Everyday Life In Rome

Dr. B. R. AMBEDKAR
OPEN UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

HYDERABAD-500 083

EVERYDAY X, I F E
IN ROME

IN THE TIME OF CAESAR
AND CICERO

by
H. A. TREBLE, M.A.

and
K. M. KING, B.A.

Assistant Masters
Selhurst Grammar
Crovdon

OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

AMEN HOUSE, E.G. 4
London. Edinburgh Glasgow New York
Toronto Melbourne Capetown Bombay

Calcutta Madras
HUMPHREY MILFORI>

PUBLISHER TO THE
UNIVERSITY

FIRST PUBLISHED IQ3O
RERRINTTED 1931, IQ32* I935

PRINTED IN ORBAT BRITAIN

PREFACE

THIS little book on Roman life is intended in the first place
for young pupils beginning the study of Latin. They will
doubtless be attracted more by the illustrations than by the
text ; but as the text is largely a translation of the illustrations
into language simple enough to be understood by youthful
minds, it is hoped that even a preliminary reading will be
found to make an instructive beginning and to do something
towards creating an intelligent interest which can gradually
develop into real knowledge. A second and more intensive
study of the book, it is suggested, can profitably be made in
the year of the School Leaving Examination when the Latin
terms, largely neglected during the first-year reading, can
really be assimilated.

The style of the book has been left as simple as possible
and all unnecessary detail has been avoided. At the same time
we believe that the facts given are in every respect in line
with the most recent researches of modern archaeology.

Our warmest thanks are due to Dr. E. Norman Gardiner,
who has shown the keenest interest in the book throughout
its preparation and who has placed at our disposal the benefits
of his ripe scholarship and practical experience ; and to the
officers of the Clarendon Press for the choice of illustrations.

Three books have been largely used for reference. First,
there is W. Warde Fowler's brilliant and absorbing study of
Social Life at Rome in the Age of Cicero; secondly, for all
technical matters, H. Stuart Jones's Companion to Roman
History; thirdly, for illustrations from Latin literature, The
Life of Rome, compiled by Messrs. Rogers and Harley.

CROYDON, H. A. T.

December 1929. K. M. K.

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations . ... 8

I. A Brief Sketch of Roman History . . u

II. The City of Rome 19

III. Roman Houses in Town and Country . . 30

IV. A Typical Day in the Life of a Roman . 43
V. Roman Dress 50

VI. Roman Boyhood and Education . . . 54

VII. Public Amusements 65

VIII. Marriage and Funeral Customs 73

IX. Trade and Money 80

X. Slavery 86

XI. Roads and Travel 90

XII. The Roman Calendar .... 97

XIII. The Roman Army: Ranks and Organization . 100

XIV. The Roman Army in the Field . . .108
XV. The Roman Army in Triumph . . . 115

XVI. Naval Affairs 118

XVII. The Religion of the Romans . . .121

XVIII. Festivals and Sacrifices . . . .132

XIX. The Government of Rome . . . .138

XX. The Roman Law-Courts .... 147

XXI. Our Debt to Rome 151

Appendix I . , . . . 157

Appendix II . . . . . .158

Index . . . .... 159

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

The Pont du Card. Photograph, Ltvy et Neurdein reunis Frontispiece
The Foundation of Rome. A typical Italian hill town. Photograph

by Mr. R. Gardner 10

Ancient Italy 12

An Etruscan Nobleman and his Wife. Photograph, Alinari , . 15

Etruscan Peasant ploughing. Photograph, Alinari . . 15

Warfare in Latium about 350 B.C. Photograph, Alinari. . . 16

Julius Caesar. Photograph, Anderson 17

Rome 20

The Isola Tiberina. Photograph by Mr. Percival Hart . . 23

In the Forum. Photograph by Mr. R. Gardner .... 25
A Triumphal Arch set up by the Emperor Titus. Photograph by

Mr. R. Gardner 27

The Via Sacra, Photograph by Mr. Percival Hart ... 29

Excavations in progress at Pompeii 31

A Burial Urn 32

A typical Pompeian house. After Mau, 'Pompeji in Leben und Kunst* 32

Ground-plan of the House of the Vettii 34

The Inner Courtyard of the House of the Vettii. Photograph, Brogi . 36
A Wall-painting in the House of the Vettii. Photograph, Brogi . 38
The Painted Altar of the Household Gods. Photograph by Mr. Perci-
val Hart 39

A Roman House at Ostia. Restoration by I. Gismondi, 1921 . . 41

Plan of Villa Rustica at Boscoreale 42

A Roman Lamp. British Museum 43

A Roman Water-clock 44

The Forum of Trajan. After E. J. Banks in 'Art and Archaeology* ,

vol. iv, by permission 47

A Roman at Table 48

Plan of the Seating at a Roman dinner-table. After W. Warde
Fowler, in 'Social Life at Rome', by permission of Messrs. Mac-

ntillan & Co., Ltd. 49

Roman Dress. British Museum 51

A Roman Bridegroom and his Bride. From a sarcophagus in the

British Museum. Photograph, Mansell 53

Roman Hairdressing 55

A Cloth Factory or perhaps a Tailor's Shop. Photograph, Alinari . 55
Four Stages in the Upbringing of a Roman boy. Photograph,

Giraudon ......... 57

An Abacus. By permission from 'The Encyclopaedia Britannica',

vol i, nth ed. 60

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 9

Ancient Writing Materials. British Museum .... 63

A Schoolmaster and his Pupils. Photograph, Provinzialmuseum, Trier 64
The Colosseum at Rome. Photograph, Anderson ... 67
A Fight in the Arena. Photograph, Anderson .... 68

A Chariot Race in the Circus ....... 71

Two Gladiators practising. Photograph, Provinzialmuseum, Trier . 72

A Roman Funeral. Photograph, Moscioni 77

A Columbarium ......... 79

An Italian Harbour. From Guglielmotti, ' Dissertazi oni della

Pontificia*. (Accademia Romano di Archeologia, 1881) . . 83
A Roman bronze As. British Museur.i ..... 85

Manumission by the rod 89

Augustus* Golden Milestone. Photograph by Mr. Percival Hart . 92
Travel by Land .... , 95

A Merchant Ship ......... 96

Uniforms of the Roman Army. From Cichorius, 'Die Reliefs der

Traianssa'ule' (G. Reimer, Berlin) 105

A Roman Transport Wagon . . . . . .107

Plan of a Roman Camp .... ... 108

Roman Legionary Soldiers building their camp. Photograph by the

German Archaeological Institute, Rome. . . . . in

A Roman Fort in the Mountains of Cumberland. From a drawing

byW.G.Collingwood . . , . . . .113

A Roman Battleship. Photograph, Alinari . . . . .119

A Grove on a Hill-top near Rome, sacred in Roman times. Photo-
graph by Mr. Percival Hart . . , , . .123
Statue of a Vestal Virgin. Photograph, Anderson. . .127

The State Religion of Rome. Restoration after Carey and Deam . 131
Suovetaurilia. Photograph, Giraudon . . . . 135
Law and Order. By courtesy of Muste Calvet, Avignon . .139
A Roman Senator. Sion House ...... 145

The Tarpeian Rock on the Capitol. Photograph, Alinari . . 149
A Roman Road ..... ... 155

I

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY

THE beginnings of Roman history are hidden by picturesque
but untrustworthy legends, in which, however, we can dis-
cover certain broad facts concerning the origins of the Roman
people. The Romans first appear in true history as one of
several tribes settled in the middle of the Italian peninsula.
We do not know where they came from in the first instance;
but they took up their abode just where the Apennine moun-
tains sweep nearest to the east coast, leaving a fairly wide plain
on their western side. Through this plain flows the Tiber in
an almost north-south direction ; it is the only river of any real
importance south of the Apennines.

The plain on the south-eastern side of the Tiber was known
as Latium, and tradition tells us that here, some twenty miles
from the sea, the City of Rome was built in 753 B.C. The
earliest settlement had been on the Alban Mount, away from
the river, but was transferred later to a second site, farther
north, which could be more easily defended against the most
dangerous of Rome's neighbours. These were the Etruscans,
who had come into Italy later than the Romans and had
settled in the region now known as Tuscany. Rome was built
on the southern bank of the Tiber, where a group of low hills,
rising fairly steeply from the river, formed a valuable means
of defence.

There were other alien settlers farther south the Greeks,
who had founded colonies round the southern shores of Italy.
In the early days, however, the Romans did not need to
trouble greatly about the Greeks, since they were separated
from them by hardy mountain tribes of similar race to them-
selves. These were the Samnites, whose country lay to the

la A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY
south-east of Latium. Yet another group of tribes of similar
race, the Umbrians, were settled in the mountains to the

Alps

ANCIENT
ITALY

English Miles

AFRICA

north-east. Thus, at the outset of her history as we know it,
Rome was one of a number of small cities in the plain of
Latium, with tribes of the same race in the mountains to the
east and a dangerous, restless enemy to the north.

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY 13

In spite of her defensive position, it would appear that at
some time in the sixth century B.C. the Etruscans succeeded
in capturing Rome, but the conquerors were driven out by
a rebellion of the Roman nobles in 509 B.C. Tarquin the
Proud, the king who was expelled, tried to regain the throne
with the help of Etruscan armies, but without success.

The Romans hated the very name of king and they now
set up a republic. The city was governed by two consuls,
elected to hold office for one year. This was too short a period
for them to become tyrannical ; moreover, one consul could
always act as a check on the other. This arrangement lasted
till the Empire was founded by Augustus nearly five centuries
later. (Five hundred years ago from now, the Wars of the
Roses had not been fought. When we think how many
changes there have been in the government of England since
then, it is evident that the Romans chose for themselves a
form of government that stood the test of time remarkably
well. In this respect they showed at a very early date one of
their greatest characteristics.)

At the beginning of the Republic, Rome was only one
of the cities of Latium, and, though the most outstanding of
them, she was not very much more powerful than the rest.
This can be seen from the treaties that were made between
the various Latin cities, by which each had the right of trade
and intermarriage with the people of all the other cities in
the league, including Rome. Now it always happens sooner
or later in every group of individuals, or of cities, or of
nations, that one becomes more powerful than the rest. Very
soon it was clear that Rome would be the chief city in the
Latin league. When the others saw this they were jealous,
and actually gave no help when Rome was nearly over-
whelmed by the Gauls from Northern Italy in 390 B.C.

But Rome weathered the storm, and coming out of her

i 4 A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY
danger stronger than before, she altered her treaties with the
Latin cities so that, while each might trade and intermarry
only with the Romans, Rome had the advantage of both
trading and intermarrying with the citizens of all the other
cities* In this way the Latins were the first to pay the penalty
of standing against Rome. At the same time Rome made
an alliance with the great African city of Carthage, which
promised to help in keeping Rome at the head of the league.
Rome strengthened her hold on Latium by building the first
of her great military roads (the Via Latino) and founding
fortresses (coloniae) at points of military importance.

The extension of her power over the whole of Latium
brought Rome into conflict with the hardy mountaineers of
Samnium. They proved to be formidable enemies, and
Rome suffered one of her greatest humiliations when a whole
army surrendered at a place known as the Caudine Forks in
the course of the Samnite Wars. But in the end Rome pre-
vailed, in spite of a combined movement against her by the
Samnites, the Umbrians, and the Etruscans. Her victory was
due to the advantages of her geographical position and the
fine character of her citizens.

The war with Samnium brought Rome to the borders of
the Greek lands in the south Magna Graecia, as that part of
Italy was called. The leading city was Tarentum ; and it was
clear that against this city Rome would soon have to pit her
strength. . The Greeks sought an ally in Pyrrhus, king of
Epirus in north-western Greece, a king who dreamed of
rivalling the conquests of Alexander the Great. It is true
that he won several battles at the expense of the Romans, but
at such a cost that he was obliged to retiirn to Greece and
leave the Greek colonies to fall into the hands of Rome.
Thus, by the year 270 B.C., Rome was mistress of all Italy
south of the Apennines, though we must note that she had

An Etruscan nobleman and his wife. A terra-cotta sculpture fiom an
Etruscan tomb

A group of bronze figures of the sixth century B. c., representing an
Etruscan peasant ploughing. Behind him stands a figure of the
goddess Minerva

THE ETRUSCANS

16 A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY
made no attempt to spread her power over the valley of the
Po^ between the Apennines and the Alps.

Rome was now well on the road of conquest and could not
draw back. Before long a struggle began between Rome and
Carthage, This great trading city on the north coast of Africa

WARFARE IN LATIUM ABOUT 350 B.C.

An early bronze group found at Palestrina, showing two bearded

warriors carrying the dead body of a comrade

was the most dangerous rival that Rome ever had, and the
war was a struggle for existence between the two cities.
Several times it seemed that Rome would be defeated, but
the patriotism of her citizens saved her again and again. At
last, in 146 B.C., Carthage was finally destroyed. Rome was
now mistress of the western Mediterranean, and had the
beginnings of an overseas empire. Her wealth and power
were increasing rapidly. Before long all the Mediterranean
lands were under her rule.

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY 17
These successes of Rome brought various difficulties and
problems with them. Victorious generals led home in triumph
thousands of slaves who did the work that the citizens had
done before. The rich became richer while the poor became
poorer. Then two brothers belonging to one of the noblest

JULIUS CAESAR

families, Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, tried to put matters
right. Amongst other things, they wanted to have the lands
belonging to the State divided more fairly amongst all the
citizens. There were many who opposed the plan, and
Tiberius, who set the laws aside in order to have his way, was
slain in a riot caused by his enemies. Caius met a similar fate
nine years later (123 B.C.) when he tried to carry on his
brother's work.

3632 B

18 A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY

These unruly years gave the army a chance to gain power.
Often a successful general that is, one who could reward
his men with much plunder had more power in the Roman
world than the consuls had, though sometimes generals
used their power to have themselves elected to the consulate.
Marius and the still more powerful Sulla were the first of
these great generals.

Their fame has been overshadowed by the greater fame
of two generals that came after them Pompey and Julius
Caesar. Pompey had great success in his wars in the East,
and for some time was the greatest man in the Roman world.
At this period Caesar was making a name for himself in
Gaul, i. e. modern France. Soon it became clear that neither
Pompey nor Caesar would be content with second place.
Civil war broke out. Pompey was defeated at Pharsalia in
Greece, and was murdered soon afterwards in Egypt.

Julius Caesar was now a king in all but name. He used
his power wisely and so much for the benefit of the people
that he was offered the crown, though Rome had been a
republic for more than four centuries. He refused to accept
the crown ; but there were some in Rome, including his friend
Brutus, who feared his power. Rather than see him king they
hatched a plot against him, and on 15 March 44 B.C. Caesar
was murdered in the Senate House.

The conspirators did not long remain in Rome, and soon
an army was led against them to avenge the death of Caesar.
Its leaders, who were called the Triumvirs, were Octavius
(Caesar's nephew and heir), Mark Antony, and Lepidus. At
Philippi in Greece the army of the conspirators was defeated.
The Triumvirs now had all the power in their hands, but
before long they quarrelled. Lepidus, the least important,
soon ceased to count. Antony stayed idling in Egypt at the
court of Queen Cleopatra, while Augustus (who had taken

A BRIEF SKETCH OF ROMAN HISTORY 19
his uncle's name, Caesar) made ready a fleet. With this he
utterly defeated Antony at Actium in 31 B.C. Antony killed
himself rather than fall into his rival's hands, and Augustus
Caesar became master of the Roman world.

For some years he carried on the pretence that there was
no change of government, but in 27 B. c., when he was consul
for the seventh time, he took the title of Princcps. This
marked the end of the Republic and the beginning of the
Empire.

Rome had not quite reached the limits of her territorial
power; but the civil strife of the preceding century had
weakened the moral strength of the Romans, and already
the seeds of decay had been sown. There were still great
conquests to be achieved, and great additions to be made to
Latin literature and art, but the old virtues of self-restraint
(continentid), steadfastness (constantia), and manliness (virtus)
had almost vanished from the Roman character.

II
THE CITY OF ROME

IN the last chapter we touched briefly upon the geographical
advantages of Rome. These consisted of the hills, the river
Tiber, and the broad plain of Latium across which a system
of military roads was constructed. The earliest settlement
was on the Palatine, but the later City included a number of
other hills. They were the Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, and
Caelian Hills, all spurs of the table-land abutting on the
river; the isolated Janiculum on the western side of the
Tiber ; and the lesser Pincian and Aventine Hills to the north
and south of the main group. The valleys between these hills
were swampy and often flooded in spite of the great drainage
sewers (cloacae) that emptied into the river.

B2

ao THE CITY OF ROME

The Tiber, which formed the chief defence against Etrus-
can attacks, was a swift and turbulent stream, discoloured
with the mud that it carried down from the mountains. This
mud formed dangerous shoals at the river-mouth and for a
long time prevented Ostia from becoming as important as
the more distant Puteoli, the chief port of Rome. The Tiber

ROJVIE

English yard*

gave easy access to the mountains of the interior on the one
side and to the coast on the other ; yet Rome was far enough
from the estuary to be safe from attacks from the sea. When
the network of military roads was complete (the Via Latina,
Appia, Flaminia, and others less important) the strategic
position of Rome was unrivalled in the whole of Italy.

In order to get some idea of the City of Rome, let us
go back in imagination to Caesar's day and walk through
the ancient streets filled with the crowds and noisy with the

THE CITY OF ROME ai

bustle of the metropolis of the world. At that time the popu-
lation was about half a million many times greater than that
of the earliest days.

It may well be supposed that the wall built by Servius
Tullius, the sixth king of Rome (578-535 B.C.), embraced a
good deal of open space where refugees from outside might
encamp with their possessions in time of war. When wars
broke out, the country-folk would come in with
. . droves of mules and asses,

Laden with skins of wine,
And endless flocks of sheep and goats.

And endless herds of kine,
And endless trains of wagons

That creaked beneath the weight
Of corn-sacks and of household goods.

But by the first century B.C. all the space inside the wall was
filled up and already buildings were being erected outside.
The working classes were crowded together in great tenement
blocks, for only the wealthiest could afford separate houses.
Space was valuable, and the streets were often mere alleys,
so Julius Caesar made a law that no vehicles should use the
streets in the day-time. We can picture ancient Rome an
overcrowded city of narrow lanes with overhanging houses,
not unlike the oldest parts of London.

We will begin our imaginary tour from the Janiculum Hill
on the right bank of the Tiber. Here was the earliest fortress,
to guard the city from possible attacks by the Etruscans from
the north. The road we follow runs down the slope towards
the Pons Aemilius by which we cross the Tiber. On our left,
upstream, we can see a ship-like island in the river, on which
stands the earliest hospital in Rome, dedicated to Aescula-
pius, the god of healing. To the right is the open mouth of

2* THE CITY OF ROME

the Cloaca Maxima, the main sewer which drains away the
water from the low-lying parts of the city. Beside it is
the ancient wooden bridge, the Pons Sublicius, which Ancus
Martins built. When Lars Porsena came with his Etruscan
armies in 508 B.C. to help Tarquin the Proud to regain the
throne, the Janiculum was taken by storm, as Macaulay tells
in The Lay of Haratius. Straight towards the Pons Sublicius
swept down the Etruscans, and only by the felling of the
bridge could the city be saved. Then Horatius with two
companions, Lartius and Herminius, guarded the bridge
while the citizens hewed down its piles with axes. Just as
the bridge fell, Lartius and Herminius leapt back to safety,
but Horatius stayed too long. It seemed that he must perish ;
but, haying commended his life to Father Tiber, he plunged
into the muddy yellow river, and swam ashore.

We leave the bridges behind us and enter the city, noticing
the splendid buildings on the Palatine Hill in front. We first
reach the Forum Boarium, the cattle market, where we are
reminded that the earliest Romans were workers on the soil.
From the market-place we turn to the left along the once
marshy hollow of Velabrum, leading directly to the Forum
Romanum, at the foot of the Capitoline Hill. Long since this
Forum has ceased to be what its name suggests a market-
place; it is now the centre of the city's life, where bankers
and money-lenders have taken the place of shopkeepers.

In the Forum we can realize that we are in the heart of the
chief city in the world. All around us rise famous structures
with the very history of Rome built into their walls. There,
on the north-west side, is the Temple of Concord, begun in
367 B.C. to mark the end of the struggle between Patricians
and Plebeians. Above it is the Tabularium, 1 where all the
public records are kept; and on the south side the Temple
1 The lower parts of this building still exist

THE CITY OF ROME 23

of Saturn, where the treasure of the city is stored. Not far
away, and facing down the Via Sacra, is the Rostra. This is
a public platform, whence orators address the crowd, and it
takes its name from the beaks of ships with which it is
adorned. These had been captured by Maenius in the Latin

A ship-like island in the river
The Isola Tiberina in the middle of the Tiber

Wars and they remained as a lasting trophy of the early
struggles of Rome. (In our day it has become the custom
to commemorate our victories with captured guns.)

Formerly, till Julius Caesar moved them, the Rostra stood
on the north-eastern side of the Forum below the Comitium.
In the very early days of the city this was marked out and
reserved as a consecrated place of assembly for the citizens,
Hard by, on the north side of the Forum, is the Curia where
the Senate meets.

24 THE CITY OF ROME

On other sides of the Forum there are great halls, called
basilicae, in which various kinds of public business are trans-
acted* They are simply roofed halls divided into aisles by
rows of columns. At one end there is a raised platform from
which the magistrate administers justice. They serve as
courts of justice, exchanges for merchants, and places of
meeting for the people at large.

The oldest basilica in the Forum is the Basilica Porcia,
built by Cato in 184 B.C., on the western side of the Comi-
tium. On the north side of the Forum stands the Basilica
Aemilia, which has been rebuilt in Julius Caesar's time. But
the greatest of the three is the Basilica Julia on the south side
of the Forum, adjoining the Temple of Saturn. This was
known at one time as the Basilica Sempronia, but as Julius
Caesar began its rebuilding on a larger scale, it now bears his
name. We approach its stately portico by a flight of steps
leading from the level of the Forum, and enter a magnificent
central hall. It is paved with multicoloured marble, and an
arcade of pillars bears a gallery with windows above. At the
far end we can see a series of compartments (tabernae) used
for business purposes. These are the chief basilicae at the
end of this first century B.C., but in the Imperial age there
will be several other and greater ones built to meet the
growing needs of public, business.

The Forum we see is not yet adorned with the columns,
statues, and triumphal arches which later Emperors will set
up. Round about us there are seething crowds who jostle
their way noisily as they go about their business or wait idly
for something to happen a speech from the Rostra, the
opening of a trial in the law-courts near by, or a religious
procession down the Sacred Way.

We will leave behind us the crowds of the Forum and climb
the Capitoline Hill. At the northern end is the citadel which

a6 THE CITY OF ROME

held out so stubbornly against the Gauls in 390 B.C. The
besiegers tried one night to take the fort by surprise after
climbing the cliff-like hill under cover of darkness ; but the
sacred geese, kept there for sacrifices, gave the alarm in time
and the attack failed. At the other end of the summit of this
hill is the great Temple of Jupiter, chief of the gods, who is
worshipped here together with Juno and Minerva. It is the
largest temple in Rome.

Outside, to the south, the hill descends by a steep cliff
known as the Tarpeian Rock (see p. 149). The name com-
memorates the fate of the unhappy Vestal, Tarpeia, who
betrayed the citadel to the Sabines in the legendary days of
Rome. It is said that Tarpeia met the Sabine captain, Titus
Tatius, at the fountain where she went at sunset to draw
water, and that she coveted the gold bracelet on the warrior's
arm. He gave it to her, and promised that she should have all
that his men wore on their left arms if she would open the
gates of the fortress to them. She consented, but when she
let in the enemy that night, Tatius struck her down with
the shield that he bore on his left arm, and, in fulfilment of
his promise, as his men passed in they threw down their
shields on the traitor's body. Having taken the fortress, the
Sabines buried Tarpeia under the rock that bears her name.

From the Capitoline Hill we look out north-westwards
beyond the walls to the Campus Martius, the great open
space in a bend of the Tiber, used for military exercises.
This 'Field of Mars 9 was once public land, and it reminds
us of the open spaces adjoining the later cities of London
and Paris; in the one we find St. Martin's Fields, in the
other the Champs-filys&s. In the two modern cities the
open spaces have long vanished; and as we look out on
the Campus Martius we can see that already buildings are
encroaching upon it. The largest that we see is the Circus

THE CITY OF ROME 27

Flaminius, which has stood there since the end of the wars
with Carthage. There is also Pompey's Theatre, and later
on there will be other great public buildings the Baths of

A triumphal arch set up in Rome by the Emperor

Titus. The Marble Arch in London is an imitation of

the Roman type

Nero and Agrippa, and the Pantheon, a burial-place for the
Emperors.

We now make our way back to the Forum and thence down
the uneven, crooked Via Sacra, lined with the oldest and
most honoured temples in Rome. On our right we pass first
the Temple of Castor, and then the spring of Juturna.
Macaulay has told how the twin-brother gods, Castor and

28 THE CITY OF ROME

Pollux, fought for the Romans in the battle of Lake Regillus
against the Latins : then, when the victory was won,
On rode they to the Forum,

While laurel-boughs and flowers,
From house-tops and from windows

Fell on their crests in showers.
When they drew nigh to Vesta,

They vaulted down amain,
And washed their horses in the well

That springs by Vesta's fane.

Leaving the Temple of Castor and this spring that is still
held in reverence, we reach the Temple of Vesta and the
house where her priestesses, the Vestal Virgins, live together
as in a convent. These virgins tend the never-dying fire
which symbolizes the life of the city. Opposite the temple
and in the middle of the Sacred Way stands the Regia, once the
royal palace but now the residence of the Pontifex Maximus.
Other temples will be crowded into this short street of less
than half a mile which is indeed the holiest ground in Rome.
We reach the eastern end of the Sacred Way and turn to
the right. Before continuing we can obtain a general view
of the Quirinal, Esquiline, and Caelian Hills that sweep in
a semicircle round the eastern side of the city: while just
before us is the place where the huge Flavian Amphitheatre
(better known as the Colosseum) will be built.

All this time, as we walk, we have had the Palatine Hill on
our right. This was the site of the first settlement from which
the city grew, and here are many relics, including the hut
of Romulus, which is connected with the early legendary
days. In the course of time this hill has become the most
fashionable quarter of the city, and here the Emperors will
build their palaces.
We now proceed along the hollow between the Palatine

THE CITY OF ROME 29

and Caelian Hills, till we reach the Porta Capena. Here the
Appian Way leaves the city, cleaving its straight route
right through the countryside to the hilly district of Samnium
which defied Rome so long. Along this straight, trefc-
bordered road we can see the tombs of famous Romans.

The Ff'a Sacra leading up to the Capitol

But we shall not go outside the city yet. Let us turn our
steps back instead to the huge building on our left, the Circus
Maximus. It stands between the Palatine and Aventine Hills.
Here chariot-races take place for the amusement of the idle
mob in the city who cannot or will not work. As we turn
the eastern corner of the Circus, at the foot of the Aventine,
we see before us, on the right, the cattle market where we
started our walk.

30 THE CITY OF ROME

In such a tour as that sketched out above, the oldest and
most famous parts of Rome would have been visited, but
little would be seen of those parts of the city where the
ordinary people dwell. Like those of modern London, the
inhabitants of ancient Rome lived on the outskirts away from
the busy heart of the city. The residential quarters were on
certain of the hills. The patricians lived on the Palatine;
wealthy plebeians had splendid mansions on the Quirinal. On
the other hills, the Esquiline, Caelian, and Aventine, which
formed a semicircular border round the middle of the city,
the working classes had their dwellings. The poorest were
to be found in the unhealthy hollows between the hills. In
these districts were very large tenement-buildings, called
tnsulae because they were whole blocks surrounded by
streets as 'islands' are surrounded by water. These tene-
ments were usually of three or four storeys, the ground floor
being occupied by shops (tabernae) with open fronts to the
street, and in these many families were herded together in
great discomfort. They were often rickety tumble-down
buildings, the upper parts of wood, top-heavy and liable to
collapse. They were usually in disrepair and often on fire.

Ill
ROMAN HOUSES IN TOWN AND COUNTRY

IT was said of Augustus Caesar that he found Rome made
of brick and rebuilt it in marble. Though this statement may
have something of exaggeration, it is none the less true that
Rome grew up in a somewhat haphazard fashion and not
according to any particular plan. We have seen already that
the majority of the ordinary people lived in great tenement

3a ROMAN HOUSES

buildings and that only the fairly well-to-do had houses of
their own. By the first century B.C., Greek influences had
brought many changes in the plan and arrangement of Roman

A burial urn made in the form of a one-roomed wooden hut. This

urn (made of brown earthenware) was found in a prehistoric

cemetery at Rome

Penttylfum txcdra

I-TT1

Posticum
A typical Pompeian house

houses, so that they were very different from the houses of
an earlier day. Our knowledge is derived from the ruins that
have been dug out at Pompeii and Ostia, and also on the
Palatine Hill in Rome.
These show us the latest forms of the houses of the wealthy,

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 33

but the earlier houses were much simpler. The simplest was
just a one-roomed hut, with a hole in the middle of the roof
to let out smoke and admit light. We know pretty well what
these early houses looked like because burial urns were made
like them and some of these have been found.

Asthe Romans became wealthier and more civilized they had
better houses . But they still kept the idea of the hut with a hole
in the roof, for the next type of house was merely an elaboration
of the primitive hut. There was one chief room, the atrium,
round which were grouped a few small and comparatively
unimportant apartments. The atrium was so called because
; its rafters were black (ater) with smoke from the family fire
that was lighted thefe. The life of the family, in all its dif-
ferent aspects, was centred in the atrium. It was the living-
room, where the work (such as spinning and weaving) was
done, and where the family ate their meals. The master of
the house kept his money-chest there, fastened to the floor.
Here, too, were the Penates, the gods that guarded the ^
material goods of the house, and the Lararium, the shrine
of the family gods. But perhaps the most striking feature of
the atrium was the square hole in the middle of the roof,
which sloped inwards so that rain-water drained into a
tank in the floor below: this was simply a survival from
the hut of early times. Beyond the atrium at the back of
the house there was a small garden ; and sometimes a small
open shop (taberna) would be found on each side of the
street-entrance. At Pompeii the so-called House of the
Surgeon gives a good example of a typical Roman house.

When Greek ideas were copied in Rome, houses became
larger and more elaborate. The most important change was
the addition of a whole new section, comprising an ppen
courtyard (peristylium), bordered on two or more sides with,
columns, and surrounded with additional rooms*

3632

34 ROMAN HOUSES

stytium and the adjoining rooms came to be the private part
of the house. Meals were eaten in the tablinum that lay
between the atrium and the newer parts, and the family gods
and shrines were moved out of the atrium, which was now
used as the chief reception-room, while the peristylium with

VE5TIEULUM

Ground-plan of the House of the Vettii

its adjoining apartments was reserved for private and family
use. We may note in passing that the new portions bore the
Greek name peristylium, while the original rooms had Latin
names (e.g. atrium, tablinum, aid).

Since the Roman houses were as varied in type as those of
to-day, it is difficult to find and describe a standard form of
Roman house. We shall gain a clearer impression of a typical
house by reconstructing in imagination one of the Pompeian
houses that have been dug out from the volcanic ash and lava

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 35

that buried them during the great eruption of Vesuvius in
A.D. 79. At Pompeii, it is true, Greek influences were very
strong; but the town was a favourite resort of wealthy
Romans, and no doubt their houses at Rome were similar to
those at Pompeii.
*

Let us visit the house of the Vettii, a wealthy family owning
many vineyards in the neighbourhood and having large
interests in the wine trade." The house is not particularly
large, but it owes its fame to the series of wall-paintings with
which it is adorned. It stands in a quiet part of Pompeii,
approached by a rather narrow cobbled street. The bareness
of the outer wall gi$es no hint~6Fthe magnificent interior.
The rooms ar mostly lighted from the inside, but some
houses opening on the main streets had spacious balconies
and large windows on the first floor. ' f

We step from the street into a lofty entrance-porch. Before
us is a massive pair of heavy folding-doors, but these are
opened only in the morning when the crowd of visitors and
: clients is collecting. We will enter by a smaller side-door and
pass through a lobby into the principal atrium (for this house
is rather unusual in having two atria, as we shall see).

This first atrium is a magnificent reception-room, having
a floor of mosaic, and containing several fine wall-paintings.
It is extremely lofty. In summer it is shady and cool, but
in winter it is less pleasant since there are no means of heating
it except by braziers of charcoal. There is very little furniture
in the atrium simply a few carved benches and a ceremonial
bed to remind us that the atrium was at one time the chief
living-room. Curtains divide the small side-rooms from the
main apartment. The massive beams of the ceiling slope
downwards towards the middle to the large square opening
that supplies the light. Below the opening there is a tank

C2

3 6 - ROMAN HOUSES

sunk in the floor to catch the rain-water from the roof.
Against the wall on each side of this tank there is a finely
carved money-chest on a pedestal.

Passing through the atrium we reach the spacious outer
courtyard . There is a covered verandah , supported on columns ,
round all four sides of the courtyard a pleasant garden-plot,
bright with flowers and shrubs, adorned with marble busts on
pillars, and furnished with four round marble tables. At each
corner and in the middle of the sides there is the tinkling
sound of water falling from fountains into marble basins.
Some of the fountains are of marble, but two are of bronze
in the shape of a boy holding a duck from whose beak the
water flows.

Let us now cross the courtyard to the main dining-room
at the opposite corner. It is one of the most famous
rooms in Pompeii on account of its wall-paintings. The
owners of the house are not ashamed of the trade that has
given them their wealth, and the most interesting pictures
in this room are those showing Cupids busy with all kinds
of trade and ordinary labour such as gardening, selling
flowers, pressing olives for oil, goldsmiths' work, and wine-
selling.

Leaving this beautiful room we pass into the main court-
yard once more in order to reach the smaller garden-court
that opens from it. This is obviously the one used only by
the family, for there are bedrooms and a smaller dining-room
adjoining it.

There are still the rooms opening from the main atrium
for us to visit. The domestic quarters are all grouped in the
north-east front corner of the house round a second small
atrium. This is of the usual type and devoted to family use.
Here we find the lararium, the shrine of the household gods.
This also is beautifully painted. The picture shows the genius

38 ROMAN HOUSES

of the master of the house holding the box of incense and the
libation dish with which the religious ceremonies of the house-
hold are carried out. On each side of him is the figure of
a Lar (household god), in an attitude of dancing, and hold-
ing a drinking-horn. Below the figures is the serpent that is
depicted on all such altars. See illustration, p. 39.

One of the wall-paintings in the triclinium of the House of the Vettii,

representing cupids as wine-sellers. On the left is a customer, to whom

the wine-merchant is handing a sample of wine

Crossing the chief atrium once more, we find on the
southern side a corridor that leads to a door in a side-street,
and also to the staircase that takes us to several small rooms
forming a second storey along the whole front of the house.
These would be used for various private purposes, some-
times as extra dining-rooms, sometimes as store-rooms, and
one of them, perhaps, as a schoolroom.

The houses at Ostia may have been more typically Roman*
At Pompeii there was plenty of space for building, so houses
could be spread out over a large area rather than built up-
wards to a great height. But at Ostia, as at Rome, the amount
of space for building was limited, and so it became the practice
to build houses of several storeys, adding to the accommoda-
tion by increasing the height but not the area of the building.

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 39

Rome was a noisy bustling place and unhealthy in the

summer months; so it became the fashion for rich men to

THE PAINTED ALTAR OF THE HOUSEHOLD GODS

have country houses within easy reach of the city. For in-
stance, Cicero, though not very well-to-do, at one time had
six country houses in various places near Rome. They were
luxurious and beautiful mansions, as we can tell from pictures

40 ROMAN HOUSES

of them that still exist and from the detailed descriptions to
be found in the letters of Cicero and other writings. These
country houses often served as convenient stopping-places
when a rich man was travelling. He would arrange the stages
of his journey so as to spend the night at a friend's house,
though for ordinary travellers there were taverns like those
that have been brought to light at Ostia and Pompeii.

Though such country houses (known as villae urbanae)
were largely modelled, as their name suggests, on the town
houses of the rich, there was one noticeable difference be-
tween the two. The peristylium was the most important part
of the country house, as all the pictures show. Sometimes,
indeed, there was no atrium at all ; and even if there were it
was usually behind the garden court and kept for private use.

In addition to the rooms found in a town house, there
were many others added to a villa urbana to suit the tastes of
the owner. There would be a picture gallery in some houses ;
in others a library, like that of Lucullus, where Cicero used
to study when staying at one of his villas near by. There
would be hot-air baths, and sometimes a swimming-tank.
Outside there were gardens, arbours, and fish-ponds; and
colonnades to relieve the flatness of the blank outside walls.
Usually the villas were built in positions commanding fine
views, for the Romany as a whole had a great love for the
beauties of nature.

Besides the country houses of wealthy city men, there were
the farmsteads known as villae rusticae. One of the best
known is that at Boscoreale, near Pompeii, which consisted
of a house of the usual kind together with the farm buildings
a little distance away. As the plan shows, these covered a
rectangular space, with a large threshing-floor, paved with
pounded tiles, projecting at the south-eastern end. Practically

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 41

in the middle, on the western side was an entrance courtyard,
surrounded by a colonnade that supported an upper storey.
This courtyard gave access to the various buildings. At the

A ROMAN HOUSE AT OSTIA

An imaginary restoration, based on the ruins existing there to-day. It is

a four-storeyed tenement-house, the ground floor occupied by shops, the

upper floors by private flats

north-western end, occupying about a quarter of the whole,
there were the living-rooms a kitchen and a bakehouse; a
dining-room; bedrooms and bathrooms; and a tool-house.
The rest of the space was taken up with buildings needed for

41 ROMAN HOUSES

the work of the farm. A good deal of room was needed for the
various processes connected with the making of wine. Two
large wine-presses adjoined the courtyard, and from these the

oo oo oo o
oo oo o

00 00 O

oo oo

KEY

1. Entrance courtyard

2. Kitchen

3. Bakehouse

4. Dining-room

5. Bedrooms

6. Tool-house

7. Bathrooms

8. Wine-presses

9. Fermentation shed, filled

with open wine vats

10. Slaves' quarters

n. Olive presses and store-
rooms for oil

12. Wagon-shed

13. Threshing-floor

PLAN OF VILLA RUSTICA AT BOSCOREALE

wine was taken to a large open shed where it was left to
ferment in great vats open to the sun and air, according to
the custom of that part of Italy. In other smaller rooms there
were presses for crushing olives and extracting the oil. Sleep-

IN TOWN AND COUNTRY 43

ing quarters for the slaves, a wagon-shed, and the threshing-
floor completed the buildings of this particular farm. Its
trade was evidently in wine and olives only, for in farms
where cattle were bred there used to be a second courtyard,
surrounded by stables.

IV
A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE OF A ROMAN

PRACTICALLY all the work and recreation of a Roman had to
be fitted into the hours of daylight,
for the means of artificial lighting
were most unsatisfactory. Small
glimmering lamps illuminated the
inside of buildings and the shop-
fronts, but the streets wereunlighted
save by torches. It must be noted
that the Roman hour (hora) was
one- twelfth of the time from sunrise
to sunset, and hence, though of
varying length according to the time
of the year longer in summer than
in winter it was a definite space
of time. Though the length of the
day varied with the seasons, the
number of hours (12) remained the
same all the year round. (We are
reminded by the parable of the
labourers in the vineyard that the
twelfth hour, i.e. sundown, marked
the end of the day.) There were no mechanical clocks, but
only sundials, hour-glasses, and water-clocks.
With such a lack of reliable means of dividing and mark-

A ROMAN LAMP

44 A TYPICAL DAY IN

ing the time, it is difficult to imagine how the Romans could
be punctual. But life was simpler then than it is to-day, and
they do not seem to have felt any inconvenience. The wealthy
had a round of duties and amusements to fill the intervals
between meals ; for, as the poet Martial said, their stomachs

From the tank A water
drips at a uniform rate
through the small pipe
B into the reservoir C in
which is the float D.
From the upper surface
of D rises the shaft the
teeth of which, by their
movement as the shaft
rises, rotate the cog-wheel
F. To this cog-wheel is
attached a hand the posi-
tion of which, on the sur-
face of the dial, indicates
the hour

A ROMAN WATER-CLOCK

were their best clocks. The poorer citizens led a somewhat
idle life; so time meant little to them. Slaves worked from
before daylight till they were released from their tasks, and
therefore had no need to reckon the passing of time.

We must notice first of all that the Romans rose earlier than
we do. Shops were opened at sunrise; boys were on their
way to school in winter while it was still dark; and often
a busy man had to deal with his correspondence and other

THE LIFE OF A ROMAN 45

personal affairs before daybreak, when a round of public
duties would begin.

The first meal of the day would be eaten some time
during the first two hours, while callers were gathering
and the business of the day was beginning. This first meal
was a light breakfast of the modern continental type bread
dipped in wine, or eaten with honey, olives, or cheese.

His meal finished, our well-to-do Roman would set out for
the Forum, the centre of the city's commercial and business
life. He would leave the house accompanied by the friends
and clients who had come to pay him their respects, and no
doubt would be joined by others on the way.

Clients were usually poor citizens or foreigners who had
sought the protection of a more powerful citizen.

At the Forum a prominent citizen would find various
duties sufficient to occupy the whole morning. There might
be business in the law-courts; a sitting of the Senate to
attend; a speech from the Rostra to deliver or to hear. If
there was none of these, there were the crowds of citizens
amongst whom lively discussions on politics or business were
always to be found. Then at noon came lunch, which was
a rather slighter meal than its modern equivalent.

As the Romans became more luxurious in their habits, their
baths became more elaborate. At one period a swim in the
Tiber had to content them ; but in the course of time more
and more splendid baths were built, especially by the
Emperors. Seneca, writing to his friend Lucilius in the
middle of the first century A.D., compares the simplicity of
the 'good old days' of Cato with the luxury and self-indul-
gence of his own times. He mentions 'walls covered with
huge, expensive mirrors, marble pilasters from Alexandria,
set off by plaques of Numidian marble in between, with
elaborate borders of picturesque design and variety of sub-

46 A TYPICAL DAY IN LIFE OF A ROMAN
ject, a ceiling full of glass, silver taps and fittings, the margin
of the bath made of Thasian marble*. Without all these the
Romans of Seneca's day considered themselves poorly pro-
vided, though the bathing establishments made only a very
small charge for admission and sometimes no charge at all.

The Stabian baths at Pompeii may be taken as typical of
. the baths of the later days of the Republic. In the middle
there was an open court where gymnastic exercises might
be taken before or after bathing. Adjoining this, on one side,
there was a swimming bath: On the opposite side, in addition
to waiting-rooms, there was first the undressing-room, fur-
nished with benches, lockers, and niches, and then the frigi-
darium which contained a cold-water bath (sometimes large
enough for swimming) surrounded by a tiled paving. Next
there was the tepidarium, or warm-air room, followed by the
caldarium which contained a hot- water bath. Originally the
heat was supplied by braziers in the different rooms, but
later there was a system of central heating by hot air from
a single furnace.

The hot-air bath, which resembled the Turkish bath of
to-day, was to be found also in the houses of the well-to-do ;
but in Imperial Rome every one from the Emperor down-
wards used the public baths*

The bath was taken about the ninth hour and it was
followed by dinner, the chief meal of the day. This was more
than just a meal; it was also the principal social function,
to be enjoyed when the day's work was over and its duties
were performed.

The meal itself consisted usually of only three courses.
First came snacks of tasty food to whet the appetite; then
the chief course, consisting of more solid fare, of which there
would be several kinds, even as many as six or seven; and
last of all, pastry and fruit. Sometimes the drinking of wine

48 A TYPICAL DAY IN

was carried on after the end of the meal: this was another

practice borrowed from the Greeks.

A ROMAN AT TABLE

Notice that he reclines on a couch with a small table by his side. He
does not sit in a chair. His slave waits upon him

To the ordinary well-bred, educated Roman, however,
the eating of food was the least important part of the func-
tion; for though there were usually only the three courses,
the meal lasted often for three English hours. The time was
taken up with discussions upon current events, literature,

ChieF
Guest

Most

Lectus
Jmus

Lecbus Medii

\\\

MENSA

THE LIFE OF A ROMAN 49

philosophy, or politics. Cicero wrote in De Senectute that
it had always been his way 'to measure the enjoyment of
banquets as much by sociability and the delights of conversa-
tion as by their physical attractions'.

For greater comfort the guests reclined on couches (tri-
clinia) at the table. The arrangement of the couches varied,
but they were always
placed so that conver-
sation might be easily
carried on. The accom-
panying sketch shows
an ordinary way of plac-
ing the couches.

Walking shoes were
removed on entering,
sandals being worn in
their place: 'to ask for
one's shoes' came to be

the regular expression for rising from the table. When the
guests departed, their host would retire for the night.

In this outline of a typical day's occupations it will be
noticed that there has been no mention of family life. The
reason is that in the closing years of the Republic the family
life which had been so valuable in building the character of
the citizens was being undermined by public duties and out-
side interests. The family might meet at meal-times, espe-
cially at dinner if there were no guests; but otherwise the
father of a family saw very little of his children.

The powers of the father (paterfamilias) were as great as
those of the Old Testament patriarchs, like Abraham or
Jacob. In the family circle these powers were equal to a
king's, and included even the judgement of life and death.

3632

50 A TYPICAL DAY IN LIFE OF A ROMAN
There were reasons for this. The father was more than just
the head of the family. Through him the life of the family
was continued, and through him also were passed on the
traditions and the personal qualities that make any family
different from all others. He was the priest who attended to
the family altars : he cast into the hearth-fire, sacred to Vesta,
morsels of food left over from meals ; he made sacrifices to
the gods that guarded the household goods. It was his duty
to teach his sons the religion of their forefathers ; and at one
time it had been the recognized thing for him to teach them
the physical accomplishments (riding, swimming, wrestling,
&c.) which were a part of every Roman's training. But as
public life came to make more calls upon his time, the
average citizen left the early training of his sons to his wife
or, more usually, to slaves. This transfer of the father's duty
cut at the very root of family life and went a long way to
account for the decline of Roman character. Even when men
like Cicero saw the danger they were powerless to prevent it;
for Cicero complained that he had to leave the training of
his son to other people, because, as he wrote once in a letter
to his brother, at Rome 'he had no time to breathe'.

V
ROMAN DRESS

SINCE our knowledge of Roman dress is derived mainly from
statues, reliefs on memorials, and remains of that kind, we
shall find that pictures of monuments will make clear the
main features of Roman clothes. At the outset we must
remember that Italy enjoys a pleasanter and more sunny
climate than our own, so that fewer garments were necessary

ROMAN DRESS 51

to them than are necessary to us. In fact, we may say that
amongst the Romans the increase in the number of articles
of clothing was usually the mark of a dandy. In general, the

ROMAN DRESS
A cutler in a shop with a customer

Romans did not wear hats or stockings, though when the
need arose similar garments (such as the hood of a cloak and
puttees) were used.

The characteristic articles of men's clothing were two in
number the tunica and the toga. The first was a woollen
garment like a rather long skin, reaching below the knees as

D 2

Sa ROMAN DRESS

we can see in the picture of the cutler (p. 51). But it would
be worn like this only when a man was taking his ease. Such
a long garment would get in the way of a man at work; so
it was ordinarily worn with a girdle or belt round the waist
so that the tunica could be pulled up above the knees, as we
see in the picture of the clothes-seller in his shop on p. 55.
This picture shows that the tunica had short sleeves ; in this
respect it differed from the Greek pattern, which was usually
sleeveless. Long sleeves reaching to the wrist were a mark
of the dandy.

The toga was the distinctive garb of the Roman citizen.
It was a dignified garment well in keeping with the Roman
pride of race. It was not worn by workmen for the simple
reason that it was so voluminous as to be a great hindrance
to free movement and difficult to keep in order. Yet no
Roman gentleman would think of appearing in public without
his toga. In the picture of the tailor's shop (p. 55) we can see a
customer wearing a toga. The same garment can be seen in
greater detail in the picture of the bridegroom on p. 53.
It was a strip of cloth about eighteen feet long and seven feet
wide, with one curved edge and one straight edge, and was
draped about the body in various ways.

Boys and men all wore the toga, as we can see in the
picture of father and son on p. 57, but there were differ-
ences to mark the age or rank of the wearer. Boys up to
the age of about sixteen years wore the toga praetexta, which
had a purple stripe along the edge of it. This boyish garb
was kid aside at the coming of manhood, when its place was
taken by the plain white toga virilis. The toga praetexta was
also worn by magistrates.

The toga was a fine dignified garment for ceremonies and
for use in town, but it was unserviceable for campaigns.
Then its place was taken by the military cloak called the

ROMAN DRESS 53

sagum. This was so typical of the soldier's garb that 'to put
on the sagum 9 was another way of saying 'to go to the wars'.

A ROMAN BRIDEGROOM AND HIS BRIDE

Various other cloaks were worn, especially by country people,
travellers, and those who were out in all weathers. Such

54 ROMAN DRESS

cloaks were usually of shaggy wool, and sometimes had a
hood that could be drawn over the head in the event of rain.
Usually a Roman went bare-headed. A conical hat known
as a pilleus was sometimes worn. A white hat of this shape
was the special mark of a freedman.

Turning to women's clothing we find that the Roman
matron also wore a distinctive garb, the special features of
which were the stola ind the palla. The first took the place
of the tunicafand was the traditional dress of a Roman lady.
It reached the ground but could be raised by a girdle, worn
rather high. It had sleeves reaching to the elbow. The palla
was the feminine counterpart of the toga, and, like the toga,
was the proper dress for outdoors. It was worn over the left
shoulder, drawn across the back, then brought over or under
the right shoulder and round the body. Sometimes the palla,
which was generally rectangular in shape, was drawn over the
head as protection from the weather: as mill-girls of to-day
use their shawls for the same purpose. When it was worn in
the ordinary way the palla left the right arm free for move*
ment.

VI
ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION

ON the ninth day after his birth, a Roman boy received his
name with &ue ceremonies, in which both the family and the
household slaves took part. Those present usually made gifts
to the child of tiny models of everyday objects (swords, axes,
&c.), which were strung together in the form of a necklace,
and served as a kind of charm.

A more powerful protection against harm was the bulla
that was hung round die baby boy's neck, and worn till he

An example of Roman hairdressing

Romans choosing material at a cloth factory, or perhaps a tailor's shop
A large sample is held up for their inspection by two slaves

5 6 ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION
reached manhood and put on the toga virilis. The bulla 1 was
simply a metal locket containing a lucky charm or mascot,
made of gold or bronze, according to the parents' means. It
may be compared with the lock and chain of silver which are
still put round the neck of a Chinese boy to lock in his life
and keep him from harm.

A Roman boy received at least three names the prae-
nomen, nomen, and cognomen. The most important was the
second, which showed to which gens or clan the boy belonged.
This name always ended in -iiw, as Julius, Fabius, Tullius.

The praenomen was the equivalent of our Christian name ;
and just as we often use only an initial for this, so with the
older Roman names an initial was commonly used for the
praenomen, as C. for Gaius, M. for Marcus, and so on. The
less common names were always written in full.

The cognomen was kind of family name, to show to
which branch of a gens a person belonged. We usually know
Romans by their cognomen (e.g. Caesar; Cicero, Scipio),
though sometimes by the English form of the nomen (e.g.
Horace, Ovid, Vergil). Often the third name showed origin-
ally some personal or physical trait, as did our surnames like
Little, Short, and many others, and historical nicknames like
Richard Crookback. An additional cognomen was sometimes
conferred on a man to commemorate a great achievement. It
was often given to soldiers. For instance, P. Cornelius Scipio
Africanus received the last of his names on account of his
successful wars in Africa. (We have seen the same thing
happen in our own days. When titles were conferred on our
generals and admirals at the end of the last war they were
usually taken from the scenes of their most memorable actions

v In later times the box containing the Pope's seal was called a bulla,
and the word was transferred to the document, the Papal Bull, to which
the seal was attached.

58 ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION
e.g. Lord French of Ypres, Earl Beatty of the North Sea.)
An additional cognomen was handed on to a man's eldest son,
but he in turn could not pass it on.

As in all times and in all countries, a Roman boy spent his
earliest years under his mother's care; but (in the first cen-
turies of the Republic at any rate) the father took a share in
his son's training as soon as the boy was beyond the stage of
babyhood. Plutarch gives us the following delightful picture
of the care that Cato bestowed on his son's upbringing. 'As
soon as the dawn of intelligence began in his son, he decided
to give his personal attention to his education. For, he tells
us, if his son's progress happened to be slow, he had no
intention of having him reprimanded, or pulled by the ear,
by a servant; nor did he wish him to be indebted to a mean
person for his education. So he taught him literature and
law himself; and also the necessary sports, javelin-throwing,
fighting hand to hand, riding, boxing, and swimming, even
in rapid rivers, and the endurance of heat and cold. He also
tells us that he wrote out stories for him, in large hand, to
acquaint him with the romance and the traditions of his
country.' In the early days, when the Romans were an agri-
cultural people, the father would also instruct his son in the
work of the farm.

At the age of seven, definite schooling began, though it is
difficult to say exactly when schools were first set up in Rome.
It is certain that for centuries the government thought that
education was a private matter for parents to arrange. The
first schoolmasters in Rome were usually Greeks. They
were often freedmen who had received a certain amount of
education, for slaves were by no means always illiterate (see
Chap. XV). Aesop, the writer of fables, is a well-known
example of an educated slave; and another is Tiro, Cicero's
secretary. It is certain that the average Roman boy looked

ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION &
down on his teachers as being of lower class than himself.
The schoolmasters enforced their authority by savage punish-
ments. Boys were flogged for the smallest offences. Even in
those days, impositions were often set. There were no special
school buildings: a teacher received his pupils in a room open
to the .street that might have served as a shop, or sometimes
in an upper room.

School began very early in the day. In winter boys were
on their way thither before it was light, and the Roman poet,
Juvenal, speaks of the books being blackened with smoke
from the pupils' lanterns. The schoolboy ate his 'breakfast*
on his way to school usually a bun or a piece of bread, just
as French schoolboys of to-day can be seen munching a roll
for their breakfast as they go to school. There was an interval
at midday, when the boy would go home to lunch.

To, from, and in school, and in fact at all times and in all
places, a Roman boy of the better class was accompanied by a
tutor (paedagogus), who was usually a Greek slave. The tutor
was responsible to a great extent for the boy's manners and
conduct, and, in addition, he gave the boy the chance of
regular practice in speaking Greek. This practice was very
useful, for, after the spread of Roman rule outside Italy, a
man needed to know Greek as well as Latin, just as any one
to-day 'with more than an elementary education has learned
French or some other modern language.

Up to the middle of the third century B.C., practically the
only subjects taught in the schools were reading, writing,
and arithmetic. All calculations were done on the fingers
(digiti) whence our word 'digit' for numbers up to ten
or with an instrument called an abacus. The need
for such an instrument for calculation arose from the
awkward form of the Roman numerals. The illustration
shows an abacus^ though schoolboys would no doubt use a

60 ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION
simpler type, more like the bead-frames still used in China
for ordinary counting. We can disregard the five rods at the
right-hand side. They were used only for working fractions
of the duodecimal type i.e. having the denominator a mul-
tiple of twelve. The other fourteen rods on the abacus were
for dealing with whole numbers. Thus, the rod marked I was
for counting units, the next (marked x) for tens, the next for
hundreds and so on up to millions, which were counted on

Mcodpaoodaa oo C X I e g B

AN ABACUS

the extreme left-hand rod. It will be noticed that the seven
longer rods to the left had only four beads, so that it was
possible to count on them only as far as 4, 40, 400 ... as the
case might be. The one bead on each short rod stood for five
units, tens, hundreds, and so on ; and thus the process of
counting was made more rapid. Even so, it was a difficult
instrument to use, especially for division and multiplication.
The earliest abaci simply had grooves in which pebbles
(calculi) could be moved along; from this we derive our
modern word 'calculate'.

Writing exercises consisted of copying numerous proverbs
and moral maxims, of which more than seven hundred are
still known. They were also learned by heart for repetition.
Spelling was fairly easy, because Latin was pronounced as

ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 61
it was spelt. This elementary education went on till a boy
was about twelve years of age, when he went on to a school
of a higher kind.

The more advanced schools had come into being as part
of the imitation of Greek ways which changed so many of
Roman ideas, from about 250 B.C. onwards. Not only was
the Greek language introduced into them, but also the study
of Greek literature, especially the works of Homer. The
teachers in these were Greeks. They were called grammattci,
and from them we derive the term 'grammar' as used of
schools to-day.

In addition to Greek language and literature, Latin litera-
ture was also studied. The poems of Horace were used as
school-texts even in his own lifetime, in the same way as
the works of contemporary writers are used in our own
schools to-day. The most important subject taught in the
schools was rhetoric, i.e. the art of public speaking. When all
free citizens had a direct share in the government and a
vote, rhetoric was a very important branch of study. To be
able to speak cleverly and well, to stir up people's feelings, in
the law-courts or on the Rogtra, was a great help to public
success. Every schoolboy knows how the Roman mob was
swayed by the artful oratory of Mark Antony over the dead
body of Caesar. The study of public speaking was often
carried on after the rest of the boy's school-days were over.
For this subject, there was a special master called a rhetor.

Roman schoolboys had numerous holidays. Every ninth
day (the nundinae or market day) was a recognized holiday,
as well as certain of the great religious festivals, more especi-
ally the Saturnalia in December, a time of great festivities
like our Christmas holidays, and the festival of Minerva in
the third week of March. In country schools, the summer
months were kept as holidays, for the boys were required to

6* ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION
work during the gathering of the olives and the grapes. We
find something similar in modern London when East End
schools are closed for a week or two in the autumn while the
children are away for the hop-picking ; and similar 'blackberry
weeks 9 are well known in the North. In Rome itself, the
climate was so unhealthy in August and September that
schools were usually closed while the pupils went away with
the parents, in much the same way as the children of Euro-
pean residents in India go with their parents to the hill-
stations at certain seasons. As the poet Martial said, it was
enough in those months for a boy to learn to keep well.

The school materials were quite different from those that
. we use. Paper was expensive ; so most written exercises were
worked on wax tablets, that could be smoothed and used
again and again, like the slates formerly used in some English
schools. Instead of a pen, a sharp instrument (stilus) was
used for making the letters. Later on, a boy might be allowed
to use paper (made from the Egyptian papyrus plant) and
ink; but even so it would be what we should call waste paper,
since it had already been used on one side for some other
purpose before being brought to school.

Books were in the form of rolls. At first they were made
from the pith of the papyrus reed, and from the name of this
(Kber) came the Latin word for a book. Later on parchment
was used. The writing there were, of course, no printed
books was arranged in columns from the top to the bottom
of the breadth of the roll. The reader held his 'book' in both
hands, rolling up with his left and unrolling with his right as
he read. From this action of unrolling we have our word
Volume' as applied to a book (Latin verb volvere). For read-
ing, two or three columns of writing would be unrolled at
one time. Hie rolls (if there were many of them, as in a
library) were stored in pigeon-holes or in circular open boxes.

ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 63

Books were copied entirely by hand, and every educated

Roman kept a number of slaves whose sole duty was the

copying of books. Of course, mistakes in copying were often

made. Once a book had been written, any one who could get

ANCIENT WRITING MATERIALS

hold of it might make as many copies as he wished, and in
this way writers had very small returns for their work.

Till the time of Augustus there were no public libraries in
Rome, though just before his death Julius Caesar had made
arrangements for the founding of one. Wealthy men who had
private libraries often allowed scholars to use their books for
purposes of study. The famous orator, Cicero, for example,
had the use of the magnificent library of his wealthy patron
Lucullus.

64 ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION

The education of a Roman boy was no more finished
within the walls of the schoolroom than is the education of
a boy to-day. A Roman had much to learn of politics and
social affairs; so, while still a lad, he often accompanied his
father to gain an idea of the work and duties that would be
his in later years. He would go with his father to the Forum,
the law-courts, and the Senate-house, to the temples to learn

A relief of about A.D. 150, showing a schoolmaster seated between two

pupils (who hold Roman 'books' or rolls). The third boy is late, and is

being scolded by his master

the religious rites, and to dinner-parties to hear the talk of
men of affairs. In this way he would be well equipped to
take his place as a citizen, when the time came for him to put
away boyish things and take upon himself the ways of
manhood.

His coming-of-age was marked by special ceremonies. It
took place somewhere between the end of the fourteenth and
the beginning of the seventeenth years of age. The exact
time seems to have been fixed by the father, but it must at
latest have been before the youth was liable to serve in the
army, i.e. when he was seventeen years old. The ceremony

ROMAN BOYHOOD AND EDUCATION 65
took the form of a family festival. The parents and friends
of the boy accompanied him to the Forum and thence to the
Capitoline Hill, where sacrifice was offered in the Temple of
Jupiter. The bulla was left there with other boyish things,
and instead of the purple-edged toga the youth now put on
the toga virilis (from vir, a man) of manhood. No doubt
St. Paul, himself a Roman, had this ceremony in mind when
he wrote the well-known words 'when I became a man,
I put away childish things'.

VII
PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS

IN the earliest days the great shows given in the Roman
circus were connected with religious worship. As time passed
the connexion became slighter ; and by the end of the Re-
public it became the regular custom to commemorate this or
that event or person by public games. Days were definitely
set aside for the games in the calendar. Under the Empire
nearly half the year was taken up with these official holidays,
so that in the end their number had to be limited. Not only
were great public games organized by the rulers of the city,
but also they were given by private individuals, often to in-
crease their popularity amongst the citizens. These private
shows were usually quite as elaborate and costly as the official
entertainments.

The oldest games in the calendar were known as the ludi
magni or ludi Romani. They seem first to have been held
during the days of the kings, and they were commonly
observed in early times to celebrate a victory of the Roman
armies. As time went on, however, these games came to be
held regularly every autumn, even if there were no victory to

3632 E

66 PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS

celebrate. Sulla was the first general who celebrated his
victories with public games, and his example was followed by
Julius Caesar, Augustus, and many of the Emperors. The
military origin survived in the custom of opening these games
with a procession copied from that of a triumph, described
in another chapter.

The ludi magni were connected with the worship of Jupiter.
Other games called ludi plebeii were also held in his honour,
and there were still others in honour of rustic deities like
Flora and Ceres.

The public shows and games were very varied in character,
but they may be classified in three groups the Ludi Cir-
censes, which included chariot races and all contests that took
place in a circus; the Ludi Scaenici, or dramatic entertain-
ments ; and the Munera Gladiataria, or prize-fights.

By far the most popular were the games in the circus.
The Circus Maximus was an immense rectangle with semi-
circular ends, surrounded with covered seats on tiers, and
furnished with special 'boxes' for the officials and magistrates.
The open space in the middle was called the arena from the
sand that covered it. Lengthwise along the arena, and not ex-
actly in the middle, was a dividing barrier known as the spina,
often consisting of a row of statues on a long marble base.
At each end of the spina were set three conical pillars that
marked the turning-points in the races. Here also were placed
seven egg-shaped objects made of marble, or seven dolphins
the former being the symbols of the twins Castor and Pollux,
and the latter of Neptune, all of whom were patron deities
of horse-racing. One of these marble eggs or dolphins was
removed each time a lap in a race was finished, for the guid-
ance of the charioteers.

. Chariot races were the most popular entertainments in the
Circus Maximus, and those who have seen the film version

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS 69

of Ben Hur can well realize how exciting these races became.
There were usually seven laps in a single race, and there
might be as many as twenty-four races in one day. Just as
to-day in horse-racing the jockeys wear the special colours of
the owners, so the charioteers in the Roman circus wore the
colours of the companies for whom they worked and who
contracted for the supply of charioteers. There were four
companies, distinguished by the colours white, red, blue,
and green. It is curious to note that these colours came
to have a political meaning, and the word for the contracting
companies (factiones) gives us our word 'faction', which means
a political party.

The charioteers had to be extremely skilful, especially in
turning at the ends of the spina y where there was always
the danger of a collision when the chariots bunched together.
The costume of a charioteer can be seen on page 71 . It will be
noticed that the ends of the reins were wound round the
man's body, and he carried a sharp knife with which to cut
the reins if the chariot overturned, an accident that might
easily happen since the chariot was built very light. Success*
ful charioteers earned very large sums of money, and there
are records of men making fortunes that can be counted in
millions of sesterces.

Before a race began the chariots and horses waited in small
vaulted chambers known as carceres. These were provided
with folding doors that were flung wide open by attendant
slaves when the starting-signal was given by the presiding
magistrate, who waved a white cloth for the purpose. The
winning-post was marked by a broad white line in front of
the magistrate's tribunal.

The day's racing was always preceded by a procession,
from the Capitol to the Circus Maximus. At the head of
the procession came the magistrate in charge of the games.

TO PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS

He rode in a chariot if he were a consul or a praetor, and was
dressed in the style of a triumphing general. After him came
his supporters, and troops of noble youths on foot and horse*
back. They were followed first by a host of competitors, and
then by priests with incense, sacred vessels, and images of the
gods. This procession made its way all round the circus and
finished at the magistrate's box.

There were other shows in the circus beside horse-racing.
Such were the baiting of wild beasts, and mimic hunts, when
trees were planted in the arena to resemble a forest. Magis-
trates were always on the look-out for new thrills to please
the spectators, and money was lavishly spent for that purpose.
Julius Caesar brought large numbers of unfamiliar wild
beasts to Rome to fight in the circus. Another form of enter-
tainment was a mimic sea-fight, the arena being first flooded
so that the ships Could float.

There is less to be said about the dramatic perform-
ances, since these were largely borrowed from the Greeks
and never became very popular in Rome. A play with
a regular plot and a definite dialogue was called zfabula\
more popular, however, were the farces and dumb-shows.
In the farces much of the dialogue was made up on the
spur of the moment, like the 'patter' of modern music-hall
comedians, and depended for its success upon topical refer-
ences and a spice of vulgarity to please the lower orders.
The dumb-shows (pantomimf) were remarkable because there
was no spoken dialogue in them, but the whole story or plot
was unfolded by means of actions alone. -

The gladiatorial shows are rightly considered as a blot on
Roman civilization. In early times they were private affairs,
but they came to be a popular form of public spectacle.
White foreign wars were being waged there were always

PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS 71

slaves in abundance who could be 'butchered to make a
Roman holiday*. The gladiators were nearly always foreign-
ers, for very few Romans took up this kind of fighting as a
profession.
The men were herded in great barracks while they were

A CHARIOT RACE IN THE CIRCUS

The driver on the left has just come to the turning-point, marked
by the metae

being trained to fight against each other or against wild
beasts. There were various kinds of fights between gladia-
tors, but one of the most popular was that between the
retiarius and the secular. The former wore no armour, but
carried a net (rete) and a dagger ; the latter was fully armed.
The retiarius or net-carrier tried to entangle his opponent in
the net and so to throw him. If he failed he would have to
run from the attack of his armed opponent, whose name
secutar means literally the 'follower*. In any of these combats

7 a PUBLIC AMUSEMENTS

when one man was at the mercy of the other, his life depended
on the favour of the crowd. The victor appealed to the
audience. If the defeated gladiator was popular or had put
up a good fight, he might be spared ; if not, the fatal sign was

TWO GLADIATORS PRACTISING
Their trainer stands behind them, giving them instruction

made by thrusting down th^humb, and the wretched victim
was promptly slain. In theory the sign was given by the
presiding magistrate, but he always acted in deference to the
wishes of the crowd. These hideous butcheries finally came
to an end whea Christianity stirred the better feelings of
the Romans.

73

VIII
MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS

LIKE all nations the Romans had their special customs in con-
nexion with the chief events of family life birth, marriage,
and death. In an earlier chapter we have traced the customs
connected with childhood and youth up to the time when
a man came of age and put on the toga virilis.

By that time he was probably engaged to be married, since
betrothals might be arranged at any age above the seventh
year. The Romans were a hard, unsentimental people, and
their marriages were often merely legal contracts between
families. Even so there were superstitions and customs
connected with the actual ceremony. For example, it was
thought unlucky to be married during the month of May,
while June was regarded as a lucky month. It is interesting
to remember that both these superstitions still survive to-day.

The details of the marriage ceremonies varied, but as time
went on there was a tendency to make them more and more
simple. Only for priests or those who held high office was
the most elaborate ceremony used. This was called confarre-
atio, from the fact that the bride and bridegroom ate together
a cake made from the grain called spelt (far), and it was accom-
panied by solemn sacrifices and the taking of auspices. The
usual ceremony was that of coemptio^ which consisted chiefly
of the exchange of coins as a sign of the contract.

The customs connected with the wedding-day mainly con-
cerned the bride. She wore a special dress and a marriage
veil of yellow hue, since that colour was sacred to Hymen,
the god of marriage. Her hair was parted with a spear's point
before being plaited a reminder, perhaps, of the old days
when the Romans carried off the Sabine women by force of

74 MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS
arms to be their wives. At evening, a procession set forth to
the bridegroom's house, the way being lighted by youths
carrying torches. Having reached her new home, the bride
was carried over the threshold by her husband, perhaps to
prevent the chance of an ill-omened stumble. Next she was
given the keys of the store-cupboards, and two vessels con-
taining fire and water, to signify that she was now in charge
of all household duties. Then followed the marriage-feast,
and the ceremonies were over, except that on the next day
the young wife offered sacrifice for the first time at the family
shrine in her new home.

The Roman housewife (matrona) held an important position
in the home. She was regarded as the wife and mother of
Roman citizens, and as such she was held in greater honour
than the women of any other people in ancient times, except
perhaps the Spartans. She ranked as the equal of her hus-
band, as we can see by the curious phrase used in the
marriage ceremony: ubi ego Gains, tu Gaia (where I am
master, you are mistress).

In the early days of the Empire things had changed, no
doubt, but Romans were able to look back to the 'good old
times 9 when mothers had done so much in training their
sons in the virtues most valued by the Romans. Cornelia, the
mother of the Gracchi, was a noble example of the Roman
matron. She trained her spns to think of the welfare of the
State, so that when the elder one, Tiberius, became a man he
set himself to try to put right things that were hurtful to
the people as a whole. This made him unpopular and he
lost his life. Cornelia, however, did nothing to turn his
younger brother, Gaius, from following the same well-
meaning but fatal line of action when he was old enough to
continue his brother's work. Shakespeare has made for ever
famous the mother of Coriolanus, the ideal Roman matron.

MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS 75
It was her training and her delight in his valour that
made Coriolanus excel. "The only thing that made him
to love honour was the joy he saw his mother did take of
him/ as we read in Plutarch. In everything Volumnia
guided the thoughts and acts of Coriolanus. It was her noble
influence over him that led him to make peace with his own
people after he had invaded Roman territory with a Volscian
army. To withdraw meant a great blow to his pride, but he
did so because of his mother's patriotic influence. It was the
splendid character of matrons of the earlier days that largely
helped to the building up of what was best and strongest in
the Roman people.

The Romans were always very careful to see that their dead
received fitting burial : for they believed that otherwise the
spirits (manes) of the dead could not gain admittance to the
underworld and so would return to haunt them. So strongly
did they hold this belief that if by chance a man saw the
body of a stranger who had met a violent or accidental death,
he would cast upon the corpse three handfuls of earth as a
symbolical act lest the spirits should trouble him. And if
a man were drowned at sea, the same honours would be paid
to an empty tomb as at the tomb of one who had been buried
with all due ceremony.

Ordinary folk were, of course, not able to arrange for the
elaborate rites that went with the burial of a rich or prominent
man, but nothing was omitted that could be reasonably done.
People of moderate means often subscribed amongst them-
selves to buy a burial-place that could be used in common,
to make sure of a suitable resting-place for their ashes.

When the body was prepared for burial, it was clothed in
the same style as during life. Those who had borne any
public office in the State or gained any honour in war were,

76 MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS
after their death, wrapped in the particular garment belong-
ing to their rank and adorned with the crowns or other
honours they had won. The corpse was then laid on a
funeral couch in the atrium, with the feet towards the door
so that the spirits should know only the way out. A bough
of cypress or pine was set up outside the door as a sign of
mourning.

Seven days after death usually elapsed before the actual
burial. During that time the ceremony of conclamatio took
place i. e. crying aloud the name of the dead, either to recall
the soul or to reawaken its powers. When there was no
response, the dead was said to be conclamatus, beyond recall.
In early times funerals took place by night (whence under-
takers were called vespillones, from vesper, the evening), but
later on the morning was commonly the appointed time,
especially for public funerals. As a reminder of the custom
of burial by night, lighted torches were carried even by day-
time in the funeral procession.

The size and composition of this procession varied, of
course, according to the rank of the dead ; but with all classes
of people every effort was made to have the procession as
imposing as possible. Apart from the mourners, there were
musicians with pipes and trumpets, and men who mimicked
the actions of the dead man, and even his voice and personal
peculiarities. The waxen effigies of ancestors were carried
out, and, at a public funeral, tableaux to represent events in
the dead man's life. If he had held public office the lictors
were there, carrying their rods reversed, as soldiers reverse
their rifles at a military funeral to-day. There were also hired
mourners, women who made loud lamentations, tearing their
hair and beating their breasts, like the Jewish women whom
Jesus found in the house of Jairus, weeping and wailing,
as the Gospels relate. Finally came all and sundry who joined

78 MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS
the procession from motives of respect or curiosity: at the
public funeral of a great man, vast numbers would be found
in this last part of the procession* It may be noted that the
same practice exists in France at the present time. Notices of
a death are posted up publicly, with a general request to all
friends, acquaintances, and sympathizers to join in the funeral
procession, which is always on foot, as in ancient Rome; and
in North Country villages of England the 'bidders' (usually
relatives of the deceased) go round inviting people to the
funeral. At a public funeral, the procession made its way to
the Forum, where a speech was delivered from the Rostra
by a relation or friend of the deceased. When Mark Antony
is made to say

* 1 come to bury Caesar, not to praise him/

the second half of the statement is no more than an orator's
trick, for a speech of praise was expected upon all such
occasions. (This is another Roman funeral custom that is
still observed in France.) Such speeches were sometimes
made in honour of women; for, as Plutarch tells us, the
Senate granted them this privilege when the women of Rome
gave their golden ornaments to be melted down for the gift
that was sent to the temple of Delphi after the capture of Veii.

The burial-places, except those of the Vestal Virgins, were
always outside the city > as in Greece and amongst the Jews;
and they were usually near the public highways. Travellers
to Rome can still see the ruins of great tombs along both sides
of the Appian Way.

It was the custom to burn the body, and the funeral pyre,
in the shape of an altar, was usually set very near the tomb.
The bier on which the body lay was placed on top of the
pyre, and then the nearest relation set a lighted torch to the
dry resinous wood. As a mark of respect and affection, costly

MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS 79
offerings of garments, perfumes, and sweet-smelling essences
were thrown into the flames. When the pyre had burned
down, the ashes were cooled with wine and gathered into an
urn which was then placed in the tomb. There were several
kinds of tombs; a common type that still survives in our

A COLUMBARIUM
On the Appian Way, near Rome

churchyards is like an altar. Many tombstones have been
preserved and are to be seen in most of the larger museums.
Often the effigy of the dead person was carved in relief upon
the stone. There is, for example, a well-known tombstone
from the grave of a surgeon. He is shown reading, and above
the case containing his rolls there is a case of surgical instru-
ments indicating his profession. Sometimes the tomb was a
family sepulchre, a simple building of brick or stone, in which
the mortal remains of all the members of one family would be
placed in urns in niches round the walls. To the present day

So MARRIAGE AND FUNERAL CUSTOMS
the same practice is observed in the island of Corsica, where
there are no cemeteries, but instead mortuary chapels along
the roadsides just outside every town and village. Not every
Roman family had money enough to build its own sepulchre,
however, and so it was a common practice for several families
to combine to build a sepulchre that could be used by all of
them. All round the walls inside were niches to hold the urns,
with a small slab giving the dead person's name under each.
From its likeness to a dove-cot, such a tomb was called a
columbarium (from columba, a dove).

The memory of the dead was kept alive by certain festivals,
especially the Parentalia in February. There were as well
commemorative feasts. Offerings were made in the form of
libations of water, wine, milk, blood, and sweet-smelling
balms, poured out on or near the tomb; while flowers
were scattered, and garlands were twined round the urn.
The feasts were both public and private. The first were
simply great banquets, accompanied often by a distribution
of free food to the poorer people. They were held in
honour only of the great. But all except the poorest ar-
ranged private feasts for relatives and friends, on the lines
of the wakes that are still held in Ireland and Lancashire.
A feast was prepared for the dead as well. On the tomb were
placed dishes of beans, bread, and eggs, for the spirits to come
and eat ; and what was not consumed was burnt at the tomb.

IX
TRADE AND MONEY

WE have already seen that at first the Romans were settlers
on the land, drawing their living from the soil and counting
their wealth in flocks and herds. In the early days, every
family could live practically on what it produced, and any-

TRADE AND MONEY 81

thing beyond bare necessities was obtained by barter. But
gradually this state of things was changed, owing to the
development of town life and the raising of the general stan-
dard of living with the growing wealth of Rome.

The people who drifted into the towns naturally could not
produce food and other necessities of life for themselves.
There developed, in consequence, a system of trading in
the ordinary produce of the land between the towns and the
country. More and more, too, the Romans were forced to
trade with other nations. Their trade was not, like ours,
concerned with manufactured goods, since every town had
its own craftsmen working at their separate trades.

The destruction of Corinth and of Carthage in a single
year (147-146 B.C.) removed the two greatest trade rivals that
Rome had had and opened to her the markets of the whole
Mediterranean. She was not slow to take advantage of her
opportunity. In a very little while Rome had complete
control of the profitable slave-trade that was centred in the
Aegean island of Delos ; and the produce of all the Mediter-
ranean lands was gathered up to satisfy the increasing de-
mands of Roman luxury. Nor was the enterprise of the
Romans limited to the countries bordering the inland sea.
It is interesting to find that the Romans made use of overland
trading routes to the Far East, some of which remained in
Italian control throughout the Middle Ages. We hear of silks
being brought from China by way of Turkestan and the
River Euphrates, and spices from Ceylon and the Malabar
coast.

The two chief ports for Rome were Puteoli, on the Bay of
Naples, and Ostia, at the mouth of the Tiber. In Rome the
earliest trading centre was along the quays near the old
cattle market, the Forum Boarium. Here in very early days
there was an important trade in salt, of which we are

3632 F

8a TRADE AND MONEY

reminded by the name of the Via Solaria which ran from
Rome to the salt-marshes near Ostia. After the reduction
of Carthage and the cities of Greece, the trade of Rome
became so considerable that the quays and warehouses
along the river-bank were greatly enlarged to deal with the
merchandise coming up the river from Ostia. The shops
were cleared out of the Forum Boarium to give room for
business on the lines of a modern Stock Exchange. The
commercial district was known as the Emporium, 1 and all
kinds of goods were brought to Rome to be stored in its
warehouses. Grain from Egypt, oil and wine from Greece
and Gaul, salt from Picenum, metals from Spain, and marble
from Greece and Africa were the most important. It is
interesting to remember that in these days we give the name
Emporium to those huge stores where every kind of articles
may be bought.

There were also markets where the ordinary shopkeepers
could buy their stock-in-trade. Thus the Forum Olitorium
was the market for the greengrocers. In other parts of the
city there was a tendency for traders in particular wares to
congregate in certain streets, as they do in modern London.

With all this varied and considerable trade there came,
naturally enough, a system of coinage. There were no coins
in the earliest days. People obtained what they needed by
barter, and it is said that for such purposes twelve sheep were
reckoned the equivalent of a cow. Certain it is that cattle
were taken as the basis of exchange, and from the Latin word
pecus (cattle) was derived the word pecunia for money.

The earliest form of money as such was simply a bar of
copper of a standard weight, namely a pound (libra). From

1 It should be noted that this name, like most of the Roman words
connected with trade, was of Greek origin.

84 TRADE AND MONEY

this is derived the modern French word for a pound (la Kvre).
Our sign (-L) represents the first letter of the same word.
The old idea of barter was still kept in mind by stamping
the bar with the impression of a cow.

Some time about the middle of the fourth century B. c., the
copper was cast in the form of a coin called an as, and five
smaller coins were made representing fractional parts of the
as, ranging from one-half to one-twelfth. (The smallest of
these was called an uncia, whence we get our words 'ounce 1
and 'inch', also a twelfth part.) These six copper coins each
bore on the obverse the head of a god (e.g. Janus on the as
and Jupiter on the half as), and on the reverse the representa-
tion of the prow of a ship : so that, instead of calling 'heads
or tails' (when he tossed a coin), a Roman schoolboy called
capita out navim (heads or ship).

The value of the as varied from time to time. Originally,
as a lump of metal, it weighed a pound of twelve ounces, but
by the time of the first war with Carthage (264 B.C.) the as,
as a coin, weighed only two ounces. Later in the war, when
things were going badly for the Romans, the weight was re-
duced to one ounce ; and finally it was fixed by law at half an
ounce. This remained the standard weight. By this time
the as was worth so little that the expression ad assent was
equivalent to our saying 'to the last farthing' when speaking
of payments. ('Ace', the lowest card and the single 'pip'
on dice, is derived from the Latin as.)

Silver coins were in use before the wars with Carthage.
There were two values the sestertius, worth 2 J asses, though
this was not in common use ; and the denarius worth ten asses.
(It is from the first letter of the name of this last coin that
we have the 'd' in s. d., but it should be noted that the
denarius, the Roman 'penny' of the Bible, was a silver coin.)
When the value of the as was finally fixed it was decreed that

TRADE AND MONEY 85

the sestertius should be reckoned as worth four asses, and the
equivalent value of the denarius was increased in proportion
to sixteen asses. There were few gold coins, if any, before
the time of Julius Caesar.

It is rather difficult to assign an exact value to these coins.
The most that can be done is to take good specimens of the
actual coins and, by weighing them and testing the quality

Heads or Ship?

A Roman bronze as, enlarged (true size about ij in. diam.). On the left

is the obverse of the coin, showing J anus's head (for Janus see chap, xvii),

and on the right the reverse, the prow of a ship

of their metal, to reckon an equivalent value in modern
money. In this way a denarius of the first century B. c. can
be reckoned as worth eightpence in modern money. From
this estimate the values of the rest can be calculated. It
should be noted that sums of money were usually counted
by sestertii, and so a rough and ready way of turning such
amounts into modern values is simply to count the sestertius
as being worth twopence, so that 120 sestertii would be
approximately the same as a pound in our money.

Though it is possible to give the rough equivalent values
of these coins as coins, it must be remembered that we know

86 TRADE AND MONEY

but little about the purchasing value of Roman money, and
what we do know about money in one part of the Empire
would not necessarily apply to all parts.

X

SLAVERY

THOUGH slavery existed in Rome from the earliest times it
was not till after the great wars of the third and second cen-
turies B.C. that it became so widespread as to be a serious
problem to the State. In the early days, when the Romans
were a race of farmers, the members of the household
(familia) who worked together to till the land comprised both
bond and free. The bondmen had a definite position, and
their lot (like that of the villeins in medieval England) was
not unduly harsh.

This state of affairs was greatly changed by the successful
tfrars of Rome. The army became a profession, and the
increase of wealth and luxury led to the decay of the old-
time virtues of simple living and hard work. There is a
favourite story told of Cincinnatus that shows how the
Romans admired the good old ways. It is said that when
a Roman army was in great peril during a war with the Aequi
in 458 B. c., the Senate sent for Cincinnatus to act as dictator
and save the country. The messengers found the old man
ploughing his fields with a team of oxen. He left the plough
at the bidding of the Senate, and became dictator. In the
short space of sixteen days he rescued the army from its
dangerous position and, his task being accomplished, he laid
down the dictatorship. He did not think it beneath his
dignity to go back to work on his farm, whence he was called
yet again twenty years later to be dictator a second time.

SLAVERY 87

In those early days manual labour was not beneath the
dignity of a Roman citizen, but in later times such work was
thought undignified for the citizens of a great power like
Rome. This change in outlook was brought about by the
ever-increasing number of prisoners of war that provided
cheap slave-labour, especially on the large country estates.
The slaves were nearly always foreigners (barbari, non-
Romans), but occasionally a Roman citizen might be con-
demned to be sold into slavery as the punishment for serious
offences.

It is necessary to distinguish between the different types
of slaves. The household slaves, especially those in the
towns, were often Greeks of very good type and sometimes
well educated better educated, in fact, than their masters.
They carried out many different duties, commercial and
domestic; they acted as secretaries and copyists of books, and
were put in charge of the sons of the family. Men carrying
out such work must have been of some position and consider-
able education, and we may assume that, apart from their not
being free, their position was little different from that of the
humbler working-class citizens.

The slaves employed on the great country estates were
very different from those in the town households. They were
often Gauls or Spaniards by birth, wild and dangerous men,
unwilling workers, who toiled in gangs like convicts, some-
times chained together, and usually locked in dungeon-like
barracks by night. Those that worked on the sheep-farms
of Southern Italy lived a wild life, and the fact that they
were often armed for the defence of their flocks made them
all the more dangerous. These slaves were in a constant
state of discontent and always ready to rise in revolt. In
this way they were a standing source of danger to the State,
and this danger became very real on certain occasions. Thus

88 SLAVERY

at the revolt of Spartacus in 72-71 B.C., for months the
consular armies were defied even to the point of defeat by
rebellious slaves.

The Romans thought of a slave as being in the absolute
power of his owner, who might even put him to death. He
was not so much a person as a thing. An injury done to a
slave was regarded as a wrong done to his master ; yet, on the
principle that more work could be got from a willing than
from an unwilling slave, owners were not in the habit of
taking advantage of their powers. Still, though slaves re-
ceived reasonable treatment, they were the absolute property
of their master. If a slave had no name of his own, his
master's name would often be given to him, with the ending
-por, standing forpuer (boy) ; e. g. the slave of Marcus would
be called Marcipor. (We are reminded that native household
servants in Africa are still called 'boys' though they may be
full-grown men.) Slaves dressed in much the same style as
the poorer free citizens, except that they might wear a badge
or might be branded as the punishment for some offence.

It has been calculated that there were about 200,000
slaves at the time of Cicero. This comparatively large number
was due to the successful wars that had been waged during
the last two centuries B.C. Slave-dealers actually accompanied
the armies to buy and sell again the prisoners of war after
every battle. On one occasion Julius Caesar had 53,000 cap-
tives sold after a victory. Slave-raiding also took place, Julius
Caesar himself being carried off by pirates when a youth.
The trade became so great that a regular market for slaves
was established in the island of Delos, in the Aegean Sea.
In Rome itself, the slaves were sold by auction, like cattle,
as negroes were sold in America before slavery was abolished.
As the number of slaves increased, no doubt they became
cheaper to buy, and more and more slaves were used. Thus

SLAVERY 89

Cato in the second century B.C. considered that only sixteen
slaves were needed to work a vineyard of 100 acres; yet a
century later Horace thought that every ordinary household

Manumission by the rod

A broken fragment of a bas-relief, showing a slave kneeling at the

magistrate's feet, while the lictor (in the centre) touches him with a rod.

On the left is another slave, who has just been freed, and is shaking

hands with his master

needed at least ten slaves, and in most cases the number was
very much larger.

Slaves might gain their freedom in various ways. Often
a slave would buy his freedom out of his savings ; often the
master would free his slaves in gratitude for his services or
other reasons. The ceremony of manumission or setting a
slave free was as follows. The master went with his slave

90 SLAVERY

to a magistrate and in his presence went through a curious
ceremony. -The slave, wearing a special white cap called the
pilleus, knelt at the magistrate's feet, and a lictor touched him
with a rod, declaring him to be free. Thereupon the master
struck him with his hand, as a sign of the power he once had
over the slave but was now willingly giving up. It is curious
to note that the ceremony of dubbing a knight by striking
him with a sword probably has its origin in this ceremony
of 'manumission by the rod*, as it was called.

There were less formal ways of setting a slave free. A
master might write a letter giving him his freedom, or invite
him to sit at table with him, or merely declare him free in the
presence of a few friends.

XI
ROADS AND TRAVEL

TRAVEL in the Roman world was an easier undertaking than
it was for centuries after the Roman Empire had fallen. This
was due not only to the strong government that maintained
the pax Romana, but also to the wonderful roads that were
made and kept up by that government. Roads were needed
by armies and officials and traders, and from the time that
Appius Claudius planned in 312 B.C. the road that bore his
name (the Via Appia), a network of great highways was made
to the farthest limits of the Empire.

Roads were built on a large scale from the time of Augustus
onwards, but even at the end of the Republic great main roads
led to all parts of Italy and another crossed Greece from the
west to Macedonia. It was the literal truth that 'all roads led
to Rome', and along them the legions marched, officials went
about the work of government, and traders brought merchan*

ROADS AND TRAVEL 91

disc from the ends of the earth. It is scarcely too much to
say that the Roman roads were the best lines of communica-
tion till railways came into being.

The first purpose of these roads was military. The Appian
Way, for instance, was built to secure the Roman hold on
Campania. As the rule of Rome spread farther, the great
roads were established to make possible the work of govern-
ment and defence. They were dead straight, for often the
legions might need to move rapidly from one place to another.
In consequence, the Romans gave little heed to natural ob-
stacles. Their engineers were most skilful in overcoming
difficulties whether in bridging great rivers or in carrying
the roadway across valleys by long viaducts. Throughout the
Middle Ages the methods of Roman engineers were copied,
and they are used by us to-day. The great public roads
usually bore the name of the censor, consul, or emperor who
caused them to be built. They were kept in repair by con-
tractors at the expense of the government, though neighbour-
ing landowners had to pay something towards their upkeep.

The early roads were probably earthen tracks, the surface
of which was strengthened with stones. The roads typical of
later times were called viae munitae (or stratae), and had
a paved surface. There were usually five layers or courses
in a via munita. The foundation was of earth rammed hard.
On this were laid stones large enough to fill the hand. On
top of them were smaller stones mixed with lime, covered
with a layer of fine cement. The curved top layer was made
of polygonal blocks of basalt or other suitable stone found
in the neighbourhood. If the roads were built on a rocky
foundation (e. g. parts of the Via Appia) only the two topmost
layers were needed.

Milestones (miliaria) were a special feature of the Roman
roads. These were first set up on a regular system by Caius

ga ROADS AND TRAVEL

Gracchus, and afterwards they were erected all along the
roads. They marked the distances from Rome, and some-
times from other important towns. In the Forum at Rome,
Augustus set up the MiUarium Aureum from which the roads
of Italy radiated. It was less a milestone than an indicator
of distances from Rome to a number of important places.

The remains of Augustus's 'Golden milestone' (miliarium aureum) in
the Forum at Rome

Bridges and viaducts were built where necessary, and in
the south of France especially there still remain splendid
specimens, almost intact after nearly 2,000 years. They were
massive, like all Roman buildings, that were intended to
impress by their very size. What is most remarkable about
them is that they were usually made of blocks of stone so
accurately cut that they held together without the use of
cement, though sometimes the blocks would be clamped
together with iron. The great Pont du Card near Avignon
supplies a striking reminder of the skill of Roman builders.

ROADS AND TRAVEL 93

We can well imagine the numerous travellers that used
these roads. Travel was in some respects easier and less
restricted in those days than now, because the same Latin
language was current all along the roads and a citizen would
be under the same government though he travelled from
Gaul to Greece. Many of the travellers were bent on govern-
ment business armies on the march; officials travelling in
leisurely style with their retinues; embassies from subject
tribes; messengers hastening with dispatches and official
correspondence. Under the Empire there was a regular im-
perial post, with relays of horses, and post-houses for the
letter-carriers. But this postal service was only for public
business. All private letters were taken by couriers, employed
privately. We can read in Cicero's letters how he took the
opportunity of writing to friends when he heard of a trusty
courier who was going their way. Learned men were amongst
the crowds on the great roads, for there was more of a
real commonwealth of learning when all men spoke the same
tongue than in these days when there is the barrier of dif-
ferent languages. Well-to-do youths, like Caesar and Cicero,
might be found making the 'Grand Tour' of Greece and
Asia Minor in the same way as wealthy Englishmen of
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries travelled in France
and Italy to finish their education. In later days there were
missionaries carrying the new Christian faith along the Roman
roads, without which, humanly speaking, that faith could not
have spread so quickly.

There were several kinds of conveyances in common use.
In Rome itself wheeled traffic was not permitted in the day-
time, and the litter was much used. This can be described
as a kind of couch with a canopy and side-curtains, borne on
poles by at least two carriers, and sometimes by as many as
six or eight. A kind of sedan chair was sometimes used.

94 ROADS AND TRAVEL

Outside the towns people used the carpentum, a light two-
wheeled covered cart, drawn by two mules or Gallic horses
which were specially prized for their speed. For long journeys
travellers used the raeda, a four-wheeled carriage that could
convey luggage and other personal belongings.

To meet the needs of these mixed crowds of travellers
there were inns by the roadside. They were known by their
signs as in later times A d Rot am, The Wheel (which re-
mained throughout the Middle Ages a popular sign for
hostelries); Ad Gallum, the Cock; or Ad Draeones, The
Serpents. Outside Rome, on the Appian Way, there was
a cluster of inns, the well-known posting station of Tres
Tabernae, where Paul was met by friends from Rome as he
approached the City (Actsxxviii. 15). These taverns, noisy,
comfortless, and cheap, were used by humble travellers. There
is an inscription which gives a scale of charges under the early
Empire. Bread and wine cost one as (about \d.) each, and two
asses were charged for the provender of a mule. At this rate
the Good Samaritan made ample provision when he gave the
inn-keeper two 'pence* (denarii) for the man he befriended.
Wealthy men arranged the stages of their journeys BO as to
stay the night in the houses of friends. Cicero had six houses
not far from Rome that he could use in this way. If he could
not arrange for "the hospitality of friends, a traveller might
sleep in his carriage, Which was usually large and built for
comfort rather than speed. Public officials when travelling
were billeted in the houses of leading families. Members of
guilds or professional men might often rely on finding hospi-
tality in the house of one of the same guild or profession.

So far we have dealt only with travel by land, chiefly
because it was infinitely more popular than travel by sea.
The peoples of the ancient world as a whole never fully over-
came their fear of the sea. Their point of view can be seen

A Roman magistrate riding in state in a carriage drawn by two horses.
Behind are four men carrying a litter (lectica) on their shoulders

A Roman 'coach', a covered four-wheeled vehicle drawn by a pair
of horses

TRAVEL BY LAND

96 ROABS AND TRAVEL

in the lines of Horace where he says that the first man to
venture out in his frail craft must have had a heart of oak
bound with triple brass. Land journeys were preferred to
sea-passages, and from mid-November to the end of Marc%
there was little sea traffic; Paul's famous and disastrous
journey was made after the usual season was over. There

A merchant ship in the time of the Roman empire

were no ships carrying passengers only; all seafarers had to
use merchant ships for their travels. Horace tells us that all
parts of the world were visited by merchant ships. A regular
service of ships carried grain from Egypt to Rome. All these
might be used by travellers at need. We remember that when
the centurion brought Paul to Rome he took advantage of
'a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy' which he found at
Myra in Asia Minor.

During the last century of the Republic travel was not
always safe. The man who fell among thieves on his way
from Jerusalem to Jericho would be a familiar figure to the
people who heard the parable. Brigands and robbers on land.

,, ROADS AND TftAVEL 97

and pirates on -the sea, took toll of travellers, as tombstones
tell only too frequently, though more commonly the victims
were sold into slavery. Robbers had good chances of success
because people often preferred to travel by night. The
danger was greatly reduced when a strong central government
was set up after the Civil Wars of the first century B.C.
Pompey cleared the seas of pirates in the year 6j,and Augus-
tus established military police posts to give safety oh the roads*

XII
THE ROMAN CALENDAR

THE Julian calendar was one of the great gifts of Rome to
the world. As its name suggests, it was devised by Julius
Caesar. There had been calendars in use before his time,
but they were hopelessly inaccurate and had been actually
falsified so often that at the time when the reform was made
in 46 B.C. the seasons were nearly two months late.

The earliest calendar, said to have been drawn up by
Romulus, divided the year into ten months, the first of which
was March. Thus September was actually the seventh month
(Latin septem = seven) and December the tenth month (Latin
decem = ten). The tradition of a ten-month year cannot be
explained satisfactorily. What is certain is that the months
were measured by the moon and that during the Republic the
years consisted of 355 days, i. e. ten days too few.

To rectify this defect an additional month was inserted
from time to time by the priests who controlled the calendar.
The result was that at an early date the months ceased to
correspond to the phases of the moon, and the calendar fell
into confusion.

When Julius Caesar became dictator the reform of the

too THE ROMAN CALENDAR

religion of the Empire, Up to that time the Roman week
contained eight days seven ordinary working days and an
eighth (called nundina 1 } when markets were held.

The days themselves were divided into two main groups
the Dies Fasti and Nefasti; which were in turn further sub-
divided. The Dies Fasti took their name from/as, that which
is binding or obligatory in a moral sense, as used in the famous
motto of the Royal Engineers 'Quo Fas et Gloria Ducunt*.
It will be seen that the Dies Fasti had a religious impor-
tance in the first instance. The Dies Fasti were days on
which ceremonial sacrifices, religious banquets, public games,
and holidays might take place. The law-courts were open,
and the public assemblies of the people were held on the
Dies Fasti. Hence by a transference of meaning the word
'Fasti* by itself meant a table or book of all the days of the
year with their festivals indicated, after the fashion of a
modern calendar.

The Dies Nefasti were the exact contrary of the Fasti. On
them no public business might be transacted. They were
unlucky days, being very often the anniversary of some
disastrous event.

XIII

THE ROMAN ARMY: RANKS AND
ORGANIZATION

FOR six and a half centuries of Roman history, service in the
army was one of the duties of citizenship, but at the beginning
of the first century B.C. a change was made so that from then
military service was a means of livelihood.
In the earliest days the army consisted of three legions of

1 Sec Chapter V. This word is derived from novtm diet, 'nine day*',
and is another example of inclusive reckoning.

THE ROMAN ARMY 101

1,000 men each. The Latin word for a soldier, miles, is con-
nected with mille, a thousand. One legion was recruited from
each of the three tribes in the city, and each legion had a
detachment of one hundred horse-soldiers.

Servius Tullius, the sixth king of Rome (578-535 B.C.),
made great changes in the organization of the army. Till his
reign it had been filled with patricians, but now he made
all citizens liable to serve. The people were divided into
five classes according to their means, the richest serving as
cavalry, the next richest as heavy-armed infantry, and so on
downwards to the poorest, who were used as light-armed
skirmishers. The humblest of all, who were not included in
any of these five classes, were called upon only in times of
national peril. There were now four legions of infantry, with
cavalry in addition. They fought in the solid formation
known as the phalanx with a frontage of five hundred men
and six ranks deep.

The phalanx was found to be a somewhat clumsy forma-
tion, and by the middle of the fourth century B.C. the legions
were divided into 'maniples' (from manipulus, a 'handful'),
arranged in three groups according to experience. At this
period the legion usually contained about 4,200 men, of
whom 1,200 were light-armed skirmishers drawn from the
poorest classes. The skirmishers entered action first and pre-
pared the way for the men of the first line, known as hastati,
the young soldiers, who were armed with a spear (hasta) for
thrusting and a sword for close fighting. If necessary, the
second line, fatprinctpes, more experienced men, were called
into action, and if by unlucky chance they were defeated there
still remained the third line in reserve, the triarii, the oldest
and most experienced fighters. This systematic formation
remained up to the time of Marius, who completely re-
organized the army.

102 THE ROMAN ARMY

The need for reorganization arose from two causes. First,
the campaigns of Rome now took her armies into the farther
parts of Europe, and the Near East. No longer could cam-
paigns be finished in a single season as in the old days of wars
in Italy; it was no longer possible for a man to do his period
of service and then return to his farm or workshop to pick
up once more his regular occupation. Secondly, the long
wars, and the grievous losses that the Romans suffered both
in lives and wealth, had brought about a serious decrease in
the number of citizens who were liable to serve in the army
under the old system.

Influenced by these two considerations, Marius threw open
the army to all who were willing to serve in return for pay-
ment. There followed an immense and far-reaching change.
Men now adopted the army as a profession, to which they
pledged themselves for a period of fifteen to twenty years.
They made their oath of allegiance to the general in person,
who thereby had at his command a body of paid followers.
They were entirely dependent on him and he could, if he
wished, use them to further his own purposes rather than
those of the State. In this power, of course, lay a great
danger.

Marius changed not only the character of the army but
also its organization. The old method of grouping the men
according to their experience was dropped, though the names
of , the groups continued in use. The spear had already been
replaced by the javelin as the characteristic weapon of the
legionary. But perhaps the most important change was the
new division of the legion into ten cohorts, each containing
three maniples each of which was in turn divided into two
^centuries. As a century contained roughly one hundred men,
a legion at full strength would number about 6,000 ; in actual
practice, however, 5,000 was the usual number. From the

THE ROMAN ARMY 103

time of Marius, the cavalry was made up of foreigners,
especially Spaniards and Gauls.

The commander-in -chief was known as the imperator.
This was simply a title and did not carry any special rank.
Originally the army was led by the king himself, and after-
wards by the consuls or other magistrates to whom belonged
the military command (imperium) formerly held by the king.

Each legion in Caesar's army was commanded by a legatus,
corresponding to a lieutenant-general of to-day i.e. he was
a staff officer who acted for the general in the command of
the legion. There were also six tribunes (tribuni militum) for
each legion. They were appointed by the people as a whole
and they held office for one year. A tribune was usually a
young man of noble rank.

The legatus and the tribunes were the higher officers, of
commissioned rank, but the centurions formed the backbone
of the legion. There were sixty of them, six in each of the
ten cohorts, and they corresponded to the sergeants of a
modern army. They were not all of the same standing. In
each cohort there were six grades, 1 and the centurions of the
first cohort were superior to those of all the other nine
cohorts. The ambition of every centurion was to reach the
coveted rank of primus pilus, the senior centurion of the first
cohort, and, therefore, of the whole legion. The system of
promotions is not quite clear, but probably a centurion passed
from a lower to a higher cohort, keeping the same grade in
each. For example, a man holding the rank of princeps prior
in the sixth cohort would be promoted princeps prior in the
fifth, and so on till he came to the first cohort. Then he might
go from grade to grade till he became primus pilus.

1 The six grades were named from the old divisions of hastati, principes,
and pilani (or triarii). They were called pilus prior and posterior, princeps
prior and posterior, and hostatus prior and posterior, the adjectives referring
to the front and rear ranks.

104 THE ROMAN ARMY

The centurions had considerable responsibility and power.
Julius Caesar himself regarded his centurions as the men
chiefly responsible for controlling the rank and file and
for enforcing discipline. We can judge this from his calling
together all the centurions after a mutiny in 58 B.C., to
rebuke them for not maintaining stricter discipline. Cen-
turions had the right of flogging their men. This was sym-
bolized by carrying a rod which was the special mark of their
rank. The brutality of the centurions became proverbial,
and the soldiers complained that they had to bribe the
centurions to avoid flogging. They used as well to bribe
them in order to be let off fatigue duties which were allotted
by the centurions. The practice became so common that
the officers actually counted on the bribes as a part of their
income.

The uniform of a legionary was plain and serviceable.
Over a woollen tunic reaching nearly to his knees, he wore
a leather doublet with the additional protection of plates of
metal if he could afford them. He had a brown-coloured
cloak which seems to have been adopted from the Gauls.
It could be used as a blanket when required. He wore
heavy hobnailed sandals, but no covering to his legs ex-
cept during campaigns in cold countries like Gaul or
Britain, when he might wear puttees or breeches. He was
always clean-shaven and wore his hair cut very short.

When in action, he had for defence a crested helmet (first
of leather and later of metal) and a leather shield (scutum),
four feet long and two and a half feet wide, curved almost to
the shape of a half cylinder. It was strengthened by a rim of
metal and an iron or bronze boss in the middle. The right
leg, left uncovered by the shield, was protected by a metal
greave; similarly, the right shoulder was protected by a metal
disc.

xo6 THE ROMAN ARMY

The legionary's weapons were a sword, a javelin, and some-
times a dagger. The sword was short and broad, about two
feet in length, two-edged and suitable for hand-to-hand
fighting. He carried two javelins for hurling at the enemy in
a charge. They were about seven feet long, the shaft being
made of wood, with a head (about 2 ft. long) of iron. There
was always the danger that these javelins would be picked up
and hurled back at the Romans by their enemies ; so various
means were employed to prevent this. Marius joined the
metal point to the shaft with a wooden pin that snapped when
thtyavelin struck, and so the head was loosened ; while Julius
C&sar made the head (all but the point) of soft iron that bent
with the force of a blow.

The legionary had a fair amount of equipment to carry in
addition to his personal weapons. It was usually made into
a bundle or pack and strapped on to a wooden framework,
invented by Marius, that distributed the weight evenly on the
shoulders after the fashion of a modern Norwegian ruck-sack.
He had to carry, in addition to his personal gear and clothing,
entrenching tools and stakes for making the palisade at camp,
utensils for cooking his own food, and rations for several days.
The bulk of his food was wheat, which was issued to him
unground. He had to grind it in his own hand-mill and make
his own bread or porridge with it. This ration of grain was
counted as part of his w?iges he received very little actual
cash. Sometimes, as a punishment, barley was issued instead
of wheat. The soldiers were not given ordinary wine ; their
usual drink was a very sour variety, not unlike vinegar.
(See St. Mark xv. 36.)

.

o

E-

i

02

O

PS

io8

XIV
THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE FIELD

IN the last chapter we saw something of the composition of
the Roman army; let us now turn to the more important

PORTA PRAETOR1A
Inter

PORTA

PRINCIPAL! S

bINISTRA

Extraord

Pracfecti

Tribum

Tribuni Praefecli

V A PRINCIPAL'S

P r i n

r-

c i p e s

PftAETOftlUM

Pr i n

c i p e & *

Hast

a Li

H a si

* LI i

OUttSTORIUK

$ T r i

la r i i

T r i

arii o

2 C q u

ties

E q u

bo
ites v

FORUM

A

a

A

\ a

S i n i

s t r a

d c x

I r a

PORTA

PRINCIPAL!*

DEXTRA

PORTA QUAESTORIA
(P. decumana*

PLAN OF A ROMAN CAMP

topic of the Roman army in the field on the march, in camp,
and engaged in battle or conducting a siege.

There were several ways in which a general might arrange
his legions when on the march, the choice depending on the
nature of the country through which the army was passing,
the nearness of the enemy, the danger of attack, and other
considerations. There was always a good deal of baggage

THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE FIELD 109

(impedimenta) to be taken, apart from the soldiers' personal
equipment, and this would have to be made safe from
attack. The usual arrangement was for each legion to march
with its baggage-train immediately following it, protected in
the rear (and sometimes on the flanks as well) by the cavalry.
The ordinary line of march (agmeri) was formed in this way,
but it was not suitable if there was any immediate danger of
meeting the enemy. On such an occasion, several legions
went first, followed by all their baggage, with the rest of the
army forming a rearguard. Sometimes, when the enemy
hovered near with the intention of attacking the flanks of the
army, the baggage train was protected by a column of troops
on either side, making the formation a hollow square with
the baggage in the middle.

When the day's march was finished, normally a distance
between fifteen and twenty miles, the army encamped for the
night.

A Roman camp (castrd) was always laid out with the
greatest exactness, according to some recognized plan. The
one given in the accompanying diagram shows a typical camp
of Julius Caesar. The labour involved must have been
enormous ; but the Romans had that type of genius which
finds nothing too much trouble, and of all Roman generals
this is perhaps most true of Julius Caesar.

It will be seen that the camp was entirely enclosed by
a ditch. The earth removed in the course of digging this
was piled up to form a rampart, topped with a palisade.
For making this, every legionary carried as many as seven
stakes as part of his marching kit. The first point marked
by the surveyors who laid out the camp was the site of the
general's tent (praetorium) which marked the exact middle of
the camp. It stood at the junction of the two main thorough-
fares that crossed from north to south and from east to west

no THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE FIELD

There was a gate at the end of each thoroughfare the main
entrance being the Porta Praetoria that was used by the
general, and (in theory if not always in fact) was on the
eastern side of the camp.

The camp shown in the plan was constructed for two
legions and their auxiliaries. Each legion was encamped by
itself, one on the south and one on the north of the general's
tent. The two encampments were separated by the/oraw;
that was the real centre of the life of the camp. Here the
general harangued his men ; rewards and punishments were
meted out ; booty was put up for auction ; and booths were
set up where the soldiers might buy little extras, as in a
modern canteen.

As we have seen already, the praetorium formed the
general's quarters. It was much more than a mere tent:
in a standing camp, indeed, it was a substantial building.
In the praetorium were stored the standards and the trea-
sury of the legions. A part of it was set aside for religious
uses, especially for the taking of auspices. It contained
the quarters of young aristocrats who accompanied the
general on his campaigns to gain first-hand practical expe-
rience. The quaestorium near by formed the quarters of the
paymaster, and it was used to house hostages, prisoners, and
booty.

The camp was carefully guarded both by day and by night,
the hours of darkness being divided into four watches. Pickets
of horse and foot were placed at each gate, and sentinels drawn
from the light-armed troops mounted guard on the earth-
mound just inside the surrounding ditch. The watchword
(signum) was not given by word of mouth, but was written
down on wooden tablets, that were passed from man to man
throughout the camp from the outer edge inwards to the
tribune on duty.

ROMAN LEGIONARY SOLDIERS BUILDING THEIR CAMP

The men who are working all have their helmets off. At the back three

officers are superintending the work. On the left is a wood, and the shield

of a sentry can be seen. A relief from Trajan's column at Rome

ii2 THE ROMAN ARMY IN THE FIELD

As the order of march varied to suit the circumstances of
the occasion, so also the line of battle (acies) might be arranged
in various ways. The formation used ordinarily by Julius
Caesar was known as the triplex acies. In this, the ten cohorts
of a legion were drawn up in three lines four in the first
line, three in the second line covering the spaces of the first,
and three more in the last line. This last line was kept in
reserve, and used only if the first two failed in their attack.
The four cohorts of the front line, ranged eight deep as a
general rule, charged first, hurling their javelins and then
engaging the enemy in hand-to-hand fighting with their
swords. If necessary the three cohorts of the second line
came up to help them, passing through the spaces in the first
line. Thus the two front lines shared the attack, resting by
turns in order to prepare themselves for any renewal of the
fray. The cavalry supported them on the flanks or did battle
with the enemy's skirmishers and horsemen, though Roman
cavalry did not play a prominent part in actual battles: they
were of use chiefly in the pursuit of fugitives.

When a Roman general planned to take a town, he pre-
ferred to do so by assault rather than by the slower method
of a blockade, and many ingenious machines were brought
into use when an assault was made. Sometimes a weakly
defended town might be taken by storm. Then the soldiers
locked their shields together over their heads as a protection
from missiles. Thus they marched to the walls of the town
under a roof of shields which was called by the Romans
'testudo' the tortoise-shell. As the men under the 'shell'
advanced others attempted to scale the walls by means of
ladders.

In the capture of stronger towns very elaborate engines
of war were employed. Huge earthworks were first con-

J.9
.1

3632

ii4 THE ROMAN ARMY

strutted near the walls so that the attackers might meet the
defenders on the same level. There were also great wheeled
towers, with staging at different heights, that were pushed
close to the walls. From these darts and other missiles were
hurled against the defenders within, while the walls were
weakened with the blows of a battering-ram. This was some-
times just a great beam thrust against the walls by a number
of strong men, and sometimes an elaborate machine like
that described by Josephus, who saw it at work against
the walls of Jerusalem. 'The ram is a vast long beam', he
wrote, 'like the mast of a ship, strengthened at one end with
a head of iron, something resembling that of a ram, whence
it took its name. This is hung by the midst with ropes to
another beam, which lies across a couple of posts, and hang-
ing thus equally balanced, it is by a great number of men
violently thrust forward and drawn backward, and so shakes
the wall with its iron head. Nor is there any tower or wall so
thick or strong, that, after the first assault of the ram, can
afterwards resist its force in the repeated assaults.' Attempts
were also made to dismantle the walls by wrenching stones
from them with the help of great iron hooks.

Of course, the Romans had no artillery in the modern sense
of the term, but they used various ingenious machines for
hurling boulders and other missiles during a siege. The
general name given to these machines was tormenta, and they
were more useful for harassing the enemy than for causing
great destruction. The most important were the catapulta
for discharging darts and arrows, and the ballista for hurling
stones or beams of timber. The schoolboy to-day shoots tiny
pellets in the same way as the Romans hurled their darts
against the enemy; so his little implement (really a special
kind of bow) is still called a 'catapult'. The ballista resembled
the mortar of later times. It was worked in the same way

IN THE FIELD 115

as a catapulta, but the missile was given its direction by
being shot along a groove set at an angle of 45 to the
ground.

XV
THE ROMAN ARMY IN TRIUMPH

THE highest ambition of every Roman general was to receive
the honour of a Triumph. Yet so strict were the conditions
that must be fulfilled before the Senate would grant the
honour, that a full Triumph was not often obtained at least
under the Republic. These were the necessary conditions :
the victorious general must be either Dictator, or Consul,
or Praetor (Pompey was the only exception to this rule) ; the
victory must have been gained in person, and so completely
that troops to grace the Triumph might safely be withdrawn
from the conquered region; at least five thousand of the
enemy must have fallen in battle; and a definite tract of
new territory must have been brought under Roman rule.

A Triumph must have been one of the most magnificent
of spectacles ever staged in a great city that knew how to
make the most of public pageants. On the day when it was
held, the whole city made holiday : the streets were decorated
with garlands, the statues were adorned with flowers, and
fires were lighted on every altar.

The triumphal procession entered the city from the Cam-
pus Martius, where the victorious general camped on the
preceding night. No effort was spared to glorify the event.
First in the long procession came the city magistrates, whose
powers were for that day in the hands of the triumphant
general. Then followed trumpeters, sounding as for a charge.
Next came the spoils taken from the enemy, drawn on
chariots or carried by hand, together with representations of

H 2

u6 THE ROMAN ARMY

the events of the campaign, the places captured, and alle-
gorical figures, all mounted upon stages set upon wagons, as
we see tableaux vivants in a Lord Mayor's Show to-day.
White oxen intended for sacrifice came next, adorned very
richly, led by priests and followed by others bearing the
sacred vessels and implements of sacrifice. After that came
the captives, headed by the king of the conquered country,
his children, and his chief nobles. If it chanced that the king
had fallen in battle, his effigy was carried in the procession.
Then followed officials of the victorious army, and musicians
dancing and playing.

Next was the general himself in whose honour the whole
wonderful pageant was taking place. He was drawn in a rich
circular chariot by four horses, always, from the time of
Julius Caesar, pure white. He was robed in purple and wore
a laurel crown. In his right hand he carried a laurel branch,
and in his left an ivory sceptre. Behind him stood a slave,
holding above the victor's head the crown of Jupiter in
the form of an oak- wreath made of gold : and sometimes,
curiously enough, another slave to whisper reminders that he
was but human, lest he should become too proud with the
honours heaped upon him. With the general in his chariot
were his children if they were very young; if they were lads
who had not yet assumed the toga virilis, they rode on the
horses that drew the chariot ; if grown up they rode behind,
with the legati and tribuni of the victorious army. Last of all
came the soldiers, marching on foot, their javelins twined
with laurel, shouting lo triumphe and singing songs in honour
of their general.

The immense procession entered the city by a special
gate, the Porta Triumphalis, which was used only on these
occasions. On the line of route, triumphal arches were
erected, at one time as occasion required but afterwards built

IN TRIUMPH 117

permanently of stone, often elaborately decorated. Some still
remain, and others like them may be seen in Paris, com-
memorating the victories of Napoleon. The procession passed
through the Circus Maximus and along the Sacred Way to
the Forum, whence the general ascended the Capitoline Hill
to the great Temple of Jupiter. While he mounted thither,
and as an integral part of the day's events, the principal
captives were put to death in a prison adjoining the Forum :
it is recorded that only on four occasions were their lives
spared. Upon entering the Temple of Jupiter, where the
white oxen were sacrificed, the general laid his laurel branch
upon the lap of the god. The sacrifices were followed by a
state banquet given by the Senate, and feasts for the soldiers
and citizens.

Even when the day's pageant was over, the general enjoyed
further honours of victory. He still wore his laurel wreath.
He received land to build a house, the entrance to which was
decorated with his trophies, while his statue in a triumphant
chariot was placed in the entrance hall to keep his memory
green. Even after his death his triumph was not forgotten,
for his ashes were allowed burial within the walls of the city.

If the Romans wished to honour a general not entitled to
a full Triumph, they gave him an Ovation. This also was
a procession through the streets, but shorn of the splendours
of a Triumph. The general entered the city on foot, or (in
later times) on horseback, clad in the ordinary toga of a
magistrate. Instead of the laurel wreath, he wore one of
myrtle, and he carried no sceptre. There were neither troops
nor magistrates in the procession, but usually some equites
and a throng of the humbler citizens. Music was provided by
flutes, instead of by the trumpets of war. And when the
procession reached the Temple of Jupiter, instead of white
oxen, a sheep was sacrificed. The honour of an ovation was

ii8 THE ROMAN ARMY IN TRIUMPH

granted when the enemy was not very dangerous, or when
the bloodshed had not been considerable.

Awards to individual soldiers for bravery or for specially
good service in the field commonly took the form of crowns ;
and it was a general principle that the greatest honour was
attached to the crowns that were the least valuable in them-
selves. So to-day the Victoria Cross, in our own army the
highest award for valour, is merely an inexpensive medal of
bronze. Its Roman equivalent was the civic crown (corona
civica), that was awarded to soldiers who saved the lives of
Roman citizens in battle. It was made simply of oak leaves.
Special honours were paid to holders of the civic crown : when
they entered a public building, all those present rose to show
their respect; and they had the right to sit with Senators
at public entertainments. Other crowns of different designs
were awarded for special kinds of distinguished service in
action. Various trophies in the form of collars, bracelets, and
horse-trappings were conferred when a crown was not an
appropriate reward. There were many awards and they were
lavishly bestowed, but the Romans aimed at encouraging
valour and zeal so that cowardice and slackness might but
rarely show themselves.

XVI
NAVAL AFFAIRS

IN all the long and wonderful story of Rome, few incidents
show the fine spirit of the Romans better than the building
of their first fleet when war broke out with Carthage (B.C.
264). Up to that time the Romans had had very little to do
with the sea; and their only vessels were clumsy merchant-

NAVAL AFFAIRS 119

ships. Carthage, on the other hand, was the greatest naval
power in the ancient world, and Rome had to prepare to meet
her in naval conflict.

By a fortunate chance a Carthaginian galley was stranded
on the Italian coast. The Romans took this for their model

A ROMAN BATTLESHIP
being rowed into action, with a detachment of soldiers on board

and set about building a fleet. So that there should be no
delay in putting to sea when the ships were built, the crews
were made to practise rowing on benches set up on dry land,
in much the same way as we can practise swimming exercises
out of the water to-day. With the fleet that came into being in
this way the Romans were able to defeat the Carthaginians.

True, the story of the stranded Carthaginian ship is open
to doubt. For a long time before the wars with Carthage the
Romans had been obliged to turn their attention to the sea,
in the course of their dealings with the Greeks of Southern

lao NAVAL AFFAIRS

Italy, from whom they could always recruit trained sailors.
The Romans must have been familiar with Etruscan and
Greek vessels, and it is noteworthy that their earliest coins
bore the prow of a ship on one side. It is quite likely that
Roman historians purposely overlooked these facts in their
desire to enhance the glory of their triumph over Carthage.

But the Romans did not extend their naval power they
were still afraid of the sea. It has been thought that the
Romans kept no standing navy, but preferred to build ships
as and when necessity arose. This was not often, for most
campaigns were conducted by land; but when sea travel
was necessary, as when Julius Caesar came to Britain, lack
of experience often brought mishap or disaster. Those vessels
they had were always hauled up on to the shore at the end
of the autumn, and were not launched again till the early
summer.

The general name for a warship was navis longa. It was
comparatively narrow for its length, being designed mainly
for speed, unlike the merchant ship that needed plenty of
space for its cargo. The 'long-ships' were propelled by oars,
and the different kinds were named biremes, triremes, quadri-
remes, quinqueremes, and so on (from remus, an oar). At one
time it was thought that these names implied the number of
the banks of oars on the various ships, but it is now believed
that they show the number of rowers to each oar: thus, there
would be three rowers to each oar on a trireme, and five on
a quinquereme, the two commonest types of boat in use.

The rowers were seldom, if ever, of Roman birth. Usually
they came from allied or conquered races, or were slaves who
had gained their freedom. They formed the crew and were
quite separate from the fighting men, who in the early days
were ordinary legionaries, but later were specially recruited
for service in the fleet after the manner of our Royal Marines.

NAVAL AFFAIRS 121

The officers on each ship were the Master (Magister) and
the steersman (gubernator), though sometimes one man filled
both offices.

In a naval engagement, three methods of attack might be
used. First, the attacker might crash its way through the oars
of the enemy's ship and so leave it disabled. Or, by skilful
steering, one ship might ram another with its bronze-shod
'beak 1 (rostrum), level with or below the surface of the water.
If neither of these tactics succeeded, two vessels would
manoeuvre alongside each other. Then, when they had been
linked with grappling-irons, boarding planks would be laid
across from one to the other and close hand-to-hand fighting
on the decks would follow.

XVII
THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

IN order to understand fully the ideas that underlay the
religion of the Romans, we must go back to the earliest days
of the Latin settlements in Italy. The newcomers were tillers
of the soil, and their daily work brought them into ceaseless
struggle with the forces of Nature. There were many things
that these primitive people experienced but could not explain.
Floods and drought, storms and refreshing showers, untimely
frosts and genial summer warmth were at work to bring them
either good fortune or disaster.

In all these everyday happenings they saw the work of
spirits, sometimes hurtfiil and at other times beneficent. At
every turn they believed themselves to be surrounded by
spirits (numina), in air, in earth and water spirits that could
help or harm them, always resenting any encroachment,
always ready to smite the trespasser, yet equally ready to favour

122 THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

and assist if won over by acceptable sacrifices and ceremonies.
Where there was so much that could not be explained, ignor-
ance bred superstition, which in turn gave rise to fear; so that
the whole purpose of 'religion' was to secure the favour of the
spirits, or to make amends to any and every deity (numeri) that
might be offended in the course of a man's everyday occupa-
tions. If a man bridged a stream, for instance, even if it were
only with a plank, he must make sacrifice to the river-spirit for
intruding upon his domain. In this deep-rooted belief in
spirits we find the foundations of Roman religion. There was
in it an element of magic, and a belief that certain acts would
produce certain results that were to be desired or avoid others
that were to be feared. So among the Romans there were
magical ceremonies for making rain, as there are in West
Africa to-day, and such ceremonies continued to be used,
with certain changes, right on into the historical period of
Roman history when the people had outgrown the days of
magic.

Yet though the basis of the religion of the early Romans
was this belief in spirits, the people had only the most
shadowy notions about them. They had not enough imagina-
tion to give them a form, a physical shape. The gods re-
mained as spirits, often merely described by an adjective
indicating the qualities or dwelling of the spirit, as Silvanus,
the god of the wild wood (silva)* Sometimes the idea was
carried a stage farther and it was believed that a particular
spirit dwelt in a certain place or thing. Thus the god Termi-
nus dwelt in his stone on the Capitol ; Diana in her grove at
Aricia, and Volturnus in the River Tiber. It is most impor-
tant to remember that the early Romans had only vague
ideas to work upon ; for we find that they were accustomed
to add various qualities to these shadowy spirits. We may take
as an example the great god Jupiter who was worshipped

THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS 123

under many different titles: e.g. Jupiter Stator, the stayer of
flight in war, or Jupiter Ruminus who fertilized the earth with
rain. It must be remembered that the Romans did not attempt
to represent Jupiter or their other early gods in any special
physical form. Centuries later, when they came into contact
with the Greeks, they discovered amongst the Greek gods and
goddesses many that were counterparts of their own, and they

A grove on a hill- top near Rome, sacred in Roman times. Such groves
were often looked upon by the Romans as the haunt of some special god

or goddess

copied the Greeks in making images, often in human form,
though in the early days their ideas had been so vague that
they did not know whether to address the spirits as god or
goddess.

To see the religion of the Romans at its best and purest,
unchanged by contact with foreign practices and beliefs, we
must go to the private religion of the family, from which the
State religion developed. Family ties were very strong, and
one of the strongest was the religion of the household, that
centred round the things of everyday life. There was the
worship of the spirit of the door, Janus (from ianua), who
guarded the entrance to the home and looked after all who

124 THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

went out or came in. Within the house there was the spirit
of the hearth-fire, Vesta. Indoors there were as well the
Penates, the spirits of the store-cupboard (penus). Very im-
portant, too, was the worship of the Genius of the family,
though the underlying idea is rather difficult to understand
nowadays. It was that indefinable something that makes
every family different from all others. The Genius was
in some way connected with the head of the family. Thus,
for example, its festival was observed on the master's
birthday; and when the Romans gave their deities an
individual physical form, they represented the Genius in the
likeness of the head of the family. The family religion also
included the worship of the Lares. 1 They were probably gods
of the fields before being brought indoors, for Cicero tells us
they were worshipped in sight of thehouse. The family shrine,
the Lararium, was set up in the atrium, showing how inti-
mately the Lar was connected with the daily life of the family.
In the early days, when life was more simple, these family
deities would be worshipped by the sacrifice of a part of the
meal that was thrown into the flames ; in later days the images
of Lares and Penates were placed upon the table to show that
they had a share in the meal. Even in more luxurious times,
there was a pause in every banquet while offerings were taken
to the household gods. It was only natural that in the family
religion the head of the family should be the priest, a fact
which emphasized his importance and formed a strong bond
between members of the family.

But families did not live apart. They were from very early
times grouped in clans or tribes living together in country
districts. Naturally they had religious rites and ceremonies
that must be performed in common. These festivals were
connected with the important seasons of the farmer's year

1 See Chapter III.

THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS 123

the spring-time, harvest, and winter. In early times the
Roman year began in March, 1 the beginning of the Spring
period of growth. There came a lull in the activity of the
farm during June and July, and not till the harvest months
of August and October do we find more great agricultural
festivals. The winter festivals, of which the chief was the
Saturnalia, were connected with the preparations for the next
year's crops.

It was from the religion of the farm and the family that
the Roman State religion grew up.

In the first place we must notice that some of the chief gods
of the City-State had their origin in the gods of the house-
hold. There was Vesta, whose undying fire guarded by the
Vestal Virgins represented the continuous life of the city as
in the house it represented the life of the family. In the home
t^ie hearth fire was tended by the daughters of the household ;
so the Vestal Virgins, the guardians of the city fire, were
regarded as something like daughters of the Pontifex Maxi-
mus, who took the place of the king at the head of the religion
of the State. Janus guarded the gateways of the city as he
also protected the doorway of the house. And other ideas
were associated with this god. Since he watched all who
went out and came in he must look both ways : hence he
was represented with two heads. He was the god of all be-
ginnings and the 'father of the morning' to whom the first
prayer of the day was offered. The city also had its Lares and
Penates, fulfilling on a larger scale the duties of the household
gods ; and in place of the Genius of the family there was the
Genius of the Roman people, and of the city itself, and
finally of the Emperor, who stood in the same relation to the
nation as did the father to the family.

' See Chapter XII.

126 THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

Perhaps the most interesting development was that which
changed the vague spirits that watched over the affairs of men
into gods with a definite form and traditional legends. The
idea came first from the Etruscans, but was chiefly developed
through contact with the Greeks, who had more imagination
than the Romans. From very early times the Greeks had
given a definite form, usually human, to the spirits which they
believed were in the world around them. The Romans found
that the Greeks had many deities very like their own, and as
they were represented in human shapes that could be more
easily understood than vague spirits, the Romans copied the
Greeks and made statues of their gods.

At first Jupiter was the spirit (or numeri) who inhabited the
sky. From this it was natural that he should become the god
of light (with the adjectival title of Lucetius, from lux), and
should be worshipped at the times of full moon when there
was most light both by night and day. He was also the spirit
that hurled the thunderbolt; places struck by lightning were
sacred to him since he moved in the lightning-flash. Yet he
was still a spirit, specially connected with the sacred oak on
the Capitoline Hill. When the Romans came back from their
early wars bringing their spoils with them, they laid the
choicest on this sacred oak ; and so Jupiter became connected
with successful warfare. As Jupiter Stator he stayed the
rout when Roman armies were hard pressed ; as Jupiter Victor
he gave them triumph ; in his temple on the Capitol he was
the supreme head of the State, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, the
'best and greatest'. 'To his temple the Roman youth will come
to make his offering when he takes the dress of manhood ; here
the magistrates will do sacrifice before entering their year of
office ; here the victorious general will pass in procession with
the spoils of victory; on the walls shall be suspended treaties
with foreign nations and offerings sent by subject princes and

THE R-ELIGION OF THE ROMANS 127

states from all quarters of the world : all that Rome is to be,

will be, as it were, embodied in the sky-spirit of the sacred

oak, the god of justice and of victory in war.' 1

The same sort of process took place in the thoughts

STATUE OF A VESTAL VIRGIN
Found in the house of the Vestal Virgins in the Forum at Rome

of the Romans about their great god Mars, though here,
curiously enough, it was a complete change rather than
a mere development. Mars was a deity worshipped by all
the tribes that settled in Latium, but at first he was in chief
a god of the fields. We shall see that farmers prayed to Mars
for protection of their crops and live stock, and for abundant
harvest. Yet to the later Romans Mars was chiefly the grim

1 C, Bailey.

128 THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

god of war, whose sacred animal was the fierce wolf. We can
trace the reason for this change if we consider the time of
the chief festivals of Mars. They fall in March, the month
sacred to him, and in May both of them months of the early
year, when the crops were beginning to grow and when the
young men were donning their armour in readiness for the
summer campaigns. And so in the beginning he was really
in two ways the 'spirit of the growing year* first, as the ally
of the farmer in giving increase to his flocks and fields, and
second of the warrior who goes seeking the fortunes of war.
Of course, at different periods of Roman history, one or other
of the sides of his nature would be the more important : in
the early days when the Romans were a tribe of farmers,
they would think of Mars as a god of the countryside ; later
on when they became a nation of soldiers they thought pf him
as the god of war,

As time passed many deities were adopted by the Romans
and a distinction arose between the Di indigetes, or native
gods, and the Di novensiles, or new gods. It was only natural
that the native gods were those connected directly or in-
directly with agriculture, the gods that had been at one time
the numina of the early settlers.

The newer gods of foreign origin, the Di novensiles, came
from various countries that the Romans conquered, but
especially from Greece. Some were adopted at a very early
date e.g. Minerva, an Etruscan goddess of the arts and
crafts, and Diana, who was introduced from Aricia when the
Latin league was formed. When a new god was brought from
Greece it was usually just a matter of identifying an already
existing deity with its Greek counterpart, and assigning to
it the stories that the more imaginative Greeks had woven
round their more definite god or goddess. Thus we find that

THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS 129

Neptunus, the god of seas and streams, was the Roman
counterpart of the Greek Poseidon; Mercurius, a god of
trading, was identified with the Greek Hermes, the messenger
of the gods. Some of the later gods, it is true, had no real
counterpart in early Romjui religion. The worship of Phoebus
Apollo was almost purely Greek,as also was that of Aesculapius,
the god of healing, since the Romans had very little knowledge
of medicine. The cult of Isis was imported direct from Egypt,
while in 205 B.C. a great fetish rock was brought from
Phrygia to be worshipped as the Great Mother (Magna
Mater).

With all these many and different deities, a Roman's deal-
ings were of a very practical nature. He sought either to
avoid their ill will or, more often, to enlist their active sup-
port. His prayers were for definite material blessings, and
when he offered a sacrifice it was with the idea of getting
some benefit in return or of avoiding some evil. Cicero him-
self points out that a Roman did not pray to be made virtuous,
but to be made both healthy and wealthy.

One important reason for this cold attitude towards religion
was the Romans' dislike of changes, and their faithful follow-
ing of the practice of their forefathers (mos maiorum). Another
reason was the control of religion by the State. It is scarcely
too much to say that a man's dealings with the gods were
marked out as definitely for him as were his dealings with his
fellow citizens.

The close connexion of religion with the State is clearly
seen in the organization of the priesthood. Here it should be
noted that the priests were not usually trained specially for
their duties nor did they form a class apart from other
citizens. Indeed, it often happened that men who had distin-
guished themselves in other departments of public life were

3632 I

i 3 o THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

appointed to some of the highest priestly offices. Thus the
Emperors took the title of Pontifex Maximus, though they
did not carry out the duties belonging to the office.

In the earliest days the king presided over religion as one
branch of the city's life. When the kingship was abolished
and the duties of the kings were divided among a number of
individuals, certain orders of priesthood (collegia) came into
being.

The most important was that of the Pontifices, who practi-
cally controlled the State religion. They gave judgement on
all religious matters ; they had disciplinary powers over the
lesser orders of priesthood; they laid down the rules for
public worship, for all feasts and sacrifices, and regulated the
calendar. In the opinion of Cicero, the honour and safety of
the commonwealth, the liberty of the people, the houses and
fortunes of the citizens, and even the gods themselves were
all entrusted to their care, and depended entirely on their
wisdom and judgement. The head of this order, the Pontifex
Maximus, was one of the chief men in the city.

The second great order was that of the Augurs, who
(together with the Auspices) were concerned with the inter-
pretation of omens, i.e. the prophecy of forthcoming events
by observing certain signs. There were at first three augurs,
one for each tribe, but their number was increased to fifteen as
time passed. Their duty was to interpret dreams and oracles,
and to declare whether the omens were good or bad. The
interpretations of augurs were mainly concerned with public
affairs.

Auspices on the other hand were employed at every turn
in connexion with the household, the farm, and the State,
whenever any important enterprise was to be undertaken
whether it was a betrothal, a sowing, or a battle. The aus-
pices might be taken by the master of the house, a magistrate,

THE STATE RELIGION OF ROME
A ceremonial procession entering a temple

i3a THE RELIGION OF THE ROMANS

or a general according to the occasion,butanaugurwas usually
consulted to interpret the signs observed. The derivation of
the word auspices (avis, sptcere) shows that the chief signs
observed were the actions, and especially the flight, of birds ;
but the Romans were superstitious and tried to read some
meaning into any unusual or special occurrence, even such a
thing as a flash of lightning if appearing at certain times.

The whole purpose of augury and auspices was clearly to
find out in advance what was the will of the gods ; it
reveals another plain indication of the Romans' dread of the
deities they could not understand and their desire to propi-
tiate them and to win their goodwill and help.

XVIII
FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES

WE have already seen that the belief in nature-spirits was
the basis of Roman religion. Many survivals of it can be
seen in the private religion of the family. It also accounts
for the special features of the great festivals which otherwise
would have had little meaning for people living in a great
city.

There were usually two purposes underlying these festivals
first, to appease any numina that might have been offended,
and secondly, to put a place, or thing, or person under the
protection of the god whose goodwill had been obtained by
sacrifice. The appeasing of the numina was known as a /w-
stratto, or cleansing from guilt. The whole people and the city
were 'purified* in this way at regular intervals, just as were
the Israelites by the laws of Moses. More often it was just
a single family and its possessions and dependents that were
'purified', and on such occasions it was the head of the family,
the paterfamilias, who acted as priest.

FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES 133

The festival known as the Parilia may be taken as revealing
most of the characteristic features of Roman festivals. It was
in honour of Pales, a very ancient spirit of the countryside,
and therefore it takes us back to the early days of the settle-
ment of farmers. The poet Ovid has given us a full account
of the festival, with much picturesque detail, so that we can
see it all very clearly in imagination. In the early morning
the shepherds 'purified' their flocks and swept the ground
clean with a broom made of twigs, afterwards decorating the
folds with branches. A fire was made of olive-wood, juniper,
pine twigs, and laurel, upon which sulphur was thrown.
Offerings were made of millet, millet cakes, and a pail of
milk warm from the cow to Pales. Prayers were offered to all
and any of the spirits that might have been unknowingly
offended, and petitions made for freedom from disease and
misfortune. A special prayer was then recited four times,
those who were taking part in the festival meanwhile turning
to the east. Finally there was a twofold act of purification.
The worshippers washed their hands in a running stream,
and then leaped through fires made of lighted straw. The
flocks and herds were also driven through the fires. In this
festival of Parilia, we find purification, rustic offerings, and
prayers for good fortune and fertility in fields and flocks all
the features of a typical Roman festival. Such festivals were
observed, in letter if not always in spirit, long after the
Romans had ceased to be a nation of farmers, but they served
to remind the people of the old days of magic when they drew
their living from the soil.

Another typical and picturesque festival of a similar kind
was the Ambarvalia that was celebrated in May, just before
the early harvests began. It was a family festival for the
purification and protection of the farm lands from the evil
spirits that dwelt outside.

134 FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES

All work was laid aside on the day of the festival, while the
master and his servants made a procession three times round
the fields, leading with them the animals appointed for sacri-
fice a pig, a sheep, and an ox, a combination of offerings
also used at other times and known as suovetauriKa, a com-
pound of stis, ovis, and taurus. The special prayer offered to
Mars is of interest because it shows so clearly the whole
purpose of the festival. 'Father Mars, I pray and beseech
thee that thou mayest be gracious and favourable to me,
to my home, and to my household, for which cause I have
ordained that the offering of pig, sheep, and ox be carried
round my fields, my land, and my farm; that thou mayest
avert, ward off, and keep afar all disease, visible and invisible,
all barrenness, waste, misfortune, and ill weather; that thou
mayest suffer our crops, our corn, our vines and bushes to
grow and come to prosperity; that thou mayest preserve
the shepherds and the flocks in safety, and grant health and
strength to me, to my home, and to my household.'

The procession wound its way round the limits of the
farm, with dancing, merry-making, and the singing of chants
in honour of Ceres, the goddess of crops. At turning-points
in the boundaries turf-built altars were set up, and on them
sacrifice was made to the goddess. The head of the family
acted as priest on this occasion as on many others. The
purpose of the festival was not only to 'purify* the farm and
to call upon the aid of Mars and, later, of Ceres, but also to
mark the boundaries between the realms of Ceres and those
of Silvanus, deities of the tilled and the untilled lands respec-
tively. The Ambarvalia and the lesser festivals of purification
of farm-lands were observed with more pious sincerity than
most other festivals, since the meaning and purpose of them
was still realized by those who took part. Strangely enough
we find a survival of a similar idea in our own times. This is

136 FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES

the 'beating of the bounds' of a parish, usually in early
summer, at Rogation-tide (from the Latin rogare, to petition),
when a procession goes round the boundaries, halting at cer-
tain points, where psalms are sung and a certain amount of
horse-play takes place.

Almost every month brought to the Romans one or more
festivals connected with agriculture in its many different
forms. In August the harvests were gathered in and special
festivals marked the happy event. The Consualia was the
most important, when the sacrifices made at the underground
altar of Consus, the god of the storehouse, were an echo of the
primitive custom of storing grain underground. With a touch
of feeling unusual in the austere Romans of a later age, they
freed from work the beasts of burden that had worked to
bring in the harvest as they had also done at the festival of
Parilia.

Much of the spirit of our 'harvest home' is to be found in
the merry-making of the Saturnalia, the winter festival of the
sowing. The festival began on December lyth, and while it
lasted social differences were forgotten. Slaves became the
equal of their masters, whose guests they were at a feast, in
much the same way as Society people of to-day often give a
'servants* ball' at Christmas, when the relative positions of
master and servant are reversed for the time being. Many
of our Christmas festivities are no more than an adaptation of
this pagan festival of the Saturnalia to the use of Christians.

It remains to say something of the rites with which sacri-
fices were offered. First we must remember that a sacrifice
was a bargain made with the deity whose goodwill was
sought. Hence it was always necessary that no ceremonial
detail should be omitted, that there should be no hitch or
untoward mischance to mar the proceedings, or the slightest

FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES 137

departure from the strict rules governing the sacrifice. If any
such irregularity did occur, it was thought necessary to start
again from the beginning. In order to avoid this in the great
public ceremonies, it was usual to sacrifice a pig the day
before, to make good in advance any mistake or omission.

There were often special ceremonies connected with the
worship of individual deities, but the general ordering of a
sacrifice was much the same on all occasions. The sacrificial
animal (victima if a large beast ; hostia if a sheep or smaller)
was led to the slaughter decorated with garlands and white
ribbons, or with its horns gilded. In the procession to the
altar, a crier went first to warn the people to leave their work
and attend the ceremony. Next came musicians with pipes
and harps.

Having reached the altar, the priest, who was always robed
in white, rested his hand upon it, and first recited a solemn
prayer in a low voice, his head being covered lest he should
see anything of ill omen. The strictest silence had to be
observed by all standing near and the pipers played all the
while lest any sound of ill omen should be heard. After the
prayer the priest began the ceremony of sacrifice by sprink-
ling on the head of the beast corn or frankincense mixed
with the mola salsa, a cake of meal and salt. Then the
priest sprinkled wine from a dish on to the head of the beast,
after first sipping from the dish himself and then offering
it to those who stood near. Next, having plucked some
hairs from the head of the beast and thrown them into the
fire on the altar, the priest marked the victim with a knife,
and handed it over to those whose duty it was to slay it. When
the animal was killed, its entrails were carefully removed and
the auspices came to inspect them. If anything unusual was
found, any blemish, it was necessary to begin again with
another beast; but if all was well, the choicest parts of the

i 3 8 FESTIVALS AND SACRIFICES

entrails were sprinkled with meal and wine and incense, and
then thrown into the flames on the altar. More solemn
prayers were recited, and then the multitude was dismissed
with the solemn word IHcet (=*tre+ licet). The sacrifice being
finished, the priest and his assistants regaled themselves on
the flesh of the victim.

XIX
THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME

THE government of Rome in the last century B.C. shows very
clearly that the Romans disliked changes and that they clung
loyally to the ways of their forefathers (mores maiorum). That
being so, we must know something of the government of the
early city in the days of the kings in order to understand the
form of government at the time of Cicero and Julius Caesar.
We must also remember that when Rome grew from a small
settlement of farmers into a widespread 'empire* containing
many different countries and peoples, the Romans tried to
adapt the old system of government instead of devising an
entirely new one.

In the earliest days of the City-State, the government was
entirely in the hands of the king, who ruled the people in very
much the same way as the paterfamilias ruled the family
that is to say, he was concerned with their welfare in all
departments of the life and work of the city. His power,
which was supposed to be unlimited and absolute, was called
tmperium, the name used throughout Roman history for the
chief power in the State. The king had the power to punish ;
as a S3*mbol of which bundles of rods, known as fasces, were
carried by lictors before him and also before the magistrates
of later days. (Similarly to-day the mace, which really is only
a special kind of hammer, is carried before the mayor, i. e.

THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME 139

the chief magistrate of his city or borough, as a sign of his
power to punish.)

The kings of Rome had three main duties. They had to
deal with all questions concerning religion, with law and

LAW AND ORDER

A memorial to a Roman magistrate, showing his official chair (which is
made to fold up like a camp-stool) and, on either side, the fasces

justice, and with warfare. Only in the last was the king's
power really unlimited. In all religious matters the king was
helped by the priests and by the augurs, about whom we
have read in an earlier chapter. In all things concerning law
and justice, the king had the advice of the Senate, a council
of elderly men, experienced in public affairs, in much the
same way as the Saxon kings of England were advised by the
Witan, the council of the Vise men*.

140 THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME

When the kings were driven out at the close of the sixth
century B.C., the Romans tried to create a form of govern-
ment that would involve the fewest possible changes but
would at the same time prevent the misrule for which the
kings were expelled. In the first place it was decided that
no longer was the great power of the imperium to be in the
hands of one man. It was still regarded as existing, but with
this very important difference it was now in the control of
the whole body of the citizens ; it had become a public thing
(respublica) ; and all those who enjoyed the privilege of being
Roman citizens were to have a voice in controlling the power
by which they were governed. They had overthrown the
kings and they would now control the rulers that took
their place. It must always be remembered, however, that
the old idea of an imperium, or supreme power, was still
retained, but it had to be held in check to prevent its being
misused.

In the first place, the highest rank in the government was
to be held by two men, the consuls, who had equal power.
Each could act as a check upon the other so that neither could
become tyrannical. They were in office for one year only,
during which brief time it would be difficult for them to
make themselves too powerful. Moreover, they were elected
by the people as a whole in their assemblies, and, like the
presidents of most modern republics, when their year of
office was ended they became private citizens once more,
though they had a place in the Senate and might also be
appointed to other public posts. However, the strongest
check on the power of the consuls was the Senate, of whom
we shall have more to say later in this chapter. Many senators
had held some official rank in the government and they were
able to give the consuls the benefit of their experience. While
the consuls were not compelled by any law to accept the

THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME 141

advice of the Senate, they dared not disregard it. Though, as
a general rule, the power of the consuls was limited in these
various ways, in times of national peril the consuls were
allowed, with the approval of the Senate, to appoint a dictator.
A dictator held his office for a definitely limited period, but
during that time he had unlimited power in all departments
of the government and the army.

In addition to the consuls, there were other magistrates
who shared some of the former duties and powers of the
kings. Of these the praetors, like the consuls, had the full
imperium. Their duties were to see to the carrying out of
the laws and the control of justice. At first there was only
one praetor in Rome, but by 242 B. c. so many foreigners were
dwelling in the city or came there on business, that in that
year a second praetor was appointed. He had to take charge
of the legal affairs of foreigners in Rome. The original official
was called the praetor urbanus; this new one, praetor pere-
grinus. As time went on and the 'empire* grew larger, the
amount of legal business increased. To keep pace with this
increase, more praetors were appointed, as in England the
number of judges has been increased from time to time when
need arose. Moreover, as new provinces were added to the
Roman world, the governorship of them was often entrusted
to praetors of these provinces.

The o1;her important officials in the government of Rome
were the censors, the aediles, the quaestors, and the tribunes.
None of these had the full power of the imperium. Neverthe-
less, the censors filled a very honoured position in the city,
and to be made censor was considered as the successful end
of a public career. The censors were appointed for five years,
but acted officially for only eighteen months. Their chief
duties were to draw up lists of the citizens and to supervise
their conduct and behaviour ; and, at the end of their period of

142 THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME

office, to carry out a solemn purification' of all the people, as

we have described in an earlier chapter.

The aediles (who took their name from aedes, a house or
building) had the oversight of all public works : they were,
for instance, responsible for keeping the public buildings
in repair, and cleaning the streets. The quaestors were
officials who looked after the funds in the public treasury.
They often had to go with the consuls when they went to
war, to look after the money matters connected with the
campaign.

The tribunes had great power, which had come about
indirectly, and in the following way. In the very early days
there were two classes of citizens, known as patricians and
plebeians. The patricians were descended from the families
who had made the earliest settlement ; the plebeians belonged
to the families who had settled in Rome in later times. At
first the patricians had all the power of governing the city in
their hands. They alone could be appointed to the public
posts in the Republic. Yet the plebeians had the chief share
in defending the city ; so they naturally claimed a share in the
government. The patricians would not grant their claim and
a quarrel arose which lasted for many years. On one occasion
the plebeians actually left Rome and threatened to make a
fresh settlement. It was then, in 494 B. c., that the tribunes
were first appointed. Their duty was to look after the in-
terests of the plebeians, and of course they were themselves
plebeians. They were required to keep a watchful eye on the
actions of the Senate and of the magistrates ; and if either
intended to do anything against the welfare of the plebeians,
the tribunes had power to forbid it. This was really a very
great power, and used unwisely would hinder progress.
However, one tribune could forbid the action of another, and
as they did not always agree together, they weakened the

THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME 143

power of one another. (It should be noted that by the time
that the struggle between the patricians and the plebeians was
over, 337 B.C., every part in the government of the city had
been thrown open to them. The first plebeian consul was
elected in 367 B.C.)

In theory any Roman with full rights of citizenship might
be appointed to the highest positions in the government, but
in actual fact this privilege was restricted to certain favoured
families. They were some of the best of the patricians and
the plebeians, and it was quite the usual thing to find that all
the near relations of an official had held government appoint-
ments before him. It was a bold man who sought to be
elected to high office unless he belonged to this charmed
circle of those who enjoyed senatorial rank. Cicero was one
of the few who succeeded though he belonged to the lower
order known as equites. At one time they were the class of
citizens who provided the cavalry in the army, but by the
end of the Republic they were a distinct social class (ordo),
comprising chiefly the big business-men such as merchants,
bankers, and moneylenders.

The magistrates held office for only short periods, as we
have seen, lest they should become too powerful. But behind
the frequently changing ranks of magistrates, the Senate went
on unchanging. The result was that the Senate became more
and more powerful, especially during the years when Rome
was fighting for her existence against Carthage. Not only was
the Senate permanent, but by the last century B.C. it was
composed entirely of men who had held office and whose
knowledge of affairs was of great value in guiding the State.
The Senate was in fact, though not in name, the real govern-
ment. At first the senators were chosen by the king; then by
the consuls, and, still later, by the censors; but from the time
of Sulla every man who had served as a quaestor (and that

144 THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME

was the first step in a man's public career) automatically

became a senator.

Having said this much about the importance of the Senate,
we shall not be surprised to find that the senators did a great
deal of public work. They made the laws, directly or in-
directly. A magistrate usually made sure of their favour
before any bill was brought before the assemblies of the
citizens. A decree of the Senate (senatus consultum) was equal
to a law. The Senate controlled the money of the State, in its
spending and even in making the coins, for the letters SC on
coins showed that they were made by order of the Senate.
The senators also dealt with questions concerning the govern-
ment of the provinces. All matters of peace and war were
really settled in the Senate, though the final decision rested
with the citizens in their assemblies. In the best days of
Rome the Senate was a fine dignified body of eminent citi-
zens, worthy of their great city. No wonder was it that the
messengers of the Greek king Pyrrhus described the Senate
as an assembly of kings. In later times it became less worthy
of honour and respect.

The Senate really did the effective work of government,
though in theory this was supposed to rest with the magi-
strates and the people as a whole who appointed them. The
people expressed their wishes in the various assemblies
(comitia) in which they met together. These assemblies dif-
fered only in the way the people voted. It might be by tribes,
or by centuries, or by curiae the thirty divisions into which
the whole people were grouped in the early days of the city.

The various assemblies were supposed to have the last
word in deciding such important matters as the election of
the magistrates or questions of peace and war. Actually the
Senate made up their minds, and then put the question to
the assemblies, who got into the habit of agreeing without

A ROMAN SENATOR

1631

146 THE GOVERNMENT OF ROME

question. If there was likely to be any difficulty, there were
various ways (of which bribery was one) by which the lower
ranks of citizens could be won over to support any particular
measure. Such methods were made all the more easy by the
fact that the votes were taken by groups and not individually.
When the assemblies agreed to a measure proposed by the
Senate it became law (lex).

The greatest weakness of the rule of Rome was revealed in
the government of the provinces. Misgovernment perhaps
would be a better word. When a provincial governor was
sent out to his province he had no set of rules for his guidance.
He acted as he thought best. If he was a worthy man, well
and good, but there were great temptations in the practically
unlimited powers of a provincial governor. To hold a magi-
stracy in Rome was a very expensive matter, and many pro-
vincial governors looked to pay their debts and make a fortune
out of the taxes that could be squeezed from the unfortunate
provincial subjects. They held office for only a few years at
most and so had but little time to harvest their ill-gotten gains.
Even Julius Caesar, when he was Governor of Spain in 61 B. c.,
made a fortune large enough to pay off all his huge debts
in Rome. Cicero, on the other hand, amazed the people of
Cilicia in Asia Minor when he showed himself an honest and
mild ruler. Of course, if a provincial governor overstepped
the wide limits that practice allowed, he might be put on
trial in Rome when he returned, as was Verres, the ruffianly
governor of Sicily in 71 B.C. But juries might be bribed un-
less the case was too bad to cover up, and the governors of
provinces were seldom brought to book.

With the Empire, however, began a better time for the
provinces. One of the greatest services that Augustus and his
successors rendered to the world was that they gave good
government to the provinces.

147

XX

THE ROMAN LAW-COURTS

IN the earliest times the seat of justice in Rome was the
Tribunal. This was a raised platform at one end of the
Forum itself, where the praetor used to sit in his chair of
state to hear both sides of any legal question in dispute
between citizens. Round the platform there were seats for
those interested in the case. This open-air court was quite
typical of Rome, but long before the time of Caesar and
Cicero the praetors had to have more suitable courts in
which to hear cases. Hence in the last century B.C. justice
was administered at Rome in the great basilicae near the
Forum.

There were two praetors in the civil courts. One dealt with
disputes between Roman citizens. The other dealt with cases
in which foreigners were concerned. These two praetors had
nothing to do with the trial of criminals. Their duty was to
settle disputes between one citizen (civis) and another ; so we
say that they dealt with civil cases disputes over land and
contracts, and similar matters. In simple cases the praetor,
after hearing both sides, was able to give his decision imme-
diately. But in cases that involved knotty points of law he
appointed an umpire (arbiter), summoned both parties to
appear before him, and set forth the points of law involved.
When the umpire gave his verdict the praetor had to carry
it into effect.

When for any reason a case had to be put off to another
day, the man who had brought the action into court called
upon his opponent to give bail i. e. to pay down a sum
of money himself or find a friend who would do so, as a
guarantee that he would appear in court at the next hearing.

K2

148 THE ROMAN LAW-COURTS

If either of the two parties without good reason failed to put
in an appearance when the case was resumed, the verdict was
given against him.

Let us now turn to criminal trials. The method changed
very much between the time of the kings and the end of the
Republic. The kings had the right to try and to punish
criminals themselves, on the same grounds as a parent has
the right to punish his children. When the kings were ex-
pelled, the consuls took over this duty. But the pride of the
Romans even at an early date led to the arrangement that
a criminal might be tried only by his fellow citizens in one
of their assemblies. A magistrate always acted as accuser;
the evidence was heard by the whole body of citizens; and
the final verdict was passed by the assembly in the same
way as a law. (In this we are reminded of impeachments in
English history, when the House of Commons acted as ac-
cusers, the Lords were the judges, and the verdict was set
forth in an Act of Parliament.) This method of trial by
the citizen assemblies was very inconvenient, and became
more so as the number of citizens increased. Accordingly,
in the last century of the Republic, a new method was
adopted.

Courts were created to deal with different classes of crimes
e.g. one with treason, another with forgery, a third with
murder, and so on. A 'praetor was appointed to preside in
each court, and he had the assistance of a body of jurors,
called indices. There were six praetors to judge criminal trials,
and, as they were appointed by the people as a whole in their
assembly, their decision in all cases was final.

Let us now follow the stages of a trial. The jury was
sworn in, and the case began. The facts were laid before the
jury, sometimes in the form of documents, sometimes as
spoken evidence of witnesses who had taken an oath to speak

THE TARPEIAN ROCK ON THE CAPITOL
as it is to-day

ISO THE ROMAN LAW-COURTS

truthfully. The accused was allowed to bring in his friends
to 'speak in his favour. They were called laudatores and might
be anything up to ten in number. Slaves only gave evidence
under torture, so what they had to say about a crime was
always read out in court, having been written down before-
hand. When all the evidence had been heard, the jury con-
sidered their verdict. Each man wrote down his judgement
on a wax tablet and put it in an urn. The verdict of each
juror was expressed by one of three letters : A, for absolvo,
standing for Not Guilty; C, for condemno, standing for Guilty ;
and N.L., for non liquet, standing for Not Proven, as they say
in the Scottish courts when the matter is open to doubt. The
tablets were taken from the urn and the verdict was decided
by the majority of votes. If the jury could not decide to
condemn or acquit the accused, the judge announced the
fact by the one word Amplius, meaning that the matter must
be reconsidered more fully when more evidence had been
obtained.

If the accused was guilty, the chances were that his punish-
ment would not be particularly severe. This was partly
because of the honourable position enjoyed by a Roman
citizen civis Romanus sum was a proud boast and one that
carried great privileges for those who could claim it ; or the
accused might altogether escape punishment from the fact
that he was not necessarily in court and might be able to make
good his escape as soon as the verdict was announced. A
Roman awaiting trial was not imprisoned; at the most he
might be put in charge of one of the higher magistrates. Nor
was he taken forcibly to court to be tried ; we may remember
how Cicero led by the hand into the Senate House a man who
was a proved traitor at the time of Catiline's conspiracy. Paul
made known his Roman citizenship, it will be remembered,
when he was imprisoned at Philippi, and his gaoler, afraid

THE ROMAN LAW-COURTS 151

of the consequence of keeping a Roman in bonds, was anxious
for him to be gone and to make no complaint.

Only for very serious crimes did a Roman forfeit his life,
and then it might be by hanging, beheading, strangulation, or
by being cast down from the Tarpeian Rock. For other
offences a Roman might be exiled. He might go of his own
free will to avoid more serious punishment; or he might be
obliged to flee by being denied 'fire and water', the necessary
things of life, if he remained on Italian soil. He might lose
his freedom by being sold as a slave as the punishment for
military offences, or for avoiding taxation, or for debt; but
he was seldom, if ever, imprisoned, though the Senate might
imprison a man if his liberty was thought to be dangerous to
the State. The punishment might be a fine. If none of these
was suitable there still remained what was known as infamia,
by which a Roman lost some of his right of citizenship,
especially the vote and often social rank. These were the
ordinary punishments. They were not unduly harsh, and
they were meted out after a trial that was in the main fair and
just, though unfortunately money could easily be used to buy
a verdict.

XXI

OUR DEBT TO ROME

ROME continued the greatest power in the world for a longer
period than any other nation before or since. More than six
centuries separate the humbling of Carthage in 204 B.C. from
the overthrow of the Empire by the barbarians in the 5th
century A.D. Compared with Rome, the British Empire is
a mere baby she has stood so far for only 150 years. France
and Spain were the leading powers for less than a century

i 5 a OUR DEBT TO ROME

each. In the ancient world, Athens rose to greatness and then
declined in less than one hundred years, and the Jews were
a great nation for two generations only. Yet for twenty genera-
tions Rome was supreme a period as long as that which
separates us from the battle of Cr6cy. Small wonder, then,
that even the barbarians who overthrew the Empire believed
that Rome must remain for ever the centre of the world, while
even to-day, after half a dozen later empires have risen and
declined, we still call Rome the 'Eternal City*.

Necessarily Rome made a deep impression on the ways
and minds of men. In this brief survey of everyday life in
ancient Rome we have frequently noticed that Roman cus-
toms still survive in many departments of life, and especially
in those countries, like France, that were under the direct and
close influence of Rome for several centuries. But apart from
innumerable customs and practices, Rome bequeathed to the
world a great legacy from which we still draw benefits.

First of all we owe a debt to Rome for preserving and
passing on to us the glories of earlier civilizations, especially
that of Greece. Though the Romans went as conquerors they
fell under the spell of Greece, and in many ways adopted
Greek ideas. In this fashion these ideas were handed on to
us, so that we owe to Rome a large part of our debt to Greece.

Secondly, the spread of Christianity was considerably
helped by Rome. The new faith was founded just as the
Empire was reaching its greatest extent. True it was at first
an obscure and despised religion, practised in secret : but even
so it spread slowly through the Roman world. Then came
the recognition of Christianity it became the official religion
of the Empire and spread like fire to the farthest outposts,
aided and quickened by the world-wide government that had
adopted it. When the Empire was broken to pieces, the
Christian religion survived to remind men of the universal

OUR DEBT TO ROME 153

rule of the Caesars. The Popes took the place of the Em-
perors, and the Church remained, in the words of Hobbes,
'the ghost of the Roman Empire seated on the ruins thereof.

Next we find that a large part of the civilized world of
to-day derives its legal systems directly from the Romans.
Their laws were hard but they were very just, and after the
confusion caused by the barbarian conquests men turned with
relief to the ordered impartial laws which were the basis of
the Pax Romana. England, never more than an outpost of
the Empire and never really colonized, is one of the very few
countries that have not borrowed largely from the Roman
legal system.

Again, there is the debt of the world to Roman engineering.
The more this is studied the more striking is the fact that
practically all of our modern engineering methods have been
copied or developed from Roman models. To take a single
instance the Romans greatly excelled in bridge-building,
and they were particularly successful in grounding the piers
of their bridges under water. A study of Vitruvius, the great
Roman authority on this subject, shows that there is scarcely
a method in use to-day that has not its counterpart, usually
a very close one, in Roman methods. These bridges that the
Romans made seem to have been built to last till the end of
time. In several countries where the Romans held sway, and
particularly in France and Spain, there remain magnificent
specimens of their bridges, some of them still in use after
two thousand years. The Roman roads are perhaps better
known in this country as an example of the Romans' skill in
engineering. The whole Empire was covered, as we have
seen, with a network of broad straight roads, all leading to
Rome, for the use of armies, traders, couriers, and govern-
ment officials. For the greater part of the Middle Ages they
remained the only roads of any account; and to this day the

154 OUR DEBT TO ROME

traveller will often chance upon a stretch of perfectly straight

road along which the legions had marched.

Lastly there is the debt of language. All over Southern
Europe the Romans planted their colonies and quartered
their troops. In those countries, such as France and Spain,
where the contact of conqueror and conquered was close and
intimate, the tribal tongues were forgotten in the universal
use of Latin. Local and historical reasons have brought
changes into these different languages, but they remain close
to their common prototype, and are all known as the
'Romance' languages to remind us of their source. In one
country at least, Rumania, it is a matter of national pride for
the people to look back to a Roman origin for their language.
A further advantage followed from the universal use of Latin.
It remained the language of all educated men throughout the
Middle Ages. Intercourse was therefore much easier than
when there is a language barrier; and though ideas stagnated
somewhat during the Middle Ages, when the revival of
learning came in the fifteenth century the wealth of new
ideas could be shared by all educated men since they could
express their thoughts in a language known to all, that is,
in Latin.

We speak of Latin as a 'dead' language since it is not used
as the everyday speech of any nation ; but despite this there
is every reason why it should be regarded as a most profitable
study. Even an elementary knowledge of the subject will
make us better and keener students of our own wonderful
language, since the proportion of English words derived
directly from the Latin, or indirectly through the 'Romance'
languages, is a high one. True there has been a tendency
since the middle of last century to get back to words of Saxon
origin; and this tendency we cannot but applaud. In recent
years, with the advance of science and modern discovery,

A ROMAN ROAD
The Appian Way leading south from Rome (see map, p. 13)

I S 6 OUR DEBT TO ROME

there has been the practice of going to the 'dead* languages

(Latin and Greek) for the new vocabulary required.

Further, the study of a highly inflected language like Latin
is valuable for English boys and girls whose mother tongue is
almost without inflexions. Moreover, a grasp of Latin calls
for clear thinking, and the study of it is a valuable form of
mental exercise that helps the student towards a ready under-
standing of intellectual problems in general. Indeed, Matthew
Arnold used to hold that no man might claim to be truly
educated without a knowledge of the classics, and it has been
proved again and again that a person brought up in the
classical tradition can turn his hand readily to very different
mental tasks.

157

APPENDIX I

Abbreviations of Praenomina (see Chap, vi, p. 56):

A. Aulus. L. Lucius. S. Sextus.

App. Appius. M. Marcus. Ser. Servius.

C. Gaius. M'. Manius. Sp. Spurius.
Cn. Gnaeus. P. Publius. T. Titus.

D. Decimus. Q. Quintus. Ti. Tiberius.

Other common abbreviations :

A.U.C. (in dates) Ab Urbe Condita: i. e. 'from the founding of the

City' (753 B.C.).
HS.= Sestertius.
lmp.=Imperator (similarly, Leg.=Legatus; Pr.=Praetor; Q.=

Quaestor; &c.).

P.C.=Patres Conscripti, the title of the assembled Senate.
P.M.=Pontifex Maximus.

S.=Salutem \ ,~ , f , . . . .

a r> T^ o;- ^i j- * ^(formulae for beginning a letter).
S.PAJ.Salutem plunmam dicitj ^ 6 6 '

Populusque Romanus (the inscription found on
the standards of the legions).

S.C.Senatus Consultum\ a decree of the Senate. These letters are
found on all coins struck by command of the Senate.

Abbreviations of Latin words in use to-day:

a.m. ante meridiem (before noon).

p.m.=post meridiem (after noon).

cf. confer^ compare.

e.g. = exempli gratia, for example.

etc. =et cetera, and the rest.

ibid. = ibidem t in the same place.

id. idem, the same.

i.e. id est, that is.

I.e. or loc. cit.=/oco citato, in the place mentioned.

N.B.=flote bene, note specially.

p.S. =postscriptum, something written afterwards.

q.v. quod vide, which see.

sc. = scilicet, namely.

viz. videlicet, namely.

v. = versus, against.

158

MARCH

APPENDIX II

Kalendac

Kal. Mart.

a.d. vi Non. Mart,

a.d. v Non. Mart.

a.d. iv Non. Mart.

a.d. iii Non. Mart.

Pr. Non. Mart.
Nonae Non. Mart.

a.d. viii Id. Mart.

a.d. vii Id. Mart.

a.d. vi Id. Mart.

a.d. v Id. Mart.

a.d. iv Id. Mart.

a.d. iii Id. Mart.

Pr. Id. Mart,
dus Id. Mart.

a.d. xvii Kal. Apr.

a.d. xvi Kal. Apr.
1 8th a.d. xv Kal. Apr.

1 9th a.d. xiv Kal. Apr.

2oth a.d. xiii Kal. Apr.

2ist a.d. xii Kal. Apr.

zznd a.d. xi Kal. Apr.

23rd a.d. x Kal. Apr.

24th a.d. ix Kal. Apr.

25th a.d. viii Kal. Apr.

26th a.d. vii Kal. Apr.

27th a.d. vi Kal. Apr.

28th a.d. v Kal. Apr.

29th a.d. iv Kal. Apr.

3oth a.d. iii Kal. Apr.

3 ist Pr. Kal. Apr.

The Roman method of reckoning the days of the month is set
out fully in Chap, xii, on p. 99. To illustrate this in a specimen
month, the calendar for March is here printed in full. In the
second column are found the three chief days in the month, from
which the other days were reckoned. It will he noticed that in
March the Nones and the Ides fall irregularly on the 7th and 15th
instead of on the $th and 13th.

INDEX

(Mainly of Latin terms)

abacus 59, 60

Circus Maximus 27,

'Grand Tour* 93

acies 112

29, 66

gubernator 121

aedile 142

cloaca 19, 22

Aesculapius 21, 129

coemptio 73

hastati 101

Aesop 58

cognomen 56

'heads or tails' 84, 85

Actium 19

collegia 130

Hermes 129

agmen 109

columbarium 79, 80

Hills of Rome 19, 30

Ambarvalia 133

coloniae 14

hostia 137

Annus Bissextus 98

Colosseum 28, 67

Hymen 73

Confusionis 98

comitium 23, 144

Antony 18

conclamatio 76

Ides 99

Appian Way 12, 90,

confarreatio 73

impeachment 148

155

Consualia 136

impedimenta 109

arbiter 147

Consul 140

Imperator 103

0584

Cornelia 74

impertum 138, 140

atrium 33, 34, 76

corona civica 118

infamia 151

Augurs 130

Corsica 80

inns 94

Auspices 130, 137

Curia 23, 144

insulae 30

Isis 129

ballista 114

Delos 88

barbart 87

denarius 84

Janiculum 21

basilicae 24

Di indigetes 128

Janus 123, 125

battering-ram 114

novensiles 128

Josephus 114

Boscoreale 40, 42

Diana 128

indices 148

&H//0 54, 65

Dictator 141

Jupiter 123, 126

Dies Fasti 100

Juturna, spring of 27

Caesar, Julius 18, 21,

Nefasti 100

23, 24, 70, 88, 97,

digiti 59

Kalends 99

109, 112, 146

Campus Martius 26

Emporium 82

lararium 36, 124

carceres 69

equites 143

Lares 124

carpentum 94

Etruscans 13, 22

laudatores 150

Carthage 14, 16, 118,

lectica 95

151

fabula 70

legatus 103

Castor and Pollux 28,

factiones 69

Lepidus 18

66

famtlia 86

to 146

castra 108, 109

/a'73

liber 62

catapulta 114

/<cwc 138

/t'6ra 82

Catiline 150

Forum Boarium 22,

lictor 138

Caudine Forks 14

81

Lord Mayor's Show 1 16

censor 141

Olitorium 82

Lucullus 63

centurion 104

Romanum 22

ludi Circenses 66

Ceres 66, 134

magni 65

Cicero 63, 94, 124, 129,

Genius 124

plebeii 66

130, 143, 146, 150

Gracchi 17, 74

scaenici 66

Cinfinnatus 86

grammatici 61

lustratio 132

i6o

tnngister 121
Magna Mater 129
manes 75
maniple 101
manumission 89
Marius 18, 101, 102,

106

Mars 127
matrona 74
Mercury 129
miliaria 91

Miliarium Aureum 92
Minerva 128
mos maiorum 129, 138
munera gladiatoria 66

navis longa 120
Neptune 66, 129
nomen 56
Nones 99
numen 121, 126
nundinae 61, 100

Octavius 1 8
Ostia 20, 81, 83
Ovation 117

paedagogus 59
Pales 133
palla 54
Pantheon 27
pantondmi 70
papyrus 62
Parentalia 80
Parilia 133, 136
paterfamilias 49, 138
Patricians 22, 142
Paul, St. 65, 94, 96, 150
Pax Romana 90, 153
pecunia 82
Penates 124
phalanx 101
Philippi 1 8
Phoebus Apollo 129
pilleus 54, 90
Plebeians 22, 142

INDEX

Pompey 18

Sulla 1 8

Pons Aemilius 21

Suovetaurilia 134, 135

Sublicius 22
Pont du Card Frontis.,

tabernae 24, 30
Tabularium 22

92
Pontifex Maximus 130
Pontifices 130

Tarentum 14
Tarpeian Rock 26, 149,

-por 88

151

Porta Triumphalis 116

Tarquin the Proud 13,

Porta Praetoria no
praenomen 56
praetor 141, 148
praetorium 109, no
primus pilus 103
prindpes 101
Puteoli 8 1

22

Temple of Castor 27
Concord 22
Saturn 23
Jupiter 26
Vesta 28
tesiudo 112

Pyrrhus 14

Tiro 58

toga 52

quaestor 141, 142

tormenta 114

quaestorium no

triarii 101
tribunal 69, 147

raeda 94

tribuni 103, 142

Regia 28
retiarius 71

triclinia 49
triplex acies 112

rhetor 61

trireme 120

Roads, Military 20, 153

tunica 51

Romulus 28, 97
Rostra 23, 78

Umbrfans 12

Royal Engineers, motto
of 100

uncia 84
uniforms 105

Sabines 26

Verres 146
vespillones 76

sagum 53
Samnites n
Saturnalia 61, 125, 136

Vesta 124, 125
Vestal Virgins 28, 125,
127

scutum 104

Via Appia 90, 91

secutor 71

sacra 27

Senatus 143

Salaria 82

Senatus consultum 144

Latina 14

Servius Tullius 101
sestertius 84
Spartacus 88

viae munitae (stratae) 91
victima 137
Victoria Cross 118

spina 66

Vitruvius 153

signum no

'volume* 62

Silvanus 122

stilus 62

water-clock 44

stola 54

Witan 139

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, OXFORD
BY JOHN JOHNSON, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY