day-time, the lecticae took the place of our carriages and hacks, for they could also be hired by the hour, and there were stands of them (castra lecticariorum) in several frequented quarters.
49
Lava Blocks. The usual material for pavements in central and southern Italy.
50
Sicambri. A powerful German tribe, occupying in the time of Caesar the eastern bank of the Rhine, and extending from the Sieg to the Lippe.
51
Red Livery. The usual costume of the litter-bearers in the time of the emperors.
52
Woolly-headed Ethiopians. The name Ethiopian Αἰθίοπες in its more restricted sense, applies to the inhabitants of Upper Egypt; in a more general meaning to the whole population of North-eastern Africa, and South-western Asia. According to Herodotus (VII, 70) the Ethiopians dwelling in the East had smooth, those in the West woolly hair.
53
Baths (thermae, θέρμαι, that is “warm baths”) were public bathing-establishments on the grandest scale, modelled after the Greek wrestling-schools. See Becker, Gallus III, p. 68 and following.
54
Cumae (Κύμη) now Cuma, the oldest of the Greek colonies in Italy, beyond the mountain range that bounds the bay of Baja on the west; it is only a few thousand paces from Baja.
55
In front walked eight or ten slaves. Such a vanguard was customary among people of distinction, even when they went on foot.
56
Lusitanians. A people living in the region now known as Portugal, between the Tagus (Tajo, Tejo) and Durius, (Duero, Douro.)
57
Caecubum. A district on the shores of the bay of Gaeta, famous for its wine. See (Horace Od. I, 20, 9 and I, 37, 5) where it is said, that it would be positively sinful to bring Caecubian wine from the cellar with other kinds on ordinary occasions (antehac nefas depromere Caecubum cellis avitis, etc.).
58
Erymanthian boar. So called from Mt. Erymanthus in Arcadia, where the animal lived until slain by Hercules.
59
Dionysus. A surname of Bacchus.
60
Libation. Wine poured as an offering to the gods.
61
Vestibulum. The space in front of the house-door (fores) which in the time of the imperial government was frequently covered with a portico.
62
Adopted Daughter. The adoption of a child in ancient Rome was regulated by very strict laws. Adoption in its narrower sense (adoptio) extended to persons who were still under paternal authority; with self-dependent persons the so-called arrogatio took place. With women this last form was entirely excluded.
63
Atrium. From the door of the house a narrow passage (ostium) led to the first inner court, the atrium, so-called because this space, where the hearth originally was, was blackened by the smoke (ater). The atrium, which in the more ancient Roman houses possessed the character of a room with a comparatively small opening in the roof, and afterwards resembled a court-yard, was at first the central point of family life, the sitting-room, where the industrious house-keeper sat enthroned among her slaves. When republican simplicity gave way to luxury, the atrium became the hall devoted to the reception of guests, and domestic life was confined to the more retired apartments.
64
Triclinium, (triple couch) really the sofa on which three, and sometimes even more persons reclined at table; the name was also given to the dining-room itself, which comprised the second inner court-yard, the so-called peristyle or cavaedium.
65
Cimbrian Peninsula, now called Jutland.
66
Guttoni. A German race on the lower Vistula.
67
Aestui. A German race living on the coast of Revel.
68
Scandii. Inhabitants of southern Sweden.
69
The Sense of Contrast was a conspicuous trait in Roman character. They were wont to heighten their appreciation of the joys of life by images of death, and the dining-room was intentionally placed so as to afford a view of tombs.
70
The Golden House (domus aurea). The name given to the magnificent palace of Nero, which extended from the Palatine Hill across the valley and up again as far as the gardens of Macaenas on the Esquiline. It contained an enormous number of the choicest works in statuary. Vespasian had a large part of this building pulled down.
71
The Seven Hills. Contempt for all who lived in the provinces was peculiar to all Romans, even the lowest classes of the populace. Thus Cicero says: “Cum infimo cive romano quisquam amplissimus Galliae comparandus est?” (Can even the most distinguished Gaul be compared with the humblest Roman citizen?) This prejudice extended to later centuries, though under the first emperors numerous inhabitants of the provinces attained the rank of senator and reached the highest offices. It is very comical, when Juvenal, a freedman’s son, treats the “knights from Asia Minor,” (Equites Asiani) condescendingly, as if they were intruders, unworthy to unfasten the straps of his sandals. Inhabitants of the other provinces were held in higher esteem than the Greeks and Orientals. But even Tacitus (Ann. IV, 3.) regards it as an aggravation of the crime committed by the wife of Drusus, that Sejanus, for whom she broke her marriage-vow, was not a full-blooded Roman, but merely a knight from Volsinii.
72
The Formal Gardens of Rome. The taste of the Romans in regard to the art of gardening resembled that shown at Versailles. The eloquence with which individual authors urge a return to nature (Hor. Epist. I, 10, Prop. I, 2, Juv. Sat. III, etc.,) only proves that the opposite course was universal. Clipping bushes and trees into artificial forms was considered specially fashionable. Thus Pliny the younger, in his description of the Tuscan villa (Ep. V, 6,) writes: “Before the colonnade is an open terrace, surrounded with box, the trees clipped into various shapes; below it a steep slope of lawn, at whose foot, on both sides of the path, stand bushes of box, shaped into the forms of various animals. On the level ground the acanthus grows delicately, I might almost say transparently. Around it is a hedge of thick closely-clipped bushes, and around this hedge runs an avenue of circular form, adorned with box clipped into various shapes, and small trees artistically trimmed. The whole is surrounded by a wall, concealed by box.” Then towards the end of the letter: "The box is clipped into a thousand shapes, sometimes into letters, that form the name of the owner or gardener.”
73
Jupiter Capitolinus. The priests of certain divinities were called Flamines and the chief of these was the Flamen Dialis or priest of Jupiter – called Capitolinus from the hill on which the temple stood. Tacitus (Ann. III, 71,) tells us of the prohibition here spoken of.
74
The Praetorship and Consulship were still, under the emperors, an object of ardent desire, in spite of the fact that these offices had been stripped of all power.
75
Gades, now Cadiz, was famous for its dancers of easy morality. (See Juv. Sat. XI, 162.)
76
Thyrsus, (θύρσος) a pole or wand wreathed with vine and ivy leaves, and borne by Bacchus and by Bacchantes.
77
Bridge of Nero. One of this emperor’s mad undertakings was the construction, at an enormous expense, of a perfectly useless bridge aslant across the bay of Baiae.
