Naval forces In the Roman navy, sailors were hired civilians. Marines were soldiers assigned to the ships, usually with lower pay and lesser status than legionaries. Rowers were also hired freemen. Despite Ben-Hur, Roman galleys were never rowed by slaves or convicts. That was a practice of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Coast guards were usually provided by local officials and served primarily to foil smugglers.
Naval Titles
Admiral The Roman title was duumvir. A duumvir was appointed by the senate to command a fleet.
Commodore In the Romen navy, any officer in command of a flotilla. The word “commodore” is modern.
Hortator The coxswain of a rowed vessel. He kept the rowers in time by voice, flute, or drum.
Leadsman A sailor whose task was to determine the depth of the water beneath the ship with a weighted rope knotted at intervals.
Poleman A sailor charged with wielding a pole to keep the ship from scraping against the wharf or another ship.
Skipper An informal term for the captain of a ship. The term is modern, from a Dutch word meaning “shipman.”
Nobiles, Nobilitas Rome had no official aristocracy, but families that counted consuls among their ancestors were classes as nobiles.
Offices A tribune of the people was a representative of the plebeians with power to introduce laws and to veto actions of the Senate. Only plebeians could hold the office, which carried no imperium. Military tribunes were elected from among the young men of senatorial or equestrian rank to be assistants to generals. Usually it was the first step of a man’s political career.
A Roman who embarked on a political career had to rise through a regular chain of offices. The lowest elective office was quaestor: bookkeeper and paymaster for the Treasury, the Grain Office, and the provincial governors. These men did the scut work of the Empire.
Next were the aediles. They were more or less city managers who saw to the upkeep of public buildings, streets, sewers, markets, and the like. There were two types: the plebeian aediles and the curule aediles. The curule aediles could sit in judgment on civil cases involving markets and currency, while the plebeian aediles could only levy fines. Otherwise, their duties were the same. They also put on the public games. The government allowance for these things was laughably small, so they had to pay for them out of their own pockets. It was a horrendously expensive office, but it gained the holder popularity like no other, especially if his games were spectacular. Only a popular aedile could hope for election to higher office.
Third was praetor, an office with real power. Praetors were judges, but they could command armies and after a year in office they could go out to govern provinces, where real wealth could be won, earned, or stolen. In the late Republic, there were eight praetors. Senior was the praetor urbanus, who heard civil cases between citizens of Rome. The praetor peregrinus (praetor of the foreigners) heard cases involving foreigners. The others presided over criminal courts. After leaving office, the ex-praetors became propraetors and went to govern propraetorian provinces with full imperium.
The highest office was consul, supreme office of power during the Roman Republic. Two were elected each year. For one year they fulfilled the political role of royal authority, bringing all other magistrates into the service of the people and the City of Rome. The office carried full imperium. On the expiration of his year in office, the ex-consul was usually assigned a district outside Rome to rule as proconsul. As proconsul, he had the same insignia and the same number of lictors. His power was absolute within his province. The most important commands always went to proconsuls.
Censors were elected every five years. It was the capstone to a political career, but it did not carry imperium, and there was no foreign command afterward. Censors conducted the census, purged the Senate of unworthy members, and doled out the public contracts. They could forbid certain religious practices or luxuries deemed bad for public morals or generally “un-Roman.” There were two Censors, and each could overrule the other. They were usually elected from among the ex-consuls.
Under the Sullan Constitution, the quaestorship was the minimum requirement for membership in the Senate. The majority of senators had held that office and never held another. Membership in the Senate was for life unless expelled by the Censors.
No Roman official could be prosecuted while in office, but he could be after he stepped down. Malfeasance in office was one of the most common court charges.
The most extraordinary office was dictator. In times of emergency, the Senate could instruct the consuls to appoint a dictator, who could wield absolute power for six months. Unlike all other officials, a dictator was unaccountable: He could not be prosecuted for his acts in office. The last true dictator was appointed in the third century B.C. The dictatorships of Sulla and Julius Caesar were unconstitutional.
Patrician The noble class of Rome.
Plebeian All citizens not of patrician status; the lower classes, also called “plebs.”
Pontifical College The pontifices were a college of priests not of a specific god (see Priesthoods) but whose task was to advise the Senate on matters of religion. The chief of the college was the Pontifex Maximus, who ruled on all matters of religious practice and had charge of the calendar. Julius Caesar was elected Pontifex Maximus, and Augustus made it an office held permanently by the emperors. The title is currently held by the Pope.
Popular Assemblies There were three: the Centuriate Assembly (comitia centuriata) and the two tribal assemblies: comitia tributa and consilium plebis.
Praetor’s court The standard Roman law court. Praetors were judges.
Priesthoods In Rome, the priesthoods were offices of state. There were two major classes: pontifices and flamines. College of Pontifices were members of the highest priestly college of Rome. They had superintendence over all sacred observances, state and private, and over the calendar. Head of their college was the Pontifex Maximus, a title held to this day by the Pope. The flamines were the high priests of the state gods: the Flamen Martialis for Mars, the Flamen Quirinalis for the deified Romulus, and, highest of all, the Flamen Dialis, high priest of Jupiter. The Flamen Dialis celebrated the Ides of each month and could not take part in politics, although he could attend meetings of the Senate, attended by a single lictor. Each had charge of the daily sacrifices, wore distinctive headgear, and were surrounded by many ritual taboos.
Technically, pontifices and flamines did not take part in public business except to solemnize oaths and treaties, give the god’s stamp of approval to declarations of war, etc. But since they were all senators anyway, the ban had little meaning. Julius Caesar was Pontifex Maximus while he was out conquering Gaul, even though the Pontifex Maximus wasn’t supposed to look upon human blood.
Publicani (sing, publicanus) Every five years censors were elected who let the contracts for public work: tax collecting, road building, etc. The bidders on these contracts were known as publicani.
Rites, Festivals
Aphrodisia A festival dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. They were held everywhere, but the one at Cyprus, putative birthplace of Aphrodite, was especially famous and splendid.
Cult of Dionysus An uproarious, orgiastic cult that traveled from city to city throughout the ancient world. The female devotees of Dionysus, called maenads or bacchantes, were rumored to enter homicidal frenzies at the climax of an orgy and rip men to pieces with their hands and teeth. The cult was often suppressed in Italy but kept coming back.
Eleusinian Mysteries The most famous mystery cult of antiquity, its initiates included many famous men, including Cicero, who described its rites as very moving. It was forbidden for anyone to describe the ritual, but it seems to have involved resurrection and rebirth.
Festival of Bel The great annual Babylonian ritual in honor of the god Bel. According to Herodotus, its magnificence quite eclipsed anything done in the West.
Priapalia An agricultural rite in honor of the ithyphallic god Priapus, protector of gardens and fields.
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Rite of Bona De a Bona Dea “the Good Goddess” was honored in Rome with a special service presided over by the wife of the Pontifex Maximus, during which no male of any species could enter the house. All the participants were highborn married women. Clodius violated the rite when Caesar’s wife presided. See SPQR III: The Sacrilege.
Temple of Ephesian Diana One of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. Actually dedicated to the goddess Artemis, whom the Romans equated with Diana, it was located in Ephesus, in modern Turkey.
Rostra (sing, rostrum) A monument in the Forum commemorating the sea battle of Antium in 338 B.C., decorated with the rams, rostra of enemy ships. Its base was used as an orator’s platform.
Senate Rome’s chief deliberative body. It consisted of three hundred to six hundred men, all of whom had won elective office at least once. It was a leading element in the emergence of the Republic, but later suffered degradation at the hands of Sulla.
Ship chandlers Chandlers purveyed all the supplies required by a ship: cordage, pitch, paint, sails, etc.
Shipping-Related Terms
Harbor mole A seawall built out from land to protect the harbor and narrow the passage through which ships could enter.
Jetty A small pier built out into the water for the use of small craft.
Ships A variety of ships were used in the ancient Mediterranean. Some were:
Cutter A light, narrow vessel used for carrying dispatches, intercepting smugglers, etc.
Flotilla A varying number of ships detached from a fleet.
Liburnian also bireme A lighter warship with two banks of oars. It was named for the Liburni, a piratical Illyrian people who were believed to have been the first to add a second level of oars, to give their predatory pirate ships extra speed.
Merchantmen Capacious vessels with a much greater width to length ratio than warships. They were propelled by sails rather than oars, though they used oars to maneuver in and out of harbor. They ranged from quite small vessels to huge grain ships for hauling the Egyptian grain harvest to Italy.
Penteconter A Greek galley with fifty oars on a single level.
Skiff A small rowboat.
Trireme The standard warship of the time. It was rowed with oars arranged on three levels, or “banks.” With so many rowers it was the fastest and most powerful ship, capable of ramming an enemy vessel. They carried marines for boarding the enemy, manning the catapults, etc.
SPQR Senatus Populusque Romanus The Senate and the People of Rome. The formula embodying the sovereignty of Rome. It was used on official correspondence, documents, and public works.
Toga The outer robe of the Roman citizen. It was white for the upper class, darker for the poor and for people in mourning. The toga praetexta, bordered with a purple stripe, was worn by curule magistrates, by state priests when performing their functions, and by boys prior to manhood. The toga picta, purple and embroidered with golden stars, was worn by a general when celebrating a triumph, also by a magistrate when giving public games.
Temple of Bellona A unique temple located in Rome outside the walls of the city. Its priests, the fetiales, solemnified a declaration of war by casting a spear into a plot of land before the temple designated as enemy territory.
Triclinium A dining room.
Triumph A ceremony in which a victorious general was rendered semi-divine honors for a day. It began with a magnificent procession displaying the loot and captives of the campaign and culminated with a banquet for the Senate in the Temple of Jupiter. Every general wanted a triumph and it was a tremendous boost for a political career.
Table of Contents
COVER
TITLE
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
GLOSSARY
SPQR IX: The Princess and the Pirates Page 24