which I have a jolly good lot at Antium, or else count the waves: the rough weather won't allow me to catch shad. At writing my soul rebels utterly. I am even debating settling down at Antium, and spending the rest of my life here; and I really wish I had been a magistrate here rather than in Rome. You have been wiser in your generation and made a home for yourself at Buthrotum:2 but you may take my word for it that this township of Antium runs your borough very close. To think of there being a place so near Rome, where there are lots of people who have never seen Vatinius,3 where there is not a single soul save myself who cares whether any of our new commissioners are alive or dead, where no one intrudes upon me, though everyone is fond of me. This, this is the very place for me to play the politician: for there in Rome, besides being shut out of politics, I am sick of them. E. O. WINSTEDT A Father Entertains His Daughter I shall leave Formiae on the first of May, so as to reach Antium on the third. There are games at Antium from the fourth to the sixth of May, and Tullia1 wants to see them. Antium with its hard-packed shore. E. O. WINSTEDT F. J. MILLER A Visitor's Impression of Antium Next in order comes Antium, which city is likewise destitute of any port; it is situated on rocks, and about 260 stadia distant from Ostia. At the present day it is devoted to the leisure and recreation of statesmen from their political duties, whenever they can find time, and is in consequence covered with sumptuous mansions suited to such rusticating. The inhabitants of Antium had formerly a marine, and even after they were under subjection to the Romans, took part with the Tyrrhenian pirates. H. C. HAMILTON Nero natus est Anti post VIIII mensem quam Tiberius excessit, XVIII. Kl. Ian. tantum quod exoriente sole, paene ut radiis prius quam terra contingeretur. Suet. Nero 6. Memmio Regulo et Verginio Rufo consulibus natam sibi ex Poppaea filiam Nero ultra mortale gaudium accepit appellavitque Augustam, dato et Poppaeae eodem cognomento. Locus puerperio colonia Antium fuit, ubi ipse generatus erat. Iam senatus uterum Poppaeae commendaverat dis votaque publice susceperat, quae multiplicata exsolutaque. Et additae supplicationes templumque Fecunditati et certamen ad exemplar Actiacae religionis decretum Quae fluxa fuere, quar tum intra mensem defuncta infante. Rursusque exortae adulationes censentium honorem divae et pulvinar aedemque et sacerdotem. Atque ipse ut laetitiae, ita maeroris inmodicus egit. Tac. Ann. xv. 23. O diva, gratum quae regis Antium. Hor. C. i. 35, 1. A goddess known as Fortuna. Many temples were built in the city to other divinities, too, notably Aesculapius, and their sacred treasures were note worthy. Nero's Birth-place Nero was born at Antium nine months after the death of Tiberius, on the eighteenth day before the Kalends of January, just as the sun rose, so that he was touched by its rays almost before he could be laid upon the ground. J. C. ROLFE Nero, Though Said to Have Been a Monster of Cruelty, Was Inconsolable at the Death of His Baby Daughter During the consulship of Memmius Reguius and Verginius Rufus (A. D. 63) Poppaea was delivered of a daughter. The exultation of Nero was beyond all mortal joy. He called the new-born infant Augusta, and gave the same title to her mother. The child was brought into the world at Antium, where Nero himself was born. The senate before the birth had offered vows for the safe delivery of Poppaea. They fulfilled their obligations and voted additional honors. Days of supplication were appointed; a temple was voted to the goddess of fecundity; athletic games were instituted on the model of the religious games practised at Antium; . But these honors were of short duration: the infant died in less than four months, and the monuments of human vanity faded away. But new modes of flattery were soon displayed: the child was canonized for a goddess; a temple was decreed to her, with an altar, a bed of state, a priest, and religious ceremonies. Nero's grief, like his joy at the birth, was without bounds or measure. ARTHUR MURPHY O pleasant Antium's goddess queen.5 SIR THEODORE MARTIN ANXUR OR TARRACINA (TERRACINA) After many contests with Rome, this Volscian town was finally colonized in 329 B. C. by the Romans, who thus assured their rights in the place. Its situation made it a strategic point of importance, the pass near by (Ad Lautulas, where a fierce battle was fought in 315 B. C. by the Romans and Samnites) being an entrance from southern to central Italy and the road from here being clear to Rome. Its situation, too, on the Appian Way, contributed to its importance, for it was evidently one of the stopping places for travelers on this road. Horace, notably, speaks of it as a break in his journey to Brundisium in 37 B. C., a trip which he made in company with Maecenas and several other prominent Romans for the purpose of bringing about a reconciliation between Augustus and Antony who had recently landed in Italy. . The promontory offered a superb view and from 200 B. C. the place was much sought by wealthy Romans. Cicero speaks of "my lodging place at Tarracina" (ad Fam. vii. 23), and Martial's fondness for it is shown in the passage quoted below. Both Tiberius and Domitian frequented the place, as did Galba also. The town possessed a fine forum with a temple of Augustus and a small amphitheatre. It had, too, an excellent harbor. Anxur was the Volscian name for the place, while the Roman one was Tarracina (Plin. N. H. iii. 59). Milia tum pransi tria repimus atque subimus inpositum saxis late candentibus Anxur. huc venturus erat Maecenas optimus atque Cocceius, missi magnis de rebus uterque legati, aversos soliti conponere amicos. hic oculis ego nigra meis collyria lippus inlinere; interea Maecenas advenit atque Cocceius, Capitoque simul Fonteius, ad unguem factus homo, Antoni, non ut magis alter, amicus. Hor. S. i. 5, 25-33. 'See introductory note. An Incident in a Famous Journey1 We take some food, then creep three miles or so To Anxur, built on cliffs that gleam like snow; There rest awhile, for there our mates were due, Maecenas and Cocceius, good and true, Sent on a weighty business, to compose A feud, and make them friends who late were foes. I seize on the occasion, and apply A touch of ointment to an ailing eye. Meanwhile Maecenas with Cocceius came, Who knew, as few have known, Antonius' mind. JOHN CONINGTON |