Caesar

by Colleen McCullough

  in suo anno Literally, "in his year." The phrase was used to describe men who attained curule office at the exact age the law and custom prescribed for a man holding that office. To be praetor and consul in suo anno was a great distinction, as it meant that a man had gained office at his first attempt.

  intercalaris Because the Roman year was only 355 days long, some 20 days extra were inserted after the month of February every two years—or ought to have been. Very often this was not done, with the result that the calendar galloped ahead of the seasons. By the time Caesar rectified the calendar in 46 B.C., the seasons were lagging 100 days behind the calendar, so few intercalations had been made. It was the duty of the Colleges of Pontifices and Augurs to intercalate; while Caesar, Pontifex Maximus from 63 b.c., was in Rome these intercalations were made, but when he went to Gaul in 58 b.c. the practice ceased, with one or two exceptions.

  interrex It meant "between the kings." When Rome had no consuls to go into office on New Year's Day, the Senate appointed a patrician senator, leader of his decury, to assume office as the interrex. He served for five days, then a second interrex was appointed to hold elections. Sometimes public violence prevented the second interrex from this duty, with the result that a further series of interreges served until elections could be held.

  Italia The Italian Peninsula. The boundary between Italia proper and Italian Gaul consisted of two rivers, the Arnus on the western side of the Apennines, and the Rubicon on the eastern side.

  Italian Gaul In Latin, Gallia Cisalpina, meaning "Gaul on this side of the Alps." The peoples of Italian Gaul, which lay to the north of the rivers Arnus and Rubicon, and between the town of Ocelum in the west and Aquileia in the east, were held to be Gauls descended from the Gallic tribes which invaded Italy in 390 b.c., and therefore to the more conservative Roman mind not worthy to hold the full Roman citizenship. This became the sorest point in the minds of the Italian Gauls, particularly for those on the far (north) side of the Padus River (the Po); Pompey the Great's father, Pompey Strabo, legislated the full citizenship for those living south of the Padus in 89 b.c., while those living to the north continued as non-citizens or the second-class citizens who held the Latin Rights. Caesar was the great champion of full enfranchisement for all of Italian Gaul, and made it the first thing he legislated when appointed Dictator at the end of 49 b.c. It was, however, still governed as a province of Rome rather than as a part of Italia proper.

  iugerum, iugera The Roman unit of land measurement. In modern terms the iugerum consisted of 0.623 (five-eighths) of an acre, or 0.252 (one-quarter) of a hectare. The modern reader used to acres will get close enough by dividing iugera by 2; for metric readers, divide by 4 to get the number of hectares.

  Kalends The first of the three named days of each month which represented the fixed points of the month. The Kalends always occurred on the first day of the month. Originally they had been timed to coincide with the appearance of the New Moon.

  knights The equites, the members of what Gaius Gracchus named the Ordo Equester or Equestrian Order. Under the kings of Rome, the equites had formed the cavalry segment of the Roman army; at this time horses were both scarce and expensive, with the result that the eighteen original Centuries comprising the knights were dowered with the Public Horse by the State. As the Republic came into being and grew, the importance of Roman knight cavalry waned. Yet the number of knight Centuries in the Classes kept increasing. By the second century B.C. Rome no longer fielded horse of her own, preferring to use Gauls as auxiliaries. The knights became a social and economic group having little to do with military matters. They were now defined by the censors in economic terms alone, though the State continued to provide a Public Horse for each of the eighteen hundred most senior equites, called the Eighteen. These original eighteen Centuries were kept at one hundred members each, but the rest of the knights' Centuries (between seventy-one and seventy-five) swelled within themselves to contain many more than one hundred men apiece.

  Until 123 b.c. all senators were knights as well, but in that year Gaius Gracchus split the Senate off as a separate body of three hundred men. It was at best an artificial process; all nonsenatorial members of a senator's family were still classified as knights and the senators were not put into three senators-only Centuries for voting purposes, but left in whichever Centuries they had always occupied. Nor, it appears, were senators stripped of their Public Horses if they belonged in the ranks of the Eighteen.

  Economically the full member of the First Class had to possess an income of 400,000 sesterces per annum; those knights whose income lay between 300,000 and 400,000 sesterces per annum were probably the tribuni aerarii. Senators were supposed to have an annual income of one million sesterces, but this was entirely unofficial; some censors were lenient about it, others strict.

  The real difference between senators and knights lay in the kinds of activities they might pursue to earn income. Senators were forbidden to indulge in any form of commerce not pertaining to the ownership of land, whereas knights could.

  latus clavus The broad purple stripe which adorned the right shoulder of a senator's tunic. He alone was entitled to wear it. The knight wore a narrow purple stripe, the angustus clavus, and those below the status of knights wore no stripe at all.

  lectus imus, lectus medius, locus consularis A lectus was a couch, mostly used for dining (the lectus funebris was the funerary bier). Couches were arranged in threes to form a U; if one stood in the doorway of a dining room (the triclinium) looking into the U, the couch on the right was the lectus imus, the couch in the middle forming the bottom of the U was the lectus medius, and the couch on the left was the lectus summus. Socially the most desirable couch was the lectus medius. Positions on the couches were also socially graded, with the head of the household located at the left end of the lectus medius. The spot for the guest of honor, the locus consularis, was at the right end of the lectus medius. A continuous U of table at a little below couch height stood just in front of the couches.

  During the Republic couches were reserved for men; women sat on chairs placed inside the U on the opposite side of the tables from the couches.

  legate Legatus. The most senior members of a general's staff were his legates. To qualify to serve as a legate, a man had to be a member of the Senate. He answered only to the general, and was senior to all types of military tribune. Not every legate was a young man, however. Some were consulars who apparently volunteered for some interesting war because they hankered after a spell of military life, or were friends and/or relatives of the general—or were in need of some extra money from spoils.

  legion Legio. Though it was rarely called upon to do so, the legion was the smallest unit of a Roman army capable of fighting a war on its own. In terms of manpower, equipment and warmaking facilities it was complete within itself. Between two and six legions clubbed together constituted an army; the times when an army contained more than six legions were unusual.

  A legion comprised some 4,280 ranker soldiers, 60 centurions, 1,600 noncombatant servants, perhaps 300 artillerymen and 100 skilled artificers. The internal organization of a legion consisted of ten cohorts of six centuries each. In Caesar's time cavalry units were not grafted onto a legion, but constituted a separate force. Each legion appears to have had about thirty pieces of artillery, more catapultae than ballistae, before Caesar; he introduced the use of artillery into battle as a technique of softening up the enemy, and increased the number of pieces to fifty. The legion was commanded by a legate or an elected tribune of the soldiers if it belonged to the consuls of the year. Its officers were the centurions.

  Though the troops belonging to a legion went into the same camp, they did not live together en masse in dormitory style; they were divided into units of eight soldiers and two noncombatants who tented and messed together. Reading the horrors of the American Civil War, one is impressed with the Roman arrangement. Roman soldiers ate fresh food because they ground their own wheat and made their own brea
d, porridge and other staples and were provided with well-salted or smoked bacon or pork for flavoring, and also ate dried fruit. Sanitary facilities within a camp predicated against enteric fevers and polluted water. An army not only marches on its stomach, it is also enabled to march when it is free from disease. Few Roman generals cared to command more than six legions because of the difficulties in supply; reading Caesar's Commentaries makes one understand how important a place Caesar gave to supply, as he mostly commanded between nine and eleven legions.

  legionary This is the correct English word to call an ordinary Roman soldier (miles gregarius). "Legionnaire," which I have seen used by lesser scholars, is more properly applied to a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, or to a veteran of the American Legion.

  lex, leges A law or laws. The word lex also came to be used of plebiscites, the laws passed in the Plebeian Assembly. A lex was not considered valid until it had been inscribed on stone or bronze and deposited in the vaults below the temple of Saturn. However, residence therein must have been brief, as space was limited and the temple of Saturn also housed the Treasury. After Sulla's Tabularium was finished, laws came to rest permanently therein. A law was named after the man or men who promulgated it and succeeded in having it ratified, but always (since lex is feminine gender) with the feminine ending to the name or names. This was followed by a brief description as to what the law was about. Laws could be—and sometimes were—repealed at some later date.

  lex curiata A law endowing a curule magistrate or promagistrate with his imperium. It was passed by the thirty lictors who represented the thirty original Roman tribes. A lex curiata was also necessary before a patrician could be adopted by a plebeian.

  lex data A law promulgated by a magistrate which had to be accompanied by a senatorial decree. It was not open to change by whichever Assembly the magistrate chose to present it to.

  lex Julia Marcia Passed by the consuls Lucius Julius Caesar and Gaius Marcius Figulus in 64 b.c., it outlawed all but a few of the many different kinds of colleges, sodalities and clubs which proliferated throughout every stratum of Roman life. Its chief object was the crossroads college, which was seen as potentially dangerous politically. Publius Clodius was to prove this true after he, as tribune of the plebs, reinstated crossroads colleges in 58 b.c.

  lex Plautia de vi Passed by a Plautius during the seventies b.c. and having to do with violence in public meetings.

  lex Pompeia de iure magistratuum The infamous law Pompey passed while consul without a colleague in 52 b.c. It obliged all seekers of curule office to register their candidacy in person inside the sacred boundary of Rome; when reminded by Caesar's faction that the Law of the Ten Tribunes of the Plebs made it possible for Caesar to stand for consul the second time in absentia, Pompey said oops and tacked a codicil onto its end exempting Caesar. This codicil, however, was not inscribed on the bronze tablet bearing the law, and therefore had no validity at law.

  lex Pompeia de vi Passed when Pompey was consul without a colleague in 52 b.c., and designed to reinforce the lex Plautia.

  lex Pompeia Licinia de provincia Caesaris The law passed by Pompey and Crassus during their second consulships in 55 b.c. It gave Caesar all his provinces for a further five years, and forbade any discussion in the Senate about who would get his provinces afterward until March of 50 b.c.

  lex Trebonia de provinciis consularibus Passed by Gaius Trebonius as a tribune of the plebs in 55 B.C. It gave Pompey and Crassus the provinces of Syria and both the Spains for a period of five years.

  lex Villia annalis Passed in 180 b.c. by the tribune of the plebs Lucius Villius. It stipulated certain minimum ages at which the curule magistracies could be held and apparently also stipulated that two years must elapse between a man's holding the praetorship and the consulship. It is also generally accepted as stipulating that ten years must go by between a man's being consul for the first time and running for a second term as consul.

  lictor The man who formally attended a curule magistrate as he went about his business. The lictor preceded the magistrate to clear him a way through the crowds, and was on hand to obey the magistrate in matters of custody, restraint or chastisement. The lictor had to be a Roman citizen and was a State employee; he was not of high social status, and probably depended upon largesse from his magistrate to eke out a poor wage. On his left shoulder he bore the bundle of rods called the fasces. Within the city of Rome he wore a plain white toga, changing to a black toga for funerals; outside Rome he wore a scarlet tunic cinched at the waist by a broad black leather belt bossed in brass. Outside Rome he inserted the axes into his fasces.

  There was a College of Lictors, though its site is not known. I have placed it behind the temple of the Lares Praestites on the eastern side of the Forum Romanum (behind the great inn on the corner of the Clivus Orbius), but there is no factual basis for this.

  Within the College, which must have numbered some hundreds, the lictors were grouped in decuries of ten men, each headed by a prefect; the decuries were collectively supervised by several College presidents.

  Liger River The Loire River.

  Lissus Modern Lezhe in Albania.

  litter A covered cubicle equipped with four legs upon which it rested when lowered to the ground. A horizontal pole on each corner projected forward and behind the conveyance; it was carried by four to eight men who picked it up by means of these poles. The litter was a slow form of transport, but it was by far the most comfortable known in the ancient world. Litters belonging to the richest persons were commodious enough to hold two people and a servant to wait on them. Lugdunum Modern Lyon.

  Lusitani The peoples of far western and northwestern Spain. Less exposed to Hellenic and Roman culture than the Celtiberians, the Lusitani were probably somewhat less Celtic than Iberian in racial content, though the two strains were mixed in them. Their organization was tribal, and they seem to have farmed and mined as well as grazed.

  Lutetia An island in the Sequana (Seine) River which served as the principal oppidum of a Celtic tribe called the Parisii. Modern Paris.

  magistrates The elected executives of the Senate and People of Rome. With the exception of the tribunes of the soldiers, they all belonged automatically to the Senate in Caesar's day. The diagram on page 642 clearly shows the nature of each magistracy, its seniority, who did the electing, and whether a magistrate owned imperium. The cursus honorum proceeded in a straight line from quaestor through praetor to consul; censor, both kinds of aedile and the tribunate of the plebs were not magistracies attached to the cursus honorum. Save for the censor, all magistrates served for one year only. The dictator was a special case.

  [Caesar 642.jpg]

  maiestas Treason.

  malaria This pestilential disease, caused by four varieties of Plasmodium and vectored by the female Anopheles mosquito, was endemic throughout Italy. The Romans divided it into three kinds of ague: quartan (rigors occurring every four days), tertian (rigors occurring every three days) and a more malignant form wherein the rigors had no pattern. The Romans also knew the ague was more prevalent wherever there was swampy ground, hence their fear of the Pomptine Marshes and the Fucine Lake. What they didn't know was that the vector was a mosquito.

  mantlet The shelter shed, usually roofed and walled with hides, which shielded Roman troops from enemy missiles.

  marca Gallic for horse. Gallic was very akin to Latin and was quite easy for Romans to learn to speak; often we have no idea whether the Gallic word is actually a Latin word shifted into Gallic, or a Gallic word shifted into Latin.

  Marsi One of the most important non-Roman Italian peoples. They lived around the shores of the Fucine Lake, which belonged to them, and their territory extended into the high Apennines. It bordered the lands of the Paeligni. Until the Italian War of 91-88 b.c., they had always been loyal to Rome. They worshiped snakes and were renowned snake charmers.

  Massilia Modern Marseilles.

  Mater Latin for mother.

  Matisco O
ne of the oppida belonging to a sept of the Aedui known as the Ambarri. It lay on the Arar (Saone) River. Modern Macon.

  mentula, mentulae A very choice Latin obscenity meaning prick, pricks.

  Mercedonius The name given to the twenty extra days inserted into the Roman calendar after the month of February to bring the calendar into line with the seasons.

  Metiosedum The principal oppidum of a sept of the Parish" called the Meldi. It was an island in the Sequana (Seine) River. Modern Melun.

  meum mel A Latin endearment. Literally, "my honey."

  Mons Fiscellus The Gran Sasso d'ltalia: Italy's highest mountain.

  Mosa River The Maas in Belgium, the Meuse in France.

  Mosella River The Moselle River.

  mos maiorum The established order of things, used to encompass the customs, traditions and habits of Roman government and public institutions. It served as Rome's unwritten constitution. Mos meant established custom; in this context maiores meant ancestors or forebears. To sum up, the mos maiorum was how things had always been done—and how they should be done in the future too!

  murus Gallicus The way Gauls built their oppidum walls. It consisted of very long, large wooden beams interspersed between stones, and was relatively impervious to the battering ram because the stones lent it great thickness, and the logs a tensile strength stone walls alone do not possess. Narbo Modern Narbonne.

  Nemausus Modern Mimes.

  nemer In Latin it could mean simply wood, but in Gallic seems to have referred specifically to the oak.

  Nemetocenna An oppidum belonging to the Belgic Atrebates. Modern Arras.

  nemeton The sacred oak grove of the Druids.