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

by Colleen McCullough

  That Cicero is very quiet about the trial of Rabirius in his later writings is perhaps not surprising, as he does tend to skirt matters dimming his luster. As late as 58 B.C. there were still many in Rome who deplored the execution of citizens without trial, and attributed the bulk of the blame to Cicero rather than to Cato. Hence Cicero’s flight into exile before he could be impeached by the Plebs.

  And there you have it. Attractive though my hypothesis is in terms of the logic of events and the psychology of the people involved, I am not foolish enough to insist that I am right. All I will say is that within the sphere of what I am trying to do, the trial of Rabirius as I have depicted it makes perfect sense. What it boils down to is whether or not one is prepared to accept Cicero’s chronology in that letter to Atticus of June, 60 B.C. His consular speeches were published in the sequence he outlined, I assume, because all the later ancient writers follow it. But was it the correct sequence, or did Cicero prefer to bury Rabirius and thus make sure the Catilinarian orations crowned his career as consul and pater patriae?

  For the Latin purists, my apologies for using the word boni as an adjective and an adverb as well as as a noun. To keep it a noun would have added immensely to the clumsiness of an English prose style. For the same reason, there may be other infringements of Latin grammar.

  Of necessity there are a few minor chronological and identity discrepancies, such as the exchange between Cicero and Clodius while escorting an electoral candidate.

  Now for a word on the drawings.

  I have managed to scrape up five drawings of women, but none of them are authenticated. During the Republic, women were not hallowed by portrait busts; those few who were cannot be identified because no coin profiles nor descriptions in the ancient sources have come down to us. Aurelia and Julia are both taken from the full-length statue of a crone in the grounds of the Villa Albani; I have used it because the bone structure of the skull so strikingly resembles that of Caesar. I freely confess that I would not have bothered with Julia were it not that some of my more romantic readers will be dying to see what she looked like—and I would prefer that she be properly Roman as to nose, mouth and hairstyle. Pompeia Sulla is drawn from a wonderfully vacant-looking bust possibly of early Empire in date. Terentia is a bust of a Roman matron in the Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen. The most curious one is Servilia. Brutus’s busts all reveal a slight right facial muscle weakness; the bust I used for Servilia has an identical right facial weakness.

  Caesar is becoming easier, as I can now insert some of the lines in the mature face. An authenticated likeness, of course. The young Brutus is taken from a bust in the Naples Museum which is so like the authenticated bust of the mature Brutus in Madrid that there can be little doubt as to who the youth is. Publius Clodius is a “youthened” version of a bust said to be a Claudian of the late Republic. Both Catulus and Bibulus were drawn from unidentified portrait busts of Republican times. Cato is an authenticated likeness, but taken from the marble bust at Castel Gandolfo rather than from the famous bronze found in North Africa; bronze is extremely difficult to draw from. I used the bust of Cicero in the Capitol Museum because it looks like Cicero the fat cat at the height of his fame, and serves as a marvelous contrast to another bust of Cicero I shall use in a later volume. The Pompey is also of the right age, and is a more attractive portrait than the famous one in Copenhagen.

  Two further comments.

  I have not tried to depict the hair of any of these people in a realistic manner. Instead, I have formalized it so that the nature, cut and style are easily discerned.

  The second comment concerns necks. Very few of the extant busts still own necks. Like most people who draw well, I can really draw well only from life. If the neck isn’t there, I have terrible trouble. So my apologies for some of the awful necks.

  Finally, some thank-yous. To my classical editor, Dr. Alanna Nobbs of Macquarie University, Sydney, and to her husband, Dr. Raymond Nobbs. To my friends at Macquarie University. To Joseph Merlino, who found me my very own English-language Mommsen. To Pam Crisp, Kaye Pendleton, Ria Howell, Yvonne Buffett, Fran Johnston and the rest of the “Out Yenna’’ staff, with a special vote of thanks to Joe Nobbs, who keeps me going with everything from chair arms to typewriters. My thanks to Dr. Kevin Coorey, who keeps me going when my bones start crumbling. And, last but by no means least, my thanks to my greatest fan, my beloved husband, Ric Robinson.

  The next book in the series is tentatively called Let the Dice Fly.

  GLOSSARY

  ABSOLVO The term employed by a jury when voting for the acquittal of the accused. It was used in the courts, not in the Assemblies.

  actio Plural, actiones. In the sense used in this book, a complete segment of a trial in a court of law. There were usually two actiones, prima and secunda, separated by a period of some days (the exact duration of this intermission was at the discretion of the court president, the index).

  adamas Diamond.

  adjutage The connection between a water main and the water pipes leading from the main into a building, either publicly or privately owned. The size or bore of the adjutage was strictly regulated by law, and under the authority of the aediles. Romans understood the behavior of water as a volume, but not water pressure. They did, however, appreciate gravity feed, and located their city reservoirs on the highest ground.

  adrogatio The legal act of adoption, in which the adrogatus was formally and legally adopted by the adrogator. At least when the adopted person’s status changed from patrician to plebeian or plebeian to patrician, the ceremony of adrogatio had to take place in the comitia curiata, where the thirty lictors representing the thirty Roman curiae witnessed the adoption and passed a lex curiata of consent to the adoption.

  advocate The term generally used by modern scholars to describe a man active in the Roman law courts. “Lawyer” is considered too modern.

  aedile There were four Roman magistrates called aediles; two were plebeian aediles, two were curule aediles. Their duties were confined to the city of Rome. The plebeian aediles were created first (in 493 B.C.) to assist the tribunes of the plebs in their duties, but more particularly to guard the rights of the Plebs to their headquarters, the temple of Ceres in the Forum Boarium. The plebeian aediles soon inherited supervision of the city’s buildings as a whole, as well as archival custody of all plebiscites passed in the Plebeian Assembly, together with any senatorial decrees (consulta) directing the passage of plebiscites. They were elected by the Plebeian Assembly. Then in 367 B.C. two curule aediles were created to give the patricians a share in custody of public buildings and archives; they were elected by the Assembly of the People. Very soon, however, the curule aediles were as likely to be plebeians by status as patricians. From the third century B.C. downward, all four were responsible for the care of Rome’s streets, water supply, drains and sewers, traffic, public buildings, monuments and facilities, markets, weights and measures (standard sets of these were housed in the basement of the temple of Castor and Pollux), games, and the public grain supply. They had the power to fine citizens and noncitizens alike for infringements of any regulation appertaining to any of the above, and deposited the moneys in their coffers to help fund the games. Aedile—plebeian or curule—was not a part of the cursus honorum, but because of its association with the games was a valuable magistracy for a man to hold before he stood for office as praetor. As the plebeian aediles were elected by the Plebeian Assembly, I have come to believe they did not hold imperium, and therefore were not entitled to sit in the curule chair or have lictors.

  Aeneas Prince of Dardania, in the Troad. He was the son of King Anchises and the Goddess Aphrodite (Venus to the Romans). When Troy (Ilium to the Romans) fell to the forces of Agamemnon, Aeneas fled the burning city with his aged father perched upon his shoulder and the Palladium under one arm. After many adventures, he arrived in Latium and founded the race from whom true Romans implicitly believed they were descended. His son, variously called Ascanius or Iulu
s, was the direct ancestor of the Julian family; therefore the identity of Iulus’s 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, who on the whole seems a more reliable source than Virgil; Virgil was very much under the influence of Augustus.

  aether That part of the upper atmosphere permeated by godly forces, or the air immediately around a god. It also meant the sky, particularly the blue sky of daylight.

  ager publicus Land vested in Roman public ownership. Most of it was acquired by right of conquest or confiscated from its original owners as a punishment for disloyalty. This latter was particularly common within Italy itself. Roman ager publicus existed in every overseas province, in Italian Gaul, and inside the Italian Peninsula. Responsibility for its disposal (usually in the form of large leaseholds) lay in the purlieu of the censors, though much of the foreign ager publicus was unused.

  agora The open space, usually surrounded by colonnades or some kind of public buildings, which served any Greek or Hellenic city as its public meeting place and civic center. The Roman equivalent was a forum.

  Alba Longa The city of the Alban Mount supposed to have been founded by Iulus or Ascanius, the son of Aeneas. In the time of King Tullus Hostilius it was attacked by Rome, defeated and razed to the ground. Some of its most prominent citizen families had already migrated to Rome; others were compelled to do so then at the command of King Tullus Hostilius.

  Albanians The members of a tribe occupying the lands between the high Caucasus and the Caspian Sea.

  amanuensis One who takes down in writing the words dictated by another.

  amicitia A condition of formal friendship between families (or states) of equal status; when status was unequal, the bond was more likely to be a client-patron one. Amicitia was traditional and passed on from one generation of a family to the next.

  amphora Plural, amphorae. A pottery vessel, bulbous in shape, with a narrow neck and two large handles on the upper part, and a pointed or conical bottom which prevented its being stood upright on level ground. It was used for the bulk (usually maritime) transport of wine or wheat, its pointed bottom enabling it to be fitted easily into the sawdust which filled the ship’s hold or cart’s interior. It then sat upright during the journey, cushioned and protected. The pointed bottom enabled it to be dragged across level ground by a handler with considerable ease in loading and unloading. The usual size of amphora held about 6 American gallons (25 liters).

  amygdala Plural, amygdalae. Something almond-shaped.

  Anatolia Roughly, modern Asian Turkey. It extended from the south coast of the Black Sea (the Euxine) through to the Mediterranean, and from the Aegean Sea in the west to modern Armenia, Iran and Syria in the east and south. The Taurus and Antitaurus Mountains made its interior and much of its coastline very rugged. Its climate was continental.

  animus The Oxford Latin Dictionary has the best definition, so I will quote it: “The mind as opposed to the body, the mind or soul as constituting with the body the whole person.” There are further definitions, but this one is pertinent to the way animus is used herein. One must be careful, however, not to attribute belief in the immortality of the soul to Romans.

  apex A close-fitting priest’s helmet made of ivory. It covered all the hair but left the ears free, and was surmounted by a wooden spike on which was impaled a disc of wool.

  Arausio In this book, used to mean the battle fought on October 6 of 105 B.C. near the town of Arausio in Further Gaul. A vast mass of migrating German tribes was moving down the east bank of the Rhodanus River (the Rhone) and was opposed by two Roman armies which the Senate had ordered to amalgamate under the authority of the consul of the year, the New Man Gnaeus Mallius Maximus. But the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio, a patrician, refused to co-operate with Mallius Maximus because of his low birth, and insisted on keeping his army separate. The result was a defeat for Rome worse than the defeat at Cannae; the number of Roman soldiers killed was said to be over eighty thousand.

  Armenia Magna In ancient times, Armenia Magna extended from the southern Caucasus to the Araxes River, east to the corner of the Caspian Sea, and west to the sources of the Euphrates. It was immensely mountainous and very cold.

  Armenia Parva Though called Little Armenia, this small land occupying the rugged and mountainous regions of the upper Euphrates and Arsanias rivers was not a part of the Kingdom of Armenia. Until taken over by the sixth King Mithridates of Pontus, it was ruled by its own royal house, but always owed allegiance to Pontus rather than to Armenia proper.

  armillae The wide bracelets of gold or of silver awarded as prizes for valor to Roman legionaries, centurions, cadets and military tribunes of more junior rank.

  Assembly (comitia) Any gathering of the Roman People convoked to deal with governmental, legislative, judicial, or electoral matters. In the time of Caesar there were three true Assemblies—the Centuries, the People, and the Plebs.

  The Centuriate Assembly (comitia centuriata) marshaled the People, patrician and plebeian, in their Classes, which were filled by a means test and were economic in nature. As this was originally a military assemblage, each Class gathered in the form of Centuries. The Eighteen (q.v.) numbered only one hundred men each, whereas the other Centuries held many more than a hundred men. The Centuriate Assembly met to elect consuls, praetors, and (every five years, usually) censors. It also met to hear charges of major treason (perduellio) and could pass laws. Because of its originally military nature, the Centuriate Assembly was obliged to meet outside the pomerium, and normally did so on the Campus Martius at a place called the saepta. It was not usually convoked to pass laws or conduct trials.

  The Assembly of the People or Popular Assembly (comitia populi tributa) allowed the full participation of patricians, and was tribal in nature. It was convoked in the thirty-five tribes into which all Roman citizens were placed. Called together by a consul or praetor, it normally met in the Well of the Comitia. It elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. It could formulate and pass laws; until Sulla established his standing courts, many trials were held in it.

  The Plebeian Assembly (comitia plebis tributa or concilium plebis) met in the thirty-five tribes, but did not allow the participation of patricians. Because it contained a part only of the People, the Plebeian Assembly was not “official” in the same way as the Centuriate and Popular Assemblies. The auspices were not taken nor prayers said. The only magistrate empowered to convoke it was the tribune of the plebs. It had the right to enact laws (strictly, plebiscites) and conduct trials, though the latter were far less common after Sulla established his standing courts. Its members elected the plebeian aediles and the tribunes of the plebs. The normal place for its assemblage was in the Well of the Comitia. See also voting and tribe,

  atrium The main reception room of a Roman domus, or private house. It mostly contained an opening in the roof (the compluvium) above a pool (the impluvium) originally intended as a water reservoir for domestic use. By the time of the late Republic, the pool had become ornamental only.

  auctoritas A very difficult Latin term to translate, as it meant far more than the English word “authority” implies. It carried nuances of pre-eminence, clout, public importance and—above all—the ability to influence events through public office. All the magistracies possessed auctoritas as an intrinsic part of their nature, but auctoritas was not confined to those who held magistracies; the Princeps Senatus, Pontifex Maximus, other priests and augurs, consulars, and even some private individuals outside the ranks of the Senate also owned auctoritas.

  augur A priest whose duties concerned divination. He and his fellow augurs comprised the College of Augurs, an official State body which had numbered twelve members (usually six patricians and six plebeians)
until in 81 B.C. Sulla increased it to fifteen members; thereafter it usually contained at least one more plebeian than patrician. Originally augurs were co-opted by their fellow augurs, but in 104 B.C. Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus brought in a law compelling election of future augurs by an Assembly of seventeen tribes chosen from the thirty-five by lot. Sulla removed election in 81 B.C., going back to co-optation, but in 63 B.C. the tribune of the plebs Titus Labienus restored election. 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 meeting with the approval of the Gods, be the undertaking a contio (q.v.), a war, a new law, or any other State business, including elections. There was a standard manual of interpretation to which the augur referred; augurs “went by the book.” The augur wore the toga trabea (q.v.) and carried a staff called the lituus (q.v.).

  auguraculum A station on the Capitol whereat the new consuls stood their night watch to observe the skies before they were inaugurated. a via Grandmother. avus Grandfather.

  bailiff Not a word truly applicable to Roman Republican times, but one I have used to describe men deputed to keep law and order if lictors were not employed, and also to describe men employed by moneylenders to harass a debtor and prevent his absconding.

  bireme A ship constructed for use in naval warfare, and intended to be rowed rather than sailed (though it was equipped with a mast and sail, usually left ashore if action was likely). Some biremes were decked or partially decked, but most were open. It seems likely that the oarsmen sat in two levels at two banks of oars, the upper bank and its oarsmen accommodated in an outrigger, and the lower bank’s oars poking through ports in the galley’s sides. Built of fir or another lightweight pine, the bireme could be manned only in fair weather, and fight battles only in very calm seas. It was much longer than it was wide in the beam (the ratio was about 7:1), and probably averaged about 100 feet (30 meters) in length. Of oarsmen it carried upward of one hundred. A bronze-reinforced beak (rostrum) made of oak projected forward of the bow just below the waterline, and was used for ramming and sinking other vessels. The bireme was not designed to carry marines or grapple to engage other vessels in land-style combat. Throughout Greek and Republican Roman times, the ship was rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves.