3. istorum mensa that table of rascals, Rolfe translates. choragum: the choregus at Athens was in charge of bringing out the chorus and had to see that it was properly equipped with costumes and paraphernalia. A person impious enough to undertake this masque of the gods, it may be implied, had first to be discovered.

5. Mallia: supposed by some to be the name of the choregus; by others, to be the name of the place where the banquet was held. The epigram is, doubtless, intentionally obscure.

6. impia dum Phoebi, etc.: while Caesar was impiously playing the false rôle of Phoebus. For the use of mendacia see Introd. II. § 4. l.

7. dum nova divorum, etc.: while he feasted on novel debaucheries of the gods; a use of cenare possibly without a parallel.

13. Tortorem: (Apollo) the Tormentor. It is not known where this statue or shrine of the god stood in the city. Shuckburgh, in his note on this passage, suggests that it was either in proximity to the place where slaves were examined for testimony or near the quarter where tortores lived. He refers to Seneca, Ep. Mor. V. 11. 4. The title is generally supposed to refer to Apollo as the flayer of Marsyas.

15. Corinthiorum: sc. vasorum; Corinthian bronzes; costly works of art made of an alloy of gold, silver and copper. Cf. Tib. 34. 1, Corinthiorum vasorum pretia. praecupidus: excessively fond; found only here, a characteristic compound coined by our author: see Introd. II. § 1. b.

Corinthiarius :

18. argentarius: see note to page 47, line 8. coined as a sarcastic appellation of Augustus, on the analogy of argentarius; used in inscriptions of slaves in charge of vasa Corinthia: a Corinthiis, C. I. L. X. 692; or Corinthiarii, C. I. L. VI. 8757. Rolfe translates in iambics: In silver once my father dealt, now in Corinthians I'. The verses are trochaic.

19. inter proscriptos: Antony, not Octavian, is said to have placed the name of Verres on the lists for this cause; quoniam Corinthiis cessurum se ei negavisset: cf. Plin., N. H. XXXIV. 2. 6.

22. bis classe victus: see note to page 53, line 18.

23. aleam: cf. Claud. 33. 2, Aleam studiosissime lusit; see Introd. II. § 4. l.

Chapter 71. Morals of Augustus. Gambling Proclivities

6

24. Ex quibus, etc. whether actual offenses' or mere scandals' Suetonius leaves it to his readers to decide. He relates all the scandalous

stories he can collect from every quarter and then passes judgment on them.

25. impudicitiae: unnatural vice, here and on page 27, line 7, and in Vesp. 13.

26. lautitiarum: extravagant luxuries; cf. page 24, line 2, Munditiarum lautitiarumque studiosissimum.

27. murrinum: murra was probably a red and white agate used by the Romans in highly prized vessels and vases, while imitations in glass are also mentioned; cf. Juv. VII. 133, empturus pueros, argentum, murrina, villas.

28. instrumento regio: furniture of the palace; cf. page 89, line 23, Instrumenti eius et suppellectilis parsimonia. See note to page 70, line 15. assiduissimi usus: intended for every-day use; see Introd. II.

§ 4. b.

29. Circa libidines haesit: he continued to be involved in intrigues with women. Libidines is here used in contrast to impudicitiae in line 25, above; cf. page 27, line 7, impudicitiae et adulteriorum. See Introd. II. § 5. f. (3).

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31. ab uxore: Dio (LVIII. 2. 5) relates that Livia was once asked how it was that she had such control over Augustus. Her reply, he states, was that she was always most discreet, herself, and gladly did whatever met with his approval, but otherwise did not meddle in his affairs and affected to take no notice of the playthings of his passions'. Tacitus (Ann. V. 1. 5) speaks of Livia as uxor facilis et cum artibus mariti. Aleae rumorem, etc. the numerous tabulae lusoriae inscribed on the marble pavement of the basilica Iulia still bear silent testimony to the open gambling in ancient Rome, however severe may have been the penalties prescribed against it. Both Claudius and Domitian are said to have been inveterate gamesters; cf. Claud. 33. 2; Dom. 21.

Page 88. 2. praeterquam Decembri mense: the license of the Saturnalia, December seventeenth to twenty-third, which even placed slaves on an equal footing with their masters during this period of good cheer, allowed free scope for one's gambling propensities, law or no law. Cf. Macr., Sat. I. 7. 37; Mart. IV. 14. 6 ff. On the Saturnalia see Fowler, Rom. Fest. 268 ff. But Augustus was deterred by no compunctions on any day of the year.

3. profestis diebus: working days, as well as holidays; see Paul. ex Fest. 252, M.: Profestum diem dicebant qui festus non erat. Cf. Dom.

21: alea se oblectabat, etiam profestis diebus matutinisque horis; Liv. XXXIV. 3. 9, ut carpentis festis profestisque diebus vectemur.

per urbem

· 4. Autographa: a borrowed word; see Introd. II. § 1. d. stula local ablative; see Introd. II. § 4. r.

5. accesserunt convivae: there were, besides, as guests.

epi

6. Vinicius et Silius: for Vinicius see note to page 82, line 32. A Gaius Silius was consul in 13 A.D.; see Aug. 101. 1. Inter cenam : cf. line 27, below; see Introd. II. § 5. l. (2).

7. gerontikos: the Greek word, yeρovtɩкŵs, like an old man; see Introd. II. § 1. d. Such games were especially recognized as diversions for old men. Cf. Cic., Cat. Mai. 16. 58: nobis senibus ex lusionibus multis talos relinquant et tesseras.

8. talis only four sides of the tali were marked, the other two sides being rounded; whereas all six sides of the tesserae were marked as are our dice to-day. On the tali the ace, unio, was on the side opposite the six points, senio; while the three points, ternio, and four points, quaternio, were on the other two sides. Four tali were used in playing. They were shaken in a box, called fritillus or turris, and thrown upon a gaming board. The highest throw, called Venus, was when all four came out with different numbers; the worst or lowest throw, called canis, when they were all the same. Only three tesserae were used, and the highest throw was three sixes; the lowest, three aces.

10. in medium conferebat: contributed to the pool.

12. Quinquatrus: at first a feast on March nineteenth, the fifth day after the Ides, it came finally to extend over five days, the eighteenth to the twenty-third, and to be permanently associated with Minerva. June thirteenth was known as Quinquatrus minusculae. See Fowler, Rom. Fest. 57 ff., 157 ff.

14. forumque aleatorum calfecimus: we kept the gaming board warm; forum is from forus.

15. magnis clamoribus rem gessit: exclaimed loudly against the way things went; i.e. against his own ill luck. ad summam : see Introd. II. § 5. b. (8).

18. retractum est: he got it back, retrenched his losses.

19. meo nomine: for my part.

21. quas manus remisi: the stakes that I let go.

23. benignitas enim mea, etc.: another instance of his calculating disposition, ratione commissa; cf. Aug. 69. 1. Or is it a jest?

25. Misi: I send; the so-called epistolary perfect.

28. par impar: even and odd; a game in the class of children's amusements, played by guessing whether the number of nuts held in the opponent's hand is odd or even. Cf. Hor., Sat. II. 3. 248, Ludere par impar.

Chapter 72. City Residences. Villas. Adornment of Houses

31. Scalas Anularias: the Ringmakers' Stairs. Platner (Anc. Rome2, 134) thinks a flight of steps at the north corner of the Palatine, leading up from the Forum behind the temple of Castor, may have been the stairway here mentioned. Yet the location seems hardly in keeping

postea

with our author's statements, primo iuxta Romanum forum in Palatio. Was the house of Calvus in Palatio, also? The language here does not so indicate. Calvi: Gaius Licinius Calvus, distinguished orator and poet, to whom his intimate friend Catullus addressed three of his extant odes (XIV, L, XCVI). He lived from 82 to 47 B.c.

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32. in Palatio: Dio (LIII. 16. 5 f.) makes this interesting statement: The royal residence is called palatium, not because it was actually ever thought proper that it should be so called, but because Caesar lived on the Palatine and had his chief residence there, and his house received from the entire hill a certain degree of fame that was also associated with the previous residence of Romulus on it. And for this reason, even if the emperor lodges somewhere else, his abiding place has the name of palatium.'

Page 89. 1. aedibus modicis Hortensianis: when the house of the orator Q. Hortensius, Cicero's friend and rival, who lived from 114 to 50 B.C., was given to Augustus by vote of the senate in 36 B.C., he dedicated the site already purchased to the use of the public for the construction of the temple of Apollo and other public works; cf. Dio XLIX. 15. 5. After the fire of 2 A.D. he rebuilt the house on a more magnificent scale, it seems, but dedicated the entire building to the public; cf. Dio (-Xiph.) LV. 12. 5, and see note to page 80, line 8. The house of Catiline, which adjoined it, was apparently incorporated in the new residence; cf. Gram. 17 docuitque in atrio Catulinae domus, quae pars Palatii tunc erat, etc. 2. ut in quibus, etc.: see Introd. II. § 8. j. Albanarum columnarum: columns of Alban stone. Lapis Albanus is a hard gray conglomerate of volcanic ashes and sand, together with fragments of stone. Its current name of peperino' is due to the presence in it, in large quantities, of scoriae which resemble peppercorns (piper). It was quarried in the Alban hills. See Platner, Anc. Rome2, 22 f.

3. sine marmore ullo, etc.: the floors of such houses were often made of the finest marbles, whether laid in mosaics or in larger slabs.

4. conclavia: a conclave was any kind of room that could be put under lock and key (clavis).

5. eodem cubiculo, etc.: cf. Aug. 82. 1. quamvis parum salubrem, etc.: although he found the city unwholesome in the winter and yet continued to spend his winters in the city. This is evidently the writer's meaning if the reading hiemaret is to be retained.

8. locus in edito singularis: a secluded place at the top of the house. 9. Syracusas: a name chosen, possibly, with reference to the study of Archimedes or to the use of such rooms in Syracuse, as has been suggested in the edition of H. T. Peck, who is followed by Rolfe (in the Loeb translation), on the basis of Nep., Dion. 9. 1: cum a conventu se remotum Dion domi teneret atque in conclavi edito recubuisset. But would not the charm

of the city's location and its literary associations of the past be sufficient reason, if reason be demanded, for an emperor's choice of this name for his рovýρlov (' reflectory')? technyphion: Tex vútov, little studio, like Texνúdρlov; a diminutive of réxvn. See Introd. II. § 1. d. 10. suburbanum: sc. praedium; suburban manor.

11. in domo Maecenatis: on the Esquiline, considered a healthy spot by Horace (Sat. I. 8. 14): Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus. Cf. Tib. 15. 1: Esquilias in hortos Maecenatianos transmigravit totumque se ad quietem contulit.

Dio LV. 7. 5.

Maecenas made Augustus heir to his estate; cf.

12. insulasque Campaniae: Capreae, modern Capri; Aenaria, modern Ischia; Prochyta, modern Procida; Pandataria, modern Vantotene. Capreae was particularly attractive to the emperor; cf. Aug. 92. 2.

13. Lanuvium, Praeneste, Tibur: modern Cività Lavinia, Palestrina and Tivoli, respectively; all less than twenty-five miles from Rome. Horace sings in praise of the refreshing atmosphere of Praeneste and Tibur (Od. III. 4. 22-24):

seu mihi frigidum

Praeneste seu Tibur supinum

Seu liquidae placuere Baiae;

but would have Tibur be his last resting-place in old age; see Od. II. 6. 5 ff. Is the court poet also voicing imperial preferences?

14. Herculis templi: spacious enough to contain a notable library and famous enough to invite frequent mention; cf. Gell. XIX. 5. 4, IX. 14. 3; Juv. XIV. 86 ff.; Mart. I. 12. 1, IV. 57. 9; Prop. V. 7. 80 f.