Picenum The calf of the Italian leg. Its western boundary formed the crest of the Apennines; Umbria lay to the north, and Samnium to the south; the eastern boundary was the Adriatic Sea. The original inhabitants were of Italiote or Illyrian stock, but there was a tradition that Sabines had migrated east of the Apennine crest and settled in Picenum, bringing with them as their tutelary god Picus, the woodpecker, from which the region got its name. A tribe of Gauls, the Senones, also settled in the area at the time Italy was invaded by the first King Brennus of the Gauls in 390 B.C. Politically Picenum fell into two parts: northern Picenum was closely allied to southern Umbria and was under the sway of the great family Pompeius, whereas Picenum south of the Flosis or Flussor River was under the sway of peoples committed to the Samnites.
pilum, pilaThe Roman infantry spear, especially as modified by Gaius Marius. It had a very small, wickedly barbed head of iron and an upper shaft of iron; this was joined to a shaped wooden stem which fitted the hand comfortably. Marius modified it by introducing a weakness into the junction between iron and wooden sections, so that when the pilum lodged in an enemy shield or body, it broke apart, and thus was rendered useless to the enemy as a missile. After a battle all the broken pila were collected from the field; they were easily mended by the legion’s artificers.
pilus prior See centurion.
Pindenissus The whereabouts of this town have defeated me. Look though I will, I cannot find Pindenissus. Cicero informs us that it was in Cappadocia, and also that it took him fifty-seven days to besiege and take it. Which I interpret as a measure of the military ability of Cicero and his legate Gaius Pomptinus, rather than a measure of its might and power. Otherwise it would surely be better known.
Placentia Modern Piacenza.
plebeian, Plebs All Roman citizens who were not patricians were plebeians; that is, they belonged to the Plebs (the e is short: “Plebs” rhymes with “webs,” not “glebes”). At the beginning of the Republic no plebeian could be a priest, a magistrate, or even a senator. This situation lasted only a very short while; one by one the exclusively patrician institutions crumbled before the onslaught of the Plebs, who far outnumbered the patricians—and several times threatened to secede. By the late Republic there was very little advantage to being a patrician—except that everyone knew patrician was better. Because a plebeian was not a patrician, the Plebs invented a new aristocracy which enabled them to call themselves noblemen if they possessed praetors or consuls in the family. This added an extra dimension to the concept of nobility in Rome.
Plebeian Assembly See Assembly.
podex An impolite word for the posterior fundamental orifice: an arsehole or asshole rather than an anus.
pomerium The sacred boundary enclosing the city of Rome. Marked by white stones called cippi, it was reputedly inaugurated by King Servius Tullus, and remained without change until Sulla’s dictatorship. The pomerium, however, did not follow the line of Servius Tullus’s walls, which indicates that he did not determine the sacred boundary. The whole of the ancient Palatine city of Romulus was inside the pomerium, whereas the Capitol and the Aventine were not. Custom and tradition permitted a man to extend the pomerium, but only if he had added significantly to Roman territory. In religious terms, Roma herself existed only within the pomerium; all outside it was merely Roman territory.
pontifex Many Latin etymologists think that in ancient times the pontifex was a maker of bridges (pons means bridge), and that this was regarded as a mystical art which put the maker in very close touch with the Gods. Be that as it may, by the time Rome of the kings came into being, the pontifex was definitely a priest. Incorporated into a special college, he served as an adviser to the magistrates and comitia in all religious matters—and would become a magistrate himself (election to the pontificate meant a man was capable of winning almost every public office). At first all the pontifices had to be patrician, but a lex Ogulnia of 300 B.C. stipulated that half the members of the College of Pontifices had to be plebeian. Until 104 B.C. new priests were co-opted by the College; in that year, however, Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus brought in a law requiring all priests and augurs to be elected at an assembly comprising seventeen of the thirty-five tribes chosen by lot. Sulla tried to restore co-optation, but the process was returned to election in 63 B.C. Priests could be well below senatorial age when co-opted or elected. They served for life.
Pontifex Maximus The head of Rome’s State-administered religion, and most senior of all priests. He had always been elected, though there is strong reason to believe that Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius, the Pontifex Maximus before Caesar’s election, was not elected. A passage in Pliny the Elder suggests he stammered—not desirable in a role which had to be word-perfect. The lex Labiena which returned the priestly and augural colleges to election in 63 B.C. was very convenient for Caesar if, as I believe, Pontifex Maximus too had been removed from election. He stood and won shortly after the lex Labiena came into force. Pontifex Maximus was bestowed for life. At first he had to be a patrician, but soon could as easily be a plebeian. The State gave him its most imposing house as his residence, the Domus Publica in the middle of the Forum Romanum. In Republican times he shared the Domus Publica with the Vestal Virgins on a half-and-half basis. His official headquarters were inside the Regia, but this tiny archaic building held no space for offices, so he worked next door.
popa A public servant attached to religious duties. His only job appears to have been to wield the stunning hammer at sacrifices, but no doubt he helped clean and tidy afterward.
Portus Gesoriacus A village on the Fretum Britannicum (the Straits of Dover). Modern Boulogne.
Portus Itius A village on the Fretum Britannicum (the Straits of Dover) some miles to the north of Portus Gesoriacus. Both these villages lay in the territory of the Belgic Morini. It is still debated as to whether Portus Itius is now Wissant or Calais.
praefectus fabrum One of the most important men in a Roman army, though technically the praefectus fabrum was not a part of the army. He was a civilian appointed to the post by the general, and was responsible for equipping and supplying the army in all respects, from its animals and their fodder to its men and their food. Because he let out contracts to businessmen and manufacturers for equipment and supplies, he was a very powerful person—and unless he was a man of superior integrity, in a perfect position to enrich himself at the expense of the army. That men as powerful and important as Caesar’s first praefectus fabrum, the banker Lucius Cornelius Balbus, were willing to accept the post was indication of its profitability. And he, like his successor Mamurra, seems not to have foisted inferior equipment and gear on Caesar’s army.
praenomen A Roman man’s first name. There were very few praenomina in use—perhaps twenty in all—and half of these were uncommon, or else confined to the men of one particular family, as with Mamercus, a praenomen of the Aemilii Lepidi only. Each gens or family or clan favored certain praenomina, usually two or three out of the twenty. A modern scholar can often tell from a man’s praenomen whether he was a genuine member of the Famous Family whose gentilicial name he bore. The Julii, for example, favored Sextus, Gaius and Lucius only; therefore a man called Marcus Julius is almost certainly not a patrician Julian, but rather the descendant of a freed Julian slave. The Licinii favored Publius, Marcus and Lucius; the Cornelii favored Publius, Lucius and Gnaeus; the Servilii of the patrician family of Servilians favored Quintus and Gnaeus. Appius belonged exclusively to the Claudii Pulchri.
praetor This magistracy ranked second in seniority in the Roman magisterial hierarchy. At the very beginning of the Republic, the two highest magistrates of all were known as praetors. By the end of the fourth century B.C., however, the highest magistrates were being called consuls; praetors were relegated to second best. One praetor was the sole representative of this position for many decades thereafter; he was obviously the praetor urbanus, as his duties were confined to the city of Rome, thus freeing up the two consuls for duties as war leaders
outside the city. In 242 B.C. a second praetor, the praetor peregrinus, was created to deal with matters relating to foreign nationals and Italia rather than Rome. As Rome acquired her overseas provinces, more praetors were created to govern them, going out to do so in their year of office rather than after their year of office as propraetors. By the last century B.C. most years saw six praetors elected, but sometimes eight; Sulla brought the number up to eight during his dictatorship, but limited praetorian duty during the year of office to presiding over his new standing courts. From this time on, praetors were judges.
praetor peregrinus I have chosen to translate this as the foreign praetor because he dealt with non-citizens. By the time of Sulla his duties were confined to litigation and the dispensation of legal decisions; he traveled all over Italia as well as hearing cases involving non-citizens within the city of Rome.
praetor urbanus The urban praetor. After Sulla, his duties were almost all to do with litigation, but civil rather than criminal. His imperium did not extend beyond the sixth milestone from Rome, and he was not allowed to leave Rome for more than ten days at a time. If both the consuls were absent from Rome, he became the city’s chief magistrate. He was empowered to summon the Senate, execute government policies, and could even marshal and organize the city’s defenses under threat of attack.
Priapus Originally an important Greek fertility deity, in Rome he seems to have been a symbol of luck. Represented as an ugly and grotesque man, his emblem was his penis, which was always huge and erect; so much so, in fact, that quite often the phallus was bigger than Priapus himself. A very great many of the cheap little pottery lamps were made in the form of Priapus, with the flame emerging from the penis tip. I would interpret the Roman attitude to Priapus as more one of affection than veneration.
primipilus, primus pilus See centurion.
privatus A man who was a member of the Senate but not in office as a magistrate.
pro: proconsul, promagistrate, propraetor, proquaestor The prefix “pro” was an indication that a man filling the duties of a magistrate was not a magistrate actually in office. Normally the promagistrate had served his term in office already, and was sent to do some kind of duty—mostly provincial—on behalf of the consuls, praetors or quaestors of the year. He held imperium of the same degree as those in office.
proletarii People so poor that the only thing they could give Rome were children—proles. See capite censi.
prorogue In the context used in these books, to prorogue was to extend a man’s promagisterial position beyond its usual duration of one year.
proscription The Roman name for a practice not confined to Roman times: namely, the entering of a man’s name on a list which stripped him of everything, often including his life. There was no process of law involved, nor did the proscribed man have the right to trial, presentation of exonerating evidence, or any kind of hearing to protest his innocence. Sulla first made proscription infamous when Dictator; he proscribed some forty senators and sixteen hundred senior knights, most of whom were killed, all of whom served to enrich an empty Treasury. After Sulla, the very mention of the word “proscription” in Rome created absolute panic.
pteryges A Greek word used to describe the arrangement of leather straps which composed a high-ranking Roman military man’s kilt or skirt; the pteryges were arranged in two overlapping layers and afforded good protection for the loins.
publicani The tax-farmers. These were men organized into commercial companies which contracted to the Treasury to collect taxes and tithes in the provinces.
Public Horse A horse which belonged to the State—that is, to the Senate and People of Rome. During the time of the kings of Rome the practice of donating a warhorse to Rome’s knight cavalry had begun; it continued right through the five hundred-odd years of the Republic. Public Horses were confined to the eighteen hundred men of the Eighteen, the senior Centuries of the First Class. Evidence suggests that many senators continued to use Public Horses after Gaius Gracchus split the Senate off from the Ordo Equester. To own a Public Horse was a mark of a man’s importance. quadrireme See quinquereme.
quaestor The lowest rung on the cursus honorum of Roman magistracies. Quaestor was always an elected office, but until Sulla laid down that the quaestorship would be the only way (aside from being elected a tribune of the plebs) a man could enter the Senate, it was not necessary for a man to be quaestor in order to be a senator; the censors had had the power to co-opt a man to the Senate. Sulla then increased the number of quaestors from twelve to twenty, and laid down that the minimum age for a man to hold the office of quaestor was thirty. The chief duties of a quaestor were fiscal, and determined by casting lots. He might be seconded to Treasury duty within Rome, or to collect customs duties, port dues and rents elsewhere in Italia, or serve as the manager of a provincial governor’s moneys. A man going to govern a province could ask for a quaestor by name. The quaestor’s year in office began on the fifth day of December.
Quinctilis Originally Quinctilis was the fifth month of the Roman year, which had begun in March. When the New Year was transferred to the first day of January, Quinctilis kept its name. It is now known as July; we know from the letters of Cicero that it acquired the name “Julius” during Caesar’s lifetime.
quinquereme A very common and popular form of ancient war galley; also known as the “five.” Like the bireme, trireme and quadrireme, it was much longer than it was broad in the beam, and was designed for no other purpose than to conduct war on the sea. It used to be thought that the quadrireme contained four banks of oars and the quinquereme five, but it is now almost universally agreed that no galley ever had more than three banks of oars, and more commonly only two. The quadrireme or “four” and the quinquereme or “five” most likely got their names from the number of men on each oar, or else this number was divided between the two banks of oars. If there were five men on an oar, only the man on the tip or end of the oar had to be highly skilled: he guided the oar and did the really hard work, while the other four provided little beyond muscle power. However, four or five men on one oar meant that at the commencement of the sweep the rowers had to stand, falling back onto their seat as they pulled. A “five” wherein the rowers could remain seated throughout the stroke would have needed three banks of oars, as in the trireme: two men on each of the two upper banks, and one man on the lowest bank. It seems that all three kinds of quinquereme were used, each community or nation having its preference. For the rest, the quinquereme was decked, the upper oars lay within an outrigger, and it had room on board for marines and some pieces of artillery. A mast and sail were still part of the design, though usually left ashore if battle was expected. The oarsmen numbered about 270, the sailors perhaps 30; about 120 marines could be accommodated. Like all war galleys of pre-Christian times, the quadrireme and quinquereme were rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves.
Quirites Roman citizens of civilian status.
redoubt A part of fortifications outside the main defensive wall, a little fort. It was usually square, sometimes polygonal.
Regia The tiny ancient building in the Forum Romanum thought to have been erected by the second King of Rome, Numa Pompilius. It was oddly shaped and oriented toward the north, and in Caesar’s day had long served as the headquarters of the Pontifex Maximus, though it was not large enough to use as offices; these had been tacked onto it. It was an inaugurated temple and contained altars to some of Rome’s oldest and most shadowy gods—Opsiconsiva, Vesta, Mars of the sacred shields and spears.
Republic The word was originally two words—res publica—meaning the thing which constitutes the people as a whole—that is, the government. Rome was a true Republic in that its executives or magistrates were elected rather than designated from within the legislature: American-style government rather than the Westminster System of British Commonwealth countries.
Rhenus River The river Rhine.
Rhodanus River The river Rhône.
right act A phras
e used by those who subscribed to the doctrines of Stoicism. It meant that the act was good, proper, right.
rostra A rostrum (singular) was the reinforced oaken beak of a war galley, the part used to ram other ships. In 338 B.C. the consul Gaius Maenius attacked the Volscian fleet in Antium harbor and utterly defeated it. To commemorate the end of the Volsci as a rival power to Rome, Maenius removed the beaks of the ships he had sent to the bottom or captured, and fixed them to the Forum wall of the speaker’s platform tucked into the side of the well of the Comitia. Ever after, the speaker’s platform was known as the rostra—the ships’ beaks. Other victorious admirals followed Maenius’s example; when no more ship’s beaks could be fixed to the rostra wall, they were fixed to tall columns erected in the area of the rostra.
Rubicon River More properly, Rubico River. There is still great debate about which of the rivers running from the Apennines into the Adriatic Sea is actually the Rubico, which Sulla fixed as the border between Italian Gaul and Italia proper. Most authorities seem to favor the modern Rubicone, but this is a short, very shallow stream which does not extend into the Apennines proper, and so comes nowhere near the sources of the Arnus River, which was the boundary on the western side of the Italian Peninsula. After much reading of Strabo and the other ancient sources describing this area, I have fixed upon the modern Savio River, which does have its sources in the high Apennines. Rivers forming boundaries were major streams, not minor ones. The Ronco River, north of the Savio, would be a contender were it not so close to Ravenna at its outflow. The main problem, it seems to me, is that we really have little idea of what the ancient river map was like; during the Middle Ages massive drainage works were carried out all around Ravenna, which means that the ancient rivers may have had a different course.
Sabis River The river Sambre.
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