Anna Perenna One of the numinous gods native to Rome and owing nothing to Greece (see numen); possessed of neither face nor mythology, Anna Perenna was regarded as female. Her feast was held on the first full moon after the old New Year (March 1), and it was a very happy occasion for everyone in Rome.
Antiocheia, Antioch The capital of Syria and the largest city in that part of the world.
Apennines The range of mountains breaking Italy up into three regions largely isolated from each other: Italian Gaul (northern Italy of the Po Valley), the Adriatic seaboard of the peninsula, and the wider, more fertile plains and valleys of the peninsula’s west coast. The range branched off the Alpes Maritimae in Liguria, crossed the base of the peninsula from west to east, then ran down the full length of the peninsula to Bruttium, opposite Sicily. Its highest peak rose to 9,600 feet (3,000 m).
aqua An aqueduct. In the time of Gaius Marius, there were four such, supplying water to the city of Rome. The oldest was the Aqua Appia (312 B.C.), next was the Aqua Anio Vetus (272 B.C.), then the Aqua Marcia (144 B.C.), and finally the Aqua Tepula ( 125 B.C.). During the Republic, the aqueducts and the water they provided were cared for by water companies hired under contract by the censors.
Aquae Sextiae Modern Aix-en-Provence. A spa town in the Roman province of Gaul-across-the-Alps.
Aquileia A Latin Rights colony seeded in far eastern Italian Gaul to protect the trade routes across the Carnic Alps from Noricum and Illyricum; the date was 181 B.C. Provided soon after with several roads connecting it to Ravenna, Patavium, Verona, and Placentia, it quickly became the most important city at the top of the Adriatic.
aquilifer Presumably a creation of Gaius Marius at the time he gave the legions their silver eagles. The best man in the legion, the aquilifer was chosen to carry the legion’s silver eagle, and was expected to keep it safe from enemy capture. He wore a wolf skin or a lion skin as a mark of his distinction.
Aquitani, Aquitania The lands of southwestern Longhaired Gaul between the Carantonus River and the Pyrenees, and extending eastward along the Garumna River almost to Tolosa were called Aquitania, and were occupied by a Celtic confederation of tribes called the Aquitani. The largest of the Aquitanian oppida was Burdigala, on the southern side of the mouth of the Garumna.
Arar River The modern Saone, in France.
Arausio Modern Orange. A small settlement under Roman influence on the eastern bank of the Rhodanus River, in Gaul-across-the-Alps.
Arduenna The modern forest of the Ardennes, in northern France. In the time of Gaius Marius the Arduenna extended all the way from the Mosa to the Mosella, and was impenetrable.
area Flacciana Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, an important adherent of Gaius Gracchus, was murdered together with two of his sons in 121 B.C. as part of senatorial suppression of Gaius Gracchus’s policies. His lands and all his properties were confiscated postmortem, including his house on the Palatine, which was torn down and the land left neglected. This vacant block, which overlooked the Forum Romanum, was called the area Flacciana. Quintus Lutatius Catulus acquired it in 100 B.C., and used it to build a colonnade in which he installed the standards taken from the Cimbri at Vercellae.
Arelate Modern Aries. A town, possibly founded by the Greeks, in Gaul-across-the-Alps. Situated on the Rhodanus just above its delta, Arelate grew in importance after Gaius Marius built his ship canal.
armillae The wide bracelets, of gold or of silver, which were awarded as prizes for valor to Roman legionaries, centurions, cadets, and military tribunes.
Arnus River The modern Arno. Throughout its course, loop and all, it formed the boundary between Italy proper and Italian Gaul.
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 conf
luence 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 Condrusi, 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.
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