1. Cicero, On Divination, 1.3, 1.17-1.22, 1.36, 1.105, 2.67 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Cicero, De consulatu suo • Consulatus suus (Cicero's poem) • De Consulatu Suo (Cicero) • Flaminius, C., Ariminum, consulship entered at • Tullius Cicero, M. (Cicero), consulship prevented death of body politic • abdication, of consuls • consuls • consuls, suffect • imperium, of consul • profectio, of consuls • vitio creatus or factus, consuls
Found in books: Green (2014), Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid: Staging the Enemy under Augustus, 81; Ker and Wessels (2020), The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity: Between Dusk and Dawn, 218, 260; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 39, 64, 238, 243, 247, 292; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 25, 26; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 263; Walters (2020), Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian Rome, 80
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1.3 Quam vero Graecia coloniam misit in Aeoliam, Ioniam, Asiam, Siciliam, Italiam sine Pythio aut Dodonaeo aut Hammonis oraculo? aut quod bellum susceptum ab ea sine consilio deorum est? Nec unum genus est divinationis publice privatimque celebratum. Nam, ut omittam ceteros populos, noster quam multa genera conplexus est! Principio huius urbis parens Romulus non solum auspicato urbem condidisse, sed ipse etiam optumus augur fuisse traditur. Deinde auguribus et reliqui reges usi, et exactis regibus nihil publice sine auspiciis nec domi nec militiae gerebatur. Cumque magna vis videretur esse et inpetriendis consulendisque rebus et monstris interpretandis ac procurandis in haruspicum disciplina, omnem hanc ex Etruria scientiam adhibebant, ne genus esset ullum divinationis, quod neglectum ab iis videretur.
1.17 Sed quo potius utar aut auctore aut teste quam te? cuius edidici etiam versus, et lubenter quidem, quos in secundo de consulatu Urania Musa pronuntiat: Principio aetherio flammatus Iuppiter igni Vertitur et totum conlustrat lumine mundum Menteque divina caelum terrasque petessit, Quae penitus sensus hominum vitasque retentat Aetheris aeterni saepta atque inclusa cavernis. Et, si stellarum motus cursusque vagantis Nosse velis, quae sint signorum in sede locatae, Quae verbo et falsis Graiorum vocibus erant, Re vera certo lapsu spatioque feruntur, Omnia iam cernes divina mente notata. 1.18 Nam primum astrorum volucris te consule motus Concursusque gravis stellarum ardore micantis Tu quoque, cum tumulos Albano in monte nivalis Lustrasti et laeto mactasti lacte Latinas, Vidisti et claro tremulos ardore cometas, Multaque misceri nocturna strage putasti, Quod ferme dirum in tempus cecidere Latinae, Cum claram speciem concreto lumine luna Abdidit et subito stellanti nocte perempta est. Quid vero Phoebi fax, tristis nuntia belli, Quae magnum ad columen flammato ardore volabat, Praecipitis caeli partis obitusque petessens? Aut cum terribili perculsus fulmine civis Luce sereti vitalia lumina liquit? Aut cum se gravido tremefecit corpore tellus? Iam vero variae nocturno tempore visae Terribiles formae bellum motusque monebant, Multaque per terras vates oracla furenti Pectore fundebant tristis minitantia casus, 1.19 Atque ea, quae lapsu tandem cecidere vetusto, Haec fore perpetuis signis clarisque frequentans Ipse deum genitor caelo terrisque canebat. Nunc ea, Torquato quae quondam et consule Cotta Lydius ediderat Tyrrhenae gentis haruspex, Omnia fixa tuus glomerans determinat annus. Nam pater altitos stellanti nixus Olympo Ipse suos quondam tumulos ac templa petivit Et Capitolinis iniecit sedibus ignis. Tum species ex aere vetus venerataque Nattae Concidit, elapsaeque vetusto numine leges, Et divom simulacra peremit fulminis ardor. 1.21 Haec tardata diu species multumque morata Consule te tandem celsa est in sede locata, Atque una fixi ac signati temporis hora Iuppiter excelsa clarabat sceptra columna, Et clades patriae flamma ferroque parata Vocibus Allobrogum patribus populoque patebat. Rite igitur veteres, quorum monumenta tenetis, Qui populos urbisque modo ac virtute regebant, Rite etiam vestri, quorum pietasque fidesque Praestitit et longe vicit sapientia cunctos, Praecipue coluere vigenti numine divos. Haec adeo penitus cura videre sagaci, Otia qui studiis laeti tenuere decoris, 1.22 Inque Academia umbrifera nitidoque Lyceo Fuderunt claras fecundi pectoris artis. E quibus ereptum primo iam a flore iuventae Te patria in media virtutum mole locavit. Tu tamen anxiferas curas requiete relaxans, Quod patriae vacat, id studiis nobisque sacrasti. Tu igitur animum poteris inducere contra ea, quae a me disputantur de divinatione, dicere, qui et gesseris ea, quae gessisti, et ea, quae pronuntiavi, accuratissume scripseris?
1.36 Quid? qui inridetur, partus hic mulae nonne, quia fetus extitit in sterilitate naturae, praedictus est ab haruspicibus incredibilis partus malorum? Quid? Ti. Gracchus P. F., qui bis consul et censor fuit, idemque et summus augur et vir sapiens civisque praestans, nonne, ut C. Gracchus, filius eius, scriptum reliquit, duobus anguibus domi conprehensis haruspices convocavit? qui cum respondissent, si marem emisisset, uxori brevi tempore esse moriendum, si feminam, ipsi, aequius esse censuit se maturam oppetere mortem quam P. Africani filiam adulescentem; feminam emisit, ipse paucis post diebus est mortuus. Inrideamus haruspices, vanos, futtiles esse dicamus, quorumque disciplinam et sapientissimus vir et eventus ac res conprobavit, contemnamus, condemnemus etiam Babylonem et eos, qui e Caucaso caeli signa servantes numeris et modis stellarum cursus persequuntur, condemnemus, inquam, hos aut stultitiae aut vanitatis aut inpudentiae, qui quadringenta septuaginta milia annorum, ut ipsi dicunt, monumentis conprehensa continent, et mentiri iudicemus nec, saeculorum reliquorum iudicium quod de ipsis futurum sit, pertimescere.
1.105 Quid de auguribus loquar? Tuae partes sunt, tuum inquam, auspiciorum patrocinium debet esse. Tibi App. Claudius augur consuli nuntiavit addubitato Salutis augurio bellum domesticum triste ac turbulentum fore; quod paucis post mensibus exortum paucioribus a te est diebus oppressum. Cui quidem auguri vehementer adsentior; solus enim multorum annorum memoria non decantandi augurii, sed dividi tenuit disciplinam. Quem inridebant collegae tui eumque tum Pisidam, tum Soranum augurem esse dicebant; quibus nulla videbatur in auguriis aut praesensio aut scientia veritatis futurae; sapienter aiebant ad opinionem imperitorum esse fictas religiones. Quod longe secus est; neque enim in pastoribus illis, quibus Romulus praefuit, nec in ipso Romulo haec calliditas esse potuit, ut ad errorem multitudinis religionis simulacra fingerent. Sed difficultas laborque discendi disertam neglegentiam reddidit; malunt enim disserere nihil esse in auspiciis quam, quid sit, ediscere.
2.67 Atque etiam a te Flaminiana ostenta collecta sunt: quod ipse et equus eius repente conciderit; non sane mirabile hoc quidem! quod evelli primi hastati signum non potuerit; timide fortasse signifer evellebat, quod fidenter infixerat. Nam Dionysii equus quid attulit admirationis, quod emersit e flumine quodque habuit apes in iuba? Sed quia brevi tempore regnare coepit, quod acciderat casu, vim habuit ostenti. At Lacedaemoniis in Herculis fano arma sonuerunt, eiusdemque dei Thebis valvae clausae subito se aperuerunt, eaque scuta, quae fuerant sublime fixa, sunt humi inventa. Horum cum fieri nihil potuerit sine aliquo motu, quid est, cur divinitus ea potius quam casu facta esse dicamus?' ' None | sup>
1.3 And, indeed, what colony did Greece ever send into Aeolia, Ionia, Asia, Sicily, or Italy without consulting the Pythian or Dodonian oracle, or that of Jupiter Hammon? Or what war did she ever undertake without first seeking the counsel of the gods? 2 Nor is it only one single mode of divination that has been employed in public and in private. For, to say nothing of other nations, how many our own people have embraced! In the first place, according to tradition, Romulus, the father of this City, not only founded it in obedience to the auspices, but was himself a most skilful augur. Next, the other Roman kings employed augurs; and, again, after the expulsion of the kings, no public business was ever transacted at home or abroad without first taking the auspices. Furthermore, since our forefathers believed that the soothsayers art had great efficacy in seeking for omens and advice, as well as in cases where prodigies were to be interpreted and their effects averted, they gradually introduced that art in its entirety from Etruria, lest it should appear that any kind of divination had been disregarded by them.
1.3 Therefore Ateius, by his announcement, did not create the cause of the disaster; but having observed the sign he simply advised Crassus what the result would be if the warning was ignored. It follows, then, that the announcement by Ateius of the unfavourable augury had no effect; or if it did, as Appius thinks, then the sin is not in him who gave the warning, but in him who disregarded it.17 And whence, pray, did you augurs derive that staff, which is the most conspicuous mark of your priestly office? It is the very one, indeed with which Romulus marked out the quarter for taking observations when he founded the city. Now this staffe is a crooked wand, slightly curved at the top, and, because of its resemblance to a trumpet, derives its name from the Latin word meaning the trumpet with which the battle-charge is sounded. It was placed in the temple of the Salii on the Palatine hill and, though the temple was burned, the staff was found uninjured.
1.17 But what authority or what witness can I better employ than yourself? I have even learned by heart and with great pleasure the following lines uttered by the Muse, Urania, in the second book of your poem entitled, My Consulship:First of all, Jupiter, glowing with fire from regions celestial,Turns, and the whole of creation is filled with the light of his glory;And, though the vaults of aether eternal begird and confine him,Yet he, with spirit divine, ever searching the earth and the heavens,Sounds to their innermost depths the thoughts and the actions of mortals.When one has learned the motions and variant paths of the planets,Stars that abide in the seat of the signs, in the Zodiacs girdle,(Spoken of falsely as vagrants or rovers in Greek nomenclature,Whereas in truth their distance is fixed and their speed is determined,)Then will he know that all are controlled by an Infinite Wisdom. 1.18 You, being consul, at once did observe the swift constellations,Noting the glare of luminous stars in direful conjunction:Then you beheld the tremulous sheen of the Northern aurora,When, on ascending the mountainous heights of snowy Albanus,You offered joyful libations of milk at the Feast of the Latins;Ominous surely the time wherein fell that Feast of the Latins;Many a warning was given, it seemed, of slaughter nocturnal;Then, of a sudden, the moon at her full was blotted from heaven —Hidden her features resplendent, though night was bejewelled with planets;Then did that dolorous herald of War, the torch of Apollo,Mount all aflame to the dome of the sky, where the sun has its setting;Then did a Roman depart from these radiant abodes of the living,Stricken by terrible lightning from heavens serene and unclouded.Then through the fruit-laden body of earth ran the shock of an earthquake;Spectres at night were observed, appalling and changeful of figure,Giving their warning that war was at hand, and internal commotion;Over all lands there outpoured, from the frenzied bosoms of prophets,Dreadful predictions, gloomy forecasts of impending disaster. 1.19 And the misfortunes which happened at last and were long in their passing —These were foretold by the Father of Gods, in earth and in heaven,Through unmistakable signs that he gave and often repeated.12 Now, of those prophecies made when Torquatus and Cotta were consuls, —Made by a Lydian diviner, by one of Etruscan extraction —All, in the round of your crowded twelve months, were brought to fulfilment.For high-thundering Jove, as he stood on starry Olympus,Hurled forth his blows at the temples and monuments raised in his honour,And on the Capitols site he unloosed the bolts of his lightning.Then fell the brazen image of Natta, ancient and honoured:Vanished the tablets of laws long ago divinely enacted;Wholly destroyed were the statues of gods by the heat of the lightning. 1.21 Long was the statue delayed and much was it hindered in making.Finally, you being consul, it stood in its lofty position.Just at the moment of time, which the gods had set and predicted,When on column exalted the sceptre of Jove was illumined,Did Allobrogian voices proclaim to Senate and peopleWhat destruction by dagger and torch was prepared for our country.13 Rightly, therefore, the ancients whose monuments you have in keeping,Romans whose rule over peoples and cities was just and courageous,Rightly your kindred, foremost in honour and pious devotion,Far surpassing the rest of their fellows in shrewdness and wisdom,Held it a duty supreme to honour the Infinite Godhead.Such were the truths they beheld who painfully searching for wisdomGladly devoted their leisure to study of all that was noble, 1.22 Who, in Academys shade and Lyceums dazzling effulgence,Uttered the brilliant reflections of minds abounding in culture.Torn from these studies, in youths early dawn, your country recalled you,Giving you place in the thick of the struggle for public preferment;Yet, in seeking surcease from the worries and cares that oppress you,Time, that the State leaves free, you devote to us and to learning.In view, therefore, of your acts, and in view too of your own verses which I have quoted and which were composed with the utmost care, could you be persuaded to controvert the position which I maintain in regard to divination?
1.36 Why, then, when here recently a mule (which is an animal ordinarily sterile by nature) brought forth a foal, need anyone have scoffed because the soothsayers from that occurrence prophesied a progeny of countless evils to the state?What, pray, do you say of that well-known incident of Tiberius Gracchus, the son of Publius? He was censor and consul twice; beside that he was a most competent augur, a wise man and a pre-eminent citizen. Yet he, according to the account left us by his son Gaius, having caught two snakes in his home, called in the soothsayers to consult them. They advised him that if he let the male snake go his wife must die in a short time; and if he released the female snake his own death must soon occur. Thinking it more fitting that a speedy death should overtake him rather than his young wife, who was the daughter of Publius Africanus, he released the female snake and died within a few days.19 Let us laugh at the soothsayers, brand them as frauds and impostors and scorn their calling, even though a very wise man, Tiberius Gracchus, and the results and circumstances of his death have given proof of its trustworthiness; let us scorn the Babylonians, too, and those astrologers who, from the top of Mount Caucasus, observe the celestial signs and with the aid of mathematics follow the courses of the stars; let us, I say, convict of folly, falsehood, and shamelessness the men whose records, as they themselves assert, cover a period of four hundred and seventy thousand years; and let us pronounce them liars, utterly indifferent to the opinion of succeeding generations.
1.105 Why need I speak of augurs? That is your rôle; the duty to defend auspices, I maintain, is yours. For it was to you, while you were consul, that the augur Appius Claudius declared that because the augury of safety was unpropitious a grievous and violent civil war was at hand. That war began few months later, but you brought it to an end in still fewer days. Appius is one augur of whom I heartily approve, for not content merely with the sing-song ritual of augury, he, alone, according to the record of many years, has maintained a real system of divination. I know that your colleagues used to laugh at him and call him the one time a Pisidian and at another a Soran. They did not concede to augury any power of prevision or real knowledge of the future, and used to say that it was a superstitious practice shrewdly invented to gull the ignorant. But the truth is far otherwise, for neither those herdsmen whom Romulus governed, nor Romulus himself, could have had cunning enough to invent miracles with which to mislead the people. It is the trouble and hard work involved in mastering the art that has induced this eloquent contempt; for men prefer to say glibly that there is nothing in auspices rather than to learn what auspices are.
2.67 And you have even collected the portent-stories connected with Flaminius: His horse, you say, stumbled and fell with him. That is very strange, isnt it? And, The standard of the first company could not be pulled up. Perhaps the standard-bearer had planted it stoutly and pulled it up timidly. What is astonishing in the fact that the horse of Dionysius came up out of the river, or that it had bees in its mane? And yet, because Dionysius began to reign a short time later — which was a mere coincidence — the event referred to is considered a portent! The arms sounded, you say, in the temple of Hercules in Sparta; the folding-doors of the same god at Thebes, though securely barred, opened of their own accord, and the shields hanging upon the walls of that temple fell to the ground. Now since none of these things could have happened without some exterior force, why should we say that they were brought about by divine agency rather than by chance? 32' ' None |
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2. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, Q., consul, removed from command by • Tullius Cicero, M., consul, author • consuls • dictator, constitutional position vis-à-vis consul • dictator, named by consul • imperium, of consul
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 278; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 79, 84, 86, 87
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3. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Cicero, De consulatu suo • De Consulatu Suo (Cicero)
Found in books: Gee (2013), Aratus and the Astronomical Tradition, 63; Green (2014), Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid: Staging the Enemy under Augustus, 134
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4. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • CiceroMarcus Tullius Cicero, consulship • consuls
Found in books: Oksanish (2019), Benedikt Eckhardt, and Meret Strothmann, Law in the Roman Provinces, 109; Rüpke (2011), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine Time, History and the Fasti 91
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5. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Cicero, De consulatu suo • Consulatus suus (Cicero's poem)
Found in books: Ker and Wessels (2020), The Values of Nighttime in Classical Antiquity: Between Dusk and Dawn, 218; Santangelo (2013), Roman Frugality: Modes of Moderation from the Archaic Age to the Early Empire and Beyond, 26
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6. None, None, nan (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, C. (Piso), consulship as body politic’s death and funeral • consuls, lists of
Found in books: Rüpke (2011), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine Time, History and the Fasti 124; Walters (2020), Imagery of the Body Politic in Ciceronian Rome, 82
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7. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
Tagged with subjects: • Antonius, M., named magister equitum by consul • consulship, its destruction in the Ph. • magister equitum, named by consul instead of by dictator
Found in books: Joseph (2022), Thunder and Lament: Lucan on the Beginnings and Ends of Epic, 133; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 133
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8. None, None, nan (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Claudius Marcellus, M., consul vitio creatus • Claudius Marcellus, M., consulship, abdication of • Decius Mus, P., consul • Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, Q., Marcellus, replaced as consul by • auspicato, of consul • consul, and maintenance of buildings • consuls • consuls, killed in battle • consuls, suffect • dictator, constitutional position vis-à-vis consul • dictator, named by consul • praetors, constitutional position vis-à-vis consul • vitio creatus or factus, consuls
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 55; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 99, 114, 271; Rutledge (2012), Ancient Rome as a Museum: Power, Identity, and the Culture of Collecting, 300; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 144
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9. Tacitus, Annals, 1.74, 3.6, 3.12, 3.17, 3.33-3.34, 3.71.3, 4.56.1, 13.32, 16.22, 16.28 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Claudius Marcellus, M., consul vitio creatus • Claudius Marcellus, M., consulship, abdication of • Consul • Cuspius Rufinus, consul • Dio Cassius as consul,, as senator • Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, Q., Marcellus, replaced as consul by • Iunius Silanus, M. (consul under Claudius or Nero) • Pliny (Younger), consul,, describes sessions • Tullius Maximus, consul • consul • consul,, enters office • consul,, ius relationis • consuls • consuls, killed in battle • consuls, suffect • suffectus, consul • vitio creatus or factus, consuls
Found in books: Edelmann-Singer et al. (2020), Sceptic and Believer in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, 100; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 271; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 196; Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 473; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 41, 144, 151, 155, 157; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 136, 166, 201, 242, 264, 309, 442, 461; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 144
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1.74 Nec multo post Granium Marcellum praetorem Bithyniae quaestor ipsius Caepio Crispinus maiestatis postulavit, subscribente Romano Hispone: qui formam vitae iniit, quam postea celebrem miseriae temporum et audaciae hominum fecerunt. nam egens, ignotus, inquies, dum occultis libellis saevitiae principis adrepit, mox clarissimo cuique periculum facessit, potentiam apud unum, odium apud omnis adeptus dedit exemplum, quod secuti ex pauperibus divites, ex contemptis metuendi perniciem aliis ac postremum sibi invenere. sed Marcellum insimulabat sinistros de Tiberio sermones habuisse, inevitabile crimen, cum ex moribus principis foedissima quaeque deligeret accusator obiectaretque reo. nam quia vera erant, etiam dicta credebantur. addidit Hispo statuam Marcelli altius quam Caesarum sitam, et alia in statua amputato capite Augusti effigiem Tiberii inditam. ad quod exarsit adeo, ut rupta taciturnitate proclamaret se quoque in ea causa laturum sententiam palam et iuratum, quo ceteris eadem necessitas fieret. manebant etiam tum vestigia morientis libertatis. igitur Cn. Piso 'quo' inquit 'loco censebis, Caesar? si primus, habebo quod sequar: si post omnis, vereor ne inprudens dissentiam.' permotus his, quantoque incautius efferverat, paenitentia patiens tulit absolvi reum criminibus maiestatis: de pecuniis repetundis ad reciperatores itum est." 3.6 Gnarum id Tiberio fuit; utque premeret vulgi sermones, monuit edicto multos inlustrium Romanorum ob rem publicam obisse, neminem tam flagranti desiderio celebratum. idque et sibi et cunctis egregium si modus adiceretur. non enim eadem decora principibus viris et imperatori populo quae modicis domibus aut civitatibus. convenisse recenti dolori luctum et ex maerore solacia; sed referendum iam animum ad firmitudinem, ut quondam divus Iulius amissa unica filia, ut divus Augustus ereptis nepotibus abstruserint tristitiam. nil opus vetustioribus exemplis, quotiens populus Romanus cladis exercituum, interitum ducum, funditus amissas nobilis familias constanter tulerit. principes mortalis, rem publicam aeternam esse. proin repeterent sollemnia, et quia ludorum Megalesium spectaculum suberat, etiam voluptates resumerent.
3.6 Sed Tiberius, vim principatus sibi firmans, imaginem antiquitatis senatui praebebat postulata provinciarum ad disquisitionem patrum mittendo. crebrescebat enim Graecas per urbes licentia atque impunitas asyla statuendi; complebantur templa pessimis servitiorum; eodem subsidio obaerati adversum creditores suspectique capitalium criminum receptabantur, nec ullum satis validum imperium erat coercendis seditionibus populi flagitia hominum ut caerimonias deum protegentis. igitur placitum ut mitterent civitates iura atque legatos. et quaedam quod falso usurpaverant sponte omisere; multae vetustis superstitioni- bus aut meritis in populum Romanum fidebant. magnaque eius diei species fuit quo senatus maiorum beneficia, sociorum pacta, regum etiam qui ante vim Romanam valuerant decreta ipsorumque numinum religiones introspexit, libero, ut quondam, quid firmaret mutaretve.' "
3.12 Die senatus Caesar orationem habuit meditato tem- peramento. patris sui legatum atque amicum Pisonem fuisse adiutoremque Germanico datum a se auctore senatu rebus apud Orientem administrandis. illic contumacia et certaminibus asperasset iuvenem exituque eius laetatus esset an scelere extinxisset, integris animis diiudicandum. 'nam si legatus officii terminos, obsequium erga imperatorem exuit eiusdemque morte et luctu meo laetatus est, odero seponamque a domo mea et privatas inimicitias non vi principis ulciscar: sin facinus in cuiuscumque mortalium nece vindicandum detegitur, vos vero et liberos Germanici et nos parentes iustis solaciis adficite. simulque illud reputate, turbide et seditiose tractaverit exercitus Piso, quaesita sint per ambitionem studia militum, armis repetita provincia, an falsa haec in maius vulgaverint accusatores, quorum ego nimiis studiis iure suscenseo. nam quo pertinuit nudare corpus et contrectandum vulgi oculis permittere differrique etiam per externos tamquam veneno interceptus esset, si incerta adhuc ista et scrutanda sunt? defleo equidem filium meum semperque deflebo: sed neque reum prohibeo quo minus cuncta proferat, quibus innocentia eius sublevari aut, si qua fuit iniquitas Germanici, coargui possit, vosque oro ne, quia dolori meo causa conexa est, obiecta crimina pro adprobatis accipiatis. si quos propinquus sanguis aut fides sua patronos dedit, quantum quisque eloquentia et cura valet, iuvate periclitantem: ad eundem laborem, eandem constantiam accusatores hortor. id solum Germanico super leges praestiterimus, quod in curia potius quam in foro, apud senatum quam apud iudices de morte eius anquiritur: cetera pari modestia tractentur. nemo Drusi lacrimas, nemo maestitiam meam spectet, nec si qua in nos adversa finguntur.'" 3.17 Post quae Tiberius adulescentem crimine civilis belli purgavit, patris quippe iussa nec potuisse filium detrectare, simul nobilitatem domus, etiam ipsius quoquo modo meriti gravem casum miseratus. pro Plancina cum pudore et flagitio disseruit, matris preces obtendens, in quam optimi cuiusque secreti questus magis ardescebant. id ergo fas aviae interfectricem nepotis adspicere, adloqui, eripere senatui. quod pro omnibus civibus leges obtineant uni Germanico non contigisse. Vitellii et Veranii voce defletum Caesarem, ab imperatore et Augusta defensam Plancinam. proinde venena et artes tam feliciter expertas verteret in Agrippinam, in liberos eius, egregiamque aviam ac patruum sanguine miserrimae domus exsatiaret. biduum super hac imagine cognitionis absumptum, urgente Tiberio liberos Pisonis matrem uti tuerentur. et cum accusatores ac testes certatim perorarent respondente nullo, miseratio quam invidia augebatur. primus sententiam rogatus Aurelius Cotta consul (nam referente Caesare magistratus eo etiam munere fungebantur) nomen Pisonis radendum fastis censuit, partem bonorum publicandam, pars ut Cn. Pisoni filio concederetur isque praenomen mutaret; M. Piso exuta dignitate et accepto quinquagies sestertio in decem annos relegaretur, concessa Plancinae incolumitate ob preces Augustae.
3.33 Inter quae Severus Caecina censuit ne quem magistratum cui provincia obvenisset uxor comitaretur, multum ante repetito concordem sibi coniugem et sex partus enixam, seque quae in publicum statueret domi servavisse, cohibita intra Italiam, quamquam ipse pluris per provincias quadraginta stipendia explevisset. haud enim frustra placitum olim ne feminae in socios aut gentis externas traherentur: inesse mulierum comitatui quae pacem luxu, bellum formidine morentur et Romanum agmen ad similitudinem barbari incessus convertant. non imbecillum tantum et imparem laboribus sexum sed, si licentia adsit, saevum, ambitiosum, potestatis avidum; incedere inter milites, habere ad manum centuriones; praesedisse nuper feminam exercitio cohortium, decursu legionum. cogitarent ipsi quotiens repetundarum aliqui arguerentur plura uxoribus obiectari: his statim adhaerescere deterrimum quemque provincialium, ab his negotia suscipi, transigi; duorum egressus coli, duo esse praetoria, pervicacibus magis et impotentibus mulierum iussis quae Oppiis quondam aliisque legibus constrictae nunc vinclis exolutis domos, fora, iam et exercitus regerent. 3.34 Paucorum haec adsensu audita: plures obturbabant neque relatum de negotio neque Caecinam dignum tantae rei censorem. mox Valerius Messalinus, cui parens Mes- sala ineratque imago paternae facundiae, respondit multa duritiae veterum in melius et laetius mutata; neque enim, ut olim, obsideri urbem bellis aut provincias hostilis esse. et pauca feminarum necessitatibus concedi quae ne coniugum quidem penatis, adeo socios non onerent; cetera promisca cum marito nec ullum in eo pacis impedimentum. bella plane accinctis obeunda: sed revertentibus post laborem quod honestius quam uxorium levamentum? at quasdam in ambitionem aut avaritiam prolapsas. quid? ipsorum magistratuum nonne plerosque variis libidinibus obnoxios? non tamen ideo neminem in provinciam mitti. corruptos saepe pravitatibus uxorum maritos: num ergo omnis caelibes integros? placuisse quondam Oppias leges, sic temporibus rei publicae postulantibus: remissum aliquid postea et mitigatum, quia expedierit. frustra nostram ignaviam alia ad vocabula transferri: nam viri in eo culpam si femina modum excedat. porro ob unius aut alterius imbecillum animum male eripi maritis consortia rerum secundarum adversarumque. simul sexum natura invalidum deseri et exponi suo luxu, cupidinibus alienis. vix praesenti custodia manere inlaesa coniugia: quid fore si per pluris annos in modum discidii oblitterentur? sic obviam irent iis quae alibi peccarentur ut flagitiorum urbis meminissent. addidit pauca Drusus de matrimonio suo; nam principibus adeunda saepius longinqua imperii. quoties divum Augustum in Occidentem atque Orientem meavisse comite Livia! se quoque in Illyricum profectum et, si ita conducat, alias ad gentis iturum, haud semper aequo animo si ab uxore carissima et tot communium liberorum parente divelleretur. sic Caecinae sententia elusa.' 13.32 Factum et senatus consultum ultioni iuxta et securitati, ut si quis a suis servis interfectus esset, ii quoque qui testamento manu missi sub eodem tecto mansissent inter servos supplicia penderent. redditur ordini Lurius Varus consularis, avaritiae criminibus olim perculsus. et Pomponia Graecina insignis femina, A. Plautio, quem ovasse de Britannis rettuli, nupta ac superstitionis externae rea, mariti iudicio permissa; isque prisco instituto propinquis coram de capite famaque coniugis cognovit et insontem nuntiavit. longa huic Pomponiae aetas et continua tristitia fuit: nam post Iuliam Drusi filiam dolo Messalinae interfectam per quadraginta annos non cultu nisi lugubri, non animo nisi maesto egit; idque illi imperitante Claudio impune, mox ad gloriam vertit.' "
16.22 Quin et illa obiectabat, principio anni vitare Thraseam sollemne ius iurandum; nuncupationibus votorum non adesse, quamvis quindecimvirali sacerdotio praeditum; numquam pro salute principis aut caelesti voce immolavisse; adsiduum olim et indefessum, qui vulgaribus quoque patrum consultis semet fautorem aut adversarium ostenderet, triennio non introisse curiam; nuperrimeque, cum ad coercendos Silanum et Veterem certatim concurreretur, privatis potius clientium negotiis vacavisse. secessionem iam id et partis et, si idem multi audeant, bellum esse. 'ut quondam C. Caesarem' inquit 'et M. Catonem, ita nunc te, Nero, et Thraseam avida discordiarum civitas loquitur. et habet sectatores vel potius satellites, qui nondum contumaciam sententiarum, sed habitum vultumque eius sectantur, rigidi et tristes, quo tibi lasciviam exprobrent. huic uni incolumitas tua sine cura, artes sine honore. prospera principis respuit: etiamne luctibus et doloribus non satiatur? eiusdem animi est Poppaeam divam non credere, cuius in acta divi Augusti et divi Iuli non iurare. spernit religiones, abrogat leges. diurna populi Romani per provincias, per exercitus curatius leguntur, ut noscatur quid Thrasea non fecerit. aut transeamus ad illa instituta, si potiora sunt, aut nova cupientibus auferatur dux et auctor. ista secta Tuberones et Favonios, veteri quoque rei publicae ingrata nomina, genuit. ut imperium evertant libertatem praeferunt: si perverterint, libertatem ipsam adgredientur. frustra Cassium amovisti, si gliscere et vigere Brutorum aemulos passurus es. denique nihil ipse de Thrasea scripseris: disceptatorem senatum nobis relinque.' extollit ira promptum Cossutiani animum Nero adicitque Marcellum Eprium acri eloquentia." 16.28 Et initium faciente Cossutiano, maiore vi Marcellus summam rem publicam agi clamitabat; contumacia inferiorum lenitatem imperitantis deminui. nimium mitis ad eam diem patres, qui Thraseam desciscentem, qui generum eius Helvidium Priscum in isdem furoribus, simul Paconium Agrippinum, paterni in principes odii heredem, et Curtium Montanum detestanda carmina factitantem eludere impune sinerent. requirere se in senatu consularem, in votis sacerdotem, in iure iurando civem, nisi contra instituta et caerimonias maiorum proditorem palam et hostem Thrasea induisset. denique agere senatorem et principis obtrectatores protegere solitus veniret, censeret quid corrigi aut mutari vellet: facilius perlaturos singula increpantem quam nunc silentium perferrent omnia damtis. pacem illi per orbem terrae, an victorias sine damno exercituum displicere? ne hominem bonis publicis maestum, et qui fora theatra templa pro solitudine haberet, qui minitaretur exilium suum, ambitionis pravae compotem facerent. non illi consulta haec, non magistratus aut Romanam urbem videri. abrumperet vitam ab ea civitate cuius caritatem olim, nunc et aspectum exuisset.'" None | sup>
1.74 \xa0Before long, Granius Marcellus, praetor of Bithynia, found himself accused of treason by his own quaestor, Caepio Crispinus, with Hispo Romanus to back the charge. Caepio was the pioneer in a walk of life which the miseries of the age and effronteries of men soon rendered popular. Indigent, unknown, unresting, first creeping, with his private reports, into the confidence of his pitiless sovereign, then a terror to the noblest, he acquired the favour of one man, the hatred of all, and set an example, the followers of which passed from beggary to wealth, from being despised to being feared, and crowned at last the ruin of others by their own. He alleged that Marcellus had retailed sinister anecdotes about Tiberius: a\xa0damning indictment, when the accuser selected the foulest qualities of the imperial character, and attributed their mention to the accused. For, as the facts were true, they were also believed to have been related! Hispo added that Marcellus\' own statue was placed on higher ground than those of the Caesars, while in another the head of Augustus had been struck off to make room for the portrait of Tiberius. This incensed the emperor to such a degree that, breaking through his taciturnity, he exclaimed that, in this case, he too would vote, openly and under oath, â\x80\x94 the object being to impose a similar obligation on the rest. There remained even yet some traces of dying liberty. Accordingly Gnaeus Piso inquired: "In what order will you register your opinion, Caesar? If first, I\xa0shall have something to follow: if last of all, I\xa0fear I\xa0may inadvertently find myself on the other side." The words went home; and with a meekness that showed how profoundly he rued his unwary outburst, he voted for the acquittal of the defendant on the counts of treason. The charge of peculation went before the appropriate commission. <
3.6 \xa0All this Tiberius knew; and, to repress the comments of the crowd, he reminded them in a manifesto that "many illustrious Romans had died for their country, but none had been honoured with such a fervour of regret: a\xa0compliment highly valued by himself and by all, if only moderation were observed. For the same conduct was not becoming to ordinary families or communities and to leaders of the state and to an imperial people. Mourning and the solace of tears had suited the first throes of their affliction; but now they must recall their minds to fortitude, as once the deified Julius at the loss of his only daughter, and the deified Augustus at the taking of his grandchildren, had thrust aside their anguish. There was no need to show by earlier instances how often the Roman people had borne unshaken the slaughter of armies, the death of generals, the complete annihilation of historic houses. Statesmen were mortal, the state eternal. Let them return, therefore, to their usual occupations and â\x80\x94 as the Megalesian Games would soon be exhibited â\x80\x94 resume even their pleasures!" <
3.12 \xa0On the day the senate met, the Caesar spoke with calculated moderation. "Piso," he said, "had been his father\'s lieutet and friend; and he himself, at the instance of the senate, had assigned him to Germanicus as his coadjutor in the administration of the East. Whether, in that position, he had merely exasperated the youthful prince by perversity and contentiousness, and then betrayed pleasure at his death, or whether he had actually cut short his days by crime, was a question they must determine with open minds. For" (he proceeded) "if the case is one of a subordinate who, after ignoring the limits of his commission and the deference owed to his superior, has exulted over that superior\'s death and my own sorrow, I\xa0shall renounce his friendship, banish him from my house, and redress my grievances as a man without invoking my powers as a sovereign. But if murder comes to light â\x80\x94 and it would call for vengeance, were the victim the meanest of mankind â\x80\x94 then do you see to it that proper requital is made to the children of Germanicus and to us, his parents. At the same time, consider the following points:â\x80\x94 Did Piso\'s treatment of the armies make for disorder and sedition? Did he employ corrupt means to win the favour of the private soldiers? Did he levy war in order to repossess himself of the province? Or are these charges falsehoods, published with enlargements by the accusers; at whose zealous indiscretions I\xa0myself feel some justifiable anger? For what was the object in stripping the corpse naked and exposing it to the degrading contact of the vulgar gaze? Or in diffusing the report â\x80\x94 and among foreigners â\x80\x94 that he fell a victim to poison, if that is an issue still uncertain and in need of scrutiny? True, I\xa0lament my son, and shall lament him always. But far from hampering the defendant in adducing every circumstance which may tend to relieve his innocence or to convict Germanicus of injustice (if injustice there was), I\xa0beseech you that, even though the case is bound up with a personal sorrow of my own, you will not therefore receive the assertion of guilt as a proof of guilt. If kinship or a sense of loyalty has made some of you his advocates, then let each, with all the eloquence and devotion he can command, aid him in his hour of danger. To the accusers I\xa0commend a similar industry, a similar constancy. The only extra-legal concession we shall be found to have made to Germanicus is this, that the inquiry into his death is being held not in the Forum but in the Curia, not before a bench of judges but the senate. Let the rest of the proceedings show the like restraint: let none regard the tears of Drusus, none my own sadness, nor yet any fictions invented to our discredit." <
3.17 \xa0Tiberius followed by absolving the younger Piso from the charge of civil war, â\x80\x94 for "the orders came from a father, and a son could not have disobeyed," â\x80\x94 and at the same time expressed his sorrow for a noble house and the tragic fate of its representative, whatever his merits or demerits. In offering a shamefaced and ignominious apology for Plancina, he pleaded the entreaties of his mother; who in private was being more and more hotly criticized by every person of decency:â\x80\x94 "So it was allowable in a grandmother to admit her husband\'s murderess to sight and speech, and to rescue her from the senate! The redress which the laws guaranteed to all citizens had been denied to Germanicus alone. The voice of Vitellius and Veranius had bewailed the Caesar: the emperor and Augusta had defended Plancina. It remained to turn those drugs and arts, now tested with such happy results, against Agrippina and her children, and so to satiate this admirable grandmother and uncle with the blood of the whole calamitous house!" Two days were expended on this phantom of a trial, with Tiberius pressing Piso\'s sons to defend their mother; and as the accusers and witnesses delivered their competing invectives, without a voice to answer, pity rather than anger began to deepen. The question was put in the first instance to Aurelius Cotta, the consul; for, if the reference came from the sovereign, even the magistrates went through the process of registering their opinion. Cotta proposed that the name of Piso should be erased from the records, one half of his property confiscated, and the other made over to his son Gnaeus, who should change his first name; that Marcus Piso should be stripped of his senatorial rank, and relegated for a period of ten years with a gratuity of five million sesterces: Plancina, in view of the empress\'s intercession, might be granted immunity. <
3.33 \xa0In the course of the debate, Caecina Severus moved that no magistrate, who had been allotted a province, should be accompanied by his wife. He explained beforehand at some length that "he had a consort after his own heart, who had borne him six children: yet he had conformed in private to the rule he was proposing for the public; and, although he had served his forty campaigns in one province or other, she had always been kept within the boundaries of Italy. There was point in the old regulation which prohibited the dragging of women to the provinces or foreign countries: in a retinue of ladies there were elements apt, by luxury or timidity, to retard the business of peace or war and to transmute a Roman march into something resembling an Eastern procession. Weakness and a lack of endurance were not the only failings of the sex: give them scope, and they turned hard, intriguing, ambitious. They paraded among the soldiers; they had the centurions at beck and call. Recently a woman had presided at the exercises of the cohorts and the manoeuvres of the legions. Let his audience reflect that, whenever a magistrate was on trial for malversation, the majority of the charges were levelled against his wife. It was to the wife that the basest of the provincials at once attached themselves; it was the wife who took in hand and transacted business. There were two potentates to salute in the streets; two government-houses; and the more headstrong and autocratic orders came from the women, who, once held in curb by the Oppian and other laws, had now cast their chains and ruled supreme in the home, the courts, and by now the army itself." < 3.34 \xa0A\xa0few members listened to the speech with approval: most interrupted with protests that neither was there a motion on the subject nor was Caecina a competent censor in a question of such importance. He was presently answered by Valerius Messalinus, a son of Messala, in whom there resided some echo of his father\'s eloquence:â\x80\x94 "Much of the old-world harshness had been improved and softened; for Rome was no longer environed with wars, nor were the provinces hostile. A\xa0few allowances were now made to the needs of women; but not such as to embarrass even the establishment of their consorts, far less our allies: everything else the wife shared with her husband, and in peace the arrangement created no difficulties. Certainly, he who set about a war must gird up his loins; but, when he returned after his labour, what consolations more legitimate than those of his helpmeet? â\x80\x94 But a\xa0few women had lapsed into intrigue or avarice. â\x80\x94 Well, were not too many of the magistrates themselves vulnerable to temptation in more shapes than one? Yet governors still went out to governorships! â\x80\x94 Husbands had often been corrupted by the depravity of their wives. â\x80\x94 And was every single man, then, incorruptible? The Oppian laws in an earlier day were sanctioned because the circumstances of the commonwealth so demanded: later remissions and mitigations were due to expediency. It was vain to label our own inertness with another title: if the woman broke bounds, the fault lay with the husband. Moreover, it was unjust that, through the weakness of one or two, married men in general should be torn from their partners in weal and woe, while at the same time a sex frail by nature was left alone, exposed to its own voluptuousness and the appetites of others. Hardly by surveillance on the spot could the marriage-tie be kept undamaged: what would be the case if, for a term of years, it were dissolved as completely as by divorce? While they were taking steps to meet abuses elsewhere, it would be well to remember the scandals of the capital! Drusus added a\xa0few sentences upon his own married life:â\x80\x94 "Princes not infrequently had to visit the remote parts of the empire. How often had the deified Augustus travelled to west and east with Livia for his companion! He had himself made an excursion to Illyricum; and, if there was a purpose to serve, he was prepared to go to other countries â\x80\x94 but not always without a pang, if he were severed from the well-beloved wife who was the mother of their many common children." Caecina\'s motion was thus evaded. <' "
3.71.3 \xa0A\xa0problem in religion now presented itself: in what temple were the knights to lodge the offering vowed, in connection with Augusta's illness, to Equestrian Fortune? For though shrines to Fortune were plentiful in the city, none carried the epithet in question. It was found that there was a temple of the name at Antium, and that all sacred rites in the country towns of Italy, with all places of worship and divine images, were subject to the jurisdiction and authority of Rome. At Antium, accordingly, the gift was placed. And since points of religion were under consideration, the Caesar produced his recently deferred answer to the Flamen Dialis, Servius Maluginensis; and read a pontifical decree, according to which the Flamen, whenever attacked by illness, might at the discretion of the supreme pontiff absent himself for more than two nights, so long as it was not on days of public sacrifice nor oftener than twice in one year. The ruling thus laid down in the principate of Augustus showed that a\xa0year's absence and a provincial governorship were not for the flamens of Jupiter. Attention was also called to a precedent set by the supreme pontiff, Lucius Metellus; who had vetoed the departure of the Flamen, Aulus Postumius. Asia, therefore, was allotted to the consular next in seniority to Maluginensis. <" 4.56.1 \xa0The deputies from Smyrna, on the other hand, after retracing the antiquity of their town â\x80\x94 whether founded by Tantalus, the seed of Jove; by Theseus, also of celestial stock; or by one of the Amazons â\x80\x94 passed on to the arguments in which they rested most confidence: their good offices towards the Roman people, to whom they had sent their naval force to aid not merely in foreign wars but in those with which we had to cope in Italy, while they had also been the first to erect a temple to the City of Rome, at a period (the consulate of Marcus Porcius) when the Roman fortunes stood high indeed, but had not yet mounted to their zenith, as the Punic capital was yet standing and the kings were still powerful in Asia. At the same time, Sulla was called to witness that "with his army in a most critical position through the inclement winter and scarcity of clothing, the news had only to be announced at a public meeting in Smyrna, and the whole of the bystanders stripped the garments from their bodies and sent them to our legions." The Fathers accordingly, when their opinion was taken, gave Smyrna the preference. Vibius Marsus proposed that a supernumerary legate, to take responsibility for the temple, should be assigned to Manius Lepidus, to whom the province of Asia had fallen; and since Lepidus modestly declined to make the selection himself, Valerius Naso was chosen by lot among the ex-praetors and sent out.
13.32 \xa0There was passed, also, a senatorial decree, punitive at once and precautionary, that, if a master had been assassinated by his own slaves, even those manumitted under his will, but remaining under the same roof, should suffer the penalty among the rest. The consular Lucius Varus, sentenced long before under charges of extortion, was restored to his rank. Pomponia Graecina, a woman of high family, married to Aulus Plautius â\x80\x94 whose ovation after the British campaign I\xa0recorded earlier â\x80\x94 and now arraigned for alien superstition, was left to the jurisdiction of her husband. Following the ancient custom, he held the inquiry, which was to determine the fate and fame of his wife, before a family council, and announced her innocent. Pomponia was a woman destined to long life and to continuous grief: for after Julia, the daughter of Drusus, had been done to death by the treachery of Messalina, she survived for forty years, dressed in perpetual mourning and lost in perpetual sorrow; and a constancy unpunished under the empire of Claudius became later a title to glory. <
16.22 \xa0He preferred other charges as well:â\x80\x94 "At the beginning of the year, Thrasea evaded the customary oath; though the holder of a quindecimviral priesthood, he took no part in the national vows; he had never offered a sacrifice for the welfare of the emperor or for his celestial voice. Once a constant and indefatigable member, who showed himself the advocate or the adversary of the most commonplace resolutions of the Fathers, for three years he had not set foot within the curia; and but yesterday, when his colleagues were gathering with emulous haste to crush Silanus and Vetus, he had preferred to devote his leisure to the private cases of his clients. Matters were come already to a schism and to factions: if many made the same venture, it was war! \'As once,\' he said, \'this discord-loving state prated of Caesar and Cato, so now, Nero, it prates of yourself and Thrasea. And he has his followers â\x80\x94\xa0his satellites, rather â\x80\x94 who affect, not as yet the contumacity of his opinions, but his bearing and his looks, and whose stiffness and austerity are designed for an impeachment of your wantonness. To him alone your safety is a thing uncared for, your talents a thing unhonoured. The imperial happiness he cannot brook: can he not even be satisfied with the imperial bereavements and sorrows? Not to believe Poppaea deity bespeaks the same temper that will not swear to the acts of the deified Augustus and the deified Julius. He contemns religion, he abrogates law. The journal of the Roman people is scanned throughout the provinces and armies with double care for news of what Thrasea has not done! Either let us pass over to his creed, if it is the better, or let these seekers after a new world lose their chief and their instigator. It is the sect that produced the Tuberones and the Favonii â\x80\x94 names unloved even in the old republic. In order to subvert the empire, they make a parade of liberty: the empire overthrown, they will lay hands on liberty itself. You have removed Cassius to little purpose, if you intend to allow these rivals of the Bruti to multiply and flourish! A\xa0word in conclusion: write nothing yourself about Thrasea â\x80\x94 leave the senate to decide between us!\'\xa0" Nero fanned still more the eager fury of Cossutianus, and reinforced him with the mordant eloquence of Eprius Marcellus. <
16.28 \xa0The attack was opened by Cossutianus; then Marcellus declaimed with greater violence:â\x80\x94 "Supreme interests of state were at issue: the contumacity of his inferiors was wearing down the lenience of the sovereign. Hitherto the Fathers had been over-indulgent, permitting themselves, as they did, to be mocked with impunity by Thrasea, who was meditating revolt; by his son-inâ\x80\x91law, Helvidius Priscus, who affected the same insanity; by Paconius Agrippinus, again, heir of his father\'s hatred for emperors; and by that scribbler of abominable verses, Curtius Montanus. In the senate he missed an ex-consul; in the national vows, a priest; at the oath of allegiance, a citizen â\x80\x94\xa0unless, defiant of the institutions and rites of their ancestors, Thrasea had openly assumed the part of traitor and public enemy. To be brief, let him come â\x80\x94 this person who was accustomed to enact the complete senator and to protect the slanderers of the prince â\x80\x94 let him come and state in a motion what he would have amended or altered: they would bear more easily with his censures of this or that than they now bore with his all-condemning silence! Was it the world-wide peace, or victories gained without loss of the armies, that met with his displeasure? A\xa0man who mourned over the nation\'s happiness, who treated forum and theatre and temple as a desert, who held out his own exile as a threat, must not have his perverse ambition gratified! In Thrasea\'s eyes, these were no senatorial resolutions; there were no magistracies, no Rome. Let him break with life, and with a country which he had long ceased to love and now to look upon!" <'' None |
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10. Tacitus, Histories, 5.5.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Consul • consuls
Found in books: Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 202; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 157
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5.5.1 \xa0Whatever their origin, these rites are maintained by their antiquity: the other customs of the Jews are base and abominable, and owe their persistence to their depravity. For the worst rascals among other peoples, renouncing their ancestral religions, always kept sending tribute and contributions to Jerusalem, thereby increasing the wealth of the Jews; again, the Jews are extremely loyal toward one another, and always ready to show compassion, but toward every other people they feel only hate and enmity. They sit apart at meals, and they sleep apart, and although as a race, they are prone to lust, they abstain from intercourse with foreign women; yet among themselves nothing is unlawful. They adopted circumcision to distinguish themselves from other peoples by this difference. Those who are converted to their ways follow the same practice, and the earliest lesson they receive is to despise the gods, to disown their country, and to regard their parents, children, and brothers as of little account. However, they take thought to increase their numbers; for they regard it as a crime to kill any late-born child, and they believe that the souls of those who are killed in battle or by the executioner are immortal: hence comes their passion for begetting children, and their scorn of death. They bury the body rather than burn it, thus following the Egyptians' custom; they likewise bestow the same care on the dead, and hold the same belief about the world below; but their ideas of heavenly things are quite the opposite. The Egyptians worship many animals and monstrous images; the Jews conceive of one god only, and that with the mind alone: they regard as impious those who make from perishable materials representations of gods in man's image; that supreme and eternal being is to them incapable of representation and without end. Therefore they set up no statues in their cities, still less in their temples; this flattery is not paid their kings, nor this honour given to the Caesars. But since their priests used to chant to the accompaniment of pipes and cymbals and to wear garlands of ivy, and because a golden vine was found in their temple, some have thought that they were devotees of Father Liber, the conqueror of the East, in spite of the incongruity of their customs. For Liber established festive rites of a joyous nature, while the ways of the Jews are preposterous and mean."" None |
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11. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Capua, request for consulship rights by
Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 276; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 276
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12. None, None, nan (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Dio Cassius as consul,, as senator • consul
Found in books: Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 123; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 196
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13. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 41.36.1, 42.20, 53.1.3 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Antonius, M., named magister equitum by consul • Livy, on consuls naming dictator • consul • consulship, its destruction in the Ph. • magister equitum, named by consul instead of by dictator • ordinarius, consul
Found in books: Joseph (2022), Thunder and Lament: Lucan on the Beginnings and Ends of Epic, 133; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 135, 145; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 164; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 27, 37
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41.36.1 \xa0While he was still on the way Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, the man who later became a member of the triumvirate, advised the people in his capacity of praetor to elect Caesar dictator, and immediately named him, contrary to ancestral custom.' "
42.20 1. \xa0They granted him, then, permission to do whatever he wished to those who had favoured Pompey's cause, not that he had not already received this right from himself, but in order that he might seem to be acting with some show of legal authority. They appointed him arbiter of war and peace with all mankind â\x80\x94 using the conspirators in Africa as a pretext â\x80\x94 without the obligation even of making any communication on the subject to the people or the senate.,2. \xa0This, of course, also lay in his power before, inasmuch as he had so large an armed force; at any rate the wars he had fought he had undertaken on his own authority in nearly every case. Nevertheless, because they wished still to appear to be free and independent citizens, they voted him these rights and everything else which it was in his power to have even against their will.,3. \xa0Thus he received the privilege of being consul for five consecutive years and of being chosen dictator, not for six months, but for an entire year, and he assumed the tribunician authority practically for life; for he secured the right of sitting with the tribunes upon the same benches and of being reckoned with them for other purposes â\x80\x94 a\xa0privilege which was permitted to no one.,4. \xa0All the elections except those of the plebs now passed into his hands, and for this reason they were delayed till after his arrival and were held toward the close of the year. In the case of the governorships in subject territory the citizens pretended to allot themselves those which fell to the consuls, but voted that Caesar should give the others to the praetors without the casting of lots; for they had gone back to consuls and praetors again contrary to their decree.,5. \xa0And they also granted another privilege, which was customary, to be sure, but in the corruption of the times might cause hatred and resentment: they decreed that Caesar should hold a triumph for the war against Juba and the Romans who fought with him, just as if had been the victor, although, as a matter of fact, he had not then so much as heard that there was to be such a war." 53.1.3 \xa0At this particular time, now, besides attending to his other duties as usual, he completed the taking of the census, in connection with which his title was princeps senatus, as had been the practice when Rome was truly a republic. Moreover, he completed and dedicated the temple of Apollo on the Palatine, the precinct surrounding it, and the libraries.'' None |
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14. None, None, nan (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • Pliny (Younger), consul,, lifestyle • consuls, alternate fasces
Found in books: Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 74; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 74
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15. None, None, nan (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • consul • ordinarius, consul • suffectus, consul
Found in books: Tacoma (2020), Cicero and Roman Education: The Reception of the Speeches and Ancient Scholarship, 117; Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 205
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16. None, None, nan (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
Tagged with subjects: • consuls • dictator, constitutional position vis-à-vis consul
Found in books: Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 87; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 144
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17. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.1.2-1.1.3
Tagged with subjects: • Claudius Marcellus, M., consul vitio creatus • Claudius Marcellus, M., consulship, abdication of • Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, P., Corsica, consul in • Cornelius Scipio Nasica Corculum, P., consulship, abdication of • Fabius Maximus Verrucosus, Q., Marcellus, replaced as consul by • Flaminius, C., consulship, abdication of • Marcellus, M. Claudius, Consul • Marcius Figulus, C., abdicates consulship • Sardinia, pro consule • Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, Consul • abdication, of consuls • consuls • consuls, consular year, start of • consuls, killed in battle • consuls, suffect • dictator, abdication of consul, forced by • senate, consuls, ordered to abdicate by • vitio creatus or factus, consuls
Found in books: Galinsky (2016), Memory in Ancient Rome and Early Christianity, 100, 101; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 206, 271, 284, 292, 294; Shannon-Henderson (2019), Power Play in Latin Love Elegy and its Multiple Forms of Continuity in Ovid’s , 143, 144
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1.1.2 Metellus the pontifex maximus, when Postumius the consul, and also a flamen of Mars, desired Africa for his province to make war in, commanded him under a penalty not to depart the city, and thereby to desert his function; believing that Postumius could not safely commit himself to martial combats, when the ceremonies of Mars were neglected. 1.1.3 Praiseworthy was the reverence of the twelve fasces, but more to be extolled, the obedience of the twenty-four fasces: for Tiberius Gracchus sent letters to the college of augurs out of his province, by which he gave them to understand, that having perused certain books concerning the sacred rites of the people, he found that the augural tent was erroneously sited at the consular elections, which he had caused to be made; which thing being reported to the senate, by their command C. Figulus returning out of Gaul, and Scipio Nasica from Corsica, both laid down their consulships.'' None |
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18. Vergil, Aeneis, 4.260-4.265
Tagged with subjects: • Capua, request for consulship rights by
Found in books: Augoustakis (2014), Flavian Poetry and its Greek Past, 276; Verhagen (2022), Security and Credit in Roman Law: The Historical Evolution of Pignus and Hypotheca, 276
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4.260 Aenean fundantem arces ac tecta novantem 4.261 conspicit; atque illi stellatus iaspide fulva 4.262 ensis erat, Tyrioque ardebat murice laena 4.263 demissa ex umeris, dives quae munera Dido 4.264 fecerat, et tenui telas discreverat auro. 4.265 Continuo invadit: Tu nunc Karthaginis altae'' None | sup>
4.260 an equal number of vociferous tongues, 4.261 foul, whispering lips, and ears, that catch at all. ' "4.262 At night she spreads midway 'twixt earth and heaven " '4.263 her pinions in the darkness, hissing loud, ' "4.264 nor e'er to happy slumber gives her eyes: " '4.265 but with the morn she takes her watchful throne '' None |
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19. None, None, nan
Tagged with subjects: • Arcadius Placidus Magnus Felix, consul • Consul • Flavius Antoninus Messala Vivianus, consul
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 375; Lampe (2003), Christians at Rome in the First Two Centuries: From Paul to Valentinus, 331
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20. None, None, nan
Tagged with subjects: • Calpurnius Piso, Cn., consul • Duilius, C., consul • consuls • consulships, of Gaius Duilius
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 42, 186; Roller (2018), Disclosure and Discretion in Roman Astrology: Manilius and his Augustan Contemporaries, 135; Rüpke (2011), The Roman Calendar from Numa to Constantine Time, History and the Fasti 123
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21. None, None, nan
Tagged with subjects: • Aemilius Paullus, L., consul • Calpurnius Piso, Cn., consul • dictator, constitutional position vis-à-vis consul • imperium, of consul
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 100; Konrad (2022), The Challenge to the Auspices: Studies on Magisterial Power in the Middle Roman Republic, 86
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22. None, None, nan
Tagged with subjects: • Calpurnius Piso, Cn., consul • Manius Aquillius the Elder, consul • Servilius Vatia Isauricus, consul and general
Found in books: Bruun and Edmondson (2015), The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy, 193; Marek (2019), In the Land of a Thousand Gods: A History of Asia Minor in the Ancient World, 314
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23. None, None, nan
Tagged with subjects: • Dio Cassius as consul,, as senator • consul
Found in books: Talbert (1984), The Senate of Imperial Rome, 70; Tuori (2016), The Emperor of Law: The Emergence of Roman Imperial Adjudication<, 7
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