1. Polybius, Histories, 29.16.1-29.16.2 (2nd cent. BCE - 2nd cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98| 29.16.1. Πολύβιος· ὅτι τῆς σελήνης ἐκλειπούσης ἐπὶ Περσέως τοῦ Μακεδόνος ἐκράτησεν ἡ φήμη παρὰ τοῖς πολλοῖς ὅτι βασιλέως ἔκλειψιν σημαίνει. 29.16.2. καὶ τοῦτο τοὺς μὲν Ῥωμαίους εὐθαρσεστέρους ἐποίησε, τοὺς δὲ Μακεδόνας ἐταπείνωσε ταῖς ψυχαῖς. | 29.16.1. When there was an eclipse of the moon in the time of Perseus of Macedonia, the report gained popular credence that it portended the eclipse of a king. 29.16.2. This, while it lent fresh courage to the Romans, discouraged the Macedonians. |
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| 2. Cicero, On Old Age, 45 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 85 |
3. Cicero, On The Nature of The Gods, 1.117, 2.28, 2.72 (2nd cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 82, 83 | 1.117. On the other hand what reason is there for adoring the gods on the ground of our admiration for the divine nature, if we cannot see that that nature possesses any special excellence? "As for freedom from superstition, which is the favourite boast of your school, that is easy to attain when you have deprived the gods of all power; unless perchance you think that it was possible for Diagoras or Theodorus to be superstitious, who denied the existence of the gods altogether. For my part, I don't see how it was possible even for Protagoras, who was not certain either that the gods exist or that they do not. For the doctrines of all these thinkers abolish not only superstition, which implies a groundless fear of the gods, but also religion, which consists in piously worshipping them. 2.28. Hence from the fact that all the parts of the world are sustained by heat the inference follows that the world itself also owes its continued preservation for so long a time to the same or a similar substance, and all the more so because it must be understood that this hot and fiery principle is interfused with the whole of nature in such a way as to constitute the male and female generative principles, and so to be the necessary cause of both the birth and the growth of all living creatures, whether animals or those whose roots are planted in the earth. 2.72. Persons who spent whole days in prayer and sacrifice to ensure that their children should outlive them were termed 'superstitious' (from superstes, a survivor), and the word later acquired a wider application. Those on the other hand who carefully reviewed and so to speak retraced all the lore of ritual were called 'religious' from relegere (to retrace or re‑read), like 'elegant' from eligere (to select), 'diligent' from diligere (to care for), 'intelligent' fromintellegere (to understand); for all these words contain the same sense of 'picking out' (legere) that is present in 'religious.' Hence 'superstitious' and 'religious' came to be terms of censure and approval respectively. I think that I have said enough to prove the existence of the gods and their nature. |
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4. Lucretius Carus, On The Nature of Things, 5.76, 5.77, 5.78, 5.79, 5.80, 5.81, 5.751-70. (1st cent. BCE - 1st cent. BCE) Tagged with subjects: •nan Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 99| 5.80. morigera ad fruges augendas atque animantis, | |
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5. Livy, History, 1.9.3-1.9.4, 1.23.10, 1.28.4, 1.31.1, 1.31.3-1.31.4, 1.31.6, 1.31.8, 1.39.4, 2.44.12, 2.46.6-2.46.7, 2.62.1-2.62.2, 3.11.6, 4.30.9-4.30.11, 5.11.16, 5.15.1, 5.16.10, 5.19.2, 5.20.3, 5.36.6, 5.46.3, 5.49.1, 6.5.6, 6.18.9, 7.2.3, 7.3.2, 7.6.9, 7.8.4, 7.13.5, 7.23.2, 7.26.2, 7.28.7, 8.4.6, 8.5.3, 8.10.8, 8.10.11, 8.13.11, 8.15.6, 8.18.11, 8.23.14, 9.1, 9.2.1, 9.2.10-9.2.15, 9.9.1-9.9.10, 9.33.3, 10.3, 10.11.2, 10.19.17-10.19.18, 10.24.16, 10.28.12-10.28.13, 10.36.11-10.36.12, 10.39.14-10.39.17, 10.40.4-10.40.5, 10.40.11-10.40.13, 10.42.7, 21.22.8-21.22.9, 21.46.2, 21.62.1, 22.9.8-22.9.9, 22.25.14, 22.43.9, 22.51.4, 22.53.6, 22.57.2-22.57.7, 22.58.8, 23.31.13, 23.43.7, 24.10.6, 24.10.11, 24.38.2, 25.1.6, 25.16.4, 26.8.5, 26.11.4, 26.19.9, 26.41.6, 26.41.9, 26.41.14, 26.41.18-26.41.20, 26.45.8-26.45.9, 27.8.4, 27.23.1-27.23.4, 27.25.8-27.25.9, 27.26.13-27.26.14, 27.33.6, 27.33.11, 27.37, 28.11.6-28.11.8, 28.25.7, 29.14.2, 29.14.5-29.14.14, 29.15.1, 30.2.10, 30.30.4, 30.30.6, 30.30.18-30.30.23, 30.30.30, 30.31.10, 31.31.20, 31.48.12, 32.29.2, 37.45.9, 37.45.11-37.45.13, 37.54.10, 38.18.9, 38.48.7, 38.48.14-38.48.15, 39.5.9, 39.8.3, 39.9.4, 39.15.2, 39.16.6, 39.16.10-39.16.11, 40.2.1-40.2.3, 40.5.1, 40.6.1-40.6.2, 40.24, 40.37.1, 40.40.10, 40.52.2-40.52.6, 40.56, 40.58.3-40.58.7, 40.59.6, 40.59.8, 41.13.2, 41.13.6-41.13.14, 41.24.8, 42.2.5, 42.3.1, 42.10.7-42.10.8, 42.52.13, 43.13.1-43.13.2, 44.1.10-44.1.12, 44.6.14, 44.22.3, 44.34.3-44.34.5, 44.34.7, 44.37.6-44.37.8, 45.23.1, 45.39.12-45.39.13 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 22, 44, 45, 46, 59, 60, 61, 64, 65, 76, 78, 79, 82, 83, 84, 85, 87, 91, 92, 94, 96, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 109, 110, 112, 121, 122, 123, 125, 130, 136, 162, 164, 205| 42.52.13. omnia, quae deorum indulgentia, quae regia cura praeparanda fuerint, plena cumulataque habere Macedonas; 43.13.1. non sum nescius ab eadem neclegentia, quia nihil deos portendere vulgo nunc credant, neque nuntiari admodum ulla prodigia in publicum neque in annales referri. 43.13.2. ceterum et mihi vetustas res scribenti nescio quo pacto anticus fit animus, et quaedam religio tenet, quae illi prudentissimi viri publice suscipienda censuerint, ea pro indignis habere, quae in meos annales referam. 44.1.10. orsus a parricidio Persei perpetrato in fratrem, cogitato in parentem, adiecit post scelere partum regnum veneficia, caedes, latrocinio nefando petitum Eumenen, iniurias in populum Romanum, direptiones sociarum urbium contra foedus; ea omnia quam diis quoque invisa essent, sensurum in exitu rerum suarum: 44.1.11. favere enim pietati fideique deos, per quae populus Romanus ad tantum fastigii venerit. 44.1.12. vires deinde populi Romani, iam terrarum orbem conplectentis, cum viribus Macedoniae, exercitus cum exercitibus conparavit: quanto maiores Philippi Antiochique opes non maioribus copiis fractas esse? 44.6.14. supererat nihil aliud in temere commisso quam in Macedoniam ad Dium per medios evadere hostis; quod, nisi di mentem regi et ipsum ingentis difficultatis erat. 44.22.3. deos quoque huic favisse sorti spero eosdemque in rebus gerendis adfuturos esse. 44.34.3. militem haec tria curare debere, corpus ut quam validissimum et pernicissimum habeat, arma apta, cibum paratum ad subita imperia; 44.34.4. cetera scire de se dis immortalibus et imperatori suo curae esse. in quo exercitu milites consultent, imperator rumoribus vulgi circumagatur, ibi nihil salutare esse. 44.34.5. se, quod sit officium imperatoris, provisurum, ut bene gerendae rei occasionem iis praebeat: illos nihil, quid futurum sit, quaerere, ubi datum signum sit, tum militarem navare operam debere. ab his praeceptis contionem dimisit, 44.34.7. non sermonibus tantum his, cum quanto adsensu audissent verba consulis, ostenderunt, sed rerum praesens effectus erat. 44.37.6. id quia naturali ordine statis temporibus fiat, et sciri ante et praedici posse. 44.37.7. itaque quem ad modum, quia certi solis lunaeque et ortus et occasus sint, nunc pleno orbe, nunc senescentem exiguo cornu fulgere lunam non mirarentur, ita ne obscurari quidem, cum condatur umbra terrae, trahere in prodigium debere. 44.37.8. nocte, quam pridie nonas Septembres insecuta est dies, edita hora luna cum defecisset, Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope divina videri; 45.23.1. “praemia et Philippo et Antiocho devictis amplissima accepimus a vobis. si, quae vestra nunc est fortuna deum benignitate et virtute vestra, ea Persei fuisset, et praemia petitum ad victorem regem venissemus in Macedoniam, quid tandem diceremus? 45.39.12. pars non minima triumphi est victimae praecedentes, ut appareat dis grates agentem imperatorem ob rem publicam bene gestam redire. 45.39.13. omnis illas victimas, quas † traducendo in triumpho vindicavit, † alias alios dente mactati. quid? illae epulae senatus, quae nec privato loco nec publico profano, sed in Capitolio eduntur, utrum hominum voluptatis causa an deorum hominumque auctore Servio Galba turbaturi estis? L. Pauli triumpho portae claudentur? | |
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6. Dionysius of Halycarnassus, Roman Antiquities, 2.19, 4.62.5 (1st cent. BCE - missingth cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 65, 85 | 2.19. 1. Indeed, there is no tradition among the Romans either of Caelus being castrated by his own sons or of Saturn destroying his own offspring to secure himself from their attempts or of Jupiter dethroning Saturn and confining his own father in the dungeon of Tartarus, or, indeed, of wars, wounds, or bonds of the gods, or of their servitude among men.,2. And no festival is observed among them as a day of mourning or by the wearing of black garments and the beating of breasts and the lamentations of women because of the disappearance of deities, such as the Greeks perform in commemorating the rape of Persephonê and the adventures of Dionysus and all the other things of like nature. And one will see among them, even though their manners are now corrupted, no ecstatic transports, no Corybantic frenzies, no begging under the colour of religion, no bacchanals or secret mysteries, no all-night vigils of men and women together in the temples, nor any other mummery of this kind; but alike in all their words and actions with respect to the gods a reverence is shown such as is seen among neither Greeks nor barbarians.,3. And, â the thing which I myself have marvelled at most, â notwithstanding the influx into Rome of innumerable nations which are under every necessity of worshipping their ancestral gods according to the customs of their respective countries, yet the city has never officially adopted any of those foreign practices, as has been the experience of many cities in the past; but, even though she has, in pursuance of oracles, introduced certain rites from abroad, she celebrates them in accordance with her own traditions, after banishing all fabulous clap-trap. The rites of the Idaean goddess are a case in point;,4. for the praetors perform sacrifices and celebrated games in her honour every year according to the Roman customs, but the priest and priestess of the goddess are Phrygians, and it is they who carry her image in procession through the city, begging alms in her name according to their custom, and wearing figures upon their breasts and striking their timbrels while their followers play tunes upon their flutes in honour of the Mother of the Gods.,5. But by a law and decree of the senate no native Roman walks in procession through the city arrayed in a parti-coloured robe, begging alms or escorted by flute-players, or worships the god with the Phrygian ceremonies. So cautious are they about admitting any foreign religious customs and so great is their aversion to all pompous display that is wanting in decorum. 4.62.5. Since the expulsion of the kings, the commonwealth, taking upon itself the guarding of these oracles, entrusts the care of them to persons of the greatest distinction, who hold this office for life, being exempt from military service and from all civil employments, and it assigns public slaves to assist them, in whose absence the others are not permitted to inspect the oracles. In short, there is no possession of the Romans, sacred or profane, which they guard so carefully as they do the Sibylline oracles. They consult them, by order of the senate, when the state is in the grip of party strife or some great misfortune has happened to them in war, or some important prodigies and apparitions have been seen which are difficult of interpretation, as has often happened. These oracles till the time of the Marsian War, as it was called, were kept underground in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus in a stone chest under the guard of ten men. |
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| 7. Plutarch, Aemilius Paulus, 17.7.10 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
| 8. Pliny The Elder, Natural History, 2.53, 2.86, 7.34 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 76, 98, 164 |
| 9. Frontinus, Strategemata, 1.12.8 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
10. Plutarch, Marcellus, 28.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 44| 28.3. τοῦτο καὶ νύκτωρ ὄνειρον ἦν αὐτῷ καὶ μετὰ φίλων καὶ συναρχόντων ἓν βούλευμα καὶ μία πρὸς θεοὺς φωνή, παραταττόμενον Ἀννίβαν λαβεῖν, ἥδιστα δʼ ἄν μοι δοκεῖ τείχους ἑνὸς ἤ τινος χάρακος ἀμφοτέροις τοῖς στρατεύμασι περιτεθέντος διαγωνίσασθαι, καὶ εἰ μὴ πολλῆς μὲν ἤδη μεστὸς ὑπῆρχε δόξης, πολλὴν δὲ πεῖραν παρεσχήκει τοῦ παρʼ ὁντινοῦν τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐμβριθὴς γεγονέναι καὶ φρόνιμος, εἶπον ἂν ὅτι μειρακιῶδες αὐτῷ προσπεπτώκει καὶ φιλοτιμότερον πάθος ἢ κατὰ πρεσβύτην τοσοῦτον· ὑπὲρ γὰρ ἑξήκοντα γεγονὼς ἔτη τὸ πέμπτον ὑπάτευεν. | 28.3. This was his dream at night, his one subject for deliberation with friends and colleagues, his one appeal to the gods, namely, that he might find Hannibal drawn up to meet him. And I think he would have been most pleased to have the struggle decided with both armies enclosed by a single wall or rampart; and if he had not been full already of abundant honour, and if he had not given abundant proof that he could be compared with any general whomsoever in solidity of judgement, I should have said that he had fallen a victim to a youthful ambition that ill became such a great age as his. For he had passed his sixtieth year when he entered upon his fifth consulship. In 208 B.C. |
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11. Quintilian, Institutes of Oratory, 1.10.47 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 | 1.10.47. When Pericles dispelled the panic caused at Athens by the eclipse of the sun by explaining the causes of the phenomenon, or Sulpicius Gallus discoursed on the eclipse of the moon to the army of Lucius Paulus to prevent the soldiers being seized with terror at what they regarded as a portent sent by heaven, did not they discharge the function of an orator? |
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12. Tacitus, Histories, 1.1.1, 1.1.4, 1.18.1, 1.86, 1.86.1, 2.38.5, 3.56.1, 5.13.1-5.13.3 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 155, 162, 164, 171, 205, 221 | 1.86. Prodigies which were reported on various authorities also contributed to the general terror. It was said that in the vestibule of the Capitol the reins of the chariot in which Victory stood had fallen from the goddess's hands, that a superhuman form had rushed out of Juno's chapel, that a statue of the deified Julius on the island of the Tiber had turned from west to east on a bright calm day, that an ox had spoken in Etruria, that animals had given birth to strange young, and that many other things had happened which in barbarous ages used to be noticed even during peace, but which now are only heard of in seasons of terror. Yet the chief anxiety which was connected with both present disaster and future danger was caused by a sudden overflow of the Tiber which, swollen to a great height, broke down the wooden bridge and then was thrown back by the ruins of the bridge which dammed the stream, and overflowed not only the low-lying level parts of the city, but also parts which are normally free from such disasters. Many were swept away in the public streets, a larger number cut off in shops and in their beds. The common people were reduced to famine by lack of employment and failure of supplies. Apartment houses had their foundations undermined by the standing water and then collapsed when the flood withdrew. The moment people's minds were relieved of this danger, the very fact that when Otho was planning a military expedition, the Campus Martius and the Flaminian Way, over which he was to advance, were blocked against him was interpreted as a prodigy and an omen of impending disaster rather than as the result of chance or natural causes. |
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| 13. Tacitus, Germania (De Origine Et Situ Germanorum), 12 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 155 |
14. Tacitus, Annals, 1.3.3-1.3.4, 1.29.1, 1.31.4, 1.55.3, 2.42.3, 3.26.3, 4.1.1, 4.13.1, 4.15.1, 4.27.1, 4.64.1, 6.3.2, 6.10.3, 6.28, 6.45, 6.46.4, 11.2.5, 11.31.6, 12.43.1, 12.58.2, 12.64.1, 13.24.1-13.24.2, 13.58, 13.58.1, 14.12.2-14.12.4, 14.14.4, 14.22.1, 15.7.2, 15.22.2-15.22.4, 15.44.1-15.44.2, 15.47.1-15.47.3, 16.13, 16.13.1-16.13.2 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 97, 155, 162, 164, 171, 205| 6.28. Paulo Fabio L. Vitellio consulibus post longum saeculorum ambitum avis phoenix in Aegyptum venit praebuitque materiem doctissimis indigenarum et Graecorum multa super eo miraculo disserendi. de quibus congruunt et plura ambigua, sed cognitu non absurda promere libet. sacrum Soli id animal et ore ac distinctu pinnarum a ceteris avibus diversum consentiunt qui formam eius effinxere: de numero annorum varia traduntur. maxime vulgatum quingentorum spatium: sunt qui adseverent mille quadringentos sexaginta unum interici, prioresque alites Sesoside primum, post Amaside domitibus, dein Ptolemaeo, qui ex Macedonibus tertius regnavit, in civitatem cui Heliopolis nomen advolavisse, multo ceterarum volucrum comitatu novam faciem mirantium. sed antiquitas quidem obscura: inter Ptolemaeum ac Tiberium minus ducenti quinquaginta anni fuerunt. unde non nulli falsum hunc phoenicem neque Arabum e terris credidere, nihilque usurpavisse ex his quae vetus memoria firmavit. confecto quippe annorum numero, ubi mors propinquet, suis in terris struere nidum eique vim genitalem adfundere ex qua fetum oriri; et primam adulto curam sepeliendi patris, neque id temere sed sublato murrae pondere temptatoque per longum iter, ubi par oneri, par meatui sit, subire patrium corpus inque Solis aram perferre atque adolere. haec incerta et fabulosis aucta: ceterum aspici aliquando in Aegypto eam volucrem non ambigitur. 6.45. Idem annus gravi igne urbem adficit, deusta parte circi quae Aventino contigua, ipsoque Aventino; quod damnum Caesar ad gloriam vertit exolutis domuum et insularum pretiis. milies sestertium in munificentia ea conlocatum, tanto acceptius in vulgum, quanto modicus privatis aedificationibus ne publice quidem nisi duo opera struxit, templum Augusto et scaenam Pompeiani theatri; eaque perfecta, contemptu ambitionis an per senectutem, haud dedicavit. sed aestimando cuiusque detrimento quattuor progeneri Caesaris, Cn. Domitius, Cassius Longinus, M. Vinicius, Rubellius Blandus delecti additusque nominatione consulum P. Petronius. et pro ingenio cuiusque quaesiti decretique in principem honores; quos omiserit receperitve in incerto fuit ob propinquum vitae finem. neque enim multo post supremi Tiberio consules, Cn. Acerronius C. Pontius, magistratum occepere, nimia iam potentia Macronis, qui gratiam G. Caesaris numquam sibi neglectam acrius in dies fovebat impuleratque post mortem Claudiae, quam nuptam ei rettuli, uxorem suam Enniam imitando amorem iuvenem inlicere pactoque matrimonii vincire, nihil abnuentem, dum dominationis apisceretur; nam etsi commotus ingenio simulationum tamen falsa in sinu avi perdidicerat. 13.58. Eodem anno Ruminalem arborem in comitio, quae octingentos et triginta ante annos Remi Romulique infantiam texerat, mortuis ramalibus et arescente trunco deminutam prodigii loco habitum est, donec in novos fetus revivesceret. 16.13. Tot facinoribus foedum annum etiam dii tempestatibus et morbis insignivere. vastata Campania turbine ventorum, qui villas arbusta fruges passim disiecit pertulitque violentiam ad vicina urbi; in qua omne mortalium genus vis pestilentiae depopulabatur, nulla caeli intemperie quae occurreret oculis. sed domus corporibus exanimis, itinera funeribus complebantur; non sexus, non aetas periculo vacua; servitia perinde et ingenua plebes raptim extingui, inter coniugum et liberorum lamenta, qui dum adsident, dum deflent, saepe eodem rogo cremabantur. equitum senatorumque interitus quamvis promisci minus flebiles erant, tamquam communi mortalitate saevitiam principis praevenirent. Eodem anno dilectus per Galliam Narbonensem Africamque et Asiam habiti sunt supplendis Illyrici legionibus, ex quibus aetate aut valetudine fessi sacramento solvebantur. cladem Lugdunensem quadragies sestertio solatus est princeps, ut amissa urbi reponerent; quam pecuniam Lugdunenses ante obtulerant urbis casibus. | 6.28. In the consulate of Paulus Fabius and Lucius Vitellius, after a long period of ages, the bird known as the phoenix visited Egypt, and supplied the learned of that country and of Greece with the material for long disquisitions on the miracle. I propose to state the points on which they coincide, together with the larger number that are dubious, yet not too absurd for notice. That the creature is sacred to the sun and distinguished from other birds by its head and the variegation of its plumage, is agreed by those who have depicted its form: as to its term of years, the tradition varies. The generally received number is five hundred; but there are some who assert that its visits fall at intervals of 1461 years, and that it was in the reigns, first of Sesosis, then of Amasis, and finally of Ptolemy (third of the Macedonian dynasty), that the three earlier phoenixes flew to the city called Heliopolis with a great escort of common birds amazed at the novelty of their appearance. But while antiquity is obscure, between Ptolemy and Tiberius there were less than two hundred and fifty years: whence the belief has been held that this was a spurious phoenix, not originating on the soil of Arabia, and following none of the practices affirmed by ancient tradition. For â so the tale is told â when its sum of years is complete and death is drawing on, it builds a nest in its own country and sheds on it a procreative influence, from which springs a young one, whose first care on reaching maturity is to bury his sire. Nor is that task performed at random, but, after raising a weight of myrrh and proving it by a far flight, so soon as he is a match for his burden and the course before him, he lifts up his father's corpse, conveys him to the Altar of the Sun, and consigns him to the flames. â The details are uncertain and heightened by fable; but that the bird occasionally appears in Egypt is unquestioned. 6.45. The same year saw the capital visited by a serious fire, the part of the Circus adjoining the Aventine being burnt down along with the Aventine itself: a disaster which the Caesar converted to his own glory by paying the full value of the mansions and tenement-blocks destroyed. One hundred million sesterces were invested in this act of munificence, which came the more acceptably to the multitude that he was far from extravagant in building on his own behalf; whilst, even on the public account, the only two works he erected were the temple of Augustus and the stage of Pompey's theatre, and in each case he was either too scornful of popularity or too old to dedicate them after completion. To estimate the losses of the various claimants, four husbands of the Caesar's grand-daughters were appointed: Gnaeus Domitius, Cassius Longinus, Marcus Vinicius, and Rubellius Blandus. Publius Petronius was added by nomination of the consuls. Honours varying with the ingenuity of their authors were invented and voted to the sovereign. Which of these he rejected or accepted remained unknown, since the end of his days was at hand. For shortly afterwards the last consuls of Tiberius, Gnaeus Acerronius and Gaius Petronius, inaugurated their term of office. By this time the influence of Macro exceeded all bounds. Never careless of the good graces of Gaius Caesar, he was now courting them with daily increasing energy; and after the death of Claudia, whose espousal to the prince has been mentioned earlier, he had induced his wife Ennia to captivate the youth by a mockery of love and to bind him by a promise of marriage. Caligula objected to no conditions, provided that he could reach the throne: for, wild though his temper was, he had none the less, at his grandfather's knee, mastered in full the arts of hypocrisy. 13.58. In the same year, the tree in the Comitium, known as the Ruminalis, which eight hundred and thirty years earlier had sheltered the infancy of Remus and Romulus, through the death of its boughs and the withering of its stem, reached a stage of decrepitude which was regarded as a portent, until it renewed its verdure in fresh shoots. 16.13. Upon this year, disgraced by so many deeds of shame, Heaven also set its mark by tempest and disease. Campania was wasted by a whirlwind, which far and wide wrecked the farms, the fruit trees, and the crops, and carried its fury to the neighbourhood of the capital, where all classes of men were being decimated by a deadly epidemic. No outward sign of a distempered air was visible. Yet the houses were filled with lifeless bodies, the streets with funerals. Neither sex nor age gave immunity from danger; slaves and the free-born populace alike were summarily cut down, amid the laments of their wives and children, who, themselves infected while tending or mourning the victims, were often burnt upon the same pyre. Knights and senators, though they perished on all hands, were less deplored â as if, by undergoing the common lot, they were cheating the ferocity of the emperor. In the same year, levies were held in Narbonese Gaul, Africa, and Asia, to recruit the legions of Illyricum, in which all men incapacitated by age or sickness were being discharged from the service. The emperor alleviated the disaster at Lugdunum by a grant of four million sesterces to repair the town's losses: the same amount which Lugdunum had previously offered in aid of the misfortunes of the capital. |
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| 15. Suetonius, Vitellius, 9 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 97 |
| 16. Suetonius, Otho, 8 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 162 |
| 17. Suetonius, Nero, 46 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 162 |
| 18. Suetonius, Domitianus, 15 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 162 |
| 19. Suetonius, Caligula, 23 (1st cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 171 |
| 20. Gellius, Attic Nights, 2.24.2, 4.9 (2nd cent. CE - 2nd cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 82, 85 |
21. Ammianus Marcellinus, History, 28.1.42, 29.1.15-29.1.16, 29.2.20, 31.1.1 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 97, 281 | 28.1.42. At that time, or not much earlier, the brooms with which the assembly-hall of the nobles was swept were seen to bloom, and this was an omen that some men of the most despised station would be raised to high rank in the offices of state. 29.1.15. And because that man does not seem less deceitful who knowingly passes over what has been done, than one who invents things that never happened, I do not deny—and in fact there is no doubt about it—that Valens’ life, not only often before through secret conspiracies, but also on this occasion, was plunged into extreme danger, and that a sword was almost driven into his throat by the soldiers; it was thrust away and turned aside by the hand of Fate only because she had destined him to suffer lamentable disasters in Thrace. Cf. xxxi. 13. 29.1.16. For when he was quietly sleeping after midday in a wooded spot between Antioch and Seleucia, he was attacked by Sallustius, then one of the targeteers; but although at other times many men often eagerly made plots against his life, he escaped them all, since the limits of life assigned him at his very birth curbed these monstrous attempts. 29.2.20. After these various deeds of injustice which have already been mentioned, and the marks of torture shamefully branded upon the bodies of such free men as bad survived, the never-closing eye of Justice, the eternal witness and avenger of all things, was watchfully attentive. For the last curses of the murdered, moving the eternal godhead through the just ground of their complaints, had kindled the firebrands of Bellona; so that the truth of the oracle was confirmed, which had predicted that no crimes would go unpunished. 31.1.1. Meanwhile Fortune’s rapid wheel, which is always interchanging adversity and prosperity, armed Bellona in the company of her attendant Furies, and transferred to the Orient melancholy events, the coming of which was foreshadowed by the clear testimony of omens and portents. |
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| 22. Basil of Caesarea, Homilia Exhortatoria Ad Sanctum Baptisma, 1.24 (4th cent. CE - 4th cent. CE) Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
| 23. Zonaras, Epitome, 9.23 Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
| 24. Suetonius Paulinus, Commentarii, 5 Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 162 |
| 25. John Chrysostom, Hom. 21 In 1Cor., 33.1.7 Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
| 26. Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds And Sayings, 8.11.1 Tagged with subjects: •gods, agency deduced Found in books: Davies (2004), Rome's Religious History: Livy, Tacitus and Ammianus on their Gods, 98 |
