the couch, was a narrow table running its length. The diners reclined on their left elbows, supported by bolsters; they were not shod, and could call for their feet to be washed. The host of the dinner reclined at the left end of the lectus medius, this being the bottom end of the couch; the right hand end of the same couch, at its head, was the place where the most honored guest reclined, and was called the locus consularis. At the time of Gaius Marius, it was rare for women to recline alongside dining men, unless the women were of dubious virtue, and the dinner a men’s party. The women of the family sat inside the hollow center of the U on straight chairs, entered with the first course, and left as soon as the last course was cleared away; normally they drank only water.
Tridentum Modern Trento, in Italy.
Triocala The almost unassailable fortress town the rebel slaves of Sicily built in the ranges behind Sicily’s southern coast. It was invested by Lucius Licinius Lucullus in 103 B.C., but did not fall until 101 B.C.
tripod Any device mounted on three legs. Oracular crones sat upon tripods. Sacrificial fires or augural fires were contained in tripod braziers. Tables were often tripods.
triumph The greatest of days for the successful Roman general. By the time of Gaius Marius, a general had to have been hailed as imperator by his troops, after which he was obliged to petition the Senate to grant him his triumph; only the Senate could sanction it, and sometimes—though not often—unjustifiably withheld it. The triumph itself was a most imposing parade which followed a rigidly prescribed route from the Villa Publica on the Campus Martius, through a special gate in the Servian Walls called the Porta Triumphalis, into the Velabrum, the Forum Boarium, and the Circus Maximus, after which it went down the Via Triumphalis, and turned into the Forum Romanum’s Via Sacra. It terminated on the Capitoline Mount at the foot o
f the steps of the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The triumphing general and his lictors went into the temple and offered the god their laurels of victory, after which happened the triumphal feast.
triumphator The term for a triumphing general.
trophy The trophy was a suit of enemy chieftain’s armor. In a practice instituted by the early Greeks, it was mounted on a frame made from a spear, fixed in the ground of the battlefield, and there dedicated to the gods who had assisted in the winning of victory. The Romans changed this practice by erecting a permanent monument on the battlefield, and carrying all the trophies back to Rome. There the trophies were displayed in the general’s triumphal parade; afterward, they were dedicated to some chosen god and set up permanently in the god’s temple. Metellus Macedonicus built Rome’s first marble temple (to Jupiter Stator) and installed trophies in it; Gaius Marius built a temple to Honor and Virtue, and installed his trophies in it.
Tullianum Also known as Career. This one-roomed little building had a chamber beneath it that served as Rome’s only execution cell. All the important prisoners who walked in the general’s triumph were led off as the parade began the ascent to the top of the Capitoline Mount, and were strangled in the lower chamber of the Tullianum. The term “strangling” does not seem to mean bare hands were used, but a noose or garrote. The victim’s body was then thrown into one of the sewer drain openings in the walls of this lower chamber. It was equally lawful (though not often done) to thrust the prisoner into the lower chamber and leave him there to starve to death.
Tullus Hostilius The third King of Rome, and a very shadowy figure. A warlike man, he attacked, captured, and destroyed Alba Longa, then brought its people into Rome and added them to the populace; Alba Longa’s ruling class became a part of Rome’s patriciate. Tullus Hostilius also built the Senate House, called the Curia Hostilia in his honor.
tunic, Tunica. This was the basic item of clothing for almost all ancient Mediterranean peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans. As worn by a Roman of Gaius Marius’s day, it had a rectangular body, without darts to confine it at the sides of the chest; the neck was probably cut on a curve for comfort, rather than kept as a straight edge continuous with the shoulders. The sleeves may have been woven as rectangular projections from the shoulders, or they may have been set in. Certainly it does not seem beyond the skill of ancient tailors to inset sleeves, for there is mention in the ancient sources of long sleeves, and these have to be set in. The statues do not indicate that the tunics of men important enough to have statues were simply joined up the sides with a gap left at the top for the arms to go through, and the sleeves of the tunics shown on military statues in particular look like proper short sleeves. The tunic was either belted with leather or girdled with a cord, and was always worn longer at the front than at the back, which was some 3 inches (75 mm) higher. Those of the knights’ census wore a narrow stripe on the tunic, those of senatorial census a wide stripe. I believe these stripes were displayed on the right shoulder, rather than on the center of the chest. A wall painting from Pompeii displaying a man wearing a toga praetexta shows the wide stripe down the right shoulder of the tunic. So, I note, do the models employed by Dr. Lillian Wilson.
tunica palmata The triumphing general’s tunic, which may or may not have been purple in color, but was certainly embroidered all over with palm fronds.
Tusculum A town on the Via Latina some 15 miles (24 km) from Rome. It was the first Latin town to receive the full Roman citizenship, in 381 B.C., and was always unswervingly loyal to Rome. Cato the Censor came from Tusculum, where his family had possessed the public horse of Roman knighthood for at least three generations.
tyro In Latin, tiro. A novice, a beginner. Ulysses See Odysseus.
Utica After the destruction of the city of Carthage by Scipio Aemilianus in 146 B.C., Utica became the most important city and port in the Roman province of Africa. Utica was the seat of the governor, and lay at the mouth of the river Bagradas.
Vale of the Salassi The modern Val d’Aosta (see also Lugdunum Pass, Salassi).
Vediovis A very Roman god, mysterious, and without a mythology. Nowadays he is thought to have been a manifestation of the young Jove (Jupiter); even Cicero was vague about Vediovis! Certainly he wasn’t a happy god, was perhaps chthonic (associated with the underworld), and seems to have been the patron of disappointments. He had two temples at Rome, one on the Capitol, the other on Tiber Island; outside Rome he was not worshiped at all as far as we know, save at Bovillae, where some Julius erected an altar to Vediovis on behalf of the whole gens Julia in the year 100 B.C.
Vercellae A small town in Italian Gaul. It lay on the north side of the Padus River, at the opening to the Vale of the Salassi. Outside it were a pair of small plains, the Campi Raudii, on which ground Marius and Catulus Caesar defeated the Cimbri in 101 B.C.
verpa A Latin obscenity used more in verbal abuse than as a sign of contempt. It referred to the penis—apparently in the erect state only, when the foreskin is drawn back— and had a homosexual connotation. On the literary and graffitic evidence, Dr. J. N. Adams discounts the word’s meaning a circumcised penis.
Vesta A very old Roman goddess of numinous nature, having no mythology and no image (see numen). She was the hearth, and so had particular importance within the home and the family circle, where she was worshiped alongside the Di Penates and the Lar Familiaris. Her official public cult was equally important, and was personally supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. Her temple in the Forum Romanum was small, very old, and circular in shape; it was adjacent to the Regia, the Well of Juturna and the Domus Publicus of the Pontifex Maximus. A fire burned in the temple of Vesta permanently, and could not be allowed to go out under any circumstances.
Vestal Virgins Vesta was served by a special priesthood, the college of six women called Vestal Virgins. They were inducted at about seven or eight years of age, took vows of complete chastity, and served the goddess for thirty years, after which they were released from their vows and sent out into the community, and could marry if they wished—though few did, for it was thought unlucky. Their chastity was Rome’s luck; that is, the luck of the State. When a Vestal was deemed unchaste, she was not judged and punished out of hand, but was formally brought to trial in a specially convened court. Her alleged lovers were also tried, but in a different court. If convicted, she was cast into an underground chamber dug for the purpose; it was sealed over, and she was left there to die. In Republican times the Vestal Virgins lived in the same Domus Publicus as the Pontifex Maximus, though sequestered from him.
vexillum A flag or banner.
via A main highway, road, or street.
Via Aemilia Built in 187 B.C.
Via Aemilia Scauri Finished about 103 B.C. Its builder was Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus, censor in 109 B.C.
Via Annia (1) Built in 153 B.C.
Via Annia (2) Built in 131 B.C. There is great debate about whether this was a Via Annia or a Via Popillia. I have marked it Via Popillia on my maps after a count of my sources produced one more Via Popillia than Via Annia.
Via Appia Built in 312 B.C.
Via Aurelia Nova Built in 118 B.C.
Via Aurelia Vetus Built in 241 B.C.
Via Campana No date is available.
Via Cassia Built in 154 B.C.
Via Clodia Built during the third century B.C., but of unknown certain date.
Via Domitia Built in 121 B.C. Its author was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.
Via Egnatia Built perhaps around 130 B.C.
Via Flaminia Built in 220 B.C.
Via Labicana Too old to date.
Via Lata Too old to date.
Via Latina Too old to date.
Via Minucia Built in 225 B.C.
Via Ostiensis Too old to date.
Via Popillia (1) Built in 131 B.C.
Via Popillia (2) Built in 131 B.C. This road is also called the Via Annia, and there is still doubt as to which man was responsible for it.
via praetoria The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran between the camp’s front and back gates.
via principalis The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran at right angles to the via praetoria, and connected one side gate with the other. The general’s tent was located at the intersection of these two main viae.
Via Salaria Too old to date. This was probably the very oldest of Rome’s long roads. A branch road was built in 283 B.C., the Via Caecilia. Yet another branch road was built in 168 B.C., the Via Claudia.
Via Tiburtina The old name for the first part of the Via Valeria, between Rome and Tibur.
Via Valeria Built in 307 B.C.
vicus A small city street, though not necessarily a short one. The word meant not so much the thoroughfare itself as the collection of buildings on either side of the thoroughfare; it originated as the word for a rural hamlet, where the buildings straggled down either side of one street. In any city, street names do not change through the centuries, save when a monarch or a politician honors himself by giving a street his name. Thus, in making my map of the city of Rome, I have used all the street names of Imperial Roman times that did not belong to new districts or Imperial town planning; the Vicus Insteius, Vicus lugarius, Vicus Tuscus, Vicus Patricii, Vicus Longus, and the rest must always have borne these names. Similarly with the Alta Semita and the hills like the Clivus Orbius, Clivus Patricius, Clivus Capitolinus, Clivus Argentarius, Clivus Pullius in Tabernola, etc. It may be, however, that whereas we would say we lived on the Vicus Cuprius, a Roman would have said he lived in the Vicus Cuprius. Some of Rome’s streets were named after the activities going on in them, like the Vicus Sandalarius (“street of cobblers”), Clivus Argentarius (“hill of the bankers”), Vicus Fabricii (“street of artificers”); others bore place names, like the Vicus Tuscus (Etruria); some simply described where they were going, like the Vicus ad Malum Punicum (“street leading to the Punic apple—pomegranate—-tree”).
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