The drawings.
Not so many in this book. The likeness of Caesar is authentic. So too is the likeness of Titus Labienus, which was drawn from a polished marble bust in the museum at Cremona. Very difficult to capture in reflected light. Ahenobarbus is reputed to be authentic. Quintus Cicero’s likeness is drawn from a bust said to be of his famous brother, but examination of this bust says it is not Marcus Cicero. The skull shape is completely wrong, and the subject much balder than Cicero is ever depicted. There is, however, a pronounced resemblance to Cicero. Could this not, I asked, be a bust of little brother Quintus?
Vercingetorix is taken from a coin profile.
The drawings of Metellus Scipio and Curio are not authenticated likenesses, but taken from portrait busts of the first century B.C.
This drawing of Pompey the Great is taken from the famous bust in Copenhagen.
*
I do all the research myself, but there are a number of people to thank for their unflagging help. My classical editor, Professor Alanna Nobbs of Macquarie University in Sydney, and her colleagues; my loyal little band of secretaries, housekeepers, and men-of-all-work; Joe Nobbs; Frank Esposito; Fred Mason; and my husband, Ric Robinson.
The next book will be called The October Horse.
GLOSSARY
ABSOLVO The term employed by a court jury when voting for the acquittal of the accused.
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 (493 B.C.) to assist the tribunes of the plebs in their duties, but, more particularly, to guard the right of the Plebs to its headquarters, located in the temple of Ceres. Soon the plebeian aediles inherited supervision of the city’s buildings, both public and private, as well as archival custody of all plebiscites passed in the Plebeian Assembly, together with any senatorial decrees (consulta) directing the enactment of plebiscites. They were elected by the Plebeian Assembly, and did not have the right to sit in the curule chair; nor were they entitled to lictors. Then in 367 B.C. two curule aediles were created to give the patricians a share in custody of the city’s buildings and archives. They were elected by the Popular Assembly, which comprised the whole people, patrician and plebeian, and therefore had the right to sit in the curule chair and be preceded by two lictors. Very soon, however, the curule aediles were as likely to be plebeians 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, building standards and regulations for private buildings, public 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 non-citizens 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—curule or plebeian—was not a magistracy of the cursus honorum (see magistrates), but because of its association with the games was a valuable magistracy for a man to hold just before he stood for office as praetor.
Agedincum An oppidum belonging to the Senones. Modern Sens.
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.
ague The old name for the rigors of malaria.
Alba Helviorum The main town of the Helvii. Near modern Le Teil.
Albis River The Elbe.
Alesia An oppidum of the Mandubii. Modern Alise-Ste.-Reine.
Alexander the Great King of Macedonia, and eventually of most of the known world. Born in 356 B.C., he was the son of Philip II and one Olympias of Epirus. His tutor was Aristotle. At the age of twenty, he acceded to the throne upon his father’s assassination. Regarding Asia Minor as in his purlieus, he determined to invade it. He first crushed all opposition in Macedonia and Greece, then in 334 B.C. led an army of forty thousand men into Anatolia. Having liberated all the Greek city-states therein from Persian rule, he proceeded to subdue all resistance in Syria and Egypt, where he is said to have consulted the oracle of Amon at modern Siwah. The year 331 B.C. saw him marching for Mesopotamia to meet the Persian King, Darius. Darius was defeated at Gaugamela; Alexander went on to conquer the empire of the Persians (Media, Susiana, Persia), accumulating fabulous booty. From the Caspian Sea he continued east to conquer Bactria and Sogdiana, reaching the Hindu Kush after a three-year campaign which cost him dearly. To ensure his treaties he married the Sogdian princess Roxane, then set out for India. Resistance in the Punjab ceased upon the defeat of King Porus on the Hyphasis River, from whence he marched down the Indus River to the sea. In the end his own troops curtailed Alexander’s plans by refusing to accompany him eastward to the Ganges. He turned west again, dividing his army; half marched with him overland and half sailed with his marshal Nearchos. The fleet was delayed by monsoons, and Alexander’s own progress through Gedrosia was a frightful ordeal. Eventually what was left of the army reunited in Mesopotamia; Alexander settled down in Babylon. There he contracted a fever and died in 323 B.C. at the age of thirty-two, leaving his marshals to divide his empire amid war and dissent. His son by Roxane, born posthumously, never lived to inherit. The indications are that Alexander wished to be worshiped as a god.
Ambrussum A town in the Roman Gallic Province on the Via Domitia to Narbo and Spain. It was near Lunel.
Anatolia Roughly, modern Turkey. It incorporated Bithynia, Mysia, the Roman Asian Province, Lycia, Pisidia, Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Pontus, Galatia, Lacaonia, Pamphylia, Cilicia, Cappadocia and Armenia Parva (Little Armenia).
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.” One must be careful, however, not to attribute belief in the immortality of the soul to Romans.
Aous River The Vijose River, in modern Albania.
Apollonia The southern terminus of the Via Egnatia, the road which traveled from Byzantium and the Hellespont to the Adriatic Sea. Apollonia lay near the mouth of the Aous (Vijose) River.
Apsus River The Seman River, in modern Albania. In Caesar’s time it appears to have served as the boundary between Epirus to its south and western Macedonia to its north.
Aquae Sextiae A town in the Roman Gallic Province near which Gaius Marius won a huge victory against the Teutonic Germans in 102 B.C. The modern name is Aix-en-Provence. Aquilifer The soldier who bore a legion’s silver Eagle.
Aquitania The lands between the Garumna River (the Garonne) and the Pyrenees.
Arar River The Saône River.
Arausio Orange.
Arduenna The Ardennes Forest.
Arelate Arles.
Ariminum Rimini.
armillae The wide bracelets, of gold or silver, awarded as prizes for valor to Roman legionaries, centurions, cadets and military tribunes of more junior rank.
Arnus River The Arno River. It served as the boundary between Italian Gaul and Italia proper on the western side of the Apennine watershed.
Assembly(comitium, 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 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 of cavalry knights, each Class gathered outside the sacred city boundary on the Campus Martius at a place called the Saepta. Except for the senior eighteen Centuries, kept to one hundred members, many more than one hundred men were lumped into one Century by Caesar’s time. The Centuriate Assembly met to elect consuls, praetors and (every five years) censors. It also met to hear major charges of
treason (perduellio) and could pass laws. Under ordinary circumstances it was not convoked to pass laws or hear trials. The Assembly of the People or Popular Assembly (comitia populi tributa) allowed the full participation of patricians and was tribal in nature, convoked in the thirty-five tribes into which all Roman citizens were placed. Called into session by a consul or praetor, it normally met in the well of the Comitia, in the lower Forum Romanum. It elected the curule aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes of the soldiers. Until Sulla established the standing courts it conducted trials; in the time of Caesar it met to formulate and pass laws as well as hold elections. The Plebeian Assembly (comitia plebis tributa or concilium plebis) was also a tribal assembly, but it did not allow participation of patricians. The only magistrate empowered to convoke it was a tribune of the plebs. It had the right to enact laws (called plebiscites) and conduct trials, though trials were few after Sulla established standing courts. Its members elected the plebeian aediles and the tribunes of the plebs. It usually met in the well of the Comitia. See also tribe and voting,
atrium The main reception room of a Roman domus, or private house. It generally contained an opening in the roof above a pool (impluvium) originally intended as a reservoir for domestic use. By Caesar’s time, 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 sheer public reputation. 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 citizens outside the ranks of the Senate owned auctoritas. Though the plutocrat Titus Pomponius Atticus was never a senator, his auctoritas was formidable.
augur A priest whose duties concerned divination. He and his fellow augurs constituted the College of Augurs, an official State body which numbered twelve members (six patricians and six plebeians) until in 81 B.C. Sulla increased its membership to fifteen, always thereafter intended to contain one more plebeian than patrician. Originally augurs were co-opted by the College of 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 in 81 B.C. removed election, going back to co-optation, but after his death election was reestablished. 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 undertaking in question met with the approval of the Gods, be the undertaking a contio, a war, legislation, 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 purple-and-scarlet-striped toga trabea and carried a curved, curlicued staff, the lituus.
aurochs The progenitor of modern cattle, now extinct, in Caesar’s time this huge wild ox still roamed the impenetrable forests of Germania, though it had disappeared from the Ardennes. Auser River The Serchio River in Italy.
Avaricum The largest oppidum of the Bituriges, and said to be the most beautiful oppidum in Gallia Comata. It is now the city of Bourges.
ave Hello in Latin.
Axona River The Aisne River.
ballista In Republican times, a piece of artillery designed to hurl stones and boulders. The missile was placed in a spoon-shaped arm which was put under extreme tension by means of a rope spring wound up very tightly; when the spring was released, the arm shot into the air and came to rest against a thick pad, propelling the missile a considerable distance depending upon the size of the missile and the size of the machine itself.
barbarian Derived from a Greek word having strong onomatopoeic overtones. On first hearing certain peoples speak, the Greeks heard it as “bar-bar,” like animals barking. “Barbarian” was not a word applied to any people settled around the Mediterranean Sea or in Asia Minor, but referred to peoples and nations deemed uncivilized, lacking in any desirable or admirable culture. Gauls, Germans, Scythians, Sarmatians, Massagetae and other peoples of the steppes and forests were barbarians.
battlement The parapet along the top of a fortified wall at its full (that is, above head level) height. The battlement afforded shelter for those not engaged in the actual fighting.
Belgae, Belgica The Belgae were those tribes of Gauls who were a hybrid mixture of Celt and German. Their religion was Druidic, but they often preferred cremation to inhumation. Some, like the Treveri, had progressed to the stage of electing annual magistrates called vergobrets, but most still subscribed to the rule of kings; the title of king was not hereditary, but attained through combat or other trials of strength. The Belgae lived in that part of Gallia Comata called Belgica, which may be thought of as north of the Sequana (Seine) River and extending east to the Rhenus (Rhine) River north of the lands of the Mandubii.
Beroea Veroia, in Greece.
Bibracte An oppidum of the Aedui, now Mont Beuvray.
Bibrax An oppidum of the Remi. Near Laon.
bireme A galley 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 that the oarsmen did sit on two levels at two separate banks of oars, the upper bank accommodated in an outrigger, and the lower bank’s oars poking through leather-valved ports in the ship’s sides. Built of fir or some other lightweight pine, the bireme could be manned only in fair weather, and fight battles only in very calm seas. Like all warships, it was not left in the water, but stored in shipsheds. It was much longer than it was wide in the beam (the ratio was about 7:1), and probably measured about 100 feet (30 meters) in length. There were upward of one hundred oarsmen. A bronze-reinforced beak of oak projected forward of the bow just below the waterline, and was used for ramming and sinking other galleys. The bireme was not designed to carry marines or artillery, or grapple to engage other vessels in land-style combat. Throughout Greek and Roman Republican times the ship was rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves. Slaves sent to the galleys were a feature of Christian times.
breastworks The parapet along the top of a fortified wall contained breast-high sections designed to enable the defenders to fight over their tops. These were the breastworks.
Brundisium Modern Brindisi.
Burdigala An oppidum of the Aquitanian Bituriges near the mouth of the Garumna (Garonne) River. Modern Bordeaux.
Cabillonum An oppidum of the Aedui upon the Arar (Saone) River. Modern Chalon-sur-Saône.
Cacat! Shit!
Calabria Confusing for modern Italians! Nowadays Calabria is the toe of the boot, but in Roman times it was the heel. Brundisium and Tarentum were the important cities. Its people were the Illyrian Messapii.
Campus Martius The Field of Mars. Situated north of the Servian Walls, it was bounded by the Capitol on its south and the Pincian Hill on its east; the rest of it was enclosed by a huge bend in the Tiber River. In Republican times it was not inhabited as a suburb, but was the place where triumphing armies bivouacked, the young were trained in military exercises, horses engaged in chariot racing were stabled and trained, the Centuriate Assembly met, and market gardening vied with public park-lands. At the apex of the river bend lay the public swimming holes known as the Trigarium, and just to the north of the Trigarium were medicinal hot springs called the Tarentum. The Via Lata (Via Flaminia) crossed the Campus Martius on its way to the Mulvian Bridge; the Via Recta bisected the Via Lata at right angles.
Capena Gate The Porta Capena. One of the two most important gates in Rome’s Servian Walls (the other was the Porta Collina, the Colline Gate). It lay beyond the Circus Maximus, and outside it was the common highway which branched into the Via Appia and the Via Latina about
half a mile beyond it.
capite censi Literally, the Head Count. Also known as proletarii. They were the lowly of Rome, and were called the Head Count because at a census all the censors did was to “count heads.” Too poor to belong to a Class, the urban Head Count usually belonged to one of the four urban tribes, and therefore owned no worthwhile votes. This rendered them politically useless, though the ruling class was very careful to ensure that they were fed at public expense and given plenty of free entertainment. It is significant that during the centuries when Rome owned the world, the Head Count never rose against their betters. Rural Head Count, though owning a valuable rural tribal vote, could rarely afford to come to Rome at election time. I have sedulously avoided terms like “the masses” or “the proletariat” because of post-Marxist preconceptions not applicable to the ancient lowly.
Carantomagus An oppidum belonging to the Ruteni. Near modern Villefranche.
Carcasso A stronghold in the Roman Gallic Province on the Atax River not far from Narbo. Modern Carcassonne.
Carinae One of Rome’s most exclusive addresses. Incorporating the Fagutal, the Carinae was the northern tip of the Oppian Mount on its western side; it extended from the Velia to the Clivus Pullius. Its outlook was southwestern, toward the Aventine.
Caris River The Cher River.
carpentum A four-wheeled, closed carriage drawn by six to eight mules.
cartouche The personal hieroglyphs peculiar to each individual Egyptian pharaoh, enclosed within an oval (or rectangular with rounded corners) framing line. The practice continued through until the last pharaoh of all, Cleopatra VII.
cataphract A cavalryman clad in chain mail from the top of his head to his toes; his horse was also clad in chain mail. Cataphracts were peculiar to Armenia and to the Kingdom of the Parthians at this period in time, though they were the ancestors of the medieval knight. Because of the weight of their armor, their horses were very large and bred in Media.
Masters of Rome Boxset: First Man in Rome, the Grass Crown, Fortune's Favourites, Caesar's Women, Caesar Page 551