Fortune's Favorites

by Colleen McCullough

  praetor This magistracy ranked second in the hierarchy of Roman magistrates. 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 term consul had come into being for the highest magistrates, and 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 cope with matters relating to foreign nationals and Italy 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 afterward as propraetors. By the last century of the Republic there were six praetors elected in most years, eight in others, depending upon the State's needs. Sulla brought the number of praetors up to eight during his dictatorship, and limited duty during their year in actual office to his law courts.

  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 Italy as well as hearing cases involving non-citizens within Rome herself.

  praetor urbanus The urban praetor, whose duties by the late Republic were almost all to do with litigation. Sulla further refined this by confining the urban praetor to civil rather than criminal suits. His imperium did not extend beyond the fifth milestone from Rome, and he was not allowed to leave Rome for longer than ten days at a time. If both the consuls were absent from Rome, he was Rome's senior magistrate, therefore empowered to summon the Senate, make decisions about execution of government policies, even organize the defenses of the city under threat of attack.

  Princeps Senatus The Leader of the House. He was appointed by the censors according to the rules of the mos maiorum: he had to be a patrician, the leader of his decury, an interrex more times than anyone else, of unimpeachable morals and integrity, and have the most auctoritas and dignitas. The title Princeps Senatus was not given for life, but was subject to review by each new pair of censors. Sulla stripped the Leader of the House of a considerable amount of his auctoritas, but he continued to be prestigious.

  privatus Used within the pages of this book to describe a man who was a senator but not currently a magistrate.

  proconsul One serving the State with the imperium of a consul but not in office as consul. Proconsular imperium was normally bestowed upon a man after he finished his year as consul and went to govern a province proconsule. A man's tenure of a proconsulship was usually for one year only, but it was very commonly

  prorogued (q.v.), sometimes for several years; Metellus Pius was proconsul in Further Spain from 79 to 71 b.c. Proconsular imperium was limited to the proconsul's province or command, and was lost the moment he stepped across the pomerium into Rome.

  Procrustes A mythological Greek gentleman of dubious tastes. In his stronghold somewhere in Attica (said to be on the road to the Isthmus of Corinth) he kept two beds, one too short for the average man, and one too long. Having lured the traveler into his lair, he overpowered his victim and then popped the poor fellow on whichever of the two beds fitted least. If the victim was too short for the long bed, Procrustes stretched him out until he did measure up; if the victim was too tall for the short bed, Procrustes lopped bits off his extremities until he did measure up. Theseus killed him by treating him as he had treated all his victims.

  proletarii Those Roman citizens who were too poor to give the State anything by way of taxes, duties, or service. The only thing they could give the State was proles-children. See Head Count.

  promagistrate One serving the State in a magisterial role without actually being a magistrate. The offices of quaestor, praetor and consul (the three magistracies of the formal cursus honorum) were the only three relevant.

  propraetor One serving the State with the imperium of a praetor but not in office as a praetor. Propraetorian imperium was normally bestowed upon a man after he had finished his year as praetor and went to govern a province propraetore. Tenure of a propraetorship was usually for one year, but could be prorogued.

  proquaestor One serving the State as a quaestor but not in office as a quaestor. The office did not carry imperium, but under normal circumstances a man elected to the quaestorship would, if asked for personally by a governor who ended in staying in his province for more than one year, remain in the province as proquaestor until his superior went home.

  prorogue This meant to extend a man's tenure of promagisterial office beyond its normal time span of one year. It affected proconsuls and propraetors, but also quaestors. I include the word in this glossary because I have discovered that modern English language dictionaries of small or even medium size neglect to give this meaning in treating the word "prorogue."

  province Originally this meant the sphere of duty of a magistrate or promagistrate holding imperium, and therefore applied as much to consuls and praetors in office inside Rome as it did to those abroad. Then the word came to mean the place where the imperium was exercised by its holder, and finally was applied to that place as simply meaning it was in the ownership (or province) of Rome.

  pteryges The leather straps which depended from the waist to the knees as a kilt, and from the shoulders to the upper arms as sleeves; they were sometimes fringed at their ends, and ornamented with metallic bosses as well as tooling. The traditional mark of the senior officers and generals of the Roman army, they were not worn by the ranks.

  publicani Tax-farmers, or contracted collectors of Rome's public revenues. Such contracts were let by the censors about every five years, though it would seem that Sulla when dictator suspended this when he terminated the office of censor. No doubt he provided some other means of letting contracts.

  Public Horse See Horse, Public.

  public servants The more research I do, the more I come to see that Rome had many public servants. However, the Senate and Assemblies-that is, government-traditionally abominated public servants, and many of Rome's public transactions were conducted by firms and/or individuals in the private business sector. This privatization was an ongoing thing throughout the Republic, and was usually effected through the censors, praetors, aediles and quaestors. Contracts were let, a price for the particular service was agreed to. All this notwithstanding, of public servants there were many-clerks, scribes, secretaries, accountants, general factotums, religious attendants, public slaves, electoral officers, comitial officers, lictors-not to mention the legions. Cavalry might be considered to be "on hire." Pay and conditions were probably not good, but aside from the public slaves all public servants seem to have been Roman citizens. The bulk of clerical employees were apparently Greek freedmen.

  Pulex A flea.

  Punic Pertaining to Carthage and the Carthaginians. It derives from the original homeland of the Carthaginians- Phoenicia.

  Pusillus Absolutely infinitesimal in size.

  Pythagorean Pertaining to the philosophical system originated by Pythagoras. In Rome of the late Republic he had a reputation as a bit of a ratbag–that is, eccentric enough to be considered slightly potty. He taught that the soul was doomed to transmigrate from one kind of organism to another (even plants) for all eternity unless when imprisoned within a man that man espoused a way of life designed to free the soul: he preached rules of silence, chastity, contemplation, vegetarianism, etc. Women were as welcome to participate in the way of life as men. The Neopythagorean cult practiced in Rome had departed from true Pythagoreanism, but the preoccupation with numbers and a way of life was still strong. Unfortunately among the foods Pythagoreans advocated consuming in large quantities were beans; the result was a great deal of methane in the air around a Pythagorean. He or she was therefore very often the butt of unsympathetic wits. A medical friend of mine maintains that excess
ive amounts of fava beans can promote excessive bleeding in childbirth.

  quaestio A court of law or judicial investigatory panel. quaestor The lowest rung on the senatorial cursus honorum. It was always an elected office, but until Sulla laid down during his dictatorship that in future the quaestorship would be the only way a man could enter the Senate, it was not necessary for a man to be quaestor in order to be a senator. Sulla increased the number of quaestors from perhaps twelve to twenty, and laid down that a man could not be quaestor until he was thirty years of age. The chief duties of a quaestor were fiscal. He might be (chosen by the lots) seconded to Treasury duty within Rome, or to collecting customs, port dues and rents elsewhere in Italy, 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 the fifth month when the Roman New Year had begun in March, it retained the name after January New Year made it the seventh month. We know it, of course, as July; so did the Romans-after the death of the great Julius.

  quinquereme A very common and popular form of ancient war galley: also known as the "five." Like the bireme and the trireme (q.v.), it was much longer than it was broad in the beam, and was designed for no other purpose than to conduct war at sea. It used to be thought that the quinquereme had five banks of oars, but it is now almost universally agreed that no galley ever had more than three banks of oars, and more commonly perhaps had only two banks. The "five" was most likely called a "five" because it had five men on each oar, or else if it had two banks of oars put three men on the upper oars and two men on the lower. 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, five men on an oar meant that at the commencement of the sweep the rowers had to stand, falling back onto the seat as they pulled. A "five" wherein the rowers could remain seated 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 quinqueremes were used, each community or nation having its preference. For the rest, the quinquereme was decked, the upper oars lay within an outrigger, and a mast and sail were part of the design, though usually left ashore if battle was expected. The oarsmen numbered about 270, the sailors perhaps 30, and if the admiral believed in boarding rather than or as well as ramming, some 120 marines could be carried along with fighting towers and catapults. Like its smaller sister galleys, the "five" was rowed by professional oarsmen, never slaves.

  Quirites Roman citizens of civilian status.

  quod erat demonstrandum "That was the thing to be proved."

  Regia The ancient little building in the Forum Romanum, oddly shaped and oriented toward the north, that served as the offices of the Pontifex Maximus and the headquarters of the College of Pontifices. It was an inaugurated temple and contained shrines or altars or artifacts of some of Rome's oldest and most shadowy gods-Opsiconsiva, Vesta, Mars of the sacred shields and spears. Within the Regia the Pontifex Maximus kept his records. It was never his residence. Republic The word was originally two words–res publica–meaning the thing which constitutes the people as a whole: that is, the government.

  Rex Sacrorum During the Republic, he was the second-ranking member of the College of Pontifices. A relic of the days of the Kings of Rome, the Rex Sacrorum had to be a patrician, and was hedged around with as many taboos as the flamen Dialis.

  rhetoric The art of oratory, something the Greeks and Ro-

  mans turned into a science. An orator was required to speak according to carefully laid out rules and conventions which extended far beyond mere words; body language and movements were an intrinsic part of it. There were different styles of rhetoric; the Asianic was florid and dramatic, the Attic more restrained and intellectual in approach. It must always be remembered that the audience which gathered to listen to public oration-be it concerned with politics or with the law courts- was composed of connoisseurs of rhetoric. The men who watched and listened did so in an extremely critical way; they had learned all the rules and techniques themselves, and were not easy to please.

  Ria Plutarch (writing in Greek almost two hundred years later) gives the name of Quintus Sertorius's mother as Rhea; but this is not a Latin gentilicial name. However, even today "Ria" is a diminutive commonly used in Europe for women named "Maria." It was some years before I discovered that my Dutch housekeeper, Ria, was actually Maria. Maria would be the name of a female member of the Marii, Gaius Marius's gens.

  The attachment of Quintus Sertorius to Gaius Marius from his earliest days in military service right through to the end which saw even his loyalest adherents recoil in horror makes me wonder about that name, Rhea. Sertorius, says Plutarch also, was very devoted to his mother. Why then should not Sertorius's mother have been a Maria called Ria for short, and a close blood relative of Gaius Marius's? To have her this answers many questions. As part of my novelist's license I have chosen to assume that Sertorius's mother was a blood relative of Marius's. However, this is pure speculation, albeit having some evidence to support it. In this Roman series I have severely limited my novelist's imagination, and do not allow it to contradict history.

  Roma The proper title in Latin of Rome. It is feminine.

  Romulus and Remus The twin sons of Rhea Silvia, daughter of the King of Alba Longa, and the god Mars. Her uncle Amulius, who had usurped the throne, put the twins in a basket made of rushes and set it adrift on the Tiber (shades of Moses?). They were washed up beneath a fig tree at the base of the Palatine Mount, found by a she-wolf, and suckled by her in a cave nearby. Faustulus and his wife Acca Larentia rescued them and raised them to manhood. After deposing Amulius and putting their grandfather back on his throne, the twins founded a settlement on the Palatine. Once its walls were built and solemnly blessed, Remus jumped over them- apparently an act of horrific sacrilege. Romulus put him to death. Having no people to live in his Palatine town, Romulus then set out to find people, which he did by establishing an asylum in the depression between the two humps of the Capitol. This asylum attracted criminals and escaped slaves, which says something about the original Romans! However, he still had no women. These were obtained by tricking the Sabines of the Quirinal into bringing their women to a feast; Romulus and his desperadoes kidnapped them. Romulus ruled for a long time. Then one day he went hunting in the Goat Swamps of the Campus Martius and was caught in a terrible storm; when he didn't come home, it was believed he had been taken by the gods and made immortal.

  rosea rura The most fertile piece of ground in Italy lay outside the Sabine city of Reate. It was called the rosea rura. Apparently it was not tilled, perhaps because it grew a wonderful kind of grass which regenerated so quickly it was very difficult to overgraze. Many thousands of mares grazed on it, and stud donkeys which fetched huge prices at auction; the object of the pastoral rosea rura activities was the breeding of mules, these being the best mules available.

  rostra A rostrum (singular) was the reinforced oak beak of a war galley used to ram other ships. When in 338 b.c. the consul Gaius Maenius attacked the Volscian fleet in Antium harbor, he defeated it completely. To mark 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, which was 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, but when no more beaks could be put on the wall of the rostra, they were fixed to tall columns erected around the rostra.

  Roxolani A people inhabiting part of the modem Ukraine and Rumania, and a sept of the Sarmatae. Organized into tribes, they were horse-people who tended to a nomadic way of life except where coastal Greek colonies of the sixth and fifth centuries b.c. imping
ed upon them sufficiently to initiate them into agriculture. All the peoples who lived around the Mediterranean despised them as barbarians, but after he conquered the lands around the Euxine Sea, King Mithridates VI used them as troops, mostly cavalry.

  Sabines The Oscan-speaking people of unknown racial origin who lived to the north and east of Rome between the Quirinal Hill inside Rome and the crest of the Apennines. Their ties to Rome went back to the apocryphal "rape," and they resisted Roman incursions into their lands for several centuries. The chief Sabine towns were Reate, Nersae and Amiternum. Sabines were famous for their integrity, bravery, and independence.

  sacer Though it more usually meant sacred to a god, sacer in the sense used in this book meant one whose person and property had been forfeited to a god because some divine law had been profaned; Sulla used the term in his proscriptions because Roma was a goddess.

  saepta "The sheepfold." During the Republic this was simply an open area on the Campus Martius not far from the Via Lata. Here the Centuriate Assembly met. The saepta was divided up for the occasion by temporary fences so that the five Classes could vote in their Centuries.

  salii A college of priests in service to Mars; the name meant "leaping dancers." There were twenty-four of them in two colleges of twelve. They had to be patrician. saltatrix tonsa This delicious political slur was most famously used by Cicero to describe Lucius Afranius, a Picentine adherent of Pompey's. It translates as a "barbered dancing-girl": that is, a male homosexual who dressed as a woman and sold his sexual favors. In a day when slander and defamation were not charges pursuant at law, anything went in the political slur department!

  Samnites, Samnium Rome's most obdurate enemies among the peoples of Italy lived in lands lying between Latium, Campania, Apulia, Picenum and the Adriatic, though as a people the Samnites spilled into southern Picenum and southern Campania. The area was largely mountainous and not particularly fertile; its towns tended to be poor and small, and numbered among them Caieta, Aeclanum and Bovianum. The two really prosperous cities, Aesernia and Beneventum, were Latin Rights colonies seeded by Rome. Besides the true Samnites, peoples called Frentani, Paeligni, Marrucini and Vestini inhabited parts of Samnium.