Masters of Rome Boxset: First Man in Rome, the Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar

by Colleen McCullough

  in suo anno Literally, in his year. The phrase was used of 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, for it meant that a man gained election at his first time of trying—many consuls and not a few praetors had to stand several times before they were successful, while others were prevented by circumstances from seeking office at this youngest possible age. Those who bent the law to attain office at an age younger than that prescribed were also not accorded the distinction of being in suo anno.

  interrex “Between the kings.” The patrician senator, leader of his decury, appointed to govern for five days when Rome had no consuls. The term is more fully explained in the text.

  Iol Modern Cherchel, in Algeria.

  Italia The name given to all of peninsular Italy. Until Sulla regulated the border with Italian Gaul east of the Apennines by fixing it at the Rubico River, the Adriatic side probably ended at the Metaurus River.

  Italian Allies Certain states and/or tribes within peninsular Italy were not gifted with the Roman citizenship until after they rose up against Rome in 91 B.C. (a war detailed in The Grass Crown). They were held to be socii, that is, allies of Rome. It was not until after Sulla became dictator at the end of 82 B.C. that the men of the Italian Allies were properly regulated as Roman citizens.

  Italian Gaul See the entry under Gaul.

  iudex The Latin term for a judge.

  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 the number of iugera in two; if more accustomed to hectares, divide the number of iugera by four.

  Iulus Strictly speaking, the Latin alphabet owned no J. The equivalent was consonantal /, pronounced more like the English Y. If rendered in English, Iulus would be Julus. Iulus was the son of Aeneas (q.v.) and was believed by the members of the gens Julia to be their direct ancestor. The identity of his mother is of some import. Virgil says Iulus was actually Ascanius, the son of Aeneas by his Trojan wife, Creusa, and had accompanied Aeneas on all his travels. On the other hand, Livy says Iulus was the son of Aeneas by his Latin wife, Lavinia. What the Julian family of Caesar’s day believed is not known. I shall go with Livy; Virgil was too prone to tamper with history in order to please his patron, Augustus.

  ius In the sense used in this book, an incontrovertible right or entitlement at law and under the mos maiorum. Hence the ius auxilii ferendi (q.v.), the ius imaginis (see imago), and so forth.

  ius auxilii ferendi The original purpose of the tribunate of the plebs was to protect members of the Plebs from discriminatory actions by the Patriciate, this latter group of aristocrats then forming both the Senate and the magistracy. The ius auxilii ferendi was the right of any plebeian to claim to the tribunes of the plebs that he must be rescued from the clutches of a magistrate.

  Jupiter Stator That aspect of Jupiter devoted to halting soldiers who were fleeing the field of battle. It was a military cult of generals. The chief temple to Jupiter Stator was on the corner of the Velia where the Via Sacra turned at right angles to run down the slope toward the Palus Ceroliae; it was large enough to be used for meetings by the Senate.

  Kalends The first of the three named days of each month which represented the fixed points of the month. Dates were reckoned backward from each of these points—Kalends, Nones, Ides. The Kalends always occurred on the first day of the month. They were sacred to Juno, and originally 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. 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 diminished, yet the number of knight Centuries in the Classes increased. By the second century B.C., Rome no longer fielded horse of her own, and the knights became a social and economic group having little to do with military matters. The knights 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. The original eighteen Centuries were kept at one hundred men each, but the rest of the knights’ Centuries (between seventy—one and seventy—three) 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 kind of process; all non—senatorial members of senatorial families were still classified as knights, and the senators were not put into three senator—only Centuries, but left for voting purposes in whatever Centuries they had always occupied. The insoluble puzzle is: who were the tribuni aerarii? A knight’s census was 400,000 sesterces, presumably income, and the tribunus aerarius had a census of 300,000 sesterces. At first I thought they were possibly senior public servants—Treasury supervisors and the like—but I have swung round to thinking that Mommsen was right. He suggested that there were at least two echelons of knight of the First Class: those with a census of 400,000 sesterces, and those with a census of 300,000 sesterces; and that the lesser—incomed knights were the tribuni aerarii. Does that mean only the eighteen hundred knights owning the Public Horse possessed a census of 400,000 sesterces or more? I would doubt that too. There were many thousands of very rich men in Rome, and no census could so neatly divide one income group from another at a round—figure cutoff point. Perhaps it went more that a senior knight dowered with the Public Horse had to have at least 400,000 sesterces income for census purposes. Whereas the other seventy—plus Centuries of the First Class contained a mixture of full knights and tribuni aerarii. The Centuries of juniors, one imagines, contained more census—rated tribuni aerarii than the Centuries of seniors. But no one knows for certain! There was nothing to stop a knight who qualified for the (entirely unofficial) senatorial means test of one million sesterces becoming a senator under the old system, wherein the censors filled vacancies in the Senate; that by and large knights did not aspire to the Senate was purely because of the knightly love of trade and commerce, forbidden fruit for senators, who could only dabble in land and property. When Sulla reorganized senatorial admission by regulating it through election to the quaestorship, presumably the electoral officers (whose duty it was to accept or deny a candidacy) inspected the candidate’s means. But I also suspect that quite a few men firmly ensconced in the Senate did not have one million sesterces income!

  Lake Nemi A small volcanic lake in the Via Appia flank of the Alban Hills. In a grove of sacred trees on its shore stood Diana’s temple, served by a priest called Rex Nemorensis. He was an escaped slave who succeeded to the priesthood by first defiling the grove by breaking off a bough from a tree, then killing the existing Rex Nemorensis in combat.

  lanista The proprietor of a gladiatorial school, though not necessarily its actual owner. It was the lanista who saw to the overall running of the school; he may sometimes have supervised the training of the men, but that was more properly the duty of the men called doctores.

  Lar, Lares These were among the most Roman of all gods, having no form, shape, sex, number, or mythology. They were numina. There were many different kinds of Lares, who might function as the protective spirits or forces of a locality (as with crossroads and boundaries), a social group (as with the family’s private Lar, the Lar Familiaris), sea voyages (the Lares Permarini), or a whole nation (Rome had public Lares, the Lares Praestites). By the late Republic, however, people had come to think of the Lares as two young men accompanied by a dog; they were depicted in this way in statues. It is doubtful, however, whether a Roman actually believed that there were only two o
f them, or that they owned this form and sex; more perhaps that the increasing complexity of life made it convenient to tag them.

  latifundia Large tracts of public land leased by one person and run as a single unit in the manner of a modern ranch. The activity was pastoral rather than agricultural. Latifundia were usually staffed by slaves who tended to be chained up in gangs and locked at night into barracks called ergastula. Latium That region of Italy in which Rome was situated; it received its name from the original inhabitants, the Latini. Its northern boundary was the Tiber River, its southern a point extending inland from the seaport of Circeii; on the east it bordered the more mountainous lands of the Sabines and the Marsi. When the Romans completed the conquest of the Volsci and the Aequi around 300 B.C., Latium became purely Roman.

  lectus funebris The imposing couch upon which the corpse of a man or woman of family rich enough to afford a proper funeral was arranged after the undertakers had dressed and improved the looks of the corpse. It possessed legs, was painted black or made of ebony, trimmed with gilt, and covered in black quilts and cushions.

  legate A legatus. The most senior members of a Roman general’s staff were his legates. All men classified as legates were members of the Senate; they answered only to the general, and were 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 army life, or were friends of the general.

  legion Legio. The legion was the smallest Roman military unit capable of fighting a war on its own, though it was rarely called upon to do so. It was complete within itself in terms of manpower, equipment, facilities to make war. Between two and six legions clubbed together constituted an army; the times when an army contained more than six legions were unusual. The total number of men in a full—strength legion was about six thousand, of whom perhaps five thousand were actually soldiers, and the rest were classified as noncombatants. The internal organization of a legion consisted of ten cohorts of six centuries each; under normal circumstances there was a modest cavalry unit attached to each legion, though from the time of Sulla downward the cavalry tended more to be grouped together as a whole body separate from the infantry. Each legion was in charge of some pieces of artillery, though artillery was not employed on the field of battle; its use was limited to siege operations. If a legion was one of the consuls’ legions it was commanded by up to six elected tribunes of the soldiers, who spelled each other. If a legion belonged to a general not currently a consul, it was commanded by one of the general’s legates, or else by the general himself. Its regular officers were the centurions, of whom it possessed some sixty. Though the troops belonging to a legion camped together, they did not live together en masse; they were divided into units of eight men who tented and messed together. See also cohort, legionary This is the correct English word to describe an ordinary soldier (miles gregarius) in a Roman legion. “Legionnaire,” which I have sometimes seen used, is more properly applied to a soldier in the French Foreign Legion, or to a member of the American Legion.

  lex, leges A law or laws. The word lex also came to be applied to the plebiscite , passed by the Plebeian Assembly. A lex was not considered valid until it had been inscribed on bronze or stone 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 new Tabularium was finished, laws were deposited there instead of (probably) all over the city. A law was named after the man or men who promulgated it and then succeeded in having it ratified, but always (since lex is feminine gender) with the feminine ending to his name or their names. This was then followed by a general description of what the law was about. Laws could be—and sometimes were—subject to repeal at a later date.

  lex Caecilia Didia There were actually two laws, but only one is of relevance to this volume. Passed by the consuls of 98 B.C., the relevant one stipulated that three nundinae or market days had to elapse between the first contio to discuss a law in any of the Assemblies and the day of its ratification by vote of the Assembly. There is some debate as to whether the period consisted of twenty-four or seventeen days; I have elected seventeen.

  lex Domitia de sacerdotiis Passed in 104 B.C. by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, later Pontifex Maximus. It specified that new pontifices and augurs must be elected by a tribal Assembly comprising seventeen of the thirty-five tribes chosen by lot. Until this law, pontifices and augurs were co-opted by the college members. Sulla once dictator repealed it.

  lex frumentaria The general term for a grain law. There were many such, commencing with Gaius Gracchus. All grain laws pertained to the public grain supply—that is, the grain bought by the State and distributed by the aediles. Most such laws provided cheap grain, but some took cheap grain away.

  lex Genucia Passed in 342 B.C. by the tribune of the plebs Lucius Genucius. It stipulated that a period of ten years must elapse between one man’s holding the same office twice. There were two other leges Genuciae, not referred to in this book.

  lex Minicia de liberis Passed about 91 B.C. There is some doubt as to whether its author was a Minicius or a Minucius. It laid down that the children of a marriage between a Roman citizen and a non—Roman citizen, irrespective of which parent was the Roman citizen, must take the citizen status of the non—Roman parent.

  lex Plautia Papiria Passed in 89 B.C. as a supplementary measure to Lucius Caesar’s law granting the Roman citizenship to Italian socii not directly embroiled in the war between Rome and the Italian Allies. This supplementary law laid down that an Italian resident within peninsular Italy but not in his original municipium who had not taken up arms against Rome could be granted the full citizenship if he applied to a praetor in Rome within sixty days of the law’s ratification. Phew!

  lex rogata A law promulgated in an Assembly by direct cooperation between the presiding magistrate and the members of the Assembly. In other words, the law was not presented to the Assembly in a cut—and—dried, fully drafted state, but was drafted during contio in the Assembly.

  lex sumptuaria Any law regulating the purchase and consumption of luxuries. They were popular laws among magistrates who deplored luxury—loving tendencies, but rarely worked in practice. The most common articles legislated against were spices, peppers, perfumes, incenses, imported wines, and genuine Tyrian purple. Sulla’s sumptuary law even stipulated how much a family could spend on a funeral or a banquet.

  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 (presumably thirty-nine for praetors and forty-two for consuls), and apparently also stipulated that two years must elapse between a man’s holding the praetorship and the consulship.

  LIBERO The word used in Assembly trials to register a verdict of acquittal.

  Liber Pater The original Italian fertility god who looked after the sperm of men and the germination of crops. He became identified with wine and good times, with Bacchus and with Dionysos, but he does not appear to have been held lightly. The Italian Allies when pursuing their war against Rome adopted Liber Pater as their tutelary god.

  licker—fish A freshwater bass of the Tiber River. The creature was to be found only between the Wooden Bridge and the Pons Aemilius, where it lurked around the outflows of the great sewers and fed upon what they disgorged. Apparently it was so well fed that it was notoriously hard to catch. This may have been why it was so prized as a delicacy by Rome’s Epicureans.

  lictor The man who formally attended a curule magistrate as he went about his official business by preceding him in single file to clear a way, or by being on hand as he conducted his business in case he needed to employ restraint or chastise. The lictor had to be a Roman citizen and was a State employee, though he does not seem to have been of high social status, and was probably so poorly paid that he relied upon his magistrat
e’s generosity with gratuities. On his left shoulder he bore the bundle of rods called fasces (q.v.). 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 by a broad black leather belt bossed in brass, and inserted the axes into the fasces. There was a College of Lictors, though the site of lictorial headquarters is not known. I placed it behind the temple of the Lares Praestites on the eastern side of the Forum Romanum adjacent to the great inn on the corner of the Clivus Orbius, but there is no factual evidence of any kind to support this location. Within the college the lictors (there must have been at least three hundred of them) were organized into de—curies of ten men, each headed by a prefect, and the decuries were collectively supervised by several college presidents.

  litter A covered cubicle equipped with 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. I imagine it was considerably more comfortable than most modern transport!

  ludi The games. See that entry.

  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 as well as grazed.

  macellum A market.

  magistrates The elected representatives of the Senate and People of Rome. They embodied the executive arm of the government, and with the exception of the tribunes of the soldiers, they all belonged to the Senate automatically from the time of Sulla’s dictatorship downward. The accompanying diagram most clearly shows the nature of each magistracy, its seniority, who did the electing, and whether a magistrate owned imperium. The cursus honorum, or Way of Honor, proceeded in a straight line from quaestor through praetor to consul; censor, both kinds of aedile and tribune of the plebs were ancillary to the cursus honorum. Save for the censor, all magistrates served for one year only. The dictator was a special case explained in this book.