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 Postumia Built in 148 B.C.
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”).
Vienne, Vienna Modern Vienne. The proper name of this trading post town on the Rhodanus River was Vienna, but it is usually called by its modern name, to save confusing it with Vienna, the capital of Austria.
villa A country residence, completely self-contained, and originally having an agricultural purpose—in other words, a farmstead. It was built around a peristyle or courtyard, had stables or farm buildings at the front, and the main dwelling at the back, of the courtyard. By the time of Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi, wealthy Romans were building villas as vacation homes rather than as farmsteads, and the architecture of the villa had changed correspondingly. Many of these holiday villas were on the seashore.
Villa Publica The parklike piece of land on the Campus Martius, fronted by the Vicus Pallacinae, in which the participants of a triumphal parade were gathered together before the parade set off.
vir militaris See Military Man.
Visurgis River The modern Weser, in Germany.
Vocontii A Celtic confederation of tribes dwelling along the Druentia River in Gaul-across-the-Alps; their lands bordered those of the Allobroges, who were to their north. They took great delight in preying upon Roman travelers on the Via Domitia as it crossed the Alps and wound down the Druentia toward the Rhodanus Valley.
Volcae Tectosages A Celtic confederation of tribes occupying Mediterranean Gaul beyond the Rhodanus River, and extending all the way to Narbo and Tolosa (see also Brennus [2], Tolosa).
Volsci One of the ancient peoples of central Italy. They had occupied eastern Latium, and were centered around the settlements of Sora, Atina, Antium, Circei, Tarracina, and Arpinum; their allies were the Aequi. By the end of the fourth century B.C., the Volsci had been so completely absorbed into the Roman system that their cultural and social identities had largely disappeared. They did not speak Latin, but a language of their own, akin to Umbrian.
wine, vintage wine Wine was an intrinsic part of the life of both Romans and Greeks; in the absence of brewing or distillation apparatus, wine was the only beverage available that contained alcohol. This made it the object of great reverence (hence the gods of wine, Bacchus and Dionysos), and—usually—great respect. Many different varieties of grapes were grown to make wine, of the white and the purple kinds, and wines came in white and red. By the time of Gaius Marius, Roman viticulture in particular was a highly educated business, and had outstripped Greek viticulture decisively. The Romans were always good with plants and planting, with gardens, and with growing; from the time her privileged citizens began to travel abroad, Rome was gifted with many imported plants, both new varieties of old friends and completely new friends. This could be said of the grapevine, certainly, always being added to with foreign importations. Roman viticulture was expert at grafting, and knowledgeable about pest prevention. Asphalt, for instance, dredged out of the Palus Asphaltites (the Dead Sea) in Palestine, was smeared on the woody parts of grapevines to prevent the growth of smuts and moulds. When exactly ready, the grapes were picked, placed in vats, and trodden; the juice which oozed out of the vat at this time was reserved to make the best wine of all. Then, after treading, the grapes were pressed in presses similar to those known today in vineyards where mass-production techniques have not been introduced; this juice was made into ordinary wine. Then the grapes were pressed again, to produce a thin, sour, third-class beverage which retailed so cheaply it was drunk in large quantities by the lowly, and was also given to slaves; this was sometimes fortified to increase its alcohol content, by the addition of boiled-down must after the fermentation process. Fermentation took place with more or less care, depending upon the class of juice and the intent of the vigneron. Vats coated inside with wax (for the best wines) or pitch (which is
a resin obtained from pines, so these wines took up some of the resin, and emerged tasting like a modern Greek retsina) held the juices for several months, during which they were skimmed frequently. After fermentation, wines to be drunk at once were put into amphorae or (occasionally) skins. But those wines intended for additional maturation were first strained rigorously through sieves and cloths, then “bottled” in amphorae which were scrupulously stoppered and sealed from the air with melted wax; they were labeled with the year, the vineyard, the type of grape, and the name of the vigneron, and were stored in cool cellars. Wooden casks were also used to store some of these-better wines. Most wines were intended to be drunk within four years, but those wines carefully sealed did not continue to ferment, only to mature, and some could take twenty years to reach their peak drinking moment. These of course were vintage wines. Then, as now, the oenologist reared his head and came out with his stock vocabulary of adjectives and adverbs; of connoisseurs there were many. One such was the great legal advocate Quintus Hortensius Hortalus, who when he died in 50 B.C. bequeathed the staggering number of 10,000 amphorae of wine to some unknown beneficiary; the amphora held 25 liters, or 6 American gallons, which means Hortensius had 60,000 U.S. gallons of wine in his cellar. It was not normal practice to drink wine neat—water was added, in varying proportions. Roman women of Gaius Marius’s time drank little wine; during the early Republic, if a paterfamilias so much as smelled wine on the breath of one of his womenfolk, he was considered fully justified in having her executed immediately. Despite the apparent continence of Roman wine drinkers, watering their intake as they did, alcoholism was as real a problem in antiquity as it is today.
Wooden Bridge The name given universally to the Pons Sublicius, built of wood.
yoke The yoke was the beam or crosstie which rested upon the necks of a pair of oxen or other animals when harnessed to draw a load. In human terms, it came to mean the mark of servility, of submission to the domination of others. There was a yoke for the young of both sexes to pass beneath inside the city of Rome, located somewhere on the Carinae; it was called the Tigillum, and perhaps symbolized submission to the seriousness of adult life. However, it was in military terms that the yoke came to have its greatest metaphorical significance. Very early Roman (or perhaps Etruscan) armies forced a defeated enemy to pass beneath the yoke; two spears were planted upright in the ground, and a third spear was placed across their tops to form a crosstie—the whole was too low for a man to pass beneath walking upright; he had to bend over. Unfortunately enemy armies adopted the idea, with the result that from time to time a Roman army was compelled to pass beneath the yoke. To do this was an intolerable humiliation; so much so that the Senate usually preferred to see a Roman army stand and fight until the last man was dead, rather than sacrifice Roman honor and dignitas by surrendering and passing beneath the yoke. Even the ordinary people of Rome, including those as lowly as the Head Count, deemed passing beneath the yoke an utter humiliation, and clamored too to know why the defeated army hadn’t fought until its last man lay dead.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE TO ROMAN MASCULINE NAMES
To some extent, the pronunciation of classical Latin is still debated, but there are definite conventions among scholars. Liturgical Latin and medieval Latin are pronounced somewhat differently than classical Latin. None of which need worry the reader unduly. The aim of this little section is simply to offer guidelines for those readers without Latin.
One convention adhered to in pronouncing classical Latin is to sound the consonantal v like our English w: thus, the word veritas is properly pronounced weritas. But the rule is not hard and fast, even among scholars, so in the interests of reader comfort, I shall proceed to ignore it.
The diphthong ae should not be pronounced as in “say,” but rather as in “eye”; this convention I have adhered to.
We have several more consonants in English than the Latin language did. The one which concerns the reader most is j. It has been customary in the English language for centuries to spell those Latin words commencing in consonantal i with a j. Thus, Julius should really be lulius, and pronounced Yoo-lee-uss, not Joo-lee-uss. However, I have elected to go with English j.
The Latin g has only one sound, which I shall call guh, as in “gain”—”get”—”give”—”gone”—”gun.” The other g sound in English, which I shall call juh, as in “ginger,” is never used in pronouncing Latin.
Rather than adopt one of the current lexicographic systems of pronunciation, I have elected to use a phonetic system of my own, rhyming the Latin with some ordinary English word pronounced identically on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in the Antipodes—where possible!
And, last but by no means least, none of it really matters save to the purist. The most important thing is that the reader discover and enjoy the world of Republican Rome. Do not feel uncomfortable with the names. Latin is a major root of the English language, and that is a major help in itself. (Note: in some cases I have given the standard English pronunciation first, and put the more correct pronunciation in parentheses, in the lists below.)
The Praenomen (the First Name)
Appius
Ah-pee-uss (ah as in “pa,” “ma”—uss as in “puss”)
Aulus
Ow-luss (ow as in “cow”)
Gaius
Gye-uss (gye as in “eye”)
Gnaeus
Nye-uss (nye as in “eye”)
Lucius
Loo-shuss (more correctly, Loo-kee-uss)
Mamercus
Mah-mer-kuss (mah as in “pa”—mer as in “her”)
Manius
Mah-nee-uss (mah as in “pa”)
Marcus
Mar-kuss
Publius
Pub-lee-uss (pub has the same u sound as “put”)
Quintus
Kwin-tuss (kwin as in “twin”)
Servius
Ser-vee-uss (ser as in “her”)
Sextus
Sex-tuss (sex as in “sex”)
Spurius
Spoo-ree-uss (spoo as in “too”)
Tiberius
Tye-beer-ee-uss (more correctly, Tee-bear-ee-uss)
Titus
Tye-tuss (more correctly, Tee-tuss)
The Nomen (the Family or Gentilicial Name, Indicating the Gens)
Aelius
Eye-lee-uss (eye as in “eye”—uss as in “puss”)
Aemilius
Eye-mil-ee-uss (mil as in “will”)
Annius
An-nee-uss (an as in “tan”)
Antistius
Ahn-tist-ee-uss (ahn as in “gone”—list as in “fist”)
Antonius
An-toh-nee-uss (an as in “tan”—toh as in “so”)
Appuleius
Ah-poo-lay-ee-uss (poo as in “too”—lay as in “say”)
Aquillius
Ah-kwill-ee-uss (kwill as in “will”)
Atilius
Ah-tee-lee-uss
Aurelius
Or-ree-lee-uss (more correctly, Ow-ray-lee-uss)
Baebius
Bye-bee-uss (bye as in “eye”)
Billienus
Bill-ee-ay-nuss (bill as in “will”—ay as in “say”)
Caecilius
Kye-kill-ee-uss (kye as in “eye”—kill as in “will”)
Caelius
Kye-lee-uss
Calpurnius
Kahl-purr-nee-uss (kahl as in “doll”)
Cassius
Kass-ee-uss (kass as in “lass”)
Claudius
Klaw-dee-uss (klaw as in “paw”)—the English way; Klow-dee-uss (klow as in “cow”)—the correct Latin way
Clodius
Kloh-dee-uss (kloh as in “so”)
Coelius
Koy-lee-uss (koy as in “boy”)
Cornelius
Kor-nee-lee-uss (strictly, Kor-nay-lee-uss)
Curtius
Koor-tee-uss (koor as in “poor”)
Decius
<
br /> Deck-ee-uss (deck as in “peck”)
Decumius
Deck-oo-mee-uss (oo as in “too”)
Didius
Did-ee-uss (did as in “bid”)
Domitius
Dom-it-ee-uss (dom as in “torn”—it as in “fit”)
Equitius
Ay-kwit-ee-uss (ay as in “say”—kwit as in “fit”)
Fabius
Fay-bee-uss (strictly, Fab-ee-uss, fab as in “cab”)
Fabricius
Fab-rick-ee-uss (fab as in “cab”—rick as in “kick”)
Fannius
Fan-nee-uss (fan as in “tan”)
Flavius
Flay-vee-uss (strictly, Flah-vee-uss)
Fraucus
Frow-kuss (frow as in “cow”)
Fulvius
Full-vee-uss (strictly, Fool-vee-uss)
Furius
Few-ree-uss (strictly, Foo-ree-uss)
Gavius
Gah-vee-uss (gah as in “pa”)
Granius
Grah-nee-uss (grah as in “pa”)
Gratidius
Grah-tid-ee-uss (tid as in “bid”)
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