1. Cicero, On Divination, 1.30-1.31, 1.101 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 1.30. Non igitur obnuntiatio Ateii causam finxit calamitatis, sed signo obiecto monuit Crassum, quid eventurum esset, nisi cavisset. Ita aut illa obnuntiatio nihil valuit aut, si, ut Appius iudicat, valuit, id valuit, ut peccatum haereat non in eo, qui monuerit, sed in eo, qui non obtemperarit. Quid? lituus iste vester, quod clarissumum est insigne auguratus, unde vobis est traditus? Nempe eo Romulus regiones direxit tum, cum urbem condidit. Qui quidem Romuli lituus, id est incurvum et leviter a summo inflexum bacillum, quod ab eius litui, quo canitur, similitudine nomen invenit, cum situs esset in curia Saliorum, quae est in Palatio, eaque deflagravisset, inventus est integer. 1.31. Quid? multis annis post Romulum Prisco regte Tarquinio quis veterum scriptorum non loquitur, quae sit ab Atto Navio per lituum regionum facta discriptio? Qui cum propter paupertatem sues puer pasceret, una ex iis amissa vovisse dicitur, si recuperasset, uvam se deo daturum, quae maxima esset in vinea; itaque sue inventa ad meridiem spectans in vinea media dicitur constitisse, cumque in quattuor partis vineam divisisset trisque partis aves abdixissent, quarta parte, quae erat reliqua, in regiones distributa mirabili magnitudine uvam, ut scriptum videmus, invenit. Qua re celebrata cum vicini omnes ad eum de rebus suis referrent, erat in magno nomine et gloria. 1.101. Saepe etiam et in proeliis Fauni auditi et in rebus turbidis veridicae voces ex occulto missae esse dicuntur; cuius generis duo sint ex multis exempla, sed maxuma: Nam non multo ante urbem captam exaudita vox est a luco Vestae, qui a Palatii radice in novam viam devexus est, ut muri et portae reficerentur; futurum esse, nisi provisum esset, ut Roma caperetur. Quod neglectum tum, cum caveri poterat, post acceptam illam maximam cladem expiatum est; ara enim Aio Loquenti, quam saeptam videmus, exadversus eum locum consecrata est. Atque etiam scriptum a multis est, cum terrae motus factus esset, ut sue plena procuratio fieret, vocem ab aede Iunonis ex arce extitisse; quocirca Iunonem illam appellatam Monetam. Haec igitur et a dis significata et a nostris maioribus iudicata contemnimus? | 1.31. What ancient chronicler fails to mention the fact that in the reign of Tarquinius Priscus, long after the time of Romulus, a quartering of the heavens was made with this staff by Attus Navius? Because of poverty Attus was a swineherd in his youth. As the story goes, he, having lost one of his hogs, made a vow that if he recovered it he would make an offering to the god of the largest bunch of grapes in his vineyard. Accordingly, after he had found the hog, he took his stand, we are told, in the middle of the vineyard, with his face to the south and divided the vineyard into four parts. When the birds had shown three of these parts to be unfavourable, he subdivided the fourth and last part and then found, as we see it recorded, a bunch of grapes of marvellous size.This occurrence having been noised abroad, all his neighbours began to consult him about their own affairs and thus greatly enhanced his name and fame. 1.101. Again, we are told that fauns have often been heard in battle and that during turbulent times truly prophetic messages have been sent from mysterious places. Out of many instances of this class I shall give only two, but they are very striking. Not long before the capture of the city by the Gauls, a voice, issuing from Vestas sacred grove, which slopes from the foot of the Palatine Hill to New Road, was heard to say, the walls and gates must be repaired; unless this is done the city will be taken. Neglect of this warning, while it was possible to heed it, was atoned for after the supreme disaster had occurred; for, adjoining the grove, an altar, which is now to be seen enclosed with a hedge, was dedicated to Aius the Speaker. The other illustration has been reported by many writers. At the time of the earthquake a voice came from Junos temple on the citadel commanding that an expiatory sacrifice be made of a pregt sow. From this fact the goddess was called Juno the Adviser. Are we, then, lightly to regard these warnings which the gods have sent and our forefathers adjudged to be trustworthy? |
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2. Cicero, On Laws, 2.4 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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3. Cicero, On Duties, 2.76 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
| 2.76. Laudat Africanum Panaetius, quod fuerit abstinens. Quidni laudet? Sed in illo alia maiora; laus abstinentiae non hominis est solum, sed etiam temporum illorum. Omni Macedonum gaza, quae fuit maxima, potitus est Paulus tantum in aerarium pecuniae invexit, ut unius imperatoris praeda finem attulerit tributorum. At hic nihil domum suam intulit praeter memoriam nominis sempiternam. Imitatus patrem Africanus nihilo locupletior Carthagine eversa. Quid? qui eius collega fuit in censura. L. Mummius, numquid copiosior, cum copiosissimam urbem funditus sustulisset? Italiam ornare quam domum suam maluit; quamquam Italia ornata domus ipsa mihi videtur ornatior. | 2.76. Panaetius praises Africanus for his integrity in public life. Why should he not? But Africanus had other and greater virtues. The boast of official integrity belongs not to that man alone but also to his times. When Paulus got possession of all the wealth of Macedon â and it was enormous â he brought into our treasury so much money that the spoils of a single general did away with the need for a tax on property in Rome for all time to come. But to his own house he brought nothing save the glory of an immortal name. Africanus emulated his father's example and was none the richer for his overthrow of Carthage. And what shall we say of Lucius Mummius, his colleague in the censorship? Was he one penny the richer when he had destroyed to its foundations the richest of cities? He preferred to adorn Italy rather than his own house. And yet by the adornment of Italy his own house was, as it seems to me, still more splendidly adorned. |
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4. Horace, Letters, 2.1.192-2.1.193 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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5. Livy, History, 27.25.7, 40.29.2-40.29.14 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
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6. Livy, Per., 52 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE)
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7. Vitruvius Pollio, On Architecture, 8.2.6 (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE)
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8. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 50 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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9. Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon, 50 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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10. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 34.36, 35.6, 35.100, 35.131-35.132, 35.136 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE)
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11. Plutarch, Brutus, 1.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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12. Plutarch, Marcellus, 21.2-21.3, 21.5 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 21.2. but filled full of barbaric arms and bloody spoils, and crowned round about with memorials and trophies of triumphs, she was not a gladdening or a reassuring sight, nor one for unwarlike and luxurious spectators. Indeed, as Epaminondas called the Boeotian plain a dancing floor of Ares, and as Xenophon Hell. iii. 4,17. speaks of Ephesus as a work-shop of war, so, it seems to me, one might at that time have called Rome, in the language of Pindar, a precinct of much-warring Ares. Pyth. ii. 1 f. 21.3. Therefore with the common people Marcellus won more favour because he adorned the city with objects that had Hellenic grace and charm and fidelity; but with the elder citizens Fabius Maximus was more popular. For he neither disturbed nor brought away anything of this sort from Tarentum, when that city was taken, but while he carried off the money and the other valuables, he suffered the statues to remain in their places, adding the well-known saying: 21.5. and was inexperienced in luxury and ease, but, like the Heracles of Euripides, was Plain, unadorned, in a great crisis brave and true, A fragment of the lost Licymnius of Euripides (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. 2 p. 507). he made them idle and full of glib talk about arts and artists, so that they spent a great part of the day in such clever disputation. Notwithstanding such censure, Marcellus spoke of this with pride even to the Greeks, declaring that he had taught the ignorant Romans to admire and honour the wonderful and beautiful productions of Greece. |
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13. Plutarch, Numa Pompilius, 22.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 22.2. They did not burn his body, because, as it is said, he forbade it; but they made two stone coffins and buried them under the Janiculum. One of these held his body, and the other the sacred books which he had written out with his own hand, as the Greek lawgivers their tablets. But since, while he was still living, he had taught the priests the written contents of the books, and had inculcated in their hearts the scope and meaning of them all, he commanded that they should be buried with his body, convinced that such mysteries ought not to be entrusted to the care of lifeless documents. |
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14. Plutarch, Pompey, 2.2, 46.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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15. Plutarch, Romulus, 11.1, 16.8 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 11.1. Romulus buried Remus, together with his foster-fathers, in the Remonia, See chapter ix. 4. and then set himself to building his city, after summoning from Tuscany men who prescribed all the details in accordance with certain sacred ordices and writings, and taught them to him as in a religious rite. A circular trench was dug around what is now the Comitium, A space adjoining the forum where the people met in assembly. The mundus, or augural centre of the city, was really on thePalatine. and in this were deposited first-fruits of all things the use of which was sanctioned by custom as good and by nature as necessary; and finally, every man brought a small portion of the soil of his native land, and these were cast in among the first-fruits and mingled with them. 16.8. Cossus indeed, and Marcellus, already used a four-horse chariot for their entrance into the city, carrying the trophies themselves, but Dionysius Antiq. Rom. ii. 34. is incorrect in saying that Romulus used a chariot. For it is matter of history that Tarquin, the son of Demaratus, was first of the kings to lift triumphs up to such pomp and ceremony, although others say that Publicola was first to celebrate a triumph riding on a chariot. Cf. Publicola, ix. 5. And the statues of Romulus bearing the trophies are, as may be seen in Rome, all on foot. |
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16. Plutarch, Sulla, 38.4 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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17. Suetonius, Iulius, 7.1 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
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18. Tacitus, Annals, 2.73 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE)
| 2.73. His funeral, devoid of ancestral effigies or procession, was distinguished by eulogies and recollections of his virtues. There were those who, considering his personal appearance, his early age, and the circumstances of his death, â to which they added the proximity of the region where he perished, â compared his decease with that of Alexander the Great: â "Each eminently handsome, of famous lineage, and in years not much exceeding thirty, had fallen among alien races by the treason of their countrymen. But the Roman had borne himself as one gentle to his friends, moderate in his pleasures, content with a single wife and the children of lawful wedlock. Nor was he less a man of the sword; though he lacked the other's temerity, and, when his numerous victories had beaten down the Germanies, was prohibited from making fast their bondage. But had he been the sole arbiter of affairs, of kingly authority and title, he would have overtaken the Greek in military fame with an ease proportioned to his superiority in clemency, self-command, and all other good qualities." The body, before cremation, was exposed in the forum of Antioch, the place destined for the final rites. Whether it bore marks of poisoning was disputable: for the indications were variously read, as pity and preconceived suspicion swayed the spectator to the side of Germanicus, or his predilections to that of Piso. |
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19. Cassius Dio, Roman History, 51.17.6, 51.22.1-51.22.2, 68.29.1, 68.30.1 (2nd cent. CE - 3rd cent. CE)
| 51.17.6. So much for these events. In the palace quantities of treasure were found. For Cleopatra had taken practically all the offerings from even the holiest shrines and so helped the Romans swell their spoils without incurring any defilement on their own part. Large sums were also obtained from every man against whom any charge of misdemeanour were brought. 51.22.1. After finishing this celebration Caesar dedicated the temple of Minerva, called also the Chalcidicum, and the Curia Iulia, which had been built in honour of his father. In the latter he set up the statue of Victory which is still in existence, thus signifying that it was from her that he had received the empire. 51.22.2. It had belonged to the people of Tarentum, whence it was now brought to Rome, placed in the senate-chamber, and decked with the spoils of Egypt. The same course was followed in the case of the shrine of Julius which was consecrated at this time 68.29.1. Then he came to the ocean itself, and when he had learned its nature and had seen a ship sailing to India, he said: "I should certainly have crossed over to the Indi, too, if I were still young." For he began to think about the Indi and was curious about their affairs, and he counted Alexander a lucky man. Yet he would declare that he himself had advanced farther than Alexander, and would so write to the senate, although he was unable to preserve even the territory that he had subdued. 68.30.1. Trajan learned of this at Babylon; for he had gone there both because of its fame â though he saw nothing but mounds and stones and ruins to justify this â and because of Alexander, to whose spirit he offered sacrifice in the room where he had died. When he learned of the revolt, he sent Lusius and Maximus against the rebels. |
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20. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 1.1.8, 1.1.12
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21. Vergil, Aeneis, 6.836-6.837
| 6.836. Or smites with ivory point his golden lyre. 6.837. Here Trojans be of eldest, noblest race |
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