tribune of the soldiers Two dozen young men aged between twenty-five and twenty-nine years of age were elected each year by the Assembly of the People to serve as the tribuni militum, or tribunes of the soldiers. They were true magistrates, the only ones too young to belong to the Senate, and were the governmental representatives of the consuls’ legions (the four legions which belonged to the consuls in office). Six tribunes of the soldiers were allocated to each of the four legions, and normally commanded them. The command was shared in such a way that there was always a tribune of the soldiers on duty as commander, but apparently one of the six (probably by lot or by his number of votes) was senior to the others.
tribuni aerarii These were men of knight’s status whose census at 300,000 sesterces made them junior to the knights of a 400,000 sesterces census. See the entry on knights for further information.
triclinium The dining room of a Roman house or apartment. By preference it was square in shape, and possessed three couches arranged to form a U. Standing in the doorway one looked into the hollow of the U; the couch on the left was called the lectus summus, the couch forming the middle or bottom of the U was the lectus medius, and the couch on the right was the lectus imus. Each couch was very broad, perhaps 4 or 5 feet, and at least twice that long. One end of the couch had a raised arm forming a head, the other end did not. In front of the couches (that is, inside the hollow of the U) was a narrow table also forming a U. The male diners reclined on their left elbows, supported by bolsters; they were not shod, and could call for their feet to be washed. The host of the dinner reclined at the left end of the lectus medius, which was the end having no arm; the guest of honor reclined at the other end of the same couch, in the spot called the locus consularis. At the time of these books it was rare for women to recline alongside the men unless the dinner party was a men’s affair and the female guests were of low virtue. Respectable women sat on upright chairs inside the double U of couches and tables; they entered the room with the first course and left as soon as the last course was cleared away. Normally they drank only water, as women drinking wine were thought of low moral virtue. See the illustration.
trireme With the bireme, the commonest and most favored of all the ancient war galleys. By definition a trireme had three banks of oars, and with the advent of the trireme about 600 B.C came the invention of the projecting box above the gunwale called an outrigger (later galleys, even biremes, often were fitted with outriggers). In a trireme every oar was much the same length at about 15 feet (5m), this being relatively short; only one rower manned an oar. The average trireme was about 130 feet long, and the beam was no wider than 13 feet (excluding the outrigger): the ratio was therefore about 10:1. The rower in the lowest bank the Greeks called a thalamite; he worked his oar through a port in the hull so close to the water line that it was fitted with a leather cuff to keep the sea out. There were about 27 thalamites per side, giving a total of 54 thalamite oars. The rower in the middle bank was called a zygite; he worked his oar through a port just below the gunwale. Zygites equaled thalamites in number. The outrigger rower was a thranite; he sat above and outboard of the zygite on a special bench within the outrigger housing. His oar projected from a gap in the bottom of the outrigger perhaps two feet beyond the ship’s side. Because trh outrigger could maintain its projection width when the hull narrowed aft, there were 31 thranite rowers to 27 thalamites and 27 zygites per side. A trireme was therefore powered by about 170 oars; the thranites in the outriggers had to work the hardest due to the fact that their oars hit the water at a sharper angle. With the invention of the trireme there had arrived a vessel absolutely suited for ramming, and rams now became two—pronged, bigger, heavier, and better armored. By 100 B.C. the genuine ship of the line in a war—going fleet was the trireme, as it combined speed, power, and maneuverability. Most triremes were decked, and could carry a complement of up to perhaps 50 marines. The trireme, mainly built from some kind of pine, was still light enough to be dragged out of the water at night; it could also be portaged quite long distances on rollers by its crew. In order to prevent waterlogging adding to its weight, the trireme was routinely beached overnight. If a ship of the line was well looked after, its warfaring life was a minimum of twenty years in length; a city or community (Rhodes, for example) maintaining a standing navy always provided shipsheds for out—of—the—water storage of the fleet. It is the dimensions of these shipsheds as investigated by archaeologists which has confirmed that, no matter how many the oars, the average war galley never grew to be much larger than 180 feet in length and 20 feet in the beam.
troglodytes In ancient times, people who lived not so much in caves as in dwellings they carved out of soft rocks. The Egyptian side of the Sinus Arabicus (now the Red Sea) was reputed to have troglodytes, and the soft tufa stone of the Cappadocian gorges provided homes for the local peoples from times before recorded history.
trophy Captured enemy gear of sufficiently imposing appearance or repute. It was the custom of the Roman general to set up trophies (usually suits of armor, standards) if he won a significant victory. He might choose to do so on the actual field of battle as a memorial, or as Pompey did on the crest of a mountain pass, or else inside a temple he vowed and built in Rome.
tunic The ubiquitous article of clothing for all the ancient Mediterranean peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans. A Roman tunic tended to be rather loose and shapeless, made without darts to give it a waisted look; it covered the body from the shoulders and upper arms to the knees. Sleeves were probably set in (the ancients knew how to sew, cut cloth, and make clothing comfortable), and sometimes long. The tunic was usually belted with a cord or with buckled leather, and the Romans wore theirs longer at the front than at the back by about three inches. Upper—class Roman men were probably togate if outside the doors of their own homes, but there is little doubt that men of lower classes only wore their togas on special occasions, such as the games or elections. If the weather was wet, a cloak of some kind was preferred to a toga. The knight wore a narrow purple stripe down the right (bared to show the tunic) shoulder called the angustus clavus; the senator’s purple stripe, the latus clavus, was wider. Anyone on a census lower than 300,000 sesterces could not wear a stripe at all. The customary material for a tunic was wool.
Twelve Tables A bit like the Ten Commandments. These twelve tablets (the originals were perhaps made of wood, but the later version was certainly of bronze) were a codified system of laws drawn up about 450 B.C. during the early Republic by a committee called the decemviri legibus scribundis; from them all Roman law descended. They covered most aspects of law, civil as well as criminal, but in a rather small—town way, and must often have amused the schoolboys of the last century B.C. as they learned their XII Tables off by heart. Law by then had become far more sophisticated.
Venus Erucina That aspect of Venus which ruled the act of love, particularly in its freest and least moral sense. On the feast of Venus Erucina prostitutes offered to her, and the temple of Venus Erucina outside the Colline Gate of Rome was accustomed to receive gifts of money from successful prostitutes.
Venus Libitina That aspect of Venus (the goddess of the life—force) which ruled the extinction of the life—force. An underworld deity of great importance in Rome. Her temple was sited beyond the Servian Walls more or less at the central point of Rome’s vast necropolis (cemetery) on the Campus Esquilinus. Its exact location is not known. The temple precinct was large and had a grove of trees, presumably cypresses, as they are associated with death. In this precinct Rome’s undertakers and funeral directors had their headquarters, operating, it would seem likely, from stalls or booths. The temple itself contained a register of Roman citizen deaths and was rich thanks to the accumulation of the coins which had to be paid to register a death. Should Rome for whatever reason cease to have consuls,—the fasces of the consuls were deposited on a special couch inside the temple; the axes which were only inserted into the consuls’ fasces outside Rome were also kep
t in the temple. I imagine that Rome’s burial clubs, of which there were many, were in some way connected with Venus Libitina.
vermeil Silver plated with gold.
verpa A Latin obscenity used more in verbal abuse than as a sign of contempt. It referred to the penis—apparently in the erect state only, when the foreskin is drawn back—and had a homosexual connotation. Note Servilia’s choice of this epithet to hurl at another woman—the bossy, overpowering Portia Liciniana.
Vesta, Vestal Virgins Vesta was a very old and numinous Roman goddess having no mythology and no image. She was the hearth, the center of family life, and Roman society was cemented in the family. Her official public cult was personally supervised by the Pontifex Maximus, but she was so important that she had her own pontifical college, the six Vestal Virgins. The Vestal Virgin was inducted at about seven or eight years of age, took vows of complete chastity, and served for thirty years, after which she was released from her vows and sent back into the general community still of an age to bear children. Few retired Vestals ever did marry; it was thought unlucky to do so. The chastity of the Vestal Virgins was Rome’s public luck: a chaste college was favored by Fortune. When a Vestal was accused of unchastity she was formally brought to trial in a specially convened court; her alleged lover or lovers were tried in a separate court. If convicted, she was cast into an underground chamber dug for the purpose; it was sealed over, and she was left there to die. In Republican times the Vestal Virgins shared the same residence as the Pontifex Maximus, though sequestered from him and his family. The temple of Vesta was near this house, and was small, round, and very old. It was adjacent to the Regia of the Pontifex Maximus and to the well of Juturna, which in early days had supplied the Vestals with water they had to draw from the well each day in person; by the late Republic this ritual was a ritual only. A fire burned permanently inside Vesta’s temple to symbolize the hearth; it was tended by the Vestals, and could not be allowed to go out for any reason.
vexillum A flag or banner. The study of flags nowadays is called vexillology.
via A main thoroughfare or highway. vicus A good—sized street.
Villa Publica A parklike piece of land on the Campus Martius; it fronted onto the Vicus Pallacinae, and was the place where the various components and members of the triumphal parade forgathered before the parade commenced. viri capitales The three young men of presenatorial age who were deputed to look after Rome’s prisons and asylums. As Rome was a society which did not imprison save on a purely temporary basis, this was not a very onerous task. The viri capitales, however, seem to have lingered in the lower Forum Romanum on days when there were no public or Senate meetings and the praetors’ tribunals were not open, apparently so some sort of public figure of authority was available for citizens in need of protection or help. This Cicero reveals in his pro Cluentio.
vir militaris See the entry under Military Man.
voting Roman voting was timocratic, in that the power of the vote was powerfully influenced by economic status, and in that voting was not “one man, one vote” style. Whether an individual was voting in the Centuries or in the Tribes, his own personal vote could only influence the verdict of the Century or Tribe in which he polled. Election outcomes were determined by the number of Century or Tribal votes going a particular way: thus in the Centuries of the First Class there were only 91 votes all told, the number of Centuries the First Class contained, and in the tribal Assemblies only 35 votes all told, the number of Tribes. Juridical voting was different. A juror’s vote did have a direct bearing on the outcome of a trial, as the jury was supposed to have an odd number of men comprising it, and the decision was a majority one, not a unanimous one. If for some reason the jury was even in number and the vote was tied, the verdict had to be adjudged as for acquittal. Jury voting was timocratic also, however, in that a man without high economic status had no chance to sit on a jury.
Wooden Bridge Rome’s oldest bridge, the Pons Sublicius, spanned the Tiber downstream of Tiber Island, and was the only one made of wood. It was reputed to have been built in the time of King Ancus Marcius.
yoke The yoke was the crossbeam or tie which rested upon the necks of a pair of oxen or other animals in harness to draw a load. In human terms it came to mean the mark of servility, of submission to the superiority and domination of others. There was a yoke called the Tigillum located somewhere on the Carinae inside the city of Rome; the young of both sexes were required to pass beneath it, perhaps a sign of submission to the burdens of adult life. However, it was in military terms that the yoke came to have its greatest metaphorical significance. Very early Roman (or possibly even Etruscan) armies forced a defeated enemy to pass beneath the yoke: two spears were planted upright in the ground, and a third spear was lashed from one to the other as a crosstie; the whole apparatus was too low for a man to pass under walking upright, he had to bend right over. Other people in Italy than the Romans also had the custom, with the result that from time to time a Roman army was made to pass under the yoke, as when the Samnites were victorious at the Caudine Forks. To acquiesce to passing under the yoke was regarded as an intolerable humiliation for Rome; so much so that the Senate and People usually preferred to see an army stand and fight until the last man in it was dead. That at least was honorable defeat.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE TO ROMAN MASCULINE NAMES
To some extent, the pronunciation of classical Latin is still debated, but there are definite conventions among scholars. Liturgical Latin and medieval Latin are pronounced somewhat differently than classical Latin. None of which need worry the reader unduly. The aim of this little section is simply to offer guidelines for those readers without Latin.
One convention adhered to in pronouncing classical Latin is to sound the consonantal v like our English w: thus, the word veritas is properly pronounced weritas. But the rule is not hard and fast, even among scholars, so in the interests of reader comfort, I shall proceed to ignore it.
The diphthong ae should not be pronounced as in “say,” but rather as in “eye”; this convention I have adhered to.
We have several more consonants in English than the Latin language did. The one which concerns the reader most is j. It has been customary in the English language for centuries to spell those Latin words commencing in consonantal i with a j. Thus, Julius should really be lulius, and pronounced Yoo-lee-uss, not Joo-lee-uss. However, I have elected to go with English j.
The Latin g has only one sound, which I shall call guh, as in “gain”—”get”—”give”—”gone”—”gun.” The other g sound in English, which I shall call juh, as in “ginger,” is never used in pronouncing Latin.
Rather than adopt one of the current lexicographic systems of pronunciation, I have elected to use a phonetic system of my own, rhyming the Latin with some ordinary English word pronounced identically on both sides of the Atlantic as well as in the Antipodes—where possible!
And, last but by no means least, none of it really matters save to the purist. The most important thing is that the reader discover and enjoy the world of Republican Rome. Do not feel uncomfortable with the names. Latin is a major root of the English language, and that is a major help in itself. (Note: in some cases I have given the standard English pronunciation first, and put the more correct pronunciation in parentheses, in the lists below.)
The Praenomen (the First Name)
Appius
Ah-pee-uss (ah as in “pa,” “ma”—uss as in “puss”)
Aulus
Ow-luss (ow as in “cow”)
Gaius
Gye-uss (gye as in “eye”)
Gnaeus
Nye-uss (nye as in “eye”)
Lucius
Loo-shuss (more correctly, Loo-kee-uss)
Mamercus
Mah-mer-kuss (mah as in “pa”—mer as in “her”)
Manius
Mah-nee-uss (mah as in “pa”)
Marcus
Mar-kuss
Publius
Pu
b-lee-uss (pub has the same u sound as “put”)
Quintus
Kwin-tuss (kwin as in “twin”)
Servius
Ser-vee-uss (ser as in “her”)
Sextus
Sex-tuss (sex as in “sex”)
Spurius
Spoo-ree-uss (spoo as in “too”)
Tiberius
Tye-beer-ee-uss (more correctly, Tee-bear-ee-uss)
Titus
Tye-tuss (more correctly, Tee-tuss)
The Nomen (the Family or Gentilicial Name, Indicating the Gens)
Aelius
Eye-lee-uss (eye as in “eye”—uss as in “puss”)
Aemilius
Eye-mil-ee-uss (mil as in “will”)
Annius
An-nee-uss (an as in “tan”)
Antistius
Ahn-tist-ee-uss (ahn as in “gone”—list as in “fist”)
Antonius
An-toh-nee-uss (an as in “tan”—toh as in “so”)
Appuleius
Ah-poo-lay-ee-uss (poo as in “too”—lay as in “say”)
Aquillius
Ah-kwill-ee-uss (kwill as in “will”)
Atilius
Ah-tee-lee-uss
Aurelius
Or-ree-lee-uss (more correctly, Ow-ray-lee-uss)
Baebius
Bye-bee-uss (bye as in “eye”)
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