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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12875 ***
+
+LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL
+
+by
+
+T. G. TUCKER
+
+1924
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The reception accorded to my _Life in Ancient Athens_ has led me to
+write the present companion work with an eye to the same class of
+readers. In the preface to the former volume it was said: "I have
+sought to leave an impression true and sound, so far as it goes, and
+also vivid and distinct. The style adopted has therefore been the
+opposite of the pedantic, utilizing any vivacities of method which are
+consistent with truth of fact." The same principles have guided me in
+the present equally unpretentious treatise. I agree entirely with Mr.
+Warde Fowler when he says: "I firmly believe that the one great hope
+for classical learning and education lies in the interest which the
+unlearned public may be brought to feel in ancient life and thought."
+
+For the general reader there is perhaps no period in the history of
+the ancient world which is more interesting than the one here chosen.
+Yet, so far as I know, there exists no sufficiently popular work
+dealing with this period alone and presenting in moderate compass a
+clear general view of the matters of most moment. My endeavour has
+been to represent as faithfully as possible the Age of Nero, and
+nowhere in the book is it implied that what is true for that age is
+necessarily as true for any other. The reader who is not a special
+student of history or antiquities is perhaps as often confused by
+descriptions of ancient life which cover too many generations as by
+those--often otherwise excellent--which include too much detail.
+
+I have necessarily consulted not only the Latin and Greek writers who
+throw light upon the time, but also all the best-known Standard works
+of modern date. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to state that in
+matters of contemporary government, administration, and public life my
+guides have been chiefly Mommsen, Arnold, and Greenidge; for social
+life Marquardt, Friedländer, and Becker-Göll; for topography and
+buildings Jordan, Hülsen, Lanciani, and Middleton; nor that the
+Dictionaries of Smith and of Daremberg and Saglio have been always at
+hand, as well as Baumeister's _Denkmäler_, and Guhl and Koner's _Life
+of the Greeks and Romans_. The admirable _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey has
+been, of course, indispensable. I have also derived profit from the
+writings of Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay in connexion with St. Paul, and
+from Conybeare and Howson's _Life and Epistles_ of the Apostle. Useful
+hints have been found in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Social Life in Rome in
+the Age of Cicero_, and in Prof. Dill's Roman_ Society from Nero to
+Marcus Aurelius_. A personal study of ancient sites, monuments, and
+objects of antiquity at Rome, Pompeii, and elsewhere has naturally
+been of prime value. Those intimately acquainted with the immense
+amount of the available material will best realize the difficulty
+there has been in deciding how much to say and how much to "leave in
+the inkstand."
+
+For the drawings other than those of which another source is specified
+I have to thank Miss M. O'Shea, on whom has occasionally fallen the
+difficult task of giving ocular form to the mental visions of one who
+happens to be no draughtsman. For the rest I make acknowledgment to
+those books from which the illustrations have been directly derived
+for my own purposes, without reference to more original sources.
+
+I am especially grateful for the permission to use so considerable a
+number of illustrations from the _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey, from
+Professor Waldstein's _Herculaneum_, and from Lanciani's _New Tales of
+Old Rome_.
+
+T.G.T.
+
+October 1909.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+CHAPTERS
+
+
+    I EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+   II TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+  III A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+   IV THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+    V NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+   VI ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+  VII ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+ VIII STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+   IX THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+    X THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+   XI ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+  XII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+ XIII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND
+      DINNER
+
+  XIV LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+   XV HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+  XVI THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+ XVII CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+XVIII THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+  XIX ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+   XX STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+  XXI PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+ XXII THE ROMAN PROFUSION OF ART
+
+XXIII THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+INDEX
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+FIG.
+
+Frontispiece
+
+      View into Roman Forum from Temple of Vesta, A.D. 64.
+      (Restoration partly after Auer, Hülsen, Tognetti, etc.).
+
+  1. The Pont du Gard (Aqueduct and Bridge).
+
+  2. The Appian Way by the so-called Tomb of Seneca (Laneiani, _New
+     Tales of Old Rome_).
+
+  3. Plan of Inn at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+  4. Ship beside the Quay at Ostia. (Hill, _Illustrations of School
+     Classics_, FIG. 498 ).
+
+  6. The Acropolis at Athens. (From D'Ooge).
+
+  7. Plan of Antioch.
+
+  8. Emblem of Antioch. (_Dict. of Geog_. i. 116 ).
+
+  9. Emblem of Alexandria. (Mau, _Pompeii_, Fig 187).
+
+ 10.  Emblem of Rome. (From the column of Antoninus at Rome).
+
+ 11.  Augustus as Emperor.
+
+ 12.  Coin of Nero. (In the British Museum).
+
+ 13.  Bust of Seneca. (_Archäiologische Zeitung_).
+
+ 14.  Agrippina, Mother of Nero. (Photo, Mansell & Co.).
+
+ 15.  Bust of Nero.
+
+ 16.  Some Remains of the Claudian Aqueduct.
+
+ 17.  The Rostra: back view. (Modified from Hülsen).
+
+ 18.  Ruins of Forum. (Record-Office in background with modern building
+      above.) (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 19.  N.E. of Forum, A.D. 64.  (Complementary to Frontispiece).
+
+ 20.  Temple of Fortuna Augusta at Pompeii. (Mau, FIG. 58).
+
+ 21.  So-called Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli.
+
+ 22.  Vestal Virgin. (Hill, FIG. 340 ).
+
+ 23.  Temple of Mars the Avenger in Forum of Augustus. (After
+      Ripostelli).
+
+ 24.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Present state).
+
+ 25.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Restored).
+
+ 26.  A Greek Exedra. (Baumeister).
+
+ 27.  Circus Maximus (restored). (Modified from Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 28.  Building Materials. (From Middleton).
+
+ 29.  Typical Scheme of Roman House.
+
+ 30.  Entrance to House of Pansa.
+
+ 31.  Interior of Roman House. (Restored).
+
+ 32.  House of Cornelius Rufus. (Mau, FIG. 121 ).
+
+ 33.  Peristyle with Garden and al fresco Dining-Table. (After Guhl and
+      Koner).
+
+ 34.  Peristyle in House of the Vettii. (Present state) (Mau, FIG.
+      162).
+
+ 35.  Kitchen Hearth in the House of the Vettii. (Mau, FIG. 125).
+
+ 36.  Cooking Hearths. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 672).
+
+ 37.  Shrine in House of the Tragic Poet. (Mau, FIG. 153 ).
+
+ 38.  Household Shrine.  (Hill, FIG. 345).
+
+ 38A. Leaden Pipes in House of Livia. (From a photograph).
+
+ 39.  Portable Braziers. (Daremberg and Saglio).
+
+ 40.  Manner of Roofing with Tiles.
+
+ 41.  House of Pansa at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 42.  House of the Vettii at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 43.  Specimen of Painted Room.
+
+ 44.  Specimen of Wall-Painting. (Mau, FIG. 264).
+
+ 45.  Plan of Homestead at Boscoreale. (After Mau).
+
+ 46.  Roman Folding Chair. (Schreiber).
+
+ 47.  Bronze Seat. (Overbeck).
+
+ 48.  Framework of Roman Couch. (Mau, FIG. 188).
+
+ 49.  Plan of Dining-Table with Three Couches.
+
+ 50.  Sigma.
+
+ 51.  Tripod from Herculaneum. (From Waldstein, _Herculaneum_, Plate
+      41).
+
+ 52.  Chest (Strong-box). (Mau, FIG. 120).
+
+ 53.  Mirrors. (Mau, FIG. 213).
+
+ 54.  Lamps. (Mau, FIG. 196).
+
+ 55.  Lampholder as Tree. (Mau, FIG. 202).
+
+ 56.  Cup from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 45).
+
+ 57.  Kitchen Utensils. (Mau, FIG. 204).
+
+ 58.  Pail from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 42).
+
+ 59.  Patrician Shoes.  (_Dict. Ant_. i. 335).
+
+ 60.  Roman in the Toga.  (Waldstein, Plate 18).
+
+ 61.  Slave in Fetters.
+
+ 62.  Litter. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 15).
+
+ 63.  Reading a Proclamation. (Mau, FIG. 17).
+
+ 64.  Sealed Receipt of Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 275).
+
+ 65.  Discus-Thrower. (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 66.  Stabian Baths.  (Mau, Plate 5).
+
+ 67.  Bathing Implements. (Mau, FIG. 209).
+
+ 68.  Acrobats. (Baumeister, i. 585).
+
+ 69.  Surgical Instruments. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 70.  Bakers' Mills. (Mau, FIG. 218).
+
+ 71.  Cupids as Goldsmiths. (Wall-Painting.)(Mau, FIG. 167).
+
+ 72.  Garland-Makers. (_Abhandlungen, historische-philologische
+      Classe Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_).
+
+ 73.  Bust of Caecilius Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 256).
+
+ 74.  Ploughs. (Hill, FIG. 383; _Dict. Ant_. i. 160).
+
+ 75.  Tools on Tomb. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 243).
+
+ 76.  Pompeian Cook-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 131).
+
+ 77.  In a Wine-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 234).
+
+ 78.  Boxing-Gloves. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 329).
+
+ 79.  Theatre at Orange. (Restored.) (Baumeister, iii. 1742).
+
+ 80.  Theatre at Aspendus. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 81.  Tragic Actor. (Hill, FIG. 421).
+
+ 82.  Comic Masks. (Terence's _Andria_).
+
+ 83.  Scene from Comedy. (Hill, FIG. 422).
+
+ 84.  Plan of Circus.
+
+ 85.  The Turn in the Circus.
+
+ 86.  Chariot Race. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 434).
+
+ 87.  Amphitheatre at Pompeii. (Mau, Plate 6).
+
+ 88.  Barracks of Gladiators. (Mau, Plate 4).
+
+ 89.  Stocks for Gladiators. (Remains from Pompeii.) (Mau, FIG. 74).
+
+ 90.  Gladiators Fighting. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 91.  Toilet Scene. (Wall-Painting.) (Waldstein, Plate 32).
+
+ 92.  Woman in Full Dress. (Waldstein, Plate 7).
+
+ 93.  Hairpins. (Mau, FIG. 211).
+
+ 94.  Writing Materials.
+
+ 95.  Horsing a Boy. (After Sächs.) (Baumeister, iii. FIG. 1653).
+
+ 96.  Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's _Pompeii_).
+
+ 97.  Roman Standards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 98.  Armed Soldier.
+
+ 99.  A Roman General. (Hill, FIG. 465).
+
+100.  Centurion. (Hill, FIG. 466).
+
+101.  Standard-Bearer. (Hill, FIG. 470).
+
+102.  Baggage-Train. (Daremberg and Saglio, FIG. 1196).
+
+103.  Soldiers with Packs. (Seyffert, _Dict. Class. Ant_. p. 348).
+
+104.  Roman Soldiers Marching. (Schreiber).
+
+105.  Imperial Guards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+106.  Besiegers with the "Tortoise." (Hill, FIG. 481).
+
+107.  Roman Artillery. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 855).
+
+108.  Auxiliary Cavalryman. (_Dict. Ant_.  i. 790).
+
+109.  Jupiter. (Vatican Museum).
+
+110.  A Sacrifice. (Mau, FIG. 44).
+
+111.  Isis Worship. (Wall-Painting.) (Mau, FIG. 81).
+
+112.  Household Shrine. (Mau, FIG. 127).
+
+113.  The World (approximately) as conceived about A.D. 100.
+
+114.  The Dying Gaul.
+
+115.  A "Candeliera" or Marble Pilaster of the Basilica Aemilia
+      (Lanciani, _New Tales, etc._, p. 147).
+
+116.  Fragments of the Architecture of the Regia.  (Lanciani, p. 70).
+
+117.  Wall-Painting. (Woman with Tablets.) (Waldstein, _Herculaneum_,
+      Plate 35).
+
+118.  Wall-Painting from Herculaneum. (Women playing with
+      Knuckle-Bones.) (Waldstein, Plate 4).
+
+119.  Lyre and Harp.
+
+120.  "Conclamatio" of the Dead. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+121.  Tomb of Caecilia Metella.
+
+122.  Street of Tombs. (Mau, Plate 10).
+
+123.  Columbarium. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+124.  Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
+
+
+
+MAPS AND PLANS:
+
+      Map of Roman Empire, A.D. 64.
+
+      Plan of Rome with Chief Topographical Features.
+
+      Plan of Forum, A.D. 64.
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+The subject of this book is "Life in the Roman World of Nero and St.
+Paul." This is not quite the same thing as "Life in Ancient Rome" at
+the same date. Our survey is to be somewhat wider than that of the
+imperial city itself, with its public and private structures, its
+public and private life. The capital, and these topics concerning it,
+will naturally occupy the greater portion of our time and interest.
+But it is quite impossible to realise Rome, its civilisation, and the
+meaning of its monuments, unless we first obtain some general
+comprehension of the empire--the Roman world--with its component
+parts, its organisation and administration. The date is approximately
+anno Domini 64, although it is not desirable, even if it were
+possible, to adhere in every detail to the facts of that particular
+year. In A.D. 64 the Emperor Nero was at the height of his folly and
+tyranny, and, so far as our information goes, the Apostle Paul was
+journeying about the Roman world in the interval between his first and
+second imprisonments in the capital.
+
+One cannot, perhaps, achieve a wholly satisfying picture in a treatise
+of the present dimensions. It would require a very bulky volume to
+realise with any adequateness the ideal aim. It would be well if, in
+the first instance, we could imagine ourselves standing somewhere far
+aloft over the centre of the empire, and possessing as wide-ranging a
+vision as that of the Homeric gods. From that exalted standpoint we
+might gaze upon the active life of towns, upon the labourers working
+their lands from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the men who
+go down to the sea in ships and do their business in great waters. We
+should perceive their occupations and amusements, their material
+surroundings, their various dress and manners, their methods of
+travel, the degree of their personal safety and liberty. Then we
+should descend to earth in the middle of Rome itself, and become for
+the time being inhabitants of that city, privileged to take part in
+its public business and its public pleasures, to enter the houses of
+what may be called its representative citizens, to share in the
+various elements of its social day, and to estimate the moral,
+intellectual, and artistic cultivation of Roman society.
+
+Such would be the ideal. Here it must suffice, to select the most
+essential or interesting matters, and to present them with such
+vividness as the necessary brevity will permit. Very little
+preliminary knowledge will be taken for granted; the use of Latin or
+technical terms will be shunned, and every topic will be dealt with,
+as far as possible, in the plainest of English.
+
+Nevertheless, while aiming at entire lucidity, the following chapters
+will aim even more scrupulously at telling the truth. There are
+doubtless a number of matters--though generally of relatively small
+moment--about which we are, and probably always shall be, uncertain.
+The best way to deal with these, in a work which is descriptive rather
+than argumentative, is to omit them. For the rest it must be expected
+of any one whose professional concern it has been to saturate himself
+for many years in the literature of the times, and to study carefully
+their monumental remains, that he should occasionally make some
+statement, drop some passing remark or judgment, which may appear to
+be in conflict with assertions made in other quarters. If a few
+examples are met with in the present book, they may be taken as made
+with all deference, but with deliberation.
+
+It is perhaps well to say this with some emphasis, in view of the
+blunders often innocently committed by those who happen to be speaking
+of this period. There are those who know it almost only through the
+medium of the _Acts of the Apostles_, and who entertain the most
+erroneous notions concerning Gallio or Festus, concerning Roman
+justice, Roman taxation, or Roman moral and religious attitudes. There
+are those, again, who know it almost only through the manuals of
+history; that is to say, they know the dates and facts of the reigns
+of the emperors, but have never realised, not to say visualised, the
+contemporary Roman as a human being. There exist denunciations of the
+morals of the Roman world of this date which would lead one to believe
+that every man was a Nero and every woman a Messalina: denunciations
+so lurid that, if they were a third part true, the continuance of the
+Roman Empire, or even of the Roman race, for a single century would be
+simply incomprehensible. On the other hand there have been accounts of
+the material glory of Rome which have conjured up visions of splendour
+worthy only of the _Arabian Nights_; and sometimes the comment is
+added that it was all won from the blood and sweat heartlessly wrung
+from a world of miserable slaves. It is not too much to say that none
+of these descriptions could come from a writer or speaker who knew the
+period at first hand.
+
+The most dangerous form of falsehood is that which contains some
+portion of truth. The life of many a Roman was deplorably dissolute;
+the splendour of Rome was beyond doubt astonishing; of oppression
+there were too many scattered instances; but we do not judge the
+civilisation of the British Empire by the choicest scandals of London,
+nor the good sense of the United States by the freak follies of New
+York. We do not take it that the modern satirist who vents his spleen
+on an individual or a class is describing each and all of his
+contemporaries, nor even that what he says is necessarily true of such
+individual or class. Nor is the professional moralist himself immune
+from jaundice or from the disease of exaggeration.
+
+The endeavour here will be to realise more veraciously what life in
+the Roman world was like. For those who are familiar with the
+political history and the escapades of Nero there may be some filling
+in of gaps and adjusting of perspective. For those who are familiar
+with the journeyings and experiences of St. Paul there may be some
+correction of errors and misconceptions. For those who have any
+thought of visiting the ruins of Rome and Pompeii, it may prove
+helpful to have secured some comprehension of this period. Pompeii was
+destroyed only fifteen years after our date, and all those houses,
+large and small, were occupied in the year 64 by their unsuspecting
+inhabitants. Meanwhile mansions, temples, and halls stood in splendour
+above those platforms and foundations over which we tread amid the
+broken columns in the Roman Forum or on the Palatine Hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+
+The best means of realising the extent of the Roman Empire in or about
+the year 64 is to glance at the map. It will be found to reach from
+the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, from the middle of
+England--approximately the river Trent--to the south of Egypt, from
+the Rhine and the Danube to the Desert of Sahara. The Mediterranean
+Sea is a Roman lake, and there is not a spot upon its shores which is
+not under Roman rule. In round numbers the empire is three thousand
+miles in length and two thousand in breadth. Its population, which, at
+least in the western parts, was much thinner then than it is over the
+same area at present, cannot be calculated with any accuracy, but an
+estimate of one hundred millions would perhaps be not very far from
+the mark.
+
+Beyond its borders--sometimes too dangerously near to them and apt to
+overstep them--lay various peoples concerning whom Roman knowledge was
+for the most part incomplete and indefinite. Within its own boundaries
+the Roman government carefully collected every kind of information.
+Such precision was indispensable for the carrying out of those Roman
+principles of administration which will be described later. But of the
+nations or tribes beyond the frontiers only so much was known as had
+been gathered from a number of more or less futile campaigns, from
+occasional embassies sent to Rome by such peoples, from the writings
+of a few venturous travellers bent on exploration, from slaves who had
+been acquired by war or purchase, or from traders such as those who
+made their way to the Baltic in quest of amber, or to Arabia,
+Ethiopia, and India in quest of precious metals, jewels, ivory,
+perfumes, and fabrics.
+
+There had indeed been sundry attempts to annex still more of the
+world. Roman armies had crossed the Rhine and had twice fought their
+way to the Elbe; but it became apparent to the shrewd Augustus and
+Tiberius that the country could not be held, and the Rhine was for the
+present accepted as the most natural and practical frontier. In the
+East the attempts permanently to annex Armenia, or a portion of
+Parthia, had so far proved but nominal or almost entirely vain.
+
+On the Upper Euphrates at this date there was a sort of acknowledgment
+of vague dependence on Rome, but the empire had acquired nothing more
+solid. Forty years before our date a Roman expedition had penetrated
+into South-west Arabia, of which the wealth was extravagantly
+over-estimated, but it had met with complete failure. Into Ethiopia a
+punitive campaign had been made against Queen Candace, and a loose
+suzerainty was claimed over her kingdom, but the Roman frontier still
+stopped short at Elephantine. Over the territories of the semi-Greek
+semi-Scythian settlements to the north of the Black Sea Rome exercised
+a protectorate, which was for obvious reasons not unwelcome to those
+concerned. Along or near the eastern frontier she well understood the
+policy of the "buffer state," and, within her own borders in those
+parts, was ready to make tools of petty kings, whose own ambitions
+would both assist her against external foes and relieve her of
+administrative trouble.
+
+At no time did the Roman Empire possess so natural or scientific a
+frontier as at this, when it was bounded by the Rhine, the Danube, the
+Black Sea, the Euphrates, the Desert, and the Atlantic. The only
+exception, it will be perceived, was in Britain, but the Roman idea
+there also was to annex the whole island, a feat which was never
+accomplished. Two generations after our chosen date Rome had conquered
+as far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth; it had crossed the Southern
+Rhine, and annexed the south-west corner of Germany, approximately
+from Cologne to Ratisbon; it had passed the Danube, and secured and
+settled Dacia, which is roughly the modern Roumania; and it had pushed
+its power somewhat further into the East. But it had not thereby
+increased either its strength or its stability.
+
+At the period then with which we are to deal, the Roman Empire
+included the countries now known as Holland, Belgium, France, Spain
+and Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, the southern half of the Austrian
+Empire, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Egypt,
+Tripoli and Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and also the southern two-thirds
+of England. Within these borders there prevailed that greatest
+blessing of the Roman rule, the _pax Romana_, or "Roman peace."
+Whatever defects may be found in the Roman administration, on whatever
+abstract grounds the existence of such an empire may be impugned, it
+cannot be questioned that for at least two centuries the whole of this
+vast region enjoyed a general reign of peace and security such as it
+never knew before and has never known since. That peace meant also
+social and industrial prosperity and development. It meant an immense
+increase in settled population and in manufactures, and an immense
+advance--particularly in the West--in civilised manners and
+intellectual interests.
+
+Peoples and tribes which had been at perpetual war among themselves or
+with some neighbour were reduced to quietude. Communities which had
+been liable to sudden invasion and to all manner of arbitrary changes
+in their conditions of life, in their burdens of taxation, and even in
+their personal freedom, now knew exactly where they stood, and, for
+the most part, perceived that they stood in a much more tolerable and
+a distinctly more assured position than before. If there must
+sometimes be it would be the Roman tyrant, and he, as we shall find,
+affected them but little. All irresponsible local tyrannies, whether
+of kings or parties, were abolished.
+
+On the high seas within the empire you might voyage with no fear
+whatever of pirates. If you looked for pirates you must look beyond
+the Roman sphere to the Indian Ocean. There might also be a few to be
+found in the Black Sea. On the high road you might travel from
+Jerusalem to Rome, and from Rome to Cologne or Cadiz, with no fear of
+any enemy except such banditti and footpads as the central or local
+government could not always manage to put down. On the whole there was
+nearly everywhere a clear recognition of the advantages conferred by
+the empire.
+
+It is quite true that during these two centuries we meet with frequent
+trouble on the borders and with one or two local revolts of more or
+less strength. At our chosen date the Jews were being stirred by their
+fanatical or "zealot" party into an almost hopeless insurrection;
+within two years the rebellion broke out. Three years later still,
+certain ambitious semi-Romans took advantage of a troubled time to
+make a determined but futile effort to form a Gaulish or
+German-Gaulish empire of their own. Half a century after Nero the Jews
+once again rose, but were speedily suppressed. But apart from these
+abortive efforts--made, one by a unique form of religious zeal, one by
+adventurous ambition, at opposite extremities of the Roman
+world--there was established a general, and in most cases a willing,
+acceptance of the situation and a proper recognition of its benefits.
+
+The only serious war to be feared within the empire itself was a civil
+war, begun by some aspiring leader when his chance seemed strong of
+ousting the existing emperor or of succeeding to his throne. Four
+years from the date at which we have placed ourselves such a war
+actually did break out. Nero was driven from the throne in favour of
+Galba, and the history of the year following is the history of Otho
+murdering Galba, Vitellius overthrowing Otho, and Vespasian in his
+turn overthrowing Vitellius. Yet all this is but the story of one
+entirely exceptional year, the famous "year of four emperors." Take
+out that year from the imperial history; count a hundred years before
+and more than a hundred years after, and it would be impossible to
+find in the history of the world any period at which peace, and
+probably contentment, was so widely and continuously spread. Think of
+all the countries which have just been enumerated as lying within the
+Roman border; then imagine that, with the exception of one year of
+general commotion, two or three provincial and local revolts, and
+occasional irruptions and retaliations upon the frontier, they have
+all been free from war and its havoc ever since the year 1700. In our
+year of grace 64, although the throne is occupied by a vicious emperor
+suffering from megalomania and enormous self-conceit, the empire is in
+full enjoyment of its _pax Romana_.
+
+Another glance at the map will show how secure this internal peace was
+felt to be. The Roman armies will be found almost entirely upon the
+frontiers. It was, of course, imperative that there should be strong
+forces in such positions--in Britain carrying out the annexation; on
+the Rhine and Danube defending against huge-bodied, restless Germans
+and their congeners; on the Euphrates to keep off the nimble and
+dashing Parthian horse and foot; in Upper Egypt to guard against the
+raids of "Fuzzy-Wuzzy "; in the interior of Tunis or Algeria to keep
+the nomad Berber tribes in hand. In such places were the Roman legions
+and their auxiliary troops regularly kept under the eagles, for there
+lay their natural work, and there do we find them quartered generation
+after generation.
+
+It is, of course, true that they might be employed inwards as well as
+outwards; but it must be manifest that, if there had been any
+widespread disaffection, any reasonable suspicion that serious revolts
+might happen, there would have been many other large bodies of troops
+posted in garrison throughout the length and breadth of the provinces.
+In point of fact the whole Roman military force can scarcely have
+amounted to more than 320,000 men, while the navy consisted of two
+small fleets of galleys, one regularly posted at Misenum at the
+entrance to the Bay of Naples, the other at Ravenna on the Adriatic.
+To these we may add a flotilla of boats operating on the Lower Rhine
+and the neighbouring coasts. Except during the year of civil war the
+two fleets have practically no history. They enjoyed the advantage of
+having almost nothing to fight against. If pirates had become
+dangerous--as for a brief time they threatened to do during the Jewish
+revolt--the imperial ships would have been in readiness to suppress
+them. They could be made useful for carrying despatches and imperial
+persons or troops, or they might be used against a seaside town if
+necessary. Beyond this they hardly correspond to our modern navies.
+There was no foreign competition to build against, and no "two-power
+standard" to be maintained.
+
+The Roman troops, it has already been said, were almost wholly on the
+frontier. So far as there are exceptions, they explain themselves. It
+was found necessary at all times to keep at least one legion regularly
+quartered in Northern Spain, where the mountaineers were inclined to
+be predatory, and where they were skilful, as they have always been,
+at carrying on guerilla warfare. We may, if we choose, regard this
+comparatively small army as policing a lawless district. In but few
+other places do we find a regular military force. Rome itself had both
+a garrison and also a large body of Imperial Guards. The garrison,
+consisting of some 6000 men, was in barracks inside the city, and its
+purpose was to protect the wealth of the metropolis and the seat of
+government from any sudden riot or factious tumult. It must be
+remembered that among the Romans it was soldiers who served as police,
+whether at Rome or in the provinces. The Imperial Guards, consisting
+of 12,000 troops, were stationed just outside the gates, in order to
+secure the safety and position of the emperor himself, if any attempt
+should be made against his person or authority. The rich and important
+town of Lugdunum (or Lyons) had a small garrison of 1200 men, and a
+certain number of troops were always to be found in garrison in those
+great towns where factious disturbances were either probable or
+possible. Thus at Alexandria, where the Jews were fanatical and at
+loggerheads with the Greeks, and where the native Egyptians were no
+less fanatical and might be at loggerheads with both, it was necessary
+to keep a disciplinary force in readiness. Somewhat similar was the
+case at Antioch, where the discords of the Greeks, Syrians, and Jews
+stood in need of the firm Roman hand. Nor could a similar regiment be
+spared from Jerusalem. The western towns were generally smaller in
+size, more homogeneous, and more tranquil. It was around the Levant
+that the popular _émeute_ was most to be feared. Doubtless one may
+meet, whether in the New Testament or in Roman and Greek writers, with
+frequent mention of soldiers, and we make acquaintance with an
+occasional centurion--something socially above a colour-sergeant and
+below a captain--or other officer in various parts of the empire. But
+it should be understood that, except in such places as those which
+have been named, soldiers were distributed in small handfuls, to act
+as _gendarmerie_, to deal with brigands, to serve as bodyguard and
+orderlies to a governor, to bear despatches, to be custodians of state
+prisoners. To these classes belong the centurions of the _Acts of the
+Apostles_, while Lysias was the colonel of the regiment keeping order
+in Jerusalem.
+
+What the Roman army was like, whence it was recruited, how it was
+armed, and what were its operations, are matters to be shown in a
+later chapter. Regarded then as a controlling agent, maintaining
+widespread peace, the Roman Empire answers closely to the British
+_raj_ in India. The analogy could indeed be pressed very much further
+and with more closeness of detail, but this is scarcely the place for
+such a discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+Of the administration in Rome and throughout the provinces enough will
+be said in the proper place. Meanwhile we may look briefly at one or
+two questions of interest which will presumably suggest themselves at
+this stage. Since all this vast region now formed one empire, since
+Roman magistrates and officers were sent to all parts of it, since
+trade and intercourse were vigorous between all its provinces, it will
+be natural to ask, for example, by what means the traveller got from
+place to place, at what rate of progress, and with what degree of
+safety and comfort.
+
+In setting forth by land you would elect, if possible, to proceed by
+one of the great military roads for which the Roman world was so
+deservedly famous. Not only were they the best kept and the safest;
+they were also generally the shortest. As far as possible the Roman
+road went straight from point to point. It did not circumvent a
+practicable hill, nor, where necessary, did it shrink from cutting
+through a rock, say to the depth of sixty feet or so. It did not avoid
+a river, but bridged it with a solid structure such as often remains
+in use till this day. If it met with a marsh, wooden piles were driven
+in and the road-bed laid upon them. When it came to a deep narrow
+valley it built a viaduct on arches.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE PONT DU GARD (AQUEDUCT AND BRIDGE).]
+
+The road so laid was meant for permanence. A width of ground was
+carefully prepared, trenches were dug at the sides, three different
+layers of road material were deposited, with sufficient upward curve
+to throw off the water, and then the whole was paved with
+closely-fitting many-cornered blocks of stone. In the chief instances
+there were sidewalks covered with some kind of gravel. The width was
+not great, but might be anything between ten and fifteen feet. Along
+such roads the Roman armies marched to their camps, along them the
+government despatches were carried by the imperial post, and along
+them were the most conveniently situated and commodious houses of
+accommodation. For their construction a special grant might be made by
+the Roman treasury--the cost being comparatively small, since the
+work, when not performed by the soldiers, was done by convicts and
+public slaves--and for their upkeep a rate was apparently levied by
+the local corporations. Besides the paved roads there was, needless to
+say, always a number of smaller roads, many of them mere strips of
+four feet or so in width; there were also short-cuts, by-paths, and
+ill-kept tracks of local and more or less fortuitous creation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE APPIAN WAY BY THE SO-CALLED TOMB OF
+SENECA.]
+
+Beside the great highways stood milestones in the shape of short
+pillars, and generally there were in existence charts or itineraries,
+sometimes pictured, giving all necessary directions as to the
+turnings, distances, stopping-places, and inns, and even as to the
+sights worth seeing on the way. Wherever there were such objects of
+interest--in Egypt, Syria, Greece, or any other region of art,
+history, and legend--the traveller could always find a professional
+guide, whose information was probably about as reliable as that of the
+modern _cicerone_. In Rome itself there was displayed, in one of the
+public arcades, a plan of the empire, with notes explaining the
+dimensions and distances.
+
+The vehicle employed by the traveller would depend upon circumstances.
+You would meet the poor man riding on an ass, or plodding on foot with
+his garments well girt; the better provided on a mule; a finer person
+or an official on a horse; the more luxurious or easy-going either in
+some form of carriage or borne in a litter very similar to the
+oriental palanquin. To carriages, which were of several
+kinds--two-wheeled, four-wheeled, heavy and light--it may be necessary
+to make further reference; here it is sufficient to observe that, in
+order to assist quick travelling, there existed individuals or
+companies who let out a light form of gig, in which the traveller rode
+behind a couple of mules or active Gaulish ponies as far as the next
+important stopping-place, where he could find another jobmaster, or
+keeper of livery-stables, to send him on further. The rich man,
+travelling, as he necessarily would, with a train of servants and with
+full appliances for his comfort, would journey in a coach, painted and
+gilded, cushioned and curtained, drawn by a team showily caparisoned
+with rich harness and coloured cloths. This must have presented an
+appearance somewhat similar to that of the extravagantly decorated
+travelling-coach of the fourteenth century. The ordinary man of modest
+means would be satisfied with his mule or horse, and with his one or
+two slaves to attend him. On the less frequented stretches of road,
+where there was no proper accommodation for the night, his slaves
+would unpack the luggage and bring out a plain meal of wine, bread,
+cheese, and fruits. They would then lay a sort of bedding on the
+ground and cover it with a rug or blanket. The rich folk might bring
+their tents or have a bunk made up in their coaches.
+
+Where there was some sort of lodging for man and horse the average
+wayfarer would make the best of it. In the better parts of the empire
+and in the larger places of resort there were houses corresponding in
+some measure to the old coaching-inns of the eighteenth century; in
+the East there were the well-known caravanserais; but for the most
+part the ancient hostelries must have afforded but undesirable
+quarters. They were neither select nor clean. You journeyed along till
+you came to a building half wine-shop and store, half lodging-house.
+Outside you might be told by an inscription and a sign that it was the
+"Cock" Inn, or the "Eagle," or the "Elephant," and that there was
+"good accommodation." Its keeper might either be its proprietor, or
+merely a slave or other tenant put into it by the owner of a
+neighbouring estate and country-seat. Your horses or mules would be
+put up--with a reasonable suspicion on your part that the poor beasts
+would be cheated in the matter of their fodder--and you would be shown
+into a room which you might or might not have to share with someone
+else. In any case you would have to share it with the fleas, if not
+with worse.
+
+Perhaps you base brought your food with you, perhaps you send out a
+slave to purchase it, perhaps you obtain it from the innkeeper. That
+is your own affair. For the rest you must be prepared to bear with
+very promiscuous and sometimes unsavoury company, and to possess
+neither too nice a nose nor too delicate a sense of propriety. Your
+only consolation is that the charges are low, and that if anything is
+stolen from you the landlord is legally responsible.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PLAN OF INN AT POMPEII.]
+
+Doubtless there were better and worse establishments of this kind.
+There must have been some tolerably good quarters at Rome or
+Alexandria, and at some of the resorts for pleasure and health, such
+as Balae on the Bay of Naples, or Canopus at the Nile mouth. It is
+true also that for those who travelled on imperial service there were
+special lodgings kept up at the public expense at certain stations
+along the great roads. Nevertheless it may reasonably be asked why, in
+view of the generally accepted standards of domestic comfort and even
+luxury of the time--what may be called middle-class standards--there
+was no sufficiency of even creditable hotels. The answer is that in
+antiquity the class of people who in modern times support such hotels
+seldom felt the need of their equivalent. In the first place, they
+commonly trusted to the hospitality of individuals to whom they were
+personally or officially known, or to whom they carried private or
+official introductions. If they were distinguished persons, they were
+readily received, whether in town or country, on their route. In less
+frequented districts they trusted to their own slaves and to the
+resources of their own baggage. Their own tents, bedding, provisions
+and cooking apparatus were carried with them. If they made a stay of
+any length in a town, they might hire a suite of rooms.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon this topic. Suffice it that travel was
+frequent and extensive, whether for military and political business,
+for commerce, or for pleasure. Some roads, particularly that "Queen of
+Roads," the Appian Way--the same by which St. Paul came from Puteoli
+to Rome--must have presented a lively appearance, especially near the
+metropolis. Perhaps on none of these great highways anywhere near an
+important Roman city could you go far without meeting a merchant with
+his slaves and his bales; a keen-eyed pedlar--probably a Jew--carrying
+his pack; a troupe of actors or tumblers; a body of gladiators being
+taken to fight in the amphitheatre or market-place of some provincial
+town; an unemployed philosopher gazing sternly over his long beard; a
+regiment of foot-soldiers or a squadron of cavalry on the move; a
+horseman scouring along with a despatch of the emperor or the senate;
+a casual traveller coming at a lively trot in his hired gig; a couple
+of ladies carefully protecting their complexions from sun and dust as
+they rode in a kind of covered wagonette; a pair of scarlet-clad
+outriders preceding a gorgeous but rumbling coach, in which a Roman
+noble or plutocrat is idly lounging, reading, dictating to his
+shorthand amanuensis, or playing dice with a friend; a dashing youth
+driving his own chariot in professional style to the disgust of the
+sober-minded; a languid matron lolling in a litter carried by six
+tall, bright-liveried Cappadocians; a peasant on his way to town with
+his waggon-load of produce and cruelly belabouring his mule. If you
+are very fortunate you may meet Nero himself on one of his imperial
+progresses. If so, you had better stand aside and wait. It will take
+him a long time to pass; or, if this is one of his more serious
+undertakings, there will be a thousand carriages, many of them
+resplendent with gold and silver ornament in relief upon the woodwork,
+and drawn by horses or mules whose bridles are gleaming with gold.
+And, if the beautiful and conscienceless Poppaea is with him, there
+may be a Procession of some five hundred asses, whose it is to supply
+her with the milk in which she bathes for the preservation of her
+admirable velvety skin.
+
+There are, of course, many other individuals and types to be met with.
+If you happen to be traversing certain parts of Spain, the mountains
+of Greece, the southern provinces of Asia Minor, or the upper parts of
+Egypt, you will perhaps also meet with a bandit, or even with a band
+of them. In that case, prepare for the worst. Some of the gang have
+been caught and crucified: you may have passed the crosses upon your
+way. This does not render the rest more amiable. St. Paul takes it as
+natural to be thus "in peril of robbers." Perhaps certain regions of
+Italy itself were as dangerous as any. We have more than one account
+of a traveller who was last seen at such-and-such a place, and was
+never heard of again. It is therefore well, before undertaking a
+journey through suspected parts, to ascertain whether any one else is
+going that way. There is sure to be either an official with a military
+escort or some other traveller with a retinue; at least there will be
+some trusty man bearing letters, or some sturdy fellow whom you can
+hire expressly to accompany you.
+
+After allowing for this occasional embarrassment--which was certainly
+not greater and almost certainly very much less than you would have
+encountered in the same parts of the world a century ago--it must be
+declared that, on the whole, travel by land in the Roman world of the
+year 64 was remarkably safe. If it was not very expeditious, it was
+probably on the average quite as much so as in the eighteenth century.
+
+Ordinary travelling by road may not have averaged more than sixty or
+seventy miles a day, although hundred miles could be done without much
+difficulty, while a courier on urgent business could greatly increase
+that speed.
+
+Next let us suppose that our friend proposes to travel by sea. As a
+rule navigation takes place only between the beginning of March and
+the middle of November, ships being kept snug in harbour during the
+winter months. The traveller may be sailing from Alexandria to the
+capital or from Rome to Cadiz or to Rhodes. If a trader of sufficient
+boldness, he may even be proceeding outside the empire as far as
+India. If so, he will pass up the Nile as far as Coptos, then take
+either the canal or the caravan route to Myos Hormos on the Red Sea,
+and thence find ship for India, with a reasonable prospect--if he
+escapes the Arab pirates--of completing his business and returning
+home in about six months. Over 120 ships, small and great, leave the
+above-mentioned harbour each year on the voyage to India, for
+Alexandria is the great depot for the trade round the Indian Ocean,
+and the products of India are in lively demand at Rome.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.--SHIP BESIDE THE QUAY AT OSTIA. (Wolf and twins
+on mainsail.)]
+
+On such a remote course, however, we will not follow. Let us rather
+suppose that our traveller is proceeding from Alexandria, the second
+city of the empire, to Rome, which is the first. In this case he may
+enjoy the great advantage of going on board one those merchantmen
+belonging to the imperial service, which sail regularly with a freight
+of corn to feed the empire city. His port of landing will be Puteoli
+(Puzzuoli) in the Bay of Naples, which was then the Liverpool of
+Italy. The rest of the journey he will either make by the Appian Road,
+or, less naturally, by smaller freight-ship, putting in at Ostia, the
+port of Rome recently constructed by the Emperor Claudius at the mouth
+of the river Tiber. His ship, a well-manned and strongly-built vessel
+of from 500 tons up to 1100 or more, will carry one large mainsail,
+formed of strips of canvas strengthened by leather at their joinings,
+a smaller foresail, and a still smaller topsail. It will be steered by
+a pair of huge paddles on either side of the stern. There will be a
+crow's-nest on the mast, and at the bows a rehead of Rome or
+Alexandria or of some deity, perhaps of Castor and Pollux combined. A
+tolerable, but by no means a liberal, amount of cabin accommodation
+will be provided. A good-sized ship might reach 200 feet in length by
+50 in breadth. One of them brought to Rome the great obelisk which now
+stands in the Piazza of St. Peter's; another ship had brought another
+obelisk, 400,000 bushels of wheat and other cargo, and a very large
+number of passengers. At a favourable season, and with a quite
+favourable wind, the ship may expect to reach the Bay of Naples in as
+little as eight or nine days: sometimes it will take ten days,
+sometimes as many as twelve. The ship may either proceed directly
+south of Crete, or it may run across to Myra in Asia Minor, or to
+Rhodes, and thence proceed due west. As a rule the ancient navigator
+preferred to keep somewhat near the shore. Other ships, picking up and
+putting down cargo and passengers as they went along, would pass up
+the Syrian coast, calling at Caesarea, Tyre, Sidon, and other places
+before passing either north or south of Cyprus. From such a ship it
+might be necessary--as it was with St. Paul and the soldiers to whose
+care he was committed--to tranship into another vessel proceeding
+directly to Italy. If, as we have imagined, the traveller is on a
+cornship of the Alexandria-Puteoli line, he will reach the Bay one day
+after passing the straits of Messina, and his vessel will sail proudly
+up to port without striking her topsail, the only kind of ship which
+was permitted to do this being such imperial liners.
+
+There were other famous trade routes of the period. One is from
+Corinth; another from the Graeco-Scythian city at the mouth of the Sea
+of Azov, whence corn and salted fish were sent in abundance; a third
+from Cadiz, outside the straits of Gibraltar, by which were brought
+the wool and other produce of Andalusia; a fourth from Tarragona
+across to Ostia, the regular route for official and passenger
+intercourse with Spain. Yet another took you to Carthage in three
+days. Across the Adriatic from Brindisi you would reach in one day
+either Corfu or the Albanian coast at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo), where
+began the great highroad to the East. Given a fair wind, your ship
+might average 125 or 130 miles in the twenty-four hours, and, if you
+left Rome on Monday morning, you had a reasonable prospect of landing
+in Spain on the following Saturday. From Cadiz you would probably
+require ten or eleven days. There was, it is true, no need to come by
+sea from that town. There was a good road all the way, with a
+milestone at every Roman mile, or about 1600 yards. Unfortunately that
+route would generally take you nearly a month.
+
+It is not probable that sea travelling was at all comfortable; but it
+was apparently quite as much so, and quite as rapid, as it was on the
+average a century ago. Ships were made strong and sound; nevertheless
+shipwrecks were very frequent, as they always have been in sailing
+days. Wreckers who showed false lights were not unknown. There is also
+little doubt that the vessels were often terribly overcrowded; one
+ship, it is said, brought no less than 1200 passengers from
+Alexandria. That on which St. Paul was wrecked had 276 souls on board,
+and one upon which Josephus once found himself had as many as 600. It
+is incidentally stated in Tacitus that a body of troops, who had been
+both sent to Alexandria and brought back thence by sea, were greatly
+debilitated in mind and body by that experience. On the other hand, as
+has been already stated, there was generally no such thing as a pirate
+to be heard of in all the waters of the Mediterranean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+After thus considering, however incompletely, the manner in which the
+people of the Roman world contrived to move about within the empire
+itself, we may proceed to glance at the constituent parts of the world
+in which they thus travelled to and fro.
+
+And first we must draw a distinction of the highest importance between
+the western and eastern halves. Naturally enough, Italy itself was
+before all others the land of the Romans. It was the favoured land,
+enjoyed the fullest privileges, and was the most completely romanized
+in population, manners, and sentiment. Besides its larger and smaller
+romanized towns--of which there were about 1200--it was dotted from
+end to end with the country-seats and pleasure resorts of Romans.
+North and west of Italy were various peoples, differing widely in
+character, habits, and religion, as well as in physique. East of it
+were various other peoples differing also from each other in such
+respects, but for the most part marked by a common civilisation in
+which the West had but an almost inconsiderable share. Before the
+Roman conquest the nations and tribes of the West had been in general
+rude, unlettered, and unorganised. Except here and there in Spain,
+where the Phoenicians or Carthaginians had been at work, and in the
+Greek colonies sprung from Marseilles, they had hardly possessed such
+a thing as a town. They scarcely knew what was meant by civic life,
+with its material luxuries and graces, its art and literature. They
+were commonly small peoples without unity, brave fighters, but, in all
+those matters commonly classed as civilisation, distinctly behind the
+times. The superiority of the Roman in these parts was not merely one
+of organised strength, military skill, and political method, it was a
+superiority also of intellectual life and culture. In Spain, Gaul,
+Britain, Switzerland, the Tyrol and southern Austria, and also in
+North-West Africa, the Roman proceeded to organise after his own
+heart, to settle his colonies, to impose his language, and to
+inculcate his ideals. He was dealing with inferiors; this he fully
+recognised, and so for the most part did they.
+
+Meanwhile to the eastward also Rome spread her conquests. Here,
+however, she was dealing with peoples who had already passed under
+influences in many respects superior to those brought by the
+conqueror, influences which were in a sense only beginning to educate
+the conqueror himself. Let us here, for the sake of clearness, make a
+brief digression into previous history.
+
+Throughout the eastern half of the Mediterranean countries, conquering
+Rome had been face to face with an older, a more polished, a more
+keenly intellectual, and more artistic culture than her own. This was
+the civilisation of Greece. We need not dwell upon the character of
+Hellenic culture. Anyone who has made acquaintance with the richness
+of Greek literature, the clear sureness of Greek art, the keen insight
+of Greek science and philosophy, and the bold experiments of Greek
+society--especially as represented by Athens--will understand at once
+what is meant. When the Romans, more than two hundred years before our
+date, conquered Greece, in so far as they were a people of letters or
+of effort in abstract thought, in so far as they possessed the arts of
+sculpture, architecture, painting, and music, they were almost wholly
+indebted to Greece. Their own strength lay in solidity and gravity of
+character, in a strong sense of national and personal discipline, in
+the gift of law-making and law-obeying. In culture they stood to the
+Greeks of that time very much as the Germans of two centuries ago
+stood to the French. After their conquest by the Romans the Greeks
+perforce submitted to the rule of might, but the typical Greek never
+looked upon the Roman as socially or intellectually his equal. He
+became himself the philosophic, artistic, and social teacher of his
+conqueror. His own language was richer in literature, and it was
+better adapted to every form of conversation. The Latin of the Romans
+therefore made no progress in Greece or the Greek world. It might be
+made the language of the Roman courts and of official documents; but
+beyond this the ordinary Greek disdained to study it. On the other
+hand the ordinary well-educated Roman could generally speak Greek.
+Magistrates and officials were almost invariably thus accomplished,
+and in Athens or Ephesus they talked Greek as we should naturally talk
+French in Paris--only better, inasmuch as they learned the language in
+a more rational and practical way. Nero himself could act, or thought
+he could act, a Greek play and sing a Greek ode among the Greeks. Most
+probably the Roman noble had been brought up by a Greek nurse, just as
+so many English families formerly employed a nurse imported from
+France. Nor did the Greeks merely ignore the Latin language. They
+refused to be romanized in any other respect. Even the Roman
+amusements tended to disgust them, and it is to the credit of his
+superior refinement that the average Greek was repelled by those
+brutal exhibitions of gladiatorial bloodshed and slaughter over which
+the coarser Roman gloated.
+
+When, next, we pass from Greece proper--that is to say, from the
+Grecian peninsula and the islands and Asiatic shores of the Aegean
+Sea--into Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, we still find the Roman
+conqueror annexing peoples more versed in the higher arts of life than
+himself. For ages there had existed in these regions various forms of
+advanced civilisation. The Assyrian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Hebrew,
+and Egyptian cultures were old before Rome was born. Later the Persian
+subjugated all these peoples. And then, four hundred years before the
+time with which we are dealing, had come the Macedonian Greek
+Alexander the Great, and had conquered every one of those provinces
+which were subsequently to form the eastern part of the Roman Empire
+as represented on our map. The language and culture of Alexander were
+Greek, and he carried these and settled them with the most determined
+policy in every available quarter. After his death his empire broke up
+into kingdoms, but those kings who succeeded him--every Antiochus of
+Syria and every Ptolemy of Egypt--were Greek. Their court was Greek,
+and Hellenism was everywhere the fashion in life, thought, letters,
+and art. All round the coasts, in all the great cities, on all the
+main routes, up all the great river valleys of these eastern kingdoms,
+this graecizing proceeded. Alexander had founded the city of
+Alexandria, and soon that great and opulent city became more the home
+of Greek science and literature than Athens itself. His successors
+founded other great cities, such as Antioch, and there also the
+civilisation was Greek.
+
+Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians who were possessed of any kind of public,
+social, or even mercantile ambition therefore naturally spoke Greek,
+either only, or more often in conjunction with their native tongue.
+This is the reason why the Septuagint appeared in Greek; why Greek as
+well as Hebrew and Latin was written over the Cross; why our New
+Testament was written in Greek; and why Paul could travel about the
+eastern half of the Roman world and talk fluently wherever he went. He
+could address a Roman governor directly at Paphos because that
+governor had learned Greek at Rome, either in school or under his
+nurse or tutor. He could stand before the Areopagus at Athens and
+address that distinguished body in its own tongue because it was also
+one of _his_ own tongues.
+
+Not that one could expect the Greek culture, or even the language, to
+remain pure when thus spread abroad. There were blendings of Oriental
+elements, Egyptian, Jewish, or Syrian; but these elements were
+themselves derived from advanced and time-honoured civilisations.
+
+It follows, therefore, that all through the Eastern half of its domain
+Rome could not contrive to romanize. She did not attempt to suppress
+Greek ideas; she preferred to utilise them. So long as the Roman rule
+was obeyed in its essentials, Rome was satisfied.
+
+In the main, then, we have, outside Italy, two very distinct halves of
+the Roman world: the Eastern, with its large cities, its active civic
+life, its high culture, its contributions to science, art, and
+luxury--and, it must be added, its general dissoluteness--with here
+and there its pronounced leanings to Oriental fanaticism; and the
+Western, with very few large towns, with a life more determined by
+clans and tribes or country districts, with comparatively little
+social culture, contributing almost nothing to art or science,
+stronger in its contribution of natural products and virile men than
+in those of the more refined or artificial luxury. Over this half the
+Roman tongue, Roman dress, and Roman manners spread rapidly. In it
+Roman settlers made themselves more at home. The aim of the better
+classes of the natives was to render themselves as Roman as possible.
+It is in the western part of the empire that you will find the names
+which mark systematic Roman settlement and which often denote the work
+of an emperor. Towns such as Saragossa (Caesarea Augusta), Aosta,
+Augsburg, Autun (Augustodunum), and Augst are foundations of Augustus.
+Hence the fact that Spain and Prance speak a Latin tongue at this day,
+while no Latin was ever even temporarily the recognised language
+between the southern Adriatic and the Euphrates.
+
+This prime division made, let us now pass quickly round the empire,
+making such brief observations as may appear most helpful as we go.
+
+In the year 64 the south of Spain, the province of Baetica--of
+which we may speak more familiarly as Andalusia--was prosperous
+and peaceful, almost completely romanized and latinized. Many
+of its inhabitants were true Latins, most had made themselves
+indistinguishable from Latins. Along the river Guadalquivir there were
+flourishing towns, chief among them being those now known as Seville
+and Cordova. The whole region was one of rich pasture and tillage, and
+from it the merchant ships from Cadiz brought to Rome cargoes of the
+finest wool and of excellent olives and other fruits. The east of
+Spain, with Tarragona for its capital, stood next in order for its
+settled life and steady produce, including wine, salt fish and sauces,
+while in the interior the finest steel--corresponding to the Bilbao
+blades of more modern history--was tempered in the cold streams of the
+hills above the sources of the Tagus. From Portugal came cochineal and
+olives. In several parts of the peninsula--in Portugal, in the
+Asturias, and near Cartagena--were mines of gold and silver, which had
+been worked by the old Phoenicians and which the Romans had reopened.
+The chief trouble of Spain, it may be interesting to learn, was the
+rabbits, and against these there were no guns and no poison, but only
+dogs, traps, and ferrets. In Gaul there is one province
+long-established and fully romanized, with its capital at Narbonne,
+and with flourishing Roman towns, which are now familiar under such
+names as Aries and Nîmes. This is a region over the coast of which the
+culture of Greece had managed to stray, centuries before, through the
+accident of a Greek colony having been founded at Marseilles. In this
+province a Roman might live and feel that he was still as good as in
+Italy. But beyond lay what was known as "Long-haired" Gaul, sometimes
+"Trousered" Gaul, so called from the distinguishing externals of its
+inhabitants, who wore breeches, let their hair grow long, and on their
+faces grew only a moustache--three things which no Roman did, and from
+which, even in these districts, the nobles, who were the first to
+romanize, were beginning to desist.
+
+The peoples of these Gaulish provinces preferred, like all early
+Celtic communities, to give their adherence only to clans or tribes,
+and to unite no further than impulse or expediency dictated, forming
+no towns larger than a village, living for the most part in poor huts
+scattered through forests, hills, marshes, and pasture land, and
+content to sleep on straw, if only they could wear a fine plaid and
+boast of a gold ornament. The names of many such tribes still remain
+in the names of the towns which grew up from the chief village of each
+canton. Such were the Ambiani, who have given us Amiens, and the Remi,
+who have given us Rheims. Paris and Trèves denote the administrative
+villages of the Parisii and Treveri. Nevertheless the country had its
+corn-lands and was rich in minerals and cattle, from which the hides
+came regularly down the Rhone to be carried to the Mediterranean
+markets. "Long-haired" Gaul was at this date rude and superstitious,
+with that weird druidical religion which the Emperor Claudius had done
+his best to suppress. Its chief vice was that of drunkenness. As with
+the French, who have largely descended from them, the proverbial
+passions of the Gauls were for war and for the art of speaking; but at
+our date the former passion was decaying and the latter gaining
+ground. The Gaulish provinces united at a point on the Rhone, near
+which necessarily arose the largest city of that part of the world,
+namely, Lugdunum, or Lyons, which speedily became not only a seat of
+administration but a noted school of eloquence.
+
+Of Britain there is as yet little to say. For the last twenty years
+the Romans had done their best to conquer the Celtic tribes, who
+suffered, as Celtic tribes were always apt to suffer, from their own
+disunion. They had now reached the Trent--or rather a line from
+Chester to Lincoln--had just punished Boudicca (or Boadicea) for her
+vigorous effort at retaliation and her slaughter of 70,000 Romans or
+adherents of Rome, and were following the true Roman practice of
+securing what they had won by building military roads and establishing
+strong posts of control, as at Colchester, Chester, and
+Caerleon-on-Usk. Some amount of iron-working was being done in
+Britain, but its chief exports were, as they had long been, tin, salt,
+and hides. The British themselves had no towns. The places so called
+were nothing more than collections of huts, surrounded by rampart and
+ditch, in some easily defensible spot amid wood or marsh.
+
+Along the Rhine it is enough to note that the Germans were being kept
+in hand. South of the Danube the region now known as Styria and
+Carinthia was rich in iron, and both here and all along the
+mountainous tract of the Tyrol and neighbourhood Rome was steadily
+pushing her language and habits by means of settlement, trading, and
+military occupation. It may be remarked by the way that at this date
+there were in use practically all the Alpine passes now familiar to
+us--the Mont Genèvre, the Little and Great St. Bernard, the Simplon,
+the St. Gothard, and the Brenner.
+
+The Upper Balkans were necessarily under military occupation, but
+Macedonia was a flourishing graecized province with Thessalonica--the
+modern Salonika--for its capital. Greece proper, known officially as
+Achaia, had declined in every respect since the classical age of
+Athens. The monuments of that city were, indeed, as sumptuous as ever;
+a number had been added in Roman times, though generally in inferior
+taste. Athens was still a sort of university, but its professors were
+for the most part sophists or rhetoricians, beating over again the old
+straws of philosophies which had once possessed a living meaning and
+exercised a living force. Athens herself had never properly recovered
+from the migration of learning to Alexandria. Delphi, the great
+oracular seat of the Greek world, had also declined in importance,
+although it could still boast of an imposing array of buildings and
+memorials. The centre of commerce and of official life, a Roman colony
+in the midst of Greece, a cosmopolitan and a dissolute place, was
+Corinth on the Isthmus. Here Nero had intended to cut a canal through
+from sea to sea--he had turned the first sod with his own hand--but
+his personal extravagance caused an insufficiency of funds, and the
+project met with the fate of the first enterprise at Panama. It was,
+therefore, still necessary for a traveller proceeding to the East to
+cross the Isthmus and reship at Cenchreae. The rest of Greece was
+almost all poor and sparsely populated, and many ancient sites and
+monuments were already suffering from neglect and dropping into ruin.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6--THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS (From D'Ooge.)]
+
+Across the Aegean, Asia Minor was in a condition of unprecedented
+prosperity. It contained no less than five hundred towns of
+considerable repute, chief among them being Smyrna and Ephesus, with
+their handsome public buildings, open squares, theatres, gardens, and
+promenades. Smyrna in particular boasted of its wide marble-paved
+streets crossing each other at right angles, and provided with arcades
+running along their sides. Its one defect was the want of proper
+sewers. Among the sights of the world was the huge temple at Ephesus,
+dedicated to Artemis, the "Great Diana" of the _Acts of the Apostles_.
+This temple, the largest in the ancient world, was 425 feet long, 220
+wide, and its columns were 60 feet in height and numbered 127.
+
+South-east of the Aegean was situated the opulent Rhodes, the
+handsomest and strongest port in the Mediterranean, provided with fine
+harbour buildings, a seat of learning, and so full of art that it
+contained no less than 3000 statues. In the somewhat desolate interior
+of Asia Minor were spacious runs for sheep and horses, but wheat also
+was grown, and the country could at least produce tall and sturdy
+slaves. In northern Galatia the common people had not yet forgotten
+the Celtic tongue which they had brought from Gaul over three
+centuries ago. In the south-east, opposite Cyprus, lay Tarsus, the
+birthplace of Paul, a city which combined the art of manufacturing
+goats' hair into tent-cloth with the pursuit of what may be called a
+university instruction in philosophy, science, and letters. In both
+these local avocations the apostle employed his youth to good purpose.
+Across the water Cyprus produced the copper which still bears its
+name.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7.--PLAN OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Of Syria, rich in corn and fruits, the chief city--the third in the
+empire--was Antioch, a town splendidly laid out upon the Orontes in a
+strikingly modern fashion. A broad street with colonnades extended in
+a straight line through and beyond the city for four miles, and was
+crossed by others at right angles. This street is said to have been
+lighted at nights, while the Roman streets remained dark and
+dangerous. In the neighbourhood of the city was the celebrated park
+called Daphne, where the voluptuous and almost incredible dissipation
+of the ancient world perhaps reached its acme. Like Alexandria,
+Antioch was furiously addicted to horseracing.
+
+Further down the coast Sidon produced its famous glass, and Tyre its
+famous purple dye. Inland from these lay the handsome city of
+Damascus, famed for its gardens and for its work in fine linen. Still
+farther south was Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem, of which it is perhaps
+not necessary here to give details. Its population was reckoned at a
+quarter of a million.
+
+On the coast of Egypt, after you had caught sight, some thirty miles
+away, of the first glint from the huge marble lighthouse standing 400
+feet high upon the island of Pharos, you arrived at Alexandria, the
+second city of the Roman world and the great emporium for the trade of
+Egypt, of all Eastern Africa as far as Zanzibar, and of India. From it
+came the papyrus paper, delicate glass-work, muslin, embroidered
+cloths, and such additions to luxury as roses out of season.
+Alexandria, built like Antioch on a rectangular plan, with its chief
+streets 100 feet in width, contained a Jewish quarter, controlled by a
+Jewish headman and a Sanhedrin; an Egyptian quarter; and a Greek
+quarter, in which were the splendid buildings of the Library with its
+600,000 volumes, and the University, devoted to all branches of
+learning and science--including medicine--and provided with botanical
+and zoological gardens. Here also were the temple of Caesar and the
+fine harbour buildings. Its population, exceedingly money-loving and
+pleasure-loving, and comprising representatives of every Oriental
+people, may have numbered three-quarters of a million. The circuit of
+the city was about thirteen miles, and its chief street some four
+miles in length.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8.--EMBLEM OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Behind it lay Egypt, with its irrigation and traffic canals kept in
+good order; with its monuments in far better preservation than
+now--the pyramids, for example, being still coated with their smooth
+marble sides, and not to be mounted by the present steps, from which
+the marble has been torn; with its rich corn-lands, its convict mines
+and quarries, the Siberia of antiquity; with its string of towns along
+the Nile and its seven or, eight millions of inhabitants--mostly
+speaking Coptic--and full of strange superstitions and peculiar
+worship of animals.
+
+Coming westward we reach the prosperous Cyrene, and then, by the
+rather out-of-the-world Bight of Tripoli, Africa proper, where once
+ruled mighty Carthage, the colony of Tyre, and where the Phoenician or
+Punic language still survived among the population of mixed
+Phoenicians and Berbers. Here, too, are wide and luxuriant stretches
+of corn-land, upon which Rome depends only next, if next, to those of
+Alexandria. Further west are the Berber tribes of Mauretania, governed
+by Rome but hardly yet fully assimilated into the Roman system.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9.--EMBLEM OF ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the Mediterranean Sea lie Crete, a place which had now become of
+little importance; Sicily, as much Greek as Roman, fertile in crops
+and possessed of many a splendid Greek temple and theatre; Sardinia,
+an unhealthy island infested by banditti, and employed as a sort of
+convict station, producing some amount of grain and minerals; and
+Corsica, which bore much the same character for savagery as it did in
+times comparatively recent, and which had little reputation for any
+product but its second-rate honey and its wax. The Balearic Islands
+were chiefly noted for their excellence in the art of slinging for
+painters' earth, and for breeding snails for the Roman table.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10.--EMBLEM OF ROME. From the Column of Antoninus
+at Rome.]
+
+It remains to say that the feeling of local pride was very strong in
+the rival towns of the empire. Each gloried in its distinguishing
+commerce and natural advantages, and the chosen emblems of the greater
+cities set forth their boasts with much artistic ingenuity. Thus
+Antioch is symbolised by a female figure seated on a rock, crowned
+with a turreted diadem, and holding in her hand a bunch of ears of
+corn, while her foot is planted on the shoulder of a half-buried
+figure representing the river Orontes. Alexandria, with her Horn of
+Plenty, her Egyptian fruits, and the representations of her elephants,
+asps, and panthers, as well as of her special deities, appears in
+relief upon a silver vessel found at Boscoreale near Pompeii and here
+reproduced.
+
+Such in brief was the Roman Empire. How all this empire was governed,
+what was meant by emperor, governor, taxation, and justice, is matter
+for other chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+We have seen, and succinctly traversed, the extent of the Roman world.
+The next step is to consider, as tersely as possible, its system of
+government and administration about the year 64. This task is not only
+entirely necessary to our immediate purpose; it is also one of great
+interest and profit in itself. If we are either to see in their proper
+light the experiences of such a man as St. Paul, or to understand the
+long continuance of so wide an empire, we must observe carefully the
+principles and methods adopted by the Romans as rulers.
+
+We speak fluently of the "Roman Emperor" and of the "reign of Nero."
+What was an emperor? What were his powers, and how did he exercise
+them?
+
+In the first place, it must be noted that, strictly speaking, Rome
+acknowledged no such thing as an autocrat. It had no monarch; the
+title "king" was disowned by the Caesars and entirely denied by the
+people; the emperor was technically not a superior sovereign, but, on
+the contrary, something inferior to a sovereign. He was the first
+citizen, the "first man of the state." The state was nominally a
+commonwealth, and the emperor its most important officer.
+
+He was, to begin with, the representative of Rome as civil and
+military governor of all provinces containing an army, or apparently
+calling for an army. "Emperor" means military commander, and he was
+the commander-in-chief of all the forces of the empire, military or
+naval, but in a sense far more liberal than would now be intended by
+such an expression. Of all the fighting forces he had absolute
+control, determining their numbers, their service, all appointments,
+their pay, and their discharge. He moved them where he chose, and,
+beyond this, he possessed the power of declaring war and concluding
+peace. Wherever there existed an armed force, whether in the far-off
+field or in garrison, its obedience was due to him. In sign of this
+every soldier, on the first of January and on the anniversary of the
+emperor's accession, took a solemn oath--and an oath in those days was
+felt as no mere matter of form, but as a solemn act of religion--that
+he would loyally obey the commander-in-chief. The emperor's effigy was
+conspicuous in the middle of every camp, and, in small, it figured on
+the standard of every regiment. The sacred obligation of the soldier
+to an Augustus or a Nero was kept perpetually in evidence, and he was
+never allowed to forget it. Wherever the emperor appeared or
+intervened in the provinces, all other powers became subordinate to
+his.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--AUGUSTUS AS EMPEROR.]
+
+Theoretically such a commander might always be deposed by the Roman
+people, acting through its Senate. In reality he was master of the
+situation. If he was ever deposed, or if a new commander was ever
+appointed, it was by the army. If he proved a tyrant, there was no
+other means of getting rid of him than by the army, unless it were by
+assassination. At such times the Senate might make a show of naming
+the successor, and the army might make a show of agreeing with the
+Senate, but such expressions, as Tacitus repeats, were "empty and
+meaningless words." The madman Caligula had been assassinated. When,
+four years after our date, Nero was compelled to flee from his palace
+and was persuaded into committing suicide, it was because the soldiers
+had declared against him and had elected another.
+
+The vast powers of the emperor had come into the hands of one man
+simply because the republic had been found incompetent to handle its
+empire, whether from a military or a financial point of view. It
+managed neither so consistently nor so honestly as did the individual.
+
+The emperor, then, by a constitutional fiction, was an officer of the
+commonwealth, commanding its forces, not only with the freedom of
+action which Rome had always allowed to its experts in dealing with
+the enemy, but with that freedom greatly enlarged, and with a tenure
+of the office perpetually renewed.
+
+But to him that hath shall be given--especially if he is in a position
+to insist on the gift. The emperor's military authority, his position
+as governor of provinces, could not alone rightfully qualify him to
+control Rome itself, with its laws, its magistrates, its domestic and
+provincial policy. Theoretically the Roman emperor never did control
+these matters.
+
+In practice he did with them very much as he chose. If he seriously
+wished a certain course to be followed, a certain law to be passed or
+abolished, even a certain man to be elected to an office, it was
+promptly done. But how could he thus perpetually interfere and yet
+appear to remain a constitutional officer? Not through the mere
+obsequiousness of every one concerned, including the Senate. That
+would be too transparent, clumsy, and invidious. It was necessary that
+he should possess some adequate appearance of real authority, and he
+was therefore ingeniously invested with that authority. It was thus.
+There were under the commonwealth certain annual officers of wide and
+rather indefinite powers called "tribunes of the commons." These
+persons could veto any measure which they declared to be in opposition
+to the interests of the people. They could also summon the Senate, and
+bring proposals before it. Meanwhile their persons were "sacrosanct,"
+or inviolable, during their term of office. Here lay the opportunity.
+The emperor was invested by the Senate with these "powers of the
+tribune." He was not actually elected a tribune, for the office was
+only annual and could not be held along with any other, whereas the
+emperor must have the prerogatives always, and in conjunction with any
+other functions which he might choose to hold. He, therefore, only
+received the corresponding "powers" and privileges. This position
+enabled him to veto a measure whenever he chose, and with impunity.
+Naturally therefore it became the custom, as far as possible, to find
+out his wishes beforehand, and to move accordingly. He could also, in
+the same right, summon the Senate and bring measures, or get them
+brought, before it. To make certainty doubly certain, he was granted
+the right to what we should call "the first business on the
+notice-paper."
+
+Observe further the shrewdness of the first emperor, Augustus, when he
+selected this particular position. The "tribunes of the commons" were
+constitutionally popular champions; they represented the interests of
+the common people. By assuming a position similar to theirs, the
+emperor--or commander-in-chief--made it appear to the common people
+that he was their chief and perpetual representative, and that their
+interests were bound up with his authority. He took them under his
+wing, and saw, among other things, that they did not starve or go
+stinted of amusements. He saw to it that they had corn for their
+bread, plenty of water, and games in the circus. His "bread and games"
+kept them quiet.
+
+Supported by the army on one side, with his person secure, enjoying
+the right of initiative and the right of veto, this officer of the
+"commonwealth" became indeed the Colossus who bestrode the Roman
+world. He was invariably made also the Pontifex Maximus, or chief
+guardian of the religious interests of Rome. He might in addition
+receive other constitutional appointments--for example, that of
+supervisor or corrector of morals--whenever these might suit a special
+purpose. What more could a man desire, if he was satisfied to forego
+the name of autocrat so long as he possessed the substance? It was
+quite as much to the purpose to be called _Princeps_, or "head of the
+state," as to be called a king, like the Parthian or other Oriental
+monarchs. Among the Romans, therefore, "Princeps" was his regular
+title. The Graeco-Oriental half of the empire, which had long been
+accustomed to kings and to treating them almost as gods, frankly
+styled this head of the state "king" or "autocrat," but no true Roman
+would forget himself so far as to lapse into this vulgar truth.
+
+One other title, however, the Romans did attach to their "Princeps."
+Something was still wanting to bring home, to both the Roman and the
+provincial, the peculiarly exalted position of so great a man;
+something which should be a recognition of that majesty which made him
+almost divine, at least with the divinity that doth hedge a king. The
+title selected for this purpose was _Augustus_, a word for which there
+is no nearer English equivalent than "His Highness," or perhaps "His
+Majesty," if we imagine that term applied to one who, by a legal
+fiction, is not a king. The insane Caligula called himself, or let
+himself be called, "Lord and Master," and later Domitian temporarily
+added to this title "God," but even Nero claimed neither of these
+modest epithets.
+
+Here, then, is the position of Nero: Commander-in-chief of all the
+forces of Rome by land and sea, and master of its foreign policy; the
+titular protector of its commons and therefore inviolable of person
+and virtual controller of laws and resolutions; official head of the
+state religion; rejoicer in the style of "His Highness the Head of the
+State." To speak ill of him, or to do anything derogatory to his
+authority, was _lèse majesté_.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--COIN OF NERO. British Museum.]
+
+Reference has several times been made to the Senate. It is time now to
+speak briefly of that body. For the sake of clearness, however, we
+must include a survey of the recognised constituent elements or
+"orders" of Roman society.
+
+The body politic consisted nominally of all who where known as "Roman
+citizens." These included men of every rank, from the artisan, the
+agricultural labourer, or even the idle loafer--of whom there was more
+than plenty--up through every grade of the middle classes to the
+richest and bluest-blooded aristocrat who considered himself in point
+of birth more than the equal of the emperor. Any such citizen was
+secured in person and property by the Roman laws. It was a punishable
+act for the local authorities at Philippi to take Paul, a "Roman
+citizen," and, before he was condemned, chastise him with rods.
+
+According to the letter of the constitution, the power of electing all
+officers of state, and of passing laws, had belonged to this
+miscellaneous body, the "people," gathered in assembly. Meanwhile the
+power of determining foreign policy and controlling the finances had
+lain with a special body, consisting largely of the aristocracy and of
+ex-officers of state, known as the "Senate." We are not here concerned
+with the causes of the changes which buried this constitution out of
+sight, but only with the actual state of things in the year 64.
+
+In point of fact there were, under the emperors, no longer any
+assemblies of the "people"; the people at large neither elected nor
+legislated. The chief articles of the constitution had fallen into
+complete abeyance during the troublous times which preceded the
+establishment of that poorly disguised monarchy which we know as the
+empire. All real power of electing and law-making came to be in the
+hands of the Senate, acting with the emperor. While the emperor
+dominated the Senate, he was nevertheless glad to fall back upon that
+body in justification of his own actions and as a means of keeping up
+the constitutional pretence. He permitted the Senate to pass
+resolutions, and to exercise authority, just so far as there was no
+conflict with his own pronounced wishes and interests. It was not his
+policy to interfere and irritate when there was no occasion. On the
+other hand, when he desired a piece of legislation or an important
+administrative novelty, he preferred that it should be backed up by
+the sanction, or promoted by the apparently spontaneous action, of the
+Senate. It then bore a better appearance, and was less open to cavil.
+The people are no longer consulted at all in such matters. They have
+no say in them, for they have neither plebiscite nor representative
+government.
+
+It must not be supposed that there never was friction between emperor
+and Senate. The Senate was often--or rather generally--servile,
+because it was intimidated. But there were times when it was inclined
+to assert itself; some of its members occasionally allowed themselves
+a certain freedom of speech, toward which one emperor might be
+surprisingly lenient or good-naturedly contemptuous, and another
+outrageously vindictive. In the year 64 the Senate was outwardly
+docile enough, although at heart it was anything but loyal to his
+Highness Nero the Head of the State. It must always be remembered that
+among the Senate were included many of the highest-born, proudest, and
+strictest of the Roman nobles or men of eminence. To them the whole
+succession of emperors was still a series of upstarts--the family of
+the Caesars--usurping powers which properly belonged to the Senate.
+You could not expect these persons, aristocrats at heart, and many of
+them true patriots, bearing names distinguished throughout Roman
+history, to acquiesce in the spectacle of one who was no better than
+they, as he passed up to his huge palace on the Palatine Hill,
+escorted by his guards, or as he entered the Senate-House to give what
+were practically his orders, perhaps scarcely deigning to recognise
+men whose families had been illustrious while his was obscure. At
+times a member here or there was calculating his own chances of
+supplanting the man who galled him by condescension, or coldness, or
+even insult. These aristocrats felt as the French nobles might feel
+with Napoleon. And on his side the emperor, good or bad, never felt
+quite safe from a plot to overthrow him. On the whole these earlier
+emperors were much engaged in keeping the Senate in its place, and
+were inclined, with quite sufficient reason, to be jealous and
+suspicious of its more important members.
+
+It was natural, therefore, that they should keep a very practical
+control over the composition of that body. The situation was much as
+if a modern nation were ruled by a virtual autocrat assisted by a
+House of Peers. The senators and their families formed a "senatorial
+order." So far as the Romans had such a thing as a peerage under the
+empire, it is to be found in the senatorial order. And as a title may
+now be either hereditary or conferred by the sovereign as the "fount
+of honour," so, under the Roman emperors, the right to belong to the
+senatorial order might come from birth or from the choice of the head
+of the state. Normally you belonged to the "order" if you were the son
+of a senator; you ranked in that class of society. To belong to the
+Senate itself and to take part in its debates you must then have held
+a certain public office and must possess not less than £8000. The
+£8000 is the minimum. Most senators were rich, and some were
+enormously wealthy. They are found with a capital of £3,000,000 or
+£4,000,000 and an income up to £150,000. As for the public office
+which you must first hold, you could not even be a candidate for it
+unless you were already of the "order." If, when you are a senator,
+there is anything serious against you, or if you become impoverished,
+your name may be expunged from the list. Otherwise you remain a
+senator all your life, and your son in turn is of the "order," and may
+pass into the Senate by the same process. If you were a popular or
+highly deserving person, and from any accident had lost your property,
+the emperor would frequently make up the deficiency, or your brother
+senators would subscribe the necessary amount.
+
+But an emperor could meanwhile raise to the "order" anyone he chose.
+He could give him standing, and so make him eligible as a candidate
+for that public office which was preliminary to entering the actual
+Senate. Moreover, when it came to the elections to this office which
+served as the indispensable stepping-stone to the Senate-House, the
+vacancies were limited in number, and the emperor had the right of
+either nominating or recommending the candidates whom he preferred.
+Needless to say, those candidates were invariably elected. It was, of
+course, monstrous arrogance for Caligula to boast that he could make
+his horse a consul if he chose, but the taunt contained a measure of
+truth.
+
+Let us then put the case thus. Imagine that a modern senate is
+recruited from persons whose names are in the _Peerage and
+Baronetage_, and that, before any scion of such a family can enter the
+Senate itself, he must go through some sort of under-secretaryship, to
+which he must first be elected.
+
+But next imagine that the sovereign can raise to the rank of "peerage
+or baronetage" some favoured person whose family does not yet figure
+in _Debrett_. Such a man is then entitled to put his name on the list
+of candidates for the necessary under-secretaryship, and, when the
+sovereign reviews that list, he marks the candidate as nominated or
+recommended by himself. So he passes into the Senate.
+
+Most emperors did this but sparingly. They made the Senate an
+aristocratic and wealthy body, keeping its numbers at somewhere near
+600. We must not be perpetually assuming that the Caesars were either
+reckless or unscrupulous, because two or three were of that character.
+Many of them were remarkably capable and sagacious men. They
+recognised the need of ability and high character in their Senate.
+They had themselves enough of the old Roman exclusiveness to keep
+their honours from being made too cheap, and the probability is that
+under their rule the Senate was quite as honourable and quite as able
+a body as it was at any time under the republic.
+
+The feeling of _noblesse oblige_ was strongly implanted in this
+senatorial class. The wealth of most members also put them above the
+more sordid temptations. The senator was not permitted to undertake
+any mercantile or financial business. The ancient notion still
+survived, that the only really honourable occupations for money were
+war and agriculture. The senator might own land and dispose of its
+produce or receive its rents, but he could not, for instance, be a
+money-lender or tax-farmer. Sometimes, no doubt, a senator evaded
+these provisions by employing a "dummy," but we must not probe too
+deep under the surface. In compensation for this disability it was
+from the senatorial class that were drawn all the governors of the
+important provinces, except Egypt, and all the higher military
+officers. In these capacities they received salaries. The governor of
+Africa, for example, was paid £10,000 a year.
+
+Such men were no mere inexperienced aristocrats or plutocrats. They
+had regularly passed through a military training in youth, and had
+then held a minor civil appointment, commonly involving some knowledge
+of public finance. Next they had passed into the Senate and taken part
+in its business; had then held other public offices which taught them
+practical administration and probably legal procedure; and had
+afterwards been put in command of a "legion," that is to say, a
+brigade or _corps d'armée_. After performing such functions with
+credit, a senator might be sent to govern Syria or Macedonia or
+Britain or some other province. He was then a man of varied experience
+and ripe judgment, trained in official discipline and etiquette, as
+well as in knowledge. This was the kind of man whom Paul met in Cyprus
+in the person of the governor Sergius Paulus, or at Corinth in the
+person of Gallio.
+
+Certain smaller provinces might be administered by men of another
+order, who were neither filled with the senatorial traditions nor had
+passed through the senatorial career. These were but "factors" or
+"agents" of Caesar, and among them were the Pontius Pilate, Felix, and
+Festus, who were administrators of Judaea in New Testament times.
+
+Next in rank to the senatorial order stood that of the "Knights." If
+the senators represent, in a certain sense, the peerage and
+baronetage, the next order represents--also in a certain sense.--the
+knightage. Generally speaking, it comprehended what we should call the
+upper middle classes, and particularly those concerned in the higher
+walks of finance; such persons as, with us, would be the directors or
+managers of great companies and banks. It also included persons whom
+the head of the state chose to honour with something less than
+senatorial standing. Many of these men were extremely wealthy, but the
+minimum property qualification stood at only £3200, and Roman citizens
+who possessed that amount were rather apt to pose as knights, and to
+be commonly spoken of as such by a kind of courtesy title, although
+their names could not be found upon the authorised rolls. Though
+several emperors did their best to stop this practice, the endeavour
+was for the most part fruitless. Once in England the "esquires" were a
+class with certain recognised claims, but nothing could stop the
+polite tendency to add "Esq." to the name of a person on a private
+letter. The case was somewhat similar at Rome, although the practice
+did not proceed quite so far.
+
+Nevertheless there was a distinct and official roll of "Roman
+knights," whom the head of the state had honoured with a public
+present of "the gold ring," a ceremony corresponding to the royal
+sword-stroke of modern times. This body, mounted on horses nominally
+presented by the public, and riding in procession through the streets,
+was reviewed and revised every year. Their roll was called, and if a
+name was omitted from its proper place, it meant--without explanation
+necessary--that by the pleasure of the emperor the person in question
+had ceased to be a knight. Every member of the already-mentioned
+higher or senatorial order was by right a knight until he actually
+became a senator, from which time he ceased to enjoy the privileges of
+a knight because he was enjoying those of the higher order rank. For
+there were privileges as well as disabilities in each case. As a
+senator could govern large provinces and command armies, but could not
+engage in purely financial business; so the knight could--and almost
+alone did--conduct the large financial enterprises of the Roman world,
+but could not command armies nor hold any of the great public offices
+or higher provincial appointments, except the governorship of Egypt.
+Relatively to the senators the emperor was technically only "first
+among equals"; he was the first senator, as well as the first man of
+the state. At this date a senator would hold a truly public office,
+civil or military, with or under this "superior equal," but he would
+not act as his personal agent or assistant. The Roman aristocrat had
+not yet learned to serve in that capacity, still less on the
+"household" staff of the autocrat. There were as yet no highly placed
+Romans serving as Lord High Chamberlain, much less as Private
+Secretary. The "knights" stood in a different position. They were
+prepared to be the emperor's personal agents, just as they were
+prepared to be the agents of any one else, if sufficiently
+remunerated. They would take his personal orders, whether in managing
+his estates, collecting his provincial revenues, or relieving him of
+some routine portion of his own official labour.
+
+It follows that it was often more lucrative to be a knight than a
+senator, and a number of senators were not unwilling to give up their
+rank, for the same reasons which induce a modern peer to serve on
+companies or a peeress to open a shop. On the other hand many a knight
+would have declined to become a senator, at least until he had
+sufficiently feathered his nest. The inducement to become or remain a
+senator was the social rank, the honour and dignity, with their
+outward insignia and the deference paid to them, the front seat, and
+the reception at court. In these the wives also shared, and at Rome
+the influence of the wife could not be disregarded.
+
+If you met a senator, or a person of senatorial rank, in the street,
+you would know him for such by the broad band of purple which ran down
+the front, and probably also down the back, of his tunic, and by the
+silver or ivory crescent which he wore upon his black shoes. His wife,
+it is perhaps needless to say made even more show of what is called
+the "broad stripe." If you met a knight, you would perceive his
+standing by his two narrow stripes of purple appearing upon the same
+part of his dress. Each would wear a gold ring; but that in itself
+would prove nothing, since, despite all attempts at prohibiting the
+custom, every Roman who could afford a gold ring permitted himself
+that luxury.
+
+If you entered one of the large semicircular theatres, which are to be
+described in due course, you would find that the men wearing the broad
+stripe seated themselves in the chairs which stood upon the level in
+front of the stage, while those wearing the narrow stripes would
+occupy the first fourteen tiers of seats rising just behind them. No
+one else might, occupy those places. If some one who had been
+improperly posing as a knight, or who had been degraded from his rank
+because he had wasted his credit and his money and no longer possessed
+either £3200 or a reputation, ventured to seat himself in the fourteen
+rows in the hope of being unnoticed, he would be speedily called upon
+by the usher to withdraw. Snobs occasionally made the attempt, and, at
+a somewhat later date, we have an amusing epigram of Martial
+concerning one who repeatedly but unsuccessfully dodged the usher and
+who was at last compelled to kneel in the gangway opposite the end of
+the fourteenth row, where it might look to those behind as if he were
+sitting among the knights, while technically he could claim that he
+was not sitting at all.
+
+Elsewhere also, as for instance at the chariot-races in the Circus,
+and at the gladiatorial shows in the amphitheatre, there were special
+places set apart for the two orders.
+
+Below the senators and the knights came the "people,"--the "commons,"
+or "third estate"--with all its usual grades and its usual variety of
+occupation or no occupation, of manners and character or absence of
+both. With the life of these, as with the life of a noble, we shall
+deal at the proper time.
+
+So much for the Roman citizen proper. Other elements of the population
+were the foreigners. At Rome these were exceedingly numerous, and the
+city may in this respect be called--as indeed it was called--a
+microcosm, a small copy or epitome of the Roman world. Gauls,
+Africans, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, and Egyptians were perhaps the most
+commonly to be seen, but particularly prominent were the Greeks and
+the Jews. The Greeks were recognised above all as the clever men, the
+artists, the social entertainers, and the literary guides. The Jews,
+who formed a sort of colony in what is now known as Trastevere--the
+low-lying quarter across the Tiber--were not yet the princes of high
+finance. As yet they were chiefly the hucksters and petty traders,
+notorious for their strange habits and for the fanaticism of their
+religion, which nevertheless exercised a strange potency and made many
+proselytes even in high places, especially among the women. Poppaea,
+the wife of Nero himself, is commonly considered to have been such a
+proselyte, although the strange notion that she herself was a Jewess
+is without any sort of foundation. It is a common error to suppose
+that the Jews came to Rome only after the destruction of Jerusalem.
+The dispersion had occurred long before Rome had anything to do with
+Judaea, and naturally the enterprising Jew was to be found in all
+profitable places, whether in Alexandria, Antioch, Smyrna, Corinth,
+Rome, or farther afield.
+
+In the political sense all these foreigners belonged to their own
+provinces and communities. They might be citizens there, but they were
+not citizens at Rome. At Rome they had no public claims and no
+official career, unless--as not seldom happened--they received, for
+some service or some distinction, the gift of the Roman citizenship.
+Sometimes the citizenship was given wholesale to a town, or even to a
+province. How the Hebrew father or grandfather of St. Paul became a
+Roman citizen, we do not know. Their own abilities or the emperor's
+favour might carry such citizens, or their children, up all the steps
+which were open to the ordinary Roman.
+
+After the foreigners come the slaves. At Rome itself they formed about
+one-third of the population. This is not the moment for any detailed
+account of their employment, their treatment, or their liberation.
+
+Suffice it for the present that the slave possessed no rights at all.
+He was the chattel of his master, who possessed over him the full
+power of life and death, limited only by public opinion and prudential
+considerations. A Roman might have at his disposal one slave or ten
+thousand slaves. He could use them as he liked, kill them if he chose,
+and, subject to certain limitations, set them free if he willed,
+provided that he did not set too many free at once. The last
+restriction was especially necessary, inasmuch as a slave who was
+manumitted by his master with the proper ceremonies became _ipso
+facto_ a Roman citizen, but was still bound by certain ties of loyalty
+to his former master. For a Roman to possess too large an attachment
+of "freedmen," as they were called, might prove dangerous. The
+"freedman," though a citizen, could not himself enter upon a public
+career; neither, in ordinary circumstances, could his children; but in
+the third generation the family stood on an entire equality with any
+other Roman family in that respect.
+
+For the present it may be added that our conception of the meaning of
+the word "slave" must not be that attached to its modern use. Many
+such slaves were men of great special or general ability, or men of
+high culture, especially if Greeks, Syrians, Jews, or Egyptians. They
+were frequently superior to their masters, and subsequently, as free
+citizens, added much to either the refinement or the over-refinement
+of Roman life. Perhaps it is as well, in passing, to point out that
+the later Roman people was in no small degree descended from all this
+aggregation of foreigners and emancipated slaves, and that we must
+speak with the greatest reservation when we describe the modern Roman
+as a direct descendant of the ancient stock who fought with Hannibal
+and subjugated the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+Roughly then this is the situation at the centre of government.
+Sumptuously housed on the Palatine Hill--the origin of our word
+"palace"--is His Highness Claudius Nero, Head of the State,
+Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Empowered to act as Tribune of the
+People, and Head of the State Religion: in modern times commonly
+called "the Emperor." Every day and night his palace is surrounded by
+a regiment of the Imperial Guards, and attached to his person is a
+special corps for bodyguard, and orderlies. In practice, whatever be
+the theory, he possesses the control of legislation and appointments;
+upon him practically depends all recognised distinction of social
+rank. Down below, to the side of the Forum, is the Senate-House, in
+which there gathers, twice each month, and oftener if summoned, the
+great deliberative body which, in spite of all disturbances, civil
+wars, and limitations or broadenings of its power, is the continuation
+of the assembly of grave Roman fathers who first met some eight
+hundred years before. These men, who are of birth and wealth and
+commonly of sound public training, are the nominal upholders and
+directors of the commonwealth, still left to perform many functions
+and to administer the more peaceful provinces in their own
+way--especially if they relieve the emperor of trouble--but in
+practice controlled by His Highness whenever and however it suits his
+purpose. They and the emperor form a partnership in authority, but the
+Senate is very distinctly the junior partner. They lend him advice or
+sanction when he seeks it, and they sometimes act as a break on his
+impetuosity. It is not well to alienate them, for they are proud; they
+are jointly, sometimes individually, powerful; and their moral weight
+with army and public is not to be despised.
+
+Thus stands the central government, while socially there follows the
+order of the Knights, depending for their rank upon the emperor, and
+in many cases serving in his employ. Below these the populace, of
+whose rights and liberties the emperor is an official champion to whom
+theoretically any Roman citizen can appeal against a sentence of death
+or against cruel wrong. It is hard to conceive of a stronger position
+for one man to hold.
+
+When we survey this vast aggregation of various provinces, with their
+differences of race, language, religion, and habits; when we remember
+that it was on the whole strictly, energetically, and legally
+administered; it is hard--even allowing for a wise Senate and capable
+ministers--to realise a man competent for the position.
+
+Yet Augustus had been conspicuously successful, and Tiberius not less
+so; Claudius, despite a certain weakness, cannot by any means be
+called a failure; after Nero, Vespasian and Titus were capable enough;
+while Trajan deserves nothing but admiration. On the other hand
+Caligula, it is true, had had more than a touch of the madman in his
+composition, and had believed himself to be omnipotent and on a level
+with Jupiter. Nero had begun well, but had been led by vanity, vice,
+and extravagance to an astounding pitch of folly and oppression.
+Nevertheless it must be remarked, and it should be firmly emphasised,
+that what is called the tyranny of Caligula and Nero is mainly--and in
+Caligula's case almost solely--a tyranny affecting the Romans
+themselves, affecting the lives and property of the Roman senators and
+other prominent persons, and affecting the lives and honour of their
+wives and daughters. The outcry against these two emperors comes from
+the Romans, not from the subject peoples. At least in Caligula's case
+the provinces were as peaceful and prosperous as at other times. It is
+true that the madman once meant to insist on the Jews putting up his
+own statue in the temple at Jerusalem, but this was because his vanity
+was aggrieved by their unwillingness. Under Nero the case is much the
+same. His tyranny for the most part took the shape of cruelty, insult,
+and plunder in Rome itself. It was only when he was becoming
+hopelessly in debt that he began to plunder the provinces as well as
+Italy by demanding contributions of money, and in particular to seize
+upon Greek works of art without paying for them. It is a mistake to
+think of Nero as habitually and without scruple trampling under his
+blood-stained foot the rights and privileges of the provinces, or
+grinding from them the last penny, or harrying, slaying, and violating
+throughout the empire.
+
+There is nothing to show that, during the greater part of his reign,
+the provinces at large felt any material difference between the rule
+of Nero and the rule of Claudius, or that they rejoiced particularly
+in his fall. In many quarters he was a favourite. In the latter half
+of his reign he made himself a brute beast, and often a fool, in the
+eyes of respectable Romans. But it was, as still more with Caligula,
+rather in his immediate environment that his tyranny was felt to be
+intolerable; that is to say, among the men and women who had the
+misfortune to come in his way with sufficient attraction of purse or
+beauty to awaken his cupidity. And these were the Romans themselves,
+senators and knights, not the populace, and in but a small degree, if
+at all, the provincials in Spain or Greece or Palestine.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--BUST OF SENECA. Archeologische Zeitung.]
+
+Perhaps this is the time to look for a little while at this Nero,
+whose name has deservedly passed into a byword for heartless
+bestiality. In the year 64 he is 27 years of age, and has been seated
+on the throne for ten years. Four years more are to elapse before he
+perishes with the cry, "What an artist the world is losing!" In his
+early years his vicious propensities, inherited from an abominable
+father, had been kept in check partly by his preceptor, the
+philosopher Seneca, and by Burrus, the commander of the Imperial
+Guards, partly by his domineering and furious-tempered mother,
+Agrippina, who seems to have so closely resembled the mother of Lord
+Byron. But at this date he had got rid of both his tutors. Burrus was
+dead, probably by poison, and Seneca was in forced retirement. The
+emperor had also caused his own mother to be murdered. Poisoning,
+strangling, drowning, or a command--explicit or implied--to depart
+this life, were his ways of shaking off any incubus upon a free
+indulgence of his will. His follies and vices had revealed themselves
+from the first, and had gone to outrageous lengths, but now he is
+entirely unhampered in exhibiting them.
+
+[Illustration: Photo--Mansell & Co. FIG. 14--BUST OF AGRIPPINA, MOTHER
+OF NERO.]
+
+Educated slightly in philosophy, but better in music and letters, he
+could speak, like others of his day, Greek as well as his native
+Latin. His aim was to be an "artist," but if the want of balance which
+too often goes with what is called the "artistic temperament" ever
+manifested itself in its worst form, it was in Nero. Apart from his
+passion for music and verse, he developed an early mania for
+horse-racing, and when he was caught talking in school--where such
+conversation was forbidden--about a charioteer who had fallen out of
+his chariot and been dragged along the ground, he explained that he
+was discussing the passage in Homer where Achilles drags the body of
+Hector round the walls of Troy. In after life he carried both forms of
+mania to amazing lengths. The highest form of music was then
+represented by singing to the harp. Nero's ambition was no less than
+to compete with the champion minstrels of the world. As he remarked,
+"music is not music unless it is heard," and he decided to make public
+appearances upon the stage like any professional. Whenever he did so,
+a number of energetic youths, salaried for the purpose, were
+distributed among the audience as _claqueurs_--the words actually used
+for them being perhaps translatable as "boomers" or "rattlers." He
+acted parts in plays--a proceeding which would correspond to an
+appearance in opera--and made a peregrination through Greece and back
+by way of Naples as an exponent of the art of singing to the harp.
+While upon this tour, whenever he was performing in the theatre, the
+doors were shut, and no one might leave the building for any reason
+whatever. "Many," says the memoir-writer, "got so tired of listening
+and praising that they jumped down from the wall, or pretended to be
+dead, so as to get carried out." Naturally he always won the prize,
+and, on his side, it should be remarked that he honestly believed he
+had earned it. He practised assiduously, took hard physical training,
+regulated his diet for the cultivation of his voice, which was not
+naturally of the best, and probably became not at all a bad amateur.
+His monstrous self-conceit did the rest. Besides singing to the harp,
+he was prepared to perform upon the flute and the bagpipes, and to
+give a dance afterwards. All this, of course, was undignified and
+ridiculous, but it was scarcely tyranny. Doubtless there was
+sufficient suffering among the audience, but that cruelty was hardly
+deliberate. In the Roman noble, whose ideal of behaviour included
+dignity and gravity, these public appearances perhaps often aroused
+more indignation and scorn than did his sensual vices. The same
+contempt was often evoked by other proceedings of a similar nature.
+His insatiable fondness for horse-racing, or rather chariot-racing,
+induced him to appear also as a charioteer. First he practised in his
+extensive private park or gardens, which were situated across the
+Tiber on the ground now approximately occupied by St. Peter's and the
+Vatican. When he appeared at the Olympic games driving a team of ten
+horses, he was thrown out of the car, and had to be lifted into it
+again. Though he was eventually compelled to abandon the race, he was,
+of course, crowned victor all the same. He dabbled also in painting
+and modelling.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon his eccentricities. One might describe
+how in his earlier years he often put on mufti and roamed the streets
+at night with a few choice Mohawks, broke into shops, and insulted
+respectable citizens, throwing them into the drains if they resisted;
+how, being unrecognized, he once received a sound thrashing from a
+person of the senatorial order, and was thereafter attended on such
+occasions by police following at a distance. One might describe his
+dicing at £3 or £4 a pip, or his banquets, at one of which he paid as
+much as £30,000 for roses from Alexandria. After the great
+conflagration which swept over a large part of Rome in this very year
+64 he began to build his enormous Golden House, in which stood a
+colossal effigy of himself 120 feet high, and in which the circuit of
+the colonnade made three Roman miles. Whether he deliberately set fire
+to the city in order to make room for this stupendous palace is open
+to doubt. It was naturally believed at the time, and, in order to
+divert suspicion from himself, he turned it upon those persons for
+whom the Roman populace had at that moment the greatest contempt,
+because, as the historian puts it, of their pestilent superstition and
+of a profound suspicion that they harboured a "hatred of the human
+race." These were the new sect of the Christians, and with burning
+Christians did Nero proceed to light up his gardens on one famous
+night, as a means of placating the populace whom he had offended, but
+who for the most part loved him for his misplaced generosity in the
+matter of "bread and sports." The tolerant attitude of the Romans
+towards foreign religions will be discussed in its own place; but the
+cruelty of a Nero in the year 64 can hardly be put down as properly a
+religious persecution in any way typical of the Roman government.
+
+The sensual vices of Nero are indescribable, and that word must
+suffice. His extravagances, whether in lavish presents or in personal
+expenditure, soon rendered him bankrupt. He had no means of paying the
+soldiers or meeting his own appetites. Then began, or increased, his
+attacks on wealthy persons, his executions and banishments of senators
+and other wealthy men, and his flimsy pretexts for all manner of
+confiscation. The Senate he hated and the Senate hated him.
+Nevertheless, so far as the empire itself was concerned, no systematic
+or widespread oppression can have been perceptible. His officers and
+the officers of the Senate were apparently all the time governing and
+administering the law and the taxation throughout the empire in as
+sound and steady a way as if an Augustus sat upon the throne.
+
+If we wish to picture Nero to ourselves, here is his description: "He
+was of a fairly good height; his skin was blotched, and his odour
+unpleasant; his hair was inclined to be yellow; his face was more
+handsome than attractive; his eyes were grayish-blue and
+short-sighted; his neck was fat; he was protuberant below the waist;
+his legs were very slender; his health was good."
+
+Such was the man to whom St. Paul elected to have his case referred,
+when at Caesarea he exercised his privilege as a Roman citizen and
+appealed to the titular protector of the commons. "Thou hast appealed
+unto Caesar, and unto Caesar shalt thou go." There is indeed no great
+probability that the apostle was ever brought directly before this
+precious emperor. We may perhaps draw from bur inner consciousness
+elaborate and interesting pictures of the two men confronting each
+other, but we must not forget that they will be pure imagination. The
+appeal of a citizen did not imply such right to an interview, for the
+Caesar in such minor cases commonly delegated his powers to other
+judicial authorities at Rome. Paul's object was gained if his case was
+safely removed from the local influences of Judaea and the weaker
+policy of its governor, the "agent of Caesar," to the capital with its
+broader-minded men and its superiority to small bribes and local
+interference.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15.--BUST OF NERO.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+We are now brought to the consideration of the methods by which this
+huge empire was organised and governed.
+
+And first let us observe that the Romans--strict disciplinarians and
+great lawyers as they were--never sought to impose upon the subject
+provinces any uniformity. They never sought, any more than Great
+Britain has sought, to erect one code of law, one form of
+administration, one standard of rights, one rate of taxation, one
+religion, and to make it equally applicable to Spain and Britain,
+Greece and Africa, Gaul and Asia Minor. There were, of course, common
+to all the empire certain rules essential to civilisation, certain
+natural laws and laws of all nations. Murder, violence, robbery,
+deliberate sacrilege, and so forth were punishable everywhere, though
+not necessarily by the same authority nor in the same manner.
+Necessarily it was held everywhere that contracts must be fulfilled
+and debts paid. Beyond the fact that Rome demanded peace and order and
+the essentials of civilised life, and provided machinery to secure
+those ends, she troubled little about differences of local procedure
+and varieties of local law, so long as the Roman rule was duly
+recognised and the Roman taxes duly paid. As with Great Britain, her
+care was for results, not for machinery, or, as the great Roman
+historian puts it, she "valued the reality of the empire, not the
+show."
+
+Outside Italy there spread the provinces. These had been conquered or
+peacefully annexed at various times. A number of small states had come
+in by perpetual alliance. Some provinces, such as Gaul, had formerly
+been divided among tribes and tribal chiefs. Some, such as Greece, had
+consisted of highly civilised city-communities with small territories
+and managing their own affairs, although they might all alike be
+acknowledging the suzerainty of some powerful prince. Some, such as
+Cappadocia, Syria, and Egypt, had been under their native kings.
+Judaea was a peculiar example of a small theocratic state, in which
+the chief power lay with the priests.
+
+Rome was too wise to meddle more than she need with existing
+conditions. She preferred as far as possible to accept the existing
+machinery and to use it, with only necessary modifications, as her
+instrument of administration. To the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, for
+example, she conceded a large criminal jurisdiction over
+ecclesiastical offenders, so long as that jurisdiction did not limit
+the universal rights of a "Roman citizen."
+
+When a province was conquered, all its territory became technically
+the property of the Roman state. Some of it was kept as such, and
+mines of gold, silver, lead, iron, and salt, or quarries of marble,
+granite, and gravel, were commonly annexed as state property. If it
+was expedient to allot some portion of the conquered land to a Roman
+settlement--commonly a settlement of veteran soldiers called a
+"colony"--that was done. Such a settlement meant the founding of a
+town, to which was granted a certain environment of land. Those who
+took part in its formation were "Roman citizens" and forfeited no
+rights as such. As the native people came in from the surrounding
+districts to reside in it, they also, it appears, somewhat easily
+acquired similar privileges. Here the Roman law existed in its
+entirety. A colony was almost exactly a little Rome in respect of its
+system of officers and its legal procedure. Sometimes a town which had
+not originally been so founded might be made a "colony" by receiving a
+draft of Romans, and sometimes it was made such in sheer compliment.
+In the Eastern half of the empire such settlements were comparatively
+rare; they were but dots upon the map, as at Corinth, Philippi,
+Antioch in Pisidia, or Caesarea. In the West they were much more
+numerous. The south of France contained many; a number also existed in
+southern Spain. So many indeed were planted in these parts that they
+became, as has been already remarked, completely romanized. Farther
+north Cologne still perpetuates its Roman name of Colonia.
+Nevertheless in the West the bulk of the land of the provinces is far
+from being taken up, in the year 64, by colonies.
+
+Apart from the lands thus appropriated, what happens to the rest of
+the conquered territory which is theoretically Roman property?
+Generally it is handed back to its original inhabitants, on condition
+that they pay rent for it, whether in money or in kind, or partly in
+each. Egypt pays in kind when it sends to Rome the corn in the great
+merchantmen; Africa pays in kind when it does the same; the Frisians
+of Holland pay in kind when they supply a certain quantity of hides.
+Before the days of the Emperor Augustus there had existed for the
+empire in general the abominable system of tithes, which were farmed
+by companies. But after him, and at our date, for the most part the
+payment is by a fixed sum of money, which has been calculated upon the
+basis of those tithes. In the imperial Record Office there is a
+register of the area of land in a given province, and an assessment of
+its producing value. The amount of the land-tax to be paid into the
+Roman treasury is therefore fixed. Those who read in the New Testament
+that Augustus Caesar sent forth an order that "all the world--that is,
+the Roman world--should be taxed" need find no difficulty in
+understanding what it means. "Taxed" is Old English for assessed, as
+when we speak of "taxing a bill of costs." The Greek word means simply
+that a register should be made. The order of Augustus was that a
+census should be taken throughout the provinces; that a return should
+be made of population, property, trades, and all that a reasonable
+government requires to know; and that payments should be determined
+thereby. All the world had been "taxed" in the modern sense long
+before Augustus, and it has been taxed, unfortunately without much
+promise of respite, ever since.
+
+The chief revenues of Rome were derived from this land-tax; but, when
+combined with other taxes, a large proportion of it was spent in the
+administration of the province from which it was obtained. No error
+could be greater than to suppose that Roman officers simply came and
+carried off all this money as booty to Rome for the pampering of its
+emperor and populace. Naturally the balance which accrued for the
+feeding of Borne, for Roman enjoyment and Roman buildings was very
+large; and doubtless this fact was bad for the morale of Rome itself
+and requires considerable casuistry to defend it. But it would be a
+monstrous misconception to imagine that all the "tribute paid to
+Caesar" was absolutely drained, by an act of sheer oppression, clean
+out of the province year by year. No country can be protected,
+policed, and have its justice administered without taxes, and the
+provincials were not paying more, and were often paying much less, as
+well as paying it in a more just and rational way, than when they were
+being taxed by their own kings, their own oligarchies, or their own
+socialistic democracies. The Roman settlements--the colonies--unless
+specially exempted, had to pay the land-tax as much as any other
+community. The only land which was exempt from it was Italy, and Italy
+paid sundry other taxes to make up for it, at least in part. But
+though Italy was first and foremost in the imperial regard, the
+emperor was by no means indifferent to the welfare of the provinces.
+If an earthquake, a fire, or other great calamity befell a town, it
+was by no means rare for the emperor to send a large sum of money in
+relief.
+
+Besides the land-tax there was also a tax on persons and personal
+property. The tax on persons was not precisely a poll-tax, except in
+places like Britain and Egypt, where it was difficult to make proper
+estimates otherwise, but a tax on occupations and trades. This, if we
+choose, may be put down as a crude form of income-tax, although it was
+not actually assessed on income. In another sense it may be regarded
+as a tax on a license, assuming that we demand a license for every
+kind of occupation. Italy again was exempt from this taxation also.
+Obviously a census, and a regularly revised census, was necessary to
+carry out this system; and Rome required a whole army of agents, just
+as a modern state would require one, for assessing and collecting
+these dues.
+
+The land-tax and the person-tax were the two chief sources of Roman
+revenue. These were regular and direct. There were others, subject,
+like our own taxes, to increase or decrease according to
+circumstances, but for the most part kept at very much the same
+standards under several consecutive emperors. For instance there were
+customs duties, paid on the frontiers of the empire and also on those
+of provinces or natural groups of provinces, not as part of any
+protective system, since the empire is all one, but as a means of
+raising money from commodities. In Italy there was a duty of 2-1/2 per
+cent. Luxuries from India and Arabia via Red Sea ports were specially
+taxed at 25 per cent. If you sold a slave, you would pay from 2 to 4
+per cent on the purchase-money. Occasionally there was a tax on
+bachelors. In Italy, but not elsewhere, 5 per cent legacy duty was
+paid when the recipient was not a near relative, and when the legacy
+was not under £1000.
+
+Add to these revenues the rents of state pastures, state forests, and
+state mines. Into the treasury came also unclaimed property and the
+property of certain classes of condemned criminals.
+
+So much for the nature of the taxation. In point of government, the
+Romans were singularly liberal. When a province was conquered or
+annexed, the Senate sent out a commission of ten persons, who
+carefully considered the existing state of things, the laws and forms
+of administration actually in vogue, and drew up a constitution for
+the province, embodying as much of these as was possible or at all
+commendable; as much, in fact, as was compatible with the Roman
+connection. This constitution, when sanctioned by the Senate, was
+binding, whatever governor might be appointed by Rome to the province.
+Such a governor might interpret the law; he could not alter it.
+
+But though a province was a unit in so far as it was under one
+governor, the Romans were firm believers in strictly local
+administration. Their policy in this, as in conquest, was "divide and
+rule." It did not suit their ends to make any large part of the empire
+conscious of a corporate existence. The unit of administration was,
+therefore, a town and its district--a "community." In Gaul there were
+about sixty such divisions, each roughly corresponding in size to a
+modern French "department." Such a community had its own local council
+and officials, who were ultimately responsible to the governor. So
+long as they performed their municipal or communal functions correctly
+and honestly they were not interfered with. The chief principle upon
+which Rome insisted was that their local government should be
+aristocratic, or rather that office should be based on wealth. The
+governor, of course, stepped in when he felt it to be his duty. He was
+required to suppress all secret societies or political unions. A
+strike of the bakers in one city of Asia Minor was promptly put down
+by the governor as interfering with social order and social needs.
+
+The communities made their own by-laws, they collected the land-tax of
+their own district and handed it over to the financial representative
+of the Roman government. This was done by men of their own people,
+often of a low class, known in the Gospels as the "publicans," who
+were so commonly associated with sinners. St. Matthew had been one of
+the minor agents for such collection in Galilee. Other taxes--those
+which were indirect--might be collected by the great tax-farming
+companies of Roman "knights," who offered a lump sum for them to the
+government, and made what they could out of the bargain.
+
+One incidental consequence of this systematic division into communes
+was that there spread throughout the empire a strong municipal
+patriotism, especially in the Greek world. This was followed by
+liberal local expenditure on the part of rich provincials in
+beautifying their centres with public buildings and works of art,
+chiefly, no doubt, given for the sake of the local honours with which
+they were repaid, but given nevertheless.
+
+Most of the towns or communities throughout the empire were in the
+position described. Some communities, however, such as Thessalonica,
+though situated inside a province, were for some special service in
+the past exempted from the interference of the governor, and were
+allowed to exercise their own laws to the full, even upon Roman
+citizens who might happen to reside there. These were called "free"
+towns. In other cases the community, having come into voluntary
+alliance with Rome at an earl; date and before conquest, was still
+treated as an "allied" state, and was exempted from either
+interference or taxation, so long as it supplied its quota of soldiers
+when called upon. Such cities, however, were distinctly the exception,
+and most of them in the end preferred to come directly within the
+Roman sphere of administration. They often found their burdens smaller
+and less capricious than when they taxed themselves through their own
+authorities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The function of the governor was to see that the various local bodies
+did their work, kept within their rights, and paid their taxes. He
+also, either in person or by his deputies, administered justice
+wherever the Roman laws were concerned. Where they were not concerned,
+he necessarily acted as Gallio did with the Jewish charges against
+Paul at Corinth; he dismissed the case as not demanding his
+jurisdiction. Said Gallio: "If it were a question of a misdemeanour or
+a crime, I should be called upon to bear with you; but if they are
+questions of (mere) words and names and of your (Jewish) law, you must
+see to it yourselves." When the Greeks who were standing by proceeded
+to beat the chief of Paul's Jewish accusers, the governor shut his
+eyes to the matter. This may have been a laxity, but it would almost
+appear as if Gallio liked their behaviour.
+
+For the purposes of justice a province was divided into "Assize
+Districts," and the governor or his deputies went on circuit. In the
+court he sat upon a platform in his official chair and with his
+lictors in attendance. The official language of the court and of its
+records was of course Latin, but in the Eastern half of the empire the
+bench cannot always have pretended not to understand Greek. Since it
+would not, however, understand Hebrew, the Jews would need to speak
+through a representative who knew Latin, and this is apparently the
+reason for the appearance of Tertullus against St. Paul at Caesarea. A
+Roman citizen--that is, a person possessed of full Roman rights--if he
+either denied the jurisdiction or was in danger of being condemned to
+capital punishment, might, unless he had been caught red-handed in
+certain heinous crimes, appeal to Caesar and claim to be sent to Rome.
+Unless the governor had been expressly entrusted with exceptional
+powers, or unless the case was so self-evident that he had nothing to
+fear from refusing, he had no alternative but to send the appellant on
+to the metropolis. Arrived there, the prisoner was taken to the
+guardrooms or cells in the barracks of a special prefect who had
+charge of such arrivals from abroad, and his case would in due course
+be taken either by the emperor himself, if it was sufficiently
+important, or by magistrates to whom the emperor delegated his powers
+for the purpose.
+
+Meanwhile, provincials other than full Roman citizens enjoyed no such
+privilege. They could make no appeal. The governor was supreme judge,
+and his verdict or sentence was carried out. In matters of doubt,
+whether administrative or judicial, the governor might refer to the
+emperor for direction or advice, and we have at a somewhat later date
+a considerable collection of letters and their replies which passed in
+this manner between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A glance at the map will show some provinces named in heavy type and
+some in italics. Those in _italics_ are the provinces to which the
+Senate has the right to appoint the governors, in this case called
+"proconsuls." Of course His Highness the Head of the State is
+graciously pleased to approve the choice of the Senate; which means
+that the Senate will not attempt any appointment which the emperor
+would dislike. The revenues of these provinces go into a treasury
+controlled by the Senate. Of those named in heavy type the emperor is
+himself the governor or proconsul. Theoretically he is made governor
+of all these simply because they contain, or may need, armies, and he
+is the commander-in-chief of those armies. But since he is at Rome,
+and in any case cannot be everywhere at once, he governs all such
+provinces by means of his deputies, whom he appoints for himself. They
+are his lieutenants, and are so called--to wit, "lieutenants of
+Caesar" and "deputies of the commander." The revenues of these
+imperial provinces are collected by an "agent" or "factor" of Caesar,
+and go into a treasury controlled by the emperor. In any one of his
+provinces the emperor would be its governor, and would exercise the
+usual military and civil powers of a governor. His lieutenant to each
+province simply acts in his place, receives the same powers, and is
+the governor of that province exactly as the proconsul sent by the
+Senate is governor in his. But whereas the governors in the senatorial
+provinces wear the garb of peace, and are appointed, like other civil
+officers, for one year only, the "deputies of Caesar," the
+commander-in-chief, wear the military garb, and are kept in office
+just so long as their superior thinks fit. It is as if in modern times
+the governor of the one kind of province made his public appearances
+in civilian dress, and the governor of the other kind in uniform.
+
+The actual outcome of this system was that the provinces of the
+emperor were on the whole better administered than those of the
+Senate. In the latter, changes were too frequent, and a governor might
+sometimes strain a point to enrich himself quickly. But it must on no
+account be imagined that at this date a governor could with impunity
+be extortionate or oppress the provincials, as he too often did in the
+good old days of the republic. He was paid his salary, which might be
+anything up to £10,000; his allowances and power of making
+requisitions, such as of salt, wood, and hay when travelling, were
+strictly defined by law; any pronounced extortion, oppression, or
+dishonesty laid him open to impeachment; and such a charge was
+tolerably certain to be brought. Among so many governors it was
+inevitable that a number should have been impeached. We know of
+twenty-seven instances, resulting in twenty condemnations and only
+seven acquittals. The emperors at least looked sharply to their own
+provinces; nor would they readily tolerate any gross irregularity in
+those other provinces which were nominally controlled by the Senate.
+On leaving his province every governor must make out duplicate copies
+of his accounts, one to be left in the province, one to be forwarded
+to Rome.
+
+In the _Acts of the Apostles_ we have mention of two governors of
+senatorial provinces--in other words, two "proconsuls"--Gallio in
+Achaia (or Greece), and Sergius Paulus in Cyprus. It is instructive to
+compare the lenient and common sense attitude of these trained Roman
+aristocrats with that of the turbulent local mobs who dealt with St.
+Paul in Asia Minor, Judaea, or Greece. Of the minor governors of
+smaller provinces--styled "agents" or "factors" of Caesar--we meet
+with Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus.
+
+It remains only to remark that, while the Senate's treasury, which
+received the revenues from the senatorial provinces, paid the expenses
+of their management and also of the administration of Italy, the
+emperor's treasury, which received the revenues from the other
+provinces, provided for their administration, for the pay of the army,
+for the corn and water of Rome, for public buildings, for the great
+military roads, and for the imperial post. Nevertheless the emperor
+could handle all this latter money exactly as he chose, and it is upon
+this chest that Nero was drawing for all his lavish prodigalities and
+his undeserved and wasteful bounties. Yet even Nero was scarcely so
+bad as Caligula, who managed to spend £22,000,000 in less than one
+year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+In the year 64 the capital of the Roman Empire was, it is true, a
+large and splendid city and an "epitome of the world," but it had not
+yet reached either its zenith of splendour or its maximum, of size.
+Many of the largest and most sumptuous structures of which we possess
+the records, and in most cases the ruins, were not yet built or even
+contemplated. There was no Colosseum; there were no Baths of Trajan,
+Caracalla, or Diocletian. The Column of Trajan, still soaring in the
+Foro Traiano, and of Marcus Aurelius, now so conspicuous in the Piazza
+Colonna, are of a later date. So also are the three great triumphal
+arches which are still standing--those of Titus, Severus, and
+Constantine. The Mausoleum of Hadrian, now stripped of its outward
+magnificence of marble and sculpture, and known as the Castle of Sant'
+Angelo, was not built for two generations. On the Palatine Hill the
+palaces of the Caesars were wide and lofty, but not more than half so
+spacious and imposing as they became by the end of the following
+century.
+
+Down in the Forum there stood no Basilica of Constantine; the place of
+several later temples and shrines was occupied by edifices of less
+dignity; many columns and statues, and much ornament of gilt or
+marble, were still to come. Beside and beyond the two embellished
+public places which had been added to the public comfort and
+convenience by Julius Caesar and Augustus, and which were known
+respectively as the Julian and the Augustan Forum, lay only the houses
+of citizens or streets of shops. Up from the Forum towards the later
+Arch of Titus and the Colosseum, the "Upper Sacred Way" ran as but a
+narrow road between buildings for the most part of ordinary character,
+principally shops catering for luxury. It was later by two centuries
+and a half that this street was converted into a broad avenue forming
+a worthy approach to the "hub of the universe."
+
+In the ruins which lie on the Palatine Hill, or along the valley of
+the Forum below, or up the Sacred Slope towards the Colosseum, or
+across where the streets wind round from the "Roman" Forum through the
+Forum of Trajan to the Corso, the modern visitor to the Eternal City
+does not behold simply the remnants of the temples, halls, squares,
+and arches which actually existed in the days of Nero. We must not say
+of these places that St. Paul trod the very paving-stones or gazed on
+the very walls which we now find in their worn and broken state. In a
+few cases it may be so; in most it is certainly otherwise. Either the
+building was not there, or what we now behold is part of a
+reconstruction or an enlargement. Fire, flood, earthquake and the wear
+and tear of time called for many a rebuilding or restoration. In the
+very year upon which we have fixed, there swept over all this part of
+the city perhaps the most disastrous fire that it ever experienced.
+Another only a little less destructive occurred in A.D. 283, and when
+we say that the remains of the glory of ancient Rome are still visible
+in the excavated Forum, we must recognise that the glory which they
+represent is the glory of the place as restored after that year.
+
+This does not mean that the general plan and appearance were markedly
+different under Nero, nor that there was any lack of magnificence; it
+is only meant by way of caution against a frequent misconception.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If there was no Arch of Severus in the Forum, there was an Arch of
+Augustus, near the Temple of Castor, surmounted by his statue in the
+four-horsed chariot of the conqueror, and there was an Arch of
+Tiberius near the temple of Saturn. If to the north there was as yet
+no bridge or "castle" of Sant' Angelo to celebrate the dead Hadrian,
+there was, on the near side of the Tiber, not far from the modern
+Piazza del Popolo, a splendid Mausoleum of the deified Augustus and
+his family. In the chief Forum the Temples of Vesta, of Julius Caesar,
+of Castor, Saturn, and Concord existed under Nero in the same spots
+and in much the same style as they did through all the remainder of
+Roman history. Above them towered the Capitoline Hill, with its
+resplendent Temple of Jupiter on the one summit and its great shrine
+of Juno on the other. Beyond, in the "Field of Mars"--the site of the
+densest part of modern Rome--was an almost continuous cluster of
+public buildings and resorts, of theatres, temples--including the
+first form of that incomparable edifice, the Pantheon, the only
+building of ancient Rome which still remains practically whole--of
+baths, porticoes, and enclosed promenades.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16.--SOME REMAINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT.]
+
+Away in the opposite direction stretched the Appian Way, and in the
+year 64 the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella, which is so familiar
+in picture, stood as perhaps the noblest among the multitude of
+patrician tombs. The Apostle Paul certainly passed close by it on his
+way from Puteoli. The aqueduct, of which so many arches still meet the
+eye as you cross the Campagna, was the work of Nero's predecessor,
+Claudius, and it still bears his name--the Aqua Claudia. Where now you
+go out of the gate to St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls there stood--more
+free and visible than now--that pyramid of Cestius, close to whose
+shadow lie the graves of the English Shelley and Keats. There was no
+gate at this spot in the days of Nero, for the great wall, of which so
+many portions--more or less restored--are still conspicuous, had no
+existence till a much later date, when the empire was already
+tottering to its fall, and when Aurelian was driven to recognise that
+the heart of the empire, after remaining secure for centuries, must at
+last look to be assailed. There was, it is true, an inner wall of
+ancient date (to be seen upon the plan) which had enclosed the "Seven
+Hills" before Rome was mistress of more than her own small
+environment. But the city had long ago overflowed this boundary, and
+the newer quarters lay as open to the country as do our own modern
+cities.
+
+How far the suburbs stretched, or precisely how far Rome proper
+extended, in the days of Nero, is no easy matter to decide. We shall
+in all probability be near the mark if we accept the line of the later
+wall of Aurelian as practically the limit of what might be included in
+the "Metropolitan Area." The total circumference of the whole city
+would be about twelve English miles, a circuit which fell somewhat
+short of that of Alexandria and probably of Antioch, although in
+actual importance these cities took but the second and third rank
+respectively.
+
+Some parts within this line were thickly inhabited, in some the houses
+must have been but sparse. Particularly along the upper slopes of the
+hills--of the Pincian, Quirinal, Esquiline, Caelian, and
+Aventine--were the spacious houses and gardens of the wealthy. The
+Palatine was almost, though not completely, monopolised by the
+emperors' palaces and sundry temples. The Campus Martius was mostly a
+region of public buildings and grounds for promenade and exercise,
+although some of the finest shops stood very close to where they stand
+to-day, in that Flaminian Way which is now called the Corso of
+Humbert. On one side below the Palatine Hill, space was taken up by
+the vast Circus or racing-ground; on the other lay the public places
+known as the Fora. It was left for the poorer inhabitants to crowd
+themselves into the valleys of the town, either between the Forum and
+the spurs of the several hills which trend towards the centre--up
+under Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, or Caelian--to the left behind the
+buildings as you now go from the bottom of the Forum to the Colosseum;
+or between the Forum and the Tiber in the low-lying ground called the
+Velabrum and there-abouts; or else across the river in that
+"Transtiberine" region which still bears the name of Trastevere.
+
+If, therefore, it is asked what may have been the Population of
+Neronian Rome, it need cause no surprise if the number should appear
+comparatively small to one who is accustomed to our huge modern towns.
+Rome had never been a seat of manufactures. Its wealth and luxury came
+almost wholly from its empire, and it was emphatically a city for the
+rich and ruling classes. In Nero's day it was still growing, and even
+in its fullest times it is doubtful if the population ever exceeded or
+even reached a million and a quarter. Perhaps for the year 64 we may
+most safely put it down at about 750,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now suppose yourself to be standing at F in the recognised centre of
+Roman life, the "Roman Forum." Here, before we begin our rapid
+exploration of the city, it is well to clear our minds of one false
+notion which too commonly prevails. Think of any modern town you
+please, and remember that, whatever may be the accumulation of
+architectural magnificence around any given spot, the people of that
+town treat it all with familiarity and without any waste of sentiment.
+They will set up their shops or stalls wherever they are allowed; they
+will carry on their traffic and their amusements; they will saunter
+and sit on steps and misbehave without feeling oppressed by any
+appreciable awe of their surroundings. So was it, and even more so, in
+ancient Rome. The fact that there were shrines or public buildings on
+all sides did not prevent the Romans from loitering and loafing in the
+Forum, from sitting on the steps of a temple or a basilica, or leaning
+against its columns or statues, or playing at a sort of draughts or of
+backgammon on its marble platforms--the lines to put the "men" upon
+are here and there still visible upon the pavements--or even
+scratching a name or a drawing on a pillar. In certain parts the Forum
+was alive with the bustle of financial business and, doubtless under
+certain limitations, with the traffic of the pedlar. Curiosities were
+exhibited, the crier shouted his advertisements, and, in short, the
+place was almost as freely used for the vulgar purposes of ordinary
+life as for the dignified gatherings and ceremonies which to our minds
+appear so much more appropriate to it. Though we are not yet dealing
+with the social life of Rome, whether indoor or outdoor, it seems
+advisable to make this observation before proceeding.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17.--THE ROSTRA: BACK VIEW. (Probable
+restoration for A.D. 64.)]
+
+Let us now stand at F and look about us toward the Capitol, noting
+only the chief features of the scene. The reader would do well to
+consider the plan along with the frontispiece to this book. We are
+upon an open space paved with marble slabs, round which stand sundry
+honorary statues and various minor monuments into which we need not
+now enquire. Facing us, toward the far end, is a platform about 80
+feet long and 11 feet in height, with marble facing. A trellis-work
+rail, or pierced screen, runs along it at either side, and also
+extends along the front for one-third of the distance from either end.
+The one-third in the middle of the front is open. This platform is
+approached by a flight of steps at the back, while in the sheer face
+are set as ornaments rows of bronze "beaks" or "rams" cut from ships
+captured in war. From these "beaks" the platform obtains its name--the
+Rostra. It is the platform for harangues delivered to the Roman
+people--the Roman citizens who are politely assumed to be the body
+politic--and the open space on the front is the position for the
+orator. It is from this stand that important announcements are made to
+the people at large. An emperor or his nominee may speak from it; a
+magistrate may deliver some pronouncement; a political exhortation may
+be uttered; in the case of a public funeral, or even of the private
+obsequies in some eminent family, an oration over the deceased may be
+spoken with that finished and animated elocution which the Romans so
+zealously cultivated, and which the Italians still affect with no
+little success. It is not indeed the same platform as was used by
+Cicero and the orators of the republic: this stood elsewhere, and
+doubtless the substance of public speaking had declined deplorably
+since that day. Nevertheless many a torrent of rich and sonorous Latin
+must have streamed over the Forum from that noble standing-place, and
+it must still have been worth while for a Roman to develop both his
+speaking voice and his oratorical art. Still further back, to the
+right behind the Rostra, there stands the Temple of Concord, where the
+Senate in older times gathered on more than one occasion to listen to
+Cicero, and where the emperors have formed practically a gallery of
+works of art; to the left is the Temple of Saturn, long used as the
+Roman Treasury, of which eight pillars still remain as perhaps the
+most conspicuous feature among the existing ruins. Another object in
+the background to the left, at the rear of the Rostra, will be a stone
+pillar coated with gilded bronze, upon which the first emperor,
+Augustus, inscribed the names of the great roads leading out from Rome
+into the length and breadth of the empire, with a list of the chief
+towns to which those roads would take you, and their distances. The
+name of this pillar is the "Golden Milestone." Behind these objects,
+running along the high face of the Capitoline Hill, are visible the
+arcades of the Record Office, of which the greater portion still
+exists, though stripped of its architectural graces and built over and
+about in more modern times, in the state represented in FIG. 18. Still
+higher on the summit to the left, with its gilded tiles glistening in
+the sun--at least they were gilded within the next few years--rises
+the most sacred structure of all, the building most closely identified
+in the Roman mind with the eternity of the empire. This is the
+splendid temple of Jove, Supreme and Most Benign. Of this edifice
+nothing considerable except its platform now remains, its site being
+occupied by an object of which the existence would have been
+inconceivable to the ancient Roman--to wit, the German Embassy. On the
+other summit, a fortified citadel to your right stands the temple of
+the consort of Jupiter. In this shrine she was known as Juno Moneta,
+and since, attached to her temple in this citadel, was the office of
+the Roman coinage, her name Moneta has become familiar to modern
+mouths in the form of "the Mint." If you seek the place of this temple
+now, you must look for it under the Church of Santa Maria in Ara
+Coeli.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18.--RUINS OF FORUM.]
+
+[Illustration: Photo, Anderson. (Record Office in background with
+modern building above.)]
+
+Next, instead of looking up at the hill, glance to your left, and you
+will see running along that side of the Forum, beside the Sacred Way,
+a spacious public building known as the Basilica of Julius, that is to
+say, of Julius Caesar. It is an edifice of a type familiar in cities
+of the Roman world. You mount the steps from the Sacred Way and find
+yourself under an outer two-storied arcade suitable for lounging or
+promenading while discussing business or gossip with your friends.
+Passing from this inwards you are in a building which consists of a
+covered colonnade, or nave, about 270 feet in length, with a row of
+pillars on either hand. On each side is a gallery, or upper floor,
+from which spectators may look down upon the interior, or, from the
+outer side, upon the open Forum. At the far end is a recess with a
+raised tribunal, shut off, if necessary, by railings. In other
+basilicas there may be an apse at this point, similarly enclosed. This
+serves as a court of justice, round which the curious may stand, or
+upon which listening spectators may gaze from the ends of the
+galleries above. Meanwhile up and down the open space of the nave all
+kinds of verbal business may be transacted by appointment, exactly as
+such business used to be carried on in old St. Paul's Cathedral in
+London or in churches elsewhere. In what may be called the inner
+side-aisle are situated offices of various kinds, including those of
+sundry public corporations, boards, or commissions. The whole of this
+great hall is paved with coloured marbles; its pillars are coated with
+marble; its ceiling is adorned with painting and gilt; it is
+embellished with statues; and it is lighted from above by a
+clerestory. Though the question has been debated, it is almost certain
+that it was mainly from buildings like this, or from rooms similarly
+constructed in palatial houses, that the early Church developed its
+basilicas--with their nave, aisles, and clerestory, and with their
+railed apse at the end, where was placed the chair of the bishop on
+its dais. Across the Forum on the opposite side, to your right, lies
+another structure of the same kind, in artistic respects more
+excellent. In this, the Basilica Aemilia, the chief business was that
+of the bankers and money-changers, although it served various other
+purposes according to convenience.
+
+If you could see round the farther end of this basilica to the right,
+you would perceive the beginning of one of the busiest streets in
+Rome--the Argiletum--chiefly known to fame as a favourite quarter of
+the booksellers, who fasten on their door-posts, or on the pillars
+which support a balcony or upper floor, the lists of the newest or
+most popular publications to be bought within. And where that street
+enters the Forum, though standing back a little from your line of
+vision--perhaps you can catch sight of the top of it over the corner
+of the Basilica--is the temple-like Senate-House with its offices.
+Here is the meeting-place of the six hundred who nominally govern
+jointly with the emperor. If you visit Rome to-day you will find the
+greater part of the actual chamber, though miserably despoiled,
+bearing the name of the church of S. Adriano.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 19.--N.E. OF FORUM, A.D. 64. (Complementary to
+frontispiece.)
+
+From left: in background, Record Office, with Temple of Concord and
+Rostra below; on summit, Temple of Juno and Citadel; below, Prison,
+with shrine of Janus in front. To right: Basilica Aemilia, with gable
+of Senate-House beyond. (Largely after Tognetti.)]
+
+The little building, half arch, half shrine, which you observe
+standing free where the roads converge upon the Forum, is the famous
+sanctuary of Janus, of which the doors are never shut unless there is
+complete peace throughout the Roman world. So long as Rome is anywhere
+engaged in a great or little war, the open doors of Janus tell the
+fact to a people which might otherwise be unconscious of so slight or
+remote a circumstance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 20.--TEMPLE OF FORTUNA AUGUSTA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+We need not describe in detail the temple of Castor, or rather of the
+"Twin Brethren," which stands immediately to your left, or that of the
+deified Julius Caesar, which is just behind you, on the spot where the
+body of the great dictator was burned. It is perhaps more interesting
+to note the ordinary--though not by any means the only--form of the
+Roman temple in general. Those who have seen the so-called Maison
+Carrée at Nimes will possess a fair notion of the commonest or most
+typical shape and arrangement. For the most part we have a rather
+lofty platform, mounted from one end by steps, which are flanked by
+walls or balustrades, often bearing at their extremities equestrian
+statues or other appropriate figures. Upon the platform stands the
+temple proper, consisting of a chamber containing the statue of the
+god. Where more than one deity are combined in the same temple--as in
+that of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, where the supreme deity has
+Juno and Minerva to left and right of him--there may either be as many
+separate chambers or as many chapel-like bays as there are deities.
+The altar for sacrifice stands outside opposite the entrance, being
+placed either upon the top of the main platform or more commonly on a
+minor platform of its own in the middle of the steps. In most cases
+the chamber stands back behind a row, in some instances two rows, of
+columns, which support the characteristic entablature seen in the
+illustrations. In the case of the more grandiose temples a series of
+columns may run all round the building, carrying an extension of the
+roof, under which is thus formed a covered colonnade. More commonly
+the sides and back of the chamber have only what are known as
+"engaged" columns, as it were half-embedded in the wall. The roof is
+gabled and tiled, with ornaments along the eaves. The front has an
+embellished entablature, with its triangle of masonry called the
+"pediment," consisting of a cornice overhanging a sunken surface
+decorated with a sculptured group. Over each angle, right, left, and
+summit, is a base of stone supporting some conspicuous ornament, such
+as a statue, an eagle, or a figure in a chariot. In the middle of the
+front of the building, behind the columns of the portico, are double
+doors, commonly made of decorated bronze, with an open grating of the
+same metal above them. The whole is outwardly of marble, either all
+white or with colour in the pillars, but the core of at least the
+platform is commonly made of the immensely strong Roman concrete, or
+else of blocks of the less beautiful and costly kinds of stone.
+
+In point of architectural style the Romans of this date--who in
+artistic matters were but imitators of the Greeks and far less certain
+in taste than their masters--affected the Corinthian, as being the
+most florid. Even this they could not leave in its native purity, but
+for the most part converted it into Graeco-Roman or composite
+varieties. A prime fault of the Roman taste was then, as it has always
+been, a love of gorgeousness, of excessive and obtrusive ornament. In
+almost any Roman church of to-day we find the walls and pillars stuck
+about with figures, slabs, and so-called decorations to such an extent
+that the finer lines and proportions are often ruined, The ancient
+Roman likewise was commonly under the impression that the more
+decoration you added, the more magnificent was the building. There
+were doubtless many buildings in simpler and purer taste, probably
+executed by Greek artists under the authority of some Roman who
+happened to possess a finer judgment or less self-assertiveness.
+Nevertheless the fault of over-elaboration is distinctly Roman.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21.--SO-CALLED TEMPLE OF THE SIBYL AT TIVOLI.]
+
+We must not omit to say that, besides temples of this typical
+rectangular form, there were others of a round shape, encircled by
+columns, like that graceful structure at Tivoli commonly, though
+mistakenly, known as the temple of the Sibyl, and that small building
+which still exists in an impoverished condition near the Tiber, and
+which used to bear the erroneous title of the temple of Vesta. Others
+again were simply round and domed, like the true temple of Vesta in
+the Forum, or the superb and impressive Pantheon in the Campus
+Martius. So far as the bare round was broken in these cases, it was
+either by a pillared portico, as with the Pantheon, or by engaged
+columns and ornament, as with the true temple of Vesta.
+
+The mention of the temple of Vesta reminds us that it is time to face
+about, and, passing behind the temple of Julius, to look in the
+opposite direction, from V. Before us lies this circular shrine, a
+form gradually developed from the primitive round hut which once
+served as house to the prehistoric ancestors of the Roman stock. As it
+was the duty of the maiden daughters of that ancient tribe to keep
+alight the fire upon the domestic hearth, so through all the history
+of Rome it was the duty of certain chosen virgins to keep perpetually
+burning the hearth-fire of the city. The roof of the temple is open in
+the middle, and you may perhaps see the smoke issuing from it. But if
+you are a male, you may not enter. No man, except the chief Pontifex,
+may set foot inside the shrine of the virgin goddess, who is attended
+by virgin priestesses. Close behind the temple stands the house of
+these Vestals. They are in a large measure the ancient prototype of
+the modern nun, and their house is the prototype of the convent. Six
+nobly-born young women, sworn to chastity, and dressed in a ritual
+garb, live in an edifice of much magnificence under the rule of one
+who is the chief Vestal, a sort of Mother Superior. Many pedestals of
+the statues of such chief priestesses still remain, and we can clearly
+trace the arrangement of their abode, with its open court--once
+containing a garden and cool cisterns of pure water--its separate room
+for each Vestal, its baths, and its resources of considerable comfort
+and even luxury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22.--VESTAL VIRGIN]
+
+If, as you face this way, you look up to your right, you will perceive
+the Palatine Hill rising steeply above you, with its summit crowned by
+the lofty palaces and gardens constructed by the Caesars. At the side
+and corner which look down upon the Forum stands the part built by
+Caligula, the epileptic who thought himself no less than a god, and
+who in consequence not only turned the temple of Castor into a lower
+vestibule to his own house, but also built a bridge across the valley
+over the temple of Augustus and the Basilica of Julius to the
+Capitoline Hill, so that he might visit and converse with Jupiter, his
+only compeer. From the top of the Basilica he occasionally threw money
+into the Forum to be scrambled for by people who crushed each other to
+death in the process. It would require too much space if we climbed
+the sloping road which leads on to the Palatine and examined the
+various structures upon that hill. As we now see it in its ruins it is
+perhaps the most mysteriously impressive place in the world. But many
+alterations and enlargements of the palaces were made after the date
+of Nero, and we cannot now be sure of the precise aspect of the
+hill-top in his day. Suffice it that, overlooking the Forum,
+overlooking the Velabrum Valley which leads from the Forum to the
+Tiber, and overlooking the middle of the valley where the vast Circus
+or race-ground separated the imperial hill from the Aventine, there
+were portions of the huge imperial abodes, rising in several stories
+gleaming with marble, and enjoying the purest air and the widest views
+obtainable within the city. Nero himself, it is true, was not content
+with such mere human housing. After the great fire of this year 64, he
+proceeded to make for himself what he called "a home fit for a man,"
+and so built--though he never finished--that famous or infamous
+"Golden House," which ran from the Palatine all across the upper
+Sacred Way and the hollow now occupied by the Colosseum far on to the
+opposite hills--a house of countless chambers, with three miles of
+colonnade, enclosed gardens large enough to be called a park, and a
+statue of himself 120 feet in height. The epigram went that the people
+of Rome must migrate, inasmuch as what had once been a city was now
+but a private house. This, however, had not yet occurred, and we have
+rather to think of palaces and gardens rich indeed, but by no means
+occupying the whole of the Palatine Hill alone. There were, of course,
+numerous buildings more or less connected with the imperial
+establishment, among them being quarters for the officers and soldiers
+of the guard. There were also a number of temples, one of which, the
+magnificent shrine of Apollo, the god of light and learning, stood in
+a court marvellously enriched with sculptured masterpieces, while
+connected with it were libraries filled with Greek and Latin books and
+adorned with the busts and medallion-portraits or statues of great
+authors.
+
+If we proceeded now to walk up the Sacred Way, along the narrow street
+edged by jewellers' and other shops, we should meet as yet with no
+Arch of Titus, nor in descending beyond should we see any Colosseum,
+but only a block of ordinary dwellings, to be swept away later in this
+year by the fire which made room here for the ornamental waters of
+Nero's Golden House. Turning to the right along the valley between the
+Palatine and Caelian Hills, we should not have to pass under any Arch
+of Constantine; but, after glancing up to the left at the great
+unfinished temple of Claudius and going under the Claudian aqueduct
+which carries water to the Palatine, we should proceed between private
+houses and gardens till we reached a famous gate in the ancient wall
+and found ourselves on that noted Appian Way, which would take us to
+Capua and thence over the Apennines to Brindisi and the East. Just
+outside the gate we should find the livery-stables, with their
+vehicles and horses or mules waiting to be hired for the stage which
+would carry us as far as the slope on the southern edge of the Alban
+Hills.
+
+But we will not proceed in this direction. From our stand at V in
+front of the temple of Vesta we will turn back, walk over the Forum to
+the right of the Rostra, between the sanctuary of Janus and the front
+of the Senate-House. Thence we will cross an enclosed forum, or public
+place, erected by Julius Caesar, with its temple of "Venus the Mother"
+in the middle, and so enter the Forum of Augustus. This is worth a
+pause. As you pass to-day up the narrow Via Bonella and perceive near
+the Pantani Arch a few imposing columns and a patch of rather
+depressing bare wall, it requires much effort to realise that here was
+once a noble space enclosed by marble-covered walls 100 feet in
+height, and that those walls contained in a series of niches a gallery
+of statues of all the military heroes and patriots of Roman history
+from Aeneas downwards. Meanwhile the few columns at your side are the
+sole survivors of the number which surrounded the splendid temple of
+Mars the Avenger, the shrine which was identified in imperial times
+with the military power of Rome, and which received the standards
+captured from the enemy, just as captured flags are to be seen in many
+a modern church.
+
+Leaving this Forum, we will not bear to the right to find ourselves
+amid the dense population of the Subura and its neighbourhood, but we
+will turn to the left and pass between the Capitoline and Quirinal
+Hills, which then met more steeply and closely than they did fifty
+years later, when Trajan had cut away the rising ground and levelled
+an open space which must have been an incalculable advantage to the
+convenience of the city. It is perhaps well to observe here that the
+piling up of fallen ruins and the deliberate levellings and gradings,
+both in ancient and modern times, have greatly altered the appearance
+of the often-mentioned hills of Rome, especially of the Quirinal,
+Viminal, and Esquiline.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23.--TEMPLE OP MARS THE AVENGER IN FORUM OF
+AUGUSTUS. (After Ripostelli.)]
+
+Emerging from this too narrow passage-way and proceeding a short
+distance, we enter that straight Flaminian Road which has been
+replaced by the modern Corso beginning at the Piazza Venezia. For the
+first part of its course it was also known as "Broadway." We are now
+in that more open part of Rome which lies outside the ancient wall,
+and which is commonly spoken of loosely as the Campus Martius. Here
+again, it is impossible to inspect all the various sights visible in
+the year 64. A few examples must suffice. As you walk along this
+straight thorough-fare--the commencement of the road which would
+eventually carry you to the North of Italy--you will find but few
+buildings of any note on your right. Lying to your left is a long and
+wide cloistered space which contains not only certain public offices
+and a pillared promenade, but also the richest shops in Rome, where
+are sold gold and silver work, objects of art, tapestries, and fine
+fabrics from Alexandria, Syria, and farther East. The place is, in
+fact, mainly a huge bazaar. Up the Flaminian Way beyond this enclosure
+we go under a triumphal arch erected by the late Emperor Claudius to
+record his conquest of Britain, where he subdued "eleven kings"
+without Roman loss. Keeping straight on we pass, this time on our
+right, another large enclosure surrounded by arcades, where is now the
+east side of the Piazza Colonna. In and about this locality are
+carried on not only promenades and saunterings but also various
+athletic exercises, including feats of horsemanship. Farther on still,
+and you will see to your left the Mausoleum of Augustus, rising some
+220 feet into the air. Its base, coated with sculptured marble,
+contains one grand sepulchral chamber for Augustus himself, and
+fourteen smaller chambers for members of his family. Above this base
+towers a conical mound of earth planted with evergreen trees, and on
+the summit is a colossal statue of the first emperor. Close by is a
+paved space, where the bodies of the Caesars are cremated before their
+ashes are placed in the Mausoleum. From this spot a ready faith saw
+their immortal part carried up to heaven by the eagle, messenger of
+Jove.
+
+Turning back and passing across the Campus we arrive at the public
+baths erected by Nero, and then at the Pantheon. This building, though
+shorn of many of its decorative splendours both within and without,
+still stands structurally intact, at least as it was restored and
+enlarged two generations later than our date. It is scarcely possible
+to say how far its shape was altered at its restoration under Hadrian,
+but we may provisionally treat the edifice as already belonging to our
+period. It is still, after all these centuries, an entirely noble
+pile, and forms a fit receptacle for the tomb, not only of Victor
+Emanuel, but of Raphael. Its form is that of a rotunda, with walls of
+concrete 20 feet in thickness and with a dome of concrete cast in a
+solid mass. The middle of the dome is open to the sky, and by that
+means the building is lighted in a manner most perfectly suited to it.
+Could we behold it fully restored and at its best, we should see above
+its portico, which is supported by huge marble pillars each made of a
+single stone, large bronze reliefs of gods and giants. To one side of
+the doors would be a colossal statue of Augustus; on the other a
+colossal statue of the builder Agrippa, the son-in-law of that
+emperor. Inside there is a series of niches for colossal effigies of
+Mars, Venus, and other deities connected with the Julian family. The
+marble pillars dividing the niches have capitals of fine bronze, and
+the coffered ceiling of the dome, now bare and colourless, shines with
+gilt on blue, like the sky lit up with stars. The doors, which have
+mysteriously remained entire, are also of noble bronze; the roof
+consists of tiles of bronze thinly plated with gold. The gold has
+naturally vanished, after passing into Saracen hands; of the bronze
+nearly half a million pounds weight has been stripped from the
+building, some to make cannon for the defence of the Castle of St.
+Angelo, some to form the twisted columns which now support the giant
+baldacchino under St. Peter's dome.
+
+At a short distance behind this magnificent temple Agrippa--who was in
+charge of the aqueducts and water-supply--had also built the first
+great public baths. It would probably be incorrect to found any
+detailed description of them upon what we know of the stupendous
+structures of Caracalla and Diocletian, which were perhaps the most
+amazing exhibitions of public luxury ever seen in the world. Of these
+we know how huge and splendid were the halls, with their coloured
+marbles, their mosaic floors, their colossal masterpieces of statuary,
+their elaborate arrangements of baths--cold, tepid, hot and
+dry-sweating--their conversation-rooms and reading-rooms. But we
+cannot pretend to say how far the Agrippan and Neronian baths of the
+year 64 corresponded in magnificence to these. We shall be safer in
+simply assuming that, since the baths of Pompeii were in full swing in
+the year in question, Home must have possessed establishments of a
+similar kind but on a larger and more sumptuous scale.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 24.--EXTERIOR OP THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Present
+state.)]
+
+Leaving without further mention the various temples of Minerva, Isis,
+Serapis, and other deities which might be found about the Campus
+Martius, we note an undistinguished stone amphitheatre, the only
+resort of the kind as yet possessed by the metropolis. In this were
+exhibited the sanguinary combats of gladiators with each other, and
+the fights with wild beasts performed by trained professionals or by
+criminals selling their lives as dearly as possible. Of these "sports"
+we have to treat in a later chapter. Coming nearer to the Tiber, while
+returning towards the city proper, we pass in succession the three
+great theatres, lofty semicircular constructions of stone and concrete
+faced with marble, one computed to hold 40,000 spectators, but
+probably accommodating not more than 25,000, and the others some
+20,000 and 12,000 respectively. In these matters we must allow both
+for Roman exaggeration and Roman close-packing. The theatres rise in
+three stories, of which the outward sides consist of open arcades
+adorned with pillars in varied styles, while round their bases are
+shops for the sale of sweetmeats, beverages, perfumes, and other
+articles which the theatre-goer or the loitering public may require.
+What a theatrical Performance was like is a matter belonging to the
+question of spectacles and amusements. At the back of the largest
+theatre--that of Pompey--lies a large square surrounded by colonnades
+of a hundred pillars, where sycamores form avenues and fountains play,
+while statues of finished workmanship stand where they produce the
+best effect. Particularly grateful to the Roman lounger were the seats
+in the large semi-circular bays, so placed as to offer full protection
+from too hot a sun or too cold a wind.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25.--THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Restored.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.--CIRCUS MAXIMUS (restored); Imperial Palaces
+on Palatine to left.]
+
+By the time that we have passed the last theatre of the three we have
+arrived at the river end of the low valley leading into the Forum
+between the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, a place which had once
+been a cattle-market but had now become an open place surrounded by
+dwellings of the humbler sort. It still, however, bore the name of
+"Cattle-Market." If from this point we followed the river bank, we
+should come to the wharves, to which the smaller ships bring up the
+Tiber the freights of grain transhipped from the larger vessels from
+Alexandria or Carthage, or of marble from the quarries of Numidia,
+Greece, and Phrygia, or of granite and porphyry from Upper Egypt. All
+along this bank are the offices and storehouses of such cargoes, and
+here too is performed much of the shaping of those blocks which Rome
+is using in such astonishing profusion. Along the river by the stone
+embankment the ships are moored, with their cables passed through huge
+stone corbels or sculptured lions' mouths. No busier part of Rome
+could be found than this, but we have no time to proceed further in
+this direction.
+
+In front of us rises the Aventine Hill, another quarter of the
+wealthy, but otherwise chiefly distinguished by its temples of Juno
+the Queen and of Diana. Turning our eyes from the Aventine to the left
+we see lying in the valley between Aventine and Palatine--where now
+are the Jewish Cemetery and the grimy Gasworks--the vast Circus
+Maximus or Hippodrome. This structure, devoted chiefly to
+chariot-racing, is some 700 yards in length and 135 in width, and will
+at a pinch hold nearly a quarter of a million spectators. In all
+probability it would seat 150,000. It consists, as the illustration
+will show, of long tiers of seats sweeping down the sides and round
+the curved end of an oblong space. As with the theatres, its outside
+view presents three tiers of marble arches, and through the lowest
+tier are numerous staircases leading to the various sections of the
+seats within. Those seats themselves are laid upon large vaults of
+concrete; the lower rows are of marble, the upper ones are as yet of
+wood. How the chariot-races were run, and what is meant by the "sports
+of the circus," will naturally require a separate narration.
+
+Coming back from the entrance of this mammoth place of amusement and
+turning up the Velabrum Valley, we pass by a temple of Augustus, to
+which is attached a public library, and issue by the temple of Castor
+into the Forum to our first standing-point at F.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+After this rapid walk through the more interesting parts of the
+capital, we may consider one or two connected topics of natural
+interest.
+
+Amid all this splendour and spaciousness of public buildings, what is
+the aspect of the ordinary streets? In this respect Rome was by no
+means fortunate. As in Old London, Old Paris, or Old New York, the
+streets had for the most part grown up as chance circumstances would
+have it. There were very few thoroughfares laid out straight from the
+first like the Flaminian or "Broad" Road. Alexandria and Antioch were
+the creations of monarchs who began with a clear field and a
+consistent scheme. Their straight, broad streets might well be the
+envy of the capital. The Romans, then as now, possessed the
+engineering genius, but they could not well undo the work of a
+struggling past, which had necessitated the crowding of population,
+within the defences of a wall. They knew how to supply the city
+abundantly with water, and how to drain it with sewers of great
+capacity and strength. The chief of such sewers--the Cloaca
+Maxima--which passed underneath the Forum to the Tiber and was laid
+down more than twenty-five centuries ago, is still in working order.
+But no republican or imperial government ever took it in hand to
+Hansmannise the city, even after one of those devastating
+conflagrations which might seem to have cleared the way. It is true
+that all traffic of vehicles, except for special processions, for
+Vestal Virgins, and a few other cases--was forbidden for ten hours in
+the day. All through the morning and afternoon there were no wheels in
+the Roman streets, unless some public building imperatively demanded
+its load of stones or timber, or unless the few privileged persons
+were proceeding in their carriages to some festival. Nevertheless the
+rich men and women in their litters or sedan-chairs, attended by their
+servants or their clients; the porters carrying their heavy loads; the
+itinerant hucksters; and the ordinary man on errand or other business
+bent, made up crowds which were often difficult to pass through.
+
+Another consequence of the old compression within narrow walls was
+that, as population increased, the houses grew more lofty. How high
+the Romans built, or were allowed to build, in republican times we
+cannot tell. The tendency was certainly to build higher and higher,
+and sky-scrapers would perhaps have become the rule if the ancient
+Roman had understood the use of materials both sufficiently light and
+sufficiently strong, or if he had been forced to establish his work on
+secure foundations. In point of fact there had been, and there
+continued to be, too much of jerry-building. Houses sometimes
+collapsed, and many were unsubstantially shored up. A flood or an
+earthquake was apt to find them out, and there was frequent peril in
+the streets. The majority of the abodes of people of humble means were
+not like those in smaller towns, such as Pompeii, still less like
+those in the country. They were "tenement houses," large blocks let
+out in rooms and flats, and it was natural that landlords should make
+haste to run them up and to increase the number of their stories. When
+Augustus became emperor he enacted what may be called a Metropolitan
+Building Act, which insisted on firmer foundations and limited the
+height to 70 feet. That act was apparently still in force in the age
+of Nero, and we may take it that along the more frequented streets the
+houses commonly ran to a height of four or five stories. They looked
+the taller because of the narrowness of the street itself. While it is
+perhaps, though not necessarily, an exaggeration for the
+epigrammatist--who lived "up three pair of stairs, and high ones"--to
+say that he could touch his opposite neighbour with his hand, it is at
+least an indication of the truth. Some of the narrower lanes between
+blocks cannot have been more than a few feet across.
+
+Nor does it appear that the occupants' of rooms opening on the streets
+were very particular as to what they threw out in the way of rubbish
+or dirty water. It is true that there were aediles, or officers to
+look after the order of the streets and public places, but their
+efforts seem to have been mainly directed to preventing conspicuous
+obstruction. Practices which we should regard as heinous were treated
+lightly or disregarded. To make matters worse, the shopkeepers, who
+occupied the lower fronts of most of such houses, took the greatest
+liberties in encroaching upon the roadway when exhibiting their wares,
+and it was not till twenty years later than our date that the Emperor
+Domitian ordered them to keep within their own thresholds.
+
+Apart from the question of the freedom of traffic, it can be readily
+imagined that, with all the wooden counters, doors, and shutters down
+below, and with the disproportionate quantity of woodwork in the
+beams, floors, and even walls above, fires were of the commonest
+occurrence, and, with streets so high and narrow, the conflagration of
+a whole quarter of the town was speedy and complete. Augustus had
+divided the metropolitan area into fourteen regions, and had
+distributed over these a force of 7000 watchmen to keep the peace and
+to deal with fires at night; but it was not to be expected, if a fire
+occurred in a lofty block, that this body, assisted or hampered by the
+neighbours, could do much with the buckets, siphons, and wet blankets
+which formed the extinguishing apparatus of the time.
+
+Another serious danger, or, when not danger, at least discomfort, came
+from the trick which the Tiber has always had of flooding the lower
+parts of the city. Somewhat later than our date the river restrained
+by strong stone embankments, which one had to descend by steps in
+order to reach the river at the ferries or other boats; but this must
+have been but inadequately achieved in the early period of the empire,
+and a severe flood might bring the houses in the Velabrum, for
+example, tumbling about the ears of their inhabitants.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the whole the streets of Neronian Rome were neither very
+comfortable nor very safe to walk in. At night there was no lighting,
+except when, at some great festival, illuminations might be made by
+order of the emperor for a whole night or perhaps a series of nights.
+In ordinary times torches and lanterns must be provided by yourself,
+and even the 7000 watchmen scarcely gave you a full feeling of
+security. The precise arrangements made for scavenging are unknown,
+but presumably it was done by the public slaves under the supervision
+of the aediles. It is, however, easy to discover from contemporary
+complaints that the streets were often annoyingly wet and slimy.
+
+One thing the ordinary Roman appears never to have minded, any more
+than it is minded at the present day. This was noise. There are
+studious men enough in ancient literature who complain that sleep or
+study is impossible in Rome. They exclaim upon the bawling of the
+hawkers, the canting songs of the beggars, the banging of hammers, the
+sing-song of schoolboys learning to read in the open-air verandahs or
+balconies which often served as schools, and the shouting in the
+baths. All night long there was the rattle of carts and the creaking
+of heavy waggons. But the average Roman cared, and still cares, very
+little for quiet or sleep, and no emperor attempted to check the
+annoyance. Perhaps he could devise no check. Perhaps he himself, being
+on the Palatine, and his counsellors, being in their own comparatively
+secluded houses on the hills, scarcely realised the full enormity of
+the nocturnal roar of Rome. In any case the fact of the noise is
+unquestionable. It was then very much as it is now if one tries to
+sleep in rooms in the Corso or the Via Babuino. The saying that "God
+made the country and man made the town" is met with in a Roman writer
+of the age of Augustus, and the noise is one factor in the difference.
+
+The ancient Romans, we have said, were masters of practical
+engineering, and a chief glory of the city was its abundant supply of
+water. Apart from the Tiber and the natural springs, there were in the
+year 64 at least eight aqueducts bringing drinkable water into the
+city. It was the emperor's concern to see to this matter, as he did to
+the corn-supply, but in practice he appointed what he might call his
+Minister of Water-supply, and gave him liberal means to provide a
+large staff of engineers, surveyors, masons, pipelayers, inspectors,
+and custodians. It is a common error to imagine that the Romans were
+ignorant of the simple hydraulic law that water will find its own
+level, and to suppose that their aqueducts were built in consequence
+of that ignorance. In point of fact they knew the law as well as we
+do. Their earlier aqueducts were conduits almost wholly underground;
+their later were all on arches. When they wished to carry water to a
+height within the city, up a watertower to a distributing cistern, or
+to the top storey of a building, they did so by pipes, just as we
+should; but when they brought water from forty miles away they
+preferred to bring it in channels lined with impermeable cement and
+carried upon arches, which wound across the country according to the
+levels in order to avoid the excessive pressure of too steep a
+gradient. The reasons for their choice are simple enough. Their chief
+difficulty was in making pipes of iron of sufficient capacity. On the
+other hand, it was easy to construct a cemented channel in masonry of
+any size you desired. In the next place the water about Rome rapidly
+lays a calcareous deposit, and it is much easier to clear this from a
+readily accessible channel than from pipes buried in the ground. The
+pipes which the Romans commonly made were of lead, bronze, or wood.
+None of these could be made and cleared cheaply enough to serve for
+the volume of water required for household use, the baths, and the
+public fountains of Rome. Meanwhile slave labour was inexpensive, and
+the cost of building an aqueduct of any length was of little account
+to the Roman.
+
+When the water reached the city it was conducted into settling and
+distributing reservoirs and its flow regulated. Thence it was carried
+by pipes, mostly of lead, wherever it was required. When Agrippa was
+minister of water-supply he constructed in the city 700 public pools
+or basins and 500 fountains, drawing their supply from 130 collecting
+heads or reservoirs. And it is to the credit of Agrippa and of Rome
+that all these pools, fountains, and reservoirs were made pleasant to
+the eye with suitable adornment. There is mention of 400 marble
+columns and 300 statues, but these are to be regarded as only chief
+among the embellishments.
+
+The streets of Rome were commonly paved with blocks of lava quarried
+in the neighbourhood from the abundant deposits which had formed in a
+not very remote volcanic period.
+
+The materials employed for substantial building were various; in the
+older days red and black tufa--a stone so soft as to require
+protection by a layer of stucco; later the dark-brown peperino, the
+golden-creamy travertine, marble white and coloured, and concrete. The
+modern visitor to Rome who regards the ruins but superficially would
+naturally imagine that many of the edifices were mainly constructed of
+brick. In reality there was no building so composed. The flat
+triangular bricks, or rather tiles, which are so much in evidence, are
+but inserted in the face of concrete to cover the nakedness of that
+material. Concrete alone might serve for cores and substructures, but
+those parts of the building which showed were required to present a
+more pleasing surface. At the date of Nero this might be achieved by a
+fronting of marble slabs and blocks, but more commonly it was obtained
+by means of the triangular red or yellow tiles above mentioned. In
+buildings of slightly earlier date the exterior often presented a
+"diamond pattern" or network arrangement of square pieces of stone
+inserted in the concrete while it was still soft. The huge vaults and
+arches affected by the Romans made concrete a particularly convenient
+material, and nothing could better illustrate its strength than the
+tenacity with which it has endured the strain in the unsupported
+portions of the vaults of the Basilica of Constantine. Any of the more
+imposing buildings which were not mainly of concrete were composed of
+blocks of stone, held to each other by clamps soldered in with lead.
+Few, if any, such buildings were made entirely of marble. In the case
+of those composes of the other varieties of stone already named, the
+surface was commonly coated either with stucco or with marble facings
+attached by hook-like clamps fixed into the main structure Externally
+the appearance of Rome--so far as its public buildings are
+concerned-was that of a city of marble. The present having been for
+centuries torn away, either to be used elsewhere, or more often to be
+burned down for lime.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28.--BUILDING MATERIALS. (From Middleton.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+We have taken a general survey of the city of Rome, its open places,
+streets, and public buildings. We may now look at the houses in which
+the Romans lived, and at the furniture to be expected inside them.
+
+Mention has already been made of the large and lofty tenement houses
+or blocks, often mere human rookeries, which were let out in lodgings
+to those who did not possess sufficient means to occupy a separate
+domicile of their own. These buildings, which were naturally to be
+found in the busier streets and more thickly inhabited quarters, were
+not, however, the habitations most typical of the romanized world.
+They were created by the special circumstances of the city, and might
+recur in other towns wherever the conditions were similar. The cramped
+island part of Tyre, for example, possessed houses even loftier than
+those of Rome. Where there was sufficient room--that is to say, where
+there was no large population crowded into a space limited by nature
+or by walls of defence--the ordinary house was of a very different
+character. It was built on a different plan and seldom ran to more
+than two stories, if so high. We shall shortly proceed to describe
+such a house; but it is first desirable to say something more of the
+tenement "block" in the metropolis. It is to be regretted that no such
+building has actually come down to us; we are therefore compelled to
+form our notions of one from the scattered references and hints of
+literature. Nevertheless if these are read in the light of customs
+still observable in Rome itself and in other parts of Italy, the
+picture becomes fairly definite.
+
+A block--or "island," as it was called--might be a building of four or
+five stories, surrounded by four of the narrow streets, lanes, or
+alleys which formed a network in the city. Whether managed by the
+landlord, by his agent, or by a tenant who sub-let at a profit, it was
+divided into lodgings, which might consist either of a single room or
+of a suite. Some such rooms and flats were "ordinary," others were
+described (as they are still in the advertisements of modern Rome) as
+"suitable for a gentleman," or, to use the exact language of the day,
+"suitable for a knight." Access to the respective quarters of the
+house was to be gained, not solely through a main door, but by
+separate stairs leading up directly from the streets and lanes. It
+would appear that each tenant had his own key, corresponding, though
+hardly in convenience of size, to our latch-key. Whereas it will be
+found that the ordinary private house of one storey was for the most
+part lighted by openings in the roof and by wide courts, this
+arrangement could manifestly be applied only partially to the tall
+tenement buildings. There might, it is true, exist in the middle
+interior of such a block an open space or "well," with galleries
+running round it at each floor, so that the inner rooms could obtain
+light from that quarter. It is also to be assumed that stairs ran up
+to these galleries, so that the inward rooms or flats were made
+accessible in this way. Mainly, however, the light came from windows
+opening on the street. If we glanced up at these from below we should
+find them narrower than ours at the present day--since we have
+discovered how to produce large and entirely diaphanous sheets of
+glass--but probably not narrower than those of a century ago. They
+were either mere openings with shutters, or, in the better houses,
+were glazed with transparent material. In the brighter part of the
+year they contained their boxes of flowering or other plants, and were
+often provided with a shade-awning not unlike those so familiar in
+Paris.
+
+The roof of such a building was either gabled and covered with tiles
+or, though perhaps less often, it was flat. The flat roof sometimes
+formed a terrace, on which the plants of a "roof-garden" might be
+found growing either in earthenware tubs or in earth spread over a
+layer of impermeable cement. The lowest floor, level with the street,
+commonly consisted of shops, which were open at full length in the
+day, but were shuttered and barred at night. As with the shops which
+are now built into the sides of large hotels and the like, they had no
+communication with the interior of the building. Regularly, however,
+they possessed a short staircase at the back or side leading to an
+upper room or _entresol_, where, in the poorer instances, the
+shopkeeper might actually reside. To the aristocratic Roman, with his
+contempt of petty trade, "born in the shop-loft" was a contemptuous
+phrase for a "son of nobody."
+
+Meanwhile the more representative houses of the strictly Roman part of
+the Roman world--that is to say, the dwellings of Romans or of
+imitators of Romans, wherever they might be settled, as distinct from
+the Greek and Oriental houses or from the various kinds of primitive
+huts to be found among the Western provincials--were of three chief
+kinds. These were the town house, the country seat, and the country
+homestead. There was, of course, nothing to prevent a wealthy Roman
+from building his town house exactly like a country seat, or vice
+versa, if he had so chosen, but from considerations of purpose, apart
+from those of local space and view, it would have been altogether
+irrational to take either course. The conditions of his life in town
+and country differed even more widely than they do with us. The
+average Roman, moreover, was a lover of variety in respect of his
+habitation. We find in a somewhat later epigrammatist that one grandee
+keeps up four town houses in Rome itself, and moves capriciously
+from one to the other, so that you never know where you will find
+him. At different seasons or in different moods he might prefer
+this or that situation or aspect. As for country seats of various
+degrees of magnificence, a man might--like many modern nobles or
+royalties--possess three, four, a dozen, or twenty. He might, for
+example, own one or more on the Italian Lakes, one in Tuscany, one on
+the Sabine or Alban Hills, one on the coast within a half-day's run of
+Rome, one on the Bay of Naples, one down in the heel of Italy, and so
+on. Pliny the Younger, who was born in the reign of Nero, was not a
+particularly rich man, yet he owned several country seats on Lake Como
+alone, besides others nearer to Rome on north and south, at the
+seaside, or on the hills.
+
+We may begin with a town house, and our simplest procedure is to take
+a plan exhibiting those parts which were most usual for an
+establishment of even moderate pretensions. Let it be understood that
+it is but the symmetrical outline of a general scheme which was in
+practice submitted to indefinite enlargement or modification. In the
+house of Livia, the mother of Augustus, on the Palatine Hill at Rome,
+and in various houses at Pompeii--such as those of the Vettii, of
+"Sallust," of the "Faun," or of "The Tragic Poet"--there will be found
+much diversity in the number and arrangement of the rooms, halls, and
+courts. Nevertheless the main principle of division, the general
+conception of the portions requisite for their several purposes, was
+practically the same. Some of the differences and enlargements may be
+illustrated after we have considered our first simple outline. Before
+we undertake this, however, it may be well to warn any one who may
+have visited or be about to visit Pompeii, that he must exclude from
+his thoughts all those small premises of a room or two which face so
+many of the streets. These were mostly shops, with which we are not
+now dealing. He must also exclude all the public edifices. This done,
+he must remember that we now possess only portions of the walls
+without the roofs, and that in such circumstances apartments always
+appear to be much smaller than they are by actual measurement, or than
+they appear when they contain their furniture and appointments
+properly disposed. Finally, he must not take a Pompeian house, even
+the most spacious, as a fair example of either the size or splendour
+of the great houses in the metropolis. Pompeii was but a small place,
+with a population of no great wealth or standing, and its houses would
+have cut but a provincial figure among those of the same date on the
+Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, or Quirinal Hills. Nevertheless they are
+extremely useful to us in reconstructing the type. It is that type and
+not the exception which we now consider.
+
+A town house might either be detached or it might stand in a street,
+like one of the tenement-blocks, with shops let into the less
+important parts of the outer wall of the ground floor. Much would
+naturally depend upon the means and dignity of the owner. In any case
+the interior portions would belong to the private residence. As a rule
+the exterior of the ordinary house was little regarded. No
+architecture was wasted upon it; decoration and other magnificence
+belonged to the interior. Provided a house possessed a more or less
+imposing doorway its exterior walls might be left either to shops or
+to a dull monochrome of stucco, pierced here and there, if necessary,
+at 9 or 10 feet from the ground by barred slits, which cannot be
+called windows, for the admittance of light. The general principle of
+a Roman house, as of a Greek, was that of rooms surrounding spaces
+lighted from within. Privacy from the outer world was not indeed so
+scrupulously sought by the Romans as by the Athenians--principally
+because of the more free position occupied by the Roman
+women--nevertheless it was secured by the absence of ground-floor
+windows opening on any thoroughfare.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29.--TYPICAL SCHEME OF ROMAN HOUSE.]
+
+Before the actual door there was commonly an open recess or space a
+little backward from the street, in which callers could wait until the
+door was opened. This was the "vestibule," and in the case of the
+larger houses of the nobles it was often adorned with honorary
+statues, on horseback or otherwise, while above the door might be seen
+the insignia of triumphs won by the family, a decoration in some
+measure corresponding to the modern hatchment, except that it was
+permanently fixed. This regularly remained as a mark of the house even
+when it changed owners. It was in such a vestibule of his Golden House
+that Nero erected his own colossal statue, destined afterwards to give
+its name to the Colosseum. Over the larger vestibules there might be a
+partial roof, but generally, and perhaps always at this date, they
+were without cover.
+
+Facing you in the middle of the vestibule are double or folding doors,
+more or less ornate with bronze, ivory, and other work, and generally
+bearing a large ring or handle to serve either as a knocker or to pull
+the door to. Above them is a bronze grating or fretwork for further
+adornment and to admit light and air. Some householders, more
+superstitious or conventional than the rest, affected an inscription,
+such as "Let no evil enter here," and over some humbler entrance you
+might find a cage containing a parrot or magpie, which had been
+trained to say "Good luck to you" in Greek. At either side of the
+door, or of the actual entrance to the vestibule, is a column or
+pilaster, either made of timber and cased with other woods of a more
+beautiful and costly kind, or consisting of coloured marble with an
+ornate capital. These "doorposts" were wreathed with laurel or other
+foliage on festal occasions, such as when the occupant had won some
+distinguished honour in the field, in the courts, or at the elections,
+or when a marriage took place from within. At funerals small cypress
+trees or branches would be placed in and about the vestibule. At one
+side of it you might sometimes find a smaller door, to be used for the
+ordinary going in and out when it was unnecessary or inconvenient for
+the larger doors to be opened.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30.--ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF PANSA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+The doors themselves turn, not upon hinges of the modern kind, but
+upon pivots, which move, often too noisily, in sockets let into the
+threshold and lintel. The fastenings consisted of locks--often highly
+ingenious--of a bar laid across from wall to wall, of bolts shot
+across or upward and downward, and sometimes of a prop leaning against
+the inside of the door and entering a cavity in the floor of the
+passage. The floor of the entrance passage itself might be paved with
+marble tiles, or made simply of a polished cement with or without
+patterns worked in it; or it might consist of small cubes of stone,
+white and black or more variously coloured, frequently worked into
+figures, and now and then accompanied by an inscription just within
+the threshold, such as "Greeting" or "Beware the Dog." In one Pompeian
+house the floor bears the well-known mosaic likeness of a dog held
+upon its chain. At the side of the passage there is often a smaller
+room for the janitor. When there is none, he must be supposed to have
+used a movable seat.
+
+Passing through the passage, you find yourself in a rectangular hall,
+upon which was lavished the chief display in the way of loftiness and
+decoration. In the middle of the ceiling is an open space, square or
+oblong, to which the tiles of the gabled roof converge from above, and
+in the middle of the floor beneath is a corresponding basin, edged and
+paved with coloured or plain marble. The basin is of no great depth,
+and contains the water which has been poured into it from the
+ornamental pipe-mouths of bronze or terra-cotta projecting, like
+gargoyles, from the edge of the opening above. Sometimes the basin
+contained a fountain. There is of course an outlet pipe for the
+surplus water, but some of that overflow often ran into a covered
+cistern, over which you would find a small circular well-mouth,
+ornamented with sculptured reliefs. The opening in the ceiling may be
+formed simply by the space between the four cross-beams, or it may be
+supported by a pillar--of marble or of brick cased with marble--at
+each corner, or it may rest upon a greater number of such pillars. It
+is this opening which lets in the light and air to the hall, and it
+should always be remembered that the Italian house had more occasion
+to seek coolness and freshness than warmth. On a day of glaring
+sunshine and heat it was always possible to spread under the opening
+an awning or curtain of purple or other colour, of which the reflected
+hues meanwhile lent a richness to the space below. If we take one of
+the finer houses, we shall see, in glancing at the ceiling which
+covers the rest of the hall, that it is divided into sunken panels or
+coffers, which are adorned with reliefs in stucco and are painted, or
+else are decorated with copper, gold or ivory. The height may be
+whatever the owner wishes, but perhaps 25 feet would be a modest
+average estimate. The floor in such a house will generally consist of
+slabs of marble or of marble tiles arranged in patterns. In houses of
+less show it may be made of the same materials as those described for
+the entrance passage. To right and left are various chambers, shut off
+by lofty doors or by portières or both. To these light is admitted
+their doors and the gratings over them, from the high window-slits
+already mentioned in the outer wall, or sometimes, when there is no
+upper storey, from sky-lights. And here let it be observed that the
+notion that the Romans of this date used very little glass is
+altogether erroneous, as the discoveries at Pompeii and elsewhere
+sufficiently prove.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Interior of Roman House. (Looking from
+Reception-hall to Peristyle.)]
+
+The walls of the hall are in the better instances either coated with
+panels of tinted marble, or parcelled out in bright bands or oblongs
+of paint, or decorated with pictures of mythological, architectural,
+and other subjects worked in bright colours upon darkened stucco. To
+our own taste these colours--red, yellow, bluish-green, and others--as
+seen at Pompeii, are often excessively crude and badly harmonised. But
+while it is true that the ancients appear to have been actually
+somewhat deficient in colour-sense, it must be borne in mind that many
+of the Pompeian houses were decorated by journeymen rather than by
+artists, and, above all, full allowance must be made for the
+comparatively subdued light in which most of the paintings would be
+seen. The hall might also contain statuary placed against the walls or
+against the supporting pillars, where these existed. At the farther
+end from the entrance you will perceive to right and left two large
+recesses or bays, generally with pilasters on either side. These
+"wings" were utilised for a variety of purposes. One of them might
+occasionally serve for a smaller dining-room, or it might hold presses
+and cupboards. In noble houses one of them would contain certain
+family possessions of which the occupants were especially proud. These
+were the effigies of distinguished ancestors, which served as a
+family-tree represented in a highly objective form. At our chosen date
+there would be a series of portrait busts or else of portrait
+medallions, in relief or painted, while in special receptacles,
+labelled underneath with name and rank, were kept life-like wax masks
+of the line of distinguished persons, which could be brought out and
+carried in procession at the funeral of a member of the family. Though
+there was no "College of Heralds" in antiquity, it was commonly quite
+possible for a wealthy parvenu to get a pedigree invented for him. It
+is true that by use and wont the "right of effigies" was confined to
+those families which had held the higher offices of state, but there
+was no specific law on the subject, and the Roman _nouveau riche_
+could act exactly like his modern representative in securing his
+"portraits of ancestors."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Having thus glanced to right and left, to the ceiling and the floor,
+we now look at the end of the hall facing us. The middle section of
+this is open, and is framed by a couple of high pillars or pilasters
+and a cornice, which together formed perhaps the most distinguishing
+feature of this part of the house. Between the pillars is an apartment
+which may or may not be raised a step or two above the level of the
+hall. This, unlike the hall itself, is of the nature of a
+sitting-room, reception-room, or "parlour" (in the old sense of that
+word), and contains appropriate furniture. In it the master receives a
+guest, interviews his clients, makes up his accounts, and transacts
+such other private business as may fall to his lot. At the back it may
+be entirely closed, or it may contain a large window, through which we
+can catch a vista of the colonnaded and planted court beyond. The
+floor may here consist of a large carpet-like mosaic, such as that
+famous piece, taken from the House of the Faun at Pompeii and now in
+the Naples Museum, which represents a battle between Alexander and the
+Persians. To one side of the entrance to this "parlour" there will
+often stand on a pedestal the bust of the owner, as "Genius of the
+home." On the other side there is a passage serving as the means of
+access to the second or inner division of the house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33.--PERISTYLE WITH GARDEN AND AL FRESCO
+DINING-TABLE.]
+
+On making our way through this passage we find ourselves in a space
+still more open than the hall. It is commonly an unroofed,
+quadrangular court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, and thence known
+as the "peristyle." Or the colonnade may extend only round three
+sides, the back being free to the garden. In the uncovered space lying
+between the rows of pillars there are ornamental shrubs and flowers,
+marble tables, a cistern of water containing goldfish, a fountain, and
+marble basins into which fresh water is spouted from bronze or marble
+statuettes, from figures of animals, or from masks. Under the
+colonnade are marble floors or other more or less rich pavements,
+decorated walls, and such works of art as the owner most affects.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34.--PERISTYLE IN HOUSE OF THE VETTII. (Present
+state.)]
+
+When it seems desirable for shade and coolness, coloured curtains or
+awnings may be suspended between the columns, so that one can sit or
+walk with comfort under the cloistered portion. At the sides are
+apartments for different purposes. At the far end, or elsewhere, there
+is regularly the largest dining-room, often with mosaic floor and
+generally with pictured walls. Whereabouts in the house the family or
+an invited party should dine would depend partly on the number to be
+present, partly on the season of the year, and partly on some passing
+inclination. A house of any pretensions would possess several rooms
+used, or capable of being used, for this purpose. Some dining-rooms
+had what we should call French windows on three sides, permitting the
+diners to enjoy the view of the garden or the shrubbery outside.
+
+Other large and airy apartments or saloons off the peristyle were used
+for social conversation, or as drawing-rooms. Farther back still,
+approached by another passage or door, there was often to be found a
+garden, containing an arbour or a terrace covered with a trailing
+vine, of the kind known in modern Italy as a _pergola_. In suitable
+weather _al fresco_ meals were often taken here, and occasionally
+there were fixed couches and tables of masonry always ready for that
+purpose.
+
+Coming back from the garden into the court, we might explore other
+passages, leading to the kitchen or to the bathrooms of hot, warm, and
+cold water. These offices would be respectively situated wherever
+circumstances made them most convenient. In the kitchen the part
+corresponding to our "range" consisted of a flat structure of masonry,
+on which the fire was lighted. The cooking pots were placed either
+upon ridges of masonry running across the fire or upon three legged
+stands of iron. The accompanying illustrations will sufficiently show
+what is meant. The bedrooms, little better than cells, of the slaves,
+and also the storerooms, were variously distributed. Underground
+cellars were apparently exceptional, although examples may be seen at
+Pompeii.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--KITCHEN HEARTH IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36.--KITCHEN HEARTHS (Drawing).]
+
+Somewhere in one of the bays of the hall, at the back of the peristyle
+court, or elsewhere, would be found a small shrine for the worship of
+the domestic gods. This was variously constructed. Sometimes it was a
+niche or recess containing paintings or little effigies and with an
+altar or altar-shelf beneath, sometimes a miniature temple erected
+against the wall. There was apparently no special place to which,
+rather than any other, it was to be assigned. To the nature and
+meaning of the household gods we may refer again when dealing with the
+general subject of religion.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37.--SHRINE (IN BACKGROUND) IN HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC
+POET.]
+
+In the homes of persons of culture there would also be included a
+library and, perhaps less regularly, a picture-gallery. The library,
+which sometimes comprised thousands of rolls, would be a room not only
+surrounded by large pigeon-holes or open cupboards containing the
+round boxes for the parchment rolls, but also traversed by lower
+partitions provided on either side with similar shelves. About the
+room, over or by the shelves, stand portrait busts or medallions of
+great authors, both Greek and Roman, the "blind" Homer being
+represented in traditional form, but the majority, from Aeschylus and
+Thucydides down to Virgil and Livy, being authentic and excellent
+likenesses. In the picture-gallery would be found paintings either
+done upon the stucco walls in a frame-like setting or upon panels of
+wood attached to the walls, very much as we hang our modern pictures.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE.]
+
+It was scarcely ever the case that a second storey--where one existed
+at all--extended over the whole house. If upper rooms were used, they
+were placed over those parts where they would interfere least with the
+light, the comfort, and the appearance of the ground-floor
+arrangements. The stairs leading to them were variously disposed and
+as little as possible in evidence. In such upper apartments there was
+naturally not the same risk from the curious or the burglar as in the
+case of the lower, and windows of perhaps 4 by 2-1/2 feet were
+therefore freely employed. In some instances, though we cannot tell
+how frequently, the second storey projected on strong beams over the
+street, as in the example at Pompeii known as the "House of the
+Hanging Balcony."
+
+It remains to make brief observations upon one or two matters
+interesting to any practical householder. These are the questions of
+water-supply, drainage, warming, and roofing.
+
+In respect of water there was no difficulty. It was brought in the
+ordinary way, from those reservoirs which formed the ends of the
+aqueducts or conduits, by means of pipes, mostly made of lead, though
+sometimes of bronze. These were conducted to the points where they
+were required, and there the flow was manipulated by means of taps and
+plugs. In order to make a water-pipe, a sheet of lead or bronze was
+rolled into a cylinder, the joining of the two edges taking the shape
+of a raised ridge, which was soldered. One end of a section was
+squeezed or narrowed so that it might be inserted into the widened end
+of the next. Lead pipes of no inconsiderable size, stamped with the
+name of the owner, are to be seen preserved in the Palatine House of
+Livia, and a number of smaller ones remain at Pompeii. For drainage
+there the sewers, and also pipes to carry the less offensive overflow
+of water into the street channels, which in their turn led into
+underground drains.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 88 A.--LEADEN PIPES IN HOUSE OF LIVIA.
+(Palatine.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39.--PORTABLE BRAZIERS.]
+
+For the warming of a house the Romans not only portable braziers with
+charcoal for fuel, but in the larger establishments there existed a
+system of "central" heating, by which hot air was conducted from a
+furnace in the basement through flues running beneath the floor and up
+through the walls, where its effect might be regulated by adjustable
+openings or registers. The only fixed fire-place in a town house was
+in the kitchen. From this the smoke was carried off by a flue,
+constituting to all intents and purposes a chimney. The belief that
+the Romans were unacquainted with such things as chimneys has been
+proved to be untrue.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40.--MANNER OF ROOFING WITH TILES.]
+
+The roofing, when constructed, as it most frequently was, in a gabled
+form, consisted of terra-cotta tiles arranged on a regular system.
+First came the flat layers, each higher row overlapping the lower. The
+descending edges of a row of these flat plates, as they lay side by
+side, were turned up into a kind of flange of about 2-1/4 inches in
+height, so that at the points of contact a ridge was formed down the
+roof. Over this line was laid a series of other tiles shaped into a
+half-cylinder, the lower end of each tile overlapping the next. By
+this means the rain was prevented from penetrating the crevice between
+the flanges. At the bottom, above the eaves, the line of semicircular
+tiles ended in a flower-like or mask-like ornament, which broke the
+monotony of the horizontal edge of the roof.
+
+After this description of what may be considered a representative
+Roman house, it is necessary to repeat that it is but typical. Many
+were considerably smaller, containing, for example, no peristyle. Many
+on the contrary were far more spacious and sumptuous, possessing more
+than one hall and more than one peristyle, and varying the nature as
+well as the number and position of those portions of the house. In
+exceptional cases the hall had no opening in the ceiling and therefore
+no basin below, but was covered with a simple gabled roof which shed
+the rain-water into the street. In exceptional cases also there was no
+"parlour" of the kind described a little while ago. The situation of
+the house, enlargements made after the main part was built, the
+joining of two houses into one, or other causes, often modified the
+rectangular and symmetrical appearance presented in the plan hitherto
+given. Such modifications are, however, better illustrated by a
+comparison of the plans of two well-known Pompeian houses than by any
+amount of verbal description. The first is that of Pansa, which forms
+the main portion of a whole block, smaller dwellings and shops
+unconnected with the Pansa establishment being built round and into it
+at various points. The arrangements of this house closely approach the
+normal or simple type described in this chapter. The second is the
+famous house of the Vettii, which departs somewhat freely from the
+customary disposition of apartments.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 41.--HOUSE OF PANSA AT POMPEII.]
+
+The parts within the dark lines belong to the one house; the rest are
+other houses and shops built into the block.
+
+ 1. Vestibule             11. Rooms
+ 2. Passage               12. Dining-Room
+ 3. Hall                  13. Winter Dining-Room
+ 4. Rooms                 14. Saloon (Drawing-Room)
+ 5. Wings                 15. Kitchen
+ 6. Dining-Room           16. Carriage Room
+ 7. Parlour               17. Boudoir
+ 8. Passage               18. Portico
+ 9. Library?              19. Saleroom
+10. Peristyle             20. Passage to Side Door
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 42.--HOUSE OF THE VETTII AT POMPEII. A second
+storey extended over the corners and front parts included under the
+nine small crosses.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 43--SPECIMEN OF PAINTED ROOM.]
+
+It would be tempting to indulge in rhetoric and to dwell upon the
+magnificence of some of the more luxurious houses of the wealthy
+Romans; to describe their ostentation of rich marbles in pillar, wall,
+or floor--the white marbles of Carrara, Paros, and Hymettus; the
+Phrygian marble or "pavonazzetto" its streakings of crimson or violet;
+the orange-golden glow of the Numidian stone of "giallo antico"; the
+Carystian marble or "cipollino" with its onion-like layers of white
+and pale-green; the serpentine variety from Laconia, and the porphyry
+from Egypt. We might descant upon the lavish wall-paintings,
+representing landscapes real and imaginary, scenes from mythology and
+semi-history, floating figures, genre pictures, and pictures of still
+life; or upon the mosaics in floor and wall depicting similar subjects
+and often serving to the occupants not so much in the place of
+pictorial art as in the place of wall-papers and of Brussels or
+Kidderminster carpets. We might speak of the profuse collections of
+statuary, of the gilding on ceiling and cornices, of the colours shed
+by the rich curtains and awnings of purple and crimson, of the
+grateful sound of water plashing in the fountains and basins or
+babbling over a series of steps like a broken cascade in miniature.
+But perhaps too much of such description might only encourage still
+further the erroneous notion that the Roman houses were all of this
+nature, and that even the average Roman lived in the midst of an
+abundance of such domestic luxury and art. It requires but a little
+sober thought to realise that such homes were, as they have always
+been, the exception. It would be as reasonable to judge of an average
+London house by the most opulent specimens in Park Lane, or of an
+American house by the richest at Newport, as to judge of the abodes of
+Romans in the time of Nero by the examples which appeal so strongly to
+the novelist or the romancing historian. Suffice it that beside the
+modest and frugal homes, the tenement flat, and the hovel, there were
+houses distinguished by immense luxury; and, since Romans have at all
+times sought the ostentatious and grandiose, perhaps such dwellings
+were larger and more pretentious in proportion to wealth than they are
+in most civilised countries at the present day. Seneca, who made
+himself extremely comfortable in the days of Nero, exclaims upon the
+rage for costly decoration. Says he of the bathing of the plutocrat:
+"He seems to himself poor and mean, unless the walls shine with great
+costly slabs, unless marbles of Alexandria are picked out with reliefs
+of Numidian stone, unless the whole ceiling is elaborately worked with
+all the variety of a painting, unless Thasian stone encloses the
+swimming baths, unless the water is poured out from silver taps."
+These, indeed, are comparatively humble. "What of the baths of the
+freedmen? a mass of statues! What a multitude of pillars supporting
+nothing, but put there only for ornament! What an amount of water
+running over steps with a purling noise--and all for show!"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SPECIMEN OF WALL-PAINTING. (Pompeii.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+Throughout the romanized parts of the empire--in other words, wherever
+Romans settled, in Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and also wherever the
+richer natives imitated the Roman fashions--the house in any city or
+considerable town was built as nearly as possible after the type
+described.
+
+In the country the poor naturally had their much simpler cottages and
+cabins of a room or two, commonly thatched or shingled, knowing
+nothing of hall and court and all these arrangements of art and
+luxury. In the case of the more well-to-do country people of
+Italy--the larger farmers, wine-growers, olive-growers, and the
+like--the homestead was of a kind which made for simplicity and
+comfort. It was in such homes that one would find the most wholesome
+life and the soundest moral fibre of the time.
+
+Normally the homestead would be a large, and often a rambling,
+building of one storey, except where a tower served as a store-room
+for the mellowing wine or a loft for the mellowing fruit. When we read
+in Horace about the liberal stack of wood to be kept in readiness near
+the hearth, and about the wine-jar drinking in the smoke in the
+store-room we must think of his country homestead on the Sabine Hills,
+not of a house in Rome, for at Rome there was no blazing hearth to sit
+round and no smoky tower-loft for the ripening of the Caecuban.
+
+You enter an open court or yard, round the sides of which may run the
+stalls of the horses and oxen of the farm, the tool-rooms, the lofts
+of hay and corn, the quarters of the labourers--herdsmen, ploughmen,
+vine-dressers--and the great farm-kitchen. It is in this kitchen that
+you will find the bright hearth in winter-time, where all the members
+of the homestead gather round the fire. It is here that they then all
+eat, and in it the women of the establishment perform their work,
+spinning and weaving and mending. Off from the court will be situated
+the wine-press, or the olive-press, the-granaries, the fruit mellowing
+on mats, and the various rooms or bins where wine is fermented and
+stored, or where the olive-oil is treated and stocked. Commonly a more
+retired court will contain the private rooms of the owner, and
+somewhere in the homestead will be found the fowl-yard, with its hens,
+ducks, geese, and guinea-fowl, the sties, and the preserves for
+various toothsome animals, including perhaps dormice and snails.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 45.--PLAN OF HOMESTEAD AT BOSCOREALE.]
+
+Frequently a Roman of the city affected a country house of this
+character, to which he would flee during the tyrannous reign of the
+Dogstar or the Lion---in other words, during that hot season of the
+year which requires no description for those who have been so
+ill-advised as to sojourn in Rome in July, August, and early
+September. Many of his town slaves he would take with him, and what
+was a holiday for him was also a holiday for them. His rural homestead
+would possess great charm for the quieter type of man who had no real
+love for the pomps and shows the rattle and tumult, of the city. The
+vision of wholesome country-produce--of fresh milk and eggs and
+vegetables, and of tender poultry--is one which still attracts our
+city-folk. But the vision, then as now, was often subject to
+disillusion. Complaints are many that you had to feed the homestead in
+place of it feeding you, and when Martial has given a pleasant picture
+of a family reaching the gate of Rome with a coachful of the typical
+produce of the country, he ends by suddenly letting you know that they
+are not coming in from their country house but are going out to it.
+The complaint of the English seaside town that there will be no fish
+"till the train comes in from London," is thus a sufficiently old one.
+Yet the same Martial supplies another picture, painted with such zest
+of frank enjoyment that we are at once convinced of its truth. Some
+portions of it perhaps admit of translation in the following terms:--
+
+      Our friend Fundanus' Baian seat,
+      My Bassus, is no pleasance neat,
+      Where myrtles trim in idle lines,
+      Clipped box, and planes unwed to vines
+      Rob of right use the acres wide:
+      'Tis farm-life true and countrified.
+      In every corner grain is stacked,
+      Old wines in fragrant jars are packed:
+      About the farmyard gabbling gander
+      And spangled peacock freely wander:
+      With pheasant and flamingo prowl
+      Partridge and speckled guinea-fowl:
+      Pigeon and waxen turtle-dove
+      Rustle their wings in cotes above.
+      The farm-wife's apron draws a rout
+      Of greedy porkers round about;
+      And eagerly the tender lamb
+      Waits the filled udder of its dam.
+      With plenteous logs the hearth is bright.
+      The household Gods glow in the light,
+      And baby slaves are sprawling round.
+      No town-bred idlers here are found:
+      No cellarer grows pale with sloth,
+      No trainer wastes his oil, but both
+      Go forth afield and subtly plan
+      To snare the greedy ortolan.
+      Meanwhile the garden rings with mirth,
+      While townfolk dig the yielding earth:
+      No need for the page-master's voice;
+      The saucy long-haired boys rejoice
+      To do the manager's commands.
+      At morn 'tis not with empty hands
+      The country pays its call, but some
+      Bring honey in its native comb,
+      Or cones of cheese; some think as good
+      A sleepy dormouse from the wood;
+      And honest tenants' big girls bring
+      Baskets with "mother's offering."
+
+The visit to the country in the season of the "mad star" and the
+scirocco was as necessary to the ancient Roman as is his
+_villeggiatura_ to the modern. But there were other seasons when he
+fled from town. If to the heat of summer he sought the hills, in the
+colder he might seek the south of Italy, and in spring or autumn the
+seaside at various points the mouth of the Tiber to southward of
+Salerno, might run away from inconvenient business or ceremonies, or
+through a mere desire to get rest or sleep or change. He might wish,
+as Cicero and Pliny did, to get away from the "games" and to study and
+write in quiet. He might fancy that his health called for baths in the
+hot springs on the Bay of Naples, or for sea-bathing somewhere on the
+Latian or Campanian coasts. To put it briefly, he was very much like
+our worried, bilious, or exhausted selves. His life of ceremony was a
+hard one, and often he ate and drank too much. But whereas nowadays we
+can make free choice of any agreeable spot, since every such spot
+possesses its "Grand Hotel" or "Hotel Superbe," where we can always
+find the crowd and discomfort which we pretend to be escaping, the
+Roman idea was different. It corresponded more to that of our English
+nobles, who, in Elizabethan or Queen Anne days or later, built
+themselves country seats, one, two, or more, indulging in
+architectural fancies and surrounding all with spacious gardens,
+ponds, and rockeries. The Roman man of wealth created no hotels. He
+dotted his country seats about in places where the air was warm for
+winter and spring, or cool for summer and autumn, by the seashore, on
+the lower hills, or high on the mountain side. You would find them on
+the Italian lakes or elsewhere toward the north. In greater numbers
+would you find them on the hills near Rome, at the modern Tivoli or
+Palestrina, on the Alban heights near what are now Frascati, Albano,
+or Genzano, along the shore at Antium, Terracina, Baiae, Naples,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii, Castellamare, and Sorrento.
+
+Perhaps it is not too much to say that more than a hundred and twenty
+miles of this coast were practically a chain of country houses. The
+shore of the Bay of Naples has been compared to a collar of pearls
+strung round the blue. Wherever there was a wide and varied landscape
+or seascape, there arose a Roman country house. We are too prone to
+assume that the ancients felt but little love or even appreciation of
+scenery, and to fancy that the feeling came as a revelation to a
+Rousseau, a Wordsworth, or a nineteenth-century painter. That Roman
+literature does not gush about the matter has been absurdly taken for
+proof that the Roman writer did not copiously enjoy the glories
+presented to his eyes. But, though Roman literature does not gush, it
+often exhibits the same feelings towards scenery which at least a
+Thomson or a Cowper exhibits. Perhaps it was so accustomed to scenic
+beauties that it took for granted much that an English or German
+writer cannot. At any rate we are sure that the Roman chose for his
+country seat a site commanding the widest and most beautiful outlook,
+and that he even built towers upon his house to command the view the
+better. In this respect he was like the mediaeval monks, when they
+chose the sites of monasteries at San Martino or Amalfi, and his love
+of a belvedere was probably quite as great as theirs.
+
+The country seat differed widely from the town house. We must forget
+the plan which has been given above, with its hall and court lighted
+from within, and made private from the passing crowds in the street.
+In the country there is no need of such an arrangement. Moreover there
+are no formal receptions to necessitate the hall, and there are ample
+gardens to make the peristyle superfluous. Here the walls of the house
+may break forth into large and open windows, while all around may run
+pillared verandahs. Built in any variety of shape, according to the
+situation and the fancy, it may contain an immense variety of
+sitting-rooms, dining-rooms, bedrooms, facing in every direction to
+catch the sun, the shade, the breeze, or the prospect, as the case may
+be. Not that magnificence is any more neglected than in the great
+English country seats. The pillars and pavements are as rich as means
+allow, and works of painting and statuary are perhaps even finer and
+more numerous than in town; there is more time to look at them, and
+there are better facilities for showing them off. Many of the best
+works of ancient sculpture now extant in the museums have come from
+such country seats. There were of course vulgar houses in bad taste,
+where the owner's notions of magnificence consisted in ostentatious
+extravagance and a desire to outdo his neighbour. As now, everything
+depended either on the culture of the man or on the amount of his good
+sense in leaving such matters to his artistic adviser.
+
+Outside the house lie the gardens and grounds. For the most part these
+are laid out in the formal style adopted so often in more modern Italy
+and favoured so greatly in England in the early eighteenth century.
+Perhaps the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, though of course not ancient, may
+convey some approximate idea of the prevailing principle. Along one
+side of the Roman house we should find a smooth terrace ornamented
+with statues and vases, to be used as a promenade. There are straight
+walks and avenues between hedges and trees and shrubs--cyprus, laurel,
+box, and other manageable plants--cut to the shape of beasts and birds
+and inanimate objects. There are flower-beds--of the rose, the crocus,
+the wallflower, the narcissus, the violet, but not, for example, the
+tulip--laid out in geometrical patterns. There are trellis-work
+arbours and walks covered with leafy vines or other trailing plants.
+There are clumps of bay-trees, plane trees, or myrtles, with marble
+seats beneath. There is either an avenue or a covered colonnade, where
+the ground is made of soft earth or sand, and where the family may
+take exercise by being carried in a litter up and down in the open or
+under the shade. There are greenhouses and forcing-houses, where
+flowers are grown under glass. There are fish-ponds, fountains, and
+water-channels, with artificial cascades and a general suggestion of
+babbling streams. Out beyond lie the orchards and the vegetable
+gardens, where are grown most of the modern fruits, including peaches,
+apricots, and almonds, but not yet including either the orange or the
+lemon.
+
+The country immediately round the mansion of the wealthy man was
+commonly his own estate. A portion of this was frequently woodland,
+affording opportunities for hunting deer, wild boar, and other game.
+For the boar the weapon was a stout spear, and the general practice of
+the sportsman was to wait at a certain spot until the beast was driven
+towards it by a ring of beaters. Deer were caught in nets or
+transfixed with javelins while running. In more open places the
+hunter, accompanied by hounds, rode after a hare. But though far too
+much of Italy was taken up by preserves of this unproductive kind, the
+large estates were mostly turned to agricultural purposes. Different
+owners, different practices; but the possessor of a number of country
+seats would in some cases work the land for himself by means of
+slaves--often in disgrace and labouring in chains--under the direction
+of a manager or bailiff, while in others he would parcel out his land
+on various terms among free tenants. It is gratifying to discover that
+in bad seasons a generous landlord would sometimes remit a portion of
+his dues, and that he recognised various obligations of a grand
+seigneur to his district. Among them was the keeping up and
+beautifying of the local shrines and contributing to buildings and
+works for the public comfort.
+
+Such would be the country seat when established landward. By the
+seaside, especially in a much-frequented resort like Baiae, the room
+was more limited and the equipment modified. The extensive garden
+would be absent, and the height of the building increased by a second
+or even a third storey. It was no uncommon thing for such a "villa,"
+as it was called, to stand out on a promontory, where it could be
+greeted by the sea on either side. In many cases it was actually built
+out into the sea on piles or on a basis of concrete, and the occupant
+made a special delight of fishing from his window, and of letting the
+true sea-water flow into his swimming bath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+On the customary furniture of a Roman house we need not spend many
+words. For one thing, it was simple and scanty as compared with the
+furnishing and upholstering of to-day. For another, its nature
+presents little that would be strange to us or that would require
+explanation.
+
+Among the most conspicuous differences between Roman and modern
+furnishing must be reckoned the absence of carpets, the comparatively
+small use of tables and chairs, the absence of upholstery from such
+chairs as were used, and the greater part played by couches. In place
+of carpets there were the ornamental floors, whether in geometrical
+pattern-work, arrangements of veined marbles, or mosaic pictures
+composed of small blocks of coloured stone or glass. The making of
+carpets was well understood in the East, and Rome would have found no
+difficulty in obtaining as many as it chose, but so far as it employed
+tapestries they were for portieres and curtains, for the coverings of
+dining-couches and beds, or for throwing across a chair-back. The
+Roman kept his floors, walls, pillars, and ceilings carefully cleared
+of dust and stains by means of brushes of feathers or light hair,
+brooms of palm or other leaves, and sponges. He thus saved himself
+both the labour and the unwholesomeness of carpets.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 46.--ROMAN FOLDING CHAIR. (Schreiber.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 47.--BRONZE SEAT (Overbeck.)]
+
+We need not enter into dry details concerning such articles as were
+similar to our own. Of the Roman seats it is enough to say that they
+were either square stools without back or arms, or folding-stools, or
+they were true chairs either with straight arms and backs (the Origin
+of the modern throne) to be used by the owner when receiving clients
+or visitors on business, or with a long sloping back and without arms,
+as used particularly by women. A movable cushion constituted all the
+upholstery.
+
+But the Roman man seldom took his ease in a chair: even his reading
+and writing were commonly performed while reclining upon a couch. When
+writing, he doubled his tablets on his knee, and it may be presumed
+that habit made the practice easy and natural. The couch is, indeed,
+perhaps the chief article of Roman furniture. So regular was it to
+recline that, where we should speak of a sitting-room, the Romans
+spoke of a "reclining-room." At business they sat; but they reclined
+in social conversation--unless it was brief--when reading, when taking
+the siesta, and when dining. Their beds in the proper sense were
+similar to our own, though less heavy than those of our older fashion.
+To mount them it was often necessary to use steps or an elongated
+footstool. A slave in close attendance upon a master or mistress
+sometimes slept upon a low truckle-bed, which, in the daytime, could
+be pushed under the other. The couches for day use were lower and of
+lighter and narrower build, with a movable rest at the head and with
+or without a back.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 48.--FRAMEWORK OF ROMAN COUCH.]
+
+Upon the frame of such couches a good deal of decoration was lavished
+in the way of veneerings of ornamental wood, or thin plates of ivory
+or tortoise-shell, or reliefs in bronze or even in gold or silver. The
+feet might also, in the richer houses, consist of silver or of ivory.
+For the dining-rooms of people of wealth a special feature was made of
+such work upon the conspicuous parts of the frames, while the cushions
+and coverings were of costly fabrics, richly dyed and embroidered or
+damasked. The method of serving and eating a dinner is a subject which
+belongs to our later treatment of a social day, and it must here
+suffice to picture the ordinary arrangement of a dinner party.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 49.--PLAN OF DINING-TABLE WITH THREE COUCHES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 50.--SIGMA.]
+
+In the middle is the table, either square or, if round, made if
+possible of a single piece of costly wood richly grained by nature in
+a wavy or peacock pattern and obtained by sawing through the lower
+part of the trunk of a Moorish tree. The price depended on the size.
+Of one such circular slab we learn that it cost £4000. It may be
+needless to remark that many tables were only "imitation." When not in
+use, and sometimes even then, such tables were protected by coloured
+linen cloths. By preference this ancient equivalent of "the best
+mahogany" was supported on a single leg, consisting of elephants'
+tusks or of sculptured marble. On three sides are placed the couches,
+covered with mattresses stuffed with flock or feathers, and provided
+with soft cushions for the left arm to rest upon. Sometimes, instead
+of the three separate couches, there was but one large couch shaped
+like a crescent, either extending round half the large circular table,
+or having more than one smaller table placed before it. Tables in
+other rooms were scarcely to be found, since, as has already been
+remarked, they were not required for reading or writing or for holding
+the various articles which we moderns place upon them. Besides the
+dining tables we should generally find only a sideboard placed in the
+dining-room for the display of articles of plate. This was either of
+ornamental wood or of marble with a sculptured stand, and was
+distinctly meant for show. In place of tables for supporting necessary
+objects we find tripods, either of bronze or marble, with a flat top
+and sometimes with a rim.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 51.--TRIPOD FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+Other articles of household furniture were chests and presses or
+wardrobes. It was almost a rule that in the hall, at the side or end,
+should stand a low heavy chest--occasionally more than one--sometimes
+made of iron, sometimes of wood bound with bronze and decorated with
+metal-work in relief. In this were contained supplies of money and
+other articles of value, and for this reason it was strongly locked
+and often fastened to the ground by a vertical rod of iron. Such a
+chest is still to be seen in its place in the House of the Vettii at
+Pompeii. Of portières, curtains and awnings enough has been said,
+except that they were also used for draping the less ornamental walls.
+Mirrors were apparently plentiful. No mention is made of such articles
+in glass, probably because the ancients had not yet learned to make
+that material sufficiently pure and true or to provide it with the
+proper foil or background. For the most part they were made of highly
+polished copper, bronze, or silver. The smaller ones were held in the
+hand, the handle and back parts being richly and often tastefully
+ornamented. There is an epigram extant which tells of a vindictive
+Roman dame who struck her maid to the ground with her mirror, because
+she detected a curl wrongly placed. Other mirrors were made so as to
+stand upon a support, and there is mention of some sufficiently large
+to show the full length of the body.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 52.--CHEST (STRONG-BOX).]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 53.--MIRRORS.]
+
+In the absence of gas or electricity or even kerosene, there was no
+better means of lighting a house than by oil-lamps. Even those were
+provided with no chimney. Naturally every effort would be made to
+obtain such oil as would produce the least smoke or smell, but
+doubtless the difficulty was never completely overcome. It is
+therefore natural to hear of the oil being mixed with perfume. In the
+less well-to-do houses there might be wax candles, in still poorer
+houses candles of tallow or even rush-lights, formed by long strips of
+rush or other fibrous plant thinly dipped in tallow. Generally
+speaking, however, the Roman house was lit by lamps filled with
+olive-oil. The commonest were made of terra-cotta, the better sorts of
+bronze or silver, often richly ornamented and sometimes very graceful.
+As typical specimens we may take those here illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 54.--LAMPS.]
+
+The little figure standing on the one lamp is holding a chain, to
+which is attached the probe for forcing up the wick or for clearing
+away the "mushrooms" that might form upon it. Lamps are made in all
+manner of fantastic shapes--ships, shoes, and other objects--and may
+burn either one wick or a considerable number, projecting from
+different nozzles. For the purpose of lighting a room they may either
+be placed upon the top of upright standards, four or five feet high
+and sometimes with shafts which could be adjusted in height like the
+modern reading-stand; or they may be hung from the ceiling by chains,
+after the manner of a chandelier, or held by a statue, or suspended
+from a stand shaped like a pillar or a tree, from whose branches they
+hang like fruit. For use in the street there were torches and also
+lanterns, which had a metal frame and were "glazed" with sheets of
+transparent horn, with bladder in the cheaper instances, or with
+transparent talc in the more costly.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--LAMP-HOLDER AS TREE.]
+
+As with the Greeks, a Roman house was lavish in the use and display of
+cups and plate in great diversity of shape and material. Glass vessels
+were numerous and, except for a perfectly pure white variety, were
+produced both at Rome and Alexandria with the most ingenious finish. A
+kind of porcelain was also known, but was very rare and highly valued.
+For the most part the poor used earthenware cups and plates or wooden
+trenchers. The rich sought after a lavish profusion of silver goblets
+studded with jewels and sometimes ventured on a cup of gold, although
+the use of a full gold service was by imperial ordinance restricted to
+the palace. There were drinking vessels, broad and shallow with richly
+embossed or _repoussé_ work, or deep with double handles and a foot,
+or otherwise diversified. There were all manner of plates and dishes
+of silver or of silver-gilt. There were graceful jugs and ladles and
+mixing-bowls. What we regard as most essential articles, but missing
+from a Roman table, are knives and forks. Table-forks, indeed, were
+unknown till a very modern date, but even knives were scarcely in use
+at Rome except by the professional carver at his stand. There were
+also heaters, in which water could be kept hot at table and drawn off
+by a small tap.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 56.--CUP FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 57.--KITCHEN UTENSILS.]
+
+If now we stepped into the kitchen we should find there practically
+every kind of utensil likely to be of use even for the modern cuisine.
+There is no need here to catalogue the kettles and pots and pans, the
+strainers and shapes and moulds, employed by Roman cooks. Perhaps it
+will suffice to present a number of them to the eye. In general,
+however, it deserves to be remarked that such a thing as a pail, a
+pitcher, a pair of scales, or a steelyard was not regarded in the
+Roman household as necessarily to be left a bare and unsightly thing
+because it was useful. The triumph of tin and ugliness was not yet.
+Such vessels as waterpots are still to be seen made of copper in
+graceful shapes, if one will notice the women fetching water on the
+Alban Hills. How far the domestic utensils resembled or differed from
+those still in use may be judged from the specimens illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 58.--PAIL FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+There existed no clocks of the modern kind, but the Romans do not
+appear to have suffered much practical inconvenience in respect of
+telling the time and meeting engagements. Sundials, both public and
+private, were numerous, but these were obviously of no use on gloomy
+days or at night. The instrument on which the Romans mainly relied was
+therefore the "water-clock," which, though by no means capable of our
+modern precision of minutes and even seconds could record time down to
+small fractions of the hour. The principle was that of the hour-glass,
+water taking the place of sand. From an upper vessel water slowly
+trickled through an orifice into a lower receptacle, which at this
+date was transparent and was marked with sections for the hour and its
+convenient fractions. In this way the time would be told by the mark
+to which the water had risen in the lower portion. The Romans were not
+unaware of the difference between the conditions of summer and winter
+flow of water, but it would appear that they had attained to proper
+methods of "regulating" their rather awkward time-pieces. It is as
+well to add that in the wealthier houses a slave was told off to watch
+the clock and to report the passing of the hours, as well as to summon
+any member of the family at the time arranged for an appointment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+We have seen in what sort of a home a Roman dwelt in town or country.
+Meanwhile it goes without saying that the non-Roman or non-Romanized
+populations of the empire were living in houses and amid furniture of
+their own special type--Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, or as the case might
+be. They were also living their lives after their own fashion in
+respect of dress, meals, occupations, and amusements.
+
+We may now look at the manner in which a typical Roman might spend an
+ordinary day in the metropolis, and endeavour to form some clear idea
+of the outward aspects of such a life. In the first instance our Roman
+shall be a man of the senatorial aristocracy, blessed with both high
+position and ample means, but one who, for the time being, holds no
+public office, whether as a governor, a military commander, a Minister
+of Roads or Water Supply, an officer of the Exchequer, or of Justice.
+Instead of referring to him awkwardly as "our citizen," we will call
+him Silius. The same name may be borne by a large number of other
+persons, for it is the name of an early Roman family which in course
+of time may have divided into several branches or "houses," answering
+to each other very much as the "Worcestershire" So-and-Sos may answer
+to the "Hampshire" So-and-Sos, except that the distinction in the
+Roman case is not territorial. Our Silius will therefore naturally
+bear further names to distinguish him. One will be the special
+appellation of his own "house" or branch, derived in all probability
+from its first distinguishing member. Let us assume, for instance,
+that he is a Silius Bassus. As, again, there are probably a number of
+other persons belonging to the same branch and entitled to the same
+two designations, he will possess a "front name," answering to our
+"Christian" name, and he shall be called for our purposes Quintus
+Silius Bassus. It is the middle name of the three which is regarded as
+_the_ name, but when there is no danger of mistake our friend may be
+addressed or written of as either Silius or Bassus. In private life
+among his intimates he prefers to be called Quintus. The individual
+name, family name, and branch name were frequently followed by others,
+but at least these three are regularly owned by any Roman with claims
+to old descent. To us, however, he will be Silius.
+
+He lives, let us say, in one of the larger town-houses on the Caelian
+Hill, looking across the narrow valley towards the Palatine, somewhere
+near the modern church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It is before day-break
+that the loud bell has awakened the household slaves and set them to
+their work. In the road below and away in the city the carts, which
+are forbidden during the full daytime, are still rumbling with their
+loads of produce or building-material. All night long the less happily
+housed inhabitants have tolerated this noise, together with the
+droning and grating of the mills grinding the corn in the bakers'
+shops. It is however, now approaching dawn, and imperial Rome, which
+goes to sleep late, wakes early. No few Romans, even of the highest
+classes, have already been up for an hour or two, reading by
+lamplight, writing letters or dictating them to an amanuensis, who
+takes them down rapidly in a form of shorthand. Out in the streets the
+boys are on their way to school, the poorer ones carrying their own
+lanterns--at least if it is the time of year when the days are
+short--their writing-tablets and their reading-books, probably Virgil
+and Horace, who were standard authors serving in the Roman schools as
+Shakespeare and Pope do in our own. Boys of well-to-do parents are
+accompanied by an elderly slave of stern demeanour. In the distance
+are heard the sounds of the first hammers and the cries of the venders
+of early breakfasts.
+
+Silius rises, and with the help of a valet, who is of course a slave,
+dresses himself. His household barber--another slave--shaves him,
+trims his hair in the approved style and cleans his nails. At this
+date clean shaving was the rule. Every emperor from Augustus to
+Hadrian, fifty years later than Nero, was clean shaven, and the
+fashion set by emperors was followed as closely by the contemporary
+Roman as "imperials" and "ram's-horn" moustaches have been imitated in
+later times. The hair was kept carefully neither too long nor too
+short. Only in time of mourning was it permitted to grow to a
+negligent length. By preference it should be somewhat wavy, but there
+was no parting. Dandies had their hair curled with the tongs and
+perfumed, so at to smell "all over the theatre." If they were bald,
+they wore a wig; sometimes they actually had imitation hair painted
+across the bare part of the scalp. If nature had given them the wrong
+colour, they corrected it with dye. If the exposed parts of the body
+were hairy, they plucked out the growth with tweezers or used
+depilatories. But these were the dandies, and we need not assume
+Silius to have been one of them.
+
+It is to be a day of some formality, and Silius will therefore attire
+himself accordingly. In other words, he will put on the typical Roman
+garb. Of whatever else this may consist, it will comprise a band round
+the middle, a woolen--less often a linen--tunic with or without
+sleeves, and over this the voluminous woollen toga; on the feet will
+be shoes. Of further underwear a Roman used as much or as little as he
+chose. If, like the Emperor Augustus, he felt the cold, he might
+indulge in several shirts and also short hose. Such practices,
+however, were commonly regarded as coddling. Breeches were worn at
+this date only by soldiers serving in northern countries, where they
+had picked up the custom from the "barbarians." Mufflers were used by
+persons with a tender throat.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 59.--PATRICIAN SHOES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 60.--ROMAN IN THE TOGA.]
+
+Inasmuch as Silius is of senatorial rank, his tunic, which will show
+through the open front of his toga, bears the broad inwoven stripe of
+purple running down the middle, and his shoes--which otherwise might
+be of various colours, such as yellow with red laces--are black,
+fastened by cross straps running somewhat high up the leg and bearing
+a crescent of silver or ivory upon the instep. The stripe, the shoes,
+and the crescent mark his senatorial standing. That which marks him as
+a citizen at all is the toga--an article of dress forbidden to any
+inhabitant of the empire who could not call himself in the full sense
+"_Civis Romanus_." It was a cumbrous and heavy garment (when spread
+out it formed an oval of about 15 feet by 12), with which no man who
+wanted to work or travel or simply to be comfortable would hamper
+himself. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, but, if he ever wore a toga at
+all, it would only be when he desired to bring his citizenship home to
+a Roman court, and we should probably be quite mistaken in imagining
+that he travelled about with a toga in his baggage, or, as the
+Authorised Version calls it, his "carriage." When out of town, in his
+country-seat or when amusing himself at home in the city, especially
+in the warmer weather, the Roman cast off his toga with a sigh of
+relief. In the provincial towns of Italy, though theoretically as much
+in demand, this blanket-like covering was little used by any man
+except on the most formal public and religious occasions, and, as a
+poet says, "when dead," for then the toga was indispensable.
+Nevertheless at Rome it was the necessary dress for all men of
+position when appearing in any sort of public life. The Roman emperors
+insisted upon its use in all places of public amusement--the theatre,
+circus, or amphitheatre. In a court of justice the president certainly
+could not "see" a pleader unless he wore it. You cannot be present at
+a formal social ceremony--a wedding, a betrothal, a coming of age, a
+levée--without this outward and visible mark of respect. Nor was it
+sufficient that you should wear it. It must be properly draped and
+must fall to the right point, which, in front, was aslant over the
+lower part of the shin, while behind it fell to the heel. Your
+wardrobe slave must see that it has been kept properly folded and
+pressed. If you claimed to be a gentleman, and were not in mourning
+and not an official, it must be simply and scrupulously white. Poorer
+people might wear a toga of a duller or dark-grey wool, which would
+better conceal a stain and require to go less frequently to the
+fuller. The same dull hue was also worn in time of mourning, or as an
+ostentatious token of a gloomy spirit, as for example, when one of
+your friends was in peril of condemnation in the law-courts, or when
+you fancied that some serious injustice was being done or threatened
+to your social order. The only person privileged to wear a toga of
+true purple was the emperor. On the whole the Roman dress was very
+simple; far more so than in mediaeval times or the days of Elizabeth
+or Charles II. Velvet and satin were not yet known, furs hardly so,
+and there were very few changes of fashion.
+
+Silius will also wear at least one large signet-ring as well as his
+plain ring of gold, but he will leave it to the dandies to load their
+fingers with half-a-dozen and to keep separate sets for winter and
+summer. When Quintilian, in his _Training of the Orator_, touches upon
+the subject of rings, he recommends as requisite for good form that
+"the hand should not be covered with rings, and especially should they
+not come below the middle joint." A handkerchief will be carried, but
+only to wipe away perspiration.
+
+Having finished his dressing, he may choose this time for taking his
+morning "snack," corresponding to the coffee and roll or tea and
+bread-and-butter of modern times. It is but a light repast of wine or
+milk, with bread and honey, or a taste of olives or cheese or possibly
+an egg. Schoolboys seem to have often eaten a sort of suet dumpling.
+In the strength of this meat our friend will go till mid-day.
+
+As he has no very early call to the imperial court upon the Palatine,
+he will now proceed to hold his own reception of morning callers. For
+this purpose he will come out to the spacious hall, which has been
+already described as the most essential part of a Roman house, and
+will there establish himself in the opening of the recess or bay which
+has also been described as a kind of reception-room or parlour. Before
+he arrives, the hall has been swept and polished by the brooms and
+sponges of the slaves, under the direction of a foreman. The number of
+Silius' household slaves is very great. Very many Romans of course
+owned no slave at all; many had but one or two; but it was considered
+that a person of anything like respectable means could hardly do with
+less than ten. Silius will probably employ several times that number.
+We have mentioned the valet, the barber, the wardrobe-keeper, and the
+amanuensis. We must add to these the cooks, the pastry-makers, the
+waiters, the room-servants, the doorkeeper, the footmen, messengers,
+litter-carriers, the butler and pantrymen. Some of the superior slaves
+have drudges of their own. The librarian, accountant, and steward are
+all slaves. Even the family physician or architect may be a slave.
+Many of these men may be persons of education and talent. Their one
+deficiency is that they are not free. Many of them are in colour and
+feature indistinguishable from the people outside; most, however, show
+their origin in their foreign physique. They are Phrygians,
+Cappadocians, Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Numidians,
+Spaniards, Gauls, Germans, Thracians, and Greeks. Their master either
+inherited them from his father or friends, or he bought them in the
+slave-market. For whatever reason they became slaves--whether as
+prisoners of war, by birth, through debt, through condemnation for
+some offence, by kidnapping like that practised by the Corsairs or the
+modern Arabs, or through being sold by their own parents--they had
+become the Property of slave-dealers, who picked them up in the depots
+on the Black Sea or at Delos or Alexandria, and brought them to Rome.
+There they were stripped and exposed for sale, the choicer specimens
+in a select part of a fashionable shop, the more ordinary types in the
+auction mart, where they were placed upon a stand or stone bench, were
+labelled with their age, nationality, defects, and accomplishments,
+and were sold either under a guarantee or without one. For an ordinary
+room-slave Silius, or his agent for him, has paid perhaps £20; for a
+servant of more special skill, such as a particularly soft-handed
+barber, perhaps £50; the price of a muleteer who was "too deaf to
+overhear private conversation in a carriage" might thereby be enhanced
+to £150; for a slave with educational or artistic accomplishments--a
+good reader, reciter, secretary, musician, or actor--he may have paid
+some hundreds. If he is a man of morbid tastes, and affects a
+particular kind of dainty favourite, he may go as far as a thousand.
+Curly-haired pages and amusing dwarfs are generally dear. It is the
+business of the house-steward to see that each slave receives his
+daily or monthly rations of corn, a trifling sum of money for other
+needs, and perhaps an allowance of thin wine. Many a slave also
+received a considerable number of "tips" from guests, as well as
+perquisites and presents from his master. With economy he was thus
+enabled to purchase his own freedom. The master might also in some
+cases provide the slave with the essentials of his dress, to wit, a
+coarse tunic, a rough cloak, and a pair of shoes or sabots.
+
+Over all these persons, so long as they are slaves, the owner
+possesses absolute power. He can box their ears, or condemn them to
+hard labour--making them, for instance, work in chains upon his lands
+in the country or in a sort of prison-factory--or he may punish them
+with blows of the rod, the lash, or the knout; he can brand them upon
+the forehead if they are thieves or runaways, or in the end, if they
+prove irreclaimable, he can crucify them. Branded slaves who
+afterwards became free and rich sought to conceal the marks by wearing
+patches. There were inevitably some instances in which masters proved
+so intolerably cruel that their slaves were driven to murder them. To
+prevent any conspiracy of the kind the law ordained that, when a
+master was so killed, the slaves should one and all be put to death.
+It is gratifying to learn that in the reign of Nero the whole populace
+sided with a body of slaves in this predicament and prevented the law
+from being carried out.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 61.--SLAVE IN FETTERS.]
+
+But, being a typical Roman, Silius has a strong sense of justice;
+moreover he values public opinion as well as his own. Also, being a
+typical Roman, he behaves with strictness and for the most part with a
+distinct haughtiness of manner, graduated, no doubt, according to the
+standing of the individual. When, as was often the case, he did not
+even know the name of a slave whom he came across in hall or
+peristyle, he frequently addressed him as "Sirrah" or "Sir" or "You,
+Sir." To the waiter at table and for ordinary commands, where the
+master affects no ceremony, the commonest term is "boy," precisely as
+that word is used in the East or _garçon_ in French. If Silius knew
+the actual appellation assigned to the slave when bought and was
+disposed to be kindly, he accosted him by it, calling him "Syrian," or
+"Thracian," or "Croesus," or by his proper Greek or Egyptian name. The
+slave, unlike the Roman citizen, owned but one name, and the shorter
+the better.
+
+We meet, as is only natural, with many examples of great trust and
+confidence between master and slave, and, in the case of the superior
+types, no few instances of great kindness and consideration. Pliny
+speaks of his "long friendship" for a cultivated slave named Zosimus,
+whom he set free, and whom, because he was liable to consumption, he
+sent to Egypt and the Riviera for the good of his health. A faithful
+or very useful slave could make tolerably sure of being some day
+emancipated with all due form and ceremony, either during the master's
+lifetime or by his last will and testament. In such a case he became a
+Roman citizen of the rank known as "freedman," and after the second
+generation there was nothing to prevent his descendants from aspiring
+to any position open to any other Roman. Sometimes even his son
+attained to public office. On attaining his citizenship the freedman
+became entitled to "the three names," and it was the rule that he
+should adopt the family name of his master. A freedman of Silius is
+himself a Silius. Also by preference he will be a Quintus Silius; but
+he will not be a Bassus. The third name will still, for his own
+lifetime, be such as to mark him for what he is. Moreover, though
+free, he is himself still bound to pay a dutiful respect to his former
+master's family, but beyond this he is at his own disposal and in
+possession of every right in regard to person and property. Many such
+men were extremely skilful in trade and made themselves rich enough to
+vie with the Roman aristocracy in outward show. The freedmen of the
+Emperor, who occupied positions of influence at court as chamberlains,
+stewards, private secretaries and the like, and were the powers behind
+the throne, became enormously wealthy. Their houses were adorned with
+the finest marble columns, the most richly gilded ceilings, and the
+most costly works of art; the choicest fruits ripened under glass in
+their forcing-houses, and, when they died, their monuments were among
+the most sumptuous by the side of the great highways. "Freedmen's
+wealth" became a proverb. They were occasionally even appointed to
+those minor governorships held by "agents" of Caesar, and the Felix of
+the New Testament was himself a freedman of Nero's predecessor and
+brother to one of the richest and most influential of the class. In
+the provincial cities of Italy freedmen, though they were not
+themselves eligible for the ordinary offices, might in return for acts
+of munificence be admitted to what may be called an inferior grade of
+knighthood--a sort of C.M.G.--styled the "Order of Augustus." They
+thus became notables of their own town in a way of which they were
+sufficiently proud, as the Pompeian inscriptions show. It was part of
+the shrewdness of Augustus to kill two birds with one stone, by
+erecting a provincial order directly attached to the cult of the
+Emperor, and by encouraging the local self-made man to spend money
+liberally upon the embellishment and comfort of his own municipality.
+
+Well, Silius, meeting with or escorted by various slave attendants,
+passes from the inner rooms through the passage into the hall and
+finds waiting for him a throng of visitors known as his "clients" or
+dependants. The position of these persons is somewhat remarkable. They
+are commonly free Roman citizens of the "genteel" middle class, who
+openly admit that they depend for the bulk of their living upon the
+patronage of the noble or the rich. The custom arose from a very old
+condition of things, under which certain classes of citizens, not
+being entitled to appear in the law-courts or in public business on
+their own behalf, put themselves under the protection of a person so
+entitled, who, in return for certain acts of support and deference,
+appeared as their advocate and champion. At a later time, even though
+their rights had become complete, men might still seek counsel, legal
+advice, and advocacy from a person of influence and eloquence. In
+return they paid him the honour of escort in the streets, supported
+him in his candidature for public office, applauded his speeches, and
+exercised on his behalf such influence as they possessed. The standing
+of a prominent Roman was apt to be measured by the number and quality
+of the persons thus attaching themselves to him. If next it is
+remembered that very few money-making occupations were looked upon
+with favour by the Romans, and that the higher orders were for the
+most part very rich, it will be obvious that there would grow up the
+custom of the patron making liberal presents to his dependants--money
+gifts, or gifts of small properties and of useful articles--as well as
+of inviting them to his table. The clients themselves brought little
+presents on the patron's birthday or some other special occasion, but
+these were merely the sprats to catch the whale. It gradually resulted
+that the patronage extended by the aristocrat or plutocrat was mainly
+one of a direct pecuniary nature. As in other cases where a dubious
+custom develops gradually, there ceased to be any shame in this
+relation. Many members of the middle class, impoverished and earning
+practically no other income, lived the life of genteel paupers. They
+would attend the morning reception of a grandee, either bringing with
+them, or causing a slave to bring, a small basket, or even a portable
+cooking-stove, in which they carried off doles of food distributed
+through his servants. The scene must have borne no slight resemblance
+to that of the charity "soup-kitchen." In process of time, however,
+this practice became inconvenient for all parties, and most of the
+patrons compounded for such doles by making a fixed payment, still
+called the "little basket," amounting perhaps to a shilling in modern
+weight of money for each day of polite attention on the part of a
+recognised "client." If a client was acknowledged by more than one
+patron, so much the better for the amount of his "little baskets." In
+some cases the dole was paid to each visitor at the morning call; in
+others only after the work of the patron's day was done and when he
+had gone to the elaborate bath which preceded his dinner in the later
+part of the afternoon. By this means the complimentary escort duty was
+secured until that time.
+
+Among the dependants were nearly all the genteel unemployed of Rome,
+including the Grub-Street men of letters, who in those days could make
+little, if anything, by their books, and who therefore sought the same
+kind of assistance as did our own literary rank and file in the early
+eighteenth century. When we read the authors of the period we are
+inevitably reminded of Samuel Johnson waiting in the ante-chamber of
+Lord Chesterfield, and of the flattering dedications of books which
+were so liberally or illiberally paid for by the recipients of such
+compliments. From his little flat, often a single room and practically
+an attic, in the tenement-house, the client would emerge before
+daylight, dressed _de rigueur_ in his toga, which was often sadly worn
+and thin. He would make his way for a mile or more through the carts,
+the cattle, an the schoolboys, sometimes in fine weather, sometimes
+through the rain and cold, when the streets were muddy and slippery,
+and would climb the hill to his patron's door, joined perhaps on the
+way by other citizens bent on the same errand. Gathering in that open
+space or vestibule which has already been described, they waited for
+the janitor to open the door. If the doorkeeper of Silius was like the
+generality of his kind, he would take a flunkey's pleasure in keeping
+them waiting, and also, except in the case of those who had been wise
+enough to ease his manners with a "tip," or who were known to be in
+special favour, a flunkey's pleasure in exhibiting his contempt.
+Brought into the hall, they stood or sat about and conversed until
+Silius appeared. Then, according to an established order of
+precedence--which apparently depended on seniority of acquaintance,
+while again it might be affected by a _douceur_--they were presented
+one by one to the patron.
+
+One must not expect a Roman noble to deign always to remember the
+names of humble persons--sometimes he actually did not--and therefore
+a slave, known as the "name-caller," announces each client in turn.
+The client says, "Good morning, Sir," and Silius replies, "Good
+morning, So-and-So," or "Good morning, Sir," or simply "Good morning."
+There is a shaking of hands, or, if the patron is a gracious gentleman
+and the client is of old standing, Silius may kiss him on the cheek
+and offer some polite inquiry or remark. A very haughty person might
+merely offer his hand to be kissed and perhaps not open his mouth at
+all, even if he condescended to look at you. But these habits were
+hardly so characteristic of our times as of a somewhat later date.
+
+The reception over, the client obtains information as to the movements
+of his patron during the day. On the present occasion it appears that
+Silius himself is to proceed at once to pay his own morning homage to
+a still higher patron, His Highness Nero, who is at home on the
+Palatine Hill, and whose levée calls imperatively for the attendance
+of certain members of the aristocracy. At the palace there exists a
+roll of persons known as the "friends of Caesar"--a roll which depends
+solely on the favour of the emperor. Naturally it contains the names
+of a number of the highest senators and of the chief officers of the
+state, but a place in it is not gained simply by such positions, nor
+is it restricted to them. There may be a few knights and others on the
+list. To be removed from the roll is to be socially a marked man and a
+person to be avoided. Silius is, at least for the time being, one of
+the "friends." Nero is not yet in sufficient financial straits to
+require that Silius should be squeezed or sacrificed, nor has he
+chosen to take offence at something which a spy or informer has
+reported of him. Our friend therefore enjoys the _entrée_ to the
+palace, and to the palace he goes.
+
+It is a clear fine morning, and he has plenty of time. He therefore
+perhaps elects to go on foot. Learning this, a number of his clients
+form a procession. Some are honoured by walking at his side, a few go
+in advance and so clear a way through the crowd--which is already
+moving at the top of the Sacred Way--to the point where you turn off
+on the left and ascend to the entrance to the Palatine Hill. Some of
+the clients will walk behind, where also will be a lackey or two in
+waiting. On the way Silius may perhaps meet with Manlius, another
+noble, whom he probably greets with "Good morning, brother," and a
+kiss upon the cheek. This kissing, it may be remarked, ultimately
+became an intolerable nuisance, particularly among the middle classes,
+and the epigrammatist, after complaining of the cold noses and wet
+osculations of the winter-time, pleads to have the business at least
+put off till the month of April.
+
+When it is a bad or sloppy day, Silius will decide to go in his
+litter, or Roman form of the palanquin. Being a senator he may use
+this conveyance, otherwise at this date he could not. There are also
+sedan chairs, but as yet there exists a prejudice against these as
+being somewhat effeminate. At this decision four, six, or eight tall
+fellows, slaves from Cappadocia or Germany by preference, clad in
+crimson liveries, thrust two long poles through the rings or the
+coloured leather straps which are to be found on the sides of the
+litter, and place these poles upon their shoulders. To all intents and
+purposes the litter is a couch with an arched roof above it, of the
+shape here indicated, but covered with cushions, which are often
+stuffed with down. Its woodwork is decorated with silver and ivory.
+The litter may either be carried open on all sides, or with curtains
+of coloured stuffs partially drawn, or it may be enclosed by windows
+of talc or glass. In the days when litters were in promiscuous use,
+persons who did not possess one, or perhaps the slaves to bear it,
+might hire such a vehicle from the "rank," after the modern manner of
+hiring a cab. In this receptacle Silius is carried amid the same
+procession as before.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 62.--LITTER.]
+
+He will wear nothing on his head. On a journey, or when the sun was
+particularly strong in the roofless theatre or circus, he might put on
+a broad-brimmed hat, very much like that of the modern Italian priest.
+Instead of the hat it was common, when the weather so required, either
+to draw a fold of the toga over the head or to wear a hood closely
+resembling the monkish cowl. This might be either attached to a cloak
+or made separately for the purpose. The hood was also employed when,
+particularly in the evening, the wearer had either public or private
+reasons for concealing his identity as he moved abroad, commonly
+issuing in such cases from his side door. But on an ordinary day, and
+when attending a ceremony, the Roman head is bare. So also are the
+hands, for gloves are not yet in use.
+
+On arriving at the palace--outside which there is generally standing a
+crowd of the curious or the snobs--Silius passes through the guards,
+Roman or German, at the doors, is taken in hand by the court slave or
+freedman who acts as usher, and himself goes through a process similar
+to that which his own clients have undergone. There are times, and
+just now they may be frequent, at which he will have to submit to a
+search, for fear he may be carrying a concealed weapon. If he is high
+in favour or position, he belongs to the batch of "first admittance,"
+or first _entrée_. If not, he must be contented with "second." He will
+find that His Highness Nero, exacting as he may be concerning the
+costume of his callers, will not trouble to put on his own toga, as a
+more respectable emperor would have done, but will appear in anything
+he pleases, frequently a tunic or a wrapper of silk, relieved only by
+a handkerchief round the neck. Nor will his High Mightiness always
+condescend to lace his shoes. If he is in a good humour, he may bestow
+the kiss, remember your name, and call you "my very dear Silius." If
+he has been accustomed to do so, but omits the warmer greeting on this
+occasion, it may be taken as boding you no good. It is, however, very
+probable that in this year 64 he will refuse the kiss to almost every
+one of the senators, for he has already come openly to detest them. It
+will suffice if he so much as offers his hand to be saluted. Caligula,
+being a "god," had sometimes offered his foot, but only that
+crack-brained emperor had so far attempted this enormity.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 63.--READING A PROCLAMATION. (Pompeii.) The
+writing is upon a long board in front of equestrian statues.]
+
+The day happens to be one on which the emperor has nothing further to
+say and requires no advice. Silius is therefore free to go his ways.
+There is also no meeting of the Senate, no festival, chariot-race, or
+show of gladiators. He has therefore only the ordinary day before him,
+and he proceeds, as practically every other caller does, towards the
+Forum and its neighbourhood. If on his way he meets with a great
+public official--a consul or a praetor--proceeding on duty, he
+politely makes way, and, if his head chances to be covered, he
+uncovers it. He loyally recognises the claims of that toga edged with
+purple, and of those lictors walking in front with the symbolic
+bundles of rods containing the symbolic axe. Whatever he may think of
+the men, he pays all respect to their office. The Forum is now full,
+the banking and money-changing are all aglow in the Basilica Aemilia,
+the loungers are playing their games of "three men in a row," or
+perhaps their backgammon, on the pavement of the outer colonnade of
+the Basilica of Julius. Groups are reading and discussing the columns
+of the "Daily News," which are either posted up or have been purchased
+from the professional copiers. This is an official, and therefore a
+censored, publication in clear manuscript, containing proclamations,
+resolutions of the senate, bulletins of the court, results of trials,
+the births and deaths registered in the city, announcements of public
+shows and sports, striking events, such as fires, earthquakes, and
+portents, and occasional advertisements. Silius may perhaps stop and
+read; more probably his slaves regularly purchase a copy for his
+private use. Criers are meanwhile bawling to you to come and see the
+Asiatic giant, or the mermen, or the two-headed baby. The old sailor
+who has been wrecked, or pretends to have been, is walking about with
+a harrowing picture of the scene painted on a board and is soliciting
+alms. The busybody is gossiping among little knots of people and
+telling, manufacturing, or magnifying the latest scandal, or the
+latest news from the frontier, from Antioch, from the racing-stables,
+the law-courts, or the palace. Perhaps Silius has a little banking
+business to do, and he enters the Basilica to give instructions as to
+sending a draft to Athens or Alexandria in favour of some friend or
+relative there who is in want of money, or whom he has instructed to
+make artistic or other purchases. In about seven days his
+correspondent will obtain the cash through a banker at Athens, or in
+about twelve or fourteen days at Alexandria.
+
+Perhaps, however, one of his clients has asked for his help in a case
+at law, which is being tried either over the way in the Basilica of
+Julius, or round the corner to the right in the Forum of Augustus. If
+a man of study and eloquence, he may have consented to act as
+pleader--taking no fee, because he is merely performing a patron's
+duty. _Noblesse oblige_. In the year 64 a pleader who has taken up a
+cause for some one else than a dependant is allowed by law to charge a
+fee not exceeding £100, but the law says nothing, or at least can do
+no thing, as to the liberal presents which are offered him under some
+other pretext. If he is not to plead, Silius may at any rate have been
+requested to lend moral support by seating himself beside the favoured
+party and perhaps appearing as a witness to character. If he pleads in
+any complicated or technical case, it will generally be after careful
+consultation with an attorney or professional lawyer. Round the apse
+or recess in which the court sits there will stand a ring of
+interested spectators, and among them will be distributed as many as
+possible of his own dependants, who will religiously applaud his
+finely-turned periods and his witticisms. There was generally little
+chance of missing a Roman forensic witticism; its character was for
+the most part highly elaborate and its edge broad. In a later
+generation it was not rare for chance bystanders to be hired on the
+spot as _claqueurs_. The court itself consists of a large body of
+jurymen of position empanelled, not for the particular case, but for
+particular kinds of cases and for a period of time, and over these
+there presides one of the public officials annually elected for the
+judicial administration of Rome. The president sees that the
+proceedings are in accordance with the law, but the verdict is given
+entirely by the jury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 64.--SEALED RECEIPT OF JUCUNDUS. Beside each seal
+is a signature; the writing in the hollow leaf is a summary of the
+receipt, which is itself shut between the two leaves bound with
+string.]
+
+If there is no need for Silius to attend such a court, he may find
+many other demands upon his time. Among Romans of the higher classes
+etiquette was extremely exacting. Contemporaries themselves complain
+that social "duties" or "obligations" frittered away a large
+proportion of their day, and that they were kept perpetually "busy
+doing nothing." One man or woman is making a will, and asks you to be
+one of the witnesses to the signature and sealing; another is
+betrothing a son or daughter, and invites you to be present and attest
+the ceremony; another has a son of fifteen or sixteen concerning whom
+it is decided that he has now come of age, must put on the white toga
+of a man in the place of the purple-edged toga of the boy, and be led
+into the Forum in token of his new freedom; you must not omit the
+courtesy of attending. Another desires you to go with him before the
+magistrate while he emancipates a slave. Worst of all, perhaps, is the
+man who has written a poem or declamation, and who proposes to read
+it, or to get a professional elocutionist to read it, to his
+acquaintances. He has either hired a hall or borrowed a convenient
+room from a friend, and you are kindly invited to be present. We learn
+that these amateur authors did not permit their victims to forget the
+engagement, but sent them more than one reminder. At the reading or
+recitation it was your duty to applaud frequently, to throw
+complimentary kisses, and to exclaim in Greek, "excellent," "capital,"
+"clever," "unapproachable," or "again," very much as we say "encore"
+in what we think is French, or "bravo" in Italian. The native Latin
+terms most commonly in use may perhaps be translated as "well said,"
+"perfect," "good indeed," "divine," "a shrewd hit." On one occasion a
+certain Priscus was present at the reading of a poem, and it happened
+to open with an invocation to a Priscus. No sooner had the author
+begun, "Priscus, thou bidst me tell ..." than the man of that name
+called out "Indeed I don't." This "caused laughter" and "cast a chill
+over the proceedings." Pliny apologises for the man, as being a little
+light in the head, but he is manifestly tickled all the same. It is
+scarcely a wonder that the Roman was glad to escape from all these
+formalities of "toga'd Rome" to his country seat, or to the freer life
+of Baiae.
+
+His business in the Forum accomplished, Silius returns to his house on
+the Caelian. As, on the slope of the Sacred Way, he passes the rich
+shops of the jewellers, florists, and perfumers, he may be tempted to
+make some purchase, which the attendant slaves will carry to the
+house. Arrived there, he will take his luncheon, a fairly substantial
+though by no means a heavy meal. He may perhaps be a married man. If
+nothing has yet been said about his wife, it is because in the higher
+Roman households the husband and wife owned their separate property,
+lived their own lives, and were almost equally free to spend their
+time in their own way, since marriage at this date was rather a
+contract than a union. If, however, he is a benedict, it is probable
+that at this meal the family will meet, no outside company being
+present. Silius himself reclines on a couch, the children are seated,
+and the wife may adopt either attitude. After this our friend will
+probably take a siesta, precisely as he might take it in Italy to-day.
+The practice was indeed not universal; nevertheless it was general. He
+will not go to bed, but will sleep awhile upon a couch in some quiet
+and darkened room. If he cannot sleep, or when he wakes, he may
+perhaps read or be read to. Where he will spend the afternoon till the
+bath and dinner is a matter of his own choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND DINNER
+
+We will suppose that Silius is specially inclined for action and
+society. The afternoon is growing chilly, and, as he has no further
+ceremonial to undergo, he will probably throw over his toga a richly
+coloured mantle--violet, amethyst, or scarlet--to be fastened on the
+shoulder with a buckle or brooch. In very cold weather, especially
+when travelling, Romans of all classes would wear a thick cloak,
+somewhat like the cape worn by a modern policeman or cab-driver, or
+perhaps more closely resembling the _poncho_ of Spanish America. This,
+which consisted of some strong and as nearly as possible waterproof
+stuff, had no opening at the sides, but was put on by passing the head
+through a hole. To-day Silius puts on the coloured mantle, and gets
+himself carried across the Forum, through the gap between the
+Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, and into the Campus Martius, somewhere
+about the modern Piazza Venezia and the entrance to the Corso. Here he
+may descend from his litter, and purchase a statuette, or a vessel of
+Corinthian bronze or silver, or an attractive table with the true
+peacock markings, or a handsome slave. While doing so, he may find
+amusement in observing a pretender who "shops" but does not buy,
+wearying the dealers by pricing and disparaging the costliest tables
+and most artistic vessels, and ending with the purchase of a penny pot
+which he carries home himself. He may then stroll along under the
+pictured and statued colonnades, perhaps offering the cold shoulder to
+various impecunious toadies who are there on the look-out for an
+invitation to dinner, perhaps succumbing to their blandishments. His
+lackeys are of course in attendance, and clients are still about him.
+In passing he is greeted by some person who is hanging officiously
+round a litter containing an elderly lady or gentleman, and whom he
+recognises as what was called an "angler"--that is to say, one whose
+business is to wheedle gifts or a legacy out of childless people of
+wealth. This was a regular profession and extremely lucrative when
+well managed.
+
+A little further, and he stops to look at the young men curvetting and
+wheeling on horseback over the riding-ground. Away in the distance
+others are swimming backwards and forwards across the Tiber. Or he
+steps into an enclosure, commonly connected with the baths, where not
+only young men, but their seniors, even of high rank, are engaged in
+various exercises. Some of them are stripped and are playing a game
+with a small hard ball, which is struck or thrown, and smartly caught
+or struck onward by right or left hand equally, from the three corners
+of a triangle. Some are playing with a larger and lighter article,
+something like a football stuffed with feathers, which seems to have
+been punched about by the fist in a way calling for considerable
+judgment and practice. Others are jumping with dumb-bells in each
+hand, or they are running races, or hurling a disk of stone, or
+wrestling. Yet others are practising all manner of sword strokes with
+a heavy wooden weapon against a dummy post, merely to exercise
+themselves keep down their flesh.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 65.--DISCUS-THROWER.]
+
+[Illustration FIG 66.--STABIAN BATHS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Probably Silius will himself take a hand in the three-cornered game,
+unless he possesses a private court at home and is intending to take
+his bath there instead of in one of the larger public or semi-public
+establishments. Whether he bathes in the baths of Agrippa at the back
+of the Pantheon, or in those of Nero, or in his own, the process will
+be much the same. The arrangements are practically uniform however
+great may be the differences of sumptuousness and spaciousness. We
+have not indeed yet reached the times of those huge and amazing
+constructions of Caracalla and Diocletian, but there is no reason to
+doubt that the existing public baths were already of much
+magnificence. Regularly we should first find a dressing-room with
+painted walls, a mosaic floor, and glass windows, and provided with
+seats, as well as with niches in the walls to hold the clothes.
+Adjoining this is a "cold" room, containing a large swimming-bath.
+Next comes a "warm" chamber, with water heated to a sufficient and
+reasonable degree, and with the general temperature raised either by
+braziers or by warm air circulating under the floor or in the walls.
+After this a "hot" room, with both a hot swimming-bath and a smaller
+marble bath of the common domestic shape--though of much larger
+size--provided with a shower, or rather with a cold jet. Lastly there
+is a domelike sweating-chamber filled with an intense dry heat. The
+public baths built by Nero were particularly notorious for their high
+temperature. After the bath the body was rubbed over with perfumed
+oil, in order to close the pores against the cold, and then was
+scraped down with the hollow sickle-shaped instrument of bronze or
+iron depicted in the illustration. The other articles there shown are
+a vessel containing the oil, and a flat dish into which to pour it for
+use. These, together with linen towels, were brought by your own
+slave.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 67.--BATHING IMPLEMENTS.]
+
+Silius is now carried home, and as it is approaching four o'clock, he
+dresses, or is dressed, for dinner. His toga and senatorial
+walking-shoes are thrown off, and he puts on light slippers or
+house-shoes, and dons what is called a "confection" of light and easy
+material--such as a kind of half-silk--and of bright and festive
+colours. Some ostentatious diners changed this dress several times
+during the course of a protracted banquet, giving the company the
+benefit of as great a variety of "confections" as is afforded by a
+modern star actress in the theatre. If the days are long and it is
+suitable weather, he may perhaps dine in the garden at the back of the
+peristyle. Otherwise in the dining-room the three couches mentioned in
+a previous chapter (FIG. 48) are arranged along three sides of a
+rectangle. Their metal and ivory work gleams brightly, and they are
+resplendent with their embroidered cushions. In the middle of the
+enclosed space shines the polished table, whether square or round. The
+sideboard is laden with costly plate; the lamps are, or soon will be,
+alight upon their tall shafts or hanging from their chains; the stand
+for the carver is awaiting its load. The dining-room steward and his
+subordinates are all in readiness.
+
+At the right time the guests arrive, endeavouring to show neither
+undue eagerness by being too early nor rudeness by being too late.
+Each brings his own footman to take off his shoes and to stand behind
+him, in case he may be needed, though not to wait at table, for this
+service belongs to the slaves of the house. After they have been
+received by the host, the "name-caller" leads them to their places,
+according to such order of precedence as Silius chooses to
+pre-arrange. The regular number of guests for the three couches will
+be nine--the number of the Muses--or three to each couch. To squeeze
+in more was regarded as bad form. If the crescent couch and the large
+round table are to be used the number may be either six or seven. The
+position of Silius himself as host will be regularly that marked H on
+the plan, while the position of honour--occupied by a consul if one be
+present--will be that marked C.
+
+Each guest throws himself as easily as possible into a reclining
+attitude, resting his left elbow on the cushion provided for the
+purpose. He has brought his own napkin, marked with a purple stripe if
+he is a senator, and this he tucks, in a manner still sufficiently
+familiar on the continent of Europe, into upper part of his attire.
+Bread is cut and ready, but there are no knives and forks, although
+there is a spoon of dessert size and also one with a smaller bowl and
+a point at the other end of the handle for the purpose of picking out
+the luscious snail or the succulent shell-fish. The dainty use of
+fingers well inured to heat was necessarily a point of Roman domestic
+training.
+
+There have been many--perhaps too many--descriptions of a Roman
+dinner, but the tendency, especially with the novelist, is to
+exaggerate grossly the average costliness and gluttony of such
+banquets. Undoubtedly there were such things as "freak" dinners almost
+as absurd as those of the inferior order of American plutocrat.
+Undoubtedly also there was often a detestable ostentation of reckless
+expenditure. But we are endeavouring to obtain a fair view of
+representative Roman practice, and must put out of our minds all such
+vagaries as those of the ceiling opening and letting down surprises,
+or of dishes composed of nightingales' tongues and flamingoes' brains.
+These were always, as a later writer calls them, "the solecisms of
+luxury." Nero himself, or rather the ministers of the vulgar pleasures
+which he regarded as those of artistic genius, devised an abundance of
+such expensive follies and surprises, but we must not permit the
+professional satirist or Stoic moralist to delude us into believing
+them typical of Roman life. Praise of the "simple life" and the simple
+past is no new thing. It is extremely doubtful whether at an ordinary
+Roman dinner-party there was any such lavish luxury as to surpass that
+of a modern aldermanic banquet. We can hardly blame the people who
+could afford it for obtaining for their tables the best of everything
+produced around the Mediterranean Sea, any more than we blame the
+modern citizen of London or New York for obtaining the choicest foods
+and dainties from a much wider world. Doubtless a Roman dinner too
+often meant over-eating and over-drinking, and doubtless neither the
+ordinary table manners nor the ordinary table conversation would
+recommend themselves to us. The same might be said of our own
+Elizabethan age. But any one intimately acquainted with Latin
+literature as a whole, and not merely with the more savoury passages
+commonly selected, will necessarily incline to the belief that
+novelistic historians have too often been taking what was exceptional,
+eccentric, and strongly disapproved by contemporaries, for the usual
+and the normal. If we read about Romans swallowing emetics after
+gorging themselves, so that they might begin eating afresh, we may
+feel both disgust and pity, but we must not imagine such a practice to
+have been a national habit.
+
+The dinner regularly consisted of three divisions: a preliminary
+course of _hors d'oeuvres_, the dinner proper, and a sort of enlarged
+dessert. It might or might not be accompanied or followed by various
+entertainments, and closed by a protracted course of wine-drinking.
+All would depend upon the tastes of the host and the nature of the
+company. The meal, it may be mentioned, begins with an invocation
+corresponding to our grace. The _hors d'oeuvres_ are taken in the
+shape of shell-fish, such as oysters and mussels, snails with piquant
+sauce, lettuce, radishes and the like, eggs, and a taste of wine
+tempered with honey.
+
+Next comes the dinner proper, commonly divided into three services,
+comprising a considerable choice of fish (particularly turbot,
+flounder, mullet, and lampreys), poultry and game (from chicken, duck,
+pigeon, and peacock, to partridges, pheasants, ortolans, and
+fieldfares), hare, joints of the ordinary meats, as well as of wild
+boar and venison, a kind of haggis, a variety of the vegetables most
+familiar to modern use, mushrooms, and truffles. There is abundant,
+and to our taste excessive, use of seasonings, not only of salt,
+vinegar, and pepper, but of oil, thyme, mint, ginger, and the like,
+The _pièce de résistance_--a wild boar, or whatever it may
+be--regularly arrives as the middle of the three services. The
+substantial meal ends with a small offering to the household deities.
+After this follows the dessert, consisting of fresh and dried fruits,
+and of cakes and sweet-meats artistically composed.
+
+During the dinner a special feature is made of the artistic
+arrangement of the various viands upon the large trays or stands from
+which the guest makes his choice, for the several dishes belonging to
+one course were not brought separately to table. In full view of the
+guests the professional carver exhibits his dexterity with much
+demonstration of grace and rapidity, and well-dressed and
+neat-fingered slaves render the necessary service. Of plates and
+dishes of various shapes and purposes, silver and silver-gilt, there
+is great profusion.
+
+The conversation meanwhile depends upon the company. Sometimes it
+turns upon the chariot-races and the chances of the "Red" or "Green";
+sometimes it is social gossip and scandal. If the guests are of a
+graver cast of mind, it may be concerned with questions of art and
+literature, or even philosophy. The Roman particularly affected
+encyclopaedic information, and frequently posted himself with such
+miscellaneous matter derived from a salaried domestic philosopher or
+_savant_--commonly, of course, a Greek. But upon politics in any real
+sense conversation will either not turn at all, or else very
+cautiously, at least until some one has drunk more than is good for
+him. It is only too easy to drop some remark which may be construed
+into an offence to the emperor, and there are too many ears among the
+slaves, and perhaps too many among the guests, to permit of any risk
+in that direction. In some rather serious companies a professional
+reader or reciter entertained the diners with interesting passages of
+poetry or prose; before others there might be a performance of scenes
+from a comedy. At times vocal and instrumental music was discoursed by
+the domestic minstrels; or persons, generally women, were hired to
+play upon the harp, lyre, or double flageolet. Such performances would
+also be carried on during the carousal which often followed deep into
+the night, and to these may be added posture-dances by girls from
+Cadiz, juggling and acrobatic feats, and other forms of "variety"
+entertainment. Dicing in public, except at the chartered Saturnalian
+festival, was illegal--a fact which did not, of course, prevent it
+from being practised---but it was permitted in private gatherings like
+this, provided that ostensibly no money was staked. The dice are
+rattled in a tower-like box and are thrown upon a special board or
+tray. You may play "for love," or, as the Romans called it, "for the
+best man," or you may play for forfeits. Naturally the forfeits became
+in practice, in spite of the law, sums of money. The best possible
+throw is called "Venus," the worst possible "the dog." A sort of
+draughts or of backgammon may be preferred at more quiet times of
+social intercourse; but a game like "head or tail," called in Latin
+"heads or ships," was a game for the vulgar.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 68.--ACROBATS.]
+
+If it was decided to indulge in a prolonged carousal in form, heads
+were wreathed with garlands of roses, violets, myrtle, or ivy; lots
+were cast for an "umpire of the drinking," and he decided both how
+much wine--Falernian, Setine, or Massic--should be drunk, and in what
+degree it should be mixed with water. A large and handsome mixing-bowl
+stands in the dining-hall. From this the wine is drawn by a ladle
+holding about as much as a sherry-glass, and a certain number of such
+"glasses" are poured into each cup according to the bidding of the
+umpire. While being poured into the "mixer" the wine is passed through
+a strainer and in the hot weather the strainer would be filled with
+snow brought down from the nearest mountains and artificially
+preserved. Healths were drank in as many "glasses" as the name
+contained letters; absent ladies were toasted in a similar way; and at
+some hour or other guests asked their footmen for their shoes and
+cloaks, and departed to their homes under the escort of attendants,
+who carried the torches or lanterns and were ready to deal with
+possible footpads and garroters, if any were lurking in the unlighted
+streets for pedestrians less wary or less protected. The "Mohawks"
+also will let them alone, and perhaps their homeward way may be
+entertained by the sounds of serenaders at the door of some beautiful
+Chloe or Lydia on the Upper Sacred Way or near the Subura.
+
+It is not, however, to be supposed that every evening meal, even of a
+noble, took the form of a dinner-party. It is indeed probable that
+there were few occasions upon which, while in town, he was not either
+entertaining visitors or being himself entertained. Occasionally there
+would be an invitation to dine at Court, where perhaps eighty or a
+hundred guests of both sexes, distributed in different sets of nine or
+seven over the wide banquet-hall, would eat off gold plate, and be
+entertained from three or four o'clock till midnight with all the
+unbridled extravagance that a Petronius or some other "arbiter of
+taste" might devise for the Caesar. The snob of the period set an
+enormous value upon this distinction. The emperor could not always
+review his list of invitations, nor could he on every occasion be
+personally acquainted with every guest. It was therefore quite
+possible for his servants now and then to smuggle in a person
+ambitious of having dined at the palace. Under Caligula a rich
+provincial once paid nearly £2000 for such an "invitation." When the
+emperor found it out, he was, if anything, rather flattered; the next
+day he caused some worthless trifle to be sold to the same man for the
+same amount, and on the strength of this acquaintance invited him to
+dinner, this time pocketing the money for himself.
+
+Yet there must have been no few evenings upon which Silius preferred
+the company of an intimate friend or two, making all together the
+"number of the graces," and dined with less form and ceremony. At such
+times the meal would be of comparatively short duration, and there
+would be deeper and more intimate matter of conversation. Now and then
+the dinner would be purely domestic; and, after it, Silius would
+perhaps pass an hour or two in reading, or in listening to the slave
+who was his professional "reader." If he was himself an author, as an
+astonishing number of his contemporaries actually were, he might spend
+the time in preparing a speech, composing some non-committal epic or
+drama, jotting down memoranda for a history, or concocting an epigram
+or satire to embody his humorous fancies or to relieve his
+exasperation. If, as was often the case, he kept in the house a
+salaried Greek philosopher--in a large measure the analogue of the
+domestic chaplain of the later seventeenth century--he might enjoy his
+conversation and pick his brains; or, if a man of real earnestness of
+purpose, discuss with him the tenets of his particular philosophy,
+Stoic, Epicurean, or Eclectic. This was the nearest approach which the
+ancient Roman made to what we should call theological or religious
+argument.
+
+On other days a patron would naturally entertain a number of his
+clients at dinner, and on no occasion would he be better able to show
+how much or how little he was a gentleman in the modern sense of the
+term. It is not merely from the satirist that we learn how
+discourteous the Roman grandee might be at his own table if he chose.
+It was no uncommon thing for a patron to set before these humbler
+guests dishes or portions of dishes markedly inferior to those which
+were offered to himself and to any aristocrat whom he had placed near
+him. In this sense the client was often made to feel very distinctly
+that he was "sitting below the salt." While the mellowest Setine or
+Falernian wine was poured into the patron's own jewelled goblet of
+gold or silver or crystal, his client might be drinking from thick
+glass or earthenware the poorer stuff grown on the Sabine Hills. The
+fish presented to Silius and his "brother" noble might be a choice
+turbot, and the bird might be pheasant, while Proculus the client must
+be content with pike from the Tiber and the common barndoor fowl. The
+later satirist Juvenal presents us with inimitable pictures of the
+hungry dependants at the table of their "king," waiting "bread in
+hand" (like the sword drawn for the fray) to see what fortune would
+send them. On the other hand there were, of course, patrons who made
+no such distinctions. The younger Pliny, who was himself a gentleman
+almost in the modern sense--if we overlook a too frequent tendency to
+contemplate his own undeniable virtues--writes a letter to a young
+friend in the following terms: "I need not go into details as to how I
+came to be dining with a person with whom I am by no means intimate.
+In his own eyes he combined elegance with economy; in mine he combined
+meanness with extravagance. The dishes set before himself and a few
+others were of the choicest; those supplied to the rest were poor
+scraps. There was the same difference in his wine, which was of three
+kinds. The intention was not to offer a choice, but to prevent the
+right of refusing. One kind was for himself and us; another for his
+less important friends (for his friends are graded); another for his
+and our freedmen. My next neighbour noticed this, and asked me if I
+approved of it. I said 'No!' 'Well,' said he, 'what is your own
+practice?' 'I treat every one alike, for I invite people to a dinner,
+not to an insult, and when they share my table I let them share
+everything.' 'Your freedmen as well?' 'Yes, at such times I regard
+them as guests, not as freedmen.' At this he said, 'It costs you a
+good deal?' 'Not at all.' 'How can that be?' 'Because it is not a case
+of their drinking the same wine as I do, but of my drinking the same
+wine as they do.'" The letter is perhaps nearly half a century later
+than our chosen period, but there is no reason to think that manners
+had undergone any great change in the interval.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+Silius was a noble, with a nobleman's privileges and also his
+limitations. The class next in rank below his consisted of the
+"knights," of whom something has already been said. It will be
+remembered that these men of the "narrow stripe" were the higher
+middle class, who conducted most of the greater financial enterprises
+of Rome and the provinces. While the senatorial order could govern the
+important provinces, command legions, possess large estates, and
+derive revenues from them, but could make money in other ways only
+through the more or less concealed agency of knights or their own
+freedmen, the knights were free to act as bankers, money-lenders,
+tax-farmers, and merchants or contractors in a large way, and to take
+charge of such third-rate provinces as the Caesar might think fit to
+entrust to them. Money-lending at Rome was an extremely profitable
+business. Not only was the nobleman often extravagant in his tastes,
+but when once elected to a public position he was practically
+compelled to spend money lavishly in giving shows and exhibitions of
+the kind which will be described immediately, or upon some public
+building, or otherwise. In consequence he often incurred heavy debts.
+Meanwhile the smaller traders and agriculturists, who were in
+competition with slave-labour and other false economic conditions, to
+say nothing of bad seasons, were frequently in the hands of the
+usurers. Though efforts were repeatedly made to check exorbitant rates
+of interest, they were apparently quite as ineffectual as with us. An
+almost standard charge was at the rate of one-twelfth of the loan, or
+8-1/3 per cent, but another common rate was that of one per cent per
+month. Rates both higher and lower are known to us from particular
+cases. Naturally the question depended on the security, when it did
+not depend upon the greed of the one side and the ignorance of the
+other. Much, however, of what the books call money-lending was only
+what we should consider legitimate banking. Be this as it may, the
+knights made large fortunes from the practice. They were also the
+tax-farmers, who operated in the case of those imposts which were
+still left indirect. The practice was to make an estimate of the
+amount of such a tax derivable from a province, to purchase it from
+the government at as large a margin of profit as possible, and so
+relieve the state of the trouble and cost of collecting it. For this
+purpose "companies" were formed, with what we should call a "legal
+manager" at Rome. The managers would bid at auction for the tax, pay
+the purchase-money into the treasury, and proceed to get in the tax
+through local managers and agents in the provinces concerned. It has
+already been explained that the more important taxation of the empire
+was at this date direct--a community in Gaul, Spain, Asia Minor, or
+Syria knowing what its assessment was, taking its own measures, and
+using its own native or local collectors. The knights at Rome might
+still advance sums to such communities, but they were not in this case
+tax-farmers. It is unfortunate that the word "publicans"--bracketed
+with "sinners"--is used in the New Testament translation for the local
+collectors like St. Matthew. Not only does the word convey either no
+notion or a wholly incongruous one to the ordinary reader, but it is
+apt to mislead those who know its origin. Because the financial
+companies at Rome, in purchasing the taxes, were taking up a public
+contract, they were called _publicani_. But it is not these men who
+were themselves acting as petty collectors--in any case they had
+nothing to do with the native collectors appointed by the
+communities--and it is not these who enjoyed an immediate association
+with "sinners." The fact is that the Latin word applied to the great
+tax-farming companies, who were acting for Rome, was afterwards
+transferred to even the smallest collecting agent with opportunities
+for extortion and harshness.
+
+The stratum of Roman society below the knights was extremely
+composite. The slaves, of course, are not included. They have no right
+to the Roman "toga," nor may they even wear the conical Roman cap,
+except at the Saturnalia, when everything is deliberately topsy-turvy.
+Omitting these, we may roughly divide the rest, as the Romans
+themselves divided them, into "people" and "rabble." The rabble are
+either persons without regular occupation, or _lazzaroni_, sheer
+idlers, loafers, and beggars. Doubtless many of them would execute an
+errand or carry a parcel for a small copper, otherwise they would be
+found hanging about the public squares, lounging on the steps or in
+the precincts of public buildings, such as temples, basilicas,
+porticoes, and baths, and playing at what the Italians call _morra_--a
+more clever and tricky species of "How many fingers do I hold up?"--or
+at "Heads or Tails." The poor of ancient Rome, like those of modern
+Italy, could subsist on very plain and simple food. Water, with a dash
+of wine when it could be got--and apparently at this date wine cost
+less than a penny a quart--and porridge or bread, however coarse,
+would suffice, so long as there were amusements, sunshine, and no need
+to work. Every considerable city of the empire round the Mediterranean
+would doubtless contain its proportion of such "lewd fellows of the
+baser sort," but it was naturally the imperial city that contained by
+far the most. Rome was by no means the only city in which doles of
+free corn were made and free spectacular exhibitions given. But in
+other places the distributions were occasional and depended on the
+bounty of local men of wealth or ambition, whereas at Rome the dole
+was regular, and the spectacles frequent and splendid. Rome was the
+capital, and the abode of the emperor. It claimed the privileges of
+the Mistress City, including the enjoyment of the surplus revenues.
+Policy also demanded that the rabble should be kept quiet by "bread
+and games."
+
+It is for these reasons that the names of some 200,000 citizens stood
+upon a list to receive each month an allowance of corn--apparently
+between six and seven bushels--at the expense of the imperial
+treasury. This quantity they took away and made into bread as best
+they could. In many cases doubtless they sold it to the bakers and
+others. It must be added that, apart from the free distribution, the
+imperial stores contained quantities of grain which could always be
+purchased at a low rate. Occasionally a dole of money was added; in
+one case Nero gave over £2 per man. Meanwhile there was water in
+abundance to be had for nothing, brought by the carefully kept
+aqueducts into numerous fountains conveniently placed throughout the
+city. While, however, we must recognise that the number of idlers was
+very large, we must be careful not to exaggerate. It is absurd to
+assume, as some have done, that because 200,000 citizens are receiving
+free corn there are 200,000 unemployed. The Roman emperors never
+intended to put a premium on laziness, but only to deal with poverty.
+In order to receive your dole of corn it was not necessary to show
+that you were starving, but only that you were entitled, or in other
+words, on the list. It is also a mistake to think that any chance
+arrival among the Roman _olla podrida_ could claim his bushel and a
+half of corn a week. In any case only Roman citizens could
+participate. All the poorest workers, whether actually employed or
+not, could take their corn with the rest. Nor must we forget that
+among the unemployed there were a considerable number who were, for
+one reason or another, only temporarily out of work. Nevertheless, it
+requires no study of political economy to know, nor were Roman
+statesmen blind to see, that the best way to make men cease to work is
+to show them that they can live, however shabbily, without. The really
+surprising thing is perhaps that the Roman government, with its
+immense funds and resources, stopped short where it did. An unsound
+economic system had brought about difficult conditions, with which the
+emperors and their advisers dealt as best they could.
+
+It was inevitable that among so numerous a pampered rabble, and so
+many impoverished aliens who tried their fortunes in the capital,
+there should be beggars in considerable numbers. We cannot tell
+precisely how many they were. You might find them on the bridges,
+where they marked, as it were, a "stand" for themselves and crouched
+on a mat, or at the gates, or wherever carriages must proceed slowly
+on the highroads near the city, as for instance up the slope of the
+Appian Way as it passed over the south-western spur of the Alban
+Hills. Other towns would be infested in the same manner. Nor were
+thieves and footpads wanting in the streets or highwaymen upon the
+roads, especially in the lonelier parts near the marshes between Rome
+and the Bay of Naples. The city was, indeed, liberally policed, but
+Roman streets, as we have seen, were for the most part narrow,
+crooked, and unlighted at night. As usual, it was the comparatively
+poor who suffered from the street robber; the rich, with their torches
+and retinue, could always protect themselves.
+
+After the "rabble" we will take the "people" in the sense current at
+this date. We must begin by adjusting our notions somewhat. The Romans
+made no such clear distinction as we do between trades and
+professions. To perform work for others and to receive pay for it is
+to be a hireling. Painters, sculptors, physicians, surgeons, and
+auctioneers are but more highly paid and more pleasantly engaged
+hirelings. Only so far do they differ from sign-painters, masons,
+undertakers, or criers. No doubt the theory broke down somewhat in
+practice, yet such is the theory. That which in our day constitutes a
+"liberal" profession--a previous liberal education and a high code of
+professional etiquette--can hardly be said to have existed in the case
+of corresponding professions at Rome. If the liberality departs from
+our own professional education and the etiquette is relaxed, we shall
+presumably revert to the same state of things. A surgeon was commonly
+a "sawbones," and a physician a compounder and prescriber of more or
+less empirical drugs. Their knowledge and skill were by no means
+contemptible, and their instruments and pharmacopoeia were
+surprisingly modern. Among the Greeks and Orientals their social
+standing was high, but at Rome, where they were chiefly foreigners,
+for the most part Greeks, the old aristocratic exclusiveness kept them
+in comparatively humble estimation, however large might be their fees
+in the more important cases. Something will be said later as to the
+state of science and knowledge in the Roman world. For the present it
+is sufficient to note that artist, medical man, attorney,
+schoolmaster, and clerk belong theoretically to the common "people,"
+along with butchers, bakers, carpenters, and potters.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Setting aside the aristocratic and wealthy classes on the one hand,
+and the pauperised class on the other, we have lying between them the
+workers, whether native Romans or the emancipated slaves, who are now
+citizens known as "freedmen." To these we must add the rather shabby
+genteel persons whom we have already described as "clients." Among
+workers are found men and women of all the callings most familiar to
+ourselves, with one exception. They do not include domestic servants.
+Romans who could afford regular servants kept slaves. It 18 true that
+occasionally one of the poorer citizens, even a soldier on furlough,
+might perform some menial task connected with a household, such as
+hewing wood or carrying burdens; but such services were regarded as
+"servile." With this exception there is scarcely an occupation in
+which Roman citizens did not engage. In such work they often had to
+compete with slave-labour. It is probable, doubtless, that the greater
+proportion of the slave body were employed as domestic servants. But
+many others tilled the lands of the larger proprietors. Others
+laboured under the contractors who constructed the public works.
+Others were used as assistants in shops and factories. It is obvious
+that such competition reduced the field of free labour, when it did
+not close it entirely, and the free labour must have been unduly
+cheapened. But to suppose that all the Roman work, whether in town or
+country, was done by slaves is to be grossly in the wrong. Romans were
+to be found acting as ploughmen and herdsmen, workers in vineyards,
+carpenters, masons, potters, shoemakers, tanners, bakers, butchers,
+fullers, metal-workers, glass-workers, clothiers, greengrocers,
+shopkeepers of all kinds. There were Roman porters, carters, and
+wharf-labourers, as well as Roman confectioners and sausage-sellers.
+To these private occupations must be added many positions in the lower
+public or civil service. There was, for example, abundant call for
+attendants of the magistrates, criers, messengers, and clerks.
+Unfortunately our information concerning all this class is very
+inadequate. The Roman writers--historians, philosophers, rhetoricians,
+and poets--have extremely little to say about the humble persons who
+apparently did nothing to make history or thought. They are mentioned
+but incidentally, and generally without interest, if not with some
+contempt, except where a poet is choosing to glorify the simple life
+and therefore turns his gaze on the frugal peasantry, who doubtless
+did, in sober fact, retain most of the sturdy old Roman spirit. About
+the soldiers we know much, and not a little about the schoolmasters.
+The connection of the one occupation with history and of the other
+with authors will account for this fact. Something will be said of the
+army and also of the schools in their special places. Keepers of inns
+are not rarely in evidence in the literature of satire and epigram,
+and no language seems too contemptuous for their alleged dishonesty.
+But of inns enough has been said. We learn that the booksellers
+made money out of the works of which they caused their slaves to
+make copies, and which they sold in "well got up" style for four
+shillings, or, in the case of slender volumes, for as little as
+fourpence-halfpenny. But to this day we do not know how much profit an
+author drew from the bookseller, or how it was determined, or whether
+he drew any at all. It is most reasonable to suppose that he sold a
+book straight out to the publisher for what he could get. Otherwise it
+is hard to see how any check could be kept upon the sales. The only
+occupation upon which literature offers us systematic information is
+agriculture, including the pasturing of cattle and the culture of the
+vine. For the rest we derive more knowledge from the excavations of
+Pompeii than from any other source. From actual shops and their
+contents, from pictures illustrating contemporary life, and from
+inscriptions and advertisements, we are enabled to reconstruct some
+picture of commercial and industrial operations. We can see the
+fuller, the baker, the goldsmith, the wine-seller, and the
+wreath-maker at their work. We can discern something of the retail
+trade in the Forum; or we can see the auctioneer making up his
+accounts.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 70.--BAKER'S MILLS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 71.--CUPIDS AS GOLDSMITHS. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 72.--GARLAND-MAKERS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 73.--BUST OF CAECILIUS JUCUNDUS.]
+
+The baker, for example, was his own miller. There are still standing
+the mills, with the upper stone--a hollow cylinder with a pinched
+waist--capable of revolving upon the under stone and letting the flour
+drop into the rim below. Into the holes in the middle of the upper or
+"donkey" stone, and across the top, were fixed wooden bars, which were
+either pushed by men or drawn by asses yoked to them. The oven is
+still in place, and, charred as they are, we are quite familiar with
+the round flat loaves shaped and divided like a large "cross" bun. The
+dough was kneaded by a vertical shaft with arms revolving in a
+receptacle, from the sides of which other arms projected inwards, so
+that there was little room for the dough to be squeezed between them.
+We have pictures of the fuller, to whom the woollen garments--the
+togas and tunics, and the mantles of the women--were regularly sent to
+be washed by treading in vats, to be beaten, stretched, and bleached
+with sulphur, and to have their naps raised with a comb or a bunch of
+thorns. The goldsmith is depicted at his furnace or his anvil. The
+garland-makers are at work fastening the blossoms or petals on a
+ribbon or a tough strip of lime-bark. Dealers in other goods are
+showing the results of their labour to customers, who carefully
+examine them by eye, touch, and smell. The tablets containing the
+receipts for sales and rents still exist as they were found in the
+house of the shrewd-looking Jucundus the auctioneer. They formally
+acknowledge the receipt of such-and-such sums realised at an auction,
+"minus commission," although unfortunately they do not happen to tell
+us how much the commission was. We see the venders of wine filling the
+jars for customers from the large wine-skin in the waggon. In
+conclusion to this subject it should be observed that all manner of
+descriptive signs were in use; and just as one may still see a
+barber's pole or a gilt boot in front of a shop, or a painted sign at
+a public-house, so one might see the representation of a goat at the
+door of a milk-vender, or of an eagle or elephant at the door of an
+inn.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 74.--PLOUGH. (Primitive and later forms.)]
+
+Meanwhile out in the country we can perceive the farm, with its hedges
+of quick-set, its stone walls, or its bank and ditch. The rather
+primitive plough--though not always so primitive as it was a
+generation or so ago in Italy--is being drawn by oxen, while, for the
+rest, there are in use nearly all the implements which were employed
+before the quite modern invention of machinery. It may be remarked at
+this point that the rotation of crops was well understood and
+regularly practised. Then there are the pasturelands, on the plains in
+the winter, but in summer on the hills, to which the herdsmen drive
+their cattle along certain drove-roads till they reach the unfenced
+domains belonging to the state. There they form a camp of huts or
+wigwams under a "head man," and surround their charges with strong
+fierce dogs, whose business it is to protect them, not only from
+thieves, but also from the wolves which were then common on the
+Apennines--where, indeed, bears also were to be met. There was no want
+of occupation in the country in the time of haymaking, of the vintage,
+or of olive-picking. Even the city unemployed could gather a bunch of
+grapes or pick an olive, just as they can with us, or just as the
+London hop-picker can take a holiday and earn a little money in Kent.
+In the vineyards, where the vines commonly trailed upon low elms and
+other trees, various vegetables grew between the rows, as they still
+do about Vesuvius; on the hills were olive-groves, which cost almost
+nothing to keep in order, and which supplied the "butter" and the
+lamp-oil of the Mediterranean world.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 75.--TOOLS ON TOMB.]
+
+We need not waste much compassion upon the life of the Roman working
+class. It is true that there was then no doctrine of the "dignity of
+labour," but that there was reasonable pride taken in a trade
+reputably maintained is seen from the frequent appearance of its tools
+upon a tombstone. In respect of the mere enjoyment of life, the
+labourers, of the Roman world were, so far as we can gather, tolerably
+happy. They had abundant holidays, mostly of religious origin; but,
+like our own, so frequently added to, and so far diverted from
+religious thoughts, that they were more marked by jollity and sport
+than by any solemnity of spirit. The workmen of a particular calling
+formed their guilds, "city companies," or clubs, in the interests of
+their trade and for mutual benefit. There was a guild of bakers, a
+guild of goldworkers, and a guild of anything and everything else.
+Each guild had its special deity--such as Vesta, the fire-goddess, for
+the bakers, and Minerva, the goddess of wool-work, for the
+fullers--and it held an annual festival in honour of such patrons,
+marching through the streets with regalia and flag. Doubtless the
+members of a guild acted in concert for the regulation of prices,
+although the Roman government took care that these clubs should be
+non-political, and would speedily suppress a strike if it seriously
+interfered with the public convenience. The ostensible excuse for a
+guild, and apparently the only one theoretically accepted by the
+imperial government, was the excuse of a common worship. It is at
+least certain that the emperors jealously watched the formation of any
+new union, and that they would promptly abolish any which appeared to
+have secret understandings and aims, or to act in contravention of the
+law. In the towns which possessed local government the municipal
+authorities were still elected by the people; and the guilds,
+especially of shopkeepers, could and did play their parts in
+determining the election of a candidate. The elections might make a
+difference to them in those ways in which modern town-councillors and
+mayors, may influence the rates, the conditions of the streets, the
+rules of traffic, and so forth. There are sixteen hundred election
+notices painted, in red and black about the walls of Pompeii, and we
+find So-and-So recommended by such-and-such a trade as being a "good
+man," or "an honest young man," or a person who will "keep an eye on
+the public purse." It is amusing to note that, in satirical parody of
+such appeals as "the fruitsellers recommend So-and-So," we find that
+"the petty thieves recommend So-and-So," or we get the opinion of "the
+sleepers one and all." Special objects connected with these and other
+associations were the provision of "widows' funds," and of proper
+burial for the members. Of the importance of the latter to the ancient
+world we shall speak when we come to a funeral and the religious ideas
+connected with it.
+
+The most difficult task in dealing with antiquity is to visualise the
+actual life as it was lived. In the life of the humbler citizens the
+remains of Pompeii lend more help than anything else to the desired
+sense of reality, but they are the remains of Pompeii, not of Rome.
+Nevertheless there are many points in which we may fairly argue from
+the little town to the larger, and it is customary to adopt this
+course.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 76.--POMPEIAN COOK-SHOP.]
+
+We may, therefore, think of the common people among these ancients as
+very much alive in their frank curiosity, their broad humour, their
+love of shows, and their keen enthusiasm for the competitions, their
+interest in petty local elections, their advertising instincts, their
+insatiable fondness for scribbling on walls and pillars, whether in
+paint or with a "style," a sort of small stiletto with which they
+commonly wrote on tablets. The ancient world becomes very near when we
+read, side by side with the election notices, a line from Virgil or
+Ovid scrawled in a moment of idleness, or a piece of abuse of a
+neighbouring and rival town--such as "bad luck to the Nucerians"--or a
+pretty sentiment, such as "no one is a gentleman who has not been in
+love," or an advertisement to the effect that there are "To let, from
+July 1, shops with their upper floors, a flat for a gentleman, and a
+house: apply to Prinus, slave of So-and-So"; or "Found wandering, a
+mare with packsaddle, apply, etc."--the latter, by the way, painted on
+a tomb.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 77.--IN A WINE-SHOP.]
+
+For places of social resort there were the baths, the colonnades, the
+semicircular public seats, the steps of public buildings, the shops,
+and the eating-houses and taverns. The middle classes, in the absence
+of the modern clubs, met to gossip at the barber's, the bookseller's,
+or the doctor's. Those of a humbler grade would often betake
+themselves to the establishments corresponding to the modern Italian
+_osterie_, where were to be obtained wine with hot or cold water and
+also cooked food. As they sat on their stools in these "greasy and
+smoky" haunts they might be compelled, says the satirist, to mix with
+"sailors, thieves, runaway slaves, and the executioner," but even men
+of higher standing were often not unwilling to seek low pleasures amid
+such surroundings, especially when, as was frequently the case, there
+was provision for secret dicing beyond the observation of the police.
+
+From literature, meanwhile, we may fill in their vivacious language,
+the courteous terms the people apply to each other, such as "you ass,
+pig, monkey, cuckoo, chump, blockhead, fungus," or, on the other side,
+"my honey, my heart, my dove, my life, my sparrowkin, my dainty
+cheese." But to go more fully into matters like these would carry us
+too far afield.
+
+We will end this topic with a last look at the ordinary free workman,
+who wears no toga, but simply a girt-up tunic, a pair of boots, and a
+conical cap, and who goes home to his plain fare of bread, porridge,
+lentil soup, goats'-milk cheese, "broad" and "French" beans, beetroot,
+leeks, salted or smoked bacon, sausages, and black-pudding, which he
+will eat off earthenware or a wooden trencher, and wash down with
+cheap but not unwholesome wine mixed with water. He has no pipe to
+smoke; he has never heard of tea, coffee, or spirits. He may have been
+told that certain remote barbarians drink beer, and he may know of a
+thing called butter, but he would not touch it so long as he can get
+olive-oil. However humble his home, he will endeavour to own a silver
+salt-cellar, and to keep it as an heirloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+These topics bring us naturally to the consideration of the chief
+amusements and entertainments of Rome and of those parts of the empire
+which were either fairly romanized or else contained a large number of
+resident Romans.
+
+Holidays, some of them lasting over several days, were at this date
+liberally spread throughout the year. Most of them belonged to fixed
+dates, others were festivals specially proclaimed for victories or
+other causes of rejoicing. We may estimate their average number at
+Rome itself at about a hundred. At first sight this might indicate an
+astonishing waste of time and the prevalence of enormous indolence.
+But we must remember that the Romans had no such thing as Sunday. Our
+own Sundays and the weekly half-holidays make together seventy-eight
+days, and if to these we add the holidays at Christmas, Easter, and
+other Bank and public "closings," we shall find that our annual breaks
+in the working year are not very far from the Roman total, however
+differently they may be distributed. The difference between us and
+them lies rather in the way in which the holidays were employed.
+Originally the holidays did not imply any giving of shows and games in
+the way of chariot-races, gladiatorial combats, and the like. They
+were simply festivals of deities--of Flora, the goddess of flowers,
+Ceres, the goddess of crops, Apollo the god of light and healing, and
+other divinities--honoured by sacrifices, processions, and feasts. The
+feast of Saturn, for example, was at first held for only one day.
+Later it was extended over five and then over seven days, exactly as
+our Christmas celebrations--which are a Christian adaptation of
+it--tend virtually to spread over longer and longer periods. At this
+winter festival of the Saturnalia there was an interchange of
+presents--such as confectionery, game, articles of clothing,
+writing-tablets--and a general outburst of goodwill and merriment. For
+one day the slaves were allowed to put on the freeman's cap, the "cap
+of liberty," and to pretend to be the masters. This is the source of
+the mediaeval monkish custom of permitting one annual day of
+"misrule." Meanwhile the citizen threw off the toga and clad himself
+in colours as he chose. He played at dice publicly and with impunity.
+The cry of "Hurrah for the Saturnalia!" was heard everywhere. Later it
+became customary to hold public shows on these days, and the emperors
+gave gladiatorial games and acrobatic or dramatic entertainments, at
+which there were scrambled various objects, articles of food, coins or
+tickets entitling the holder to some gift which might be valuable,
+valueless, or comical. Similarly there was a holiday on New Year's
+Day, when presents were again interchanged, regularly including a
+small piece of money "for good luck." The gifts on this day frequently
+bore the inscription "a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you."
+Presents at all times played a prominent part in Roman etiquette and
+sociality. Not only were they given at holidays but also at all
+important domestic events. Even at a dinner-party, besides actual
+articles of food to be carried home, there were frequently gifts of a
+kind either expressly adapted to the recipient, or else drawn by a
+humorous lottery. Among numerous other articles of which one might be
+the recipient in various seasons and circumstances, there are
+mentioned books, pictures, tablets of ivory, wood, or parchment,
+cushions, mufflers, hats, hoods, sponges, soap, rings, flasks,
+baskets, musical instruments, balls, pens, lamps, tooth-picks, dice,
+money-boxes, satchels, parrots, magpies, and monkeys. On the Ides of
+March the poorer classes made their way to the Campus Martius beside
+the river, built themselves arbours or wigwams of boughs, and spent
+the day and evening in riotous song and jollity.
+
+In general, however, the parts of these festivals to which the people
+looked forward with liveliest anticipation were those public
+entertainments, commonly known as "the games" or "sports," which were
+provided for them free of cost. The expense was theoretically borne by
+the state--whether from the exchequer of the emperor or from that of
+the senate and the state did indeed spend as much as six or eight
+thousand pounds upon a particular celebration. But, both in Rome
+itself and in the provinces, it was practically obligatory that the
+public officer who had charge of a given festival for the year should
+spend liberally of his own upon it. No man either at Rome or in a
+provincial city could permit himself to be elected to such a public
+position unless he was prepared to disburse a sum perhaps as large as
+the subvention given by the state. The more he gave, particularly if
+he introduced some striking or amusing addition to the ordinary shows,
+the more popular he became for the time being. In the Roman world you
+must pay for your ambitions, and this was the most approved way of
+paying. We might moralise over the enormous frivolity which could
+waste day after day thousands and thousands of pounds upon such
+transitory pleasures, instead of conferring lasting benefits in the
+way of hospitals or schools. But it is not the object of this book to
+moralise. We may feel confident that the Roman populace, if offered
+the choice, would have voted for the chariot-races or the gladiators,
+not for the college or the hospital.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 78: BOXING-GLOVES.]
+
+The entertainments provided were of several kinds, by no means equally
+popular. There were plays in the theatres; there were contests of
+running, wrestling, boxing, throwing of spears and disks, and other
+"events," corresponding to our athletic sports; there were
+chariot-races in the Circus, answering to our horse-races at Epsom or
+Newmarket; and there were spectacles in the amphitheatre, to which,
+happily, we have no modern parallel. These included huntings and
+baitings of animals, fights with wild beasts--performances far more
+dangerous than those of the Spanish bull-ring--and, above all, the
+combats of the gladiators or professional "swordsmen." So far as there
+exists a later analogue to the last it is to be found in the more
+chivalrous tourney in the lists, but the resemblance is not very
+close. Least valued among the real Romans were the athletic sports.
+For genuine enjoyment of these we must look to the Greek part of the
+empire. At Rome they appeared tame, for the mind of the Roman populace
+was naturally coarse in grain; what it delighted in was something
+sensationally acrobatic, or provocative of a rather gross laughter, or
+else involving a thrilling anticipation of danger and bloodshed. In
+taste the Romans were in fact similar to those modern spectators who
+love to see a man plunge from a lofty trapeze into a narrow tank, with
+a reasonable chance of breaking his neck. It is a strange
+contradiction with other Roman attitudes when we find that they
+objected to the Greek wrestling or running on grounds of decorum,
+because it was innocently nude. On the athletic sports, although they
+were never wanting in the "games" at Rome, we need not therefore
+dwell. It may be sufficient to show by an illustration what sort of
+notion the ancient world entertained of interesting pugilism. It is
+only fair to say that the "boxing-gloves" here given--thongs of
+leather wrapped tightly round the arm and hand, and loaded or studded
+with lead or iron--were a notion borrowed from the professional
+pugilists of Greece.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 80.--THEATRE AT ASPENDUS.]
+
+Next lowest in esteem stood the plays given on the theatrical stage.
+Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the three great
+theatres of Rome, one of them said, though somewhat incredibly, to be
+capable of holding 40,000 spectators. Their shape and arrangement have
+already been hinted at. Huge structures of a similar kind existed in
+all the great romanized towns of Italy and other provinces. One at
+Orange in France is still well preserved, and two of smaller
+dimensions--one without a roof for plays, and one roofed for musical
+performances--are among the most easily remembered of the remains
+extant at Pompeii. In the Grecian half of the empire the theatres were
+not essentially different, the chief distinguishing feature being
+that, while the Roman auditorium formed half a circle, that of the
+Greek type formed over two-thirds. In the Roman type the level
+semicircle in front of the stage, from which we derive the name
+"orchestra," was occupied by the chairs of the senators, and the
+fourteen tiers of stone seats immediately behind them by the knights;
+certain sections were also set apart for special classes, one being
+for soldiers, one for boys not yet of age, and one for women, whose
+presence was not encouraged, and who, except at the tragedies, would
+have shown more modesty by staying away. Facing the seats is a stage,
+higher than among the Greeks, but somewhat lower than it is commonly
+made in modern times; and at the back of the stage is a wall
+architecturally adorned to represent a house or "palace" front, and
+containing one central and two side doors, which served for separate
+purposes conventionally understood. Over the stage is a roof, which
+slopes backward to join the wall. The entrances to the ordinary tiers
+of seats are from openings reached by stairs from the outside arcade
+surrounding the building; those to the level "orchestra" are from
+right and left by passages under an archway, which supports a private
+box for the presiding official. The two boxes are approached from the
+stage, and when the emperor is present he is seated in the one to the
+spectators' left. Round the top of the building, inside above the
+seats, runs a covered walk, which serves as a lounge and a _foyer_.
+Over the heads of the spectators a coloured awning--dark-red or
+dark-blue by preference--may be stretched on masts or poles; when no
+awning is provided, or when it cannot be used because the wind is too
+strong, the spectator is permitted to wear a broad-brimmed hat, if he
+finds one desirable for his comfort. The whole building must be
+thought of as lined and seated with marble, gilded in parts, and
+decorated with pillars and statues.
+
+The curtain, instead of being pulled up, as with us, when the play
+begins is pulled down, falling into a groove in the stage. Where we
+should say the "curtain is up" the Romans would say exactly the
+reverse, "the curtain is lowered." For plays in which the palace-front
+was not appropriate, scenery was employed to cover it, being painted
+on canvas or on boards which could be pulled aside; other scenes were
+stretched on frames, which could be made to revolve so as to present
+various faces.
+
+The actors, however much admired for their art, and however
+influential in irregular ways, were looked upon as in a degraded
+position, and no Roman who valued social regard would adopt this line
+of life. Among the Greeks and such Orientals as were under Greek
+influence no such stigma rested upon the profession, and therefore
+many of the chief actors of the imperial city had received their
+training in this more liberal-minded part of the Roman world. The rest
+were mostly slaves or ex-slaves. If a Roman of any standing took part,
+it was either because he was a ruined man, or else because the emperor
+had capriciously ordered him to undergo this humiliation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 81.--TRAGIC ACTOR.]
+
+
+The plays themselves were certainly of no great merit from a
+constructive or literary point of view. We hear a good deal nowadays
+of the "decline of the drama," but perhaps in no civilised country has
+it declined so far as it had descended in Rome by the year A.D. 64.
+The regular and classical drama--that is to say, literary tragedy and
+comedy--was not likely to appeal to any ordinary Roman gathering. The
+philosopher Seneca indeed wrote tragedies in imitation of the Greek,
+but they were intended for the reader and the library, and there is
+little probability that they were ever performed, or even offered to
+the stage. Tragedies were, it is true, represented, but they were
+mostly Greek, and the performance was in the Greek style. The heroic
+actors wore masks, covering not only the face but the whole head,
+which they raised considerably in height. About the body fell long and
+trailing robes of splendid material and colour, and on the feet were
+thick-soled boots which increased the height by several inches. The
+comedian played in low shoes or slippers; and "boot" and "slipper"
+were therefore terms in common vogue to distinguish the two kinds of
+theatrical entertainment. Of Pliny's two favourite country-houses on
+Lake Como one was called "Tragedy" as standing high, the other
+"Comedy" because on a lower site beside the water. The whole effect
+sought in the heroic play was the grandiose, and no attempt was made
+to reproduce the actualities of life. In the accompanying illustration
+will be seen the tragic hero as he appeared upon the Roman stage. In
+considering this somewhat amazing apparition it must be remembered
+that at Rome, as in Greece, the theatre was huge, effective
+opera-glasses were not known, and subtle changes of facial expression
+would have passed unnoticed. The make-up of the actor, like the
+painting of the scenes, was compelled to depend upon broad effects.
+
+With its love of the false heroic, of rhetorical bombast, of sumptuous
+dress, magnificent scenes, and gorgeous accessories in the way of
+"supers" and processions, the Roman tragic drama of this period must
+have borne a striking resemblance to the corresponding English pieces
+of the Restoration or age of Dryden. Perhaps the most popular part of
+the performance was the music and dancing, whether by individual
+actors or as ballets, accompanied by the flageolet, the lyre, or the
+cymbals.
+
+In comedy there was apparently no originality. As in the oldest days
+of their drama the Romans had copied the Greeks, so they copied them
+still. We may believe that the acting was often excellent; especially
+in respect of intonation and gesture, but little can be said for the
+play, whether from the point of view of literature or of morals. Since
+verbal description must necessarily be of little force, it will serve
+better to present here a few specimens of comic masks and a scene from
+comedy:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 82.--COMIC MASKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 83.--SCENE FROM COMEDY.]
+
+Much more in demand were theatrical performances of a lower kind.
+These were farces, interludes, character-pieces, and dumb-shows known
+as "pantomimes." The farce     was a loosely constructed form of
+fooling comedy, containing much of the ready Italian improvisation or
+"gag," and regularly introducing the four stock characters which have
+lasted with little disguise for so many centuries There was an old
+"grandfather," the forerunner of the modern pantaloon; a cunning
+sharper; a garrulous glutton with a fat face (known as "Chops"); and
+an amorous Simple Simon. Sometimes types of foreigners or provincials
+were introduced, with caricatures of their dress and language, after
+the manner, and probably with the veracity, of the stage Scotchman,
+Irishman, or Frenchman. All these parts were played in masks.
+
+The interlude again was a slight piece with very little plot, and
+composed in a large measure of buffoonery, practical jokes, hitting
+and slapping, and dancing. Topical allusions and contemporary
+caricatures were freely introduced, and the whole performance, however
+coarsely amusing, was both vulgar and indecent. In these pieces no
+masks were worn and also no shoes, and the women's parts--taken in the
+other instances by men and boys--were actually played by females,
+whose posture-dances were no credit to their sex.
+
+The dumb-shows or "pantomimes" were performances in which expressive
+and elaborate gestures and movements were left to tell the whole tale.
+For this kind of piece the actors naturally required not only uncommon
+cleverness but also great suppleness of body. As usual, these
+qualities, together with the qualities of voice, the magnificent
+dress, and the carefully cultivated long hair, won for the actor
+demoralising influence over too large a number of the more
+impressionable and untrammelled Roman dames.
+
+Meanwhile the huge audience must not be conceived as sitting in quiet
+and restrained attention, but as roaring with laughter, applauding and
+stamping, shouting approval and encores, hissing and waving
+handkerchiefs. And meanwhile the _claqueurs_ will have been duly
+distributed by those interested in the success of the performance.
+Every now and then a fine rain of saffron perfume is shed over the
+audience from pipes and jets distributed round the building. It
+deserves remark also that in the theatre, as in the other places of
+amusement, the gathering frequently broke out into demonstrations of
+its feeling towards persons and politics. There was safety in numbers,
+and the applause or hissing which greeted a personage or a topical
+allusion--or a line which could be twisted into such--could hardly be
+laid to the account of any individual. A certain license was conceded
+and fully utilised at the festivals: it served as a safety-valve, and
+wise emperors apparently so regarded it. At Rome the government was
+indeed "despotism tempered by epigram," but it was no less tempered by
+these demonstrations at the games and spectacles.
+
+More worthy of imperial Rome were the exhibitions of chariot-races
+held in the immense Circus Maximus. That building, already described,
+would at this date probably hold some 200,000 persons, but it could
+never provide room enough for the excited people, who not only
+gathered in multitudes from Rome itself, but also from all the
+country, even all the empire, within reach. For weeks the chances of
+the parties have been discussed and betted upon; even the schoolboys
+have talked chariots, chariot-drivers, and horses. The fortune-tellers
+have been consulted about them; dreamers have dreamed the winners; and
+many an underhand attempt, sometimes including the hocussing of men or
+horses, has been made to corrupt the sport. The struggle is in reality
+not between chariot and chariot, but between what we should call
+stable and stable. There are four parties--the white, red, green, and
+blue--whose drivers will wear the respective colours, in which also
+the chariots were probably painted. By some means the green and blue
+have at this date contrived to stand out beyond the others, and the
+chief interest commonly centres upon these.
+
+The day of the great spectacle arrives. Outside the building and in
+the porticoes surrounding it the sellers of books of the races and of
+cushions are plying their trade along with venders of confectionery
+and perfumes. The people are streaming into the numerous entrances
+which lead by stairways to the particular blocks or tiers of seats in
+which they are entitled to sit, and for which they bear a ticket. Full
+citizens are wearing the toga, or, if the emperor has not forbidden
+the practice, the brightly coloured cloak which has been already
+described. Seats are reserved for officials, senators, knights, and
+Vestal Virgins; and on the side under the Palatine is a large
+balcony-box for the emperor and his suite. At these games women have
+no special place set apart for them; they sit in their richest land
+showiest attire among the general body of the spectators, and flirting
+and love-making are part of the order of the day. A very crude form of
+field-glass or "spy-glass" was already in use, apparently consisting
+generally of a mere hollow tube, but occasionally provided with a
+magnifying lens. Nero himself, in consequence of his short-sight, had
+a "glass" in some way contrived of emerald.
+
+At one end of the Circus is a building containing a curved line of
+stalls, equidistant from the starting-point, in which the drivers hold
+their chariots in readiness. These are all barred, and only at the
+signal will the doors be thrown open. The horses are commonly
+three-year-olds or five-year-olds. In some races there are two horses
+to the chariot, in others four. Less commonly there are three or six,
+or even a greater number. In the year 64 the number of cars running
+will be four, one for each club. How many races there are to be, and
+in what variety, will depend upon the presiding officer, who, as has
+been said, is paying a considerable portion of the expenses, and who
+will receive or lose applause according to the entertainment he
+affords to the spectators. Commonly there will be about twenty races
+run, although occasionally even that number be increased.
+
+Down the middle of the arena, though not quite in its axis, runs a low
+broad wall called the "backbone," bearing various sculptures along its
+summit and in the middle an obelisk, now standing in the Piazza del
+Popolo, which Augustus had brought from Egypt after his conquest of
+that country. On the extremities of the "backbone" are placed the
+figures of seven dolphins and seven large eggs, and just free of each
+end, on a base of their own, stand three tall cones coated with gilt,
+round which the chariots are to turn as a yacht turns round the buoy.
+Seven times will the chariots race down the arena, round the end of
+the backbone, and back again. At each lap a dolphin and an egg will be
+removed from the wall, and as the last disappears the winning driver
+makes straight on for the white line which serves as the winning-post.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 84.--PLAN OF CIRCUS.]
+
+But they have not yet started. At the fixed hour a procession starts
+from the Capitol, descends by the temple of Saturn and past the face
+of the Basilica Julia, turns along the "Tuscan Street," and enters the
+Circus under a large archway in the middle of the building which
+contains the stalls. In front go a body of musicians with blare of the
+straight Roman trumpet and the scream of the flageolets; behind these
+comes the high official who has charge of the particular festival. He
+is mounted high on a chariot, and is clothed in a toga embroidered
+with gold and a tunic figured with golden palm-branches: in his hand
+he carries an ivory sceptre, and over his head is held a crown of
+gold-leaf. Behind the chariot is collected a retinue in festal array.
+The competing chariots follow; after these are the effigies of
+deities, borne on platforms or on vehicles to which are attached
+richly caparisoned horses, mules, or elephants; in attendance upon
+them are the connected priestly bodies. As this procession passes
+round the Circus the spectators rise from their seats, roar their
+acclamations, and wave their handkerchiefs. When it has made the
+circuit, its members retire to their places, and the chariots are shut
+in their stalls. Soon the president takes his stand in his box, lifts
+a large handkerchief or napkin, and drops it. Immediately the bolts of
+the barriers are withdrawn, and the chariots dash forward towards the
+point marked A. The drivers, clothed in a close sleeveless tunic and
+wearing a skull-cap, all of their particular colour, lean forward over
+their steeds, and encourage them with whips and shouting. At their
+waists you will see the reins gathered to a girdle, at which also
+hangs a knife, in readiness to cut them away in case of accident. The
+chariot is a low and shallow vehicle of wood covered with ornament and
+as light as it can well be made, and it requires no little skill for
+the charioteer to maintain his footing while controlling his team.
+Down the straight they rush, each endeavouring to gain an advantage at
+the turn, where the left rein is pulled, and the left horse--the pick
+of the team--is brought as closely round the end of the wall as skill
+and prudence can contrive. It is chiefly, though by no means only,
+here that the accidents occur, and that the chariots lose their
+balance and collide with each other, or strike against the end of the
+wall and are over-thrown. How readily collision might happen may be
+seen from the following diagram, where the courses of two chariots, A
+and B, are indicated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 85.--THE TURN IN THE CIRCUS.]
+
+Sometimes the teams get out of hand and general disaster may result.
+Round and round they go, the spectators yelling in their excitement
+for the blue or the green, the red or the white, and making or
+revising their bets. "Too far out!" "Well turned!" "The green wins!"
+"Well done, Hirpinus!" Shouts like these form a roar to which perhaps
+we have no modern parallel. One by one the eggs and dolphins disappear
+from the wall; the chariots are reduced in number; the four or five
+miles are completed; and an enormous shout goes up for the winner,
+whose name--of man and horse and colour--will be for days in
+everybody's mouth. For his reward he will not only obtain the honour
+of the palm-branch; he will receive presents in money, gold and silver
+wreaths, clothes, and various articles of value. Socially he may be
+but a slave or a person in base esteem; the occupation, however
+reputable in the Greek portion of the empire, is not for a free-born
+Roman; nevertheless, like the jockey who wins the Derby, he is the
+hero of the moment.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 86--CHARIOT-RACE.]
+
+Race follows race, with an interval for the midday meal. During that
+time there will be interludes of acrobatic and other performances. One
+rider, for example, will stand upright on the back of two or more
+horses, and will spring continually from one to the other while they
+are at the gallop. Most of the company will take their refreshments
+where they are. When a man of some standing was reproached by Augustus
+for this rather undignified proceeding, he replied: "That is all very
+well for you, Sire, but your place is sure to be kept." We need not
+proceed further into details concerning the "events" in the Circus. It
+may however be worth while to add that the Romans cared nothing for
+the modern form of race by jockeys on single horses.
+
+The Circus is quite a different thing from the oval amphitheatre, a
+structure for once of native Roman devising, without which no Roman
+town could consider itself complete. Though the Colosseum was not yet
+built, there already existed an amphitheatre in the Campus Martius,
+and such buildings were to be found in all considerable towns which
+contained a large Roman element. There is one, though of later date
+than Nero, still to be seen in fair preservation at Verona; the
+well-known amphitheatre at Pompeii was in full use in the year 64, and
+other cities--Capua, Puteoli, Nîmes, Antioch, or Caesarea--were
+provided with the joys of the gladiatorial shows and the beast-fight.
+Only in the thoroughly Greek or thoroughly Oriental part of the empire
+was the amphitheatre absent. Where there was no fixed building of
+stone or wood, a temporary structure was erected and a company of
+gladiators would perform in the place at the expense of some local
+officer or of some wealthy citizen with social ambitions. Whatever may
+be thought of the Greeks in other respects, they felt no liking, but
+only an openly expressed repulsion, for the barbarous exhibitions of
+bloodshed in which the Roman revelled. Outside Jerusalem an
+amphitheatre was built by the romanizing Herod, but it was done to the
+horror of all orthodox Jews.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 87.--AMPHITHEATRE AT POMPEII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--BARRACKS OF GLADIATORS (Pompeii.)]
+
+The performances were of two main kinds; fights between men and
+beasts--occasionally between two kinds of wild beast--and fights
+between men and men. There was no make-believe about these combats;
+they meant at least serious wounds, even when they did not mean death.
+Those who fought with beasts might in some cases be volunteers; in
+general they were captives or condemned criminals, and it perhaps
+hardly needs pointing out that, when St. Paul says he had "fought with
+beasts at Ephesus," he is merely speaking in metaphor adapted to the
+times. It was not intended that the criminal should escape death, but
+only that he should be able to make a fight for his life. Meanwhile
+the gladiators who fought with men and not with beasts were in the
+position of professionals, who might be slaves, condemned brigands,
+mutineers, prisoners of war, or volunteers. The picture drawn by
+Byron, although the so-called "Dying Gladiator" which inspired him is
+in reality no gladiator but a Gaulish warrior, perhaps fairly
+represents one class of combatant, but it represents only one. In the
+case of these "swordsmen" a number of successful fights might in the
+end secure freedom and something more for slave or prisoner, and a
+competence for the volunteer. It was not unnatural that men of courage
+and strength should frequently offer themselves for this service.
+Their physical training was indeed severe both in the way of exercise
+and of diet, and their personal treatment was harsh and ignominious;
+but their fame, such as it might be, was wide, and their rewards often
+solid. Contemporary writers also complain that, however brutal and
+ugly they were, there were always women ready to adore them and to
+consider them as beautiful as Adonis. At Pompeii a scribbling calls
+one of them "the sigh of the girls." Nevertheless no Roman with much
+self-respect, unless forced by a malignant emperor, would bear the
+stigma of having appeared as a gladiator, any more than in modern
+times one would choose to be known as a professional pugilist.
+Moreover these same heroes, after their glorious day in the arena,
+were carefully stripped of their showy armour, imprisoned in barracks,
+and, if disobedient or troublesome, chastised with the lash and put in
+irons or the stocks.
+
+The prelude to a beast-fight was frequently rather a "hunt," amounting
+to a demonstration of skill in dealing with wild animals which could
+hardly be said to fight, but which were difficult to capture or kill.
+Success with javelins or arrows required somewhat more skill and
+daring than the "big game" shooting of modern times. To give a greater
+air of naturalness to the performance the arena was sometimes
+temporarily planted with shrubs and trees, and diversified with
+rock-work. After the beast "hunt" came the beast "fight," which might
+be against bisons or bulls, wild boars or wolves, lions or tigers, a
+rhinoceros or an elephant. In such contests the man commonly wore no
+body-armour. He took his sword or spear, swathed his right arm and his
+legs, and went out to meet the enemy in his tunic. The beasts were
+either let loose from the end of the arena, or, as later in the
+Colosseum, they were brought up in cages from their underground dens
+by means of lifts worked by pulleys. Indirectly, it may be observed,
+the mania for this sport produced one distinctly beneficial result,
+inasmuch as the more dangerous wild beasts became almost exterminated
+from the Roman world. The number killed was enormous, hundreds of
+lions or panthers being produced and slain during the shows of a
+single festival. It may be added that on the top of the wall or
+platform surrounding the arena there was placed--at least in the
+Colosseum--a metal grating or screen, of which the top bar revolved,
+so that if a wild beast managed to spring so high and take a grip, the
+feat was of no use to him. To keep him at a further distance a trench
+surrounded the arena and separated it from the platform.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 89.--STOCKS FOR GLADIATORS. (Remains from
+Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 90.--GLADIATORS FIGHTING.]
+
+But the great entertainment of the amphitheatre was the combats of men
+with men. After the beast-fights, which were held in the mornings, and
+amounted in estimation to a matinee, there followed the fights of the
+gladiators. Outside the building are being sold the books which
+catalogue the pairings, together with some record of the men, the name
+of their training-school, and a statement as to the weapons with which
+they will fight and as to whether they have made previous appearances.
+At the appointed time the procession enters from one end of the arena,
+and the combatants parade and salute the emperor, if he is present, or
+the presiding officer. Their weapons are examined, and there is a
+preliminary sham-fight, partly for exhibition of skill and to
+influence bets, partly for practice. The men then return to their
+places, a trumpet blows, and a pair commences the real fighting.
+Sometimes a man is in full and heavy armour from head to foot;
+sometimes he is lightly equipped with a half-shield and a spear;
+sometimes he carries only a sharp three-pronged spear and a
+casting-net, in which he endeavours to enmesh an enemy fully armed.
+Besides combats on foot, there may be fights upon horseback, or even
+in chariots of the kind then best known in Britain. To encourage the
+participants, and to lend more spirit to the scene, there is a blowing
+of horns and trumpets while the fight proceeds. All around the people
+are shouting their comments and their advice; they applaud and adjure
+and curse. "Get up to him!" "Kill him!" and the like are heard on
+every side. A man falls, not dead, but disabled, and the spectators
+shout "He has it." He holds up his finger in sign of defeat, but he
+utters no cry. Shall he be killed, or shall he not? The answer depends
+on the president or "giver" of the exhibition. He looks round, and if
+he perceives that the great majority are giving an upward flick of the
+thumb, and hears them call "Give him the steel!" the man is doomed;
+if, on the contrary, handkerchiefs are waved, his life is spared. A
+good fight or a good record may save him to fight again another day.
+The formal presentation of a wooden sword would mean that he was
+discharged for life from the necessity of further fighting. If his
+enemy's dagger must be pressed into his throat, or if he has been
+slain outright, there is a passage under the middle of the side of the
+amphitheatre through which the body will be dragged by a hook into the
+mortuary. Another combat follows between another pair--sometimes
+between two sides--and should the arena become too sodden with blood,
+it is raked over and fresh sand is scattered.
+
+It is amazing in what a cold-blooded manner all this was carried out.
+When one reads the notices written up at Pompeii, that on
+such-and-such a date there will be exhibited so many pairs of
+gladiators, that "there will be a beast-hunt," and that "awnings will
+be provided and perfume sprinkled," it is difficult at first to
+realise that it means all that it does mean. To the credit of the
+Romans--so far as they deserve any at all--let it be stated that the
+presence of women was not encouraged at these shows; that if they
+appeared at all, it must be in the upper tier, as far as possible from
+the arena; and, strangely enough, that only the six Vestals, in virtue
+of their religious claims, could be placed in any position of honour.
+These sat upon the lowest platform, in line with the special seats of
+the emperor or president and the highest officials of the state, but
+it is probably a libel for an artist to depict them as so many Maenads
+lusting for the blood of the vanquished.
+
+The only other form of public entertainment which it seems desirable
+to mention was that of a naval battle, in which the sea was either
+represented by flooding the amphitheatre, or by means of a permanent
+lake, such as that which Augustus created artificially across the
+Tiber. The proceedings bore all the appearance of reality. Ships were
+rammed, sunk, overturned, and boarded, and, so far as the men were
+concerned, the battle might be as grim and bloody as any other kind of
+gladiatorial contest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+We will assume that Silius is a married man, and that his wife is a
+typical Roman dame worthy of his station in life. Her name shall be
+Marcia, or, if she possesses more than one, Marcia Sabina. Marriage
+does not confer upon her the name of her husband, and if she requires
+further identification in connection with him, she will be referred to
+as "Silius's Marcia." At an earlier date a woman owned but a single
+name, but already practical convenience and pride of descent had
+combined to make it desirable that she should bear a second, which
+might be taken from the family either of her father or of her mother.
+Thus if Silius and Marcia themselves have a daughter, she may in her
+turn perhaps be called Silia Bassa, perhaps Silia Marcia.
+
+If now we proceed to describe the position of Marcia in her conjugal
+and family relations, to speak of her way of life, and to suggest her
+probable character, it must be understood that the description would
+by no means necessarily fit every Roman matron. Women are said to be
+infinitely various, and in this respect the ancient world was
+precisely like the modern. And not only has it further to be borne in
+mind that there were several strata of Roman society, and that city
+life differed widely from country life; there was also an actual
+difference in the legal position of a wife, according to the terms
+upon which she had chosen to enter the state of wedlock. In other
+words, there were two forms of matrimony. According to the
+old-fashioned style a wife passed into the power of the husband; her
+legal position--though not, of course, her domestic standing--was the
+same as that of his daughter. Once on a time he had even possessed the
+right of putting her to death, but at our date that privilege no
+longer existed. It was enough that she should be subject to his
+authority. In that position she managed the home and family, and often
+managed him as well. How far this time-honoured style of marriage was
+still maintained among the lower classes of Roman society it is
+impossible to tell; our information is almost entirely restricted to
+the higher, or at least the wealthier, orders. It is, however,
+probable that among the artisans and labourers, where the dowry of a
+wife cannot have amounted to anything very considerable, this more
+stringent state of matrimony was the rule. Paterfamilias was the head
+and lord of the house, while materfamilias held in practice much the
+same position as she did in Anglo-Saxon households of two or three
+generations ago.
+
+Meanwhile among the upper classes, but in no way legally limited to
+them, an alternative and easier form of marriage had become
+increasingly popular. It was one which gave to both parties the
+greatest amount of freedom of which a conjugal union could reasonably
+allow. The woman did not pass into the power of the man, and, short of
+actual infidelity, she lived her own life in her own way, although
+naturally conforming to certain recognised etiquette as a partner in a
+respectable Roman _ménage_. If neither affection nor moral suasion
+could preserve harmony or proper courses, either party might formally
+repudiate the contract, and, after a short interval, seek better
+fortune in some other quarter. There was, of course, a public
+sentiment to be considered; there was family influence; there was the
+characteristic Roman pride; there was often a fair measure of mutual
+esteem and even affection; and there were obvious joint interests
+which made for stability; but beyond these considerations there was
+nothing to hamper the inclination of either husband or wife. Yet it is
+a grave mistake to imagine, because there was much, and sometimes
+appalling, looseness of life under a Nero, that the race of noble and
+virtuous Roman matrons--the Cornelias and Valerias and Volumnias--was
+extinct; and it is equally a mistake to suppose that Rome no longer
+produced its honourable gentlemen filled with a sense of their
+responsibilities to family and state. The satirist should not here,
+nor elsewhere, be our chief, much less our only, guide. The England of
+Charles II is not to be judged in its entirety by the comedies of the
+time nor by the _Memoirs_ of Grammont. On this matter, however, it
+will be more convenient to touch in a later paragraph. It will be best
+to deal first with the system in vogue, and then to consider the sort
+of woman whom it produced.
+
+It cannot be denied that at this date, though marriage was regarded as
+the normal and proper condition for men and women who desired to do
+their duty by the state, and though the wise emperors did everything
+in their power to encourage it, a very large proportion of the men of
+the upper classes regarded it as a burden and a vexatious interference
+with their liberty. It was not necessarily that they had any desire to
+be vicious, nor indeed would marriage be much of a hindrance to vice;
+it was that they desired to be free. The cause of their disinclination
+was the same as it is sometimes alleged to be now--the increasing
+demands of women, their increasing unwillingness to bear the natural
+responsibilities of matrimony, their extravagant expectations, and the
+impossibility of there being two masters in one house claiming equal
+authority. But whereas we recognise that love is a possible adjuster
+of all the difficulties, it was no tradition of the Romans that
+marriage should be based on love. With them it very seldom began with
+love, or even with direct personal choice, but was in most instances
+entirely a _mariage de convenance_ and arranged for them as such. Even
+after marriage we are told by a contemporary writer that the proper
+feeling for a man to entertain for his wife is rational respect, not
+emotional affection. Experience has shown that the result was too
+often unsatisfactory.
+
+It is unfortunate that the only satires or criticisms on married life
+which have come down to us were written by men; one would like to hear
+what the women might have said, if a woman had ever been a satirist.
+There is nearly always some basis of truth in a classic satire, but
+the question is "How much?" Juvenal belongs to a later generation than
+that of Nero, but what he says is doubtless equally applicable to that
+age. It is therefore interesting to note one or two of his objections
+to contemporary woman, regarded as a wife. In the first place she is
+too interfering and even dictatorial. "What madness is it," he asks of
+the man whom he supposes himself to be addressing, "that drives you to
+marry? How can you bear with a tyrannous woman, when there are so many
+good ropes in the world, when there are high windows to throw yourself
+out of, or when there is the bridge quite handy?" "Why should you be
+made to wear the muzzle?" "Why take into your house some one who will
+perhaps shut the door in the face of an old friend whom you have known
+ever since he was a boy?" "When you displease her, she weeps, for she
+keeps tears always ready to fall, but when you try to prevent her from
+displeasing you, she tells you it was agreed that each should have
+liberty, and that she is a human being." He goes on to attack her
+faithlessness, her extravagance, her superstition, her loquacity, and
+so forth. Let us by all means discount his fierce invectives;
+nevertheless we must take them as but a heightened way of putting
+circumstances which had a real and all too frequent existence, and
+which encouraged the growing fancy for bachelordom. We shall, however,
+soon look at a very different picture of domestic relations, and it is
+only fair to assume that these also were by no means uncommon.
+
+A Roman girl with a reasonable dowry might expect to be married at any
+age from about 13 to 18. The Italian of the south, like the Greek,
+ripens early. The legal age was 12; on the other hand to be unmarried
+at 19 was to be distinctly an old maid. In the northern provinces of
+the empire maturity was less early, whereas south of the Mediterranean
+it was even earlier. The legal age for the bridegroom was that at
+which his father or guardian allowed him to put on the "toga of the
+man" and enter the Forum. Thus theoretically a Roman youth might
+become a benedict when about sixteen, and Nero was only at that age
+when he married his first wife Octavia. Generally speaking, however,
+if Marcia was as old as 16, Silius would hardly be under 26 or 27.
+
+The marriage, as has been said already, would commonly be a matter of
+arrangement between families, sometimes effected by their own members,
+sometimes by an interested friend or some other go-between. "You ask
+me," writes Pliny to Mauricus, "to look out for a husband for your
+niece. There is no need to look far, for I know a man who might seem
+to have been provided on purpose. His name is Minicius. He is
+well-connected, and comes from Brescia, which you know to be a good
+old-fashioned place retaining the simple and modest manners of the
+country. He is a man of active energy and has held high public office.
+In appearance he is a gentleman, well-built, and with a wholesome
+ruddy complexion. His father has ample means, and though perhaps your
+family is not much concerned on that point, we have to remember that a
+man's income is one of the first considerations in the eyes, not only
+of our social system, but of the law."
+
+A marriage of the full and regular type could only be contracted
+between free citizens. There were varying degrees of the morganatic
+about all others, such as marriage with a foreigner or emancipated
+slave. A non-Roman wife meant that the children were non-Roman. A man
+of the senatorial order could not marry a freedwoman, if he wished to
+have the union recognised; also no complete marriage could be
+contracted with a person labouring under degradation publicly
+inflicted by the authorities or degraded _ipso facto_ by certain
+occupations. For this reason the actress on the "variety" stage could
+not aspire to become even an acknowledged Roman wife, much less a
+member of the order which more or less corresponded to our peerage.
+Nor could a Roman marry a relative within certain prohibited degrees.
+He might not, in fact, marry any woman whom he already possessed what
+was called "the right to kiss."
+
+We are, however, dealing with two persons entirely beyond exception,
+namely Quintus Silius Bassus and Marcia Sabina. A match has been made
+between these parties, perhaps several years before the actual
+marriage can take place, and while the intended bride is a mere child
+of ten: even the future groom may be but a boy. When the go-between
+has done his or her work to the satisfaction of both families, there
+takes place a betrothal ceremony, of which the original purpose was,
+of course, to bind each party morally to carry out the contract, but
+which, by the year 64, might mean very little.
+
+In theory the Roman law required the consent of both participants; a
+father could not absolutely force son or daughter to marry a
+particular person, nor, indeed, any person at all. But on the other
+hand, according to the Roman law, neither sons nor daughters were free
+to act independently of the father's will, nor to possess independent
+property, so long as the father lived, or until he chose to
+"emancipate." It naturally follows that paternal pressure was the
+chief factor in determining a marriage, and only those men or women
+whose fathers were dead, or who had been formally freed from tutelage,
+were in a position absolutely to please themselves. We need not
+suppose either that sons were always very amenable, or that parents
+were invariably self-willed and autocratic, but it is obvious that
+marriages based on mutual attraction must have been extremely few. We
+will suppose that Silius is his own master, while Marcia has a father
+or a guardian still alive.
+
+At the betrothal ceremony the friends of both houses are in
+attendance, a regular form of words is interchanged between Silius and
+the father of Marcia, a ring is given by the man to his _fiancée_, to
+be worn on the fourth finger of her left hand, and he adds some other
+present, most probably some form of that jewellery of which the Roman
+women were and still are so extraordinarily fond. A feast naturally
+follows.
+
+You would think this performance sufficiently binding, and binding no
+doubt it was from a moral point of view, so long as there was
+reasonably good behaviour on either side, or so long as neither Silius
+nor Marcia's father was prepared wantonly to flout general opinion or
+to offend a whole connection by simply changing his mind. On the other
+hand, there was no legal compulsion whatever to carry out the
+contract. The Roman world knew nothing of actions for breach of
+promise. If either party chose to repudiate the engagement, they were
+free so to do. In that case they were said to "send back a refusal" or
+to "send a counter-notice." A family dispute, a breath of suspicion, a
+change of circumstances, and even an improved prospect might be
+sufficient excuse, or no excuse need be offered at all.
+
+In the present instance, however, no such ugly missive passes between
+the house of Silius on the Caelian Hill and that of Marcius on the
+Aventine, the wedding takes place in due course. It will not be in May
+nor in early March or June, nor on certain other dates which, for
+reasons mostly long forgotten, were regarded as inauspicious. It is a
+social ceremony, and neither state nor priest will have anything to do
+with sanctioning or blessing it. The pillars at the sides of the
+vestibules of both houses are wreathed with leaves and boughs, and the
+friends and clients of both families proceed in festal array to the
+house of the bride. If Marcia is very young she has taken her
+playthings--dolls and the like--and has dedicated them to the
+household gods as a sign that she now puts away childish things and
+devotes herself to the serious tasks of life. She has then been
+carefully dressed for the occasion. Her hair, however she may have
+worn it before or may wear it afterwards, is for to-day made up into
+six plaits or braids, which are wound into a coil on the top of her
+head. As an initial rite it is parted by means of an instrument
+resembling a spear, a survival of the time when a bride was a prize of
+war, and when her long locks were actually divided by a veritable
+spear in token of her subjection. Round this coiffure is placed a
+bridal wreath, made of flowers which she must have gathered with her
+own hands, and over her head is thrown a veil--more strictly a
+cloth--of some orange-yellow or "flame-coloured" material, which does
+not, however, like the Grecian or Oriental veil, conceal her face. On
+her feet are low yellow shoes. Meanwhile the bridegroom arrives,
+escorted by his friends, and he also wears a festal garland. As with
+all other important undertakings of Roman life, a professional seer
+will be in attendance to take care that the auspices are favourable.
+Peculiar portents, very unpropitious behaviour of nature, a very
+strange appearance in the entrails of a sacrificial victim, are omens
+which no properly constituted Roman can afford to overlook. The
+auspices being favourable--and there is reason to believe that no
+undue insistence was laid on their unpropitious aspects--the bride is
+led into the reception-hall, and the contract of marriage is signed
+and sealed. That there should be a dowry, and a considerable one, goes
+without saying. In some cases it is actually settled on the husband,
+who is to all intents and purposes purchased by it; but in most it is
+available for his use only so long as the marriage continues unbroken.
+For the rest, the wife's property is and remains her own. Her guardian
+is still her father and not her husband: her legal connection is still
+with her own family and not with his. She is a Marcia and not a Silia.
+If the marriage is dissolved, at least without sufficient demonstrable
+provocation on her part, her father will see that her dower is paid
+back. To such terms as these the parties affix their names and seals,
+and a certain number of friends add their signatures as witnesses.
+
+This done, one of the younger married women present takes the bride
+and leads her across to Silius who holds her right hand in his. Both
+repeat a prescribed formula of words, and all the company present
+exclaims "Good luck to you!" and offers such other congratulations as
+seem fit. A wedding-dinner is held, generally, but not necessarily, in
+the house of the bride, and a wedding-cake, served upon bay-leaves, is
+cut up and divided among the guests. It is now evening, and a
+procession is formed to bring Marcia home to the house of Silius. In
+front will march the torchbearers and what we should call "the band,"
+consisting in these circumstances of a number of persons playing upon
+the flageolet. Silius goes through a pretence of carrying off Marcia
+by force--another practice reminiscent of the ancient time when men
+won their brides by methods similar to those of the Australian
+aborigine with his waddy. Both groom and bride are important people,
+and along the streets there is many a decoration; many a window and
+doorway is filled with spectators; shouts, not always of the most
+discreet, are heard from all sides, and loud above all rings the
+regular _Io Talasse_--whatever that may have meant, for no man now
+knows, and almost certainly no one knew then. In the midst of the
+procession Marcia, followed by bearers of her spindle and distaff, is
+being led by two pretty boys, while a third carries a torch; Silius
+meanwhile is scattering nuts or walnuts, or _confetti_ made like them,
+to the crowd. Arrived on the Caelian, the bride is once more seized
+and lifted over the threshold; when inside the hall, Silius presents
+her with fire and water in token of her common share in the household
+and its belongings; and she offers prayers to various old-fashioned
+goddesses who are supposed to preside over the introduction to married
+life.
+
+If we have given with some particularity the orthodox proceedings of a
+fashionable wedding, it must again be remembered that not all weddings
+were fashionable, and that one or other of these details might be
+omitted as taste or circumstances required. Among the poorer folk
+there must often have been practically no ceremony at all beyond the
+"bringing home." And if there are certain items which appear to us
+trivial and meaningless, it is probably unfamiliarity which breeds our
+contempt. Perhaps a far-off generation may wonder how civilised folk
+in the twentieth century could perform absurd antics with rice and
+slippers.
+
+Marcia is now what was known as a "matron." Her position is far more
+free than it could ever have been in Greece or the Orient, more free
+indeed than it would be in any civilised country at the present time.
+The Romans had at all times placed the matron in a position of dignity
+and responsibility, and to this is now added the greatest liberty of
+action. Her husband salutes her in public as "Madam." Since he is a
+senator, and it is beginning to be the vogue to call such men "The
+Most Illustrious," she also shares that title in polite reference to
+herself. She is not confined to any particular portion of the house,
+nor, within the limits of decorum, is she excluded from masculine
+company. She is the mistress of the establishment, controlling, not
+only the female slaves, but also the males, in so far as they are
+engaged in the work of the household. She keeps the keys of the
+store-rooms. Theoretically at least she has been trained in all the
+arts of the housekeeper, and thoroughly understands domestic
+management, together with the weaving and spinning which her handmaids
+are to perform. The merits of the wife, as summed up in the epitaphs
+of the middle classes, are those of "good counsellor good manager, and
+good worker in wool." She walks or is carried abroad at her pleasure,
+attends the public games in the Circus, and goes with her husband to
+dinner-parties, where she reclines at the meal just as he does. When
+her tutelage is past she can take actions in the law-courts, or appear
+as witness or surety. Her property is at her own disposal, and she
+instructs her own agent or attorney. It is only necessary that she
+should guard the honour of her husband. So long as he trusts her he
+will not interfere. It is only a very tyrannical spouse who will
+insist that her litter or sedan-chair shall have the curtains drawn
+when in the streets. We will assume that Marcia is a lady of the true
+Roman self-respect and dignity, and that Silius and she live a life of
+reasonable harmony.
+
+But though there were many such Marcias, there were other women of a
+very different character. There is, for instance, Flavia, who has a
+perfect frenzy for "manly" sports, and practises all manner of
+athletic exercises, wrestling and fencing like any man, and perhaps
+becoming infatuated and practically running away with some brawny but
+hideous gladiator. She also indulges frankly in mixed bathing. There
+is Domitia, who is too fond Of promenading in the colonnades and
+temples, where a _cavaliere servente_, ostensibly her business
+man--though he does not look like it--may regularly be seen carrying
+her parasol. When at home, she neglects her attire and plasters her
+face with dough in order to smooth out the wrinkles, so that she may
+give to anybody but her own family the benefit of her beauty. There is
+the ruinously extravagant Pollia, whose passion for jewels and fine
+clothes runs her deeply into debt, for which, fortunately, her husband
+is not responsible. There is Canidia, who is shrewdly suspected of
+having poisoned more than one husband and who has either divorced or
+been divorced by so many that she has had eight of them in five years,
+and dates events by them instead of in the regular way by the
+consulships: "Let me see. That was in the year in which I was married
+to So-and-So." There is Asinia, whose selfishness is so great, and her
+affection so frivolous, that she will weep over a sparrow and "let her
+husband die to save her lap-dog's life." All these women are most
+likely childless, and many a noble Roman house threatens to become
+extinct.
+
+There are others, again, whose foibles are more innocent. Baebia, for
+example, is merely a victim to superstition. She is always consulting
+the astrologers, the witches, and the dream-readers; she is devoted to
+the mystic worship of the Egyptian Isis, with its secret rites of
+purification, or she is a proselyte to the pestilent notions of the
+Jews. She is too much under the influence of some squalid Oriental who
+carries his pedlar's basket, or whose business is to buy broken glass
+for sulphur matches Meanwhile Corellia is a blue-stocking, as bad as a
+_précieuse_ with a _salon_. As soon as you sit down to table she
+begins to quote Homer and Virgil and to compare their respective
+merits. She cultivates bright conversation in both Greek and Latin,
+and her tongue goes loudly and incessantly like a bell or gong. Her
+poor husband is never permitted to indulge in an expression which is
+not strictly grammatical. Worse still, she probably even writes little
+poems of her own. She may keep a tame tutor in philosophy, but she
+makes no scruple about interrupting his lesson on morals while she
+writes a little billet-doux. Pomponia is an ambitious woman, whose
+mania is to interfere in elections by bringing to bear upon the
+senators what has been called in recent times the "duchesses'"
+influence. If her husband becomes governor of a province, she will
+endeavour to be the power behind the throne, and her meddling will in
+any case prove harmful to the strict administration of justice.
+
+The remedy in such cases was divorce. In the lower orders of society a
+mild personal castigation was quite legal and probably not uncommon;
+but then in these lower orders divorce was by no means so convenient.
+Among the upper classes its frequency made it scarcely a matter of
+remark. Nothing like it has been seen until modern America. There was
+no need of an appeal to the courts or of a decree _nisi_; there was
+not even need of a specific plea, although naturally one would be
+offered in most cases. The husband or wife (or the wife's father, if
+she had one), might send a formal and witnessed notice declaring the
+marriage dissolved, or, as it was called, "breaking the marriage
+lines." The man had only to take this step and say with due
+deliberation "Take your own property"--or, as the satirist puts it,
+"pack up your traps"--"give up the keys, and begone." The woman on her
+side need only give similar notice and "take her departure." The only
+check lay in family considerations, in public opinion, which was
+extremely lenient, in financial convenience, or in the possibility of
+particularly wanton conduct being so disapproved in high quarters that
+a senator or a knight might perhaps find his name missing from the
+list of his order at the next revision.
+
+It has appeared necessary to give this darker side of the social
+picture, for, though assuredly not so lurid as might be gathered from
+the moralists, it was dark enough. For obvious reasons it is desirable
+not to elaborate. It is perhaps more profitable, as well as
+refreshing, to consider the brighter side. That there were noble women
+and good wives, and that the froth and scum and dregs of idle
+town-life did not make up the existence of the contemporary Roman
+world, may be seen from passages like the following, which are either
+quoted or condensed from a letter of Pliny concerning a lady named
+Arria. The events belong to the reign of Nero's predecessor Claudius.
+Pliny writes: "Her husband, Caecina Paetus, was ill; so also was her
+son; and it was expected that both would die. The son, an extremely
+handsome and modest youth, succumbed. His mother arranged for his
+funeral and carried it out, the husband meanwhile being kept in
+ignorance. Not only so, but every time she came into his room she
+pretended that the son was alive and better, and very often, when he
+asked how the boy was getting on, she answered, 'He has slept well,
+and shown a good appetite.' Then, when the tears which she had so long
+kept back proved too much for her, she used to leave the room and give
+herself up to grief. When at last she had dried her eyes and composed
+her countenance she returned to the room. When her husband had taken
+part in an intended revolt against Claudius, he was to be carried as a
+prisoner across the Adriatic to Rome. He was on the point of
+embarking, when Arria begged the soldiers to take her on board with
+him. 'I presume,' she said, 'you mean to allow an ex-consul a few
+attendants of some kind, to give him his food, and to put on his
+clothes and shoes. I will do all that myself.'" Her request being
+refused, "she hired a fishing-smack and followed the big vessel in
+this tiny one." When Claudius ordered the husband to put himself to
+death, Arria took a dagger, stabbed herself in the breast, drew the
+weapon out, and handed it to him with the words: "Paetus, it does not
+hurt. It is what you are about to do that hurts."
+
+Arria doubtless is a rare type of heroine. But also of the quiet
+domesticated wife we have a description from the same writer.
+Unfortunately the letter is one of the most priggish of all the rather
+self-complacent epistles written by that thoroughly respectable and
+estimable man; but that fact takes nothing from the information for
+which we are looking. Pliny is writing to his own wife's aunt. "You
+will be very glad to learn that Calpurnia is turning out worthy of her
+father, of yourself, and of her grandfather. She has admirable sense
+and is an excellent housekeeper; she is fond of me, which speaks well
+for her character. Through her affection for me she has also developed
+a taste for literature. She possesses my books and is always reading
+them; she even learns them by heart. When I am to make a speech in
+court, she is all anxiety; when I have made it, she is all joy. She
+arranges a string of messengers to let her know what effect I produce,
+what applause I win, and what result I have obtained. If I give a
+reading, she sits in the next room behind a curtain and listens
+greedily to the compliments paid to me. She even sets my verses to
+music and sings them to the harp, with no professional to teach her,
+but only love, who is the best of masters. I have therefore every
+reason to hope that our harmony will not only last but grow greater
+every day."
+
+And all this time, away in the country homestead and cottage, the good
+Marsian or Sabine mother is a veritable pattern of domestic probity
+and discipline. If she possesses handmaids, she teaches them their
+work in the kitchen or at the loom; if she possesses none, she brings
+up her big daughters in the right ways of modesty, frugality, and
+obedience to the gods; and her tall sons religiously obey her when she
+sends them out to chop the firewood in the rain and cold of the
+mountain-side.
+
+One subject of perpetual interest where women are concerned is that of
+dress and personal appearance. The Roman woman emphatically pursued
+the cult of beauty and personal adornment. Perhaps the first prayer
+which a mother offered for an expected daughter was that she should be
+beautiful. Whether she proved so or not, no pains were spared to
+correct or supplement the work of nature. It is true that fashion,
+except in the dressing of hair, underwent none of those rapid and
+astonishing changes which perplex the unsophisticated male of to-day.
+Above all, there were no hats. But all that gold and jewels,
+colours--blue, green, yellow, violet--and varied stuffs--woollen,
+linen, muslin, and silk--could do for dress was done by every typical
+woman of means; and every device for improving the complexion, the
+teeth, the hair, the height, and the figure--which, by the way, never
+sought the wasplike waist--was fully exploited. We need not go too
+closely into details. It will be enough to describe the ordinary
+attire and the ordinary methods of beautification.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 91.--TOILET SCENE. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+The conventional indoor dress consisted of, first, an inner tunic,
+short and sleeveless, with a band passing over or under the breast, so
+as to produce something resembling what is called the Empire figure;
+second, an outer tunic of linen or half-silk, less often of whole
+silk, which fell to the feet. The outer tunic was fastened on the
+shoulders with brooches; it had sleeves over the upper arm, and, in
+the case of adults but not of young girls, a flounce or furbelow at
+the bottom. A girdle produced a fold under the breast. The garment was
+commonly white, but might be bordered with coloured fringes and
+embroidery; for ladies of senatorial rank it bore the broad stripe
+worked in purple or gold. On the feet sandals were often worn, but for
+out-of-doors these were replaced by soft shoes of white, coloured or
+gilded leather, sometimes studded with pearls or other gems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 92.--WOMAN IN FULL DRESS.]
+
+When a lady left the house she threw over the indoor dress a large
+mantle or shawl, much resembling the toga of the men, except that its
+colour was apparently what she pleased. This article was passed over
+the left shoulder and under the right arm, which was left free; it
+then fell in graceful folds to the feet. Works of art show that a fold
+of the shawl was frequently laid over the top and back of the head,
+for which no less becoming covering had yet been introduced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG-93.--HAIRPINS.]
+
+The hair alone was subject to innumerable vagaries either of fashion
+or of individual taste. It might have a parting or no parting; it
+might be plaited over the head and fastened by jewelled tortoise-shell
+combs, or by pins of ivory, silver, or bronze with jewelled heads, as
+varied and ornamental as the modern hatpin; it might be carried to the
+back and rest in a knot on the neck, where it was bound with ribbons;
+it might be piled into a huge pyramid or "towers of many stories," so
+that a woman often looked tall in front and appeared quite a different
+person at the back; it might be encased in a coloured cloth or in a
+net of gold thread, for which poorer people substituted a bladder. But
+in all cases it was preferred that the hair should be wavy, and this
+was a matter which was attended to by a special _coiffeur_ kept among
+the slaves. No handmaid had a harder or more ungrateful task than the
+tiring-woman, who built up and fastened the reluctant locks while the
+mistress contemplated the effect in her bronze or silver mirror. There
+was no rule for a woman's treatment of herself in this respect.
+"Consult your mirror," is the advice of the poet Ovid, who has
+hopelessly lost all count of styles, since they were "more numerous
+than the leaves on the oak or the bees on Hybla." To full dress
+belonged a coronal or tiara, consisting of a band of gold and precious
+stones.
+
+But who shall dare to speak of the jewellery that bedecked a Roman
+matron _en grande tenue_--of the pearl and pendant earrings, the
+necklaces of pearl and diamonds, the gold snake armlets with their
+emerald eyes, the bangles and finger-rings, the brooches and buckles
+on the shoulders and down the sleeves, the gems scattered among the
+hair, the chains and châtelaines strung with all manner of glittering
+articles? Says one who lived at the time: "I have seen Lollia Paulina
+covered with emeralds and pearls gleaming all over her head, hair,
+ears, neck, and fingers to the value of over £300,000." If Rome is the
+eternal city, it is eternal in this respect at least as much as in any
+other.
+
+Who, still more bold, shall pry into her apparatus for the
+beautification of her person, examining her patch-box and the innocent
+little pots of rouge, vermilion, and white lead for the complexion,
+and of soot to rub under the eyes? Who shall scrutinise too closely
+that delicate blue which tinges her temples? Who shall dare to
+question whether that yellow hair of the most approved tone, then best
+seen in Germany, grew where you find it or came from some head across
+the Rhine? Who shall venture to ask whether that smooth skin was
+preserved by her wearing last night a mask of meal, which she washed
+off this morning with asses' milk? Petronius, indeed, says that the
+"lady takes her eyebrows out of a little box," and probably Petronius
+knew. For her artificial teeth there is an obvious and sensible
+excuse, and it is no reproach to her if, as the poet declared, "she
+puts her teeth aside at night, just as she does her silks." Probably
+she scents herself far too heavily, but there are many Roman men who
+are just as bad.
+
+She is ready now for all emergencies, and we may leave her, sitting in
+her long-backed cushioned chair, waving in one hand a fan of peacock's
+feathers or of thin wood covered with gold-leaf, and holding in the
+other a ball of amber or glass to keep her hands cool and dry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+Unlike too many couples of the same class, Silius and Marcia are
+blessed with children. We will assume that there are two, a boy, whose
+full name shall be Publius Silius Bassus, and a girl, who is to be
+called Silia Bassa. It is perhaps to be regretted that there is not a
+third, for in that case the father would enjoy to the full certain
+privileges granted by law to parents who so far do their duty by the
+state. As it is, he will in the regular course of things receive
+preference over childless men, when it comes to candidature for a
+public office or to the allotting of a governorship. The decline in
+the birthrate had become so startling at the close of the republic
+that the first emperor, Augustus, had decided that it was necessary on
+the one side to penalise persons who remained either unmarried or
+childless, and on the other to grant fixed concessions to all who were
+the parents of three. A bachelor could not, for instance, receive a
+legacy from any one but a near relative; a married man without
+children could only receive half of such a legacy; a man with three
+children could not only enjoy his legacy in full, but could take the
+shares forfeited by any bachelor or childless legatee who figured in
+the same will. It does not appear that the law produced any great
+effect, and, to make it still more futile, the later emperors began to
+bestow what was called the "privilege of three children" on persons
+who actually had either fewer or none at all.
+
+The power of the father over the children is theoretically almost
+absolute. Even when a son is grown up and married he legally belongs
+to his father; so does all his supposed property. The same is the case
+with a daughter, unless she becomes a Vestal Virgin, or unless she
+marries according to the stricter of the two kinds of matrimony
+already described. In the older days of Rome the father could, and
+sometimes did, put his children to death if he chose. Though too free
+an exercise of so extreme an authority was no longer recognised, it
+was still quite legal to make away with an infant which was badly
+deformed. Says Seneca, in the most matter-of-fact way, "We drown our
+monstrosities." It was quite legal also to expose a child, and leave
+it either to perish or to be taken up by whosoever chose. In most such
+instances doubtless the child became the slave of the finder. Not only
+was this allowable at Rome and in the romanized part of the empire; it
+was a frequent practice throughout the Greek or Eastern portion.
+Again, a father might sell his child as a slave, particularly for
+continual disobedience. All these things the parent might legally do;
+but it is extremely difficult to discover how far they were actually
+done, inasmuch as our information in this respect hardly touches the
+lower classes, while among the upper classes there was naturally far
+less temptation to be rid of the burden of maintaining such few
+children as most families produced. On the whole it appears highly
+improbable that in the truly Roman part of the empire there was any
+considerable destruction of infant life or exposure of infants. It
+does not follow that, because the strict law does not prevent you from
+doing a thing, you will therefore do it, in the face of public
+disapproval and of all the promptings of natural affection. In their
+family relations the ancient Romans possessed at least as much natural
+feeling as is commonly shown in modern times. The fact is that in
+matters of law the Romans were eminently conservative; they left as
+much as possible to the silent working of social opinion. In the
+oldest times the patriarchal system existed in the family, and new
+Roman legislation interfered with parental power only just so far as
+experience had loudly demanded such intervention. There can have been
+no very pronounced abuse of the powers of the father, and, as the
+discipline of the family was regarded as essential to the discipline
+of the state, the law was always unwilling to weaken in any way the
+hold of such family discipline. The strictly legal authority of the
+father was therefore maintained, while its abusive exercise was
+limited by the risk, if not the certainty, that it would meet with
+both public and private censure.
+
+Nevertheless, to return to the point which called for this
+explanation, it is quite in the power of Silius to expose or sell
+little Publius or little Silia. But for a man in his position to do
+anything of the kind would bring the scorn of all Roman society about
+his ears; and, among other humiliations, almost undoubtedly his name
+would be expunged from the senatorial list. Moreover Silus, though a
+pagan, is a human being, and his affection for his children would
+certainly be no less warm than that of the average Christian man of
+to-day.
+
+Immediately after birth there is a little ceremony. The babe is
+brought and laid upon the hearth or floor before the household gods
+for the father to inspect it. As has been said already, if it is a
+monstrosity, he may order it to be made away with. Otherwise it is
+still open to him either to acknowledge the infant or to refuse to
+have anything to do with it. The act of acknowledgment consists in
+stooping down and lifting up the child from the ground. For this
+reason the expression used for acknowledging and undertaking to rear a
+child was "lifting" or "picking up." In our instance the little son
+and daughter are, of course, not only picked up, but welcomed as the
+young hopes of the proud house of Silii Bassi.
+
+On the ninth day in case of the boy, or the eighth in that of the
+girl, the child is named, after certain ceremonies of purification.
+The whole proceeding bears much resemblance to a christening, except
+that there is no calling in of the services of a church. The relations
+and friends gather in the hall, each bringing his present, and even
+the slaves make their little inexpensive offerings. The gifts are
+chiefly little trinkets of gold, silver, and ivory--rings, miniature
+hands, axes, swords, or crescents--which are to be strung across the
+baby's breast. The original purpose of all these objects was to act as
+charms against the blighting of the child by evil powers, or, more
+definitely, by the "evil eye," that malignant influence which still
+troubles so many good Italians, both ignorant and learned. With the
+same intention the father hangs upon the child's neck a certain object
+which it will carry till it comes of age. If a few years later you met
+the boy Publius in the Roman streets, you would find him wearing a
+round case or locket in gold, some two inches in diameter and
+resembling the modern cased watch. Inside is shut his protecting
+amulet. When he is sixteen and puts on the man's toga, his amulet will
+be laid aside. In the case of the little Silia it will be worn until
+she marries. Poorer folk, for whom gold is too expensive, will enclose
+the amulet in a case of leather.
+
+The naming over, the child is registered. The Romans were adepts in
+the art of utilising a religious or superstitious practice for
+purposes of state, and the development of the registration of births
+and deaths is but one instance. In older times it had been a custom,
+on the occasion of a birth, to pay a visit to the shrine of "Juno the
+Birth-Goddess," and to leave a small coin by way of offering. It is
+easy for a state to convert an already established general custom into
+a rule; and at our date this shrine of Juno had become practically a
+registration office, where a small fee was paid and the name of the
+child entered upon the rolls.
+
+We need not follow with any closeness the infancy of either boy or
+girl till the seventh year. The ancient world was very much like the
+modern. Suffice it to glance at them cutting their teeth on the teeth
+of wolves or horses, rocked in cradles decorated with gold and purple,
+or running about and calling their parents by the time-honoured
+_mamma, tata_--words, if we can call them words, which came from those
+small Roman mouths precisely as they have come from time immemorial
+from so many others. Their slave nurse, who is a Greek and talks Greek
+to them, tells them the old wives' tales and fables. They play with
+rattles, balls, and little carts, with pet birds and monkeys, and the
+girl with dolls of ivory or wax or of painted terra-cotta. They have
+swings, and ride on sticks and build houses. When bigger, the boy has
+his tops and hoops, with or without bells, and he plays marbles with
+nuts. Meanwhile attempts are made, somewhat after the kindergarten
+pattern, to teach them their alphabet by means of letters shaped in
+wood or ivory. Whether or not it is modern kindergarten method to
+tempt children to learn by offers of sugar-plums, that course was
+often adopted in the world of both Greece and Rome.
+
+On the whole the life of the child, though strictly governed, appears
+to have been pleasant enough until schooldays began. Though many
+children were taught at home by a more or less learned slave acting as
+private tutor, the great majority, at least of the boys, were sent to
+school. There was at this date no compulsory education; the state
+dictated nothing and provided nothing in connection with the matter;
+many children must have received no education at all, and many only
+the barest elements. Nevertheless the average parent realised the
+practical utility of at least reading, writing, and simple arithmetic,
+and schools of the elementary type sprang up according to the demand.
+What the higher education was like will be set forth in its place.
+
+The ideal education, as understood in the older days of Rome, was a
+training which should fit a man for his duty to the gods, the state,
+and the family. It was above all things a moral and practical
+training. A man has certain domestic, political, and religious
+functions to perform: let him learn how best to perform these. Under
+this system there was little room for accomplishments or for purely
+intellectual pursuits. Little by little, however, such liberal
+elements, artistic and philosophical, struggled into the sphere of
+Roman education, but never to the extent or with the intellectual
+effect which belonged to them in Greece. Even by A.D. 64 the education
+of a Roman boy was very narrow, and, in the direction in which it
+sought some liberality, it often went sadly astray. The clearest
+course will be for us to take young Publius Silius through a course
+typical of the time. We will assume that he does not receive all his
+lessons at home, but that, through an old-fashioned preference on the
+part of his father, he goes to a school, along with boys who are
+mostly but not necessarily of the same social standing with himself.
+
+We have unfortunately almost no information as to any social grading
+of schools, or as to their size. All we know is that some schools were
+taught entirely by one man, while others employed an undermaster or
+several. In some cases the school is entirely a private enterprise,
+the master charging a monthly fee--amounting in the elementary schools
+to a penny or twopence a week--together with small money presents on
+certain festivals. The more select establishments naturally charged
+more. Probably most of the schools in Rome and the larger towns were
+upon this private footing. In other instances a number of parents in a
+smaller town would club together and subscribe sufficient money to
+provide the salary of a schoolmaster for their children. In yet others
+some benefactor, generally a wealthy local magnate, had given or
+bequeathed an endowment fund, from which a school was either wholly or
+partially financed. At a rather later date Pliny writes a letter, of
+which the following is a passage, interesting in this connection.
+"When I was lately in my native part of the country (that is to say,
+at Como), a boy--the son of a fellow townsman--came to pay his
+respects. I said, 'Are you at school?' 'Yes,' he replied. 'Where?' 'At
+Milan.' 'And why not here?' At this his father said, 'Because we have
+no teachers here.' 'And why have you none? It is of the greatest
+importance to any of you who are fathers--and it happened that several
+fathers were listening--that your children should be taught here
+rather than anywhere else.... How small a thing it is to put money
+together and engage teachers and to apply to their salary the amount
+which you now spend on lodgings, travelling expenses, and the articles
+that have always to be purchased when one is away from home.'"
+Whereupon he proceeds himself to offer to contribute one-third of
+whatever sum the parents collect. He does not believe in giving the
+whole, because experience has taught him that endowments of this kind
+are commonly misused. The parents must themselves retain an interest
+in preventing corruption; and this will be the case so long as they
+are themselves paying their share. In this instance we are, however,
+to think rather of a high school or school of rhetoric than of the
+primary school. Como would not lack a primary school, nor would
+parents send very young children to lodge in Milan. There is no trace
+of real boarding-schools.
+
+To whatever school Publius goes he will be accompanied by a sedate
+slave, generally elderly and also generally a Greek, whom you may call
+his "guardian," or his "governor," or his "mentor," according to your
+fancy. The function of this worthy is to look after the morals and
+behaviour of the boy when in the streets, and also to supervise his
+manners when at home. Publius will not be free of this incubus until
+the day when he puts on the adult's toga; and he must be prepared to
+accept, at least in his younger days, not only scolding, but also
+corporal punishment from him. In poorer families the mother corrected
+her children with a slipper. The "guardian" of Publius is nevertheless
+a slave, and will carry the young master's books and school requisites
+for him, while the sons of poorer parents are marching along, freer
+and happier, with their tablets and writing-case slung over their left
+arm. When, in the New Testament, we are told that the "Law hath been
+our schoolmaster unto Christ," the word employed does not at all mean
+schoolmaster. It means this slave who keeps the pupil under salutary
+discipline until he reaches the schoolmaster, and who superintends his
+conduct until he is of age.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 94.--WRITING MATERIALS.]
+
+School age regularly begins at seven for the elementary stage, which
+commonly includes writing, reading, and arithmetic. The first lessons
+in writing are done upon wax tablets, which correspond to our slate.
+For school purposes they are flat pieces of wood, with a rim, their
+surface being covered with a thin layer of wax. The pupil takes a
+"style," or metal stiletto, pointed at one end and flat at the other;
+with the point he scratches, or "ploughs" as the Romans called it, the
+writing in the wax; with the other end he flattens the wax and so
+makes the necessary erasures when he desires to correct a word or to
+"clean his slate."
+
+His first efforts will probably consist either of tracing letters
+through a stencil, or of forming them from a copy while the master
+guides his hand. He will next write a series of words--the good old
+copybook method with the good old copybook maxims. It is only when he
+has gained some proficiency that he will be allowed to write upon
+paper or parchment with ink and with a split reed for pen. In such a
+case the backs of useless documents come in handy, and particularly
+serviceable are the rolls containing the poems of the numerous authors
+whom no one wants to read, but whose books thus find one of their
+ultimate uses, another being to wrap up spices or salt fish. His
+arithmetic will be merely such as will enable him to make up accounts.
+The Roman numerals did not lend themselves easily to the method now
+adopted of calculating on paper, and the Roman pupil therefore
+reckoned partly with his fingers, partly by means of counters laid or
+strung upon a board. At this he became remarkably proficient, and at
+mental arithmetic there is reason to believe that he could beat the
+modern boy hollow. Along with the reckoning he would also necessarily
+learn his tables of weights and measures. "Two-and-a-half feet one
+step; two steps one pace; a thousand paces one mile." So he said or
+sang, and a mile--_mille_, "a thousand" paces--remains our own word to
+this day, even though it has come to signify an eccentric 1760 yards.
+
+That Roman boys bore no love to school or schoolmaster is little
+wonder. Perhaps Publius may be fortunate; but if his schoolmaster is
+of the ordinary type he will be an irascible loud-voiced person, who
+bawls and scolds and thrashes. It will be a common thing to find, as
+Seneca puts it, a man "in a violent passion teaching you that to be in
+a passion is wrong." The doctrine went that "he who is not flayed is
+not educated." The methods of the military centurion may have had
+something to do with creating this behaviour, but there is perhaps
+another excuse to be found for the Roman pedagogue. His school, if of
+the inferior kind, is like any other shop, a place open to the street,
+whether on the ground floor or in the balcony-like _entresol_. There
+is no cloistered privacy about his instruction. To such a place at a
+very early hour come the boys "creeping unwillingly." When the days
+are short the school opens before daybreak, and the smoky lamps and
+lanterns create an evil smell and atmosphere in the raw and chilly
+morning. That is no time to be amiable towards inattention or
+stupidity. There were many other circumstances to try the temper, and
+the Roman temper, except among the highest classes, was, as it is,
+quick and loud. No real boy who had been a Roman school but knew what
+it was to have ears pinched and to take his punishment on his hands
+with the cane or the tawse. Many had been "horsed," in the way
+depicted in the illustration.
+
+There is also no cause for surprise that boys often shammed illness
+and did little things to their eyes so that mother or father might
+keep them from their books for a while. There were of course academies
+of a better class than these schools open to the street, and probably
+Publius Silius would be taken to one where his "guardian" waits with
+others in an antechamber, while he is himself being taught in a room
+where the walls are pictured with historical or mythological scenes,
+or with charts or maps, and where there stand busts of eminent
+writers. The boys are seated on benches or forms, and the master on a
+high-backed chair. When the pupil is called upon to repeat a lesson,
+he stands up before the teacher; when the whole class is to deliver a
+dictated passage it rises and delivers it all together, in orthodox
+sing-song style.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 95.--HORSING A BOY. (After Sächs.)]
+
+Somewhere towards eleven o'clock there is an interval, and the boys go
+home for lunch or buy something from the seller of rissoles or
+sausages in the street. In the afternoon--when the schoolmaster has
+taken his own luncheon and probably his short siesta--they return to
+school, putting in altogether about six hours of lessons in the day.
+
+That boys and girls went to the same elementary schools is not
+absolutely provable from any explicit statement to that effect; but
+there are one or two passages in literature which point almost
+certainly to that conclusion. It is at least undeniable that girls,
+and even big girls, went to school, and that in those schools they
+were taught by men. One schoolmaster is addressed by the poet as
+"detestable to both boys and girls." We have seen that in maturity the
+Roman woman lived in no sort of seclusion; and it is reasonable to
+suppose that as a girl she was treated in much the same way as girls
+in a mixed school of to-day. Nevertheless it is also almost certain
+that such mixed schools were only those of the common people, or of
+the lower middle classes: the daughters of the better-circumstanced
+would be instructed at home by private tutors. There they would learn
+to read and write both Greek and their native Latin, to play upon the
+lyre or harp, to dance--Roman dancing being more a matter of gesture
+with hands and body than of movement with the feet--and to carry
+themselves with the bearing fit for a Roman lady. To teach the
+household duties was the function of the mother.
+
+At Rome, as with us, there was, first, a primary education, pure and
+simple, given in the schools of those who would nowadays be registered
+as teachers of primary subjects. Next there was what we should call a
+secondary or high-school education, given by a "grammar master," in
+which the education was almost wholly literary. The same school might
+doubtless employ a special arithmetic master, and also a teacher of
+music, but mainly the business of such an establishment was
+theoretically to prepare the boy for a proper and effective use of
+language, whether for social or for public purposes. In the Rome of
+the republic a man of affairs or ambitions required above all things
+to be an accomplished speaker, and this tradition had not weakened
+under the empire. Moreover, for the training of the intellectual
+faculties as such, the Romans had no better resource than grammatical
+and literary study. Science was purely empirical, mathematics was
+mainly arithmetic and mensuration, and there was no room in these
+subjects for that exercise of discernment and acumen as well as of
+taste which was provided by well-directed study of the best authors.
+In the secondary education, therefore, the chief object sought was
+"the knowledge of right expression," and the acquirement of "correct,
+clear, and elegant diction." This was to be achieved by the most
+painstaking study of both the Greek and the Latin poets; and it is
+worth noting that the Romans had the good sense to begin with the
+best. Every boy must know his Homer, and steep himself in the easy
+style and sound sentiments of Menander; he must also know his Virgil
+and his Terence. He must know how to read a passage with proper
+intonation and appreciation of the sense, and he must learn large
+quantities of such poetry by heart. In the early stages the master's
+part is first to read aloud a certain passage what he thinks to be the
+right articulation and expression; he then explains the meaning or the
+allusions, and does whatever else he considers necessary for the
+understanding and appreciation of the piece. It is then the pupil's
+turn to stand up and repeat the passage so as to show that he has
+caught the true sense and can impart the true intonation. No doubt
+there were bad and indifferent teachers as well as good ones, and
+doubtless there was much mere parroting on the part of the learner. It
+was then, as it is now, chiefly a question of the sort of teacher. It
+is probable that in many schools the action of the mental faculty as
+well as of the voice became pure sing-song. Julius Caesar once made
+the comment: "If you are singing, you are singing badly; if you are
+reading, you are singing."
+
+The more advanced stage of this higher education was that of the
+"school of oratory." The pupil has already acquired a correct
+grammatical style, and a reasonable amount of literary information; he
+now trains himself for the actual practice of the law-courts or the
+deliberative assembly. He is to learn how to argue a case; how to
+arrange his matter; by what devices of language to make it most
+effective; and how to deliver it. At a later date there were to be
+public professorships of this art, endowed by the emperor, but there
+are none of these at Rome itself under Nero. The "professor of
+oratory" receives his fee of some £20 or so per annum from each pupil.
+At this stage the study of the great prose-writers is substituted for
+that of the poets; themes are set for essays to be written upon them;
+and those essays will then be delivered as speeches. Sometimes a
+familiar statement or maxim from a poet is put forward to be refuted
+or supported, or for you to argue first against it and then for it. Or
+some historical situation may be proposed, and the student asked to
+set forth the wisest or most just course in the circumstances.
+"Hannibal has beaten the Romans at Cannae: shall he or shall he not
+proceed directly to attack Rome? Examine the question as if you were
+Hannibal." Much of this appears theoretically sound enough.
+Unfortunately the subjects were generally either hopelessly threadbare
+or possessed no bearing upon real life. "We are learning," says
+Seneca, "not for life, but for the school." The only novelty which
+could be given to the treatment of old abstract themes or puerile
+questions was novelty of phrase, and the one great mark of the
+literature of this time is therefore the pursuit of the striking
+expression, of something epigrammatic or glittering. A speech was
+judged by its purple patches of rhetoric, not by the soundness of its
+thoughts. Prizes, apparently of books, were offered in these Roman
+schools, and a prize would go to the youth who could tell you in the
+most remarkable string of brilliant language what was your duty
+towards your country, or what were the evils of anger, or for what
+reasons it is right for a father to disown his son. Meanwhile parents
+would look in at the school from time to time and listen to the boys
+declaiming, and it is easy to see with the mind's eye the father
+listening, like the proud American parent at a "graduation" day, to
+his gifted offspring "speaking a piece."
+
+Education commonly stopped at this point. If the rhetorical training
+is taken early, the boy is now about sixteen; but there was nothing to
+prevent the oratorical course from following instead of preceding the
+"coming of age." In this case we will suppose that it has preceded.
+The youth has now received a good literary training and considerable
+practice in the art of speech-making. He knows enough of elementary
+arithmetic to keep accounts, or, in special cases--where he is
+intended for certain professional careers--he may understand some
+geometry and the principles of mechanics and engineering. He may or
+may not have learned to sing, and enough of music to play creditably
+on lyre or harp. Unlike the young Greek, he will not necessarily have
+been made to recognise that gymnastic training is an essential part of
+education. He may indulge in such exercises by way of pastime or for
+health; he may, and generally will, have been taught athletics; but he
+does not acknowledge that they have any practical bearing upon his
+aptitude for either warfare or civil life.
+
+It is hard to gauge the intellect of the average Roman youth of
+sixteen; all we know is that, while the best of literature, science,
+art, and philosophy was left to be undertaken by Greeks, the Romans
+seized upon whatever learning had an appreciable practical bearing,
+and that, as men capable of administering and directing, they left
+their intellectual and artistic superiors far behind.
+
+Up till this time the boy has worn a toga with a purple edge, and also
+the gold amulet-case round his neck. The time has, however, come for
+him to be regarded as a man--not indeed free of his father's
+authority, but free to walk about without a bear-leader, to marry, if
+his father so desires, or to decide upon a career. Accordingly, on the
+17th of March by preference, he will put away the outward insignia of
+boyhood, dedicate his amulet to the household gods, and will don the
+all-white toga of a man. The relatives, friends, and clients will
+gather at the house, and, after offering their congratulations, will
+escort the youth to the Capitol, and thence down to the Forum, where
+his appearance in this manner will be accompanied by introductions and
+a recognition on all sides that he is now "of age." At the Record
+Office the name of "Publius Silius Bassus, son of Quintus," is
+recorded with due fulness of description, and he ranks henceforth as
+one of the citizens of Rome.
+
+After this little ceremony of coming of age, a number of the young men
+apparently did nothing. The sons of poorer parents have long ago gone
+to their work in their various trades. Those of the more well-to-do
+may--and, if they are afterwards to seek public office, they must--now
+undertake military service amid the conditions which are to be
+described in the next chapter. Others, being of a more studious turn,
+will proceed to complete their education by going abroad to one or
+other of the great seats of philosophic study which corresponded to
+our universities. Philosophy meant to the Roman a guide to the
+direction of life. Roman religion, upon which we shall hereafter dwell
+in some detail, consisted of a number of forms and ceremonies, or acts
+of recognition paid to the deities; it embodied certain traditional
+principles of duty to family and state; but otherwise it exercised
+very little influence on the conduct of life. So far as such guidance
+was supplied at all, it was by moral philosophy, the treatment of
+which, as it was understood at this date, is bound up with that of
+religion and must wait till we reach that subject. It is true that
+there were professional teachers of philosophy at Rome itself, but the
+metropolis was not their chief resort, any more than, until recently,
+London would have been recognised as a seat of university learning of
+the front rank. It is also true that many great houses maintained a
+domestic philosopher, who not only helped in moulding the tone of the
+master of the house and afforded him intellectual company, but might
+act as private philosophic tutor to his son. But for the most part
+this highest instruction was rather to be sought in cities specially
+noted for their assemblage of professors and lecturers. Chief among
+these figured Athens, Rhodes, Tarsus, Antioch, Alexandria, and
+Marseilles. At Naples also might be found a large number of men of
+learning, but they were chiefly persons who had retired from
+professional life, and who chose that city because of its pleasant
+climate and surroundings, and because they could there enjoy each
+other's society. In some of the cities named--particularly Athens and
+Alexandria--there were endowed professorships (though not endowed by
+the Roman emperors) of which the benefit was enjoyed, not only by the
+local student but also by those from other parts of the Roman world
+who chose to resort to such established teachers. This does not mean
+that such students paid no fee, nor that there was any lack of
+lecturers unendowed. The student was free to take his choice. Where
+there was endowment, as at Athens, there was control by the local
+authorities over the behaviour of students and also of their teachers;
+but it is evident that a professor's audience was by no means always a
+very well-ruled or docile body. As in the German universities, the
+visiting students were men, and some of them fairly advanced in years,
+and, also as in Germany, they followed their own tastes in study and
+changed from university to university at will. They, as it were,
+"sampled" the professors and made their own election. The teacher not
+only lectured to them, but also lectured them; while, on their side,
+they were entitled to catechise, and in a sense "badger," the
+lecturer, to propound difficulties, and to make more or less
+pronounced exhibition of their sentiments.
+
+In the philosophic lecture-room the student, possessing his share of
+the vivacity and excitability of the south, would stamp, spring from
+his seat, shout and applaud, calling out in Greek "splendid!"
+"inimitable!" "capital!" "prettily said!" and so forth. Plutarch
+writes a little essay on the proper manner of behaving in the
+lecture-rooms, and he tells us: "You should sit in a proper manner and
+not lounge; you should keep your eyes on the speaker and show a lively
+interest; maintain a composed countenance and show no annoyance or
+irritation, nor look as if you were thinking of other things." Such an
+attitude was the ideal and orthodox; but he tells us also that there
+were some who "scowled; their eyes wandered; they sprawled, crossed
+their legs, nodded and whispered to their neighbour, smiled, yawned
+sleepily, and let their heads droop." This was not necessarily because
+the lecturer was dull, but because he might be giving lessons which
+were unwelcome to some among his audience. The cap fitted them too
+well, as it sometimes does when offered by a modern preacher. But,
+says the same Plutarch, if you did not like these direct and
+rough-tongued monitors, you could find other professors, _poseurs_,
+who were all suavity; gentlemen whose philosophical stock-in-trade was
+grey hair, a pleasant voice and delivery, graceful language, and much
+self-appreciation. These were the Reverend Charles Honeymans of the
+period, and their following was like unto the following of that
+popular pulpiteer.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 96--Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's Pompeii.)]
+
+Since mention has been made more than once of reading and libraries,
+it is well to realise the form commonly taken by books. We must not
+think of the modern bound volume standing on its shelf or open in the
+hand. At our date any books made up in the form of leaves--or what the
+Romans called "tablet" form--consisted only of some four or six pages.
+The regular shape for a book was that of a roll, or, if the work was a
+large one, it might consist of several such "rolls" or "sections." The
+material was either paper--in its original sense of papyrus--or the
+skin known as parchment. Papyrus was naturally the cheaper and the
+less durable. Prepared sheets of a given length and breadth--the
+"pages"--were written upon and then pasted to each other side by side
+until a long stretch was formed. The last sheet was then attached to a
+thin roller, commonly of wood, answering to that used in a modern
+wall-map. Round a roll of any pretensions there was wrapped a cover of
+coloured parchment, red, yellow, or purple. The ends of the roll were
+rubbed smooth with pumice-stone and dyed, and a tag or label was
+affixed to bear the name of the author and the work. A number of such
+rolls, related in subject or authorship, were placed on end in a round
+box, with the labels upwards ready for inspection. In the library such
+a box would stand in a pigeon-hole or section of shelf, from which it
+might be carried where required. Sometimes the rolls themselves lay in
+a heap horizontally in a pigeon-hole without a box, but this
+manifestly a less convenient practice. To keep the bookworms cedar-oil
+was rubbed upon them, giving them a yellowish tinge. The reader,
+taking the body of the roll in one hand, begins to unwind the long
+strip with the other. After reading the first column or page thus
+exposed, he mechanically re-winds that portion, while the width of
+another page is pulled into view. The writing itself was done by means
+of a reed, sharpened and split like a quill-pen, and dipped in ink
+made in various ways, but mostly less "biting" than our own. This made
+it comparatively easy to sponge out what was written, and to use the
+same roll over again--as a "palimpsest"--for some work more desired.
+It is perhaps needless to say that the writing was regularly to be
+found upon one side only. If the back was used, it was for economy,
+for unimportant notes, or as an exercise book for schoolboys.
+We may imagine a fine library copy, or edition de luxe, of Virgil as
+consisting of a number of rolls, each a long strip of the best
+parchment rolled round a staff of ivory with gilded ends. Its "cover"
+is a wrapper of parchment richly dyed and bearing coloured bands of
+leather to serve as fasteners. From the smoothed and dyed end stands
+out a scarlet label, marked "Virgil Aeneid Book I." (or as the case
+may be). When opened, the first page will reveal a painted portrait of
+the poet, and the writing will be found to be in a beautifully clear
+and even calligraphy. Beside the shelf on which the work is placed
+there likely stands a lifelike bust of Virgil in marble in bronze.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+In the older days of Roman history the fighting forces had been a
+"citizen army," called out for so long as it was needed, and levied
+from full and true Roman citizens. In the imperial times with which we
+are here dealing it had become a standing army. Soldiering was a
+profession, for which the men volunteered, and, so far as Roman
+citizens were concerned, it was now seldom, if ever, the case that
+military service required to be made compulsory on their part. It is
+true that a young man of the higher classes who proposed to follow a
+public career, leading to higher and higher offices of state, must
+have gone through some amount of military training, but no other Roman
+was actually obliged to serve. The empire was so vast and the total of
+the standing forces comparatively so small that it was always possible
+to fill up the legions with those who had some motive or inclination
+that way. Theoretically the state possessed a claim upon every
+able-bodied man, but the population of the empire was probably a
+hundred millions, and to collect a total of some 320,000 soldiers,
+made up of Roman or romanized "citizens" and of provincial subjects in
+about equal shares, was a sufficiently easy task, and the recruiters
+could therefore afford to pick and choose. Above all we must clear our
+minds of the notion that the Roman soldiers necessarily came from
+Rome, or even from Italy. They were drawn from the empire at large,
+and a legion posted in Spain, for example, might be recruited from a
+special class of Spaniards.
+
+Roughly speaking, the regular army, extending along the frontiers from
+Chester to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Algeria, was composed of
+two main divisions, called respectively the "legions" and the
+"auxiliaries." Other special or detached forces--such as the twelve
+regiments of Imperial Guards and the six of the City Guard--came under
+neither of these headings, and we may leave them out of the question
+for the present.
+
+A legion was a brigade of about 6000 infantry, with 120 horsemen
+attached to it. It was recruited from any convenient part of the
+empire, but only from men already enjoying the rights of Roman
+citizens, or else from those other provincials who were considered
+sufficiently homogeneous with the Roman civilisation to stand shoulder
+to shoulder with such citizens. In being permitted to serve on these
+terms a man regularly becomes _ipso facto_ a citizen. The
+qualifications required were that you should be free-born--that is to
+say, neither slave nor ex-slave--your physique must be good, and your
+height about 5 feet 10 inches: there must be nothing serious against
+your record or character as viewed from the Roman standpoint; and, if
+you were not already a citizen, you must belong to one of those
+organised communes which were the units of administration and of
+taxation within the empire. You undertake to serve for twenty years,
+after which time you will receive an honourable discharge and either a
+sum of money--at this date apparently about £50--or a grant of land.
+By ability and character you may rise from private soldier to
+centurion, that is to say, commander of a hundred, but in ordinary
+circumstances you can climb no further up the military ladder. If at
+the end of your term you are still robust and are considered useful,
+you may, if you choose, continue to serve in a special detachment of
+"veterans," with lighter duties and with exemption from common drill.
+The Roman legions would thus be made up for the most part of troops
+from about 18 to 38 years of age, although a considerable number might
+be somewhat older.
+
+A legion once formed had a perpetual existence; its vacancies were
+filled up as they occurred; and it is obvious that it must have
+consisted of respectable men of picked physique, mostly in the prime
+of life, and perfectly trained in all the qualities of a soldier. When
+not on actual campaign they were drilled once a day, and the recruits
+twice. They practised the hurling of spears and all the attitudes of
+attack with sword and pike, and of defence with the shield. Now and
+then there was a review or a sham fight. They learned how to fortify a
+camp, how to attack it or to defend it. Every month they put on full
+armour, marched out with steady Roman tramp for ten miles and back
+again to camp for the sake of practice. Meanwhile they were made
+useful in building the military roads, bridges, and walls. Add to this
+the strict Roman discipline, and it is difficult to conceive of any
+training more capable of turning a body of 6000 men into a stubborn
+and effective fighting machine. The half-naked German across the Rhine
+was physically as strong and as brave; the woad-dyed Celt of Britain
+was probably more dashing in his onset; the mounted Parthian across
+the Euphrates was more nimble in his movements; but neither German nor
+Celt cultivated the organisation or solidarity of action of the Roman,
+nor could the Parthian equal him for steady onward pressure or
+determined stand.
+
+To each legion was given a number and also a name of its own, acquired
+by some distinguished feat or some conspicuous campaign, or adopted in
+vaunt or compliment. Thus it might be the "Victorious" Legion, the
+"Indomitable," or the "Spanish" Legion, or it might, for example, wear
+a crested lark upon its helmet and be called the Legion of the "Lark."
+The commander of the whole legion is a man of senatorial rank; its
+standard is a silver eagle on the top of a staff, commonly holding a
+thunderbolt in its claw. To each legion there are ten regiments,
+called "cohorts," averaging six hundred men, and every such regiment
+has its colonel, or, as the translation of the Bible calls Claudius
+Lysias, "its chief captain." The regiment in its turn consists of six
+companies or "hundreds," with a "centurion" at the head of each, and
+every pair of hundreds, if not every company, possesses a standard of
+its own, consisting of a pole topped with large medallions, metal
+disks, wreaths, an open hand, and other emblems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 97.--ROMAN STANDARDS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--Armed Soldier.]
+
+
+Let us imagine a certain Scius to become a private soldier in a
+legion. He was born in Gaul, in the district of Lugdunum or Lyons, and
+he is either a full Roman or sufficiently romanized to rank with
+Romans. He is drafted to the Twentieth Legion, otherwise known as the
+"Victorious Valerian," and finds himself stationed in the island of
+Britain at that farthest camp of the north-west which has since grown
+into the city of Chester. On joining his company he is made to take a
+solemn oath that he will loyally obey all orders of his
+commander-in-chief, the emperor, as represented by that emperor's
+subordinates, his immediate officers. That oath he will repeat on each
+1st of January and on the anniversary of the emperor's accession. For
+full military dress he will first put on a tunic reaching nearly to
+his knees, and, since he is serving in the northern cold, a pair of
+fustian breeches covering the upper leg. On his feet will be a pair of
+strong sandals, of which the thick soles are studded with hobnails.
+Over his breast, and with flaps over the shoulders, he will wear a
+corslet Of leather covered with hoop-like layers, or maybe scales, of
+iron or bronze. On his head will be a plain pot-like helmet or
+skull-cap of iron. For the rest he will possess also a thick cloak or
+plaid to be used as occasion needs. In his right hand he will carry
+the famous Roman pike. This is a stout weapon, over 6 feet in length,
+consisting of a sharp iron head fixed in a wooden shaft, and the
+soldier may either charge with it as with a bayonet, or he may hurl it
+like a javelin and then fight at close quarters with his sword. On the
+left arm is a large shield, which may be of various shapes. One common
+form is curved inward at the sides like a portion of a cylinder some 4
+feet in length by 2½ in width: another is six-sided--a diamond
+pattern, but with the points of the diamond squared away. Sometimes it
+is oval. In construction it is of wicker-work or wood, covered with
+leather, and embossed a blazon in metal-work, one particularly well
+known being that of a thunderbolt. The shield is not only carried by
+means of a handle, but may be supported by a belt over the right
+shoulder. In order to be out of the way of the shield, the sword--a
+thrusting rather than a slashing weapon, approaching 3 feet in
+length--is hung at the right side by a belt passing over the left
+shoulder. Though this arrangement may seem awkward to us, it is to be
+remembered that the sword is not required until the right hand is free
+of the pike, and that then, before drawing, the weapon can easily be
+swung round to the left by means of the suspending belt. On the left
+side the soldier wears a dagger at his girdle. The writer of the
+Epistle to the Ephesians is thinking of all this equipment when he
+bids the Christian put on "the whole armour of God," including the
+"belt of truth," the "breast-plate of righteousness," the "shield of
+faith," the "helmet of salvation" and the "sword of the spirit." The
+officer, of course, wears armour, cloak, and helmet of a more
+ornamental kind, and must have presented a very martial and imposing
+figure.
+
+[Illustration: FIG.99--A Roman General.]
+
+Our friend Scius goes through the drill, the exercises, and the hard
+work already mentioned. His pay will be somewhere about £8 a year, or
+a little over three shillings a week, and his food will consist mainly
+of wheaten porridge and bread, with salt, and a drink of thin sour
+wine little better than vinegar. His wheat--the price of which is
+deducted from his pay--is measured out to him every month, and it is
+his own business to grind it or get it ground and converted into
+bread. Vegetables he will procure as he likes or can; but meat, except
+a limited amount of bacon, he will commonly neither get nor very much
+desire. On one occasion indeed we find the soldiers complaining that
+they were being fed altogether too much upon meat. It deserves to be
+remarked that the results speak well for the wholesomeness of this
+simple diet of the legionary. For his quarters he will be one of ten
+sharing the same tent under the supervision of a kind of corporal.
+There are no married quarters. Not only are women not permitted in the
+camp, but the soldier cannot legally marry during his term of service.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 100.--CENTURION.]
+
+Scius will meet with no gentle treatment while in his pupilage. The
+grim centurion, or commander of his company, is a man of iron, who has
+risen from the ranks; his methods are sharp and summary, and he
+carries a tough switch of vine-wood, with which he promptly belabours
+the idle or the stupid. Any neglect of duty or act of disobedience is
+inevitably Punished, sometimes by hard labour in digging trenches,
+sometimes by a fine, sometimes by stripping the soldier of his armour
+and making him stand for hours in civilian attire as a butt for
+ridicule in the middle of the camp, sometimes by a lowering of his
+rank corresponding to the modern taking away of a "man's stripes." If
+a soldier proves a hopeless case he is expelled with ignominy from the
+camp and army. If he deserts or plays the traitor he may either be
+decapitated or beaten to death with cudgels. If a whole company or
+regiment gets into disgrace, it may have to put up with barley
+instead of wheat for its rations, and if it is guilty of gross
+insubordination, or of some crime which cannot be sheeted home to the
+individual, it may be "decimated," or, in other words, every tenth
+man, drawn by lot, may be condemned to death. The last, of course, is
+an extreme measure, and is only mentioned here as belonging to extreme
+cases.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 101.--STANDARD BEARER.]
+
+On the other hand, if Scius is a smart soldier he will gradually gain
+recognition as such. He may become the head man in his mess of ten; or
+be made an orderly, to carry the watchword round to the messes; or he
+may be chosen by the centurion as his subaltern. As he gains maturity
+and steadiness, and wins confidence, he may be elected to bear the of
+his company, in which case a bear's skin will be thrown over his
+shoulders, and the top of his helmet will be concealed beneath the
+head of that beast, worn as a hood. Being a saving man, and taking a
+pride in himself, he will gradually decorate his sword-belt and
+girdle, and perhaps his scabbard, with silver knobs and ornaments.
+Also behaving well in the victorious brushes with the Britons, he will
+acquire, besides occasional loot and booty-money, a number of metal
+medallions or disks, to be strung across his breast somewhat after the
+manner of the modern war-medals. Gradually, as he becomes a veteran,
+he may rise to be centurion, when he will wear a crest upon his helmet
+and greaves upon his shins, have his corslet of scale-armour covered
+with medallions, and will himself carry the vine-rod of authority. If
+he should ever succeed in becoming, not merely the centurion of his
+company, but the first or senior of all the sixty centurions belonging
+to the whole legion, he will rank practically as a commissioned
+officer, will retire on a competence if he does retire, and will in
+all probability be made a knight. In that case he may proceed to
+higher commands, as if he had been born in that order to which he has
+at last attained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 102.--BAGGAGE-TRAIN.]
+
+But all this promotion is yet a long way off. One morning, while Scius
+is still a private, he hears, not the "taratantara" of the long
+straight trumpet which calls to ordinary work, but the sound of the
+military horn, which means that the legion is to march. He helps to
+pack up the tent, the hand-mills, and other indispensable needments,
+and to place them on the mules, packhorses, or waggons. He then puts
+on his full armour, although, if it is hot, and if there is no
+immediate danger, he may sling his helmet over his shoulder, while his
+shield, marked with his name and company, may perhaps be stacked with
+others in a baggage-waggon. His food-supply for sixteen days--the
+Roman fortnight--is wrapped in a parcel, and this, together with his
+eating and drinking vessels and any other articles such as would
+appertain to a modern knapsack, is carried over his shoulder on a
+forked stick. It is known that to-night the army will be obliged to
+camp on the way, and it is a binding rule of the service that no camp
+arrangements shall be left to chance. Surveyors will ride on ahead
+with a body of cavalry, and will choose a suitable position easily
+defended and with water near. They will then outline the boundaries
+according to a certain scale, and will parcel out the interior,
+according to an almost invariable system, into blocks or sections to
+accommodate certain units. When the legion arrives, it marches in with
+a perfect understanding as to where each company of men and each part
+of the baggage-train is to quarter itself. Being in an enemy's country
+it is not enough simply to post sentries. A trench must be dug and a
+palisade erected round the camp, and for that purpose every soldier on
+the march has carried a couple of sharpened stakes and a sort of small
+pickaxe. It may therefore be readily understood that Scius is heavily
+laden. Besides the weight of his body-armour and his shield, pike, and
+sword, his orthodox burden is about forty-five English pounds.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 103.--SOLDIERS WITH PACKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 104--ROMAN SOLDIERS MARCHING. (Scheiber.)]
+
+Before entering upon this description of service and armour of the
+legionary troops, it was stated that the legions made up but one-half
+of Roman army, the other half consisting of what were known as
+"auxiliaries." If there were in the whole Roman empire 150,000
+soldiers of the kind described there were also about 150,000 of a
+different type. Just as it is a natural part of the British policy to
+raise bodies of Indian or African troops from among the non-British
+subjects of the empire, so it was an obvious course for the Romans to
+raise native troops in Africa, Syria, Spain, Gaul, Britain, or the
+German provinces on the western bank of the Rhine. And just as the
+British bring their non-British regiments into connection with the
+regular army, and put them under the command of British officers, so
+the Romans associated their "auxiliary" soldiery, mostly under Roman
+officers, with the regular force of the legions. To every legion of
+6000 men there was attached, under the same general of division, a
+force of about 6000 men of non-Roman standing. The subject people of a
+province was called upon to recruit a certain quota of such troops,
+and, when so recruited, the soldiers of this class were required to
+serve for twenty-five years. At the expiration of their term they
+became Roman citizens, and their descendants ranked as such in the
+enjoyment of Roman opportunities. Such forces were not themselves
+formed into "legions" under an "eagle"; they served in separate
+regiments. Some of them were infantry almost indistinguishable from
+the Roman; others were armed in a different manner as to shield,
+spear, and sword; others were light skirmishing troops using their
+native weapons, such as javelins, slings, and bows. A very large
+proportion were cavalry, and whereas a legion possessed only 120 Roman
+horsemen, the auxiliary cavalry attached to it would number one or
+more regiments of dither 1000 or 500 men each. But it was also part of
+the Roman policy to employ such auxiliary troops, not in the region in
+which they were raised and among their own people, but elsewhere, and
+sometimes even at the opposite extremity of the empire. Thus in
+Britain might be found, not only Germans and Batavians, but Spaniards
+or Syrians, while in Syria there might be quartered Africans or
+Germans, and in Africa troops from the modern Austria. We cannot call
+this custom an invariable one, but it was usual, and obviously it was
+politic.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 105.--Imperial Guards.]
+
+To these two co-operating forces--legions and auxiliaries--we must add
+the Imperial Guards, twelve regiments of 1000 men each, quartered in
+Italy, and generally congregated in a special camp just outside the
+gate at the top of the Quirinal and Viminal Hills beyond the modern
+railway station. Like other Guards, these were a picked body,
+containing many volunteers from Italy itself, while others came from
+the most romanized parts of Gaul or elsewhere. They enjoyed many
+privileges, wore a more gorgeous armour, served only sixteen years and
+received double pay. Frequently it came to be the case that this
+particular body of troops was the one which made and unmade emperors,
+chiefly under the influence of pecuniary promises or largess. Besides
+these, 6000 City Guards were in barracks inside the metropolis for the
+protection of the town; 7000 _gendarmerie_, already mentioned, served
+as night-watch and fire-brigade, but perhaps scarcely rank as
+soldiers. Here and there in the empire there also existed separate
+volunteer detachments of various dimensions serving on special duty,
+and it was to one of these that belonged the Cornelius of the Acts of
+the Apostles, who is there described as a centurion of the "Italian
+band."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 106.--BESIEGERS WITH THE "TORTOISE."]
+
+It would carry us too far afield if we entered into detailed
+descriptions of Roman warfare--of Roman marches, Roman camps, and
+fortifications, Roman sieges, and military engines. Otherwise it would
+be highly interesting to watch the attack made upon an enemy's wall or
+gate by a band of men pushing in front of them a wicker screen covered
+with hide, or holding their shields locked together above their heads,
+so as to form a roof to shelter them from the spears, stones,
+firebrands, and pots of flame which rained down from the walls.
+
+[Illustration: FIG 107.--ROMAN ARTILLERY.]
+
+Or we might see moving up on wheels a shed, from the open front of
+which protrudes the great iron head of a ram affixed to a huge beam.
+If you were under the shed, you would see that the beam was perhaps as
+much as 60 feet in length, and that it was suspended on chains or
+ropes by which it could be swung, so that the head butted with a
+deadly insistence upon the masonry of the wall. Meanwhile the enemy
+from the ramparts are doing their best to set the shed on fire, to
+break off the ram's head with heavy stones, to pull it upwards by a
+noose, or to deaden the effect of the shock by lowering stuffed sacks
+or other buffer material between it and the wall. At another point, in
+place of the shed, there is rolled forward a lofty construction like a
+tower built in several stories. When this approaches the wall it will
+overtop it, and a drawbridge with grappling irons may be dropped upon
+the parapet. Elsewhere there is mining and countermining. From a safer
+distance the artillery of the time is hurling its formidable missiles.
+There is the "catapult," which shoots a giant arrow, sometimes tipped
+with material on fire, from a groove or half-tube to a distance of a
+quarter of a mile. The propelling force, in default of gunpowder or
+other explosive, is the recoil of strings of gut or hair which have
+been tightened by a windlass. There is also the heavier "hurler,"
+which works in much the same manner, but which, instead of arrows,
+throws stones and beams of from 14 pounds to half a hundredweight,
+doing effective damage up to a distance of some 400 yards.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 108.--AUXILIARY CAVALRYMAN.]
+
+Scius joins his legion as a private infantry soldier. He is in the
+"hobnailed" service. But if our young noble, Publius Silius Bassus,
+enters upon a military career, he will probably become one of the 120
+Roman horsemen attached to the legion, and will be serving as a
+"knight" or "gentleman," with servants to relieve him of his rougher
+work. The cavalrymen among whom he serves do not ride upon a saddle
+with stirrups, but on a mere saddlecloth. On their left arm is a round
+shield or buckler; they carry a spear of extreme reach, wear a longer
+sword than the infantrymen, and on their back is a quiver containing
+three broad-pointed javelins, very similar to assegais, which serve
+them as missiles. If by good service they obtain medallions like the
+infantry, they will fasten them to the bridles and breast-straps of
+their horses, and altogether will make a fine and jingling show.
+Through the influence of his family, Publius will most likely be taken
+under the personal supervision of the general in command, will
+frequently mess with him, and will perhaps act as a kind of honorary
+aide-de-camp. After a sufficient initiation into military business, he
+will be appointed what may be called colonel of an infantry regiment
+of auxiliaries, then colonel of a regiment of the legion, and
+subsequently, if he is following the profession, colonel of a regiment
+of the auxiliary cavalry. He does not at any time pass through the
+rank of centurion, any more than the British officer passes through
+that of sergeant-major. The class distinction is at least as great in
+the case of the Romans.
+
+When the young noble has completed this series of services--although
+the whole of it is not absolutely necessary, and it will be sufficient
+if he has been six months titular colonel of a regiment of the
+legion--he may perhaps return to Rome, and at the age of twenty-five
+may enter upon his first public position, and so become himself a
+senator. His duties may be connected with the Treasury at Rome itself,
+or more probably he will accompany a proconsul who is on his way to
+govern a province for a year--perhaps Andalusia, or Macedonia, or
+Bithynia. To his chief he stands for that year in a kind of filial
+relation. His main business will be to supervise the financial
+affairs, to act as paymaster, and to keep the accounts of the
+province, but he will also, when required, administer justice in place
+of the governor. In this capacity he learns the methods of provincial
+government in readiness for the time when he himself may be made a
+governor, whether by the senate or by the emperor. His next step
+upward will be to the post of aedile, one of the officials who control
+the streets, public buildings, markets, and police of Rome. By the age
+of thirty he may arrive at the second highest step on the official
+ladder, in a position which qualifies him to preside over a court of
+law. Or it may bring with it no greater function than that of
+presiding over "games" in the circus or amphitheatre, and of spending
+a liberal sum of money of his own upon making them both magnificent
+and novel. After this he may receive from the emperor the
+command of a brigade--the 12,000 men composed of a legion and its
+auxiliaries--perhaps at Cologne or Mainz, perhaps at Caerleon-on-Usk,
+perhaps near Antioch. In this position his movements are subject to
+the authority of the governor of the province, who is the "lieutenant"
+or "deputy" of His Highness in the larger capacity, while he himself
+is but a "lieutenant" of Caesar as commanding one of his legions.
+
+He may now himself be appointed governor to a province, but hardly yet
+to those which are the "plums" of the empire. There is still one
+highest post for him to fill. This is the consulship. Under the
+republic the two consuls had been the highest executive officers of
+the state, and the year was dated by their names. Nominally they were
+still in the same position, and the sane emperors made a point of
+treating them with all outward respect. They took precedence of all
+but "His Highness the Head of the State." But whereas under the
+republic there had been but two consuls holding joint office for the
+year, under the emperors the post had become to such a degree
+complimentary, and there were so many nobles who desired the honour or
+to whom the emperor was minded to grant it, that it became the custom
+to hold the position only for two months, so that twelve persons in
+each year might boast of being ex-consuls or having "passed the
+consul's chair."
+
+Publius Silius, we may suppose, passes up each step of the ladder, or
+what was called the "career of honours," and becomes senatorial
+governor of no less important a province than "Asia"--that nearer
+portion of Asia Minor which contained flourishing cities like Smyrna,
+Ephesus, and Rhodes. In that office, as in any other which he may
+hold, it behoves him to comport himself with caution and modesty. If
+he is a man of unusual influence or popularity he will do well to keep
+the fact concealed. There must be nothing in his demeanour or his
+speech to lay him open to a charge of becoming dangerous to the
+emperor. That emperor is Nero; and even stronger and saner emperors
+than Nero watched suspiciously the behaviour of aspiring men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+To undertake to set forth with any definiteness the "religious ideas
+of a Roman" of A.D. 64 would be an extremely difficult task. Those
+ideas would differ with the individual, being determined or varied by
+a number of considerations and influences--by locality, education, and
+temperament. Silius would not hold the views of Scius and probably not
+those of Marcia. We may speak of the "State religion" of Rome, as
+distinct from various other religions tolerated and practised in
+different parts of the empire, but it is scarcely possible to define
+the contents of that "State religion." There were certain special
+priests and priestly bodies who saw to it that certain rites and
+ceremonies should be perfortied scrupulously in a prescribed manner
+and on prescribed dates; but these were officers of the state, whose
+knowledge and functions were confined to the ritual observances with
+which they had to deal. They were not persons trained in a system of
+theology, nor were they preachers of a code of doctrines or morals;
+they had no "cure of souls," and belonged to no church; they had no
+_credo_ and no Bible or corresponding authority to which to refer.
+Though most well-informed persons could have told the names of the
+prominent deities in the calendar--such as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and
+Ceres--perhaps scarcely any one but an encyclopaedist or antiquarian
+could have named one-half of the total. It is not merely that the
+deities on the list were so numerous. There were other reasons for
+ignorance or vagueness. In the first place, the line between the
+operations of one deity and those of another was often too fine to
+draw, and deities originally more or less distinct came to be confused
+or identified. Secondly, it was often hard, if not impossible, to make
+up one's mind whether a so-called deity--such as Virtue, Peace, or
+Health--was supposed to have a real existence, or whether it was
+simply the personification of an abstract quality. Thirdly, many of
+the ancient divinities had fallen out of fashion, and to a large
+extent out of memory, while many new ones--Isis and Serapis for
+example--had come, or were coming, into vogue.
+
+The state possessed its old-established calendar of days sacred to a
+number of deities, and its code of ritual to be performed in their
+honour. There were ancient prescriptions as to what certain priests
+should wear, what they should do or avoid in their priestly character,
+what victims--ox, sheep, or pig--they should sacrifice, what
+instruments they should use for the purpose, and in what formula of
+words they should pray in particular connections. There was a standing
+commission, with the Pontifex Maximus--at this date that excellent
+religious authority, the emperor Nero--at its head, to safeguard the
+state religion, to see that its requirements were carried out, and
+that no one ventured to commit an outrage towards it. But the state
+could not have told you with any precision that you must believe in
+just so many deities and no others; it could not have told you
+precisely what notions to entertain concerning those deities whom it
+did officially recognise; it dictated no theological doctrines;
+neither did it dictate any moral doctrines beyond those which you
+would find in the secular law. It reserved the right to prevent the
+introduction of foreign or new divinities if it found sufficient
+cause; but so long as the temples, the rites and ceremonies, the
+cardinal moral axioms of the Roman "religion," and the basic
+principles of Roman society were respected, the state practised no
+sort of inquisition into your beliefs or non-beliefs, and in no way
+interfered with your particular selection of favourite deities.
+
+Polytheism in an advanced community is always tolerant, because it is
+necessarily always indefinite. What it does not readily endure is an
+organised attack upon the entire system, whether openly avowed or
+manifestly implied. Even undisguised unbelief in any deity at all it
+is often willing to tolerate, so long as the unbelief is rather a
+matter of dialectics than anything else, and makes no attempt at a
+crusade. When a state so disposed is found to interfere with a novel
+religion, it will generally be easy to perceive that the jealousy is
+not on behalf of the deities nor of a creed, but on behalf of the
+community in its political, economic, or social aspect. This, however,
+is perhaps to anticipate. Let us endeavour to realise as best we can
+the religious situation among the Roman or romanized portion of the
+population.
+
+Though we are not here directly concerned with the steps by which the
+Roman religion had come to be what it was, we can scarcely hope to
+understand the position without some comprehension of that
+development. The Romans were a conservative people, and many of the
+peculiarities of their worship were due to the retention of old forms
+which had lost such spirit as they once possessed.
+
+In the infant days of the nation there had been no such things as gods
+in human shape, or in recognisable shape at all. There were only
+"powers" or "influences" superior to mankind, by whose aid or
+concurrence man must work out his existence. The early Romans and such
+Italian tribes as they became blended with were, as they still are,
+extremely superstitious. In a pre-scientific age they, like other
+peoples, were at a loss to understand what produced thunder and
+lightning, rain, the fertility or failure of crops, the changes of the
+seasons, the flow or cessation of springs and streams, the
+intoxication or exhilaration proceeding from wine, and a multitude of
+other phenomena. Fire was a perplexing thing; so was wind: the woods
+were full of mysterious sounds and movements. They could comprehend
+neither birth nor death, nor the fructification of plants. The
+consequence was a feeling that these things were due to unseen
+agencies; and the attempt was made to bring those powers into some
+sort of relation with mankind, either by the compulsion of magical
+operations and magical formulae, or by sacrifices and offerings of
+propitiation, or by promises. A superhuman power might be placed under
+a spell, or placated with food and drink, or persuaded by a vow. Such
+"powers" were exceedingly numerous. Greatest of all, and recognised
+equally by all, was the power working in the sky with the thunder and
+the rain. Its presence was everywhere alike, and its operations most
+palpable at every season. Countless others were concerned with
+particular localities or with particular functions. Every wood, if not
+every tree, and also every fountain, was controlled by some such
+higher "power"; every manifestation or operation of nature came from
+such an "influence." There was no kind of action or undertaking, no
+new stage of life or change of condition, which did not depend for
+help or hindrance upon a similar power. At first the "powers" bore no
+distinctive names, and were conceived in no definite shapes. They were
+not yet gods. The human being who sought to work upon them to favour
+him could only do, say, and offer such things as he thought likely to
+move them. But in process of time it became inevitable that these
+superhuman agencies should be referred to under some sort of title,
+and the title literally expressed the conception. Hence a multitude of
+names. Not only was there the ever-prominent Jupiter or "sky-father";
+there a veritable multitude of powers with provinces great and small.
+Among the larger conceptions the power concerned with the sowing of
+seed was Saturn that with the growth of crops was Ceres, that with the
+blazing of fire was Vesta. Among the smaller the power which taught a
+babe to eat was Edulia that which attended the bringing home of a
+bride was Domiduca. The ability to speak or to walk was supposed to be
+imparted by separate agencies named accordingly. Flowers depended on
+Flora and fruits on Pomona.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 109.--JUPITER.]
+
+But to assign a name is a great step towards creating a "power" into a
+"god," and such agencies began to take shape in the mind of those who
+named them. This was the second stage. Jupiter, Ceres, Saturn, and
+almost all the rest became "gods." The powers in the woodlands--a
+Silvanus or Faunus--became embodied, like the more modern gnomes and
+kobbolds. Once imagine a shape, and the tendency is to give it visible
+form in an image "like unto man," and to honour it with an abode--a
+temple or shrine. The earliest Romans known to us erected no images or
+temples, but they were not long in creating them. Particularly rapid
+was the reducing of a god to human form when they came into close
+contact with the Etruscans and the Greeks. For all the important
+deities poetry and art combined to evolve an appropriate bodily form,
+which gradually became conventional, so that the ordinary notion of a
+Jupiter, a Juno, a Mercury, or a Ceres was approximately that which
+had been gathered from the statue thus developed. This trouble was not
+taken with all the most ancient divinities. Many of the old rural and
+local deities, and many of those with quite minor provinces, were left
+vague and unrealised. They were represented in no temples and by no
+statues. Naturally as the Roman state grew from a set of neighbouring
+farms into a great city, and from a small settlement into a vast
+empire, the little local gods fell into the background. The deities
+which concerned the state, and to which it erected temples, were those
+with the more far-reaching operations--such as the gods identified
+with the sky and its thunders, with war, with fertility, with the sea,
+with the hearth-fire of all Rome. The rest might well be left to
+localities or to domestic worship.
+
+From the early days of Rome there existed a calendar for festivals to
+certain divinities important to the little growing town, and a code of
+ceremonies to be performed in their honour, and of formulae of prayer
+to be offered to them. The later Romans, in their characteristic
+conservatism, adhered to those festivals, to that ritual, and to those
+formulae, even when some of the deities had ceased to be of
+appreciable account, and when neither the meaning of the ritual nor
+the sense of the old words was any longer understood by the very
+priests who used them.
+
+Reflect a moment on this situation. First, we have a number of deities
+of the first rank, housed in temples, embodied in statues, and
+recognised in all the Roman world; next a number of minor divinities
+whose operations and worship may be remotely rural or otherwise local,
+and whose functions are by no means always distinguishable from those
+of the greater gods; then a series of more or less unintelligible
+ceremonials carried out by ancient rule in honour of divinities often
+practically forgotten; outside these a number of vague powers
+presiding over small domestic and other actions; finally, a peculiar
+Roman tendency--in keeping with the last--to erect into divinities,
+and to symbolise in statue housed in temples, all manner of abstract
+qualities and states, such as Hope, Harmony, Peace, Wealth, Health,
+Fame, and Youth.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 110.--A SACRIFICE.]
+
+Reflect again that, when the Romans, as they spread, came into contact
+with Greeks, Egyptians, or other foreigners, they met with deities
+whose provinces were necessarily often identical with or closely akin
+to their own. Then remember that there is no church and no official
+document to define the complete list of Roman gods. Does it not
+follow, as a matter of course, on the one hand, that the importation
+of new gods was an easy matter, and on the other, that no individual
+Roman could draw the line as to the number of even the old-established
+deities in whom he should or should not believe?
+
+The guardians of the public religion were satisfied if the due rites
+were paid by the state to those deities, on those dates, and precisely
+in that manner, which happened to be prescribed in the official
+religious books. For the rest they left matters to the individual.
+
+So much it has been necessary to say in order to account for existing
+attitudes. We must use the plural, since the attitude of the state
+officials is but one of several, and, inasmuch as the state officials
+themselves were not a theological caste but only secular servants of
+the community administering the regulations for external worship as
+laid down in the records, it often happened that their official
+attitude had nothing to do with their individual beliefs. Often they
+did not know or care whether there was a real religious efficacy in
+the acts which they performed; sometimes all that they knew was that
+they were doing what the state required to be done properly by some
+one.
+
+Cicero quotes a dictum of a Pontifex Maximus that there was one
+religion of the poet, another of the philosopher, and another of the
+statesman. This is true, but it is hardly adequate. We must at least
+add that of the common people. A well-known statement of more modern
+birth puts the case--rather too strongly--that at our period all
+religions were regarded by the people as equally true, by the
+philosopher as equally false and by the statesman as equally useful.
+We may begin with the ordinary people of whatever station, who were
+not poets nor thinkers nor magistrates. It is an error to suppose that
+such Romans of the first century were either atheistic or indifferent
+to religion. Their fault was rather that they were too superstitious,
+ready to believe too much rather than too little, but to believe
+without relating their belief to conduct. They did not question the
+existence of the traditional gods, nor the characters attributed to
+them; they were ready to perform their dues of worship and to make
+their due offerings, but all this had no bearing upon their own
+morality. They believed with the terror of the superstitious in omens
+and portents, and in rites of expiation and purification to avert the
+threatened evil. They were alarmed by thunder and lightning,
+earthquakes, bad dreams, ravens seen on the wrong side of the road,
+and other evil tokens. They commonly accepted the existence of malign
+spirits, including ghosts. They were prepared to believe that on
+occasion a statue had bled or turned round on its base; that an ox had
+spoken in human language; or that there had been a rain of blood.
+There were doubtless exceptions, and superstition was less dire and
+oppressive than once it was. More than fifty years before our date
+Cicero had said that even old women no longer shuddered at the terrors
+of an underworld, and fifty years after it the satirist asserts the
+same of children. But both writers are speaking somewhat
+hyperbolically. Doubtless it had been wondered how two augurs could
+look at each other without a smile, but there is nothing to show that
+even a minority of augurs were acutely conscious of anything to smile
+at.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 111.--ISIS WORSHIP. (Wall-Painting.)]
+
+In the multiplicity of deities the ordinary people were prepared to
+accept as many more as you chose to offer them, especially if the
+worship attaching to them contained mystic or orgiastic ceremonies. By
+this date the populace had become exceedingly mixed, especially in the
+capital, and the cool hard-headed Roman stock had been largely
+replaced or leavened by foreign elements, especially from the East.
+The official worship of the state was formal and frigid; it offered
+nothing to the emotions or the hopes. Many among the people felt an
+instinct for something more sacramental, and especially attractive was
+any form of worship which promised a continued existence, and probably
+a happier existence, after death. Even the mere mysteriousness of a
+form of worship had its allurements. Hence a tendency to Judaism,
+still more to the Egyptian worship of Isis and Osiris. The latter made
+many proselytes, particularly among the women, and contained ideas
+which are by no means ignoble but to our modern minds far more truly
+"religious" than anything to be found in the native Roman cults. To
+pass through purification, to practise asceticism, to feel that there
+was a life beyond the grave apportioned to your deserts, to go through
+an impressive form of worship held every day, and to have the emotions
+thus worked upon--all this supplied something to the moral nature
+which was lacking in the chill sacrifices and prayers to Jupiter and
+the other national divinities. In vain had the authorities, in their
+doubt as to the moral effects, tried on several occasions to suppress
+this foreign worship; it always revived, and it now held its
+established place both in the imperial city and in the provinces,
+particularly near the sea, for it was especially a sailors' religion.
+Rome, like Pompeii, had its temple of Isis and her daily celebrations.
+There was, however, no necessary conflict between this worship and the
+official religion. It was quite possible to accept Isis while
+accepting Jupiter. Nor, though this particular cult has required
+mention, must it be taken as belonging to more than a section of the
+Roman population. Most Romans would look upon it and other deviations
+with acquiescence, some with contempt, and perhaps some with a shake
+of the head, while themselves satisfied with an indifferent conformity
+to the more established customs of the state.
+
+Setting aside the devotees of the mystic, the more ordinary point of
+view was that between Romans and the established gods of Rome there is
+an understanding. The gods will support Rome so long as Rome pays to
+them their dues of formal recognition. Their ritual must not be
+neglected by the authorities; it is not necessary for an individual
+member of the community to concern himself further in the matter. The
+state, through its appointed ministers, will make the necessary
+sacrifices and say the necessary words; the citizen need not put in an
+appearance or take any part. He will not do or say anything
+disrespectful towards the deities in question, and he will enjoy the
+festivals belonging to them. If remarkable portents and disasters
+occur, he will agree that there is something wrong in the behaviour of
+the state, and that there must be some public purification or other
+placation of the gods. If the state orders such a proceeding, he will
+perform whatever may be his share in it. So far he is loyal to the
+"religion of the state."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 112.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE. (Pompeii.)]
+
+In his private capacity he has his own wants, fears, and hopes. He
+therefore betakes himself to whatever divinity he considers most
+likely to help him; he makes his own prayers and vows an offering if
+his request is granted. Reduced to plain commercial language his
+ordinary attitude is--no success, no payment. A cardinal difference
+between the religion of the Romans and our own is to be seen in the
+nature of their prayers. They always ask for some definite
+advantage--prosperity, safety, health, or the like. They never pray
+for a clean heart or for some moral improvement. Of more importance
+than the man's moral condition will be his scrupulous observance of
+the right external practices. Unlike the Greek, he will cover his head
+when he prays. He will raise his hand to his lips before the statue,
+or, if he is appealing to the celestial deities, he will stretch his
+palms upwards above his head; if to the infernal powers, he will hold
+them downwards. These are the things that matter.
+
+At home, if he belongs to the better type of representative citizen,
+our Roman has his household shrine and his household divinities, whom
+he never neglects. If he is very pious, he may pray to them every
+morning, or at least before every enterprise. In any case he will
+remember them with a small offering when he dines. There are the "gods
+of the stores"--his "penates"--certain deities whom he has selected as
+guardians of his belongings, and who have their little images by the
+hearth in the kitchen. There is the household "protector," or more
+commonly there are two, who may be painted under the form of
+lightly-stepping youths in a little niche or shrine above a small
+altar. To these he will offer fruits, flowers, incense, and cakes. And
+there is the "Genius" of the master of the house, who is also painted
+on the wall, or who may be represented by his own portrait bust or by
+the picture of a snake. That "Genius" means the power presiding over
+his vitality and health and wellbeing. If he is an artisan and belongs
+to a guild, he will pay special worship to the patron god or goddess
+of that guild--to Vesta, if he is a baker, to Minerva, if he is a
+fuller. Out of doors he will find a street shrine in the wall at a
+crossing, pertaining to the tutelary god of what may be called his
+"parish," and this he will not neglect. Like all other orthodox Romans
+he will not undertake any new enterprise--betrothal, marriage,
+journey, or important business--without ascertaining that the auspices
+are favourable.
+
+In a general way he has a notion that the gods are displeased at
+certain forms of crime, and that they approve of justice and the
+carrying out of compacts. The gods overlook the state, because the
+state engages them so to do, and therefore to break the laws of the
+state is to anger the gods of the state. But this is rather subtle for
+the common man, and there is generally no understood immediate
+relation between these gods and his moral conduct, unless he has sworn
+an oath by one or other of them. The purpose of calling a god to
+witness is to bring upon a perjurer the anger of the offended deity.
+But he entertains no such conception as the modern one of "sin" or of
+"remorse for sin." "Sin" is either a breach of the secular law or
+breach of a contract with a deity and "remorse" is but fear of or
+regret for the consequences.
+
+His morality is determined by the laws of the state, family
+discipline, and social custom. For that reason his vices on the
+positive side will mostly be those of his appetites, and on the
+negative side a want of charity and compassion. He may be guiltless of
+lying and stealing, murder and violence; he may be honest and
+law-abiding; but there is nothing to make him temperate, continent, or
+gentle. His avowed code is "duty," and duty is defined by law and
+tradition.
+
+If this is the religious condition of the common-place man or woman--a
+blend of superstition, formalism, and tolerance--it is by no means
+that of the educated thinker. Such persons were for the most part
+freethinkers. Many of them, finding no better guide to conduct,
+conform to the "religion" of the state without any real belief in its
+gods or attaching any importance to its ceremonies. They do not feel
+called upon to propagate any other views, and they probably think the
+current notions are at least as good for the ignorant as any others.
+If they are poets, like Horace or Lucan, they will dress up the
+mythology, mostly from Greek models, and write fluently about Jupiter
+and Juno, Venus and Mercury, either attributing to them the recognised
+characters and legends, or varying them so as to make them more
+picturesque and interesting--perhaps even improving them--but all the
+time believing no more in the stories they are telling, or in the
+deities themselves, than Tennyson need have believed in King Arthur
+and Guinevere. The gods are good poetic material and are sure to
+afford popular, or at least inoffensive, reading. The poets doubtless
+do something to humanise and beautify the popular conception of a
+deity, but they seldom deliberately set out with any such purpose. If
+the educated are not poets, but public men of affairs, they may
+believe just as little, and yet regard the established cult of the
+gods as an excellent discipline for the vulgar and the best known
+means of upholding the national principle of "duty." If they are
+philosophers they may not, and the Epicureans in reality do not,
+believe in the gods at all--certainly not as they are generally
+conceived--and will openly discuss in speech and in writing the
+question of their existence or non-existence, and of their character
+and nature if they do exist. They will endeavour to substitute for the
+barren formalism of rites and ceremonies, or the inconsistent or
+incomplete traditional morality of duty, another set of principles as
+a sounder guide to life and conduct. Some are monotheists, some are
+simply in doubt. Says Nero's own tutor, Seneca, "Do you want to
+propitiate the gods? Then be good. The true worshipper of the gods is
+he who acts like them." "Better," remarks Plutarch, "not believe in a
+God at all than cringe before a god who is worse than the worst of
+men." In the actual worship of images none of them believe. One
+conspicuous writer of the time says: "To look for a form and shape to
+a god, I consider to be a mark of human feebleness of mind."
+Concerning the schools of thought and in particular the tenets of
+those Stoics and Epicureans whom St. Paul met at Athens, and whom he
+could meet in educated circles all over the Roman Empire, we shall
+have to speak in a following chapter, when summing up the intellectual
+and moral condition of the time. Meanwhile it should be understood
+that, though a profound or anything approaching a professional study
+of philosophy was discouraged among the true Romans--more than once
+the professional philosophers were banished from the capital--there
+were few cultivated persons who did not to some extent dabble in it,
+and even go so far as to profess an adherence to one school or
+another. None of these men believed in the "Roman religion" as
+administered by the state, although many of them were administering it
+themselves. The same man could one day freely discuss the gods in
+conversation or a treatise, and the next he might be clad in priestly
+garb and officially seeing that the rites of sacrifice were being
+religiously carried out in terms of the books, or that the auspices
+were being properly taken.
+
+It does not, however, follow at all that because poet or public man
+cared nothing for the pantheon and all its mythology, he was therefore
+without his superstitions. He might still tremble at signs and
+portents, at comets, at dreams, and at the unpropitious behaviour of
+birds and beasts. He might believe in astrology and resort to its
+professors, called the "Chaldaeans." On the other hand he might laugh
+at such things. It was all a matter of temperament. It certainly was
+not every man who dared to act like one of the Roman admirals. When it
+was reported that the omens were unpropitious to an imminent battle
+because the sacred chickens "would not eat," he ordered them to be
+thrown into the sea so that at least they might drink. The
+freethinkers were in advance of their times. "Science" in the modern
+sense hardly existed, and until phenomena are explained it is hard to
+avoid a perplexity or astonishment which is equivalent to
+superstition.
+
+Consider now these various states of mind--that of the people, ready
+to add almost any deity to the large and vague number already
+recognised; that of the poet, who finds the deities such useful
+literary material; that of the magistrate or public man, who, without
+enthusiasm or necessary belief, regards religion as a thing useful to
+society; and that of the philosopher, who thinks all the current
+religious conceptions unsound, if not absurd, and morally almost
+useless.
+
+Manifestly a society so composed will be one of unusual tolerance. The
+Romans had no disposition to force their religion on the subject
+provinces of the empire. Their religion was the Roman religion; the
+religion of the Greeks might be left Greek, the Jewish religion
+Jewish, and the Egyptian religion Egyptian. Any nation had a right to
+the religion of its fathers. Nay, the Jews had such peculiar notions
+about a Sabbath day and other matters that a Jew was exempted from the
+military service which would have compelled him to break his national
+laws. All religions were permitted, so long as they were national
+religions. Also all religious views were permitted to the individual,
+so long as they were not considered dangerous to the empire or
+imperial rule, or so long as they threatened no appreciable harm to
+the social order. If a Jew came to Rome and practised Judaism well and
+good. It was, in the eyes of the Romans, a narrow-minded and
+uncharitable religion, marked by many strange and absurd practices and
+superstitions, but if a misguided oriental people liked to indulge in
+it, well and good. Even if a Roman became a proselyte to Judaism, well
+and good, so long as he did not flout the official religion of his own
+country. If the Egyptians chose to worship cats, ibises, and
+crocodiles, that was their affair, so long as they let other people
+alone. In Gaul, it is true, the emperor Claudius, predecessor of Nero,
+had put down the Druids. Earlier still the Druids had already been
+interfered with; but that was because the Druids--those weird old
+white-sheeted men with their long beards and strange magic--were
+performing human sacrifices--burning men alive in wicker frames--and
+such conduct was not only contrary to the secular law of Rome, but
+even to natural law. And when Claudius finally suppressed them, or
+drove the remnant out of Gaul into Britain, it was not simply because
+they worshipped non-Roman gods and performed non-Roman rites, but
+because they were, as they had always notoriously been, a dangerous
+political influence interfering with the proper carrying out of the
+Roman government.
+
+And when we come to Christianity it must be remarked that, so long as
+that nascent religion was regarded as merely a variety of Judaism, it
+was actually protected by the Roman power, and owes no little of its
+original progress to the fact. In the Acts of the Apostles it is
+always from the Roman governor that St. Paul receives, not only the
+fairest, but the most courteous treatment. It is the Jews who
+persecute him and work up difficulties against him, because to them he
+is a renegade and is weaning away their people. To the philosophers at
+Athens he appears as the preacher of a new philosophy, and they think
+him a "smatterer" in such subjects. To the Roman he is a man charged
+by a certain community with being dangerous to social order, to wit,
+causing factious disturbances and profaning the temple; and since he
+refuses to let the local authorities judge his case, and has exercised
+his citizen privilege by appealing to Caesar, to Caesar he is sent.
+And, when a prisoner in somewhat free custody at Rome, note that he is
+permitted to speak "with all freedom," and that in the first instance
+he is acquitted.
+
+True, but the fact remains that Nero burnt Christians in his gardens
+after the great fire of Rome, and that certain later emperors are
+found punishing Christians merely for avowing themselves such. Why was
+Christianity thus singled out? It was not through what can be
+reasonably called "religious intolerance," for, as has been said, the
+Romans did not seek to force Roman religion on other peoples nor did
+they make any inquisition into the beliefs of Romans themselves. The
+reasons for singling out Christianity for special treatment are
+obvious enough. The question is not whether the reasons were sound,
+whether the Romans properly understood or tried to understand, whether
+they could be as wise before the event as we are after it, but whether
+the motive was what we should call a "religious" one. To allow
+Epicureans to deny the existence of gods at all, and to make scornful
+concessions to the peculiar tenets of Jews, could not be the action of
+a people which was bigoted. If there was bigotry and intolerance, it
+was political or social bigotry and intolerance, not religious. To
+prevent any possible misconception let the present writer say here
+that he considers the principles of Christianity, as laid down by its
+Founder and as spread by St. Paul, to have been the most humanizing
+and civilising influence ever brought to bear upon society. But that
+is not the point. The early Christians were treated as they were, not
+because they held non-Roman views, but because they held anti-Roman
+views; not because they did not believe in Jupiter and Venus, but
+because they refused to let any one else believe in them; not because
+they threatened to weaken Roman faith, but because they threatened to
+weaken and even to wreck the whole fabric of Roman society; not
+because they were known to be heretics, but because they were supposed
+to be disloyal; not because they converted men, but because they
+appeared to convert them into dangerous characters. As it has been
+put, the Christians were regarded as the "Nihilists" of the period. We
+are apt to judge the Romans from the standpoint of Christianity
+dominant and understood; it is fairer to judge them from the
+standpoint of a dominant pagan empire looking on at a strange new
+phenomenon altogether misunderstood and often deliberately
+misrepresented. Moreover--and the point is worth more attention than
+it commonly receives--we have only to read the Epistles to the
+Corinthians, to perceive that the early Christian gatherings were by
+no means always such meek, pure, and model assemblages as they are
+almost always assumed to have been. Some of the members, for instance,
+quarrelled and "were drunken." There were evidently many unworthy
+members of the new communion, and of course there were also many
+manifestations of insulting bigotry on their part. The class of
+society to which the Christians belonged was closely associated in the
+Roman mind with the rabble and the slave, if not with criminals. What
+the pagan observer saw in the new religion was "a pestilent
+superstition," "hatred of the human race," "a malevolent
+superstition." He thought its practices to be connected with magic.
+The _intransigeant_ Christian refused to take the customary oath in
+the law courts, and therefore appeared to menace a trustworthy
+administration of the law. He took no interest in the affairs of the
+empire, but talked of another king and his coming kingdom, and he
+appeared to be an enemy to the Roman power. He held what appeared to
+be secret meetings, although the empire rigidly suppressed all secret
+societies. He weakened the martial spirit of the soldier. He divided
+families--the basis of Roman society--against themselves. He was a
+socialist leveller. He threatened with ruin all the trades connected
+with either the established worship--as amongst the silversmiths at
+Ephesus--or with the luxuries and amusements of life. Those amusements
+in circus or amphitheatre he hated, and therefore appeared
+misanthropic. He not only stood aloof from the religious observances
+of the state and the household, but treated them with contempt or
+abhorrence.
+
+Moreover, at this date, he refused to acknowledge the one great symbol
+of the imperial authority. This was the statue of the emperor. When
+that statue was set up in every town it was not understood by any
+intelligent man that the emperor was actually a god, or that, when
+incense was burnt before the statue, it was being burned to the
+emperor himself as deity. But just as every householder had his
+attendant "Genius"--the power determining his vital functions and
+well-being--which was often represented as a bust with the man's own
+features, so the statue of the Augustus, "His Highness," represented
+the Genius of that Head of the State, and the offering of incense was
+meant as an appeal to the Genius to keep the emperor and the imperial
+power "in health and wealth long to live." The man who refused to make
+such an offering was necessarily considered to be ill-disposed to the
+majesty and welfare of the Head of the State, and therefore of the
+state itself. The Roman attitude towards the early Christians was
+partly that of a modern government towards Nihilists, and partly that
+of a generation or two ago to a blend of extreme Radical with extreme
+atheist.
+
+We are not here concerned with the whole story of the persecution of
+the Christians, but only with the situation at and immediately after
+the date we have chosen. It is at least quite certain that when Nero
+burned the Christians in the year 64 he was treating them, not as the
+adherents of a religion, but as social criminals or nuisances. How far
+his notions of Christianity may have been influenced by Poppaea we do
+not know. At least he believed he was pleasing the populace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+In describing the education of a Roman youth, and also in setting
+forth the various religious attitudes of the time, mention has been
+made of the pursuit of philosophy. Religion supplied no real guide to
+moral conduct, and education provided little exercise for the
+cultivation of the higher intellectual faculties. It was left for
+philosophy to fill these blanks as best it could. Unlike the Greeks,
+the Romans, great as they were in law-making and administration, had
+little natural gift or taste for abstract thought. All the philosophic
+sects had been founded and continued by Greeks, and it was still to
+the Greek half of the empire that the contemporary world looked for
+the best schools and teachers of philosophy. The genuine Roman spirit
+at all times felt some mistrust of such studies, especially if they
+tended to carry the student away from practical life into the "shade"
+and the "corner," or if they tended to subvert the traditional notions
+of "duty" as inculcated by Roman law, Roman custom, and the religion
+of the state. Nevertheless, not only did many Romans, even of mature
+years, resort to the philosophic "Universities" of the time, but
+wealthy houses often maintained a domestic philosopher, whose business
+it was to supply moral teaching and intellectual companionship to his
+employer. Some, indeed, preferred merely a _savant_, who might "post"
+them with information concerning Greek writers, explain difficulties,
+and act in general as a literary _vade mecum_. In many cases, if not
+in most, the Roman aristocrat or plutocrat treated such a retainer as
+a social inferior.
+
+The Roman attitude towards thought and learning too often reminds one
+of a certain modern type which has been irreverently described as
+being "death on culture." While the Greek and graecized oriental loved
+research, discussion, dialectics, ethical and scientific conversation,
+and literary coteries for their own sake, the Roman more commonly
+regarded such things as means for sharpening his abilities and for
+imparting distinction in social intercourse. Doubtless there were, and
+had been, exceptions. No Greek philosopher could be more in earnest
+than Lucretius, the Roman poet of the later republic, and doubtless
+there were no few Romans unknown to fame who both grappled seriously
+with Greek philosophy and also endeavoured to carry it religiously
+into practice. Yet for the most part the Roman, even when he is a
+writer upon such subjects, carries with him the unmistakable air of
+the amateur or the dilettante. In reading Seneca, as in reading
+Cicero, we feel that we are dealing with an able man possessed of an
+excellent gift for popular exposition or essay-writing, but hardly
+with a man of original philosophic endeavour or of strong practical
+conviction. And when we read the letters of the younger Pliny, we
+perceive a genuine admiration for men of thought and a genuine liking
+for "things of the mind," but we also discern that his dealing with
+philosophers and philosophy is strictly such as he deems "fit for a
+gentleman."
+
+In his own way and for his own ends the Roman could be intensely
+studious. He was eager to know and to possess information; but his
+native taste was for information of a positive kind, for definite
+facts more or less encyclopaedic--the facts of history, of science, of
+art, of literature, or even of grammar. His natural bent was not
+towards pure speculation. The elder Pliny was in his prime in the
+later days of Nero, and though he is perhaps an extreme type, he is
+nevertheless a type worth contemplating. His nephew writes a letter to
+a friend in which he gives a formidable list of works which the uncle
+had written or rather compiled, culminating in that huge miscellany
+known as his _Natural History_--a book dealing, not only with
+geography, anthropology, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, but
+also with fine art. How did he lead the ordinary Roman official life
+and yet accomplish all this before he was fifty-six? Here is the
+explanation. "He had a keen intellect, incredible zeal, and the
+greatest capacity for wakefulness. The end of August had not come
+before he began to work by lamplight long before dawn; in winter he
+began as early as one or two o'clock in the morning. It is true that
+he could readily command sleep, which visited and left him even during
+his studies. Before daylight he used to go to the emperor
+Vespasian--who also worked before day--and thence to his appointed
+duty. Returning home he gave the remainder of his time to his studies.
+After his _déjeuner_--which, like any other food that he took in the
+daytime, was light and digestible in the old-fashioned style--if it
+was summer, some leisure moments were spent in lying in the sun; a
+book was read, and he marked passages or made extracts. He never read
+anything without making excerpts, for he used to say that no book was
+so bad as to contain no part that was useful. After sunning himself he
+generally took a cold bath. He then took a snack and a very brief
+siesta, subsequently reading till dinner-time as if it were a new day.
+During dinner a book was read and marked, all very rapidly. I recall
+an occasion on which a certain passage had been badly delivered by his
+reader, whereupon one of the company stopped him and made him read it
+again. Said my uncle, 'I suppose you had caught the meaning?' The
+friend nodded. 'Then why did you call him back? We have lost more than
+ten lines by this interruption of yours.' So economical was he of
+time. In summer he rose from dinner while it was still light, and in
+winter within an hour after dark, as if compelled by some law. Such
+was his day amid all his work and the roar of the city. But when on
+holiday the only time he was not I studying was bath-time. By bath I
+mean when he I was actually right inside; for while he was under
+scraper and towel he would be read to or dictate. When travelling he
+thought of nothing else: at his side was a shorthand writer with a
+book and his tablets. In winter the writer's hands were protected by
+mittens, so that not even the sharpness of the weather should rob him
+of a moment. For the same reason even at Rome he used to ride in a
+sedan-chair (and not in a litter). I remember how he once took me to
+task for walking. Said he, 'You need not have wasted these hours;' for
+he considered as wasted all hours not spent upon study. It was by
+application like this that he completed all those volumes and also
+left to me a hundred and sixty note-books full of selections, written
+in very small hand on both sides of the paper. He used himself to say
+that, when he was the emperor's financial agent in Spain, he could
+have sold these note-books to Largius Licinus for £3000, and at that
+time they were considerably less numerous." ... "And so," writes the
+nephew, "I always laugh when certain people call _me_ studious, for,
+compared to him, I am a most indolent person."
+
+And yet what does this "most indolent person" himself do in the course
+of a lifetime? After a complete oratorical education of the typical
+Roman kind he enters upon a full public career. He undergoes his
+minimum military service with the legions in Syria. He returns to Rome
+and passes right up to the consulship, acquiring particular ability in
+connection with the Treasury. Often he acts as adviser to other
+officers. Apart from his public position he is a pleader before the
+courts. He takes a prominent part in the debates of the senate. He
+belongs to one of the priestly bodies. He does his share in providing
+the public games. He is appointed "Minister for the regulation of the
+Tiber and of the Sewerage." He is afterwards made governor of
+Bithynia, which has fallen into financial disorder and requires
+reorganisation. He possesses numerous estates and has many tenants to
+deal with. He writes speeches, occasional poems, and a large number of
+letters carefully phrased with a view to publication. His social or
+complimentary duties are numerous and exacting. One day he goes out
+hunting wild boar on one of his estates, and kills three of them. How,
+think you, does he pass the time while the beaters are driving the
+animals towards the net? He is thinking up a subject and making notes,
+and actually finds the silence and solitude helpful. He concludes his
+short letter on the subject by advising his friend "when you go
+hunting, take my advice and carry your writing-tablets as well as your
+luncheon-basket and flask: you will find that Minerva roams the hills
+no less than Diana." Pliny the Younger is writing, it is true, a
+generation after Nero, but there had been no appreciable change in
+Roman intellectual tastes during that short interval.
+
+The Roman may have had little inclination towards abstract thinking,
+but he was not an idle-minded man. Even the emperors often cultivated
+the muse. Nero we have seen, wrote verses, while his predecessor
+Claudius bore a strangely near resemblance to our own James I., not
+only in respect of his weakness of character, but also of his
+pretensions to erudition and authorship. We can hardly read the
+literature of this and the next half-century without being amazed at
+the number of names of writers who gained or sought some share of
+repute, although few of them have left works important enough to have
+been kept alive till now. It is true that through all the writing of
+this time there runs what has been called the "falsetto" note, a fact
+which is due partly to the absence of live national questions or the
+freedom to discuss them, and partly to the false principles of the
+rhetorical training already described. The general desire was to show
+cleverness, wide reading, and information; there was no impulse to
+great creation or to exhibitions of profound feeling. Epigram and
+"point" are no less compassed in the overstrained epic of Lucan, and
+in the philosophic essays of Seneca, than in the satires of Persius.
+It is probable that what have been called intellectual "interests"
+were never more widely spread than in the _pax Romana_ of the first
+and second centuries A.D. We gather from literature that books
+innumerable were produced on subjects often as special and minute as
+those selected for a German thesis, and that almost every town worth
+the name, at least in the Greek-speaking part of the empire, produced
+an author of sorts. But when we look into the symposia or chat of
+Plutarch or Aulus Gellius, we cannot fail to note that a large
+proportion of this intellectual and literary activity was being
+frittered away on questions either stereotyped and threadbare, or of
+no appreciable utility either to knowledge or conduct. As for
+dilettante production at Rome itself Pliny remarks in one letter:
+"This year has produced a large crop of poets: there was scarcely a
+day in the whole month of April on which some one did not give a
+reading." During the generation into which Nero was born and that
+which followed him, we meet with no great creative work in either
+prose or poetry, no great contribution to the progress of science or
+thought. The most generally interesting writer of the whole period was
+the Greek Plutarch, but though the _Parallel Lives_ which he was
+preparing are immortal in their kind, and though his _Moral Essays_
+are often most excellent reading, it cannot be said that he is a
+profound original thinker or a creator of anything more than a taking
+literary form. Next to him in value, earlier in date, stands Seneca,
+who, like Plutarch, is a lively thinker and a deft essayist, with the
+same love for a quotation and the same wide interests, but assuredly
+not a considerable enlarger of the field of human thought. To those
+who know Montaigne, the best notion of Seneca and Plutarch will be
+formed by remembering that his essays are admitted by himself to be
+"wholly compiled of what I have borrowed from them." The elder Pliny
+supplies us with extracts and summaries of the knowledge or the
+notions then extant, and we have writings on agriculture by Columella.
+The youthful and rather awkward satirist Persius sees the life which
+he criticises rather through the medium of books than through his own
+eyes. Such works of the period as have gained any kind of immortality
+are certainly interesting and often instructive, but they indicate a
+period in which reading is chiefly cultivated amusement, and knowledge
+rather sought as a pastime and an accomplishment than as a power. The
+favourite reading must contain matter or sense, not too deep or
+exacting; and it must possess a style. Perhaps writers as various as
+Dryden, Pope, Horace Walpole, Samuel Johnson, De Quincey, Macaulay,
+or, on a lower platform, the authors of collections like the
+_Curiosities of Literature_ would have been quite at home in this
+period: but it would have produced no Shakespeare, Milton, or
+Wordsworth. The agreeable poem, the well-expressed essay, are the
+approved reading for men of indolent bent: the informative collection
+for the more curious, serious, or practical-minded. If the early
+empire is "despotism tempered by epigram," it is perhaps not
+altogether untrue that the contemporary literature was pedantry
+tempered by epigram, or at least by quotation.
+
+Science, though its matter was attractive enough to the practical
+Roman, was at a standstill. So far as it existed it was Greek. The
+Greeks had done almost all that could be done by sheer brain-power and
+acumen. They could hardly proceed further without those finer
+instruments which we possess, but which they did not. Though they knew
+of certain magnifying glasses, they had no real telescopes or
+microscopes, no mariner's compass or chronometers, no very delicate
+balances. They possessed a magnificent thinking apparatus and put it
+to admirable use. The modern scientist has generally nothing but
+admiration for their keen insight, and for the brilliant hypotheses
+which they invented and which were frequently but unverified
+anticipations or partial anticipations of theories now in vogue. Where
+they stopped short was at experiment in test of hypothesis. Of all
+exploits of pure thinking in the domain of science perhaps the
+greatest has been the conception that the earth, instead of being a
+flat disk, is a sphere. This theory was held before the age of Nero by
+ancient astronomers and geographers, who had derived the notion partly
+from the eclipses of the moon--of which they well understood the
+cause--and partly from the rising of objects above the horizon. They
+understood also that in a sphere there was gravitation to the centre,
+and were able so to comprehend the level surface of water on the
+globe. The geographer Strabo, more than a generation before our chosen
+date, readily conceives that, if one sailed straight westward out of
+the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, he would
+ultimately come back round the world by way of the East--that is to
+say, by India. It was not left for Columbus to invent that doctrine.
+It is true that in calculating the circumference of the earth they had
+made it as much as one-seventh too large, but the wonder is that they
+came so near as they did. In regard to the distance of the moon they
+were not more than 1/12th from the modern estimate. The possibility of
+error in dealing with the sun was much greater, and their 51,000,000
+miles is little more than half of what it should have been. Exactly
+how far this doctrine of the sphericity of the earth was popularly
+entertained we cannot tell; it was probably almost confined to those
+directly interested in the question. A theory, anticipating Galileo,
+that it is the earth which moves round the sun, had been mooted, but
+certainly had very little currency. Nor was speculation confined to
+such astronomical conclusions. In the region of physical geography
+rational attempts were made to account for various phenomena, such as
+the existence of deltas or the risings of the Nile, or the appearance
+of sea-shells high on dry land. Strabo, in dealing with the Black Sea,
+has his theories of the elevation or subsidence of land. He also
+suggests previous volcanic conditions of certain districts which had
+been quiescent from before the memory or tradition of the inhabitants.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 113.--WORLD AS CONCEIVED ABOUT A.D. 100.]
+
+Sound methods of discovering latitude and longitude were not yet in
+use, and therefore a map of the world according to ideas current in
+the first century would present a strange aspect to us. There is much
+error in the placing of towns or districts upon their parallels; and
+coasts or mountain ranges, particularly, of course, on the outskirts
+of the empire or in the less familiar lands beyond its bounds, are
+perhaps made to run north instead of north-west, or east instead of
+south-east. It follows that measurements of distances especially
+across the wider seas, were often very inaccurate, although within and
+about the Mediterranean there was so much traffic and such close
+observation of the stars that the errors were gradually reduced. The
+mariner, when he did not follow the coast and guide his course by
+familiar landmarks, steered by the stars, but of these he had a very
+intimate knowledge, to which he joined a close observation of the
+prevailing direction of the winds at the various seasons. There was a
+well-ordered system of lighthouses, and charts and mariners' guides
+were not wanting. In the winter months navigation over long distances
+was regularly suspended, and ships waited in port for the spring.
+
+So far as acquaintance with the world was concerned, we have
+sufficient evidence that the trader knew his way very well down the
+African coast as far as Zanzibar, and along the southern shores of
+Asia as far as Cape Comorin. With Ceylon his acquaintance was vague,
+and only by tradition did he know of Further India by way of the sea
+and of China by way of the land. In the interior of Africa the
+caravans reached the Oases, and by way of Nile or caravan there was
+trade with the Soudan. Outside the Straits of Gibraltar, the Canary
+Islands and Madeira--known indiscriminately as the "Fortunate Isles,"
+or "Isles of the Blest"--were in touch with the port of Cadiz. The
+shape of Great Britain beyond England was indefinite, although it was
+known to be an island, with the Shetlands lying beyond. Ireland was
+also recognised as an island and its relative size was not greatly
+misconceived. The chief misconception in this corner of Europe was
+that of orientation, Britain being placed either far too near or far
+too parallel to Spain (through a large error as to the shape of the
+Bay of Biscay). Meanwhile the coast of the Netherlands and Germany was
+made to run in a line much too closely parallel to the eastern shores
+of Britain. Scandinavia was known from navigating explorers and from
+the amber trade, but was commonly regarded as a large island.
+Knowledge of the Baltic did not extend beyond about the modern Riga,
+and of the whole region thence to the Caspian only the dimmest notions
+were entertained.
+
+From what has been said concerning the calculation of the earth's
+diameter and of the distances of the sun and moon, it may be readily
+understood that the ancient mathematician had arrived at great
+proficiency in the geometrical branch of mathematics. This should
+cause no surprise when we remember what is meant by "Euclid." That
+eminent genius had lived at Alexandria three centuries and a half
+before the age of Nero, and he by no means represents all that was
+known of such mathematics at the latter date. The ancients were quite
+sufficiently versed in the solution of triangles to have made the
+necessary calculations in geography and astronomy, if they had but
+possessed the right instruments. Perhaps only an expert should
+deal--even in the few sentences required for our purpose--with such
+matters as the calculation of the capacity and proportional relations
+of cylinders, or with the mechanics and hydrostatics of Archimedes.
+That philosopher so far understood the laws of applied force that he
+had boasted: "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the world."
+What he and others had learned concerning fluid pressure, or
+concerning pulleys, levers, and other mechanical devices, had not been
+lost by the Greeks and had been borrowed from them for full practical
+use by the Romans. They knew how to lift huge weights, and how to hurl
+heavy missiles by the artillery previously mentioned. Experiments had
+been made at Alexandria in the use of steam-power, but had led to
+nothing practical. It is obvious also from their buildings and works
+of engineering, even without explicit statement, that they well
+understood the distribution of weight and the laws of stability. The
+laws of acoustics were understood with sufficient clearness to make
+them applicable with success to theatres. In practical mensuration--a
+daily necessity for men who were perpetually allotting lands or
+marking out camps--the Romans were experts. In pure arithmetic the
+contemporary world had made some considerable advance, such as in the
+extraction of square-roots and cube-roots; but, as has been already
+said, the Roman interest was virtually confined to such arithmetic or
+mathematics as appeared to possess some bearing on actual use.
+
+Of chemistry, in the modern scientific sense, the ancients knew almost
+nothing. Empirically they were aware of certain properties exhibited
+by substances, and could perform certain manipulations; but, like
+moderns down to a very recent time, they had no real understanding of
+the quantitative or qualitative relations of elements. Long ago Greek
+philosophy, followed by the Epicurean school, had set forth an "atomic
+theory," which on the surface is surprisingly like the modern chemical
+hypothesis; but this contained strange and illogical features and had
+no connection with actual practice. In this department the chief
+proficiency of the world of this date lay in metallurgy, in which the
+processes empirically discovered, chiefly by Egyptians and
+Phoenicians, were closely similar to those now employed. They
+thoroughly understood the smelting of ores, but could render no
+scientific account of the processes. Botany was in a very crude
+condition, scarcely extending beyond such knowledge as was required on
+the one hand for farming and horticulture, and on the other for the
+vegetable medicines used by contemporary physicians.
+
+The doctoring of the time was also, of course, largely empirical, but
+assuredly hardly more so than it was a century or so ago, and
+distinctly more rational than it became in the Middle Ages. We cannot
+conceive of a reputable doctor at Rome prescribing the nauseous
+mediaeval absurdities. Practical surgery must have been surprisingly
+advanced, and there is scarcely a modern surgeon who does not exclaim
+in admiration of the instruments discovered at Pompeii and now
+preserved in the Naples Museum (see FIG. 69). In physic it is, of
+course, tolerably certain that many of the remedies or methods of
+treatment were of the sound and simple kind discovered by the long
+experience of mankind and often put in use by our grandmothers.
+The defect contemporary medicine was that it was almost wholly
+empirical. The ancient surgeon could doubtless perform ordinary
+operations--amputations and excisions--with neatness, and the ancient
+physician knew perfectly well what to do with the ordinary
+complaints--the fevers and agues, the bilious attacks, the gout, or
+the dropsy--but he was baffled by any new conditions. Moreover, if he
+could diagnose and cure, he could seldom prevent, inasmuch as he had
+little understanding of the causes of maladies. He had everything to
+learn in regard to sanitation and the preventing of infection. A
+plague would sometimes kill half the people in a town or district, and
+the loss of 30,000 persons in the metropolis would probably appear to
+most Romans as a visitation of the gods, nor is it certain that the
+doctors would generally disagree with that view. Though there were
+many quacks, it is not the case that the reputable medical men--most
+of them Greek, some of them Romans, who borrowed a Greek name because
+it "paid"--lacked the scientific spirit or such knowledge as the time
+afforded. They went to the medical school at Alexandria or elsewhere,
+and studied their treatises on physic and anatomy, but, at least in
+the latter subject, they were sadly hampered. Dissection of human
+bodies was forbidden by law as being a desecration of the dead, and
+though it might sometimes be practised _sub rosa_, it was the general
+custom to perform the dissections on other animals, particularly
+monkeys, and to argue thence erroneously to mankind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+With such an unsatisfactory equipment of science, and with such a
+vague and morally inoperative religion, it was no wonder that the
+higher minds of the contemporary world turned to the study of
+philosophy. Of such studies there had been many schools or sects, but
+at this date we have chiefly to reckon with two--the Stoics and
+Epicureans. There were, it is true, the Academics, who disputed
+everything, and held no doctrine to be more true than its contrary.
+There were Eclectics, who picked and chose. But the majority of those
+who affected a positive philosophy attached themselves either to the
+Stoic or else to the Epicurean system, not necessarily with orthodox
+rigidity on every point, but as a general guide--at least in
+theory--to the conduct of life. Where we belong to a certain religious
+denomination or church, and "sit under" a certain class of preachers,
+they belonged to a certain school of philosophy, and attended the
+lectures of certain of its expounders. Instead of a chaplain or parish
+clergyman they engaged or associated with an expert in their special
+system. But just as the Frenchman remarked, "_Je suis catholique, mais
+je ne pratique pas_," so might one be in principle a good Stoic
+without much exercise of the accepted doctrines. The distinction
+between the tenets of the two great schools was wide, but within each
+school itself individuals might differ as widely as "Broad Church"
+from whatever its opposite may be called. The choice between the two
+schools was mainly a matter of temperament. Persons of the sterner
+type of mind, caring comparatively little for the physical comforts
+and gracious amenities of life, and possessed of a strong sense of
+duty and decorum--inclined, perhaps, not only to piety and
+self-abnegation, but also to be somewhat dour and uncompromising--were
+naturally attracted to Stoicism. Those of the complementary character
+preferred the doctrines of Epicurus. The Stoics were the Pharisees,
+the Epicureans the Sadducees, of pagan philosophy. As the Pharisees
+were the most Hebraic of the Hebrews, so it was Stoicism that came to
+be the characteristic Roman creed. The ordinary Roman had been brought
+up in the tradition of obeying the law of the state and the claims of
+duty; he had high notions of personal dignity and a leaning to the
+heroic virtues. Give him a strong, consistent, and elevating religion
+and he would be normally a pious man. Stoicism supplied him with a
+standard which was in keeping with such tendencies. About Epicureanism
+there was nothing heroic or elevating.
+
+Put briefly, and therefore crudely, the Epicurean doctrine was that
+happiness is the end of life. What men seek, and have a right to seek,
+is the most pleasant existence. Our conduct should secure for us as
+much real pleasure as possible. Now at first sight this looks like
+what it was opprobriously called by its enemies, "the philosophy of
+the pig-sty." It by no means meant this to its founder. For what is
+"pleasure"? Not by any means necessarily the gratification of the
+moment, physical or otherwise. A present pleasure may mean future
+pain, either of body or of mind. Wrong actions and bestial enjoyments
+bring their own penalty. You must choose wisely, and so direct your
+life that you suffer least and enjoy most consistently. Temperance and
+wisdom are therefore virtues necessary to a true Epicurean. You desire
+health; therefore you will live, as Epicurus lived, on simple and
+wholesome food. You desire tranquillity or peace of mind; therefore
+you will abstain from all perverse acts and gratifications, desires
+and emotions, which disturb that peace. In short the thing to be
+sought is nothing else but this grateful composure of mind--a thing
+which you cannot have if you are always wanting this or that and
+either abusing or misusing your bodily or mental functions, or
+needlessly mortifying yourself. To the plain man this apparently meant
+"Take life easily and keep free of worry." Naturally the plain man's
+ideas of taking life easily became those of taking pleasures as they
+come, indolently accepting the agreeables of life and feeling no call
+to make much of its duties. It is all very well for a high-minded
+philosopher to avoid a pleasure in order to avoid its pain, and to
+realize that a pleasure of the mind is worth more than a pleasure of
+the body, but one cannot expect the ordinary pupil--the _homme moyen
+sensuel_--to comprehend this attitude with heartiness sufficient to
+put it into practice. It followed therefore that the Epicurean tended,
+not only to become lazy, but to become vicious, or to make light of
+vices. This was not indeed true Epicureanism, and Epicurus is not to
+blame for it; it simply shows that Epicureanism, whatever its logical
+or other merits, provided no sufficient stimulus to a right life. As
+regards theology the position of the school was that there might very
+well be such things as higher beings--there was nothing in physical
+philosophy to make them any more impossible than a man or a fish--but
+that, if they existed, they were not concerned with man's affairs; his
+moral conduct, like his sacrifices and prayers, was not matter for
+their consideration. No need, therefore, to let superstition worry
+you, or to trouble about future punishment. Conduct your life
+according to the same principles laid down, and let the gods--if there
+be any--look to themselves. Naturally the result of such a position is
+that ceasing to regard the gods means ceasing to believe in them, and,
+as a Roman writer says: "In theory it leaves us the gods, in practice
+it abolishes them."
+
+The other school--that of the Stoics--is perhaps less easily
+comprehended, nor can it be said that its doctrines were always quite
+so coherent. Again we may put the position briefly, and therefore,
+perhaps, only approximately. The rule of life is to live as "nature"
+directs. Nature has its laws, which you cannot disobey with impunity.
+The law of nature is the mind of God. The material universe is the
+body, God is its soul, and He directs the workings of nature with
+foreknowledge and perfect wisdom. If man can only be brought to act in
+strict accordance with the mind of God--or law of nature--he is sure
+of perfect well-being, because he can do nothing as it should not be
+done. If he can only arrive at such perfect operation of his mental
+processes, he will necessarily be the perfect speaker, the perfect
+ruler, the perfect craftsman, the perfect performer of every task,
+including the securing of his own happiness. Doubtless this is logical
+enough, but how is one to attain to such right mental operations, and
+to become what was called a "sage"? Only by acting always according to
+reason and not according to passion. That and that alone is "virtue."
+The divine mind is not swayed by passion--by hope, fear, exultation,
+or grief--but only and always by reason. Learn therefore to obey
+reason and reason only. Do not permit yourself to be drawn from the
+true path by fear of threats, even of death, nor by grief, even for
+your dearest friends. Such feelings warp your reason, distract
+your judgment, and deflect you from the right course. When
+passion--feeling--comes in conflict with reason, you must drive
+feeling away. Your reason may not always be right; nevertheless it is
+the best guide you have, and you must cultivate it to act as rightly
+as possible. Remember that the power to act in accordance with the
+divine mind--the law of nature--lies in your own will; things external
+have nothing to do with that straight-forward proceeding--they cannot
+help you, and you must not let them hinder you. The condition of your
+mind is everything; as long as its operation is right, you are living
+in the right way. Your mind may act as rightly in poverty as in
+riches; you may be equally wise and virtuous whether you have the
+external advantages or not. You must therefore learn to ignore these
+things--pain, grief, fear, joy, and all the other perturbing
+influences. Cultivate, therefore, right reason and the absence of
+emotions.
+
+This, you will say, is a very high, unattainable, if not inhuman,
+standard. Quite so, and therefore, while Epicureanism often produced
+vicious men, this often produced pretenders and even hypocrites.
+Nevertheless it is better to set oneself a high standard than a low
+one, and a Roman who endeavoured to control himself by reason, and to
+place himself above fear and pain, was thereby on the way to be brave,
+patient, truthful, and just. Those who would see what high character
+could be associated with Stoicism--whether as the result or as the
+motive of the choice of the school--should read Epictetus, whose text,
+written early in the next century, was "sustain and abstain," and also
+the great-minded gentle Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A logical outcome of
+Stoicism was that you should say only the thing which reason approved,
+and say it unafraid. A good republican virtue, this, but under the
+emperors a dangerous one, as an honest Stoic like Thrasea found out.
+In practice there was naturally much qualifying or mellowing of the
+rigid Stoic attitude: the exigencies of actual life had to be met part
+of the way, and both Greek and Roman Stoics were often only Stoics in
+part--the complete "sage" was of course impossible.
+
+As for the gods, it is obvious that the Stoics were pantheists; there
+was one God, and He was the soul of the universe. They also, of
+course, recognised His providence. What then of the gods of the state?
+Some did not attempt to discuss them. Others treated the various
+so-called separate deities in the list as being only so many
+manifestations or avatars of the same divine power, and whether they
+were content or not with that attempt at harmonisation, who shall say?
+
+Meanwhile, at least in the eastern part of the empire, you might meet
+with another type of philosopher, the Cynic, belonging to the same
+school as the famous Diogenes, who had lived in that large earthenware
+jar commonly known as his "tub." Like the Stoic, the Cynic held that
+externals were of no value, and therefore he contented himself with a
+piece of bread, a wallet full of beans, and a jug of water. Like the
+Stoic, he believed in perfect freedom of speech, and therefore he
+spoke loudly and often abusively of all and sundry who appeared to him
+to deserve it. Some such men doubtless were sincere enough, like the
+earlier hermits or preaching friars, but many of them were simply idle
+and virulent impostors who thoroughly deserved that name of the "dog"
+which was commonly given to them, and which came to designate their
+school.
+
+The mention of impostors and hypocrites brings us naturally to a point
+which may have been foreseen. To the ancient world the professional
+philosophers were the nearest approach to our professional clergy.
+They affected an appearance accordingly; and the philosopher was
+regularly known by his long beard, his coarse cloak, and his staff.
+But, alas! there were many who disgraced their cloth. There were Stoic
+teachers who practised all manner of secret vices, and whose behaviour
+was in outrageous contradiction to their creed of the "absence of
+emotions." There were not only many Honeymans, there were many
+Stigginses. There were idlers and vagabonds on a level with the
+mendicant friars and pardon-sellers of the time of Chaucer. There were
+pompous hypocrites. Also side by side with the serious and earnest
+philosopher, as deeply learned in the books of his sect as a modern
+divine, there were charlatans and dabblers. It is unfortunately in
+this last light that the Apostle Paul appeared to the professional
+Stoic and Epicurean teachers of Athens. They were the finished
+products of the philosophic schools of the most famous universities,
+while he was supposed by them to be teaching some new kind of
+philosophy. Philosophers were apt to be itinerant, and St. Paul was
+looked upon as but another of these new arrivals. In his language they
+detected what seemed to be borrowed notions not consistently bound
+together, and they therefore called him by a name which it is not easy
+to translate. Literally it is "a picker up of seeds"--that is to say,
+a sciolist who gathers scraps from profounder people and gives them
+out with an air. Perhaps the nearest, although an undignified, word is
+"quack." That Paul possessed a knowledge of Greek philosophy, and
+particularly of Stoicism, is practically certain. He came from Tarsus
+in Cilicia, and Cilicia was the native home of many leading Stoics,
+including its greatest representative in all antiquity. He had been
+taught by Gamaliel, who was versed in "the learning of the Greeks."
+His address at Athens was deliberately meant to bear a relation to the
+philosophy of the experts who were present, but necessarily it could
+only introduce a few salient allusions, such as even a dabbler could
+have picked up, and we can hardly blame the specialists for their
+erroneous judgment. As he says himself: "The Greeks demand philosophy;
+but we proclaim a Messiah crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block,
+and to the Greeks a folly."
+
+To discuss further the moral ideas of the Roman world would consume
+more space and time than can be afforded here. It may, however, be
+worth while to mention that suicide was commonly--and especially by
+the Stoics--looked upon as a natural and blameless thing, when calm
+reason appeared to justify the proceeding, and when due consideration
+was given to social claims. To seek a euthanasia in such cases was an
+act of wisdom. Belief in an underworld or an after life was not rare
+among the common people, but it certainly did not exist in any force
+among the cultivated classes. It was taught neither by philosophy nor
+by the religion of the state. Yet the sense that rewards or
+punishments are unfairly meted out in this world was strong in many a
+mind, and this is one of the facts which account for the hold taken
+upon such minds, first by the religion of Isis, and then in a still
+greater and more abiding measure by Christianity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THE ROMAN PROFUSION OP ART
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 114.--THE DYING GAUL.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 115.--A "CANDELIERA" OR MARBLE PILASTER OF THE
+BASILICA AEMILIA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 116.--FRAGMENTS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE REGIA.]
+
+It would be a more than agreeable task to deal at some length with the
+art of the Roman world of this period, but the subject is vast, and
+demands a treatise to itself. How general was the love of art--or at
+least the recognition of its place in life--must be obvious to those
+who have seen the great collections in Rome, gathered partly from the
+city itself and partly from the towns and country "villas" of Italy,
+and those in the National Museum at Naples, acquired mainly from the
+buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nor are we amazed merely at
+the quantity of statues, statuettes, busts, reliefs, paintings, mosaic
+gems and cameos, and artistically wrought objects and utensils, which
+have been preserved while so many thousands of such productions have
+disappeared in the conflagrations of Rome, the vandalisms of the
+ignorant, or the kilns and melting-pots of the Middle Ages. The
+quality is still more a source of delight than the quantity. This last
+sentence, of course, contains a truism, since art is no delight
+without high quality. If we had only preserved to us such masterpieces
+as the Capitoline Venus, the Dying Gaul, the Laocoon, the Dancing
+Faun, the so-called Narcissus, and the Resting Mercury, we should
+realise something of the exquisite skill in plastic art which had been
+attained in antiquity and has never been attained since. But we might
+perhaps imagine that these were altogether exceptional pieces and the
+choicest gems possessed by the world of the time. Yet the preservation
+of these is but an accident, and there is no reason to believe them to
+be more than survivals out of many equally excellent. On the contrary,
+our ancient authorities--such as the elder Pliny--prove that there was
+a multitude of similar creations contained in public buildings alone.
+Pompeii, it has already been said more than once, was a provincial
+town in no way distinguished for the high culture of its inhabitants;
+yet there is scarcely a house of any consideration which has not
+afforded some example of fine art in one form or another. We know that
+several of the Roman temples--such as those of Concord in the Forum
+and of Apollo on the Palatine--were veritable galleries of
+masterpieces; and that the rich Romans adorned both their town houses
+and country villas with dozens of statues, colossal, life-size, or
+miniature, by distinguished masters. But still more striking is the
+fact that the comparatively small homes of Pompeii often possessed a
+work for which no price would now be too large, and of which we are
+content even to obtain a tolerably good copy. At Herculaneum there
+evidently lived persons of greater literary and artistic I refinement
+than at Pompeii, and the discoveries from that only very partially
+excavated town make an incalculably rich show of their own. What then
+would be the case with Naples, Baiae, the resorts all along the coast
+as far as the Tiber, the luxurious villas on the Alban Hills, and the
+great metropolis itself?
+
+Yet the fact of this universal recognition of art is scarcely made so
+impressive by these collected specimens of perfect taste and perfect
+execution, as it is incidentally by observing the delicate and
+graceful finish of some moulding on a chance fragment from a building,
+such as the Basilica Aemilia or the office of the Pontifex in the
+Forum, or the exquisite chiselling of trailing ivy upon a cup from
+Herculaneum (FIG. 56), or the dainty pattern wrought on no more
+important a thing than a bucket (FIG. 58), or the graceful shape
+imparted to a household lamp (FIG. 54). Water could hardly be
+permitted to spout in a peristyle or garden without doing so from some
+charming statuette, animal figure, or decorative mask or head. When
+fine art is sought in things like these, we may guess how
+uncompromisingly it was sought in things more avowedly "on show."
+
+The age with which we have been dealing fell within the most
+flourishing period of Roman, or rather Graeco-Roman, taste and
+craftsmanship. A hundred years later both taste and execution were
+declining, and by the age of Constantine--two centuries and a half
+after Nero--not one artist could pretend to achieve such work as had
+belonged to a multitude between the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian.
+
+It is not indeed probable that, even at our date, the large and noble
+simplicity of the older Greek masters could be rivalled. It is not
+probable that most of the former creations of art still preserved
+could have been wrought as originals by any Greek or Roman artist
+living in the time of Nero. Nevertheless technical craftsmanship was
+still superb, and while the contemporary artist could not create a
+splendid original, he was at least able to create an almost perfect
+copy. The Roman public buildings and private houses were enriched with
+a host of such copies, or, when not exact copies, with modifications
+which, though not improvements, were at least such as could not offend
+by displaying a lack of technical mastery. Let us grant that it was
+for the most part Greeks who were the artists; nevertheless the Greek
+is an active member of the Roman world and of its metropolitan life,
+and he executes his work to the order of the Roman state or the Roman
+patron; and therefore the art of the time deserves to be called Roman
+in that sense. There is little doubt that the Romans, if left to
+themselves, would have developed only the solid, or the gorgeous, or
+the baroque. But influences which penetrate a society are part of that
+society, and the Greek influence accepted by the Roman becomes a Roman
+principle.
+
+Perhaps it is also true that many a Roman who possessed fine works of
+art, and even exquisite ones, was not in reality a true connoisseur;
+that, even if he were, he lacked instructive and ardent appreciation
+of art for its own sake; and that, like his cultivation of
+intellectual society or learning, his cultivation of art was rather
+that of a man determined to be on a level with the culture of his
+times. Nevertheless the fact is palpable, that the cultivation was
+there, and was displayed in public architecture and in household
+embellishment in a way which puts the modern world to shame. With us
+art is a luxury for the few, and a keen enjoyment for still fewer; in
+the age of Nero it penetrated the life of every class.
+
+In architecture the native Roman gift was for the practical combined
+with the massive and grandiose. The structures in which they
+themselves excelled were the amphitheatre, the public baths, the
+triumphal arch, the basilica, the bridge, and the aqueduct. Their
+mastery of the arch, their excellent concrete, and their engineering
+genius, enabled them to produce works in this kind which had had no
+parallels in the Greek world. Nor had the Greeks felt the same need
+for such buildings. They had been innocent of gladiatorial shows, and
+they had been unfortunately too innocent of large conceptions in the
+way of water-supply. When an amphitheatre or aqueduct of the Roman
+kind was to be found in the graecized half of the empire, it was
+constructed under Roman influence. The modern may well afford to
+wonder at and envy the profusion of such structures in the ancient
+world. How noble and at the same time how strong was the work of the
+Romans when they undertook to supply even a provincial town with
+abundant and adequate water, is manifest from such aqueducts as are
+still to be seen at Nîmes (FIG. 1) or at Segovia. In other
+architectural conceptions the Romans of the time of Nero mainly
+followed the Greek lead and employed Greek artists. The architectural
+"orders" were Greek, with sundry Graeco-Roman modifications,
+particularly in the way of more ornate or fantastic Corinthian
+capitals; the notions of sculptural decoration were equally of
+Hellenic origin. Their theatres also were of the Greek kind adapted in
+non-essentials to the somewhat different conditions of a Roman
+performance. The Greek taste in decoration was the simpler and purer:
+the Roman cultivated the sumptuous and the ornate, sometimes, with
+conspicuous success, often with an overloaded effect. As Friedlander
+(who, however, deals with a much longer period than ours) puts the
+matter: "Nowhere, least of all at Rome, was an important public
+building erected without the chiseller, the stucco-worker, the carver,
+the founder, the painter, and mosaic-maker being called in. Statues,
+single or in groups, filled gables, roofs, niches, interstices of
+columns, staircases in the temples, theatres, amphitheatres,
+basilicas, public baths, bridges, arches, portals, and viaducts. . . .
+Triumphal arches generally had at their summits equestrian figures,
+trophies, chariots of four or six horses, driven by figures of
+victory. Reliefs and medallions bedecked the frieze, and reliefs or
+paintings the walls; ceilings were gay with stucco or coloured work,
+and the floors with glittering mosaics. All the architectural
+framework, supports, thresholds, lintels, mouldings, windows, and even
+gutters were overloaded with decorative figures."
+
+It was above all in plastic art that the contemporary world was
+enormously rich. Not only could no public building dispense with such
+decorations as those above mentioned; no private house of the least
+pretensions was without its statues, busts, statuettes, carved
+reliefs, and stucco-work. Never was statuary in marble or bronze so
+plentiful in every part of the empire, in public squares, or in the
+houses of representative people--in reception-hall, peristyle court,
+garden, or colonnade. Portrait statues in the largest towns were to be
+counted by hundreds, and sometimes by thousands. Men distinguished in
+war, in letters, in public life, and in local benefactions were as
+regularly commemorated by statues or busts as they are in modern times
+by painted portraits. Sometimes--unlike the modern portraits of
+course--these were paid for by the recipient of the compliment. In the
+comparatively unimportant Forum of Pompeii there stood five colossal
+statues, between seventy and eighty life-size equestrian statues, and
+as many standing figures, while the public buildings surrounding this
+open space contained their dozen or twenty each. As has been said
+already, most of the best work in sculpture--apart from these bronze
+and marble portraits of contemporaries--was reproduction of Grecian
+masterpieces dating from the time of Pheidias onward. Particularly did
+the Roman affect the more elaborate work of the period of the later
+"Macedonian" kings. Where the actual work was not exactly copied it at
+least supplied the main conception or motive. It followed naturally
+that there would be in existence many copies of the same piece, and,
+in procuring these, both the public and the householder would feel
+relieved of any danger of betraying the wrong taste. The workshops or
+studios of Greek artists turned out large numbers of a given
+masterpiece--a Faun, a Venus, or a Discobolus--at prices from £50 or
+so upwards. It followed also that there were numerous imitations
+passed off as originals, and many a wealthy man boasted of possessing
+an "original" or a genuine "old master"--a Praxiteles or a
+Lysippus--when he owned but a clever reproduction. The same remark
+applies, not only to the statues, but to the genre-groups and animal
+forms of which such fine examples can be seen in the Vatican Museum,
+and also to silver cups by "Mentor" or to bronzes of Corinth.
+Petronius, the coarse but witty "arbiter of taste" under Nero, mocks
+at the vulgar _nouveau riche_ who imagined that the Corinthian bronzes
+were the work of an artist named Corinthus.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 117.--WALL-PAINTING. (Woman with Tablets.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 118.--WALL-PAINTING FROM HERCULANEUM. (Women
+playing with Knuckle-Bones.)]
+
+Next to sculpture came painting, and in this art Romans themselves
+appear to have often acquired a technical skill which rivalled that of
+the Greeks. There is also plenty of evidence that among the pictorial
+artists there were no few women. For us practically the only painting
+of the time which has been preserved is that upon the walls of private
+houses, and it is probable that we see some of the worst specimens of
+the kind as well as some of a high order of excellence. It is not
+difficult to distinguish between the truly artistic design and
+colouring of wall-pictures in the House of Vettii or of the "Tragic
+Poet" and the crude journeyman work in sundry other Pompeian houses
+which must have belonged to anything but connoisseurs. Paintings, it
+must be remembered, were the ancient wall-papers, as well as the
+ancient pictures. Here, as in sculpture, we find the same or similar
+motives and groupings repeated in a way which shows that the
+painter--or rather the collaborating painters--must have been
+reproducing or adapting an original which was particularly admired or
+had obtained a fashionable vogue. The wall-pictures, done in fresco or
+distemper and in various dimensions, fall into four main classes.
+There are landscapes, from a pretty realistic garden scene to a
+fantastic stretch of sea and land diversified with woods, rocks,
+figures, and buildings. There are subjects from mythology and from
+poetical "history" or legend, chiefly representing "moments of
+dramatic interest." There are genre-pictures, such as those of the
+Cupids acting as goldsmiths, oil-dealers, or wine-merchants. Finally
+there are pictures of still-life--of fishes, birds, fruits, and other
+objects--often admirable in their kind. Serving as frame or setting to
+many of the scenes there are architectural paintings--sometimes in
+complicated but highly skilful perspective, but often extremely unreal
+and confusing in conception--representing columns and pediments of
+buildings. It must here suffice to offer one or two characteristic
+examples out of the multitude of wall-paintings which have been found
+(see also Figs. 43, 44).
+
+Though Romans themselves, and even persons of standing, sometimes
+dabbled in the fine arts, it is unquestionable that they commonly
+regarded the professional artist as only a superior tradesman. They
+admired his skill, but rendered little esteem to the man. A Roman
+knight or a Roman lady might occasionally paint for pleasure; Nero
+himself might model a figure or handle a brush; but so soon as art
+ceased to be dilettante and became a calling, so soon as its work was
+produced for payment, the artist ranked with other hirelings, however
+superior he might be in kind. Seneca expresses an open contempt,
+although he is perhaps, here as elsewhere, judging by a standard more
+severe than that of his contemporaries in general. To some extent this
+attitude is explained by the very abundance of objects of art, and by
+the immense number of artists, now nameless, belonging to the period;
+it is also to some extent excused by the fact that the craftsmanship,
+however consummate, was not at this period accompanied by the
+originality of the great Greek times from which it borrowed. Much of
+the work--particularly perhaps in painting and metal-chasing--was done
+by slaves. Apart from this consideration, the studios were so numerous
+and taught so well, that there must have been thousands of persons
+working either alone or co-operatively, whose position, however
+excellent the performance, became analogous to that of a
+house-decorator. On a wall to be painted in fresco a number of
+painters would be employed together. Throughout the Roman world,
+wherever works of art were wanted, the professional would travel,
+often with his assistants, and take up a contract. In modern parlance,
+the communities requiring some monument of art "called for tenders"
+and were prone to accept the lowest.
+
+Whatever abundance of art the Roman world cultivated and possessed;
+however indispensable to a public place was a wealth of buildings with
+lavish decoration of sculptured pillars, of statues, or of triumphal
+arches; however necessary to a private house were originals, supposed
+originals, and copies in the way of statuary, paintings, bronzes,
+mosaics, and other means of artistic adornment; it is very doubtful
+whether any large number of Romans entertained that spontaneous
+enjoyment of the beauty of art which is known as genuine "artistic
+feeling." In their literature we look in vain for any expression of
+enthusiasm on the subject. There are many references to works of art,
+but none which possess any intense glow of warmth. Doubtless art was
+so abundant that, as has already been said in reference to the
+appreciation of natural beauty, the absence of "gush" need not
+indicate absence of real enjoyment. Enjoyment there was, but it was
+apparently for the most part the enjoyment either of the collector or
+of the man who realises that an appreciation of art demands a large
+place in culture, and who is determined to be as well supplied and as
+well informed as his neighbour, while his judgment of a piece of work,
+though far from unintelligent, and often excellent in regard to
+principles of design and technical execution, is mainly the result of
+a deliberate training and cult, and is in consequence somewhat chill
+and detached.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 119.--LYRE AND HARP.]
+
+Of music the Romans were passionately fond, but the music itself was
+of a description which perhaps would hardly commend itself to modern
+notions, particularly those of northern Europe. The instruments in use
+were chiefly the harp, the lyre, and the flageolet (or flute played
+with a mouthpiece). To these we may add for processions the straight
+trumpet and the curved horn, and, for more orgiastic occasions or
+celebrations, the panpipes, cymbals, and tambourine or kettledrum.
+Performers from the East played upon certain stringed instruments not
+greatly differing from the lyre and harp of Greece and Italy. Women
+from Cadiz used the castagnettes. Hydraulic organs with pipes and keys
+were coming into vogue, and the bagpipes were also sufficiently
+familiar. In the use of all these instruments the ancients knew
+nothing of the harmonisation of parts; to them harmony and concerto
+implied no more than unison, or a difference of octaves. Whatever
+emotions may have been evoked by the music so produced, it cannot be
+imagined that they were of the intensity or subtlety of which the
+modern art and instruments are capable. Apart from the professionals,
+many Roman youths and the majority of Roman girls learned both to play
+and Sing, the instrument most affected being the harp, and the teacher
+of harp-playing being held in the highest esteem and receiving the
+highest emoluments. Sacrifices were regularly accompanied by the
+flageolet; processions by this and the trumpet; the rites of Bacchus
+by pipes, tambourines, and cymbals; performances in the theatre by an
+immense orchestra of various instruments; the more elaborate dinners
+by flute, harp, concerto of the two, singing, and such coarser and
+more exciting performances as were to the taste of the host or his
+company. The greatest houses kept their own choir and orchestra of
+slaves; the less wealthy hired musicians as they needed them. As for
+the Romans themselves, certain religious ceremonies called for singing
+of boys and girls in chorus; and in a purely domestic way the women of
+the house played on the harp and sang. Where there was singing, the
+words dominated the music and not the contrary, but snatches from
+recent popular pieces were sung and hummed in the streets for the sake
+of their taking air, just as they are in modern times. We cannot
+conceive of any Roman festivity without abundance of music. When in
+spring at Baiae on the Bay of Naples the holiday frequenters of that
+resort were rowed about the Lucrine Lake in their flower-bedecked
+gondolas or boats with coloured sails, the musicians were no less in
+evidence than they are now at every opportunity on the waters of the
+same bay or in the evening on the Grand Canal at Venice. In the truly
+Greek portion of the empire music, though no more advanced in method,
+was for the most part of a finer and severer kind; but at
+Alexandria--where it amounted to a mania--the influence of the native
+Egyptian style, blent with the more passionate among the Greek modes,
+had produced a music extremely exciting and highly demoralising.
+
+On the whole, it may reasonably be held that music played at least as
+important a part both in the houses and the public entertainments of
+the ancient Romans as it plays in modern Italy. The artists were as
+carefully trained, the audiences as critical or as receptive, the
+personal affectations of the musicians as characteristic, and their
+effect on emotional admirers of the opposite sex as great, as they are
+at the present day. The difference between the two ages consists in
+the nature of the music itself, and in the instruments through which
+it is respectively delivered; and in these respects the advantage is
+entirely with the modern world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+Whatever conceptions may have been entertained as to existence beyond
+the grave, there was no doubt in the Roman mind as to the claim of the
+dead to a proper burial and a worthy monument. It had once on a time
+been a matter of universal belief that the spirit which had departed
+from an unburied corpse could find no admittance to the company in the
+realms of Hades. It could not join "the majority" below. Originally no
+doubt the notion was simply that, as the body had not been consigned
+to the earth, the spirit also remained homeless above ground.
+Gradually this fancy shifted to the notion that, through neglect of
+burial, the dead man was dishonoured--he had no friends--and that his
+spirit was thereby disgraced and unworthy of reception by the powers
+beneath. It must therefore remain shivering on the near side of the
+river across which the grim Charon ferried the more fortunate souls.
+Even when the body had been decently buried, the spirit, though
+received into the gloomy realm, called for continued respect on the
+part of its friends on earth. Unless it received its periodical
+honours and was commemorated by a fitting sepulchre, it would meet
+with slights from other ghosts and would feel its position keenly.
+Naturally it would then do its best, by some form of haunting, to
+punish the living for their disregard and forgetfulness. From such
+considerations there arose in very ancient days in Italy, as in
+Greece, a great anxiety to perform scrupulously "the dues" of the
+defunct. Even if the body could not be found, it was obligatory to
+perform the obsequies and to build a cenotaph. If a stranger came
+across a dead body he must not pass it by without throwing at least
+three handfuls of dust or earth upon it and bidding it "Farewell."
+
+Though the burial customs still employed sprang from old fancies like
+these, we are not to suppose that such notions were in full life in
+the Roman world of our period. Poets might play with them, and some
+ignorant folk might still vaguely entertain them. The mere belief in
+ghosts was doubtless general, and even the learned argued the question
+of their existence. Here are parts of another letter culled from Pliny
+already several times quoted. He writes to his friend Sura: "I should
+very much like to know whether you think that apparitions actually
+exist, with a real shape of their own and a kind of supernatural
+power, or that it is only our fear which gives an embodiment to vain
+fancies. My own inclination is to believe in them, and chiefly because
+of an experience which, I am told, befell Curtius Rufus." He then
+speaks of a phantom form which prophesied that person's fortune.
+"Another occurrence, quite as wonderful and still more terrifying, I
+will relate as I was told it. There was at Athens a house which was
+roomy and commodious, but which bore an ill-name and was
+plague-stricken. In the silence of the night there was heard a sound
+of iron. On closer attention it proved to be a rattling of chains,
+first at a distance and then close at hand. Soon there appeared the
+spectre of an old man, miserably thin and squalid, with a long beard
+and unkempt hair. On his legs were fetters, and on his hands chains,
+which he kept shaking. In consequence the inhabitants spent horrible
+and sleepless nights; the sleeplessness made them ill, and, as their
+terror increased, the illness was followed by death.... As a result
+the house was deserted and totally abandoned to the ghost.
+Nevertheless it was advertised, on the chance that some one ignorant
+of all this trouble" (note the commercial morality) "might choose to
+buy it or rent it. To Athens there comes a philosopher named
+Athenodorus, who reads the placard. On hearing the price and finding
+it so cheap, he has his suspicions" (the ancient philosopher had his
+practical side), "makes enquiry, and learns the whole story. So far
+from being less inclined to hire it, he is only the more willing. On
+the approach of evening he gives orders for his couch to be made up in
+the front part of the house, and asks for his tablets, pencils, and a
+light. After dismissing his attendants to the back rooms, he applies
+all his attention, as well as his eyes and hand, steadily to his
+writing, for fear his mind, if unoccupied, might conjure up imaginary
+sounds and causeless fears. At first there was the same silence of the
+night as elsewhere; then there was a shaking of iron, a movement of
+chains. The philosopher refused to lift his eyes or stop his pencil;
+instead he braced up his mind so as to overcome his hearing. The noise
+grew louder; it approached; it sounded as if on the threshold; then as
+if within the room. He looks behind him; sees and recognises the
+apparition of which he has been told. It was standing and beckoning to
+him with its finger, as if calling him. In answer our friend makes it
+a sign with his hand to wait a while, and once more applies himself to
+tablet and pencil. The ghost began to rattle its chains over his head
+while he was writing. He looks behind him again, sees it making the
+same signal as before, and promptly picks up the light and follows. It
+goes at a slow pace, as if burdened with chains, then, after turning
+into the open yard of the house, it suddenly vanishes and leaves him
+by himself. At this he gathers some grass and leaves, and marks the
+spot with them. The next day he goes to the magistrates and urges them
+to dig up the spot in question; and they find bones tangled with
+chains through which they were passed... These they put together and
+bury at the public charge. The spirit being thus duly, laid, the house
+was henceforward free of them."
+
+Whatever the Roman beliefs on this point, so far as funeral rites and
+ceremonies were concerned, they were carried out simply in accordance
+with custom and tradition. The Romans of this date no more analysed
+their motives and sentiments than we do ours in dealing with such
+matters. They honoured the dead with funeral pomp and conspicuous
+monument; but, at the bottom, it was often more out of respect for
+themselves than because they imagined that it made any difference to
+the departed. In a very early age it had been considered that the
+spirit led in the underworld a feeble replica of human existence: it
+required food, playthings, utensils, money, as well as consideration.
+Hence food was periodically poured into the ground, playthings and
+utensils were burned on the pyre or laid in the coffin, and money was
+placed in that most primitive of purses, the mouth. Conservatism is
+nowhere so strong as in rites and ceremonies, and therefore the Romans
+continued to burn and bury articles along with the remains of the
+dead, and they continued to put a coin in the mouth before the burial.
+But it would be absurd to suppose that an intelligent Roman of our
+date would have offered the original and ancient motives for this
+conduct as rational motives still actuating himself. Enough that
+convention expected certain proceedings as "due" and "proper": a true
+Roman would not fail to perform what convention decreed.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 120.--"CONCLAMATIO" OF THE DEAD.]
+
+Our friend the elder Silius dies a natural death, after completing the
+fullest public career. His family has its full share of both affection
+and pride, and therefore his obsequies will be worthy of his character
+and standing. When his Greek physician Hermogenes assures the watching
+family that life is departing, Marcia or Publius or Bassa will
+endeavour to catch the last breath with a kiss, and will then close
+the eyelids. Upon this all those who are present will call "Silius!
+Silius! Silius!" The original motive of this cry--which has its modern
+parallel in the case of a dead Pope--was to make sure that the man was
+actually dead and beyond reply. This point made certain, the
+professional undertaker is called in and instructed to take charge of
+all the proceedings usual in such cases. It is he who will provide the
+persons who are to wash and anoint the body and lay it in state, and
+also, on the day of the procession, the musicians, the wailing-women,
+the builders of the funeral pyre, and others who may be necessary,
+together with the proper materials and accessories. He will further
+see that the name of Quintus Silius Bassus is registered in the
+death-roll in the temple of "Juno the Death-Goddess," and that the
+registration fee is paid. The name will also appear in the next issue
+of the "Daily News." The body, anointed so as to preserve it till the
+third day, and dressed in the toga--which will be that of the highest
+position he ever occupied--is laid in state in the high
+reception-hall, with the feet pointing to the door. On the bier are
+wreaths, by it is burning a pan of incense, in or before the vestibule
+is placed a cypress tree or a number of cypress branches for warning
+information to the public.
+
+On the day next but one after death the contractor, attended by
+subordinates dressed in black, marshals his procession. Though it is
+daytime, the procession will be accompanied by torches--another piece
+of conservatism reminiscent of the time when funerals took place at
+night, as they still did with children and commonly with the lower
+orders. First go the musicians, playing upon flageolet, trumpet, or
+horn; behind these, professional wailing-women, who raise loud
+lamentation and beat their breasts. Next come the wax-masks, already
+mentioned, of the distinguished ancestors of the Silii. These, which
+are life-like portraits, have been taken out of their cupboards in the
+wing of the reception-hall, and are worn over their faces by men of a
+build as nearly as possible resembling that of the ancestors
+represented. Each man also wears the insignia of the character for
+whom he stands. The more of such "effigies" a house could produce, the
+greater its glory. Such, however, was not the original purpose of this
+part of the procession, for--though it had doubtless been generally
+forgotten--the intention was to represent the deceased as being
+conducted into the underworld by an honourable company already
+established there. After the effigies comes that which would
+correspond to our hearse. It is, however, no hearse of the modern
+kind, but a bier or couch with the usual embellishment of ivory and
+with covers of purple worked with gold. On this the body lies, open to
+the sky, like that of Juliet. The bearers are either relatives or such
+slaves as have been set free under Silius's last will. Behind come the
+nearest relatives or heirs, the freedmen, friends, and clients, all
+clothed in black, except the women, who are in white, without colour
+or gold upon their dress. Young Publius will walk with his head
+covered by his toga; Bassa with her hair loose and dishevelled. The
+whole party will utter lamentations, though under more restraint than
+those of the professional women in front.
+
+Silius having been a senator and a man of other official standing, the
+procession passes from the Caelian Hill along the Sacred Way to the
+Forum, as far as the Rostra or speaking-platform. There the bier is
+set down, the "ancestors" seat themselves on the folding-stools which
+were the old-fashioned chairs of the higher officers, and one of the
+relatives delivers an oration in praise, not only of Silius, but of
+his family as represented in the ancestors.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 121.--TOMB OF CAECILIA METELLA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 122.--STREET OF TOMBS. (POMPEII.)]
+
+The procession then forms again, and the party proceeds to whatever
+place outside the walls may contain the family tomb of the Silii. No
+burial is allowed within the city proper, and for our purposes we will
+assume that the place is distant nearly a mile along the Appian Way.
+We will assume also that Silius is to be cremated, and not simply
+buried in a coffin or a marble sarcophagus. Few persons of the higher
+classes, except certain of the Cornelii, are buried at this date,
+although there is nothing in law or custom to prevent the choice.
+There exists no "crematorium," and the Silii are regularly burned at
+their own sepulchral allotment beside the "Queen of Roads."
+
+If you were with the procession on this day you would find yourself
+before one of an almost continuous chain of monuments, built in all
+manner of shapes and sizes--such as great altars, small shrines,
+pyramids (like that of Cestius on another road), or round towers like
+the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella. The exterior of these
+structures is often adorned with commemorative or symbolic carvings,
+and the inside, which may be wholly above the surface or partly sunk
+beneath--is a chamber surrounded by niches, in which are placed the
+urns containing the ashes of the dead. Perhaps an illustration of the
+present state of the "Street of Tombs" at Pompeii will afford some
+notion, although the sepulchres of that provincial place by no means
+matched those upon the various roads outside the Roman gates. Often
+the monumental chamber stands somewhat back from the road, leaving
+space for a large semicircular seat of stone open to public use, its
+back wall being inscribed with some statement of honour to the family.
+Round the sepulchre--"where all the kindred of the Silii lie" is a
+space of ground, planted with shrubs and trees, and surrounded by a
+low wall. Somewhere near, on an open level, the funeral pile has been
+built of pine-logs, with the interstices stuffed with pitch,
+brushwood, or other inflammable material. It is natural that the pyre
+should take the shape of an altar and that cypress branches should
+lean against the sides.
+
+Upon the summit of this pile is laid Silius on his bier; incense and
+unguents are shed over him; wreaths and other offerings, often of no
+little value, are cast upon the heap. While loud cries of lamentation
+are being raised by the company present, a near kinsman approaches the
+pile with a torch, and, turning his face away, sets fire to the whole
+structure. It speedily burns down, the last embers are quenched with
+wine, the general company thrice cries "farewell," and, except for the
+nearest relatives, the procession returns to the city. The relatives
+who stay take off their shoes, wash their hands, and proceed to gather
+up the bones--which they cleanse in wine and milk--and the ashes,
+which they mix with perfume. These remains are then placed in the urn
+of bronze, marble, alabaster, or maybe of coloured glass, and the urn
+fills one more niche in the chamber of the monument.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 123.--COLUMBARIUM.]
+
+Now and then there were more magnificent obsequies than those of
+Silius. A "public" funeral might be decreed to a man who had deserved
+conspicuously well of the state. On such an occasion the crier would
+go round, calling "Oyez, come all who choose to the funeral of
+So-and-So." The invitation meant, not merely participation in a solemn
+procession, but also in the funeral feast, and probably an exhibition
+of gladiators. On the other hand the majority of burials were
+naturally of a far more simple and inexpensive kind. The poor could
+not afford to use unguents and keep their dead till the third day;
+they could not afford real cypress trees, but must use cheaper
+substitutes, if anything at all. They could not afford all the
+processionists and paraphernalia of the undertaker, but must be
+satisfied with four commonplace bearers, who hurried away the corpse
+in the evening, not on a couch but in a cheap box, and carried it out
+to the common necropolis beyond the Esquiline Gate. Seldom could they
+afford the fuel to burn the body, and in many cases it must simply be
+thrown into a pit roughly dug and there left without monument. To
+secure more respect and decency there were many burial clubs, whether
+connected with the trade-guilds or not, and these procured a joint
+tomb of the kind known as a "dovecote," or columbarium, from the
+resemblance of its niches to so many pigeon-holes. These cooperative
+sepulchres were underground vaults, and it is perhaps hardly necessary
+to point out their direct relation to the Christian catacombs. Similar
+tombs were sometimes used by the great Roman families for the remains
+of the freedmen and slaves of their house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 124.--TEMPLE OF JUPITER ON THE CAPITOL (Platform
+omitted).]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Actors, contempt for, 268
+Advertisements, 257
+Aemilia, Basilica, 108
+Africa, 45
+Age, coming of, 332
+Agriculture, implements of, 252
+Alexander the Great, 34
+Alexandria, 14, 25, 34, 44
+Amphitheatres, 280
+  performances, 282
+Amulets, 318
+Andalusia, 36
+Antioch, 14, 43
+Appian Way, 22, 118
+Aqueducts, 136
+Architecture, 112, 422-424
+Argiletum, the, 108
+Aristocrat, clients of, 206
+  daily life of, 193
+  dress of, 196
+  as pleader in law-courts, 216
+  social duties of, 217
+Army, the, 12, 52, 338-358
+  artillery, 356
+  auxiliaries, 352
+  camping arrangements, 349
+  cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+  composition, 339
+  dress and equipment, 342
+  Imperial Guards, 353
+  infantry, 339, 352
+  legionaries, 339
+  pay and rations, 344
+  promotion, 347
+  terms of service, 340
+  training, 340, 345
+  typical soldier's life, 342-350
+Art, 416-433
+  apparent lack of artistic feeling, 429
+  contempt for professional artists, 428
+  influence of Greece, 421
+  profession and quality of, 416-420
+  statues, 418, 424
+  wall-paintings, 425-428
+Artemis, temple of, 42
+Artillery, 356
+Asia Minor, towns of, 42
+Astronomy, 359
+Athens, 40
+Athletics, 263
+Auctioneers, receipt tablets of, 250
+Augustus, title of emperor, 55
+Augustus, Forum of, 188
+  mausoleum of, 120
+Authors, amateur, 219, 235
+
+Baetica (_see_ Andalusia)
+Bakers, 248
+Bandits, 24
+Banking, 216, 239
+Basilica Aemilia, 108
+  of Julius, 106
+Baths, 122, 124
+Beard, method of wearing, 195
+Beds, 182
+Beggars, 243
+Betrothal ceremony, 296
+Boadicea, 39
+Books, size and shape of, 335-337
+Booksellers, 109, 247
+Boots (_see_ Shoes)
+Boxing-gloves, 265
+Breakfast, 200
+Britain, 39
+Burial, 434-447
+  funeral rites, 439-445
+  offerings to the dead, 438
+  tombs, 444, 446
+
+Caligula, 73, 95, 115, 234
+Camps, military, 349
+Campus Martius, the, 120
+Carpets, absence of, 180
+Carriages, 19
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+Census of Augustus, 85
+Chariot-races, 263, 274, 280
+  colours in, 274, 278
+  horses, 275
+  prizes, 278
+  procession of chariots, 277
+Charts, 18
+Chemistry, 402
+Children:
+  ceremony at birth and naming, 317
+  coming of age, 332
+  early life, 319
+  education, 320-335
+  parental power over, 315-317
+  privileges of parents, 314
+  registration, 318
+Christians, earlier tolerance towards, 383
+  their subsequent persecution, 79, 384-387
+Circus Maximus, 128, 173
+Citizens: as clients of the wealthy, 206
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+  freed slaves may become, 204
+  rights of, 56, 92
+Civilisation, Roman, 30
+  Greek, 32
+  Asiatic, 33
+_Claqueurs_, in law-courts, 217
+  in theatres, 273
+  Nero's use of, 77
+Class distinctions, 66
+Clients, 206, 222, 245
+  dinner to, 235
+  escort to patron, 211
+  literary, 208
+Cloaks, 220
+Clocks, water, 192
+"Colony," formation of, 84
+Columbarium, joint sepulchre, 447
+Commerce, 36
+Concord, Temple of, 105
+Concrete, extensive use of, in building, 138
+Consulship, the, 359
+Cook-shops, 258
+Corinth, 40
+Corn, monthly allowances of, 242
+  corn-lands, 45
+Couches, 181, 226
+Cremation, 445
+Crops, rotation of, 252
+Customs duties, 87
+Cynics, the, 412
+
+Damascus, 44
+Dancing girls, 232
+Dead, offerings to the, 438
+Decoration, house, 150, 164
+  in theatres, 267
+Deities, festivals of, 261
+  household, 376
+  official duties to, 374
+  variety of, 362, 366, 368
+Delphi, 40
+Dicing, 232, 258
+Dinners:
+  conversation and entertainment at, 231, 235
+  description of, 229, 234
+  exaggerated accounts, 228
+  extravagance of Court, 234
+  to clients, 235
+  wine at, 233
+Dissection, human, prohibition of, 404
+Divorce, 304
+Doles of corn and money, 242
+Doors, 145
+Dowry, 299
+Drainage, 161
+Drama, low level of the, 268, 270
+Dress:
+  distinctions of, 65
+  for dinner, 226
+  hats, 212
+  mantles, 221, 274
+  military, 342
+  toga, 197, 332
+  theatrical, 269
+  typical aristocrat's, 196
+  women's, 308-313
+Druids, the, 382
+
+Education:
+  of boys, 321-326
+  of girls, 327
+  ideal of, 320
+  physical training, 331
+  primary and secondary, 327-331
+Egypt, 45
+Elections, municipal, 255
+Emblems, city, 47
+Emperor, the:
+  dependence upon the army, 52
+  nomination of Senators by, 60
+  powers of, 50
+  and the Senate, 57
+  symbolic character of statue, 386
+Empire, the Roman:
+  Eastern and Western halves, 35
+  extent, 6, 8
+  expeditions, 7
+  government, 9
+  military and naval forces, 12
+  provinces, 30
+  roads, 16
+  security under, 12
+Ephesus, 42
+Epicureans, the, 407-409
+Etiquette, exactions of, 217
+Euclid, 401
+
+Festivals, 261
+Field-glass, primitive, 275
+Fingers, use of, at meals, 228
+Fires, destructive, 98, 133
+Floors, 149, 180
+Flour-mills, 248
+Food, 200, 230, 258
+Foreigners, 67
+Forum, the, 102
+  public life in, 214
+"Free" towns, 90
+Freedmen, 204, 245
+  wealth of, 205
+Freethought, 378-381
+"Friends of Caesar," 211
+Frontiers, protection of, 12
+Fullers, 250
+Funeral rites, 439-445
+Furniture:
+  beds, 182
+  chairs and couches, 181
+  chests, 185
+  kitchen utensils, 189
+  lamps, 186
+  mirrors, 186
+  silver and glass ware, 188
+  tables, 183
+  tripods, 184
+
+Games, 214, 222, 232, 262
+Gaul, 37
+  tribes of, 38
+Geographical knowledge, 398-401
+Ghosts, belief in, 435-437
+Gladiators, 264, 280, 282, 285-288
+  female spectators at combats, 288
+"Golden House," the, 116
+"Golden Milestone," the, 105
+Goldsmiths, 250
+Government, system of, 49
+   emperor, 50
+   "knights," 63
+  provinces, 82-95
+  Senate, 56
+  tribunes, 53
+Governors, provincial, dress of, 93
+  duties, 91
+  emoluments, 94
+Greece, indebtedness to, 32
+  influence of art of, 421
+  language and culture, 34
+  scientific thought, 397
+Greeks, prominence of, 67
+Greeting, manner of 211
+Guards, Imperial, 353
+Guides, professional, 19
+Guilds, _trade_, 254
+
+Hair, method of wearing, 37, 195 298, 311
+Hairpins, 311
+Hats, 212
+Health resorts, 174
+Heating, domestic, 161
+Holidays, 254
+  number of, 260
+Homestead, country, 169
+Horses, in chariot-races, 275
+Hotels, scarcity of, 22
+Hour of rising, 195
+House, country, 175-179
+House, typical town, 143-163
+  decoration, 150, 164
+  dining-rooms, 155
+  doors, 145
+  exterior, 144
+  floors, 149
+  garden, 154, 156
+  hall, 148
+  heating system, 161
+  kitchen, 156
+  library and picture-gallery, 158
+  lighting, 145, 150, 153, 160, 186
+  peristyle, 154
+  reception-room, 153
+  roofs, 141, 162
+  shrine, 157, 376
+  water-supply and drainage, 160
+  vestibule, 146
+Houses, 131
+  height of, 131, 139
+  lighting of, 141
+  tenement blocks,140
+
+Imperial Guards, 353
+Infantry, 339, 352
+Inns, 20
+Instruments, musical, 430
+Interest, rates of, 239
+Isis-worship, 373
+Italy, 30
+
+Janitors, 209
+Janus, Temple of, 110
+Jerusalem, 14, 44
+Jewelry, female love of, 297, 312
+Jews, colony of,  67
+  rebellious among, 10
+  toleration shown to, 382
+Jove, Temple of, 105
+Julius, Basilica of, 106
+Jurymen, 217
+Juvenal, on marriage, 293
+
+Kissing, excessive, 211
+Kitchens, 156, 170, 189
+"Knights," order of:
+  composition, 63
+  dress, 66
+  occupations, 238
+  privileges, 64
+Knives and forks, absence of, 189, 228
+
+Lamps, 186
+Land-tax, 85
+Land-travelling, 16-25
+Language, 32, 36, 91
+  of the people, 258
+  predominance of the Greek, 34
+Law-courts, pleaders in, 216
+ president and jury, 217
+Learning, tastes in, 398
+Legacies, 314
+Legions, number and name of, 341
+  strength, 339
+Life, social, aristocratic, 193-237
+  middle and lower class, 238-259
+Literature, 394-396
+  literary dependants, 208
+Litter, 211
+Loafers, 241
+Local government, 89
+Lugdunum (Lyons), 14, 38
+Luncheon, 219
+
+Macedonia, 40
+Marriage, 220
+  betrothal ceremony, 296
+  divorce, 304
+  dowry, 299
+  festivities, 300
+  two forms of, 290
+  Juvenal on, 293
+  legal age for, 294
+  not based on love, 292, 294
+  matrimonial freedom, 291
+  morganatic, 295
+  wedding ceremony, 297
+Mars, Temple of, 118
+Martial on country life, 172
+Masks:
+  at funerals, 152, 440
+  theatrical, 268
+Mathematics, 401
+Mausoleum of Augustus, 120
+Meals:
+  breakfast, 200
+  luncheon, 219
+  dinner, 226, 229
+Medicine, 403
+Mediterranean Sea, 46
+Milestones, 18, 28
+Mines, 37
+Mirrors, 186
+Money-lending, 238
+Morals, 378
+Municipal elections, 255
+Music, as part of education, 331, 341
+  fondness for, 430
+  instruments, 430
+Mysticism, 372
+
+Names, family, 194
+  of slaves, 204
+Navy, 12
+Nero:
+  musical eccentricities of, 78
+  persecution of Christians by, 79, 383, 387
+  personal appearance, 80, 213
+  powers vested in, 55, 71
+  reception by, 213
+  reign, 74
+  vices and follies 75, 116
+New Year's Day, 262
+News-sheets, official, 215
+Noises, street, 134, 195
+
+Oath of obedience, military, 342
+Officials, public, 358
+Oratory, school of, 329
+Ornament, architectural, 112, 423
+
+Paintings, wall, 325-328
+Palatine Hill, 115
+Pantheon, the, 121
+Papyri, 336
+Passes, Alpine, 39
+Patriotism, municipal, 90
+Paul, St., 34, 42, 80, 197, 383, 413
+_Pax Romana_, the 9, 12
+Pedigrees, 152
+"People," the, 67, 241
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+Person-tax, 87
+Philosophy, study of, 332-335, 380
+Pipes, lead, 160
+Pliny the elder, literary industry of, 390-392
+Pliny the younger, 236, 294, 305, 321, 392, 435
+Plutarch, 334, 395
+Police, soldiers as, 14
+Polytheism, 364
+Population of the city, 101
+Portugal, 37
+Present-giving, prominence of, 262
+Priests, 361
+Processions:
+  chariot, 227
+  funeral, 440
+  wedding, 300
+Proconsuls, 93
+Provinces, 30
+  civilisation of, 31
+  commerce, 36
+  contributions by, 85
+  distinctions between, 35
+  government, 82-95
+  language, 32
+Public service, 358-360
+Publicans (tax-collectors), 89, 240
+
+Record Office, the, 105
+Religion, 333, 361-387
+  attitude of state towards, 361-364, 370
+  conservatism in, 364, 368
+  free-thought, 378-381
+  mixed elements, 370
+  mysticism in, 372
+  polytheistic character of, 364
+  priests, 361
+  private observances, 375
+  superstitions in, 371
+  tolerance in, 381
+  treatment of Christians, 383-387
+Rhodes, 42
+Rings, 200
+Roads, military, 16
+  construction and upkeep, 18
+  variety of traffic, 22
+Rome in A.D., 64
+  appearance, 96-100
+  baths, 122
+  extent and population, 100-102
+  habits of the people, 102
+  public buildings, 102-129
+  streets, 130-138
+  theatres, 123
+Roofs 141, 162
+Rostra, the, 104
+
+Sandals, 309
+Saturn, Temple of, 105
+Saturnalia, the, 261
+Schools, 321-331
+Science, 396-405
+Sculpture, 418, 424
+Sea-travelling, 25-28
+Senate, the, 56, 71
+  imperial nomination to, 60
+  qualifications for membership, 59
+  relations with the emperor, 57, 72
+  senators' dress, 65
+  training of members, 62
+Senate-House, the, 109
+Seneca, 395
+Sewers, 130
+Ships, 26
+Shoes, 197,310
+Shops, 133, 141, 222
+Shrine, household 159, 376
+Sidon, 44
+Signs, trade, 251
+Slaves, 68, 206, 211, 240
+  citizenship bestowed on, 204
+  domestic, 201
+  dress, 202
+  licence at Saturnalia, 261
+  as musicians, 431
+  names, 204
+  occupations, 246
+  treatment, 203
+Smyrna, 42
+Snails, breeding of, 46
+Social life, of aristocrats, 193-237
+  of middle and lower classes, 238-259
+Spain, 36
+Spoons, 228
+Sports, 178, 263
+Statues, 418, 424
+Stoics, the, 409-412
+Strabo, 379
+Streets, 130
+  narrowness of, 132
+  noisiness, 134, 195
+  paving, 137
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Suicide, attitude regarding, 23
+Sun-dials, 191
+Superstitions, 371
+Surgery, 404
+
+Tarragona, 37
+Tarsus, 42
+Taxes:
+  collection 89, 240
+  farming of, 239
+  land, 85
+  miscellaneous 88
+  personal, 87
+Temple, description of, 123, 265
+Temples: of
+  Concord, 105
+  Janus, 110
+  Jove, 105
+  Mars, 118
+  Saturn, 105
+  Vesta, 114
+Theatres, 123, 265
+  actors' status 268
+  _claqueurs_, 273
+  compared with Greek, 266
+  curtain, 267
+  decoration, 267
+  masks and dresses, 268
+  music and dancing, 270
+  plays performed, 268, 270-273
+  scenery, 267
+  seats, 267
+  women's presence not encouraged, 266
+Tiles, 157, 162
+Time, method of telling, 192
+Toga:
+  colours of 218
+  compulsory use on formal occasions 198
+  distinctive meaning of, 197, 214
+Toleration, religious, 381
+Tombs, 253, 444
+Trade guilds 254
+  signs, 251
+Trade routes, 27
+Travelling, land and sea:
+  accommodation, 20
+  dangers 24, 29
+  modes, 19
+  period and routes, 25
+  speed, 25, 28
+"Tribunes of the commons," 53
+Tunics, 196, 308
+Tyre, 44, 45
+
+Utensils, kitchen, 189
+
+Vehicles, 19
+Vesta, Temple of, 114
+
+Water-clocks, 192
+Water-supply, 135, 160
+Wedding ceremony, 297
+Wild-beast fights, 282, 284
+Windows, 141, 145, 150, 60
+Wine, 233, 241
+Women:
+  fondness for jewelry, 297, 312
+  divorce, 304
+  domestic virtues, 307
+  dowry, 299
+  dress, 308-313
+  marriageable age, 294
+  position after marriage, 289, 301
+  presence at theatres not encouraged, 266
+  property after marriage, 299, 302
+  types of, 302, 306
+Working-classes, the, 214
+  competition with slave-labour 246
+  dress and food 258
+  language 258
+  life of 253, 256
+  professions all ranked among, 258
+Writing materials, 323, 337
+
+Youths:
+  coming of age of 218, 382
+  military training, 338
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12875 ***
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #12875 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12875)
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul,
+by T. G. Tucker
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul
+
+Author: T. G. Tucker
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2004  [eBook #12875]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO
+AND ST. PAUL***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL
+
+by
+
+T. G. TUCKER
+
+1924
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The reception accorded to my _Life in Ancient Athens_ has led me to
+write the present companion work with an eye to the same class of
+readers. In the preface to the former volume it was said: "I have
+sought to leave an impression true and sound, so far as it goes, and
+also vivid and distinct. The style adopted has therefore been the
+opposite of the pedantic, utilizing any vivacities of method which are
+consistent with truth of fact." The same principles have guided me in
+the present equally unpretentious treatise. I agree entirely with Mr.
+Warde Fowler when he says: "I firmly believe that the one great hope
+for classical learning and education lies in the interest which the
+unlearned public may be brought to feel in ancient life and thought."
+
+For the general reader there is perhaps no period in the history of
+the ancient world which is more interesting than the one here chosen.
+Yet, so far as I know, there exists no sufficiently popular work
+dealing with this period alone and presenting in moderate compass a
+clear general view of the matters of most moment. My endeavour has
+been to represent as faithfully as possible the Age of Nero, and
+nowhere in the book is it implied that what is true for that age is
+necessarily as true for any other. The reader who is not a special
+student of history or antiquities is perhaps as often confused by
+descriptions of ancient life which cover too many generations as by
+those--often otherwise excellent--which include too much detail.
+
+I have necessarily consulted not only the Latin and Greek writers who
+throw light upon the time, but also all the best-known Standard works
+of modern date. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to state that in
+matters of contemporary government, administration, and public life my
+guides have been chiefly Mommsen, Arnold, and Greenidge; for social
+life Marquardt, Friedländer, and Becker-Göll; for topography and
+buildings Jordan, Hülsen, Lanciani, and Middleton; nor that the
+Dictionaries of Smith and of Daremberg and Saglio have been always at
+hand, as well as Baumeister's _Denkmäler_, and Guhl and Koner's _Life
+of the Greeks and Romans_. The admirable _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey has
+been, of course, indispensable. I have also derived profit from the
+writings of Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay in connexion with St. Paul, and
+from Conybeare and Howson's _Life and Epistles_ of the Apostle. Useful
+hints have been found in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Social Life in Rome in
+the Age of Cicero_, and in Prof. Dill's Roman_ Society from Nero to
+Marcus Aurelius_. A personal study of ancient sites, monuments, and
+objects of antiquity at Rome, Pompeii, and elsewhere has naturally
+been of prime value. Those intimately acquainted with the immense
+amount of the available material will best realize the difficulty
+there has been in deciding how much to say and how much to "leave in
+the inkstand."
+
+For the drawings other than those of which another source is specified
+I have to thank Miss M. O'Shea, on whom has occasionally fallen the
+difficult task of giving ocular form to the mental visions of one who
+happens to be no draughtsman. For the rest I make acknowledgment to
+those books from which the illustrations have been directly derived
+for my own purposes, without reference to more original sources.
+
+I am especially grateful for the permission to use so considerable a
+number of illustrations from the _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey, from
+Professor Waldstein's _Herculaneum_, and from Lanciani's _New Tales of
+Old Rome_.
+
+T.G.T.
+
+October 1909.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+CHAPTERS
+
+
+    I EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+   II TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+  III A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+   IV THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+    V NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+   VI ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+  VII ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+ VIII STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+   IX THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+    X THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+   XI ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+  XII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+ XIII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND
+      DINNER
+
+  XIV LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+   XV HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+  XVI THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+ XVII CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+XVIII THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+  XIX ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+   XX STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+  XXI PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+ XXII THE ROMAN PROFUSION OF ART
+
+XXIII THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+INDEX
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+FIG.
+
+Frontispiece
+
+      View into Roman Forum from Temple of Vesta, A.D. 64.
+      (Restoration partly after Auer, Hülsen, Tognetti, etc.).
+
+  1. The Pont du Gard (Aqueduct and Bridge).
+
+  2. The Appian Way by the so-called Tomb of Seneca (Laneiani, _New
+     Tales of Old Rome_).
+
+  3. Plan of Inn at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+  4. Ship beside the Quay at Ostia. (Hill, _Illustrations of School
+     Classics_, FIG. 498 ).
+
+  6. The Acropolis at Athens. (From D'Ooge).
+
+  7. Plan of Antioch.
+
+  8. Emblem of Antioch. (_Dict. of Geog_. i. 116 ).
+
+  9. Emblem of Alexandria. (Mau, _Pompeii_, Fig 187).
+
+ 10.  Emblem of Rome. (From the column of Antoninus at Rome).
+
+ 11.  Augustus as Emperor.
+
+ 12.  Coin of Nero. (In the British Museum).
+
+ 13.  Bust of Seneca. (_Archäiologische Zeitung_).
+
+ 14.  Agrippina, Mother of Nero. (Photo, Mansell & Co.).
+
+ 15.  Bust of Nero.
+
+ 16.  Some Remains of the Claudian Aqueduct.
+
+ 17.  The Rostra: back view. (Modified from Hülsen).
+
+ 18.  Ruins of Forum. (Record-Office in background with modern building
+      above.) (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 19.  N.E. of Forum, A.D. 64.  (Complementary to Frontispiece).
+
+ 20.  Temple of Fortuna Augusta at Pompeii. (Mau, FIG. 58).
+
+ 21.  So-called Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli.
+
+ 22.  Vestal Virgin. (Hill, FIG. 340 ).
+
+ 23.  Temple of Mars the Avenger in Forum of Augustus. (After
+      Ripostelli).
+
+ 24.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Present state).
+
+ 25.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Restored).
+
+ 26.  A Greek Exedra. (Baumeister).
+
+ 27.  Circus Maximus (restored). (Modified from Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 28.  Building Materials. (From Middleton).
+
+ 29.  Typical Scheme of Roman House.
+
+ 30.  Entrance to House of Pansa.
+
+ 31.  Interior of Roman House. (Restored).
+
+ 32.  House of Cornelius Rufus. (Mau, FIG. 121 ).
+
+ 33.  Peristyle with Garden and al fresco Dining-Table. (After Guhl and
+      Koner).
+
+ 34.  Peristyle in House of the Vettii. (Present state) (Mau, FIG.
+      162).
+
+ 35.  Kitchen Hearth in the House of the Vettii. (Mau, FIG. 125).
+
+ 36.  Cooking Hearths. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 672).
+
+ 37.  Shrine in House of the Tragic Poet. (Mau, FIG. 153 ).
+
+ 38.  Household Shrine.  (Hill, FIG. 345).
+
+ 38A. Leaden Pipes in House of Livia. (From a photograph).
+
+ 39.  Portable Braziers. (Daremberg and Saglio).
+
+ 40.  Manner of Roofing with Tiles.
+
+ 41.  House of Pansa at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 42.  House of the Vettii at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 43.  Specimen of Painted Room.
+
+ 44.  Specimen of Wall-Painting. (Mau, FIG. 264).
+
+ 45.  Plan of Homestead at Boscoreale. (After Mau).
+
+ 46.  Roman Folding Chair. (Schreiber).
+
+ 47.  Bronze Seat. (Overbeck).
+
+ 48.  Framework of Roman Couch. (Mau, FIG. 188).
+
+ 49.  Plan of Dining-Table with Three Couches.
+
+ 50.  Sigma.
+
+ 51.  Tripod from Herculaneum. (From Waldstein, _Herculaneum_, Plate
+      41).
+
+ 52.  Chest (Strong-box). (Mau, FIG. 120).
+
+ 53.  Mirrors. (Mau, FIG. 213).
+
+ 54.  Lamps. (Mau, FIG. 196).
+
+ 55.  Lampholder as Tree. (Mau, FIG. 202).
+
+ 56.  Cup from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 45).
+
+ 57.  Kitchen Utensils. (Mau, FIG. 204).
+
+ 58.  Pail from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 42).
+
+ 59.  Patrician Shoes.  (_Dict. Ant_. i. 335).
+
+ 60.  Roman in the Toga.  (Waldstein, Plate 18).
+
+ 61.  Slave in Fetters.
+
+ 62.  Litter. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 15).
+
+ 63.  Reading a Proclamation. (Mau, FIG. 17).
+
+ 64.  Sealed Receipt of Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 275).
+
+ 65.  Discus-Thrower. (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 66.  Stabian Baths.  (Mau, Plate 5).
+
+ 67.  Bathing Implements. (Mau, FIG. 209).
+
+ 68.  Acrobats. (Baumeister, i. 585).
+
+ 69.  Surgical Instruments. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 70.  Bakers' Mills. (Mau, FIG. 218).
+
+ 71.  Cupids as Goldsmiths. (Wall-Painting.)(Mau, FIG. 167).
+
+ 72.  Garland-Makers. (_Abhandlungen, historische-philologische
+      Classe Königlich Sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_).
+
+ 73.  Bust of Caecilius Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 256).
+
+ 74.  Ploughs. (Hill, FIG. 383; _Dict. Ant_. i. 160).
+
+ 75.  Tools on Tomb. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 243).
+
+ 76.  Pompeian Cook-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 131).
+
+ 77.  In a Wine-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 234).
+
+ 78.  Boxing-Gloves. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 329).
+
+ 79.  Theatre at Orange. (Restored.) (Baumeister, iii. 1742).
+
+ 80.  Theatre at Aspendus. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 81.  Tragic Actor. (Hill, FIG. 421).
+
+ 82.  Comic Masks. (Terence's _Andria_).
+
+ 83.  Scene from Comedy. (Hill, FIG. 422).
+
+ 84.  Plan of Circus.
+
+ 85.  The Turn in the Circus.
+
+ 86.  Chariot Race. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 434).
+
+ 87.  Amphitheatre at Pompeii. (Mau, Plate 6).
+
+ 88.  Barracks of Gladiators. (Mau, Plate 4).
+
+ 89.  Stocks for Gladiators. (Remains from Pompeii.) (Mau, FIG. 74).
+
+ 90.  Gladiators Fighting. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 91.  Toilet Scene. (Wall-Painting.) (Waldstein, Plate 32).
+
+ 92.  Woman in Full Dress. (Waldstein, Plate 7).
+
+ 93.  Hairpins. (Mau, FIG. 211).
+
+ 94.  Writing Materials.
+
+ 95.  Horsing a Boy. (After Sächs.) (Baumeister, iii. FIG. 1653).
+
+ 96.  Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's _Pompeii_).
+
+ 97.  Roman Standards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 98.  Armed Soldier.
+
+ 99.  A Roman General. (Hill, FIG. 465).
+
+100.  Centurion. (Hill, FIG. 466).
+
+101.  Standard-Bearer. (Hill, FIG. 470).
+
+102.  Baggage-Train. (Daremberg and Saglio, FIG. 1196).
+
+103.  Soldiers with Packs. (Seyffert, _Dict. Class. Ant_. p. 348).
+
+104.  Roman Soldiers Marching. (Schreiber).
+
+105.  Imperial Guards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+106.  Besiegers with the "Tortoise." (Hill, FIG. 481).
+
+107.  Roman Artillery. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 855).
+
+108.  Auxiliary Cavalryman. (_Dict. Ant_.  i. 790).
+
+109.  Jupiter. (Vatican Museum).
+
+110.  A Sacrifice. (Mau, FIG. 44).
+
+111.  Isis Worship. (Wall-Painting.) (Mau, FIG. 81).
+
+112.  Household Shrine. (Mau, FIG. 127).
+
+113.  The World (approximately) as conceived about A.D. 100.
+
+114.  The Dying Gaul.
+
+115.  A "Candeliera" or Marble Pilaster of the Basilica Aemilia
+      (Lanciani, _New Tales, etc._, p. 147).
+
+116.  Fragments of the Architecture of the Regia.  (Lanciani, p. 70).
+
+117.  Wall-Painting. (Woman with Tablets.) (Waldstein, _Herculaneum_,
+      Plate 35).
+
+118.  Wall-Painting from Herculaneum. (Women playing with
+      Knuckle-Bones.) (Waldstein, Plate 4).
+
+119.  Lyre and Harp.
+
+120.  "Conclamatio" of the Dead. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+121.  Tomb of Caecilia Metella.
+
+122.  Street of Tombs. (Mau, Plate 10).
+
+123.  Columbarium. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+124.  Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
+
+
+
+MAPS AND PLANS:
+
+      Map of Roman Empire, A.D. 64.
+
+      Plan of Rome with Chief Topographical Features.
+
+      Plan of Forum, A.D. 64.
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+The subject of this book is "Life in the Roman World of Nero and St.
+Paul." This is not quite the same thing as "Life in Ancient Rome" at
+the same date. Our survey is to be somewhat wider than that of the
+imperial city itself, with its public and private structures, its
+public and private life. The capital, and these topics concerning it,
+will naturally occupy the greater portion of our time and interest.
+But it is quite impossible to realise Rome, its civilisation, and the
+meaning of its monuments, unless we first obtain some general
+comprehension of the empire--the Roman world--with its component
+parts, its organisation and administration. The date is approximately
+anno Domini 64, although it is not desirable, even if it were
+possible, to adhere in every detail to the facts of that particular
+year. In A.D. 64 the Emperor Nero was at the height of his folly and
+tyranny, and, so far as our information goes, the Apostle Paul was
+journeying about the Roman world in the interval between his first and
+second imprisonments in the capital.
+
+One cannot, perhaps, achieve a wholly satisfying picture in a treatise
+of the present dimensions. It would require a very bulky volume to
+realise with any adequateness the ideal aim. It would be well if, in
+the first instance, we could imagine ourselves standing somewhere far
+aloft over the centre of the empire, and possessing as wide-ranging a
+vision as that of the Homeric gods. From that exalted standpoint we
+might gaze upon the active life of towns, upon the labourers working
+their lands from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the men who
+go down to the sea in ships and do their business in great waters. We
+should perceive their occupations and amusements, their material
+surroundings, their various dress and manners, their methods of
+travel, the degree of their personal safety and liberty. Then we
+should descend to earth in the middle of Rome itself, and become for
+the time being inhabitants of that city, privileged to take part in
+its public business and its public pleasures, to enter the houses of
+what may be called its representative citizens, to share in the
+various elements of its social day, and to estimate the moral,
+intellectual, and artistic cultivation of Roman society.
+
+Such would be the ideal. Here it must suffice, to select the most
+essential or interesting matters, and to present them with such
+vividness as the necessary brevity will permit. Very little
+preliminary knowledge will be taken for granted; the use of Latin or
+technical terms will be shunned, and every topic will be dealt with,
+as far as possible, in the plainest of English.
+
+Nevertheless, while aiming at entire lucidity, the following chapters
+will aim even more scrupulously at telling the truth. There are
+doubtless a number of matters--though generally of relatively small
+moment--about which we are, and probably always shall be, uncertain.
+The best way to deal with these, in a work which is descriptive rather
+than argumentative, is to omit them. For the rest it must be expected
+of any one whose professional concern it has been to saturate himself
+for many years in the literature of the times, and to study carefully
+their monumental remains, that he should occasionally make some
+statement, drop some passing remark or judgment, which may appear to
+be in conflict with assertions made in other quarters. If a few
+examples are met with in the present book, they may be taken as made
+with all deference, but with deliberation.
+
+It is perhaps well to say this with some emphasis, in view of the
+blunders often innocently committed by those who happen to be speaking
+of this period. There are those who know it almost only through the
+medium of the _Acts of the Apostles_, and who entertain the most
+erroneous notions concerning Gallio or Festus, concerning Roman
+justice, Roman taxation, or Roman moral and religious attitudes. There
+are those, again, who know it almost only through the manuals of
+history; that is to say, they know the dates and facts of the reigns
+of the emperors, but have never realised, not to say visualised, the
+contemporary Roman as a human being. There exist denunciations of the
+morals of the Roman world of this date which would lead one to believe
+that every man was a Nero and every woman a Messalina: denunciations
+so lurid that, if they were a third part true, the continuance of the
+Roman Empire, or even of the Roman race, for a single century would be
+simply incomprehensible. On the other hand there have been accounts of
+the material glory of Rome which have conjured up visions of splendour
+worthy only of the _Arabian Nights_; and sometimes the comment is
+added that it was all won from the blood and sweat heartlessly wrung
+from a world of miserable slaves. It is not too much to say that none
+of these descriptions could come from a writer or speaker who knew the
+period at first hand.
+
+The most dangerous form of falsehood is that which contains some
+portion of truth. The life of many a Roman was deplorably dissolute;
+the splendour of Rome was beyond doubt astonishing; of oppression
+there were too many scattered instances; but we do not judge the
+civilisation of the British Empire by the choicest scandals of London,
+nor the good sense of the United States by the freak follies of New
+York. We do not take it that the modern satirist who vents his spleen
+on an individual or a class is describing each and all of his
+contemporaries, nor even that what he says is necessarily true of such
+individual or class. Nor is the professional moralist himself immune
+from jaundice or from the disease of exaggeration.
+
+The endeavour here will be to realise more veraciously what life in
+the Roman world was like. For those who are familiar with the
+political history and the escapades of Nero there may be some filling
+in of gaps and adjusting of perspective. For those who are familiar
+with the journeyings and experiences of St. Paul there may be some
+correction of errors and misconceptions. For those who have any
+thought of visiting the ruins of Rome and Pompeii, it may prove
+helpful to have secured some comprehension of this period. Pompeii was
+destroyed only fifteen years after our date, and all those houses,
+large and small, were occupied in the year 64 by their unsuspecting
+inhabitants. Meanwhile mansions, temples, and halls stood in splendour
+above those platforms and foundations over which we tread amid the
+broken columns in the Roman Forum or on the Palatine Hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+
+The best means of realising the extent of the Roman Empire in or about
+the year 64 is to glance at the map. It will be found to reach from
+the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, from the middle of
+England--approximately the river Trent--to the south of Egypt, from
+the Rhine and the Danube to the Desert of Sahara. The Mediterranean
+Sea is a Roman lake, and there is not a spot upon its shores which is
+not under Roman rule. In round numbers the empire is three thousand
+miles in length and two thousand in breadth. Its population, which, at
+least in the western parts, was much thinner then than it is over the
+same area at present, cannot be calculated with any accuracy, but an
+estimate of one hundred millions would perhaps be not very far from
+the mark.
+
+Beyond its borders--sometimes too dangerously near to them and apt to
+overstep them--lay various peoples concerning whom Roman knowledge was
+for the most part incomplete and indefinite. Within its own boundaries
+the Roman government carefully collected every kind of information.
+Such precision was indispensable for the carrying out of those Roman
+principles of administration which will be described later. But of the
+nations or tribes beyond the frontiers only so much was known as had
+been gathered from a number of more or less futile campaigns, from
+occasional embassies sent to Rome by such peoples, from the writings
+of a few venturous travellers bent on exploration, from slaves who had
+been acquired by war or purchase, or from traders such as those who
+made their way to the Baltic in quest of amber, or to Arabia,
+Ethiopia, and India in quest of precious metals, jewels, ivory,
+perfumes, and fabrics.
+
+There had indeed been sundry attempts to annex still more of the
+world. Roman armies had crossed the Rhine and had twice fought their
+way to the Elbe; but it became apparent to the shrewd Augustus and
+Tiberius that the country could not be held, and the Rhine was for the
+present accepted as the most natural and practical frontier. In the
+East the attempts permanently to annex Armenia, or a portion of
+Parthia, had so far proved but nominal or almost entirely vain.
+
+On the Upper Euphrates at this date there was a sort of acknowledgment
+of vague dependence on Rome, but the empire had acquired nothing more
+solid. Forty years before our date a Roman expedition had penetrated
+into South-west Arabia, of which the wealth was extravagantly
+over-estimated, but it had met with complete failure. Into Ethiopia a
+punitive campaign had been made against Queen Candace, and a loose
+suzerainty was claimed over her kingdom, but the Roman frontier still
+stopped short at Elephantine. Over the territories of the semi-Greek
+semi-Scythian settlements to the north of the Black Sea Rome exercised
+a protectorate, which was for obvious reasons not unwelcome to those
+concerned. Along or near the eastern frontier she well understood the
+policy of the "buffer state," and, within her own borders in those
+parts, was ready to make tools of petty kings, whose own ambitions
+would both assist her against external foes and relieve her of
+administrative trouble.
+
+At no time did the Roman Empire possess so natural or scientific a
+frontier as at this, when it was bounded by the Rhine, the Danube, the
+Black Sea, the Euphrates, the Desert, and the Atlantic. The only
+exception, it will be perceived, was in Britain, but the Roman idea
+there also was to annex the whole island, a feat which was never
+accomplished. Two generations after our chosen date Rome had conquered
+as far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth; it had crossed the Southern
+Rhine, and annexed the south-west corner of Germany, approximately
+from Cologne to Ratisbon; it had passed the Danube, and secured and
+settled Dacia, which is roughly the modern Roumania; and it had pushed
+its power somewhat further into the East. But it had not thereby
+increased either its strength or its stability.
+
+At the period then with which we are to deal, the Roman Empire
+included the countries now known as Holland, Belgium, France, Spain
+and Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, the southern half of the Austrian
+Empire, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Egypt,
+Tripoli and Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and also the southern two-thirds
+of England. Within these borders there prevailed that greatest
+blessing of the Roman rule, the _pax Romana_, or "Roman peace."
+Whatever defects may be found in the Roman administration, on whatever
+abstract grounds the existence of such an empire may be impugned, it
+cannot be questioned that for at least two centuries the whole of this
+vast region enjoyed a general reign of peace and security such as it
+never knew before and has never known since. That peace meant also
+social and industrial prosperity and development. It meant an immense
+increase in settled population and in manufactures, and an immense
+advance--particularly in the West--in civilised manners and
+intellectual interests.
+
+Peoples and tribes which had been at perpetual war among themselves or
+with some neighbour were reduced to quietude. Communities which had
+been liable to sudden invasion and to all manner of arbitrary changes
+in their conditions of life, in their burdens of taxation, and even in
+their personal freedom, now knew exactly where they stood, and, for
+the most part, perceived that they stood in a much more tolerable and
+a distinctly more assured position than before. If there must
+sometimes be it would be the Roman tyrant, and he, as we shall find,
+affected them but little. All irresponsible local tyrannies, whether
+of kings or parties, were abolished.
+
+On the high seas within the empire you might voyage with no fear
+whatever of pirates. If you looked for pirates you must look beyond
+the Roman sphere to the Indian Ocean. There might also be a few to be
+found in the Black Sea. On the high road you might travel from
+Jerusalem to Rome, and from Rome to Cologne or Cadiz, with no fear of
+any enemy except such banditti and footpads as the central or local
+government could not always manage to put down. On the whole there was
+nearly everywhere a clear recognition of the advantages conferred by
+the empire.
+
+It is quite true that during these two centuries we meet with frequent
+trouble on the borders and with one or two local revolts of more or
+less strength. At our chosen date the Jews were being stirred by their
+fanatical or "zealot" party into an almost hopeless insurrection;
+within two years the rebellion broke out. Three years later still,
+certain ambitious semi-Romans took advantage of a troubled time to
+make a determined but futile effort to form a Gaulish or
+German-Gaulish empire of their own. Half a century after Nero the Jews
+once again rose, but were speedily suppressed. But apart from these
+abortive efforts--made, one by a unique form of religious zeal, one by
+adventurous ambition, at opposite extremities of the Roman
+world--there was established a general, and in most cases a willing,
+acceptance of the situation and a proper recognition of its benefits.
+
+The only serious war to be feared within the empire itself was a civil
+war, begun by some aspiring leader when his chance seemed strong of
+ousting the existing emperor or of succeeding to his throne. Four
+years from the date at which we have placed ourselves such a war
+actually did break out. Nero was driven from the throne in favour of
+Galba, and the history of the year following is the history of Otho
+murdering Galba, Vitellius overthrowing Otho, and Vespasian in his
+turn overthrowing Vitellius. Yet all this is but the story of one
+entirely exceptional year, the famous "year of four emperors." Take
+out that year from the imperial history; count a hundred years before
+and more than a hundred years after, and it would be impossible to
+find in the history of the world any period at which peace, and
+probably contentment, was so widely and continuously spread. Think of
+all the countries which have just been enumerated as lying within the
+Roman border; then imagine that, with the exception of one year of
+general commotion, two or three provincial and local revolts, and
+occasional irruptions and retaliations upon the frontier, they have
+all been free from war and its havoc ever since the year 1700. In our
+year of grace 64, although the throne is occupied by a vicious emperor
+suffering from megalomania and enormous self-conceit, the empire is in
+full enjoyment of its _pax Romana_.
+
+Another glance at the map will show how secure this internal peace was
+felt to be. The Roman armies will be found almost entirely upon the
+frontiers. It was, of course, imperative that there should be strong
+forces in such positions--in Britain carrying out the annexation; on
+the Rhine and Danube defending against huge-bodied, restless Germans
+and their congeners; on the Euphrates to keep off the nimble and
+dashing Parthian horse and foot; in Upper Egypt to guard against the
+raids of "Fuzzy-Wuzzy "; in the interior of Tunis or Algeria to keep
+the nomad Berber tribes in hand. In such places were the Roman legions
+and their auxiliary troops regularly kept under the eagles, for there
+lay their natural work, and there do we find them quartered generation
+after generation.
+
+It is, of course, true that they might be employed inwards as well as
+outwards; but it must be manifest that, if there had been any
+widespread disaffection, any reasonable suspicion that serious revolts
+might happen, there would have been many other large bodies of troops
+posted in garrison throughout the length and breadth of the provinces.
+In point of fact the whole Roman military force can scarcely have
+amounted to more than 320,000 men, while the navy consisted of two
+small fleets of galleys, one regularly posted at Misenum at the
+entrance to the Bay of Naples, the other at Ravenna on the Adriatic.
+To these we may add a flotilla of boats operating on the Lower Rhine
+and the neighbouring coasts. Except during the year of civil war the
+two fleets have practically no history. They enjoyed the advantage of
+having almost nothing to fight against. If pirates had become
+dangerous--as for a brief time they threatened to do during the Jewish
+revolt--the imperial ships would have been in readiness to suppress
+them. They could be made useful for carrying despatches and imperial
+persons or troops, or they might be used against a seaside town if
+necessary. Beyond this they hardly correspond to our modern navies.
+There was no foreign competition to build against, and no "two-power
+standard" to be maintained.
+
+The Roman troops, it has already been said, were almost wholly on the
+frontier. So far as there are exceptions, they explain themselves. It
+was found necessary at all times to keep at least one legion regularly
+quartered in Northern Spain, where the mountaineers were inclined to
+be predatory, and where they were skilful, as they have always been,
+at carrying on guerilla warfare. We may, if we choose, regard this
+comparatively small army as policing a lawless district. In but few
+other places do we find a regular military force. Rome itself had both
+a garrison and also a large body of Imperial Guards. The garrison,
+consisting of some 6000 men, was in barracks inside the city, and its
+purpose was to protect the wealth of the metropolis and the seat of
+government from any sudden riot or factious tumult. It must be
+remembered that among the Romans it was soldiers who served as police,
+whether at Rome or in the provinces. The Imperial Guards, consisting
+of 12,000 troops, were stationed just outside the gates, in order to
+secure the safety and position of the emperor himself, if any attempt
+should be made against his person or authority. The rich and important
+town of Lugdunum (or Lyons) had a small garrison of 1200 men, and a
+certain number of troops were always to be found in garrison in those
+great towns where factious disturbances were either probable or
+possible. Thus at Alexandria, where the Jews were fanatical and at
+loggerheads with the Greeks, and where the native Egyptians were no
+less fanatical and might be at loggerheads with both, it was necessary
+to keep a disciplinary force in readiness. Somewhat similar was the
+case at Antioch, where the discords of the Greeks, Syrians, and Jews
+stood in need of the firm Roman hand. Nor could a similar regiment be
+spared from Jerusalem. The western towns were generally smaller in
+size, more homogeneous, and more tranquil. It was around the Levant
+that the popular _émeute_ was most to be feared. Doubtless one may
+meet, whether in the New Testament or in Roman and Greek writers, with
+frequent mention of soldiers, and we make acquaintance with an
+occasional centurion--something socially above a colour-sergeant and
+below a captain--or other officer in various parts of the empire. But
+it should be understood that, except in such places as those which
+have been named, soldiers were distributed in small handfuls, to act
+as _gendarmerie_, to deal with brigands, to serve as bodyguard and
+orderlies to a governor, to bear despatches, to be custodians of state
+prisoners. To these classes belong the centurions of the _Acts of the
+Apostles_, while Lysias was the colonel of the regiment keeping order
+in Jerusalem.
+
+What the Roman army was like, whence it was recruited, how it was
+armed, and what were its operations, are matters to be shown in a
+later chapter. Regarded then as a controlling agent, maintaining
+widespread peace, the Roman Empire answers closely to the British
+_raj_ in India. The analogy could indeed be pressed very much further
+and with more closeness of detail, but this is scarcely the place for
+such a discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+Of the administration in Rome and throughout the provinces enough will
+be said in the proper place. Meanwhile we may look briefly at one or
+two questions of interest which will presumably suggest themselves at
+this stage. Since all this vast region now formed one empire, since
+Roman magistrates and officers were sent to all parts of it, since
+trade and intercourse were vigorous between all its provinces, it will
+be natural to ask, for example, by what means the traveller got from
+place to place, at what rate of progress, and with what degree of
+safety and comfort.
+
+In setting forth by land you would elect, if possible, to proceed by
+one of the great military roads for which the Roman world was so
+deservedly famous. Not only were they the best kept and the safest;
+they were also generally the shortest. As far as possible the Roman
+road went straight from point to point. It did not circumvent a
+practicable hill, nor, where necessary, did it shrink from cutting
+through a rock, say to the depth of sixty feet or so. It did not avoid
+a river, but bridged it with a solid structure such as often remains
+in use till this day. If it met with a marsh, wooden piles were driven
+in and the road-bed laid upon them. When it came to a deep narrow
+valley it built a viaduct on arches.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE PONT DU GARD (AQUEDUCT AND BRIDGE).]
+
+The road so laid was meant for permanence. A width of ground was
+carefully prepared, trenches were dug at the sides, three different
+layers of road material were deposited, with sufficient upward curve
+to throw off the water, and then the whole was paved with
+closely-fitting many-cornered blocks of stone. In the chief instances
+there were sidewalks covered with some kind of gravel. The width was
+not great, but might be anything between ten and fifteen feet. Along
+such roads the Roman armies marched to their camps, along them the
+government despatches were carried by the imperial post, and along
+them were the most conveniently situated and commodious houses of
+accommodation. For their construction a special grant might be made by
+the Roman treasury--the cost being comparatively small, since the
+work, when not performed by the soldiers, was done by convicts and
+public slaves--and for their upkeep a rate was apparently levied by
+the local corporations. Besides the paved roads there was, needless to
+say, always a number of smaller roads, many of them mere strips of
+four feet or so in width; there were also short-cuts, by-paths, and
+ill-kept tracks of local and more or less fortuitous creation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE APPIAN WAY BY THE SO-CALLED TOMB OF
+SENECA.]
+
+Beside the great highways stood milestones in the shape of short
+pillars, and generally there were in existence charts or itineraries,
+sometimes pictured, giving all necessary directions as to the
+turnings, distances, stopping-places, and inns, and even as to the
+sights worth seeing on the way. Wherever there were such objects of
+interest--in Egypt, Syria, Greece, or any other region of art,
+history, and legend--the traveller could always find a professional
+guide, whose information was probably about as reliable as that of the
+modern _cicerone_. In Rome itself there was displayed, in one of the
+public arcades, a plan of the empire, with notes explaining the
+dimensions and distances.
+
+The vehicle employed by the traveller would depend upon circumstances.
+You would meet the poor man riding on an ass, or plodding on foot with
+his garments well girt; the better provided on a mule; a finer person
+or an official on a horse; the more luxurious or easy-going either in
+some form of carriage or borne in a litter very similar to the
+oriental palanquin. To carriages, which were of several
+kinds--two-wheeled, four-wheeled, heavy and light--it may be necessary
+to make further reference; here it is sufficient to observe that, in
+order to assist quick travelling, there existed individuals or
+companies who let out a light form of gig, in which the traveller rode
+behind a couple of mules or active Gaulish ponies as far as the next
+important stopping-place, where he could find another jobmaster, or
+keeper of livery-stables, to send him on further. The rich man,
+travelling, as he necessarily would, with a train of servants and with
+full appliances for his comfort, would journey in a coach, painted and
+gilded, cushioned and curtained, drawn by a team showily caparisoned
+with rich harness and coloured cloths. This must have presented an
+appearance somewhat similar to that of the extravagantly decorated
+travelling-coach of the fourteenth century. The ordinary man of modest
+means would be satisfied with his mule or horse, and with his one or
+two slaves to attend him. On the less frequented stretches of road,
+where there was no proper accommodation for the night, his slaves
+would unpack the luggage and bring out a plain meal of wine, bread,
+cheese, and fruits. They would then lay a sort of bedding on the
+ground and cover it with a rug or blanket. The rich folk might bring
+their tents or have a bunk made up in their coaches.
+
+Where there was some sort of lodging for man and horse the average
+wayfarer would make the best of it. In the better parts of the empire
+and in the larger places of resort there were houses corresponding in
+some measure to the old coaching-inns of the eighteenth century; in
+the East there were the well-known caravanserais; but for the most
+part the ancient hostelries must have afforded but undesirable
+quarters. They were neither select nor clean. You journeyed along till
+you came to a building half wine-shop and store, half lodging-house.
+Outside you might be told by an inscription and a sign that it was the
+"Cock" Inn, or the "Eagle," or the "Elephant," and that there was
+"good accommodation." Its keeper might either be its proprietor, or
+merely a slave or other tenant put into it by the owner of a
+neighbouring estate and country-seat. Your horses or mules would be
+put up--with a reasonable suspicion on your part that the poor beasts
+would be cheated in the matter of their fodder--and you would be shown
+into a room which you might or might not have to share with someone
+else. In any case you would have to share it with the fleas, if not
+with worse.
+
+Perhaps you base brought your food with you, perhaps you send out a
+slave to purchase it, perhaps you obtain it from the innkeeper. That
+is your own affair. For the rest you must be prepared to bear with
+very promiscuous and sometimes unsavoury company, and to possess
+neither too nice a nose nor too delicate a sense of propriety. Your
+only consolation is that the charges are low, and that if anything is
+stolen from you the landlord is legally responsible.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PLAN OF INN AT POMPEII.]
+
+Doubtless there were better and worse establishments of this kind.
+There must have been some tolerably good quarters at Rome or
+Alexandria, and at some of the resorts for pleasure and health, such
+as Balae on the Bay of Naples, or Canopus at the Nile mouth. It is
+true also that for those who travelled on imperial service there were
+special lodgings kept up at the public expense at certain stations
+along the great roads. Nevertheless it may reasonably be asked why, in
+view of the generally accepted standards of domestic comfort and even
+luxury of the time--what may be called middle-class standards--there
+was no sufficiency of even creditable hotels. The answer is that in
+antiquity the class of people who in modern times support such hotels
+seldom felt the need of their equivalent. In the first place, they
+commonly trusted to the hospitality of individuals to whom they were
+personally or officially known, or to whom they carried private or
+official introductions. If they were distinguished persons, they were
+readily received, whether in town or country, on their route. In less
+frequented districts they trusted to their own slaves and to the
+resources of their own baggage. Their own tents, bedding, provisions
+and cooking apparatus were carried with them. If they made a stay of
+any length in a town, they might hire a suite of rooms.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon this topic. Suffice it that travel was
+frequent and extensive, whether for military and political business,
+for commerce, or for pleasure. Some roads, particularly that "Queen of
+Roads," the Appian Way--the same by which St. Paul came from Puteoli
+to Rome--must have presented a lively appearance, especially near the
+metropolis. Perhaps on none of these great highways anywhere near an
+important Roman city could you go far without meeting a merchant with
+his slaves and his bales; a keen-eyed pedlar--probably a Jew--carrying
+his pack; a troupe of actors or tumblers; a body of gladiators being
+taken to fight in the amphitheatre or market-place of some provincial
+town; an unemployed philosopher gazing sternly over his long beard; a
+regiment of foot-soldiers or a squadron of cavalry on the move; a
+horseman scouring along with a despatch of the emperor or the senate;
+a casual traveller coming at a lively trot in his hired gig; a couple
+of ladies carefully protecting their complexions from sun and dust as
+they rode in a kind of covered wagonette; a pair of scarlet-clad
+outriders preceding a gorgeous but rumbling coach, in which a Roman
+noble or plutocrat is idly lounging, reading, dictating to his
+shorthand amanuensis, or playing dice with a friend; a dashing youth
+driving his own chariot in professional style to the disgust of the
+sober-minded; a languid matron lolling in a litter carried by six
+tall, bright-liveried Cappadocians; a peasant on his way to town with
+his waggon-load of produce and cruelly belabouring his mule. If you
+are very fortunate you may meet Nero himself on one of his imperial
+progresses. If so, you had better stand aside and wait. It will take
+him a long time to pass; or, if this is one of his more serious
+undertakings, there will be a thousand carriages, many of them
+resplendent with gold and silver ornament in relief upon the woodwork,
+and drawn by horses or mules whose bridles are gleaming with gold.
+And, if the beautiful and conscienceless Poppaea is with him, there
+may be a Procession of some five hundred asses, whose it is to supply
+her with the milk in which she bathes for the preservation of her
+admirable velvety skin.
+
+There are, of course, many other individuals and types to be met with.
+If you happen to be traversing certain parts of Spain, the mountains
+of Greece, the southern provinces of Asia Minor, or the upper parts of
+Egypt, you will perhaps also meet with a bandit, or even with a band
+of them. In that case, prepare for the worst. Some of the gang have
+been caught and crucified: you may have passed the crosses upon your
+way. This does not render the rest more amiable. St. Paul takes it as
+natural to be thus "in peril of robbers." Perhaps certain regions of
+Italy itself were as dangerous as any. We have more than one account
+of a traveller who was last seen at such-and-such a place, and was
+never heard of again. It is therefore well, before undertaking a
+journey through suspected parts, to ascertain whether any one else is
+going that way. There is sure to be either an official with a military
+escort or some other traveller with a retinue; at least there will be
+some trusty man bearing letters, or some sturdy fellow whom you can
+hire expressly to accompany you.
+
+After allowing for this occasional embarrassment--which was certainly
+not greater and almost certainly very much less than you would have
+encountered in the same parts of the world a century ago--it must be
+declared that, on the whole, travel by land in the Roman world of the
+year 64 was remarkably safe. If it was not very expeditious, it was
+probably on the average quite as much so as in the eighteenth century.
+
+Ordinary travelling by road may not have averaged more than sixty or
+seventy miles a day, although hundred miles could be done without much
+difficulty, while a courier on urgent business could greatly increase
+that speed.
+
+Next let us suppose that our friend proposes to travel by sea. As a
+rule navigation takes place only between the beginning of March and
+the middle of November, ships being kept snug in harbour during the
+winter months. The traveller may be sailing from Alexandria to the
+capital or from Rome to Cadiz or to Rhodes. If a trader of sufficient
+boldness, he may even be proceeding outside the empire as far as
+India. If so, he will pass up the Nile as far as Coptos, then take
+either the canal or the caravan route to Myos Hormos on the Red Sea,
+and thence find ship for India, with a reasonable prospect--if he
+escapes the Arab pirates--of completing his business and returning
+home in about six months. Over 120 ships, small and great, leave the
+above-mentioned harbour each year on the voyage to India, for
+Alexandria is the great depot for the trade round the Indian Ocean,
+and the products of India are in lively demand at Rome.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.--SHIP BESIDE THE QUAY AT OSTIA. (Wolf and twins
+on mainsail.)]
+
+On such a remote course, however, we will not follow. Let us rather
+suppose that our traveller is proceeding from Alexandria, the second
+city of the empire, to Rome, which is the first. In this case he may
+enjoy the great advantage of going on board one those merchantmen
+belonging to the imperial service, which sail regularly with a freight
+of corn to feed the empire city. His port of landing will be Puteoli
+(Puzzuoli) in the Bay of Naples, which was then the Liverpool of
+Italy. The rest of the journey he will either make by the Appian Road,
+or, less naturally, by smaller freight-ship, putting in at Ostia, the
+port of Rome recently constructed by the Emperor Claudius at the mouth
+of the river Tiber. His ship, a well-manned and strongly-built vessel
+of from 500 tons up to 1100 or more, will carry one large mainsail,
+formed of strips of canvas strengthened by leather at their joinings,
+a smaller foresail, and a still smaller topsail. It will be steered by
+a pair of huge paddles on either side of the stern. There will be a
+crow's-nest on the mast, and at the bows a rehead of Rome or
+Alexandria or of some deity, perhaps of Castor and Pollux combined. A
+tolerable, but by no means a liberal, amount of cabin accommodation
+will be provided. A good-sized ship might reach 200 feet in length by
+50 in breadth. One of them brought to Rome the great obelisk which now
+stands in the Piazza of St. Peter's; another ship had brought another
+obelisk, 400,000 bushels of wheat and other cargo, and a very large
+number of passengers. At a favourable season, and with a quite
+favourable wind, the ship may expect to reach the Bay of Naples in as
+little as eight or nine days: sometimes it will take ten days,
+sometimes as many as twelve. The ship may either proceed directly
+south of Crete, or it may run across to Myra in Asia Minor, or to
+Rhodes, and thence proceed due west. As a rule the ancient navigator
+preferred to keep somewhat near the shore. Other ships, picking up and
+putting down cargo and passengers as they went along, would pass up
+the Syrian coast, calling at Caesarea, Tyre, Sidon, and other places
+before passing either north or south of Cyprus. From such a ship it
+might be necessary--as it was with St. Paul and the soldiers to whose
+care he was committed--to tranship into another vessel proceeding
+directly to Italy. If, as we have imagined, the traveller is on a
+cornship of the Alexandria-Puteoli line, he will reach the Bay one day
+after passing the straits of Messina, and his vessel will sail proudly
+up to port without striking her topsail, the only kind of ship which
+was permitted to do this being such imperial liners.
+
+There were other famous trade routes of the period. One is from
+Corinth; another from the Graeco-Scythian city at the mouth of the Sea
+of Azov, whence corn and salted fish were sent in abundance; a third
+from Cadiz, outside the straits of Gibraltar, by which were brought
+the wool and other produce of Andalusia; a fourth from Tarragona
+across to Ostia, the regular route for official and passenger
+intercourse with Spain. Yet another took you to Carthage in three
+days. Across the Adriatic from Brindisi you would reach in one day
+either Corfu or the Albanian coast at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo), where
+began the great highroad to the East. Given a fair wind, your ship
+might average 125 or 130 miles in the twenty-four hours, and, if you
+left Rome on Monday morning, you had a reasonable prospect of landing
+in Spain on the following Saturday. From Cadiz you would probably
+require ten or eleven days. There was, it is true, no need to come by
+sea from that town. There was a good road all the way, with a
+milestone at every Roman mile, or about 1600 yards. Unfortunately that
+route would generally take you nearly a month.
+
+It is not probable that sea travelling was at all comfortable; but it
+was apparently quite as much so, and quite as rapid, as it was on the
+average a century ago. Ships were made strong and sound; nevertheless
+shipwrecks were very frequent, as they always have been in sailing
+days. Wreckers who showed false lights were not unknown. There is also
+little doubt that the vessels were often terribly overcrowded; one
+ship, it is said, brought no less than 1200 passengers from
+Alexandria. That on which St. Paul was wrecked had 276 souls on board,
+and one upon which Josephus once found himself had as many as 600. It
+is incidentally stated in Tacitus that a body of troops, who had been
+both sent to Alexandria and brought back thence by sea, were greatly
+debilitated in mind and body by that experience. On the other hand, as
+has been already stated, there was generally no such thing as a pirate
+to be heard of in all the waters of the Mediterranean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+After thus considering, however incompletely, the manner in which the
+people of the Roman world contrived to move about within the empire
+itself, we may proceed to glance at the constituent parts of the world
+in which they thus travelled to and fro.
+
+And first we must draw a distinction of the highest importance between
+the western and eastern halves. Naturally enough, Italy itself was
+before all others the land of the Romans. It was the favoured land,
+enjoyed the fullest privileges, and was the most completely romanized
+in population, manners, and sentiment. Besides its larger and smaller
+romanized towns--of which there were about 1200--it was dotted from
+end to end with the country-seats and pleasure resorts of Romans.
+North and west of Italy were various peoples, differing widely in
+character, habits, and religion, as well as in physique. East of it
+were various other peoples differing also from each other in such
+respects, but for the most part marked by a common civilisation in
+which the West had but an almost inconsiderable share. Before the
+Roman conquest the nations and tribes of the West had been in general
+rude, unlettered, and unorganised. Except here and there in Spain,
+where the Phoenicians or Carthaginians had been at work, and in the
+Greek colonies sprung from Marseilles, they had hardly possessed such
+a thing as a town. They scarcely knew what was meant by civic life,
+with its material luxuries and graces, its art and literature. They
+were commonly small peoples without unity, brave fighters, but, in all
+those matters commonly classed as civilisation, distinctly behind the
+times. The superiority of the Roman in these parts was not merely one
+of organised strength, military skill, and political method, it was a
+superiority also of intellectual life and culture. In Spain, Gaul,
+Britain, Switzerland, the Tyrol and southern Austria, and also in
+North-West Africa, the Roman proceeded to organise after his own
+heart, to settle his colonies, to impose his language, and to
+inculcate his ideals. He was dealing with inferiors; this he fully
+recognised, and so for the most part did they.
+
+Meanwhile to the eastward also Rome spread her conquests. Here,
+however, she was dealing with peoples who had already passed under
+influences in many respects superior to those brought by the
+conqueror, influences which were in a sense only beginning to educate
+the conqueror himself. Let us here, for the sake of clearness, make a
+brief digression into previous history.
+
+Throughout the eastern half of the Mediterranean countries, conquering
+Rome had been face to face with an older, a more polished, a more
+keenly intellectual, and more artistic culture than her own. This was
+the civilisation of Greece. We need not dwell upon the character of
+Hellenic culture. Anyone who has made acquaintance with the richness
+of Greek literature, the clear sureness of Greek art, the keen insight
+of Greek science and philosophy, and the bold experiments of Greek
+society--especially as represented by Athens--will understand at once
+what is meant. When the Romans, more than two hundred years before our
+date, conquered Greece, in so far as they were a people of letters or
+of effort in abstract thought, in so far as they possessed the arts of
+sculpture, architecture, painting, and music, they were almost wholly
+indebted to Greece. Their own strength lay in solidity and gravity of
+character, in a strong sense of national and personal discipline, in
+the gift of law-making and law-obeying. In culture they stood to the
+Greeks of that time very much as the Germans of two centuries ago
+stood to the French. After their conquest by the Romans the Greeks
+perforce submitted to the rule of might, but the typical Greek never
+looked upon the Roman as socially or intellectually his equal. He
+became himself the philosophic, artistic, and social teacher of his
+conqueror. His own language was richer in literature, and it was
+better adapted to every form of conversation. The Latin of the Romans
+therefore made no progress in Greece or the Greek world. It might be
+made the language of the Roman courts and of official documents; but
+beyond this the ordinary Greek disdained to study it. On the other
+hand the ordinary well-educated Roman could generally speak Greek.
+Magistrates and officials were almost invariably thus accomplished,
+and in Athens or Ephesus they talked Greek as we should naturally talk
+French in Paris--only better, inasmuch as they learned the language in
+a more rational and practical way. Nero himself could act, or thought
+he could act, a Greek play and sing a Greek ode among the Greeks. Most
+probably the Roman noble had been brought up by a Greek nurse, just as
+so many English families formerly employed a nurse imported from
+France. Nor did the Greeks merely ignore the Latin language. They
+refused to be romanized in any other respect. Even the Roman
+amusements tended to disgust them, and it is to the credit of his
+superior refinement that the average Greek was repelled by those
+brutal exhibitions of gladiatorial bloodshed and slaughter over which
+the coarser Roman gloated.
+
+When, next, we pass from Greece proper--that is to say, from the
+Grecian peninsula and the islands and Asiatic shores of the Aegean
+Sea--into Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, we still find the Roman
+conqueror annexing peoples more versed in the higher arts of life than
+himself. For ages there had existed in these regions various forms of
+advanced civilisation. The Assyrian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Hebrew,
+and Egyptian cultures were old before Rome was born. Later the Persian
+subjugated all these peoples. And then, four hundred years before the
+time with which we are dealing, had come the Macedonian Greek
+Alexander the Great, and had conquered every one of those provinces
+which were subsequently to form the eastern part of the Roman Empire
+as represented on our map. The language and culture of Alexander were
+Greek, and he carried these and settled them with the most determined
+policy in every available quarter. After his death his empire broke up
+into kingdoms, but those kings who succeeded him--every Antiochus of
+Syria and every Ptolemy of Egypt--were Greek. Their court was Greek,
+and Hellenism was everywhere the fashion in life, thought, letters,
+and art. All round the coasts, in all the great cities, on all the
+main routes, up all the great river valleys of these eastern kingdoms,
+this graecizing proceeded. Alexander had founded the city of
+Alexandria, and soon that great and opulent city became more the home
+of Greek science and literature than Athens itself. His successors
+founded other great cities, such as Antioch, and there also the
+civilisation was Greek.
+
+Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians who were possessed of any kind of public,
+social, or even mercantile ambition therefore naturally spoke Greek,
+either only, or more often in conjunction with their native tongue.
+This is the reason why the Septuagint appeared in Greek; why Greek as
+well as Hebrew and Latin was written over the Cross; why our New
+Testament was written in Greek; and why Paul could travel about the
+eastern half of the Roman world and talk fluently wherever he went. He
+could address a Roman governor directly at Paphos because that
+governor had learned Greek at Rome, either in school or under his
+nurse or tutor. He could stand before the Areopagus at Athens and
+address that distinguished body in its own tongue because it was also
+one of _his_ own tongues.
+
+Not that one could expect the Greek culture, or even the language, to
+remain pure when thus spread abroad. There were blendings of Oriental
+elements, Egyptian, Jewish, or Syrian; but these elements were
+themselves derived from advanced and time-honoured civilisations.
+
+It follows, therefore, that all through the Eastern half of its domain
+Rome could not contrive to romanize. She did not attempt to suppress
+Greek ideas; she preferred to utilise them. So long as the Roman rule
+was obeyed in its essentials, Rome was satisfied.
+
+In the main, then, we have, outside Italy, two very distinct halves of
+the Roman world: the Eastern, with its large cities, its active civic
+life, its high culture, its contributions to science, art, and
+luxury--and, it must be added, its general dissoluteness--with here
+and there its pronounced leanings to Oriental fanaticism; and the
+Western, with very few large towns, with a life more determined by
+clans and tribes or country districts, with comparatively little
+social culture, contributing almost nothing to art or science,
+stronger in its contribution of natural products and virile men than
+in those of the more refined or artificial luxury. Over this half the
+Roman tongue, Roman dress, and Roman manners spread rapidly. In it
+Roman settlers made themselves more at home. The aim of the better
+classes of the natives was to render themselves as Roman as possible.
+It is in the western part of the empire that you will find the names
+which mark systematic Roman settlement and which often denote the work
+of an emperor. Towns such as Saragossa (Caesarea Augusta), Aosta,
+Augsburg, Autun (Augustodunum), and Augst are foundations of Augustus.
+Hence the fact that Spain and Prance speak a Latin tongue at this day,
+while no Latin was ever even temporarily the recognised language
+between the southern Adriatic and the Euphrates.
+
+This prime division made, let us now pass quickly round the empire,
+making such brief observations as may appear most helpful as we go.
+
+In the year 64 the south of Spain, the province of Baetica--of
+which we may speak more familiarly as Andalusia--was prosperous
+and peaceful, almost completely romanized and latinized. Many
+of its inhabitants were true Latins, most had made themselves
+indistinguishable from Latins. Along the river Guadalquivir there were
+flourishing towns, chief among them being those now known as Seville
+and Cordova. The whole region was one of rich pasture and tillage, and
+from it the merchant ships from Cadiz brought to Rome cargoes of the
+finest wool and of excellent olives and other fruits. The east of
+Spain, with Tarragona for its capital, stood next in order for its
+settled life and steady produce, including wine, salt fish and sauces,
+while in the interior the finest steel--corresponding to the Bilbao
+blades of more modern history--was tempered in the cold streams of the
+hills above the sources of the Tagus. From Portugal came cochineal and
+olives. In several parts of the peninsula--in Portugal, in the
+Asturias, and near Cartagena--were mines of gold and silver, which had
+been worked by the old Phoenicians and which the Romans had reopened.
+The chief trouble of Spain, it may be interesting to learn, was the
+rabbits, and against these there were no guns and no poison, but only
+dogs, traps, and ferrets. In Gaul there is one province
+long-established and fully romanized, with its capital at Narbonne,
+and with flourishing Roman towns, which are now familiar under such
+names as Aries and Nîmes. This is a region over the coast of which the
+culture of Greece had managed to stray, centuries before, through the
+accident of a Greek colony having been founded at Marseilles. In this
+province a Roman might live and feel that he was still as good as in
+Italy. But beyond lay what was known as "Long-haired" Gaul, sometimes
+"Trousered" Gaul, so called from the distinguishing externals of its
+inhabitants, who wore breeches, let their hair grow long, and on their
+faces grew only a moustache--three things which no Roman did, and from
+which, even in these districts, the nobles, who were the first to
+romanize, were beginning to desist.
+
+The peoples of these Gaulish provinces preferred, like all early
+Celtic communities, to give their adherence only to clans or tribes,
+and to unite no further than impulse or expediency dictated, forming
+no towns larger than a village, living for the most part in poor huts
+scattered through forests, hills, marshes, and pasture land, and
+content to sleep on straw, if only they could wear a fine plaid and
+boast of a gold ornament. The names of many such tribes still remain
+in the names of the towns which grew up from the chief village of each
+canton. Such were the Ambiani, who have given us Amiens, and the Remi,
+who have given us Rheims. Paris and Trèves denote the administrative
+villages of the Parisii and Treveri. Nevertheless the country had its
+corn-lands and was rich in minerals and cattle, from which the hides
+came regularly down the Rhone to be carried to the Mediterranean
+markets. "Long-haired" Gaul was at this date rude and superstitious,
+with that weird druidical religion which the Emperor Claudius had done
+his best to suppress. Its chief vice was that of drunkenness. As with
+the French, who have largely descended from them, the proverbial
+passions of the Gauls were for war and for the art of speaking; but at
+our date the former passion was decaying and the latter gaining
+ground. The Gaulish provinces united at a point on the Rhone, near
+which necessarily arose the largest city of that part of the world,
+namely, Lugdunum, or Lyons, which speedily became not only a seat of
+administration but a noted school of eloquence.
+
+Of Britain there is as yet little to say. For the last twenty years
+the Romans had done their best to conquer the Celtic tribes, who
+suffered, as Celtic tribes were always apt to suffer, from their own
+disunion. They had now reached the Trent--or rather a line from
+Chester to Lincoln--had just punished Boudicca (or Boadicea) for her
+vigorous effort at retaliation and her slaughter of 70,000 Romans or
+adherents of Rome, and were following the true Roman practice of
+securing what they had won by building military roads and establishing
+strong posts of control, as at Colchester, Chester, and
+Caerleon-on-Usk. Some amount of iron-working was being done in
+Britain, but its chief exports were, as they had long been, tin, salt,
+and hides. The British themselves had no towns. The places so called
+were nothing more than collections of huts, surrounded by rampart and
+ditch, in some easily defensible spot amid wood or marsh.
+
+Along the Rhine it is enough to note that the Germans were being kept
+in hand. South of the Danube the region now known as Styria and
+Carinthia was rich in iron, and both here and all along the
+mountainous tract of the Tyrol and neighbourhood Rome was steadily
+pushing her language and habits by means of settlement, trading, and
+military occupation. It may be remarked by the way that at this date
+there were in use practically all the Alpine passes now familiar to
+us--the Mont Genèvre, the Little and Great St. Bernard, the Simplon,
+the St. Gothard, and the Brenner.
+
+The Upper Balkans were necessarily under military occupation, but
+Macedonia was a flourishing graecized province with Thessalonica--the
+modern Salonika--for its capital. Greece proper, known officially as
+Achaia, had declined in every respect since the classical age of
+Athens. The monuments of that city were, indeed, as sumptuous as ever;
+a number had been added in Roman times, though generally in inferior
+taste. Athens was still a sort of university, but its professors were
+for the most part sophists or rhetoricians, beating over again the old
+straws of philosophies which had once possessed a living meaning and
+exercised a living force. Athens herself had never properly recovered
+from the migration of learning to Alexandria. Delphi, the great
+oracular seat of the Greek world, had also declined in importance,
+although it could still boast of an imposing array of buildings and
+memorials. The centre of commerce and of official life, a Roman colony
+in the midst of Greece, a cosmopolitan and a dissolute place, was
+Corinth on the Isthmus. Here Nero had intended to cut a canal through
+from sea to sea--he had turned the first sod with his own hand--but
+his personal extravagance caused an insufficiency of funds, and the
+project met with the fate of the first enterprise at Panama. It was,
+therefore, still necessary for a traveller proceeding to the East to
+cross the Isthmus and reship at Cenchreae. The rest of Greece was
+almost all poor and sparsely populated, and many ancient sites and
+monuments were already suffering from neglect and dropping into ruin.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6--THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS (From D'Ooge.)]
+
+Across the Aegean, Asia Minor was in a condition of unprecedented
+prosperity. It contained no less than five hundred towns of
+considerable repute, chief among them being Smyrna and Ephesus, with
+their handsome public buildings, open squares, theatres, gardens, and
+promenades. Smyrna in particular boasted of its wide marble-paved
+streets crossing each other at right angles, and provided with arcades
+running along their sides. Its one defect was the want of proper
+sewers. Among the sights of the world was the huge temple at Ephesus,
+dedicated to Artemis, the "Great Diana" of the _Acts of the Apostles_.
+This temple, the largest in the ancient world, was 425 feet long, 220
+wide, and its columns were 60 feet in height and numbered 127.
+
+South-east of the Aegean was situated the opulent Rhodes, the
+handsomest and strongest port in the Mediterranean, provided with fine
+harbour buildings, a seat of learning, and so full of art that it
+contained no less than 3000 statues. In the somewhat desolate interior
+of Asia Minor were spacious runs for sheep and horses, but wheat also
+was grown, and the country could at least produce tall and sturdy
+slaves. In northern Galatia the common people had not yet forgotten
+the Celtic tongue which they had brought from Gaul over three
+centuries ago. In the south-east, opposite Cyprus, lay Tarsus, the
+birthplace of Paul, a city which combined the art of manufacturing
+goats' hair into tent-cloth with the pursuit of what may be called a
+university instruction in philosophy, science, and letters. In both
+these local avocations the apostle employed his youth to good purpose.
+Across the water Cyprus produced the copper which still bears its
+name.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7.--PLAN OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Of Syria, rich in corn and fruits, the chief city--the third in the
+empire--was Antioch, a town splendidly laid out upon the Orontes in a
+strikingly modern fashion. A broad street with colonnades extended in
+a straight line through and beyond the city for four miles, and was
+crossed by others at right angles. This street is said to have been
+lighted at nights, while the Roman streets remained dark and
+dangerous. In the neighbourhood of the city was the celebrated park
+called Daphne, where the voluptuous and almost incredible dissipation
+of the ancient world perhaps reached its acme. Like Alexandria,
+Antioch was furiously addicted to horseracing.
+
+Further down the coast Sidon produced its famous glass, and Tyre its
+famous purple dye. Inland from these lay the handsome city of
+Damascus, famed for its gardens and for its work in fine linen. Still
+farther south was Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem, of which it is perhaps
+not necessary here to give details. Its population was reckoned at a
+quarter of a million.
+
+On the coast of Egypt, after you had caught sight, some thirty miles
+away, of the first glint from the huge marble lighthouse standing 400
+feet high upon the island of Pharos, you arrived at Alexandria, the
+second city of the Roman world and the great emporium for the trade of
+Egypt, of all Eastern Africa as far as Zanzibar, and of India. From it
+came the papyrus paper, delicate glass-work, muslin, embroidered
+cloths, and such additions to luxury as roses out of season.
+Alexandria, built like Antioch on a rectangular plan, with its chief
+streets 100 feet in width, contained a Jewish quarter, controlled by a
+Jewish headman and a Sanhedrin; an Egyptian quarter; and a Greek
+quarter, in which were the splendid buildings of the Library with its
+600,000 volumes, and the University, devoted to all branches of
+learning and science--including medicine--and provided with botanical
+and zoological gardens. Here also were the temple of Caesar and the
+fine harbour buildings. Its population, exceedingly money-loving and
+pleasure-loving, and comprising representatives of every Oriental
+people, may have numbered three-quarters of a million. The circuit of
+the city was about thirteen miles, and its chief street some four
+miles in length.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8.--EMBLEM OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Behind it lay Egypt, with its irrigation and traffic canals kept in
+good order; with its monuments in far better preservation than
+now--the pyramids, for example, being still coated with their smooth
+marble sides, and not to be mounted by the present steps, from which
+the marble has been torn; with its rich corn-lands, its convict mines
+and quarries, the Siberia of antiquity; with its string of towns along
+the Nile and its seven or, eight millions of inhabitants--mostly
+speaking Coptic--and full of strange superstitions and peculiar
+worship of animals.
+
+Coming westward we reach the prosperous Cyrene, and then, by the
+rather out-of-the-world Bight of Tripoli, Africa proper, where once
+ruled mighty Carthage, the colony of Tyre, and where the Phoenician or
+Punic language still survived among the population of mixed
+Phoenicians and Berbers. Here, too, are wide and luxuriant stretches
+of corn-land, upon which Rome depends only next, if next, to those of
+Alexandria. Further west are the Berber tribes of Mauretania, governed
+by Rome but hardly yet fully assimilated into the Roman system.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9.--EMBLEM OF ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the Mediterranean Sea lie Crete, a place which had now become of
+little importance; Sicily, as much Greek as Roman, fertile in crops
+and possessed of many a splendid Greek temple and theatre; Sardinia,
+an unhealthy island infested by banditti, and employed as a sort of
+convict station, producing some amount of grain and minerals; and
+Corsica, which bore much the same character for savagery as it did in
+times comparatively recent, and which had little reputation for any
+product but its second-rate honey and its wax. The Balearic Islands
+were chiefly noted for their excellence in the art of slinging for
+painters' earth, and for breeding snails for the Roman table.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10.--EMBLEM OF ROME. From the Column of Antoninus
+at Rome.]
+
+It remains to say that the feeling of local pride was very strong in
+the rival towns of the empire. Each gloried in its distinguishing
+commerce and natural advantages, and the chosen emblems of the greater
+cities set forth their boasts with much artistic ingenuity. Thus
+Antioch is symbolised by a female figure seated on a rock, crowned
+with a turreted diadem, and holding in her hand a bunch of ears of
+corn, while her foot is planted on the shoulder of a half-buried
+figure representing the river Orontes. Alexandria, with her Horn of
+Plenty, her Egyptian fruits, and the representations of her elephants,
+asps, and panthers, as well as of her special deities, appears in
+relief upon a silver vessel found at Boscoreale near Pompeii and here
+reproduced.
+
+Such in brief was the Roman Empire. How all this empire was governed,
+what was meant by emperor, governor, taxation, and justice, is matter
+for other chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+We have seen, and succinctly traversed, the extent of the Roman world.
+The next step is to consider, as tersely as possible, its system of
+government and administration about the year 64. This task is not only
+entirely necessary to our immediate purpose; it is also one of great
+interest and profit in itself. If we are either to see in their proper
+light the experiences of such a man as St. Paul, or to understand the
+long continuance of so wide an empire, we must observe carefully the
+principles and methods adopted by the Romans as rulers.
+
+We speak fluently of the "Roman Emperor" and of the "reign of Nero."
+What was an emperor? What were his powers, and how did he exercise
+them?
+
+In the first place, it must be noted that, strictly speaking, Rome
+acknowledged no such thing as an autocrat. It had no monarch; the
+title "king" was disowned by the Caesars and entirely denied by the
+people; the emperor was technically not a superior sovereign, but, on
+the contrary, something inferior to a sovereign. He was the first
+citizen, the "first man of the state." The state was nominally a
+commonwealth, and the emperor its most important officer.
+
+He was, to begin with, the representative of Rome as civil and
+military governor of all provinces containing an army, or apparently
+calling for an army. "Emperor" means military commander, and he was
+the commander-in-chief of all the forces of the empire, military or
+naval, but in a sense far more liberal than would now be intended by
+such an expression. Of all the fighting forces he had absolute
+control, determining their numbers, their service, all appointments,
+their pay, and their discharge. He moved them where he chose, and,
+beyond this, he possessed the power of declaring war and concluding
+peace. Wherever there existed an armed force, whether in the far-off
+field or in garrison, its obedience was due to him. In sign of this
+every soldier, on the first of January and on the anniversary of the
+emperor's accession, took a solemn oath--and an oath in those days was
+felt as no mere matter of form, but as a solemn act of religion--that
+he would loyally obey the commander-in-chief. The emperor's effigy was
+conspicuous in the middle of every camp, and, in small, it figured on
+the standard of every regiment. The sacred obligation of the soldier
+to an Augustus or a Nero was kept perpetually in evidence, and he was
+never allowed to forget it. Wherever the emperor appeared or
+intervened in the provinces, all other powers became subordinate to
+his.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--AUGUSTUS AS EMPEROR.]
+
+Theoretically such a commander might always be deposed by the Roman
+people, acting through its Senate. In reality he was master of the
+situation. If he was ever deposed, or if a new commander was ever
+appointed, it was by the army. If he proved a tyrant, there was no
+other means of getting rid of him than by the army, unless it were by
+assassination. At such times the Senate might make a show of naming
+the successor, and the army might make a show of agreeing with the
+Senate, but such expressions, as Tacitus repeats, were "empty and
+meaningless words." The madman Caligula had been assassinated. When,
+four years after our date, Nero was compelled to flee from his palace
+and was persuaded into committing suicide, it was because the soldiers
+had declared against him and had elected another.
+
+The vast powers of the emperor had come into the hands of one man
+simply because the republic had been found incompetent to handle its
+empire, whether from a military or a financial point of view. It
+managed neither so consistently nor so honestly as did the individual.
+
+The emperor, then, by a constitutional fiction, was an officer of the
+commonwealth, commanding its forces, not only with the freedom of
+action which Rome had always allowed to its experts in dealing with
+the enemy, but with that freedom greatly enlarged, and with a tenure
+of the office perpetually renewed.
+
+But to him that hath shall be given--especially if he is in a position
+to insist on the gift. The emperor's military authority, his position
+as governor of provinces, could not alone rightfully qualify him to
+control Rome itself, with its laws, its magistrates, its domestic and
+provincial policy. Theoretically the Roman emperor never did control
+these matters.
+
+In practice he did with them very much as he chose. If he seriously
+wished a certain course to be followed, a certain law to be passed or
+abolished, even a certain man to be elected to an office, it was
+promptly done. But how could he thus perpetually interfere and yet
+appear to remain a constitutional officer? Not through the mere
+obsequiousness of every one concerned, including the Senate. That
+would be too transparent, clumsy, and invidious. It was necessary that
+he should possess some adequate appearance of real authority, and he
+was therefore ingeniously invested with that authority. It was thus.
+There were under the commonwealth certain annual officers of wide and
+rather indefinite powers called "tribunes of the commons." These
+persons could veto any measure which they declared to be in opposition
+to the interests of the people. They could also summon the Senate, and
+bring proposals before it. Meanwhile their persons were "sacrosanct,"
+or inviolable, during their term of office. Here lay the opportunity.
+The emperor was invested by the Senate with these "powers of the
+tribune." He was not actually elected a tribune, for the office was
+only annual and could not be held along with any other, whereas the
+emperor must have the prerogatives always, and in conjunction with any
+other functions which he might choose to hold. He, therefore, only
+received the corresponding "powers" and privileges. This position
+enabled him to veto a measure whenever he chose, and with impunity.
+Naturally therefore it became the custom, as far as possible, to find
+out his wishes beforehand, and to move accordingly. He could also, in
+the same right, summon the Senate and bring measures, or get them
+brought, before it. To make certainty doubly certain, he was granted
+the right to what we should call "the first business on the
+notice-paper."
+
+Observe further the shrewdness of the first emperor, Augustus, when he
+selected this particular position. The "tribunes of the commons" were
+constitutionally popular champions; they represented the interests of
+the common people. By assuming a position similar to theirs, the
+emperor--or commander-in-chief--made it appear to the common people
+that he was their chief and perpetual representative, and that their
+interests were bound up with his authority. He took them under his
+wing, and saw, among other things, that they did not starve or go
+stinted of amusements. He saw to it that they had corn for their
+bread, plenty of water, and games in the circus. His "bread and games"
+kept them quiet.
+
+Supported by the army on one side, with his person secure, enjoying
+the right of initiative and the right of veto, this officer of the
+"commonwealth" became indeed the Colossus who bestrode the Roman
+world. He was invariably made also the Pontifex Maximus, or chief
+guardian of the religious interests of Rome. He might in addition
+receive other constitutional appointments--for example, that of
+supervisor or corrector of morals--whenever these might suit a special
+purpose. What more could a man desire, if he was satisfied to forego
+the name of autocrat so long as he possessed the substance? It was
+quite as much to the purpose to be called _Princeps_, or "head of the
+state," as to be called a king, like the Parthian or other Oriental
+monarchs. Among the Romans, therefore, "Princeps" was his regular
+title. The Graeco-Oriental half of the empire, which had long been
+accustomed to kings and to treating them almost as gods, frankly
+styled this head of the state "king" or "autocrat," but no true Roman
+would forget himself so far as to lapse into this vulgar truth.
+
+One other title, however, the Romans did attach to their "Princeps."
+Something was still wanting to bring home, to both the Roman and the
+provincial, the peculiarly exalted position of so great a man;
+something which should be a recognition of that majesty which made him
+almost divine, at least with the divinity that doth hedge a king. The
+title selected for this purpose was _Augustus_, a word for which there
+is no nearer English equivalent than "His Highness," or perhaps "His
+Majesty," if we imagine that term applied to one who, by a legal
+fiction, is not a king. The insane Caligula called himself, or let
+himself be called, "Lord and Master," and later Domitian temporarily
+added to this title "God," but even Nero claimed neither of these
+modest epithets.
+
+Here, then, is the position of Nero: Commander-in-chief of all the
+forces of Rome by land and sea, and master of its foreign policy; the
+titular protector of its commons and therefore inviolable of person
+and virtual controller of laws and resolutions; official head of the
+state religion; rejoicer in the style of "His Highness the Head of the
+State." To speak ill of him, or to do anything derogatory to his
+authority, was _lèse majesté_.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--COIN OF NERO. British Museum.]
+
+Reference has several times been made to the Senate. It is time now to
+speak briefly of that body. For the sake of clearness, however, we
+must include a survey of the recognised constituent elements or
+"orders" of Roman society.
+
+The body politic consisted nominally of all who where known as "Roman
+citizens." These included men of every rank, from the artisan, the
+agricultural labourer, or even the idle loafer--of whom there was more
+than plenty--up through every grade of the middle classes to the
+richest and bluest-blooded aristocrat who considered himself in point
+of birth more than the equal of the emperor. Any such citizen was
+secured in person and property by the Roman laws. It was a punishable
+act for the local authorities at Philippi to take Paul, a "Roman
+citizen," and, before he was condemned, chastise him with rods.
+
+According to the letter of the constitution, the power of electing all
+officers of state, and of passing laws, had belonged to this
+miscellaneous body, the "people," gathered in assembly. Meanwhile the
+power of determining foreign policy and controlling the finances had
+lain with a special body, consisting largely of the aristocracy and of
+ex-officers of state, known as the "Senate." We are not here concerned
+with the causes of the changes which buried this constitution out of
+sight, but only with the actual state of things in the year 64.
+
+In point of fact there were, under the emperors, no longer any
+assemblies of the "people"; the people at large neither elected nor
+legislated. The chief articles of the constitution had fallen into
+complete abeyance during the troublous times which preceded the
+establishment of that poorly disguised monarchy which we know as the
+empire. All real power of electing and law-making came to be in the
+hands of the Senate, acting with the emperor. While the emperor
+dominated the Senate, he was nevertheless glad to fall back upon that
+body in justification of his own actions and as a means of keeping up
+the constitutional pretence. He permitted the Senate to pass
+resolutions, and to exercise authority, just so far as there was no
+conflict with his own pronounced wishes and interests. It was not his
+policy to interfere and irritate when there was no occasion. On the
+other hand, when he desired a piece of legislation or an important
+administrative novelty, he preferred that it should be backed up by
+the sanction, or promoted by the apparently spontaneous action, of the
+Senate. It then bore a better appearance, and was less open to cavil.
+The people are no longer consulted at all in such matters. They have
+no say in them, for they have neither plebiscite nor representative
+government.
+
+It must not be supposed that there never was friction between emperor
+and Senate. The Senate was often--or rather generally--servile,
+because it was intimidated. But there were times when it was inclined
+to assert itself; some of its members occasionally allowed themselves
+a certain freedom of speech, toward which one emperor might be
+surprisingly lenient or good-naturedly contemptuous, and another
+outrageously vindictive. In the year 64 the Senate was outwardly
+docile enough, although at heart it was anything but loyal to his
+Highness Nero the Head of the State. It must always be remembered that
+among the Senate were included many of the highest-born, proudest, and
+strictest of the Roman nobles or men of eminence. To them the whole
+succession of emperors was still a series of upstarts--the family of
+the Caesars--usurping powers which properly belonged to the Senate.
+You could not expect these persons, aristocrats at heart, and many of
+them true patriots, bearing names distinguished throughout Roman
+history, to acquiesce in the spectacle of one who was no better than
+they, as he passed up to his huge palace on the Palatine Hill,
+escorted by his guards, or as he entered the Senate-House to give what
+were practically his orders, perhaps scarcely deigning to recognise
+men whose families had been illustrious while his was obscure. At
+times a member here or there was calculating his own chances of
+supplanting the man who galled him by condescension, or coldness, or
+even insult. These aristocrats felt as the French nobles might feel
+with Napoleon. And on his side the emperor, good or bad, never felt
+quite safe from a plot to overthrow him. On the whole these earlier
+emperors were much engaged in keeping the Senate in its place, and
+were inclined, with quite sufficient reason, to be jealous and
+suspicious of its more important members.
+
+It was natural, therefore, that they should keep a very practical
+control over the composition of that body. The situation was much as
+if a modern nation were ruled by a virtual autocrat assisted by a
+House of Peers. The senators and their families formed a "senatorial
+order." So far as the Romans had such a thing as a peerage under the
+empire, it is to be found in the senatorial order. And as a title may
+now be either hereditary or conferred by the sovereign as the "fount
+of honour," so, under the Roman emperors, the right to belong to the
+senatorial order might come from birth or from the choice of the head
+of the state. Normally you belonged to the "order" if you were the son
+of a senator; you ranked in that class of society. To belong to the
+Senate itself and to take part in its debates you must then have held
+a certain public office and must possess not less than £8000. The
+£8000 is the minimum. Most senators were rich, and some were
+enormously wealthy. They are found with a capital of £3,000,000 or
+£4,000,000 and an income up to £150,000. As for the public office
+which you must first hold, you could not even be a candidate for it
+unless you were already of the "order." If, when you are a senator,
+there is anything serious against you, or if you become impoverished,
+your name may be expunged from the list. Otherwise you remain a
+senator all your life, and your son in turn is of the "order," and may
+pass into the Senate by the same process. If you were a popular or
+highly deserving person, and from any accident had lost your property,
+the emperor would frequently make up the deficiency, or your brother
+senators would subscribe the necessary amount.
+
+But an emperor could meanwhile raise to the "order" anyone he chose.
+He could give him standing, and so make him eligible as a candidate
+for that public office which was preliminary to entering the actual
+Senate. Moreover, when it came to the elections to this office which
+served as the indispensable stepping-stone to the Senate-House, the
+vacancies were limited in number, and the emperor had the right of
+either nominating or recommending the candidates whom he preferred.
+Needless to say, those candidates were invariably elected. It was, of
+course, monstrous arrogance for Caligula to boast that he could make
+his horse a consul if he chose, but the taunt contained a measure of
+truth.
+
+Let us then put the case thus. Imagine that a modern senate is
+recruited from persons whose names are in the _Peerage and
+Baronetage_, and that, before any scion of such a family can enter the
+Senate itself, he must go through some sort of under-secretaryship, to
+which he must first be elected.
+
+But next imagine that the sovereign can raise to the rank of "peerage
+or baronetage" some favoured person whose family does not yet figure
+in _Debrett_. Such a man is then entitled to put his name on the list
+of candidates for the necessary under-secretaryship, and, when the
+sovereign reviews that list, he marks the candidate as nominated or
+recommended by himself. So he passes into the Senate.
+
+Most emperors did this but sparingly. They made the Senate an
+aristocratic and wealthy body, keeping its numbers at somewhere near
+600. We must not be perpetually assuming that the Caesars were either
+reckless or unscrupulous, because two or three were of that character.
+Many of them were remarkably capable and sagacious men. They
+recognised the need of ability and high character in their Senate.
+They had themselves enough of the old Roman exclusiveness to keep
+their honours from being made too cheap, and the probability is that
+under their rule the Senate was quite as honourable and quite as able
+a body as it was at any time under the republic.
+
+The feeling of _noblesse oblige_ was strongly implanted in this
+senatorial class. The wealth of most members also put them above the
+more sordid temptations. The senator was not permitted to undertake
+any mercantile or financial business. The ancient notion still
+survived, that the only really honourable occupations for money were
+war and agriculture. The senator might own land and dispose of its
+produce or receive its rents, but he could not, for instance, be a
+money-lender or tax-farmer. Sometimes, no doubt, a senator evaded
+these provisions by employing a "dummy," but we must not probe too
+deep under the surface. In compensation for this disability it was
+from the senatorial class that were drawn all the governors of the
+important provinces, except Egypt, and all the higher military
+officers. In these capacities they received salaries. The governor of
+Africa, for example, was paid £10,000 a year.
+
+Such men were no mere inexperienced aristocrats or plutocrats. They
+had regularly passed through a military training in youth, and had
+then held a minor civil appointment, commonly involving some knowledge
+of public finance. Next they had passed into the Senate and taken part
+in its business; had then held other public offices which taught them
+practical administration and probably legal procedure; and had
+afterwards been put in command of a "legion," that is to say, a
+brigade or _corps d'armée_. After performing such functions with
+credit, a senator might be sent to govern Syria or Macedonia or
+Britain or some other province. He was then a man of varied experience
+and ripe judgment, trained in official discipline and etiquette, as
+well as in knowledge. This was the kind of man whom Paul met in Cyprus
+in the person of the governor Sergius Paulus, or at Corinth in the
+person of Gallio.
+
+Certain smaller provinces might be administered by men of another
+order, who were neither filled with the senatorial traditions nor had
+passed through the senatorial career. These were but "factors" or
+"agents" of Caesar, and among them were the Pontius Pilate, Felix, and
+Festus, who were administrators of Judaea in New Testament times.
+
+Next in rank to the senatorial order stood that of the "Knights." If
+the senators represent, in a certain sense, the peerage and
+baronetage, the next order represents--also in a certain sense.--the
+knightage. Generally speaking, it comprehended what we should call the
+upper middle classes, and particularly those concerned in the higher
+walks of finance; such persons as, with us, would be the directors or
+managers of great companies and banks. It also included persons whom
+the head of the state chose to honour with something less than
+senatorial standing. Many of these men were extremely wealthy, but the
+minimum property qualification stood at only £3200, and Roman citizens
+who possessed that amount were rather apt to pose as knights, and to
+be commonly spoken of as such by a kind of courtesy title, although
+their names could not be found upon the authorised rolls. Though
+several emperors did their best to stop this practice, the endeavour
+was for the most part fruitless. Once in England the "esquires" were a
+class with certain recognised claims, but nothing could stop the
+polite tendency to add "Esq." to the name of a person on a private
+letter. The case was somewhat similar at Rome, although the practice
+did not proceed quite so far.
+
+Nevertheless there was a distinct and official roll of "Roman
+knights," whom the head of the state had honoured with a public
+present of "the gold ring," a ceremony corresponding to the royal
+sword-stroke of modern times. This body, mounted on horses nominally
+presented by the public, and riding in procession through the streets,
+was reviewed and revised every year. Their roll was called, and if a
+name was omitted from its proper place, it meant--without explanation
+necessary--that by the pleasure of the emperor the person in question
+had ceased to be a knight. Every member of the already-mentioned
+higher or senatorial order was by right a knight until he actually
+became a senator, from which time he ceased to enjoy the privileges of
+a knight because he was enjoying those of the higher order rank. For
+there were privileges as well as disabilities in each case. As a
+senator could govern large provinces and command armies, but could not
+engage in purely financial business; so the knight could--and almost
+alone did--conduct the large financial enterprises of the Roman world,
+but could not command armies nor hold any of the great public offices
+or higher provincial appointments, except the governorship of Egypt.
+Relatively to the senators the emperor was technically only "first
+among equals"; he was the first senator, as well as the first man of
+the state. At this date a senator would hold a truly public office,
+civil or military, with or under this "superior equal," but he would
+not act as his personal agent or assistant. The Roman aristocrat had
+not yet learned to serve in that capacity, still less on the
+"household" staff of the autocrat. There were as yet no highly placed
+Romans serving as Lord High Chamberlain, much less as Private
+Secretary. The "knights" stood in a different position. They were
+prepared to be the emperor's personal agents, just as they were
+prepared to be the agents of any one else, if sufficiently
+remunerated. They would take his personal orders, whether in managing
+his estates, collecting his provincial revenues, or relieving him of
+some routine portion of his own official labour.
+
+It follows that it was often more lucrative to be a knight than a
+senator, and a number of senators were not unwilling to give up their
+rank, for the same reasons which induce a modern peer to serve on
+companies or a peeress to open a shop. On the other hand many a knight
+would have declined to become a senator, at least until he had
+sufficiently feathered his nest. The inducement to become or remain a
+senator was the social rank, the honour and dignity, with their
+outward insignia and the deference paid to them, the front seat, and
+the reception at court. In these the wives also shared, and at Rome
+the influence of the wife could not be disregarded.
+
+If you met a senator, or a person of senatorial rank, in the street,
+you would know him for such by the broad band of purple which ran down
+the front, and probably also down the back, of his tunic, and by the
+silver or ivory crescent which he wore upon his black shoes. His wife,
+it is perhaps needless to say made even more show of what is called
+the "broad stripe." If you met a knight, you would perceive his
+standing by his two narrow stripes of purple appearing upon the same
+part of his dress. Each would wear a gold ring; but that in itself
+would prove nothing, since, despite all attempts at prohibiting the
+custom, every Roman who could afford a gold ring permitted himself
+that luxury.
+
+If you entered one of the large semicircular theatres, which are to be
+described in due course, you would find that the men wearing the broad
+stripe seated themselves in the chairs which stood upon the level in
+front of the stage, while those wearing the narrow stripes would
+occupy the first fourteen tiers of seats rising just behind them. No
+one else might, occupy those places. If some one who had been
+improperly posing as a knight, or who had been degraded from his rank
+because he had wasted his credit and his money and no longer possessed
+either £3200 or a reputation, ventured to seat himself in the fourteen
+rows in the hope of being unnoticed, he would be speedily called upon
+by the usher to withdraw. Snobs occasionally made the attempt, and, at
+a somewhat later date, we have an amusing epigram of Martial
+concerning one who repeatedly but unsuccessfully dodged the usher and
+who was at last compelled to kneel in the gangway opposite the end of
+the fourteenth row, where it might look to those behind as if he were
+sitting among the knights, while technically he could claim that he
+was not sitting at all.
+
+Elsewhere also, as for instance at the chariot-races in the Circus,
+and at the gladiatorial shows in the amphitheatre, there were special
+places set apart for the two orders.
+
+Below the senators and the knights came the "people,"--the "commons,"
+or "third estate"--with all its usual grades and its usual variety of
+occupation or no occupation, of manners and character or absence of
+both. With the life of these, as with the life of a noble, we shall
+deal at the proper time.
+
+So much for the Roman citizen proper. Other elements of the population
+were the foreigners. At Rome these were exceedingly numerous, and the
+city may in this respect be called--as indeed it was called--a
+microcosm, a small copy or epitome of the Roman world. Gauls,
+Africans, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, and Egyptians were perhaps the most
+commonly to be seen, but particularly prominent were the Greeks and
+the Jews. The Greeks were recognised above all as the clever men, the
+artists, the social entertainers, and the literary guides. The Jews,
+who formed a sort of colony in what is now known as Trastevere--the
+low-lying quarter across the Tiber--were not yet the princes of high
+finance. As yet they were chiefly the hucksters and petty traders,
+notorious for their strange habits and for the fanaticism of their
+religion, which nevertheless exercised a strange potency and made many
+proselytes even in high places, especially among the women. Poppaea,
+the wife of Nero himself, is commonly considered to have been such a
+proselyte, although the strange notion that she herself was a Jewess
+is without any sort of foundation. It is a common error to suppose
+that the Jews came to Rome only after the destruction of Jerusalem.
+The dispersion had occurred long before Rome had anything to do with
+Judaea, and naturally the enterprising Jew was to be found in all
+profitable places, whether in Alexandria, Antioch, Smyrna, Corinth,
+Rome, or farther afield.
+
+In the political sense all these foreigners belonged to their own
+provinces and communities. They might be citizens there, but they were
+not citizens at Rome. At Rome they had no public claims and no
+official career, unless--as not seldom happened--they received, for
+some service or some distinction, the gift of the Roman citizenship.
+Sometimes the citizenship was given wholesale to a town, or even to a
+province. How the Hebrew father or grandfather of St. Paul became a
+Roman citizen, we do not know. Their own abilities or the emperor's
+favour might carry such citizens, or their children, up all the steps
+which were open to the ordinary Roman.
+
+After the foreigners come the slaves. At Rome itself they formed about
+one-third of the population. This is not the moment for any detailed
+account of their employment, their treatment, or their liberation.
+
+Suffice it for the present that the slave possessed no rights at all.
+He was the chattel of his master, who possessed over him the full
+power of life and death, limited only by public opinion and prudential
+considerations. A Roman might have at his disposal one slave or ten
+thousand slaves. He could use them as he liked, kill them if he chose,
+and, subject to certain limitations, set them free if he willed,
+provided that he did not set too many free at once. The last
+restriction was especially necessary, inasmuch as a slave who was
+manumitted by his master with the proper ceremonies became _ipso
+facto_ a Roman citizen, but was still bound by certain ties of loyalty
+to his former master. For a Roman to possess too large an attachment
+of "freedmen," as they were called, might prove dangerous. The
+"freedman," though a citizen, could not himself enter upon a public
+career; neither, in ordinary circumstances, could his children; but in
+the third generation the family stood on an entire equality with any
+other Roman family in that respect.
+
+For the present it may be added that our conception of the meaning of
+the word "slave" must not be that attached to its modern use. Many
+such slaves were men of great special or general ability, or men of
+high culture, especially if Greeks, Syrians, Jews, or Egyptians. They
+were frequently superior to their masters, and subsequently, as free
+citizens, added much to either the refinement or the over-refinement
+of Roman life. Perhaps it is as well, in passing, to point out that
+the later Roman people was in no small degree descended from all this
+aggregation of foreigners and emancipated slaves, and that we must
+speak with the greatest reservation when we describe the modern Roman
+as a direct descendant of the ancient stock who fought with Hannibal
+and subjugated the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+Roughly then this is the situation at the centre of government.
+Sumptuously housed on the Palatine Hill--the origin of our word
+"palace"--is His Highness Claudius Nero, Head of the State,
+Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Empowered to act as Tribune of the
+People, and Head of the State Religion: in modern times commonly
+called "the Emperor." Every day and night his palace is surrounded by
+a regiment of the Imperial Guards, and attached to his person is a
+special corps for bodyguard, and orderlies. In practice, whatever be
+the theory, he possesses the control of legislation and appointments;
+upon him practically depends all recognised distinction of social
+rank. Down below, to the side of the Forum, is the Senate-House, in
+which there gathers, twice each month, and oftener if summoned, the
+great deliberative body which, in spite of all disturbances, civil
+wars, and limitations or broadenings of its power, is the continuation
+of the assembly of grave Roman fathers who first met some eight
+hundred years before. These men, who are of birth and wealth and
+commonly of sound public training, are the nominal upholders and
+directors of the commonwealth, still left to perform many functions
+and to administer the more peaceful provinces in their own
+way--especially if they relieve the emperor of trouble--but in
+practice controlled by His Highness whenever and however it suits his
+purpose. They and the emperor form a partnership in authority, but the
+Senate is very distinctly the junior partner. They lend him advice or
+sanction when he seeks it, and they sometimes act as a break on his
+impetuosity. It is not well to alienate them, for they are proud; they
+are jointly, sometimes individually, powerful; and their moral weight
+with army and public is not to be despised.
+
+Thus stands the central government, while socially there follows the
+order of the Knights, depending for their rank upon the emperor, and
+in many cases serving in his employ. Below these the populace, of
+whose rights and liberties the emperor is an official champion to whom
+theoretically any Roman citizen can appeal against a sentence of death
+or against cruel wrong. It is hard to conceive of a stronger position
+for one man to hold.
+
+When we survey this vast aggregation of various provinces, with their
+differences of race, language, religion, and habits; when we remember
+that it was on the whole strictly, energetically, and legally
+administered; it is hard--even allowing for a wise Senate and capable
+ministers--to realise a man competent for the position.
+
+Yet Augustus had been conspicuously successful, and Tiberius not less
+so; Claudius, despite a certain weakness, cannot by any means be
+called a failure; after Nero, Vespasian and Titus were capable enough;
+while Trajan deserves nothing but admiration. On the other hand
+Caligula, it is true, had had more than a touch of the madman in his
+composition, and had believed himself to be omnipotent and on a level
+with Jupiter. Nero had begun well, but had been led by vanity, vice,
+and extravagance to an astounding pitch of folly and oppression.
+Nevertheless it must be remarked, and it should be firmly emphasised,
+that what is called the tyranny of Caligula and Nero is mainly--and in
+Caligula's case almost solely--a tyranny affecting the Romans
+themselves, affecting the lives and property of the Roman senators and
+other prominent persons, and affecting the lives and honour of their
+wives and daughters. The outcry against these two emperors comes from
+the Romans, not from the subject peoples. At least in Caligula's case
+the provinces were as peaceful and prosperous as at other times. It is
+true that the madman once meant to insist on the Jews putting up his
+own statue in the temple at Jerusalem, but this was because his vanity
+was aggrieved by their unwillingness. Under Nero the case is much the
+same. His tyranny for the most part took the shape of cruelty, insult,
+and plunder in Rome itself. It was only when he was becoming
+hopelessly in debt that he began to plunder the provinces as well as
+Italy by demanding contributions of money, and in particular to seize
+upon Greek works of art without paying for them. It is a mistake to
+think of Nero as habitually and without scruple trampling under his
+blood-stained foot the rights and privileges of the provinces, or
+grinding from them the last penny, or harrying, slaying, and violating
+throughout the empire.
+
+There is nothing to show that, during the greater part of his reign,
+the provinces at large felt any material difference between the rule
+of Nero and the rule of Claudius, or that they rejoiced particularly
+in his fall. In many quarters he was a favourite. In the latter half
+of his reign he made himself a brute beast, and often a fool, in the
+eyes of respectable Romans. But it was, as still more with Caligula,
+rather in his immediate environment that his tyranny was felt to be
+intolerable; that is to say, among the men and women who had the
+misfortune to come in his way with sufficient attraction of purse or
+beauty to awaken his cupidity. And these were the Romans themselves,
+senators and knights, not the populace, and in but a small degree, if
+at all, the provincials in Spain or Greece or Palestine.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--BUST OF SENECA. Archeologische Zeitung.]
+
+Perhaps this is the time to look for a little while at this Nero,
+whose name has deservedly passed into a byword for heartless
+bestiality. In the year 64 he is 27 years of age, and has been seated
+on the throne for ten years. Four years more are to elapse before he
+perishes with the cry, "What an artist the world is losing!" In his
+early years his vicious propensities, inherited from an abominable
+father, had been kept in check partly by his preceptor, the
+philosopher Seneca, and by Burrus, the commander of the Imperial
+Guards, partly by his domineering and furious-tempered mother,
+Agrippina, who seems to have so closely resembled the mother of Lord
+Byron. But at this date he had got rid of both his tutors. Burrus was
+dead, probably by poison, and Seneca was in forced retirement. The
+emperor had also caused his own mother to be murdered. Poisoning,
+strangling, drowning, or a command--explicit or implied--to depart
+this life, were his ways of shaking off any incubus upon a free
+indulgence of his will. His follies and vices had revealed themselves
+from the first, and had gone to outrageous lengths, but now he is
+entirely unhampered in exhibiting them.
+
+[Illustration: Photo--Mansell & Co. FIG. 14--BUST OF AGRIPPINA, MOTHER
+OF NERO.]
+
+Educated slightly in philosophy, but better in music and letters, he
+could speak, like others of his day, Greek as well as his native
+Latin. His aim was to be an "artist," but if the want of balance which
+too often goes with what is called the "artistic temperament" ever
+manifested itself in its worst form, it was in Nero. Apart from his
+passion for music and verse, he developed an early mania for
+horse-racing, and when he was caught talking in school--where such
+conversation was forbidden--about a charioteer who had fallen out of
+his chariot and been dragged along the ground, he explained that he
+was discussing the passage in Homer where Achilles drags the body of
+Hector round the walls of Troy. In after life he carried both forms of
+mania to amazing lengths. The highest form of music was then
+represented by singing to the harp. Nero's ambition was no less than
+to compete with the champion minstrels of the world. As he remarked,
+"music is not music unless it is heard," and he decided to make public
+appearances upon the stage like any professional. Whenever he did so,
+a number of energetic youths, salaried for the purpose, were
+distributed among the audience as _claqueurs_--the words actually used
+for them being perhaps translatable as "boomers" or "rattlers." He
+acted parts in plays--a proceeding which would correspond to an
+appearance in opera--and made a peregrination through Greece and back
+by way of Naples as an exponent of the art of singing to the harp.
+While upon this tour, whenever he was performing in the theatre, the
+doors were shut, and no one might leave the building for any reason
+whatever. "Many," says the memoir-writer, "got so tired of listening
+and praising that they jumped down from the wall, or pretended to be
+dead, so as to get carried out." Naturally he always won the prize,
+and, on his side, it should be remarked that he honestly believed he
+had earned it. He practised assiduously, took hard physical training,
+regulated his diet for the cultivation of his voice, which was not
+naturally of the best, and probably became not at all a bad amateur.
+His monstrous self-conceit did the rest. Besides singing to the harp,
+he was prepared to perform upon the flute and the bagpipes, and to
+give a dance afterwards. All this, of course, was undignified and
+ridiculous, but it was scarcely tyranny. Doubtless there was
+sufficient suffering among the audience, but that cruelty was hardly
+deliberate. In the Roman noble, whose ideal of behaviour included
+dignity and gravity, these public appearances perhaps often aroused
+more indignation and scorn than did his sensual vices. The same
+contempt was often evoked by other proceedings of a similar nature.
+His insatiable fondness for horse-racing, or rather chariot-racing,
+induced him to appear also as a charioteer. First he practised in his
+extensive private park or gardens, which were situated across the
+Tiber on the ground now approximately occupied by St. Peter's and the
+Vatican. When he appeared at the Olympic games driving a team of ten
+horses, he was thrown out of the car, and had to be lifted into it
+again. Though he was eventually compelled to abandon the race, he was,
+of course, crowned victor all the same. He dabbled also in painting
+and modelling.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon his eccentricities. One might describe
+how in his earlier years he often put on mufti and roamed the streets
+at night with a few choice Mohawks, broke into shops, and insulted
+respectable citizens, throwing them into the drains if they resisted;
+how, being unrecognized, he once received a sound thrashing from a
+person of the senatorial order, and was thereafter attended on such
+occasions by police following at a distance. One might describe his
+dicing at £3 or £4 a pip, or his banquets, at one of which he paid as
+much as £30,000 for roses from Alexandria. After the great
+conflagration which swept over a large part of Rome in this very year
+64 he began to build his enormous Golden House, in which stood a
+colossal effigy of himself 120 feet high, and in which the circuit of
+the colonnade made three Roman miles. Whether he deliberately set fire
+to the city in order to make room for this stupendous palace is open
+to doubt. It was naturally believed at the time, and, in order to
+divert suspicion from himself, he turned it upon those persons for
+whom the Roman populace had at that moment the greatest contempt,
+because, as the historian puts it, of their pestilent superstition and
+of a profound suspicion that they harboured a "hatred of the human
+race." These were the new sect of the Christians, and with burning
+Christians did Nero proceed to light up his gardens on one famous
+night, as a means of placating the populace whom he had offended, but
+who for the most part loved him for his misplaced generosity in the
+matter of "bread and sports." The tolerant attitude of the Romans
+towards foreign religions will be discussed in its own place; but the
+cruelty of a Nero in the year 64 can hardly be put down as properly a
+religious persecution in any way typical of the Roman government.
+
+The sensual vices of Nero are indescribable, and that word must
+suffice. His extravagances, whether in lavish presents or in personal
+expenditure, soon rendered him bankrupt. He had no means of paying the
+soldiers or meeting his own appetites. Then began, or increased, his
+attacks on wealthy persons, his executions and banishments of senators
+and other wealthy men, and his flimsy pretexts for all manner of
+confiscation. The Senate he hated and the Senate hated him.
+Nevertheless, so far as the empire itself was concerned, no systematic
+or widespread oppression can have been perceptible. His officers and
+the officers of the Senate were apparently all the time governing and
+administering the law and the taxation throughout the empire in as
+sound and steady a way as if an Augustus sat upon the throne.
+
+If we wish to picture Nero to ourselves, here is his description: "He
+was of a fairly good height; his skin was blotched, and his odour
+unpleasant; his hair was inclined to be yellow; his face was more
+handsome than attractive; his eyes were grayish-blue and
+short-sighted; his neck was fat; he was protuberant below the waist;
+his legs were very slender; his health was good."
+
+Such was the man to whom St. Paul elected to have his case referred,
+when at Caesarea he exercised his privilege as a Roman citizen and
+appealed to the titular protector of the commons. "Thou hast appealed
+unto Caesar, and unto Caesar shalt thou go." There is indeed no great
+probability that the apostle was ever brought directly before this
+precious emperor. We may perhaps draw from bur inner consciousness
+elaborate and interesting pictures of the two men confronting each
+other, but we must not forget that they will be pure imagination. The
+appeal of a citizen did not imply such right to an interview, for the
+Caesar in such minor cases commonly delegated his powers to other
+judicial authorities at Rome. Paul's object was gained if his case was
+safely removed from the local influences of Judaea and the weaker
+policy of its governor, the "agent of Caesar," to the capital with its
+broader-minded men and its superiority to small bribes and local
+interference.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15.--BUST OF NERO.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+We are now brought to the consideration of the methods by which this
+huge empire was organised and governed.
+
+And first let us observe that the Romans--strict disciplinarians and
+great lawyers as they were--never sought to impose upon the subject
+provinces any uniformity. They never sought, any more than Great
+Britain has sought, to erect one code of law, one form of
+administration, one standard of rights, one rate of taxation, one
+religion, and to make it equally applicable to Spain and Britain,
+Greece and Africa, Gaul and Asia Minor. There were, of course, common
+to all the empire certain rules essential to civilisation, certain
+natural laws and laws of all nations. Murder, violence, robbery,
+deliberate sacrilege, and so forth were punishable everywhere, though
+not necessarily by the same authority nor in the same manner.
+Necessarily it was held everywhere that contracts must be fulfilled
+and debts paid. Beyond the fact that Rome demanded peace and order and
+the essentials of civilised life, and provided machinery to secure
+those ends, she troubled little about differences of local procedure
+and varieties of local law, so long as the Roman rule was duly
+recognised and the Roman taxes duly paid. As with Great Britain, her
+care was for results, not for machinery, or, as the great Roman
+historian puts it, she "valued the reality of the empire, not the
+show."
+
+Outside Italy there spread the provinces. These had been conquered or
+peacefully annexed at various times. A number of small states had come
+in by perpetual alliance. Some provinces, such as Gaul, had formerly
+been divided among tribes and tribal chiefs. Some, such as Greece, had
+consisted of highly civilised city-communities with small territories
+and managing their own affairs, although they might all alike be
+acknowledging the suzerainty of some powerful prince. Some, such as
+Cappadocia, Syria, and Egypt, had been under their native kings.
+Judaea was a peculiar example of a small theocratic state, in which
+the chief power lay with the priests.
+
+Rome was too wise to meddle more than she need with existing
+conditions. She preferred as far as possible to accept the existing
+machinery and to use it, with only necessary modifications, as her
+instrument of administration. To the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, for
+example, she conceded a large criminal jurisdiction over
+ecclesiastical offenders, so long as that jurisdiction did not limit
+the universal rights of a "Roman citizen."
+
+When a province was conquered, all its territory became technically
+the property of the Roman state. Some of it was kept as such, and
+mines of gold, silver, lead, iron, and salt, or quarries of marble,
+granite, and gravel, were commonly annexed as state property. If it
+was expedient to allot some portion of the conquered land to a Roman
+settlement--commonly a settlement of veteran soldiers called a
+"colony"--that was done. Such a settlement meant the founding of a
+town, to which was granted a certain environment of land. Those who
+took part in its formation were "Roman citizens" and forfeited no
+rights as such. As the native people came in from the surrounding
+districts to reside in it, they also, it appears, somewhat easily
+acquired similar privileges. Here the Roman law existed in its
+entirety. A colony was almost exactly a little Rome in respect of its
+system of officers and its legal procedure. Sometimes a town which had
+not originally been so founded might be made a "colony" by receiving a
+draft of Romans, and sometimes it was made such in sheer compliment.
+In the Eastern half of the empire such settlements were comparatively
+rare; they were but dots upon the map, as at Corinth, Philippi,
+Antioch in Pisidia, or Caesarea. In the West they were much more
+numerous. The south of France contained many; a number also existed in
+southern Spain. So many indeed were planted in these parts that they
+became, as has been already remarked, completely romanized. Farther
+north Cologne still perpetuates its Roman name of Colonia.
+Nevertheless in the West the bulk of the land of the provinces is far
+from being taken up, in the year 64, by colonies.
+
+Apart from the lands thus appropriated, what happens to the rest of
+the conquered territory which is theoretically Roman property?
+Generally it is handed back to its original inhabitants, on condition
+that they pay rent for it, whether in money or in kind, or partly in
+each. Egypt pays in kind when it sends to Rome the corn in the great
+merchantmen; Africa pays in kind when it does the same; the Frisians
+of Holland pay in kind when they supply a certain quantity of hides.
+Before the days of the Emperor Augustus there had existed for the
+empire in general the abominable system of tithes, which were farmed
+by companies. But after him, and at our date, for the most part the
+payment is by a fixed sum of money, which has been calculated upon the
+basis of those tithes. In the imperial Record Office there is a
+register of the area of land in a given province, and an assessment of
+its producing value. The amount of the land-tax to be paid into the
+Roman treasury is therefore fixed. Those who read in the New Testament
+that Augustus Caesar sent forth an order that "all the world--that is,
+the Roman world--should be taxed" need find no difficulty in
+understanding what it means. "Taxed" is Old English for assessed, as
+when we speak of "taxing a bill of costs." The Greek word means simply
+that a register should be made. The order of Augustus was that a
+census should be taken throughout the provinces; that a return should
+be made of population, property, trades, and all that a reasonable
+government requires to know; and that payments should be determined
+thereby. All the world had been "taxed" in the modern sense long
+before Augustus, and it has been taxed, unfortunately without much
+promise of respite, ever since.
+
+The chief revenues of Rome were derived from this land-tax; but, when
+combined with other taxes, a large proportion of it was spent in the
+administration of the province from which it was obtained. No error
+could be greater than to suppose that Roman officers simply came and
+carried off all this money as booty to Rome for the pampering of its
+emperor and populace. Naturally the balance which accrued for the
+feeding of Borne, for Roman enjoyment and Roman buildings was very
+large; and doubtless this fact was bad for the morale of Rome itself
+and requires considerable casuistry to defend it. But it would be a
+monstrous misconception to imagine that all the "tribute paid to
+Caesar" was absolutely drained, by an act of sheer oppression, clean
+out of the province year by year. No country can be protected,
+policed, and have its justice administered without taxes, and the
+provincials were not paying more, and were often paying much less, as
+well as paying it in a more just and rational way, than when they were
+being taxed by their own kings, their own oligarchies, or their own
+socialistic democracies. The Roman settlements--the colonies--unless
+specially exempted, had to pay the land-tax as much as any other
+community. The only land which was exempt from it was Italy, and Italy
+paid sundry other taxes to make up for it, at least in part. But
+though Italy was first and foremost in the imperial regard, the
+emperor was by no means indifferent to the welfare of the provinces.
+If an earthquake, a fire, or other great calamity befell a town, it
+was by no means rare for the emperor to send a large sum of money in
+relief.
+
+Besides the land-tax there was also a tax on persons and personal
+property. The tax on persons was not precisely a poll-tax, except in
+places like Britain and Egypt, where it was difficult to make proper
+estimates otherwise, but a tax on occupations and trades. This, if we
+choose, may be put down as a crude form of income-tax, although it was
+not actually assessed on income. In another sense it may be regarded
+as a tax on a license, assuming that we demand a license for every
+kind of occupation. Italy again was exempt from this taxation also.
+Obviously a census, and a regularly revised census, was necessary to
+carry out this system; and Rome required a whole army of agents, just
+as a modern state would require one, for assessing and collecting
+these dues.
+
+The land-tax and the person-tax were the two chief sources of Roman
+revenue. These were regular and direct. There were others, subject,
+like our own taxes, to increase or decrease according to
+circumstances, but for the most part kept at very much the same
+standards under several consecutive emperors. For instance there were
+customs duties, paid on the frontiers of the empire and also on those
+of provinces or natural groups of provinces, not as part of any
+protective system, since the empire is all one, but as a means of
+raising money from commodities. In Italy there was a duty of 2-1/2 per
+cent. Luxuries from India and Arabia via Red Sea ports were specially
+taxed at 25 per cent. If you sold a slave, you would pay from 2 to 4
+per cent on the purchase-money. Occasionally there was a tax on
+bachelors. In Italy, but not elsewhere, 5 per cent legacy duty was
+paid when the recipient was not a near relative, and when the legacy
+was not under £1000.
+
+Add to these revenues the rents of state pastures, state forests, and
+state mines. Into the treasury came also unclaimed property and the
+property of certain classes of condemned criminals.
+
+So much for the nature of the taxation. In point of government, the
+Romans were singularly liberal. When a province was conquered or
+annexed, the Senate sent out a commission of ten persons, who
+carefully considered the existing state of things, the laws and forms
+of administration actually in vogue, and drew up a constitution for
+the province, embodying as much of these as was possible or at all
+commendable; as much, in fact, as was compatible with the Roman
+connection. This constitution, when sanctioned by the Senate, was
+binding, whatever governor might be appointed by Rome to the province.
+Such a governor might interpret the law; he could not alter it.
+
+But though a province was a unit in so far as it was under one
+governor, the Romans were firm believers in strictly local
+administration. Their policy in this, as in conquest, was "divide and
+rule." It did not suit their ends to make any large part of the empire
+conscious of a corporate existence. The unit of administration was,
+therefore, a town and its district--a "community." In Gaul there were
+about sixty such divisions, each roughly corresponding in size to a
+modern French "department." Such a community had its own local council
+and officials, who were ultimately responsible to the governor. So
+long as they performed their municipal or communal functions correctly
+and honestly they were not interfered with. The chief principle upon
+which Rome insisted was that their local government should be
+aristocratic, or rather that office should be based on wealth. The
+governor, of course, stepped in when he felt it to be his duty. He was
+required to suppress all secret societies or political unions. A
+strike of the bakers in one city of Asia Minor was promptly put down
+by the governor as interfering with social order and social needs.
+
+The communities made their own by-laws, they collected the land-tax of
+their own district and handed it over to the financial representative
+of the Roman government. This was done by men of their own people,
+often of a low class, known in the Gospels as the "publicans," who
+were so commonly associated with sinners. St. Matthew had been one of
+the minor agents for such collection in Galilee. Other taxes--those
+which were indirect--might be collected by the great tax-farming
+companies of Roman "knights," who offered a lump sum for them to the
+government, and made what they could out of the bargain.
+
+One incidental consequence of this systematic division into communes
+was that there spread throughout the empire a strong municipal
+patriotism, especially in the Greek world. This was followed by
+liberal local expenditure on the part of rich provincials in
+beautifying their centres with public buildings and works of art,
+chiefly, no doubt, given for the sake of the local honours with which
+they were repaid, but given nevertheless.
+
+Most of the towns or communities throughout the empire were in the
+position described. Some communities, however, such as Thessalonica,
+though situated inside a province, were for some special service in
+the past exempted from the interference of the governor, and were
+allowed to exercise their own laws to the full, even upon Roman
+citizens who might happen to reside there. These were called "free"
+towns. In other cases the community, having come into voluntary
+alliance with Rome at an earl; date and before conquest, was still
+treated as an "allied" state, and was exempted from either
+interference or taxation, so long as it supplied its quota of soldiers
+when called upon. Such cities, however, were distinctly the exception,
+and most of them in the end preferred to come directly within the
+Roman sphere of administration. They often found their burdens smaller
+and less capricious than when they taxed themselves through their own
+authorities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The function of the governor was to see that the various local bodies
+did their work, kept within their rights, and paid their taxes. He
+also, either in person or by his deputies, administered justice
+wherever the Roman laws were concerned. Where they were not concerned,
+he necessarily acted as Gallio did with the Jewish charges against
+Paul at Corinth; he dismissed the case as not demanding his
+jurisdiction. Said Gallio: "If it were a question of a misdemeanour or
+a crime, I should be called upon to bear with you; but if they are
+questions of (mere) words and names and of your (Jewish) law, you must
+see to it yourselves." When the Greeks who were standing by proceeded
+to beat the chief of Paul's Jewish accusers, the governor shut his
+eyes to the matter. This may have been a laxity, but it would almost
+appear as if Gallio liked their behaviour.
+
+For the purposes of justice a province was divided into "Assize
+Districts," and the governor or his deputies went on circuit. In the
+court he sat upon a platform in his official chair and with his
+lictors in attendance. The official language of the court and of its
+records was of course Latin, but in the Eastern half of the empire the
+bench cannot always have pretended not to understand Greek. Since it
+would not, however, understand Hebrew, the Jews would need to speak
+through a representative who knew Latin, and this is apparently the
+reason for the appearance of Tertullus against St. Paul at Caesarea. A
+Roman citizen--that is, a person possessed of full Roman rights--if he
+either denied the jurisdiction or was in danger of being condemned to
+capital punishment, might, unless he had been caught red-handed in
+certain heinous crimes, appeal to Caesar and claim to be sent to Rome.
+Unless the governor had been expressly entrusted with exceptional
+powers, or unless the case was so self-evident that he had nothing to
+fear from refusing, he had no alternative but to send the appellant on
+to the metropolis. Arrived there, the prisoner was taken to the
+guardrooms or cells in the barracks of a special prefect who had
+charge of such arrivals from abroad, and his case would in due course
+be taken either by the emperor himself, if it was sufficiently
+important, or by magistrates to whom the emperor delegated his powers
+for the purpose.
+
+Meanwhile, provincials other than full Roman citizens enjoyed no such
+privilege. They could make no appeal. The governor was supreme judge,
+and his verdict or sentence was carried out. In matters of doubt,
+whether administrative or judicial, the governor might refer to the
+emperor for direction or advice, and we have at a somewhat later date
+a considerable collection of letters and their replies which passed in
+this manner between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A glance at the map will show some provinces named in heavy type and
+some in italics. Those in _italics_ are the provinces to which the
+Senate has the right to appoint the governors, in this case called
+"proconsuls." Of course His Highness the Head of the State is
+graciously pleased to approve the choice of the Senate; which means
+that the Senate will not attempt any appointment which the emperor
+would dislike. The revenues of these provinces go into a treasury
+controlled by the Senate. Of those named in heavy type the emperor is
+himself the governor or proconsul. Theoretically he is made governor
+of all these simply because they contain, or may need, armies, and he
+is the commander-in-chief of those armies. But since he is at Rome,
+and in any case cannot be everywhere at once, he governs all such
+provinces by means of his deputies, whom he appoints for himself. They
+are his lieutenants, and are so called--to wit, "lieutenants of
+Caesar" and "deputies of the commander." The revenues of these
+imperial provinces are collected by an "agent" or "factor" of Caesar,
+and go into a treasury controlled by the emperor. In any one of his
+provinces the emperor would be its governor, and would exercise the
+usual military and civil powers of a governor. His lieutenant to each
+province simply acts in his place, receives the same powers, and is
+the governor of that province exactly as the proconsul sent by the
+Senate is governor in his. But whereas the governors in the senatorial
+provinces wear the garb of peace, and are appointed, like other civil
+officers, for one year only, the "deputies of Caesar," the
+commander-in-chief, wear the military garb, and are kept in office
+just so long as their superior thinks fit. It is as if in modern times
+the governor of the one kind of province made his public appearances
+in civilian dress, and the governor of the other kind in uniform.
+
+The actual outcome of this system was that the provinces of the
+emperor were on the whole better administered than those of the
+Senate. In the latter, changes were too frequent, and a governor might
+sometimes strain a point to enrich himself quickly. But it must on no
+account be imagined that at this date a governor could with impunity
+be extortionate or oppress the provincials, as he too often did in the
+good old days of the republic. He was paid his salary, which might be
+anything up to £10,000; his allowances and power of making
+requisitions, such as of salt, wood, and hay when travelling, were
+strictly defined by law; any pronounced extortion, oppression, or
+dishonesty laid him open to impeachment; and such a charge was
+tolerably certain to be brought. Among so many governors it was
+inevitable that a number should have been impeached. We know of
+twenty-seven instances, resulting in twenty condemnations and only
+seven acquittals. The emperors at least looked sharply to their own
+provinces; nor would they readily tolerate any gross irregularity in
+those other provinces which were nominally controlled by the Senate.
+On leaving his province every governor must make out duplicate copies
+of his accounts, one to be left in the province, one to be forwarded
+to Rome.
+
+In the _Acts of the Apostles_ we have mention of two governors of
+senatorial provinces--in other words, two "proconsuls"--Gallio in
+Achaia (or Greece), and Sergius Paulus in Cyprus. It is instructive to
+compare the lenient and common sense attitude of these trained Roman
+aristocrats with that of the turbulent local mobs who dealt with St.
+Paul in Asia Minor, Judaea, or Greece. Of the minor governors of
+smaller provinces--styled "agents" or "factors" of Caesar--we meet
+with Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus.
+
+It remains only to remark that, while the Senate's treasury, which
+received the revenues from the senatorial provinces, paid the expenses
+of their management and also of the administration of Italy, the
+emperor's treasury, which received the revenues from the other
+provinces, provided for their administration, for the pay of the army,
+for the corn and water of Rome, for public buildings, for the great
+military roads, and for the imperial post. Nevertheless the emperor
+could handle all this latter money exactly as he chose, and it is upon
+this chest that Nero was drawing for all his lavish prodigalities and
+his undeserved and wasteful bounties. Yet even Nero was scarcely so
+bad as Caligula, who managed to spend £22,000,000 in less than one
+year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+In the year 64 the capital of the Roman Empire was, it is true, a
+large and splendid city and an "epitome of the world," but it had not
+yet reached either its zenith of splendour or its maximum, of size.
+Many of the largest and most sumptuous structures of which we possess
+the records, and in most cases the ruins, were not yet built or even
+contemplated. There was no Colosseum; there were no Baths of Trajan,
+Caracalla, or Diocletian. The Column of Trajan, still soaring in the
+Foro Traiano, and of Marcus Aurelius, now so conspicuous in the Piazza
+Colonna, are of a later date. So also are the three great triumphal
+arches which are still standing--those of Titus, Severus, and
+Constantine. The Mausoleum of Hadrian, now stripped of its outward
+magnificence of marble and sculpture, and known as the Castle of Sant'
+Angelo, was not built for two generations. On the Palatine Hill the
+palaces of the Caesars were wide and lofty, but not more than half so
+spacious and imposing as they became by the end of the following
+century.
+
+Down in the Forum there stood no Basilica of Constantine; the place of
+several later temples and shrines was occupied by edifices of less
+dignity; many columns and statues, and much ornament of gilt or
+marble, were still to come. Beside and beyond the two embellished
+public places which had been added to the public comfort and
+convenience by Julius Caesar and Augustus, and which were known
+respectively as the Julian and the Augustan Forum, lay only the houses
+of citizens or streets of shops. Up from the Forum towards the later
+Arch of Titus and the Colosseum, the "Upper Sacred Way" ran as but a
+narrow road between buildings for the most part of ordinary character,
+principally shops catering for luxury. It was later by two centuries
+and a half that this street was converted into a broad avenue forming
+a worthy approach to the "hub of the universe."
+
+In the ruins which lie on the Palatine Hill, or along the valley of
+the Forum below, or up the Sacred Slope towards the Colosseum, or
+across where the streets wind round from the "Roman" Forum through the
+Forum of Trajan to the Corso, the modern visitor to the Eternal City
+does not behold simply the remnants of the temples, halls, squares,
+and arches which actually existed in the days of Nero. We must not say
+of these places that St. Paul trod the very paving-stones or gazed on
+the very walls which we now find in their worn and broken state. In a
+few cases it may be so; in most it is certainly otherwise. Either the
+building was not there, or what we now behold is part of a
+reconstruction or an enlargement. Fire, flood, earthquake and the wear
+and tear of time called for many a rebuilding or restoration. In the
+very year upon which we have fixed, there swept over all this part of
+the city perhaps the most disastrous fire that it ever experienced.
+Another only a little less destructive occurred in A.D. 283, and when
+we say that the remains of the glory of ancient Rome are still visible
+in the excavated Forum, we must recognise that the glory which they
+represent is the glory of the place as restored after that year.
+
+This does not mean that the general plan and appearance were markedly
+different under Nero, nor that there was any lack of magnificence; it
+is only meant by way of caution against a frequent misconception.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If there was no Arch of Severus in the Forum, there was an Arch of
+Augustus, near the Temple of Castor, surmounted by his statue in the
+four-horsed chariot of the conqueror, and there was an Arch of
+Tiberius near the temple of Saturn. If to the north there was as yet
+no bridge or "castle" of Sant' Angelo to celebrate the dead Hadrian,
+there was, on the near side of the Tiber, not far from the modern
+Piazza del Popolo, a splendid Mausoleum of the deified Augustus and
+his family. In the chief Forum the Temples of Vesta, of Julius Caesar,
+of Castor, Saturn, and Concord existed under Nero in the same spots
+and in much the same style as they did through all the remainder of
+Roman history. Above them towered the Capitoline Hill, with its
+resplendent Temple of Jupiter on the one summit and its great shrine
+of Juno on the other. Beyond, in the "Field of Mars"--the site of the
+densest part of modern Rome--was an almost continuous cluster of
+public buildings and resorts, of theatres, temples--including the
+first form of that incomparable edifice, the Pantheon, the only
+building of ancient Rome which still remains practically whole--of
+baths, porticoes, and enclosed promenades.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16.--SOME REMAINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT.]
+
+Away in the opposite direction stretched the Appian Way, and in the
+year 64 the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella, which is so familiar
+in picture, stood as perhaps the noblest among the multitude of
+patrician tombs. The Apostle Paul certainly passed close by it on his
+way from Puteoli. The aqueduct, of which so many arches still meet the
+eye as you cross the Campagna, was the work of Nero's predecessor,
+Claudius, and it still bears his name--the Aqua Claudia. Where now you
+go out of the gate to St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls there stood--more
+free and visible than now--that pyramid of Cestius, close to whose
+shadow lie the graves of the English Shelley and Keats. There was no
+gate at this spot in the days of Nero, for the great wall, of which so
+many portions--more or less restored--are still conspicuous, had no
+existence till a much later date, when the empire was already
+tottering to its fall, and when Aurelian was driven to recognise that
+the heart of the empire, after remaining secure for centuries, must at
+last look to be assailed. There was, it is true, an inner wall of
+ancient date (to be seen upon the plan) which had enclosed the "Seven
+Hills" before Rome was mistress of more than her own small
+environment. But the city had long ago overflowed this boundary, and
+the newer quarters lay as open to the country as do our own modern
+cities.
+
+How far the suburbs stretched, or precisely how far Rome proper
+extended, in the days of Nero, is no easy matter to decide. We shall
+in all probability be near the mark if we accept the line of the later
+wall of Aurelian as practically the limit of what might be included in
+the "Metropolitan Area." The total circumference of the whole city
+would be about twelve English miles, a circuit which fell somewhat
+short of that of Alexandria and probably of Antioch, although in
+actual importance these cities took but the second and third rank
+respectively.
+
+Some parts within this line were thickly inhabited, in some the houses
+must have been but sparse. Particularly along the upper slopes of the
+hills--of the Pincian, Quirinal, Esquiline, Caelian, and
+Aventine--were the spacious houses and gardens of the wealthy. The
+Palatine was almost, though not completely, monopolised by the
+emperors' palaces and sundry temples. The Campus Martius was mostly a
+region of public buildings and grounds for promenade and exercise,
+although some of the finest shops stood very close to where they stand
+to-day, in that Flaminian Way which is now called the Corso of
+Humbert. On one side below the Palatine Hill, space was taken up by
+the vast Circus or racing-ground; on the other lay the public places
+known as the Fora. It was left for the poorer inhabitants to crowd
+themselves into the valleys of the town, either between the Forum and
+the spurs of the several hills which trend towards the centre--up
+under Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, or Caelian--to the left behind the
+buildings as you now go from the bottom of the Forum to the Colosseum;
+or between the Forum and the Tiber in the low-lying ground called the
+Velabrum and there-abouts; or else across the river in that
+"Transtiberine" region which still bears the name of Trastevere.
+
+If, therefore, it is asked what may have been the Population of
+Neronian Rome, it need cause no surprise if the number should appear
+comparatively small to one who is accustomed to our huge modern towns.
+Rome had never been a seat of manufactures. Its wealth and luxury came
+almost wholly from its empire, and it was emphatically a city for the
+rich and ruling classes. In Nero's day it was still growing, and even
+in its fullest times it is doubtful if the population ever exceeded or
+even reached a million and a quarter. Perhaps for the year 64 we may
+most safely put it down at about 750,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now suppose yourself to be standing at F in the recognised centre of
+Roman life, the "Roman Forum." Here, before we begin our rapid
+exploration of the city, it is well to clear our minds of one false
+notion which too commonly prevails. Think of any modern town you
+please, and remember that, whatever may be the accumulation of
+architectural magnificence around any given spot, the people of that
+town treat it all with familiarity and without any waste of sentiment.
+They will set up their shops or stalls wherever they are allowed; they
+will carry on their traffic and their amusements; they will saunter
+and sit on steps and misbehave without feeling oppressed by any
+appreciable awe of their surroundings. So was it, and even more so, in
+ancient Rome. The fact that there were shrines or public buildings on
+all sides did not prevent the Romans from loitering and loafing in the
+Forum, from sitting on the steps of a temple or a basilica, or leaning
+against its columns or statues, or playing at a sort of draughts or of
+backgammon on its marble platforms--the lines to put the "men" upon
+are here and there still visible upon the pavements--or even
+scratching a name or a drawing on a pillar. In certain parts the Forum
+was alive with the bustle of financial business and, doubtless under
+certain limitations, with the traffic of the pedlar. Curiosities were
+exhibited, the crier shouted his advertisements, and, in short, the
+place was almost as freely used for the vulgar purposes of ordinary
+life as for the dignified gatherings and ceremonies which to our minds
+appear so much more appropriate to it. Though we are not yet dealing
+with the social life of Rome, whether indoor or outdoor, it seems
+advisable to make this observation before proceeding.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17.--THE ROSTRA: BACK VIEW. (Probable
+restoration for A.D. 64.)]
+
+Let us now stand at F and look about us toward the Capitol, noting
+only the chief features of the scene. The reader would do well to
+consider the plan along with the frontispiece to this book. We are
+upon an open space paved with marble slabs, round which stand sundry
+honorary statues and various minor monuments into which we need not
+now enquire. Facing us, toward the far end, is a platform about 80
+feet long and 11 feet in height, with marble facing. A trellis-work
+rail, or pierced screen, runs along it at either side, and also
+extends along the front for one-third of the distance from either end.
+The one-third in the middle of the front is open. This platform is
+approached by a flight of steps at the back, while in the sheer face
+are set as ornaments rows of bronze "beaks" or "rams" cut from ships
+captured in war. From these "beaks" the platform obtains its name--the
+Rostra. It is the platform for harangues delivered to the Roman
+people--the Roman citizens who are politely assumed to be the body
+politic--and the open space on the front is the position for the
+orator. It is from this stand that important announcements are made to
+the people at large. An emperor or his nominee may speak from it; a
+magistrate may deliver some pronouncement; a political exhortation may
+be uttered; in the case of a public funeral, or even of the private
+obsequies in some eminent family, an oration over the deceased may be
+spoken with that finished and animated elocution which the Romans so
+zealously cultivated, and which the Italians still affect with no
+little success. It is not indeed the same platform as was used by
+Cicero and the orators of the republic: this stood elsewhere, and
+doubtless the substance of public speaking had declined deplorably
+since that day. Nevertheless many a torrent of rich and sonorous Latin
+must have streamed over the Forum from that noble standing-place, and
+it must still have been worth while for a Roman to develop both his
+speaking voice and his oratorical art. Still further back, to the
+right behind the Rostra, there stands the Temple of Concord, where the
+Senate in older times gathered on more than one occasion to listen to
+Cicero, and where the emperors have formed practically a gallery of
+works of art; to the left is the Temple of Saturn, long used as the
+Roman Treasury, of which eight pillars still remain as perhaps the
+most conspicuous feature among the existing ruins. Another object in
+the background to the left, at the rear of the Rostra, will be a stone
+pillar coated with gilded bronze, upon which the first emperor,
+Augustus, inscribed the names of the great roads leading out from Rome
+into the length and breadth of the empire, with a list of the chief
+towns to which those roads would take you, and their distances. The
+name of this pillar is the "Golden Milestone." Behind these objects,
+running along the high face of the Capitoline Hill, are visible the
+arcades of the Record Office, of which the greater portion still
+exists, though stripped of its architectural graces and built over and
+about in more modern times, in the state represented in FIG. 18. Still
+higher on the summit to the left, with its gilded tiles glistening in
+the sun--at least they were gilded within the next few years--rises
+the most sacred structure of all, the building most closely identified
+in the Roman mind with the eternity of the empire. This is the
+splendid temple of Jove, Supreme and Most Benign. Of this edifice
+nothing considerable except its platform now remains, its site being
+occupied by an object of which the existence would have been
+inconceivable to the ancient Roman--to wit, the German Embassy. On the
+other summit, a fortified citadel to your right stands the temple of
+the consort of Jupiter. In this shrine she was known as Juno Moneta,
+and since, attached to her temple in this citadel, was the office of
+the Roman coinage, her name Moneta has become familiar to modern
+mouths in the form of "the Mint." If you seek the place of this temple
+now, you must look for it under the Church of Santa Maria in Ara
+Coeli.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18.--RUINS OF FORUM.]
+
+[Illustration: Photo, Anderson. (Record Office in background with
+modern building above.)]
+
+Next, instead of looking up at the hill, glance to your left, and you
+will see running along that side of the Forum, beside the Sacred Way,
+a spacious public building known as the Basilica of Julius, that is to
+say, of Julius Caesar. It is an edifice of a type familiar in cities
+of the Roman world. You mount the steps from the Sacred Way and find
+yourself under an outer two-storied arcade suitable for lounging or
+promenading while discussing business or gossip with your friends.
+Passing from this inwards you are in a building which consists of a
+covered colonnade, or nave, about 270 feet in length, with a row of
+pillars on either hand. On each side is a gallery, or upper floor,
+from which spectators may look down upon the interior, or, from the
+outer side, upon the open Forum. At the far end is a recess with a
+raised tribunal, shut off, if necessary, by railings. In other
+basilicas there may be an apse at this point, similarly enclosed. This
+serves as a court of justice, round which the curious may stand, or
+upon which listening spectators may gaze from the ends of the
+galleries above. Meanwhile up and down the open space of the nave all
+kinds of verbal business may be transacted by appointment, exactly as
+such business used to be carried on in old St. Paul's Cathedral in
+London or in churches elsewhere. In what may be called the inner
+side-aisle are situated offices of various kinds, including those of
+sundry public corporations, boards, or commissions. The whole of this
+great hall is paved with coloured marbles; its pillars are coated with
+marble; its ceiling is adorned with painting and gilt; it is
+embellished with statues; and it is lighted from above by a
+clerestory. Though the question has been debated, it is almost certain
+that it was mainly from buildings like this, or from rooms similarly
+constructed in palatial houses, that the early Church developed its
+basilicas--with their nave, aisles, and clerestory, and with their
+railed apse at the end, where was placed the chair of the bishop on
+its dais. Across the Forum on the opposite side, to your right, lies
+another structure of the same kind, in artistic respects more
+excellent. In this, the Basilica Aemilia, the chief business was that
+of the bankers and money-changers, although it served various other
+purposes according to convenience.
+
+If you could see round the farther end of this basilica to the right,
+you would perceive the beginning of one of the busiest streets in
+Rome--the Argiletum--chiefly known to fame as a favourite quarter of
+the booksellers, who fasten on their door-posts, or on the pillars
+which support a balcony or upper floor, the lists of the newest or
+most popular publications to be bought within. And where that street
+enters the Forum, though standing back a little from your line of
+vision--perhaps you can catch sight of the top of it over the corner
+of the Basilica--is the temple-like Senate-House with its offices.
+Here is the meeting-place of the six hundred who nominally govern
+jointly with the emperor. If you visit Rome to-day you will find the
+greater part of the actual chamber, though miserably despoiled,
+bearing the name of the church of S. Adriano.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 19.--N.E. OF FORUM, A.D. 64. (Complementary to
+frontispiece.)
+
+From left: in background, Record Office, with Temple of Concord and
+Rostra below; on summit, Temple of Juno and Citadel; below, Prison,
+with shrine of Janus in front. To right: Basilica Aemilia, with gable
+of Senate-House beyond. (Largely after Tognetti.)]
+
+The little building, half arch, half shrine, which you observe
+standing free where the roads converge upon the Forum, is the famous
+sanctuary of Janus, of which the doors are never shut unless there is
+complete peace throughout the Roman world. So long as Rome is anywhere
+engaged in a great or little war, the open doors of Janus tell the
+fact to a people which might otherwise be unconscious of so slight or
+remote a circumstance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 20.--TEMPLE OF FORTUNA AUGUSTA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+We need not describe in detail the temple of Castor, or rather of the
+"Twin Brethren," which stands immediately to your left, or that of the
+deified Julius Caesar, which is just behind you, on the spot where the
+body of the great dictator was burned. It is perhaps more interesting
+to note the ordinary--though not by any means the only--form of the
+Roman temple in general. Those who have seen the so-called Maison
+Carrée at Nimes will possess a fair notion of the commonest or most
+typical shape and arrangement. For the most part we have a rather
+lofty platform, mounted from one end by steps, which are flanked by
+walls or balustrades, often bearing at their extremities equestrian
+statues or other appropriate figures. Upon the platform stands the
+temple proper, consisting of a chamber containing the statue of the
+god. Where more than one deity are combined in the same temple--as in
+that of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, where the supreme deity has
+Juno and Minerva to left and right of him--there may either be as many
+separate chambers or as many chapel-like bays as there are deities.
+The altar for sacrifice stands outside opposite the entrance, being
+placed either upon the top of the main platform or more commonly on a
+minor platform of its own in the middle of the steps. In most cases
+the chamber stands back behind a row, in some instances two rows, of
+columns, which support the characteristic entablature seen in the
+illustrations. In the case of the more grandiose temples a series of
+columns may run all round the building, carrying an extension of the
+roof, under which is thus formed a covered colonnade. More commonly
+the sides and back of the chamber have only what are known as
+"engaged" columns, as it were half-embedded in the wall. The roof is
+gabled and tiled, with ornaments along the eaves. The front has an
+embellished entablature, with its triangle of masonry called the
+"pediment," consisting of a cornice overhanging a sunken surface
+decorated with a sculptured group. Over each angle, right, left, and
+summit, is a base of stone supporting some conspicuous ornament, such
+as a statue, an eagle, or a figure in a chariot. In the middle of the
+front of the building, behind the columns of the portico, are double
+doors, commonly made of decorated bronze, with an open grating of the
+same metal above them. The whole is outwardly of marble, either all
+white or with colour in the pillars, but the core of at least the
+platform is commonly made of the immensely strong Roman concrete, or
+else of blocks of the less beautiful and costly kinds of stone.
+
+In point of architectural style the Romans of this date--who in
+artistic matters were but imitators of the Greeks and far less certain
+in taste than their masters--affected the Corinthian, as being the
+most florid. Even this they could not leave in its native purity, but
+for the most part converted it into Graeco-Roman or composite
+varieties. A prime fault of the Roman taste was then, as it has always
+been, a love of gorgeousness, of excessive and obtrusive ornament. In
+almost any Roman church of to-day we find the walls and pillars stuck
+about with figures, slabs, and so-called decorations to such an extent
+that the finer lines and proportions are often ruined, The ancient
+Roman likewise was commonly under the impression that the more
+decoration you added, the more magnificent was the building. There
+were doubtless many buildings in simpler and purer taste, probably
+executed by Greek artists under the authority of some Roman who
+happened to possess a finer judgment or less self-assertiveness.
+Nevertheless the fault of over-elaboration is distinctly Roman.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21.--SO-CALLED TEMPLE OF THE SIBYL AT TIVOLI.]
+
+We must not omit to say that, besides temples of this typical
+rectangular form, there were others of a round shape, encircled by
+columns, like that graceful structure at Tivoli commonly, though
+mistakenly, known as the temple of the Sibyl, and that small building
+which still exists in an impoverished condition near the Tiber, and
+which used to bear the erroneous title of the temple of Vesta. Others
+again were simply round and domed, like the true temple of Vesta in
+the Forum, or the superb and impressive Pantheon in the Campus
+Martius. So far as the bare round was broken in these cases, it was
+either by a pillared portico, as with the Pantheon, or by engaged
+columns and ornament, as with the true temple of Vesta.
+
+The mention of the temple of Vesta reminds us that it is time to face
+about, and, passing behind the temple of Julius, to look in the
+opposite direction, from V. Before us lies this circular shrine, a
+form gradually developed from the primitive round hut which once
+served as house to the prehistoric ancestors of the Roman stock. As it
+was the duty of the maiden daughters of that ancient tribe to keep
+alight the fire upon the domestic hearth, so through all the history
+of Rome it was the duty of certain chosen virgins to keep perpetually
+burning the hearth-fire of the city. The roof of the temple is open in
+the middle, and you may perhaps see the smoke issuing from it. But if
+you are a male, you may not enter. No man, except the chief Pontifex,
+may set foot inside the shrine of the virgin goddess, who is attended
+by virgin priestesses. Close behind the temple stands the house of
+these Vestals. They are in a large measure the ancient prototype of
+the modern nun, and their house is the prototype of the convent. Six
+nobly-born young women, sworn to chastity, and dressed in a ritual
+garb, live in an edifice of much magnificence under the rule of one
+who is the chief Vestal, a sort of Mother Superior. Many pedestals of
+the statues of such chief priestesses still remain, and we can clearly
+trace the arrangement of their abode, with its open court--once
+containing a garden and cool cisterns of pure water--its separate room
+for each Vestal, its baths, and its resources of considerable comfort
+and even luxury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22.--VESTAL VIRGIN]
+
+If, as you face this way, you look up to your right, you will perceive
+the Palatine Hill rising steeply above you, with its summit crowned by
+the lofty palaces and gardens constructed by the Caesars. At the side
+and corner which look down upon the Forum stands the part built by
+Caligula, the epileptic who thought himself no less than a god, and
+who in consequence not only turned the temple of Castor into a lower
+vestibule to his own house, but also built a bridge across the valley
+over the temple of Augustus and the Basilica of Julius to the
+Capitoline Hill, so that he might visit and converse with Jupiter, his
+only compeer. From the top of the Basilica he occasionally threw money
+into the Forum to be scrambled for by people who crushed each other to
+death in the process. It would require too much space if we climbed
+the sloping road which leads on to the Palatine and examined the
+various structures upon that hill. As we now see it in its ruins it is
+perhaps the most mysteriously impressive place in the world. But many
+alterations and enlargements of the palaces were made after the date
+of Nero, and we cannot now be sure of the precise aspect of the
+hill-top in his day. Suffice it that, overlooking the Forum,
+overlooking the Velabrum Valley which leads from the Forum to the
+Tiber, and overlooking the middle of the valley where the vast Circus
+or race-ground separated the imperial hill from the Aventine, there
+were portions of the huge imperial abodes, rising in several stories
+gleaming with marble, and enjoying the purest air and the widest views
+obtainable within the city. Nero himself, it is true, was not content
+with such mere human housing. After the great fire of this year 64, he
+proceeded to make for himself what he called "a home fit for a man,"
+and so built--though he never finished--that famous or infamous
+"Golden House," which ran from the Palatine all across the upper
+Sacred Way and the hollow now occupied by the Colosseum far on to the
+opposite hills--a house of countless chambers, with three miles of
+colonnade, enclosed gardens large enough to be called a park, and a
+statue of himself 120 feet in height. The epigram went that the people
+of Rome must migrate, inasmuch as what had once been a city was now
+but a private house. This, however, had not yet occurred, and we have
+rather to think of palaces and gardens rich indeed, but by no means
+occupying the whole of the Palatine Hill alone. There were, of course,
+numerous buildings more or less connected with the imperial
+establishment, among them being quarters for the officers and soldiers
+of the guard. There were also a number of temples, one of which, the
+magnificent shrine of Apollo, the god of light and learning, stood in
+a court marvellously enriched with sculptured masterpieces, while
+connected with it were libraries filled with Greek and Latin books and
+adorned with the busts and medallion-portraits or statues of great
+authors.
+
+If we proceeded now to walk up the Sacred Way, along the narrow street
+edged by jewellers' and other shops, we should meet as yet with no
+Arch of Titus, nor in descending beyond should we see any Colosseum,
+but only a block of ordinary dwellings, to be swept away later in this
+year by the fire which made room here for the ornamental waters of
+Nero's Golden House. Turning to the right along the valley between the
+Palatine and Caelian Hills, we should not have to pass under any Arch
+of Constantine; but, after glancing up to the left at the great
+unfinished temple of Claudius and going under the Claudian aqueduct
+which carries water to the Palatine, we should proceed between private
+houses and gardens till we reached a famous gate in the ancient wall
+and found ourselves on that noted Appian Way, which would take us to
+Capua and thence over the Apennines to Brindisi and the East. Just
+outside the gate we should find the livery-stables, with their
+vehicles and horses or mules waiting to be hired for the stage which
+would carry us as far as the slope on the southern edge of the Alban
+Hills.
+
+But we will not proceed in this direction. From our stand at V in
+front of the temple of Vesta we will turn back, walk over the Forum to
+the right of the Rostra, between the sanctuary of Janus and the front
+of the Senate-House. Thence we will cross an enclosed forum, or public
+place, erected by Julius Caesar, with its temple of "Venus the Mother"
+in the middle, and so enter the Forum of Augustus. This is worth a
+pause. As you pass to-day up the narrow Via Bonella and perceive near
+the Pantani Arch a few imposing columns and a patch of rather
+depressing bare wall, it requires much effort to realise that here was
+once a noble space enclosed by marble-covered walls 100 feet in
+height, and that those walls contained in a series of niches a gallery
+of statues of all the military heroes and patriots of Roman history
+from Aeneas downwards. Meanwhile the few columns at your side are the
+sole survivors of the number which surrounded the splendid temple of
+Mars the Avenger, the shrine which was identified in imperial times
+with the military power of Rome, and which received the standards
+captured from the enemy, just as captured flags are to be seen in many
+a modern church.
+
+Leaving this Forum, we will not bear to the right to find ourselves
+amid the dense population of the Subura and its neighbourhood, but we
+will turn to the left and pass between the Capitoline and Quirinal
+Hills, which then met more steeply and closely than they did fifty
+years later, when Trajan had cut away the rising ground and levelled
+an open space which must have been an incalculable advantage to the
+convenience of the city. It is perhaps well to observe here that the
+piling up of fallen ruins and the deliberate levellings and gradings,
+both in ancient and modern times, have greatly altered the appearance
+of the often-mentioned hills of Rome, especially of the Quirinal,
+Viminal, and Esquiline.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23.--TEMPLE OP MARS THE AVENGER IN FORUM OF
+AUGUSTUS. (After Ripostelli.)]
+
+Emerging from this too narrow passage-way and proceeding a short
+distance, we enter that straight Flaminian Road which has been
+replaced by the modern Corso beginning at the Piazza Venezia. For the
+first part of its course it was also known as "Broadway." We are now
+in that more open part of Rome which lies outside the ancient wall,
+and which is commonly spoken of loosely as the Campus Martius. Here
+again, it is impossible to inspect all the various sights visible in
+the year 64. A few examples must suffice. As you walk along this
+straight thorough-fare--the commencement of the road which would
+eventually carry you to the North of Italy--you will find but few
+buildings of any note on your right. Lying to your left is a long and
+wide cloistered space which contains not only certain public offices
+and a pillared promenade, but also the richest shops in Rome, where
+are sold gold and silver work, objects of art, tapestries, and fine
+fabrics from Alexandria, Syria, and farther East. The place is, in
+fact, mainly a huge bazaar. Up the Flaminian Way beyond this enclosure
+we go under a triumphal arch erected by the late Emperor Claudius to
+record his conquest of Britain, where he subdued "eleven kings"
+without Roman loss. Keeping straight on we pass, this time on our
+right, another large enclosure surrounded by arcades, where is now the
+east side of the Piazza Colonna. In and about this locality are
+carried on not only promenades and saunterings but also various
+athletic exercises, including feats of horsemanship. Farther on still,
+and you will see to your left the Mausoleum of Augustus, rising some
+220 feet into the air. Its base, coated with sculptured marble,
+contains one grand sepulchral chamber for Augustus himself, and
+fourteen smaller chambers for members of his family. Above this base
+towers a conical mound of earth planted with evergreen trees, and on
+the summit is a colossal statue of the first emperor. Close by is a
+paved space, where the bodies of the Caesars are cremated before their
+ashes are placed in the Mausoleum. From this spot a ready faith saw
+their immortal part carried up to heaven by the eagle, messenger of
+Jove.
+
+Turning back and passing across the Campus we arrive at the public
+baths erected by Nero, and then at the Pantheon. This building, though
+shorn of many of its decorative splendours both within and without,
+still stands structurally intact, at least as it was restored and
+enlarged two generations later than our date. It is scarcely possible
+to say how far its shape was altered at its restoration under Hadrian,
+but we may provisionally treat the edifice as already belonging to our
+period. It is still, after all these centuries, an entirely noble
+pile, and forms a fit receptacle for the tomb, not only of Victor
+Emanuel, but of Raphael. Its form is that of a rotunda, with walls of
+concrete 20 feet in thickness and with a dome of concrete cast in a
+solid mass. The middle of the dome is open to the sky, and by that
+means the building is lighted in a manner most perfectly suited to it.
+Could we behold it fully restored and at its best, we should see above
+its portico, which is supported by huge marble pillars each made of a
+single stone, large bronze reliefs of gods and giants. To one side of
+the doors would be a colossal statue of Augustus; on the other a
+colossal statue of the builder Agrippa, the son-in-law of that
+emperor. Inside there is a series of niches for colossal effigies of
+Mars, Venus, and other deities connected with the Julian family. The
+marble pillars dividing the niches have capitals of fine bronze, and
+the coffered ceiling of the dome, now bare and colourless, shines with
+gilt on blue, like the sky lit up with stars. The doors, which have
+mysteriously remained entire, are also of noble bronze; the roof
+consists of tiles of bronze thinly plated with gold. The gold has
+naturally vanished, after passing into Saracen hands; of the bronze
+nearly half a million pounds weight has been stripped from the
+building, some to make cannon for the defence of the Castle of St.
+Angelo, some to form the twisted columns which now support the giant
+baldacchino under St. Peter's dome.
+
+At a short distance behind this magnificent temple Agrippa--who was in
+charge of the aqueducts and water-supply--had also built the first
+great public baths. It would probably be incorrect to found any
+detailed description of them upon what we know of the stupendous
+structures of Caracalla and Diocletian, which were perhaps the most
+amazing exhibitions of public luxury ever seen in the world. Of these
+we know how huge and splendid were the halls, with their coloured
+marbles, their mosaic floors, their colossal masterpieces of statuary,
+their elaborate arrangements of baths--cold, tepid, hot and
+dry-sweating--their conversation-rooms and reading-rooms. But we
+cannot pretend to say how far the Agrippan and Neronian baths of the
+year 64 corresponded in magnificence to these. We shall be safer in
+simply assuming that, since the baths of Pompeii were in full swing in
+the year in question, Home must have possessed establishments of a
+similar kind but on a larger and more sumptuous scale.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 24.--EXTERIOR OP THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Present
+state.)]
+
+Leaving without further mention the various temples of Minerva, Isis,
+Serapis, and other deities which might be found about the Campus
+Martius, we note an undistinguished stone amphitheatre, the only
+resort of the kind as yet possessed by the metropolis. In this were
+exhibited the sanguinary combats of gladiators with each other, and
+the fights with wild beasts performed by trained professionals or by
+criminals selling their lives as dearly as possible. Of these "sports"
+we have to treat in a later chapter. Coming nearer to the Tiber, while
+returning towards the city proper, we pass in succession the three
+great theatres, lofty semicircular constructions of stone and concrete
+faced with marble, one computed to hold 40,000 spectators, but
+probably accommodating not more than 25,000, and the others some
+20,000 and 12,000 respectively. In these matters we must allow both
+for Roman exaggeration and Roman close-packing. The theatres rise in
+three stories, of which the outward sides consist of open arcades
+adorned with pillars in varied styles, while round their bases are
+shops for the sale of sweetmeats, beverages, perfumes, and other
+articles which the theatre-goer or the loitering public may require.
+What a theatrical Performance was like is a matter belonging to the
+question of spectacles and amusements. At the back of the largest
+theatre--that of Pompey--lies a large square surrounded by colonnades
+of a hundred pillars, where sycamores form avenues and fountains play,
+while statues of finished workmanship stand where they produce the
+best effect. Particularly grateful to the Roman lounger were the seats
+in the large semi-circular bays, so placed as to offer full protection
+from too hot a sun or too cold a wind.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25.--THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Restored.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.--CIRCUS MAXIMUS (restored); Imperial Palaces
+on Palatine to left.]
+
+By the time that we have passed the last theatre of the three we have
+arrived at the river end of the low valley leading into the Forum
+between the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, a place which had once
+been a cattle-market but had now become an open place surrounded by
+dwellings of the humbler sort. It still, however, bore the name of
+"Cattle-Market." If from this point we followed the river bank, we
+should come to the wharves, to which the smaller ships bring up the
+Tiber the freights of grain transhipped from the larger vessels from
+Alexandria or Carthage, or of marble from the quarries of Numidia,
+Greece, and Phrygia, or of granite and porphyry from Upper Egypt. All
+along this bank are the offices and storehouses of such cargoes, and
+here too is performed much of the shaping of those blocks which Rome
+is using in such astonishing profusion. Along the river by the stone
+embankment the ships are moored, with their cables passed through huge
+stone corbels or sculptured lions' mouths. No busier part of Rome
+could be found than this, but we have no time to proceed further in
+this direction.
+
+In front of us rises the Aventine Hill, another quarter of the
+wealthy, but otherwise chiefly distinguished by its temples of Juno
+the Queen and of Diana. Turning our eyes from the Aventine to the left
+we see lying in the valley between Aventine and Palatine--where now
+are the Jewish Cemetery and the grimy Gasworks--the vast Circus
+Maximus or Hippodrome. This structure, devoted chiefly to
+chariot-racing, is some 700 yards in length and 135 in width, and will
+at a pinch hold nearly a quarter of a million spectators. In all
+probability it would seat 150,000. It consists, as the illustration
+will show, of long tiers of seats sweeping down the sides and round
+the curved end of an oblong space. As with the theatres, its outside
+view presents three tiers of marble arches, and through the lowest
+tier are numerous staircases leading to the various sections of the
+seats within. Those seats themselves are laid upon large vaults of
+concrete; the lower rows are of marble, the upper ones are as yet of
+wood. How the chariot-races were run, and what is meant by the "sports
+of the circus," will naturally require a separate narration.
+
+Coming back from the entrance of this mammoth place of amusement and
+turning up the Velabrum Valley, we pass by a temple of Augustus, to
+which is attached a public library, and issue by the temple of Castor
+into the Forum to our first standing-point at F.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+After this rapid walk through the more interesting parts of the
+capital, we may consider one or two connected topics of natural
+interest.
+
+Amid all this splendour and spaciousness of public buildings, what is
+the aspect of the ordinary streets? In this respect Rome was by no
+means fortunate. As in Old London, Old Paris, or Old New York, the
+streets had for the most part grown up as chance circumstances would
+have it. There were very few thoroughfares laid out straight from the
+first like the Flaminian or "Broad" Road. Alexandria and Antioch were
+the creations of monarchs who began with a clear field and a
+consistent scheme. Their straight, broad streets might well be the
+envy of the capital. The Romans, then as now, possessed the
+engineering genius, but they could not well undo the work of a
+struggling past, which had necessitated the crowding of population,
+within the defences of a wall. They knew how to supply the city
+abundantly with water, and how to drain it with sewers of great
+capacity and strength. The chief of such sewers--the Cloaca
+Maxima--which passed underneath the Forum to the Tiber and was laid
+down more than twenty-five centuries ago, is still in working order.
+But no republican or imperial government ever took it in hand to
+Hansmannise the city, even after one of those devastating
+conflagrations which might seem to have cleared the way. It is true
+that all traffic of vehicles, except for special processions, for
+Vestal Virgins, and a few other cases--was forbidden for ten hours in
+the day. All through the morning and afternoon there were no wheels in
+the Roman streets, unless some public building imperatively demanded
+its load of stones or timber, or unless the few privileged persons
+were proceeding in their carriages to some festival. Nevertheless the
+rich men and women in their litters or sedan-chairs, attended by their
+servants or their clients; the porters carrying their heavy loads; the
+itinerant hucksters; and the ordinary man on errand or other business
+bent, made up crowds which were often difficult to pass through.
+
+Another consequence of the old compression within narrow walls was
+that, as population increased, the houses grew more lofty. How high
+the Romans built, or were allowed to build, in republican times we
+cannot tell. The tendency was certainly to build higher and higher,
+and sky-scrapers would perhaps have become the rule if the ancient
+Roman had understood the use of materials both sufficiently light and
+sufficiently strong, or if he had been forced to establish his work on
+secure foundations. In point of fact there had been, and there
+continued to be, too much of jerry-building. Houses sometimes
+collapsed, and many were unsubstantially shored up. A flood or an
+earthquake was apt to find them out, and there was frequent peril in
+the streets. The majority of the abodes of people of humble means were
+not like those in smaller towns, such as Pompeii, still less like
+those in the country. They were "tenement houses," large blocks let
+out in rooms and flats, and it was natural that landlords should make
+haste to run them up and to increase the number of their stories. When
+Augustus became emperor he enacted what may be called a Metropolitan
+Building Act, which insisted on firmer foundations and limited the
+height to 70 feet. That act was apparently still in force in the age
+of Nero, and we may take it that along the more frequented streets the
+houses commonly ran to a height of four or five stories. They looked
+the taller because of the narrowness of the street itself. While it is
+perhaps, though not necessarily, an exaggeration for the
+epigrammatist--who lived "up three pair of stairs, and high ones"--to
+say that he could touch his opposite neighbour with his hand, it is at
+least an indication of the truth. Some of the narrower lanes between
+blocks cannot have been more than a few feet across.
+
+Nor does it appear that the occupants' of rooms opening on the streets
+were very particular as to what they threw out in the way of rubbish
+or dirty water. It is true that there were aediles, or officers to
+look after the order of the streets and public places, but their
+efforts seem to have been mainly directed to preventing conspicuous
+obstruction. Practices which we should regard as heinous were treated
+lightly or disregarded. To make matters worse, the shopkeepers, who
+occupied the lower fronts of most of such houses, took the greatest
+liberties in encroaching upon the roadway when exhibiting their wares,
+and it was not till twenty years later than our date that the Emperor
+Domitian ordered them to keep within their own thresholds.
+
+Apart from the question of the freedom of traffic, it can be readily
+imagined that, with all the wooden counters, doors, and shutters down
+below, and with the disproportionate quantity of woodwork in the
+beams, floors, and even walls above, fires were of the commonest
+occurrence, and, with streets so high and narrow, the conflagration of
+a whole quarter of the town was speedy and complete. Augustus had
+divided the metropolitan area into fourteen regions, and had
+distributed over these a force of 7000 watchmen to keep the peace and
+to deal with fires at night; but it was not to be expected, if a fire
+occurred in a lofty block, that this body, assisted or hampered by the
+neighbours, could do much with the buckets, siphons, and wet blankets
+which formed the extinguishing apparatus of the time.
+
+Another serious danger, or, when not danger, at least discomfort, came
+from the trick which the Tiber has always had of flooding the lower
+parts of the city. Somewhat later than our date the river restrained
+by strong stone embankments, which one had to descend by steps in
+order to reach the river at the ferries or other boats; but this must
+have been but inadequately achieved in the early period of the empire,
+and a severe flood might bring the houses in the Velabrum, for
+example, tumbling about the ears of their inhabitants.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the whole the streets of Neronian Rome were neither very
+comfortable nor very safe to walk in. At night there was no lighting,
+except when, at some great festival, illuminations might be made by
+order of the emperor for a whole night or perhaps a series of nights.
+In ordinary times torches and lanterns must be provided by yourself,
+and even the 7000 watchmen scarcely gave you a full feeling of
+security. The precise arrangements made for scavenging are unknown,
+but presumably it was done by the public slaves under the supervision
+of the aediles. It is, however, easy to discover from contemporary
+complaints that the streets were often annoyingly wet and slimy.
+
+One thing the ordinary Roman appears never to have minded, any more
+than it is minded at the present day. This was noise. There are
+studious men enough in ancient literature who complain that sleep or
+study is impossible in Rome. They exclaim upon the bawling of the
+hawkers, the canting songs of the beggars, the banging of hammers, the
+sing-song of schoolboys learning to read in the open-air verandahs or
+balconies which often served as schools, and the shouting in the
+baths. All night long there was the rattle of carts and the creaking
+of heavy waggons. But the average Roman cared, and still cares, very
+little for quiet or sleep, and no emperor attempted to check the
+annoyance. Perhaps he could devise no check. Perhaps he himself, being
+on the Palatine, and his counsellors, being in their own comparatively
+secluded houses on the hills, scarcely realised the full enormity of
+the nocturnal roar of Rome. In any case the fact of the noise is
+unquestionable. It was then very much as it is now if one tries to
+sleep in rooms in the Corso or the Via Babuino. The saying that "God
+made the country and man made the town" is met with in a Roman writer
+of the age of Augustus, and the noise is one factor in the difference.
+
+The ancient Romans, we have said, were masters of practical
+engineering, and a chief glory of the city was its abundant supply of
+water. Apart from the Tiber and the natural springs, there were in the
+year 64 at least eight aqueducts bringing drinkable water into the
+city. It was the emperor's concern to see to this matter, as he did to
+the corn-supply, but in practice he appointed what he might call his
+Minister of Water-supply, and gave him liberal means to provide a
+large staff of engineers, surveyors, masons, pipelayers, inspectors,
+and custodians. It is a common error to imagine that the Romans were
+ignorant of the simple hydraulic law that water will find its own
+level, and to suppose that their aqueducts were built in consequence
+of that ignorance. In point of fact they knew the law as well as we
+do. Their earlier aqueducts were conduits almost wholly underground;
+their later were all on arches. When they wished to carry water to a
+height within the city, up a watertower to a distributing cistern, or
+to the top storey of a building, they did so by pipes, just as we
+should; but when they brought water from forty miles away they
+preferred to bring it in channels lined with impermeable cement and
+carried upon arches, which wound across the country according to the
+levels in order to avoid the excessive pressure of too steep a
+gradient. The reasons for their choice are simple enough. Their chief
+difficulty was in making pipes of iron of sufficient capacity. On the
+other hand, it was easy to construct a cemented channel in masonry of
+any size you desired. In the next place the water about Rome rapidly
+lays a calcareous deposit, and it is much easier to clear this from a
+readily accessible channel than from pipes buried in the ground. The
+pipes which the Romans commonly made were of lead, bronze, or wood.
+None of these could be made and cleared cheaply enough to serve for
+the volume of water required for household use, the baths, and the
+public fountains of Rome. Meanwhile slave labour was inexpensive, and
+the cost of building an aqueduct of any length was of little account
+to the Roman.
+
+When the water reached the city it was conducted into settling and
+distributing reservoirs and its flow regulated. Thence it was carried
+by pipes, mostly of lead, wherever it was required. When Agrippa was
+minister of water-supply he constructed in the city 700 public pools
+or basins and 500 fountains, drawing their supply from 130 collecting
+heads or reservoirs. And it is to the credit of Agrippa and of Rome
+that all these pools, fountains, and reservoirs were made pleasant to
+the eye with suitable adornment. There is mention of 400 marble
+columns and 300 statues, but these are to be regarded as only chief
+among the embellishments.
+
+The streets of Rome were commonly paved with blocks of lava quarried
+in the neighbourhood from the abundant deposits which had formed in a
+not very remote volcanic period.
+
+The materials employed for substantial building were various; in the
+older days red and black tufa--a stone so soft as to require
+protection by a layer of stucco; later the dark-brown peperino, the
+golden-creamy travertine, marble white and coloured, and concrete. The
+modern visitor to Rome who regards the ruins but superficially would
+naturally imagine that many of the edifices were mainly constructed of
+brick. In reality there was no building so composed. The flat
+triangular bricks, or rather tiles, which are so much in evidence, are
+but inserted in the face of concrete to cover the nakedness of that
+material. Concrete alone might serve for cores and substructures, but
+those parts of the building which showed were required to present a
+more pleasing surface. At the date of Nero this might be achieved by a
+fronting of marble slabs and blocks, but more commonly it was obtained
+by means of the triangular red or yellow tiles above mentioned. In
+buildings of slightly earlier date the exterior often presented a
+"diamond pattern" or network arrangement of square pieces of stone
+inserted in the concrete while it was still soft. The huge vaults and
+arches affected by the Romans made concrete a particularly convenient
+material, and nothing could better illustrate its strength than the
+tenacity with which it has endured the strain in the unsupported
+portions of the vaults of the Basilica of Constantine. Any of the more
+imposing buildings which were not mainly of concrete were composed of
+blocks of stone, held to each other by clamps soldered in with lead.
+Few, if any, such buildings were made entirely of marble. In the case
+of those composes of the other varieties of stone already named, the
+surface was commonly coated either with stucco or with marble facings
+attached by hook-like clamps fixed into the main structure Externally
+the appearance of Rome--so far as its public buildings are
+concerned-was that of a city of marble. The present having been for
+centuries torn away, either to be used elsewhere, or more often to be
+burned down for lime.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28.--BUILDING MATERIALS. (From Middleton.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+We have taken a general survey of the city of Rome, its open places,
+streets, and public buildings. We may now look at the houses in which
+the Romans lived, and at the furniture to be expected inside them.
+
+Mention has already been made of the large and lofty tenement houses
+or blocks, often mere human rookeries, which were let out in lodgings
+to those who did not possess sufficient means to occupy a separate
+domicile of their own. These buildings, which were naturally to be
+found in the busier streets and more thickly inhabited quarters, were
+not, however, the habitations most typical of the romanized world.
+They were created by the special circumstances of the city, and might
+recur in other towns wherever the conditions were similar. The cramped
+island part of Tyre, for example, possessed houses even loftier than
+those of Rome. Where there was sufficient room--that is to say, where
+there was no large population crowded into a space limited by nature
+or by walls of defence--the ordinary house was of a very different
+character. It was built on a different plan and seldom ran to more
+than two stories, if so high. We shall shortly proceed to describe
+such a house; but it is first desirable to say something more of the
+tenement "block" in the metropolis. It is to be regretted that no such
+building has actually come down to us; we are therefore compelled to
+form our notions of one from the scattered references and hints of
+literature. Nevertheless if these are read in the light of customs
+still observable in Rome itself and in other parts of Italy, the
+picture becomes fairly definite.
+
+A block--or "island," as it was called--might be a building of four or
+five stories, surrounded by four of the narrow streets, lanes, or
+alleys which formed a network in the city. Whether managed by the
+landlord, by his agent, or by a tenant who sub-let at a profit, it was
+divided into lodgings, which might consist either of a single room or
+of a suite. Some such rooms and flats were "ordinary," others were
+described (as they are still in the advertisements of modern Rome) as
+"suitable for a gentleman," or, to use the exact language of the day,
+"suitable for a knight." Access to the respective quarters of the
+house was to be gained, not solely through a main door, but by
+separate stairs leading up directly from the streets and lanes. It
+would appear that each tenant had his own key, corresponding, though
+hardly in convenience of size, to our latch-key. Whereas it will be
+found that the ordinary private house of one storey was for the most
+part lighted by openings in the roof and by wide courts, this
+arrangement could manifestly be applied only partially to the tall
+tenement buildings. There might, it is true, exist in the middle
+interior of such a block an open space or "well," with galleries
+running round it at each floor, so that the inner rooms could obtain
+light from that quarter. It is also to be assumed that stairs ran up
+to these galleries, so that the inward rooms or flats were made
+accessible in this way. Mainly, however, the light came from windows
+opening on the street. If we glanced up at these from below we should
+find them narrower than ours at the present day--since we have
+discovered how to produce large and entirely diaphanous sheets of
+glass--but probably not narrower than those of a century ago. They
+were either mere openings with shutters, or, in the better houses,
+were glazed with transparent material. In the brighter part of the
+year they contained their boxes of flowering or other plants, and were
+often provided with a shade-awning not unlike those so familiar in
+Paris.
+
+The roof of such a building was either gabled and covered with tiles
+or, though perhaps less often, it was flat. The flat roof sometimes
+formed a terrace, on which the plants of a "roof-garden" might be
+found growing either in earthenware tubs or in earth spread over a
+layer of impermeable cement. The lowest floor, level with the street,
+commonly consisted of shops, which were open at full length in the
+day, but were shuttered and barred at night. As with the shops which
+are now built into the sides of large hotels and the like, they had no
+communication with the interior of the building. Regularly, however,
+they possessed a short staircase at the back or side leading to an
+upper room or _entresol_, where, in the poorer instances, the
+shopkeeper might actually reside. To the aristocratic Roman, with his
+contempt of petty trade, "born in the shop-loft" was a contemptuous
+phrase for a "son of nobody."
+
+Meanwhile the more representative houses of the strictly Roman part of
+the Roman world--that is to say, the dwellings of Romans or of
+imitators of Romans, wherever they might be settled, as distinct from
+the Greek and Oriental houses or from the various kinds of primitive
+huts to be found among the Western provincials--were of three chief
+kinds. These were the town house, the country seat, and the country
+homestead. There was, of course, nothing to prevent a wealthy Roman
+from building his town house exactly like a country seat, or vice
+versa, if he had so chosen, but from considerations of purpose, apart
+from those of local space and view, it would have been altogether
+irrational to take either course. The conditions of his life in town
+and country differed even more widely than they do with us. The
+average Roman, moreover, was a lover of variety in respect of his
+habitation. We find in a somewhat later epigrammatist that one grandee
+keeps up four town houses in Rome itself, and moves capriciously
+from one to the other, so that you never know where you will find
+him. At different seasons or in different moods he might prefer
+this or that situation or aspect. As for country seats of various
+degrees of magnificence, a man might--like many modern nobles or
+royalties--possess three, four, a dozen, or twenty. He might, for
+example, own one or more on the Italian Lakes, one in Tuscany, one on
+the Sabine or Alban Hills, one on the coast within a half-day's run of
+Rome, one on the Bay of Naples, one down in the heel of Italy, and so
+on. Pliny the Younger, who was born in the reign of Nero, was not a
+particularly rich man, yet he owned several country seats on Lake Como
+alone, besides others nearer to Rome on north and south, at the
+seaside, or on the hills.
+
+We may begin with a town house, and our simplest procedure is to take
+a plan exhibiting those parts which were most usual for an
+establishment of even moderate pretensions. Let it be understood that
+it is but the symmetrical outline of a general scheme which was in
+practice submitted to indefinite enlargement or modification. In the
+house of Livia, the mother of Augustus, on the Palatine Hill at Rome,
+and in various houses at Pompeii--such as those of the Vettii, of
+"Sallust," of the "Faun," or of "The Tragic Poet"--there will be found
+much diversity in the number and arrangement of the rooms, halls, and
+courts. Nevertheless the main principle of division, the general
+conception of the portions requisite for their several purposes, was
+practically the same. Some of the differences and enlargements may be
+illustrated after we have considered our first simple outline. Before
+we undertake this, however, it may be well to warn any one who may
+have visited or be about to visit Pompeii, that he must exclude from
+his thoughts all those small premises of a room or two which face so
+many of the streets. These were mostly shops, with which we are not
+now dealing. He must also exclude all the public edifices. This done,
+he must remember that we now possess only portions of the walls
+without the roofs, and that in such circumstances apartments always
+appear to be much smaller than they are by actual measurement, or than
+they appear when they contain their furniture and appointments
+properly disposed. Finally, he must not take a Pompeian house, even
+the most spacious, as a fair example of either the size or splendour
+of the great houses in the metropolis. Pompeii was but a small place,
+with a population of no great wealth or standing, and its houses would
+have cut but a provincial figure among those of the same date on the
+Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, or Quirinal Hills. Nevertheless they are
+extremely useful to us in reconstructing the type. It is that type and
+not the exception which we now consider.
+
+A town house might either be detached or it might stand in a street,
+like one of the tenement-blocks, with shops let into the less
+important parts of the outer wall of the ground floor. Much would
+naturally depend upon the means and dignity of the owner. In any case
+the interior portions would belong to the private residence. As a rule
+the exterior of the ordinary house was little regarded. No
+architecture was wasted upon it; decoration and other magnificence
+belonged to the interior. Provided a house possessed a more or less
+imposing doorway its exterior walls might be left either to shops or
+to a dull monochrome of stucco, pierced here and there, if necessary,
+at 9 or 10 feet from the ground by barred slits, which cannot be
+called windows, for the admittance of light. The general principle of
+a Roman house, as of a Greek, was that of rooms surrounding spaces
+lighted from within. Privacy from the outer world was not indeed so
+scrupulously sought by the Romans as by the Athenians--principally
+because of the more free position occupied by the Roman
+women--nevertheless it was secured by the absence of ground-floor
+windows opening on any thoroughfare.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29.--TYPICAL SCHEME OF ROMAN HOUSE.]
+
+Before the actual door there was commonly an open recess or space a
+little backward from the street, in which callers could wait until the
+door was opened. This was the "vestibule," and in the case of the
+larger houses of the nobles it was often adorned with honorary
+statues, on horseback or otherwise, while above the door might be seen
+the insignia of triumphs won by the family, a decoration in some
+measure corresponding to the modern hatchment, except that it was
+permanently fixed. This regularly remained as a mark of the house even
+when it changed owners. It was in such a vestibule of his Golden House
+that Nero erected his own colossal statue, destined afterwards to give
+its name to the Colosseum. Over the larger vestibules there might be a
+partial roof, but generally, and perhaps always at this date, they
+were without cover.
+
+Facing you in the middle of the vestibule are double or folding doors,
+more or less ornate with bronze, ivory, and other work, and generally
+bearing a large ring or handle to serve either as a knocker or to pull
+the door to. Above them is a bronze grating or fretwork for further
+adornment and to admit light and air. Some householders, more
+superstitious or conventional than the rest, affected an inscription,
+such as "Let no evil enter here," and over some humbler entrance you
+might find a cage containing a parrot or magpie, which had been
+trained to say "Good luck to you" in Greek. At either side of the
+door, or of the actual entrance to the vestibule, is a column or
+pilaster, either made of timber and cased with other woods of a more
+beautiful and costly kind, or consisting of coloured marble with an
+ornate capital. These "doorposts" were wreathed with laurel or other
+foliage on festal occasions, such as when the occupant had won some
+distinguished honour in the field, in the courts, or at the elections,
+or when a marriage took place from within. At funerals small cypress
+trees or branches would be placed in and about the vestibule. At one
+side of it you might sometimes find a smaller door, to be used for the
+ordinary going in and out when it was unnecessary or inconvenient for
+the larger doors to be opened.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30.--ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF PANSA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+The doors themselves turn, not upon hinges of the modern kind, but
+upon pivots, which move, often too noisily, in sockets let into the
+threshold and lintel. The fastenings consisted of locks--often highly
+ingenious--of a bar laid across from wall to wall, of bolts shot
+across or upward and downward, and sometimes of a prop leaning against
+the inside of the door and entering a cavity in the floor of the
+passage. The floor of the entrance passage itself might be paved with
+marble tiles, or made simply of a polished cement with or without
+patterns worked in it; or it might consist of small cubes of stone,
+white and black or more variously coloured, frequently worked into
+figures, and now and then accompanied by an inscription just within
+the threshold, such as "Greeting" or "Beware the Dog." In one Pompeian
+house the floor bears the well-known mosaic likeness of a dog held
+upon its chain. At the side of the passage there is often a smaller
+room for the janitor. When there is none, he must be supposed to have
+used a movable seat.
+
+Passing through the passage, you find yourself in a rectangular hall,
+upon which was lavished the chief display in the way of loftiness and
+decoration. In the middle of the ceiling is an open space, square or
+oblong, to which the tiles of the gabled roof converge from above, and
+in the middle of the floor beneath is a corresponding basin, edged and
+paved with coloured or plain marble. The basin is of no great depth,
+and contains the water which has been poured into it from the
+ornamental pipe-mouths of bronze or terra-cotta projecting, like
+gargoyles, from the edge of the opening above. Sometimes the basin
+contained a fountain. There is of course an outlet pipe for the
+surplus water, but some of that overflow often ran into a covered
+cistern, over which you would find a small circular well-mouth,
+ornamented with sculptured reliefs. The opening in the ceiling may be
+formed simply by the space between the four cross-beams, or it may be
+supported by a pillar--of marble or of brick cased with marble--at
+each corner, or it may rest upon a greater number of such pillars. It
+is this opening which lets in the light and air to the hall, and it
+should always be remembered that the Italian house had more occasion
+to seek coolness and freshness than warmth. On a day of glaring
+sunshine and heat it was always possible to spread under the opening
+an awning or curtain of purple or other colour, of which the reflected
+hues meanwhile lent a richness to the space below. If we take one of
+the finer houses, we shall see, in glancing at the ceiling which
+covers the rest of the hall, that it is divided into sunken panels or
+coffers, which are adorned with reliefs in stucco and are painted, or
+else are decorated with copper, gold or ivory. The height may be
+whatever the owner wishes, but perhaps 25 feet would be a modest
+average estimate. The floor in such a house will generally consist of
+slabs of marble or of marble tiles arranged in patterns. In houses of
+less show it may be made of the same materials as those described for
+the entrance passage. To right and left are various chambers, shut off
+by lofty doors or by portières or both. To these light is admitted
+their doors and the gratings over them, from the high window-slits
+already mentioned in the outer wall, or sometimes, when there is no
+upper storey, from sky-lights. And here let it be observed that the
+notion that the Romans of this date used very little glass is
+altogether erroneous, as the discoveries at Pompeii and elsewhere
+sufficiently prove.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Interior of Roman House. (Looking from
+Reception-hall to Peristyle.)]
+
+The walls of the hall are in the better instances either coated with
+panels of tinted marble, or parcelled out in bright bands or oblongs
+of paint, or decorated with pictures of mythological, architectural,
+and other subjects worked in bright colours upon darkened stucco. To
+our own taste these colours--red, yellow, bluish-green, and others--as
+seen at Pompeii, are often excessively crude and badly harmonised. But
+while it is true that the ancients appear to have been actually
+somewhat deficient in colour-sense, it must be borne in mind that many
+of the Pompeian houses were decorated by journeymen rather than by
+artists, and, above all, full allowance must be made for the
+comparatively subdued light in which most of the paintings would be
+seen. The hall might also contain statuary placed against the walls or
+against the supporting pillars, where these existed. At the farther
+end from the entrance you will perceive to right and left two large
+recesses or bays, generally with pilasters on either side. These
+"wings" were utilised for a variety of purposes. One of them might
+occasionally serve for a smaller dining-room, or it might hold presses
+and cupboards. In noble houses one of them would contain certain
+family possessions of which the occupants were especially proud. These
+were the effigies of distinguished ancestors, which served as a
+family-tree represented in a highly objective form. At our chosen date
+there would be a series of portrait busts or else of portrait
+medallions, in relief or painted, while in special receptacles,
+labelled underneath with name and rank, were kept life-like wax masks
+of the line of distinguished persons, which could be brought out and
+carried in procession at the funeral of a member of the family. Though
+there was no "College of Heralds" in antiquity, it was commonly quite
+possible for a wealthy parvenu to get a pedigree invented for him. It
+is true that by use and wont the "right of effigies" was confined to
+those families which had held the higher offices of state, but there
+was no specific law on the subject, and the Roman _nouveau riche_
+could act exactly like his modern representative in securing his
+"portraits of ancestors."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Having thus glanced to right and left, to the ceiling and the floor,
+we now look at the end of the hall facing us. The middle section of
+this is open, and is framed by a couple of high pillars or pilasters
+and a cornice, which together formed perhaps the most distinguishing
+feature of this part of the house. Between the pillars is an apartment
+which may or may not be raised a step or two above the level of the
+hall. This, unlike the hall itself, is of the nature of a
+sitting-room, reception-room, or "parlour" (in the old sense of that
+word), and contains appropriate furniture. In it the master receives a
+guest, interviews his clients, makes up his accounts, and transacts
+such other private business as may fall to his lot. At the back it may
+be entirely closed, or it may contain a large window, through which we
+can catch a vista of the colonnaded and planted court beyond. The
+floor may here consist of a large carpet-like mosaic, such as that
+famous piece, taken from the House of the Faun at Pompeii and now in
+the Naples Museum, which represents a battle between Alexander and the
+Persians. To one side of the entrance to this "parlour" there will
+often stand on a pedestal the bust of the owner, as "Genius of the
+home." On the other side there is a passage serving as the means of
+access to the second or inner division of the house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33.--PERISTYLE WITH GARDEN AND AL FRESCO
+DINING-TABLE.]
+
+On making our way through this passage we find ourselves in a space
+still more open than the hall. It is commonly an unroofed,
+quadrangular court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, and thence known
+as the "peristyle." Or the colonnade may extend only round three
+sides, the back being free to the garden. In the uncovered space lying
+between the rows of pillars there are ornamental shrubs and flowers,
+marble tables, a cistern of water containing goldfish, a fountain, and
+marble basins into which fresh water is spouted from bronze or marble
+statuettes, from figures of animals, or from masks. Under the
+colonnade are marble floors or other more or less rich pavements,
+decorated walls, and such works of art as the owner most affects.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34.--PERISTYLE IN HOUSE OF THE VETTII. (Present
+state.)]
+
+When it seems desirable for shade and coolness, coloured curtains or
+awnings may be suspended between the columns, so that one can sit or
+walk with comfort under the cloistered portion. At the sides are
+apartments for different purposes. At the far end, or elsewhere, there
+is regularly the largest dining-room, often with mosaic floor and
+generally with pictured walls. Whereabouts in the house the family or
+an invited party should dine would depend partly on the number to be
+present, partly on the season of the year, and partly on some passing
+inclination. A house of any pretensions would possess several rooms
+used, or capable of being used, for this purpose. Some dining-rooms
+had what we should call French windows on three sides, permitting the
+diners to enjoy the view of the garden or the shrubbery outside.
+
+Other large and airy apartments or saloons off the peristyle were used
+for social conversation, or as drawing-rooms. Farther back still,
+approached by another passage or door, there was often to be found a
+garden, containing an arbour or a terrace covered with a trailing
+vine, of the kind known in modern Italy as a _pergola_. In suitable
+weather _al fresco_ meals were often taken here, and occasionally
+there were fixed couches and tables of masonry always ready for that
+purpose.
+
+Coming back from the garden into the court, we might explore other
+passages, leading to the kitchen or to the bathrooms of hot, warm, and
+cold water. These offices would be respectively situated wherever
+circumstances made them most convenient. In the kitchen the part
+corresponding to our "range" consisted of a flat structure of masonry,
+on which the fire was lighted. The cooking pots were placed either
+upon ridges of masonry running across the fire or upon three legged
+stands of iron. The accompanying illustrations will sufficiently show
+what is meant. The bedrooms, little better than cells, of the slaves,
+and also the storerooms, were variously distributed. Underground
+cellars were apparently exceptional, although examples may be seen at
+Pompeii.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--KITCHEN HEARTH IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36.--KITCHEN HEARTHS (Drawing).]
+
+Somewhere in one of the bays of the hall, at the back of the peristyle
+court, or elsewhere, would be found a small shrine for the worship of
+the domestic gods. This was variously constructed. Sometimes it was a
+niche or recess containing paintings or little effigies and with an
+altar or altar-shelf beneath, sometimes a miniature temple erected
+against the wall. There was apparently no special place to which,
+rather than any other, it was to be assigned. To the nature and
+meaning of the household gods we may refer again when dealing with the
+general subject of religion.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37.--SHRINE (IN BACKGROUND) IN HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC
+POET.]
+
+In the homes of persons of culture there would also be included a
+library and, perhaps less regularly, a picture-gallery. The library,
+which sometimes comprised thousands of rolls, would be a room not only
+surrounded by large pigeon-holes or open cupboards containing the
+round boxes for the parchment rolls, but also traversed by lower
+partitions provided on either side with similar shelves. About the
+room, over or by the shelves, stand portrait busts or medallions of
+great authors, both Greek and Roman, the "blind" Homer being
+represented in traditional form, but the majority, from Aeschylus and
+Thucydides down to Virgil and Livy, being authentic and excellent
+likenesses. In the picture-gallery would be found paintings either
+done upon the stucco walls in a frame-like setting or upon panels of
+wood attached to the walls, very much as we hang our modern pictures.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE.]
+
+It was scarcely ever the case that a second storey--where one existed
+at all--extended over the whole house. If upper rooms were used, they
+were placed over those parts where they would interfere least with the
+light, the comfort, and the appearance of the ground-floor
+arrangements. The stairs leading to them were variously disposed and
+as little as possible in evidence. In such upper apartments there was
+naturally not the same risk from the curious or the burglar as in the
+case of the lower, and windows of perhaps 4 by 2-1/2 feet were
+therefore freely employed. In some instances, though we cannot tell
+how frequently, the second storey projected on strong beams over the
+street, as in the example at Pompeii known as the "House of the
+Hanging Balcony."
+
+It remains to make brief observations upon one or two matters
+interesting to any practical householder. These are the questions of
+water-supply, drainage, warming, and roofing.
+
+In respect of water there was no difficulty. It was brought in the
+ordinary way, from those reservoirs which formed the ends of the
+aqueducts or conduits, by means of pipes, mostly made of lead, though
+sometimes of bronze. These were conducted to the points where they
+were required, and there the flow was manipulated by means of taps and
+plugs. In order to make a water-pipe, a sheet of lead or bronze was
+rolled into a cylinder, the joining of the two edges taking the shape
+of a raised ridge, which was soldered. One end of a section was
+squeezed or narrowed so that it might be inserted into the widened end
+of the next. Lead pipes of no inconsiderable size, stamped with the
+name of the owner, are to be seen preserved in the Palatine House of
+Livia, and a number of smaller ones remain at Pompeii. For drainage
+there the sewers, and also pipes to carry the less offensive overflow
+of water into the street channels, which in their turn led into
+underground drains.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 88 A.--LEADEN PIPES IN HOUSE OF LIVIA.
+(Palatine.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39.--PORTABLE BRAZIERS.]
+
+For the warming of a house the Romans not only portable braziers with
+charcoal for fuel, but in the larger establishments there existed a
+system of "central" heating, by which hot air was conducted from a
+furnace in the basement through flues running beneath the floor and up
+through the walls, where its effect might be regulated by adjustable
+openings or registers. The only fixed fire-place in a town house was
+in the kitchen. From this the smoke was carried off by a flue,
+constituting to all intents and purposes a chimney. The belief that
+the Romans were unacquainted with such things as chimneys has been
+proved to be untrue.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40.--MANNER OF ROOFING WITH TILES.]
+
+The roofing, when constructed, as it most frequently was, in a gabled
+form, consisted of terra-cotta tiles arranged on a regular system.
+First came the flat layers, each higher row overlapping the lower. The
+descending edges of a row of these flat plates, as they lay side by
+side, were turned up into a kind of flange of about 2-1/4 inches in
+height, so that at the points of contact a ridge was formed down the
+roof. Over this line was laid a series of other tiles shaped into a
+half-cylinder, the lower end of each tile overlapping the next. By
+this means the rain was prevented from penetrating the crevice between
+the flanges. At the bottom, above the eaves, the line of semicircular
+tiles ended in a flower-like or mask-like ornament, which broke the
+monotony of the horizontal edge of the roof.
+
+After this description of what may be considered a representative
+Roman house, it is necessary to repeat that it is but typical. Many
+were considerably smaller, containing, for example, no peristyle. Many
+on the contrary were far more spacious and sumptuous, possessing more
+than one hall and more than one peristyle, and varying the nature as
+well as the number and position of those portions of the house. In
+exceptional cases the hall had no opening in the ceiling and therefore
+no basin below, but was covered with a simple gabled roof which shed
+the rain-water into the street. In exceptional cases also there was no
+"parlour" of the kind described a little while ago. The situation of
+the house, enlargements made after the main part was built, the
+joining of two houses into one, or other causes, often modified the
+rectangular and symmetrical appearance presented in the plan hitherto
+given. Such modifications are, however, better illustrated by a
+comparison of the plans of two well-known Pompeian houses than by any
+amount of verbal description. The first is that of Pansa, which forms
+the main portion of a whole block, smaller dwellings and shops
+unconnected with the Pansa establishment being built round and into it
+at various points. The arrangements of this house closely approach the
+normal or simple type described in this chapter. The second is the
+famous house of the Vettii, which departs somewhat freely from the
+customary disposition of apartments.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 41.--HOUSE OF PANSA AT POMPEII.]
+
+The parts within the dark lines belong to the one house; the rest are
+other houses and shops built into the block.
+
+ 1. Vestibule             11. Rooms
+ 2. Passage               12. Dining-Room
+ 3. Hall                  13. Winter Dining-Room
+ 4. Rooms                 14. Saloon (Drawing-Room)
+ 5. Wings                 15. Kitchen
+ 6. Dining-Room           16. Carriage Room
+ 7. Parlour               17. Boudoir
+ 8. Passage               18. Portico
+ 9. Library?              19. Saleroom
+10. Peristyle             20. Passage to Side Door
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 42.--HOUSE OF THE VETTII AT POMPEII. A second
+storey extended over the corners and front parts included under the
+nine small crosses.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 43--SPECIMEN OF PAINTED ROOM.]
+
+It would be tempting to indulge in rhetoric and to dwell upon the
+magnificence of some of the more luxurious houses of the wealthy
+Romans; to describe their ostentation of rich marbles in pillar, wall,
+or floor--the white marbles of Carrara, Paros, and Hymettus; the
+Phrygian marble or "pavonazzetto" its streakings of crimson or violet;
+the orange-golden glow of the Numidian stone of "giallo antico"; the
+Carystian marble or "cipollino" with its onion-like layers of white
+and pale-green; the serpentine variety from Laconia, and the porphyry
+from Egypt. We might descant upon the lavish wall-paintings,
+representing landscapes real and imaginary, scenes from mythology and
+semi-history, floating figures, genre pictures, and pictures of still
+life; or upon the mosaics in floor and wall depicting similar subjects
+and often serving to the occupants not so much in the place of
+pictorial art as in the place of wall-papers and of Brussels or
+Kidderminster carpets. We might speak of the profuse collections of
+statuary, of the gilding on ceiling and cornices, of the colours shed
+by the rich curtains and awnings of purple and crimson, of the
+grateful sound of water plashing in the fountains and basins or
+babbling over a series of steps like a broken cascade in miniature.
+But perhaps too much of such description might only encourage still
+further the erroneous notion that the Roman houses were all of this
+nature, and that even the average Roman lived in the midst of an
+abundance of such domestic luxury and art. It requires but a little
+sober thought to realise that such homes were, as they have always
+been, the exception. It would be as reasonable to judge of an average
+London house by the most opulent specimens in Park Lane, or of an
+American house by the richest at Newport, as to judge of the abodes of
+Romans in the time of Nero by the examples which appeal so strongly to
+the novelist or the romancing historian. Suffice it that beside the
+modest and frugal homes, the tenement flat, and the hovel, there were
+houses distinguished by immense luxury; and, since Romans have at all
+times sought the ostentatious and grandiose, perhaps such dwellings
+were larger and more pretentious in proportion to wealth than they are
+in most civilised countries at the present day. Seneca, who made
+himself extremely comfortable in the days of Nero, exclaims upon the
+rage for costly decoration. Says he of the bathing of the plutocrat:
+"He seems to himself poor and mean, unless the walls shine with great
+costly slabs, unless marbles of Alexandria are picked out with reliefs
+of Numidian stone, unless the whole ceiling is elaborately worked with
+all the variety of a painting, unless Thasian stone encloses the
+swimming baths, unless the water is poured out from silver taps."
+These, indeed, are comparatively humble. "What of the baths of the
+freedmen? a mass of statues! What a multitude of pillars supporting
+nothing, but put there only for ornament! What an amount of water
+running over steps with a purling noise--and all for show!"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SPECIMEN OF WALL-PAINTING. (Pompeii.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+Throughout the romanized parts of the empire--in other words, wherever
+Romans settled, in Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and also wherever the
+richer natives imitated the Roman fashions--the house in any city or
+considerable town was built as nearly as possible after the type
+described.
+
+In the country the poor naturally had their much simpler cottages and
+cabins of a room or two, commonly thatched or shingled, knowing
+nothing of hall and court and all these arrangements of art and
+luxury. In the case of the more well-to-do country people of
+Italy--the larger farmers, wine-growers, olive-growers, and the
+like--the homestead was of a kind which made for simplicity and
+comfort. It was in such homes that one would find the most wholesome
+life and the soundest moral fibre of the time.
+
+Normally the homestead would be a large, and often a rambling,
+building of one storey, except where a tower served as a store-room
+for the mellowing wine or a loft for the mellowing fruit. When we read
+in Horace about the liberal stack of wood to be kept in readiness near
+the hearth, and about the wine-jar drinking in the smoke in the
+store-room we must think of his country homestead on the Sabine Hills,
+not of a house in Rome, for at Rome there was no blazing hearth to sit
+round and no smoky tower-loft for the ripening of the Caecuban.
+
+You enter an open court or yard, round the sides of which may run the
+stalls of the horses and oxen of the farm, the tool-rooms, the lofts
+of hay and corn, the quarters of the labourers--herdsmen, ploughmen,
+vine-dressers--and the great farm-kitchen. It is in this kitchen that
+you will find the bright hearth in winter-time, where all the members
+of the homestead gather round the fire. It is here that they then all
+eat, and in it the women of the establishment perform their work,
+spinning and weaving and mending. Off from the court will be situated
+the wine-press, or the olive-press, the-granaries, the fruit mellowing
+on mats, and the various rooms or bins where wine is fermented and
+stored, or where the olive-oil is treated and stocked. Commonly a more
+retired court will contain the private rooms of the owner, and
+somewhere in the homestead will be found the fowl-yard, with its hens,
+ducks, geese, and guinea-fowl, the sties, and the preserves for
+various toothsome animals, including perhaps dormice and snails.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 45.--PLAN OF HOMESTEAD AT BOSCOREALE.]
+
+Frequently a Roman of the city affected a country house of this
+character, to which he would flee during the tyrannous reign of the
+Dogstar or the Lion---in other words, during that hot season of the
+year which requires no description for those who have been so
+ill-advised as to sojourn in Rome in July, August, and early
+September. Many of his town slaves he would take with him, and what
+was a holiday for him was also a holiday for them. His rural homestead
+would possess great charm for the quieter type of man who had no real
+love for the pomps and shows the rattle and tumult, of the city. The
+vision of wholesome country-produce--of fresh milk and eggs and
+vegetables, and of tender poultry--is one which still attracts our
+city-folk. But the vision, then as now, was often subject to
+disillusion. Complaints are many that you had to feed the homestead in
+place of it feeding you, and when Martial has given a pleasant picture
+of a family reaching the gate of Rome with a coachful of the typical
+produce of the country, he ends by suddenly letting you know that they
+are not coming in from their country house but are going out to it.
+The complaint of the English seaside town that there will be no fish
+"till the train comes in from London," is thus a sufficiently old one.
+Yet the same Martial supplies another picture, painted with such zest
+of frank enjoyment that we are at once convinced of its truth. Some
+portions of it perhaps admit of translation in the following terms:--
+
+      Our friend Fundanus' Baian seat,
+      My Bassus, is no pleasance neat,
+      Where myrtles trim in idle lines,
+      Clipped box, and planes unwed to vines
+      Rob of right use the acres wide:
+      'Tis farm-life true and countrified.
+      In every corner grain is stacked,
+      Old wines in fragrant jars are packed:
+      About the farmyard gabbling gander
+      And spangled peacock freely wander:
+      With pheasant and flamingo prowl
+      Partridge and speckled guinea-fowl:
+      Pigeon and waxen turtle-dove
+      Rustle their wings in cotes above.
+      The farm-wife's apron draws a rout
+      Of greedy porkers round about;
+      And eagerly the tender lamb
+      Waits the filled udder of its dam.
+      With plenteous logs the hearth is bright.
+      The household Gods glow in the light,
+      And baby slaves are sprawling round.
+      No town-bred idlers here are found:
+      No cellarer grows pale with sloth,
+      No trainer wastes his oil, but both
+      Go forth afield and subtly plan
+      To snare the greedy ortolan.
+      Meanwhile the garden rings with mirth,
+      While townfolk dig the yielding earth:
+      No need for the page-master's voice;
+      The saucy long-haired boys rejoice
+      To do the manager's commands.
+      At morn 'tis not with empty hands
+      The country pays its call, but some
+      Bring honey in its native comb,
+      Or cones of cheese; some think as good
+      A sleepy dormouse from the wood;
+      And honest tenants' big girls bring
+      Baskets with "mother's offering."
+
+The visit to the country in the season of the "mad star" and the
+scirocco was as necessary to the ancient Roman as is his
+_villeggiatura_ to the modern. But there were other seasons when he
+fled from town. If to the heat of summer he sought the hills, in the
+colder he might seek the south of Italy, and in spring or autumn the
+seaside at various points the mouth of the Tiber to southward of
+Salerno, might run away from inconvenient business or ceremonies, or
+through a mere desire to get rest or sleep or change. He might wish,
+as Cicero and Pliny did, to get away from the "games" and to study and
+write in quiet. He might fancy that his health called for baths in the
+hot springs on the Bay of Naples, or for sea-bathing somewhere on the
+Latian or Campanian coasts. To put it briefly, he was very much like
+our worried, bilious, or exhausted selves. His life of ceremony was a
+hard one, and often he ate and drank too much. But whereas nowadays we
+can make free choice of any agreeable spot, since every such spot
+possesses its "Grand Hotel" or "Hotel Superbe," where we can always
+find the crowd and discomfort which we pretend to be escaping, the
+Roman idea was different. It corresponded more to that of our English
+nobles, who, in Elizabethan or Queen Anne days or later, built
+themselves country seats, one, two, or more, indulging in
+architectural fancies and surrounding all with spacious gardens,
+ponds, and rockeries. The Roman man of wealth created no hotels. He
+dotted his country seats about in places where the air was warm for
+winter and spring, or cool for summer and autumn, by the seashore, on
+the lower hills, or high on the mountain side. You would find them on
+the Italian lakes or elsewhere toward the north. In greater numbers
+would you find them on the hills near Rome, at the modern Tivoli or
+Palestrina, on the Alban heights near what are now Frascati, Albano,
+or Genzano, along the shore at Antium, Terracina, Baiae, Naples,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii, Castellamare, and Sorrento.
+
+Perhaps it is not too much to say that more than a hundred and twenty
+miles of this coast were practically a chain of country houses. The
+shore of the Bay of Naples has been compared to a collar of pearls
+strung round the blue. Wherever there was a wide and varied landscape
+or seascape, there arose a Roman country house. We are too prone to
+assume that the ancients felt but little love or even appreciation of
+scenery, and to fancy that the feeling came as a revelation to a
+Rousseau, a Wordsworth, or a nineteenth-century painter. That Roman
+literature does not gush about the matter has been absurdly taken for
+proof that the Roman writer did not copiously enjoy the glories
+presented to his eyes. But, though Roman literature does not gush, it
+often exhibits the same feelings towards scenery which at least a
+Thomson or a Cowper exhibits. Perhaps it was so accustomed to scenic
+beauties that it took for granted much that an English or German
+writer cannot. At any rate we are sure that the Roman chose for his
+country seat a site commanding the widest and most beautiful outlook,
+and that he even built towers upon his house to command the view the
+better. In this respect he was like the mediaeval monks, when they
+chose the sites of monasteries at San Martino or Amalfi, and his love
+of a belvedere was probably quite as great as theirs.
+
+The country seat differed widely from the town house. We must forget
+the plan which has been given above, with its hall and court lighted
+from within, and made private from the passing crowds in the street.
+In the country there is no need of such an arrangement. Moreover there
+are no formal receptions to necessitate the hall, and there are ample
+gardens to make the peristyle superfluous. Here the walls of the house
+may break forth into large and open windows, while all around may run
+pillared verandahs. Built in any variety of shape, according to the
+situation and the fancy, it may contain an immense variety of
+sitting-rooms, dining-rooms, bedrooms, facing in every direction to
+catch the sun, the shade, the breeze, or the prospect, as the case may
+be. Not that magnificence is any more neglected than in the great
+English country seats. The pillars and pavements are as rich as means
+allow, and works of painting and statuary are perhaps even finer and
+more numerous than in town; there is more time to look at them, and
+there are better facilities for showing them off. Many of the best
+works of ancient sculpture now extant in the museums have come from
+such country seats. There were of course vulgar houses in bad taste,
+where the owner's notions of magnificence consisted in ostentatious
+extravagance and a desire to outdo his neighbour. As now, everything
+depended either on the culture of the man or on the amount of his good
+sense in leaving such matters to his artistic adviser.
+
+Outside the house lie the gardens and grounds. For the most part these
+are laid out in the formal style adopted so often in more modern Italy
+and favoured so greatly in England in the early eighteenth century.
+Perhaps the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, though of course not ancient, may
+convey some approximate idea of the prevailing principle. Along one
+side of the Roman house we should find a smooth terrace ornamented
+with statues and vases, to be used as a promenade. There are straight
+walks and avenues between hedges and trees and shrubs--cyprus, laurel,
+box, and other manageable plants--cut to the shape of beasts and birds
+and inanimate objects. There are flower-beds--of the rose, the crocus,
+the wallflower, the narcissus, the violet, but not, for example, the
+tulip--laid out in geometrical patterns. There are trellis-work
+arbours and walks covered with leafy vines or other trailing plants.
+There are clumps of bay-trees, plane trees, or myrtles, with marble
+seats beneath. There is either an avenue or a covered colonnade, where
+the ground is made of soft earth or sand, and where the family may
+take exercise by being carried in a litter up and down in the open or
+under the shade. There are greenhouses and forcing-houses, where
+flowers are grown under glass. There are fish-ponds, fountains, and
+water-channels, with artificial cascades and a general suggestion of
+babbling streams. Out beyond lie the orchards and the vegetable
+gardens, where are grown most of the modern fruits, including peaches,
+apricots, and almonds, but not yet including either the orange or the
+lemon.
+
+The country immediately round the mansion of the wealthy man was
+commonly his own estate. A portion of this was frequently woodland,
+affording opportunities for hunting deer, wild boar, and other game.
+For the boar the weapon was a stout spear, and the general practice of
+the sportsman was to wait at a certain spot until the beast was driven
+towards it by a ring of beaters. Deer were caught in nets or
+transfixed with javelins while running. In more open places the
+hunter, accompanied by hounds, rode after a hare. But though far too
+much of Italy was taken up by preserves of this unproductive kind, the
+large estates were mostly turned to agricultural purposes. Different
+owners, different practices; but the possessor of a number of country
+seats would in some cases work the land for himself by means of
+slaves--often in disgrace and labouring in chains--under the direction
+of a manager or bailiff, while in others he would parcel out his land
+on various terms among free tenants. It is gratifying to discover that
+in bad seasons a generous landlord would sometimes remit a portion of
+his dues, and that he recognised various obligations of a grand
+seigneur to his district. Among them was the keeping up and
+beautifying of the local shrines and contributing to buildings and
+works for the public comfort.
+
+Such would be the country seat when established landward. By the
+seaside, especially in a much-frequented resort like Baiae, the room
+was more limited and the equipment modified. The extensive garden
+would be absent, and the height of the building increased by a second
+or even a third storey. It was no uncommon thing for such a "villa,"
+as it was called, to stand out on a promontory, where it could be
+greeted by the sea on either side. In many cases it was actually built
+out into the sea on piles or on a basis of concrete, and the occupant
+made a special delight of fishing from his window, and of letting the
+true sea-water flow into his swimming bath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+On the customary furniture of a Roman house we need not spend many
+words. For one thing, it was simple and scanty as compared with the
+furnishing and upholstering of to-day. For another, its nature
+presents little that would be strange to us or that would require
+explanation.
+
+Among the most conspicuous differences between Roman and modern
+furnishing must be reckoned the absence of carpets, the comparatively
+small use of tables and chairs, the absence of upholstery from such
+chairs as were used, and the greater part played by couches. In place
+of carpets there were the ornamental floors, whether in geometrical
+pattern-work, arrangements of veined marbles, or mosaic pictures
+composed of small blocks of coloured stone or glass. The making of
+carpets was well understood in the East, and Rome would have found no
+difficulty in obtaining as many as it chose, but so far as it employed
+tapestries they were for portieres and curtains, for the coverings of
+dining-couches and beds, or for throwing across a chair-back. The
+Roman kept his floors, walls, pillars, and ceilings carefully cleared
+of dust and stains by means of brushes of feathers or light hair,
+brooms of palm or other leaves, and sponges. He thus saved himself
+both the labour and the unwholesomeness of carpets.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 46.--ROMAN FOLDING CHAIR. (Schreiber.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 47.--BRONZE SEAT (Overbeck.)]
+
+We need not enter into dry details concerning such articles as were
+similar to our own. Of the Roman seats it is enough to say that they
+were either square stools without back or arms, or folding-stools, or
+they were true chairs either with straight arms and backs (the Origin
+of the modern throne) to be used by the owner when receiving clients
+or visitors on business, or with a long sloping back and without arms,
+as used particularly by women. A movable cushion constituted all the
+upholstery.
+
+But the Roman man seldom took his ease in a chair: even his reading
+and writing were commonly performed while reclining upon a couch. When
+writing, he doubled his tablets on his knee, and it may be presumed
+that habit made the practice easy and natural. The couch is, indeed,
+perhaps the chief article of Roman furniture. So regular was it to
+recline that, where we should speak of a sitting-room, the Romans
+spoke of a "reclining-room." At business they sat; but they reclined
+in social conversation--unless it was brief--when reading, when taking
+the siesta, and when dining. Their beds in the proper sense were
+similar to our own, though less heavy than those of our older fashion.
+To mount them it was often necessary to use steps or an elongated
+footstool. A slave in close attendance upon a master or mistress
+sometimes slept upon a low truckle-bed, which, in the daytime, could
+be pushed under the other. The couches for day use were lower and of
+lighter and narrower build, with a movable rest at the head and with
+or without a back.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 48.--FRAMEWORK OF ROMAN COUCH.]
+
+Upon the frame of such couches a good deal of decoration was lavished
+in the way of veneerings of ornamental wood, or thin plates of ivory
+or tortoise-shell, or reliefs in bronze or even in gold or silver. The
+feet might also, in the richer houses, consist of silver or of ivory.
+For the dining-rooms of people of wealth a special feature was made of
+such work upon the conspicuous parts of the frames, while the cushions
+and coverings were of costly fabrics, richly dyed and embroidered or
+damasked. The method of serving and eating a dinner is a subject which
+belongs to our later treatment of a social day, and it must here
+suffice to picture the ordinary arrangement of a dinner party.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 49.--PLAN OF DINING-TABLE WITH THREE COUCHES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 50.--SIGMA.]
+
+In the middle is the table, either square or, if round, made if
+possible of a single piece of costly wood richly grained by nature in
+a wavy or peacock pattern and obtained by sawing through the lower
+part of the trunk of a Moorish tree. The price depended on the size.
+Of one such circular slab we learn that it cost £4000. It may be
+needless to remark that many tables were only "imitation." When not in
+use, and sometimes even then, such tables were protected by coloured
+linen cloths. By preference this ancient equivalent of "the best
+mahogany" was supported on a single leg, consisting of elephants'
+tusks or of sculptured marble. On three sides are placed the couches,
+covered with mattresses stuffed with flock or feathers, and provided
+with soft cushions for the left arm to rest upon. Sometimes, instead
+of the three separate couches, there was but one large couch shaped
+like a crescent, either extending round half the large circular table,
+or having more than one smaller table placed before it. Tables in
+other rooms were scarcely to be found, since, as has already been
+remarked, they were not required for reading or writing or for holding
+the various articles which we moderns place upon them. Besides the
+dining tables we should generally find only a sideboard placed in the
+dining-room for the display of articles of plate. This was either of
+ornamental wood or of marble with a sculptured stand, and was
+distinctly meant for show. In place of tables for supporting necessary
+objects we find tripods, either of bronze or marble, with a flat top
+and sometimes with a rim.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 51.--TRIPOD FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+Other articles of household furniture were chests and presses or
+wardrobes. It was almost a rule that in the hall, at the side or end,
+should stand a low heavy chest--occasionally more than one--sometimes
+made of iron, sometimes of wood bound with bronze and decorated with
+metal-work in relief. In this were contained supplies of money and
+other articles of value, and for this reason it was strongly locked
+and often fastened to the ground by a vertical rod of iron. Such a
+chest is still to be seen in its place in the House of the Vettii at
+Pompeii. Of portières, curtains and awnings enough has been said,
+except that they were also used for draping the less ornamental walls.
+Mirrors were apparently plentiful. No mention is made of such articles
+in glass, probably because the ancients had not yet learned to make
+that material sufficiently pure and true or to provide it with the
+proper foil or background. For the most part they were made of highly
+polished copper, bronze, or silver. The smaller ones were held in the
+hand, the handle and back parts being richly and often tastefully
+ornamented. There is an epigram extant which tells of a vindictive
+Roman dame who struck her maid to the ground with her mirror, because
+she detected a curl wrongly placed. Other mirrors were made so as to
+stand upon a support, and there is mention of some sufficiently large
+to show the full length of the body.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 52.--CHEST (STRONG-BOX).]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 53.--MIRRORS.]
+
+In the absence of gas or electricity or even kerosene, there was no
+better means of lighting a house than by oil-lamps. Even those were
+provided with no chimney. Naturally every effort would be made to
+obtain such oil as would produce the least smoke or smell, but
+doubtless the difficulty was never completely overcome. It is
+therefore natural to hear of the oil being mixed with perfume. In the
+less well-to-do houses there might be wax candles, in still poorer
+houses candles of tallow or even rush-lights, formed by long strips of
+rush or other fibrous plant thinly dipped in tallow. Generally
+speaking, however, the Roman house was lit by lamps filled with
+olive-oil. The commonest were made of terra-cotta, the better sorts of
+bronze or silver, often richly ornamented and sometimes very graceful.
+As typical specimens we may take those here illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 54.--LAMPS.]
+
+The little figure standing on the one lamp is holding a chain, to
+which is attached the probe for forcing up the wick or for clearing
+away the "mushrooms" that might form upon it. Lamps are made in all
+manner of fantastic shapes--ships, shoes, and other objects--and may
+burn either one wick or a considerable number, projecting from
+different nozzles. For the purpose of lighting a room they may either
+be placed upon the top of upright standards, four or five feet high
+and sometimes with shafts which could be adjusted in height like the
+modern reading-stand; or they may be hung from the ceiling by chains,
+after the manner of a chandelier, or held by a statue, or suspended
+from a stand shaped like a pillar or a tree, from whose branches they
+hang like fruit. For use in the street there were torches and also
+lanterns, which had a metal frame and were "glazed" with sheets of
+transparent horn, with bladder in the cheaper instances, or with
+transparent talc in the more costly.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--LAMP-HOLDER AS TREE.]
+
+As with the Greeks, a Roman house was lavish in the use and display of
+cups and plate in great diversity of shape and material. Glass vessels
+were numerous and, except for a perfectly pure white variety, were
+produced both at Rome and Alexandria with the most ingenious finish. A
+kind of porcelain was also known, but was very rare and highly valued.
+For the most part the poor used earthenware cups and plates or wooden
+trenchers. The rich sought after a lavish profusion of silver goblets
+studded with jewels and sometimes ventured on a cup of gold, although
+the use of a full gold service was by imperial ordinance restricted to
+the palace. There were drinking vessels, broad and shallow with richly
+embossed or _repoussé_ work, or deep with double handles and a foot,
+or otherwise diversified. There were all manner of plates and dishes
+of silver or of silver-gilt. There were graceful jugs and ladles and
+mixing-bowls. What we regard as most essential articles, but missing
+from a Roman table, are knives and forks. Table-forks, indeed, were
+unknown till a very modern date, but even knives were scarcely in use
+at Rome except by the professional carver at his stand. There were
+also heaters, in which water could be kept hot at table and drawn off
+by a small tap.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 56.--CUP FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 57.--KITCHEN UTENSILS.]
+
+If now we stepped into the kitchen we should find there practically
+every kind of utensil likely to be of use even for the modern cuisine.
+There is no need here to catalogue the kettles and pots and pans, the
+strainers and shapes and moulds, employed by Roman cooks. Perhaps it
+will suffice to present a number of them to the eye. In general,
+however, it deserves to be remarked that such a thing as a pail, a
+pitcher, a pair of scales, or a steelyard was not regarded in the
+Roman household as necessarily to be left a bare and unsightly thing
+because it was useful. The triumph of tin and ugliness was not yet.
+Such vessels as waterpots are still to be seen made of copper in
+graceful shapes, if one will notice the women fetching water on the
+Alban Hills. How far the domestic utensils resembled or differed from
+those still in use may be judged from the specimens illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 58.--PAIL FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+There existed no clocks of the modern kind, but the Romans do not
+appear to have suffered much practical inconvenience in respect of
+telling the time and meeting engagements. Sundials, both public and
+private, were numerous, but these were obviously of no use on gloomy
+days or at night. The instrument on which the Romans mainly relied was
+therefore the "water-clock," which, though by no means capable of our
+modern precision of minutes and even seconds could record time down to
+small fractions of the hour. The principle was that of the hour-glass,
+water taking the place of sand. From an upper vessel water slowly
+trickled through an orifice into a lower receptacle, which at this
+date was transparent and was marked with sections for the hour and its
+convenient fractions. In this way the time would be told by the mark
+to which the water had risen in the lower portion. The Romans were not
+unaware of the difference between the conditions of summer and winter
+flow of water, but it would appear that they had attained to proper
+methods of "regulating" their rather awkward time-pieces. It is as
+well to add that in the wealthier houses a slave was told off to watch
+the clock and to report the passing of the hours, as well as to summon
+any member of the family at the time arranged for an appointment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+We have seen in what sort of a home a Roman dwelt in town or country.
+Meanwhile it goes without saying that the non-Roman or non-Romanized
+populations of the empire were living in houses and amid furniture of
+their own special type--Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, or as the case might
+be. They were also living their lives after their own fashion in
+respect of dress, meals, occupations, and amusements.
+
+We may now look at the manner in which a typical Roman might spend an
+ordinary day in the metropolis, and endeavour to form some clear idea
+of the outward aspects of such a life. In the first instance our Roman
+shall be a man of the senatorial aristocracy, blessed with both high
+position and ample means, but one who, for the time being, holds no
+public office, whether as a governor, a military commander, a Minister
+of Roads or Water Supply, an officer of the Exchequer, or of Justice.
+Instead of referring to him awkwardly as "our citizen," we will call
+him Silius. The same name may be borne by a large number of other
+persons, for it is the name of an early Roman family which in course
+of time may have divided into several branches or "houses," answering
+to each other very much as the "Worcestershire" So-and-Sos may answer
+to the "Hampshire" So-and-Sos, except that the distinction in the
+Roman case is not territorial. Our Silius will therefore naturally
+bear further names to distinguish him. One will be the special
+appellation of his own "house" or branch, derived in all probability
+from its first distinguishing member. Let us assume, for instance,
+that he is a Silius Bassus. As, again, there are probably a number of
+other persons belonging to the same branch and entitled to the same
+two designations, he will possess a "front name," answering to our
+"Christian" name, and he shall be called for our purposes Quintus
+Silius Bassus. It is the middle name of the three which is regarded as
+_the_ name, but when there is no danger of mistake our friend may be
+addressed or written of as either Silius or Bassus. In private life
+among his intimates he prefers to be called Quintus. The individual
+name, family name, and branch name were frequently followed by others,
+but at least these three are regularly owned by any Roman with claims
+to old descent. To us, however, he will be Silius.
+
+He lives, let us say, in one of the larger town-houses on the Caelian
+Hill, looking across the narrow valley towards the Palatine, somewhere
+near the modern church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It is before day-break
+that the loud bell has awakened the household slaves and set them to
+their work. In the road below and away in the city the carts, which
+are forbidden during the full daytime, are still rumbling with their
+loads of produce or building-material. All night long the less happily
+housed inhabitants have tolerated this noise, together with the
+droning and grating of the mills grinding the corn in the bakers'
+shops. It is however, now approaching dawn, and imperial Rome, which
+goes to sleep late, wakes early. No few Romans, even of the highest
+classes, have already been up for an hour or two, reading by
+lamplight, writing letters or dictating them to an amanuensis, who
+takes them down rapidly in a form of shorthand. Out in the streets the
+boys are on their way to school, the poorer ones carrying their own
+lanterns--at least if it is the time of year when the days are
+short--their writing-tablets and their reading-books, probably Virgil
+and Horace, who were standard authors serving in the Roman schools as
+Shakespeare and Pope do in our own. Boys of well-to-do parents are
+accompanied by an elderly slave of stern demeanour. In the distance
+are heard the sounds of the first hammers and the cries of the venders
+of early breakfasts.
+
+Silius rises, and with the help of a valet, who is of course a slave,
+dresses himself. His household barber--another slave--shaves him,
+trims his hair in the approved style and cleans his nails. At this
+date clean shaving was the rule. Every emperor from Augustus to
+Hadrian, fifty years later than Nero, was clean shaven, and the
+fashion set by emperors was followed as closely by the contemporary
+Roman as "imperials" and "ram's-horn" moustaches have been imitated in
+later times. The hair was kept carefully neither too long nor too
+short. Only in time of mourning was it permitted to grow to a
+negligent length. By preference it should be somewhat wavy, but there
+was no parting. Dandies had their hair curled with the tongs and
+perfumed, so at to smell "all over the theatre." If they were bald,
+they wore a wig; sometimes they actually had imitation hair painted
+across the bare part of the scalp. If nature had given them the wrong
+colour, they corrected it with dye. If the exposed parts of the body
+were hairy, they plucked out the growth with tweezers or used
+depilatories. But these were the dandies, and we need not assume
+Silius to have been one of them.
+
+It is to be a day of some formality, and Silius will therefore attire
+himself accordingly. In other words, he will put on the typical Roman
+garb. Of whatever else this may consist, it will comprise a band round
+the middle, a woolen--less often a linen--tunic with or without
+sleeves, and over this the voluminous woollen toga; on the feet will
+be shoes. Of further underwear a Roman used as much or as little as he
+chose. If, like the Emperor Augustus, he felt the cold, he might
+indulge in several shirts and also short hose. Such practices,
+however, were commonly regarded as coddling. Breeches were worn at
+this date only by soldiers serving in northern countries, where they
+had picked up the custom from the "barbarians." Mufflers were used by
+persons with a tender throat.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 59.--PATRICIAN SHOES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 60.--ROMAN IN THE TOGA.]
+
+Inasmuch as Silius is of senatorial rank, his tunic, which will show
+through the open front of his toga, bears the broad inwoven stripe of
+purple running down the middle, and his shoes--which otherwise might
+be of various colours, such as yellow with red laces--are black,
+fastened by cross straps running somewhat high up the leg and bearing
+a crescent of silver or ivory upon the instep. The stripe, the shoes,
+and the crescent mark his senatorial standing. That which marks him as
+a citizen at all is the toga--an article of dress forbidden to any
+inhabitant of the empire who could not call himself in the full sense
+"_Civis Romanus_." It was a cumbrous and heavy garment (when spread
+out it formed an oval of about 15 feet by 12), with which no man who
+wanted to work or travel or simply to be comfortable would hamper
+himself. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, but, if he ever wore a toga at
+all, it would only be when he desired to bring his citizenship home to
+a Roman court, and we should probably be quite mistaken in imagining
+that he travelled about with a toga in his baggage, or, as the
+Authorised Version calls it, his "carriage." When out of town, in his
+country-seat or when amusing himself at home in the city, especially
+in the warmer weather, the Roman cast off his toga with a sigh of
+relief. In the provincial towns of Italy, though theoretically as much
+in demand, this blanket-like covering was little used by any man
+except on the most formal public and religious occasions, and, as a
+poet says, "when dead," for then the toga was indispensable.
+Nevertheless at Rome it was the necessary dress for all men of
+position when appearing in any sort of public life. The Roman emperors
+insisted upon its use in all places of public amusement--the theatre,
+circus, or amphitheatre. In a court of justice the president certainly
+could not "see" a pleader unless he wore it. You cannot be present at
+a formal social ceremony--a wedding, a betrothal, a coming of age, a
+levée--without this outward and visible mark of respect. Nor was it
+sufficient that you should wear it. It must be properly draped and
+must fall to the right point, which, in front, was aslant over the
+lower part of the shin, while behind it fell to the heel. Your
+wardrobe slave must see that it has been kept properly folded and
+pressed. If you claimed to be a gentleman, and were not in mourning
+and not an official, it must be simply and scrupulously white. Poorer
+people might wear a toga of a duller or dark-grey wool, which would
+better conceal a stain and require to go less frequently to the
+fuller. The same dull hue was also worn in time of mourning, or as an
+ostentatious token of a gloomy spirit, as for example, when one of
+your friends was in peril of condemnation in the law-courts, or when
+you fancied that some serious injustice was being done or threatened
+to your social order. The only person privileged to wear a toga of
+true purple was the emperor. On the whole the Roman dress was very
+simple; far more so than in mediaeval times or the days of Elizabeth
+or Charles II. Velvet and satin were not yet known, furs hardly so,
+and there were very few changes of fashion.
+
+Silius will also wear at least one large signet-ring as well as his
+plain ring of gold, but he will leave it to the dandies to load their
+fingers with half-a-dozen and to keep separate sets for winter and
+summer. When Quintilian, in his _Training of the Orator_, touches upon
+the subject of rings, he recommends as requisite for good form that
+"the hand should not be covered with rings, and especially should they
+not come below the middle joint." A handkerchief will be carried, but
+only to wipe away perspiration.
+
+Having finished his dressing, he may choose this time for taking his
+morning "snack," corresponding to the coffee and roll or tea and
+bread-and-butter of modern times. It is but a light repast of wine or
+milk, with bread and honey, or a taste of olives or cheese or possibly
+an egg. Schoolboys seem to have often eaten a sort of suet dumpling.
+In the strength of this meat our friend will go till mid-day.
+
+As he has no very early call to the imperial court upon the Palatine,
+he will now proceed to hold his own reception of morning callers. For
+this purpose he will come out to the spacious hall, which has been
+already described as the most essential part of a Roman house, and
+will there establish himself in the opening of the recess or bay which
+has also been described as a kind of reception-room or parlour. Before
+he arrives, the hall has been swept and polished by the brooms and
+sponges of the slaves, under the direction of a foreman. The number of
+Silius' household slaves is very great. Very many Romans of course
+owned no slave at all; many had but one or two; but it was considered
+that a person of anything like respectable means could hardly do with
+less than ten. Silius will probably employ several times that number.
+We have mentioned the valet, the barber, the wardrobe-keeper, and the
+amanuensis. We must add to these the cooks, the pastry-makers, the
+waiters, the room-servants, the doorkeeper, the footmen, messengers,
+litter-carriers, the butler and pantrymen. Some of the superior slaves
+have drudges of their own. The librarian, accountant, and steward are
+all slaves. Even the family physician or architect may be a slave.
+Many of these men may be persons of education and talent. Their one
+deficiency is that they are not free. Many of them are in colour and
+feature indistinguishable from the people outside; most, however, show
+their origin in their foreign physique. They are Phrygians,
+Cappadocians, Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Numidians,
+Spaniards, Gauls, Germans, Thracians, and Greeks. Their master either
+inherited them from his father or friends, or he bought them in the
+slave-market. For whatever reason they became slaves--whether as
+prisoners of war, by birth, through debt, through condemnation for
+some offence, by kidnapping like that practised by the Corsairs or the
+modern Arabs, or through being sold by their own parents--they had
+become the Property of slave-dealers, who picked them up in the depots
+on the Black Sea or at Delos or Alexandria, and brought them to Rome.
+There they were stripped and exposed for sale, the choicer specimens
+in a select part of a fashionable shop, the more ordinary types in the
+auction mart, where they were placed upon a stand or stone bench, were
+labelled with their age, nationality, defects, and accomplishments,
+and were sold either under a guarantee or without one. For an ordinary
+room-slave Silius, or his agent for him, has paid perhaps £20; for a
+servant of more special skill, such as a particularly soft-handed
+barber, perhaps £50; the price of a muleteer who was "too deaf to
+overhear private conversation in a carriage" might thereby be enhanced
+to £150; for a slave with educational or artistic accomplishments--a
+good reader, reciter, secretary, musician, or actor--he may have paid
+some hundreds. If he is a man of morbid tastes, and affects a
+particular kind of dainty favourite, he may go as far as a thousand.
+Curly-haired pages and amusing dwarfs are generally dear. It is the
+business of the house-steward to see that each slave receives his
+daily or monthly rations of corn, a trifling sum of money for other
+needs, and perhaps an allowance of thin wine. Many a slave also
+received a considerable number of "tips" from guests, as well as
+perquisites and presents from his master. With economy he was thus
+enabled to purchase his own freedom. The master might also in some
+cases provide the slave with the essentials of his dress, to wit, a
+coarse tunic, a rough cloak, and a pair of shoes or sabots.
+
+Over all these persons, so long as they are slaves, the owner
+possesses absolute power. He can box their ears, or condemn them to
+hard labour--making them, for instance, work in chains upon his lands
+in the country or in a sort of prison-factory--or he may punish them
+with blows of the rod, the lash, or the knout; he can brand them upon
+the forehead if they are thieves or runaways, or in the end, if they
+prove irreclaimable, he can crucify them. Branded slaves who
+afterwards became free and rich sought to conceal the marks by wearing
+patches. There were inevitably some instances in which masters proved
+so intolerably cruel that their slaves were driven to murder them. To
+prevent any conspiracy of the kind the law ordained that, when a
+master was so killed, the slaves should one and all be put to death.
+It is gratifying to learn that in the reign of Nero the whole populace
+sided with a body of slaves in this predicament and prevented the law
+from being carried out.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 61.--SLAVE IN FETTERS.]
+
+But, being a typical Roman, Silius has a strong sense of justice;
+moreover he values public opinion as well as his own. Also, being a
+typical Roman, he behaves with strictness and for the most part with a
+distinct haughtiness of manner, graduated, no doubt, according to the
+standing of the individual. When, as was often the case, he did not
+even know the name of a slave whom he came across in hall or
+peristyle, he frequently addressed him as "Sirrah" or "Sir" or "You,
+Sir." To the waiter at table and for ordinary commands, where the
+master affects no ceremony, the commonest term is "boy," precisely as
+that word is used in the East or _garçon_ in French. If Silius knew
+the actual appellation assigned to the slave when bought and was
+disposed to be kindly, he accosted him by it, calling him "Syrian," or
+"Thracian," or "Croesus," or by his proper Greek or Egyptian name. The
+slave, unlike the Roman citizen, owned but one name, and the shorter
+the better.
+
+We meet, as is only natural, with many examples of great trust and
+confidence between master and slave, and, in the case of the superior
+types, no few instances of great kindness and consideration. Pliny
+speaks of his "long friendship" for a cultivated slave named Zosimus,
+whom he set free, and whom, because he was liable to consumption, he
+sent to Egypt and the Riviera for the good of his health. A faithful
+or very useful slave could make tolerably sure of being some day
+emancipated with all due form and ceremony, either during the master's
+lifetime or by his last will and testament. In such a case he became a
+Roman citizen of the rank known as "freedman," and after the second
+generation there was nothing to prevent his descendants from aspiring
+to any position open to any other Roman. Sometimes even his son
+attained to public office. On attaining his citizenship the freedman
+became entitled to "the three names," and it was the rule that he
+should adopt the family name of his master. A freedman of Silius is
+himself a Silius. Also by preference he will be a Quintus Silius; but
+he will not be a Bassus. The third name will still, for his own
+lifetime, be such as to mark him for what he is. Moreover, though
+free, he is himself still bound to pay a dutiful respect to his former
+master's family, but beyond this he is at his own disposal and in
+possession of every right in regard to person and property. Many such
+men were extremely skilful in trade and made themselves rich enough to
+vie with the Roman aristocracy in outward show. The freedmen of the
+Emperor, who occupied positions of influence at court as chamberlains,
+stewards, private secretaries and the like, and were the powers behind
+the throne, became enormously wealthy. Their houses were adorned with
+the finest marble columns, the most richly gilded ceilings, and the
+most costly works of art; the choicest fruits ripened under glass in
+their forcing-houses, and, when they died, their monuments were among
+the most sumptuous by the side of the great highways. "Freedmen's
+wealth" became a proverb. They were occasionally even appointed to
+those minor governorships held by "agents" of Caesar, and the Felix of
+the New Testament was himself a freedman of Nero's predecessor and
+brother to one of the richest and most influential of the class. In
+the provincial cities of Italy freedmen, though they were not
+themselves eligible for the ordinary offices, might in return for acts
+of munificence be admitted to what may be called an inferior grade of
+knighthood--a sort of C.M.G.--styled the "Order of Augustus." They
+thus became notables of their own town in a way of which they were
+sufficiently proud, as the Pompeian inscriptions show. It was part of
+the shrewdness of Augustus to kill two birds with one stone, by
+erecting a provincial order directly attached to the cult of the
+Emperor, and by encouraging the local self-made man to spend money
+liberally upon the embellishment and comfort of his own municipality.
+
+Well, Silius, meeting with or escorted by various slave attendants,
+passes from the inner rooms through the passage into the hall and
+finds waiting for him a throng of visitors known as his "clients" or
+dependants. The position of these persons is somewhat remarkable. They
+are commonly free Roman citizens of the "genteel" middle class, who
+openly admit that they depend for the bulk of their living upon the
+patronage of the noble or the rich. The custom arose from a very old
+condition of things, under which certain classes of citizens, not
+being entitled to appear in the law-courts or in public business on
+their own behalf, put themselves under the protection of a person so
+entitled, who, in return for certain acts of support and deference,
+appeared as their advocate and champion. At a later time, even though
+their rights had become complete, men might still seek counsel, legal
+advice, and advocacy from a person of influence and eloquence. In
+return they paid him the honour of escort in the streets, supported
+him in his candidature for public office, applauded his speeches, and
+exercised on his behalf such influence as they possessed. The standing
+of a prominent Roman was apt to be measured by the number and quality
+of the persons thus attaching themselves to him. If next it is
+remembered that very few money-making occupations were looked upon
+with favour by the Romans, and that the higher orders were for the
+most part very rich, it will be obvious that there would grow up the
+custom of the patron making liberal presents to his dependants--money
+gifts, or gifts of small properties and of useful articles--as well as
+of inviting them to his table. The clients themselves brought little
+presents on the patron's birthday or some other special occasion, but
+these were merely the sprats to catch the whale. It gradually resulted
+that the patronage extended by the aristocrat or plutocrat was mainly
+one of a direct pecuniary nature. As in other cases where a dubious
+custom develops gradually, there ceased to be any shame in this
+relation. Many members of the middle class, impoverished and earning
+practically no other income, lived the life of genteel paupers. They
+would attend the morning reception of a grandee, either bringing with
+them, or causing a slave to bring, a small basket, or even a portable
+cooking-stove, in which they carried off doles of food distributed
+through his servants. The scene must have borne no slight resemblance
+to that of the charity "soup-kitchen." In process of time, however,
+this practice became inconvenient for all parties, and most of the
+patrons compounded for such doles by making a fixed payment, still
+called the "little basket," amounting perhaps to a shilling in modern
+weight of money for each day of polite attention on the part of a
+recognised "client." If a client was acknowledged by more than one
+patron, so much the better for the amount of his "little baskets." In
+some cases the dole was paid to each visitor at the morning call; in
+others only after the work of the patron's day was done and when he
+had gone to the elaborate bath which preceded his dinner in the later
+part of the afternoon. By this means the complimentary escort duty was
+secured until that time.
+
+Among the dependants were nearly all the genteel unemployed of Rome,
+including the Grub-Street men of letters, who in those days could make
+little, if anything, by their books, and who therefore sought the same
+kind of assistance as did our own literary rank and file in the early
+eighteenth century. When we read the authors of the period we are
+inevitably reminded of Samuel Johnson waiting in the ante-chamber of
+Lord Chesterfield, and of the flattering dedications of books which
+were so liberally or illiberally paid for by the recipients of such
+compliments. From his little flat, often a single room and practically
+an attic, in the tenement-house, the client would emerge before
+daylight, dressed _de rigueur_ in his toga, which was often sadly worn
+and thin. He would make his way for a mile or more through the carts,
+the cattle, an the schoolboys, sometimes in fine weather, sometimes
+through the rain and cold, when the streets were muddy and slippery,
+and would climb the hill to his patron's door, joined perhaps on the
+way by other citizens bent on the same errand. Gathering in that open
+space or vestibule which has already been described, they waited for
+the janitor to open the door. If the doorkeeper of Silius was like the
+generality of his kind, he would take a flunkey's pleasure in keeping
+them waiting, and also, except in the case of those who had been wise
+enough to ease his manners with a "tip," or who were known to be in
+special favour, a flunkey's pleasure in exhibiting his contempt.
+Brought into the hall, they stood or sat about and conversed until
+Silius appeared. Then, according to an established order of
+precedence--which apparently depended on seniority of acquaintance,
+while again it might be affected by a _douceur_--they were presented
+one by one to the patron.
+
+One must not expect a Roman noble to deign always to remember the
+names of humble persons--sometimes he actually did not--and therefore
+a slave, known as the "name-caller," announces each client in turn.
+The client says, "Good morning, Sir," and Silius replies, "Good
+morning, So-and-So," or "Good morning, Sir," or simply "Good morning."
+There is a shaking of hands, or, if the patron is a gracious gentleman
+and the client is of old standing, Silius may kiss him on the cheek
+and offer some polite inquiry or remark. A very haughty person might
+merely offer his hand to be kissed and perhaps not open his mouth at
+all, even if he condescended to look at you. But these habits were
+hardly so characteristic of our times as of a somewhat later date.
+
+The reception over, the client obtains information as to the movements
+of his patron during the day. On the present occasion it appears that
+Silius himself is to proceed at once to pay his own morning homage to
+a still higher patron, His Highness Nero, who is at home on the
+Palatine Hill, and whose levée calls imperatively for the attendance
+of certain members of the aristocracy. At the palace there exists a
+roll of persons known as the "friends of Caesar"--a roll which depends
+solely on the favour of the emperor. Naturally it contains the names
+of a number of the highest senators and of the chief officers of the
+state, but a place in it is not gained simply by such positions, nor
+is it restricted to them. There may be a few knights and others on the
+list. To be removed from the roll is to be socially a marked man and a
+person to be avoided. Silius is, at least for the time being, one of
+the "friends." Nero is not yet in sufficient financial straits to
+require that Silius should be squeezed or sacrificed, nor has he
+chosen to take offence at something which a spy or informer has
+reported of him. Our friend therefore enjoys the _entrée_ to the
+palace, and to the palace he goes.
+
+It is a clear fine morning, and he has plenty of time. He therefore
+perhaps elects to go on foot. Learning this, a number of his clients
+form a procession. Some are honoured by walking at his side, a few go
+in advance and so clear a way through the crowd--which is already
+moving at the top of the Sacred Way--to the point where you turn off
+on the left and ascend to the entrance to the Palatine Hill. Some of
+the clients will walk behind, where also will be a lackey or two in
+waiting. On the way Silius may perhaps meet with Manlius, another
+noble, whom he probably greets with "Good morning, brother," and a
+kiss upon the cheek. This kissing, it may be remarked, ultimately
+became an intolerable nuisance, particularly among the middle classes,
+and the epigrammatist, after complaining of the cold noses and wet
+osculations of the winter-time, pleads to have the business at least
+put off till the month of April.
+
+When it is a bad or sloppy day, Silius will decide to go in his
+litter, or Roman form of the palanquin. Being a senator he may use
+this conveyance, otherwise at this date he could not. There are also
+sedan chairs, but as yet there exists a prejudice against these as
+being somewhat effeminate. At this decision four, six, or eight tall
+fellows, slaves from Cappadocia or Germany by preference, clad in
+crimson liveries, thrust two long poles through the rings or the
+coloured leather straps which are to be found on the sides of the
+litter, and place these poles upon their shoulders. To all intents and
+purposes the litter is a couch with an arched roof above it, of the
+shape here indicated, but covered with cushions, which are often
+stuffed with down. Its woodwork is decorated with silver and ivory.
+The litter may either be carried open on all sides, or with curtains
+of coloured stuffs partially drawn, or it may be enclosed by windows
+of talc or glass. In the days when litters were in promiscuous use,
+persons who did not possess one, or perhaps the slaves to bear it,
+might hire such a vehicle from the "rank," after the modern manner of
+hiring a cab. In this receptacle Silius is carried amid the same
+procession as before.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 62.--LITTER.]
+
+He will wear nothing on his head. On a journey, or when the sun was
+particularly strong in the roofless theatre or circus, he might put on
+a broad-brimmed hat, very much like that of the modern Italian priest.
+Instead of the hat it was common, when the weather so required, either
+to draw a fold of the toga over the head or to wear a hood closely
+resembling the monkish cowl. This might be either attached to a cloak
+or made separately for the purpose. The hood was also employed when,
+particularly in the evening, the wearer had either public or private
+reasons for concealing his identity as he moved abroad, commonly
+issuing in such cases from his side door. But on an ordinary day, and
+when attending a ceremony, the Roman head is bare. So also are the
+hands, for gloves are not yet in use.
+
+On arriving at the palace--outside which there is generally standing a
+crowd of the curious or the snobs--Silius passes through the guards,
+Roman or German, at the doors, is taken in hand by the court slave or
+freedman who acts as usher, and himself goes through a process similar
+to that which his own clients have undergone. There are times, and
+just now they may be frequent, at which he will have to submit to a
+search, for fear he may be carrying a concealed weapon. If he is high
+in favour or position, he belongs to the batch of "first admittance,"
+or first _entrée_. If not, he must be contented with "second." He will
+find that His Highness Nero, exacting as he may be concerning the
+costume of his callers, will not trouble to put on his own toga, as a
+more respectable emperor would have done, but will appear in anything
+he pleases, frequently a tunic or a wrapper of silk, relieved only by
+a handkerchief round the neck. Nor will his High Mightiness always
+condescend to lace his shoes. If he is in a good humour, he may bestow
+the kiss, remember your name, and call you "my very dear Silius." If
+he has been accustomed to do so, but omits the warmer greeting on this
+occasion, it may be taken as boding you no good. It is, however, very
+probable that in this year 64 he will refuse the kiss to almost every
+one of the senators, for he has already come openly to detest them. It
+will suffice if he so much as offers his hand to be saluted. Caligula,
+being a "god," had sometimes offered his foot, but only that
+crack-brained emperor had so far attempted this enormity.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 63.--READING A PROCLAMATION. (Pompeii.) The
+writing is upon a long board in front of equestrian statues.]
+
+The day happens to be one on which the emperor has nothing further to
+say and requires no advice. Silius is therefore free to go his ways.
+There is also no meeting of the Senate, no festival, chariot-race, or
+show of gladiators. He has therefore only the ordinary day before him,
+and he proceeds, as practically every other caller does, towards the
+Forum and its neighbourhood. If on his way he meets with a great
+public official--a consul or a praetor--proceeding on duty, he
+politely makes way, and, if his head chances to be covered, he
+uncovers it. He loyally recognises the claims of that toga edged with
+purple, and of those lictors walking in front with the symbolic
+bundles of rods containing the symbolic axe. Whatever he may think of
+the men, he pays all respect to their office. The Forum is now full,
+the banking and money-changing are all aglow in the Basilica Aemilia,
+the loungers are playing their games of "three men in a row," or
+perhaps their backgammon, on the pavement of the outer colonnade of
+the Basilica of Julius. Groups are reading and discussing the columns
+of the "Daily News," which are either posted up or have been purchased
+from the professional copiers. This is an official, and therefore a
+censored, publication in clear manuscript, containing proclamations,
+resolutions of the senate, bulletins of the court, results of trials,
+the births and deaths registered in the city, announcements of public
+shows and sports, striking events, such as fires, earthquakes, and
+portents, and occasional advertisements. Silius may perhaps stop and
+read; more probably his slaves regularly purchase a copy for his
+private use. Criers are meanwhile bawling to you to come and see the
+Asiatic giant, or the mermen, or the two-headed baby. The old sailor
+who has been wrecked, or pretends to have been, is walking about with
+a harrowing picture of the scene painted on a board and is soliciting
+alms. The busybody is gossiping among little knots of people and
+telling, manufacturing, or magnifying the latest scandal, or the
+latest news from the frontier, from Antioch, from the racing-stables,
+the law-courts, or the palace. Perhaps Silius has a little banking
+business to do, and he enters the Basilica to give instructions as to
+sending a draft to Athens or Alexandria in favour of some friend or
+relative there who is in want of money, or whom he has instructed to
+make artistic or other purchases. In about seven days his
+correspondent will obtain the cash through a banker at Athens, or in
+about twelve or fourteen days at Alexandria.
+
+Perhaps, however, one of his clients has asked for his help in a case
+at law, which is being tried either over the way in the Basilica of
+Julius, or round the corner to the right in the Forum of Augustus. If
+a man of study and eloquence, he may have consented to act as
+pleader--taking no fee, because he is merely performing a patron's
+duty. _Noblesse oblige_. In the year 64 a pleader who has taken up a
+cause for some one else than a dependant is allowed by law to charge a
+fee not exceeding £100, but the law says nothing, or at least can do
+no thing, as to the liberal presents which are offered him under some
+other pretext. If he is not to plead, Silius may at any rate have been
+requested to lend moral support by seating himself beside the favoured
+party and perhaps appearing as a witness to character. If he pleads in
+any complicated or technical case, it will generally be after careful
+consultation with an attorney or professional lawyer. Round the apse
+or recess in which the court sits there will stand a ring of
+interested spectators, and among them will be distributed as many as
+possible of his own dependants, who will religiously applaud his
+finely-turned periods and his witticisms. There was generally little
+chance of missing a Roman forensic witticism; its character was for
+the most part highly elaborate and its edge broad. In a later
+generation it was not rare for chance bystanders to be hired on the
+spot as _claqueurs_. The court itself consists of a large body of
+jurymen of position empanelled, not for the particular case, but for
+particular kinds of cases and for a period of time, and over these
+there presides one of the public officials annually elected for the
+judicial administration of Rome. The president sees that the
+proceedings are in accordance with the law, but the verdict is given
+entirely by the jury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 64.--SEALED RECEIPT OF JUCUNDUS. Beside each seal
+is a signature; the writing in the hollow leaf is a summary of the
+receipt, which is itself shut between the two leaves bound with
+string.]
+
+If there is no need for Silius to attend such a court, he may find
+many other demands upon his time. Among Romans of the higher classes
+etiquette was extremely exacting. Contemporaries themselves complain
+that social "duties" or "obligations" frittered away a large
+proportion of their day, and that they were kept perpetually "busy
+doing nothing." One man or woman is making a will, and asks you to be
+one of the witnesses to the signature and sealing; another is
+betrothing a son or daughter, and invites you to be present and attest
+the ceremony; another has a son of fifteen or sixteen concerning whom
+it is decided that he has now come of age, must put on the white toga
+of a man in the place of the purple-edged toga of the boy, and be led
+into the Forum in token of his new freedom; you must not omit the
+courtesy of attending. Another desires you to go with him before the
+magistrate while he emancipates a slave. Worst of all, perhaps, is the
+man who has written a poem or declamation, and who proposes to read
+it, or to get a professional elocutionist to read it, to his
+acquaintances. He has either hired a hall or borrowed a convenient
+room from a friend, and you are kindly invited to be present. We learn
+that these amateur authors did not permit their victims to forget the
+engagement, but sent them more than one reminder. At the reading or
+recitation it was your duty to applaud frequently, to throw
+complimentary kisses, and to exclaim in Greek, "excellent," "capital,"
+"clever," "unapproachable," or "again," very much as we say "encore"
+in what we think is French, or "bravo" in Italian. The native Latin
+terms most commonly in use may perhaps be translated as "well said,"
+"perfect," "good indeed," "divine," "a shrewd hit." On one occasion a
+certain Priscus was present at the reading of a poem, and it happened
+to open with an invocation to a Priscus. No sooner had the author
+begun, "Priscus, thou bidst me tell ..." than the man of that name
+called out "Indeed I don't." This "caused laughter" and "cast a chill
+over the proceedings." Pliny apologises for the man, as being a little
+light in the head, but he is manifestly tickled all the same. It is
+scarcely a wonder that the Roman was glad to escape from all these
+formalities of "toga'd Rome" to his country seat, or to the freer life
+of Baiae.
+
+His business in the Forum accomplished, Silius returns to his house on
+the Caelian. As, on the slope of the Sacred Way, he passes the rich
+shops of the jewellers, florists, and perfumers, he may be tempted to
+make some purchase, which the attendant slaves will carry to the
+house. Arrived there, he will take his luncheon, a fairly substantial
+though by no means a heavy meal. He may perhaps be a married man. If
+nothing has yet been said about his wife, it is because in the higher
+Roman households the husband and wife owned their separate property,
+lived their own lives, and were almost equally free to spend their
+time in their own way, since marriage at this date was rather a
+contract than a union. If, however, he is a benedict, it is probable
+that at this meal the family will meet, no outside company being
+present. Silius himself reclines on a couch, the children are seated,
+and the wife may adopt either attitude. After this our friend will
+probably take a siesta, precisely as he might take it in Italy to-day.
+The practice was indeed not universal; nevertheless it was general. He
+will not go to bed, but will sleep awhile upon a couch in some quiet
+and darkened room. If he cannot sleep, or when he wakes, he may
+perhaps read or be read to. Where he will spend the afternoon till the
+bath and dinner is a matter of his own choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND DINNER
+
+We will suppose that Silius is specially inclined for action and
+society. The afternoon is growing chilly, and, as he has no further
+ceremonial to undergo, he will probably throw over his toga a richly
+coloured mantle--violet, amethyst, or scarlet--to be fastened on the
+shoulder with a buckle or brooch. In very cold weather, especially
+when travelling, Romans of all classes would wear a thick cloak,
+somewhat like the cape worn by a modern policeman or cab-driver, or
+perhaps more closely resembling the _poncho_ of Spanish America. This,
+which consisted of some strong and as nearly as possible waterproof
+stuff, had no opening at the sides, but was put on by passing the head
+through a hole. To-day Silius puts on the coloured mantle, and gets
+himself carried across the Forum, through the gap between the
+Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, and into the Campus Martius, somewhere
+about the modern Piazza Venezia and the entrance to the Corso. Here he
+may descend from his litter, and purchase a statuette, or a vessel of
+Corinthian bronze or silver, or an attractive table with the true
+peacock markings, or a handsome slave. While doing so, he may find
+amusement in observing a pretender who "shops" but does not buy,
+wearying the dealers by pricing and disparaging the costliest tables
+and most artistic vessels, and ending with the purchase of a penny pot
+which he carries home himself. He may then stroll along under the
+pictured and statued colonnades, perhaps offering the cold shoulder to
+various impecunious toadies who are there on the look-out for an
+invitation to dinner, perhaps succumbing to their blandishments. His
+lackeys are of course in attendance, and clients are still about him.
+In passing he is greeted by some person who is hanging officiously
+round a litter containing an elderly lady or gentleman, and whom he
+recognises as what was called an "angler"--that is to say, one whose
+business is to wheedle gifts or a legacy out of childless people of
+wealth. This was a regular profession and extremely lucrative when
+well managed.
+
+A little further, and he stops to look at the young men curvetting and
+wheeling on horseback over the riding-ground. Away in the distance
+others are swimming backwards and forwards across the Tiber. Or he
+steps into an enclosure, commonly connected with the baths, where not
+only young men, but their seniors, even of high rank, are engaged in
+various exercises. Some of them are stripped and are playing a game
+with a small hard ball, which is struck or thrown, and smartly caught
+or struck onward by right or left hand equally, from the three corners
+of a triangle. Some are playing with a larger and lighter article,
+something like a football stuffed with feathers, which seems to have
+been punched about by the fist in a way calling for considerable
+judgment and practice. Others are jumping with dumb-bells in each
+hand, or they are running races, or hurling a disk of stone, or
+wrestling. Yet others are practising all manner of sword strokes with
+a heavy wooden weapon against a dummy post, merely to exercise
+themselves keep down their flesh.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 65.--DISCUS-THROWER.]
+
+[Illustration FIG 66.--STABIAN BATHS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Probably Silius will himself take a hand in the three-cornered game,
+unless he possesses a private court at home and is intending to take
+his bath there instead of in one of the larger public or semi-public
+establishments. Whether he bathes in the baths of Agrippa at the back
+of the Pantheon, or in those of Nero, or in his own, the process will
+be much the same. The arrangements are practically uniform however
+great may be the differences of sumptuousness and spaciousness. We
+have not indeed yet reached the times of those huge and amazing
+constructions of Caracalla and Diocletian, but there is no reason to
+doubt that the existing public baths were already of much
+magnificence. Regularly we should first find a dressing-room with
+painted walls, a mosaic floor, and glass windows, and provided with
+seats, as well as with niches in the walls to hold the clothes.
+Adjoining this is a "cold" room, containing a large swimming-bath.
+Next comes a "warm" chamber, with water heated to a sufficient and
+reasonable degree, and with the general temperature raised either by
+braziers or by warm air circulating under the floor or in the walls.
+After this a "hot" room, with both a hot swimming-bath and a smaller
+marble bath of the common domestic shape--though of much larger
+size--provided with a shower, or rather with a cold jet. Lastly there
+is a domelike sweating-chamber filled with an intense dry heat. The
+public baths built by Nero were particularly notorious for their high
+temperature. After the bath the body was rubbed over with perfumed
+oil, in order to close the pores against the cold, and then was
+scraped down with the hollow sickle-shaped instrument of bronze or
+iron depicted in the illustration. The other articles there shown are
+a vessel containing the oil, and a flat dish into which to pour it for
+use. These, together with linen towels, were brought by your own
+slave.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 67.--BATHING IMPLEMENTS.]
+
+Silius is now carried home, and as it is approaching four o'clock, he
+dresses, or is dressed, for dinner. His toga and senatorial
+walking-shoes are thrown off, and he puts on light slippers or
+house-shoes, and dons what is called a "confection" of light and easy
+material--such as a kind of half-silk--and of bright and festive
+colours. Some ostentatious diners changed this dress several times
+during the course of a protracted banquet, giving the company the
+benefit of as great a variety of "confections" as is afforded by a
+modern star actress in the theatre. If the days are long and it is
+suitable weather, he may perhaps dine in the garden at the back of the
+peristyle. Otherwise in the dining-room the three couches mentioned in
+a previous chapter (FIG. 48) are arranged along three sides of a
+rectangle. Their metal and ivory work gleams brightly, and they are
+resplendent with their embroidered cushions. In the middle of the
+enclosed space shines the polished table, whether square or round. The
+sideboard is laden with costly plate; the lamps are, or soon will be,
+alight upon their tall shafts or hanging from their chains; the stand
+for the carver is awaiting its load. The dining-room steward and his
+subordinates are all in readiness.
+
+At the right time the guests arrive, endeavouring to show neither
+undue eagerness by being too early nor rudeness by being too late.
+Each brings his own footman to take off his shoes and to stand behind
+him, in case he may be needed, though not to wait at table, for this
+service belongs to the slaves of the house. After they have been
+received by the host, the "name-caller" leads them to their places,
+according to such order of precedence as Silius chooses to
+pre-arrange. The regular number of guests for the three couches will
+be nine--the number of the Muses--or three to each couch. To squeeze
+in more was regarded as bad form. If the crescent couch and the large
+round table are to be used the number may be either six or seven. The
+position of Silius himself as host will be regularly that marked H on
+the plan, while the position of honour--occupied by a consul if one be
+present--will be that marked C.
+
+Each guest throws himself as easily as possible into a reclining
+attitude, resting his left elbow on the cushion provided for the
+purpose. He has brought his own napkin, marked with a purple stripe if
+he is a senator, and this he tucks, in a manner still sufficiently
+familiar on the continent of Europe, into upper part of his attire.
+Bread is cut and ready, but there are no knives and forks, although
+there is a spoon of dessert size and also one with a smaller bowl and
+a point at the other end of the handle for the purpose of picking out
+the luscious snail or the succulent shell-fish. The dainty use of
+fingers well inured to heat was necessarily a point of Roman domestic
+training.
+
+There have been many--perhaps too many--descriptions of a Roman
+dinner, but the tendency, especially with the novelist, is to
+exaggerate grossly the average costliness and gluttony of such
+banquets. Undoubtedly there were such things as "freak" dinners almost
+as absurd as those of the inferior order of American plutocrat.
+Undoubtedly also there was often a detestable ostentation of reckless
+expenditure. But we are endeavouring to obtain a fair view of
+representative Roman practice, and must put out of our minds all such
+vagaries as those of the ceiling opening and letting down surprises,
+or of dishes composed of nightingales' tongues and flamingoes' brains.
+These were always, as a later writer calls them, "the solecisms of
+luxury." Nero himself, or rather the ministers of the vulgar pleasures
+which he regarded as those of artistic genius, devised an abundance of
+such expensive follies and surprises, but we must not permit the
+professional satirist or Stoic moralist to delude us into believing
+them typical of Roman life. Praise of the "simple life" and the simple
+past is no new thing. It is extremely doubtful whether at an ordinary
+Roman dinner-party there was any such lavish luxury as to surpass that
+of a modern aldermanic banquet. We can hardly blame the people who
+could afford it for obtaining for their tables the best of everything
+produced around the Mediterranean Sea, any more than we blame the
+modern citizen of London or New York for obtaining the choicest foods
+and dainties from a much wider world. Doubtless a Roman dinner too
+often meant over-eating and over-drinking, and doubtless neither the
+ordinary table manners nor the ordinary table conversation would
+recommend themselves to us. The same might be said of our own
+Elizabethan age. But any one intimately acquainted with Latin
+literature as a whole, and not merely with the more savoury passages
+commonly selected, will necessarily incline to the belief that
+novelistic historians have too often been taking what was exceptional,
+eccentric, and strongly disapproved by contemporaries, for the usual
+and the normal. If we read about Romans swallowing emetics after
+gorging themselves, so that they might begin eating afresh, we may
+feel both disgust and pity, but we must not imagine such a practice to
+have been a national habit.
+
+The dinner regularly consisted of three divisions: a preliminary
+course of _hors d'oeuvres_, the dinner proper, and a sort of enlarged
+dessert. It might or might not be accompanied or followed by various
+entertainments, and closed by a protracted course of wine-drinking.
+All would depend upon the tastes of the host and the nature of the
+company. The meal, it may be mentioned, begins with an invocation
+corresponding to our grace. The _hors d'oeuvres_ are taken in the
+shape of shell-fish, such as oysters and mussels, snails with piquant
+sauce, lettuce, radishes and the like, eggs, and a taste of wine
+tempered with honey.
+
+Next comes the dinner proper, commonly divided into three services,
+comprising a considerable choice of fish (particularly turbot,
+flounder, mullet, and lampreys), poultry and game (from chicken, duck,
+pigeon, and peacock, to partridges, pheasants, ortolans, and
+fieldfares), hare, joints of the ordinary meats, as well as of wild
+boar and venison, a kind of haggis, a variety of the vegetables most
+familiar to modern use, mushrooms, and truffles. There is abundant,
+and to our taste excessive, use of seasonings, not only of salt,
+vinegar, and pepper, but of oil, thyme, mint, ginger, and the like,
+The _pièce de résistance_--a wild boar, or whatever it may
+be--regularly arrives as the middle of the three services. The
+substantial meal ends with a small offering to the household deities.
+After this follows the dessert, consisting of fresh and dried fruits,
+and of cakes and sweet-meats artistically composed.
+
+During the dinner a special feature is made of the artistic
+arrangement of the various viands upon the large trays or stands from
+which the guest makes his choice, for the several dishes belonging to
+one course were not brought separately to table. In full view of the
+guests the professional carver exhibits his dexterity with much
+demonstration of grace and rapidity, and well-dressed and
+neat-fingered slaves render the necessary service. Of plates and
+dishes of various shapes and purposes, silver and silver-gilt, there
+is great profusion.
+
+The conversation meanwhile depends upon the company. Sometimes it
+turns upon the chariot-races and the chances of the "Red" or "Green";
+sometimes it is social gossip and scandal. If the guests are of a
+graver cast of mind, it may be concerned with questions of art and
+literature, or even philosophy. The Roman particularly affected
+encyclopaedic information, and frequently posted himself with such
+miscellaneous matter derived from a salaried domestic philosopher or
+_savant_--commonly, of course, a Greek. But upon politics in any real
+sense conversation will either not turn at all, or else very
+cautiously, at least until some one has drunk more than is good for
+him. It is only too easy to drop some remark which may be construed
+into an offence to the emperor, and there are too many ears among the
+slaves, and perhaps too many among the guests, to permit of any risk
+in that direction. In some rather serious companies a professional
+reader or reciter entertained the diners with interesting passages of
+poetry or prose; before others there might be a performance of scenes
+from a comedy. At times vocal and instrumental music was discoursed by
+the domestic minstrels; or persons, generally women, were hired to
+play upon the harp, lyre, or double flageolet. Such performances would
+also be carried on during the carousal which often followed deep into
+the night, and to these may be added posture-dances by girls from
+Cadiz, juggling and acrobatic feats, and other forms of "variety"
+entertainment. Dicing in public, except at the chartered Saturnalian
+festival, was illegal--a fact which did not, of course, prevent it
+from being practised---but it was permitted in private gatherings like
+this, provided that ostensibly no money was staked. The dice are
+rattled in a tower-like box and are thrown upon a special board or
+tray. You may play "for love," or, as the Romans called it, "for the
+best man," or you may play for forfeits. Naturally the forfeits became
+in practice, in spite of the law, sums of money. The best possible
+throw is called "Venus," the worst possible "the dog." A sort of
+draughts or of backgammon may be preferred at more quiet times of
+social intercourse; but a game like "head or tail," called in Latin
+"heads or ships," was a game for the vulgar.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 68.--ACROBATS.]
+
+If it was decided to indulge in a prolonged carousal in form, heads
+were wreathed with garlands of roses, violets, myrtle, or ivy; lots
+were cast for an "umpire of the drinking," and he decided both how
+much wine--Falernian, Setine, or Massic--should be drunk, and in what
+degree it should be mixed with water. A large and handsome mixing-bowl
+stands in the dining-hall. From this the wine is drawn by a ladle
+holding about as much as a sherry-glass, and a certain number of such
+"glasses" are poured into each cup according to the bidding of the
+umpire. While being poured into the "mixer" the wine is passed through
+a strainer and in the hot weather the strainer would be filled with
+snow brought down from the nearest mountains and artificially
+preserved. Healths were drank in as many "glasses" as the name
+contained letters; absent ladies were toasted in a similar way; and at
+some hour or other guests asked their footmen for their shoes and
+cloaks, and departed to their homes under the escort of attendants,
+who carried the torches or lanterns and were ready to deal with
+possible footpads and garroters, if any were lurking in the unlighted
+streets for pedestrians less wary or less protected. The "Mohawks"
+also will let them alone, and perhaps their homeward way may be
+entertained by the sounds of serenaders at the door of some beautiful
+Chloe or Lydia on the Upper Sacred Way or near the Subura.
+
+It is not, however, to be supposed that every evening meal, even of a
+noble, took the form of a dinner-party. It is indeed probable that
+there were few occasions upon which, while in town, he was not either
+entertaining visitors or being himself entertained. Occasionally there
+would be an invitation to dine at Court, where perhaps eighty or a
+hundred guests of both sexes, distributed in different sets of nine or
+seven over the wide banquet-hall, would eat off gold plate, and be
+entertained from three or four o'clock till midnight with all the
+unbridled extravagance that a Petronius or some other "arbiter of
+taste" might devise for the Caesar. The snob of the period set an
+enormous value upon this distinction. The emperor could not always
+review his list of invitations, nor could he on every occasion be
+personally acquainted with every guest. It was therefore quite
+possible for his servants now and then to smuggle in a person
+ambitious of having dined at the palace. Under Caligula a rich
+provincial once paid nearly £2000 for such an "invitation." When the
+emperor found it out, he was, if anything, rather flattered; the next
+day he caused some worthless trifle to be sold to the same man for the
+same amount, and on the strength of this acquaintance invited him to
+dinner, this time pocketing the money for himself.
+
+Yet there must have been no few evenings upon which Silius preferred
+the company of an intimate friend or two, making all together the
+"number of the graces," and dined with less form and ceremony. At such
+times the meal would be of comparatively short duration, and there
+would be deeper and more intimate matter of conversation. Now and then
+the dinner would be purely domestic; and, after it, Silius would
+perhaps pass an hour or two in reading, or in listening to the slave
+who was his professional "reader." If he was himself an author, as an
+astonishing number of his contemporaries actually were, he might spend
+the time in preparing a speech, composing some non-committal epic or
+drama, jotting down memoranda for a history, or concocting an epigram
+or satire to embody his humorous fancies or to relieve his
+exasperation. If, as was often the case, he kept in the house a
+salaried Greek philosopher--in a large measure the analogue of the
+domestic chaplain of the later seventeenth century--he might enjoy his
+conversation and pick his brains; or, if a man of real earnestness of
+purpose, discuss with him the tenets of his particular philosophy,
+Stoic, Epicurean, or Eclectic. This was the nearest approach which the
+ancient Roman made to what we should call theological or religious
+argument.
+
+On other days a patron would naturally entertain a number of his
+clients at dinner, and on no occasion would he be better able to show
+how much or how little he was a gentleman in the modern sense of the
+term. It is not merely from the satirist that we learn how
+discourteous the Roman grandee might be at his own table if he chose.
+It was no uncommon thing for a patron to set before these humbler
+guests dishes or portions of dishes markedly inferior to those which
+were offered to himself and to any aristocrat whom he had placed near
+him. In this sense the client was often made to feel very distinctly
+that he was "sitting below the salt." While the mellowest Setine or
+Falernian wine was poured into the patron's own jewelled goblet of
+gold or silver or crystal, his client might be drinking from thick
+glass or earthenware the poorer stuff grown on the Sabine Hills. The
+fish presented to Silius and his "brother" noble might be a choice
+turbot, and the bird might be pheasant, while Proculus the client must
+be content with pike from the Tiber and the common barndoor fowl. The
+later satirist Juvenal presents us with inimitable pictures of the
+hungry dependants at the table of their "king," waiting "bread in
+hand" (like the sword drawn for the fray) to see what fortune would
+send them. On the other hand there were, of course, patrons who made
+no such distinctions. The younger Pliny, who was himself a gentleman
+almost in the modern sense--if we overlook a too frequent tendency to
+contemplate his own undeniable virtues--writes a letter to a young
+friend in the following terms: "I need not go into details as to how I
+came to be dining with a person with whom I am by no means intimate.
+In his own eyes he combined elegance with economy; in mine he combined
+meanness with extravagance. The dishes set before himself and a few
+others were of the choicest; those supplied to the rest were poor
+scraps. There was the same difference in his wine, which was of three
+kinds. The intention was not to offer a choice, but to prevent the
+right of refusing. One kind was for himself and us; another for his
+less important friends (for his friends are graded); another for his
+and our freedmen. My next neighbour noticed this, and asked me if I
+approved of it. I said 'No!' 'Well,' said he, 'what is your own
+practice?' 'I treat every one alike, for I invite people to a dinner,
+not to an insult, and when they share my table I let them share
+everything.' 'Your freedmen as well?' 'Yes, at such times I regard
+them as guests, not as freedmen.' At this he said, 'It costs you a
+good deal?' 'Not at all.' 'How can that be?' 'Because it is not a case
+of their drinking the same wine as I do, but of my drinking the same
+wine as they do.'" The letter is perhaps nearly half a century later
+than our chosen period, but there is no reason to think that manners
+had undergone any great change in the interval.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+Silius was a noble, with a nobleman's privileges and also his
+limitations. The class next in rank below his consisted of the
+"knights," of whom something has already been said. It will be
+remembered that these men of the "narrow stripe" were the higher
+middle class, who conducted most of the greater financial enterprises
+of Rome and the provinces. While the senatorial order could govern the
+important provinces, command legions, possess large estates, and
+derive revenues from them, but could make money in other ways only
+through the more or less concealed agency of knights or their own
+freedmen, the knights were free to act as bankers, money-lenders,
+tax-farmers, and merchants or contractors in a large way, and to take
+charge of such third-rate provinces as the Caesar might think fit to
+entrust to them. Money-lending at Rome was an extremely profitable
+business. Not only was the nobleman often extravagant in his tastes,
+but when once elected to a public position he was practically
+compelled to spend money lavishly in giving shows and exhibitions of
+the kind which will be described immediately, or upon some public
+building, or otherwise. In consequence he often incurred heavy debts.
+Meanwhile the smaller traders and agriculturists, who were in
+competition with slave-labour and other false economic conditions, to
+say nothing of bad seasons, were frequently in the hands of the
+usurers. Though efforts were repeatedly made to check exorbitant rates
+of interest, they were apparently quite as ineffectual as with us. An
+almost standard charge was at the rate of one-twelfth of the loan, or
+8-1/3 per cent, but another common rate was that of one per cent per
+month. Rates both higher and lower are known to us from particular
+cases. Naturally the question depended on the security, when it did
+not depend upon the greed of the one side and the ignorance of the
+other. Much, however, of what the books call money-lending was only
+what we should consider legitimate banking. Be this as it may, the
+knights made large fortunes from the practice. They were also the
+tax-farmers, who operated in the case of those imposts which were
+still left indirect. The practice was to make an estimate of the
+amount of such a tax derivable from a province, to purchase it from
+the government at as large a margin of profit as possible, and so
+relieve the state of the trouble and cost of collecting it. For this
+purpose "companies" were formed, with what we should call a "legal
+manager" at Rome. The managers would bid at auction for the tax, pay
+the purchase-money into the treasury, and proceed to get in the tax
+through local managers and agents in the provinces concerned. It has
+already been explained that the more important taxation of the empire
+was at this date direct--a community in Gaul, Spain, Asia Minor, or
+Syria knowing what its assessment was, taking its own measures, and
+using its own native or local collectors. The knights at Rome might
+still advance sums to such communities, but they were not in this case
+tax-farmers. It is unfortunate that the word "publicans"--bracketed
+with "sinners"--is used in the New Testament translation for the local
+collectors like St. Matthew. Not only does the word convey either no
+notion or a wholly incongruous one to the ordinary reader, but it is
+apt to mislead those who know its origin. Because the financial
+companies at Rome, in purchasing the taxes, were taking up a public
+contract, they were called _publicani_. But it is not these men who
+were themselves acting as petty collectors--in any case they had
+nothing to do with the native collectors appointed by the
+communities--and it is not these who enjoyed an immediate association
+with "sinners." The fact is that the Latin word applied to the great
+tax-farming companies, who were acting for Rome, was afterwards
+transferred to even the smallest collecting agent with opportunities
+for extortion and harshness.
+
+The stratum of Roman society below the knights was extremely
+composite. The slaves, of course, are not included. They have no right
+to the Roman "toga," nor may they even wear the conical Roman cap,
+except at the Saturnalia, when everything is deliberately topsy-turvy.
+Omitting these, we may roughly divide the rest, as the Romans
+themselves divided them, into "people" and "rabble." The rabble are
+either persons without regular occupation, or _lazzaroni_, sheer
+idlers, loafers, and beggars. Doubtless many of them would execute an
+errand or carry a parcel for a small copper, otherwise they would be
+found hanging about the public squares, lounging on the steps or in
+the precincts of public buildings, such as temples, basilicas,
+porticoes, and baths, and playing at what the Italians call _morra_--a
+more clever and tricky species of "How many fingers do I hold up?"--or
+at "Heads or Tails." The poor of ancient Rome, like those of modern
+Italy, could subsist on very plain and simple food. Water, with a dash
+of wine when it could be got--and apparently at this date wine cost
+less than a penny a quart--and porridge or bread, however coarse,
+would suffice, so long as there were amusements, sunshine, and no need
+to work. Every considerable city of the empire round the Mediterranean
+would doubtless contain its proportion of such "lewd fellows of the
+baser sort," but it was naturally the imperial city that contained by
+far the most. Rome was by no means the only city in which doles of
+free corn were made and free spectacular exhibitions given. But in
+other places the distributions were occasional and depended on the
+bounty of local men of wealth or ambition, whereas at Rome the dole
+was regular, and the spectacles frequent and splendid. Rome was the
+capital, and the abode of the emperor. It claimed the privileges of
+the Mistress City, including the enjoyment of the surplus revenues.
+Policy also demanded that the rabble should be kept quiet by "bread
+and games."
+
+It is for these reasons that the names of some 200,000 citizens stood
+upon a list to receive each month an allowance of corn--apparently
+between six and seven bushels--at the expense of the imperial
+treasury. This quantity they took away and made into bread as best
+they could. In many cases doubtless they sold it to the bakers and
+others. It must be added that, apart from the free distribution, the
+imperial stores contained quantities of grain which could always be
+purchased at a low rate. Occasionally a dole of money was added; in
+one case Nero gave over £2 per man. Meanwhile there was water in
+abundance to be had for nothing, brought by the carefully kept
+aqueducts into numerous fountains conveniently placed throughout the
+city. While, however, we must recognise that the number of idlers was
+very large, we must be careful not to exaggerate. It is absurd to
+assume, as some have done, that because 200,000 citizens are receiving
+free corn there are 200,000 unemployed. The Roman emperors never
+intended to put a premium on laziness, but only to deal with poverty.
+In order to receive your dole of corn it was not necessary to show
+that you were starving, but only that you were entitled, or in other
+words, on the list. It is also a mistake to think that any chance
+arrival among the Roman _olla podrida_ could claim his bushel and a
+half of corn a week. In any case only Roman citizens could
+participate. All the poorest workers, whether actually employed or
+not, could take their corn with the rest. Nor must we forget that
+among the unemployed there were a considerable number who were, for
+one reason or another, only temporarily out of work. Nevertheless, it
+requires no study of political economy to know, nor were Roman
+statesmen blind to see, that the best way to make men cease to work is
+to show them that they can live, however shabbily, without. The really
+surprising thing is perhaps that the Roman government, with its
+immense funds and resources, stopped short where it did. An unsound
+economic system had brought about difficult conditions, with which the
+emperors and their advisers dealt as best they could.
+
+It was inevitable that among so numerous a pampered rabble, and so
+many impoverished aliens who tried their fortunes in the capital,
+there should be beggars in considerable numbers. We cannot tell
+precisely how many they were. You might find them on the bridges,
+where they marked, as it were, a "stand" for themselves and crouched
+on a mat, or at the gates, or wherever carriages must proceed slowly
+on the highroads near the city, as for instance up the slope of the
+Appian Way as it passed over the south-western spur of the Alban
+Hills. Other towns would be infested in the same manner. Nor were
+thieves and footpads wanting in the streets or highwaymen upon the
+roads, especially in the lonelier parts near the marshes between Rome
+and the Bay of Naples. The city was, indeed, liberally policed, but
+Roman streets, as we have seen, were for the most part narrow,
+crooked, and unlighted at night. As usual, it was the comparatively
+poor who suffered from the street robber; the rich, with their torches
+and retinue, could always protect themselves.
+
+After the "rabble" we will take the "people" in the sense current at
+this date. We must begin by adjusting our notions somewhat. The Romans
+made no such clear distinction as we do between trades and
+professions. To perform work for others and to receive pay for it is
+to be a hireling. Painters, sculptors, physicians, surgeons, and
+auctioneers are but more highly paid and more pleasantly engaged
+hirelings. Only so far do they differ from sign-painters, masons,
+undertakers, or criers. No doubt the theory broke down somewhat in
+practice, yet such is the theory. That which in our day constitutes a
+"liberal" profession--a previous liberal education and a high code of
+professional etiquette--can hardly be said to have existed in the case
+of corresponding professions at Rome. If the liberality departs from
+our own professional education and the etiquette is relaxed, we shall
+presumably revert to the same state of things. A surgeon was commonly
+a "sawbones," and a physician a compounder and prescriber of more or
+less empirical drugs. Their knowledge and skill were by no means
+contemptible, and their instruments and pharmacopoeia were
+surprisingly modern. Among the Greeks and Orientals their social
+standing was high, but at Rome, where they were chiefly foreigners,
+for the most part Greeks, the old aristocratic exclusiveness kept them
+in comparatively humble estimation, however large might be their fees
+in the more important cases. Something will be said later as to the
+state of science and knowledge in the Roman world. For the present it
+is sufficient to note that artist, medical man, attorney,
+schoolmaster, and clerk belong theoretically to the common "people,"
+along with butchers, bakers, carpenters, and potters.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Setting aside the aristocratic and wealthy classes on the one hand,
+and the pauperised class on the other, we have lying between them the
+workers, whether native Romans or the emancipated slaves, who are now
+citizens known as "freedmen." To these we must add the rather shabby
+genteel persons whom we have already described as "clients." Among
+workers are found men and women of all the callings most familiar to
+ourselves, with one exception. They do not include domestic servants.
+Romans who could afford regular servants kept slaves. It 18 true that
+occasionally one of the poorer citizens, even a soldier on furlough,
+might perform some menial task connected with a household, such as
+hewing wood or carrying burdens; but such services were regarded as
+"servile." With this exception there is scarcely an occupation in
+which Roman citizens did not engage. In such work they often had to
+compete with slave-labour. It is probable, doubtless, that the greater
+proportion of the slave body were employed as domestic servants. But
+many others tilled the lands of the larger proprietors. Others
+laboured under the contractors who constructed the public works.
+Others were used as assistants in shops and factories. It is obvious
+that such competition reduced the field of free labour, when it did
+not close it entirely, and the free labour must have been unduly
+cheapened. But to suppose that all the Roman work, whether in town or
+country, was done by slaves is to be grossly in the wrong. Romans were
+to be found acting as ploughmen and herdsmen, workers in vineyards,
+carpenters, masons, potters, shoemakers, tanners, bakers, butchers,
+fullers, metal-workers, glass-workers, clothiers, greengrocers,
+shopkeepers of all kinds. There were Roman porters, carters, and
+wharf-labourers, as well as Roman confectioners and sausage-sellers.
+To these private occupations must be added many positions in the lower
+public or civil service. There was, for example, abundant call for
+attendants of the magistrates, criers, messengers, and clerks.
+Unfortunately our information concerning all this class is very
+inadequate. The Roman writers--historians, philosophers, rhetoricians,
+and poets--have extremely little to say about the humble persons who
+apparently did nothing to make history or thought. They are mentioned
+but incidentally, and generally without interest, if not with some
+contempt, except where a poet is choosing to glorify the simple life
+and therefore turns his gaze on the frugal peasantry, who doubtless
+did, in sober fact, retain most of the sturdy old Roman spirit. About
+the soldiers we know much, and not a little about the schoolmasters.
+The connection of the one occupation with history and of the other
+with authors will account for this fact. Something will be said of the
+army and also of the schools in their special places. Keepers of inns
+are not rarely in evidence in the literature of satire and epigram,
+and no language seems too contemptuous for their alleged dishonesty.
+But of inns enough has been said. We learn that the booksellers
+made money out of the works of which they caused their slaves to
+make copies, and which they sold in "well got up" style for four
+shillings, or, in the case of slender volumes, for as little as
+fourpence-halfpenny. But to this day we do not know how much profit an
+author drew from the bookseller, or how it was determined, or whether
+he drew any at all. It is most reasonable to suppose that he sold a
+book straight out to the publisher for what he could get. Otherwise it
+is hard to see how any check could be kept upon the sales. The only
+occupation upon which literature offers us systematic information is
+agriculture, including the pasturing of cattle and the culture of the
+vine. For the rest we derive more knowledge from the excavations of
+Pompeii than from any other source. From actual shops and their
+contents, from pictures illustrating contemporary life, and from
+inscriptions and advertisements, we are enabled to reconstruct some
+picture of commercial and industrial operations. We can see the
+fuller, the baker, the goldsmith, the wine-seller, and the
+wreath-maker at their work. We can discern something of the retail
+trade in the Forum; or we can see the auctioneer making up his
+accounts.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 70.--BAKER'S MILLS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 71.--CUPIDS AS GOLDSMITHS. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 72.--GARLAND-MAKERS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 73.--BUST OF CAECILIUS JUCUNDUS.]
+
+The baker, for example, was his own miller. There are still standing
+the mills, with the upper stone--a hollow cylinder with a pinched
+waist--capable of revolving upon the under stone and letting the flour
+drop into the rim below. Into the holes in the middle of the upper or
+"donkey" stone, and across the top, were fixed wooden bars, which were
+either pushed by men or drawn by asses yoked to them. The oven is
+still in place, and, charred as they are, we are quite familiar with
+the round flat loaves shaped and divided like a large "cross" bun. The
+dough was kneaded by a vertical shaft with arms revolving in a
+receptacle, from the sides of which other arms projected inwards, so
+that there was little room for the dough to be squeezed between them.
+We have pictures of the fuller, to whom the woollen garments--the
+togas and tunics, and the mantles of the women--were regularly sent to
+be washed by treading in vats, to be beaten, stretched, and bleached
+with sulphur, and to have their naps raised with a comb or a bunch of
+thorns. The goldsmith is depicted at his furnace or his anvil. The
+garland-makers are at work fastening the blossoms or petals on a
+ribbon or a tough strip of lime-bark. Dealers in other goods are
+showing the results of their labour to customers, who carefully
+examine them by eye, touch, and smell. The tablets containing the
+receipts for sales and rents still exist as they were found in the
+house of the shrewd-looking Jucundus the auctioneer. They formally
+acknowledge the receipt of such-and-such sums realised at an auction,
+"minus commission," although unfortunately they do not happen to tell
+us how much the commission was. We see the venders of wine filling the
+jars for customers from the large wine-skin in the waggon. In
+conclusion to this subject it should be observed that all manner of
+descriptive signs were in use; and just as one may still see a
+barber's pole or a gilt boot in front of a shop, or a painted sign at
+a public-house, so one might see the representation of a goat at the
+door of a milk-vender, or of an eagle or elephant at the door of an
+inn.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 74.--PLOUGH. (Primitive and later forms.)]
+
+Meanwhile out in the country we can perceive the farm, with its hedges
+of quick-set, its stone walls, or its bank and ditch. The rather
+primitive plough--though not always so primitive as it was a
+generation or so ago in Italy--is being drawn by oxen, while, for the
+rest, there are in use nearly all the implements which were employed
+before the quite modern invention of machinery. It may be remarked at
+this point that the rotation of crops was well understood and
+regularly practised. Then there are the pasturelands, on the plains in
+the winter, but in summer on the hills, to which the herdsmen drive
+their cattle along certain drove-roads till they reach the unfenced
+domains belonging to the state. There they form a camp of huts or
+wigwams under a "head man," and surround their charges with strong
+fierce dogs, whose business it is to protect them, not only from
+thieves, but also from the wolves which were then common on the
+Apennines--where, indeed, bears also were to be met. There was no want
+of occupation in the country in the time of haymaking, of the vintage,
+or of olive-picking. Even the city unemployed could gather a bunch of
+grapes or pick an olive, just as they can with us, or just as the
+London hop-picker can take a holiday and earn a little money in Kent.
+In the vineyards, where the vines commonly trailed upon low elms and
+other trees, various vegetables grew between the rows, as they still
+do about Vesuvius; on the hills were olive-groves, which cost almost
+nothing to keep in order, and which supplied the "butter" and the
+lamp-oil of the Mediterranean world.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 75.--TOOLS ON TOMB.]
+
+We need not waste much compassion upon the life of the Roman working
+class. It is true that there was then no doctrine of the "dignity of
+labour," but that there was reasonable pride taken in a trade
+reputably maintained is seen from the frequent appearance of its tools
+upon a tombstone. In respect of the mere enjoyment of life, the
+labourers, of the Roman world were, so far as we can gather, tolerably
+happy. They had abundant holidays, mostly of religious origin; but,
+like our own, so frequently added to, and so far diverted from
+religious thoughts, that they were more marked by jollity and sport
+than by any solemnity of spirit. The workmen of a particular calling
+formed their guilds, "city companies," or clubs, in the interests of
+their trade and for mutual benefit. There was a guild of bakers, a
+guild of goldworkers, and a guild of anything and everything else.
+Each guild had its special deity--such as Vesta, the fire-goddess, for
+the bakers, and Minerva, the goddess of wool-work, for the
+fullers--and it held an annual festival in honour of such patrons,
+marching through the streets with regalia and flag. Doubtless the
+members of a guild acted in concert for the regulation of prices,
+although the Roman government took care that these clubs should be
+non-political, and would speedily suppress a strike if it seriously
+interfered with the public convenience. The ostensible excuse for a
+guild, and apparently the only one theoretically accepted by the
+imperial government, was the excuse of a common worship. It is at
+least certain that the emperors jealously watched the formation of any
+new union, and that they would promptly abolish any which appeared to
+have secret understandings and aims, or to act in contravention of the
+law. In the towns which possessed local government the municipal
+authorities were still elected by the people; and the guilds,
+especially of shopkeepers, could and did play their parts in
+determining the election of a candidate. The elections might make a
+difference to them in those ways in which modern town-councillors and
+mayors, may influence the rates, the conditions of the streets, the
+rules of traffic, and so forth. There are sixteen hundred election
+notices painted, in red and black about the walls of Pompeii, and we
+find So-and-So recommended by such-and-such a trade as being a "good
+man," or "an honest young man," or a person who will "keep an eye on
+the public purse." It is amusing to note that, in satirical parody of
+such appeals as "the fruitsellers recommend So-and-So," we find that
+"the petty thieves recommend So-and-So," or we get the opinion of "the
+sleepers one and all." Special objects connected with these and other
+associations were the provision of "widows' funds," and of proper
+burial for the members. Of the importance of the latter to the ancient
+world we shall speak when we come to a funeral and the religious ideas
+connected with it.
+
+The most difficult task in dealing with antiquity is to visualise the
+actual life as it was lived. In the life of the humbler citizens the
+remains of Pompeii lend more help than anything else to the desired
+sense of reality, but they are the remains of Pompeii, not of Rome.
+Nevertheless there are many points in which we may fairly argue from
+the little town to the larger, and it is customary to adopt this
+course.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 76.--POMPEIAN COOK-SHOP.]
+
+We may, therefore, think of the common people among these ancients as
+very much alive in their frank curiosity, their broad humour, their
+love of shows, and their keen enthusiasm for the competitions, their
+interest in petty local elections, their advertising instincts, their
+insatiable fondness for scribbling on walls and pillars, whether in
+paint or with a "style," a sort of small stiletto with which they
+commonly wrote on tablets. The ancient world becomes very near when we
+read, side by side with the election notices, a line from Virgil or
+Ovid scrawled in a moment of idleness, or a piece of abuse of a
+neighbouring and rival town--such as "bad luck to the Nucerians"--or a
+pretty sentiment, such as "no one is a gentleman who has not been in
+love," or an advertisement to the effect that there are "To let, from
+July 1, shops with their upper floors, a flat for a gentleman, and a
+house: apply to Prinus, slave of So-and-So"; or "Found wandering, a
+mare with packsaddle, apply, etc."--the latter, by the way, painted on
+a tomb.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 77.--IN A WINE-SHOP.]
+
+For places of social resort there were the baths, the colonnades, the
+semicircular public seats, the steps of public buildings, the shops,
+and the eating-houses and taverns. The middle classes, in the absence
+of the modern clubs, met to gossip at the barber's, the bookseller's,
+or the doctor's. Those of a humbler grade would often betake
+themselves to the establishments corresponding to the modern Italian
+_osterie_, where were to be obtained wine with hot or cold water and
+also cooked food. As they sat on their stools in these "greasy and
+smoky" haunts they might be compelled, says the satirist, to mix with
+"sailors, thieves, runaway slaves, and the executioner," but even men
+of higher standing were often not unwilling to seek low pleasures amid
+such surroundings, especially when, as was frequently the case, there
+was provision for secret dicing beyond the observation of the police.
+
+From literature, meanwhile, we may fill in their vivacious language,
+the courteous terms the people apply to each other, such as "you ass,
+pig, monkey, cuckoo, chump, blockhead, fungus," or, on the other side,
+"my honey, my heart, my dove, my life, my sparrowkin, my dainty
+cheese." But to go more fully into matters like these would carry us
+too far afield.
+
+We will end this topic with a last look at the ordinary free workman,
+who wears no toga, but simply a girt-up tunic, a pair of boots, and a
+conical cap, and who goes home to his plain fare of bread, porridge,
+lentil soup, goats'-milk cheese, "broad" and "French" beans, beetroot,
+leeks, salted or smoked bacon, sausages, and black-pudding, which he
+will eat off earthenware or a wooden trencher, and wash down with
+cheap but not unwholesome wine mixed with water. He has no pipe to
+smoke; he has never heard of tea, coffee, or spirits. He may have been
+told that certain remote barbarians drink beer, and he may know of a
+thing called butter, but he would not touch it so long as he can get
+olive-oil. However humble his home, he will endeavour to own a silver
+salt-cellar, and to keep it as an heirloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+These topics bring us naturally to the consideration of the chief
+amusements and entertainments of Rome and of those parts of the empire
+which were either fairly romanized or else contained a large number of
+resident Romans.
+
+Holidays, some of them lasting over several days, were at this date
+liberally spread throughout the year. Most of them belonged to fixed
+dates, others were festivals specially proclaimed for victories or
+other causes of rejoicing. We may estimate their average number at
+Rome itself at about a hundred. At first sight this might indicate an
+astonishing waste of time and the prevalence of enormous indolence.
+But we must remember that the Romans had no such thing as Sunday. Our
+own Sundays and the weekly half-holidays make together seventy-eight
+days, and if to these we add the holidays at Christmas, Easter, and
+other Bank and public "closings," we shall find that our annual breaks
+in the working year are not very far from the Roman total, however
+differently they may be distributed. The difference between us and
+them lies rather in the way in which the holidays were employed.
+Originally the holidays did not imply any giving of shows and games in
+the way of chariot-races, gladiatorial combats, and the like. They
+were simply festivals of deities--of Flora, the goddess of flowers,
+Ceres, the goddess of crops, Apollo the god of light and healing, and
+other divinities--honoured by sacrifices, processions, and feasts. The
+feast of Saturn, for example, was at first held for only one day.
+Later it was extended over five and then over seven days, exactly as
+our Christmas celebrations--which are a Christian adaptation of
+it--tend virtually to spread over longer and longer periods. At this
+winter festival of the Saturnalia there was an interchange of
+presents--such as confectionery, game, articles of clothing,
+writing-tablets--and a general outburst of goodwill and merriment. For
+one day the slaves were allowed to put on the freeman's cap, the "cap
+of liberty," and to pretend to be the masters. This is the source of
+the mediaeval monkish custom of permitting one annual day of
+"misrule." Meanwhile the citizen threw off the toga and clad himself
+in colours as he chose. He played at dice publicly and with impunity.
+The cry of "Hurrah for the Saturnalia!" was heard everywhere. Later it
+became customary to hold public shows on these days, and the emperors
+gave gladiatorial games and acrobatic or dramatic entertainments, at
+which there were scrambled various objects, articles of food, coins or
+tickets entitling the holder to some gift which might be valuable,
+valueless, or comical. Similarly there was a holiday on New Year's
+Day, when presents were again interchanged, regularly including a
+small piece of money "for good luck." The gifts on this day frequently
+bore the inscription "a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you."
+Presents at all times played a prominent part in Roman etiquette and
+sociality. Not only were they given at holidays but also at all
+important domestic events. Even at a dinner-party, besides actual
+articles of food to be carried home, there were frequently gifts of a
+kind either expressly adapted to the recipient, or else drawn by a
+humorous lottery. Among numerous other articles of which one might be
+the recipient in various seasons and circumstances, there are
+mentioned books, pictures, tablets of ivory, wood, or parchment,
+cushions, mufflers, hats, hoods, sponges, soap, rings, flasks,
+baskets, musical instruments, balls, pens, lamps, tooth-picks, dice,
+money-boxes, satchels, parrots, magpies, and monkeys. On the Ides of
+March the poorer classes made their way to the Campus Martius beside
+the river, built themselves arbours or wigwams of boughs, and spent
+the day and evening in riotous song and jollity.
+
+In general, however, the parts of these festivals to which the people
+looked forward with liveliest anticipation were those public
+entertainments, commonly known as "the games" or "sports," which were
+provided for them free of cost. The expense was theoretically borne by
+the state--whether from the exchequer of the emperor or from that of
+the senate and the state did indeed spend as much as six or eight
+thousand pounds upon a particular celebration. But, both in Rome
+itself and in the provinces, it was practically obligatory that the
+public officer who had charge of a given festival for the year should
+spend liberally of his own upon it. No man either at Rome or in a
+provincial city could permit himself to be elected to such a public
+position unless he was prepared to disburse a sum perhaps as large as
+the subvention given by the state. The more he gave, particularly if
+he introduced some striking or amusing addition to the ordinary shows,
+the more popular he became for the time being. In the Roman world you
+must pay for your ambitions, and this was the most approved way of
+paying. We might moralise over the enormous frivolity which could
+waste day after day thousands and thousands of pounds upon such
+transitory pleasures, instead of conferring lasting benefits in the
+way of hospitals or schools. But it is not the object of this book to
+moralise. We may feel confident that the Roman populace, if offered
+the choice, would have voted for the chariot-races or the gladiators,
+not for the college or the hospital.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 78: BOXING-GLOVES.]
+
+The entertainments provided were of several kinds, by no means equally
+popular. There were plays in the theatres; there were contests of
+running, wrestling, boxing, throwing of spears and disks, and other
+"events," corresponding to our athletic sports; there were
+chariot-races in the Circus, answering to our horse-races at Epsom or
+Newmarket; and there were spectacles in the amphitheatre, to which,
+happily, we have no modern parallel. These included huntings and
+baitings of animals, fights with wild beasts--performances far more
+dangerous than those of the Spanish bull-ring--and, above all, the
+combats of the gladiators or professional "swordsmen." So far as there
+exists a later analogue to the last it is to be found in the more
+chivalrous tourney in the lists, but the resemblance is not very
+close. Least valued among the real Romans were the athletic sports.
+For genuine enjoyment of these we must look to the Greek part of the
+empire. At Rome they appeared tame, for the mind of the Roman populace
+was naturally coarse in grain; what it delighted in was something
+sensationally acrobatic, or provocative of a rather gross laughter, or
+else involving a thrilling anticipation of danger and bloodshed. In
+taste the Romans were in fact similar to those modern spectators who
+love to see a man plunge from a lofty trapeze into a narrow tank, with
+a reasonable chance of breaking his neck. It is a strange
+contradiction with other Roman attitudes when we find that they
+objected to the Greek wrestling or running on grounds of decorum,
+because it was innocently nude. On the athletic sports, although they
+were never wanting in the "games" at Rome, we need not therefore
+dwell. It may be sufficient to show by an illustration what sort of
+notion the ancient world entertained of interesting pugilism. It is
+only fair to say that the "boxing-gloves" here given--thongs of
+leather wrapped tightly round the arm and hand, and loaded or studded
+with lead or iron--were a notion borrowed from the professional
+pugilists of Greece.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 80.--THEATRE AT ASPENDUS.]
+
+Next lowest in esteem stood the plays given on the theatrical stage.
+Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the three great
+theatres of Rome, one of them said, though somewhat incredibly, to be
+capable of holding 40,000 spectators. Their shape and arrangement have
+already been hinted at. Huge structures of a similar kind existed in
+all the great romanized towns of Italy and other provinces. One at
+Orange in France is still well preserved, and two of smaller
+dimensions--one without a roof for plays, and one roofed for musical
+performances--are among the most easily remembered of the remains
+extant at Pompeii. In the Grecian half of the empire the theatres were
+not essentially different, the chief distinguishing feature being
+that, while the Roman auditorium formed half a circle, that of the
+Greek type formed over two-thirds. In the Roman type the level
+semicircle in front of the stage, from which we derive the name
+"orchestra," was occupied by the chairs of the senators, and the
+fourteen tiers of stone seats immediately behind them by the knights;
+certain sections were also set apart for special classes, one being
+for soldiers, one for boys not yet of age, and one for women, whose
+presence was not encouraged, and who, except at the tragedies, would
+have shown more modesty by staying away. Facing the seats is a stage,
+higher than among the Greeks, but somewhat lower than it is commonly
+made in modern times; and at the back of the stage is a wall
+architecturally adorned to represent a house or "palace" front, and
+containing one central and two side doors, which served for separate
+purposes conventionally understood. Over the stage is a roof, which
+slopes backward to join the wall. The entrances to the ordinary tiers
+of seats are from openings reached by stairs from the outside arcade
+surrounding the building; those to the level "orchestra" are from
+right and left by passages under an archway, which supports a private
+box for the presiding official. The two boxes are approached from the
+stage, and when the emperor is present he is seated in the one to the
+spectators' left. Round the top of the building, inside above the
+seats, runs a covered walk, which serves as a lounge and a _foyer_.
+Over the heads of the spectators a coloured awning--dark-red or
+dark-blue by preference--may be stretched on masts or poles; when no
+awning is provided, or when it cannot be used because the wind is too
+strong, the spectator is permitted to wear a broad-brimmed hat, if he
+finds one desirable for his comfort. The whole building must be
+thought of as lined and seated with marble, gilded in parts, and
+decorated with pillars and statues.
+
+The curtain, instead of being pulled up, as with us, when the play
+begins is pulled down, falling into a groove in the stage. Where we
+should say the "curtain is up" the Romans would say exactly the
+reverse, "the curtain is lowered." For plays in which the palace-front
+was not appropriate, scenery was employed to cover it, being painted
+on canvas or on boards which could be pulled aside; other scenes were
+stretched on frames, which could be made to revolve so as to present
+various faces.
+
+The actors, however much admired for their art, and however
+influential in irregular ways, were looked upon as in a degraded
+position, and no Roman who valued social regard would adopt this line
+of life. Among the Greeks and such Orientals as were under Greek
+influence no such stigma rested upon the profession, and therefore
+many of the chief actors of the imperial city had received their
+training in this more liberal-minded part of the Roman world. The rest
+were mostly slaves or ex-slaves. If a Roman of any standing took part,
+it was either because he was a ruined man, or else because the emperor
+had capriciously ordered him to undergo this humiliation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 81.--TRAGIC ACTOR.]
+
+
+The plays themselves were certainly of no great merit from a
+constructive or literary point of view. We hear a good deal nowadays
+of the "decline of the drama," but perhaps in no civilised country has
+it declined so far as it had descended in Rome by the year A.D. 64.
+The regular and classical drama--that is to say, literary tragedy and
+comedy--was not likely to appeal to any ordinary Roman gathering. The
+philosopher Seneca indeed wrote tragedies in imitation of the Greek,
+but they were intended for the reader and the library, and there is
+little probability that they were ever performed, or even offered to
+the stage. Tragedies were, it is true, represented, but they were
+mostly Greek, and the performance was in the Greek style. The heroic
+actors wore masks, covering not only the face but the whole head,
+which they raised considerably in height. About the body fell long and
+trailing robes of splendid material and colour, and on the feet were
+thick-soled boots which increased the height by several inches. The
+comedian played in low shoes or slippers; and "boot" and "slipper"
+were therefore terms in common vogue to distinguish the two kinds of
+theatrical entertainment. Of Pliny's two favourite country-houses on
+Lake Como one was called "Tragedy" as standing high, the other
+"Comedy" because on a lower site beside the water. The whole effect
+sought in the heroic play was the grandiose, and no attempt was made
+to reproduce the actualities of life. In the accompanying illustration
+will be seen the tragic hero as he appeared upon the Roman stage. In
+considering this somewhat amazing apparition it must be remembered
+that at Rome, as in Greece, the theatre was huge, effective
+opera-glasses were not known, and subtle changes of facial expression
+would have passed unnoticed. The make-up of the actor, like the
+painting of the scenes, was compelled to depend upon broad effects.
+
+With its love of the false heroic, of rhetorical bombast, of sumptuous
+dress, magnificent scenes, and gorgeous accessories in the way of
+"supers" and processions, the Roman tragic drama of this period must
+have borne a striking resemblance to the corresponding English pieces
+of the Restoration or age of Dryden. Perhaps the most popular part of
+the performance was the music and dancing, whether by individual
+actors or as ballets, accompanied by the flageolet, the lyre, or the
+cymbals.
+
+In comedy there was apparently no originality. As in the oldest days
+of their drama the Romans had copied the Greeks, so they copied them
+still. We may believe that the acting was often excellent; especially
+in respect of intonation and gesture, but little can be said for the
+play, whether from the point of view of literature or of morals. Since
+verbal description must necessarily be of little force, it will serve
+better to present here a few specimens of comic masks and a scene from
+comedy:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 82.--COMIC MASKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 83.--SCENE FROM COMEDY.]
+
+Much more in demand were theatrical performances of a lower kind.
+These were farces, interludes, character-pieces, and dumb-shows known
+as "pantomimes." The farce     was a loosely constructed form of
+fooling comedy, containing much of the ready Italian improvisation or
+"gag," and regularly introducing the four stock characters which have
+lasted with little disguise for so many centuries There was an old
+"grandfather," the forerunner of the modern pantaloon; a cunning
+sharper; a garrulous glutton with a fat face (known as "Chops"); and
+an amorous Simple Simon. Sometimes types of foreigners or provincials
+were introduced, with caricatures of their dress and language, after
+the manner, and probably with the veracity, of the stage Scotchman,
+Irishman, or Frenchman. All these parts were played in masks.
+
+The interlude again was a slight piece with very little plot, and
+composed in a large measure of buffoonery, practical jokes, hitting
+and slapping, and dancing. Topical allusions and contemporary
+caricatures were freely introduced, and the whole performance, however
+coarsely amusing, was both vulgar and indecent. In these pieces no
+masks were worn and also no shoes, and the women's parts--taken in the
+other instances by men and boys--were actually played by females,
+whose posture-dances were no credit to their sex.
+
+The dumb-shows or "pantomimes" were performances in which expressive
+and elaborate gestures and movements were left to tell the whole tale.
+For this kind of piece the actors naturally required not only uncommon
+cleverness but also great suppleness of body. As usual, these
+qualities, together with the qualities of voice, the magnificent
+dress, and the carefully cultivated long hair, won for the actor
+demoralising influence over too large a number of the more
+impressionable and untrammelled Roman dames.
+
+Meanwhile the huge audience must not be conceived as sitting in quiet
+and restrained attention, but as roaring with laughter, applauding and
+stamping, shouting approval and encores, hissing and waving
+handkerchiefs. And meanwhile the _claqueurs_ will have been duly
+distributed by those interested in the success of the performance.
+Every now and then a fine rain of saffron perfume is shed over the
+audience from pipes and jets distributed round the building. It
+deserves remark also that in the theatre, as in the other places of
+amusement, the gathering frequently broke out into demonstrations of
+its feeling towards persons and politics. There was safety in numbers,
+and the applause or hissing which greeted a personage or a topical
+allusion--or a line which could be twisted into such--could hardly be
+laid to the account of any individual. A certain license was conceded
+and fully utilised at the festivals: it served as a safety-valve, and
+wise emperors apparently so regarded it. At Rome the government was
+indeed "despotism tempered by epigram," but it was no less tempered by
+these demonstrations at the games and spectacles.
+
+More worthy of imperial Rome were the exhibitions of chariot-races
+held in the immense Circus Maximus. That building, already described,
+would at this date probably hold some 200,000 persons, but it could
+never provide room enough for the excited people, who not only
+gathered in multitudes from Rome itself, but also from all the
+country, even all the empire, within reach. For weeks the chances of
+the parties have been discussed and betted upon; even the schoolboys
+have talked chariots, chariot-drivers, and horses. The fortune-tellers
+have been consulted about them; dreamers have dreamed the winners; and
+many an underhand attempt, sometimes including the hocussing of men or
+horses, has been made to corrupt the sport. The struggle is in reality
+not between chariot and chariot, but between what we should call
+stable and stable. There are four parties--the white, red, green, and
+blue--whose drivers will wear the respective colours, in which also
+the chariots were probably painted. By some means the green and blue
+have at this date contrived to stand out beyond the others, and the
+chief interest commonly centres upon these.
+
+The day of the great spectacle arrives. Outside the building and in
+the porticoes surrounding it the sellers of books of the races and of
+cushions are plying their trade along with venders of confectionery
+and perfumes. The people are streaming into the numerous entrances
+which lead by stairways to the particular blocks or tiers of seats in
+which they are entitled to sit, and for which they bear a ticket. Full
+citizens are wearing the toga, or, if the emperor has not forbidden
+the practice, the brightly coloured cloak which has been already
+described. Seats are reserved for officials, senators, knights, and
+Vestal Virgins; and on the side under the Palatine is a large
+balcony-box for the emperor and his suite. At these games women have
+no special place set apart for them; they sit in their richest land
+showiest attire among the general body of the spectators, and flirting
+and love-making are part of the order of the day. A very crude form of
+field-glass or "spy-glass" was already in use, apparently consisting
+generally of a mere hollow tube, but occasionally provided with a
+magnifying lens. Nero himself, in consequence of his short-sight, had
+a "glass" in some way contrived of emerald.
+
+At one end of the Circus is a building containing a curved line of
+stalls, equidistant from the starting-point, in which the drivers hold
+their chariots in readiness. These are all barred, and only at the
+signal will the doors be thrown open. The horses are commonly
+three-year-olds or five-year-olds. In some races there are two horses
+to the chariot, in others four. Less commonly there are three or six,
+or even a greater number. In the year 64 the number of cars running
+will be four, one for each club. How many races there are to be, and
+in what variety, will depend upon the presiding officer, who, as has
+been said, is paying a considerable portion of the expenses, and who
+will receive or lose applause according to the entertainment he
+affords to the spectators. Commonly there will be about twenty races
+run, although occasionally even that number be increased.
+
+Down the middle of the arena, though not quite in its axis, runs a low
+broad wall called the "backbone," bearing various sculptures along its
+summit and in the middle an obelisk, now standing in the Piazza del
+Popolo, which Augustus had brought from Egypt after his conquest of
+that country. On the extremities of the "backbone" are placed the
+figures of seven dolphins and seven large eggs, and just free of each
+end, on a base of their own, stand three tall cones coated with gilt,
+round which the chariots are to turn as a yacht turns round the buoy.
+Seven times will the chariots race down the arena, round the end of
+the backbone, and back again. At each lap a dolphin and an egg will be
+removed from the wall, and as the last disappears the winning driver
+makes straight on for the white line which serves as the winning-post.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 84.--PLAN OF CIRCUS.]
+
+But they have not yet started. At the fixed hour a procession starts
+from the Capitol, descends by the temple of Saturn and past the face
+of the Basilica Julia, turns along the "Tuscan Street," and enters the
+Circus under a large archway in the middle of the building which
+contains the stalls. In front go a body of musicians with blare of the
+straight Roman trumpet and the scream of the flageolets; behind these
+comes the high official who has charge of the particular festival. He
+is mounted high on a chariot, and is clothed in a toga embroidered
+with gold and a tunic figured with golden palm-branches: in his hand
+he carries an ivory sceptre, and over his head is held a crown of
+gold-leaf. Behind the chariot is collected a retinue in festal array.
+The competing chariots follow; after these are the effigies of
+deities, borne on platforms or on vehicles to which are attached
+richly caparisoned horses, mules, or elephants; in attendance upon
+them are the connected priestly bodies. As this procession passes
+round the Circus the spectators rise from their seats, roar their
+acclamations, and wave their handkerchiefs. When it has made the
+circuit, its members retire to their places, and the chariots are shut
+in their stalls. Soon the president takes his stand in his box, lifts
+a large handkerchief or napkin, and drops it. Immediately the bolts of
+the barriers are withdrawn, and the chariots dash forward towards the
+point marked A. The drivers, clothed in a close sleeveless tunic and
+wearing a skull-cap, all of their particular colour, lean forward over
+their steeds, and encourage them with whips and shouting. At their
+waists you will see the reins gathered to a girdle, at which also
+hangs a knife, in readiness to cut them away in case of accident. The
+chariot is a low and shallow vehicle of wood covered with ornament and
+as light as it can well be made, and it requires no little skill for
+the charioteer to maintain his footing while controlling his team.
+Down the straight they rush, each endeavouring to gain an advantage at
+the turn, where the left rein is pulled, and the left horse--the pick
+of the team--is brought as closely round the end of the wall as skill
+and prudence can contrive. It is chiefly, though by no means only,
+here that the accidents occur, and that the chariots lose their
+balance and collide with each other, or strike against the end of the
+wall and are over-thrown. How readily collision might happen may be
+seen from the following diagram, where the courses of two chariots, A
+and B, are indicated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 85.--THE TURN IN THE CIRCUS.]
+
+Sometimes the teams get out of hand and general disaster may result.
+Round and round they go, the spectators yelling in their excitement
+for the blue or the green, the red or the white, and making or
+revising their bets. "Too far out!" "Well turned!" "The green wins!"
+"Well done, Hirpinus!" Shouts like these form a roar to which perhaps
+we have no modern parallel. One by one the eggs and dolphins disappear
+from the wall; the chariots are reduced in number; the four or five
+miles are completed; and an enormous shout goes up for the winner,
+whose name--of man and horse and colour--will be for days in
+everybody's mouth. For his reward he will not only obtain the honour
+of the palm-branch; he will receive presents in money, gold and silver
+wreaths, clothes, and various articles of value. Socially he may be
+but a slave or a person in base esteem; the occupation, however
+reputable in the Greek portion of the empire, is not for a free-born
+Roman; nevertheless, like the jockey who wins the Derby, he is the
+hero of the moment.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 86--CHARIOT-RACE.]
+
+Race follows race, with an interval for the midday meal. During that
+time there will be interludes of acrobatic and other performances. One
+rider, for example, will stand upright on the back of two or more
+horses, and will spring continually from one to the other while they
+are at the gallop. Most of the company will take their refreshments
+where they are. When a man of some standing was reproached by Augustus
+for this rather undignified proceeding, he replied: "That is all very
+well for you, Sire, but your place is sure to be kept." We need not
+proceed further into details concerning the "events" in the Circus. It
+may however be worth while to add that the Romans cared nothing for
+the modern form of race by jockeys on single horses.
+
+The Circus is quite a different thing from the oval amphitheatre, a
+structure for once of native Roman devising, without which no Roman
+town could consider itself complete. Though the Colosseum was not yet
+built, there already existed an amphitheatre in the Campus Martius,
+and such buildings were to be found in all considerable towns which
+contained a large Roman element. There is one, though of later date
+than Nero, still to be seen in fair preservation at Verona; the
+well-known amphitheatre at Pompeii was in full use in the year 64, and
+other cities--Capua, Puteoli, Nîmes, Antioch, or Caesarea--were
+provided with the joys of the gladiatorial shows and the beast-fight.
+Only in the thoroughly Greek or thoroughly Oriental part of the empire
+was the amphitheatre absent. Where there was no fixed building of
+stone or wood, a temporary structure was erected and a company of
+gladiators would perform in the place at the expense of some local
+officer or of some wealthy citizen with social ambitions. Whatever may
+be thought of the Greeks in other respects, they felt no liking, but
+only an openly expressed repulsion, for the barbarous exhibitions of
+bloodshed in which the Roman revelled. Outside Jerusalem an
+amphitheatre was built by the romanizing Herod, but it was done to the
+horror of all orthodox Jews.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 87.--AMPHITHEATRE AT POMPEII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--BARRACKS OF GLADIATORS (Pompeii.)]
+
+The performances were of two main kinds; fights between men and
+beasts--occasionally between two kinds of wild beast--and fights
+between men and men. There was no make-believe about these combats;
+they meant at least serious wounds, even when they did not mean death.
+Those who fought with beasts might in some cases be volunteers; in
+general they were captives or condemned criminals, and it perhaps
+hardly needs pointing out that, when St. Paul says he had "fought with
+beasts at Ephesus," he is merely speaking in metaphor adapted to the
+times. It was not intended that the criminal should escape death, but
+only that he should be able to make a fight for his life. Meanwhile
+the gladiators who fought with men and not with beasts were in the
+position of professionals, who might be slaves, condemned brigands,
+mutineers, prisoners of war, or volunteers. The picture drawn by
+Byron, although the so-called "Dying Gladiator" which inspired him is
+in reality no gladiator but a Gaulish warrior, perhaps fairly
+represents one class of combatant, but it represents only one. In the
+case of these "swordsmen" a number of successful fights might in the
+end secure freedom and something more for slave or prisoner, and a
+competence for the volunteer. It was not unnatural that men of courage
+and strength should frequently offer themselves for this service.
+Their physical training was indeed severe both in the way of exercise
+and of diet, and their personal treatment was harsh and ignominious;
+but their fame, such as it might be, was wide, and their rewards often
+solid. Contemporary writers also complain that, however brutal and
+ugly they were, there were always women ready to adore them and to
+consider them as beautiful as Adonis. At Pompeii a scribbling calls
+one of them "the sigh of the girls." Nevertheless no Roman with much
+self-respect, unless forced by a malignant emperor, would bear the
+stigma of having appeared as a gladiator, any more than in modern
+times one would choose to be known as a professional pugilist.
+Moreover these same heroes, after their glorious day in the arena,
+were carefully stripped of their showy armour, imprisoned in barracks,
+and, if disobedient or troublesome, chastised with the lash and put in
+irons or the stocks.
+
+The prelude to a beast-fight was frequently rather a "hunt," amounting
+to a demonstration of skill in dealing with wild animals which could
+hardly be said to fight, but which were difficult to capture or kill.
+Success with javelins or arrows required somewhat more skill and
+daring than the "big game" shooting of modern times. To give a greater
+air of naturalness to the performance the arena was sometimes
+temporarily planted with shrubs and trees, and diversified with
+rock-work. After the beast "hunt" came the beast "fight," which might
+be against bisons or bulls, wild boars or wolves, lions or tigers, a
+rhinoceros or an elephant. In such contests the man commonly wore no
+body-armour. He took his sword or spear, swathed his right arm and his
+legs, and went out to meet the enemy in his tunic. The beasts were
+either let loose from the end of the arena, or, as later in the
+Colosseum, they were brought up in cages from their underground dens
+by means of lifts worked by pulleys. Indirectly, it may be observed,
+the mania for this sport produced one distinctly beneficial result,
+inasmuch as the more dangerous wild beasts became almost exterminated
+from the Roman world. The number killed was enormous, hundreds of
+lions or panthers being produced and slain during the shows of a
+single festival. It may be added that on the top of the wall or
+platform surrounding the arena there was placed--at least in the
+Colosseum--a metal grating or screen, of which the top bar revolved,
+so that if a wild beast managed to spring so high and take a grip, the
+feat was of no use to him. To keep him at a further distance a trench
+surrounded the arena and separated it from the platform.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 89.--STOCKS FOR GLADIATORS. (Remains from
+Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 90.--GLADIATORS FIGHTING.]
+
+But the great entertainment of the amphitheatre was the combats of men
+with men. After the beast-fights, which were held in the mornings, and
+amounted in estimation to a matinee, there followed the fights of the
+gladiators. Outside the building are being sold the books which
+catalogue the pairings, together with some record of the men, the name
+of their training-school, and a statement as to the weapons with which
+they will fight and as to whether they have made previous appearances.
+At the appointed time the procession enters from one end of the arena,
+and the combatants parade and salute the emperor, if he is present, or
+the presiding officer. Their weapons are examined, and there is a
+preliminary sham-fight, partly for exhibition of skill and to
+influence bets, partly for practice. The men then return to their
+places, a trumpet blows, and a pair commences the real fighting.
+Sometimes a man is in full and heavy armour from head to foot;
+sometimes he is lightly equipped with a half-shield and a spear;
+sometimes he carries only a sharp three-pronged spear and a
+casting-net, in which he endeavours to enmesh an enemy fully armed.
+Besides combats on foot, there may be fights upon horseback, or even
+in chariots of the kind then best known in Britain. To encourage the
+participants, and to lend more spirit to the scene, there is a blowing
+of horns and trumpets while the fight proceeds. All around the people
+are shouting their comments and their advice; they applaud and adjure
+and curse. "Get up to him!" "Kill him!" and the like are heard on
+every side. A man falls, not dead, but disabled, and the spectators
+shout "He has it." He holds up his finger in sign of defeat, but he
+utters no cry. Shall he be killed, or shall he not? The answer depends
+on the president or "giver" of the exhibition. He looks round, and if
+he perceives that the great majority are giving an upward flick of the
+thumb, and hears them call "Give him the steel!" the man is doomed;
+if, on the contrary, handkerchiefs are waved, his life is spared. A
+good fight or a good record may save him to fight again another day.
+The formal presentation of a wooden sword would mean that he was
+discharged for life from the necessity of further fighting. If his
+enemy's dagger must be pressed into his throat, or if he has been
+slain outright, there is a passage under the middle of the side of the
+amphitheatre through which the body will be dragged by a hook into the
+mortuary. Another combat follows between another pair--sometimes
+between two sides--and should the arena become too sodden with blood,
+it is raked over and fresh sand is scattered.
+
+It is amazing in what a cold-blooded manner all this was carried out.
+When one reads the notices written up at Pompeii, that on
+such-and-such a date there will be exhibited so many pairs of
+gladiators, that "there will be a beast-hunt," and that "awnings will
+be provided and perfume sprinkled," it is difficult at first to
+realise that it means all that it does mean. To the credit of the
+Romans--so far as they deserve any at all--let it be stated that the
+presence of women was not encouraged at these shows; that if they
+appeared at all, it must be in the upper tier, as far as possible from
+the arena; and, strangely enough, that only the six Vestals, in virtue
+of their religious claims, could be placed in any position of honour.
+These sat upon the lowest platform, in line with the special seats of
+the emperor or president and the highest officials of the state, but
+it is probably a libel for an artist to depict them as so many Maenads
+lusting for the blood of the vanquished.
+
+The only other form of public entertainment which it seems desirable
+to mention was that of a naval battle, in which the sea was either
+represented by flooding the amphitheatre, or by means of a permanent
+lake, such as that which Augustus created artificially across the
+Tiber. The proceedings bore all the appearance of reality. Ships were
+rammed, sunk, overturned, and boarded, and, so far as the men were
+concerned, the battle might be as grim and bloody as any other kind of
+gladiatorial contest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+We will assume that Silius is a married man, and that his wife is a
+typical Roman dame worthy of his station in life. Her name shall be
+Marcia, or, if she possesses more than one, Marcia Sabina. Marriage
+does not confer upon her the name of her husband, and if she requires
+further identification in connection with him, she will be referred to
+as "Silius's Marcia." At an earlier date a woman owned but a single
+name, but already practical convenience and pride of descent had
+combined to make it desirable that she should bear a second, which
+might be taken from the family either of her father or of her mother.
+Thus if Silius and Marcia themselves have a daughter, she may in her
+turn perhaps be called Silia Bassa, perhaps Silia Marcia.
+
+If now we proceed to describe the position of Marcia in her conjugal
+and family relations, to speak of her way of life, and to suggest her
+probable character, it must be understood that the description would
+by no means necessarily fit every Roman matron. Women are said to be
+infinitely various, and in this respect the ancient world was
+precisely like the modern. And not only has it further to be borne in
+mind that there were several strata of Roman society, and that city
+life differed widely from country life; there was also an actual
+difference in the legal position of a wife, according to the terms
+upon which she had chosen to enter the state of wedlock. In other
+words, there were two forms of matrimony. According to the
+old-fashioned style a wife passed into the power of the husband; her
+legal position--though not, of course, her domestic standing--was the
+same as that of his daughter. Once on a time he had even possessed the
+right of putting her to death, but at our date that privilege no
+longer existed. It was enough that she should be subject to his
+authority. In that position she managed the home and family, and often
+managed him as well. How far this time-honoured style of marriage was
+still maintained among the lower classes of Roman society it is
+impossible to tell; our information is almost entirely restricted to
+the higher, or at least the wealthier, orders. It is, however,
+probable that among the artisans and labourers, where the dowry of a
+wife cannot have amounted to anything very considerable, this more
+stringent state of matrimony was the rule. Paterfamilias was the head
+and lord of the house, while materfamilias held in practice much the
+same position as she did in Anglo-Saxon households of two or three
+generations ago.
+
+Meanwhile among the upper classes, but in no way legally limited to
+them, an alternative and easier form of marriage had become
+increasingly popular. It was one which gave to both parties the
+greatest amount of freedom of which a conjugal union could reasonably
+allow. The woman did not pass into the power of the man, and, short of
+actual infidelity, she lived her own life in her own way, although
+naturally conforming to certain recognised etiquette as a partner in a
+respectable Roman _ménage_. If neither affection nor moral suasion
+could preserve harmony or proper courses, either party might formally
+repudiate the contract, and, after a short interval, seek better
+fortune in some other quarter. There was, of course, a public
+sentiment to be considered; there was family influence; there was the
+characteristic Roman pride; there was often a fair measure of mutual
+esteem and even affection; and there were obvious joint interests
+which made for stability; but beyond these considerations there was
+nothing to hamper the inclination of either husband or wife. Yet it is
+a grave mistake to imagine, because there was much, and sometimes
+appalling, looseness of life under a Nero, that the race of noble and
+virtuous Roman matrons--the Cornelias and Valerias and Volumnias--was
+extinct; and it is equally a mistake to suppose that Rome no longer
+produced its honourable gentlemen filled with a sense of their
+responsibilities to family and state. The satirist should not here,
+nor elsewhere, be our chief, much less our only, guide. The England of
+Charles II is not to be judged in its entirety by the comedies of the
+time nor by the _Memoirs_ of Grammont. On this matter, however, it
+will be more convenient to touch in a later paragraph. It will be best
+to deal first with the system in vogue, and then to consider the sort
+of woman whom it produced.
+
+It cannot be denied that at this date, though marriage was regarded as
+the normal and proper condition for men and women who desired to do
+their duty by the state, and though the wise emperors did everything
+in their power to encourage it, a very large proportion of the men of
+the upper classes regarded it as a burden and a vexatious interference
+with their liberty. It was not necessarily that they had any desire to
+be vicious, nor indeed would marriage be much of a hindrance to vice;
+it was that they desired to be free. The cause of their disinclination
+was the same as it is sometimes alleged to be now--the increasing
+demands of women, their increasing unwillingness to bear the natural
+responsibilities of matrimony, their extravagant expectations, and the
+impossibility of there being two masters in one house claiming equal
+authority. But whereas we recognise that love is a possible adjuster
+of all the difficulties, it was no tradition of the Romans that
+marriage should be based on love. With them it very seldom began with
+love, or even with direct personal choice, but was in most instances
+entirely a _mariage de convenance_ and arranged for them as such. Even
+after marriage we are told by a contemporary writer that the proper
+feeling for a man to entertain for his wife is rational respect, not
+emotional affection. Experience has shown that the result was too
+often unsatisfactory.
+
+It is unfortunate that the only satires or criticisms on married life
+which have come down to us were written by men; one would like to hear
+what the women might have said, if a woman had ever been a satirist.
+There is nearly always some basis of truth in a classic satire, but
+the question is "How much?" Juvenal belongs to a later generation than
+that of Nero, but what he says is doubtless equally applicable to that
+age. It is therefore interesting to note one or two of his objections
+to contemporary woman, regarded as a wife. In the first place she is
+too interfering and even dictatorial. "What madness is it," he asks of
+the man whom he supposes himself to be addressing, "that drives you to
+marry? How can you bear with a tyrannous woman, when there are so many
+good ropes in the world, when there are high windows to throw yourself
+out of, or when there is the bridge quite handy?" "Why should you be
+made to wear the muzzle?" "Why take into your house some one who will
+perhaps shut the door in the face of an old friend whom you have known
+ever since he was a boy?" "When you displease her, she weeps, for she
+keeps tears always ready to fall, but when you try to prevent her from
+displeasing you, she tells you it was agreed that each should have
+liberty, and that she is a human being." He goes on to attack her
+faithlessness, her extravagance, her superstition, her loquacity, and
+so forth. Let us by all means discount his fierce invectives;
+nevertheless we must take them as but a heightened way of putting
+circumstances which had a real and all too frequent existence, and
+which encouraged the growing fancy for bachelordom. We shall, however,
+soon look at a very different picture of domestic relations, and it is
+only fair to assume that these also were by no means uncommon.
+
+A Roman girl with a reasonable dowry might expect to be married at any
+age from about 13 to 18. The Italian of the south, like the Greek,
+ripens early. The legal age was 12; on the other hand to be unmarried
+at 19 was to be distinctly an old maid. In the northern provinces of
+the empire maturity was less early, whereas south of the Mediterranean
+it was even earlier. The legal age for the bridegroom was that at
+which his father or guardian allowed him to put on the "toga of the
+man" and enter the Forum. Thus theoretically a Roman youth might
+become a benedict when about sixteen, and Nero was only at that age
+when he married his first wife Octavia. Generally speaking, however,
+if Marcia was as old as 16, Silius would hardly be under 26 or 27.
+
+The marriage, as has been said already, would commonly be a matter of
+arrangement between families, sometimes effected by their own members,
+sometimes by an interested friend or some other go-between. "You ask
+me," writes Pliny to Mauricus, "to look out for a husband for your
+niece. There is no need to look far, for I know a man who might seem
+to have been provided on purpose. His name is Minicius. He is
+well-connected, and comes from Brescia, which you know to be a good
+old-fashioned place retaining the simple and modest manners of the
+country. He is a man of active energy and has held high public office.
+In appearance he is a gentleman, well-built, and with a wholesome
+ruddy complexion. His father has ample means, and though perhaps your
+family is not much concerned on that point, we have to remember that a
+man's income is one of the first considerations in the eyes, not only
+of our social system, but of the law."
+
+A marriage of the full and regular type could only be contracted
+between free citizens. There were varying degrees of the morganatic
+about all others, such as marriage with a foreigner or emancipated
+slave. A non-Roman wife meant that the children were non-Roman. A man
+of the senatorial order could not marry a freedwoman, if he wished to
+have the union recognised; also no complete marriage could be
+contracted with a person labouring under degradation publicly
+inflicted by the authorities or degraded _ipso facto_ by certain
+occupations. For this reason the actress on the "variety" stage could
+not aspire to become even an acknowledged Roman wife, much less a
+member of the order which more or less corresponded to our peerage.
+Nor could a Roman marry a relative within certain prohibited degrees.
+He might not, in fact, marry any woman whom he already possessed what
+was called "the right to kiss."
+
+We are, however, dealing with two persons entirely beyond exception,
+namely Quintus Silius Bassus and Marcia Sabina. A match has been made
+between these parties, perhaps several years before the actual
+marriage can take place, and while the intended bride is a mere child
+of ten: even the future groom may be but a boy. When the go-between
+has done his or her work to the satisfaction of both families, there
+takes place a betrothal ceremony, of which the original purpose was,
+of course, to bind each party morally to carry out the contract, but
+which, by the year 64, might mean very little.
+
+In theory the Roman law required the consent of both participants; a
+father could not absolutely force son or daughter to marry a
+particular person, nor, indeed, any person at all. But on the other
+hand, according to the Roman law, neither sons nor daughters were free
+to act independently of the father's will, nor to possess independent
+property, so long as the father lived, or until he chose to
+"emancipate." It naturally follows that paternal pressure was the
+chief factor in determining a marriage, and only those men or women
+whose fathers were dead, or who had been formally freed from tutelage,
+were in a position absolutely to please themselves. We need not
+suppose either that sons were always very amenable, or that parents
+were invariably self-willed and autocratic, but it is obvious that
+marriages based on mutual attraction must have been extremely few. We
+will suppose that Silius is his own master, while Marcia has a father
+or a guardian still alive.
+
+At the betrothal ceremony the friends of both houses are in
+attendance, a regular form of words is interchanged between Silius and
+the father of Marcia, a ring is given by the man to his _fiancée_, to
+be worn on the fourth finger of her left hand, and he adds some other
+present, most probably some form of that jewellery of which the Roman
+women were and still are so extraordinarily fond. A feast naturally
+follows.
+
+You would think this performance sufficiently binding, and binding no
+doubt it was from a moral point of view, so long as there was
+reasonably good behaviour on either side, or so long as neither Silius
+nor Marcia's father was prepared wantonly to flout general opinion or
+to offend a whole connection by simply changing his mind. On the other
+hand, there was no legal compulsion whatever to carry out the
+contract. The Roman world knew nothing of actions for breach of
+promise. If either party chose to repudiate the engagement, they were
+free so to do. In that case they were said to "send back a refusal" or
+to "send a counter-notice." A family dispute, a breath of suspicion, a
+change of circumstances, and even an improved prospect might be
+sufficient excuse, or no excuse need be offered at all.
+
+In the present instance, however, no such ugly missive passes between
+the house of Silius on the Caelian Hill and that of Marcius on the
+Aventine, the wedding takes place in due course. It will not be in May
+nor in early March or June, nor on certain other dates which, for
+reasons mostly long forgotten, were regarded as inauspicious. It is a
+social ceremony, and neither state nor priest will have anything to do
+with sanctioning or blessing it. The pillars at the sides of the
+vestibules of both houses are wreathed with leaves and boughs, and the
+friends and clients of both families proceed in festal array to the
+house of the bride. If Marcia is very young she has taken her
+playthings--dolls and the like--and has dedicated them to the
+household gods as a sign that she now puts away childish things and
+devotes herself to the serious tasks of life. She has then been
+carefully dressed for the occasion. Her hair, however she may have
+worn it before or may wear it afterwards, is for to-day made up into
+six plaits or braids, which are wound into a coil on the top of her
+head. As an initial rite it is parted by means of an instrument
+resembling a spear, a survival of the time when a bride was a prize of
+war, and when her long locks were actually divided by a veritable
+spear in token of her subjection. Round this coiffure is placed a
+bridal wreath, made of flowers which she must have gathered with her
+own hands, and over her head is thrown a veil--more strictly a
+cloth--of some orange-yellow or "flame-coloured" material, which does
+not, however, like the Grecian or Oriental veil, conceal her face. On
+her feet are low yellow shoes. Meanwhile the bridegroom arrives,
+escorted by his friends, and he also wears a festal garland. As with
+all other important undertakings of Roman life, a professional seer
+will be in attendance to take care that the auspices are favourable.
+Peculiar portents, very unpropitious behaviour of nature, a very
+strange appearance in the entrails of a sacrificial victim, are omens
+which no properly constituted Roman can afford to overlook. The
+auspices being favourable--and there is reason to believe that no
+undue insistence was laid on their unpropitious aspects--the bride is
+led into the reception-hall, and the contract of marriage is signed
+and sealed. That there should be a dowry, and a considerable one, goes
+without saying. In some cases it is actually settled on the husband,
+who is to all intents and purposes purchased by it; but in most it is
+available for his use only so long as the marriage continues unbroken.
+For the rest, the wife's property is and remains her own. Her guardian
+is still her father and not her husband: her legal connection is still
+with her own family and not with his. She is a Marcia and not a Silia.
+If the marriage is dissolved, at least without sufficient demonstrable
+provocation on her part, her father will see that her dower is paid
+back. To such terms as these the parties affix their names and seals,
+and a certain number of friends add their signatures as witnesses.
+
+This done, one of the younger married women present takes the bride
+and leads her across to Silius who holds her right hand in his. Both
+repeat a prescribed formula of words, and all the company present
+exclaims "Good luck to you!" and offers such other congratulations as
+seem fit. A wedding-dinner is held, generally, but not necessarily, in
+the house of the bride, and a wedding-cake, served upon bay-leaves, is
+cut up and divided among the guests. It is now evening, and a
+procession is formed to bring Marcia home to the house of Silius. In
+front will march the torchbearers and what we should call "the band,"
+consisting in these circumstances of a number of persons playing upon
+the flageolet. Silius goes through a pretence of carrying off Marcia
+by force--another practice reminiscent of the ancient time when men
+won their brides by methods similar to those of the Australian
+aborigine with his waddy. Both groom and bride are important people,
+and along the streets there is many a decoration; many a window and
+doorway is filled with spectators; shouts, not always of the most
+discreet, are heard from all sides, and loud above all rings the
+regular _Io Talasse_--whatever that may have meant, for no man now
+knows, and almost certainly no one knew then. In the midst of the
+procession Marcia, followed by bearers of her spindle and distaff, is
+being led by two pretty boys, while a third carries a torch; Silius
+meanwhile is scattering nuts or walnuts, or _confetti_ made like them,
+to the crowd. Arrived on the Caelian, the bride is once more seized
+and lifted over the threshold; when inside the hall, Silius presents
+her with fire and water in token of her common share in the household
+and its belongings; and she offers prayers to various old-fashioned
+goddesses who are supposed to preside over the introduction to married
+life.
+
+If we have given with some particularity the orthodox proceedings of a
+fashionable wedding, it must again be remembered that not all weddings
+were fashionable, and that one or other of these details might be
+omitted as taste or circumstances required. Among the poorer folk
+there must often have been practically no ceremony at all beyond the
+"bringing home." And if there are certain items which appear to us
+trivial and meaningless, it is probably unfamiliarity which breeds our
+contempt. Perhaps a far-off generation may wonder how civilised folk
+in the twentieth century could perform absurd antics with rice and
+slippers.
+
+Marcia is now what was known as a "matron." Her position is far more
+free than it could ever have been in Greece or the Orient, more free
+indeed than it would be in any civilised country at the present time.
+The Romans had at all times placed the matron in a position of dignity
+and responsibility, and to this is now added the greatest liberty of
+action. Her husband salutes her in public as "Madam." Since he is a
+senator, and it is beginning to be the vogue to call such men "The
+Most Illustrious," she also shares that title in polite reference to
+herself. She is not confined to any particular portion of the house,
+nor, within the limits of decorum, is she excluded from masculine
+company. She is the mistress of the establishment, controlling, not
+only the female slaves, but also the males, in so far as they are
+engaged in the work of the household. She keeps the keys of the
+store-rooms. Theoretically at least she has been trained in all the
+arts of the housekeeper, and thoroughly understands domestic
+management, together with the weaving and spinning which her handmaids
+are to perform. The merits of the wife, as summed up in the epitaphs
+of the middle classes, are those of "good counsellor good manager, and
+good worker in wool." She walks or is carried abroad at her pleasure,
+attends the public games in the Circus, and goes with her husband to
+dinner-parties, where she reclines at the meal just as he does. When
+her tutelage is past she can take actions in the law-courts, or appear
+as witness or surety. Her property is at her own disposal, and she
+instructs her own agent or attorney. It is only necessary that she
+should guard the honour of her husband. So long as he trusts her he
+will not interfere. It is only a very tyrannical spouse who will
+insist that her litter or sedan-chair shall have the curtains drawn
+when in the streets. We will assume that Marcia is a lady of the true
+Roman self-respect and dignity, and that Silius and she live a life of
+reasonable harmony.
+
+But though there were many such Marcias, there were other women of a
+very different character. There is, for instance, Flavia, who has a
+perfect frenzy for "manly" sports, and practises all manner of
+athletic exercises, wrestling and fencing like any man, and perhaps
+becoming infatuated and practically running away with some brawny but
+hideous gladiator. She also indulges frankly in mixed bathing. There
+is Domitia, who is too fond Of promenading in the colonnades and
+temples, where a _cavaliere servente_, ostensibly her business
+man--though he does not look like it--may regularly be seen carrying
+her parasol. When at home, she neglects her attire and plasters her
+face with dough in order to smooth out the wrinkles, so that she may
+give to anybody but her own family the benefit of her beauty. There is
+the ruinously extravagant Pollia, whose passion for jewels and fine
+clothes runs her deeply into debt, for which, fortunately, her husband
+is not responsible. There is Canidia, who is shrewdly suspected of
+having poisoned more than one husband and who has either divorced or
+been divorced by so many that she has had eight of them in five years,
+and dates events by them instead of in the regular way by the
+consulships: "Let me see. That was in the year in which I was married
+to So-and-So." There is Asinia, whose selfishness is so great, and her
+affection so frivolous, that she will weep over a sparrow and "let her
+husband die to save her lap-dog's life." All these women are most
+likely childless, and many a noble Roman house threatens to become
+extinct.
+
+There are others, again, whose foibles are more innocent. Baebia, for
+example, is merely a victim to superstition. She is always consulting
+the astrologers, the witches, and the dream-readers; she is devoted to
+the mystic worship of the Egyptian Isis, with its secret rites of
+purification, or she is a proselyte to the pestilent notions of the
+Jews. She is too much under the influence of some squalid Oriental who
+carries his pedlar's basket, or whose business is to buy broken glass
+for sulphur matches Meanwhile Corellia is a blue-stocking, as bad as a
+_précieuse_ with a _salon_. As soon as you sit down to table she
+begins to quote Homer and Virgil and to compare their respective
+merits. She cultivates bright conversation in both Greek and Latin,
+and her tongue goes loudly and incessantly like a bell or gong. Her
+poor husband is never permitted to indulge in an expression which is
+not strictly grammatical. Worse still, she probably even writes little
+poems of her own. She may keep a tame tutor in philosophy, but she
+makes no scruple about interrupting his lesson on morals while she
+writes a little billet-doux. Pomponia is an ambitious woman, whose
+mania is to interfere in elections by bringing to bear upon the
+senators what has been called in recent times the "duchesses'"
+influence. If her husband becomes governor of a province, she will
+endeavour to be the power behind the throne, and her meddling will in
+any case prove harmful to the strict administration of justice.
+
+The remedy in such cases was divorce. In the lower orders of society a
+mild personal castigation was quite legal and probably not uncommon;
+but then in these lower orders divorce was by no means so convenient.
+Among the upper classes its frequency made it scarcely a matter of
+remark. Nothing like it has been seen until modern America. There was
+no need of an appeal to the courts or of a decree _nisi_; there was
+not even need of a specific plea, although naturally one would be
+offered in most cases. The husband or wife (or the wife's father, if
+she had one), might send a formal and witnessed notice declaring the
+marriage dissolved, or, as it was called, "breaking the marriage
+lines." The man had only to take this step and say with due
+deliberation "Take your own property"--or, as the satirist puts it,
+"pack up your traps"--"give up the keys, and begone." The woman on her
+side need only give similar notice and "take her departure." The only
+check lay in family considerations, in public opinion, which was
+extremely lenient, in financial convenience, or in the possibility of
+particularly wanton conduct being so disapproved in high quarters that
+a senator or a knight might perhaps find his name missing from the
+list of his order at the next revision.
+
+It has appeared necessary to give this darker side of the social
+picture, for, though assuredly not so lurid as might be gathered from
+the moralists, it was dark enough. For obvious reasons it is desirable
+not to elaborate. It is perhaps more profitable, as well as
+refreshing, to consider the brighter side. That there were noble women
+and good wives, and that the froth and scum and dregs of idle
+town-life did not make up the existence of the contemporary Roman
+world, may be seen from passages like the following, which are either
+quoted or condensed from a letter of Pliny concerning a lady named
+Arria. The events belong to the reign of Nero's predecessor Claudius.
+Pliny writes: "Her husband, Caecina Paetus, was ill; so also was her
+son; and it was expected that both would die. The son, an extremely
+handsome and modest youth, succumbed. His mother arranged for his
+funeral and carried it out, the husband meanwhile being kept in
+ignorance. Not only so, but every time she came into his room she
+pretended that the son was alive and better, and very often, when he
+asked how the boy was getting on, she answered, 'He has slept well,
+and shown a good appetite.' Then, when the tears which she had so long
+kept back proved too much for her, she used to leave the room and give
+herself up to grief. When at last she had dried her eyes and composed
+her countenance she returned to the room. When her husband had taken
+part in an intended revolt against Claudius, he was to be carried as a
+prisoner across the Adriatic to Rome. He was on the point of
+embarking, when Arria begged the soldiers to take her on board with
+him. 'I presume,' she said, 'you mean to allow an ex-consul a few
+attendants of some kind, to give him his food, and to put on his
+clothes and shoes. I will do all that myself.'" Her request being
+refused, "she hired a fishing-smack and followed the big vessel in
+this tiny one." When Claudius ordered the husband to put himself to
+death, Arria took a dagger, stabbed herself in the breast, drew the
+weapon out, and handed it to him with the words: "Paetus, it does not
+hurt. It is what you are about to do that hurts."
+
+Arria doubtless is a rare type of heroine. But also of the quiet
+domesticated wife we have a description from the same writer.
+Unfortunately the letter is one of the most priggish of all the rather
+self-complacent epistles written by that thoroughly respectable and
+estimable man; but that fact takes nothing from the information for
+which we are looking. Pliny is writing to his own wife's aunt. "You
+will be very glad to learn that Calpurnia is turning out worthy of her
+father, of yourself, and of her grandfather. She has admirable sense
+and is an excellent housekeeper; she is fond of me, which speaks well
+for her character. Through her affection for me she has also developed
+a taste for literature. She possesses my books and is always reading
+them; she even learns them by heart. When I am to make a speech in
+court, she is all anxiety; when I have made it, she is all joy. She
+arranges a string of messengers to let her know what effect I produce,
+what applause I win, and what result I have obtained. If I give a
+reading, she sits in the next room behind a curtain and listens
+greedily to the compliments paid to me. She even sets my verses to
+music and sings them to the harp, with no professional to teach her,
+but only love, who is the best of masters. I have therefore every
+reason to hope that our harmony will not only last but grow greater
+every day."
+
+And all this time, away in the country homestead and cottage, the good
+Marsian or Sabine mother is a veritable pattern of domestic probity
+and discipline. If she possesses handmaids, she teaches them their
+work in the kitchen or at the loom; if she possesses none, she brings
+up her big daughters in the right ways of modesty, frugality, and
+obedience to the gods; and her tall sons religiously obey her when she
+sends them out to chop the firewood in the rain and cold of the
+mountain-side.
+
+One subject of perpetual interest where women are concerned is that of
+dress and personal appearance. The Roman woman emphatically pursued
+the cult of beauty and personal adornment. Perhaps the first prayer
+which a mother offered for an expected daughter was that she should be
+beautiful. Whether she proved so or not, no pains were spared to
+correct or supplement the work of nature. It is true that fashion,
+except in the dressing of hair, underwent none of those rapid and
+astonishing changes which perplex the unsophisticated male of to-day.
+Above all, there were no hats. But all that gold and jewels,
+colours--blue, green, yellow, violet--and varied stuffs--woollen,
+linen, muslin, and silk--could do for dress was done by every typical
+woman of means; and every device for improving the complexion, the
+teeth, the hair, the height, and the figure--which, by the way, never
+sought the wasplike waist--was fully exploited. We need not go too
+closely into details. It will be enough to describe the ordinary
+attire and the ordinary methods of beautification.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 91.--TOILET SCENE. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+The conventional indoor dress consisted of, first, an inner tunic,
+short and sleeveless, with a band passing over or under the breast, so
+as to produce something resembling what is called the Empire figure;
+second, an outer tunic of linen or half-silk, less often of whole
+silk, which fell to the feet. The outer tunic was fastened on the
+shoulders with brooches; it had sleeves over the upper arm, and, in
+the case of adults but not of young girls, a flounce or furbelow at
+the bottom. A girdle produced a fold under the breast. The garment was
+commonly white, but might be bordered with coloured fringes and
+embroidery; for ladies of senatorial rank it bore the broad stripe
+worked in purple or gold. On the feet sandals were often worn, but for
+out-of-doors these were replaced by soft shoes of white, coloured or
+gilded leather, sometimes studded with pearls or other gems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 92.--WOMAN IN FULL DRESS.]
+
+When a lady left the house she threw over the indoor dress a large
+mantle or shawl, much resembling the toga of the men, except that its
+colour was apparently what she pleased. This article was passed over
+the left shoulder and under the right arm, which was left free; it
+then fell in graceful folds to the feet. Works of art show that a fold
+of the shawl was frequently laid over the top and back of the head,
+for which no less becoming covering had yet been introduced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG-93.--HAIRPINS.]
+
+The hair alone was subject to innumerable vagaries either of fashion
+or of individual taste. It might have a parting or no parting; it
+might be plaited over the head and fastened by jewelled tortoise-shell
+combs, or by pins of ivory, silver, or bronze with jewelled heads, as
+varied and ornamental as the modern hatpin; it might be carried to the
+back and rest in a knot on the neck, where it was bound with ribbons;
+it might be piled into a huge pyramid or "towers of many stories," so
+that a woman often looked tall in front and appeared quite a different
+person at the back; it might be encased in a coloured cloth or in a
+net of gold thread, for which poorer people substituted a bladder. But
+in all cases it was preferred that the hair should be wavy, and this
+was a matter which was attended to by a special _coiffeur_ kept among
+the slaves. No handmaid had a harder or more ungrateful task than the
+tiring-woman, who built up and fastened the reluctant locks while the
+mistress contemplated the effect in her bronze or silver mirror. There
+was no rule for a woman's treatment of herself in this respect.
+"Consult your mirror," is the advice of the poet Ovid, who has
+hopelessly lost all count of styles, since they were "more numerous
+than the leaves on the oak or the bees on Hybla." To full dress
+belonged a coronal or tiara, consisting of a band of gold and precious
+stones.
+
+But who shall dare to speak of the jewellery that bedecked a Roman
+matron _en grande tenue_--of the pearl and pendant earrings, the
+necklaces of pearl and diamonds, the gold snake armlets with their
+emerald eyes, the bangles and finger-rings, the brooches and buckles
+on the shoulders and down the sleeves, the gems scattered among the
+hair, the chains and châtelaines strung with all manner of glittering
+articles? Says one who lived at the time: "I have seen Lollia Paulina
+covered with emeralds and pearls gleaming all over her head, hair,
+ears, neck, and fingers to the value of over £300,000." If Rome is the
+eternal city, it is eternal in this respect at least as much as in any
+other.
+
+Who, still more bold, shall pry into her apparatus for the
+beautification of her person, examining her patch-box and the innocent
+little pots of rouge, vermilion, and white lead for the complexion,
+and of soot to rub under the eyes? Who shall scrutinise too closely
+that delicate blue which tinges her temples? Who shall dare to
+question whether that yellow hair of the most approved tone, then best
+seen in Germany, grew where you find it or came from some head across
+the Rhine? Who shall venture to ask whether that smooth skin was
+preserved by her wearing last night a mask of meal, which she washed
+off this morning with asses' milk? Petronius, indeed, says that the
+"lady takes her eyebrows out of a little box," and probably Petronius
+knew. For her artificial teeth there is an obvious and sensible
+excuse, and it is no reproach to her if, as the poet declared, "she
+puts her teeth aside at night, just as she does her silks." Probably
+she scents herself far too heavily, but there are many Roman men who
+are just as bad.
+
+She is ready now for all emergencies, and we may leave her, sitting in
+her long-backed cushioned chair, waving in one hand a fan of peacock's
+feathers or of thin wood covered with gold-leaf, and holding in the
+other a ball of amber or glass to keep her hands cool and dry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+Unlike too many couples of the same class, Silius and Marcia are
+blessed with children. We will assume that there are two, a boy, whose
+full name shall be Publius Silius Bassus, and a girl, who is to be
+called Silia Bassa. It is perhaps to be regretted that there is not a
+third, for in that case the father would enjoy to the full certain
+privileges granted by law to parents who so far do their duty by the
+state. As it is, he will in the regular course of things receive
+preference over childless men, when it comes to candidature for a
+public office or to the allotting of a governorship. The decline in
+the birthrate had become so startling at the close of the republic
+that the first emperor, Augustus, had decided that it was necessary on
+the one side to penalise persons who remained either unmarried or
+childless, and on the other to grant fixed concessions to all who were
+the parents of three. A bachelor could not, for instance, receive a
+legacy from any one but a near relative; a married man without
+children could only receive half of such a legacy; a man with three
+children could not only enjoy his legacy in full, but could take the
+shares forfeited by any bachelor or childless legatee who figured in
+the same will. It does not appear that the law produced any great
+effect, and, to make it still more futile, the later emperors began to
+bestow what was called the "privilege of three children" on persons
+who actually had either fewer or none at all.
+
+The power of the father over the children is theoretically almost
+absolute. Even when a son is grown up and married he legally belongs
+to his father; so does all his supposed property. The same is the case
+with a daughter, unless she becomes a Vestal Virgin, or unless she
+marries according to the stricter of the two kinds of matrimony
+already described. In the older days of Rome the father could, and
+sometimes did, put his children to death if he chose. Though too free
+an exercise of so extreme an authority was no longer recognised, it
+was still quite legal to make away with an infant which was badly
+deformed. Says Seneca, in the most matter-of-fact way, "We drown our
+monstrosities." It was quite legal also to expose a child, and leave
+it either to perish or to be taken up by whosoever chose. In most such
+instances doubtless the child became the slave of the finder. Not only
+was this allowable at Rome and in the romanized part of the empire; it
+was a frequent practice throughout the Greek or Eastern portion.
+Again, a father might sell his child as a slave, particularly for
+continual disobedience. All these things the parent might legally do;
+but it is extremely difficult to discover how far they were actually
+done, inasmuch as our information in this respect hardly touches the
+lower classes, while among the upper classes there was naturally far
+less temptation to be rid of the burden of maintaining such few
+children as most families produced. On the whole it appears highly
+improbable that in the truly Roman part of the empire there was any
+considerable destruction of infant life or exposure of infants. It
+does not follow that, because the strict law does not prevent you from
+doing a thing, you will therefore do it, in the face of public
+disapproval and of all the promptings of natural affection. In their
+family relations the ancient Romans possessed at least as much natural
+feeling as is commonly shown in modern times. The fact is that in
+matters of law the Romans were eminently conservative; they left as
+much as possible to the silent working of social opinion. In the
+oldest times the patriarchal system existed in the family, and new
+Roman legislation interfered with parental power only just so far as
+experience had loudly demanded such intervention. There can have been
+no very pronounced abuse of the powers of the father, and, as the
+discipline of the family was regarded as essential to the discipline
+of the state, the law was always unwilling to weaken in any way the
+hold of such family discipline. The strictly legal authority of the
+father was therefore maintained, while its abusive exercise was
+limited by the risk, if not the certainty, that it would meet with
+both public and private censure.
+
+Nevertheless, to return to the point which called for this
+explanation, it is quite in the power of Silius to expose or sell
+little Publius or little Silia. But for a man in his position to do
+anything of the kind would bring the scorn of all Roman society about
+his ears; and, among other humiliations, almost undoubtedly his name
+would be expunged from the senatorial list. Moreover Silus, though a
+pagan, is a human being, and his affection for his children would
+certainly be no less warm than that of the average Christian man of
+to-day.
+
+Immediately after birth there is a little ceremony. The babe is
+brought and laid upon the hearth or floor before the household gods
+for the father to inspect it. As has been said already, if it is a
+monstrosity, he may order it to be made away with. Otherwise it is
+still open to him either to acknowledge the infant or to refuse to
+have anything to do with it. The act of acknowledgment consists in
+stooping down and lifting up the child from the ground. For this
+reason the expression used for acknowledging and undertaking to rear a
+child was "lifting" or "picking up." In our instance the little son
+and daughter are, of course, not only picked up, but welcomed as the
+young hopes of the proud house of Silii Bassi.
+
+On the ninth day in case of the boy, or the eighth in that of the
+girl, the child is named, after certain ceremonies of purification.
+The whole proceeding bears much resemblance to a christening, except
+that there is no calling in of the services of a church. The relations
+and friends gather in the hall, each bringing his present, and even
+the slaves make their little inexpensive offerings. The gifts are
+chiefly little trinkets of gold, silver, and ivory--rings, miniature
+hands, axes, swords, or crescents--which are to be strung across the
+baby's breast. The original purpose of all these objects was to act as
+charms against the blighting of the child by evil powers, or, more
+definitely, by the "evil eye," that malignant influence which still
+troubles so many good Italians, both ignorant and learned. With the
+same intention the father hangs upon the child's neck a certain object
+which it will carry till it comes of age. If a few years later you met
+the boy Publius in the Roman streets, you would find him wearing a
+round case or locket in gold, some two inches in diameter and
+resembling the modern cased watch. Inside is shut his protecting
+amulet. When he is sixteen and puts on the man's toga, his amulet will
+be laid aside. In the case of the little Silia it will be worn until
+she marries. Poorer folk, for whom gold is too expensive, will enclose
+the amulet in a case of leather.
+
+The naming over, the child is registered. The Romans were adepts in
+the art of utilising a religious or superstitious practice for
+purposes of state, and the development of the registration of births
+and deaths is but one instance. In older times it had been a custom,
+on the occasion of a birth, to pay a visit to the shrine of "Juno the
+Birth-Goddess," and to leave a small coin by way of offering. It is
+easy for a state to convert an already established general custom into
+a rule; and at our date this shrine of Juno had become practically a
+registration office, where a small fee was paid and the name of the
+child entered upon the rolls.
+
+We need not follow with any closeness the infancy of either boy or
+girl till the seventh year. The ancient world was very much like the
+modern. Suffice it to glance at them cutting their teeth on the teeth
+of wolves or horses, rocked in cradles decorated with gold and purple,
+or running about and calling their parents by the time-honoured
+_mamma, tata_--words, if we can call them words, which came from those
+small Roman mouths precisely as they have come from time immemorial
+from so many others. Their slave nurse, who is a Greek and talks Greek
+to them, tells them the old wives' tales and fables. They play with
+rattles, balls, and little carts, with pet birds and monkeys, and the
+girl with dolls of ivory or wax or of painted terra-cotta. They have
+swings, and ride on sticks and build houses. When bigger, the boy has
+his tops and hoops, with or without bells, and he plays marbles with
+nuts. Meanwhile attempts are made, somewhat after the kindergarten
+pattern, to teach them their alphabet by means of letters shaped in
+wood or ivory. Whether or not it is modern kindergarten method to
+tempt children to learn by offers of sugar-plums, that course was
+often adopted in the world of both Greece and Rome.
+
+On the whole the life of the child, though strictly governed, appears
+to have been pleasant enough until schooldays began. Though many
+children were taught at home by a more or less learned slave acting as
+private tutor, the great majority, at least of the boys, were sent to
+school. There was at this date no compulsory education; the state
+dictated nothing and provided nothing in connection with the matter;
+many children must have received no education at all, and many only
+the barest elements. Nevertheless the average parent realised the
+practical utility of at least reading, writing, and simple arithmetic,
+and schools of the elementary type sprang up according to the demand.
+What the higher education was like will be set forth in its place.
+
+The ideal education, as understood in the older days of Rome, was a
+training which should fit a man for his duty to the gods, the state,
+and the family. It was above all things a moral and practical
+training. A man has certain domestic, political, and religious
+functions to perform: let him learn how best to perform these. Under
+this system there was little room for accomplishments or for purely
+intellectual pursuits. Little by little, however, such liberal
+elements, artistic and philosophical, struggled into the sphere of
+Roman education, but never to the extent or with the intellectual
+effect which belonged to them in Greece. Even by A.D. 64 the education
+of a Roman boy was very narrow, and, in the direction in which it
+sought some liberality, it often went sadly astray. The clearest
+course will be for us to take young Publius Silius through a course
+typical of the time. We will assume that he does not receive all his
+lessons at home, but that, through an old-fashioned preference on the
+part of his father, he goes to a school, along with boys who are
+mostly but not necessarily of the same social standing with himself.
+
+We have unfortunately almost no information as to any social grading
+of schools, or as to their size. All we know is that some schools were
+taught entirely by one man, while others employed an undermaster or
+several. In some cases the school is entirely a private enterprise,
+the master charging a monthly fee--amounting in the elementary schools
+to a penny or twopence a week--together with small money presents on
+certain festivals. The more select establishments naturally charged
+more. Probably most of the schools in Rome and the larger towns were
+upon this private footing. In other instances a number of parents in a
+smaller town would club together and subscribe sufficient money to
+provide the salary of a schoolmaster for their children. In yet others
+some benefactor, generally a wealthy local magnate, had given or
+bequeathed an endowment fund, from which a school was either wholly or
+partially financed. At a rather later date Pliny writes a letter, of
+which the following is a passage, interesting in this connection.
+"When I was lately in my native part of the country (that is to say,
+at Como), a boy--the son of a fellow townsman--came to pay his
+respects. I said, 'Are you at school?' 'Yes,' he replied. 'Where?' 'At
+Milan.' 'And why not here?' At this his father said, 'Because we have
+no teachers here.' 'And why have you none? It is of the greatest
+importance to any of you who are fathers--and it happened that several
+fathers were listening--that your children should be taught here
+rather than anywhere else.... How small a thing it is to put money
+together and engage teachers and to apply to their salary the amount
+which you now spend on lodgings, travelling expenses, and the articles
+that have always to be purchased when one is away from home.'"
+Whereupon he proceeds himself to offer to contribute one-third of
+whatever sum the parents collect. He does not believe in giving the
+whole, because experience has taught him that endowments of this kind
+are commonly misused. The parents must themselves retain an interest
+in preventing corruption; and this will be the case so long as they
+are themselves paying their share. In this instance we are, however,
+to think rather of a high school or school of rhetoric than of the
+primary school. Como would not lack a primary school, nor would
+parents send very young children to lodge in Milan. There is no trace
+of real boarding-schools.
+
+To whatever school Publius goes he will be accompanied by a sedate
+slave, generally elderly and also generally a Greek, whom you may call
+his "guardian," or his "governor," or his "mentor," according to your
+fancy. The function of this worthy is to look after the morals and
+behaviour of the boy when in the streets, and also to supervise his
+manners when at home. Publius will not be free of this incubus until
+the day when he puts on the adult's toga; and he must be prepared to
+accept, at least in his younger days, not only scolding, but also
+corporal punishment from him. In poorer families the mother corrected
+her children with a slipper. The "guardian" of Publius is nevertheless
+a slave, and will carry the young master's books and school requisites
+for him, while the sons of poorer parents are marching along, freer
+and happier, with their tablets and writing-case slung over their left
+arm. When, in the New Testament, we are told that the "Law hath been
+our schoolmaster unto Christ," the word employed does not at all mean
+schoolmaster. It means this slave who keeps the pupil under salutary
+discipline until he reaches the schoolmaster, and who superintends his
+conduct until he is of age.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 94.--WRITING MATERIALS.]
+
+School age regularly begins at seven for the elementary stage, which
+commonly includes writing, reading, and arithmetic. The first lessons
+in writing are done upon wax tablets, which correspond to our slate.
+For school purposes they are flat pieces of wood, with a rim, their
+surface being covered with a thin layer of wax. The pupil takes a
+"style," or metal stiletto, pointed at one end and flat at the other;
+with the point he scratches, or "ploughs" as the Romans called it, the
+writing in the wax; with the other end he flattens the wax and so
+makes the necessary erasures when he desires to correct a word or to
+"clean his slate."
+
+His first efforts will probably consist either of tracing letters
+through a stencil, or of forming them from a copy while the master
+guides his hand. He will next write a series of words--the good old
+copybook method with the good old copybook maxims. It is only when he
+has gained some proficiency that he will be allowed to write upon
+paper or parchment with ink and with a split reed for pen. In such a
+case the backs of useless documents come in handy, and particularly
+serviceable are the rolls containing the poems of the numerous authors
+whom no one wants to read, but whose books thus find one of their
+ultimate uses, another being to wrap up spices or salt fish. His
+arithmetic will be merely such as will enable him to make up accounts.
+The Roman numerals did not lend themselves easily to the method now
+adopted of calculating on paper, and the Roman pupil therefore
+reckoned partly with his fingers, partly by means of counters laid or
+strung upon a board. At this he became remarkably proficient, and at
+mental arithmetic there is reason to believe that he could beat the
+modern boy hollow. Along with the reckoning he would also necessarily
+learn his tables of weights and measures. "Two-and-a-half feet one
+step; two steps one pace; a thousand paces one mile." So he said or
+sang, and a mile--_mille_, "a thousand" paces--remains our own word to
+this day, even though it has come to signify an eccentric 1760 yards.
+
+That Roman boys bore no love to school or schoolmaster is little
+wonder. Perhaps Publius may be fortunate; but if his schoolmaster is
+of the ordinary type he will be an irascible loud-voiced person, who
+bawls and scolds and thrashes. It will be a common thing to find, as
+Seneca puts it, a man "in a violent passion teaching you that to be in
+a passion is wrong." The doctrine went that "he who is not flayed is
+not educated." The methods of the military centurion may have had
+something to do with creating this behaviour, but there is perhaps
+another excuse to be found for the Roman pedagogue. His school, if of
+the inferior kind, is like any other shop, a place open to the street,
+whether on the ground floor or in the balcony-like _entresol_. There
+is no cloistered privacy about his instruction. To such a place at a
+very early hour come the boys "creeping unwillingly." When the days
+are short the school opens before daybreak, and the smoky lamps and
+lanterns create an evil smell and atmosphere in the raw and chilly
+morning. That is no time to be amiable towards inattention or
+stupidity. There were many other circumstances to try the temper, and
+the Roman temper, except among the highest classes, was, as it is,
+quick and loud. No real boy who had been a Roman school but knew what
+it was to have ears pinched and to take his punishment on his hands
+with the cane or the tawse. Many had been "horsed," in the way
+depicted in the illustration.
+
+There is also no cause for surprise that boys often shammed illness
+and did little things to their eyes so that mother or father might
+keep them from their books for a while. There were of course academies
+of a better class than these schools open to the street, and probably
+Publius Silius would be taken to one where his "guardian" waits with
+others in an antechamber, while he is himself being taught in a room
+where the walls are pictured with historical or mythological scenes,
+or with charts or maps, and where there stand busts of eminent
+writers. The boys are seated on benches or forms, and the master on a
+high-backed chair. When the pupil is called upon to repeat a lesson,
+he stands up before the teacher; when the whole class is to deliver a
+dictated passage it rises and delivers it all together, in orthodox
+sing-song style.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 95.--HORSING A BOY. (After Sächs.)]
+
+Somewhere towards eleven o'clock there is an interval, and the boys go
+home for lunch or buy something from the seller of rissoles or
+sausages in the street. In the afternoon--when the schoolmaster has
+taken his own luncheon and probably his short siesta--they return to
+school, putting in altogether about six hours of lessons in the day.
+
+That boys and girls went to the same elementary schools is not
+absolutely provable from any explicit statement to that effect; but
+there are one or two passages in literature which point almost
+certainly to that conclusion. It is at least undeniable that girls,
+and even big girls, went to school, and that in those schools they
+were taught by men. One schoolmaster is addressed by the poet as
+"detestable to both boys and girls." We have seen that in maturity the
+Roman woman lived in no sort of seclusion; and it is reasonable to
+suppose that as a girl she was treated in much the same way as girls
+in a mixed school of to-day. Nevertheless it is also almost certain
+that such mixed schools were only those of the common people, or of
+the lower middle classes: the daughters of the better-circumstanced
+would be instructed at home by private tutors. There they would learn
+to read and write both Greek and their native Latin, to play upon the
+lyre or harp, to dance--Roman dancing being more a matter of gesture
+with hands and body than of movement with the feet--and to carry
+themselves with the bearing fit for a Roman lady. To teach the
+household duties was the function of the mother.
+
+At Rome, as with us, there was, first, a primary education, pure and
+simple, given in the schools of those who would nowadays be registered
+as teachers of primary subjects. Next there was what we should call a
+secondary or high-school education, given by a "grammar master," in
+which the education was almost wholly literary. The same school might
+doubtless employ a special arithmetic master, and also a teacher of
+music, but mainly the business of such an establishment was
+theoretically to prepare the boy for a proper and effective use of
+language, whether for social or for public purposes. In the Rome of
+the republic a man of affairs or ambitions required above all things
+to be an accomplished speaker, and this tradition had not weakened
+under the empire. Moreover, for the training of the intellectual
+faculties as such, the Romans had no better resource than grammatical
+and literary study. Science was purely empirical, mathematics was
+mainly arithmetic and mensuration, and there was no room in these
+subjects for that exercise of discernment and acumen as well as of
+taste which was provided by well-directed study of the best authors.
+In the secondary education, therefore, the chief object sought was
+"the knowledge of right expression," and the acquirement of "correct,
+clear, and elegant diction." This was to be achieved by the most
+painstaking study of both the Greek and the Latin poets; and it is
+worth noting that the Romans had the good sense to begin with the
+best. Every boy must know his Homer, and steep himself in the easy
+style and sound sentiments of Menander; he must also know his Virgil
+and his Terence. He must know how to read a passage with proper
+intonation and appreciation of the sense, and he must learn large
+quantities of such poetry by heart. In the early stages the master's
+part is first to read aloud a certain passage what he thinks to be the
+right articulation and expression; he then explains the meaning or the
+allusions, and does whatever else he considers necessary for the
+understanding and appreciation of the piece. It is then the pupil's
+turn to stand up and repeat the passage so as to show that he has
+caught the true sense and can impart the true intonation. No doubt
+there were bad and indifferent teachers as well as good ones, and
+doubtless there was much mere parroting on the part of the learner. It
+was then, as it is now, chiefly a question of the sort of teacher. It
+is probable that in many schools the action of the mental faculty as
+well as of the voice became pure sing-song. Julius Caesar once made
+the comment: "If you are singing, you are singing badly; if you are
+reading, you are singing."
+
+The more advanced stage of this higher education was that of the
+"school of oratory." The pupil has already acquired a correct
+grammatical style, and a reasonable amount of literary information; he
+now trains himself for the actual practice of the law-courts or the
+deliberative assembly. He is to learn how to argue a case; how to
+arrange his matter; by what devices of language to make it most
+effective; and how to deliver it. At a later date there were to be
+public professorships of this art, endowed by the emperor, but there
+are none of these at Rome itself under Nero. The "professor of
+oratory" receives his fee of some £20 or so per annum from each pupil.
+At this stage the study of the great prose-writers is substituted for
+that of the poets; themes are set for essays to be written upon them;
+and those essays will then be delivered as speeches. Sometimes a
+familiar statement or maxim from a poet is put forward to be refuted
+or supported, or for you to argue first against it and then for it. Or
+some historical situation may be proposed, and the student asked to
+set forth the wisest or most just course in the circumstances.
+"Hannibal has beaten the Romans at Cannae: shall he or shall he not
+proceed directly to attack Rome? Examine the question as if you were
+Hannibal." Much of this appears theoretically sound enough.
+Unfortunately the subjects were generally either hopelessly threadbare
+or possessed no bearing upon real life. "We are learning," says
+Seneca, "not for life, but for the school." The only novelty which
+could be given to the treatment of old abstract themes or puerile
+questions was novelty of phrase, and the one great mark of the
+literature of this time is therefore the pursuit of the striking
+expression, of something epigrammatic or glittering. A speech was
+judged by its purple patches of rhetoric, not by the soundness of its
+thoughts. Prizes, apparently of books, were offered in these Roman
+schools, and a prize would go to the youth who could tell you in the
+most remarkable string of brilliant language what was your duty
+towards your country, or what were the evils of anger, or for what
+reasons it is right for a father to disown his son. Meanwhile parents
+would look in at the school from time to time and listen to the boys
+declaiming, and it is easy to see with the mind's eye the father
+listening, like the proud American parent at a "graduation" day, to
+his gifted offspring "speaking a piece."
+
+Education commonly stopped at this point. If the rhetorical training
+is taken early, the boy is now about sixteen; but there was nothing to
+prevent the oratorical course from following instead of preceding the
+"coming of age." In this case we will suppose that it has preceded.
+The youth has now received a good literary training and considerable
+practice in the art of speech-making. He knows enough of elementary
+arithmetic to keep accounts, or, in special cases--where he is
+intended for certain professional careers--he may understand some
+geometry and the principles of mechanics and engineering. He may or
+may not have learned to sing, and enough of music to play creditably
+on lyre or harp. Unlike the young Greek, he will not necessarily have
+been made to recognise that gymnastic training is an essential part of
+education. He may indulge in such exercises by way of pastime or for
+health; he may, and generally will, have been taught athletics; but he
+does not acknowledge that they have any practical bearing upon his
+aptitude for either warfare or civil life.
+
+It is hard to gauge the intellect of the average Roman youth of
+sixteen; all we know is that, while the best of literature, science,
+art, and philosophy was left to be undertaken by Greeks, the Romans
+seized upon whatever learning had an appreciable practical bearing,
+and that, as men capable of administering and directing, they left
+their intellectual and artistic superiors far behind.
+
+Up till this time the boy has worn a toga with a purple edge, and also
+the gold amulet-case round his neck. The time has, however, come for
+him to be regarded as a man--not indeed free of his father's
+authority, but free to walk about without a bear-leader, to marry, if
+his father so desires, or to decide upon a career. Accordingly, on the
+17th of March by preference, he will put away the outward insignia of
+boyhood, dedicate his amulet to the household gods, and will don the
+all-white toga of a man. The relatives, friends, and clients will
+gather at the house, and, after offering their congratulations, will
+escort the youth to the Capitol, and thence down to the Forum, where
+his appearance in this manner will be accompanied by introductions and
+a recognition on all sides that he is now "of age." At the Record
+Office the name of "Publius Silius Bassus, son of Quintus," is
+recorded with due fulness of description, and he ranks henceforth as
+one of the citizens of Rome.
+
+After this little ceremony of coming of age, a number of the young men
+apparently did nothing. The sons of poorer parents have long ago gone
+to their work in their various trades. Those of the more well-to-do
+may--and, if they are afterwards to seek public office, they must--now
+undertake military service amid the conditions which are to be
+described in the next chapter. Others, being of a more studious turn,
+will proceed to complete their education by going abroad to one or
+other of the great seats of philosophic study which corresponded to
+our universities. Philosophy meant to the Roman a guide to the
+direction of life. Roman religion, upon which we shall hereafter dwell
+in some detail, consisted of a number of forms and ceremonies, or acts
+of recognition paid to the deities; it embodied certain traditional
+principles of duty to family and state; but otherwise it exercised
+very little influence on the conduct of life. So far as such guidance
+was supplied at all, it was by moral philosophy, the treatment of
+which, as it was understood at this date, is bound up with that of
+religion and must wait till we reach that subject. It is true that
+there were professional teachers of philosophy at Rome itself, but the
+metropolis was not their chief resort, any more than, until recently,
+London would have been recognised as a seat of university learning of
+the front rank. It is also true that many great houses maintained a
+domestic philosopher, who not only helped in moulding the tone of the
+master of the house and afforded him intellectual company, but might
+act as private philosophic tutor to his son. But for the most part
+this highest instruction was rather to be sought in cities specially
+noted for their assemblage of professors and lecturers. Chief among
+these figured Athens, Rhodes, Tarsus, Antioch, Alexandria, and
+Marseilles. At Naples also might be found a large number of men of
+learning, but they were chiefly persons who had retired from
+professional life, and who chose that city because of its pleasant
+climate and surroundings, and because they could there enjoy each
+other's society. In some of the cities named--particularly Athens and
+Alexandria--there were endowed professorships (though not endowed by
+the Roman emperors) of which the benefit was enjoyed, not only by the
+local student but also by those from other parts of the Roman world
+who chose to resort to such established teachers. This does not mean
+that such students paid no fee, nor that there was any lack of
+lecturers unendowed. The student was free to take his choice. Where
+there was endowment, as at Athens, there was control by the local
+authorities over the behaviour of students and also of their teachers;
+but it is evident that a professor's audience was by no means always a
+very well-ruled or docile body. As in the German universities, the
+visiting students were men, and some of them fairly advanced in years,
+and, also as in Germany, they followed their own tastes in study and
+changed from university to university at will. They, as it were,
+"sampled" the professors and made their own election. The teacher not
+only lectured to them, but also lectured them; while, on their side,
+they were entitled to catechise, and in a sense "badger," the
+lecturer, to propound difficulties, and to make more or less
+pronounced exhibition of their sentiments.
+
+In the philosophic lecture-room the student, possessing his share of
+the vivacity and excitability of the south, would stamp, spring from
+his seat, shout and applaud, calling out in Greek "splendid!"
+"inimitable!" "capital!" "prettily said!" and so forth. Plutarch
+writes a little essay on the proper manner of behaving in the
+lecture-rooms, and he tells us: "You should sit in a proper manner and
+not lounge; you should keep your eyes on the speaker and show a lively
+interest; maintain a composed countenance and show no annoyance or
+irritation, nor look as if you were thinking of other things." Such an
+attitude was the ideal and orthodox; but he tells us also that there
+were some who "scowled; their eyes wandered; they sprawled, crossed
+their legs, nodded and whispered to their neighbour, smiled, yawned
+sleepily, and let their heads droop." This was not necessarily because
+the lecturer was dull, but because he might be giving lessons which
+were unwelcome to some among his audience. The cap fitted them too
+well, as it sometimes does when offered by a modern preacher. But,
+says the same Plutarch, if you did not like these direct and
+rough-tongued monitors, you could find other professors, _poseurs_,
+who were all suavity; gentlemen whose philosophical stock-in-trade was
+grey hair, a pleasant voice and delivery, graceful language, and much
+self-appreciation. These were the Reverend Charles Honeymans of the
+period, and their following was like unto the following of that
+popular pulpiteer.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 96--Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's Pompeii.)]
+
+Since mention has been made more than once of reading and libraries,
+it is well to realise the form commonly taken by books. We must not
+think of the modern bound volume standing on its shelf or open in the
+hand. At our date any books made up in the form of leaves--or what the
+Romans called "tablet" form--consisted only of some four or six pages.
+The regular shape for a book was that of a roll, or, if the work was a
+large one, it might consist of several such "rolls" or "sections." The
+material was either paper--in its original sense of papyrus--or the
+skin known as parchment. Papyrus was naturally the cheaper and the
+less durable. Prepared sheets of a given length and breadth--the
+"pages"--were written upon and then pasted to each other side by side
+until a long stretch was formed. The last sheet was then attached to a
+thin roller, commonly of wood, answering to that used in a modern
+wall-map. Round a roll of any pretensions there was wrapped a cover of
+coloured parchment, red, yellow, or purple. The ends of the roll were
+rubbed smooth with pumice-stone and dyed, and a tag or label was
+affixed to bear the name of the author and the work. A number of such
+rolls, related in subject or authorship, were placed on end in a round
+box, with the labels upwards ready for inspection. In the library such
+a box would stand in a pigeon-hole or section of shelf, from which it
+might be carried where required. Sometimes the rolls themselves lay in
+a heap horizontally in a pigeon-hole without a box, but this
+manifestly a less convenient practice. To keep the bookworms cedar-oil
+was rubbed upon them, giving them a yellowish tinge. The reader,
+taking the body of the roll in one hand, begins to unwind the long
+strip with the other. After reading the first column or page thus
+exposed, he mechanically re-winds that portion, while the width of
+another page is pulled into view. The writing itself was done by means
+of a reed, sharpened and split like a quill-pen, and dipped in ink
+made in various ways, but mostly less "biting" than our own. This made
+it comparatively easy to sponge out what was written, and to use the
+same roll over again--as a "palimpsest"--for some work more desired.
+It is perhaps needless to say that the writing was regularly to be
+found upon one side only. If the back was used, it was for economy,
+for unimportant notes, or as an exercise book for schoolboys.
+We may imagine a fine library copy, or edition de luxe, of Virgil as
+consisting of a number of rolls, each a long strip of the best
+parchment rolled round a staff of ivory with gilded ends. Its "cover"
+is a wrapper of parchment richly dyed and bearing coloured bands of
+leather to serve as fasteners. From the smoothed and dyed end stands
+out a scarlet label, marked "Virgil Aeneid Book I." (or as the case
+may be). When opened, the first page will reveal a painted portrait of
+the poet, and the writing will be found to be in a beautifully clear
+and even calligraphy. Beside the shelf on which the work is placed
+there likely stands a lifelike bust of Virgil in marble in bronze.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+In the older days of Roman history the fighting forces had been a
+"citizen army," called out for so long as it was needed, and levied
+from full and true Roman citizens. In the imperial times with which we
+are here dealing it had become a standing army. Soldiering was a
+profession, for which the men volunteered, and, so far as Roman
+citizens were concerned, it was now seldom, if ever, the case that
+military service required to be made compulsory on their part. It is
+true that a young man of the higher classes who proposed to follow a
+public career, leading to higher and higher offices of state, must
+have gone through some amount of military training, but no other Roman
+was actually obliged to serve. The empire was so vast and the total of
+the standing forces comparatively so small that it was always possible
+to fill up the legions with those who had some motive or inclination
+that way. Theoretically the state possessed a claim upon every
+able-bodied man, but the population of the empire was probably a
+hundred millions, and to collect a total of some 320,000 soldiers,
+made up of Roman or romanized "citizens" and of provincial subjects in
+about equal shares, was a sufficiently easy task, and the recruiters
+could therefore afford to pick and choose. Above all we must clear our
+minds of the notion that the Roman soldiers necessarily came from
+Rome, or even from Italy. They were drawn from the empire at large,
+and a legion posted in Spain, for example, might be recruited from a
+special class of Spaniards.
+
+Roughly speaking, the regular army, extending along the frontiers from
+Chester to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Algeria, was composed of
+two main divisions, called respectively the "legions" and the
+"auxiliaries." Other special or detached forces--such as the twelve
+regiments of Imperial Guards and the six of the City Guard--came under
+neither of these headings, and we may leave them out of the question
+for the present.
+
+A legion was a brigade of about 6000 infantry, with 120 horsemen
+attached to it. It was recruited from any convenient part of the
+empire, but only from men already enjoying the rights of Roman
+citizens, or else from those other provincials who were considered
+sufficiently homogeneous with the Roman civilisation to stand shoulder
+to shoulder with such citizens. In being permitted to serve on these
+terms a man regularly becomes _ipso facto_ a citizen. The
+qualifications required were that you should be free-born--that is to
+say, neither slave nor ex-slave--your physique must be good, and your
+height about 5 feet 10 inches: there must be nothing serious against
+your record or character as viewed from the Roman standpoint; and, if
+you were not already a citizen, you must belong to one of those
+organised communes which were the units of administration and of
+taxation within the empire. You undertake to serve for twenty years,
+after which time you will receive an honourable discharge and either a
+sum of money--at this date apparently about £50--or a grant of land.
+By ability and character you may rise from private soldier to
+centurion, that is to say, commander of a hundred, but in ordinary
+circumstances you can climb no further up the military ladder. If at
+the end of your term you are still robust and are considered useful,
+you may, if you choose, continue to serve in a special detachment of
+"veterans," with lighter duties and with exemption from common drill.
+The Roman legions would thus be made up for the most part of troops
+from about 18 to 38 years of age, although a considerable number might
+be somewhat older.
+
+A legion once formed had a perpetual existence; its vacancies were
+filled up as they occurred; and it is obvious that it must have
+consisted of respectable men of picked physique, mostly in the prime
+of life, and perfectly trained in all the qualities of a soldier. When
+not on actual campaign they were drilled once a day, and the recruits
+twice. They practised the hurling of spears and all the attitudes of
+attack with sword and pike, and of defence with the shield. Now and
+then there was a review or a sham fight. They learned how to fortify a
+camp, how to attack it or to defend it. Every month they put on full
+armour, marched out with steady Roman tramp for ten miles and back
+again to camp for the sake of practice. Meanwhile they were made
+useful in building the military roads, bridges, and walls. Add to this
+the strict Roman discipline, and it is difficult to conceive of any
+training more capable of turning a body of 6000 men into a stubborn
+and effective fighting machine. The half-naked German across the Rhine
+was physically as strong and as brave; the woad-dyed Celt of Britain
+was probably more dashing in his onset; the mounted Parthian across
+the Euphrates was more nimble in his movements; but neither German nor
+Celt cultivated the organisation or solidarity of action of the Roman,
+nor could the Parthian equal him for steady onward pressure or
+determined stand.
+
+To each legion was given a number and also a name of its own, acquired
+by some distinguished feat or some conspicuous campaign, or adopted in
+vaunt or compliment. Thus it might be the "Victorious" Legion, the
+"Indomitable," or the "Spanish" Legion, or it might, for example, wear
+a crested lark upon its helmet and be called the Legion of the "Lark."
+The commander of the whole legion is a man of senatorial rank; its
+standard is a silver eagle on the top of a staff, commonly holding a
+thunderbolt in its claw. To each legion there are ten regiments,
+called "cohorts," averaging six hundred men, and every such regiment
+has its colonel, or, as the translation of the Bible calls Claudius
+Lysias, "its chief captain." The regiment in its turn consists of six
+companies or "hundreds," with a "centurion" at the head of each, and
+every pair of hundreds, if not every company, possesses a standard of
+its own, consisting of a pole topped with large medallions, metal
+disks, wreaths, an open hand, and other emblems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 97.--ROMAN STANDARDS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--Armed Soldier.]
+
+
+Let us imagine a certain Scius to become a private soldier in a
+legion. He was born in Gaul, in the district of Lugdunum or Lyons, and
+he is either a full Roman or sufficiently romanized to rank with
+Romans. He is drafted to the Twentieth Legion, otherwise known as the
+"Victorious Valerian," and finds himself stationed in the island of
+Britain at that farthest camp of the north-west which has since grown
+into the city of Chester. On joining his company he is made to take a
+solemn oath that he will loyally obey all orders of his
+commander-in-chief, the emperor, as represented by that emperor's
+subordinates, his immediate officers. That oath he will repeat on each
+1st of January and on the anniversary of the emperor's accession. For
+full military dress he will first put on a tunic reaching nearly to
+his knees, and, since he is serving in the northern cold, a pair of
+fustian breeches covering the upper leg. On his feet will be a pair of
+strong sandals, of which the thick soles are studded with hobnails.
+Over his breast, and with flaps over the shoulders, he will wear a
+corslet Of leather covered with hoop-like layers, or maybe scales, of
+iron or bronze. On his head will be a plain pot-like helmet or
+skull-cap of iron. For the rest he will possess also a thick cloak or
+plaid to be used as occasion needs. In his right hand he will carry
+the famous Roman pike. This is a stout weapon, over 6 feet in length,
+consisting of a sharp iron head fixed in a wooden shaft, and the
+soldier may either charge with it as with a bayonet, or he may hurl it
+like a javelin and then fight at close quarters with his sword. On the
+left arm is a large shield, which may be of various shapes. One common
+form is curved inward at the sides like a portion of a cylinder some 4
+feet in length by 2½ in width: another is six-sided--a diamond
+pattern, but with the points of the diamond squared away. Sometimes it
+is oval. In construction it is of wicker-work or wood, covered with
+leather, and embossed a blazon in metal-work, one particularly well
+known being that of a thunderbolt. The shield is not only carried by
+means of a handle, but may be supported by a belt over the right
+shoulder. In order to be out of the way of the shield, the sword--a
+thrusting rather than a slashing weapon, approaching 3 feet in
+length--is hung at the right side by a belt passing over the left
+shoulder. Though this arrangement may seem awkward to us, it is to be
+remembered that the sword is not required until the right hand is free
+of the pike, and that then, before drawing, the weapon can easily be
+swung round to the left by means of the suspending belt. On the left
+side the soldier wears a dagger at his girdle. The writer of the
+Epistle to the Ephesians is thinking of all this equipment when he
+bids the Christian put on "the whole armour of God," including the
+"belt of truth," the "breast-plate of righteousness," the "shield of
+faith," the "helmet of salvation" and the "sword of the spirit." The
+officer, of course, wears armour, cloak, and helmet of a more
+ornamental kind, and must have presented a very martial and imposing
+figure.
+
+[Illustration: FIG.99--A Roman General.]
+
+Our friend Scius goes through the drill, the exercises, and the hard
+work already mentioned. His pay will be somewhere about £8 a year, or
+a little over three shillings a week, and his food will consist mainly
+of wheaten porridge and bread, with salt, and a drink of thin sour
+wine little better than vinegar. His wheat--the price of which is
+deducted from his pay--is measured out to him every month, and it is
+his own business to grind it or get it ground and converted into
+bread. Vegetables he will procure as he likes or can; but meat, except
+a limited amount of bacon, he will commonly neither get nor very much
+desire. On one occasion indeed we find the soldiers complaining that
+they were being fed altogether too much upon meat. It deserves to be
+remarked that the results speak well for the wholesomeness of this
+simple diet of the legionary. For his quarters he will be one of ten
+sharing the same tent under the supervision of a kind of corporal.
+There are no married quarters. Not only are women not permitted in the
+camp, but the soldier cannot legally marry during his term of service.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 100.--CENTURION.]
+
+Scius will meet with no gentle treatment while in his pupilage. The
+grim centurion, or commander of his company, is a man of iron, who has
+risen from the ranks; his methods are sharp and summary, and he
+carries a tough switch of vine-wood, with which he promptly belabours
+the idle or the stupid. Any neglect of duty or act of disobedience is
+inevitably Punished, sometimes by hard labour in digging trenches,
+sometimes by a fine, sometimes by stripping the soldier of his armour
+and making him stand for hours in civilian attire as a butt for
+ridicule in the middle of the camp, sometimes by a lowering of his
+rank corresponding to the modern taking away of a "man's stripes." If
+a soldier proves a hopeless case he is expelled with ignominy from the
+camp and army. If he deserts or plays the traitor he may either be
+decapitated or beaten to death with cudgels. If a whole company or
+regiment gets into disgrace, it may have to put up with barley
+instead of wheat for its rations, and if it is guilty of gross
+insubordination, or of some crime which cannot be sheeted home to the
+individual, it may be "decimated," or, in other words, every tenth
+man, drawn by lot, may be condemned to death. The last, of course, is
+an extreme measure, and is only mentioned here as belonging to extreme
+cases.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 101.--STANDARD BEARER.]
+
+On the other hand, if Scius is a smart soldier he will gradually gain
+recognition as such. He may become the head man in his mess of ten; or
+be made an orderly, to carry the watchword round to the messes; or he
+may be chosen by the centurion as his subaltern. As he gains maturity
+and steadiness, and wins confidence, he may be elected to bear the of
+his company, in which case a bear's skin will be thrown over his
+shoulders, and the top of his helmet will be concealed beneath the
+head of that beast, worn as a hood. Being a saving man, and taking a
+pride in himself, he will gradually decorate his sword-belt and
+girdle, and perhaps his scabbard, with silver knobs and ornaments.
+Also behaving well in the victorious brushes with the Britons, he will
+acquire, besides occasional loot and booty-money, a number of metal
+medallions or disks, to be strung across his breast somewhat after the
+manner of the modern war-medals. Gradually, as he becomes a veteran,
+he may rise to be centurion, when he will wear a crest upon his helmet
+and greaves upon his shins, have his corslet of scale-armour covered
+with medallions, and will himself carry the vine-rod of authority. If
+he should ever succeed in becoming, not merely the centurion of his
+company, but the first or senior of all the sixty centurions belonging
+to the whole legion, he will rank practically as a commissioned
+officer, will retire on a competence if he does retire, and will in
+all probability be made a knight. In that case he may proceed to
+higher commands, as if he had been born in that order to which he has
+at last attained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 102.--BAGGAGE-TRAIN.]
+
+But all this promotion is yet a long way off. One morning, while Scius
+is still a private, he hears, not the "taratantara" of the long
+straight trumpet which calls to ordinary work, but the sound of the
+military horn, which means that the legion is to march. He helps to
+pack up the tent, the hand-mills, and other indispensable needments,
+and to place them on the mules, packhorses, or waggons. He then puts
+on his full armour, although, if it is hot, and if there is no
+immediate danger, he may sling his helmet over his shoulder, while his
+shield, marked with his name and company, may perhaps be stacked with
+others in a baggage-waggon. His food-supply for sixteen days--the
+Roman fortnight--is wrapped in a parcel, and this, together with his
+eating and drinking vessels and any other articles such as would
+appertain to a modern knapsack, is carried over his shoulder on a
+forked stick. It is known that to-night the army will be obliged to
+camp on the way, and it is a binding rule of the service that no camp
+arrangements shall be left to chance. Surveyors will ride on ahead
+with a body of cavalry, and will choose a suitable position easily
+defended and with water near. They will then outline the boundaries
+according to a certain scale, and will parcel out the interior,
+according to an almost invariable system, into blocks or sections to
+accommodate certain units. When the legion arrives, it marches in with
+a perfect understanding as to where each company of men and each part
+of the baggage-train is to quarter itself. Being in an enemy's country
+it is not enough simply to post sentries. A trench must be dug and a
+palisade erected round the camp, and for that purpose every soldier on
+the march has carried a couple of sharpened stakes and a sort of small
+pickaxe. It may therefore be readily understood that Scius is heavily
+laden. Besides the weight of his body-armour and his shield, pike, and
+sword, his orthodox burden is about forty-five English pounds.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 103.--SOLDIERS WITH PACKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 104--ROMAN SOLDIERS MARCHING. (Scheiber.)]
+
+Before entering upon this description of service and armour of the
+legionary troops, it was stated that the legions made up but one-half
+of Roman army, the other half consisting of what were known as
+"auxiliaries." If there were in the whole Roman empire 150,000
+soldiers of the kind described there were also about 150,000 of a
+different type. Just as it is a natural part of the British policy to
+raise bodies of Indian or African troops from among the non-British
+subjects of the empire, so it was an obvious course for the Romans to
+raise native troops in Africa, Syria, Spain, Gaul, Britain, or the
+German provinces on the western bank of the Rhine. And just as the
+British bring their non-British regiments into connection with the
+regular army, and put them under the command of British officers, so
+the Romans associated their "auxiliary" soldiery, mostly under Roman
+officers, with the regular force of the legions. To every legion of
+6000 men there was attached, under the same general of division, a
+force of about 6000 men of non-Roman standing. The subject people of a
+province was called upon to recruit a certain quota of such troops,
+and, when so recruited, the soldiers of this class were required to
+serve for twenty-five years. At the expiration of their term they
+became Roman citizens, and their descendants ranked as such in the
+enjoyment of Roman opportunities. Such forces were not themselves
+formed into "legions" under an "eagle"; they served in separate
+regiments. Some of them were infantry almost indistinguishable from
+the Roman; others were armed in a different manner as to shield,
+spear, and sword; others were light skirmishing troops using their
+native weapons, such as javelins, slings, and bows. A very large
+proportion were cavalry, and whereas a legion possessed only 120 Roman
+horsemen, the auxiliary cavalry attached to it would number one or
+more regiments of dither 1000 or 500 men each. But it was also part of
+the Roman policy to employ such auxiliary troops, not in the region in
+which they were raised and among their own people, but elsewhere, and
+sometimes even at the opposite extremity of the empire. Thus in
+Britain might be found, not only Germans and Batavians, but Spaniards
+or Syrians, while in Syria there might be quartered Africans or
+Germans, and in Africa troops from the modern Austria. We cannot call
+this custom an invariable one, but it was usual, and obviously it was
+politic.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 105.--Imperial Guards.]
+
+To these two co-operating forces--legions and auxiliaries--we must add
+the Imperial Guards, twelve regiments of 1000 men each, quartered in
+Italy, and generally congregated in a special camp just outside the
+gate at the top of the Quirinal and Viminal Hills beyond the modern
+railway station. Like other Guards, these were a picked body,
+containing many volunteers from Italy itself, while others came from
+the most romanized parts of Gaul or elsewhere. They enjoyed many
+privileges, wore a more gorgeous armour, served only sixteen years and
+received double pay. Frequently it came to be the case that this
+particular body of troops was the one which made and unmade emperors,
+chiefly under the influence of pecuniary promises or largess. Besides
+these, 6000 City Guards were in barracks inside the metropolis for the
+protection of the town; 7000 _gendarmerie_, already mentioned, served
+as night-watch and fire-brigade, but perhaps scarcely rank as
+soldiers. Here and there in the empire there also existed separate
+volunteer detachments of various dimensions serving on special duty,
+and it was to one of these that belonged the Cornelius of the Acts of
+the Apostles, who is there described as a centurion of the "Italian
+band."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 106.--BESIEGERS WITH THE "TORTOISE."]
+
+It would carry us too far afield if we entered into detailed
+descriptions of Roman warfare--of Roman marches, Roman camps, and
+fortifications, Roman sieges, and military engines. Otherwise it would
+be highly interesting to watch the attack made upon an enemy's wall or
+gate by a band of men pushing in front of them a wicker screen covered
+with hide, or holding their shields locked together above their heads,
+so as to form a roof to shelter them from the spears, stones,
+firebrands, and pots of flame which rained down from the walls.
+
+[Illustration: FIG 107.--ROMAN ARTILLERY.]
+
+Or we might see moving up on wheels a shed, from the open front of
+which protrudes the great iron head of a ram affixed to a huge beam.
+If you were under the shed, you would see that the beam was perhaps as
+much as 60 feet in length, and that it was suspended on chains or
+ropes by which it could be swung, so that the head butted with a
+deadly insistence upon the masonry of the wall. Meanwhile the enemy
+from the ramparts are doing their best to set the shed on fire, to
+break off the ram's head with heavy stones, to pull it upwards by a
+noose, or to deaden the effect of the shock by lowering stuffed sacks
+or other buffer material between it and the wall. At another point, in
+place of the shed, there is rolled forward a lofty construction like a
+tower built in several stories. When this approaches the wall it will
+overtop it, and a drawbridge with grappling irons may be dropped upon
+the parapet. Elsewhere there is mining and countermining. From a safer
+distance the artillery of the time is hurling its formidable missiles.
+There is the "catapult," which shoots a giant arrow, sometimes tipped
+with material on fire, from a groove or half-tube to a distance of a
+quarter of a mile. The propelling force, in default of gunpowder or
+other explosive, is the recoil of strings of gut or hair which have
+been tightened by a windlass. There is also the heavier "hurler,"
+which works in much the same manner, but which, instead of arrows,
+throws stones and beams of from 14 pounds to half a hundredweight,
+doing effective damage up to a distance of some 400 yards.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 108.--AUXILIARY CAVALRYMAN.]
+
+Scius joins his legion as a private infantry soldier. He is in the
+"hobnailed" service. But if our young noble, Publius Silius Bassus,
+enters upon a military career, he will probably become one of the 120
+Roman horsemen attached to the legion, and will be serving as a
+"knight" or "gentleman," with servants to relieve him of his rougher
+work. The cavalrymen among whom he serves do not ride upon a saddle
+with stirrups, but on a mere saddlecloth. On their left arm is a round
+shield or buckler; they carry a spear of extreme reach, wear a longer
+sword than the infantrymen, and on their back is a quiver containing
+three broad-pointed javelins, very similar to assegais, which serve
+them as missiles. If by good service they obtain medallions like the
+infantry, they will fasten them to the bridles and breast-straps of
+their horses, and altogether will make a fine and jingling show.
+Through the influence of his family, Publius will most likely be taken
+under the personal supervision of the general in command, will
+frequently mess with him, and will perhaps act as a kind of honorary
+aide-de-camp. After a sufficient initiation into military business, he
+will be appointed what may be called colonel of an infantry regiment
+of auxiliaries, then colonel of a regiment of the legion, and
+subsequently, if he is following the profession, colonel of a regiment
+of the auxiliary cavalry. He does not at any time pass through the
+rank of centurion, any more than the British officer passes through
+that of sergeant-major. The class distinction is at least as great in
+the case of the Romans.
+
+When the young noble has completed this series of services--although
+the whole of it is not absolutely necessary, and it will be sufficient
+if he has been six months titular colonel of a regiment of the
+legion--he may perhaps return to Rome, and at the age of twenty-five
+may enter upon his first public position, and so become himself a
+senator. His duties may be connected with the Treasury at Rome itself,
+or more probably he will accompany a proconsul who is on his way to
+govern a province for a year--perhaps Andalusia, or Macedonia, or
+Bithynia. To his chief he stands for that year in a kind of filial
+relation. His main business will be to supervise the financial
+affairs, to act as paymaster, and to keep the accounts of the
+province, but he will also, when required, administer justice in place
+of the governor. In this capacity he learns the methods of provincial
+government in readiness for the time when he himself may be made a
+governor, whether by the senate or by the emperor. His next step
+upward will be to the post of aedile, one of the officials who control
+the streets, public buildings, markets, and police of Rome. By the age
+of thirty he may arrive at the second highest step on the official
+ladder, in a position which qualifies him to preside over a court of
+law. Or it may bring with it no greater function than that of
+presiding over "games" in the circus or amphitheatre, and of spending
+a liberal sum of money of his own upon making them both magnificent
+and novel. After this he may receive from the emperor the
+command of a brigade--the 12,000 men composed of a legion and its
+auxiliaries--perhaps at Cologne or Mainz, perhaps at Caerleon-on-Usk,
+perhaps near Antioch. In this position his movements are subject to
+the authority of the governor of the province, who is the "lieutenant"
+or "deputy" of His Highness in the larger capacity, while he himself
+is but a "lieutenant" of Caesar as commanding one of his legions.
+
+He may now himself be appointed governor to a province, but hardly yet
+to those which are the "plums" of the empire. There is still one
+highest post for him to fill. This is the consulship. Under the
+republic the two consuls had been the highest executive officers of
+the state, and the year was dated by their names. Nominally they were
+still in the same position, and the sane emperors made a point of
+treating them with all outward respect. They took precedence of all
+but "His Highness the Head of the State." But whereas under the
+republic there had been but two consuls holding joint office for the
+year, under the emperors the post had become to such a degree
+complimentary, and there were so many nobles who desired the honour or
+to whom the emperor was minded to grant it, that it became the custom
+to hold the position only for two months, so that twelve persons in
+each year might boast of being ex-consuls or having "passed the
+consul's chair."
+
+Publius Silius, we may suppose, passes up each step of the ladder, or
+what was called the "career of honours," and becomes senatorial
+governor of no less important a province than "Asia"--that nearer
+portion of Asia Minor which contained flourishing cities like Smyrna,
+Ephesus, and Rhodes. In that office, as in any other which he may
+hold, it behoves him to comport himself with caution and modesty. If
+he is a man of unusual influence or popularity he will do well to keep
+the fact concealed. There must be nothing in his demeanour or his
+speech to lay him open to a charge of becoming dangerous to the
+emperor. That emperor is Nero; and even stronger and saner emperors
+than Nero watched suspiciously the behaviour of aspiring men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+To undertake to set forth with any definiteness the "religious ideas
+of a Roman" of A.D. 64 would be an extremely difficult task. Those
+ideas would differ with the individual, being determined or varied by
+a number of considerations and influences--by locality, education, and
+temperament. Silius would not hold the views of Scius and probably not
+those of Marcia. We may speak of the "State religion" of Rome, as
+distinct from various other religions tolerated and practised in
+different parts of the empire, but it is scarcely possible to define
+the contents of that "State religion." There were certain special
+priests and priestly bodies who saw to it that certain rites and
+ceremonies should be perfortied scrupulously in a prescribed manner
+and on prescribed dates; but these were officers of the state, whose
+knowledge and functions were confined to the ritual observances with
+which they had to deal. They were not persons trained in a system of
+theology, nor were they preachers of a code of doctrines or morals;
+they had no "cure of souls," and belonged to no church; they had no
+_credo_ and no Bible or corresponding authority to which to refer.
+Though most well-informed persons could have told the names of the
+prominent deities in the calendar--such as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and
+Ceres--perhaps scarcely any one but an encyclopaedist or antiquarian
+could have named one-half of the total. It is not merely that the
+deities on the list were so numerous. There were other reasons for
+ignorance or vagueness. In the first place, the line between the
+operations of one deity and those of another was often too fine to
+draw, and deities originally more or less distinct came to be confused
+or identified. Secondly, it was often hard, if not impossible, to make
+up one's mind whether a so-called deity--such as Virtue, Peace, or
+Health--was supposed to have a real existence, or whether it was
+simply the personification of an abstract quality. Thirdly, many of
+the ancient divinities had fallen out of fashion, and to a large
+extent out of memory, while many new ones--Isis and Serapis for
+example--had come, or were coming, into vogue.
+
+The state possessed its old-established calendar of days sacred to a
+number of deities, and its code of ritual to be performed in their
+honour. There were ancient prescriptions as to what certain priests
+should wear, what they should do or avoid in their priestly character,
+what victims--ox, sheep, or pig--they should sacrifice, what
+instruments they should use for the purpose, and in what formula of
+words they should pray in particular connections. There was a standing
+commission, with the Pontifex Maximus--at this date that excellent
+religious authority, the emperor Nero--at its head, to safeguard the
+state religion, to see that its requirements were carried out, and
+that no one ventured to commit an outrage towards it. But the state
+could not have told you with any precision that you must believe in
+just so many deities and no others; it could not have told you
+precisely what notions to entertain concerning those deities whom it
+did officially recognise; it dictated no theological doctrines;
+neither did it dictate any moral doctrines beyond those which you
+would find in the secular law. It reserved the right to prevent the
+introduction of foreign or new divinities if it found sufficient
+cause; but so long as the temples, the rites and ceremonies, the
+cardinal moral axioms of the Roman "religion," and the basic
+principles of Roman society were respected, the state practised no
+sort of inquisition into your beliefs or non-beliefs, and in no way
+interfered with your particular selection of favourite deities.
+
+Polytheism in an advanced community is always tolerant, because it is
+necessarily always indefinite. What it does not readily endure is an
+organised attack upon the entire system, whether openly avowed or
+manifestly implied. Even undisguised unbelief in any deity at all it
+is often willing to tolerate, so long as the unbelief is rather a
+matter of dialectics than anything else, and makes no attempt at a
+crusade. When a state so disposed is found to interfere with a novel
+religion, it will generally be easy to perceive that the jealousy is
+not on behalf of the deities nor of a creed, but on behalf of the
+community in its political, economic, or social aspect. This, however,
+is perhaps to anticipate. Let us endeavour to realise as best we can
+the religious situation among the Roman or romanized portion of the
+population.
+
+Though we are not here directly concerned with the steps by which the
+Roman religion had come to be what it was, we can scarcely hope to
+understand the position without some comprehension of that
+development. The Romans were a conservative people, and many of the
+peculiarities of their worship were due to the retention of old forms
+which had lost such spirit as they once possessed.
+
+In the infant days of the nation there had been no such things as gods
+in human shape, or in recognisable shape at all. There were only
+"powers" or "influences" superior to mankind, by whose aid or
+concurrence man must work out his existence. The early Romans and such
+Italian tribes as they became blended with were, as they still are,
+extremely superstitious. In a pre-scientific age they, like other
+peoples, were at a loss to understand what produced thunder and
+lightning, rain, the fertility or failure of crops, the changes of the
+seasons, the flow or cessation of springs and streams, the
+intoxication or exhilaration proceeding from wine, and a multitude of
+other phenomena. Fire was a perplexing thing; so was wind: the woods
+were full of mysterious sounds and movements. They could comprehend
+neither birth nor death, nor the fructification of plants. The
+consequence was a feeling that these things were due to unseen
+agencies; and the attempt was made to bring those powers into some
+sort of relation with mankind, either by the compulsion of magical
+operations and magical formulae, or by sacrifices and offerings of
+propitiation, or by promises. A superhuman power might be placed under
+a spell, or placated with food and drink, or persuaded by a vow. Such
+"powers" were exceedingly numerous. Greatest of all, and recognised
+equally by all, was the power working in the sky with the thunder and
+the rain. Its presence was everywhere alike, and its operations most
+palpable at every season. Countless others were concerned with
+particular localities or with particular functions. Every wood, if not
+every tree, and also every fountain, was controlled by some such
+higher "power"; every manifestation or operation of nature came from
+such an "influence." There was no kind of action or undertaking, no
+new stage of life or change of condition, which did not depend for
+help or hindrance upon a similar power. At first the "powers" bore no
+distinctive names, and were conceived in no definite shapes. They were
+not yet gods. The human being who sought to work upon them to favour
+him could only do, say, and offer such things as he thought likely to
+move them. But in process of time it became inevitable that these
+superhuman agencies should be referred to under some sort of title,
+and the title literally expressed the conception. Hence a multitude of
+names. Not only was there the ever-prominent Jupiter or "sky-father";
+there a veritable multitude of powers with provinces great and small.
+Among the larger conceptions the power concerned with the sowing of
+seed was Saturn that with the growth of crops was Ceres, that with the
+blazing of fire was Vesta. Among the smaller the power which taught a
+babe to eat was Edulia that which attended the bringing home of a
+bride was Domiduca. The ability to speak or to walk was supposed to be
+imparted by separate agencies named accordingly. Flowers depended on
+Flora and fruits on Pomona.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 109.--JUPITER.]
+
+But to assign a name is a great step towards creating a "power" into a
+"god," and such agencies began to take shape in the mind of those who
+named them. This was the second stage. Jupiter, Ceres, Saturn, and
+almost all the rest became "gods." The powers in the woodlands--a
+Silvanus or Faunus--became embodied, like the more modern gnomes and
+kobbolds. Once imagine a shape, and the tendency is to give it visible
+form in an image "like unto man," and to honour it with an abode--a
+temple or shrine. The earliest Romans known to us erected no images or
+temples, but they were not long in creating them. Particularly rapid
+was the reducing of a god to human form when they came into close
+contact with the Etruscans and the Greeks. For all the important
+deities poetry and art combined to evolve an appropriate bodily form,
+which gradually became conventional, so that the ordinary notion of a
+Jupiter, a Juno, a Mercury, or a Ceres was approximately that which
+had been gathered from the statue thus developed. This trouble was not
+taken with all the most ancient divinities. Many of the old rural and
+local deities, and many of those with quite minor provinces, were left
+vague and unrealised. They were represented in no temples and by no
+statues. Naturally as the Roman state grew from a set of neighbouring
+farms into a great city, and from a small settlement into a vast
+empire, the little local gods fell into the background. The deities
+which concerned the state, and to which it erected temples, were those
+with the more far-reaching operations--such as the gods identified
+with the sky and its thunders, with war, with fertility, with the sea,
+with the hearth-fire of all Rome. The rest might well be left to
+localities or to domestic worship.
+
+From the early days of Rome there existed a calendar for festivals to
+certain divinities important to the little growing town, and a code of
+ceremonies to be performed in their honour, and of formulae of prayer
+to be offered to them. The later Romans, in their characteristic
+conservatism, adhered to those festivals, to that ritual, and to those
+formulae, even when some of the deities had ceased to be of
+appreciable account, and when neither the meaning of the ritual nor
+the sense of the old words was any longer understood by the very
+priests who used them.
+
+Reflect a moment on this situation. First, we have a number of deities
+of the first rank, housed in temples, embodied in statues, and
+recognised in all the Roman world; next a number of minor divinities
+whose operations and worship may be remotely rural or otherwise local,
+and whose functions are by no means always distinguishable from those
+of the greater gods; then a series of more or less unintelligible
+ceremonials carried out by ancient rule in honour of divinities often
+practically forgotten; outside these a number of vague powers
+presiding over small domestic and other actions; finally, a peculiar
+Roman tendency--in keeping with the last--to erect into divinities,
+and to symbolise in statue housed in temples, all manner of abstract
+qualities and states, such as Hope, Harmony, Peace, Wealth, Health,
+Fame, and Youth.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 110.--A SACRIFICE.]
+
+Reflect again that, when the Romans, as they spread, came into contact
+with Greeks, Egyptians, or other foreigners, they met with deities
+whose provinces were necessarily often identical with or closely akin
+to their own. Then remember that there is no church and no official
+document to define the complete list of Roman gods. Does it not
+follow, as a matter of course, on the one hand, that the importation
+of new gods was an easy matter, and on the other, that no individual
+Roman could draw the line as to the number of even the old-established
+deities in whom he should or should not believe?
+
+The guardians of the public religion were satisfied if the due rites
+were paid by the state to those deities, on those dates, and precisely
+in that manner, which happened to be prescribed in the official
+religious books. For the rest they left matters to the individual.
+
+So much it has been necessary to say in order to account for existing
+attitudes. We must use the plural, since the attitude of the state
+officials is but one of several, and, inasmuch as the state officials
+themselves were not a theological caste but only secular servants of
+the community administering the regulations for external worship as
+laid down in the records, it often happened that their official
+attitude had nothing to do with their individual beliefs. Often they
+did not know or care whether there was a real religious efficacy in
+the acts which they performed; sometimes all that they knew was that
+they were doing what the state required to be done properly by some
+one.
+
+Cicero quotes a dictum of a Pontifex Maximus that there was one
+religion of the poet, another of the philosopher, and another of the
+statesman. This is true, but it is hardly adequate. We must at least
+add that of the common people. A well-known statement of more modern
+birth puts the case--rather too strongly--that at our period all
+religions were regarded by the people as equally true, by the
+philosopher as equally false and by the statesman as equally useful.
+We may begin with the ordinary people of whatever station, who were
+not poets nor thinkers nor magistrates. It is an error to suppose that
+such Romans of the first century were either atheistic or indifferent
+to religion. Their fault was rather that they were too superstitious,
+ready to believe too much rather than too little, but to believe
+without relating their belief to conduct. They did not question the
+existence of the traditional gods, nor the characters attributed to
+them; they were ready to perform their dues of worship and to make
+their due offerings, but all this had no bearing upon their own
+morality. They believed with the terror of the superstitious in omens
+and portents, and in rites of expiation and purification to avert the
+threatened evil. They were alarmed by thunder and lightning,
+earthquakes, bad dreams, ravens seen on the wrong side of the road,
+and other evil tokens. They commonly accepted the existence of malign
+spirits, including ghosts. They were prepared to believe that on
+occasion a statue had bled or turned round on its base; that an ox had
+spoken in human language; or that there had been a rain of blood.
+There were doubtless exceptions, and superstition was less dire and
+oppressive than once it was. More than fifty years before our date
+Cicero had said that even old women no longer shuddered at the terrors
+of an underworld, and fifty years after it the satirist asserts the
+same of children. But both writers are speaking somewhat
+hyperbolically. Doubtless it had been wondered how two augurs could
+look at each other without a smile, but there is nothing to show that
+even a minority of augurs were acutely conscious of anything to smile
+at.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 111.--ISIS WORSHIP. (Wall-Painting.)]
+
+In the multiplicity of deities the ordinary people were prepared to
+accept as many more as you chose to offer them, especially if the
+worship attaching to them contained mystic or orgiastic ceremonies. By
+this date the populace had become exceedingly mixed, especially in the
+capital, and the cool hard-headed Roman stock had been largely
+replaced or leavened by foreign elements, especially from the East.
+The official worship of the state was formal and frigid; it offered
+nothing to the emotions or the hopes. Many among the people felt an
+instinct for something more sacramental, and especially attractive was
+any form of worship which promised a continued existence, and probably
+a happier existence, after death. Even the mere mysteriousness of a
+form of worship had its allurements. Hence a tendency to Judaism,
+still more to the Egyptian worship of Isis and Osiris. The latter made
+many proselytes, particularly among the women, and contained ideas
+which are by no means ignoble but to our modern minds far more truly
+"religious" than anything to be found in the native Roman cults. To
+pass through purification, to practise asceticism, to feel that there
+was a life beyond the grave apportioned to your deserts, to go through
+an impressive form of worship held every day, and to have the emotions
+thus worked upon--all this supplied something to the moral nature
+which was lacking in the chill sacrifices and prayers to Jupiter and
+the other national divinities. In vain had the authorities, in their
+doubt as to the moral effects, tried on several occasions to suppress
+this foreign worship; it always revived, and it now held its
+established place both in the imperial city and in the provinces,
+particularly near the sea, for it was especially a sailors' religion.
+Rome, like Pompeii, had its temple of Isis and her daily celebrations.
+There was, however, no necessary conflict between this worship and the
+official religion. It was quite possible to accept Isis while
+accepting Jupiter. Nor, though this particular cult has required
+mention, must it be taken as belonging to more than a section of the
+Roman population. Most Romans would look upon it and other deviations
+with acquiescence, some with contempt, and perhaps some with a shake
+of the head, while themselves satisfied with an indifferent conformity
+to the more established customs of the state.
+
+Setting aside the devotees of the mystic, the more ordinary point of
+view was that between Romans and the established gods of Rome there is
+an understanding. The gods will support Rome so long as Rome pays to
+them their dues of formal recognition. Their ritual must not be
+neglected by the authorities; it is not necessary for an individual
+member of the community to concern himself further in the matter. The
+state, through its appointed ministers, will make the necessary
+sacrifices and say the necessary words; the citizen need not put in an
+appearance or take any part. He will not do or say anything
+disrespectful towards the deities in question, and he will enjoy the
+festivals belonging to them. If remarkable portents and disasters
+occur, he will agree that there is something wrong in the behaviour of
+the state, and that there must be some public purification or other
+placation of the gods. If the state orders such a proceeding, he will
+perform whatever may be his share in it. So far he is loyal to the
+"religion of the state."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 112.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE. (Pompeii.)]
+
+In his private capacity he has his own wants, fears, and hopes. He
+therefore betakes himself to whatever divinity he considers most
+likely to help him; he makes his own prayers and vows an offering if
+his request is granted. Reduced to plain commercial language his
+ordinary attitude is--no success, no payment. A cardinal difference
+between the religion of the Romans and our own is to be seen in the
+nature of their prayers. They always ask for some definite
+advantage--prosperity, safety, health, or the like. They never pray
+for a clean heart or for some moral improvement. Of more importance
+than the man's moral condition will be his scrupulous observance of
+the right external practices. Unlike the Greek, he will cover his head
+when he prays. He will raise his hand to his lips before the statue,
+or, if he is appealing to the celestial deities, he will stretch his
+palms upwards above his head; if to the infernal powers, he will hold
+them downwards. These are the things that matter.
+
+At home, if he belongs to the better type of representative citizen,
+our Roman has his household shrine and his household divinities, whom
+he never neglects. If he is very pious, he may pray to them every
+morning, or at least before every enterprise. In any case he will
+remember them with a small offering when he dines. There are the "gods
+of the stores"--his "penates"--certain deities whom he has selected as
+guardians of his belongings, and who have their little images by the
+hearth in the kitchen. There is the household "protector," or more
+commonly there are two, who may be painted under the form of
+lightly-stepping youths in a little niche or shrine above a small
+altar. To these he will offer fruits, flowers, incense, and cakes. And
+there is the "Genius" of the master of the house, who is also painted
+on the wall, or who may be represented by his own portrait bust or by
+the picture of a snake. That "Genius" means the power presiding over
+his vitality and health and wellbeing. If he is an artisan and belongs
+to a guild, he will pay special worship to the patron god or goddess
+of that guild--to Vesta, if he is a baker, to Minerva, if he is a
+fuller. Out of doors he will find a street shrine in the wall at a
+crossing, pertaining to the tutelary god of what may be called his
+"parish," and this he will not neglect. Like all other orthodox Romans
+he will not undertake any new enterprise--betrothal, marriage,
+journey, or important business--without ascertaining that the auspices
+are favourable.
+
+In a general way he has a notion that the gods are displeased at
+certain forms of crime, and that they approve of justice and the
+carrying out of compacts. The gods overlook the state, because the
+state engages them so to do, and therefore to break the laws of the
+state is to anger the gods of the state. But this is rather subtle for
+the common man, and there is generally no understood immediate
+relation between these gods and his moral conduct, unless he has sworn
+an oath by one or other of them. The purpose of calling a god to
+witness is to bring upon a perjurer the anger of the offended deity.
+But he entertains no such conception as the modern one of "sin" or of
+"remorse for sin." "Sin" is either a breach of the secular law or
+breach of a contract with a deity and "remorse" is but fear of or
+regret for the consequences.
+
+His morality is determined by the laws of the state, family
+discipline, and social custom. For that reason his vices on the
+positive side will mostly be those of his appetites, and on the
+negative side a want of charity and compassion. He may be guiltless of
+lying and stealing, murder and violence; he may be honest and
+law-abiding; but there is nothing to make him temperate, continent, or
+gentle. His avowed code is "duty," and duty is defined by law and
+tradition.
+
+If this is the religious condition of the common-place man or woman--a
+blend of superstition, formalism, and tolerance--it is by no means
+that of the educated thinker. Such persons were for the most part
+freethinkers. Many of them, finding no better guide to conduct,
+conform to the "religion" of the state without any real belief in its
+gods or attaching any importance to its ceremonies. They do not feel
+called upon to propagate any other views, and they probably think the
+current notions are at least as good for the ignorant as any others.
+If they are poets, like Horace or Lucan, they will dress up the
+mythology, mostly from Greek models, and write fluently about Jupiter
+and Juno, Venus and Mercury, either attributing to them the recognised
+characters and legends, or varying them so as to make them more
+picturesque and interesting--perhaps even improving them--but all the
+time believing no more in the stories they are telling, or in the
+deities themselves, than Tennyson need have believed in King Arthur
+and Guinevere. The gods are good poetic material and are sure to
+afford popular, or at least inoffensive, reading. The poets doubtless
+do something to humanise and beautify the popular conception of a
+deity, but they seldom deliberately set out with any such purpose. If
+the educated are not poets, but public men of affairs, they may
+believe just as little, and yet regard the established cult of the
+gods as an excellent discipline for the vulgar and the best known
+means of upholding the national principle of "duty." If they are
+philosophers they may not, and the Epicureans in reality do not,
+believe in the gods at all--certainly not as they are generally
+conceived--and will openly discuss in speech and in writing the
+question of their existence or non-existence, and of their character
+and nature if they do exist. They will endeavour to substitute for the
+barren formalism of rites and ceremonies, or the inconsistent or
+incomplete traditional morality of duty, another set of principles as
+a sounder guide to life and conduct. Some are monotheists, some are
+simply in doubt. Says Nero's own tutor, Seneca, "Do you want to
+propitiate the gods? Then be good. The true worshipper of the gods is
+he who acts like them." "Better," remarks Plutarch, "not believe in a
+God at all than cringe before a god who is worse than the worst of
+men." In the actual worship of images none of them believe. One
+conspicuous writer of the time says: "To look for a form and shape to
+a god, I consider to be a mark of human feebleness of mind."
+Concerning the schools of thought and in particular the tenets of
+those Stoics and Epicureans whom St. Paul met at Athens, and whom he
+could meet in educated circles all over the Roman Empire, we shall
+have to speak in a following chapter, when summing up the intellectual
+and moral condition of the time. Meanwhile it should be understood
+that, though a profound or anything approaching a professional study
+of philosophy was discouraged among the true Romans--more than once
+the professional philosophers were banished from the capital--there
+were few cultivated persons who did not to some extent dabble in it,
+and even go so far as to profess an adherence to one school or
+another. None of these men believed in the "Roman religion" as
+administered by the state, although many of them were administering it
+themselves. The same man could one day freely discuss the gods in
+conversation or a treatise, and the next he might be clad in priestly
+garb and officially seeing that the rites of sacrifice were being
+religiously carried out in terms of the books, or that the auspices
+were being properly taken.
+
+It does not, however, follow at all that because poet or public man
+cared nothing for the pantheon and all its mythology, he was therefore
+without his superstitions. He might still tremble at signs and
+portents, at comets, at dreams, and at the unpropitious behaviour of
+birds and beasts. He might believe in astrology and resort to its
+professors, called the "Chaldaeans." On the other hand he might laugh
+at such things. It was all a matter of temperament. It certainly was
+not every man who dared to act like one of the Roman admirals. When it
+was reported that the omens were unpropitious to an imminent battle
+because the sacred chickens "would not eat," he ordered them to be
+thrown into the sea so that at least they might drink. The
+freethinkers were in advance of their times. "Science" in the modern
+sense hardly existed, and until phenomena are explained it is hard to
+avoid a perplexity or astonishment which is equivalent to
+superstition.
+
+Consider now these various states of mind--that of the people, ready
+to add almost any deity to the large and vague number already
+recognised; that of the poet, who finds the deities such useful
+literary material; that of the magistrate or public man, who, without
+enthusiasm or necessary belief, regards religion as a thing useful to
+society; and that of the philosopher, who thinks all the current
+religious conceptions unsound, if not absurd, and morally almost
+useless.
+
+Manifestly a society so composed will be one of unusual tolerance. The
+Romans had no disposition to force their religion on the subject
+provinces of the empire. Their religion was the Roman religion; the
+religion of the Greeks might be left Greek, the Jewish religion
+Jewish, and the Egyptian religion Egyptian. Any nation had a right to
+the religion of its fathers. Nay, the Jews had such peculiar notions
+about a Sabbath day and other matters that a Jew was exempted from the
+military service which would have compelled him to break his national
+laws. All religions were permitted, so long as they were national
+religions. Also all religious views were permitted to the individual,
+so long as they were not considered dangerous to the empire or
+imperial rule, or so long as they threatened no appreciable harm to
+the social order. If a Jew came to Rome and practised Judaism well and
+good. It was, in the eyes of the Romans, a narrow-minded and
+uncharitable religion, marked by many strange and absurd practices and
+superstitions, but if a misguided oriental people liked to indulge in
+it, well and good. Even if a Roman became a proselyte to Judaism, well
+and good, so long as he did not flout the official religion of his own
+country. If the Egyptians chose to worship cats, ibises, and
+crocodiles, that was their affair, so long as they let other people
+alone. In Gaul, it is true, the emperor Claudius, predecessor of Nero,
+had put down the Druids. Earlier still the Druids had already been
+interfered with; but that was because the Druids--those weird old
+white-sheeted men with their long beards and strange magic--were
+performing human sacrifices--burning men alive in wicker frames--and
+such conduct was not only contrary to the secular law of Rome, but
+even to natural law. And when Claudius finally suppressed them, or
+drove the remnant out of Gaul into Britain, it was not simply because
+they worshipped non-Roman gods and performed non-Roman rites, but
+because they were, as they had always notoriously been, a dangerous
+political influence interfering with the proper carrying out of the
+Roman government.
+
+And when we come to Christianity it must be remarked that, so long as
+that nascent religion was regarded as merely a variety of Judaism, it
+was actually protected by the Roman power, and owes no little of its
+original progress to the fact. In the Acts of the Apostles it is
+always from the Roman governor that St. Paul receives, not only the
+fairest, but the most courteous treatment. It is the Jews who
+persecute him and work up difficulties against him, because to them he
+is a renegade and is weaning away their people. To the philosophers at
+Athens he appears as the preacher of a new philosophy, and they think
+him a "smatterer" in such subjects. To the Roman he is a man charged
+by a certain community with being dangerous to social order, to wit,
+causing factious disturbances and profaning the temple; and since he
+refuses to let the local authorities judge his case, and has exercised
+his citizen privilege by appealing to Caesar, to Caesar he is sent.
+And, when a prisoner in somewhat free custody at Rome, note that he is
+permitted to speak "with all freedom," and that in the first instance
+he is acquitted.
+
+True, but the fact remains that Nero burnt Christians in his gardens
+after the great fire of Rome, and that certain later emperors are
+found punishing Christians merely for avowing themselves such. Why was
+Christianity thus singled out? It was not through what can be
+reasonably called "religious intolerance," for, as has been said, the
+Romans did not seek to force Roman religion on other peoples nor did
+they make any inquisition into the beliefs of Romans themselves. The
+reasons for singling out Christianity for special treatment are
+obvious enough. The question is not whether the reasons were sound,
+whether the Romans properly understood or tried to understand, whether
+they could be as wise before the event as we are after it, but whether
+the motive was what we should call a "religious" one. To allow
+Epicureans to deny the existence of gods at all, and to make scornful
+concessions to the peculiar tenets of Jews, could not be the action of
+a people which was bigoted. If there was bigotry and intolerance, it
+was political or social bigotry and intolerance, not religious. To
+prevent any possible misconception let the present writer say here
+that he considers the principles of Christianity, as laid down by its
+Founder and as spread by St. Paul, to have been the most humanizing
+and civilising influence ever brought to bear upon society. But that
+is not the point. The early Christians were treated as they were, not
+because they held non-Roman views, but because they held anti-Roman
+views; not because they did not believe in Jupiter and Venus, but
+because they refused to let any one else believe in them; not because
+they threatened to weaken Roman faith, but because they threatened to
+weaken and even to wreck the whole fabric of Roman society; not
+because they were known to be heretics, but because they were supposed
+to be disloyal; not because they converted men, but because they
+appeared to convert them into dangerous characters. As it has been
+put, the Christians were regarded as the "Nihilists" of the period. We
+are apt to judge the Romans from the standpoint of Christianity
+dominant and understood; it is fairer to judge them from the
+standpoint of a dominant pagan empire looking on at a strange new
+phenomenon altogether misunderstood and often deliberately
+misrepresented. Moreover--and the point is worth more attention than
+it commonly receives--we have only to read the Epistles to the
+Corinthians, to perceive that the early Christian gatherings were by
+no means always such meek, pure, and model assemblages as they are
+almost always assumed to have been. Some of the members, for instance,
+quarrelled and "were drunken." There were evidently many unworthy
+members of the new communion, and of course there were also many
+manifestations of insulting bigotry on their part. The class of
+society to which the Christians belonged was closely associated in the
+Roman mind with the rabble and the slave, if not with criminals. What
+the pagan observer saw in the new religion was "a pestilent
+superstition," "hatred of the human race," "a malevolent
+superstition." He thought its practices to be connected with magic.
+The _intransigeant_ Christian refused to take the customary oath in
+the law courts, and therefore appeared to menace a trustworthy
+administration of the law. He took no interest in the affairs of the
+empire, but talked of another king and his coming kingdom, and he
+appeared to be an enemy to the Roman power. He held what appeared to
+be secret meetings, although the empire rigidly suppressed all secret
+societies. He weakened the martial spirit of the soldier. He divided
+families--the basis of Roman society--against themselves. He was a
+socialist leveller. He threatened with ruin all the trades connected
+with either the established worship--as amongst the silversmiths at
+Ephesus--or with the luxuries and amusements of life. Those amusements
+in circus or amphitheatre he hated, and therefore appeared
+misanthropic. He not only stood aloof from the religious observances
+of the state and the household, but treated them with contempt or
+abhorrence.
+
+Moreover, at this date, he refused to acknowledge the one great symbol
+of the imperial authority. This was the statue of the emperor. When
+that statue was set up in every town it was not understood by any
+intelligent man that the emperor was actually a god, or that, when
+incense was burnt before the statue, it was being burned to the
+emperor himself as deity. But just as every householder had his
+attendant "Genius"--the power determining his vital functions and
+well-being--which was often represented as a bust with the man's own
+features, so the statue of the Augustus, "His Highness," represented
+the Genius of that Head of the State, and the offering of incense was
+meant as an appeal to the Genius to keep the emperor and the imperial
+power "in health and wealth long to live." The man who refused to make
+such an offering was necessarily considered to be ill-disposed to the
+majesty and welfare of the Head of the State, and therefore of the
+state itself. The Roman attitude towards the early Christians was
+partly that of a modern government towards Nihilists, and partly that
+of a generation or two ago to a blend of extreme Radical with extreme
+atheist.
+
+We are not here concerned with the whole story of the persecution of
+the Christians, but only with the situation at and immediately after
+the date we have chosen. It is at least quite certain that when Nero
+burned the Christians in the year 64 he was treating them, not as the
+adherents of a religion, but as social criminals or nuisances. How far
+his notions of Christianity may have been influenced by Poppaea we do
+not know. At least he believed he was pleasing the populace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+In describing the education of a Roman youth, and also in setting
+forth the various religious attitudes of the time, mention has been
+made of the pursuit of philosophy. Religion supplied no real guide to
+moral conduct, and education provided little exercise for the
+cultivation of the higher intellectual faculties. It was left for
+philosophy to fill these blanks as best it could. Unlike the Greeks,
+the Romans, great as they were in law-making and administration, had
+little natural gift or taste for abstract thought. All the philosophic
+sects had been founded and continued by Greeks, and it was still to
+the Greek half of the empire that the contemporary world looked for
+the best schools and teachers of philosophy. The genuine Roman spirit
+at all times felt some mistrust of such studies, especially if they
+tended to carry the student away from practical life into the "shade"
+and the "corner," or if they tended to subvert the traditional notions
+of "duty" as inculcated by Roman law, Roman custom, and the religion
+of the state. Nevertheless, not only did many Romans, even of mature
+years, resort to the philosophic "Universities" of the time, but
+wealthy houses often maintained a domestic philosopher, whose business
+it was to supply moral teaching and intellectual companionship to his
+employer. Some, indeed, preferred merely a _savant_, who might "post"
+them with information concerning Greek writers, explain difficulties,
+and act in general as a literary _vade mecum_. In many cases, if not
+in most, the Roman aristocrat or plutocrat treated such a retainer as
+a social inferior.
+
+The Roman attitude towards thought and learning too often reminds one
+of a certain modern type which has been irreverently described as
+being "death on culture." While the Greek and graecized oriental loved
+research, discussion, dialectics, ethical and scientific conversation,
+and literary coteries for their own sake, the Roman more commonly
+regarded such things as means for sharpening his abilities and for
+imparting distinction in social intercourse. Doubtless there were, and
+had been, exceptions. No Greek philosopher could be more in earnest
+than Lucretius, the Roman poet of the later republic, and doubtless
+there were no few Romans unknown to fame who both grappled seriously
+with Greek philosophy and also endeavoured to carry it religiously
+into practice. Yet for the most part the Roman, even when he is a
+writer upon such subjects, carries with him the unmistakable air of
+the amateur or the dilettante. In reading Seneca, as in reading
+Cicero, we feel that we are dealing with an able man possessed of an
+excellent gift for popular exposition or essay-writing, but hardly
+with a man of original philosophic endeavour or of strong practical
+conviction. And when we read the letters of the younger Pliny, we
+perceive a genuine admiration for men of thought and a genuine liking
+for "things of the mind," but we also discern that his dealing with
+philosophers and philosophy is strictly such as he deems "fit for a
+gentleman."
+
+In his own way and for his own ends the Roman could be intensely
+studious. He was eager to know and to possess information; but his
+native taste was for information of a positive kind, for definite
+facts more or less encyclopaedic--the facts of history, of science, of
+art, of literature, or even of grammar. His natural bent was not
+towards pure speculation. The elder Pliny was in his prime in the
+later days of Nero, and though he is perhaps an extreme type, he is
+nevertheless a type worth contemplating. His nephew writes a letter to
+a friend in which he gives a formidable list of works which the uncle
+had written or rather compiled, culminating in that huge miscellany
+known as his _Natural History_--a book dealing, not only with
+geography, anthropology, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, but
+also with fine art. How did he lead the ordinary Roman official life
+and yet accomplish all this before he was fifty-six? Here is the
+explanation. "He had a keen intellect, incredible zeal, and the
+greatest capacity for wakefulness. The end of August had not come
+before he began to work by lamplight long before dawn; in winter he
+began as early as one or two o'clock in the morning. It is true that
+he could readily command sleep, which visited and left him even during
+his studies. Before daylight he used to go to the emperor
+Vespasian--who also worked before day--and thence to his appointed
+duty. Returning home he gave the remainder of his time to his studies.
+After his _déjeuner_--which, like any other food that he took in the
+daytime, was light and digestible in the old-fashioned style--if it
+was summer, some leisure moments were spent in lying in the sun; a
+book was read, and he marked passages or made extracts. He never read
+anything without making excerpts, for he used to say that no book was
+so bad as to contain no part that was useful. After sunning himself he
+generally took a cold bath. He then took a snack and a very brief
+siesta, subsequently reading till dinner-time as if it were a new day.
+During dinner a book was read and marked, all very rapidly. I recall
+an occasion on which a certain passage had been badly delivered by his
+reader, whereupon one of the company stopped him and made him read it
+again. Said my uncle, 'I suppose you had caught the meaning?' The
+friend nodded. 'Then why did you call him back? We have lost more than
+ten lines by this interruption of yours.' So economical was he of
+time. In summer he rose from dinner while it was still light, and in
+winter within an hour after dark, as if compelled by some law. Such
+was his day amid all his work and the roar of the city. But when on
+holiday the only time he was not I studying was bath-time. By bath I
+mean when he I was actually right inside; for while he was under
+scraper and towel he would be read to or dictate. When travelling he
+thought of nothing else: at his side was a shorthand writer with a
+book and his tablets. In winter the writer's hands were protected by
+mittens, so that not even the sharpness of the weather should rob him
+of a moment. For the same reason even at Rome he used to ride in a
+sedan-chair (and not in a litter). I remember how he once took me to
+task for walking. Said he, 'You need not have wasted these hours;' for
+he considered as wasted all hours not spent upon study. It was by
+application like this that he completed all those volumes and also
+left to me a hundred and sixty note-books full of selections, written
+in very small hand on both sides of the paper. He used himself to say
+that, when he was the emperor's financial agent in Spain, he could
+have sold these note-books to Largius Licinus for £3000, and at that
+time they were considerably less numerous." ... "And so," writes the
+nephew, "I always laugh when certain people call _me_ studious, for,
+compared to him, I am a most indolent person."
+
+And yet what does this "most indolent person" himself do in the course
+of a lifetime? After a complete oratorical education of the typical
+Roman kind he enters upon a full public career. He undergoes his
+minimum military service with the legions in Syria. He returns to Rome
+and passes right up to the consulship, acquiring particular ability in
+connection with the Treasury. Often he acts as adviser to other
+officers. Apart from his public position he is a pleader before the
+courts. He takes a prominent part in the debates of the senate. He
+belongs to one of the priestly bodies. He does his share in providing
+the public games. He is appointed "Minister for the regulation of the
+Tiber and of the Sewerage." He is afterwards made governor of
+Bithynia, which has fallen into financial disorder and requires
+reorganisation. He possesses numerous estates and has many tenants to
+deal with. He writes speeches, occasional poems, and a large number of
+letters carefully phrased with a view to publication. His social or
+complimentary duties are numerous and exacting. One day he goes out
+hunting wild boar on one of his estates, and kills three of them. How,
+think you, does he pass the time while the beaters are driving the
+animals towards the net? He is thinking up a subject and making notes,
+and actually finds the silence and solitude helpful. He concludes his
+short letter on the subject by advising his friend "when you go
+hunting, take my advice and carry your writing-tablets as well as your
+luncheon-basket and flask: you will find that Minerva roams the hills
+no less than Diana." Pliny the Younger is writing, it is true, a
+generation after Nero, but there had been no appreciable change in
+Roman intellectual tastes during that short interval.
+
+The Roman may have had little inclination towards abstract thinking,
+but he was not an idle-minded man. Even the emperors often cultivated
+the muse. Nero we have seen, wrote verses, while his predecessor
+Claudius bore a strangely near resemblance to our own James I., not
+only in respect of his weakness of character, but also of his
+pretensions to erudition and authorship. We can hardly read the
+literature of this and the next half-century without being amazed at
+the number of names of writers who gained or sought some share of
+repute, although few of them have left works important enough to have
+been kept alive till now. It is true that through all the writing of
+this time there runs what has been called the "falsetto" note, a fact
+which is due partly to the absence of live national questions or the
+freedom to discuss them, and partly to the false principles of the
+rhetorical training already described. The general desire was to show
+cleverness, wide reading, and information; there was no impulse to
+great creation or to exhibitions of profound feeling. Epigram and
+"point" are no less compassed in the overstrained epic of Lucan, and
+in the philosophic essays of Seneca, than in the satires of Persius.
+It is probable that what have been called intellectual "interests"
+were never more widely spread than in the _pax Romana_ of the first
+and second centuries A.D. We gather from literature that books
+innumerable were produced on subjects often as special and minute as
+those selected for a German thesis, and that almost every town worth
+the name, at least in the Greek-speaking part of the empire, produced
+an author of sorts. But when we look into the symposia or chat of
+Plutarch or Aulus Gellius, we cannot fail to note that a large
+proportion of this intellectual and literary activity was being
+frittered away on questions either stereotyped and threadbare, or of
+no appreciable utility either to knowledge or conduct. As for
+dilettante production at Rome itself Pliny remarks in one letter:
+"This year has produced a large crop of poets: there was scarcely a
+day in the whole month of April on which some one did not give a
+reading." During the generation into which Nero was born and that
+which followed him, we meet with no great creative work in either
+prose or poetry, no great contribution to the progress of science or
+thought. The most generally interesting writer of the whole period was
+the Greek Plutarch, but though the _Parallel Lives_ which he was
+preparing are immortal in their kind, and though his _Moral Essays_
+are often most excellent reading, it cannot be said that he is a
+profound original thinker or a creator of anything more than a taking
+literary form. Next to him in value, earlier in date, stands Seneca,
+who, like Plutarch, is a lively thinker and a deft essayist, with the
+same love for a quotation and the same wide interests, but assuredly
+not a considerable enlarger of the field of human thought. To those
+who know Montaigne, the best notion of Seneca and Plutarch will be
+formed by remembering that his essays are admitted by himself to be
+"wholly compiled of what I have borrowed from them." The elder Pliny
+supplies us with extracts and summaries of the knowledge or the
+notions then extant, and we have writings on agriculture by Columella.
+The youthful and rather awkward satirist Persius sees the life which
+he criticises rather through the medium of books than through his own
+eyes. Such works of the period as have gained any kind of immortality
+are certainly interesting and often instructive, but they indicate a
+period in which reading is chiefly cultivated amusement, and knowledge
+rather sought as a pastime and an accomplishment than as a power. The
+favourite reading must contain matter or sense, not too deep or
+exacting; and it must possess a style. Perhaps writers as various as
+Dryden, Pope, Horace Walpole, Samuel Johnson, De Quincey, Macaulay,
+or, on a lower platform, the authors of collections like the
+_Curiosities of Literature_ would have been quite at home in this
+period: but it would have produced no Shakespeare, Milton, or
+Wordsworth. The agreeable poem, the well-expressed essay, are the
+approved reading for men of indolent bent: the informative collection
+for the more curious, serious, or practical-minded. If the early
+empire is "despotism tempered by epigram," it is perhaps not
+altogether untrue that the contemporary literature was pedantry
+tempered by epigram, or at least by quotation.
+
+Science, though its matter was attractive enough to the practical
+Roman, was at a standstill. So far as it existed it was Greek. The
+Greeks had done almost all that could be done by sheer brain-power and
+acumen. They could hardly proceed further without those finer
+instruments which we possess, but which they did not. Though they knew
+of certain magnifying glasses, they had no real telescopes or
+microscopes, no mariner's compass or chronometers, no very delicate
+balances. They possessed a magnificent thinking apparatus and put it
+to admirable use. The modern scientist has generally nothing but
+admiration for their keen insight, and for the brilliant hypotheses
+which they invented and which were frequently but unverified
+anticipations or partial anticipations of theories now in vogue. Where
+they stopped short was at experiment in test of hypothesis. Of all
+exploits of pure thinking in the domain of science perhaps the
+greatest has been the conception that the earth, instead of being a
+flat disk, is a sphere. This theory was held before the age of Nero by
+ancient astronomers and geographers, who had derived the notion partly
+from the eclipses of the moon--of which they well understood the
+cause--and partly from the rising of objects above the horizon. They
+understood also that in a sphere there was gravitation to the centre,
+and were able so to comprehend the level surface of water on the
+globe. The geographer Strabo, more than a generation before our chosen
+date, readily conceives that, if one sailed straight westward out of
+the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, he would
+ultimately come back round the world by way of the East--that is to
+say, by India. It was not left for Columbus to invent that doctrine.
+It is true that in calculating the circumference of the earth they had
+made it as much as one-seventh too large, but the wonder is that they
+came so near as they did. In regard to the distance of the moon they
+were not more than 1/12th from the modern estimate. The possibility of
+error in dealing with the sun was much greater, and their 51,000,000
+miles is little more than half of what it should have been. Exactly
+how far this doctrine of the sphericity of the earth was popularly
+entertained we cannot tell; it was probably almost confined to those
+directly interested in the question. A theory, anticipating Galileo,
+that it is the earth which moves round the sun, had been mooted, but
+certainly had very little currency. Nor was speculation confined to
+such astronomical conclusions. In the region of physical geography
+rational attempts were made to account for various phenomena, such as
+the existence of deltas or the risings of the Nile, or the appearance
+of sea-shells high on dry land. Strabo, in dealing with the Black Sea,
+has his theories of the elevation or subsidence of land. He also
+suggests previous volcanic conditions of certain districts which had
+been quiescent from before the memory or tradition of the inhabitants.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 113.--WORLD AS CONCEIVED ABOUT A.D. 100.]
+
+Sound methods of discovering latitude and longitude were not yet in
+use, and therefore a map of the world according to ideas current in
+the first century would present a strange aspect to us. There is much
+error in the placing of towns or districts upon their parallels; and
+coasts or mountain ranges, particularly, of course, on the outskirts
+of the empire or in the less familiar lands beyond its bounds, are
+perhaps made to run north instead of north-west, or east instead of
+south-east. It follows that measurements of distances especially
+across the wider seas, were often very inaccurate, although within and
+about the Mediterranean there was so much traffic and such close
+observation of the stars that the errors were gradually reduced. The
+mariner, when he did not follow the coast and guide his course by
+familiar landmarks, steered by the stars, but of these he had a very
+intimate knowledge, to which he joined a close observation of the
+prevailing direction of the winds at the various seasons. There was a
+well-ordered system of lighthouses, and charts and mariners' guides
+were not wanting. In the winter months navigation over long distances
+was regularly suspended, and ships waited in port for the spring.
+
+So far as acquaintance with the world was concerned, we have
+sufficient evidence that the trader knew his way very well down the
+African coast as far as Zanzibar, and along the southern shores of
+Asia as far as Cape Comorin. With Ceylon his acquaintance was vague,
+and only by tradition did he know of Further India by way of the sea
+and of China by way of the land. In the interior of Africa the
+caravans reached the Oases, and by way of Nile or caravan there was
+trade with the Soudan. Outside the Straits of Gibraltar, the Canary
+Islands and Madeira--known indiscriminately as the "Fortunate Isles,"
+or "Isles of the Blest"--were in touch with the port of Cadiz. The
+shape of Great Britain beyond England was indefinite, although it was
+known to be an island, with the Shetlands lying beyond. Ireland was
+also recognised as an island and its relative size was not greatly
+misconceived. The chief misconception in this corner of Europe was
+that of orientation, Britain being placed either far too near or far
+too parallel to Spain (through a large error as to the shape of the
+Bay of Biscay). Meanwhile the coast of the Netherlands and Germany was
+made to run in a line much too closely parallel to the eastern shores
+of Britain. Scandinavia was known from navigating explorers and from
+the amber trade, but was commonly regarded as a large island.
+Knowledge of the Baltic did not extend beyond about the modern Riga,
+and of the whole region thence to the Caspian only the dimmest notions
+were entertained.
+
+From what has been said concerning the calculation of the earth's
+diameter and of the distances of the sun and moon, it may be readily
+understood that the ancient mathematician had arrived at great
+proficiency in the geometrical branch of mathematics. This should
+cause no surprise when we remember what is meant by "Euclid." That
+eminent genius had lived at Alexandria three centuries and a half
+before the age of Nero, and he by no means represents all that was
+known of such mathematics at the latter date. The ancients were quite
+sufficiently versed in the solution of triangles to have made the
+necessary calculations in geography and astronomy, if they had but
+possessed the right instruments. Perhaps only an expert should
+deal--even in the few sentences required for our purpose--with such
+matters as the calculation of the capacity and proportional relations
+of cylinders, or with the mechanics and hydrostatics of Archimedes.
+That philosopher so far understood the laws of applied force that he
+had boasted: "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the world."
+What he and others had learned concerning fluid pressure, or
+concerning pulleys, levers, and other mechanical devices, had not been
+lost by the Greeks and had been borrowed from them for full practical
+use by the Romans. They knew how to lift huge weights, and how to hurl
+heavy missiles by the artillery previously mentioned. Experiments had
+been made at Alexandria in the use of steam-power, but had led to
+nothing practical. It is obvious also from their buildings and works
+of engineering, even without explicit statement, that they well
+understood the distribution of weight and the laws of stability. The
+laws of acoustics were understood with sufficient clearness to make
+them applicable with success to theatres. In practical mensuration--a
+daily necessity for men who were perpetually allotting lands or
+marking out camps--the Romans were experts. In pure arithmetic the
+contemporary world had made some considerable advance, such as in the
+extraction of square-roots and cube-roots; but, as has been already
+said, the Roman interest was virtually confined to such arithmetic or
+mathematics as appeared to possess some bearing on actual use.
+
+Of chemistry, in the modern scientific sense, the ancients knew almost
+nothing. Empirically they were aware of certain properties exhibited
+by substances, and could perform certain manipulations; but, like
+moderns down to a very recent time, they had no real understanding of
+the quantitative or qualitative relations of elements. Long ago Greek
+philosophy, followed by the Epicurean school, had set forth an "atomic
+theory," which on the surface is surprisingly like the modern chemical
+hypothesis; but this contained strange and illogical features and had
+no connection with actual practice. In this department the chief
+proficiency of the world of this date lay in metallurgy, in which the
+processes empirically discovered, chiefly by Egyptians and
+Phoenicians, were closely similar to those now employed. They
+thoroughly understood the smelting of ores, but could render no
+scientific account of the processes. Botany was in a very crude
+condition, scarcely extending beyond such knowledge as was required on
+the one hand for farming and horticulture, and on the other for the
+vegetable medicines used by contemporary physicians.
+
+The doctoring of the time was also, of course, largely empirical, but
+assuredly hardly more so than it was a century or so ago, and
+distinctly more rational than it became in the Middle Ages. We cannot
+conceive of a reputable doctor at Rome prescribing the nauseous
+mediaeval absurdities. Practical surgery must have been surprisingly
+advanced, and there is scarcely a modern surgeon who does not exclaim
+in admiration of the instruments discovered at Pompeii and now
+preserved in the Naples Museum (see FIG. 69). In physic it is, of
+course, tolerably certain that many of the remedies or methods of
+treatment were of the sound and simple kind discovered by the long
+experience of mankind and often put in use by our grandmothers.
+The defect contemporary medicine was that it was almost wholly
+empirical. The ancient surgeon could doubtless perform ordinary
+operations--amputations and excisions--with neatness, and the ancient
+physician knew perfectly well what to do with the ordinary
+complaints--the fevers and agues, the bilious attacks, the gout, or
+the dropsy--but he was baffled by any new conditions. Moreover, if he
+could diagnose and cure, he could seldom prevent, inasmuch as he had
+little understanding of the causes of maladies. He had everything to
+learn in regard to sanitation and the preventing of infection. A
+plague would sometimes kill half the people in a town or district, and
+the loss of 30,000 persons in the metropolis would probably appear to
+most Romans as a visitation of the gods, nor is it certain that the
+doctors would generally disagree with that view. Though there were
+many quacks, it is not the case that the reputable medical men--most
+of them Greek, some of them Romans, who borrowed a Greek name because
+it "paid"--lacked the scientific spirit or such knowledge as the time
+afforded. They went to the medical school at Alexandria or elsewhere,
+and studied their treatises on physic and anatomy, but, at least in
+the latter subject, they were sadly hampered. Dissection of human
+bodies was forbidden by law as being a desecration of the dead, and
+though it might sometimes be practised _sub rosa_, it was the general
+custom to perform the dissections on other animals, particularly
+monkeys, and to argue thence erroneously to mankind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+With such an unsatisfactory equipment of science, and with such a
+vague and morally inoperative religion, it was no wonder that the
+higher minds of the contemporary world turned to the study of
+philosophy. Of such studies there had been many schools or sects, but
+at this date we have chiefly to reckon with two--the Stoics and
+Epicureans. There were, it is true, the Academics, who disputed
+everything, and held no doctrine to be more true than its contrary.
+There were Eclectics, who picked and chose. But the majority of those
+who affected a positive philosophy attached themselves either to the
+Stoic or else to the Epicurean system, not necessarily with orthodox
+rigidity on every point, but as a general guide--at least in
+theory--to the conduct of life. Where we belong to a certain religious
+denomination or church, and "sit under" a certain class of preachers,
+they belonged to a certain school of philosophy, and attended the
+lectures of certain of its expounders. Instead of a chaplain or parish
+clergyman they engaged or associated with an expert in their special
+system. But just as the Frenchman remarked, "_Je suis catholique, mais
+je ne pratique pas_," so might one be in principle a good Stoic
+without much exercise of the accepted doctrines. The distinction
+between the tenets of the two great schools was wide, but within each
+school itself individuals might differ as widely as "Broad Church"
+from whatever its opposite may be called. The choice between the two
+schools was mainly a matter of temperament. Persons of the sterner
+type of mind, caring comparatively little for the physical comforts
+and gracious amenities of life, and possessed of a strong sense of
+duty and decorum--inclined, perhaps, not only to piety and
+self-abnegation, but also to be somewhat dour and uncompromising--were
+naturally attracted to Stoicism. Those of the complementary character
+preferred the doctrines of Epicurus. The Stoics were the Pharisees,
+the Epicureans the Sadducees, of pagan philosophy. As the Pharisees
+were the most Hebraic of the Hebrews, so it was Stoicism that came to
+be the characteristic Roman creed. The ordinary Roman had been brought
+up in the tradition of obeying the law of the state and the claims of
+duty; he had high notions of personal dignity and a leaning to the
+heroic virtues. Give him a strong, consistent, and elevating religion
+and he would be normally a pious man. Stoicism supplied him with a
+standard which was in keeping with such tendencies. About Epicureanism
+there was nothing heroic or elevating.
+
+Put briefly, and therefore crudely, the Epicurean doctrine was that
+happiness is the end of life. What men seek, and have a right to seek,
+is the most pleasant existence. Our conduct should secure for us as
+much real pleasure as possible. Now at first sight this looks like
+what it was opprobriously called by its enemies, "the philosophy of
+the pig-sty." It by no means meant this to its founder. For what is
+"pleasure"? Not by any means necessarily the gratification of the
+moment, physical or otherwise. A present pleasure may mean future
+pain, either of body or of mind. Wrong actions and bestial enjoyments
+bring their own penalty. You must choose wisely, and so direct your
+life that you suffer least and enjoy most consistently. Temperance and
+wisdom are therefore virtues necessary to a true Epicurean. You desire
+health; therefore you will live, as Epicurus lived, on simple and
+wholesome food. You desire tranquillity or peace of mind; therefore
+you will abstain from all perverse acts and gratifications, desires
+and emotions, which disturb that peace. In short the thing to be
+sought is nothing else but this grateful composure of mind--a thing
+which you cannot have if you are always wanting this or that and
+either abusing or misusing your bodily or mental functions, or
+needlessly mortifying yourself. To the plain man this apparently meant
+"Take life easily and keep free of worry." Naturally the plain man's
+ideas of taking life easily became those of taking pleasures as they
+come, indolently accepting the agreeables of life and feeling no call
+to make much of its duties. It is all very well for a high-minded
+philosopher to avoid a pleasure in order to avoid its pain, and to
+realize that a pleasure of the mind is worth more than a pleasure of
+the body, but one cannot expect the ordinary pupil--the _homme moyen
+sensuel_--to comprehend this attitude with heartiness sufficient to
+put it into practice. It followed therefore that the Epicurean tended,
+not only to become lazy, but to become vicious, or to make light of
+vices. This was not indeed true Epicureanism, and Epicurus is not to
+blame for it; it simply shows that Epicureanism, whatever its logical
+or other merits, provided no sufficient stimulus to a right life. As
+regards theology the position of the school was that there might very
+well be such things as higher beings--there was nothing in physical
+philosophy to make them any more impossible than a man or a fish--but
+that, if they existed, they were not concerned with man's affairs; his
+moral conduct, like his sacrifices and prayers, was not matter for
+their consideration. No need, therefore, to let superstition worry
+you, or to trouble about future punishment. Conduct your life
+according to the same principles laid down, and let the gods--if there
+be any--look to themselves. Naturally the result of such a position is
+that ceasing to regard the gods means ceasing to believe in them, and,
+as a Roman writer says: "In theory it leaves us the gods, in practice
+it abolishes them."
+
+The other school--that of the Stoics--is perhaps less easily
+comprehended, nor can it be said that its doctrines were always quite
+so coherent. Again we may put the position briefly, and therefore,
+perhaps, only approximately. The rule of life is to live as "nature"
+directs. Nature has its laws, which you cannot disobey with impunity.
+The law of nature is the mind of God. The material universe is the
+body, God is its soul, and He directs the workings of nature with
+foreknowledge and perfect wisdom. If man can only be brought to act in
+strict accordance with the mind of God--or law of nature--he is sure
+of perfect well-being, because he can do nothing as it should not be
+done. If he can only arrive at such perfect operation of his mental
+processes, he will necessarily be the perfect speaker, the perfect
+ruler, the perfect craftsman, the perfect performer of every task,
+including the securing of his own happiness. Doubtless this is logical
+enough, but how is one to attain to such right mental operations, and
+to become what was called a "sage"? Only by acting always according to
+reason and not according to passion. That and that alone is "virtue."
+The divine mind is not swayed by passion--by hope, fear, exultation,
+or grief--but only and always by reason. Learn therefore to obey
+reason and reason only. Do not permit yourself to be drawn from the
+true path by fear of threats, even of death, nor by grief, even for
+your dearest friends. Such feelings warp your reason, distract
+your judgment, and deflect you from the right course. When
+passion--feeling--comes in conflict with reason, you must drive
+feeling away. Your reason may not always be right; nevertheless it is
+the best guide you have, and you must cultivate it to act as rightly
+as possible. Remember that the power to act in accordance with the
+divine mind--the law of nature--lies in your own will; things external
+have nothing to do with that straight-forward proceeding--they cannot
+help you, and you must not let them hinder you. The condition of your
+mind is everything; as long as its operation is right, you are living
+in the right way. Your mind may act as rightly in poverty as in
+riches; you may be equally wise and virtuous whether you have the
+external advantages or not. You must therefore learn to ignore these
+things--pain, grief, fear, joy, and all the other perturbing
+influences. Cultivate, therefore, right reason and the absence of
+emotions.
+
+This, you will say, is a very high, unattainable, if not inhuman,
+standard. Quite so, and therefore, while Epicureanism often produced
+vicious men, this often produced pretenders and even hypocrites.
+Nevertheless it is better to set oneself a high standard than a low
+one, and a Roman who endeavoured to control himself by reason, and to
+place himself above fear and pain, was thereby on the way to be brave,
+patient, truthful, and just. Those who would see what high character
+could be associated with Stoicism--whether as the result or as the
+motive of the choice of the school--should read Epictetus, whose text,
+written early in the next century, was "sustain and abstain," and also
+the great-minded gentle Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A logical outcome of
+Stoicism was that you should say only the thing which reason approved,
+and say it unafraid. A good republican virtue, this, but under the
+emperors a dangerous one, as an honest Stoic like Thrasea found out.
+In practice there was naturally much qualifying or mellowing of the
+rigid Stoic attitude: the exigencies of actual life had to be met part
+of the way, and both Greek and Roman Stoics were often only Stoics in
+part--the complete "sage" was of course impossible.
+
+As for the gods, it is obvious that the Stoics were pantheists; there
+was one God, and He was the soul of the universe. They also, of
+course, recognised His providence. What then of the gods of the state?
+Some did not attempt to discuss them. Others treated the various
+so-called separate deities in the list as being only so many
+manifestations or avatars of the same divine power, and whether they
+were content or not with that attempt at harmonisation, who shall say?
+
+Meanwhile, at least in the eastern part of the empire, you might meet
+with another type of philosopher, the Cynic, belonging to the same
+school as the famous Diogenes, who had lived in that large earthenware
+jar commonly known as his "tub." Like the Stoic, the Cynic held that
+externals were of no value, and therefore he contented himself with a
+piece of bread, a wallet full of beans, and a jug of water. Like the
+Stoic, he believed in perfect freedom of speech, and therefore he
+spoke loudly and often abusively of all and sundry who appeared to him
+to deserve it. Some such men doubtless were sincere enough, like the
+earlier hermits or preaching friars, but many of them were simply idle
+and virulent impostors who thoroughly deserved that name of the "dog"
+which was commonly given to them, and which came to designate their
+school.
+
+The mention of impostors and hypocrites brings us naturally to a point
+which may have been foreseen. To the ancient world the professional
+philosophers were the nearest approach to our professional clergy.
+They affected an appearance accordingly; and the philosopher was
+regularly known by his long beard, his coarse cloak, and his staff.
+But, alas! there were many who disgraced their cloth. There were Stoic
+teachers who practised all manner of secret vices, and whose behaviour
+was in outrageous contradiction to their creed of the "absence of
+emotions." There were not only many Honeymans, there were many
+Stigginses. There were idlers and vagabonds on a level with the
+mendicant friars and pardon-sellers of the time of Chaucer. There were
+pompous hypocrites. Also side by side with the serious and earnest
+philosopher, as deeply learned in the books of his sect as a modern
+divine, there were charlatans and dabblers. It is unfortunately in
+this last light that the Apostle Paul appeared to the professional
+Stoic and Epicurean teachers of Athens. They were the finished
+products of the philosophic schools of the most famous universities,
+while he was supposed by them to be teaching some new kind of
+philosophy. Philosophers were apt to be itinerant, and St. Paul was
+looked upon as but another of these new arrivals. In his language they
+detected what seemed to be borrowed notions not consistently bound
+together, and they therefore called him by a name which it is not easy
+to translate. Literally it is "a picker up of seeds"--that is to say,
+a sciolist who gathers scraps from profounder people and gives them
+out with an air. Perhaps the nearest, although an undignified, word is
+"quack." That Paul possessed a knowledge of Greek philosophy, and
+particularly of Stoicism, is practically certain. He came from Tarsus
+in Cilicia, and Cilicia was the native home of many leading Stoics,
+including its greatest representative in all antiquity. He had been
+taught by Gamaliel, who was versed in "the learning of the Greeks."
+His address at Athens was deliberately meant to bear a relation to the
+philosophy of the experts who were present, but necessarily it could
+only introduce a few salient allusions, such as even a dabbler could
+have picked up, and we can hardly blame the specialists for their
+erroneous judgment. As he says himself: "The Greeks demand philosophy;
+but we proclaim a Messiah crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block,
+and to the Greeks a folly."
+
+To discuss further the moral ideas of the Roman world would consume
+more space and time than can be afforded here. It may, however, be
+worth while to mention that suicide was commonly--and especially by
+the Stoics--looked upon as a natural and blameless thing, when calm
+reason appeared to justify the proceeding, and when due consideration
+was given to social claims. To seek a euthanasia in such cases was an
+act of wisdom. Belief in an underworld or an after life was not rare
+among the common people, but it certainly did not exist in any force
+among the cultivated classes. It was taught neither by philosophy nor
+by the religion of the state. Yet the sense that rewards or
+punishments are unfairly meted out in this world was strong in many a
+mind, and this is one of the facts which account for the hold taken
+upon such minds, first by the religion of Isis, and then in a still
+greater and more abiding measure by Christianity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THE ROMAN PROFUSION OP ART
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 114.--THE DYING GAUL.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 115.--A "CANDELIERA" OR MARBLE PILASTER OF THE
+BASILICA AEMILIA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 116.--FRAGMENTS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE REGIA.]
+
+It would be a more than agreeable task to deal at some length with the
+art of the Roman world of this period, but the subject is vast, and
+demands a treatise to itself. How general was the love of art--or at
+least the recognition of its place in life--must be obvious to those
+who have seen the great collections in Rome, gathered partly from the
+city itself and partly from the towns and country "villas" of Italy,
+and those in the National Museum at Naples, acquired mainly from the
+buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nor are we amazed merely at
+the quantity of statues, statuettes, busts, reliefs, paintings, mosaic
+gems and cameos, and artistically wrought objects and utensils, which
+have been preserved while so many thousands of such productions have
+disappeared in the conflagrations of Rome, the vandalisms of the
+ignorant, or the kilns and melting-pots of the Middle Ages. The
+quality is still more a source of delight than the quantity. This last
+sentence, of course, contains a truism, since art is no delight
+without high quality. If we had only preserved to us such masterpieces
+as the Capitoline Venus, the Dying Gaul, the Laocoon, the Dancing
+Faun, the so-called Narcissus, and the Resting Mercury, we should
+realise something of the exquisite skill in plastic art which had been
+attained in antiquity and has never been attained since. But we might
+perhaps imagine that these were altogether exceptional pieces and the
+choicest gems possessed by the world of the time. Yet the preservation
+of these is but an accident, and there is no reason to believe them to
+be more than survivals out of many equally excellent. On the contrary,
+our ancient authorities--such as the elder Pliny--prove that there was
+a multitude of similar creations contained in public buildings alone.
+Pompeii, it has already been said more than once, was a provincial
+town in no way distinguished for the high culture of its inhabitants;
+yet there is scarcely a house of any consideration which has not
+afforded some example of fine art in one form or another. We know that
+several of the Roman temples--such as those of Concord in the Forum
+and of Apollo on the Palatine--were veritable galleries of
+masterpieces; and that the rich Romans adorned both their town houses
+and country villas with dozens of statues, colossal, life-size, or
+miniature, by distinguished masters. But still more striking is the
+fact that the comparatively small homes of Pompeii often possessed a
+work for which no price would now be too large, and of which we are
+content even to obtain a tolerably good copy. At Herculaneum there
+evidently lived persons of greater literary and artistic I refinement
+than at Pompeii, and the discoveries from that only very partially
+excavated town make an incalculably rich show of their own. What then
+would be the case with Naples, Baiae, the resorts all along the coast
+as far as the Tiber, the luxurious villas on the Alban Hills, and the
+great metropolis itself?
+
+Yet the fact of this universal recognition of art is scarcely made so
+impressive by these collected specimens of perfect taste and perfect
+execution, as it is incidentally by observing the delicate and
+graceful finish of some moulding on a chance fragment from a building,
+such as the Basilica Aemilia or the office of the Pontifex in the
+Forum, or the exquisite chiselling of trailing ivy upon a cup from
+Herculaneum (FIG. 56), or the dainty pattern wrought on no more
+important a thing than a bucket (FIG. 58), or the graceful shape
+imparted to a household lamp (FIG. 54). Water could hardly be
+permitted to spout in a peristyle or garden without doing so from some
+charming statuette, animal figure, or decorative mask or head. When
+fine art is sought in things like these, we may guess how
+uncompromisingly it was sought in things more avowedly "on show."
+
+The age with which we have been dealing fell within the most
+flourishing period of Roman, or rather Graeco-Roman, taste and
+craftsmanship. A hundred years later both taste and execution were
+declining, and by the age of Constantine--two centuries and a half
+after Nero--not one artist could pretend to achieve such work as had
+belonged to a multitude between the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian.
+
+It is not indeed probable that, even at our date, the large and noble
+simplicity of the older Greek masters could be rivalled. It is not
+probable that most of the former creations of art still preserved
+could have been wrought as originals by any Greek or Roman artist
+living in the time of Nero. Nevertheless technical craftsmanship was
+still superb, and while the contemporary artist could not create a
+splendid original, he was at least able to create an almost perfect
+copy. The Roman public buildings and private houses were enriched with
+a host of such copies, or, when not exact copies, with modifications
+which, though not improvements, were at least such as could not offend
+by displaying a lack of technical mastery. Let us grant that it was
+for the most part Greeks who were the artists; nevertheless the Greek
+is an active member of the Roman world and of its metropolitan life,
+and he executes his work to the order of the Roman state or the Roman
+patron; and therefore the art of the time deserves to be called Roman
+in that sense. There is little doubt that the Romans, if left to
+themselves, would have developed only the solid, or the gorgeous, or
+the baroque. But influences which penetrate a society are part of that
+society, and the Greek influence accepted by the Roman becomes a Roman
+principle.
+
+Perhaps it is also true that many a Roman who possessed fine works of
+art, and even exquisite ones, was not in reality a true connoisseur;
+that, even if he were, he lacked instructive and ardent appreciation
+of art for its own sake; and that, like his cultivation of
+intellectual society or learning, his cultivation of art was rather
+that of a man determined to be on a level with the culture of his
+times. Nevertheless the fact is palpable, that the cultivation was
+there, and was displayed in public architecture and in household
+embellishment in a way which puts the modern world to shame. With us
+art is a luxury for the few, and a keen enjoyment for still fewer; in
+the age of Nero it penetrated the life of every class.
+
+In architecture the native Roman gift was for the practical combined
+with the massive and grandiose. The structures in which they
+themselves excelled were the amphitheatre, the public baths, the
+triumphal arch, the basilica, the bridge, and the aqueduct. Their
+mastery of the arch, their excellent concrete, and their engineering
+genius, enabled them to produce works in this kind which had had no
+parallels in the Greek world. Nor had the Greeks felt the same need
+for such buildings. They had been innocent of gladiatorial shows, and
+they had been unfortunately too innocent of large conceptions in the
+way of water-supply. When an amphitheatre or aqueduct of the Roman
+kind was to be found in the graecized half of the empire, it was
+constructed under Roman influence. The modern may well afford to
+wonder at and envy the profusion of such structures in the ancient
+world. How noble and at the same time how strong was the work of the
+Romans when they undertook to supply even a provincial town with
+abundant and adequate water, is manifest from such aqueducts as are
+still to be seen at Nîmes (FIG. 1) or at Segovia. In other
+architectural conceptions the Romans of the time of Nero mainly
+followed the Greek lead and employed Greek artists. The architectural
+"orders" were Greek, with sundry Graeco-Roman modifications,
+particularly in the way of more ornate or fantastic Corinthian
+capitals; the notions of sculptural decoration were equally of
+Hellenic origin. Their theatres also were of the Greek kind adapted in
+non-essentials to the somewhat different conditions of a Roman
+performance. The Greek taste in decoration was the simpler and purer:
+the Roman cultivated the sumptuous and the ornate, sometimes, with
+conspicuous success, often with an overloaded effect. As Friedlander
+(who, however, deals with a much longer period than ours) puts the
+matter: "Nowhere, least of all at Rome, was an important public
+building erected without the chiseller, the stucco-worker, the carver,
+the founder, the painter, and mosaic-maker being called in. Statues,
+single or in groups, filled gables, roofs, niches, interstices of
+columns, staircases in the temples, theatres, amphitheatres,
+basilicas, public baths, bridges, arches, portals, and viaducts. . . .
+Triumphal arches generally had at their summits equestrian figures,
+trophies, chariots of four or six horses, driven by figures of
+victory. Reliefs and medallions bedecked the frieze, and reliefs or
+paintings the walls; ceilings were gay with stucco or coloured work,
+and the floors with glittering mosaics. All the architectural
+framework, supports, thresholds, lintels, mouldings, windows, and even
+gutters were overloaded with decorative figures."
+
+It was above all in plastic art that the contemporary world was
+enormously rich. Not only could no public building dispense with such
+decorations as those above mentioned; no private house of the least
+pretensions was without its statues, busts, statuettes, carved
+reliefs, and stucco-work. Never was statuary in marble or bronze so
+plentiful in every part of the empire, in public squares, or in the
+houses of representative people--in reception-hall, peristyle court,
+garden, or colonnade. Portrait statues in the largest towns were to be
+counted by hundreds, and sometimes by thousands. Men distinguished in
+war, in letters, in public life, and in local benefactions were as
+regularly commemorated by statues or busts as they are in modern times
+by painted portraits. Sometimes--unlike the modern portraits of
+course--these were paid for by the recipient of the compliment. In the
+comparatively unimportant Forum of Pompeii there stood five colossal
+statues, between seventy and eighty life-size equestrian statues, and
+as many standing figures, while the public buildings surrounding this
+open space contained their dozen or twenty each. As has been said
+already, most of the best work in sculpture--apart from these bronze
+and marble portraits of contemporaries--was reproduction of Grecian
+masterpieces dating from the time of Pheidias onward. Particularly did
+the Roman affect the more elaborate work of the period of the later
+"Macedonian" kings. Where the actual work was not exactly copied it at
+least supplied the main conception or motive. It followed naturally
+that there would be in existence many copies of the same piece, and,
+in procuring these, both the public and the householder would feel
+relieved of any danger of betraying the wrong taste. The workshops or
+studios of Greek artists turned out large numbers of a given
+masterpiece--a Faun, a Venus, or a Discobolus--at prices from £50 or
+so upwards. It followed also that there were numerous imitations
+passed off as originals, and many a wealthy man boasted of possessing
+an "original" or a genuine "old master"--a Praxiteles or a
+Lysippus--when he owned but a clever reproduction. The same remark
+applies, not only to the statues, but to the genre-groups and animal
+forms of which such fine examples can be seen in the Vatican Museum,
+and also to silver cups by "Mentor" or to bronzes of Corinth.
+Petronius, the coarse but witty "arbiter of taste" under Nero, mocks
+at the vulgar _nouveau riche_ who imagined that the Corinthian bronzes
+were the work of an artist named Corinthus.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 117.--WALL-PAINTING. (Woman with Tablets.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 118.--WALL-PAINTING FROM HERCULANEUM. (Women
+playing with Knuckle-Bones.)]
+
+Next to sculpture came painting, and in this art Romans themselves
+appear to have often acquired a technical skill which rivalled that of
+the Greeks. There is also plenty of evidence that among the pictorial
+artists there were no few women. For us practically the only painting
+of the time which has been preserved is that upon the walls of private
+houses, and it is probable that we see some of the worst specimens of
+the kind as well as some of a high order of excellence. It is not
+difficult to distinguish between the truly artistic design and
+colouring of wall-pictures in the House of Vettii or of the "Tragic
+Poet" and the crude journeyman work in sundry other Pompeian houses
+which must have belonged to anything but connoisseurs. Paintings, it
+must be remembered, were the ancient wall-papers, as well as the
+ancient pictures. Here, as in sculpture, we find the same or similar
+motives and groupings repeated in a way which shows that the
+painter--or rather the collaborating painters--must have been
+reproducing or adapting an original which was particularly admired or
+had obtained a fashionable vogue. The wall-pictures, done in fresco or
+distemper and in various dimensions, fall into four main classes.
+There are landscapes, from a pretty realistic garden scene to a
+fantastic stretch of sea and land diversified with woods, rocks,
+figures, and buildings. There are subjects from mythology and from
+poetical "history" or legend, chiefly representing "moments of
+dramatic interest." There are genre-pictures, such as those of the
+Cupids acting as goldsmiths, oil-dealers, or wine-merchants. Finally
+there are pictures of still-life--of fishes, birds, fruits, and other
+objects--often admirable in their kind. Serving as frame or setting to
+many of the scenes there are architectural paintings--sometimes in
+complicated but highly skilful perspective, but often extremely unreal
+and confusing in conception--representing columns and pediments of
+buildings. It must here suffice to offer one or two characteristic
+examples out of the multitude of wall-paintings which have been found
+(see also Figs. 43, 44).
+
+Though Romans themselves, and even persons of standing, sometimes
+dabbled in the fine arts, it is unquestionable that they commonly
+regarded the professional artist as only a superior tradesman. They
+admired his skill, but rendered little esteem to the man. A Roman
+knight or a Roman lady might occasionally paint for pleasure; Nero
+himself might model a figure or handle a brush; but so soon as art
+ceased to be dilettante and became a calling, so soon as its work was
+produced for payment, the artist ranked with other hirelings, however
+superior he might be in kind. Seneca expresses an open contempt,
+although he is perhaps, here as elsewhere, judging by a standard more
+severe than that of his contemporaries in general. To some extent this
+attitude is explained by the very abundance of objects of art, and by
+the immense number of artists, now nameless, belonging to the period;
+it is also to some extent excused by the fact that the craftsmanship,
+however consummate, was not at this period accompanied by the
+originality of the great Greek times from which it borrowed. Much of
+the work--particularly perhaps in painting and metal-chasing--was done
+by slaves. Apart from this consideration, the studios were so numerous
+and taught so well, that there must have been thousands of persons
+working either alone or co-operatively, whose position, however
+excellent the performance, became analogous to that of a
+house-decorator. On a wall to be painted in fresco a number of
+painters would be employed together. Throughout the Roman world,
+wherever works of art were wanted, the professional would travel,
+often with his assistants, and take up a contract. In modern parlance,
+the communities requiring some monument of art "called for tenders"
+and were prone to accept the lowest.
+
+Whatever abundance of art the Roman world cultivated and possessed;
+however indispensable to a public place was a wealth of buildings with
+lavish decoration of sculptured pillars, of statues, or of triumphal
+arches; however necessary to a private house were originals, supposed
+originals, and copies in the way of statuary, paintings, bronzes,
+mosaics, and other means of artistic adornment; it is very doubtful
+whether any large number of Romans entertained that spontaneous
+enjoyment of the beauty of art which is known as genuine "artistic
+feeling." In their literature we look in vain for any expression of
+enthusiasm on the subject. There are many references to works of art,
+but none which possess any intense glow of warmth. Doubtless art was
+so abundant that, as has already been said in reference to the
+appreciation of natural beauty, the absence of "gush" need not
+indicate absence of real enjoyment. Enjoyment there was, but it was
+apparently for the most part the enjoyment either of the collector or
+of the man who realises that an appreciation of art demands a large
+place in culture, and who is determined to be as well supplied and as
+well informed as his neighbour, while his judgment of a piece of work,
+though far from unintelligent, and often excellent in regard to
+principles of design and technical execution, is mainly the result of
+a deliberate training and cult, and is in consequence somewhat chill
+and detached.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 119.--LYRE AND HARP.]
+
+Of music the Romans were passionately fond, but the music itself was
+of a description which perhaps would hardly commend itself to modern
+notions, particularly those of northern Europe. The instruments in use
+were chiefly the harp, the lyre, and the flageolet (or flute played
+with a mouthpiece). To these we may add for processions the straight
+trumpet and the curved horn, and, for more orgiastic occasions or
+celebrations, the panpipes, cymbals, and tambourine or kettledrum.
+Performers from the East played upon certain stringed instruments not
+greatly differing from the lyre and harp of Greece and Italy. Women
+from Cadiz used the castagnettes. Hydraulic organs with pipes and keys
+were coming into vogue, and the bagpipes were also sufficiently
+familiar. In the use of all these instruments the ancients knew
+nothing of the harmonisation of parts; to them harmony and concerto
+implied no more than unison, or a difference of octaves. Whatever
+emotions may have been evoked by the music so produced, it cannot be
+imagined that they were of the intensity or subtlety of which the
+modern art and instruments are capable. Apart from the professionals,
+many Roman youths and the majority of Roman girls learned both to play
+and Sing, the instrument most affected being the harp, and the teacher
+of harp-playing being held in the highest esteem and receiving the
+highest emoluments. Sacrifices were regularly accompanied by the
+flageolet; processions by this and the trumpet; the rites of Bacchus
+by pipes, tambourines, and cymbals; performances in the theatre by an
+immense orchestra of various instruments; the more elaborate dinners
+by flute, harp, concerto of the two, singing, and such coarser and
+more exciting performances as were to the taste of the host or his
+company. The greatest houses kept their own choir and orchestra of
+slaves; the less wealthy hired musicians as they needed them. As for
+the Romans themselves, certain religious ceremonies called for singing
+of boys and girls in chorus; and in a purely domestic way the women of
+the house played on the harp and sang. Where there was singing, the
+words dominated the music and not the contrary, but snatches from
+recent popular pieces were sung and hummed in the streets for the sake
+of their taking air, just as they are in modern times. We cannot
+conceive of any Roman festivity without abundance of music. When in
+spring at Baiae on the Bay of Naples the holiday frequenters of that
+resort were rowed about the Lucrine Lake in their flower-bedecked
+gondolas or boats with coloured sails, the musicians were no less in
+evidence than they are now at every opportunity on the waters of the
+same bay or in the evening on the Grand Canal at Venice. In the truly
+Greek portion of the empire music, though no more advanced in method,
+was for the most part of a finer and severer kind; but at
+Alexandria--where it amounted to a mania--the influence of the native
+Egyptian style, blent with the more passionate among the Greek modes,
+had produced a music extremely exciting and highly demoralising.
+
+On the whole, it may reasonably be held that music played at least as
+important a part both in the houses and the public entertainments of
+the ancient Romans as it plays in modern Italy. The artists were as
+carefully trained, the audiences as critical or as receptive, the
+personal affectations of the musicians as characteristic, and their
+effect on emotional admirers of the opposite sex as great, as they are
+at the present day. The difference between the two ages consists in
+the nature of the music itself, and in the instruments through which
+it is respectively delivered; and in these respects the advantage is
+entirely with the modern world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+Whatever conceptions may have been entertained as to existence beyond
+the grave, there was no doubt in the Roman mind as to the claim of the
+dead to a proper burial and a worthy monument. It had once on a time
+been a matter of universal belief that the spirit which had departed
+from an unburied corpse could find no admittance to the company in the
+realms of Hades. It could not join "the majority" below. Originally no
+doubt the notion was simply that, as the body had not been consigned
+to the earth, the spirit also remained homeless above ground.
+Gradually this fancy shifted to the notion that, through neglect of
+burial, the dead man was dishonoured--he had no friends--and that his
+spirit was thereby disgraced and unworthy of reception by the powers
+beneath. It must therefore remain shivering on the near side of the
+river across which the grim Charon ferried the more fortunate souls.
+Even when the body had been decently buried, the spirit, though
+received into the gloomy realm, called for continued respect on the
+part of its friends on earth. Unless it received its periodical
+honours and was commemorated by a fitting sepulchre, it would meet
+with slights from other ghosts and would feel its position keenly.
+Naturally it would then do its best, by some form of haunting, to
+punish the living for their disregard and forgetfulness. From such
+considerations there arose in very ancient days in Italy, as in
+Greece, a great anxiety to perform scrupulously "the dues" of the
+defunct. Even if the body could not be found, it was obligatory to
+perform the obsequies and to build a cenotaph. If a stranger came
+across a dead body he must not pass it by without throwing at least
+three handfuls of dust or earth upon it and bidding it "Farewell."
+
+Though the burial customs still employed sprang from old fancies like
+these, we are not to suppose that such notions were in full life in
+the Roman world of our period. Poets might play with them, and some
+ignorant folk might still vaguely entertain them. The mere belief in
+ghosts was doubtless general, and even the learned argued the question
+of their existence. Here are parts of another letter culled from Pliny
+already several times quoted. He writes to his friend Sura: "I should
+very much like to know whether you think that apparitions actually
+exist, with a real shape of their own and a kind of supernatural
+power, or that it is only our fear which gives an embodiment to vain
+fancies. My own inclination is to believe in them, and chiefly because
+of an experience which, I am told, befell Curtius Rufus." He then
+speaks of a phantom form which prophesied that person's fortune.
+"Another occurrence, quite as wonderful and still more terrifying, I
+will relate as I was told it. There was at Athens a house which was
+roomy and commodious, but which bore an ill-name and was
+plague-stricken. In the silence of the night there was heard a sound
+of iron. On closer attention it proved to be a rattling of chains,
+first at a distance and then close at hand. Soon there appeared the
+spectre of an old man, miserably thin and squalid, with a long beard
+and unkempt hair. On his legs were fetters, and on his hands chains,
+which he kept shaking. In consequence the inhabitants spent horrible
+and sleepless nights; the sleeplessness made them ill, and, as their
+terror increased, the illness was followed by death.... As a result
+the house was deserted and totally abandoned to the ghost.
+Nevertheless it was advertised, on the chance that some one ignorant
+of all this trouble" (note the commercial morality) "might choose to
+buy it or rent it. To Athens there comes a philosopher named
+Athenodorus, who reads the placard. On hearing the price and finding
+it so cheap, he has his suspicions" (the ancient philosopher had his
+practical side), "makes enquiry, and learns the whole story. So far
+from being less inclined to hire it, he is only the more willing. On
+the approach of evening he gives orders for his couch to be made up in
+the front part of the house, and asks for his tablets, pencils, and a
+light. After dismissing his attendants to the back rooms, he applies
+all his attention, as well as his eyes and hand, steadily to his
+writing, for fear his mind, if unoccupied, might conjure up imaginary
+sounds and causeless fears. At first there was the same silence of the
+night as elsewhere; then there was a shaking of iron, a movement of
+chains. The philosopher refused to lift his eyes or stop his pencil;
+instead he braced up his mind so as to overcome his hearing. The noise
+grew louder; it approached; it sounded as if on the threshold; then as
+if within the room. He looks behind him; sees and recognises the
+apparition of which he has been told. It was standing and beckoning to
+him with its finger, as if calling him. In answer our friend makes it
+a sign with his hand to wait a while, and once more applies himself to
+tablet and pencil. The ghost began to rattle its chains over his head
+while he was writing. He looks behind him again, sees it making the
+same signal as before, and promptly picks up the light and follows. It
+goes at a slow pace, as if burdened with chains, then, after turning
+into the open yard of the house, it suddenly vanishes and leaves him
+by himself. At this he gathers some grass and leaves, and marks the
+spot with them. The next day he goes to the magistrates and urges them
+to dig up the spot in question; and they find bones tangled with
+chains through which they were passed... These they put together and
+bury at the public charge. The spirit being thus duly, laid, the house
+was henceforward free of them."
+
+Whatever the Roman beliefs on this point, so far as funeral rites and
+ceremonies were concerned, they were carried out simply in accordance
+with custom and tradition. The Romans of this date no more analysed
+their motives and sentiments than we do ours in dealing with such
+matters. They honoured the dead with funeral pomp and conspicuous
+monument; but, at the bottom, it was often more out of respect for
+themselves than because they imagined that it made any difference to
+the departed. In a very early age it had been considered that the
+spirit led in the underworld a feeble replica of human existence: it
+required food, playthings, utensils, money, as well as consideration.
+Hence food was periodically poured into the ground, playthings and
+utensils were burned on the pyre or laid in the coffin, and money was
+placed in that most primitive of purses, the mouth. Conservatism is
+nowhere so strong as in rites and ceremonies, and therefore the Romans
+continued to burn and bury articles along with the remains of the
+dead, and they continued to put a coin in the mouth before the burial.
+But it would be absurd to suppose that an intelligent Roman of our
+date would have offered the original and ancient motives for this
+conduct as rational motives still actuating himself. Enough that
+convention expected certain proceedings as "due" and "proper": a true
+Roman would not fail to perform what convention decreed.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 120.--"CONCLAMATIO" OF THE DEAD.]
+
+Our friend the elder Silius dies a natural death, after completing the
+fullest public career. His family has its full share of both affection
+and pride, and therefore his obsequies will be worthy of his character
+and standing. When his Greek physician Hermogenes assures the watching
+family that life is departing, Marcia or Publius or Bassa will
+endeavour to catch the last breath with a kiss, and will then close
+the eyelids. Upon this all those who are present will call "Silius!
+Silius! Silius!" The original motive of this cry--which has its modern
+parallel in the case of a dead Pope--was to make sure that the man was
+actually dead and beyond reply. This point made certain, the
+professional undertaker is called in and instructed to take charge of
+all the proceedings usual in such cases. It is he who will provide the
+persons who are to wash and anoint the body and lay it in state, and
+also, on the day of the procession, the musicians, the wailing-women,
+the builders of the funeral pyre, and others who may be necessary,
+together with the proper materials and accessories. He will further
+see that the name of Quintus Silius Bassus is registered in the
+death-roll in the temple of "Juno the Death-Goddess," and that the
+registration fee is paid. The name will also appear in the next issue
+of the "Daily News." The body, anointed so as to preserve it till the
+third day, and dressed in the toga--which will be that of the highest
+position he ever occupied--is laid in state in the high
+reception-hall, with the feet pointing to the door. On the bier are
+wreaths, by it is burning a pan of incense, in or before the vestibule
+is placed a cypress tree or a number of cypress branches for warning
+information to the public.
+
+On the day next but one after death the contractor, attended by
+subordinates dressed in black, marshals his procession. Though it is
+daytime, the procession will be accompanied by torches--another piece
+of conservatism reminiscent of the time when funerals took place at
+night, as they still did with children and commonly with the lower
+orders. First go the musicians, playing upon flageolet, trumpet, or
+horn; behind these, professional wailing-women, who raise loud
+lamentation and beat their breasts. Next come the wax-masks, already
+mentioned, of the distinguished ancestors of the Silii. These, which
+are life-like portraits, have been taken out of their cupboards in the
+wing of the reception-hall, and are worn over their faces by men of a
+build as nearly as possible resembling that of the ancestors
+represented. Each man also wears the insignia of the character for
+whom he stands. The more of such "effigies" a house could produce, the
+greater its glory. Such, however, was not the original purpose of this
+part of the procession, for--though it had doubtless been generally
+forgotten--the intention was to represent the deceased as being
+conducted into the underworld by an honourable company already
+established there. After the effigies comes that which would
+correspond to our hearse. It is, however, no hearse of the modern
+kind, but a bier or couch with the usual embellishment of ivory and
+with covers of purple worked with gold. On this the body lies, open to
+the sky, like that of Juliet. The bearers are either relatives or such
+slaves as have been set free under Silius's last will. Behind come the
+nearest relatives or heirs, the freedmen, friends, and clients, all
+clothed in black, except the women, who are in white, without colour
+or gold upon their dress. Young Publius will walk with his head
+covered by his toga; Bassa with her hair loose and dishevelled. The
+whole party will utter lamentations, though under more restraint than
+those of the professional women in front.
+
+Silius having been a senator and a man of other official standing, the
+procession passes from the Caelian Hill along the Sacred Way to the
+Forum, as far as the Rostra or speaking-platform. There the bier is
+set down, the "ancestors" seat themselves on the folding-stools which
+were the old-fashioned chairs of the higher officers, and one of the
+relatives delivers an oration in praise, not only of Silius, but of
+his family as represented in the ancestors.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 121.--TOMB OF CAECILIA METELLA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 122.--STREET OF TOMBS. (POMPEII.)]
+
+The procession then forms again, and the party proceeds to whatever
+place outside the walls may contain the family tomb of the Silii. No
+burial is allowed within the city proper, and for our purposes we will
+assume that the place is distant nearly a mile along the Appian Way.
+We will assume also that Silius is to be cremated, and not simply
+buried in a coffin or a marble sarcophagus. Few persons of the higher
+classes, except certain of the Cornelii, are buried at this date,
+although there is nothing in law or custom to prevent the choice.
+There exists no "crematorium," and the Silii are regularly burned at
+their own sepulchral allotment beside the "Queen of Roads."
+
+If you were with the procession on this day you would find yourself
+before one of an almost continuous chain of monuments, built in all
+manner of shapes and sizes--such as great altars, small shrines,
+pyramids (like that of Cestius on another road), or round towers like
+the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella. The exterior of these
+structures is often adorned with commemorative or symbolic carvings,
+and the inside, which may be wholly above the surface or partly sunk
+beneath--is a chamber surrounded by niches, in which are placed the
+urns containing the ashes of the dead. Perhaps an illustration of the
+present state of the "Street of Tombs" at Pompeii will afford some
+notion, although the sepulchres of that provincial place by no means
+matched those upon the various roads outside the Roman gates. Often
+the monumental chamber stands somewhat back from the road, leaving
+space for a large semicircular seat of stone open to public use, its
+back wall being inscribed with some statement of honour to the family.
+Round the sepulchre--"where all the kindred of the Silii lie" is a
+space of ground, planted with shrubs and trees, and surrounded by a
+low wall. Somewhere near, on an open level, the funeral pile has been
+built of pine-logs, with the interstices stuffed with pitch,
+brushwood, or other inflammable material. It is natural that the pyre
+should take the shape of an altar and that cypress branches should
+lean against the sides.
+
+Upon the summit of this pile is laid Silius on his bier; incense and
+unguents are shed over him; wreaths and other offerings, often of no
+little value, are cast upon the heap. While loud cries of lamentation
+are being raised by the company present, a near kinsman approaches the
+pile with a torch, and, turning his face away, sets fire to the whole
+structure. It speedily burns down, the last embers are quenched with
+wine, the general company thrice cries "farewell," and, except for the
+nearest relatives, the procession returns to the city. The relatives
+who stay take off their shoes, wash their hands, and proceed to gather
+up the bones--which they cleanse in wine and milk--and the ashes,
+which they mix with perfume. These remains are then placed in the urn
+of bronze, marble, alabaster, or maybe of coloured glass, and the urn
+fills one more niche in the chamber of the monument.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 123.--COLUMBARIUM.]
+
+Now and then there were more magnificent obsequies than those of
+Silius. A "public" funeral might be decreed to a man who had deserved
+conspicuously well of the state. On such an occasion the crier would
+go round, calling "Oyez, come all who choose to the funeral of
+So-and-So." The invitation meant, not merely participation in a solemn
+procession, but also in the funeral feast, and probably an exhibition
+of gladiators. On the other hand the majority of burials were
+naturally of a far more simple and inexpensive kind. The poor could
+not afford to use unguents and keep their dead till the third day;
+they could not afford real cypress trees, but must use cheaper
+substitutes, if anything at all. They could not afford all the
+processionists and paraphernalia of the undertaker, but must be
+satisfied with four commonplace bearers, who hurried away the corpse
+in the evening, not on a couch but in a cheap box, and carried it out
+to the common necropolis beyond the Esquiline Gate. Seldom could they
+afford the fuel to burn the body, and in many cases it must simply be
+thrown into a pit roughly dug and there left without monument. To
+secure more respect and decency there were many burial clubs, whether
+connected with the trade-guilds or not, and these procured a joint
+tomb of the kind known as a "dovecote," or columbarium, from the
+resemblance of its niches to so many pigeon-holes. These cooperative
+sepulchres were underground vaults, and it is perhaps hardly necessary
+to point out their direct relation to the Christian catacombs. Similar
+tombs were sometimes used by the great Roman families for the remains
+of the freedmen and slaves of their house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 124.--TEMPLE OF JUPITER ON THE CAPITOL (Platform
+omitted).]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Actors, contempt for, 268
+Advertisements, 257
+Aemilia, Basilica, 108
+Africa, 45
+Age, coming of, 332
+Agriculture, implements of, 252
+Alexander the Great, 34
+Alexandria, 14, 25, 34, 44
+Amphitheatres, 280
+  performances, 282
+Amulets, 318
+Andalusia, 36
+Antioch, 14, 43
+Appian Way, 22, 118
+Aqueducts, 136
+Architecture, 112, 422-424
+Argiletum, the, 108
+Aristocrat, clients of, 206
+  daily life of, 193
+  dress of, 196
+  as pleader in law-courts, 216
+  social duties of, 217
+Army, the, 12, 52, 338-358
+  artillery, 356
+  auxiliaries, 352
+  camping arrangements, 349
+  cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+  composition, 339
+  dress and equipment, 342
+  Imperial Guards, 353
+  infantry, 339, 352
+  legionaries, 339
+  pay and rations, 344
+  promotion, 347
+  terms of service, 340
+  training, 340, 345
+  typical soldier's life, 342-350
+Art, 416-433
+  apparent lack of artistic feeling, 429
+  contempt for professional artists, 428
+  influence of Greece, 421
+  profession and quality of, 416-420
+  statues, 418, 424
+  wall-paintings, 425-428
+Artemis, temple of, 42
+Artillery, 356
+Asia Minor, towns of, 42
+Astronomy, 359
+Athens, 40
+Athletics, 263
+Auctioneers, receipt tablets of, 250
+Augustus, title of emperor, 55
+Augustus, Forum of, 188
+  mausoleum of, 120
+Authors, amateur, 219, 235
+
+Baetica (_see_ Andalusia)
+Bakers, 248
+Bandits, 24
+Banking, 216, 239
+Basilica Aemilia, 108
+  of Julius, 106
+Baths, 122, 124
+Beard, method of wearing, 195
+Beds, 182
+Beggars, 243
+Betrothal ceremony, 296
+Boadicea, 39
+Books, size and shape of, 335-337
+Booksellers, 109, 247
+Boots (_see_ Shoes)
+Boxing-gloves, 265
+Breakfast, 200
+Britain, 39
+Burial, 434-447
+  funeral rites, 439-445
+  offerings to the dead, 438
+  tombs, 444, 446
+
+Caligula, 73, 95, 115, 234
+Camps, military, 349
+Campus Martius, the, 120
+Carpets, absence of, 180
+Carriages, 19
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+Census of Augustus, 85
+Chariot-races, 263, 274, 280
+  colours in, 274, 278
+  horses, 275
+  prizes, 278
+  procession of chariots, 277
+Charts, 18
+Chemistry, 402
+Children:
+  ceremony at birth and naming, 317
+  coming of age, 332
+  early life, 319
+  education, 320-335
+  parental power over, 315-317
+  privileges of parents, 314
+  registration, 318
+Christians, earlier tolerance towards, 383
+  their subsequent persecution, 79, 384-387
+Circus Maximus, 128, 173
+Citizens: as clients of the wealthy, 206
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+  freed slaves may become, 204
+  rights of, 56, 92
+Civilisation, Roman, 30
+  Greek, 32
+  Asiatic, 33
+_Claqueurs_, in law-courts, 217
+  in theatres, 273
+  Nero's use of, 77
+Class distinctions, 66
+Clients, 206, 222, 245
+  dinner to, 235
+  escort to patron, 211
+  literary, 208
+Cloaks, 220
+Clocks, water, 192
+"Colony," formation of, 84
+Columbarium, joint sepulchre, 447
+Commerce, 36
+Concord, Temple of, 105
+Concrete, extensive use of, in building, 138
+Consulship, the, 359
+Cook-shops, 258
+Corinth, 40
+Corn, monthly allowances of, 242
+  corn-lands, 45
+Couches, 181, 226
+Cremation, 445
+Crops, rotation of, 252
+Customs duties, 87
+Cynics, the, 412
+
+Damascus, 44
+Dancing girls, 232
+Dead, offerings to the, 438
+Decoration, house, 150, 164
+  in theatres, 267
+Deities, festivals of, 261
+  household, 376
+  official duties to, 374
+  variety of, 362, 366, 368
+Delphi, 40
+Dicing, 232, 258
+Dinners:
+  conversation and entertainment at, 231, 235
+  description of, 229, 234
+  exaggerated accounts, 228
+  extravagance of Court, 234
+  to clients, 235
+  wine at, 233
+Dissection, human, prohibition of, 404
+Divorce, 304
+Doles of corn and money, 242
+Doors, 145
+Dowry, 299
+Drainage, 161
+Drama, low level of the, 268, 270
+Dress:
+  distinctions of, 65
+  for dinner, 226
+  hats, 212
+  mantles, 221, 274
+  military, 342
+  toga, 197, 332
+  theatrical, 269
+  typical aristocrat's, 196
+  women's, 308-313
+Druids, the, 382
+
+Education:
+  of boys, 321-326
+  of girls, 327
+  ideal of, 320
+  physical training, 331
+  primary and secondary, 327-331
+Egypt, 45
+Elections, municipal, 255
+Emblems, city, 47
+Emperor, the:
+  dependence upon the army, 52
+  nomination of Senators by, 60
+  powers of, 50
+  and the Senate, 57
+  symbolic character of statue, 386
+Empire, the Roman:
+  Eastern and Western halves, 35
+  extent, 6, 8
+  expeditions, 7
+  government, 9
+  military and naval forces, 12
+  provinces, 30
+  roads, 16
+  security under, 12
+Ephesus, 42
+Epicureans, the, 407-409
+Etiquette, exactions of, 217
+Euclid, 401
+
+Festivals, 261
+Field-glass, primitive, 275
+Fingers, use of, at meals, 228
+Fires, destructive, 98, 133
+Floors, 149, 180
+Flour-mills, 248
+Food, 200, 230, 258
+Foreigners, 67
+Forum, the, 102
+  public life in, 214
+"Free" towns, 90
+Freedmen, 204, 245
+  wealth of, 205
+Freethought, 378-381
+"Friends of Caesar," 211
+Frontiers, protection of, 12
+Fullers, 250
+Funeral rites, 439-445
+Furniture:
+  beds, 182
+  chairs and couches, 181
+  chests, 185
+  kitchen utensils, 189
+  lamps, 186
+  mirrors, 186
+  silver and glass ware, 188
+  tables, 183
+  tripods, 184
+
+Games, 214, 222, 232, 262
+Gaul, 37
+  tribes of, 38
+Geographical knowledge, 398-401
+Ghosts, belief in, 435-437
+Gladiators, 264, 280, 282, 285-288
+  female spectators at combats, 288
+"Golden House," the, 116
+"Golden Milestone," the, 105
+Goldsmiths, 250
+Government, system of, 49
+   emperor, 50
+   "knights," 63
+  provinces, 82-95
+  Senate, 56
+  tribunes, 53
+Governors, provincial, dress of, 93
+  duties, 91
+  emoluments, 94
+Greece, indebtedness to, 32
+  influence of art of, 421
+  language and culture, 34
+  scientific thought, 397
+Greeks, prominence of, 67
+Greeting, manner of 211
+Guards, Imperial, 353
+Guides, professional, 19
+Guilds, _trade_, 254
+
+Hair, method of wearing, 37, 195 298, 311
+Hairpins, 311
+Hats, 212
+Health resorts, 174
+Heating, domestic, 161
+Holidays, 254
+  number of, 260
+Homestead, country, 169
+Horses, in chariot-races, 275
+Hotels, scarcity of, 22
+Hour of rising, 195
+House, country, 175-179
+House, typical town, 143-163
+  decoration, 150, 164
+  dining-rooms, 155
+  doors, 145
+  exterior, 144
+  floors, 149
+  garden, 154, 156
+  hall, 148
+  heating system, 161
+  kitchen, 156
+  library and picture-gallery, 158
+  lighting, 145, 150, 153, 160, 186
+  peristyle, 154
+  reception-room, 153
+  roofs, 141, 162
+  shrine, 157, 376
+  water-supply and drainage, 160
+  vestibule, 146
+Houses, 131
+  height of, 131, 139
+  lighting of, 141
+  tenement blocks,140
+
+Imperial Guards, 353
+Infantry, 339, 352
+Inns, 20
+Instruments, musical, 430
+Interest, rates of, 239
+Isis-worship, 373
+Italy, 30
+
+Janitors, 209
+Janus, Temple of, 110
+Jerusalem, 14, 44
+Jewelry, female love of, 297, 312
+Jews, colony of,  67
+  rebellious among, 10
+  toleration shown to, 382
+Jove, Temple of, 105
+Julius, Basilica of, 106
+Jurymen, 217
+Juvenal, on marriage, 293
+
+Kissing, excessive, 211
+Kitchens, 156, 170, 189
+"Knights," order of:
+  composition, 63
+  dress, 66
+  occupations, 238
+  privileges, 64
+Knives and forks, absence of, 189, 228
+
+Lamps, 186
+Land-tax, 85
+Land-travelling, 16-25
+Language, 32, 36, 91
+  of the people, 258
+  predominance of the Greek, 34
+Law-courts, pleaders in, 216
+ president and jury, 217
+Learning, tastes in, 398
+Legacies, 314
+Legions, number and name of, 341
+  strength, 339
+Life, social, aristocratic, 193-237
+  middle and lower class, 238-259
+Literature, 394-396
+  literary dependants, 208
+Litter, 211
+Loafers, 241
+Local government, 89
+Lugdunum (Lyons), 14, 38
+Luncheon, 219
+
+Macedonia, 40
+Marriage, 220
+  betrothal ceremony, 296
+  divorce, 304
+  dowry, 299
+  festivities, 300
+  two forms of, 290
+  Juvenal on, 293
+  legal age for, 294
+  not based on love, 292, 294
+  matrimonial freedom, 291
+  morganatic, 295
+  wedding ceremony, 297
+Mars, Temple of, 118
+Martial on country life, 172
+Masks:
+  at funerals, 152, 440
+  theatrical, 268
+Mathematics, 401
+Mausoleum of Augustus, 120
+Meals:
+  breakfast, 200
+  luncheon, 219
+  dinner, 226, 229
+Medicine, 403
+Mediterranean Sea, 46
+Milestones, 18, 28
+Mines, 37
+Mirrors, 186
+Money-lending, 238
+Morals, 378
+Municipal elections, 255
+Music, as part of education, 331, 341
+  fondness for, 430
+  instruments, 430
+Mysticism, 372
+
+Names, family, 194
+  of slaves, 204
+Navy, 12
+Nero:
+  musical eccentricities of, 78
+  persecution of Christians by, 79, 383, 387
+  personal appearance, 80, 213
+  powers vested in, 55, 71
+  reception by, 213
+  reign, 74
+  vices and follies 75, 116
+New Year's Day, 262
+News-sheets, official, 215
+Noises, street, 134, 195
+
+Oath of obedience, military, 342
+Officials, public, 358
+Oratory, school of, 329
+Ornament, architectural, 112, 423
+
+Paintings, wall, 325-328
+Palatine Hill, 115
+Pantheon, the, 121
+Papyri, 336
+Passes, Alpine, 39
+Patriotism, municipal, 90
+Paul, St., 34, 42, 80, 197, 383, 413
+_Pax Romana_, the 9, 12
+Pedigrees, 152
+"People," the, 67, 241
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+Person-tax, 87
+Philosophy, study of, 332-335, 380
+Pipes, lead, 160
+Pliny the elder, literary industry of, 390-392
+Pliny the younger, 236, 294, 305, 321, 392, 435
+Plutarch, 334, 395
+Police, soldiers as, 14
+Polytheism, 364
+Population of the city, 101
+Portugal, 37
+Present-giving, prominence of, 262
+Priests, 361
+Processions:
+  chariot, 227
+  funeral, 440
+  wedding, 300
+Proconsuls, 93
+Provinces, 30
+  civilisation of, 31
+  commerce, 36
+  contributions by, 85
+  distinctions between, 35
+  government, 82-95
+  language, 32
+Public service, 358-360
+Publicans (tax-collectors), 89, 240
+
+Record Office, the, 105
+Religion, 333, 361-387
+  attitude of state towards, 361-364, 370
+  conservatism in, 364, 368
+  free-thought, 378-381
+  mixed elements, 370
+  mysticism in, 372
+  polytheistic character of, 364
+  priests, 361
+  private observances, 375
+  superstitions in, 371
+  tolerance in, 381
+  treatment of Christians, 383-387
+Rhodes, 42
+Rings, 200
+Roads, military, 16
+  construction and upkeep, 18
+  variety of traffic, 22
+Rome in A.D., 64
+  appearance, 96-100
+  baths, 122
+  extent and population, 100-102
+  habits of the people, 102
+  public buildings, 102-129
+  streets, 130-138
+  theatres, 123
+Roofs 141, 162
+Rostra, the, 104
+
+Sandals, 309
+Saturn, Temple of, 105
+Saturnalia, the, 261
+Schools, 321-331
+Science, 396-405
+Sculpture, 418, 424
+Sea-travelling, 25-28
+Senate, the, 56, 71
+  imperial nomination to, 60
+  qualifications for membership, 59
+  relations with the emperor, 57, 72
+  senators' dress, 65
+  training of members, 62
+Senate-House, the, 109
+Seneca, 395
+Sewers, 130
+Ships, 26
+Shoes, 197,310
+Shops, 133, 141, 222
+Shrine, household 159, 376
+Sidon, 44
+Signs, trade, 251
+Slaves, 68, 206, 211, 240
+  citizenship bestowed on, 204
+  domestic, 201
+  dress, 202
+  licence at Saturnalia, 261
+  as musicians, 431
+  names, 204
+  occupations, 246
+  treatment, 203
+Smyrna, 42
+Snails, breeding of, 46
+Social life, of aristocrats, 193-237
+  of middle and lower classes, 238-259
+Spain, 36
+Spoons, 228
+Sports, 178, 263
+Statues, 418, 424
+Stoics, the, 409-412
+Strabo, 379
+Streets, 130
+  narrowness of, 132
+  noisiness, 134, 195
+  paving, 137
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Suicide, attitude regarding, 23
+Sun-dials, 191
+Superstitions, 371
+Surgery, 404
+
+Tarragona, 37
+Tarsus, 42
+Taxes:
+  collection 89, 240
+  farming of, 239
+  land, 85
+  miscellaneous 88
+  personal, 87
+Temple, description of, 123, 265
+Temples: of
+  Concord, 105
+  Janus, 110
+  Jove, 105
+  Mars, 118
+  Saturn, 105
+  Vesta, 114
+Theatres, 123, 265
+  actors' status 268
+  _claqueurs_, 273
+  compared with Greek, 266
+  curtain, 267
+  decoration, 267
+  masks and dresses, 268
+  music and dancing, 270
+  plays performed, 268, 270-273
+  scenery, 267
+  seats, 267
+  women's presence not encouraged, 266
+Tiles, 157, 162
+Time, method of telling, 192
+Toga:
+  colours of 218
+  compulsory use on formal occasions 198
+  distinctive meaning of, 197, 214
+Toleration, religious, 381
+Tombs, 253, 444
+Trade guilds 254
+  signs, 251
+Trade routes, 27
+Travelling, land and sea:
+  accommodation, 20
+  dangers 24, 29
+  modes, 19
+  period and routes, 25
+  speed, 25, 28
+"Tribunes of the commons," 53
+Tunics, 196, 308
+Tyre, 44, 45
+
+Utensils, kitchen, 189
+
+Vehicles, 19
+Vesta, Temple of, 114
+
+Water-clocks, 192
+Water-supply, 135, 160
+Wedding ceremony, 297
+Wild-beast fights, 282, 284
+Windows, 141, 145, 150, 60
+Wine, 233, 241
+Women:
+  fondness for jewelry, 297, 312
+  divorce, 304
+  domestic virtues, 307
+  dowry, 299
+  dress, 308-313
+  marriageable age, 294
+  position after marriage, 289, 301
+  presence at theatres not encouraged, 266
+  property after marriage, 299, 302
+  types of, 302, 306
+Working-classes, the, 214
+  competition with slave-labour 246
+  dress and food 258
+  language 258
+  life of 253, 256
+  professions all ranked among, 258
+Writing materials, 323, 337
+
+Youths:
+  coming of age of 218, 382
+  military training, 338
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND
+ST. PAUL***
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul,
+by T. G. Tucker
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul
+
+Author: T. G. Tucker
+
+Release Date: July 10, 2004  [eBook #12875]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO
+AND ST. PAUL***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Ted Garvin, Keith M. Eckrich, and the Project Gutenberg
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+
+
+LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND ST. PAUL
+
+by
+
+T. G. TUCKER
+
+1924
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The reception accorded to my _Life in Ancient Athens_ has led me to
+write the present companion work with an eye to the same class of
+readers. In the preface to the former volume it was said: "I have
+sought to leave an impression true and sound, so far as it goes, and
+also vivid and distinct. The style adopted has therefore been the
+opposite of the pedantic, utilizing any vivacities of method which are
+consistent with truth of fact." The same principles have guided me in
+the present equally unpretentious treatise. I agree entirely with Mr.
+Warde Fowler when he says: "I firmly believe that the one great hope
+for classical learning and education lies in the interest which the
+unlearned public may be brought to feel in ancient life and thought."
+
+For the general reader there is perhaps no period in the history of
+the ancient world which is more interesting than the one here chosen.
+Yet, so far as I know, there exists no sufficiently popular work
+dealing with this period alone and presenting in moderate compass a
+clear general view of the matters of most moment. My endeavour has
+been to represent as faithfully as possible the Age of Nero, and
+nowhere in the book is it implied that what is true for that age is
+necessarily as true for any other. The reader who is not a special
+student of history or antiquities is perhaps as often confused by
+descriptions of ancient life which cover too many generations as by
+those--often otherwise excellent--which include too much detail.
+
+I have necessarily consulted not only the Latin and Greek writers who
+throw light upon the time, but also all the best-known Standard works
+of modern date. It is perhaps scarcely necessary to state that in
+matters of contemporary government, administration, and public life my
+guides have been chiefly Mommsen, Arnold, and Greenidge; for social
+life Marquardt, Friedlaender, and Becker-Goell; for topography and
+buildings Jordan, Huelsen, Lanciani, and Middleton; nor that the
+Dictionaries of Smith and of Daremberg and Saglio have been always at
+hand, as well as Baumeister's _Denkmaeler_, and Guhl and Koner's _Life
+of the Greeks and Romans_. The admirable _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey has
+been, of course, indispensable. I have also derived profit from the
+writings of Prof. Sir W. M. Ramsay in connexion with St. Paul, and
+from Conybeare and Howson's _Life and Epistles_ of the Apostle. Useful
+hints have been found in Mr. Warde Fowler's _Social Life in Rome in
+the Age of Cicero_, and in Prof. Dill's Roman_ Society from Nero to
+Marcus Aurelius_. A personal study of ancient sites, monuments, and
+objects of antiquity at Rome, Pompeii, and elsewhere has naturally
+been of prime value. Those intimately acquainted with the immense
+amount of the available material will best realize the difficulty
+there has been in deciding how much to say and how much to "leave in
+the inkstand."
+
+For the drawings other than those of which another source is specified
+I have to thank Miss M. O'Shea, on whom has occasionally fallen the
+difficult task of giving ocular form to the mental visions of one who
+happens to be no draughtsman. For the rest I make acknowledgment to
+those books from which the illustrations have been directly derived
+for my own purposes, without reference to more original sources.
+
+I am especially grateful for the permission to use so considerable a
+number of illustrations from the _Pompeii_ of Mau-Kelsey, from
+Professor Waldstein's _Herculaneum_, and from Lanciani's _New Tales of
+Old Rome_.
+
+T.G.T.
+
+October 1909.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+CHAPTERS
+
+
+    I EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+   II TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+  III A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+   IV THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+    V NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+   VI ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+  VII ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+ VIII STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+   IX THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+    X THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+   XI ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+  XII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+ XIII SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND
+      DINNER
+
+  XIV LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+   XV HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+  XVI THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+ XVII CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+XVIII THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+  XIX ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+   XX STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+  XXI PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+ XXII THE ROMAN PROFUSION OF ART
+
+XXIII THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+INDEX
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+FIG.
+
+Frontispiece
+
+      View into Roman Forum from Temple of Vesta, A.D. 64.
+      (Restoration partly after Auer, Huelsen, Tognetti, etc.).
+
+  1. The Pont du Gard (Aqueduct and Bridge).
+
+  2. The Appian Way by the so-called Tomb of Seneca (Laneiani, _New
+     Tales of Old Rome_).
+
+  3. Plan of Inn at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+  4. Ship beside the Quay at Ostia. (Hill, _Illustrations of School
+     Classics_, FIG. 498 ).
+
+  6. The Acropolis at Athens. (From D'Ooge).
+
+  7. Plan of Antioch.
+
+  8. Emblem of Antioch. (_Dict. of Geog_. i. 116 ).
+
+  9. Emblem of Alexandria. (Mau, _Pompeii_, Fig 187).
+
+ 10.  Emblem of Rome. (From the column of Antoninus at Rome).
+
+ 11.  Augustus as Emperor.
+
+ 12.  Coin of Nero. (In the British Museum).
+
+ 13.  Bust of Seneca. (_Archaeiologische Zeitung_).
+
+ 14.  Agrippina, Mother of Nero. (Photo, Mansell & Co.).
+
+ 15.  Bust of Nero.
+
+ 16.  Some Remains of the Claudian Aqueduct.
+
+ 17.  The Rostra: back view. (Modified from Huelsen).
+
+ 18.  Ruins of Forum. (Record-Office in background with modern building
+      above.) (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 19.  N.E. of Forum, A.D. 64.  (Complementary to Frontispiece).
+
+ 20.  Temple of Fortuna Augusta at Pompeii. (Mau, FIG. 58).
+
+ 21.  So-called Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli.
+
+ 22.  Vestal Virgin. (Hill, FIG. 340 ).
+
+ 23.  Temple of Mars the Avenger in Forum of Augustus. (After
+      Ripostelli).
+
+ 24.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Present state).
+
+ 25.  Exterior of Theatre of Marcellus. (Restored).
+
+ 26.  A Greek Exedra. (Baumeister).
+
+ 27.  Circus Maximus (restored). (Modified from Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 28.  Building Materials. (From Middleton).
+
+ 29.  Typical Scheme of Roman House.
+
+ 30.  Entrance to House of Pansa.
+
+ 31.  Interior of Roman House. (Restored).
+
+ 32.  House of Cornelius Rufus. (Mau, FIG. 121 ).
+
+ 33.  Peristyle with Garden and al fresco Dining-Table. (After Guhl and
+      Koner).
+
+ 34.  Peristyle in House of the Vettii. (Present state) (Mau, FIG.
+      162).
+
+ 35.  Kitchen Hearth in the House of the Vettii. (Mau, FIG. 125).
+
+ 36.  Cooking Hearths. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 672).
+
+ 37.  Shrine in House of the Tragic Poet. (Mau, FIG. 153 ).
+
+ 38.  Household Shrine.  (Hill, FIG. 345).
+
+ 38A. Leaden Pipes in House of Livia. (From a photograph).
+
+ 39.  Portable Braziers. (Daremberg and Saglio).
+
+ 40.  Manner of Roofing with Tiles.
+
+ 41.  House of Pansa at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 42.  House of the Vettii at Pompeii. (After Mau).
+
+ 43.  Specimen of Painted Room.
+
+ 44.  Specimen of Wall-Painting. (Mau, FIG. 264).
+
+ 45.  Plan of Homestead at Boscoreale. (After Mau).
+
+ 46.  Roman Folding Chair. (Schreiber).
+
+ 47.  Bronze Seat. (Overbeck).
+
+ 48.  Framework of Roman Couch. (Mau, FIG. 188).
+
+ 49.  Plan of Dining-Table with Three Couches.
+
+ 50.  Sigma.
+
+ 51.  Tripod from Herculaneum. (From Waldstein, _Herculaneum_, Plate
+      41).
+
+ 52.  Chest (Strong-box). (Mau, FIG. 120).
+
+ 53.  Mirrors. (Mau, FIG. 213).
+
+ 54.  Lamps. (Mau, FIG. 196).
+
+ 55.  Lampholder as Tree. (Mau, FIG. 202).
+
+ 56.  Cup from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 45).
+
+ 57.  Kitchen Utensils. (Mau, FIG. 204).
+
+ 58.  Pail from Herculaneum. (Waldstein, Plate 42).
+
+ 59.  Patrician Shoes.  (_Dict. Ant_. i. 335).
+
+ 60.  Roman in the Toga.  (Waldstein, Plate 18).
+
+ 61.  Slave in Fetters.
+
+ 62.  Litter. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 15).
+
+ 63.  Reading a Proclamation. (Mau, FIG. 17).
+
+ 64.  Sealed Receipt of Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 275).
+
+ 65.  Discus-Thrower. (Photo, Anderson).
+
+ 66.  Stabian Baths.  (Mau, Plate 5).
+
+ 67.  Bathing Implements. (Mau, FIG. 209).
+
+ 68.  Acrobats. (Baumeister, i. 585).
+
+ 69.  Surgical Instruments. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 70.  Bakers' Mills. (Mau, FIG. 218).
+
+ 71.  Cupids as Goldsmiths. (Wall-Painting.)(Mau, FIG. 167).
+
+ 72.  Garland-Makers. (_Abhandlungen, historische-philologische
+      Classe Koeniglich Saechsischen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften_).
+
+ 73.  Bust of Caecilius Jueundus. (Mau, FIG. 256).
+
+ 74.  Ploughs. (Hill, FIG. 383; _Dict. Ant_. i. 160).
+
+ 75.  Tools on Tomb. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 243).
+
+ 76.  Pompeian Cook-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 131).
+
+ 77.  In a Wine-Shop. (Mau, FIG. 234).
+
+ 78.  Boxing-Gloves. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 329).
+
+ 79.  Theatre at Orange. (Restored.) (Baumeister, iii. 1742).
+
+ 80.  Theatre at Aspendus. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 81.  Tragic Actor. (Hill, FIG. 421).
+
+ 82.  Comic Masks. (Terence's _Andria_).
+
+ 83.  Scene from Comedy. (Hill, FIG. 422).
+
+ 84.  Plan of Circus.
+
+ 85.  The Turn in the Circus.
+
+ 86.  Chariot Race. (_Dict. Ant_. i. 434).
+
+ 87.  Amphitheatre at Pompeii. (Mau, Plate 6).
+
+ 88.  Barracks of Gladiators. (Mau, Plate 4).
+
+ 89.  Stocks for Gladiators. (Remains from Pompeii.) (Mau, FIG. 74).
+
+ 90.  Gladiators Fighting. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 91.  Toilet Scene. (Wall-Painting.) (Waldstein, Plate 32).
+
+ 92.  Woman in Full Dress. (Waldstein, Plate 7).
+
+ 93.  Hairpins. (Mau, FIG. 211).
+
+ 94.  Writing Materials.
+
+ 95.  Horsing a Boy. (After Saechs.) (Baumeister, iii. FIG. 1653).
+
+ 96.  Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's _Pompeii_).
+
+ 97.  Roman Standards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+ 98.  Armed Soldier.
+
+ 99.  A Roman General. (Hill, FIG. 465).
+
+100.  Centurion. (Hill, FIG. 466).
+
+101.  Standard-Bearer. (Hill, FIG. 470).
+
+102.  Baggage-Train. (Daremberg and Saglio, FIG. 1196).
+
+103.  Soldiers with Packs. (Seyffert, _Dict. Class. Ant_. p. 348).
+
+104.  Roman Soldiers Marching. (Schreiber).
+
+105.  Imperial Guards. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+106.  Besiegers with the "Tortoise." (Hill, FIG. 481).
+
+107.  Roman Artillery. (_Dict. Ant_. ii. 855).
+
+108.  Auxiliary Cavalryman. (_Dict. Ant_.  i. 790).
+
+109.  Jupiter. (Vatican Museum).
+
+110.  A Sacrifice. (Mau, FIG. 44).
+
+111.  Isis Worship. (Wall-Painting.) (Mau, FIG. 81).
+
+112.  Household Shrine. (Mau, FIG. 127).
+
+113.  The World (approximately) as conceived about A.D. 100.
+
+114.  The Dying Gaul.
+
+115.  A "Candeliera" or Marble Pilaster of the Basilica Aemilia
+      (Lanciani, _New Tales, etc._, p. 147).
+
+116.  Fragments of the Architecture of the Regia.  (Lanciani, p. 70).
+
+117.  Wall-Painting. (Woman with Tablets.) (Waldstein, _Herculaneum_,
+      Plate 35).
+
+118.  Wall-Painting from Herculaneum. (Women playing with
+      Knuckle-Bones.) (Waldstein, Plate 4).
+
+119.  Lyre and Harp.
+
+120.  "Conclamatio" of the Dead. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+121.  Tomb of Caecilia Metella.
+
+122.  Street of Tombs. (Mau, Plate 10).
+
+123.  Columbarium. (Guhl and Koner).
+
+124.  Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol.
+
+
+
+MAPS AND PLANS:
+
+      Map of Roman Empire, A.D. 64.
+
+      Plan of Rome with Chief Topographical Features.
+
+      Plan of Forum, A.D. 64.
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+The subject of this book is "Life in the Roman World of Nero and St.
+Paul." This is not quite the same thing as "Life in Ancient Rome" at
+the same date. Our survey is to be somewhat wider than that of the
+imperial city itself, with its public and private structures, its
+public and private life. The capital, and these topics concerning it,
+will naturally occupy the greater portion of our time and interest.
+But it is quite impossible to realise Rome, its civilisation, and the
+meaning of its monuments, unless we first obtain some general
+comprehension of the empire--the Roman world--with its component
+parts, its organisation and administration. The date is approximately
+anno Domini 64, although it is not desirable, even if it were
+possible, to adhere in every detail to the facts of that particular
+year. In A.D. 64 the Emperor Nero was at the height of his folly and
+tyranny, and, so far as our information goes, the Apostle Paul was
+journeying about the Roman world in the interval between his first and
+second imprisonments in the capital.
+
+One cannot, perhaps, achieve a wholly satisfying picture in a treatise
+of the present dimensions. It would require a very bulky volume to
+realise with any adequateness the ideal aim. It would be well if, in
+the first instance, we could imagine ourselves standing somewhere far
+aloft over the centre of the empire, and possessing as wide-ranging a
+vision as that of the Homeric gods. From that exalted standpoint we
+might gaze upon the active life of towns, upon the labourers working
+their lands from the Atlantic to the Euphrates, and upon the men who
+go down to the sea in ships and do their business in great waters. We
+should perceive their occupations and amusements, their material
+surroundings, their various dress and manners, their methods of
+travel, the degree of their personal safety and liberty. Then we
+should descend to earth in the middle of Rome itself, and become for
+the time being inhabitants of that city, privileged to take part in
+its public business and its public pleasures, to enter the houses of
+what may be called its representative citizens, to share in the
+various elements of its social day, and to estimate the moral,
+intellectual, and artistic cultivation of Roman society.
+
+Such would be the ideal. Here it must suffice, to select the most
+essential or interesting matters, and to present them with such
+vividness as the necessary brevity will permit. Very little
+preliminary knowledge will be taken for granted; the use of Latin or
+technical terms will be shunned, and every topic will be dealt with,
+as far as possible, in the plainest of English.
+
+Nevertheless, while aiming at entire lucidity, the following chapters
+will aim even more scrupulously at telling the truth. There are
+doubtless a number of matters--though generally of relatively small
+moment--about which we are, and probably always shall be, uncertain.
+The best way to deal with these, in a work which is descriptive rather
+than argumentative, is to omit them. For the rest it must be expected
+of any one whose professional concern it has been to saturate himself
+for many years in the literature of the times, and to study carefully
+their monumental remains, that he should occasionally make some
+statement, drop some passing remark or judgment, which may appear to
+be in conflict with assertions made in other quarters. If a few
+examples are met with in the present book, they may be taken as made
+with all deference, but with deliberation.
+
+It is perhaps well to say this with some emphasis, in view of the
+blunders often innocently committed by those who happen to be speaking
+of this period. There are those who know it almost only through the
+medium of the _Acts of the Apostles_, and who entertain the most
+erroneous notions concerning Gallio or Festus, concerning Roman
+justice, Roman taxation, or Roman moral and religious attitudes. There
+are those, again, who know it almost only through the manuals of
+history; that is to say, they know the dates and facts of the reigns
+of the emperors, but have never realised, not to say visualised, the
+contemporary Roman as a human being. There exist denunciations of the
+morals of the Roman world of this date which would lead one to believe
+that every man was a Nero and every woman a Messalina: denunciations
+so lurid that, if they were a third part true, the continuance of the
+Roman Empire, or even of the Roman race, for a single century would be
+simply incomprehensible. On the other hand there have been accounts of
+the material glory of Rome which have conjured up visions of splendour
+worthy only of the _Arabian Nights_; and sometimes the comment is
+added that it was all won from the blood and sweat heartlessly wrung
+from a world of miserable slaves. It is not too much to say that none
+of these descriptions could come from a writer or speaker who knew the
+period at first hand.
+
+The most dangerous form of falsehood is that which contains some
+portion of truth. The life of many a Roman was deplorably dissolute;
+the splendour of Rome was beyond doubt astonishing; of oppression
+there were too many scattered instances; but we do not judge the
+civilisation of the British Empire by the choicest scandals of London,
+nor the good sense of the United States by the freak follies of New
+York. We do not take it that the modern satirist who vents his spleen
+on an individual or a class is describing each and all of his
+contemporaries, nor even that what he says is necessarily true of such
+individual or class. Nor is the professional moralist himself immune
+from jaundice or from the disease of exaggeration.
+
+The endeavour here will be to realise more veraciously what life in
+the Roman world was like. For those who are familiar with the
+political history and the escapades of Nero there may be some filling
+in of gaps and adjusting of perspective. For those who are familiar
+with the journeyings and experiences of St. Paul there may be some
+correction of errors and misconceptions. For those who have any
+thought of visiting the ruins of Rome and Pompeii, it may prove
+helpful to have secured some comprehension of this period. Pompeii was
+destroyed only fifteen years after our date, and all those houses,
+large and small, were occupied in the year 64 by their unsuspecting
+inhabitants. Meanwhile mansions, temples, and halls stood in splendour
+above those platforms and foundations over which we tread amid the
+broken columns in the Roman Forum or on the Palatine Hill.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+EXTENT AND SECURITY OF THE EMPIRE
+
+
+The best means of realising the extent of the Roman Empire in or about
+the year 64 is to glance at the map. It will be found to reach from
+the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphrates, from the middle of
+England--approximately the river Trent--to the south of Egypt, from
+the Rhine and the Danube to the Desert of Sahara. The Mediterranean
+Sea is a Roman lake, and there is not a spot upon its shores which is
+not under Roman rule. In round numbers the empire is three thousand
+miles in length and two thousand in breadth. Its population, which, at
+least in the western parts, was much thinner then than it is over the
+same area at present, cannot be calculated with any accuracy, but an
+estimate of one hundred millions would perhaps be not very far from
+the mark.
+
+Beyond its borders--sometimes too dangerously near to them and apt to
+overstep them--lay various peoples concerning whom Roman knowledge was
+for the most part incomplete and indefinite. Within its own boundaries
+the Roman government carefully collected every kind of information.
+Such precision was indispensable for the carrying out of those Roman
+principles of administration which will be described later. But of the
+nations or tribes beyond the frontiers only so much was known as had
+been gathered from a number of more or less futile campaigns, from
+occasional embassies sent to Rome by such peoples, from the writings
+of a few venturous travellers bent on exploration, from slaves who had
+been acquired by war or purchase, or from traders such as those who
+made their way to the Baltic in quest of amber, or to Arabia,
+Ethiopia, and India in quest of precious metals, jewels, ivory,
+perfumes, and fabrics.
+
+There had indeed been sundry attempts to annex still more of the
+world. Roman armies had crossed the Rhine and had twice fought their
+way to the Elbe; but it became apparent to the shrewd Augustus and
+Tiberius that the country could not be held, and the Rhine was for the
+present accepted as the most natural and practical frontier. In the
+East the attempts permanently to annex Armenia, or a portion of
+Parthia, had so far proved but nominal or almost entirely vain.
+
+On the Upper Euphrates at this date there was a sort of acknowledgment
+of vague dependence on Rome, but the empire had acquired nothing more
+solid. Forty years before our date a Roman expedition had penetrated
+into South-west Arabia, of which the wealth was extravagantly
+over-estimated, but it had met with complete failure. Into Ethiopia a
+punitive campaign had been made against Queen Candace, and a loose
+suzerainty was claimed over her kingdom, but the Roman frontier still
+stopped short at Elephantine. Over the territories of the semi-Greek
+semi-Scythian settlements to the north of the Black Sea Rome exercised
+a protectorate, which was for obvious reasons not unwelcome to those
+concerned. Along or near the eastern frontier she well understood the
+policy of the "buffer state," and, within her own borders in those
+parts, was ready to make tools of petty kings, whose own ambitions
+would both assist her against external foes and relieve her of
+administrative trouble.
+
+At no time did the Roman Empire possess so natural or scientific a
+frontier as at this, when it was bounded by the Rhine, the Danube, the
+Black Sea, the Euphrates, the Desert, and the Atlantic. The only
+exception, it will be perceived, was in Britain, but the Roman idea
+there also was to annex the whole island, a feat which was never
+accomplished. Two generations after our chosen date Rome had conquered
+as far as the Firths of Clyde and Forth; it had crossed the Southern
+Rhine, and annexed the south-west corner of Germany, approximately
+from Cologne to Ratisbon; it had passed the Danube, and secured and
+settled Dacia, which is roughly the modern Roumania; and it had pushed
+its power somewhat further into the East. But it had not thereby
+increased either its strength or its stability.
+
+At the period then with which we are to deal, the Roman Empire
+included the countries now known as Holland, Belgium, France, Spain
+and Portugal, Switzerland, Italy, the southern half of the Austrian
+Empire, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Egypt,
+Tripoli and Tunis, Algeria, Morocco, and also the southern two-thirds
+of England. Within these borders there prevailed that greatest
+blessing of the Roman rule, the _pax Romana_, or "Roman peace."
+Whatever defects may be found in the Roman administration, on whatever
+abstract grounds the existence of such an empire may be impugned, it
+cannot be questioned that for at least two centuries the whole of this
+vast region enjoyed a general reign of peace and security such as it
+never knew before and has never known since. That peace meant also
+social and industrial prosperity and development. It meant an immense
+increase in settled population and in manufactures, and an immense
+advance--particularly in the West--in civilised manners and
+intellectual interests.
+
+Peoples and tribes which had been at perpetual war among themselves or
+with some neighbour were reduced to quietude. Communities which had
+been liable to sudden invasion and to all manner of arbitrary changes
+in their conditions of life, in their burdens of taxation, and even in
+their personal freedom, now knew exactly where they stood, and, for
+the most part, perceived that they stood in a much more tolerable and
+a distinctly more assured position than before. If there must
+sometimes be it would be the Roman tyrant, and he, as we shall find,
+affected them but little. All irresponsible local tyrannies, whether
+of kings or parties, were abolished.
+
+On the high seas within the empire you might voyage with no fear
+whatever of pirates. If you looked for pirates you must look beyond
+the Roman sphere to the Indian Ocean. There might also be a few to be
+found in the Black Sea. On the high road you might travel from
+Jerusalem to Rome, and from Rome to Cologne or Cadiz, with no fear of
+any enemy except such banditti and footpads as the central or local
+government could not always manage to put down. On the whole there was
+nearly everywhere a clear recognition of the advantages conferred by
+the empire.
+
+It is quite true that during these two centuries we meet with frequent
+trouble on the borders and with one or two local revolts of more or
+less strength. At our chosen date the Jews were being stirred by their
+fanatical or "zealot" party into an almost hopeless insurrection;
+within two years the rebellion broke out. Three years later still,
+certain ambitious semi-Romans took advantage of a troubled time to
+make a determined but futile effort to form a Gaulish or
+German-Gaulish empire of their own. Half a century after Nero the Jews
+once again rose, but were speedily suppressed. But apart from these
+abortive efforts--made, one by a unique form of religious zeal, one by
+adventurous ambition, at opposite extremities of the Roman
+world--there was established a general, and in most cases a willing,
+acceptance of the situation and a proper recognition of its benefits.
+
+The only serious war to be feared within the empire itself was a civil
+war, begun by some aspiring leader when his chance seemed strong of
+ousting the existing emperor or of succeeding to his throne. Four
+years from the date at which we have placed ourselves such a war
+actually did break out. Nero was driven from the throne in favour of
+Galba, and the history of the year following is the history of Otho
+murdering Galba, Vitellius overthrowing Otho, and Vespasian in his
+turn overthrowing Vitellius. Yet all this is but the story of one
+entirely exceptional year, the famous "year of four emperors." Take
+out that year from the imperial history; count a hundred years before
+and more than a hundred years after, and it would be impossible to
+find in the history of the world any period at which peace, and
+probably contentment, was so widely and continuously spread. Think of
+all the countries which have just been enumerated as lying within the
+Roman border; then imagine that, with the exception of one year of
+general commotion, two or three provincial and local revolts, and
+occasional irruptions and retaliations upon the frontier, they have
+all been free from war and its havoc ever since the year 1700. In our
+year of grace 64, although the throne is occupied by a vicious emperor
+suffering from megalomania and enormous self-conceit, the empire is in
+full enjoyment of its _pax Romana_.
+
+Another glance at the map will show how secure this internal peace was
+felt to be. The Roman armies will be found almost entirely upon the
+frontiers. It was, of course, imperative that there should be strong
+forces in such positions--in Britain carrying out the annexation; on
+the Rhine and Danube defending against huge-bodied, restless Germans
+and their congeners; on the Euphrates to keep off the nimble and
+dashing Parthian horse and foot; in Upper Egypt to guard against the
+raids of "Fuzzy-Wuzzy "; in the interior of Tunis or Algeria to keep
+the nomad Berber tribes in hand. In such places were the Roman legions
+and their auxiliary troops regularly kept under the eagles, for there
+lay their natural work, and there do we find them quartered generation
+after generation.
+
+It is, of course, true that they might be employed inwards as well as
+outwards; but it must be manifest that, if there had been any
+widespread disaffection, any reasonable suspicion that serious revolts
+might happen, there would have been many other large bodies of troops
+posted in garrison throughout the length and breadth of the provinces.
+In point of fact the whole Roman military force can scarcely have
+amounted to more than 320,000 men, while the navy consisted of two
+small fleets of galleys, one regularly posted at Misenum at the
+entrance to the Bay of Naples, the other at Ravenna on the Adriatic.
+To these we may add a flotilla of boats operating on the Lower Rhine
+and the neighbouring coasts. Except during the year of civil war the
+two fleets have practically no history. They enjoyed the advantage of
+having almost nothing to fight against. If pirates had become
+dangerous--as for a brief time they threatened to do during the Jewish
+revolt--the imperial ships would have been in readiness to suppress
+them. They could be made useful for carrying despatches and imperial
+persons or troops, or they might be used against a seaside town if
+necessary. Beyond this they hardly correspond to our modern navies.
+There was no foreign competition to build against, and no "two-power
+standard" to be maintained.
+
+The Roman troops, it has already been said, were almost wholly on the
+frontier. So far as there are exceptions, they explain themselves. It
+was found necessary at all times to keep at least one legion regularly
+quartered in Northern Spain, where the mountaineers were inclined to
+be predatory, and where they were skilful, as they have always been,
+at carrying on guerilla warfare. We may, if we choose, regard this
+comparatively small army as policing a lawless district. In but few
+other places do we find a regular military force. Rome itself had both
+a garrison and also a large body of Imperial Guards. The garrison,
+consisting of some 6000 men, was in barracks inside the city, and its
+purpose was to protect the wealth of the metropolis and the seat of
+government from any sudden riot or factious tumult. It must be
+remembered that among the Romans it was soldiers who served as police,
+whether at Rome or in the provinces. The Imperial Guards, consisting
+of 12,000 troops, were stationed just outside the gates, in order to
+secure the safety and position of the emperor himself, if any attempt
+should be made against his person or authority. The rich and important
+town of Lugdunum (or Lyons) had a small garrison of 1200 men, and a
+certain number of troops were always to be found in garrison in those
+great towns where factious disturbances were either probable or
+possible. Thus at Alexandria, where the Jews were fanatical and at
+loggerheads with the Greeks, and where the native Egyptians were no
+less fanatical and might be at loggerheads with both, it was necessary
+to keep a disciplinary force in readiness. Somewhat similar was the
+case at Antioch, where the discords of the Greeks, Syrians, and Jews
+stood in need of the firm Roman hand. Nor could a similar regiment be
+spared from Jerusalem. The western towns were generally smaller in
+size, more homogeneous, and more tranquil. It was around the Levant
+that the popular _emeute_ was most to be feared. Doubtless one may
+meet, whether in the New Testament or in Roman and Greek writers, with
+frequent mention of soldiers, and we make acquaintance with an
+occasional centurion--something socially above a colour-sergeant and
+below a captain--or other officer in various parts of the empire. But
+it should be understood that, except in such places as those which
+have been named, soldiers were distributed in small handfuls, to act
+as _gendarmerie_, to deal with brigands, to serve as bodyguard and
+orderlies to a governor, to bear despatches, to be custodians of state
+prisoners. To these classes belong the centurions of the _Acts of the
+Apostles_, while Lysias was the colonel of the regiment keeping order
+in Jerusalem.
+
+What the Roman army was like, whence it was recruited, how it was
+armed, and what were its operations, are matters to be shown in a
+later chapter. Regarded then as a controlling agent, maintaining
+widespread peace, the Roman Empire answers closely to the British
+_raj_ in India. The analogy could indeed be pressed very much further
+and with more closeness of detail, but this is scarcely the place for
+such a discussion.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+
+TRAVEL WITHIN THE EMPIRE
+
+Of the administration in Rome and throughout the provinces enough will
+be said in the proper place. Meanwhile we may look briefly at one or
+two questions of interest which will presumably suggest themselves at
+this stage. Since all this vast region now formed one empire, since
+Roman magistrates and officers were sent to all parts of it, since
+trade and intercourse were vigorous between all its provinces, it will
+be natural to ask, for example, by what means the traveller got from
+place to place, at what rate of progress, and with what degree of
+safety and comfort.
+
+In setting forth by land you would elect, if possible, to proceed by
+one of the great military roads for which the Roman world was so
+deservedly famous. Not only were they the best kept and the safest;
+they were also generally the shortest. As far as possible the Roman
+road went straight from point to point. It did not circumvent a
+practicable hill, nor, where necessary, did it shrink from cutting
+through a rock, say to the depth of sixty feet or so. It did not avoid
+a river, but bridged it with a solid structure such as often remains
+in use till this day. If it met with a marsh, wooden piles were driven
+in and the road-bed laid upon them. When it came to a deep narrow
+valley it built a viaduct on arches.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 1.--THE PONT DU GARD (AQUEDUCT AND BRIDGE).]
+
+The road so laid was meant for permanence. A width of ground was
+carefully prepared, trenches were dug at the sides, three different
+layers of road material were deposited, with sufficient upward curve
+to throw off the water, and then the whole was paved with
+closely-fitting many-cornered blocks of stone. In the chief instances
+there were sidewalks covered with some kind of gravel. The width was
+not great, but might be anything between ten and fifteen feet. Along
+such roads the Roman armies marched to their camps, along them the
+government despatches were carried by the imperial post, and along
+them were the most conveniently situated and commodious houses of
+accommodation. For their construction a special grant might be made by
+the Roman treasury--the cost being comparatively small, since the
+work, when not performed by the soldiers, was done by convicts and
+public slaves--and for their upkeep a rate was apparently levied by
+the local corporations. Besides the paved roads there was, needless to
+say, always a number of smaller roads, many of them mere strips of
+four feet or so in width; there were also short-cuts, by-paths, and
+ill-kept tracks of local and more or less fortuitous creation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 2.--THE APPIAN WAY BY THE SO-CALLED TOMB OF
+SENECA.]
+
+Beside the great highways stood milestones in the shape of short
+pillars, and generally there were in existence charts or itineraries,
+sometimes pictured, giving all necessary directions as to the
+turnings, distances, stopping-places, and inns, and even as to the
+sights worth seeing on the way. Wherever there were such objects of
+interest--in Egypt, Syria, Greece, or any other region of art,
+history, and legend--the traveller could always find a professional
+guide, whose information was probably about as reliable as that of the
+modern _cicerone_. In Rome itself there was displayed, in one of the
+public arcades, a plan of the empire, with notes explaining the
+dimensions and distances.
+
+The vehicle employed by the traveller would depend upon circumstances.
+You would meet the poor man riding on an ass, or plodding on foot with
+his garments well girt; the better provided on a mule; a finer person
+or an official on a horse; the more luxurious or easy-going either in
+some form of carriage or borne in a litter very similar to the
+oriental palanquin. To carriages, which were of several
+kinds--two-wheeled, four-wheeled, heavy and light--it may be necessary
+to make further reference; here it is sufficient to observe that, in
+order to assist quick travelling, there existed individuals or
+companies who let out a light form of gig, in which the traveller rode
+behind a couple of mules or active Gaulish ponies as far as the next
+important stopping-place, where he could find another jobmaster, or
+keeper of livery-stables, to send him on further. The rich man,
+travelling, as he necessarily would, with a train of servants and with
+full appliances for his comfort, would journey in a coach, painted and
+gilded, cushioned and curtained, drawn by a team showily caparisoned
+with rich harness and coloured cloths. This must have presented an
+appearance somewhat similar to that of the extravagantly decorated
+travelling-coach of the fourteenth century. The ordinary man of modest
+means would be satisfied with his mule or horse, and with his one or
+two slaves to attend him. On the less frequented stretches of road,
+where there was no proper accommodation for the night, his slaves
+would unpack the luggage and bring out a plain meal of wine, bread,
+cheese, and fruits. They would then lay a sort of bedding on the
+ground and cover it with a rug or blanket. The rich folk might bring
+their tents or have a bunk made up in their coaches.
+
+Where there was some sort of lodging for man and horse the average
+wayfarer would make the best of it. In the better parts of the empire
+and in the larger places of resort there were houses corresponding in
+some measure to the old coaching-inns of the eighteenth century; in
+the East there were the well-known caravanserais; but for the most
+part the ancient hostelries must have afforded but undesirable
+quarters. They were neither select nor clean. You journeyed along till
+you came to a building half wine-shop and store, half lodging-house.
+Outside you might be told by an inscription and a sign that it was the
+"Cock" Inn, or the "Eagle," or the "Elephant," and that there was
+"good accommodation." Its keeper might either be its proprietor, or
+merely a slave or other tenant put into it by the owner of a
+neighbouring estate and country-seat. Your horses or mules would be
+put up--with a reasonable suspicion on your part that the poor beasts
+would be cheated in the matter of their fodder--and you would be shown
+into a room which you might or might not have to share with someone
+else. In any case you would have to share it with the fleas, if not
+with worse.
+
+Perhaps you base brought your food with you, perhaps you send out a
+slave to purchase it, perhaps you obtain it from the innkeeper. That
+is your own affair. For the rest you must be prepared to bear with
+very promiscuous and sometimes unsavoury company, and to possess
+neither too nice a nose nor too delicate a sense of propriety. Your
+only consolation is that the charges are low, and that if anything is
+stolen from you the landlord is legally responsible.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 3.--PLAN OF INN AT POMPEII.]
+
+Doubtless there were better and worse establishments of this kind.
+There must have been some tolerably good quarters at Rome or
+Alexandria, and at some of the resorts for pleasure and health, such
+as Balae on the Bay of Naples, or Canopus at the Nile mouth. It is
+true also that for those who travelled on imperial service there were
+special lodgings kept up at the public expense at certain stations
+along the great roads. Nevertheless it may reasonably be asked why, in
+view of the generally accepted standards of domestic comfort and even
+luxury of the time--what may be called middle-class standards--there
+was no sufficiency of even creditable hotels. The answer is that in
+antiquity the class of people who in modern times support such hotels
+seldom felt the need of their equivalent. In the first place, they
+commonly trusted to the hospitality of individuals to whom they were
+personally or officially known, or to whom they carried private or
+official introductions. If they were distinguished persons, they were
+readily received, whether in town or country, on their route. In less
+frequented districts they trusted to their own slaves and to the
+resources of their own baggage. Their own tents, bedding, provisions
+and cooking apparatus were carried with them. If they made a stay of
+any length in a town, they might hire a suite of rooms.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon this topic. Suffice it that travel was
+frequent and extensive, whether for military and political business,
+for commerce, or for pleasure. Some roads, particularly that "Queen of
+Roads," the Appian Way--the same by which St. Paul came from Puteoli
+to Rome--must have presented a lively appearance, especially near the
+metropolis. Perhaps on none of these great highways anywhere near an
+important Roman city could you go far without meeting a merchant with
+his slaves and his bales; a keen-eyed pedlar--probably a Jew--carrying
+his pack; a troupe of actors or tumblers; a body of gladiators being
+taken to fight in the amphitheatre or market-place of some provincial
+town; an unemployed philosopher gazing sternly over his long beard; a
+regiment of foot-soldiers or a squadron of cavalry on the move; a
+horseman scouring along with a despatch of the emperor or the senate;
+a casual traveller coming at a lively trot in his hired gig; a couple
+of ladies carefully protecting their complexions from sun and dust as
+they rode in a kind of covered wagonette; a pair of scarlet-clad
+outriders preceding a gorgeous but rumbling coach, in which a Roman
+noble or plutocrat is idly lounging, reading, dictating to his
+shorthand amanuensis, or playing dice with a friend; a dashing youth
+driving his own chariot in professional style to the disgust of the
+sober-minded; a languid matron lolling in a litter carried by six
+tall, bright-liveried Cappadocians; a peasant on his way to town with
+his waggon-load of produce and cruelly belabouring his mule. If you
+are very fortunate you may meet Nero himself on one of his imperial
+progresses. If so, you had better stand aside and wait. It will take
+him a long time to pass; or, if this is one of his more serious
+undertakings, there will be a thousand carriages, many of them
+resplendent with gold and silver ornament in relief upon the woodwork,
+and drawn by horses or mules whose bridles are gleaming with gold.
+And, if the beautiful and conscienceless Poppaea is with him, there
+may be a Procession of some five hundred asses, whose it is to supply
+her with the milk in which she bathes for the preservation of her
+admirable velvety skin.
+
+There are, of course, many other individuals and types to be met with.
+If you happen to be traversing certain parts of Spain, the mountains
+of Greece, the southern provinces of Asia Minor, or the upper parts of
+Egypt, you will perhaps also meet with a bandit, or even with a band
+of them. In that case, prepare for the worst. Some of the gang have
+been caught and crucified: you may have passed the crosses upon your
+way. This does not render the rest more amiable. St. Paul takes it as
+natural to be thus "in peril of robbers." Perhaps certain regions of
+Italy itself were as dangerous as any. We have more than one account
+of a traveller who was last seen at such-and-such a place, and was
+never heard of again. It is therefore well, before undertaking a
+journey through suspected parts, to ascertain whether any one else is
+going that way. There is sure to be either an official with a military
+escort or some other traveller with a retinue; at least there will be
+some trusty man bearing letters, or some sturdy fellow whom you can
+hire expressly to accompany you.
+
+After allowing for this occasional embarrassment--which was certainly
+not greater and almost certainly very much less than you would have
+encountered in the same parts of the world a century ago--it must be
+declared that, on the whole, travel by land in the Roman world of the
+year 64 was remarkably safe. If it was not very expeditious, it was
+probably on the average quite as much so as in the eighteenth century.
+
+Ordinary travelling by road may not have averaged more than sixty or
+seventy miles a day, although hundred miles could be done without much
+difficulty, while a courier on urgent business could greatly increase
+that speed.
+
+Next let us suppose that our friend proposes to travel by sea. As a
+rule navigation takes place only between the beginning of March and
+the middle of November, ships being kept snug in harbour during the
+winter months. The traveller may be sailing from Alexandria to the
+capital or from Rome to Cadiz or to Rhodes. If a trader of sufficient
+boldness, he may even be proceeding outside the empire as far as
+India. If so, he will pass up the Nile as far as Coptos, then take
+either the canal or the caravan route to Myos Hormos on the Red Sea,
+and thence find ship for India, with a reasonable prospect--if he
+escapes the Arab pirates--of completing his business and returning
+home in about six months. Over 120 ships, small and great, leave the
+above-mentioned harbour each year on the voyage to India, for
+Alexandria is the great depot for the trade round the Indian Ocean,
+and the products of India are in lively demand at Rome.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 4.--SHIP BESIDE THE QUAY AT OSTIA. (Wolf and twins
+on mainsail.)]
+
+On such a remote course, however, we will not follow. Let us rather
+suppose that our traveller is proceeding from Alexandria, the second
+city of the empire, to Rome, which is the first. In this case he may
+enjoy the great advantage of going on board one those merchantmen
+belonging to the imperial service, which sail regularly with a freight
+of corn to feed the empire city. His port of landing will be Puteoli
+(Puzzuoli) in the Bay of Naples, which was then the Liverpool of
+Italy. The rest of the journey he will either make by the Appian Road,
+or, less naturally, by smaller freight-ship, putting in at Ostia, the
+port of Rome recently constructed by the Emperor Claudius at the mouth
+of the river Tiber. His ship, a well-manned and strongly-built vessel
+of from 500 tons up to 1100 or more, will carry one large mainsail,
+formed of strips of canvas strengthened by leather at their joinings,
+a smaller foresail, and a still smaller topsail. It will be steered by
+a pair of huge paddles on either side of the stern. There will be a
+crow's-nest on the mast, and at the bows a rehead of Rome or
+Alexandria or of some deity, perhaps of Castor and Pollux combined. A
+tolerable, but by no means a liberal, amount of cabin accommodation
+will be provided. A good-sized ship might reach 200 feet in length by
+50 in breadth. One of them brought to Rome the great obelisk which now
+stands in the Piazza of St. Peter's; another ship had brought another
+obelisk, 400,000 bushels of wheat and other cargo, and a very large
+number of passengers. At a favourable season, and with a quite
+favourable wind, the ship may expect to reach the Bay of Naples in as
+little as eight or nine days: sometimes it will take ten days,
+sometimes as many as twelve. The ship may either proceed directly
+south of Crete, or it may run across to Myra in Asia Minor, or to
+Rhodes, and thence proceed due west. As a rule the ancient navigator
+preferred to keep somewhat near the shore. Other ships, picking up and
+putting down cargo and passengers as they went along, would pass up
+the Syrian coast, calling at Caesarea, Tyre, Sidon, and other places
+before passing either north or south of Cyprus. From such a ship it
+might be necessary--as it was with St. Paul and the soldiers to whose
+care he was committed--to tranship into another vessel proceeding
+directly to Italy. If, as we have imagined, the traveller is on a
+cornship of the Alexandria-Puteoli line, he will reach the Bay one day
+after passing the straits of Messina, and his vessel will sail proudly
+up to port without striking her topsail, the only kind of ship which
+was permitted to do this being such imperial liners.
+
+There were other famous trade routes of the period. One is from
+Corinth; another from the Graeco-Scythian city at the mouth of the Sea
+of Azov, whence corn and salted fish were sent in abundance; a third
+from Cadiz, outside the straits of Gibraltar, by which were brought
+the wool and other produce of Andalusia; a fourth from Tarragona
+across to Ostia, the regular route for official and passenger
+intercourse with Spain. Yet another took you to Carthage in three
+days. Across the Adriatic from Brindisi you would reach in one day
+either Corfu or the Albanian coast at Dyrrhachium (Durazzo), where
+began the great highroad to the East. Given a fair wind, your ship
+might average 125 or 130 miles in the twenty-four hours, and, if you
+left Rome on Monday morning, you had a reasonable prospect of landing
+in Spain on the following Saturday. From Cadiz you would probably
+require ten or eleven days. There was, it is true, no need to come by
+sea from that town. There was a good road all the way, with a
+milestone at every Roman mile, or about 1600 yards. Unfortunately that
+route would generally take you nearly a month.
+
+It is not probable that sea travelling was at all comfortable; but it
+was apparently quite as much so, and quite as rapid, as it was on the
+average a century ago. Ships were made strong and sound; nevertheless
+shipwrecks were very frequent, as they always have been in sailing
+days. Wreckers who showed false lights were not unknown. There is also
+little doubt that the vessels were often terribly overcrowded; one
+ship, it is said, brought no less than 1200 passengers from
+Alexandria. That on which St. Paul was wrecked had 276 souls on board,
+and one upon which Josephus once found himself had as many as 600. It
+is incidentally stated in Tacitus that a body of troops, who had been
+both sent to Alexandria and brought back thence by sea, were greatly
+debilitated in mind and body by that experience. On the other hand, as
+has been already stated, there was generally no such thing as a pirate
+to be heard of in all the waters of the Mediterranean.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+
+A BRIEF SURVEY OF THE PROVINCES
+
+After thus considering, however incompletely, the manner in which the
+people of the Roman world contrived to move about within the empire
+itself, we may proceed to glance at the constituent parts of the world
+in which they thus travelled to and fro.
+
+And first we must draw a distinction of the highest importance between
+the western and eastern halves. Naturally enough, Italy itself was
+before all others the land of the Romans. It was the favoured land,
+enjoyed the fullest privileges, and was the most completely romanized
+in population, manners, and sentiment. Besides its larger and smaller
+romanized towns--of which there were about 1200--it was dotted from
+end to end with the country-seats and pleasure resorts of Romans.
+North and west of Italy were various peoples, differing widely in
+character, habits, and religion, as well as in physique. East of it
+were various other peoples differing also from each other in such
+respects, but for the most part marked by a common civilisation in
+which the West had but an almost inconsiderable share. Before the
+Roman conquest the nations and tribes of the West had been in general
+rude, unlettered, and unorganised. Except here and there in Spain,
+where the Phoenicians or Carthaginians had been at work, and in the
+Greek colonies sprung from Marseilles, they had hardly possessed such
+a thing as a town. They scarcely knew what was meant by civic life,
+with its material luxuries and graces, its art and literature. They
+were commonly small peoples without unity, brave fighters, but, in all
+those matters commonly classed as civilisation, distinctly behind the
+times. The superiority of the Roman in these parts was not merely one
+of organised strength, military skill, and political method, it was a
+superiority also of intellectual life and culture. In Spain, Gaul,
+Britain, Switzerland, the Tyrol and southern Austria, and also in
+North-West Africa, the Roman proceeded to organise after his own
+heart, to settle his colonies, to impose his language, and to
+inculcate his ideals. He was dealing with inferiors; this he fully
+recognised, and so for the most part did they.
+
+Meanwhile to the eastward also Rome spread her conquests. Here,
+however, she was dealing with peoples who had already passed under
+influences in many respects superior to those brought by the
+conqueror, influences which were in a sense only beginning to educate
+the conqueror himself. Let us here, for the sake of clearness, make a
+brief digression into previous history.
+
+Throughout the eastern half of the Mediterranean countries, conquering
+Rome had been face to face with an older, a more polished, a more
+keenly intellectual, and more artistic culture than her own. This was
+the civilisation of Greece. We need not dwell upon the character of
+Hellenic culture. Anyone who has made acquaintance with the richness
+of Greek literature, the clear sureness of Greek art, the keen insight
+of Greek science and philosophy, and the bold experiments of Greek
+society--especially as represented by Athens--will understand at once
+what is meant. When the Romans, more than two hundred years before our
+date, conquered Greece, in so far as they were a people of letters or
+of effort in abstract thought, in so far as they possessed the arts of
+sculpture, architecture, painting, and music, they were almost wholly
+indebted to Greece. Their own strength lay in solidity and gravity of
+character, in a strong sense of national and personal discipline, in
+the gift of law-making and law-obeying. In culture they stood to the
+Greeks of that time very much as the Germans of two centuries ago
+stood to the French. After their conquest by the Romans the Greeks
+perforce submitted to the rule of might, but the typical Greek never
+looked upon the Roman as socially or intellectually his equal. He
+became himself the philosophic, artistic, and social teacher of his
+conqueror. His own language was richer in literature, and it was
+better adapted to every form of conversation. The Latin of the Romans
+therefore made no progress in Greece or the Greek world. It might be
+made the language of the Roman courts and of official documents; but
+beyond this the ordinary Greek disdained to study it. On the other
+hand the ordinary well-educated Roman could generally speak Greek.
+Magistrates and officials were almost invariably thus accomplished,
+and in Athens or Ephesus they talked Greek as we should naturally talk
+French in Paris--only better, inasmuch as they learned the language in
+a more rational and practical way. Nero himself could act, or thought
+he could act, a Greek play and sing a Greek ode among the Greeks. Most
+probably the Roman noble had been brought up by a Greek nurse, just as
+so many English families formerly employed a nurse imported from
+France. Nor did the Greeks merely ignore the Latin language. They
+refused to be romanized in any other respect. Even the Roman
+amusements tended to disgust them, and it is to the credit of his
+superior refinement that the average Greek was repelled by those
+brutal exhibitions of gladiatorial bloodshed and slaughter over which
+the coarser Roman gloated.
+
+When, next, we pass from Greece proper--that is to say, from the
+Grecian peninsula and the islands and Asiatic shores of the Aegean
+Sea--into Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, we still find the Roman
+conqueror annexing peoples more versed in the higher arts of life than
+himself. For ages there had existed in these regions various forms of
+advanced civilisation. The Assyrian, Babylonian, Phoenician, Hebrew,
+and Egyptian cultures were old before Rome was born. Later the Persian
+subjugated all these peoples. And then, four hundred years before the
+time with which we are dealing, had come the Macedonian Greek
+Alexander the Great, and had conquered every one of those provinces
+which were subsequently to form the eastern part of the Roman Empire
+as represented on our map. The language and culture of Alexander were
+Greek, and he carried these and settled them with the most determined
+policy in every available quarter. After his death his empire broke up
+into kingdoms, but those kings who succeeded him--every Antiochus of
+Syria and every Ptolemy of Egypt--were Greek. Their court was Greek,
+and Hellenism was everywhere the fashion in life, thought, letters,
+and art. All round the coasts, in all the great cities, on all the
+main routes, up all the great river valleys of these eastern kingdoms,
+this graecizing proceeded. Alexander had founded the city of
+Alexandria, and soon that great and opulent city became more the home
+of Greek science and literature than Athens itself. His successors
+founded other great cities, such as Antioch, and there also the
+civilisation was Greek.
+
+Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians who were possessed of any kind of public,
+social, or even mercantile ambition therefore naturally spoke Greek,
+either only, or more often in conjunction with their native tongue.
+This is the reason why the Septuagint appeared in Greek; why Greek as
+well as Hebrew and Latin was written over the Cross; why our New
+Testament was written in Greek; and why Paul could travel about the
+eastern half of the Roman world and talk fluently wherever he went. He
+could address a Roman governor directly at Paphos because that
+governor had learned Greek at Rome, either in school or under his
+nurse or tutor. He could stand before the Areopagus at Athens and
+address that distinguished body in its own tongue because it was also
+one of _his_ own tongues.
+
+Not that one could expect the Greek culture, or even the language, to
+remain pure when thus spread abroad. There were blendings of Oriental
+elements, Egyptian, Jewish, or Syrian; but these elements were
+themselves derived from advanced and time-honoured civilisations.
+
+It follows, therefore, that all through the Eastern half of its domain
+Rome could not contrive to romanize. She did not attempt to suppress
+Greek ideas; she preferred to utilise them. So long as the Roman rule
+was obeyed in its essentials, Rome was satisfied.
+
+In the main, then, we have, outside Italy, two very distinct halves of
+the Roman world: the Eastern, with its large cities, its active civic
+life, its high culture, its contributions to science, art, and
+luxury--and, it must be added, its general dissoluteness--with here
+and there its pronounced leanings to Oriental fanaticism; and the
+Western, with very few large towns, with a life more determined by
+clans and tribes or country districts, with comparatively little
+social culture, contributing almost nothing to art or science,
+stronger in its contribution of natural products and virile men than
+in those of the more refined or artificial luxury. Over this half the
+Roman tongue, Roman dress, and Roman manners spread rapidly. In it
+Roman settlers made themselves more at home. The aim of the better
+classes of the natives was to render themselves as Roman as possible.
+It is in the western part of the empire that you will find the names
+which mark systematic Roman settlement and which often denote the work
+of an emperor. Towns such as Saragossa (Caesarea Augusta), Aosta,
+Augsburg, Autun (Augustodunum), and Augst are foundations of Augustus.
+Hence the fact that Spain and Prance speak a Latin tongue at this day,
+while no Latin was ever even temporarily the recognised language
+between the southern Adriatic and the Euphrates.
+
+This prime division made, let us now pass quickly round the empire,
+making such brief observations as may appear most helpful as we go.
+
+In the year 64 the south of Spain, the province of Baetica--of
+which we may speak more familiarly as Andalusia--was prosperous
+and peaceful, almost completely romanized and latinized. Many
+of its inhabitants were true Latins, most had made themselves
+indistinguishable from Latins. Along the river Guadalquivir there were
+flourishing towns, chief among them being those now known as Seville
+and Cordova. The whole region was one of rich pasture and tillage, and
+from it the merchant ships from Cadiz brought to Rome cargoes of the
+finest wool and of excellent olives and other fruits. The east of
+Spain, with Tarragona for its capital, stood next in order for its
+settled life and steady produce, including wine, salt fish and sauces,
+while in the interior the finest steel--corresponding to the Bilbao
+blades of more modern history--was tempered in the cold streams of the
+hills above the sources of the Tagus. From Portugal came cochineal and
+olives. In several parts of the peninsula--in Portugal, in the
+Asturias, and near Cartagena--were mines of gold and silver, which had
+been worked by the old Phoenicians and which the Romans had reopened.
+The chief trouble of Spain, it may be interesting to learn, was the
+rabbits, and against these there were no guns and no poison, but only
+dogs, traps, and ferrets. In Gaul there is one province
+long-established and fully romanized, with its capital at Narbonne,
+and with flourishing Roman towns, which are now familiar under such
+names as Aries and Nimes. This is a region over the coast of which the
+culture of Greece had managed to stray, centuries before, through the
+accident of a Greek colony having been founded at Marseilles. In this
+province a Roman might live and feel that he was still as good as in
+Italy. But beyond lay what was known as "Long-haired" Gaul, sometimes
+"Trousered" Gaul, so called from the distinguishing externals of its
+inhabitants, who wore breeches, let their hair grow long, and on their
+faces grew only a moustache--three things which no Roman did, and from
+which, even in these districts, the nobles, who were the first to
+romanize, were beginning to desist.
+
+The peoples of these Gaulish provinces preferred, like all early
+Celtic communities, to give their adherence only to clans or tribes,
+and to unite no further than impulse or expediency dictated, forming
+no towns larger than a village, living for the most part in poor huts
+scattered through forests, hills, marshes, and pasture land, and
+content to sleep on straw, if only they could wear a fine plaid and
+boast of a gold ornament. The names of many such tribes still remain
+in the names of the towns which grew up from the chief village of each
+canton. Such were the Ambiani, who have given us Amiens, and the Remi,
+who have given us Rheims. Paris and Treves denote the administrative
+villages of the Parisii and Treveri. Nevertheless the country had its
+corn-lands and was rich in minerals and cattle, from which the hides
+came regularly down the Rhone to be carried to the Mediterranean
+markets. "Long-haired" Gaul was at this date rude and superstitious,
+with that weird druidical religion which the Emperor Claudius had done
+his best to suppress. Its chief vice was that of drunkenness. As with
+the French, who have largely descended from them, the proverbial
+passions of the Gauls were for war and for the art of speaking; but at
+our date the former passion was decaying and the latter gaining
+ground. The Gaulish provinces united at a point on the Rhone, near
+which necessarily arose the largest city of that part of the world,
+namely, Lugdunum, or Lyons, which speedily became not only a seat of
+administration but a noted school of eloquence.
+
+Of Britain there is as yet little to say. For the last twenty years
+the Romans had done their best to conquer the Celtic tribes, who
+suffered, as Celtic tribes were always apt to suffer, from their own
+disunion. They had now reached the Trent--or rather a line from
+Chester to Lincoln--had just punished Boudicca (or Boadicea) for her
+vigorous effort at retaliation and her slaughter of 70,000 Romans or
+adherents of Rome, and were following the true Roman practice of
+securing what they had won by building military roads and establishing
+strong posts of control, as at Colchester, Chester, and
+Caerleon-on-Usk. Some amount of iron-working was being done in
+Britain, but its chief exports were, as they had long been, tin, salt,
+and hides. The British themselves had no towns. The places so called
+were nothing more than collections of huts, surrounded by rampart and
+ditch, in some easily defensible spot amid wood or marsh.
+
+Along the Rhine it is enough to note that the Germans were being kept
+in hand. South of the Danube the region now known as Styria and
+Carinthia was rich in iron, and both here and all along the
+mountainous tract of the Tyrol and neighbourhood Rome was steadily
+pushing her language and habits by means of settlement, trading, and
+military occupation. It may be remarked by the way that at this date
+there were in use practically all the Alpine passes now familiar to
+us--the Mont Genevre, the Little and Great St. Bernard, the Simplon,
+the St. Gothard, and the Brenner.
+
+The Upper Balkans were necessarily under military occupation, but
+Macedonia was a flourishing graecized province with Thessalonica--the
+modern Salonika--for its capital. Greece proper, known officially as
+Achaia, had declined in every respect since the classical age of
+Athens. The monuments of that city were, indeed, as sumptuous as ever;
+a number had been added in Roman times, though generally in inferior
+taste. Athens was still a sort of university, but its professors were
+for the most part sophists or rhetoricians, beating over again the old
+straws of philosophies which had once possessed a living meaning and
+exercised a living force. Athens herself had never properly recovered
+from the migration of learning to Alexandria. Delphi, the great
+oracular seat of the Greek world, had also declined in importance,
+although it could still boast of an imposing array of buildings and
+memorials. The centre of commerce and of official life, a Roman colony
+in the midst of Greece, a cosmopolitan and a dissolute place, was
+Corinth on the Isthmus. Here Nero had intended to cut a canal through
+from sea to sea--he had turned the first sod with his own hand--but
+his personal extravagance caused an insufficiency of funds, and the
+project met with the fate of the first enterprise at Panama. It was,
+therefore, still necessary for a traveller proceeding to the East to
+cross the Isthmus and reship at Cenchreae. The rest of Greece was
+almost all poor and sparsely populated, and many ancient sites and
+monuments were already suffering from neglect and dropping into ruin.
+
+[Illustration: Fig. 6--THE ACROPOLIS AT ATHENS (From D'Ooge.)]
+
+Across the Aegean, Asia Minor was in a condition of unprecedented
+prosperity. It contained no less than five hundred towns of
+considerable repute, chief among them being Smyrna and Ephesus, with
+their handsome public buildings, open squares, theatres, gardens, and
+promenades. Smyrna in particular boasted of its wide marble-paved
+streets crossing each other at right angles, and provided with arcades
+running along their sides. Its one defect was the want of proper
+sewers. Among the sights of the world was the huge temple at Ephesus,
+dedicated to Artemis, the "Great Diana" of the _Acts of the Apostles_.
+This temple, the largest in the ancient world, was 425 feet long, 220
+wide, and its columns were 60 feet in height and numbered 127.
+
+South-east of the Aegean was situated the opulent Rhodes, the
+handsomest and strongest port in the Mediterranean, provided with fine
+harbour buildings, a seat of learning, and so full of art that it
+contained no less than 3000 statues. In the somewhat desolate interior
+of Asia Minor were spacious runs for sheep and horses, but wheat also
+was grown, and the country could at least produce tall and sturdy
+slaves. In northern Galatia the common people had not yet forgotten
+the Celtic tongue which they had brought from Gaul over three
+centuries ago. In the south-east, opposite Cyprus, lay Tarsus, the
+birthplace of Paul, a city which combined the art of manufacturing
+goats' hair into tent-cloth with the pursuit of what may be called a
+university instruction in philosophy, science, and letters. In both
+these local avocations the apostle employed his youth to good purpose.
+Across the water Cyprus produced the copper which still bears its
+name.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 7.--PLAN OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Of Syria, rich in corn and fruits, the chief city--the third in the
+empire--was Antioch, a town splendidly laid out upon the Orontes in a
+strikingly modern fashion. A broad street with colonnades extended in
+a straight line through and beyond the city for four miles, and was
+crossed by others at right angles. This street is said to have been
+lighted at nights, while the Roman streets remained dark and
+dangerous. In the neighbourhood of the city was the celebrated park
+called Daphne, where the voluptuous and almost incredible dissipation
+of the ancient world perhaps reached its acme. Like Alexandria,
+Antioch was furiously addicted to horseracing.
+
+Further down the coast Sidon produced its famous glass, and Tyre its
+famous purple dye. Inland from these lay the handsome city of
+Damascus, famed for its gardens and for its work in fine linen. Still
+farther south was Hierosolyma, or Jerusalem, of which it is perhaps
+not necessary here to give details. Its population was reckoned at a
+quarter of a million.
+
+On the coast of Egypt, after you had caught sight, some thirty miles
+away, of the first glint from the huge marble lighthouse standing 400
+feet high upon the island of Pharos, you arrived at Alexandria, the
+second city of the Roman world and the great emporium for the trade of
+Egypt, of all Eastern Africa as far as Zanzibar, and of India. From it
+came the papyrus paper, delicate glass-work, muslin, embroidered
+cloths, and such additions to luxury as roses out of season.
+Alexandria, built like Antioch on a rectangular plan, with its chief
+streets 100 feet in width, contained a Jewish quarter, controlled by a
+Jewish headman and a Sanhedrin; an Egyptian quarter; and a Greek
+quarter, in which were the splendid buildings of the Library with its
+600,000 volumes, and the University, devoted to all branches of
+learning and science--including medicine--and provided with botanical
+and zoological gardens. Here also were the temple of Caesar and the
+fine harbour buildings. Its population, exceedingly money-loving and
+pleasure-loving, and comprising representatives of every Oriental
+people, may have numbered three-quarters of a million. The circuit of
+the city was about thirteen miles, and its chief street some four
+miles in length.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 8.--EMBLEM OF ANTIOCH.]
+
+Behind it lay Egypt, with its irrigation and traffic canals kept in
+good order; with its monuments in far better preservation than
+now--the pyramids, for example, being still coated with their smooth
+marble sides, and not to be mounted by the present steps, from which
+the marble has been torn; with its rich corn-lands, its convict mines
+and quarries, the Siberia of antiquity; with its string of towns along
+the Nile and its seven or, eight millions of inhabitants--mostly
+speaking Coptic--and full of strange superstitions and peculiar
+worship of animals.
+
+Coming westward we reach the prosperous Cyrene, and then, by the
+rather out-of-the-world Bight of Tripoli, Africa proper, where once
+ruled mighty Carthage, the colony of Tyre, and where the Phoenician or
+Punic language still survived among the population of mixed
+Phoenicians and Berbers. Here, too, are wide and luxuriant stretches
+of corn-land, upon which Rome depends only next, if next, to those of
+Alexandria. Further west are the Berber tribes of Mauretania, governed
+by Rome but hardly yet fully assimilated into the Roman system.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 9.--EMBLEM OF ALEXANDRIA.]
+
+In the Mediterranean Sea lie Crete, a place which had now become of
+little importance; Sicily, as much Greek as Roman, fertile in crops
+and possessed of many a splendid Greek temple and theatre; Sardinia,
+an unhealthy island infested by banditti, and employed as a sort of
+convict station, producing some amount of grain and minerals; and
+Corsica, which bore much the same character for savagery as it did in
+times comparatively recent, and which had little reputation for any
+product but its second-rate honey and its wax. The Balearic Islands
+were chiefly noted for their excellence in the art of slinging for
+painters' earth, and for breeding snails for the Roman table.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 10.--EMBLEM OF ROME. From the Column of Antoninus
+at Rome.]
+
+It remains to say that the feeling of local pride was very strong in
+the rival towns of the empire. Each gloried in its distinguishing
+commerce and natural advantages, and the chosen emblems of the greater
+cities set forth their boasts with much artistic ingenuity. Thus
+Antioch is symbolised by a female figure seated on a rock, crowned
+with a turreted diadem, and holding in her hand a bunch of ears of
+corn, while her foot is planted on the shoulder of a half-buried
+figure representing the river Orontes. Alexandria, with her Horn of
+Plenty, her Egyptian fruits, and the representations of her elephants,
+asps, and panthers, as well as of her special deities, appears in
+relief upon a silver vessel found at Boscoreale near Pompeii and here
+reproduced.
+
+Such in brief was the Roman Empire. How all this empire was governed,
+what was meant by emperor, governor, taxation, and justice, is matter
+for other chapters.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+
+THE IMPERIAL SYSTEM: EMPEROR, SENATE, KNIGHTS, AND PEOPLE
+
+We have seen, and succinctly traversed, the extent of the Roman world.
+The next step is to consider, as tersely as possible, its system of
+government and administration about the year 64. This task is not only
+entirely necessary to our immediate purpose; it is also one of great
+interest and profit in itself. If we are either to see in their proper
+light the experiences of such a man as St. Paul, or to understand the
+long continuance of so wide an empire, we must observe carefully the
+principles and methods adopted by the Romans as rulers.
+
+We speak fluently of the "Roman Emperor" and of the "reign of Nero."
+What was an emperor? What were his powers, and how did he exercise
+them?
+
+In the first place, it must be noted that, strictly speaking, Rome
+acknowledged no such thing as an autocrat. It had no monarch; the
+title "king" was disowned by the Caesars and entirely denied by the
+people; the emperor was technically not a superior sovereign, but, on
+the contrary, something inferior to a sovereign. He was the first
+citizen, the "first man of the state." The state was nominally a
+commonwealth, and the emperor its most important officer.
+
+He was, to begin with, the representative of Rome as civil and
+military governor of all provinces containing an army, or apparently
+calling for an army. "Emperor" means military commander, and he was
+the commander-in-chief of all the forces of the empire, military or
+naval, but in a sense far more liberal than would now be intended by
+such an expression. Of all the fighting forces he had absolute
+control, determining their numbers, their service, all appointments,
+their pay, and their discharge. He moved them where he chose, and,
+beyond this, he possessed the power of declaring war and concluding
+peace. Wherever there existed an armed force, whether in the far-off
+field or in garrison, its obedience was due to him. In sign of this
+every soldier, on the first of January and on the anniversary of the
+emperor's accession, took a solemn oath--and an oath in those days was
+felt as no mere matter of form, but as a solemn act of religion--that
+he would loyally obey the commander-in-chief. The emperor's effigy was
+conspicuous in the middle of every camp, and, in small, it figured on
+the standard of every regiment. The sacred obligation of the soldier
+to an Augustus or a Nero was kept perpetually in evidence, and he was
+never allowed to forget it. Wherever the emperor appeared or
+intervened in the provinces, all other powers became subordinate to
+his.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 11.--AUGUSTUS AS EMPEROR.]
+
+Theoretically such a commander might always be deposed by the Roman
+people, acting through its Senate. In reality he was master of the
+situation. If he was ever deposed, or if a new commander was ever
+appointed, it was by the army. If he proved a tyrant, there was no
+other means of getting rid of him than by the army, unless it were by
+assassination. At such times the Senate might make a show of naming
+the successor, and the army might make a show of agreeing with the
+Senate, but such expressions, as Tacitus repeats, were "empty and
+meaningless words." The madman Caligula had been assassinated. When,
+four years after our date, Nero was compelled to flee from his palace
+and was persuaded into committing suicide, it was because the soldiers
+had declared against him and had elected another.
+
+The vast powers of the emperor had come into the hands of one man
+simply because the republic had been found incompetent to handle its
+empire, whether from a military or a financial point of view. It
+managed neither so consistently nor so honestly as did the individual.
+
+The emperor, then, by a constitutional fiction, was an officer of the
+commonwealth, commanding its forces, not only with the freedom of
+action which Rome had always allowed to its experts in dealing with
+the enemy, but with that freedom greatly enlarged, and with a tenure
+of the office perpetually renewed.
+
+But to him that hath shall be given--especially if he is in a position
+to insist on the gift. The emperor's military authority, his position
+as governor of provinces, could not alone rightfully qualify him to
+control Rome itself, with its laws, its magistrates, its domestic and
+provincial policy. Theoretically the Roman emperor never did control
+these matters.
+
+In practice he did with them very much as he chose. If he seriously
+wished a certain course to be followed, a certain law to be passed or
+abolished, even a certain man to be elected to an office, it was
+promptly done. But how could he thus perpetually interfere and yet
+appear to remain a constitutional officer? Not through the mere
+obsequiousness of every one concerned, including the Senate. That
+would be too transparent, clumsy, and invidious. It was necessary that
+he should possess some adequate appearance of real authority, and he
+was therefore ingeniously invested with that authority. It was thus.
+There were under the commonwealth certain annual officers of wide and
+rather indefinite powers called "tribunes of the commons." These
+persons could veto any measure which they declared to be in opposition
+to the interests of the people. They could also summon the Senate, and
+bring proposals before it. Meanwhile their persons were "sacrosanct,"
+or inviolable, during their term of office. Here lay the opportunity.
+The emperor was invested by the Senate with these "powers of the
+tribune." He was not actually elected a tribune, for the office was
+only annual and could not be held along with any other, whereas the
+emperor must have the prerogatives always, and in conjunction with any
+other functions which he might choose to hold. He, therefore, only
+received the corresponding "powers" and privileges. This position
+enabled him to veto a measure whenever he chose, and with impunity.
+Naturally therefore it became the custom, as far as possible, to find
+out his wishes beforehand, and to move accordingly. He could also, in
+the same right, summon the Senate and bring measures, or get them
+brought, before it. To make certainty doubly certain, he was granted
+the right to what we should call "the first business on the
+notice-paper."
+
+Observe further the shrewdness of the first emperor, Augustus, when he
+selected this particular position. The "tribunes of the commons" were
+constitutionally popular champions; they represented the interests of
+the common people. By assuming a position similar to theirs, the
+emperor--or commander-in-chief--made it appear to the common people
+that he was their chief and perpetual representative, and that their
+interests were bound up with his authority. He took them under his
+wing, and saw, among other things, that they did not starve or go
+stinted of amusements. He saw to it that they had corn for their
+bread, plenty of water, and games in the circus. His "bread and games"
+kept them quiet.
+
+Supported by the army on one side, with his person secure, enjoying
+the right of initiative and the right of veto, this officer of the
+"commonwealth" became indeed the Colossus who bestrode the Roman
+world. He was invariably made also the Pontifex Maximus, or chief
+guardian of the religious interests of Rome. He might in addition
+receive other constitutional appointments--for example, that of
+supervisor or corrector of morals--whenever these might suit a special
+purpose. What more could a man desire, if he was satisfied to forego
+the name of autocrat so long as he possessed the substance? It was
+quite as much to the purpose to be called _Princeps_, or "head of the
+state," as to be called a king, like the Parthian or other Oriental
+monarchs. Among the Romans, therefore, "Princeps" was his regular
+title. The Graeco-Oriental half of the empire, which had long been
+accustomed to kings and to treating them almost as gods, frankly
+styled this head of the state "king" or "autocrat," but no true Roman
+would forget himself so far as to lapse into this vulgar truth.
+
+One other title, however, the Romans did attach to their "Princeps."
+Something was still wanting to bring home, to both the Roman and the
+provincial, the peculiarly exalted position of so great a man;
+something which should be a recognition of that majesty which made him
+almost divine, at least with the divinity that doth hedge a king. The
+title selected for this purpose was _Augustus_, a word for which there
+is no nearer English equivalent than "His Highness," or perhaps "His
+Majesty," if we imagine that term applied to one who, by a legal
+fiction, is not a king. The insane Caligula called himself, or let
+himself be called, "Lord and Master," and later Domitian temporarily
+added to this title "God," but even Nero claimed neither of these
+modest epithets.
+
+Here, then, is the position of Nero: Commander-in-chief of all the
+forces of Rome by land and sea, and master of its foreign policy; the
+titular protector of its commons and therefore inviolable of person
+and virtual controller of laws and resolutions; official head of the
+state religion; rejoicer in the style of "His Highness the Head of the
+State." To speak ill of him, or to do anything derogatory to his
+authority, was _lese majeste_.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 12.--COIN OF NERO. British Museum.]
+
+Reference has several times been made to the Senate. It is time now to
+speak briefly of that body. For the sake of clearness, however, we
+must include a survey of the recognised constituent elements or
+"orders" of Roman society.
+
+The body politic consisted nominally of all who where known as "Roman
+citizens." These included men of every rank, from the artisan, the
+agricultural labourer, or even the idle loafer--of whom there was more
+than plenty--up through every grade of the middle classes to the
+richest and bluest-blooded aristocrat who considered himself in point
+of birth more than the equal of the emperor. Any such citizen was
+secured in person and property by the Roman laws. It was a punishable
+act for the local authorities at Philippi to take Paul, a "Roman
+citizen," and, before he was condemned, chastise him with rods.
+
+According to the letter of the constitution, the power of electing all
+officers of state, and of passing laws, had belonged to this
+miscellaneous body, the "people," gathered in assembly. Meanwhile the
+power of determining foreign policy and controlling the finances had
+lain with a special body, consisting largely of the aristocracy and of
+ex-officers of state, known as the "Senate." We are not here concerned
+with the causes of the changes which buried this constitution out of
+sight, but only with the actual state of things in the year 64.
+
+In point of fact there were, under the emperors, no longer any
+assemblies of the "people"; the people at large neither elected nor
+legislated. The chief articles of the constitution had fallen into
+complete abeyance during the troublous times which preceded the
+establishment of that poorly disguised monarchy which we know as the
+empire. All real power of electing and law-making came to be in the
+hands of the Senate, acting with the emperor. While the emperor
+dominated the Senate, he was nevertheless glad to fall back upon that
+body in justification of his own actions and as a means of keeping up
+the constitutional pretence. He permitted the Senate to pass
+resolutions, and to exercise authority, just so far as there was no
+conflict with his own pronounced wishes and interests. It was not his
+policy to interfere and irritate when there was no occasion. On the
+other hand, when he desired a piece of legislation or an important
+administrative novelty, he preferred that it should be backed up by
+the sanction, or promoted by the apparently spontaneous action, of the
+Senate. It then bore a better appearance, and was less open to cavil.
+The people are no longer consulted at all in such matters. They have
+no say in them, for they have neither plebiscite nor representative
+government.
+
+It must not be supposed that there never was friction between emperor
+and Senate. The Senate was often--or rather generally--servile,
+because it was intimidated. But there were times when it was inclined
+to assert itself; some of its members occasionally allowed themselves
+a certain freedom of speech, toward which one emperor might be
+surprisingly lenient or good-naturedly contemptuous, and another
+outrageously vindictive. In the year 64 the Senate was outwardly
+docile enough, although at heart it was anything but loyal to his
+Highness Nero the Head of the State. It must always be remembered that
+among the Senate were included many of the highest-born, proudest, and
+strictest of the Roman nobles or men of eminence. To them the whole
+succession of emperors was still a series of upstarts--the family of
+the Caesars--usurping powers which properly belonged to the Senate.
+You could not expect these persons, aristocrats at heart, and many of
+them true patriots, bearing names distinguished throughout Roman
+history, to acquiesce in the spectacle of one who was no better than
+they, as he passed up to his huge palace on the Palatine Hill,
+escorted by his guards, or as he entered the Senate-House to give what
+were practically his orders, perhaps scarcely deigning to recognise
+men whose families had been illustrious while his was obscure. At
+times a member here or there was calculating his own chances of
+supplanting the man who galled him by condescension, or coldness, or
+even insult. These aristocrats felt as the French nobles might feel
+with Napoleon. And on his side the emperor, good or bad, never felt
+quite safe from a plot to overthrow him. On the whole these earlier
+emperors were much engaged in keeping the Senate in its place, and
+were inclined, with quite sufficient reason, to be jealous and
+suspicious of its more important members.
+
+It was natural, therefore, that they should keep a very practical
+control over the composition of that body. The situation was much as
+if a modern nation were ruled by a virtual autocrat assisted by a
+House of Peers. The senators and their families formed a "senatorial
+order." So far as the Romans had such a thing as a peerage under the
+empire, it is to be found in the senatorial order. And as a title may
+now be either hereditary or conferred by the sovereign as the "fount
+of honour," so, under the Roman emperors, the right to belong to the
+senatorial order might come from birth or from the choice of the head
+of the state. Normally you belonged to the "order" if you were the son
+of a senator; you ranked in that class of society. To belong to the
+Senate itself and to take part in its debates you must then have held
+a certain public office and must possess not less than L8000. The
+L8000 is the minimum. Most senators were rich, and some were
+enormously wealthy. They are found with a capital of L3,000,000 or
+L4,000,000 and an income up to L150,000. As for the public office
+which you must first hold, you could not even be a candidate for it
+unless you were already of the "order." If, when you are a senator,
+there is anything serious against you, or if you become impoverished,
+your name may be expunged from the list. Otherwise you remain a
+senator all your life, and your son in turn is of the "order," and may
+pass into the Senate by the same process. If you were a popular or
+highly deserving person, and from any accident had lost your property,
+the emperor would frequently make up the deficiency, or your brother
+senators would subscribe the necessary amount.
+
+But an emperor could meanwhile raise to the "order" anyone he chose.
+He could give him standing, and so make him eligible as a candidate
+for that public office which was preliminary to entering the actual
+Senate. Moreover, when it came to the elections to this office which
+served as the indispensable stepping-stone to the Senate-House, the
+vacancies were limited in number, and the emperor had the right of
+either nominating or recommending the candidates whom he preferred.
+Needless to say, those candidates were invariably elected. It was, of
+course, monstrous arrogance for Caligula to boast that he could make
+his horse a consul if he chose, but the taunt contained a measure of
+truth.
+
+Let us then put the case thus. Imagine that a modern senate is
+recruited from persons whose names are in the _Peerage and
+Baronetage_, and that, before any scion of such a family can enter the
+Senate itself, he must go through some sort of under-secretaryship, to
+which he must first be elected.
+
+But next imagine that the sovereign can raise to the rank of "peerage
+or baronetage" some favoured person whose family does not yet figure
+in _Debrett_. Such a man is then entitled to put his name on the list
+of candidates for the necessary under-secretaryship, and, when the
+sovereign reviews that list, he marks the candidate as nominated or
+recommended by himself. So he passes into the Senate.
+
+Most emperors did this but sparingly. They made the Senate an
+aristocratic and wealthy body, keeping its numbers at somewhere near
+600. We must not be perpetually assuming that the Caesars were either
+reckless or unscrupulous, because two or three were of that character.
+Many of them were remarkably capable and sagacious men. They
+recognised the need of ability and high character in their Senate.
+They had themselves enough of the old Roman exclusiveness to keep
+their honours from being made too cheap, and the probability is that
+under their rule the Senate was quite as honourable and quite as able
+a body as it was at any time under the republic.
+
+The feeling of _noblesse oblige_ was strongly implanted in this
+senatorial class. The wealth of most members also put them above the
+more sordid temptations. The senator was not permitted to undertake
+any mercantile or financial business. The ancient notion still
+survived, that the only really honourable occupations for money were
+war and agriculture. The senator might own land and dispose of its
+produce or receive its rents, but he could not, for instance, be a
+money-lender or tax-farmer. Sometimes, no doubt, a senator evaded
+these provisions by employing a "dummy," but we must not probe too
+deep under the surface. In compensation for this disability it was
+from the senatorial class that were drawn all the governors of the
+important provinces, except Egypt, and all the higher military
+officers. In these capacities they received salaries. The governor of
+Africa, for example, was paid L10,000 a year.
+
+Such men were no mere inexperienced aristocrats or plutocrats. They
+had regularly passed through a military training in youth, and had
+then held a minor civil appointment, commonly involving some knowledge
+of public finance. Next they had passed into the Senate and taken part
+in its business; had then held other public offices which taught them
+practical administration and probably legal procedure; and had
+afterwards been put in command of a "legion," that is to say, a
+brigade or _corps d'armee_. After performing such functions with
+credit, a senator might be sent to govern Syria or Macedonia or
+Britain or some other province. He was then a man of varied experience
+and ripe judgment, trained in official discipline and etiquette, as
+well as in knowledge. This was the kind of man whom Paul met in Cyprus
+in the person of the governor Sergius Paulus, or at Corinth in the
+person of Gallio.
+
+Certain smaller provinces might be administered by men of another
+order, who were neither filled with the senatorial traditions nor had
+passed through the senatorial career. These were but "factors" or
+"agents" of Caesar, and among them were the Pontius Pilate, Felix, and
+Festus, who were administrators of Judaea in New Testament times.
+
+Next in rank to the senatorial order stood that of the "Knights." If
+the senators represent, in a certain sense, the peerage and
+baronetage, the next order represents--also in a certain sense.--the
+knightage. Generally speaking, it comprehended what we should call the
+upper middle classes, and particularly those concerned in the higher
+walks of finance; such persons as, with us, would be the directors or
+managers of great companies and banks. It also included persons whom
+the head of the state chose to honour with something less than
+senatorial standing. Many of these men were extremely wealthy, but the
+minimum property qualification stood at only L3200, and Roman citizens
+who possessed that amount were rather apt to pose as knights, and to
+be commonly spoken of as such by a kind of courtesy title, although
+their names could not be found upon the authorised rolls. Though
+several emperors did their best to stop this practice, the endeavour
+was for the most part fruitless. Once in England the "esquires" were a
+class with certain recognised claims, but nothing could stop the
+polite tendency to add "Esq." to the name of a person on a private
+letter. The case was somewhat similar at Rome, although the practice
+did not proceed quite so far.
+
+Nevertheless there was a distinct and official roll of "Roman
+knights," whom the head of the state had honoured with a public
+present of "the gold ring," a ceremony corresponding to the royal
+sword-stroke of modern times. This body, mounted on horses nominally
+presented by the public, and riding in procession through the streets,
+was reviewed and revised every year. Their roll was called, and if a
+name was omitted from its proper place, it meant--without explanation
+necessary--that by the pleasure of the emperor the person in question
+had ceased to be a knight. Every member of the already-mentioned
+higher or senatorial order was by right a knight until he actually
+became a senator, from which time he ceased to enjoy the privileges of
+a knight because he was enjoying those of the higher order rank. For
+there were privileges as well as disabilities in each case. As a
+senator could govern large provinces and command armies, but could not
+engage in purely financial business; so the knight could--and almost
+alone did--conduct the large financial enterprises of the Roman world,
+but could not command armies nor hold any of the great public offices
+or higher provincial appointments, except the governorship of Egypt.
+Relatively to the senators the emperor was technically only "first
+among equals"; he was the first senator, as well as the first man of
+the state. At this date a senator would hold a truly public office,
+civil or military, with or under this "superior equal," but he would
+not act as his personal agent or assistant. The Roman aristocrat had
+not yet learned to serve in that capacity, still less on the
+"household" staff of the autocrat. There were as yet no highly placed
+Romans serving as Lord High Chamberlain, much less as Private
+Secretary. The "knights" stood in a different position. They were
+prepared to be the emperor's personal agents, just as they were
+prepared to be the agents of any one else, if sufficiently
+remunerated. They would take his personal orders, whether in managing
+his estates, collecting his provincial revenues, or relieving him of
+some routine portion of his own official labour.
+
+It follows that it was often more lucrative to be a knight than a
+senator, and a number of senators were not unwilling to give up their
+rank, for the same reasons which induce a modern peer to serve on
+companies or a peeress to open a shop. On the other hand many a knight
+would have declined to become a senator, at least until he had
+sufficiently feathered his nest. The inducement to become or remain a
+senator was the social rank, the honour and dignity, with their
+outward insignia and the deference paid to them, the front seat, and
+the reception at court. In these the wives also shared, and at Rome
+the influence of the wife could not be disregarded.
+
+If you met a senator, or a person of senatorial rank, in the street,
+you would know him for such by the broad band of purple which ran down
+the front, and probably also down the back, of his tunic, and by the
+silver or ivory crescent which he wore upon his black shoes. His wife,
+it is perhaps needless to say made even more show of what is called
+the "broad stripe." If you met a knight, you would perceive his
+standing by his two narrow stripes of purple appearing upon the same
+part of his dress. Each would wear a gold ring; but that in itself
+would prove nothing, since, despite all attempts at prohibiting the
+custom, every Roman who could afford a gold ring permitted himself
+that luxury.
+
+If you entered one of the large semicircular theatres, which are to be
+described in due course, you would find that the men wearing the broad
+stripe seated themselves in the chairs which stood upon the level in
+front of the stage, while those wearing the narrow stripes would
+occupy the first fourteen tiers of seats rising just behind them. No
+one else might, occupy those places. If some one who had been
+improperly posing as a knight, or who had been degraded from his rank
+because he had wasted his credit and his money and no longer possessed
+either L3200 or a reputation, ventured to seat himself in the fourteen
+rows in the hope of being unnoticed, he would be speedily called upon
+by the usher to withdraw. Snobs occasionally made the attempt, and, at
+a somewhat later date, we have an amusing epigram of Martial
+concerning one who repeatedly but unsuccessfully dodged the usher and
+who was at last compelled to kneel in the gangway opposite the end of
+the fourteenth row, where it might look to those behind as if he were
+sitting among the knights, while technically he could claim that he
+was not sitting at all.
+
+Elsewhere also, as for instance at the chariot-races in the Circus,
+and at the gladiatorial shows in the amphitheatre, there were special
+places set apart for the two orders.
+
+Below the senators and the knights came the "people,"--the "commons,"
+or "third estate"--with all its usual grades and its usual variety of
+occupation or no occupation, of manners and character or absence of
+both. With the life of these, as with the life of a noble, we shall
+deal at the proper time.
+
+So much for the Roman citizen proper. Other elements of the population
+were the foreigners. At Rome these were exceedingly numerous, and the
+city may in this respect be called--as indeed it was called--a
+microcosm, a small copy or epitome of the Roman world. Gauls,
+Africans, Greeks, Jews, Syrians, and Egyptians were perhaps the most
+commonly to be seen, but particularly prominent were the Greeks and
+the Jews. The Greeks were recognised above all as the clever men, the
+artists, the social entertainers, and the literary guides. The Jews,
+who formed a sort of colony in what is now known as Trastevere--the
+low-lying quarter across the Tiber--were not yet the princes of high
+finance. As yet they were chiefly the hucksters and petty traders,
+notorious for their strange habits and for the fanaticism of their
+religion, which nevertheless exercised a strange potency and made many
+proselytes even in high places, especially among the women. Poppaea,
+the wife of Nero himself, is commonly considered to have been such a
+proselyte, although the strange notion that she herself was a Jewess
+is without any sort of foundation. It is a common error to suppose
+that the Jews came to Rome only after the destruction of Jerusalem.
+The dispersion had occurred long before Rome had anything to do with
+Judaea, and naturally the enterprising Jew was to be found in all
+profitable places, whether in Alexandria, Antioch, Smyrna, Corinth,
+Rome, or farther afield.
+
+In the political sense all these foreigners belonged to their own
+provinces and communities. They might be citizens there, but they were
+not citizens at Rome. At Rome they had no public claims and no
+official career, unless--as not seldom happened--they received, for
+some service or some distinction, the gift of the Roman citizenship.
+Sometimes the citizenship was given wholesale to a town, or even to a
+province. How the Hebrew father or grandfather of St. Paul became a
+Roman citizen, we do not know. Their own abilities or the emperor's
+favour might carry such citizens, or their children, up all the steps
+which were open to the ordinary Roman.
+
+After the foreigners come the slaves. At Rome itself they formed about
+one-third of the population. This is not the moment for any detailed
+account of their employment, their treatment, or their liberation.
+
+Suffice it for the present that the slave possessed no rights at all.
+He was the chattel of his master, who possessed over him the full
+power of life and death, limited only by public opinion and prudential
+considerations. A Roman might have at his disposal one slave or ten
+thousand slaves. He could use them as he liked, kill them if he chose,
+and, subject to certain limitations, set them free if he willed,
+provided that he did not set too many free at once. The last
+restriction was especially necessary, inasmuch as a slave who was
+manumitted by his master with the proper ceremonies became _ipso
+facto_ a Roman citizen, but was still bound by certain ties of loyalty
+to his former master. For a Roman to possess too large an attachment
+of "freedmen," as they were called, might prove dangerous. The
+"freedman," though a citizen, could not himself enter upon a public
+career; neither, in ordinary circumstances, could his children; but in
+the third generation the family stood on an entire equality with any
+other Roman family in that respect.
+
+For the present it may be added that our conception of the meaning of
+the word "slave" must not be that attached to its modern use. Many
+such slaves were men of great special or general ability, or men of
+high culture, especially if Greeks, Syrians, Jews, or Egyptians. They
+were frequently superior to their masters, and subsequently, as free
+citizens, added much to either the refinement or the over-refinement
+of Roman life. Perhaps it is as well, in passing, to point out that
+the later Roman people was in no small degree descended from all this
+aggregation of foreigners and emancipated slaves, and that we must
+speak with the greatest reservation when we describe the modern Roman
+as a direct descendant of the ancient stock who fought with Hannibal
+and subjugated the world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+
+NERO THE EMPEROR
+
+Roughly then this is the situation at the centre of government.
+Sumptuously housed on the Palatine Hill--the origin of our word
+"palace"--is His Highness Claudius Nero, Head of the State,
+Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, Empowered to act as Tribune of the
+People, and Head of the State Religion: in modern times commonly
+called "the Emperor." Every day and night his palace is surrounded by
+a regiment of the Imperial Guards, and attached to his person is a
+special corps for bodyguard, and orderlies. In practice, whatever be
+the theory, he possesses the control of legislation and appointments;
+upon him practically depends all recognised distinction of social
+rank. Down below, to the side of the Forum, is the Senate-House, in
+which there gathers, twice each month, and oftener if summoned, the
+great deliberative body which, in spite of all disturbances, civil
+wars, and limitations or broadenings of its power, is the continuation
+of the assembly of grave Roman fathers who first met some eight
+hundred years before. These men, who are of birth and wealth and
+commonly of sound public training, are the nominal upholders and
+directors of the commonwealth, still left to perform many functions
+and to administer the more peaceful provinces in their own
+way--especially if they relieve the emperor of trouble--but in
+practice controlled by His Highness whenever and however it suits his
+purpose. They and the emperor form a partnership in authority, but the
+Senate is very distinctly the junior partner. They lend him advice or
+sanction when he seeks it, and they sometimes act as a break on his
+impetuosity. It is not well to alienate them, for they are proud; they
+are jointly, sometimes individually, powerful; and their moral weight
+with army and public is not to be despised.
+
+Thus stands the central government, while socially there follows the
+order of the Knights, depending for their rank upon the emperor, and
+in many cases serving in his employ. Below these the populace, of
+whose rights and liberties the emperor is an official champion to whom
+theoretically any Roman citizen can appeal against a sentence of death
+or against cruel wrong. It is hard to conceive of a stronger position
+for one man to hold.
+
+When we survey this vast aggregation of various provinces, with their
+differences of race, language, religion, and habits; when we remember
+that it was on the whole strictly, energetically, and legally
+administered; it is hard--even allowing for a wise Senate and capable
+ministers--to realise a man competent for the position.
+
+Yet Augustus had been conspicuously successful, and Tiberius not less
+so; Claudius, despite a certain weakness, cannot by any means be
+called a failure; after Nero, Vespasian and Titus were capable enough;
+while Trajan deserves nothing but admiration. On the other hand
+Caligula, it is true, had had more than a touch of the madman in his
+composition, and had believed himself to be omnipotent and on a level
+with Jupiter. Nero had begun well, but had been led by vanity, vice,
+and extravagance to an astounding pitch of folly and oppression.
+Nevertheless it must be remarked, and it should be firmly emphasised,
+that what is called the tyranny of Caligula and Nero is mainly--and in
+Caligula's case almost solely--a tyranny affecting the Romans
+themselves, affecting the lives and property of the Roman senators and
+other prominent persons, and affecting the lives and honour of their
+wives and daughters. The outcry against these two emperors comes from
+the Romans, not from the subject peoples. At least in Caligula's case
+the provinces were as peaceful and prosperous as at other times. It is
+true that the madman once meant to insist on the Jews putting up his
+own statue in the temple at Jerusalem, but this was because his vanity
+was aggrieved by their unwillingness. Under Nero the case is much the
+same. His tyranny for the most part took the shape of cruelty, insult,
+and plunder in Rome itself. It was only when he was becoming
+hopelessly in debt that he began to plunder the provinces as well as
+Italy by demanding contributions of money, and in particular to seize
+upon Greek works of art without paying for them. It is a mistake to
+think of Nero as habitually and without scruple trampling under his
+blood-stained foot the rights and privileges of the provinces, or
+grinding from them the last penny, or harrying, slaying, and violating
+throughout the empire.
+
+There is nothing to show that, during the greater part of his reign,
+the provinces at large felt any material difference between the rule
+of Nero and the rule of Claudius, or that they rejoiced particularly
+in his fall. In many quarters he was a favourite. In the latter half
+of his reign he made himself a brute beast, and often a fool, in the
+eyes of respectable Romans. But it was, as still more with Caligula,
+rather in his immediate environment that his tyranny was felt to be
+intolerable; that is to say, among the men and women who had the
+misfortune to come in his way with sufficient attraction of purse or
+beauty to awaken his cupidity. And these were the Romans themselves,
+senators and knights, not the populace, and in but a small degree, if
+at all, the provincials in Spain or Greece or Palestine.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 13.--BUST OF SENECA. Archeologische Zeitung.]
+
+Perhaps this is the time to look for a little while at this Nero,
+whose name has deservedly passed into a byword for heartless
+bestiality. In the year 64 he is 27 years of age, and has been seated
+on the throne for ten years. Four years more are to elapse before he
+perishes with the cry, "What an artist the world is losing!" In his
+early years his vicious propensities, inherited from an abominable
+father, had been kept in check partly by his preceptor, the
+philosopher Seneca, and by Burrus, the commander of the Imperial
+Guards, partly by his domineering and furious-tempered mother,
+Agrippina, who seems to have so closely resembled the mother of Lord
+Byron. But at this date he had got rid of both his tutors. Burrus was
+dead, probably by poison, and Seneca was in forced retirement. The
+emperor had also caused his own mother to be murdered. Poisoning,
+strangling, drowning, or a command--explicit or implied--to depart
+this life, were his ways of shaking off any incubus upon a free
+indulgence of his will. His follies and vices had revealed themselves
+from the first, and had gone to outrageous lengths, but now he is
+entirely unhampered in exhibiting them.
+
+[Illustration: Photo--Mansell & Co. FIG. 14--BUST OF AGRIPPINA, MOTHER
+OF NERO.]
+
+Educated slightly in philosophy, but better in music and letters, he
+could speak, like others of his day, Greek as well as his native
+Latin. His aim was to be an "artist," but if the want of balance which
+too often goes with what is called the "artistic temperament" ever
+manifested itself in its worst form, it was in Nero. Apart from his
+passion for music and verse, he developed an early mania for
+horse-racing, and when he was caught talking in school--where such
+conversation was forbidden--about a charioteer who had fallen out of
+his chariot and been dragged along the ground, he explained that he
+was discussing the passage in Homer where Achilles drags the body of
+Hector round the walls of Troy. In after life he carried both forms of
+mania to amazing lengths. The highest form of music was then
+represented by singing to the harp. Nero's ambition was no less than
+to compete with the champion minstrels of the world. As he remarked,
+"music is not music unless it is heard," and he decided to make public
+appearances upon the stage like any professional. Whenever he did so,
+a number of energetic youths, salaried for the purpose, were
+distributed among the audience as _claqueurs_--the words actually used
+for them being perhaps translatable as "boomers" or "rattlers." He
+acted parts in plays--a proceeding which would correspond to an
+appearance in opera--and made a peregrination through Greece and back
+by way of Naples as an exponent of the art of singing to the harp.
+While upon this tour, whenever he was performing in the theatre, the
+doors were shut, and no one might leave the building for any reason
+whatever. "Many," says the memoir-writer, "got so tired of listening
+and praising that they jumped down from the wall, or pretended to be
+dead, so as to get carried out." Naturally he always won the prize,
+and, on his side, it should be remarked that he honestly believed he
+had earned it. He practised assiduously, took hard physical training,
+regulated his diet for the cultivation of his voice, which was not
+naturally of the best, and probably became not at all a bad amateur.
+His monstrous self-conceit did the rest. Besides singing to the harp,
+he was prepared to perform upon the flute and the bagpipes, and to
+give a dance afterwards. All this, of course, was undignified and
+ridiculous, but it was scarcely tyranny. Doubtless there was
+sufficient suffering among the audience, but that cruelty was hardly
+deliberate. In the Roman noble, whose ideal of behaviour included
+dignity and gravity, these public appearances perhaps often aroused
+more indignation and scorn than did his sensual vices. The same
+contempt was often evoked by other proceedings of a similar nature.
+His insatiable fondness for horse-racing, or rather chariot-racing,
+induced him to appear also as a charioteer. First he practised in his
+extensive private park or gardens, which were situated across the
+Tiber on the ground now approximately occupied by St. Peter's and the
+Vatican. When he appeared at the Olympic games driving a team of ten
+horses, he was thrown out of the car, and had to be lifted into it
+again. Though he was eventually compelled to abandon the race, he was,
+of course, crowned victor all the same. He dabbled also in painting
+and modelling.
+
+We must not dwell too long upon his eccentricities. One might describe
+how in his earlier years he often put on mufti and roamed the streets
+at night with a few choice Mohawks, broke into shops, and insulted
+respectable citizens, throwing them into the drains if they resisted;
+how, being unrecognized, he once received a sound thrashing from a
+person of the senatorial order, and was thereafter attended on such
+occasions by police following at a distance. One might describe his
+dicing at L3 or L4 a pip, or his banquets, at one of which he paid as
+much as L30,000 for roses from Alexandria. After the great
+conflagration which swept over a large part of Rome in this very year
+64 he began to build his enormous Golden House, in which stood a
+colossal effigy of himself 120 feet high, and in which the circuit of
+the colonnade made three Roman miles. Whether he deliberately set fire
+to the city in order to make room for this stupendous palace is open
+to doubt. It was naturally believed at the time, and, in order to
+divert suspicion from himself, he turned it upon those persons for
+whom the Roman populace had at that moment the greatest contempt,
+because, as the historian puts it, of their pestilent superstition and
+of a profound suspicion that they harboured a "hatred of the human
+race." These were the new sect of the Christians, and with burning
+Christians did Nero proceed to light up his gardens on one famous
+night, as a means of placating the populace whom he had offended, but
+who for the most part loved him for his misplaced generosity in the
+matter of "bread and sports." The tolerant attitude of the Romans
+towards foreign religions will be discussed in its own place; but the
+cruelty of a Nero in the year 64 can hardly be put down as properly a
+religious persecution in any way typical of the Roman government.
+
+The sensual vices of Nero are indescribable, and that word must
+suffice. His extravagances, whether in lavish presents or in personal
+expenditure, soon rendered him bankrupt. He had no means of paying the
+soldiers or meeting his own appetites. Then began, or increased, his
+attacks on wealthy persons, his executions and banishments of senators
+and other wealthy men, and his flimsy pretexts for all manner of
+confiscation. The Senate he hated and the Senate hated him.
+Nevertheless, so far as the empire itself was concerned, no systematic
+or widespread oppression can have been perceptible. His officers and
+the officers of the Senate were apparently all the time governing and
+administering the law and the taxation throughout the empire in as
+sound and steady a way as if an Augustus sat upon the throne.
+
+If we wish to picture Nero to ourselves, here is his description: "He
+was of a fairly good height; his skin was blotched, and his odour
+unpleasant; his hair was inclined to be yellow; his face was more
+handsome than attractive; his eyes were grayish-blue and
+short-sighted; his neck was fat; he was protuberant below the waist;
+his legs were very slender; his health was good."
+
+Such was the man to whom St. Paul elected to have his case referred,
+when at Caesarea he exercised his privilege as a Roman citizen and
+appealed to the titular protector of the commons. "Thou hast appealed
+unto Caesar, and unto Caesar shalt thou go." There is indeed no great
+probability that the apostle was ever brought directly before this
+precious emperor. We may perhaps draw from bur inner consciousness
+elaborate and interesting pictures of the two men confronting each
+other, but we must not forget that they will be pure imagination. The
+appeal of a citizen did not imply such right to an interview, for the
+Caesar in such minor cases commonly delegated his powers to other
+judicial authorities at Rome. Paul's object was gained if his case was
+safely removed from the local influences of Judaea and the weaker
+policy of its governor, the "agent of Caesar," to the capital with its
+broader-minded men and its superiority to small bribes and local
+interference.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 15.--BUST OF NERO.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+
+ADMINISTRATION AND TAXATION OF THE EMPIRE
+
+We are now brought to the consideration of the methods by which this
+huge empire was organised and governed.
+
+And first let us observe that the Romans--strict disciplinarians and
+great lawyers as they were--never sought to impose upon the subject
+provinces any uniformity. They never sought, any more than Great
+Britain has sought, to erect one code of law, one form of
+administration, one standard of rights, one rate of taxation, one
+religion, and to make it equally applicable to Spain and Britain,
+Greece and Africa, Gaul and Asia Minor. There were, of course, common
+to all the empire certain rules essential to civilisation, certain
+natural laws and laws of all nations. Murder, violence, robbery,
+deliberate sacrilege, and so forth were punishable everywhere, though
+not necessarily by the same authority nor in the same manner.
+Necessarily it was held everywhere that contracts must be fulfilled
+and debts paid. Beyond the fact that Rome demanded peace and order and
+the essentials of civilised life, and provided machinery to secure
+those ends, she troubled little about differences of local procedure
+and varieties of local law, so long as the Roman rule was duly
+recognised and the Roman taxes duly paid. As with Great Britain, her
+care was for results, not for machinery, or, as the great Roman
+historian puts it, she "valued the reality of the empire, not the
+show."
+
+Outside Italy there spread the provinces. These had been conquered or
+peacefully annexed at various times. A number of small states had come
+in by perpetual alliance. Some provinces, such as Gaul, had formerly
+been divided among tribes and tribal chiefs. Some, such as Greece, had
+consisted of highly civilised city-communities with small territories
+and managing their own affairs, although they might all alike be
+acknowledging the suzerainty of some powerful prince. Some, such as
+Cappadocia, Syria, and Egypt, had been under their native kings.
+Judaea was a peculiar example of a small theocratic state, in which
+the chief power lay with the priests.
+
+Rome was too wise to meddle more than she need with existing
+conditions. She preferred as far as possible to accept the existing
+machinery and to use it, with only necessary modifications, as her
+instrument of administration. To the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem, for
+example, she conceded a large criminal jurisdiction over
+ecclesiastical offenders, so long as that jurisdiction did not limit
+the universal rights of a "Roman citizen."
+
+When a province was conquered, all its territory became technically
+the property of the Roman state. Some of it was kept as such, and
+mines of gold, silver, lead, iron, and salt, or quarries of marble,
+granite, and gravel, were commonly annexed as state property. If it
+was expedient to allot some portion of the conquered land to a Roman
+settlement--commonly a settlement of veteran soldiers called a
+"colony"--that was done. Such a settlement meant the founding of a
+town, to which was granted a certain environment of land. Those who
+took part in its formation were "Roman citizens" and forfeited no
+rights as such. As the native people came in from the surrounding
+districts to reside in it, they also, it appears, somewhat easily
+acquired similar privileges. Here the Roman law existed in its
+entirety. A colony was almost exactly a little Rome in respect of its
+system of officers and its legal procedure. Sometimes a town which had
+not originally been so founded might be made a "colony" by receiving a
+draft of Romans, and sometimes it was made such in sheer compliment.
+In the Eastern half of the empire such settlements were comparatively
+rare; they were but dots upon the map, as at Corinth, Philippi,
+Antioch in Pisidia, or Caesarea. In the West they were much more
+numerous. The south of France contained many; a number also existed in
+southern Spain. So many indeed were planted in these parts that they
+became, as has been already remarked, completely romanized. Farther
+north Cologne still perpetuates its Roman name of Colonia.
+Nevertheless in the West the bulk of the land of the provinces is far
+from being taken up, in the year 64, by colonies.
+
+Apart from the lands thus appropriated, what happens to the rest of
+the conquered territory which is theoretically Roman property?
+Generally it is handed back to its original inhabitants, on condition
+that they pay rent for it, whether in money or in kind, or partly in
+each. Egypt pays in kind when it sends to Rome the corn in the great
+merchantmen; Africa pays in kind when it does the same; the Frisians
+of Holland pay in kind when they supply a certain quantity of hides.
+Before the days of the Emperor Augustus there had existed for the
+empire in general the abominable system of tithes, which were farmed
+by companies. But after him, and at our date, for the most part the
+payment is by a fixed sum of money, which has been calculated upon the
+basis of those tithes. In the imperial Record Office there is a
+register of the area of land in a given province, and an assessment of
+its producing value. The amount of the land-tax to be paid into the
+Roman treasury is therefore fixed. Those who read in the New Testament
+that Augustus Caesar sent forth an order that "all the world--that is,
+the Roman world--should be taxed" need find no difficulty in
+understanding what it means. "Taxed" is Old English for assessed, as
+when we speak of "taxing a bill of costs." The Greek word means simply
+that a register should be made. The order of Augustus was that a
+census should be taken throughout the provinces; that a return should
+be made of population, property, trades, and all that a reasonable
+government requires to know; and that payments should be determined
+thereby. All the world had been "taxed" in the modern sense long
+before Augustus, and it has been taxed, unfortunately without much
+promise of respite, ever since.
+
+The chief revenues of Rome were derived from this land-tax; but, when
+combined with other taxes, a large proportion of it was spent in the
+administration of the province from which it was obtained. No error
+could be greater than to suppose that Roman officers simply came and
+carried off all this money as booty to Rome for the pampering of its
+emperor and populace. Naturally the balance which accrued for the
+feeding of Borne, for Roman enjoyment and Roman buildings was very
+large; and doubtless this fact was bad for the morale of Rome itself
+and requires considerable casuistry to defend it. But it would be a
+monstrous misconception to imagine that all the "tribute paid to
+Caesar" was absolutely drained, by an act of sheer oppression, clean
+out of the province year by year. No country can be protected,
+policed, and have its justice administered without taxes, and the
+provincials were not paying more, and were often paying much less, as
+well as paying it in a more just and rational way, than when they were
+being taxed by their own kings, their own oligarchies, or their own
+socialistic democracies. The Roman settlements--the colonies--unless
+specially exempted, had to pay the land-tax as much as any other
+community. The only land which was exempt from it was Italy, and Italy
+paid sundry other taxes to make up for it, at least in part. But
+though Italy was first and foremost in the imperial regard, the
+emperor was by no means indifferent to the welfare of the provinces.
+If an earthquake, a fire, or other great calamity befell a town, it
+was by no means rare for the emperor to send a large sum of money in
+relief.
+
+Besides the land-tax there was also a tax on persons and personal
+property. The tax on persons was not precisely a poll-tax, except in
+places like Britain and Egypt, where it was difficult to make proper
+estimates otherwise, but a tax on occupations and trades. This, if we
+choose, may be put down as a crude form of income-tax, although it was
+not actually assessed on income. In another sense it may be regarded
+as a tax on a license, assuming that we demand a license for every
+kind of occupation. Italy again was exempt from this taxation also.
+Obviously a census, and a regularly revised census, was necessary to
+carry out this system; and Rome required a whole army of agents, just
+as a modern state would require one, for assessing and collecting
+these dues.
+
+The land-tax and the person-tax were the two chief sources of Roman
+revenue. These were regular and direct. There were others, subject,
+like our own taxes, to increase or decrease according to
+circumstances, but for the most part kept at very much the same
+standards under several consecutive emperors. For instance there were
+customs duties, paid on the frontiers of the empire and also on those
+of provinces or natural groups of provinces, not as part of any
+protective system, since the empire is all one, but as a means of
+raising money from commodities. In Italy there was a duty of 2-1/2 per
+cent. Luxuries from India and Arabia via Red Sea ports were specially
+taxed at 25 per cent. If you sold a slave, you would pay from 2 to 4
+per cent on the purchase-money. Occasionally there was a tax on
+bachelors. In Italy, but not elsewhere, 5 per cent legacy duty was
+paid when the recipient was not a near relative, and when the legacy
+was not under L1000.
+
+Add to these revenues the rents of state pastures, state forests, and
+state mines. Into the treasury came also unclaimed property and the
+property of certain classes of condemned criminals.
+
+So much for the nature of the taxation. In point of government, the
+Romans were singularly liberal. When a province was conquered or
+annexed, the Senate sent out a commission of ten persons, who
+carefully considered the existing state of things, the laws and forms
+of administration actually in vogue, and drew up a constitution for
+the province, embodying as much of these as was possible or at all
+commendable; as much, in fact, as was compatible with the Roman
+connection. This constitution, when sanctioned by the Senate, was
+binding, whatever governor might be appointed by Rome to the province.
+Such a governor might interpret the law; he could not alter it.
+
+But though a province was a unit in so far as it was under one
+governor, the Romans were firm believers in strictly local
+administration. Their policy in this, as in conquest, was "divide and
+rule." It did not suit their ends to make any large part of the empire
+conscious of a corporate existence. The unit of administration was,
+therefore, a town and its district--a "community." In Gaul there were
+about sixty such divisions, each roughly corresponding in size to a
+modern French "department." Such a community had its own local council
+and officials, who were ultimately responsible to the governor. So
+long as they performed their municipal or communal functions correctly
+and honestly they were not interfered with. The chief principle upon
+which Rome insisted was that their local government should be
+aristocratic, or rather that office should be based on wealth. The
+governor, of course, stepped in when he felt it to be his duty. He was
+required to suppress all secret societies or political unions. A
+strike of the bakers in one city of Asia Minor was promptly put down
+by the governor as interfering with social order and social needs.
+
+The communities made their own by-laws, they collected the land-tax of
+their own district and handed it over to the financial representative
+of the Roman government. This was done by men of their own people,
+often of a low class, known in the Gospels as the "publicans," who
+were so commonly associated with sinners. St. Matthew had been one of
+the minor agents for such collection in Galilee. Other taxes--those
+which were indirect--might be collected by the great tax-farming
+companies of Roman "knights," who offered a lump sum for them to the
+government, and made what they could out of the bargain.
+
+One incidental consequence of this systematic division into communes
+was that there spread throughout the empire a strong municipal
+patriotism, especially in the Greek world. This was followed by
+liberal local expenditure on the part of rich provincials in
+beautifying their centres with public buildings and works of art,
+chiefly, no doubt, given for the sake of the local honours with which
+they were repaid, but given nevertheless.
+
+Most of the towns or communities throughout the empire were in the
+position described. Some communities, however, such as Thessalonica,
+though situated inside a province, were for some special service in
+the past exempted from the interference of the governor, and were
+allowed to exercise their own laws to the full, even upon Roman
+citizens who might happen to reside there. These were called "free"
+towns. In other cases the community, having come into voluntary
+alliance with Rome at an earl; date and before conquest, was still
+treated as an "allied" state, and was exempted from either
+interference or taxation, so long as it supplied its quota of soldiers
+when called upon. Such cities, however, were distinctly the exception,
+and most of them in the end preferred to come directly within the
+Roman sphere of administration. They often found their burdens smaller
+and less capricious than when they taxed themselves through their own
+authorities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The function of the governor was to see that the various local bodies
+did their work, kept within their rights, and paid their taxes. He
+also, either in person or by his deputies, administered justice
+wherever the Roman laws were concerned. Where they were not concerned,
+he necessarily acted as Gallio did with the Jewish charges against
+Paul at Corinth; he dismissed the case as not demanding his
+jurisdiction. Said Gallio: "If it were a question of a misdemeanour or
+a crime, I should be called upon to bear with you; but if they are
+questions of (mere) words and names and of your (Jewish) law, you must
+see to it yourselves." When the Greeks who were standing by proceeded
+to beat the chief of Paul's Jewish accusers, the governor shut his
+eyes to the matter. This may have been a laxity, but it would almost
+appear as if Gallio liked their behaviour.
+
+For the purposes of justice a province was divided into "Assize
+Districts," and the governor or his deputies went on circuit. In the
+court he sat upon a platform in his official chair and with his
+lictors in attendance. The official language of the court and of its
+records was of course Latin, but in the Eastern half of the empire the
+bench cannot always have pretended not to understand Greek. Since it
+would not, however, understand Hebrew, the Jews would need to speak
+through a representative who knew Latin, and this is apparently the
+reason for the appearance of Tertullus against St. Paul at Caesarea. A
+Roman citizen--that is, a person possessed of full Roman rights--if he
+either denied the jurisdiction or was in danger of being condemned to
+capital punishment, might, unless he had been caught red-handed in
+certain heinous crimes, appeal to Caesar and claim to be sent to Rome.
+Unless the governor had been expressly entrusted with exceptional
+powers, or unless the case was so self-evident that he had nothing to
+fear from refusing, he had no alternative but to send the appellant on
+to the metropolis. Arrived there, the prisoner was taken to the
+guardrooms or cells in the barracks of a special prefect who had
+charge of such arrivals from abroad, and his case would in due course
+be taken either by the emperor himself, if it was sufficiently
+important, or by magistrates to whom the emperor delegated his powers
+for the purpose.
+
+Meanwhile, provincials other than full Roman citizens enjoyed no such
+privilege. They could make no appeal. The governor was supreme judge,
+and his verdict or sentence was carried out. In matters of doubt,
+whether administrative or judicial, the governor might refer to the
+emperor for direction or advice, and we have at a somewhat later date
+a considerable collection of letters and their replies which passed in
+this manner between Pliny and the Emperor Trajan.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A glance at the map will show some provinces named in heavy type and
+some in italics. Those in _italics_ are the provinces to which the
+Senate has the right to appoint the governors, in this case called
+"proconsuls." Of course His Highness the Head of the State is
+graciously pleased to approve the choice of the Senate; which means
+that the Senate will not attempt any appointment which the emperor
+would dislike. The revenues of these provinces go into a treasury
+controlled by the Senate. Of those named in heavy type the emperor is
+himself the governor or proconsul. Theoretically he is made governor
+of all these simply because they contain, or may need, armies, and he
+is the commander-in-chief of those armies. But since he is at Rome,
+and in any case cannot be everywhere at once, he governs all such
+provinces by means of his deputies, whom he appoints for himself. They
+are his lieutenants, and are so called--to wit, "lieutenants of
+Caesar" and "deputies of the commander." The revenues of these
+imperial provinces are collected by an "agent" or "factor" of Caesar,
+and go into a treasury controlled by the emperor. In any one of his
+provinces the emperor would be its governor, and would exercise the
+usual military and civil powers of a governor. His lieutenant to each
+province simply acts in his place, receives the same powers, and is
+the governor of that province exactly as the proconsul sent by the
+Senate is governor in his. But whereas the governors in the senatorial
+provinces wear the garb of peace, and are appointed, like other civil
+officers, for one year only, the "deputies of Caesar," the
+commander-in-chief, wear the military garb, and are kept in office
+just so long as their superior thinks fit. It is as if in modern times
+the governor of the one kind of province made his public appearances
+in civilian dress, and the governor of the other kind in uniform.
+
+The actual outcome of this system was that the provinces of the
+emperor were on the whole better administered than those of the
+Senate. In the latter, changes were too frequent, and a governor might
+sometimes strain a point to enrich himself quickly. But it must on no
+account be imagined that at this date a governor could with impunity
+be extortionate or oppress the provincials, as he too often did in the
+good old days of the republic. He was paid his salary, which might be
+anything up to L10,000; his allowances and power of making
+requisitions, such as of salt, wood, and hay when travelling, were
+strictly defined by law; any pronounced extortion, oppression, or
+dishonesty laid him open to impeachment; and such a charge was
+tolerably certain to be brought. Among so many governors it was
+inevitable that a number should have been impeached. We know of
+twenty-seven instances, resulting in twenty condemnations and only
+seven acquittals. The emperors at least looked sharply to their own
+provinces; nor would they readily tolerate any gross irregularity in
+those other provinces which were nominally controlled by the Senate.
+On leaving his province every governor must make out duplicate copies
+of his accounts, one to be left in the province, one to be forwarded
+to Rome.
+
+In the _Acts of the Apostles_ we have mention of two governors of
+senatorial provinces--in other words, two "proconsuls"--Gallio in
+Achaia (or Greece), and Sergius Paulus in Cyprus. It is instructive to
+compare the lenient and common sense attitude of these trained Roman
+aristocrats with that of the turbulent local mobs who dealt with St.
+Paul in Asia Minor, Judaea, or Greece. Of the minor governors of
+smaller provinces--styled "agents" or "factors" of Caesar--we meet
+with Pontius Pilate, Felix, and Festus.
+
+It remains only to remark that, while the Senate's treasury, which
+received the revenues from the senatorial provinces, paid the expenses
+of their management and also of the administration of Italy, the
+emperor's treasury, which received the revenues from the other
+provinces, provided for their administration, for the pay of the army,
+for the corn and water of Rome, for public buildings, for the great
+military roads, and for the imperial post. Nevertheless the emperor
+could handle all this latter money exactly as he chose, and it is upon
+this chest that Nero was drawing for all his lavish prodigalities and
+his undeserved and wasteful bounties. Yet even Nero was scarcely so
+bad as Caligula, who managed to spend L22,000,000 in less than one
+year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+
+ROME: THE IMPERIAL CITY
+
+In the year 64 the capital of the Roman Empire was, it is true, a
+large and splendid city and an "epitome of the world," but it had not
+yet reached either its zenith of splendour or its maximum, of size.
+Many of the largest and most sumptuous structures of which we possess
+the records, and in most cases the ruins, were not yet built or even
+contemplated. There was no Colosseum; there were no Baths of Trajan,
+Caracalla, or Diocletian. The Column of Trajan, still soaring in the
+Foro Traiano, and of Marcus Aurelius, now so conspicuous in the Piazza
+Colonna, are of a later date. So also are the three great triumphal
+arches which are still standing--those of Titus, Severus, and
+Constantine. The Mausoleum of Hadrian, now stripped of its outward
+magnificence of marble and sculpture, and known as the Castle of Sant'
+Angelo, was not built for two generations. On the Palatine Hill the
+palaces of the Caesars were wide and lofty, but not more than half so
+spacious and imposing as they became by the end of the following
+century.
+
+Down in the Forum there stood no Basilica of Constantine; the place of
+several later temples and shrines was occupied by edifices of less
+dignity; many columns and statues, and much ornament of gilt or
+marble, were still to come. Beside and beyond the two embellished
+public places which had been added to the public comfort and
+convenience by Julius Caesar and Augustus, and which were known
+respectively as the Julian and the Augustan Forum, lay only the houses
+of citizens or streets of shops. Up from the Forum towards the later
+Arch of Titus and the Colosseum, the "Upper Sacred Way" ran as but a
+narrow road between buildings for the most part of ordinary character,
+principally shops catering for luxury. It was later by two centuries
+and a half that this street was converted into a broad avenue forming
+a worthy approach to the "hub of the universe."
+
+In the ruins which lie on the Palatine Hill, or along the valley of
+the Forum below, or up the Sacred Slope towards the Colosseum, or
+across where the streets wind round from the "Roman" Forum through the
+Forum of Trajan to the Corso, the modern visitor to the Eternal City
+does not behold simply the remnants of the temples, halls, squares,
+and arches which actually existed in the days of Nero. We must not say
+of these places that St. Paul trod the very paving-stones or gazed on
+the very walls which we now find in their worn and broken state. In a
+few cases it may be so; in most it is certainly otherwise. Either the
+building was not there, or what we now behold is part of a
+reconstruction or an enlargement. Fire, flood, earthquake and the wear
+and tear of time called for many a rebuilding or restoration. In the
+very year upon which we have fixed, there swept over all this part of
+the city perhaps the most disastrous fire that it ever experienced.
+Another only a little less destructive occurred in A.D. 283, and when
+we say that the remains of the glory of ancient Rome are still visible
+in the excavated Forum, we must recognise that the glory which they
+represent is the glory of the place as restored after that year.
+
+This does not mean that the general plan and appearance were markedly
+different under Nero, nor that there was any lack of magnificence; it
+is only meant by way of caution against a frequent misconception.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+If there was no Arch of Severus in the Forum, there was an Arch of
+Augustus, near the Temple of Castor, surmounted by his statue in the
+four-horsed chariot of the conqueror, and there was an Arch of
+Tiberius near the temple of Saturn. If to the north there was as yet
+no bridge or "castle" of Sant' Angelo to celebrate the dead Hadrian,
+there was, on the near side of the Tiber, not far from the modern
+Piazza del Popolo, a splendid Mausoleum of the deified Augustus and
+his family. In the chief Forum the Temples of Vesta, of Julius Caesar,
+of Castor, Saturn, and Concord existed under Nero in the same spots
+and in much the same style as they did through all the remainder of
+Roman history. Above them towered the Capitoline Hill, with its
+resplendent Temple of Jupiter on the one summit and its great shrine
+of Juno on the other. Beyond, in the "Field of Mars"--the site of the
+densest part of modern Rome--was an almost continuous cluster of
+public buildings and resorts, of theatres, temples--including the
+first form of that incomparable edifice, the Pantheon, the only
+building of ancient Rome which still remains practically whole--of
+baths, porticoes, and enclosed promenades.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 16.--SOME REMAINS OF THE CLAUDIAN AQUEDUCT.]
+
+Away in the opposite direction stretched the Appian Way, and in the
+year 64 the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella, which is so familiar
+in picture, stood as perhaps the noblest among the multitude of
+patrician tombs. The Apostle Paul certainly passed close by it on his
+way from Puteoli. The aqueduct, of which so many arches still meet the
+eye as you cross the Campagna, was the work of Nero's predecessor,
+Claudius, and it still bears his name--the Aqua Claudia. Where now you
+go out of the gate to St. Paul's Outside-the-Walls there stood--more
+free and visible than now--that pyramid of Cestius, close to whose
+shadow lie the graves of the English Shelley and Keats. There was no
+gate at this spot in the days of Nero, for the great wall, of which so
+many portions--more or less restored--are still conspicuous, had no
+existence till a much later date, when the empire was already
+tottering to its fall, and when Aurelian was driven to recognise that
+the heart of the empire, after remaining secure for centuries, must at
+last look to be assailed. There was, it is true, an inner wall of
+ancient date (to be seen upon the plan) which had enclosed the "Seven
+Hills" before Rome was mistress of more than her own small
+environment. But the city had long ago overflowed this boundary, and
+the newer quarters lay as open to the country as do our own modern
+cities.
+
+How far the suburbs stretched, or precisely how far Rome proper
+extended, in the days of Nero, is no easy matter to decide. We shall
+in all probability be near the mark if we accept the line of the later
+wall of Aurelian as practically the limit of what might be included in
+the "Metropolitan Area." The total circumference of the whole city
+would be about twelve English miles, a circuit which fell somewhat
+short of that of Alexandria and probably of Antioch, although in
+actual importance these cities took but the second and third rank
+respectively.
+
+Some parts within this line were thickly inhabited, in some the houses
+must have been but sparse. Particularly along the upper slopes of the
+hills--of the Pincian, Quirinal, Esquiline, Caelian, and
+Aventine--were the spacious houses and gardens of the wealthy. The
+Palatine was almost, though not completely, monopolised by the
+emperors' palaces and sundry temples. The Campus Martius was mostly a
+region of public buildings and grounds for promenade and exercise,
+although some of the finest shops stood very close to where they stand
+to-day, in that Flaminian Way which is now called the Corso of
+Humbert. On one side below the Palatine Hill, space was taken up by
+the vast Circus or racing-ground; on the other lay the public places
+known as the Fora. It was left for the poorer inhabitants to crowd
+themselves into the valleys of the town, either between the Forum and
+the spurs of the several hills which trend towards the centre--up
+under Quirinal, Viminal, Esquiline, or Caelian--to the left behind the
+buildings as you now go from the bottom of the Forum to the Colosseum;
+or between the Forum and the Tiber in the low-lying ground called the
+Velabrum and there-abouts; or else across the river in that
+"Transtiberine" region which still bears the name of Trastevere.
+
+If, therefore, it is asked what may have been the Population of
+Neronian Rome, it need cause no surprise if the number should appear
+comparatively small to one who is accustomed to our huge modern towns.
+Rome had never been a seat of manufactures. Its wealth and luxury came
+almost wholly from its empire, and it was emphatically a city for the
+rich and ruling classes. In Nero's day it was still growing, and even
+in its fullest times it is doubtful if the population ever exceeded or
+even reached a million and a quarter. Perhaps for the year 64 we may
+most safely put it down at about 750,000.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Now suppose yourself to be standing at F in the recognised centre of
+Roman life, the "Roman Forum." Here, before we begin our rapid
+exploration of the city, it is well to clear our minds of one false
+notion which too commonly prevails. Think of any modern town you
+please, and remember that, whatever may be the accumulation of
+architectural magnificence around any given spot, the people of that
+town treat it all with familiarity and without any waste of sentiment.
+They will set up their shops or stalls wherever they are allowed; they
+will carry on their traffic and their amusements; they will saunter
+and sit on steps and misbehave without feeling oppressed by any
+appreciable awe of their surroundings. So was it, and even more so, in
+ancient Rome. The fact that there were shrines or public buildings on
+all sides did not prevent the Romans from loitering and loafing in the
+Forum, from sitting on the steps of a temple or a basilica, or leaning
+against its columns or statues, or playing at a sort of draughts or of
+backgammon on its marble platforms--the lines to put the "men" upon
+are here and there still visible upon the pavements--or even
+scratching a name or a drawing on a pillar. In certain parts the Forum
+was alive with the bustle of financial business and, doubtless under
+certain limitations, with the traffic of the pedlar. Curiosities were
+exhibited, the crier shouted his advertisements, and, in short, the
+place was almost as freely used for the vulgar purposes of ordinary
+life as for the dignified gatherings and ceremonies which to our minds
+appear so much more appropriate to it. Though we are not yet dealing
+with the social life of Rome, whether indoor or outdoor, it seems
+advisable to make this observation before proceeding.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 17.--THE ROSTRA: BACK VIEW. (Probable
+restoration for A.D. 64.)]
+
+Let us now stand at F and look about us toward the Capitol, noting
+only the chief features of the scene. The reader would do well to
+consider the plan along with the frontispiece to this book. We are
+upon an open space paved with marble slabs, round which stand sundry
+honorary statues and various minor monuments into which we need not
+now enquire. Facing us, toward the far end, is a platform about 80
+feet long and 11 feet in height, with marble facing. A trellis-work
+rail, or pierced screen, runs along it at either side, and also
+extends along the front for one-third of the distance from either end.
+The one-third in the middle of the front is open. This platform is
+approached by a flight of steps at the back, while in the sheer face
+are set as ornaments rows of bronze "beaks" or "rams" cut from ships
+captured in war. From these "beaks" the platform obtains its name--the
+Rostra. It is the platform for harangues delivered to the Roman
+people--the Roman citizens who are politely assumed to be the body
+politic--and the open space on the front is the position for the
+orator. It is from this stand that important announcements are made to
+the people at large. An emperor or his nominee may speak from it; a
+magistrate may deliver some pronouncement; a political exhortation may
+be uttered; in the case of a public funeral, or even of the private
+obsequies in some eminent family, an oration over the deceased may be
+spoken with that finished and animated elocution which the Romans so
+zealously cultivated, and which the Italians still affect with no
+little success. It is not indeed the same platform as was used by
+Cicero and the orators of the republic: this stood elsewhere, and
+doubtless the substance of public speaking had declined deplorably
+since that day. Nevertheless many a torrent of rich and sonorous Latin
+must have streamed over the Forum from that noble standing-place, and
+it must still have been worth while for a Roman to develop both his
+speaking voice and his oratorical art. Still further back, to the
+right behind the Rostra, there stands the Temple of Concord, where the
+Senate in older times gathered on more than one occasion to listen to
+Cicero, and where the emperors have formed practically a gallery of
+works of art; to the left is the Temple of Saturn, long used as the
+Roman Treasury, of which eight pillars still remain as perhaps the
+most conspicuous feature among the existing ruins. Another object in
+the background to the left, at the rear of the Rostra, will be a stone
+pillar coated with gilded bronze, upon which the first emperor,
+Augustus, inscribed the names of the great roads leading out from Rome
+into the length and breadth of the empire, with a list of the chief
+towns to which those roads would take you, and their distances. The
+name of this pillar is the "Golden Milestone." Behind these objects,
+running along the high face of the Capitoline Hill, are visible the
+arcades of the Record Office, of which the greater portion still
+exists, though stripped of its architectural graces and built over and
+about in more modern times, in the state represented in FIG. 18. Still
+higher on the summit to the left, with its gilded tiles glistening in
+the sun--at least they were gilded within the next few years--rises
+the most sacred structure of all, the building most closely identified
+in the Roman mind with the eternity of the empire. This is the
+splendid temple of Jove, Supreme and Most Benign. Of this edifice
+nothing considerable except its platform now remains, its site being
+occupied by an object of which the existence would have been
+inconceivable to the ancient Roman--to wit, the German Embassy. On the
+other summit, a fortified citadel to your right stands the temple of
+the consort of Jupiter. In this shrine she was known as Juno Moneta,
+and since, attached to her temple in this citadel, was the office of
+the Roman coinage, her name Moneta has become familiar to modern
+mouths in the form of "the Mint." If you seek the place of this temple
+now, you must look for it under the Church of Santa Maria in Ara
+Coeli.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 18.--RUINS OF FORUM.]
+
+[Illustration: Photo, Anderson. (Record Office in background with
+modern building above.)]
+
+Next, instead of looking up at the hill, glance to your left, and you
+will see running along that side of the Forum, beside the Sacred Way,
+a spacious public building known as the Basilica of Julius, that is to
+say, of Julius Caesar. It is an edifice of a type familiar in cities
+of the Roman world. You mount the steps from the Sacred Way and find
+yourself under an outer two-storied arcade suitable for lounging or
+promenading while discussing business or gossip with your friends.
+Passing from this inwards you are in a building which consists of a
+covered colonnade, or nave, about 270 feet in length, with a row of
+pillars on either hand. On each side is a gallery, or upper floor,
+from which spectators may look down upon the interior, or, from the
+outer side, upon the open Forum. At the far end is a recess with a
+raised tribunal, shut off, if necessary, by railings. In other
+basilicas there may be an apse at this point, similarly enclosed. This
+serves as a court of justice, round which the curious may stand, or
+upon which listening spectators may gaze from the ends of the
+galleries above. Meanwhile up and down the open space of the nave all
+kinds of verbal business may be transacted by appointment, exactly as
+such business used to be carried on in old St. Paul's Cathedral in
+London or in churches elsewhere. In what may be called the inner
+side-aisle are situated offices of various kinds, including those of
+sundry public corporations, boards, or commissions. The whole of this
+great hall is paved with coloured marbles; its pillars are coated with
+marble; its ceiling is adorned with painting and gilt; it is
+embellished with statues; and it is lighted from above by a
+clerestory. Though the question has been debated, it is almost certain
+that it was mainly from buildings like this, or from rooms similarly
+constructed in palatial houses, that the early Church developed its
+basilicas--with their nave, aisles, and clerestory, and with their
+railed apse at the end, where was placed the chair of the bishop on
+its dais. Across the Forum on the opposite side, to your right, lies
+another structure of the same kind, in artistic respects more
+excellent. In this, the Basilica Aemilia, the chief business was that
+of the bankers and money-changers, although it served various other
+purposes according to convenience.
+
+If you could see round the farther end of this basilica to the right,
+you would perceive the beginning of one of the busiest streets in
+Rome--the Argiletum--chiefly known to fame as a favourite quarter of
+the booksellers, who fasten on their door-posts, or on the pillars
+which support a balcony or upper floor, the lists of the newest or
+most popular publications to be bought within. And where that street
+enters the Forum, though standing back a little from your line of
+vision--perhaps you can catch sight of the top of it over the corner
+of the Basilica--is the temple-like Senate-House with its offices.
+Here is the meeting-place of the six hundred who nominally govern
+jointly with the emperor. If you visit Rome to-day you will find the
+greater part of the actual chamber, though miserably despoiled,
+bearing the name of the church of S. Adriano.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 19.--N.E. OF FORUM, A.D. 64. (Complementary to
+frontispiece.)
+
+From left: in background, Record Office, with Temple of Concord and
+Rostra below; on summit, Temple of Juno and Citadel; below, Prison,
+with shrine of Janus in front. To right: Basilica Aemilia, with gable
+of Senate-House beyond. (Largely after Tognetti.)]
+
+The little building, half arch, half shrine, which you observe
+standing free where the roads converge upon the Forum, is the famous
+sanctuary of Janus, of which the doors are never shut unless there is
+complete peace throughout the Roman world. So long as Rome is anywhere
+engaged in a great or little war, the open doors of Janus tell the
+fact to a people which might otherwise be unconscious of so slight or
+remote a circumstance.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 20.--TEMPLE OF FORTUNA AUGUSTA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+We need not describe in detail the temple of Castor, or rather of the
+"Twin Brethren," which stands immediately to your left, or that of the
+deified Julius Caesar, which is just behind you, on the spot where the
+body of the great dictator was burned. It is perhaps more interesting
+to note the ordinary--though not by any means the only--form of the
+Roman temple in general. Those who have seen the so-called Maison
+Carree at Nimes will possess a fair notion of the commonest or most
+typical shape and arrangement. For the most part we have a rather
+lofty platform, mounted from one end by steps, which are flanked by
+walls or balustrades, often bearing at their extremities equestrian
+statues or other appropriate figures. Upon the platform stands the
+temple proper, consisting of a chamber containing the statue of the
+god. Where more than one deity are combined in the same temple--as in
+that of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill, where the supreme deity has
+Juno and Minerva to left and right of him--there may either be as many
+separate chambers or as many chapel-like bays as there are deities.
+The altar for sacrifice stands outside opposite the entrance, being
+placed either upon the top of the main platform or more commonly on a
+minor platform of its own in the middle of the steps. In most cases
+the chamber stands back behind a row, in some instances two rows, of
+columns, which support the characteristic entablature seen in the
+illustrations. In the case of the more grandiose temples a series of
+columns may run all round the building, carrying an extension of the
+roof, under which is thus formed a covered colonnade. More commonly
+the sides and back of the chamber have only what are known as
+"engaged" columns, as it were half-embedded in the wall. The roof is
+gabled and tiled, with ornaments along the eaves. The front has an
+embellished entablature, with its triangle of masonry called the
+"pediment," consisting of a cornice overhanging a sunken surface
+decorated with a sculptured group. Over each angle, right, left, and
+summit, is a base of stone supporting some conspicuous ornament, such
+as a statue, an eagle, or a figure in a chariot. In the middle of the
+front of the building, behind the columns of the portico, are double
+doors, commonly made of decorated bronze, with an open grating of the
+same metal above them. The whole is outwardly of marble, either all
+white or with colour in the pillars, but the core of at least the
+platform is commonly made of the immensely strong Roman concrete, or
+else of blocks of the less beautiful and costly kinds of stone.
+
+In point of architectural style the Romans of this date--who in
+artistic matters were but imitators of the Greeks and far less certain
+in taste than their masters--affected the Corinthian, as being the
+most florid. Even this they could not leave in its native purity, but
+for the most part converted it into Graeco-Roman or composite
+varieties. A prime fault of the Roman taste was then, as it has always
+been, a love of gorgeousness, of excessive and obtrusive ornament. In
+almost any Roman church of to-day we find the walls and pillars stuck
+about with figures, slabs, and so-called decorations to such an extent
+that the finer lines and proportions are often ruined, The ancient
+Roman likewise was commonly under the impression that the more
+decoration you added, the more magnificent was the building. There
+were doubtless many buildings in simpler and purer taste, probably
+executed by Greek artists under the authority of some Roman who
+happened to possess a finer judgment or less self-assertiveness.
+Nevertheless the fault of over-elaboration is distinctly Roman.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 21.--SO-CALLED TEMPLE OF THE SIBYL AT TIVOLI.]
+
+We must not omit to say that, besides temples of this typical
+rectangular form, there were others of a round shape, encircled by
+columns, like that graceful structure at Tivoli commonly, though
+mistakenly, known as the temple of the Sibyl, and that small building
+which still exists in an impoverished condition near the Tiber, and
+which used to bear the erroneous title of the temple of Vesta. Others
+again were simply round and domed, like the true temple of Vesta in
+the Forum, or the superb and impressive Pantheon in the Campus
+Martius. So far as the bare round was broken in these cases, it was
+either by a pillared portico, as with the Pantheon, or by engaged
+columns and ornament, as with the true temple of Vesta.
+
+The mention of the temple of Vesta reminds us that it is time to face
+about, and, passing behind the temple of Julius, to look in the
+opposite direction, from V. Before us lies this circular shrine, a
+form gradually developed from the primitive round hut which once
+served as house to the prehistoric ancestors of the Roman stock. As it
+was the duty of the maiden daughters of that ancient tribe to keep
+alight the fire upon the domestic hearth, so through all the history
+of Rome it was the duty of certain chosen virgins to keep perpetually
+burning the hearth-fire of the city. The roof of the temple is open in
+the middle, and you may perhaps see the smoke issuing from it. But if
+you are a male, you may not enter. No man, except the chief Pontifex,
+may set foot inside the shrine of the virgin goddess, who is attended
+by virgin priestesses. Close behind the temple stands the house of
+these Vestals. They are in a large measure the ancient prototype of
+the modern nun, and their house is the prototype of the convent. Six
+nobly-born young women, sworn to chastity, and dressed in a ritual
+garb, live in an edifice of much magnificence under the rule of one
+who is the chief Vestal, a sort of Mother Superior. Many pedestals of
+the statues of such chief priestesses still remain, and we can clearly
+trace the arrangement of their abode, with its open court--once
+containing a garden and cool cisterns of pure water--its separate room
+for each Vestal, its baths, and its resources of considerable comfort
+and even luxury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 22.--VESTAL VIRGIN]
+
+If, as you face this way, you look up to your right, you will perceive
+the Palatine Hill rising steeply above you, with its summit crowned by
+the lofty palaces and gardens constructed by the Caesars. At the side
+and corner which look down upon the Forum stands the part built by
+Caligula, the epileptic who thought himself no less than a god, and
+who in consequence not only turned the temple of Castor into a lower
+vestibule to his own house, but also built a bridge across the valley
+over the temple of Augustus and the Basilica of Julius to the
+Capitoline Hill, so that he might visit and converse with Jupiter, his
+only compeer. From the top of the Basilica he occasionally threw money
+into the Forum to be scrambled for by people who crushed each other to
+death in the process. It would require too much space if we climbed
+the sloping road which leads on to the Palatine and examined the
+various structures upon that hill. As we now see it in its ruins it is
+perhaps the most mysteriously impressive place in the world. But many
+alterations and enlargements of the palaces were made after the date
+of Nero, and we cannot now be sure of the precise aspect of the
+hill-top in his day. Suffice it that, overlooking the Forum,
+overlooking the Velabrum Valley which leads from the Forum to the
+Tiber, and overlooking the middle of the valley where the vast Circus
+or race-ground separated the imperial hill from the Aventine, there
+were portions of the huge imperial abodes, rising in several stories
+gleaming with marble, and enjoying the purest air and the widest views
+obtainable within the city. Nero himself, it is true, was not content
+with such mere human housing. After the great fire of this year 64, he
+proceeded to make for himself what he called "a home fit for a man,"
+and so built--though he never finished--that famous or infamous
+"Golden House," which ran from the Palatine all across the upper
+Sacred Way and the hollow now occupied by the Colosseum far on to the
+opposite hills--a house of countless chambers, with three miles of
+colonnade, enclosed gardens large enough to be called a park, and a
+statue of himself 120 feet in height. The epigram went that the people
+of Rome must migrate, inasmuch as what had once been a city was now
+but a private house. This, however, had not yet occurred, and we have
+rather to think of palaces and gardens rich indeed, but by no means
+occupying the whole of the Palatine Hill alone. There were, of course,
+numerous buildings more or less connected with the imperial
+establishment, among them being quarters for the officers and soldiers
+of the guard. There were also a number of temples, one of which, the
+magnificent shrine of Apollo, the god of light and learning, stood in
+a court marvellously enriched with sculptured masterpieces, while
+connected with it were libraries filled with Greek and Latin books and
+adorned with the busts and medallion-portraits or statues of great
+authors.
+
+If we proceeded now to walk up the Sacred Way, along the narrow street
+edged by jewellers' and other shops, we should meet as yet with no
+Arch of Titus, nor in descending beyond should we see any Colosseum,
+but only a block of ordinary dwellings, to be swept away later in this
+year by the fire which made room here for the ornamental waters of
+Nero's Golden House. Turning to the right along the valley between the
+Palatine and Caelian Hills, we should not have to pass under any Arch
+of Constantine; but, after glancing up to the left at the great
+unfinished temple of Claudius and going under the Claudian aqueduct
+which carries water to the Palatine, we should proceed between private
+houses and gardens till we reached a famous gate in the ancient wall
+and found ourselves on that noted Appian Way, which would take us to
+Capua and thence over the Apennines to Brindisi and the East. Just
+outside the gate we should find the livery-stables, with their
+vehicles and horses or mules waiting to be hired for the stage which
+would carry us as far as the slope on the southern edge of the Alban
+Hills.
+
+But we will not proceed in this direction. From our stand at V in
+front of the temple of Vesta we will turn back, walk over the Forum to
+the right of the Rostra, between the sanctuary of Janus and the front
+of the Senate-House. Thence we will cross an enclosed forum, or public
+place, erected by Julius Caesar, with its temple of "Venus the Mother"
+in the middle, and so enter the Forum of Augustus. This is worth a
+pause. As you pass to-day up the narrow Via Bonella and perceive near
+the Pantani Arch a few imposing columns and a patch of rather
+depressing bare wall, it requires much effort to realise that here was
+once a noble space enclosed by marble-covered walls 100 feet in
+height, and that those walls contained in a series of niches a gallery
+of statues of all the military heroes and patriots of Roman history
+from Aeneas downwards. Meanwhile the few columns at your side are the
+sole survivors of the number which surrounded the splendid temple of
+Mars the Avenger, the shrine which was identified in imperial times
+with the military power of Rome, and which received the standards
+captured from the enemy, just as captured flags are to be seen in many
+a modern church.
+
+Leaving this Forum, we will not bear to the right to find ourselves
+amid the dense population of the Subura and its neighbourhood, but we
+will turn to the left and pass between the Capitoline and Quirinal
+Hills, which then met more steeply and closely than they did fifty
+years later, when Trajan had cut away the rising ground and levelled
+an open space which must have been an incalculable advantage to the
+convenience of the city. It is perhaps well to observe here that the
+piling up of fallen ruins and the deliberate levellings and gradings,
+both in ancient and modern times, have greatly altered the appearance
+of the often-mentioned hills of Rome, especially of the Quirinal,
+Viminal, and Esquiline.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 23.--TEMPLE OP MARS THE AVENGER IN FORUM OF
+AUGUSTUS. (After Ripostelli.)]
+
+Emerging from this too narrow passage-way and proceeding a short
+distance, we enter that straight Flaminian Road which has been
+replaced by the modern Corso beginning at the Piazza Venezia. For the
+first part of its course it was also known as "Broadway." We are now
+in that more open part of Rome which lies outside the ancient wall,
+and which is commonly spoken of loosely as the Campus Martius. Here
+again, it is impossible to inspect all the various sights visible in
+the year 64. A few examples must suffice. As you walk along this
+straight thorough-fare--the commencement of the road which would
+eventually carry you to the North of Italy--you will find but few
+buildings of any note on your right. Lying to your left is a long and
+wide cloistered space which contains not only certain public offices
+and a pillared promenade, but also the richest shops in Rome, where
+are sold gold and silver work, objects of art, tapestries, and fine
+fabrics from Alexandria, Syria, and farther East. The place is, in
+fact, mainly a huge bazaar. Up the Flaminian Way beyond this enclosure
+we go under a triumphal arch erected by the late Emperor Claudius to
+record his conquest of Britain, where he subdued "eleven kings"
+without Roman loss. Keeping straight on we pass, this time on our
+right, another large enclosure surrounded by arcades, where is now the
+east side of the Piazza Colonna. In and about this locality are
+carried on not only promenades and saunterings but also various
+athletic exercises, including feats of horsemanship. Farther on still,
+and you will see to your left the Mausoleum of Augustus, rising some
+220 feet into the air. Its base, coated with sculptured marble,
+contains one grand sepulchral chamber for Augustus himself, and
+fourteen smaller chambers for members of his family. Above this base
+towers a conical mound of earth planted with evergreen trees, and on
+the summit is a colossal statue of the first emperor. Close by is a
+paved space, where the bodies of the Caesars are cremated before their
+ashes are placed in the Mausoleum. From this spot a ready faith saw
+their immortal part carried up to heaven by the eagle, messenger of
+Jove.
+
+Turning back and passing across the Campus we arrive at the public
+baths erected by Nero, and then at the Pantheon. This building, though
+shorn of many of its decorative splendours both within and without,
+still stands structurally intact, at least as it was restored and
+enlarged two generations later than our date. It is scarcely possible
+to say how far its shape was altered at its restoration under Hadrian,
+but we may provisionally treat the edifice as already belonging to our
+period. It is still, after all these centuries, an entirely noble
+pile, and forms a fit receptacle for the tomb, not only of Victor
+Emanuel, but of Raphael. Its form is that of a rotunda, with walls of
+concrete 20 feet in thickness and with a dome of concrete cast in a
+solid mass. The middle of the dome is open to the sky, and by that
+means the building is lighted in a manner most perfectly suited to it.
+Could we behold it fully restored and at its best, we should see above
+its portico, which is supported by huge marble pillars each made of a
+single stone, large bronze reliefs of gods and giants. To one side of
+the doors would be a colossal statue of Augustus; on the other a
+colossal statue of the builder Agrippa, the son-in-law of that
+emperor. Inside there is a series of niches for colossal effigies of
+Mars, Venus, and other deities connected with the Julian family. The
+marble pillars dividing the niches have capitals of fine bronze, and
+the coffered ceiling of the dome, now bare and colourless, shines with
+gilt on blue, like the sky lit up with stars. The doors, which have
+mysteriously remained entire, are also of noble bronze; the roof
+consists of tiles of bronze thinly plated with gold. The gold has
+naturally vanished, after passing into Saracen hands; of the bronze
+nearly half a million pounds weight has been stripped from the
+building, some to make cannon for the defence of the Castle of St.
+Angelo, some to form the twisted columns which now support the giant
+baldacchino under St. Peter's dome.
+
+At a short distance behind this magnificent temple Agrippa--who was in
+charge of the aqueducts and water-supply--had also built the first
+great public baths. It would probably be incorrect to found any
+detailed description of them upon what we know of the stupendous
+structures of Caracalla and Diocletian, which were perhaps the most
+amazing exhibitions of public luxury ever seen in the world. Of these
+we know how huge and splendid were the halls, with their coloured
+marbles, their mosaic floors, their colossal masterpieces of statuary,
+their elaborate arrangements of baths--cold, tepid, hot and
+dry-sweating--their conversation-rooms and reading-rooms. But we
+cannot pretend to say how far the Agrippan and Neronian baths of the
+year 64 corresponded in magnificence to these. We shall be safer in
+simply assuming that, since the baths of Pompeii were in full swing in
+the year in question, Home must have possessed establishments of a
+similar kind but on a larger and more sumptuous scale.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 24.--EXTERIOR OP THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Present
+state.)]
+
+Leaving without further mention the various temples of Minerva, Isis,
+Serapis, and other deities which might be found about the Campus
+Martius, we note an undistinguished stone amphitheatre, the only
+resort of the kind as yet possessed by the metropolis. In this were
+exhibited the sanguinary combats of gladiators with each other, and
+the fights with wild beasts performed by trained professionals or by
+criminals selling their lives as dearly as possible. Of these "sports"
+we have to treat in a later chapter. Coming nearer to the Tiber, while
+returning towards the city proper, we pass in succession the three
+great theatres, lofty semicircular constructions of stone and concrete
+faced with marble, one computed to hold 40,000 spectators, but
+probably accommodating not more than 25,000, and the others some
+20,000 and 12,000 respectively. In these matters we must allow both
+for Roman exaggeration and Roman close-packing. The theatres rise in
+three stories, of which the outward sides consist of open arcades
+adorned with pillars in varied styles, while round their bases are
+shops for the sale of sweetmeats, beverages, perfumes, and other
+articles which the theatre-goer or the loitering public may require.
+What a theatrical Performance was like is a matter belonging to the
+question of spectacles and amusements. At the back of the largest
+theatre--that of Pompey--lies a large square surrounded by colonnades
+of a hundred pillars, where sycamores form avenues and fountains play,
+while statues of finished workmanship stand where they produce the
+best effect. Particularly grateful to the Roman lounger were the seats
+in the large semi-circular bays, so placed as to offer full protection
+from too hot a sun or too cold a wind.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 25.--THEATRE OF MARCELLUS. (Restored.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 27.--CIRCUS MAXIMUS (restored); Imperial Palaces
+on Palatine to left.]
+
+By the time that we have passed the last theatre of the three we have
+arrived at the river end of the low valley leading into the Forum
+between the Capitoline Hill and the Palatine, a place which had once
+been a cattle-market but had now become an open place surrounded by
+dwellings of the humbler sort. It still, however, bore the name of
+"Cattle-Market." If from this point we followed the river bank, we
+should come to the wharves, to which the smaller ships bring up the
+Tiber the freights of grain transhipped from the larger vessels from
+Alexandria or Carthage, or of marble from the quarries of Numidia,
+Greece, and Phrygia, or of granite and porphyry from Upper Egypt. All
+along this bank are the offices and storehouses of such cargoes, and
+here too is performed much of the shaping of those blocks which Rome
+is using in such astonishing profusion. Along the river by the stone
+embankment the ships are moored, with their cables passed through huge
+stone corbels or sculptured lions' mouths. No busier part of Rome
+could be found than this, but we have no time to proceed further in
+this direction.
+
+In front of us rises the Aventine Hill, another quarter of the
+wealthy, but otherwise chiefly distinguished by its temples of Juno
+the Queen and of Diana. Turning our eyes from the Aventine to the left
+we see lying in the valley between Aventine and Palatine--where now
+are the Jewish Cemetery and the grimy Gasworks--the vast Circus
+Maximus or Hippodrome. This structure, devoted chiefly to
+chariot-racing, is some 700 yards in length and 135 in width, and will
+at a pinch hold nearly a quarter of a million spectators. In all
+probability it would seat 150,000. It consists, as the illustration
+will show, of long tiers of seats sweeping down the sides and round
+the curved end of an oblong space. As with the theatres, its outside
+view presents three tiers of marble arches, and through the lowest
+tier are numerous staircases leading to the various sections of the
+seats within. Those seats themselves are laid upon large vaults of
+concrete; the lower rows are of marble, the upper ones are as yet of
+wood. How the chariot-races were run, and what is meant by the "sports
+of the circus," will naturally require a separate narration.
+
+Coming back from the entrance of this mammoth place of amusement and
+turning up the Velabrum Valley, we pass by a temple of Augustus, to
+which is attached a public library, and issue by the temple of Castor
+into the Forum to our first standing-point at F.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+
+STREETS, WATER-SUPPLY, AND BUILDING MATERIAL
+
+After this rapid walk through the more interesting parts of the
+capital, we may consider one or two connected topics of natural
+interest.
+
+Amid all this splendour and spaciousness of public buildings, what is
+the aspect of the ordinary streets? In this respect Rome was by no
+means fortunate. As in Old London, Old Paris, or Old New York, the
+streets had for the most part grown up as chance circumstances would
+have it. There were very few thoroughfares laid out straight from the
+first like the Flaminian or "Broad" Road. Alexandria and Antioch were
+the creations of monarchs who began with a clear field and a
+consistent scheme. Their straight, broad streets might well be the
+envy of the capital. The Romans, then as now, possessed the
+engineering genius, but they could not well undo the work of a
+struggling past, which had necessitated the crowding of population,
+within the defences of a wall. They knew how to supply the city
+abundantly with water, and how to drain it with sewers of great
+capacity and strength. The chief of such sewers--the Cloaca
+Maxima--which passed underneath the Forum to the Tiber and was laid
+down more than twenty-five centuries ago, is still in working order.
+But no republican or imperial government ever took it in hand to
+Hansmannise the city, even after one of those devastating
+conflagrations which might seem to have cleared the way. It is true
+that all traffic of vehicles, except for special processions, for
+Vestal Virgins, and a few other cases--was forbidden for ten hours in
+the day. All through the morning and afternoon there were no wheels in
+the Roman streets, unless some public building imperatively demanded
+its load of stones or timber, or unless the few privileged persons
+were proceeding in their carriages to some festival. Nevertheless the
+rich men and women in their litters or sedan-chairs, attended by their
+servants or their clients; the porters carrying their heavy loads; the
+itinerant hucksters; and the ordinary man on errand or other business
+bent, made up crowds which were often difficult to pass through.
+
+Another consequence of the old compression within narrow walls was
+that, as population increased, the houses grew more lofty. How high
+the Romans built, or were allowed to build, in republican times we
+cannot tell. The tendency was certainly to build higher and higher,
+and sky-scrapers would perhaps have become the rule if the ancient
+Roman had understood the use of materials both sufficiently light and
+sufficiently strong, or if he had been forced to establish his work on
+secure foundations. In point of fact there had been, and there
+continued to be, too much of jerry-building. Houses sometimes
+collapsed, and many were unsubstantially shored up. A flood or an
+earthquake was apt to find them out, and there was frequent peril in
+the streets. The majority of the abodes of people of humble means were
+not like those in smaller towns, such as Pompeii, still less like
+those in the country. They were "tenement houses," large blocks let
+out in rooms and flats, and it was natural that landlords should make
+haste to run them up and to increase the number of their stories. When
+Augustus became emperor he enacted what may be called a Metropolitan
+Building Act, which insisted on firmer foundations and limited the
+height to 70 feet. That act was apparently still in force in the age
+of Nero, and we may take it that along the more frequented streets the
+houses commonly ran to a height of four or five stories. They looked
+the taller because of the narrowness of the street itself. While it is
+perhaps, though not necessarily, an exaggeration for the
+epigrammatist--who lived "up three pair of stairs, and high ones"--to
+say that he could touch his opposite neighbour with his hand, it is at
+least an indication of the truth. Some of the narrower lanes between
+blocks cannot have been more than a few feet across.
+
+Nor does it appear that the occupants' of rooms opening on the streets
+were very particular as to what they threw out in the way of rubbish
+or dirty water. It is true that there were aediles, or officers to
+look after the order of the streets and public places, but their
+efforts seem to have been mainly directed to preventing conspicuous
+obstruction. Practices which we should regard as heinous were treated
+lightly or disregarded. To make matters worse, the shopkeepers, who
+occupied the lower fronts of most of such houses, took the greatest
+liberties in encroaching upon the roadway when exhibiting their wares,
+and it was not till twenty years later than our date that the Emperor
+Domitian ordered them to keep within their own thresholds.
+
+Apart from the question of the freedom of traffic, it can be readily
+imagined that, with all the wooden counters, doors, and shutters down
+below, and with the disproportionate quantity of woodwork in the
+beams, floors, and even walls above, fires were of the commonest
+occurrence, and, with streets so high and narrow, the conflagration of
+a whole quarter of the town was speedy and complete. Augustus had
+divided the metropolitan area into fourteen regions, and had
+distributed over these a force of 7000 watchmen to keep the peace and
+to deal with fires at night; but it was not to be expected, if a fire
+occurred in a lofty block, that this body, assisted or hampered by the
+neighbours, could do much with the buckets, siphons, and wet blankets
+which formed the extinguishing apparatus of the time.
+
+Another serious danger, or, when not danger, at least discomfort, came
+from the trick which the Tiber has always had of flooding the lower
+parts of the city. Somewhat later than our date the river restrained
+by strong stone embankments, which one had to descend by steps in
+order to reach the river at the ferries or other boats; but this must
+have been but inadequately achieved in the early period of the empire,
+and a severe flood might bring the houses in the Velabrum, for
+example, tumbling about the ears of their inhabitants.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the whole the streets of Neronian Rome were neither very
+comfortable nor very safe to walk in. At night there was no lighting,
+except when, at some great festival, illuminations might be made by
+order of the emperor for a whole night or perhaps a series of nights.
+In ordinary times torches and lanterns must be provided by yourself,
+and even the 7000 watchmen scarcely gave you a full feeling of
+security. The precise arrangements made for scavenging are unknown,
+but presumably it was done by the public slaves under the supervision
+of the aediles. It is, however, easy to discover from contemporary
+complaints that the streets were often annoyingly wet and slimy.
+
+One thing the ordinary Roman appears never to have minded, any more
+than it is minded at the present day. This was noise. There are
+studious men enough in ancient literature who complain that sleep or
+study is impossible in Rome. They exclaim upon the bawling of the
+hawkers, the canting songs of the beggars, the banging of hammers, the
+sing-song of schoolboys learning to read in the open-air verandahs or
+balconies which often served as schools, and the shouting in the
+baths. All night long there was the rattle of carts and the creaking
+of heavy waggons. But the average Roman cared, and still cares, very
+little for quiet or sleep, and no emperor attempted to check the
+annoyance. Perhaps he could devise no check. Perhaps he himself, being
+on the Palatine, and his counsellors, being in their own comparatively
+secluded houses on the hills, scarcely realised the full enormity of
+the nocturnal roar of Rome. In any case the fact of the noise is
+unquestionable. It was then very much as it is now if one tries to
+sleep in rooms in the Corso or the Via Babuino. The saying that "God
+made the country and man made the town" is met with in a Roman writer
+of the age of Augustus, and the noise is one factor in the difference.
+
+The ancient Romans, we have said, were masters of practical
+engineering, and a chief glory of the city was its abundant supply of
+water. Apart from the Tiber and the natural springs, there were in the
+year 64 at least eight aqueducts bringing drinkable water into the
+city. It was the emperor's concern to see to this matter, as he did to
+the corn-supply, but in practice he appointed what he might call his
+Minister of Water-supply, and gave him liberal means to provide a
+large staff of engineers, surveyors, masons, pipelayers, inspectors,
+and custodians. It is a common error to imagine that the Romans were
+ignorant of the simple hydraulic law that water will find its own
+level, and to suppose that their aqueducts were built in consequence
+of that ignorance. In point of fact they knew the law as well as we
+do. Their earlier aqueducts were conduits almost wholly underground;
+their later were all on arches. When they wished to carry water to a
+height within the city, up a watertower to a distributing cistern, or
+to the top storey of a building, they did so by pipes, just as we
+should; but when they brought water from forty miles away they
+preferred to bring it in channels lined with impermeable cement and
+carried upon arches, which wound across the country according to the
+levels in order to avoid the excessive pressure of too steep a
+gradient. The reasons for their choice are simple enough. Their chief
+difficulty was in making pipes of iron of sufficient capacity. On the
+other hand, it was easy to construct a cemented channel in masonry of
+any size you desired. In the next place the water about Rome rapidly
+lays a calcareous deposit, and it is much easier to clear this from a
+readily accessible channel than from pipes buried in the ground. The
+pipes which the Romans commonly made were of lead, bronze, or wood.
+None of these could be made and cleared cheaply enough to serve for
+the volume of water required for household use, the baths, and the
+public fountains of Rome. Meanwhile slave labour was inexpensive, and
+the cost of building an aqueduct of any length was of little account
+to the Roman.
+
+When the water reached the city it was conducted into settling and
+distributing reservoirs and its flow regulated. Thence it was carried
+by pipes, mostly of lead, wherever it was required. When Agrippa was
+minister of water-supply he constructed in the city 700 public pools
+or basins and 500 fountains, drawing their supply from 130 collecting
+heads or reservoirs. And it is to the credit of Agrippa and of Rome
+that all these pools, fountains, and reservoirs were made pleasant to
+the eye with suitable adornment. There is mention of 400 marble
+columns and 300 statues, but these are to be regarded as only chief
+among the embellishments.
+
+The streets of Rome were commonly paved with blocks of lava quarried
+in the neighbourhood from the abundant deposits which had formed in a
+not very remote volcanic period.
+
+The materials employed for substantial building were various; in the
+older days red and black tufa--a stone so soft as to require
+protection by a layer of stucco; later the dark-brown peperino, the
+golden-creamy travertine, marble white and coloured, and concrete. The
+modern visitor to Rome who regards the ruins but superficially would
+naturally imagine that many of the edifices were mainly constructed of
+brick. In reality there was no building so composed. The flat
+triangular bricks, or rather tiles, which are so much in evidence, are
+but inserted in the face of concrete to cover the nakedness of that
+material. Concrete alone might serve for cores and substructures, but
+those parts of the building which showed were required to present a
+more pleasing surface. At the date of Nero this might be achieved by a
+fronting of marble slabs and blocks, but more commonly it was obtained
+by means of the triangular red or yellow tiles above mentioned. In
+buildings of slightly earlier date the exterior often presented a
+"diamond pattern" or network arrangement of square pieces of stone
+inserted in the concrete while it was still soft. The huge vaults and
+arches affected by the Romans made concrete a particularly convenient
+material, and nothing could better illustrate its strength than the
+tenacity with which it has endured the strain in the unsupported
+portions of the vaults of the Basilica of Constantine. Any of the more
+imposing buildings which were not mainly of concrete were composed of
+blocks of stone, held to each other by clamps soldered in with lead.
+Few, if any, such buildings were made entirely of marble. In the case
+of those composes of the other varieties of stone already named, the
+surface was commonly coated either with stucco or with marble facings
+attached by hook-like clamps fixed into the main structure Externally
+the appearance of Rome--so far as its public buildings are
+concerned-was that of a city of marble. The present having been for
+centuries torn away, either to be used elsewhere, or more often to be
+burned down for lime.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 28.--BUILDING MATERIALS. (From Middleton.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+
+THE ROMAN TOWN HOUSE
+
+We have taken a general survey of the city of Rome, its open places,
+streets, and public buildings. We may now look at the houses in which
+the Romans lived, and at the furniture to be expected inside them.
+
+Mention has already been made of the large and lofty tenement houses
+or blocks, often mere human rookeries, which were let out in lodgings
+to those who did not possess sufficient means to occupy a separate
+domicile of their own. These buildings, which were naturally to be
+found in the busier streets and more thickly inhabited quarters, were
+not, however, the habitations most typical of the romanized world.
+They were created by the special circumstances of the city, and might
+recur in other towns wherever the conditions were similar. The cramped
+island part of Tyre, for example, possessed houses even loftier than
+those of Rome. Where there was sufficient room--that is to say, where
+there was no large population crowded into a space limited by nature
+or by walls of defence--the ordinary house was of a very different
+character. It was built on a different plan and seldom ran to more
+than two stories, if so high. We shall shortly proceed to describe
+such a house; but it is first desirable to say something more of the
+tenement "block" in the metropolis. It is to be regretted that no such
+building has actually come down to us; we are therefore compelled to
+form our notions of one from the scattered references and hints of
+literature. Nevertheless if these are read in the light of customs
+still observable in Rome itself and in other parts of Italy, the
+picture becomes fairly definite.
+
+A block--or "island," as it was called--might be a building of four or
+five stories, surrounded by four of the narrow streets, lanes, or
+alleys which formed a network in the city. Whether managed by the
+landlord, by his agent, or by a tenant who sub-let at a profit, it was
+divided into lodgings, which might consist either of a single room or
+of a suite. Some such rooms and flats were "ordinary," others were
+described (as they are still in the advertisements of modern Rome) as
+"suitable for a gentleman," or, to use the exact language of the day,
+"suitable for a knight." Access to the respective quarters of the
+house was to be gained, not solely through a main door, but by
+separate stairs leading up directly from the streets and lanes. It
+would appear that each tenant had his own key, corresponding, though
+hardly in convenience of size, to our latch-key. Whereas it will be
+found that the ordinary private house of one storey was for the most
+part lighted by openings in the roof and by wide courts, this
+arrangement could manifestly be applied only partially to the tall
+tenement buildings. There might, it is true, exist in the middle
+interior of such a block an open space or "well," with galleries
+running round it at each floor, so that the inner rooms could obtain
+light from that quarter. It is also to be assumed that stairs ran up
+to these galleries, so that the inward rooms or flats were made
+accessible in this way. Mainly, however, the light came from windows
+opening on the street. If we glanced up at these from below we should
+find them narrower than ours at the present day--since we have
+discovered how to produce large and entirely diaphanous sheets of
+glass--but probably not narrower than those of a century ago. They
+were either mere openings with shutters, or, in the better houses,
+were glazed with transparent material. In the brighter part of the
+year they contained their boxes of flowering or other plants, and were
+often provided with a shade-awning not unlike those so familiar in
+Paris.
+
+The roof of such a building was either gabled and covered with tiles
+or, though perhaps less often, it was flat. The flat roof sometimes
+formed a terrace, on which the plants of a "roof-garden" might be
+found growing either in earthenware tubs or in earth spread over a
+layer of impermeable cement. The lowest floor, level with the street,
+commonly consisted of shops, which were open at full length in the
+day, but were shuttered and barred at night. As with the shops which
+are now built into the sides of large hotels and the like, they had no
+communication with the interior of the building. Regularly, however,
+they possessed a short staircase at the back or side leading to an
+upper room or _entresol_, where, in the poorer instances, the
+shopkeeper might actually reside. To the aristocratic Roman, with his
+contempt of petty trade, "born in the shop-loft" was a contemptuous
+phrase for a "son of nobody."
+
+Meanwhile the more representative houses of the strictly Roman part of
+the Roman world--that is to say, the dwellings of Romans or of
+imitators of Romans, wherever they might be settled, as distinct from
+the Greek and Oriental houses or from the various kinds of primitive
+huts to be found among the Western provincials--were of three chief
+kinds. These were the town house, the country seat, and the country
+homestead. There was, of course, nothing to prevent a wealthy Roman
+from building his town house exactly like a country seat, or vice
+versa, if he had so chosen, but from considerations of purpose, apart
+from those of local space and view, it would have been altogether
+irrational to take either course. The conditions of his life in town
+and country differed even more widely than they do with us. The
+average Roman, moreover, was a lover of variety in respect of his
+habitation. We find in a somewhat later epigrammatist that one grandee
+keeps up four town houses in Rome itself, and moves capriciously
+from one to the other, so that you never know where you will find
+him. At different seasons or in different moods he might prefer
+this or that situation or aspect. As for country seats of various
+degrees of magnificence, a man might--like many modern nobles or
+royalties--possess three, four, a dozen, or twenty. He might, for
+example, own one or more on the Italian Lakes, one in Tuscany, one on
+the Sabine or Alban Hills, one on the coast within a half-day's run of
+Rome, one on the Bay of Naples, one down in the heel of Italy, and so
+on. Pliny the Younger, who was born in the reign of Nero, was not a
+particularly rich man, yet he owned several country seats on Lake Como
+alone, besides others nearer to Rome on north and south, at the
+seaside, or on the hills.
+
+We may begin with a town house, and our simplest procedure is to take
+a plan exhibiting those parts which were most usual for an
+establishment of even moderate pretensions. Let it be understood that
+it is but the symmetrical outline of a general scheme which was in
+practice submitted to indefinite enlargement or modification. In the
+house of Livia, the mother of Augustus, on the Palatine Hill at Rome,
+and in various houses at Pompeii--such as those of the Vettii, of
+"Sallust," of the "Faun," or of "The Tragic Poet"--there will be found
+much diversity in the number and arrangement of the rooms, halls, and
+courts. Nevertheless the main principle of division, the general
+conception of the portions requisite for their several purposes, was
+practically the same. Some of the differences and enlargements may be
+illustrated after we have considered our first simple outline. Before
+we undertake this, however, it may be well to warn any one who may
+have visited or be about to visit Pompeii, that he must exclude from
+his thoughts all those small premises of a room or two which face so
+many of the streets. These were mostly shops, with which we are not
+now dealing. He must also exclude all the public edifices. This done,
+he must remember that we now possess only portions of the walls
+without the roofs, and that in such circumstances apartments always
+appear to be much smaller than they are by actual measurement, or than
+they appear when they contain their furniture and appointments
+properly disposed. Finally, he must not take a Pompeian house, even
+the most spacious, as a fair example of either the size or splendour
+of the great houses in the metropolis. Pompeii was but a small place,
+with a population of no great wealth or standing, and its houses would
+have cut but a provincial figure among those of the same date on the
+Aventine, Caelian, Esquiline, or Quirinal Hills. Nevertheless they are
+extremely useful to us in reconstructing the type. It is that type and
+not the exception which we now consider.
+
+A town house might either be detached or it might stand in a street,
+like one of the tenement-blocks, with shops let into the less
+important parts of the outer wall of the ground floor. Much would
+naturally depend upon the means and dignity of the owner. In any case
+the interior portions would belong to the private residence. As a rule
+the exterior of the ordinary house was little regarded. No
+architecture was wasted upon it; decoration and other magnificence
+belonged to the interior. Provided a house possessed a more or less
+imposing doorway its exterior walls might be left either to shops or
+to a dull monochrome of stucco, pierced here and there, if necessary,
+at 9 or 10 feet from the ground by barred slits, which cannot be
+called windows, for the admittance of light. The general principle of
+a Roman house, as of a Greek, was that of rooms surrounding spaces
+lighted from within. Privacy from the outer world was not indeed so
+scrupulously sought by the Romans as by the Athenians--principally
+because of the more free position occupied by the Roman
+women--nevertheless it was secured by the absence of ground-floor
+windows opening on any thoroughfare.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 29.--TYPICAL SCHEME OF ROMAN HOUSE.]
+
+Before the actual door there was commonly an open recess or space a
+little backward from the street, in which callers could wait until the
+door was opened. This was the "vestibule," and in the case of the
+larger houses of the nobles it was often adorned with honorary
+statues, on horseback or otherwise, while above the door might be seen
+the insignia of triumphs won by the family, a decoration in some
+measure corresponding to the modern hatchment, except that it was
+permanently fixed. This regularly remained as a mark of the house even
+when it changed owners. It was in such a vestibule of his Golden House
+that Nero erected his own colossal statue, destined afterwards to give
+its name to the Colosseum. Over the larger vestibules there might be a
+partial roof, but generally, and perhaps always at this date, they
+were without cover.
+
+Facing you in the middle of the vestibule are double or folding doors,
+more or less ornate with bronze, ivory, and other work, and generally
+bearing a large ring or handle to serve either as a knocker or to pull
+the door to. Above them is a bronze grating or fretwork for further
+adornment and to admit light and air. Some householders, more
+superstitious or conventional than the rest, affected an inscription,
+such as "Let no evil enter here," and over some humbler entrance you
+might find a cage containing a parrot or magpie, which had been
+trained to say "Good luck to you" in Greek. At either side of the
+door, or of the actual entrance to the vestibule, is a column or
+pilaster, either made of timber and cased with other woods of a more
+beautiful and costly kind, or consisting of coloured marble with an
+ornate capital. These "doorposts" were wreathed with laurel or other
+foliage on festal occasions, such as when the occupant had won some
+distinguished honour in the field, in the courts, or at the elections,
+or when a marriage took place from within. At funerals small cypress
+trees or branches would be placed in and about the vestibule. At one
+side of it you might sometimes find a smaller door, to be used for the
+ordinary going in and out when it was unnecessary or inconvenient for
+the larger doors to be opened.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 30.--ENTRANCE TO HOUSE OF PANSA. (Pompeii.)]
+
+The doors themselves turn, not upon hinges of the modern kind, but
+upon pivots, which move, often too noisily, in sockets let into the
+threshold and lintel. The fastenings consisted of locks--often highly
+ingenious--of a bar laid across from wall to wall, of bolts shot
+across or upward and downward, and sometimes of a prop leaning against
+the inside of the door and entering a cavity in the floor of the
+passage. The floor of the entrance passage itself might be paved with
+marble tiles, or made simply of a polished cement with or without
+patterns worked in it; or it might consist of small cubes of stone,
+white and black or more variously coloured, frequently worked into
+figures, and now and then accompanied by an inscription just within
+the threshold, such as "Greeting" or "Beware the Dog." In one Pompeian
+house the floor bears the well-known mosaic likeness of a dog held
+upon its chain. At the side of the passage there is often a smaller
+room for the janitor. When there is none, he must be supposed to have
+used a movable seat.
+
+Passing through the passage, you find yourself in a rectangular hall,
+upon which was lavished the chief display in the way of loftiness and
+decoration. In the middle of the ceiling is an open space, square or
+oblong, to which the tiles of the gabled roof converge from above, and
+in the middle of the floor beneath is a corresponding basin, edged and
+paved with coloured or plain marble. The basin is of no great depth,
+and contains the water which has been poured into it from the
+ornamental pipe-mouths of bronze or terra-cotta projecting, like
+gargoyles, from the edge of the opening above. Sometimes the basin
+contained a fountain. There is of course an outlet pipe for the
+surplus water, but some of that overflow often ran into a covered
+cistern, over which you would find a small circular well-mouth,
+ornamented with sculptured reliefs. The opening in the ceiling may be
+formed simply by the space between the four cross-beams, or it may be
+supported by a pillar--of marble or of brick cased with marble--at
+each corner, or it may rest upon a greater number of such pillars. It
+is this opening which lets in the light and air to the hall, and it
+should always be remembered that the Italian house had more occasion
+to seek coolness and freshness than warmth. On a day of glaring
+sunshine and heat it was always possible to spread under the opening
+an awning or curtain of purple or other colour, of which the reflected
+hues meanwhile lent a richness to the space below. If we take one of
+the finer houses, we shall see, in glancing at the ceiling which
+covers the rest of the hall, that it is divided into sunken panels or
+coffers, which are adorned with reliefs in stucco and are painted, or
+else are decorated with copper, gold or ivory. The height may be
+whatever the owner wishes, but perhaps 25 feet would be a modest
+average estimate. The floor in such a house will generally consist of
+slabs of marble or of marble tiles arranged in patterns. In houses of
+less show it may be made of the same materials as those described for
+the entrance passage. To right and left are various chambers, shut off
+by lofty doors or by portieres or both. To these light is admitted
+their doors and the gratings over them, from the high window-slits
+already mentioned in the outer wall, or sometimes, when there is no
+upper storey, from sky-lights. And here let it be observed that the
+notion that the Romans of this date used very little glass is
+altogether erroneous, as the discoveries at Pompeii and elsewhere
+sufficiently prove.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 31.--Interior of Roman House. (Looking from
+Reception-hall to Peristyle.)]
+
+The walls of the hall are in the better instances either coated with
+panels of tinted marble, or parcelled out in bright bands or oblongs
+of paint, or decorated with pictures of mythological, architectural,
+and other subjects worked in bright colours upon darkened stucco. To
+our own taste these colours--red, yellow, bluish-green, and others--as
+seen at Pompeii, are often excessively crude and badly harmonised. But
+while it is true that the ancients appear to have been actually
+somewhat deficient in colour-sense, it must be borne in mind that many
+of the Pompeian houses were decorated by journeymen rather than by
+artists, and, above all, full allowance must be made for the
+comparatively subdued light in which most of the paintings would be
+seen. The hall might also contain statuary placed against the walls or
+against the supporting pillars, where these existed. At the farther
+end from the entrance you will perceive to right and left two large
+recesses or bays, generally with pilasters on either side. These
+"wings" were utilised for a variety of purposes. One of them might
+occasionally serve for a smaller dining-room, or it might hold presses
+and cupboards. In noble houses one of them would contain certain
+family possessions of which the occupants were especially proud. These
+were the effigies of distinguished ancestors, which served as a
+family-tree represented in a highly objective form. At our chosen date
+there would be a series of portrait busts or else of portrait
+medallions, in relief or painted, while in special receptacles,
+labelled underneath with name and rank, were kept life-like wax masks
+of the line of distinguished persons, which could be brought out and
+carried in procession at the funeral of a member of the family. Though
+there was no "College of Heralds" in antiquity, it was commonly quite
+possible for a wealthy parvenu to get a pedigree invented for him. It
+is true that by use and wont the "right of effigies" was confined to
+those families which had held the higher offices of state, but there
+was no specific law on the subject, and the Roman _nouveau riche_
+could act exactly like his modern representative in securing his
+"portraits of ancestors."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Having thus glanced to right and left, to the ceiling and the floor,
+we now look at the end of the hall facing us. The middle section of
+this is open, and is framed by a couple of high pillars or pilasters
+and a cornice, which together formed perhaps the most distinguishing
+feature of this part of the house. Between the pillars is an apartment
+which may or may not be raised a step or two above the level of the
+hall. This, unlike the hall itself, is of the nature of a
+sitting-room, reception-room, or "parlour" (in the old sense of that
+word), and contains appropriate furniture. In it the master receives a
+guest, interviews his clients, makes up his accounts, and transacts
+such other private business as may fall to his lot. At the back it may
+be entirely closed, or it may contain a large window, through which we
+can catch a vista of the colonnaded and planted court beyond. The
+floor may here consist of a large carpet-like mosaic, such as that
+famous piece, taken from the House of the Faun at Pompeii and now in
+the Naples Museum, which represents a battle between Alexander and the
+Persians. To one side of the entrance to this "parlour" there will
+often stand on a pedestal the bust of the owner, as "Genius of the
+home." On the other side there is a passage serving as the means of
+access to the second or inner division of the house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 33.--PERISTYLE WITH GARDEN AND AL FRESCO
+DINING-TABLE.]
+
+On making our way through this passage we find ourselves in a space
+still more open than the hall. It is commonly an unroofed,
+quadrangular court surrounded by a roofed colonnade, and thence known
+as the "peristyle." Or the colonnade may extend only round three
+sides, the back being free to the garden. In the uncovered space lying
+between the rows of pillars there are ornamental shrubs and flowers,
+marble tables, a cistern of water containing goldfish, a fountain, and
+marble basins into which fresh water is spouted from bronze or marble
+statuettes, from figures of animals, or from masks. Under the
+colonnade are marble floors or other more or less rich pavements,
+decorated walls, and such works of art as the owner most affects.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 34.--PERISTYLE IN HOUSE OF THE VETTII. (Present
+state.)]
+
+When it seems desirable for shade and coolness, coloured curtains or
+awnings may be suspended between the columns, so that one can sit or
+walk with comfort under the cloistered portion. At the sides are
+apartments for different purposes. At the far end, or elsewhere, there
+is regularly the largest dining-room, often with mosaic floor and
+generally with pictured walls. Whereabouts in the house the family or
+an invited party should dine would depend partly on the number to be
+present, partly on the season of the year, and partly on some passing
+inclination. A house of any pretensions would possess several rooms
+used, or capable of being used, for this purpose. Some dining-rooms
+had what we should call French windows on three sides, permitting the
+diners to enjoy the view of the garden or the shrubbery outside.
+
+Other large and airy apartments or saloons off the peristyle were used
+for social conversation, or as drawing-rooms. Farther back still,
+approached by another passage or door, there was often to be found a
+garden, containing an arbour or a terrace covered with a trailing
+vine, of the kind known in modern Italy as a _pergola_. In suitable
+weather _al fresco_ meals were often taken here, and occasionally
+there were fixed couches and tables of masonry always ready for that
+purpose.
+
+Coming back from the garden into the court, we might explore other
+passages, leading to the kitchen or to the bathrooms of hot, warm, and
+cold water. These offices would be respectively situated wherever
+circumstances made them most convenient. In the kitchen the part
+corresponding to our "range" consisted of a flat structure of masonry,
+on which the fire was lighted. The cooking pots were placed either
+upon ridges of masonry running across the fire or upon three legged
+stands of iron. The accompanying illustrations will sufficiently show
+what is meant. The bedrooms, little better than cells, of the slaves,
+and also the storerooms, were variously distributed. Underground
+cellars were apparently exceptional, although examples may be seen at
+Pompeii.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--KITCHEN HEARTH IN THE HOUSE OF THE VETTII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 36.--KITCHEN HEARTHS (Drawing).]
+
+Somewhere in one of the bays of the hall, at the back of the peristyle
+court, or elsewhere, would be found a small shrine for the worship of
+the domestic gods. This was variously constructed. Sometimes it was a
+niche or recess containing paintings or little effigies and with an
+altar or altar-shelf beneath, sometimes a miniature temple erected
+against the wall. There was apparently no special place to which,
+rather than any other, it was to be assigned. To the nature and
+meaning of the household gods we may refer again when dealing with the
+general subject of religion.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 37.--SHRINE (IN BACKGROUND) IN HOUSE OF THE TRAGIC
+POET.]
+
+In the homes of persons of culture there would also be included a
+library and, perhaps less regularly, a picture-gallery. The library,
+which sometimes comprised thousands of rolls, would be a room not only
+surrounded by large pigeon-holes or open cupboards containing the
+round boxes for the parchment rolls, but also traversed by lower
+partitions provided on either side with similar shelves. About the
+room, over or by the shelves, stand portrait busts or medallions of
+great authors, both Greek and Roman, the "blind" Homer being
+represented in traditional form, but the majority, from Aeschylus and
+Thucydides down to Virgil and Livy, being authentic and excellent
+likenesses. In the picture-gallery would be found paintings either
+done upon the stucco walls in a frame-like setting or upon panels of
+wood attached to the walls, very much as we hang our modern pictures.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 38.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE.]
+
+It was scarcely ever the case that a second storey--where one existed
+at all--extended over the whole house. If upper rooms were used, they
+were placed over those parts where they would interfere least with the
+light, the comfort, and the appearance of the ground-floor
+arrangements. The stairs leading to them were variously disposed and
+as little as possible in evidence. In such upper apartments there was
+naturally not the same risk from the curious or the burglar as in the
+case of the lower, and windows of perhaps 4 by 2-1/2 feet were
+therefore freely employed. In some instances, though we cannot tell
+how frequently, the second storey projected on strong beams over the
+street, as in the example at Pompeii known as the "House of the
+Hanging Balcony."
+
+It remains to make brief observations upon one or two matters
+interesting to any practical householder. These are the questions of
+water-supply, drainage, warming, and roofing.
+
+In respect of water there was no difficulty. It was brought in the
+ordinary way, from those reservoirs which formed the ends of the
+aqueducts or conduits, by means of pipes, mostly made of lead, though
+sometimes of bronze. These were conducted to the points where they
+were required, and there the flow was manipulated by means of taps and
+plugs. In order to make a water-pipe, a sheet of lead or bronze was
+rolled into a cylinder, the joining of the two edges taking the shape
+of a raised ridge, which was soldered. One end of a section was
+squeezed or narrowed so that it might be inserted into the widened end
+of the next. Lead pipes of no inconsiderable size, stamped with the
+name of the owner, are to be seen preserved in the Palatine House of
+Livia, and a number of smaller ones remain at Pompeii. For drainage
+there the sewers, and also pipes to carry the less offensive overflow
+of water into the street channels, which in their turn led into
+underground drains.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 88 A.--LEADEN PIPES IN HOUSE OF LIVIA.
+(Palatine.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 39.--PORTABLE BRAZIERS.]
+
+For the warming of a house the Romans not only portable braziers with
+charcoal for fuel, but in the larger establishments there existed a
+system of "central" heating, by which hot air was conducted from a
+furnace in the basement through flues running beneath the floor and up
+through the walls, where its effect might be regulated by adjustable
+openings or registers. The only fixed fire-place in a town house was
+in the kitchen. From this the smoke was carried off by a flue,
+constituting to all intents and purposes a chimney. The belief that
+the Romans were unacquainted with such things as chimneys has been
+proved to be untrue.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 40.--MANNER OF ROOFING WITH TILES.]
+
+The roofing, when constructed, as it most frequently was, in a gabled
+form, consisted of terra-cotta tiles arranged on a regular system.
+First came the flat layers, each higher row overlapping the lower. The
+descending edges of a row of these flat plates, as they lay side by
+side, were turned up into a kind of flange of about 2-1/4 inches in
+height, so that at the points of contact a ridge was formed down the
+roof. Over this line was laid a series of other tiles shaped into a
+half-cylinder, the lower end of each tile overlapping the next. By
+this means the rain was prevented from penetrating the crevice between
+the flanges. At the bottom, above the eaves, the line of semicircular
+tiles ended in a flower-like or mask-like ornament, which broke the
+monotony of the horizontal edge of the roof.
+
+After this description of what may be considered a representative
+Roman house, it is necessary to repeat that it is but typical. Many
+were considerably smaller, containing, for example, no peristyle. Many
+on the contrary were far more spacious and sumptuous, possessing more
+than one hall and more than one peristyle, and varying the nature as
+well as the number and position of those portions of the house. In
+exceptional cases the hall had no opening in the ceiling and therefore
+no basin below, but was covered with a simple gabled roof which shed
+the rain-water into the street. In exceptional cases also there was no
+"parlour" of the kind described a little while ago. The situation of
+the house, enlargements made after the main part was built, the
+joining of two houses into one, or other causes, often modified the
+rectangular and symmetrical appearance presented in the plan hitherto
+given. Such modifications are, however, better illustrated by a
+comparison of the plans of two well-known Pompeian houses than by any
+amount of verbal description. The first is that of Pansa, which forms
+the main portion of a whole block, smaller dwellings and shops
+unconnected with the Pansa establishment being built round and into it
+at various points. The arrangements of this house closely approach the
+normal or simple type described in this chapter. The second is the
+famous house of the Vettii, which departs somewhat freely from the
+customary disposition of apartments.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 41.--HOUSE OF PANSA AT POMPEII.]
+
+The parts within the dark lines belong to the one house; the rest are
+other houses and shops built into the block.
+
+ 1. Vestibule             11. Rooms
+ 2. Passage               12. Dining-Room
+ 3. Hall                  13. Winter Dining-Room
+ 4. Rooms                 14. Saloon (Drawing-Room)
+ 5. Wings                 15. Kitchen
+ 6. Dining-Room           16. Carriage Room
+ 7. Parlour               17. Boudoir
+ 8. Passage               18. Portico
+ 9. Library?              19. Saleroom
+10. Peristyle             20. Passage to Side Door
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 32.--HOUSE OF CORNELIUS RUFUS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 42.--HOUSE OF THE VETTII AT POMPEII. A second
+storey extended over the corners and front parts included under the
+nine small crosses.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 43--SPECIMEN OF PAINTED ROOM.]
+
+It would be tempting to indulge in rhetoric and to dwell upon the
+magnificence of some of the more luxurious houses of the wealthy
+Romans; to describe their ostentation of rich marbles in pillar, wall,
+or floor--the white marbles of Carrara, Paros, and Hymettus; the
+Phrygian marble or "pavonazzetto" its streakings of crimson or violet;
+the orange-golden glow of the Numidian stone of "giallo antico"; the
+Carystian marble or "cipollino" with its onion-like layers of white
+and pale-green; the serpentine variety from Laconia, and the porphyry
+from Egypt. We might descant upon the lavish wall-paintings,
+representing landscapes real and imaginary, scenes from mythology and
+semi-history, floating figures, genre pictures, and pictures of still
+life; or upon the mosaics in floor and wall depicting similar subjects
+and often serving to the occupants not so much in the place of
+pictorial art as in the place of wall-papers and of Brussels or
+Kidderminster carpets. We might speak of the profuse collections of
+statuary, of the gilding on ceiling and cornices, of the colours shed
+by the rich curtains and awnings of purple and crimson, of the
+grateful sound of water plashing in the fountains and basins or
+babbling over a series of steps like a broken cascade in miniature.
+But perhaps too much of such description might only encourage still
+further the erroneous notion that the Roman houses were all of this
+nature, and that even the average Roman lived in the midst of an
+abundance of such domestic luxury and art. It requires but a little
+sober thought to realise that such homes were, as they have always
+been, the exception. It would be as reasonable to judge of an average
+London house by the most opulent specimens in Park Lane, or of an
+American house by the richest at Newport, as to judge of the abodes of
+Romans in the time of Nero by the examples which appeal so strongly to
+the novelist or the romancing historian. Suffice it that beside the
+modest and frugal homes, the tenement flat, and the hovel, there were
+houses distinguished by immense luxury; and, since Romans have at all
+times sought the ostentatious and grandiose, perhaps such dwellings
+were larger and more pretentious in proportion to wealth than they are
+in most civilised countries at the present day. Seneca, who made
+himself extremely comfortable in the days of Nero, exclaims upon the
+rage for costly decoration. Says he of the bathing of the plutocrat:
+"He seems to himself poor and mean, unless the walls shine with great
+costly slabs, unless marbles of Alexandria are picked out with reliefs
+of Numidian stone, unless the whole ceiling is elaborately worked with
+all the variety of a painting, unless Thasian stone encloses the
+swimming baths, unless the water is poured out from silver taps."
+These, indeed, are comparatively humble. "What of the baths of the
+freedmen? a mass of statues! What a multitude of pillars supporting
+nothing, but put there only for ornament! What an amount of water
+running over steps with a purling noise--and all for show!"
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 44.--SPECIMEN OF WALL-PAINTING. (Pompeii.)]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+
+THE COUNTRY HOMESTEAD AND COUNTRY SEAT
+
+Throughout the romanized parts of the empire--in other words, wherever
+Romans settled, in Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and also wherever the
+richer natives imitated the Roman fashions--the house in any city or
+considerable town was built as nearly as possible after the type
+described.
+
+In the country the poor naturally had their much simpler cottages and
+cabins of a room or two, commonly thatched or shingled, knowing
+nothing of hall and court and all these arrangements of art and
+luxury. In the case of the more well-to-do country people of
+Italy--the larger farmers, wine-growers, olive-growers, and the
+like--the homestead was of a kind which made for simplicity and
+comfort. It was in such homes that one would find the most wholesome
+life and the soundest moral fibre of the time.
+
+Normally the homestead would be a large, and often a rambling,
+building of one storey, except where a tower served as a store-room
+for the mellowing wine or a loft for the mellowing fruit. When we read
+in Horace about the liberal stack of wood to be kept in readiness near
+the hearth, and about the wine-jar drinking in the smoke in the
+store-room we must think of his country homestead on the Sabine Hills,
+not of a house in Rome, for at Rome there was no blazing hearth to sit
+round and no smoky tower-loft for the ripening of the Caecuban.
+
+You enter an open court or yard, round the sides of which may run the
+stalls of the horses and oxen of the farm, the tool-rooms, the lofts
+of hay and corn, the quarters of the labourers--herdsmen, ploughmen,
+vine-dressers--and the great farm-kitchen. It is in this kitchen that
+you will find the bright hearth in winter-time, where all the members
+of the homestead gather round the fire. It is here that they then all
+eat, and in it the women of the establishment perform their work,
+spinning and weaving and mending. Off from the court will be situated
+the wine-press, or the olive-press, the-granaries, the fruit mellowing
+on mats, and the various rooms or bins where wine is fermented and
+stored, or where the olive-oil is treated and stocked. Commonly a more
+retired court will contain the private rooms of the owner, and
+somewhere in the homestead will be found the fowl-yard, with its hens,
+ducks, geese, and guinea-fowl, the sties, and the preserves for
+various toothsome animals, including perhaps dormice and snails.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 45.--PLAN OF HOMESTEAD AT BOSCOREALE.]
+
+Frequently a Roman of the city affected a country house of this
+character, to which he would flee during the tyrannous reign of the
+Dogstar or the Lion---in other words, during that hot season of the
+year which requires no description for those who have been so
+ill-advised as to sojourn in Rome in July, August, and early
+September. Many of his town slaves he would take with him, and what
+was a holiday for him was also a holiday for them. His rural homestead
+would possess great charm for the quieter type of man who had no real
+love for the pomps and shows the rattle and tumult, of the city. The
+vision of wholesome country-produce--of fresh milk and eggs and
+vegetables, and of tender poultry--is one which still attracts our
+city-folk. But the vision, then as now, was often subject to
+disillusion. Complaints are many that you had to feed the homestead in
+place of it feeding you, and when Martial has given a pleasant picture
+of a family reaching the gate of Rome with a coachful of the typical
+produce of the country, he ends by suddenly letting you know that they
+are not coming in from their country house but are going out to it.
+The complaint of the English seaside town that there will be no fish
+"till the train comes in from London," is thus a sufficiently old one.
+Yet the same Martial supplies another picture, painted with such zest
+of frank enjoyment that we are at once convinced of its truth. Some
+portions of it perhaps admit of translation in the following terms:--
+
+      Our friend Fundanus' Baian seat,
+      My Bassus, is no pleasance neat,
+      Where myrtles trim in idle lines,
+      Clipped box, and planes unwed to vines
+      Rob of right use the acres wide:
+      'Tis farm-life true and countrified.
+      In every corner grain is stacked,
+      Old wines in fragrant jars are packed:
+      About the farmyard gabbling gander
+      And spangled peacock freely wander:
+      With pheasant and flamingo prowl
+      Partridge and speckled guinea-fowl:
+      Pigeon and waxen turtle-dove
+      Rustle their wings in cotes above.
+      The farm-wife's apron draws a rout
+      Of greedy porkers round about;
+      And eagerly the tender lamb
+      Waits the filled udder of its dam.
+      With plenteous logs the hearth is bright.
+      The household Gods glow in the light,
+      And baby slaves are sprawling round.
+      No town-bred idlers here are found:
+      No cellarer grows pale with sloth,
+      No trainer wastes his oil, but both
+      Go forth afield and subtly plan
+      To snare the greedy ortolan.
+      Meanwhile the garden rings with mirth,
+      While townfolk dig the yielding earth:
+      No need for the page-master's voice;
+      The saucy long-haired boys rejoice
+      To do the manager's commands.
+      At morn 'tis not with empty hands
+      The country pays its call, but some
+      Bring honey in its native comb,
+      Or cones of cheese; some think as good
+      A sleepy dormouse from the wood;
+      And honest tenants' big girls bring
+      Baskets with "mother's offering."
+
+The visit to the country in the season of the "mad star" and the
+scirocco was as necessary to the ancient Roman as is his
+_villeggiatura_ to the modern. But there were other seasons when he
+fled from town. If to the heat of summer he sought the hills, in the
+colder he might seek the south of Italy, and in spring or autumn the
+seaside at various points the mouth of the Tiber to southward of
+Salerno, might run away from inconvenient business or ceremonies, or
+through a mere desire to get rest or sleep or change. He might wish,
+as Cicero and Pliny did, to get away from the "games" and to study and
+write in quiet. He might fancy that his health called for baths in the
+hot springs on the Bay of Naples, or for sea-bathing somewhere on the
+Latian or Campanian coasts. To put it briefly, he was very much like
+our worried, bilious, or exhausted selves. His life of ceremony was a
+hard one, and often he ate and drank too much. But whereas nowadays we
+can make free choice of any agreeable spot, since every such spot
+possesses its "Grand Hotel" or "Hotel Superbe," where we can always
+find the crowd and discomfort which we pretend to be escaping, the
+Roman idea was different. It corresponded more to that of our English
+nobles, who, in Elizabethan or Queen Anne days or later, built
+themselves country seats, one, two, or more, indulging in
+architectural fancies and surrounding all with spacious gardens,
+ponds, and rockeries. The Roman man of wealth created no hotels. He
+dotted his country seats about in places where the air was warm for
+winter and spring, or cool for summer and autumn, by the seashore, on
+the lower hills, or high on the mountain side. You would find them on
+the Italian lakes or elsewhere toward the north. In greater numbers
+would you find them on the hills near Rome, at the modern Tivoli or
+Palestrina, on the Alban heights near what are now Frascati, Albano,
+or Genzano, along the shore at Antium, Terracina, Baiae, Naples,
+Herculaneum, Pompeii, Castellamare, and Sorrento.
+
+Perhaps it is not too much to say that more than a hundred and twenty
+miles of this coast were practically a chain of country houses. The
+shore of the Bay of Naples has been compared to a collar of pearls
+strung round the blue. Wherever there was a wide and varied landscape
+or seascape, there arose a Roman country house. We are too prone to
+assume that the ancients felt but little love or even appreciation of
+scenery, and to fancy that the feeling came as a revelation to a
+Rousseau, a Wordsworth, or a nineteenth-century painter. That Roman
+literature does not gush about the matter has been absurdly taken for
+proof that the Roman writer did not copiously enjoy the glories
+presented to his eyes. But, though Roman literature does not gush, it
+often exhibits the same feelings towards scenery which at least a
+Thomson or a Cowper exhibits. Perhaps it was so accustomed to scenic
+beauties that it took for granted much that an English or German
+writer cannot. At any rate we are sure that the Roman chose for his
+country seat a site commanding the widest and most beautiful outlook,
+and that he even built towers upon his house to command the view the
+better. In this respect he was like the mediaeval monks, when they
+chose the sites of monasteries at San Martino or Amalfi, and his love
+of a belvedere was probably quite as great as theirs.
+
+The country seat differed widely from the town house. We must forget
+the plan which has been given above, with its hall and court lighted
+from within, and made private from the passing crowds in the street.
+In the country there is no need of such an arrangement. Moreover there
+are no formal receptions to necessitate the hall, and there are ample
+gardens to make the peristyle superfluous. Here the walls of the house
+may break forth into large and open windows, while all around may run
+pillared verandahs. Built in any variety of shape, according to the
+situation and the fancy, it may contain an immense variety of
+sitting-rooms, dining-rooms, bedrooms, facing in every direction to
+catch the sun, the shade, the breeze, or the prospect, as the case may
+be. Not that magnificence is any more neglected than in the great
+English country seats. The pillars and pavements are as rich as means
+allow, and works of painting and statuary are perhaps even finer and
+more numerous than in town; there is more time to look at them, and
+there are better facilities for showing them off. Many of the best
+works of ancient sculpture now extant in the museums have come from
+such country seats. There were of course vulgar houses in bad taste,
+where the owner's notions of magnificence consisted in ostentatious
+extravagance and a desire to outdo his neighbour. As now, everything
+depended either on the culture of the man or on the amount of his good
+sense in leaving such matters to his artistic adviser.
+
+Outside the house lie the gardens and grounds. For the most part these
+are laid out in the formal style adopted so often in more modern Italy
+and favoured so greatly in England in the early eighteenth century.
+Perhaps the Villa d'Este at Tivoli, though of course not ancient, may
+convey some approximate idea of the prevailing principle. Along one
+side of the Roman house we should find a smooth terrace ornamented
+with statues and vases, to be used as a promenade. There are straight
+walks and avenues between hedges and trees and shrubs--cyprus, laurel,
+box, and other manageable plants--cut to the shape of beasts and birds
+and inanimate objects. There are flower-beds--of the rose, the crocus,
+the wallflower, the narcissus, the violet, but not, for example, the
+tulip--laid out in geometrical patterns. There are trellis-work
+arbours and walks covered with leafy vines or other trailing plants.
+There are clumps of bay-trees, plane trees, or myrtles, with marble
+seats beneath. There is either an avenue or a covered colonnade, where
+the ground is made of soft earth or sand, and where the family may
+take exercise by being carried in a litter up and down in the open or
+under the shade. There are greenhouses and forcing-houses, where
+flowers are grown under glass. There are fish-ponds, fountains, and
+water-channels, with artificial cascades and a general suggestion of
+babbling streams. Out beyond lie the orchards and the vegetable
+gardens, where are grown most of the modern fruits, including peaches,
+apricots, and almonds, but not yet including either the orange or the
+lemon.
+
+The country immediately round the mansion of the wealthy man was
+commonly his own estate. A portion of this was frequently woodland,
+affording opportunities for hunting deer, wild boar, and other game.
+For the boar the weapon was a stout spear, and the general practice of
+the sportsman was to wait at a certain spot until the beast was driven
+towards it by a ring of beaters. Deer were caught in nets or
+transfixed with javelins while running. In more open places the
+hunter, accompanied by hounds, rode after a hare. But though far too
+much of Italy was taken up by preserves of this unproductive kind, the
+large estates were mostly turned to agricultural purposes. Different
+owners, different practices; but the possessor of a number of country
+seats would in some cases work the land for himself by means of
+slaves--often in disgrace and labouring in chains--under the direction
+of a manager or bailiff, while in others he would parcel out his land
+on various terms among free tenants. It is gratifying to discover that
+in bad seasons a generous landlord would sometimes remit a portion of
+his dues, and that he recognised various obligations of a grand
+seigneur to his district. Among them was the keeping up and
+beautifying of the local shrines and contributing to buildings and
+works for the public comfort.
+
+Such would be the country seat when established landward. By the
+seaside, especially in a much-frequented resort like Baiae, the room
+was more limited and the equipment modified. The extensive garden
+would be absent, and the height of the building increased by a second
+or even a third storey. It was no uncommon thing for such a "villa,"
+as it was called, to stand out on a promontory, where it could be
+greeted by the sea on either side. In many cases it was actually built
+out into the sea on piles or on a basis of concrete, and the occupant
+made a special delight of fishing from his window, and of letting the
+true sea-water flow into his swimming bath.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+
+ROMAN FURNITURE
+
+On the customary furniture of a Roman house we need not spend many
+words. For one thing, it was simple and scanty as compared with the
+furnishing and upholstering of to-day. For another, its nature
+presents little that would be strange to us or that would require
+explanation.
+
+Among the most conspicuous differences between Roman and modern
+furnishing must be reckoned the absence of carpets, the comparatively
+small use of tables and chairs, the absence of upholstery from such
+chairs as were used, and the greater part played by couches. In place
+of carpets there were the ornamental floors, whether in geometrical
+pattern-work, arrangements of veined marbles, or mosaic pictures
+composed of small blocks of coloured stone or glass. The making of
+carpets was well understood in the East, and Rome would have found no
+difficulty in obtaining as many as it chose, but so far as it employed
+tapestries they were for portieres and curtains, for the coverings of
+dining-couches and beds, or for throwing across a chair-back. The
+Roman kept his floors, walls, pillars, and ceilings carefully cleared
+of dust and stains by means of brushes of feathers or light hair,
+brooms of palm or other leaves, and sponges. He thus saved himself
+both the labour and the unwholesomeness of carpets.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 46.--ROMAN FOLDING CHAIR. (Schreiber.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 47.--BRONZE SEAT (Overbeck.)]
+
+We need not enter into dry details concerning such articles as were
+similar to our own. Of the Roman seats it is enough to say that they
+were either square stools without back or arms, or folding-stools, or
+they were true chairs either with straight arms and backs (the Origin
+of the modern throne) to be used by the owner when receiving clients
+or visitors on business, or with a long sloping back and without arms,
+as used particularly by women. A movable cushion constituted all the
+upholstery.
+
+But the Roman man seldom took his ease in a chair: even his reading
+and writing were commonly performed while reclining upon a couch. When
+writing, he doubled his tablets on his knee, and it may be presumed
+that habit made the practice easy and natural. The couch is, indeed,
+perhaps the chief article of Roman furniture. So regular was it to
+recline that, where we should speak of a sitting-room, the Romans
+spoke of a "reclining-room." At business they sat; but they reclined
+in social conversation--unless it was brief--when reading, when taking
+the siesta, and when dining. Their beds in the proper sense were
+similar to our own, though less heavy than those of our older fashion.
+To mount them it was often necessary to use steps or an elongated
+footstool. A slave in close attendance upon a master or mistress
+sometimes slept upon a low truckle-bed, which, in the daytime, could
+be pushed under the other. The couches for day use were lower and of
+lighter and narrower build, with a movable rest at the head and with
+or without a back.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 48.--FRAMEWORK OF ROMAN COUCH.]
+
+Upon the frame of such couches a good deal of decoration was lavished
+in the way of veneerings of ornamental wood, or thin plates of ivory
+or tortoise-shell, or reliefs in bronze or even in gold or silver. The
+feet might also, in the richer houses, consist of silver or of ivory.
+For the dining-rooms of people of wealth a special feature was made of
+such work upon the conspicuous parts of the frames, while the cushions
+and coverings were of costly fabrics, richly dyed and embroidered or
+damasked. The method of serving and eating a dinner is a subject which
+belongs to our later treatment of a social day, and it must here
+suffice to picture the ordinary arrangement of a dinner party.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 49.--PLAN OF DINING-TABLE WITH THREE COUCHES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 50.--SIGMA.]
+
+In the middle is the table, either square or, if round, made if
+possible of a single piece of costly wood richly grained by nature in
+a wavy or peacock pattern and obtained by sawing through the lower
+part of the trunk of a Moorish tree. The price depended on the size.
+Of one such circular slab we learn that it cost L4000. It may be
+needless to remark that many tables were only "imitation." When not in
+use, and sometimes even then, such tables were protected by coloured
+linen cloths. By preference this ancient equivalent of "the best
+mahogany" was supported on a single leg, consisting of elephants'
+tusks or of sculptured marble. On three sides are placed the couches,
+covered with mattresses stuffed with flock or feathers, and provided
+with soft cushions for the left arm to rest upon. Sometimes, instead
+of the three separate couches, there was but one large couch shaped
+like a crescent, either extending round half the large circular table,
+or having more than one smaller table placed before it. Tables in
+other rooms were scarcely to be found, since, as has already been
+remarked, they were not required for reading or writing or for holding
+the various articles which we moderns place upon them. Besides the
+dining tables we should generally find only a sideboard placed in the
+dining-room for the display of articles of plate. This was either of
+ornamental wood or of marble with a sculptured stand, and was
+distinctly meant for show. In place of tables for supporting necessary
+objects we find tripods, either of bronze or marble, with a flat top
+and sometimes with a rim.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 51.--TRIPOD FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+Other articles of household furniture were chests and presses or
+wardrobes. It was almost a rule that in the hall, at the side or end,
+should stand a low heavy chest--occasionally more than one--sometimes
+made of iron, sometimes of wood bound with bronze and decorated with
+metal-work in relief. In this were contained supplies of money and
+other articles of value, and for this reason it was strongly locked
+and often fastened to the ground by a vertical rod of iron. Such a
+chest is still to be seen in its place in the House of the Vettii at
+Pompeii. Of portieres, curtains and awnings enough has been said,
+except that they were also used for draping the less ornamental walls.
+Mirrors were apparently plentiful. No mention is made of such articles
+in glass, probably because the ancients had not yet learned to make
+that material sufficiently pure and true or to provide it with the
+proper foil or background. For the most part they were made of highly
+polished copper, bronze, or silver. The smaller ones were held in the
+hand, the handle and back parts being richly and often tastefully
+ornamented. There is an epigram extant which tells of a vindictive
+Roman dame who struck her maid to the ground with her mirror, because
+she detected a curl wrongly placed. Other mirrors were made so as to
+stand upon a support, and there is mention of some sufficiently large
+to show the full length of the body.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 52.--CHEST (STRONG-BOX).]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 53.--MIRRORS.]
+
+In the absence of gas or electricity or even kerosene, there was no
+better means of lighting a house than by oil-lamps. Even those were
+provided with no chimney. Naturally every effort would be made to
+obtain such oil as would produce the least smoke or smell, but
+doubtless the difficulty was never completely overcome. It is
+therefore natural to hear of the oil being mixed with perfume. In the
+less well-to-do houses there might be wax candles, in still poorer
+houses candles of tallow or even rush-lights, formed by long strips of
+rush or other fibrous plant thinly dipped in tallow. Generally
+speaking, however, the Roman house was lit by lamps filled with
+olive-oil. The commonest were made of terra-cotta, the better sorts of
+bronze or silver, often richly ornamented and sometimes very graceful.
+As typical specimens we may take those here illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 54.--LAMPS.]
+
+The little figure standing on the one lamp is holding a chain, to
+which is attached the probe for forcing up the wick or for clearing
+away the "mushrooms" that might form upon it. Lamps are made in all
+manner of fantastic shapes--ships, shoes, and other objects--and may
+burn either one wick or a considerable number, projecting from
+different nozzles. For the purpose of lighting a room they may either
+be placed upon the top of upright standards, four or five feet high
+and sometimes with shafts which could be adjusted in height like the
+modern reading-stand; or they may be hung from the ceiling by chains,
+after the manner of a chandelier, or held by a statue, or suspended
+from a stand shaped like a pillar or a tree, from whose branches they
+hang like fruit. For use in the street there were torches and also
+lanterns, which had a metal frame and were "glazed" with sheets of
+transparent horn, with bladder in the cheaper instances, or with
+transparent talc in the more costly.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 35.--LAMP-HOLDER AS TREE.]
+
+As with the Greeks, a Roman house was lavish in the use and display of
+cups and plate in great diversity of shape and material. Glass vessels
+were numerous and, except for a perfectly pure white variety, were
+produced both at Rome and Alexandria with the most ingenious finish. A
+kind of porcelain was also known, but was very rare and highly valued.
+For the most part the poor used earthenware cups and plates or wooden
+trenchers. The rich sought after a lavish profusion of silver goblets
+studded with jewels and sometimes ventured on a cup of gold, although
+the use of a full gold service was by imperial ordinance restricted to
+the palace. There were drinking vessels, broad and shallow with richly
+embossed or _repousse_ work, or deep with double handles and a foot,
+or otherwise diversified. There were all manner of plates and dishes
+of silver or of silver-gilt. There were graceful jugs and ladles and
+mixing-bowls. What we regard as most essential articles, but missing
+from a Roman table, are knives and forks. Table-forks, indeed, were
+unknown till a very modern date, but even knives were scarcely in use
+at Rome except by the professional carver at his stand. There were
+also heaters, in which water could be kept hot at table and drawn off
+by a small tap.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 56.--CUP FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 57.--KITCHEN UTENSILS.]
+
+If now we stepped into the kitchen we should find there practically
+every kind of utensil likely to be of use even for the modern cuisine.
+There is no need here to catalogue the kettles and pots and pans, the
+strainers and shapes and moulds, employed by Roman cooks. Perhaps it
+will suffice to present a number of them to the eye. In general,
+however, it deserves to be remarked that such a thing as a pail, a
+pitcher, a pair of scales, or a steelyard was not regarded in the
+Roman household as necessarily to be left a bare and unsightly thing
+because it was useful. The triumph of tin and ugliness was not yet.
+Such vessels as waterpots are still to be seen made of copper in
+graceful shapes, if one will notice the women fetching water on the
+Alban Hills. How far the domestic utensils resembled or differed from
+those still in use may be judged from the specimens illustrated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 58.--PAIL FROM HERCULANEUM.]
+
+There existed no clocks of the modern kind, but the Romans do not
+appear to have suffered much practical inconvenience in respect of
+telling the time and meeting engagements. Sundials, both public and
+private, were numerous, but these were obviously of no use on gloomy
+days or at night. The instrument on which the Romans mainly relied was
+therefore the "water-clock," which, though by no means capable of our
+modern precision of minutes and even seconds could record time down to
+small fractions of the hour. The principle was that of the hour-glass,
+water taking the place of sand. From an upper vessel water slowly
+trickled through an orifice into a lower receptacle, which at this
+date was transparent and was marked with sections for the hour and its
+convenient fractions. In this way the time would be told by the mark
+to which the water had risen in the lower portion. The Romans were not
+unaware of the difference between the conditions of summer and winter
+flow of water, but it would appear that they had attained to proper
+methods of "regulating" their rather awkward time-pieces. It is as
+well to add that in the wealthier houses a slave was told off to watch
+the clock and to report the passing of the hours, as well as to summon
+any member of the family at the time arranged for an appointment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT--MORNING
+
+We have seen in what sort of a home a Roman dwelt in town or country.
+Meanwhile it goes without saying that the non-Roman or non-Romanized
+populations of the empire were living in houses and amid furniture of
+their own special type--Greek, Syrian, Egyptian, or as the case might
+be. They were also living their lives after their own fashion in
+respect of dress, meals, occupations, and amusements.
+
+We may now look at the manner in which a typical Roman might spend an
+ordinary day in the metropolis, and endeavour to form some clear idea
+of the outward aspects of such a life. In the first instance our Roman
+shall be a man of the senatorial aristocracy, blessed with both high
+position and ample means, but one who, for the time being, holds no
+public office, whether as a governor, a military commander, a Minister
+of Roads or Water Supply, an officer of the Exchequer, or of Justice.
+Instead of referring to him awkwardly as "our citizen," we will call
+him Silius. The same name may be borne by a large number of other
+persons, for it is the name of an early Roman family which in course
+of time may have divided into several branches or "houses," answering
+to each other very much as the "Worcestershire" So-and-Sos may answer
+to the "Hampshire" So-and-Sos, except that the distinction in the
+Roman case is not territorial. Our Silius will therefore naturally
+bear further names to distinguish him. One will be the special
+appellation of his own "house" or branch, derived in all probability
+from its first distinguishing member. Let us assume, for instance,
+that he is a Silius Bassus. As, again, there are probably a number of
+other persons belonging to the same branch and entitled to the same
+two designations, he will possess a "front name," answering to our
+"Christian" name, and he shall be called for our purposes Quintus
+Silius Bassus. It is the middle name of the three which is regarded as
+_the_ name, but when there is no danger of mistake our friend may be
+addressed or written of as either Silius or Bassus. In private life
+among his intimates he prefers to be called Quintus. The individual
+name, family name, and branch name were frequently followed by others,
+but at least these three are regularly owned by any Roman with claims
+to old descent. To us, however, he will be Silius.
+
+He lives, let us say, in one of the larger town-houses on the Caelian
+Hill, looking across the narrow valley towards the Palatine, somewhere
+near the modern church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. It is before day-break
+that the loud bell has awakened the household slaves and set them to
+their work. In the road below and away in the city the carts, which
+are forbidden during the full daytime, are still rumbling with their
+loads of produce or building-material. All night long the less happily
+housed inhabitants have tolerated this noise, together with the
+droning and grating of the mills grinding the corn in the bakers'
+shops. It is however, now approaching dawn, and imperial Rome, which
+goes to sleep late, wakes early. No few Romans, even of the highest
+classes, have already been up for an hour or two, reading by
+lamplight, writing letters or dictating them to an amanuensis, who
+takes them down rapidly in a form of shorthand. Out in the streets the
+boys are on their way to school, the poorer ones carrying their own
+lanterns--at least if it is the time of year when the days are
+short--their writing-tablets and their reading-books, probably Virgil
+and Horace, who were standard authors serving in the Roman schools as
+Shakespeare and Pope do in our own. Boys of well-to-do parents are
+accompanied by an elderly slave of stern demeanour. In the distance
+are heard the sounds of the first hammers and the cries of the venders
+of early breakfasts.
+
+Silius rises, and with the help of a valet, who is of course a slave,
+dresses himself. His household barber--another slave--shaves him,
+trims his hair in the approved style and cleans his nails. At this
+date clean shaving was the rule. Every emperor from Augustus to
+Hadrian, fifty years later than Nero, was clean shaven, and the
+fashion set by emperors was followed as closely by the contemporary
+Roman as "imperials" and "ram's-horn" moustaches have been imitated in
+later times. The hair was kept carefully neither too long nor too
+short. Only in time of mourning was it permitted to grow to a
+negligent length. By preference it should be somewhat wavy, but there
+was no parting. Dandies had their hair curled with the tongs and
+perfumed, so at to smell "all over the theatre." If they were bald,
+they wore a wig; sometimes they actually had imitation hair painted
+across the bare part of the scalp. If nature had given them the wrong
+colour, they corrected it with dye. If the exposed parts of the body
+were hairy, they plucked out the growth with tweezers or used
+depilatories. But these were the dandies, and we need not assume
+Silius to have been one of them.
+
+It is to be a day of some formality, and Silius will therefore attire
+himself accordingly. In other words, he will put on the typical Roman
+garb. Of whatever else this may consist, it will comprise a band round
+the middle, a woolen--less often a linen--tunic with or without
+sleeves, and over this the voluminous woollen toga; on the feet will
+be shoes. Of further underwear a Roman used as much or as little as he
+chose. If, like the Emperor Augustus, he felt the cold, he might
+indulge in several shirts and also short hose. Such practices,
+however, were commonly regarded as coddling. Breeches were worn at
+this date only by soldiers serving in northern countries, where they
+had picked up the custom from the "barbarians." Mufflers were used by
+persons with a tender throat.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 59.--PATRICIAN SHOES.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 60.--ROMAN IN THE TOGA.]
+
+Inasmuch as Silius is of senatorial rank, his tunic, which will show
+through the open front of his toga, bears the broad inwoven stripe of
+purple running down the middle, and his shoes--which otherwise might
+be of various colours, such as yellow with red laces--are black,
+fastened by cross straps running somewhat high up the leg and bearing
+a crescent of silver or ivory upon the instep. The stripe, the shoes,
+and the crescent mark his senatorial standing. That which marks him as
+a citizen at all is the toga--an article of dress forbidden to any
+inhabitant of the empire who could not call himself in the full sense
+"_Civis Romanus_." It was a cumbrous and heavy garment (when spread
+out it formed an oval of about 15 feet by 12), with which no man who
+wanted to work or travel or simply to be comfortable would hamper
+himself. St. Paul was a Roman citizen, but, if he ever wore a toga at
+all, it would only be when he desired to bring his citizenship home to
+a Roman court, and we should probably be quite mistaken in imagining
+that he travelled about with a toga in his baggage, or, as the
+Authorised Version calls it, his "carriage." When out of town, in his
+country-seat or when amusing himself at home in the city, especially
+in the warmer weather, the Roman cast off his toga with a sigh of
+relief. In the provincial towns of Italy, though theoretically as much
+in demand, this blanket-like covering was little used by any man
+except on the most formal public and religious occasions, and, as a
+poet says, "when dead," for then the toga was indispensable.
+Nevertheless at Rome it was the necessary dress for all men of
+position when appearing in any sort of public life. The Roman emperors
+insisted upon its use in all places of public amusement--the theatre,
+circus, or amphitheatre. In a court of justice the president certainly
+could not "see" a pleader unless he wore it. You cannot be present at
+a formal social ceremony--a wedding, a betrothal, a coming of age, a
+levee--without this outward and visible mark of respect. Nor was it
+sufficient that you should wear it. It must be properly draped and
+must fall to the right point, which, in front, was aslant over the
+lower part of the shin, while behind it fell to the heel. Your
+wardrobe slave must see that it has been kept properly folded and
+pressed. If you claimed to be a gentleman, and were not in mourning
+and not an official, it must be simply and scrupulously white. Poorer
+people might wear a toga of a duller or dark-grey wool, which would
+better conceal a stain and require to go less frequently to the
+fuller. The same dull hue was also worn in time of mourning, or as an
+ostentatious token of a gloomy spirit, as for example, when one of
+your friends was in peril of condemnation in the law-courts, or when
+you fancied that some serious injustice was being done or threatened
+to your social order. The only person privileged to wear a toga of
+true purple was the emperor. On the whole the Roman dress was very
+simple; far more so than in mediaeval times or the days of Elizabeth
+or Charles II. Velvet and satin were not yet known, furs hardly so,
+and there were very few changes of fashion.
+
+Silius will also wear at least one large signet-ring as well as his
+plain ring of gold, but he will leave it to the dandies to load their
+fingers with half-a-dozen and to keep separate sets for winter and
+summer. When Quintilian, in his _Training of the Orator_, touches upon
+the subject of rings, he recommends as requisite for good form that
+"the hand should not be covered with rings, and especially should they
+not come below the middle joint." A handkerchief will be carried, but
+only to wipe away perspiration.
+
+Having finished his dressing, he may choose this time for taking his
+morning "snack," corresponding to the coffee and roll or tea and
+bread-and-butter of modern times. It is but a light repast of wine or
+milk, with bread and honey, or a taste of olives or cheese or possibly
+an egg. Schoolboys seem to have often eaten a sort of suet dumpling.
+In the strength of this meat our friend will go till mid-day.
+
+As he has no very early call to the imperial court upon the Palatine,
+he will now proceed to hold his own reception of morning callers. For
+this purpose he will come out to the spacious hall, which has been
+already described as the most essential part of a Roman house, and
+will there establish himself in the opening of the recess or bay which
+has also been described as a kind of reception-room or parlour. Before
+he arrives, the hall has been swept and polished by the brooms and
+sponges of the slaves, under the direction of a foreman. The number of
+Silius' household slaves is very great. Very many Romans of course
+owned no slave at all; many had but one or two; but it was considered
+that a person of anything like respectable means could hardly do with
+less than ten. Silius will probably employ several times that number.
+We have mentioned the valet, the barber, the wardrobe-keeper, and the
+amanuensis. We must add to these the cooks, the pastry-makers, the
+waiters, the room-servants, the doorkeeper, the footmen, messengers,
+litter-carriers, the butler and pantrymen. Some of the superior slaves
+have drudges of their own. The librarian, accountant, and steward are
+all slaves. Even the family physician or architect may be a slave.
+Many of these men may be persons of education and talent. Their one
+deficiency is that they are not free. Many of them are in colour and
+feature indistinguishable from the people outside; most, however, show
+their origin in their foreign physique. They are Phrygians,
+Cappadocians, Syrians, Jews, Egyptians, Ethiopians, Numidians,
+Spaniards, Gauls, Germans, Thracians, and Greeks. Their master either
+inherited them from his father or friends, or he bought them in the
+slave-market. For whatever reason they became slaves--whether as
+prisoners of war, by birth, through debt, through condemnation for
+some offence, by kidnapping like that practised by the Corsairs or the
+modern Arabs, or through being sold by their own parents--they had
+become the Property of slave-dealers, who picked them up in the depots
+on the Black Sea or at Delos or Alexandria, and brought them to Rome.
+There they were stripped and exposed for sale, the choicer specimens
+in a select part of a fashionable shop, the more ordinary types in the
+auction mart, where they were placed upon a stand or stone bench, were
+labelled with their age, nationality, defects, and accomplishments,
+and were sold either under a guarantee or without one. For an ordinary
+room-slave Silius, or his agent for him, has paid perhaps L20; for a
+servant of more special skill, such as a particularly soft-handed
+barber, perhaps L50; the price of a muleteer who was "too deaf to
+overhear private conversation in a carriage" might thereby be enhanced
+to L150; for a slave with educational or artistic accomplishments--a
+good reader, reciter, secretary, musician, or actor--he may have paid
+some hundreds. If he is a man of morbid tastes, and affects a
+particular kind of dainty favourite, he may go as far as a thousand.
+Curly-haired pages and amusing dwarfs are generally dear. It is the
+business of the house-steward to see that each slave receives his
+daily or monthly rations of corn, a trifling sum of money for other
+needs, and perhaps an allowance of thin wine. Many a slave also
+received a considerable number of "tips" from guests, as well as
+perquisites and presents from his master. With economy he was thus
+enabled to purchase his own freedom. The master might also in some
+cases provide the slave with the essentials of his dress, to wit, a
+coarse tunic, a rough cloak, and a pair of shoes or sabots.
+
+Over all these persons, so long as they are slaves, the owner
+possesses absolute power. He can box their ears, or condemn them to
+hard labour--making them, for instance, work in chains upon his lands
+in the country or in a sort of prison-factory--or he may punish them
+with blows of the rod, the lash, or the knout; he can brand them upon
+the forehead if they are thieves or runaways, or in the end, if they
+prove irreclaimable, he can crucify them. Branded slaves who
+afterwards became free and rich sought to conceal the marks by wearing
+patches. There were inevitably some instances in which masters proved
+so intolerably cruel that their slaves were driven to murder them. To
+prevent any conspiracy of the kind the law ordained that, when a
+master was so killed, the slaves should one and all be put to death.
+It is gratifying to learn that in the reign of Nero the whole populace
+sided with a body of slaves in this predicament and prevented the law
+from being carried out.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 61.--SLAVE IN FETTERS.]
+
+But, being a typical Roman, Silius has a strong sense of justice;
+moreover he values public opinion as well as his own. Also, being a
+typical Roman, he behaves with strictness and for the most part with a
+distinct haughtiness of manner, graduated, no doubt, according to the
+standing of the individual. When, as was often the case, he did not
+even know the name of a slave whom he came across in hall or
+peristyle, he frequently addressed him as "Sirrah" or "Sir" or "You,
+Sir." To the waiter at table and for ordinary commands, where the
+master affects no ceremony, the commonest term is "boy," precisely as
+that word is used in the East or _garcon_ in French. If Silius knew
+the actual appellation assigned to the slave when bought and was
+disposed to be kindly, he accosted him by it, calling him "Syrian," or
+"Thracian," or "Croesus," or by his proper Greek or Egyptian name. The
+slave, unlike the Roman citizen, owned but one name, and the shorter
+the better.
+
+We meet, as is only natural, with many examples of great trust and
+confidence between master and slave, and, in the case of the superior
+types, no few instances of great kindness and consideration. Pliny
+speaks of his "long friendship" for a cultivated slave named Zosimus,
+whom he set free, and whom, because he was liable to consumption, he
+sent to Egypt and the Riviera for the good of his health. A faithful
+or very useful slave could make tolerably sure of being some day
+emancipated with all due form and ceremony, either during the master's
+lifetime or by his last will and testament. In such a case he became a
+Roman citizen of the rank known as "freedman," and after the second
+generation there was nothing to prevent his descendants from aspiring
+to any position open to any other Roman. Sometimes even his son
+attained to public office. On attaining his citizenship the freedman
+became entitled to "the three names," and it was the rule that he
+should adopt the family name of his master. A freedman of Silius is
+himself a Silius. Also by preference he will be a Quintus Silius; but
+he will not be a Bassus. The third name will still, for his own
+lifetime, be such as to mark him for what he is. Moreover, though
+free, he is himself still bound to pay a dutiful respect to his former
+master's family, but beyond this he is at his own disposal and in
+possession of every right in regard to person and property. Many such
+men were extremely skilful in trade and made themselves rich enough to
+vie with the Roman aristocracy in outward show. The freedmen of the
+Emperor, who occupied positions of influence at court as chamberlains,
+stewards, private secretaries and the like, and were the powers behind
+the throne, became enormously wealthy. Their houses were adorned with
+the finest marble columns, the most richly gilded ceilings, and the
+most costly works of art; the choicest fruits ripened under glass in
+their forcing-houses, and, when they died, their monuments were among
+the most sumptuous by the side of the great highways. "Freedmen's
+wealth" became a proverb. They were occasionally even appointed to
+those minor governorships held by "agents" of Caesar, and the Felix of
+the New Testament was himself a freedman of Nero's predecessor and
+brother to one of the richest and most influential of the class. In
+the provincial cities of Italy freedmen, though they were not
+themselves eligible for the ordinary offices, might in return for acts
+of munificence be admitted to what may be called an inferior grade of
+knighthood--a sort of C.M.G.--styled the "Order of Augustus." They
+thus became notables of their own town in a way of which they were
+sufficiently proud, as the Pompeian inscriptions show. It was part of
+the shrewdness of Augustus to kill two birds with one stone, by
+erecting a provincial order directly attached to the cult of the
+Emperor, and by encouraging the local self-made man to spend money
+liberally upon the embellishment and comfort of his own municipality.
+
+Well, Silius, meeting with or escorted by various slave attendants,
+passes from the inner rooms through the passage into the hall and
+finds waiting for him a throng of visitors known as his "clients" or
+dependants. The position of these persons is somewhat remarkable. They
+are commonly free Roman citizens of the "genteel" middle class, who
+openly admit that they depend for the bulk of their living upon the
+patronage of the noble or the rich. The custom arose from a very old
+condition of things, under which certain classes of citizens, not
+being entitled to appear in the law-courts or in public business on
+their own behalf, put themselves under the protection of a person so
+entitled, who, in return for certain acts of support and deference,
+appeared as their advocate and champion. At a later time, even though
+their rights had become complete, men might still seek counsel, legal
+advice, and advocacy from a person of influence and eloquence. In
+return they paid him the honour of escort in the streets, supported
+him in his candidature for public office, applauded his speeches, and
+exercised on his behalf such influence as they possessed. The standing
+of a prominent Roman was apt to be measured by the number and quality
+of the persons thus attaching themselves to him. If next it is
+remembered that very few money-making occupations were looked upon
+with favour by the Romans, and that the higher orders were for the
+most part very rich, it will be obvious that there would grow up the
+custom of the patron making liberal presents to his dependants--money
+gifts, or gifts of small properties and of useful articles--as well as
+of inviting them to his table. The clients themselves brought little
+presents on the patron's birthday or some other special occasion, but
+these were merely the sprats to catch the whale. It gradually resulted
+that the patronage extended by the aristocrat or plutocrat was mainly
+one of a direct pecuniary nature. As in other cases where a dubious
+custom develops gradually, there ceased to be any shame in this
+relation. Many members of the middle class, impoverished and earning
+practically no other income, lived the life of genteel paupers. They
+would attend the morning reception of a grandee, either bringing with
+them, or causing a slave to bring, a small basket, or even a portable
+cooking-stove, in which they carried off doles of food distributed
+through his servants. The scene must have borne no slight resemblance
+to that of the charity "soup-kitchen." In process of time, however,
+this practice became inconvenient for all parties, and most of the
+patrons compounded for such doles by making a fixed payment, still
+called the "little basket," amounting perhaps to a shilling in modern
+weight of money for each day of polite attention on the part of a
+recognised "client." If a client was acknowledged by more than one
+patron, so much the better for the amount of his "little baskets." In
+some cases the dole was paid to each visitor at the morning call; in
+others only after the work of the patron's day was done and when he
+had gone to the elaborate bath which preceded his dinner in the later
+part of the afternoon. By this means the complimentary escort duty was
+secured until that time.
+
+Among the dependants were nearly all the genteel unemployed of Rome,
+including the Grub-Street men of letters, who in those days could make
+little, if anything, by their books, and who therefore sought the same
+kind of assistance as did our own literary rank and file in the early
+eighteenth century. When we read the authors of the period we are
+inevitably reminded of Samuel Johnson waiting in the ante-chamber of
+Lord Chesterfield, and of the flattering dedications of books which
+were so liberally or illiberally paid for by the recipients of such
+compliments. From his little flat, often a single room and practically
+an attic, in the tenement-house, the client would emerge before
+daylight, dressed _de rigueur_ in his toga, which was often sadly worn
+and thin. He would make his way for a mile or more through the carts,
+the cattle, an the schoolboys, sometimes in fine weather, sometimes
+through the rain and cold, when the streets were muddy and slippery,
+and would climb the hill to his patron's door, joined perhaps on the
+way by other citizens bent on the same errand. Gathering in that open
+space or vestibule which has already been described, they waited for
+the janitor to open the door. If the doorkeeper of Silius was like the
+generality of his kind, he would take a flunkey's pleasure in keeping
+them waiting, and also, except in the case of those who had been wise
+enough to ease his manners with a "tip," or who were known to be in
+special favour, a flunkey's pleasure in exhibiting his contempt.
+Brought into the hall, they stood or sat about and conversed until
+Silius appeared. Then, according to an established order of
+precedence--which apparently depended on seniority of acquaintance,
+while again it might be affected by a _douceur_--they were presented
+one by one to the patron.
+
+One must not expect a Roman noble to deign always to remember the
+names of humble persons--sometimes he actually did not--and therefore
+a slave, known as the "name-caller," announces each client in turn.
+The client says, "Good morning, Sir," and Silius replies, "Good
+morning, So-and-So," or "Good morning, Sir," or simply "Good morning."
+There is a shaking of hands, or, if the patron is a gracious gentleman
+and the client is of old standing, Silius may kiss him on the cheek
+and offer some polite inquiry or remark. A very haughty person might
+merely offer his hand to be kissed and perhaps not open his mouth at
+all, even if he condescended to look at you. But these habits were
+hardly so characteristic of our times as of a somewhat later date.
+
+The reception over, the client obtains information as to the movements
+of his patron during the day. On the present occasion it appears that
+Silius himself is to proceed at once to pay his own morning homage to
+a still higher patron, His Highness Nero, who is at home on the
+Palatine Hill, and whose levee calls imperatively for the attendance
+of certain members of the aristocracy. At the palace there exists a
+roll of persons known as the "friends of Caesar"--a roll which depends
+solely on the favour of the emperor. Naturally it contains the names
+of a number of the highest senators and of the chief officers of the
+state, but a place in it is not gained simply by such positions, nor
+is it restricted to them. There may be a few knights and others on the
+list. To be removed from the roll is to be socially a marked man and a
+person to be avoided. Silius is, at least for the time being, one of
+the "friends." Nero is not yet in sufficient financial straits to
+require that Silius should be squeezed or sacrificed, nor has he
+chosen to take offence at something which a spy or informer has
+reported of him. Our friend therefore enjoys the _entree_ to the
+palace, and to the palace he goes.
+
+It is a clear fine morning, and he has plenty of time. He therefore
+perhaps elects to go on foot. Learning this, a number of his clients
+form a procession. Some are honoured by walking at his side, a few go
+in advance and so clear a way through the crowd--which is already
+moving at the top of the Sacred Way--to the point where you turn off
+on the left and ascend to the entrance to the Palatine Hill. Some of
+the clients will walk behind, where also will be a lackey or two in
+waiting. On the way Silius may perhaps meet with Manlius, another
+noble, whom he probably greets with "Good morning, brother," and a
+kiss upon the cheek. This kissing, it may be remarked, ultimately
+became an intolerable nuisance, particularly among the middle classes,
+and the epigrammatist, after complaining of the cold noses and wet
+osculations of the winter-time, pleads to have the business at least
+put off till the month of April.
+
+When it is a bad or sloppy day, Silius will decide to go in his
+litter, or Roman form of the palanquin. Being a senator he may use
+this conveyance, otherwise at this date he could not. There are also
+sedan chairs, but as yet there exists a prejudice against these as
+being somewhat effeminate. At this decision four, six, or eight tall
+fellows, slaves from Cappadocia or Germany by preference, clad in
+crimson liveries, thrust two long poles through the rings or the
+coloured leather straps which are to be found on the sides of the
+litter, and place these poles upon their shoulders. To all intents and
+purposes the litter is a couch with an arched roof above it, of the
+shape here indicated, but covered with cushions, which are often
+stuffed with down. Its woodwork is decorated with silver and ivory.
+The litter may either be carried open on all sides, or with curtains
+of coloured stuffs partially drawn, or it may be enclosed by windows
+of talc or glass. In the days when litters were in promiscuous use,
+persons who did not possess one, or perhaps the slaves to bear it,
+might hire such a vehicle from the "rank," after the modern manner of
+hiring a cab. In this receptacle Silius is carried amid the same
+procession as before.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 62.--LITTER.]
+
+He will wear nothing on his head. On a journey, or when the sun was
+particularly strong in the roofless theatre or circus, he might put on
+a broad-brimmed hat, very much like that of the modern Italian priest.
+Instead of the hat it was common, when the weather so required, either
+to draw a fold of the toga over the head or to wear a hood closely
+resembling the monkish cowl. This might be either attached to a cloak
+or made separately for the purpose. The hood was also employed when,
+particularly in the evening, the wearer had either public or private
+reasons for concealing his identity as he moved abroad, commonly
+issuing in such cases from his side door. But on an ordinary day, and
+when attending a ceremony, the Roman head is bare. So also are the
+hands, for gloves are not yet in use.
+
+On arriving at the palace--outside which there is generally standing a
+crowd of the curious or the snobs--Silius passes through the guards,
+Roman or German, at the doors, is taken in hand by the court slave or
+freedman who acts as usher, and himself goes through a process similar
+to that which his own clients have undergone. There are times, and
+just now they may be frequent, at which he will have to submit to a
+search, for fear he may be carrying a concealed weapon. If he is high
+in favour or position, he belongs to the batch of "first admittance,"
+or first _entree_. If not, he must be contented with "second." He will
+find that His Highness Nero, exacting as he may be concerning the
+costume of his callers, will not trouble to put on his own toga, as a
+more respectable emperor would have done, but will appear in anything
+he pleases, frequently a tunic or a wrapper of silk, relieved only by
+a handkerchief round the neck. Nor will his High Mightiness always
+condescend to lace his shoes. If he is in a good humour, he may bestow
+the kiss, remember your name, and call you "my very dear Silius." If
+he has been accustomed to do so, but omits the warmer greeting on this
+occasion, it may be taken as boding you no good. It is, however, very
+probable that in this year 64 he will refuse the kiss to almost every
+one of the senators, for he has already come openly to detest them. It
+will suffice if he so much as offers his hand to be saluted. Caligula,
+being a "god," had sometimes offered his foot, but only that
+crack-brained emperor had so far attempted this enormity.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 63.--READING A PROCLAMATION. (Pompeii.) The
+writing is upon a long board in front of equestrian statues.]
+
+The day happens to be one on which the emperor has nothing further to
+say and requires no advice. Silius is therefore free to go his ways.
+There is also no meeting of the Senate, no festival, chariot-race, or
+show of gladiators. He has therefore only the ordinary day before him,
+and he proceeds, as practically every other caller does, towards the
+Forum and its neighbourhood. If on his way he meets with a great
+public official--a consul or a praetor--proceeding on duty, he
+politely makes way, and, if his head chances to be covered, he
+uncovers it. He loyally recognises the claims of that toga edged with
+purple, and of those lictors walking in front with the symbolic
+bundles of rods containing the symbolic axe. Whatever he may think of
+the men, he pays all respect to their office. The Forum is now full,
+the banking and money-changing are all aglow in the Basilica Aemilia,
+the loungers are playing their games of "three men in a row," or
+perhaps their backgammon, on the pavement of the outer colonnade of
+the Basilica of Julius. Groups are reading and discussing the columns
+of the "Daily News," which are either posted up or have been purchased
+from the professional copiers. This is an official, and therefore a
+censored, publication in clear manuscript, containing proclamations,
+resolutions of the senate, bulletins of the court, results of trials,
+the births and deaths registered in the city, announcements of public
+shows and sports, striking events, such as fires, earthquakes, and
+portents, and occasional advertisements. Silius may perhaps stop and
+read; more probably his slaves regularly purchase a copy for his
+private use. Criers are meanwhile bawling to you to come and see the
+Asiatic giant, or the mermen, or the two-headed baby. The old sailor
+who has been wrecked, or pretends to have been, is walking about with
+a harrowing picture of the scene painted on a board and is soliciting
+alms. The busybody is gossiping among little knots of people and
+telling, manufacturing, or magnifying the latest scandal, or the
+latest news from the frontier, from Antioch, from the racing-stables,
+the law-courts, or the palace. Perhaps Silius has a little banking
+business to do, and he enters the Basilica to give instructions as to
+sending a draft to Athens or Alexandria in favour of some friend or
+relative there who is in want of money, or whom he has instructed to
+make artistic or other purchases. In about seven days his
+correspondent will obtain the cash through a banker at Athens, or in
+about twelve or fourteen days at Alexandria.
+
+Perhaps, however, one of his clients has asked for his help in a case
+at law, which is being tried either over the way in the Basilica of
+Julius, or round the corner to the right in the Forum of Augustus. If
+a man of study and eloquence, he may have consented to act as
+pleader--taking no fee, because he is merely performing a patron's
+duty. _Noblesse oblige_. In the year 64 a pleader who has taken up a
+cause for some one else than a dependant is allowed by law to charge a
+fee not exceeding L100, but the law says nothing, or at least can do
+no thing, as to the liberal presents which are offered him under some
+other pretext. If he is not to plead, Silius may at any rate have been
+requested to lend moral support by seating himself beside the favoured
+party and perhaps appearing as a witness to character. If he pleads in
+any complicated or technical case, it will generally be after careful
+consultation with an attorney or professional lawyer. Round the apse
+or recess in which the court sits there will stand a ring of
+interested spectators, and among them will be distributed as many as
+possible of his own dependants, who will religiously applaud his
+finely-turned periods and his witticisms. There was generally little
+chance of missing a Roman forensic witticism; its character was for
+the most part highly elaborate and its edge broad. In a later
+generation it was not rare for chance bystanders to be hired on the
+spot as _claqueurs_. The court itself consists of a large body of
+jurymen of position empanelled, not for the particular case, but for
+particular kinds of cases and for a period of time, and over these
+there presides one of the public officials annually elected for the
+judicial administration of Rome. The president sees that the
+proceedings are in accordance with the law, but the verdict is given
+entirely by the jury.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 64.--SEALED RECEIPT OF JUCUNDUS. Beside each seal
+is a signature; the writing in the hollow leaf is a summary of the
+receipt, which is itself shut between the two leaves bound with
+string.]
+
+If there is no need for Silius to attend such a court, he may find
+many other demands upon his time. Among Romans of the higher classes
+etiquette was extremely exacting. Contemporaries themselves complain
+that social "duties" or "obligations" frittered away a large
+proportion of their day, and that they were kept perpetually "busy
+doing nothing." One man or woman is making a will, and asks you to be
+one of the witnesses to the signature and sealing; another is
+betrothing a son or daughter, and invites you to be present and attest
+the ceremony; another has a son of fifteen or sixteen concerning whom
+it is decided that he has now come of age, must put on the white toga
+of a man in the place of the purple-edged toga of the boy, and be led
+into the Forum in token of his new freedom; you must not omit the
+courtesy of attending. Another desires you to go with him before the
+magistrate while he emancipates a slave. Worst of all, perhaps, is the
+man who has written a poem or declamation, and who proposes to read
+it, or to get a professional elocutionist to read it, to his
+acquaintances. He has either hired a hall or borrowed a convenient
+room from a friend, and you are kindly invited to be present. We learn
+that these amateur authors did not permit their victims to forget the
+engagement, but sent them more than one reminder. At the reading or
+recitation it was your duty to applaud frequently, to throw
+complimentary kisses, and to exclaim in Greek, "excellent," "capital,"
+"clever," "unapproachable," or "again," very much as we say "encore"
+in what we think is French, or "bravo" in Italian. The native Latin
+terms most commonly in use may perhaps be translated as "well said,"
+"perfect," "good indeed," "divine," "a shrewd hit." On one occasion a
+certain Priscus was present at the reading of a poem, and it happened
+to open with an invocation to a Priscus. No sooner had the author
+begun, "Priscus, thou bidst me tell ..." than the man of that name
+called out "Indeed I don't." This "caused laughter" and "cast a chill
+over the proceedings." Pliny apologises for the man, as being a little
+light in the head, but he is manifestly tickled all the same. It is
+scarcely a wonder that the Roman was glad to escape from all these
+formalities of "toga'd Rome" to his country seat, or to the freer life
+of Baiae.
+
+His business in the Forum accomplished, Silius returns to his house on
+the Caelian. As, on the slope of the Sacred Way, he passes the rich
+shops of the jewellers, florists, and perfumers, he may be tempted to
+make some purchase, which the attendant slaves will carry to the
+house. Arrived there, he will take his luncheon, a fairly substantial
+though by no means a heavy meal. He may perhaps be a married man. If
+nothing has yet been said about his wife, it is because in the higher
+Roman households the husband and wife owned their separate property,
+lived their own lives, and were almost equally free to spend their
+time in their own way, since marriage at this date was rather a
+contract than a union. If, however, he is a benedict, it is probable
+that at this meal the family will meet, no outside company being
+present. Silius himself reclines on a couch, the children are seated,
+and the wife may adopt either attitude. After this our friend will
+probably take a siesta, precisely as he might take it in Italy to-day.
+The practice was indeed not universal; nevertheless it was general. He
+will not go to bed, but will sleep awhile upon a couch in some quiet
+and darkened room. If he cannot sleep, or when he wakes, he may
+perhaps read or be read to. Where he will spend the afternoon till the
+bath and dinner is a matter of his own choice.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+
+SOCIAL DAY OF A ROMAN ARISTOCRAT (_continued_)--AFTERNOON AND DINNER
+
+We will suppose that Silius is specially inclined for action and
+society. The afternoon is growing chilly, and, as he has no further
+ceremonial to undergo, he will probably throw over his toga a richly
+coloured mantle--violet, amethyst, or scarlet--to be fastened on the
+shoulder with a buckle or brooch. In very cold weather, especially
+when travelling, Romans of all classes would wear a thick cloak,
+somewhat like the cape worn by a modern policeman or cab-driver, or
+perhaps more closely resembling the _poncho_ of Spanish America. This,
+which consisted of some strong and as nearly as possible waterproof
+stuff, had no opening at the sides, but was put on by passing the head
+through a hole. To-day Silius puts on the coloured mantle, and gets
+himself carried across the Forum, through the gap between the
+Capitoline and Quirinal Hills, and into the Campus Martius, somewhere
+about the modern Piazza Venezia and the entrance to the Corso. Here he
+may descend from his litter, and purchase a statuette, or a vessel of
+Corinthian bronze or silver, or an attractive table with the true
+peacock markings, or a handsome slave. While doing so, he may find
+amusement in observing a pretender who "shops" but does not buy,
+wearying the dealers by pricing and disparaging the costliest tables
+and most artistic vessels, and ending with the purchase of a penny pot
+which he carries home himself. He may then stroll along under the
+pictured and statued colonnades, perhaps offering the cold shoulder to
+various impecunious toadies who are there on the look-out for an
+invitation to dinner, perhaps succumbing to their blandishments. His
+lackeys are of course in attendance, and clients are still about him.
+In passing he is greeted by some person who is hanging officiously
+round a litter containing an elderly lady or gentleman, and whom he
+recognises as what was called an "angler"--that is to say, one whose
+business is to wheedle gifts or a legacy out of childless people of
+wealth. This was a regular profession and extremely lucrative when
+well managed.
+
+A little further, and he stops to look at the young men curvetting and
+wheeling on horseback over the riding-ground. Away in the distance
+others are swimming backwards and forwards across the Tiber. Or he
+steps into an enclosure, commonly connected with the baths, where not
+only young men, but their seniors, even of high rank, are engaged in
+various exercises. Some of them are stripped and are playing a game
+with a small hard ball, which is struck or thrown, and smartly caught
+or struck onward by right or left hand equally, from the three corners
+of a triangle. Some are playing with a larger and lighter article,
+something like a football stuffed with feathers, which seems to have
+been punched about by the fist in a way calling for considerable
+judgment and practice. Others are jumping with dumb-bells in each
+hand, or they are running races, or hurling a disk of stone, or
+wrestling. Yet others are practising all manner of sword strokes with
+a heavy wooden weapon against a dummy post, merely to exercise
+themselves keep down their flesh.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 65.--DISCUS-THROWER.]
+
+[Illustration FIG 66.--STABIAN BATHS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Probably Silius will himself take a hand in the three-cornered game,
+unless he possesses a private court at home and is intending to take
+his bath there instead of in one of the larger public or semi-public
+establishments. Whether he bathes in the baths of Agrippa at the back
+of the Pantheon, or in those of Nero, or in his own, the process will
+be much the same. The arrangements are practically uniform however
+great may be the differences of sumptuousness and spaciousness. We
+have not indeed yet reached the times of those huge and amazing
+constructions of Caracalla and Diocletian, but there is no reason to
+doubt that the existing public baths were already of much
+magnificence. Regularly we should first find a dressing-room with
+painted walls, a mosaic floor, and glass windows, and provided with
+seats, as well as with niches in the walls to hold the clothes.
+Adjoining this is a "cold" room, containing a large swimming-bath.
+Next comes a "warm" chamber, with water heated to a sufficient and
+reasonable degree, and with the general temperature raised either by
+braziers or by warm air circulating under the floor or in the walls.
+After this a "hot" room, with both a hot swimming-bath and a smaller
+marble bath of the common domestic shape--though of much larger
+size--provided with a shower, or rather with a cold jet. Lastly there
+is a domelike sweating-chamber filled with an intense dry heat. The
+public baths built by Nero were particularly notorious for their high
+temperature. After the bath the body was rubbed over with perfumed
+oil, in order to close the pores against the cold, and then was
+scraped down with the hollow sickle-shaped instrument of bronze or
+iron depicted in the illustration. The other articles there shown are
+a vessel containing the oil, and a flat dish into which to pour it for
+use. These, together with linen towels, were brought by your own
+slave.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 67.--BATHING IMPLEMENTS.]
+
+Silius is now carried home, and as it is approaching four o'clock, he
+dresses, or is dressed, for dinner. His toga and senatorial
+walking-shoes are thrown off, and he puts on light slippers or
+house-shoes, and dons what is called a "confection" of light and easy
+material--such as a kind of half-silk--and of bright and festive
+colours. Some ostentatious diners changed this dress several times
+during the course of a protracted banquet, giving the company the
+benefit of as great a variety of "confections" as is afforded by a
+modern star actress in the theatre. If the days are long and it is
+suitable weather, he may perhaps dine in the garden at the back of the
+peristyle. Otherwise in the dining-room the three couches mentioned in
+a previous chapter (FIG. 48) are arranged along three sides of a
+rectangle. Their metal and ivory work gleams brightly, and they are
+resplendent with their embroidered cushions. In the middle of the
+enclosed space shines the polished table, whether square or round. The
+sideboard is laden with costly plate; the lamps are, or soon will be,
+alight upon their tall shafts or hanging from their chains; the stand
+for the carver is awaiting its load. The dining-room steward and his
+subordinates are all in readiness.
+
+At the right time the guests arrive, endeavouring to show neither
+undue eagerness by being too early nor rudeness by being too late.
+Each brings his own footman to take off his shoes and to stand behind
+him, in case he may be needed, though not to wait at table, for this
+service belongs to the slaves of the house. After they have been
+received by the host, the "name-caller" leads them to their places,
+according to such order of precedence as Silius chooses to
+pre-arrange. The regular number of guests for the three couches will
+be nine--the number of the Muses--or three to each couch. To squeeze
+in more was regarded as bad form. If the crescent couch and the large
+round table are to be used the number may be either six or seven. The
+position of Silius himself as host will be regularly that marked H on
+the plan, while the position of honour--occupied by a consul if one be
+present--will be that marked C.
+
+Each guest throws himself as easily as possible into a reclining
+attitude, resting his left elbow on the cushion provided for the
+purpose. He has brought his own napkin, marked with a purple stripe if
+he is a senator, and this he tucks, in a manner still sufficiently
+familiar on the continent of Europe, into upper part of his attire.
+Bread is cut and ready, but there are no knives and forks, although
+there is a spoon of dessert size and also one with a smaller bowl and
+a point at the other end of the handle for the purpose of picking out
+the luscious snail or the succulent shell-fish. The dainty use of
+fingers well inured to heat was necessarily a point of Roman domestic
+training.
+
+There have been many--perhaps too many--descriptions of a Roman
+dinner, but the tendency, especially with the novelist, is to
+exaggerate grossly the average costliness and gluttony of such
+banquets. Undoubtedly there were such things as "freak" dinners almost
+as absurd as those of the inferior order of American plutocrat.
+Undoubtedly also there was often a detestable ostentation of reckless
+expenditure. But we are endeavouring to obtain a fair view of
+representative Roman practice, and must put out of our minds all such
+vagaries as those of the ceiling opening and letting down surprises,
+or of dishes composed of nightingales' tongues and flamingoes' brains.
+These were always, as a later writer calls them, "the solecisms of
+luxury." Nero himself, or rather the ministers of the vulgar pleasures
+which he regarded as those of artistic genius, devised an abundance of
+such expensive follies and surprises, but we must not permit the
+professional satirist or Stoic moralist to delude us into believing
+them typical of Roman life. Praise of the "simple life" and the simple
+past is no new thing. It is extremely doubtful whether at an ordinary
+Roman dinner-party there was any such lavish luxury as to surpass that
+of a modern aldermanic banquet. We can hardly blame the people who
+could afford it for obtaining for their tables the best of everything
+produced around the Mediterranean Sea, any more than we blame the
+modern citizen of London or New York for obtaining the choicest foods
+and dainties from a much wider world. Doubtless a Roman dinner too
+often meant over-eating and over-drinking, and doubtless neither the
+ordinary table manners nor the ordinary table conversation would
+recommend themselves to us. The same might be said of our own
+Elizabethan age. But any one intimately acquainted with Latin
+literature as a whole, and not merely with the more savoury passages
+commonly selected, will necessarily incline to the belief that
+novelistic historians have too often been taking what was exceptional,
+eccentric, and strongly disapproved by contemporaries, for the usual
+and the normal. If we read about Romans swallowing emetics after
+gorging themselves, so that they might begin eating afresh, we may
+feel both disgust and pity, but we must not imagine such a practice to
+have been a national habit.
+
+The dinner regularly consisted of three divisions: a preliminary
+course of _hors d'oeuvres_, the dinner proper, and a sort of enlarged
+dessert. It might or might not be accompanied or followed by various
+entertainments, and closed by a protracted course of wine-drinking.
+All would depend upon the tastes of the host and the nature of the
+company. The meal, it may be mentioned, begins with an invocation
+corresponding to our grace. The _hors d'oeuvres_ are taken in the
+shape of shell-fish, such as oysters and mussels, snails with piquant
+sauce, lettuce, radishes and the like, eggs, and a taste of wine
+tempered with honey.
+
+Next comes the dinner proper, commonly divided into three services,
+comprising a considerable choice of fish (particularly turbot,
+flounder, mullet, and lampreys), poultry and game (from chicken, duck,
+pigeon, and peacock, to partridges, pheasants, ortolans, and
+fieldfares), hare, joints of the ordinary meats, as well as of wild
+boar and venison, a kind of haggis, a variety of the vegetables most
+familiar to modern use, mushrooms, and truffles. There is abundant,
+and to our taste excessive, use of seasonings, not only of salt,
+vinegar, and pepper, but of oil, thyme, mint, ginger, and the like,
+The _piece de resistance_--a wild boar, or whatever it may
+be--regularly arrives as the middle of the three services. The
+substantial meal ends with a small offering to the household deities.
+After this follows the dessert, consisting of fresh and dried fruits,
+and of cakes and sweet-meats artistically composed.
+
+During the dinner a special feature is made of the artistic
+arrangement of the various viands upon the large trays or stands from
+which the guest makes his choice, for the several dishes belonging to
+one course were not brought separately to table. In full view of the
+guests the professional carver exhibits his dexterity with much
+demonstration of grace and rapidity, and well-dressed and
+neat-fingered slaves render the necessary service. Of plates and
+dishes of various shapes and purposes, silver and silver-gilt, there
+is great profusion.
+
+The conversation meanwhile depends upon the company. Sometimes it
+turns upon the chariot-races and the chances of the "Red" or "Green";
+sometimes it is social gossip and scandal. If the guests are of a
+graver cast of mind, it may be concerned with questions of art and
+literature, or even philosophy. The Roman particularly affected
+encyclopaedic information, and frequently posted himself with such
+miscellaneous matter derived from a salaried domestic philosopher or
+_savant_--commonly, of course, a Greek. But upon politics in any real
+sense conversation will either not turn at all, or else very
+cautiously, at least until some one has drunk more than is good for
+him. It is only too easy to drop some remark which may be construed
+into an offence to the emperor, and there are too many ears among the
+slaves, and perhaps too many among the guests, to permit of any risk
+in that direction. In some rather serious companies a professional
+reader or reciter entertained the diners with interesting passages of
+poetry or prose; before others there might be a performance of scenes
+from a comedy. At times vocal and instrumental music was discoursed by
+the domestic minstrels; or persons, generally women, were hired to
+play upon the harp, lyre, or double flageolet. Such performances would
+also be carried on during the carousal which often followed deep into
+the night, and to these may be added posture-dances by girls from
+Cadiz, juggling and acrobatic feats, and other forms of "variety"
+entertainment. Dicing in public, except at the chartered Saturnalian
+festival, was illegal--a fact which did not, of course, prevent it
+from being practised---but it was permitted in private gatherings like
+this, provided that ostensibly no money was staked. The dice are
+rattled in a tower-like box and are thrown upon a special board or
+tray. You may play "for love," or, as the Romans called it, "for the
+best man," or you may play for forfeits. Naturally the forfeits became
+in practice, in spite of the law, sums of money. The best possible
+throw is called "Venus," the worst possible "the dog." A sort of
+draughts or of backgammon may be preferred at more quiet times of
+social intercourse; but a game like "head or tail," called in Latin
+"heads or ships," was a game for the vulgar.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 68.--ACROBATS.]
+
+If it was decided to indulge in a prolonged carousal in form, heads
+were wreathed with garlands of roses, violets, myrtle, or ivy; lots
+were cast for an "umpire of the drinking," and he decided both how
+much wine--Falernian, Setine, or Massic--should be drunk, and in what
+degree it should be mixed with water. A large and handsome mixing-bowl
+stands in the dining-hall. From this the wine is drawn by a ladle
+holding about as much as a sherry-glass, and a certain number of such
+"glasses" are poured into each cup according to the bidding of the
+umpire. While being poured into the "mixer" the wine is passed through
+a strainer and in the hot weather the strainer would be filled with
+snow brought down from the nearest mountains and artificially
+preserved. Healths were drank in as many "glasses" as the name
+contained letters; absent ladies were toasted in a similar way; and at
+some hour or other guests asked their footmen for their shoes and
+cloaks, and departed to their homes under the escort of attendants,
+who carried the torches or lanterns and were ready to deal with
+possible footpads and garroters, if any were lurking in the unlighted
+streets for pedestrians less wary or less protected. The "Mohawks"
+also will let them alone, and perhaps their homeward way may be
+entertained by the sounds of serenaders at the door of some beautiful
+Chloe or Lydia on the Upper Sacred Way or near the Subura.
+
+It is not, however, to be supposed that every evening meal, even of a
+noble, took the form of a dinner-party. It is indeed probable that
+there were few occasions upon which, while in town, he was not either
+entertaining visitors or being himself entertained. Occasionally there
+would be an invitation to dine at Court, where perhaps eighty or a
+hundred guests of both sexes, distributed in different sets of nine or
+seven over the wide banquet-hall, would eat off gold plate, and be
+entertained from three or four o'clock till midnight with all the
+unbridled extravagance that a Petronius or some other "arbiter of
+taste" might devise for the Caesar. The snob of the period set an
+enormous value upon this distinction. The emperor could not always
+review his list of invitations, nor could he on every occasion be
+personally acquainted with every guest. It was therefore quite
+possible for his servants now and then to smuggle in a person
+ambitious of having dined at the palace. Under Caligula a rich
+provincial once paid nearly L2000 for such an "invitation." When the
+emperor found it out, he was, if anything, rather flattered; the next
+day he caused some worthless trifle to be sold to the same man for the
+same amount, and on the strength of this acquaintance invited him to
+dinner, this time pocketing the money for himself.
+
+Yet there must have been no few evenings upon which Silius preferred
+the company of an intimate friend or two, making all together the
+"number of the graces," and dined with less form and ceremony. At such
+times the meal would be of comparatively short duration, and there
+would be deeper and more intimate matter of conversation. Now and then
+the dinner would be purely domestic; and, after it, Silius would
+perhaps pass an hour or two in reading, or in listening to the slave
+who was his professional "reader." If he was himself an author, as an
+astonishing number of his contemporaries actually were, he might spend
+the time in preparing a speech, composing some non-committal epic or
+drama, jotting down memoranda for a history, or concocting an epigram
+or satire to embody his humorous fancies or to relieve his
+exasperation. If, as was often the case, he kept in the house a
+salaried Greek philosopher--in a large measure the analogue of the
+domestic chaplain of the later seventeenth century--he might enjoy his
+conversation and pick his brains; or, if a man of real earnestness of
+purpose, discuss with him the tenets of his particular philosophy,
+Stoic, Epicurean, or Eclectic. This was the nearest approach which the
+ancient Roman made to what we should call theological or religious
+argument.
+
+On other days a patron would naturally entertain a number of his
+clients at dinner, and on no occasion would he be better able to show
+how much or how little he was a gentleman in the modern sense of the
+term. It is not merely from the satirist that we learn how
+discourteous the Roman grandee might be at his own table if he chose.
+It was no uncommon thing for a patron to set before these humbler
+guests dishes or portions of dishes markedly inferior to those which
+were offered to himself and to any aristocrat whom he had placed near
+him. In this sense the client was often made to feel very distinctly
+that he was "sitting below the salt." While the mellowest Setine or
+Falernian wine was poured into the patron's own jewelled goblet of
+gold or silver or crystal, his client might be drinking from thick
+glass or earthenware the poorer stuff grown on the Sabine Hills. The
+fish presented to Silius and his "brother" noble might be a choice
+turbot, and the bird might be pheasant, while Proculus the client must
+be content with pike from the Tiber and the common barndoor fowl. The
+later satirist Juvenal presents us with inimitable pictures of the
+hungry dependants at the table of their "king," waiting "bread in
+hand" (like the sword drawn for the fray) to see what fortune would
+send them. On the other hand there were, of course, patrons who made
+no such distinctions. The younger Pliny, who was himself a gentleman
+almost in the modern sense--if we overlook a too frequent tendency to
+contemplate his own undeniable virtues--writes a letter to a young
+friend in the following terms: "I need not go into details as to how I
+came to be dining with a person with whom I am by no means intimate.
+In his own eyes he combined elegance with economy; in mine he combined
+meanness with extravagance. The dishes set before himself and a few
+others were of the choicest; those supplied to the rest were poor
+scraps. There was the same difference in his wine, which was of three
+kinds. The intention was not to offer a choice, but to prevent the
+right of refusing. One kind was for himself and us; another for his
+less important friends (for his friends are graded); another for his
+and our freedmen. My next neighbour noticed this, and asked me if I
+approved of it. I said 'No!' 'Well,' said he, 'what is your own
+practice?' 'I treat every one alike, for I invite people to a dinner,
+not to an insult, and when they share my table I let them share
+everything.' 'Your freedmen as well?' 'Yes, at such times I regard
+them as guests, not as freedmen.' At this he said, 'It costs you a
+good deal?' 'Not at all.' 'How can that be?' 'Because it is not a case
+of their drinking the same wine as I do, but of my drinking the same
+wine as they do.'" The letter is perhaps nearly half a century later
+than our chosen period, but there is no reason to think that manners
+had undergone any great change in the interval.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+
+LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AND LOWER CLASSES
+
+Silius was a noble, with a nobleman's privileges and also his
+limitations. The class next in rank below his consisted of the
+"knights," of whom something has already been said. It will be
+remembered that these men of the "narrow stripe" were the higher
+middle class, who conducted most of the greater financial enterprises
+of Rome and the provinces. While the senatorial order could govern the
+important provinces, command legions, possess large estates, and
+derive revenues from them, but could make money in other ways only
+through the more or less concealed agency of knights or their own
+freedmen, the knights were free to act as bankers, money-lenders,
+tax-farmers, and merchants or contractors in a large way, and to take
+charge of such third-rate provinces as the Caesar might think fit to
+entrust to them. Money-lending at Rome was an extremely profitable
+business. Not only was the nobleman often extravagant in his tastes,
+but when once elected to a public position he was practically
+compelled to spend money lavishly in giving shows and exhibitions of
+the kind which will be described immediately, or upon some public
+building, or otherwise. In consequence he often incurred heavy debts.
+Meanwhile the smaller traders and agriculturists, who were in
+competition with slave-labour and other false economic conditions, to
+say nothing of bad seasons, were frequently in the hands of the
+usurers. Though efforts were repeatedly made to check exorbitant rates
+of interest, they were apparently quite as ineffectual as with us. An
+almost standard charge was at the rate of one-twelfth of the loan, or
+8-1/3 per cent, but another common rate was that of one per cent per
+month. Rates both higher and lower are known to us from particular
+cases. Naturally the question depended on the security, when it did
+not depend upon the greed of the one side and the ignorance of the
+other. Much, however, of what the books call money-lending was only
+what we should consider legitimate banking. Be this as it may, the
+knights made large fortunes from the practice. They were also the
+tax-farmers, who operated in the case of those imposts which were
+still left indirect. The practice was to make an estimate of the
+amount of such a tax derivable from a province, to purchase it from
+the government at as large a margin of profit as possible, and so
+relieve the state of the trouble and cost of collecting it. For this
+purpose "companies" were formed, with what we should call a "legal
+manager" at Rome. The managers would bid at auction for the tax, pay
+the purchase-money into the treasury, and proceed to get in the tax
+through local managers and agents in the provinces concerned. It has
+already been explained that the more important taxation of the empire
+was at this date direct--a community in Gaul, Spain, Asia Minor, or
+Syria knowing what its assessment was, taking its own measures, and
+using its own native or local collectors. The knights at Rome might
+still advance sums to such communities, but they were not in this case
+tax-farmers. It is unfortunate that the word "publicans"--bracketed
+with "sinners"--is used in the New Testament translation for the local
+collectors like St. Matthew. Not only does the word convey either no
+notion or a wholly incongruous one to the ordinary reader, but it is
+apt to mislead those who know its origin. Because the financial
+companies at Rome, in purchasing the taxes, were taking up a public
+contract, they were called _publicani_. But it is not these men who
+were themselves acting as petty collectors--in any case they had
+nothing to do with the native collectors appointed by the
+communities--and it is not these who enjoyed an immediate association
+with "sinners." The fact is that the Latin word applied to the great
+tax-farming companies, who were acting for Rome, was afterwards
+transferred to even the smallest collecting agent with opportunities
+for extortion and harshness.
+
+The stratum of Roman society below the knights was extremely
+composite. The slaves, of course, are not included. They have no right
+to the Roman "toga," nor may they even wear the conical Roman cap,
+except at the Saturnalia, when everything is deliberately topsy-turvy.
+Omitting these, we may roughly divide the rest, as the Romans
+themselves divided them, into "people" and "rabble." The rabble are
+either persons without regular occupation, or _lazzaroni_, sheer
+idlers, loafers, and beggars. Doubtless many of them would execute an
+errand or carry a parcel for a small copper, otherwise they would be
+found hanging about the public squares, lounging on the steps or in
+the precincts of public buildings, such as temples, basilicas,
+porticoes, and baths, and playing at what the Italians call _morra_--a
+more clever and tricky species of "How many fingers do I hold up?"--or
+at "Heads or Tails." The poor of ancient Rome, like those of modern
+Italy, could subsist on very plain and simple food. Water, with a dash
+of wine when it could be got--and apparently at this date wine cost
+less than a penny a quart--and porridge or bread, however coarse,
+would suffice, so long as there were amusements, sunshine, and no need
+to work. Every considerable city of the empire round the Mediterranean
+would doubtless contain its proportion of such "lewd fellows of the
+baser sort," but it was naturally the imperial city that contained by
+far the most. Rome was by no means the only city in which doles of
+free corn were made and free spectacular exhibitions given. But in
+other places the distributions were occasional and depended on the
+bounty of local men of wealth or ambition, whereas at Rome the dole
+was regular, and the spectacles frequent and splendid. Rome was the
+capital, and the abode of the emperor. It claimed the privileges of
+the Mistress City, including the enjoyment of the surplus revenues.
+Policy also demanded that the rabble should be kept quiet by "bread
+and games."
+
+It is for these reasons that the names of some 200,000 citizens stood
+upon a list to receive each month an allowance of corn--apparently
+between six and seven bushels--at the expense of the imperial
+treasury. This quantity they took away and made into bread as best
+they could. In many cases doubtless they sold it to the bakers and
+others. It must be added that, apart from the free distribution, the
+imperial stores contained quantities of grain which could always be
+purchased at a low rate. Occasionally a dole of money was added; in
+one case Nero gave over L2 per man. Meanwhile there was water in
+abundance to be had for nothing, brought by the carefully kept
+aqueducts into numerous fountains conveniently placed throughout the
+city. While, however, we must recognise that the number of idlers was
+very large, we must be careful not to exaggerate. It is absurd to
+assume, as some have done, that because 200,000 citizens are receiving
+free corn there are 200,000 unemployed. The Roman emperors never
+intended to put a premium on laziness, but only to deal with poverty.
+In order to receive your dole of corn it was not necessary to show
+that you were starving, but only that you were entitled, or in other
+words, on the list. It is also a mistake to think that any chance
+arrival among the Roman _olla podrida_ could claim his bushel and a
+half of corn a week. In any case only Roman citizens could
+participate. All the poorest workers, whether actually employed or
+not, could take their corn with the rest. Nor must we forget that
+among the unemployed there were a considerable number who were, for
+one reason or another, only temporarily out of work. Nevertheless, it
+requires no study of political economy to know, nor were Roman
+statesmen blind to see, that the best way to make men cease to work is
+to show them that they can live, however shabbily, without. The really
+surprising thing is perhaps that the Roman government, with its
+immense funds and resources, stopped short where it did. An unsound
+economic system had brought about difficult conditions, with which the
+emperors and their advisers dealt as best they could.
+
+It was inevitable that among so numerous a pampered rabble, and so
+many impoverished aliens who tried their fortunes in the capital,
+there should be beggars in considerable numbers. We cannot tell
+precisely how many they were. You might find them on the bridges,
+where they marked, as it were, a "stand" for themselves and crouched
+on a mat, or at the gates, or wherever carriages must proceed slowly
+on the highroads near the city, as for instance up the slope of the
+Appian Way as it passed over the south-western spur of the Alban
+Hills. Other towns would be infested in the same manner. Nor were
+thieves and footpads wanting in the streets or highwaymen upon the
+roads, especially in the lonelier parts near the marshes between Rome
+and the Bay of Naples. The city was, indeed, liberally policed, but
+Roman streets, as we have seen, were for the most part narrow,
+crooked, and unlighted at night. As usual, it was the comparatively
+poor who suffered from the street robber; the rich, with their torches
+and retinue, could always protect themselves.
+
+After the "rabble" we will take the "people" in the sense current at
+this date. We must begin by adjusting our notions somewhat. The Romans
+made no such clear distinction as we do between trades and
+professions. To perform work for others and to receive pay for it is
+to be a hireling. Painters, sculptors, physicians, surgeons, and
+auctioneers are but more highly paid and more pleasantly engaged
+hirelings. Only so far do they differ from sign-painters, masons,
+undertakers, or criers. No doubt the theory broke down somewhat in
+practice, yet such is the theory. That which in our day constitutes a
+"liberal" profession--a previous liberal education and a high code of
+professional etiquette--can hardly be said to have existed in the case
+of corresponding professions at Rome. If the liberality departs from
+our own professional education and the etiquette is relaxed, we shall
+presumably revert to the same state of things. A surgeon was commonly
+a "sawbones," and a physician a compounder and prescriber of more or
+less empirical drugs. Their knowledge and skill were by no means
+contemptible, and their instruments and pharmacopoeia were
+surprisingly modern. Among the Greeks and Orientals their social
+standing was high, but at Rome, where they were chiefly foreigners,
+for the most part Greeks, the old aristocratic exclusiveness kept them
+in comparatively humble estimation, however large might be their fees
+in the more important cases. Something will be said later as to the
+state of science and knowledge in the Roman world. For the present it
+is sufficient to note that artist, medical man, attorney,
+schoolmaster, and clerk belong theoretically to the common "people,"
+along with butchers, bakers, carpenters, and potters.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 69.--SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+Setting aside the aristocratic and wealthy classes on the one hand,
+and the pauperised class on the other, we have lying between them the
+workers, whether native Romans or the emancipated slaves, who are now
+citizens known as "freedmen." To these we must add the rather shabby
+genteel persons whom we have already described as "clients." Among
+workers are found men and women of all the callings most familiar to
+ourselves, with one exception. They do not include domestic servants.
+Romans who could afford regular servants kept slaves. It 18 true that
+occasionally one of the poorer citizens, even a soldier on furlough,
+might perform some menial task connected with a household, such as
+hewing wood or carrying burdens; but such services were regarded as
+"servile." With this exception there is scarcely an occupation in
+which Roman citizens did not engage. In such work they often had to
+compete with slave-labour. It is probable, doubtless, that the greater
+proportion of the slave body were employed as domestic servants. But
+many others tilled the lands of the larger proprietors. Others
+laboured under the contractors who constructed the public works.
+Others were used as assistants in shops and factories. It is obvious
+that such competition reduced the field of free labour, when it did
+not close it entirely, and the free labour must have been unduly
+cheapened. But to suppose that all the Roman work, whether in town or
+country, was done by slaves is to be grossly in the wrong. Romans were
+to be found acting as ploughmen and herdsmen, workers in vineyards,
+carpenters, masons, potters, shoemakers, tanners, bakers, butchers,
+fullers, metal-workers, glass-workers, clothiers, greengrocers,
+shopkeepers of all kinds. There were Roman porters, carters, and
+wharf-labourers, as well as Roman confectioners and sausage-sellers.
+To these private occupations must be added many positions in the lower
+public or civil service. There was, for example, abundant call for
+attendants of the magistrates, criers, messengers, and clerks.
+Unfortunately our information concerning all this class is very
+inadequate. The Roman writers--historians, philosophers, rhetoricians,
+and poets--have extremely little to say about the humble persons who
+apparently did nothing to make history or thought. They are mentioned
+but incidentally, and generally without interest, if not with some
+contempt, except where a poet is choosing to glorify the simple life
+and therefore turns his gaze on the frugal peasantry, who doubtless
+did, in sober fact, retain most of the sturdy old Roman spirit. About
+the soldiers we know much, and not a little about the schoolmasters.
+The connection of the one occupation with history and of the other
+with authors will account for this fact. Something will be said of the
+army and also of the schools in their special places. Keepers of inns
+are not rarely in evidence in the literature of satire and epigram,
+and no language seems too contemptuous for their alleged dishonesty.
+But of inns enough has been said. We learn that the booksellers
+made money out of the works of which they caused their slaves to
+make copies, and which they sold in "well got up" style for four
+shillings, or, in the case of slender volumes, for as little as
+fourpence-halfpenny. But to this day we do not know how much profit an
+author drew from the bookseller, or how it was determined, or whether
+he drew any at all. It is most reasonable to suppose that he sold a
+book straight out to the publisher for what he could get. Otherwise it
+is hard to see how any check could be kept upon the sales. The only
+occupation upon which literature offers us systematic information is
+agriculture, including the pasturing of cattle and the culture of the
+vine. For the rest we derive more knowledge from the excavations of
+Pompeii than from any other source. From actual shops and their
+contents, from pictures illustrating contemporary life, and from
+inscriptions and advertisements, we are enabled to reconstruct some
+picture of commercial and industrial operations. We can see the
+fuller, the baker, the goldsmith, the wine-seller, and the
+wreath-maker at their work. We can discern something of the retail
+trade in the Forum; or we can see the auctioneer making up his
+accounts.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 70.--BAKER'S MILLS. (Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 71.--CUPIDS AS GOLDSMITHS. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 72.--GARLAND-MAKERS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 73.--BUST OF CAECILIUS JUCUNDUS.]
+
+The baker, for example, was his own miller. There are still standing
+the mills, with the upper stone--a hollow cylinder with a pinched
+waist--capable of revolving upon the under stone and letting the flour
+drop into the rim below. Into the holes in the middle of the upper or
+"donkey" stone, and across the top, were fixed wooden bars, which were
+either pushed by men or drawn by asses yoked to them. The oven is
+still in place, and, charred as they are, we are quite familiar with
+the round flat loaves shaped and divided like a large "cross" bun. The
+dough was kneaded by a vertical shaft with arms revolving in a
+receptacle, from the sides of which other arms projected inwards, so
+that there was little room for the dough to be squeezed between them.
+We have pictures of the fuller, to whom the woollen garments--the
+togas and tunics, and the mantles of the women--were regularly sent to
+be washed by treading in vats, to be beaten, stretched, and bleached
+with sulphur, and to have their naps raised with a comb or a bunch of
+thorns. The goldsmith is depicted at his furnace or his anvil. The
+garland-makers are at work fastening the blossoms or petals on a
+ribbon or a tough strip of lime-bark. Dealers in other goods are
+showing the results of their labour to customers, who carefully
+examine them by eye, touch, and smell. The tablets containing the
+receipts for sales and rents still exist as they were found in the
+house of the shrewd-looking Jucundus the auctioneer. They formally
+acknowledge the receipt of such-and-such sums realised at an auction,
+"minus commission," although unfortunately they do not happen to tell
+us how much the commission was. We see the venders of wine filling the
+jars for customers from the large wine-skin in the waggon. In
+conclusion to this subject it should be observed that all manner of
+descriptive signs were in use; and just as one may still see a
+barber's pole or a gilt boot in front of a shop, or a painted sign at
+a public-house, so one might see the representation of a goat at the
+door of a milk-vender, or of an eagle or elephant at the door of an
+inn.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 74.--PLOUGH. (Primitive and later forms.)]
+
+Meanwhile out in the country we can perceive the farm, with its hedges
+of quick-set, its stone walls, or its bank and ditch. The rather
+primitive plough--though not always so primitive as it was a
+generation or so ago in Italy--is being drawn by oxen, while, for the
+rest, there are in use nearly all the implements which were employed
+before the quite modern invention of machinery. It may be remarked at
+this point that the rotation of crops was well understood and
+regularly practised. Then there are the pasturelands, on the plains in
+the winter, but in summer on the hills, to which the herdsmen drive
+their cattle along certain drove-roads till they reach the unfenced
+domains belonging to the state. There they form a camp of huts or
+wigwams under a "head man," and surround their charges with strong
+fierce dogs, whose business it is to protect them, not only from
+thieves, but also from the wolves which were then common on the
+Apennines--where, indeed, bears also were to be met. There was no want
+of occupation in the country in the time of haymaking, of the vintage,
+or of olive-picking. Even the city unemployed could gather a bunch of
+grapes or pick an olive, just as they can with us, or just as the
+London hop-picker can take a holiday and earn a little money in Kent.
+In the vineyards, where the vines commonly trailed upon low elms and
+other trees, various vegetables grew between the rows, as they still
+do about Vesuvius; on the hills were olive-groves, which cost almost
+nothing to keep in order, and which supplied the "butter" and the
+lamp-oil of the Mediterranean world.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 75.--TOOLS ON TOMB.]
+
+We need not waste much compassion upon the life of the Roman working
+class. It is true that there was then no doctrine of the "dignity of
+labour," but that there was reasonable pride taken in a trade
+reputably maintained is seen from the frequent appearance of its tools
+upon a tombstone. In respect of the mere enjoyment of life, the
+labourers, of the Roman world were, so far as we can gather, tolerably
+happy. They had abundant holidays, mostly of religious origin; but,
+like our own, so frequently added to, and so far diverted from
+religious thoughts, that they were more marked by jollity and sport
+than by any solemnity of spirit. The workmen of a particular calling
+formed their guilds, "city companies," or clubs, in the interests of
+their trade and for mutual benefit. There was a guild of bakers, a
+guild of goldworkers, and a guild of anything and everything else.
+Each guild had its special deity--such as Vesta, the fire-goddess, for
+the bakers, and Minerva, the goddess of wool-work, for the
+fullers--and it held an annual festival in honour of such patrons,
+marching through the streets with regalia and flag. Doubtless the
+members of a guild acted in concert for the regulation of prices,
+although the Roman government took care that these clubs should be
+non-political, and would speedily suppress a strike if it seriously
+interfered with the public convenience. The ostensible excuse for a
+guild, and apparently the only one theoretically accepted by the
+imperial government, was the excuse of a common worship. It is at
+least certain that the emperors jealously watched the formation of any
+new union, and that they would promptly abolish any which appeared to
+have secret understandings and aims, or to act in contravention of the
+law. In the towns which possessed local government the municipal
+authorities were still elected by the people; and the guilds,
+especially of shopkeepers, could and did play their parts in
+determining the election of a candidate. The elections might make a
+difference to them in those ways in which modern town-councillors and
+mayors, may influence the rates, the conditions of the streets, the
+rules of traffic, and so forth. There are sixteen hundred election
+notices painted, in red and black about the walls of Pompeii, and we
+find So-and-So recommended by such-and-such a trade as being a "good
+man," or "an honest young man," or a person who will "keep an eye on
+the public purse." It is amusing to note that, in satirical parody of
+such appeals as "the fruitsellers recommend So-and-So," we find that
+"the petty thieves recommend So-and-So," or we get the opinion of "the
+sleepers one and all." Special objects connected with these and other
+associations were the provision of "widows' funds," and of proper
+burial for the members. Of the importance of the latter to the ancient
+world we shall speak when we come to a funeral and the religious ideas
+connected with it.
+
+The most difficult task in dealing with antiquity is to visualise the
+actual life as it was lived. In the life of the humbler citizens the
+remains of Pompeii lend more help than anything else to the desired
+sense of reality, but they are the remains of Pompeii, not of Rome.
+Nevertheless there are many points in which we may fairly argue from
+the little town to the larger, and it is customary to adopt this
+course.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 76.--POMPEIAN COOK-SHOP.]
+
+We may, therefore, think of the common people among these ancients as
+very much alive in their frank curiosity, their broad humour, their
+love of shows, and their keen enthusiasm for the competitions, their
+interest in petty local elections, their advertising instincts, their
+insatiable fondness for scribbling on walls and pillars, whether in
+paint or with a "style," a sort of small stiletto with which they
+commonly wrote on tablets. The ancient world becomes very near when we
+read, side by side with the election notices, a line from Virgil or
+Ovid scrawled in a moment of idleness, or a piece of abuse of a
+neighbouring and rival town--such as "bad luck to the Nucerians"--or a
+pretty sentiment, such as "no one is a gentleman who has not been in
+love," or an advertisement to the effect that there are "To let, from
+July 1, shops with their upper floors, a flat for a gentleman, and a
+house: apply to Prinus, slave of So-and-So"; or "Found wandering, a
+mare with packsaddle, apply, etc."--the latter, by the way, painted on
+a tomb.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 77.--IN A WINE-SHOP.]
+
+For places of social resort there were the baths, the colonnades, the
+semicircular public seats, the steps of public buildings, the shops,
+and the eating-houses and taverns. The middle classes, in the absence
+of the modern clubs, met to gossip at the barber's, the bookseller's,
+or the doctor's. Those of a humbler grade would often betake
+themselves to the establishments corresponding to the modern Italian
+_osterie_, where were to be obtained wine with hot or cold water and
+also cooked food. As they sat on their stools in these "greasy and
+smoky" haunts they might be compelled, says the satirist, to mix with
+"sailors, thieves, runaway slaves, and the executioner," but even men
+of higher standing were often not unwilling to seek low pleasures amid
+such surroundings, especially when, as was frequently the case, there
+was provision for secret dicing beyond the observation of the police.
+
+From literature, meanwhile, we may fill in their vivacious language,
+the courteous terms the people apply to each other, such as "you ass,
+pig, monkey, cuckoo, chump, blockhead, fungus," or, on the other side,
+"my honey, my heart, my dove, my life, my sparrowkin, my dainty
+cheese." But to go more fully into matters like these would carry us
+too far afield.
+
+We will end this topic with a last look at the ordinary free workman,
+who wears no toga, but simply a girt-up tunic, a pair of boots, and a
+conical cap, and who goes home to his plain fare of bread, porridge,
+lentil soup, goats'-milk cheese, "broad" and "French" beans, beetroot,
+leeks, salted or smoked bacon, sausages, and black-pudding, which he
+will eat off earthenware or a wooden trencher, and wash down with
+cheap but not unwholesome wine mixed with water. He has no pipe to
+smoke; he has never heard of tea, coffee, or spirits. He may have been
+told that certain remote barbarians drink beer, and he may know of a
+thing called butter, but he would not touch it so long as he can get
+olive-oil. However humble his home, he will endeavour to own a silver
+salt-cellar, and to keep it as an heirloom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+
+HOLIDAYS AND AMUSEMENTS: THEATRE, CIRCUS, AMPHITHEATRE
+
+These topics bring us naturally to the consideration of the chief
+amusements and entertainments of Rome and of those parts of the empire
+which were either fairly romanized or else contained a large number of
+resident Romans.
+
+Holidays, some of them lasting over several days, were at this date
+liberally spread throughout the year. Most of them belonged to fixed
+dates, others were festivals specially proclaimed for victories or
+other causes of rejoicing. We may estimate their average number at
+Rome itself at about a hundred. At first sight this might indicate an
+astonishing waste of time and the prevalence of enormous indolence.
+But we must remember that the Romans had no such thing as Sunday. Our
+own Sundays and the weekly half-holidays make together seventy-eight
+days, and if to these we add the holidays at Christmas, Easter, and
+other Bank and public "closings," we shall find that our annual breaks
+in the working year are not very far from the Roman total, however
+differently they may be distributed. The difference between us and
+them lies rather in the way in which the holidays were employed.
+Originally the holidays did not imply any giving of shows and games in
+the way of chariot-races, gladiatorial combats, and the like. They
+were simply festivals of deities--of Flora, the goddess of flowers,
+Ceres, the goddess of crops, Apollo the god of light and healing, and
+other divinities--honoured by sacrifices, processions, and feasts. The
+feast of Saturn, for example, was at first held for only one day.
+Later it was extended over five and then over seven days, exactly as
+our Christmas celebrations--which are a Christian adaptation of
+it--tend virtually to spread over longer and longer periods. At this
+winter festival of the Saturnalia there was an interchange of
+presents--such as confectionery, game, articles of clothing,
+writing-tablets--and a general outburst of goodwill and merriment. For
+one day the slaves were allowed to put on the freeman's cap, the "cap
+of liberty," and to pretend to be the masters. This is the source of
+the mediaeval monkish custom of permitting one annual day of
+"misrule." Meanwhile the citizen threw off the toga and clad himself
+in colours as he chose. He played at dice publicly and with impunity.
+The cry of "Hurrah for the Saturnalia!" was heard everywhere. Later it
+became customary to hold public shows on these days, and the emperors
+gave gladiatorial games and acrobatic or dramatic entertainments, at
+which there were scrambled various objects, articles of food, coins or
+tickets entitling the holder to some gift which might be valuable,
+valueless, or comical. Similarly there was a holiday on New Year's
+Day, when presents were again interchanged, regularly including a
+small piece of money "for good luck." The gifts on this day frequently
+bore the inscription "a Happy and Prosperous New Year to you."
+Presents at all times played a prominent part in Roman etiquette and
+sociality. Not only were they given at holidays but also at all
+important domestic events. Even at a dinner-party, besides actual
+articles of food to be carried home, there were frequently gifts of a
+kind either expressly adapted to the recipient, or else drawn by a
+humorous lottery. Among numerous other articles of which one might be
+the recipient in various seasons and circumstances, there are
+mentioned books, pictures, tablets of ivory, wood, or parchment,
+cushions, mufflers, hats, hoods, sponges, soap, rings, flasks,
+baskets, musical instruments, balls, pens, lamps, tooth-picks, dice,
+money-boxes, satchels, parrots, magpies, and monkeys. On the Ides of
+March the poorer classes made their way to the Campus Martius beside
+the river, built themselves arbours or wigwams of boughs, and spent
+the day and evening in riotous song and jollity.
+
+In general, however, the parts of these festivals to which the people
+looked forward with liveliest anticipation were those public
+entertainments, commonly known as "the games" or "sports," which were
+provided for them free of cost. The expense was theoretically borne by
+the state--whether from the exchequer of the emperor or from that of
+the senate and the state did indeed spend as much as six or eight
+thousand pounds upon a particular celebration. But, both in Rome
+itself and in the provinces, it was practically obligatory that the
+public officer who had charge of a given festival for the year should
+spend liberally of his own upon it. No man either at Rome or in a
+provincial city could permit himself to be elected to such a public
+position unless he was prepared to disburse a sum perhaps as large as
+the subvention given by the state. The more he gave, particularly if
+he introduced some striking or amusing addition to the ordinary shows,
+the more popular he became for the time being. In the Roman world you
+must pay for your ambitions, and this was the most approved way of
+paying. We might moralise over the enormous frivolity which could
+waste day after day thousands and thousands of pounds upon such
+transitory pleasures, instead of conferring lasting benefits in the
+way of hospitals or schools. But it is not the object of this book to
+moralise. We may feel confident that the Roman populace, if offered
+the choice, would have voted for the chariot-races or the gladiators,
+not for the college or the hospital.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 78: BOXING-GLOVES.]
+
+The entertainments provided were of several kinds, by no means equally
+popular. There were plays in the theatres; there were contests of
+running, wrestling, boxing, throwing of spears and disks, and other
+"events," corresponding to our athletic sports; there were
+chariot-races in the Circus, answering to our horse-races at Epsom or
+Newmarket; and there were spectacles in the amphitheatre, to which,
+happily, we have no modern parallel. These included huntings and
+baitings of animals, fights with wild beasts--performances far more
+dangerous than those of the Spanish bull-ring--and, above all, the
+combats of the gladiators or professional "swordsmen." So far as there
+exists a later analogue to the last it is to be found in the more
+chivalrous tourney in the lists, but the resemblance is not very
+close. Least valued among the real Romans were the athletic sports.
+For genuine enjoyment of these we must look to the Greek part of the
+empire. At Rome they appeared tame, for the mind of the Roman populace
+was naturally coarse in grain; what it delighted in was something
+sensationally acrobatic, or provocative of a rather gross laughter, or
+else involving a thrilling anticipation of danger and bloodshed. In
+taste the Romans were in fact similar to those modern spectators who
+love to see a man plunge from a lofty trapeze into a narrow tank, with
+a reasonable chance of breaking his neck. It is a strange
+contradiction with other Roman attitudes when we find that they
+objected to the Greek wrestling or running on grounds of decorum,
+because it was innocently nude. On the athletic sports, although they
+were never wanting in the "games" at Rome, we need not therefore
+dwell. It may be sufficient to show by an illustration what sort of
+notion the ancient world entertained of interesting pugilism. It is
+only fair to say that the "boxing-gloves" here given--thongs of
+leather wrapped tightly round the arm and hand, and loaded or studded
+with lead or iron--were a notion borrowed from the professional
+pugilists of Greece.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 80.--THEATRE AT ASPENDUS.]
+
+Next lowest in esteem stood the plays given on the theatrical stage.
+Mention has been made in a previous chapter of the three great
+theatres of Rome, one of them said, though somewhat incredibly, to be
+capable of holding 40,000 spectators. Their shape and arrangement have
+already been hinted at. Huge structures of a similar kind existed in
+all the great romanized towns of Italy and other provinces. One at
+Orange in France is still well preserved, and two of smaller
+dimensions--one without a roof for plays, and one roofed for musical
+performances--are among the most easily remembered of the remains
+extant at Pompeii. In the Grecian half of the empire the theatres were
+not essentially different, the chief distinguishing feature being
+that, while the Roman auditorium formed half a circle, that of the
+Greek type formed over two-thirds. In the Roman type the level
+semicircle in front of the stage, from which we derive the name
+"orchestra," was occupied by the chairs of the senators, and the
+fourteen tiers of stone seats immediately behind them by the knights;
+certain sections were also set apart for special classes, one being
+for soldiers, one for boys not yet of age, and one for women, whose
+presence was not encouraged, and who, except at the tragedies, would
+have shown more modesty by staying away. Facing the seats is a stage,
+higher than among the Greeks, but somewhat lower than it is commonly
+made in modern times; and at the back of the stage is a wall
+architecturally adorned to represent a house or "palace" front, and
+containing one central and two side doors, which served for separate
+purposes conventionally understood. Over the stage is a roof, which
+slopes backward to join the wall. The entrances to the ordinary tiers
+of seats are from openings reached by stairs from the outside arcade
+surrounding the building; those to the level "orchestra" are from
+right and left by passages under an archway, which supports a private
+box for the presiding official. The two boxes are approached from the
+stage, and when the emperor is present he is seated in the one to the
+spectators' left. Round the top of the building, inside above the
+seats, runs a covered walk, which serves as a lounge and a _foyer_.
+Over the heads of the spectators a coloured awning--dark-red or
+dark-blue by preference--may be stretched on masts or poles; when no
+awning is provided, or when it cannot be used because the wind is too
+strong, the spectator is permitted to wear a broad-brimmed hat, if he
+finds one desirable for his comfort. The whole building must be
+thought of as lined and seated with marble, gilded in parts, and
+decorated with pillars and statues.
+
+The curtain, instead of being pulled up, as with us, when the play
+begins is pulled down, falling into a groove in the stage. Where we
+should say the "curtain is up" the Romans would say exactly the
+reverse, "the curtain is lowered." For plays in which the palace-front
+was not appropriate, scenery was employed to cover it, being painted
+on canvas or on boards which could be pulled aside; other scenes were
+stretched on frames, which could be made to revolve so as to present
+various faces.
+
+The actors, however much admired for their art, and however
+influential in irregular ways, were looked upon as in a degraded
+position, and no Roman who valued social regard would adopt this line
+of life. Among the Greeks and such Orientals as were under Greek
+influence no such stigma rested upon the profession, and therefore
+many of the chief actors of the imperial city had received their
+training in this more liberal-minded part of the Roman world. The rest
+were mostly slaves or ex-slaves. If a Roman of any standing took part,
+it was either because he was a ruined man, or else because the emperor
+had capriciously ordered him to undergo this humiliation.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 81.--TRAGIC ACTOR.]
+
+
+The plays themselves were certainly of no great merit from a
+constructive or literary point of view. We hear a good deal nowadays
+of the "decline of the drama," but perhaps in no civilised country has
+it declined so far as it had descended in Rome by the year A.D. 64.
+The regular and classical drama--that is to say, literary tragedy and
+comedy--was not likely to appeal to any ordinary Roman gathering. The
+philosopher Seneca indeed wrote tragedies in imitation of the Greek,
+but they were intended for the reader and the library, and there is
+little probability that they were ever performed, or even offered to
+the stage. Tragedies were, it is true, represented, but they were
+mostly Greek, and the performance was in the Greek style. The heroic
+actors wore masks, covering not only the face but the whole head,
+which they raised considerably in height. About the body fell long and
+trailing robes of splendid material and colour, and on the feet were
+thick-soled boots which increased the height by several inches. The
+comedian played in low shoes or slippers; and "boot" and "slipper"
+were therefore terms in common vogue to distinguish the two kinds of
+theatrical entertainment. Of Pliny's two favourite country-houses on
+Lake Como one was called "Tragedy" as standing high, the other
+"Comedy" because on a lower site beside the water. The whole effect
+sought in the heroic play was the grandiose, and no attempt was made
+to reproduce the actualities of life. In the accompanying illustration
+will be seen the tragic hero as he appeared upon the Roman stage. In
+considering this somewhat amazing apparition it must be remembered
+that at Rome, as in Greece, the theatre was huge, effective
+opera-glasses were not known, and subtle changes of facial expression
+would have passed unnoticed. The make-up of the actor, like the
+painting of the scenes, was compelled to depend upon broad effects.
+
+With its love of the false heroic, of rhetorical bombast, of sumptuous
+dress, magnificent scenes, and gorgeous accessories in the way of
+"supers" and processions, the Roman tragic drama of this period must
+have borne a striking resemblance to the corresponding English pieces
+of the Restoration or age of Dryden. Perhaps the most popular part of
+the performance was the music and dancing, whether by individual
+actors or as ballets, accompanied by the flageolet, the lyre, or the
+cymbals.
+
+In comedy there was apparently no originality. As in the oldest days
+of their drama the Romans had copied the Greeks, so they copied them
+still. We may believe that the acting was often excellent; especially
+in respect of intonation and gesture, but little can be said for the
+play, whether from the point of view of literature or of morals. Since
+verbal description must necessarily be of little force, it will serve
+better to present here a few specimens of comic masks and a scene from
+comedy:
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 82.--COMIC MASKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 83.--SCENE FROM COMEDY.]
+
+Much more in demand were theatrical performances of a lower kind.
+These were farces, interludes, character-pieces, and dumb-shows known
+as "pantomimes." The farce     was a loosely constructed form of
+fooling comedy, containing much of the ready Italian improvisation or
+"gag," and regularly introducing the four stock characters which have
+lasted with little disguise for so many centuries There was an old
+"grandfather," the forerunner of the modern pantaloon; a cunning
+sharper; a garrulous glutton with a fat face (known as "Chops"); and
+an amorous Simple Simon. Sometimes types of foreigners or provincials
+were introduced, with caricatures of their dress and language, after
+the manner, and probably with the veracity, of the stage Scotchman,
+Irishman, or Frenchman. All these parts were played in masks.
+
+The interlude again was a slight piece with very little plot, and
+composed in a large measure of buffoonery, practical jokes, hitting
+and slapping, and dancing. Topical allusions and contemporary
+caricatures were freely introduced, and the whole performance, however
+coarsely amusing, was both vulgar and indecent. In these pieces no
+masks were worn and also no shoes, and the women's parts--taken in the
+other instances by men and boys--were actually played by females,
+whose posture-dances were no credit to their sex.
+
+The dumb-shows or "pantomimes" were performances in which expressive
+and elaborate gestures and movements were left to tell the whole tale.
+For this kind of piece the actors naturally required not only uncommon
+cleverness but also great suppleness of body. As usual, these
+qualities, together with the qualities of voice, the magnificent
+dress, and the carefully cultivated long hair, won for the actor
+demoralising influence over too large a number of the more
+impressionable and untrammelled Roman dames.
+
+Meanwhile the huge audience must not be conceived as sitting in quiet
+and restrained attention, but as roaring with laughter, applauding and
+stamping, shouting approval and encores, hissing and waving
+handkerchiefs. And meanwhile the _claqueurs_ will have been duly
+distributed by those interested in the success of the performance.
+Every now and then a fine rain of saffron perfume is shed over the
+audience from pipes and jets distributed round the building. It
+deserves remark also that in the theatre, as in the other places of
+amusement, the gathering frequently broke out into demonstrations of
+its feeling towards persons and politics. There was safety in numbers,
+and the applause or hissing which greeted a personage or a topical
+allusion--or a line which could be twisted into such--could hardly be
+laid to the account of any individual. A certain license was conceded
+and fully utilised at the festivals: it served as a safety-valve, and
+wise emperors apparently so regarded it. At Rome the government was
+indeed "despotism tempered by epigram," but it was no less tempered by
+these demonstrations at the games and spectacles.
+
+More worthy of imperial Rome were the exhibitions of chariot-races
+held in the immense Circus Maximus. That building, already described,
+would at this date probably hold some 200,000 persons, but it could
+never provide room enough for the excited people, who not only
+gathered in multitudes from Rome itself, but also from all the
+country, even all the empire, within reach. For weeks the chances of
+the parties have been discussed and betted upon; even the schoolboys
+have talked chariots, chariot-drivers, and horses. The fortune-tellers
+have been consulted about them; dreamers have dreamed the winners; and
+many an underhand attempt, sometimes including the hocussing of men or
+horses, has been made to corrupt the sport. The struggle is in reality
+not between chariot and chariot, but between what we should call
+stable and stable. There are four parties--the white, red, green, and
+blue--whose drivers will wear the respective colours, in which also
+the chariots were probably painted. By some means the green and blue
+have at this date contrived to stand out beyond the others, and the
+chief interest commonly centres upon these.
+
+The day of the great spectacle arrives. Outside the building and in
+the porticoes surrounding it the sellers of books of the races and of
+cushions are plying their trade along with venders of confectionery
+and perfumes. The people are streaming into the numerous entrances
+which lead by stairways to the particular blocks or tiers of seats in
+which they are entitled to sit, and for which they bear a ticket. Full
+citizens are wearing the toga, or, if the emperor has not forbidden
+the practice, the brightly coloured cloak which has been already
+described. Seats are reserved for officials, senators, knights, and
+Vestal Virgins; and on the side under the Palatine is a large
+balcony-box for the emperor and his suite. At these games women have
+no special place set apart for them; they sit in their richest land
+showiest attire among the general body of the spectators, and flirting
+and love-making are part of the order of the day. A very crude form of
+field-glass or "spy-glass" was already in use, apparently consisting
+generally of a mere hollow tube, but occasionally provided with a
+magnifying lens. Nero himself, in consequence of his short-sight, had
+a "glass" in some way contrived of emerald.
+
+At one end of the Circus is a building containing a curved line of
+stalls, equidistant from the starting-point, in which the drivers hold
+their chariots in readiness. These are all barred, and only at the
+signal will the doors be thrown open. The horses are commonly
+three-year-olds or five-year-olds. In some races there are two horses
+to the chariot, in others four. Less commonly there are three or six,
+or even a greater number. In the year 64 the number of cars running
+will be four, one for each club. How many races there are to be, and
+in what variety, will depend upon the presiding officer, who, as has
+been said, is paying a considerable portion of the expenses, and who
+will receive or lose applause according to the entertainment he
+affords to the spectators. Commonly there will be about twenty races
+run, although occasionally even that number be increased.
+
+Down the middle of the arena, though not quite in its axis, runs a low
+broad wall called the "backbone," bearing various sculptures along its
+summit and in the middle an obelisk, now standing in the Piazza del
+Popolo, which Augustus had brought from Egypt after his conquest of
+that country. On the extremities of the "backbone" are placed the
+figures of seven dolphins and seven large eggs, and just free of each
+end, on a base of their own, stand three tall cones coated with gilt,
+round which the chariots are to turn as a yacht turns round the buoy.
+Seven times will the chariots race down the arena, round the end of
+the backbone, and back again. At each lap a dolphin and an egg will be
+removed from the wall, and as the last disappears the winning driver
+makes straight on for the white line which serves as the winning-post.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 84.--PLAN OF CIRCUS.]
+
+But they have not yet started. At the fixed hour a procession starts
+from the Capitol, descends by the temple of Saturn and past the face
+of the Basilica Julia, turns along the "Tuscan Street," and enters the
+Circus under a large archway in the middle of the building which
+contains the stalls. In front go a body of musicians with blare of the
+straight Roman trumpet and the scream of the flageolets; behind these
+comes the high official who has charge of the particular festival. He
+is mounted high on a chariot, and is clothed in a toga embroidered
+with gold and a tunic figured with golden palm-branches: in his hand
+he carries an ivory sceptre, and over his head is held a crown of
+gold-leaf. Behind the chariot is collected a retinue in festal array.
+The competing chariots follow; after these are the effigies of
+deities, borne on platforms or on vehicles to which are attached
+richly caparisoned horses, mules, or elephants; in attendance upon
+them are the connected priestly bodies. As this procession passes
+round the Circus the spectators rise from their seats, roar their
+acclamations, and wave their handkerchiefs. When it has made the
+circuit, its members retire to their places, and the chariots are shut
+in their stalls. Soon the president takes his stand in his box, lifts
+a large handkerchief or napkin, and drops it. Immediately the bolts of
+the barriers are withdrawn, and the chariots dash forward towards the
+point marked A. The drivers, clothed in a close sleeveless tunic and
+wearing a skull-cap, all of their particular colour, lean forward over
+their steeds, and encourage them with whips and shouting. At their
+waists you will see the reins gathered to a girdle, at which also
+hangs a knife, in readiness to cut them away in case of accident. The
+chariot is a low and shallow vehicle of wood covered with ornament and
+as light as it can well be made, and it requires no little skill for
+the charioteer to maintain his footing while controlling his team.
+Down the straight they rush, each endeavouring to gain an advantage at
+the turn, where the left rein is pulled, and the left horse--the pick
+of the team--is brought as closely round the end of the wall as skill
+and prudence can contrive. It is chiefly, though by no means only,
+here that the accidents occur, and that the chariots lose their
+balance and collide with each other, or strike against the end of the
+wall and are over-thrown. How readily collision might happen may be
+seen from the following diagram, where the courses of two chariots, A
+and B, are indicated.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 85.--THE TURN IN THE CIRCUS.]
+
+Sometimes the teams get out of hand and general disaster may result.
+Round and round they go, the spectators yelling in their excitement
+for the blue or the green, the red or the white, and making or
+revising their bets. "Too far out!" "Well turned!" "The green wins!"
+"Well done, Hirpinus!" Shouts like these form a roar to which perhaps
+we have no modern parallel. One by one the eggs and dolphins disappear
+from the wall; the chariots are reduced in number; the four or five
+miles are completed; and an enormous shout goes up for the winner,
+whose name--of man and horse and colour--will be for days in
+everybody's mouth. For his reward he will not only obtain the honour
+of the palm-branch; he will receive presents in money, gold and silver
+wreaths, clothes, and various articles of value. Socially he may be
+but a slave or a person in base esteem; the occupation, however
+reputable in the Greek portion of the empire, is not for a free-born
+Roman; nevertheless, like the jockey who wins the Derby, he is the
+hero of the moment.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 86--CHARIOT-RACE.]
+
+Race follows race, with an interval for the midday meal. During that
+time there will be interludes of acrobatic and other performances. One
+rider, for example, will stand upright on the back of two or more
+horses, and will spring continually from one to the other while they
+are at the gallop. Most of the company will take their refreshments
+where they are. When a man of some standing was reproached by Augustus
+for this rather undignified proceeding, he replied: "That is all very
+well for you, Sire, but your place is sure to be kept." We need not
+proceed further into details concerning the "events" in the Circus. It
+may however be worth while to add that the Romans cared nothing for
+the modern form of race by jockeys on single horses.
+
+The Circus is quite a different thing from the oval amphitheatre, a
+structure for once of native Roman devising, without which no Roman
+town could consider itself complete. Though the Colosseum was not yet
+built, there already existed an amphitheatre in the Campus Martius,
+and such buildings were to be found in all considerable towns which
+contained a large Roman element. There is one, though of later date
+than Nero, still to be seen in fair preservation at Verona; the
+well-known amphitheatre at Pompeii was in full use in the year 64, and
+other cities--Capua, Puteoli, Nimes, Antioch, or Caesarea--were
+provided with the joys of the gladiatorial shows and the beast-fight.
+Only in the thoroughly Greek or thoroughly Oriental part of the empire
+was the amphitheatre absent. Where there was no fixed building of
+stone or wood, a temporary structure was erected and a company of
+gladiators would perform in the place at the expense of some local
+officer or of some wealthy citizen with social ambitions. Whatever may
+be thought of the Greeks in other respects, they felt no liking, but
+only an openly expressed repulsion, for the barbarous exhibitions of
+bloodshed in which the Roman revelled. Outside Jerusalem an
+amphitheatre was built by the romanizing Herod, but it was done to the
+horror of all orthodox Jews.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 87.--AMPHITHEATRE AT POMPEII.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--BARRACKS OF GLADIATORS (Pompeii.)]
+
+The performances were of two main kinds; fights between men and
+beasts--occasionally between two kinds of wild beast--and fights
+between men and men. There was no make-believe about these combats;
+they meant at least serious wounds, even when they did not mean death.
+Those who fought with beasts might in some cases be volunteers; in
+general they were captives or condemned criminals, and it perhaps
+hardly needs pointing out that, when St. Paul says he had "fought with
+beasts at Ephesus," he is merely speaking in metaphor adapted to the
+times. It was not intended that the criminal should escape death, but
+only that he should be able to make a fight for his life. Meanwhile
+the gladiators who fought with men and not with beasts were in the
+position of professionals, who might be slaves, condemned brigands,
+mutineers, prisoners of war, or volunteers. The picture drawn by
+Byron, although the so-called "Dying Gladiator" which inspired him is
+in reality no gladiator but a Gaulish warrior, perhaps fairly
+represents one class of combatant, but it represents only one. In the
+case of these "swordsmen" a number of successful fights might in the
+end secure freedom and something more for slave or prisoner, and a
+competence for the volunteer. It was not unnatural that men of courage
+and strength should frequently offer themselves for this service.
+Their physical training was indeed severe both in the way of exercise
+and of diet, and their personal treatment was harsh and ignominious;
+but their fame, such as it might be, was wide, and their rewards often
+solid. Contemporary writers also complain that, however brutal and
+ugly they were, there were always women ready to adore them and to
+consider them as beautiful as Adonis. At Pompeii a scribbling calls
+one of them "the sigh of the girls." Nevertheless no Roman with much
+self-respect, unless forced by a malignant emperor, would bear the
+stigma of having appeared as a gladiator, any more than in modern
+times one would choose to be known as a professional pugilist.
+Moreover these same heroes, after their glorious day in the arena,
+were carefully stripped of their showy armour, imprisoned in barracks,
+and, if disobedient or troublesome, chastised with the lash and put in
+irons or the stocks.
+
+The prelude to a beast-fight was frequently rather a "hunt," amounting
+to a demonstration of skill in dealing with wild animals which could
+hardly be said to fight, but which were difficult to capture or kill.
+Success with javelins or arrows required somewhat more skill and
+daring than the "big game" shooting of modern times. To give a greater
+air of naturalness to the performance the arena was sometimes
+temporarily planted with shrubs and trees, and diversified with
+rock-work. After the beast "hunt" came the beast "fight," which might
+be against bisons or bulls, wild boars or wolves, lions or tigers, a
+rhinoceros or an elephant. In such contests the man commonly wore no
+body-armour. He took his sword or spear, swathed his right arm and his
+legs, and went out to meet the enemy in his tunic. The beasts were
+either let loose from the end of the arena, or, as later in the
+Colosseum, they were brought up in cages from their underground dens
+by means of lifts worked by pulleys. Indirectly, it may be observed,
+the mania for this sport produced one distinctly beneficial result,
+inasmuch as the more dangerous wild beasts became almost exterminated
+from the Roman world. The number killed was enormous, hundreds of
+lions or panthers being produced and slain during the shows of a
+single festival. It may be added that on the top of the wall or
+platform surrounding the arena there was placed--at least in the
+Colosseum--a metal grating or screen, of which the top bar revolved,
+so that if a wild beast managed to spring so high and take a grip, the
+feat was of no use to him. To keep him at a further distance a trench
+surrounded the arena and separated it from the platform.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 89.--STOCKS FOR GLADIATORS. (Remains from
+Pompeii.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 90.--GLADIATORS FIGHTING.]
+
+But the great entertainment of the amphitheatre was the combats of men
+with men. After the beast-fights, which were held in the mornings, and
+amounted in estimation to a matinee, there followed the fights of the
+gladiators. Outside the building are being sold the books which
+catalogue the pairings, together with some record of the men, the name
+of their training-school, and a statement as to the weapons with which
+they will fight and as to whether they have made previous appearances.
+At the appointed time the procession enters from one end of the arena,
+and the combatants parade and salute the emperor, if he is present, or
+the presiding officer. Their weapons are examined, and there is a
+preliminary sham-fight, partly for exhibition of skill and to
+influence bets, partly for practice. The men then return to their
+places, a trumpet blows, and a pair commences the real fighting.
+Sometimes a man is in full and heavy armour from head to foot;
+sometimes he is lightly equipped with a half-shield and a spear;
+sometimes he carries only a sharp three-pronged spear and a
+casting-net, in which he endeavours to enmesh an enemy fully armed.
+Besides combats on foot, there may be fights upon horseback, or even
+in chariots of the kind then best known in Britain. To encourage the
+participants, and to lend more spirit to the scene, there is a blowing
+of horns and trumpets while the fight proceeds. All around the people
+are shouting their comments and their advice; they applaud and adjure
+and curse. "Get up to him!" "Kill him!" and the like are heard on
+every side. A man falls, not dead, but disabled, and the spectators
+shout "He has it." He holds up his finger in sign of defeat, but he
+utters no cry. Shall he be killed, or shall he not? The answer depends
+on the president or "giver" of the exhibition. He looks round, and if
+he perceives that the great majority are giving an upward flick of the
+thumb, and hears them call "Give him the steel!" the man is doomed;
+if, on the contrary, handkerchiefs are waved, his life is spared. A
+good fight or a good record may save him to fight again another day.
+The formal presentation of a wooden sword would mean that he was
+discharged for life from the necessity of further fighting. If his
+enemy's dagger must be pressed into his throat, or if he has been
+slain outright, there is a passage under the middle of the side of the
+amphitheatre through which the body will be dragged by a hook into the
+mortuary. Another combat follows between another pair--sometimes
+between two sides--and should the arena become too sodden with blood,
+it is raked over and fresh sand is scattered.
+
+It is amazing in what a cold-blooded manner all this was carried out.
+When one reads the notices written up at Pompeii, that on
+such-and-such a date there will be exhibited so many pairs of
+gladiators, that "there will be a beast-hunt," and that "awnings will
+be provided and perfume sprinkled," it is difficult at first to
+realise that it means all that it does mean. To the credit of the
+Romans--so far as they deserve any at all--let it be stated that the
+presence of women was not encouraged at these shows; that if they
+appeared at all, it must be in the upper tier, as far as possible from
+the arena; and, strangely enough, that only the six Vestals, in virtue
+of their religious claims, could be placed in any position of honour.
+These sat upon the lowest platform, in line with the special seats of
+the emperor or president and the highest officials of the state, but
+it is probably a libel for an artist to depict them as so many Maenads
+lusting for the blood of the vanquished.
+
+The only other form of public entertainment which it seems desirable
+to mention was that of a naval battle, in which the sea was either
+represented by flooding the amphitheatre, or by means of a permanent
+lake, such as that which Augustus created artificially across the
+Tiber. The proceedings bore all the appearance of reality. Ships were
+rammed, sunk, overturned, and boarded, and, so far as the men were
+concerned, the battle might be as grim and bloody as any other kind of
+gladiatorial contest.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+
+THE WOMEN: MARRIAGE, THE ROMAN MATRON, AND HER DRESS
+
+We will assume that Silius is a married man, and that his wife is a
+typical Roman dame worthy of his station in life. Her name shall be
+Marcia, or, if she possesses more than one, Marcia Sabina. Marriage
+does not confer upon her the name of her husband, and if she requires
+further identification in connection with him, she will be referred to
+as "Silius's Marcia." At an earlier date a woman owned but a single
+name, but already practical convenience and pride of descent had
+combined to make it desirable that she should bear a second, which
+might be taken from the family either of her father or of her mother.
+Thus if Silius and Marcia themselves have a daughter, she may in her
+turn perhaps be called Silia Bassa, perhaps Silia Marcia.
+
+If now we proceed to describe the position of Marcia in her conjugal
+and family relations, to speak of her way of life, and to suggest her
+probable character, it must be understood that the description would
+by no means necessarily fit every Roman matron. Women are said to be
+infinitely various, and in this respect the ancient world was
+precisely like the modern. And not only has it further to be borne in
+mind that there were several strata of Roman society, and that city
+life differed widely from country life; there was also an actual
+difference in the legal position of a wife, according to the terms
+upon which she had chosen to enter the state of wedlock. In other
+words, there were two forms of matrimony. According to the
+old-fashioned style a wife passed into the power of the husband; her
+legal position--though not, of course, her domestic standing--was the
+same as that of his daughter. Once on a time he had even possessed the
+right of putting her to death, but at our date that privilege no
+longer existed. It was enough that she should be subject to his
+authority. In that position she managed the home and family, and often
+managed him as well. How far this time-honoured style of marriage was
+still maintained among the lower classes of Roman society it is
+impossible to tell; our information is almost entirely restricted to
+the higher, or at least the wealthier, orders. It is, however,
+probable that among the artisans and labourers, where the dowry of a
+wife cannot have amounted to anything very considerable, this more
+stringent state of matrimony was the rule. Paterfamilias was the head
+and lord of the house, while materfamilias held in practice much the
+same position as she did in Anglo-Saxon households of two or three
+generations ago.
+
+Meanwhile among the upper classes, but in no way legally limited to
+them, an alternative and easier form of marriage had become
+increasingly popular. It was one which gave to both parties the
+greatest amount of freedom of which a conjugal union could reasonably
+allow. The woman did not pass into the power of the man, and, short of
+actual infidelity, she lived her own life in her own way, although
+naturally conforming to certain recognised etiquette as a partner in a
+respectable Roman _menage_. If neither affection nor moral suasion
+could preserve harmony or proper courses, either party might formally
+repudiate the contract, and, after a short interval, seek better
+fortune in some other quarter. There was, of course, a public
+sentiment to be considered; there was family influence; there was the
+characteristic Roman pride; there was often a fair measure of mutual
+esteem and even affection; and there were obvious joint interests
+which made for stability; but beyond these considerations there was
+nothing to hamper the inclination of either husband or wife. Yet it is
+a grave mistake to imagine, because there was much, and sometimes
+appalling, looseness of life under a Nero, that the race of noble and
+virtuous Roman matrons--the Cornelias and Valerias and Volumnias--was
+extinct; and it is equally a mistake to suppose that Rome no longer
+produced its honourable gentlemen filled with a sense of their
+responsibilities to family and state. The satirist should not here,
+nor elsewhere, be our chief, much less our only, guide. The England of
+Charles II is not to be judged in its entirety by the comedies of the
+time nor by the _Memoirs_ of Grammont. On this matter, however, it
+will be more convenient to touch in a later paragraph. It will be best
+to deal first with the system in vogue, and then to consider the sort
+of woman whom it produced.
+
+It cannot be denied that at this date, though marriage was regarded as
+the normal and proper condition for men and women who desired to do
+their duty by the state, and though the wise emperors did everything
+in their power to encourage it, a very large proportion of the men of
+the upper classes regarded it as a burden and a vexatious interference
+with their liberty. It was not necessarily that they had any desire to
+be vicious, nor indeed would marriage be much of a hindrance to vice;
+it was that they desired to be free. The cause of their disinclination
+was the same as it is sometimes alleged to be now--the increasing
+demands of women, their increasing unwillingness to bear the natural
+responsibilities of matrimony, their extravagant expectations, and the
+impossibility of there being two masters in one house claiming equal
+authority. But whereas we recognise that love is a possible adjuster
+of all the difficulties, it was no tradition of the Romans that
+marriage should be based on love. With them it very seldom began with
+love, or even with direct personal choice, but was in most instances
+entirely a _mariage de convenance_ and arranged for them as such. Even
+after marriage we are told by a contemporary writer that the proper
+feeling for a man to entertain for his wife is rational respect, not
+emotional affection. Experience has shown that the result was too
+often unsatisfactory.
+
+It is unfortunate that the only satires or criticisms on married life
+which have come down to us were written by men; one would like to hear
+what the women might have said, if a woman had ever been a satirist.
+There is nearly always some basis of truth in a classic satire, but
+the question is "How much?" Juvenal belongs to a later generation than
+that of Nero, but what he says is doubtless equally applicable to that
+age. It is therefore interesting to note one or two of his objections
+to contemporary woman, regarded as a wife. In the first place she is
+too interfering and even dictatorial. "What madness is it," he asks of
+the man whom he supposes himself to be addressing, "that drives you to
+marry? How can you bear with a tyrannous woman, when there are so many
+good ropes in the world, when there are high windows to throw yourself
+out of, or when there is the bridge quite handy?" "Why should you be
+made to wear the muzzle?" "Why take into your house some one who will
+perhaps shut the door in the face of an old friend whom you have known
+ever since he was a boy?" "When you displease her, she weeps, for she
+keeps tears always ready to fall, but when you try to prevent her from
+displeasing you, she tells you it was agreed that each should have
+liberty, and that she is a human being." He goes on to attack her
+faithlessness, her extravagance, her superstition, her loquacity, and
+so forth. Let us by all means discount his fierce invectives;
+nevertheless we must take them as but a heightened way of putting
+circumstances which had a real and all too frequent existence, and
+which encouraged the growing fancy for bachelordom. We shall, however,
+soon look at a very different picture of domestic relations, and it is
+only fair to assume that these also were by no means uncommon.
+
+A Roman girl with a reasonable dowry might expect to be married at any
+age from about 13 to 18. The Italian of the south, like the Greek,
+ripens early. The legal age was 12; on the other hand to be unmarried
+at 19 was to be distinctly an old maid. In the northern provinces of
+the empire maturity was less early, whereas south of the Mediterranean
+it was even earlier. The legal age for the bridegroom was that at
+which his father or guardian allowed him to put on the "toga of the
+man" and enter the Forum. Thus theoretically a Roman youth might
+become a benedict when about sixteen, and Nero was only at that age
+when he married his first wife Octavia. Generally speaking, however,
+if Marcia was as old as 16, Silius would hardly be under 26 or 27.
+
+The marriage, as has been said already, would commonly be a matter of
+arrangement between families, sometimes effected by their own members,
+sometimes by an interested friend or some other go-between. "You ask
+me," writes Pliny to Mauricus, "to look out for a husband for your
+niece. There is no need to look far, for I know a man who might seem
+to have been provided on purpose. His name is Minicius. He is
+well-connected, and comes from Brescia, which you know to be a good
+old-fashioned place retaining the simple and modest manners of the
+country. He is a man of active energy and has held high public office.
+In appearance he is a gentleman, well-built, and with a wholesome
+ruddy complexion. His father has ample means, and though perhaps your
+family is not much concerned on that point, we have to remember that a
+man's income is one of the first considerations in the eyes, not only
+of our social system, but of the law."
+
+A marriage of the full and regular type could only be contracted
+between free citizens. There were varying degrees of the morganatic
+about all others, such as marriage with a foreigner or emancipated
+slave. A non-Roman wife meant that the children were non-Roman. A man
+of the senatorial order could not marry a freedwoman, if he wished to
+have the union recognised; also no complete marriage could be
+contracted with a person labouring under degradation publicly
+inflicted by the authorities or degraded _ipso facto_ by certain
+occupations. For this reason the actress on the "variety" stage could
+not aspire to become even an acknowledged Roman wife, much less a
+member of the order which more or less corresponded to our peerage.
+Nor could a Roman marry a relative within certain prohibited degrees.
+He might not, in fact, marry any woman whom he already possessed what
+was called "the right to kiss."
+
+We are, however, dealing with two persons entirely beyond exception,
+namely Quintus Silius Bassus and Marcia Sabina. A match has been made
+between these parties, perhaps several years before the actual
+marriage can take place, and while the intended bride is a mere child
+of ten: even the future groom may be but a boy. When the go-between
+has done his or her work to the satisfaction of both families, there
+takes place a betrothal ceremony, of which the original purpose was,
+of course, to bind each party morally to carry out the contract, but
+which, by the year 64, might mean very little.
+
+In theory the Roman law required the consent of both participants; a
+father could not absolutely force son or daughter to marry a
+particular person, nor, indeed, any person at all. But on the other
+hand, according to the Roman law, neither sons nor daughters were free
+to act independently of the father's will, nor to possess independent
+property, so long as the father lived, or until he chose to
+"emancipate." It naturally follows that paternal pressure was the
+chief factor in determining a marriage, and only those men or women
+whose fathers were dead, or who had been formally freed from tutelage,
+were in a position absolutely to please themselves. We need not
+suppose either that sons were always very amenable, or that parents
+were invariably self-willed and autocratic, but it is obvious that
+marriages based on mutual attraction must have been extremely few. We
+will suppose that Silius is his own master, while Marcia has a father
+or a guardian still alive.
+
+At the betrothal ceremony the friends of both houses are in
+attendance, a regular form of words is interchanged between Silius and
+the father of Marcia, a ring is given by the man to his _fiancee_, to
+be worn on the fourth finger of her left hand, and he adds some other
+present, most probably some form of that jewellery of which the Roman
+women were and still are so extraordinarily fond. A feast naturally
+follows.
+
+You would think this performance sufficiently binding, and binding no
+doubt it was from a moral point of view, so long as there was
+reasonably good behaviour on either side, or so long as neither Silius
+nor Marcia's father was prepared wantonly to flout general opinion or
+to offend a whole connection by simply changing his mind. On the other
+hand, there was no legal compulsion whatever to carry out the
+contract. The Roman world knew nothing of actions for breach of
+promise. If either party chose to repudiate the engagement, they were
+free so to do. In that case they were said to "send back a refusal" or
+to "send a counter-notice." A family dispute, a breath of suspicion, a
+change of circumstances, and even an improved prospect might be
+sufficient excuse, or no excuse need be offered at all.
+
+In the present instance, however, no such ugly missive passes between
+the house of Silius on the Caelian Hill and that of Marcius on the
+Aventine, the wedding takes place in due course. It will not be in May
+nor in early March or June, nor on certain other dates which, for
+reasons mostly long forgotten, were regarded as inauspicious. It is a
+social ceremony, and neither state nor priest will have anything to do
+with sanctioning or blessing it. The pillars at the sides of the
+vestibules of both houses are wreathed with leaves and boughs, and the
+friends and clients of both families proceed in festal array to the
+house of the bride. If Marcia is very young she has taken her
+playthings--dolls and the like--and has dedicated them to the
+household gods as a sign that she now puts away childish things and
+devotes herself to the serious tasks of life. She has then been
+carefully dressed for the occasion. Her hair, however she may have
+worn it before or may wear it afterwards, is for to-day made up into
+six plaits or braids, which are wound into a coil on the top of her
+head. As an initial rite it is parted by means of an instrument
+resembling a spear, a survival of the time when a bride was a prize of
+war, and when her long locks were actually divided by a veritable
+spear in token of her subjection. Round this coiffure is placed a
+bridal wreath, made of flowers which she must have gathered with her
+own hands, and over her head is thrown a veil--more strictly a
+cloth--of some orange-yellow or "flame-coloured" material, which does
+not, however, like the Grecian or Oriental veil, conceal her face. On
+her feet are low yellow shoes. Meanwhile the bridegroom arrives,
+escorted by his friends, and he also wears a festal garland. As with
+all other important undertakings of Roman life, a professional seer
+will be in attendance to take care that the auspices are favourable.
+Peculiar portents, very unpropitious behaviour of nature, a very
+strange appearance in the entrails of a sacrificial victim, are omens
+which no properly constituted Roman can afford to overlook. The
+auspices being favourable--and there is reason to believe that no
+undue insistence was laid on their unpropitious aspects--the bride is
+led into the reception-hall, and the contract of marriage is signed
+and sealed. That there should be a dowry, and a considerable one, goes
+without saying. In some cases it is actually settled on the husband,
+who is to all intents and purposes purchased by it; but in most it is
+available for his use only so long as the marriage continues unbroken.
+For the rest, the wife's property is and remains her own. Her guardian
+is still her father and not her husband: her legal connection is still
+with her own family and not with his. She is a Marcia and not a Silia.
+If the marriage is dissolved, at least without sufficient demonstrable
+provocation on her part, her father will see that her dower is paid
+back. To such terms as these the parties affix their names and seals,
+and a certain number of friends add their signatures as witnesses.
+
+This done, one of the younger married women present takes the bride
+and leads her across to Silius who holds her right hand in his. Both
+repeat a prescribed formula of words, and all the company present
+exclaims "Good luck to you!" and offers such other congratulations as
+seem fit. A wedding-dinner is held, generally, but not necessarily, in
+the house of the bride, and a wedding-cake, served upon bay-leaves, is
+cut up and divided among the guests. It is now evening, and a
+procession is formed to bring Marcia home to the house of Silius. In
+front will march the torchbearers and what we should call "the band,"
+consisting in these circumstances of a number of persons playing upon
+the flageolet. Silius goes through a pretence of carrying off Marcia
+by force--another practice reminiscent of the ancient time when men
+won their brides by methods similar to those of the Australian
+aborigine with his waddy. Both groom and bride are important people,
+and along the streets there is many a decoration; many a window and
+doorway is filled with spectators; shouts, not always of the most
+discreet, are heard from all sides, and loud above all rings the
+regular _Io Talasse_--whatever that may have meant, for no man now
+knows, and almost certainly no one knew then. In the midst of the
+procession Marcia, followed by bearers of her spindle and distaff, is
+being led by two pretty boys, while a third carries a torch; Silius
+meanwhile is scattering nuts or walnuts, or _confetti_ made like them,
+to the crowd. Arrived on the Caelian, the bride is once more seized
+and lifted over the threshold; when inside the hall, Silius presents
+her with fire and water in token of her common share in the household
+and its belongings; and she offers prayers to various old-fashioned
+goddesses who are supposed to preside over the introduction to married
+life.
+
+If we have given with some particularity the orthodox proceedings of a
+fashionable wedding, it must again be remembered that not all weddings
+were fashionable, and that one or other of these details might be
+omitted as taste or circumstances required. Among the poorer folk
+there must often have been practically no ceremony at all beyond the
+"bringing home." And if there are certain items which appear to us
+trivial and meaningless, it is probably unfamiliarity which breeds our
+contempt. Perhaps a far-off generation may wonder how civilised folk
+in the twentieth century could perform absurd antics with rice and
+slippers.
+
+Marcia is now what was known as a "matron." Her position is far more
+free than it could ever have been in Greece or the Orient, more free
+indeed than it would be in any civilised country at the present time.
+The Romans had at all times placed the matron in a position of dignity
+and responsibility, and to this is now added the greatest liberty of
+action. Her husband salutes her in public as "Madam." Since he is a
+senator, and it is beginning to be the vogue to call such men "The
+Most Illustrious," she also shares that title in polite reference to
+herself. She is not confined to any particular portion of the house,
+nor, within the limits of decorum, is she excluded from masculine
+company. She is the mistress of the establishment, controlling, not
+only the female slaves, but also the males, in so far as they are
+engaged in the work of the household. She keeps the keys of the
+store-rooms. Theoretically at least she has been trained in all the
+arts of the housekeeper, and thoroughly understands domestic
+management, together with the weaving and spinning which her handmaids
+are to perform. The merits of the wife, as summed up in the epitaphs
+of the middle classes, are those of "good counsellor good manager, and
+good worker in wool." She walks or is carried abroad at her pleasure,
+attends the public games in the Circus, and goes with her husband to
+dinner-parties, where she reclines at the meal just as he does. When
+her tutelage is past she can take actions in the law-courts, or appear
+as witness or surety. Her property is at her own disposal, and she
+instructs her own agent or attorney. It is only necessary that she
+should guard the honour of her husband. So long as he trusts her he
+will not interfere. It is only a very tyrannical spouse who will
+insist that her litter or sedan-chair shall have the curtains drawn
+when in the streets. We will assume that Marcia is a lady of the true
+Roman self-respect and dignity, and that Silius and she live a life of
+reasonable harmony.
+
+But though there were many such Marcias, there were other women of a
+very different character. There is, for instance, Flavia, who has a
+perfect frenzy for "manly" sports, and practises all manner of
+athletic exercises, wrestling and fencing like any man, and perhaps
+becoming infatuated and practically running away with some brawny but
+hideous gladiator. She also indulges frankly in mixed bathing. There
+is Domitia, who is too fond Of promenading in the colonnades and
+temples, where a _cavaliere servente_, ostensibly her business
+man--though he does not look like it--may regularly be seen carrying
+her parasol. When at home, she neglects her attire and plasters her
+face with dough in order to smooth out the wrinkles, so that she may
+give to anybody but her own family the benefit of her beauty. There is
+the ruinously extravagant Pollia, whose passion for jewels and fine
+clothes runs her deeply into debt, for which, fortunately, her husband
+is not responsible. There is Canidia, who is shrewdly suspected of
+having poisoned more than one husband and who has either divorced or
+been divorced by so many that she has had eight of them in five years,
+and dates events by them instead of in the regular way by the
+consulships: "Let me see. That was in the year in which I was married
+to So-and-So." There is Asinia, whose selfishness is so great, and her
+affection so frivolous, that she will weep over a sparrow and "let her
+husband die to save her lap-dog's life." All these women are most
+likely childless, and many a noble Roman house threatens to become
+extinct.
+
+There are others, again, whose foibles are more innocent. Baebia, for
+example, is merely a victim to superstition. She is always consulting
+the astrologers, the witches, and the dream-readers; she is devoted to
+the mystic worship of the Egyptian Isis, with its secret rites of
+purification, or she is a proselyte to the pestilent notions of the
+Jews. She is too much under the influence of some squalid Oriental who
+carries his pedlar's basket, or whose business is to buy broken glass
+for sulphur matches Meanwhile Corellia is a blue-stocking, as bad as a
+_precieuse_ with a _salon_. As soon as you sit down to table she
+begins to quote Homer and Virgil and to compare their respective
+merits. She cultivates bright conversation in both Greek and Latin,
+and her tongue goes loudly and incessantly like a bell or gong. Her
+poor husband is never permitted to indulge in an expression which is
+not strictly grammatical. Worse still, she probably even writes little
+poems of her own. She may keep a tame tutor in philosophy, but she
+makes no scruple about interrupting his lesson on morals while she
+writes a little billet-doux. Pomponia is an ambitious woman, whose
+mania is to interfere in elections by bringing to bear upon the
+senators what has been called in recent times the "duchesses'"
+influence. If her husband becomes governor of a province, she will
+endeavour to be the power behind the throne, and her meddling will in
+any case prove harmful to the strict administration of justice.
+
+The remedy in such cases was divorce. In the lower orders of society a
+mild personal castigation was quite legal and probably not uncommon;
+but then in these lower orders divorce was by no means so convenient.
+Among the upper classes its frequency made it scarcely a matter of
+remark. Nothing like it has been seen until modern America. There was
+no need of an appeal to the courts or of a decree _nisi_; there was
+not even need of a specific plea, although naturally one would be
+offered in most cases. The husband or wife (or the wife's father, if
+she had one), might send a formal and witnessed notice declaring the
+marriage dissolved, or, as it was called, "breaking the marriage
+lines." The man had only to take this step and say with due
+deliberation "Take your own property"--or, as the satirist puts it,
+"pack up your traps"--"give up the keys, and begone." The woman on her
+side need only give similar notice and "take her departure." The only
+check lay in family considerations, in public opinion, which was
+extremely lenient, in financial convenience, or in the possibility of
+particularly wanton conduct being so disapproved in high quarters that
+a senator or a knight might perhaps find his name missing from the
+list of his order at the next revision.
+
+It has appeared necessary to give this darker side of the social
+picture, for, though assuredly not so lurid as might be gathered from
+the moralists, it was dark enough. For obvious reasons it is desirable
+not to elaborate. It is perhaps more profitable, as well as
+refreshing, to consider the brighter side. That there were noble women
+and good wives, and that the froth and scum and dregs of idle
+town-life did not make up the existence of the contemporary Roman
+world, may be seen from passages like the following, which are either
+quoted or condensed from a letter of Pliny concerning a lady named
+Arria. The events belong to the reign of Nero's predecessor Claudius.
+Pliny writes: "Her husband, Caecina Paetus, was ill; so also was her
+son; and it was expected that both would die. The son, an extremely
+handsome and modest youth, succumbed. His mother arranged for his
+funeral and carried it out, the husband meanwhile being kept in
+ignorance. Not only so, but every time she came into his room she
+pretended that the son was alive and better, and very often, when he
+asked how the boy was getting on, she answered, 'He has slept well,
+and shown a good appetite.' Then, when the tears which she had so long
+kept back proved too much for her, she used to leave the room and give
+herself up to grief. When at last she had dried her eyes and composed
+her countenance she returned to the room. When her husband had taken
+part in an intended revolt against Claudius, he was to be carried as a
+prisoner across the Adriatic to Rome. He was on the point of
+embarking, when Arria begged the soldiers to take her on board with
+him. 'I presume,' she said, 'you mean to allow an ex-consul a few
+attendants of some kind, to give him his food, and to put on his
+clothes and shoes. I will do all that myself.'" Her request being
+refused, "she hired a fishing-smack and followed the big vessel in
+this tiny one." When Claudius ordered the husband to put himself to
+death, Arria took a dagger, stabbed herself in the breast, drew the
+weapon out, and handed it to him with the words: "Paetus, it does not
+hurt. It is what you are about to do that hurts."
+
+Arria doubtless is a rare type of heroine. But also of the quiet
+domesticated wife we have a description from the same writer.
+Unfortunately the letter is one of the most priggish of all the rather
+self-complacent epistles written by that thoroughly respectable and
+estimable man; but that fact takes nothing from the information for
+which we are looking. Pliny is writing to his own wife's aunt. "You
+will be very glad to learn that Calpurnia is turning out worthy of her
+father, of yourself, and of her grandfather. She has admirable sense
+and is an excellent housekeeper; she is fond of me, which speaks well
+for her character. Through her affection for me she has also developed
+a taste for literature. She possesses my books and is always reading
+them; she even learns them by heart. When I am to make a speech in
+court, she is all anxiety; when I have made it, she is all joy. She
+arranges a string of messengers to let her know what effect I produce,
+what applause I win, and what result I have obtained. If I give a
+reading, she sits in the next room behind a curtain and listens
+greedily to the compliments paid to me. She even sets my verses to
+music and sings them to the harp, with no professional to teach her,
+but only love, who is the best of masters. I have therefore every
+reason to hope that our harmony will not only last but grow greater
+every day."
+
+And all this time, away in the country homestead and cottage, the good
+Marsian or Sabine mother is a veritable pattern of domestic probity
+and discipline. If she possesses handmaids, she teaches them their
+work in the kitchen or at the loom; if she possesses none, she brings
+up her big daughters in the right ways of modesty, frugality, and
+obedience to the gods; and her tall sons religiously obey her when she
+sends them out to chop the firewood in the rain and cold of the
+mountain-side.
+
+One subject of perpetual interest where women are concerned is that of
+dress and personal appearance. The Roman woman emphatically pursued
+the cult of beauty and personal adornment. Perhaps the first prayer
+which a mother offered for an expected daughter was that she should be
+beautiful. Whether she proved so or not, no pains were spared to
+correct or supplement the work of nature. It is true that fashion,
+except in the dressing of hair, underwent none of those rapid and
+astonishing changes which perplex the unsophisticated male of to-day.
+Above all, there were no hats. But all that gold and jewels,
+colours--blue, green, yellow, violet--and varied stuffs--woollen,
+linen, muslin, and silk--could do for dress was done by every typical
+woman of means; and every device for improving the complexion, the
+teeth, the hair, the height, and the figure--which, by the way, never
+sought the wasplike waist--was fully exploited. We need not go too
+closely into details. It will be enough to describe the ordinary
+attire and the ordinary methods of beautification.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 91.--TOILET SCENE. (Wall Painting.)]
+
+The conventional indoor dress consisted of, first, an inner tunic,
+short and sleeveless, with a band passing over or under the breast, so
+as to produce something resembling what is called the Empire figure;
+second, an outer tunic of linen or half-silk, less often of whole
+silk, which fell to the feet. The outer tunic was fastened on the
+shoulders with brooches; it had sleeves over the upper arm, and, in
+the case of adults but not of young girls, a flounce or furbelow at
+the bottom. A girdle produced a fold under the breast. The garment was
+commonly white, but might be bordered with coloured fringes and
+embroidery; for ladies of senatorial rank it bore the broad stripe
+worked in purple or gold. On the feet sandals were often worn, but for
+out-of-doors these were replaced by soft shoes of white, coloured or
+gilded leather, sometimes studded with pearls or other gems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 92.--WOMAN IN FULL DRESS.]
+
+When a lady left the house she threw over the indoor dress a large
+mantle or shawl, much resembling the toga of the men, except that its
+colour was apparently what she pleased. This article was passed over
+the left shoulder and under the right arm, which was left free; it
+then fell in graceful folds to the feet. Works of art show that a fold
+of the shawl was frequently laid over the top and back of the head,
+for which no less becoming covering had yet been introduced.
+
+[Illustration: FIG-93.--HAIRPINS.]
+
+The hair alone was subject to innumerable vagaries either of fashion
+or of individual taste. It might have a parting or no parting; it
+might be plaited over the head and fastened by jewelled tortoise-shell
+combs, or by pins of ivory, silver, or bronze with jewelled heads, as
+varied and ornamental as the modern hatpin; it might be carried to the
+back and rest in a knot on the neck, where it was bound with ribbons;
+it might be piled into a huge pyramid or "towers of many stories," so
+that a woman often looked tall in front and appeared quite a different
+person at the back; it might be encased in a coloured cloth or in a
+net of gold thread, for which poorer people substituted a bladder. But
+in all cases it was preferred that the hair should be wavy, and this
+was a matter which was attended to by a special _coiffeur_ kept among
+the slaves. No handmaid had a harder or more ungrateful task than the
+tiring-woman, who built up and fastened the reluctant locks while the
+mistress contemplated the effect in her bronze or silver mirror. There
+was no rule for a woman's treatment of herself in this respect.
+"Consult your mirror," is the advice of the poet Ovid, who has
+hopelessly lost all count of styles, since they were "more numerous
+than the leaves on the oak or the bees on Hybla." To full dress
+belonged a coronal or tiara, consisting of a band of gold and precious
+stones.
+
+But who shall dare to speak of the jewellery that bedecked a Roman
+matron _en grande tenue_--of the pearl and pendant earrings, the
+necklaces of pearl and diamonds, the gold snake armlets with their
+emerald eyes, the bangles and finger-rings, the brooches and buckles
+on the shoulders and down the sleeves, the gems scattered among the
+hair, the chains and chatelaines strung with all manner of glittering
+articles? Says one who lived at the time: "I have seen Lollia Paulina
+covered with emeralds and pearls gleaming all over her head, hair,
+ears, neck, and fingers to the value of over L300,000." If Rome is the
+eternal city, it is eternal in this respect at least as much as in any
+other.
+
+Who, still more bold, shall pry into her apparatus for the
+beautification of her person, examining her patch-box and the innocent
+little pots of rouge, vermilion, and white lead for the complexion,
+and of soot to rub under the eyes? Who shall scrutinise too closely
+that delicate blue which tinges her temples? Who shall dare to
+question whether that yellow hair of the most approved tone, then best
+seen in Germany, grew where you find it or came from some head across
+the Rhine? Who shall venture to ask whether that smooth skin was
+preserved by her wearing last night a mask of meal, which she washed
+off this morning with asses' milk? Petronius, indeed, says that the
+"lady takes her eyebrows out of a little box," and probably Petronius
+knew. For her artificial teeth there is an obvious and sensible
+excuse, and it is no reproach to her if, as the poet declared, "she
+puts her teeth aside at night, just as she does her silks." Probably
+she scents herself far too heavily, but there are many Roman men who
+are just as bad.
+
+She is ready now for all emergencies, and we may leave her, sitting in
+her long-backed cushioned chair, waving in one hand a fan of peacock's
+feathers or of thin wood covered with gold-leaf, and holding in the
+other a ball of amber or glass to keep her hands cool and dry.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+
+CHILDREN AND EDUCATION
+
+Unlike too many couples of the same class, Silius and Marcia are
+blessed with children. We will assume that there are two, a boy, whose
+full name shall be Publius Silius Bassus, and a girl, who is to be
+called Silia Bassa. It is perhaps to be regretted that there is not a
+third, for in that case the father would enjoy to the full certain
+privileges granted by law to parents who so far do their duty by the
+state. As it is, he will in the regular course of things receive
+preference over childless men, when it comes to candidature for a
+public office or to the allotting of a governorship. The decline in
+the birthrate had become so startling at the close of the republic
+that the first emperor, Augustus, had decided that it was necessary on
+the one side to penalise persons who remained either unmarried or
+childless, and on the other to grant fixed concessions to all who were
+the parents of three. A bachelor could not, for instance, receive a
+legacy from any one but a near relative; a married man without
+children could only receive half of such a legacy; a man with three
+children could not only enjoy his legacy in full, but could take the
+shares forfeited by any bachelor or childless legatee who figured in
+the same will. It does not appear that the law produced any great
+effect, and, to make it still more futile, the later emperors began to
+bestow what was called the "privilege of three children" on persons
+who actually had either fewer or none at all.
+
+The power of the father over the children is theoretically almost
+absolute. Even when a son is grown up and married he legally belongs
+to his father; so does all his supposed property. The same is the case
+with a daughter, unless she becomes a Vestal Virgin, or unless she
+marries according to the stricter of the two kinds of matrimony
+already described. In the older days of Rome the father could, and
+sometimes did, put his children to death if he chose. Though too free
+an exercise of so extreme an authority was no longer recognised, it
+was still quite legal to make away with an infant which was badly
+deformed. Says Seneca, in the most matter-of-fact way, "We drown our
+monstrosities." It was quite legal also to expose a child, and leave
+it either to perish or to be taken up by whosoever chose. In most such
+instances doubtless the child became the slave of the finder. Not only
+was this allowable at Rome and in the romanized part of the empire; it
+was a frequent practice throughout the Greek or Eastern portion.
+Again, a father might sell his child as a slave, particularly for
+continual disobedience. All these things the parent might legally do;
+but it is extremely difficult to discover how far they were actually
+done, inasmuch as our information in this respect hardly touches the
+lower classes, while among the upper classes there was naturally far
+less temptation to be rid of the burden of maintaining such few
+children as most families produced. On the whole it appears highly
+improbable that in the truly Roman part of the empire there was any
+considerable destruction of infant life or exposure of infants. It
+does not follow that, because the strict law does not prevent you from
+doing a thing, you will therefore do it, in the face of public
+disapproval and of all the promptings of natural affection. In their
+family relations the ancient Romans possessed at least as much natural
+feeling as is commonly shown in modern times. The fact is that in
+matters of law the Romans were eminently conservative; they left as
+much as possible to the silent working of social opinion. In the
+oldest times the patriarchal system existed in the family, and new
+Roman legislation interfered with parental power only just so far as
+experience had loudly demanded such intervention. There can have been
+no very pronounced abuse of the powers of the father, and, as the
+discipline of the family was regarded as essential to the discipline
+of the state, the law was always unwilling to weaken in any way the
+hold of such family discipline. The strictly legal authority of the
+father was therefore maintained, while its abusive exercise was
+limited by the risk, if not the certainty, that it would meet with
+both public and private censure.
+
+Nevertheless, to return to the point which called for this
+explanation, it is quite in the power of Silius to expose or sell
+little Publius or little Silia. But for a man in his position to do
+anything of the kind would bring the scorn of all Roman society about
+his ears; and, among other humiliations, almost undoubtedly his name
+would be expunged from the senatorial list. Moreover Silus, though a
+pagan, is a human being, and his affection for his children would
+certainly be no less warm than that of the average Christian man of
+to-day.
+
+Immediately after birth there is a little ceremony. The babe is
+brought and laid upon the hearth or floor before the household gods
+for the father to inspect it. As has been said already, if it is a
+monstrosity, he may order it to be made away with. Otherwise it is
+still open to him either to acknowledge the infant or to refuse to
+have anything to do with it. The act of acknowledgment consists in
+stooping down and lifting up the child from the ground. For this
+reason the expression used for acknowledging and undertaking to rear a
+child was "lifting" or "picking up." In our instance the little son
+and daughter are, of course, not only picked up, but welcomed as the
+young hopes of the proud house of Silii Bassi.
+
+On the ninth day in case of the boy, or the eighth in that of the
+girl, the child is named, after certain ceremonies of purification.
+The whole proceeding bears much resemblance to a christening, except
+that there is no calling in of the services of a church. The relations
+and friends gather in the hall, each bringing his present, and even
+the slaves make their little inexpensive offerings. The gifts are
+chiefly little trinkets of gold, silver, and ivory--rings, miniature
+hands, axes, swords, or crescents--which are to be strung across the
+baby's breast. The original purpose of all these objects was to act as
+charms against the blighting of the child by evil powers, or, more
+definitely, by the "evil eye," that malignant influence which still
+troubles so many good Italians, both ignorant and learned. With the
+same intention the father hangs upon the child's neck a certain object
+which it will carry till it comes of age. If a few years later you met
+the boy Publius in the Roman streets, you would find him wearing a
+round case or locket in gold, some two inches in diameter and
+resembling the modern cased watch. Inside is shut his protecting
+amulet. When he is sixteen and puts on the man's toga, his amulet will
+be laid aside. In the case of the little Silia it will be worn until
+she marries. Poorer folk, for whom gold is too expensive, will enclose
+the amulet in a case of leather.
+
+The naming over, the child is registered. The Romans were adepts in
+the art of utilising a religious or superstitious practice for
+purposes of state, and the development of the registration of births
+and deaths is but one instance. In older times it had been a custom,
+on the occasion of a birth, to pay a visit to the shrine of "Juno the
+Birth-Goddess," and to leave a small coin by way of offering. It is
+easy for a state to convert an already established general custom into
+a rule; and at our date this shrine of Juno had become practically a
+registration office, where a small fee was paid and the name of the
+child entered upon the rolls.
+
+We need not follow with any closeness the infancy of either boy or
+girl till the seventh year. The ancient world was very much like the
+modern. Suffice it to glance at them cutting their teeth on the teeth
+of wolves or horses, rocked in cradles decorated with gold and purple,
+or running about and calling their parents by the time-honoured
+_mamma, tata_--words, if we can call them words, which came from those
+small Roman mouths precisely as they have come from time immemorial
+from so many others. Their slave nurse, who is a Greek and talks Greek
+to them, tells them the old wives' tales and fables. They play with
+rattles, balls, and little carts, with pet birds and monkeys, and the
+girl with dolls of ivory or wax or of painted terra-cotta. They have
+swings, and ride on sticks and build houses. When bigger, the boy has
+his tops and hoops, with or without bells, and he plays marbles with
+nuts. Meanwhile attempts are made, somewhat after the kindergarten
+pattern, to teach them their alphabet by means of letters shaped in
+wood or ivory. Whether or not it is modern kindergarten method to
+tempt children to learn by offers of sugar-plums, that course was
+often adopted in the world of both Greece and Rome.
+
+On the whole the life of the child, though strictly governed, appears
+to have been pleasant enough until schooldays began. Though many
+children were taught at home by a more or less learned slave acting as
+private tutor, the great majority, at least of the boys, were sent to
+school. There was at this date no compulsory education; the state
+dictated nothing and provided nothing in connection with the matter;
+many children must have received no education at all, and many only
+the barest elements. Nevertheless the average parent realised the
+practical utility of at least reading, writing, and simple arithmetic,
+and schools of the elementary type sprang up according to the demand.
+What the higher education was like will be set forth in its place.
+
+The ideal education, as understood in the older days of Rome, was a
+training which should fit a man for his duty to the gods, the state,
+and the family. It was above all things a moral and practical
+training. A man has certain domestic, political, and religious
+functions to perform: let him learn how best to perform these. Under
+this system there was little room for accomplishments or for purely
+intellectual pursuits. Little by little, however, such liberal
+elements, artistic and philosophical, struggled into the sphere of
+Roman education, but never to the extent or with the intellectual
+effect which belonged to them in Greece. Even by A.D. 64 the education
+of a Roman boy was very narrow, and, in the direction in which it
+sought some liberality, it often went sadly astray. The clearest
+course will be for us to take young Publius Silius through a course
+typical of the time. We will assume that he does not receive all his
+lessons at home, but that, through an old-fashioned preference on the
+part of his father, he goes to a school, along with boys who are
+mostly but not necessarily of the same social standing with himself.
+
+We have unfortunately almost no information as to any social grading
+of schools, or as to their size. All we know is that some schools were
+taught entirely by one man, while others employed an undermaster or
+several. In some cases the school is entirely a private enterprise,
+the master charging a monthly fee--amounting in the elementary schools
+to a penny or twopence a week--together with small money presents on
+certain festivals. The more select establishments naturally charged
+more. Probably most of the schools in Rome and the larger towns were
+upon this private footing. In other instances a number of parents in a
+smaller town would club together and subscribe sufficient money to
+provide the salary of a schoolmaster for their children. In yet others
+some benefactor, generally a wealthy local magnate, had given or
+bequeathed an endowment fund, from which a school was either wholly or
+partially financed. At a rather later date Pliny writes a letter, of
+which the following is a passage, interesting in this connection.
+"When I was lately in my native part of the country (that is to say,
+at Como), a boy--the son of a fellow townsman--came to pay his
+respects. I said, 'Are you at school?' 'Yes,' he replied. 'Where?' 'At
+Milan.' 'And why not here?' At this his father said, 'Because we have
+no teachers here.' 'And why have you none? It is of the greatest
+importance to any of you who are fathers--and it happened that several
+fathers were listening--that your children should be taught here
+rather than anywhere else.... How small a thing it is to put money
+together and engage teachers and to apply to their salary the amount
+which you now spend on lodgings, travelling expenses, and the articles
+that have always to be purchased when one is away from home.'"
+Whereupon he proceeds himself to offer to contribute one-third of
+whatever sum the parents collect. He does not believe in giving the
+whole, because experience has taught him that endowments of this kind
+are commonly misused. The parents must themselves retain an interest
+in preventing corruption; and this will be the case so long as they
+are themselves paying their share. In this instance we are, however,
+to think rather of a high school or school of rhetoric than of the
+primary school. Como would not lack a primary school, nor would
+parents send very young children to lodge in Milan. There is no trace
+of real boarding-schools.
+
+To whatever school Publius goes he will be accompanied by a sedate
+slave, generally elderly and also generally a Greek, whom you may call
+his "guardian," or his "governor," or his "mentor," according to your
+fancy. The function of this worthy is to look after the morals and
+behaviour of the boy when in the streets, and also to supervise his
+manners when at home. Publius will not be free of this incubus until
+the day when he puts on the adult's toga; and he must be prepared to
+accept, at least in his younger days, not only scolding, but also
+corporal punishment from him. In poorer families the mother corrected
+her children with a slipper. The "guardian" of Publius is nevertheless
+a slave, and will carry the young master's books and school requisites
+for him, while the sons of poorer parents are marching along, freer
+and happier, with their tablets and writing-case slung over their left
+arm. When, in the New Testament, we are told that the "Law hath been
+our schoolmaster unto Christ," the word employed does not at all mean
+schoolmaster. It means this slave who keeps the pupil under salutary
+discipline until he reaches the schoolmaster, and who superintends his
+conduct until he is of age.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 94.--WRITING MATERIALS.]
+
+School age regularly begins at seven for the elementary stage, which
+commonly includes writing, reading, and arithmetic. The first lessons
+in writing are done upon wax tablets, which correspond to our slate.
+For school purposes they are flat pieces of wood, with a rim, their
+surface being covered with a thin layer of wax. The pupil takes a
+"style," or metal stiletto, pointed at one end and flat at the other;
+with the point he scratches, or "ploughs" as the Romans called it, the
+writing in the wax; with the other end he flattens the wax and so
+makes the necessary erasures when he desires to correct a word or to
+"clean his slate."
+
+His first efforts will probably consist either of tracing letters
+through a stencil, or of forming them from a copy while the master
+guides his hand. He will next write a series of words--the good old
+copybook method with the good old copybook maxims. It is only when he
+has gained some proficiency that he will be allowed to write upon
+paper or parchment with ink and with a split reed for pen. In such a
+case the backs of useless documents come in handy, and particularly
+serviceable are the rolls containing the poems of the numerous authors
+whom no one wants to read, but whose books thus find one of their
+ultimate uses, another being to wrap up spices or salt fish. His
+arithmetic will be merely such as will enable him to make up accounts.
+The Roman numerals did not lend themselves easily to the method now
+adopted of calculating on paper, and the Roman pupil therefore
+reckoned partly with his fingers, partly by means of counters laid or
+strung upon a board. At this he became remarkably proficient, and at
+mental arithmetic there is reason to believe that he could beat the
+modern boy hollow. Along with the reckoning he would also necessarily
+learn his tables of weights and measures. "Two-and-a-half feet one
+step; two steps one pace; a thousand paces one mile." So he said or
+sang, and a mile--_mille_, "a thousand" paces--remains our own word to
+this day, even though it has come to signify an eccentric 1760 yards.
+
+That Roman boys bore no love to school or schoolmaster is little
+wonder. Perhaps Publius may be fortunate; but if his schoolmaster is
+of the ordinary type he will be an irascible loud-voiced person, who
+bawls and scolds and thrashes. It will be a common thing to find, as
+Seneca puts it, a man "in a violent passion teaching you that to be in
+a passion is wrong." The doctrine went that "he who is not flayed is
+not educated." The methods of the military centurion may have had
+something to do with creating this behaviour, but there is perhaps
+another excuse to be found for the Roman pedagogue. His school, if of
+the inferior kind, is like any other shop, a place open to the street,
+whether on the ground floor or in the balcony-like _entresol_. There
+is no cloistered privacy about his instruction. To such a place at a
+very early hour come the boys "creeping unwillingly." When the days
+are short the school opens before daybreak, and the smoky lamps and
+lanterns create an evil smell and atmosphere in the raw and chilly
+morning. That is no time to be amiable towards inattention or
+stupidity. There were many other circumstances to try the temper, and
+the Roman temper, except among the highest classes, was, as it is,
+quick and loud. No real boy who had been a Roman school but knew what
+it was to have ears pinched and to take his punishment on his hands
+with the cane or the tawse. Many had been "horsed," in the way
+depicted in the illustration.
+
+There is also no cause for surprise that boys often shammed illness
+and did little things to their eyes so that mother or father might
+keep them from their books for a while. There were of course academies
+of a better class than these schools open to the street, and probably
+Publius Silius would be taken to one where his "guardian" waits with
+others in an antechamber, while he is himself being taught in a room
+where the walls are pictured with historical or mythological scenes,
+or with charts or maps, and where there stand busts of eminent
+writers. The boys are seated on benches or forms, and the master on a
+high-backed chair. When the pupil is called upon to repeat a lesson,
+he stands up before the teacher; when the whole class is to deliver a
+dictated passage it rises and delivers it all together, in orthodox
+sing-song style.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 95.--HORSING A BOY. (After Saechs.)]
+
+Somewhere towards eleven o'clock there is an interval, and the boys go
+home for lunch or buy something from the seller of rissoles or
+sausages in the street. In the afternoon--when the schoolmaster has
+taken his own luncheon and probably his short siesta--they return to
+school, putting in altogether about six hours of lessons in the day.
+
+That boys and girls went to the same elementary schools is not
+absolutely provable from any explicit statement to that effect; but
+there are one or two passages in literature which point almost
+certainly to that conclusion. It is at least undeniable that girls,
+and even big girls, went to school, and that in those schools they
+were taught by men. One schoolmaster is addressed by the poet as
+"detestable to both boys and girls." We have seen that in maturity the
+Roman woman lived in no sort of seclusion; and it is reasonable to
+suppose that as a girl she was treated in much the same way as girls
+in a mixed school of to-day. Nevertheless it is also almost certain
+that such mixed schools were only those of the common people, or of
+the lower middle classes: the daughters of the better-circumstanced
+would be instructed at home by private tutors. There they would learn
+to read and write both Greek and their native Latin, to play upon the
+lyre or harp, to dance--Roman dancing being more a matter of gesture
+with hands and body than of movement with the feet--and to carry
+themselves with the bearing fit for a Roman lady. To teach the
+household duties was the function of the mother.
+
+At Rome, as with us, there was, first, a primary education, pure and
+simple, given in the schools of those who would nowadays be registered
+as teachers of primary subjects. Next there was what we should call a
+secondary or high-school education, given by a "grammar master," in
+which the education was almost wholly literary. The same school might
+doubtless employ a special arithmetic master, and also a teacher of
+music, but mainly the business of such an establishment was
+theoretically to prepare the boy for a proper and effective use of
+language, whether for social or for public purposes. In the Rome of
+the republic a man of affairs or ambitions required above all things
+to be an accomplished speaker, and this tradition had not weakened
+under the empire. Moreover, for the training of the intellectual
+faculties as such, the Romans had no better resource than grammatical
+and literary study. Science was purely empirical, mathematics was
+mainly arithmetic and mensuration, and there was no room in these
+subjects for that exercise of discernment and acumen as well as of
+taste which was provided by well-directed study of the best authors.
+In the secondary education, therefore, the chief object sought was
+"the knowledge of right expression," and the acquirement of "correct,
+clear, and elegant diction." This was to be achieved by the most
+painstaking study of both the Greek and the Latin poets; and it is
+worth noting that the Romans had the good sense to begin with the
+best. Every boy must know his Homer, and steep himself in the easy
+style and sound sentiments of Menander; he must also know his Virgil
+and his Terence. He must know how to read a passage with proper
+intonation and appreciation of the sense, and he must learn large
+quantities of such poetry by heart. In the early stages the master's
+part is first to read aloud a certain passage what he thinks to be the
+right articulation and expression; he then explains the meaning or the
+allusions, and does whatever else he considers necessary for the
+understanding and appreciation of the piece. It is then the pupil's
+turn to stand up and repeat the passage so as to show that he has
+caught the true sense and can impart the true intonation. No doubt
+there were bad and indifferent teachers as well as good ones, and
+doubtless there was much mere parroting on the part of the learner. It
+was then, as it is now, chiefly a question of the sort of teacher. It
+is probable that in many schools the action of the mental faculty as
+well as of the voice became pure sing-song. Julius Caesar once made
+the comment: "If you are singing, you are singing badly; if you are
+reading, you are singing."
+
+The more advanced stage of this higher education was that of the
+"school of oratory." The pupil has already acquired a correct
+grammatical style, and a reasonable amount of literary information; he
+now trains himself for the actual practice of the law-courts or the
+deliberative assembly. He is to learn how to argue a case; how to
+arrange his matter; by what devices of language to make it most
+effective; and how to deliver it. At a later date there were to be
+public professorships of this art, endowed by the emperor, but there
+are none of these at Rome itself under Nero. The "professor of
+oratory" receives his fee of some L20 or so per annum from each pupil.
+At this stage the study of the great prose-writers is substituted for
+that of the poets; themes are set for essays to be written upon them;
+and those essays will then be delivered as speeches. Sometimes a
+familiar statement or maxim from a poet is put forward to be refuted
+or supported, or for you to argue first against it and then for it. Or
+some historical situation may be proposed, and the student asked to
+set forth the wisest or most just course in the circumstances.
+"Hannibal has beaten the Romans at Cannae: shall he or shall he not
+proceed directly to attack Rome? Examine the question as if you were
+Hannibal." Much of this appears theoretically sound enough.
+Unfortunately the subjects were generally either hopelessly threadbare
+or possessed no bearing upon real life. "We are learning," says
+Seneca, "not for life, but for the school." The only novelty which
+could be given to the treatment of old abstract themes or puerile
+questions was novelty of phrase, and the one great mark of the
+literature of this time is therefore the pursuit of the striking
+expression, of something epigrammatic or glittering. A speech was
+judged by its purple patches of rhetoric, not by the soundness of its
+thoughts. Prizes, apparently of books, were offered in these Roman
+schools, and a prize would go to the youth who could tell you in the
+most remarkable string of brilliant language what was your duty
+towards your country, or what were the evils of anger, or for what
+reasons it is right for a father to disown his son. Meanwhile parents
+would look in at the school from time to time and listen to the boys
+declaiming, and it is easy to see with the mind's eye the father
+listening, like the proud American parent at a "graduation" day, to
+his gifted offspring "speaking a piece."
+
+Education commonly stopped at this point. If the rhetorical training
+is taken early, the boy is now about sixteen; but there was nothing to
+prevent the oratorical course from following instead of preceding the
+"coming of age." In this case we will suppose that it has preceded.
+The youth has now received a good literary training and considerable
+practice in the art of speech-making. He knows enough of elementary
+arithmetic to keep accounts, or, in special cases--where he is
+intended for certain professional careers--he may understand some
+geometry and the principles of mechanics and engineering. He may or
+may not have learned to sing, and enough of music to play creditably
+on lyre or harp. Unlike the young Greek, he will not necessarily have
+been made to recognise that gymnastic training is an essential part of
+education. He may indulge in such exercises by way of pastime or for
+health; he may, and generally will, have been taught athletics; but he
+does not acknowledge that they have any practical bearing upon his
+aptitude for either warfare or civil life.
+
+It is hard to gauge the intellect of the average Roman youth of
+sixteen; all we know is that, while the best of literature, science,
+art, and philosophy was left to be undertaken by Greeks, the Romans
+seized upon whatever learning had an appreciable practical bearing,
+and that, as men capable of administering and directing, they left
+their intellectual and artistic superiors far behind.
+
+Up till this time the boy has worn a toga with a purple edge, and also
+the gold amulet-case round his neck. The time has, however, come for
+him to be regarded as a man--not indeed free of his father's
+authority, but free to walk about without a bear-leader, to marry, if
+his father so desires, or to decide upon a career. Accordingly, on the
+17th of March by preference, he will put away the outward insignia of
+boyhood, dedicate his amulet to the household gods, and will don the
+all-white toga of a man. The relatives, friends, and clients will
+gather at the house, and, after offering their congratulations, will
+escort the youth to the Capitol, and thence down to the Forum, where
+his appearance in this manner will be accompanied by introductions and
+a recognition on all sides that he is now "of age." At the Record
+Office the name of "Publius Silius Bassus, son of Quintus," is
+recorded with due fulness of description, and he ranks henceforth as
+one of the citizens of Rome.
+
+After this little ceremony of coming of age, a number of the young men
+apparently did nothing. The sons of poorer parents have long ago gone
+to their work in their various trades. Those of the more well-to-do
+may--and, if they are afterwards to seek public office, they must--now
+undertake military service amid the conditions which are to be
+described in the next chapter. Others, being of a more studious turn,
+will proceed to complete their education by going abroad to one or
+other of the great seats of philosophic study which corresponded to
+our universities. Philosophy meant to the Roman a guide to the
+direction of life. Roman religion, upon which we shall hereafter dwell
+in some detail, consisted of a number of forms and ceremonies, or acts
+of recognition paid to the deities; it embodied certain traditional
+principles of duty to family and state; but otherwise it exercised
+very little influence on the conduct of life. So far as such guidance
+was supplied at all, it was by moral philosophy, the treatment of
+which, as it was understood at this date, is bound up with that of
+religion and must wait till we reach that subject. It is true that
+there were professional teachers of philosophy at Rome itself, but the
+metropolis was not their chief resort, any more than, until recently,
+London would have been recognised as a seat of university learning of
+the front rank. It is also true that many great houses maintained a
+domestic philosopher, who not only helped in moulding the tone of the
+master of the house and afforded him intellectual company, but might
+act as private philosophic tutor to his son. But for the most part
+this highest instruction was rather to be sought in cities specially
+noted for their assemblage of professors and lecturers. Chief among
+these figured Athens, Rhodes, Tarsus, Antioch, Alexandria, and
+Marseilles. At Naples also might be found a large number of men of
+learning, but they were chiefly persons who had retired from
+professional life, and who chose that city because of its pleasant
+climate and surroundings, and because they could there enjoy each
+other's society. In some of the cities named--particularly Athens and
+Alexandria--there were endowed professorships (though not endowed by
+the Roman emperors) of which the benefit was enjoyed, not only by the
+local student but also by those from other parts of the Roman world
+who chose to resort to such established teachers. This does not mean
+that such students paid no fee, nor that there was any lack of
+lecturers unendowed. The student was free to take his choice. Where
+there was endowment, as at Athens, there was control by the local
+authorities over the behaviour of students and also of their teachers;
+but it is evident that a professor's audience was by no means always a
+very well-ruled or docile body. As in the German universities, the
+visiting students were men, and some of them fairly advanced in years,
+and, also as in Germany, they followed their own tastes in study and
+changed from university to university at will. They, as it were,
+"sampled" the professors and made their own election. The teacher not
+only lectured to them, but also lectured them; while, on their side,
+they were entitled to catechise, and in a sense "badger," the
+lecturer, to propound difficulties, and to make more or less
+pronounced exhibition of their sentiments.
+
+In the philosophic lecture-room the student, possessing his share of
+the vivacity and excitability of the south, would stamp, spring from
+his seat, shout and applaud, calling out in Greek "splendid!"
+"inimitable!" "capital!" "prettily said!" and so forth. Plutarch
+writes a little essay on the proper manner of behaving in the
+lecture-rooms, and he tells us: "You should sit in a proper manner and
+not lounge; you should keep your eyes on the speaker and show a lively
+interest; maintain a composed countenance and show no annoyance or
+irritation, nor look as if you were thinking of other things." Such an
+attitude was the ideal and orthodox; but he tells us also that there
+were some who "scowled; their eyes wandered; they sprawled, crossed
+their legs, nodded and whispered to their neighbour, smiled, yawned
+sleepily, and let their heads droop." This was not necessarily because
+the lecturer was dull, but because he might be giving lessons which
+were unwelcome to some among his audience. The cap fitted them too
+well, as it sometimes does when offered by a modern preacher. But,
+says the same Plutarch, if you did not like these direct and
+rough-tongued monitors, you could find other professors, _poseurs_,
+who were all suavity; gentlemen whose philosophical stock-in-trade was
+grey hair, a pleasant voice and delivery, graceful language, and much
+self-appreciation. These were the Reverend Charles Honeymans of the
+period, and their following was like unto the following of that
+popular pulpiteer.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 96--Papyri and Tabulae. (From Dyer's Pompeii.)]
+
+Since mention has been made more than once of reading and libraries,
+it is well to realise the form commonly taken by books. We must not
+think of the modern bound volume standing on its shelf or open in the
+hand. At our date any books made up in the form of leaves--or what the
+Romans called "tablet" form--consisted only of some four or six pages.
+The regular shape for a book was that of a roll, or, if the work was a
+large one, it might consist of several such "rolls" or "sections." The
+material was either paper--in its original sense of papyrus--or the
+skin known as parchment. Papyrus was naturally the cheaper and the
+less durable. Prepared sheets of a given length and breadth--the
+"pages"--were written upon and then pasted to each other side by side
+until a long stretch was formed. The last sheet was then attached to a
+thin roller, commonly of wood, answering to that used in a modern
+wall-map. Round a roll of any pretensions there was wrapped a cover of
+coloured parchment, red, yellow, or purple. The ends of the roll were
+rubbed smooth with pumice-stone and dyed, and a tag or label was
+affixed to bear the name of the author and the work. A number of such
+rolls, related in subject or authorship, were placed on end in a round
+box, with the labels upwards ready for inspection. In the library such
+a box would stand in a pigeon-hole or section of shelf, from which it
+might be carried where required. Sometimes the rolls themselves lay in
+a heap horizontally in a pigeon-hole without a box, but this
+manifestly a less convenient practice. To keep the bookworms cedar-oil
+was rubbed upon them, giving them a yellowish tinge. The reader,
+taking the body of the roll in one hand, begins to unwind the long
+strip with the other. After reading the first column or page thus
+exposed, he mechanically re-winds that portion, while the width of
+another page is pulled into view. The writing itself was done by means
+of a reed, sharpened and split like a quill-pen, and dipped in ink
+made in various ways, but mostly less "biting" than our own. This made
+it comparatively easy to sponge out what was written, and to use the
+same roll over again--as a "palimpsest"--for some work more desired.
+It is perhaps needless to say that the writing was regularly to be
+found upon one side only. If the back was used, it was for economy,
+for unimportant notes, or as an exercise book for schoolboys.
+We may imagine a fine library copy, or edition de luxe, of Virgil as
+consisting of a number of rolls, each a long strip of the best
+parchment rolled round a staff of ivory with gilded ends. Its "cover"
+is a wrapper of parchment richly dyed and bearing coloured bands of
+leather to serve as fasteners. From the smoothed and dyed end stands
+out a scarlet label, marked "Virgil Aeneid Book I." (or as the case
+may be). When opened, the first page will reveal a painted portrait of
+the poet, and the writing will be found to be in a beautifully clear
+and even calligraphy. Beside the shelf on which the work is placed
+there likely stands a lifelike bust of Virgil in marble in bronze.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+
+THE ARMY: MILITARY SERVICE: PUBLIC CAREER
+
+In the older days of Roman history the fighting forces had been a
+"citizen army," called out for so long as it was needed, and levied
+from full and true Roman citizens. In the imperial times with which we
+are here dealing it had become a standing army. Soldiering was a
+profession, for which the men volunteered, and, so far as Roman
+citizens were concerned, it was now seldom, if ever, the case that
+military service required to be made compulsory on their part. It is
+true that a young man of the higher classes who proposed to follow a
+public career, leading to higher and higher offices of state, must
+have gone through some amount of military training, but no other Roman
+was actually obliged to serve. The empire was so vast and the total of
+the standing forces comparatively so small that it was always possible
+to fill up the legions with those who had some motive or inclination
+that way. Theoretically the state possessed a claim upon every
+able-bodied man, but the population of the empire was probably a
+hundred millions, and to collect a total of some 320,000 soldiers,
+made up of Roman or romanized "citizens" and of provincial subjects in
+about equal shares, was a sufficiently easy task, and the recruiters
+could therefore afford to pick and choose. Above all we must clear our
+minds of the notion that the Roman soldiers necessarily came from
+Rome, or even from Italy. They were drawn from the empire at large,
+and a legion posted in Spain, for example, might be recruited from a
+special class of Spaniards.
+
+Roughly speaking, the regular army, extending along the frontiers from
+Chester to Jerusalem and from Jerusalem to Algeria, was composed of
+two main divisions, called respectively the "legions" and the
+"auxiliaries." Other special or detached forces--such as the twelve
+regiments of Imperial Guards and the six of the City Guard--came under
+neither of these headings, and we may leave them out of the question
+for the present.
+
+A legion was a brigade of about 6000 infantry, with 120 horsemen
+attached to it. It was recruited from any convenient part of the
+empire, but only from men already enjoying the rights of Roman
+citizens, or else from those other provincials who were considered
+sufficiently homogeneous with the Roman civilisation to stand shoulder
+to shoulder with such citizens. In being permitted to serve on these
+terms a man regularly becomes _ipso facto_ a citizen. The
+qualifications required were that you should be free-born--that is to
+say, neither slave nor ex-slave--your physique must be good, and your
+height about 5 feet 10 inches: there must be nothing serious against
+your record or character as viewed from the Roman standpoint; and, if
+you were not already a citizen, you must belong to one of those
+organised communes which were the units of administration and of
+taxation within the empire. You undertake to serve for twenty years,
+after which time you will receive an honourable discharge and either a
+sum of money--at this date apparently about L50--or a grant of land.
+By ability and character you may rise from private soldier to
+centurion, that is to say, commander of a hundred, but in ordinary
+circumstances you can climb no further up the military ladder. If at
+the end of your term you are still robust and are considered useful,
+you may, if you choose, continue to serve in a special detachment of
+"veterans," with lighter duties and with exemption from common drill.
+The Roman legions would thus be made up for the most part of troops
+from about 18 to 38 years of age, although a considerable number might
+be somewhat older.
+
+A legion once formed had a perpetual existence; its vacancies were
+filled up as they occurred; and it is obvious that it must have
+consisted of respectable men of picked physique, mostly in the prime
+of life, and perfectly trained in all the qualities of a soldier. When
+not on actual campaign they were drilled once a day, and the recruits
+twice. They practised the hurling of spears and all the attitudes of
+attack with sword and pike, and of defence with the shield. Now and
+then there was a review or a sham fight. They learned how to fortify a
+camp, how to attack it or to defend it. Every month they put on full
+armour, marched out with steady Roman tramp for ten miles and back
+again to camp for the sake of practice. Meanwhile they were made
+useful in building the military roads, bridges, and walls. Add to this
+the strict Roman discipline, and it is difficult to conceive of any
+training more capable of turning a body of 6000 men into a stubborn
+and effective fighting machine. The half-naked German across the Rhine
+was physically as strong and as brave; the woad-dyed Celt of Britain
+was probably more dashing in his onset; the mounted Parthian across
+the Euphrates was more nimble in his movements; but neither German nor
+Celt cultivated the organisation or solidarity of action of the Roman,
+nor could the Parthian equal him for steady onward pressure or
+determined stand.
+
+To each legion was given a number and also a name of its own, acquired
+by some distinguished feat or some conspicuous campaign, or adopted in
+vaunt or compliment. Thus it might be the "Victorious" Legion, the
+"Indomitable," or the "Spanish" Legion, or it might, for example, wear
+a crested lark upon its helmet and be called the Legion of the "Lark."
+The commander of the whole legion is a man of senatorial rank; its
+standard is a silver eagle on the top of a staff, commonly holding a
+thunderbolt in its claw. To each legion there are ten regiments,
+called "cohorts," averaging six hundred men, and every such regiment
+has its colonel, or, as the translation of the Bible calls Claudius
+Lysias, "its chief captain." The regiment in its turn consists of six
+companies or "hundreds," with a "centurion" at the head of each, and
+every pair of hundreds, if not every company, possesses a standard of
+its own, consisting of a pole topped with large medallions, metal
+disks, wreaths, an open hand, and other emblems.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 97.--ROMAN STANDARDS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 98--Armed Soldier.]
+
+
+Let us imagine a certain Scius to become a private soldier in a
+legion. He was born in Gaul, in the district of Lugdunum or Lyons, and
+he is either a full Roman or sufficiently romanized to rank with
+Romans. He is drafted to the Twentieth Legion, otherwise known as the
+"Victorious Valerian," and finds himself stationed in the island of
+Britain at that farthest camp of the north-west which has since grown
+into the city of Chester. On joining his company he is made to take a
+solemn oath that he will loyally obey all orders of his
+commander-in-chief, the emperor, as represented by that emperor's
+subordinates, his immediate officers. That oath he will repeat on each
+1st of January and on the anniversary of the emperor's accession. For
+full military dress he will first put on a tunic reaching nearly to
+his knees, and, since he is serving in the northern cold, a pair of
+fustian breeches covering the upper leg. On his feet will be a pair of
+strong sandals, of which the thick soles are studded with hobnails.
+Over his breast, and with flaps over the shoulders, he will wear a
+corslet Of leather covered with hoop-like layers, or maybe scales, of
+iron or bronze. On his head will be a plain pot-like helmet or
+skull-cap of iron. For the rest he will possess also a thick cloak or
+plaid to be used as occasion needs. In his right hand he will carry
+the famous Roman pike. This is a stout weapon, over 6 feet in length,
+consisting of a sharp iron head fixed in a wooden shaft, and the
+soldier may either charge with it as with a bayonet, or he may hurl it
+like a javelin and then fight at close quarters with his sword. On the
+left arm is a large shield, which may be of various shapes. One common
+form is curved inward at the sides like a portion of a cylinder some 4
+feet in length by 21/2 in width: another is six-sided--a diamond
+pattern, but with the points of the diamond squared away. Sometimes it
+is oval. In construction it is of wicker-work or wood, covered with
+leather, and embossed a blazon in metal-work, one particularly well
+known being that of a thunderbolt. The shield is not only carried by
+means of a handle, but may be supported by a belt over the right
+shoulder. In order to be out of the way of the shield, the sword--a
+thrusting rather than a slashing weapon, approaching 3 feet in
+length--is hung at the right side by a belt passing over the left
+shoulder. Though this arrangement may seem awkward to us, it is to be
+remembered that the sword is not required until the right hand is free
+of the pike, and that then, before drawing, the weapon can easily be
+swung round to the left by means of the suspending belt. On the left
+side the soldier wears a dagger at his girdle. The writer of the
+Epistle to the Ephesians is thinking of all this equipment when he
+bids the Christian put on "the whole armour of God," including the
+"belt of truth," the "breast-plate of righteousness," the "shield of
+faith," the "helmet of salvation" and the "sword of the spirit." The
+officer, of course, wears armour, cloak, and helmet of a more
+ornamental kind, and must have presented a very martial and imposing
+figure.
+
+[Illustration: FIG.99--A Roman General.]
+
+Our friend Scius goes through the drill, the exercises, and the hard
+work already mentioned. His pay will be somewhere about L8 a year, or
+a little over three shillings a week, and his food will consist mainly
+of wheaten porridge and bread, with salt, and a drink of thin sour
+wine little better than vinegar. His wheat--the price of which is
+deducted from his pay--is measured out to him every month, and it is
+his own business to grind it or get it ground and converted into
+bread. Vegetables he will procure as he likes or can; but meat, except
+a limited amount of bacon, he will commonly neither get nor very much
+desire. On one occasion indeed we find the soldiers complaining that
+they were being fed altogether too much upon meat. It deserves to be
+remarked that the results speak well for the wholesomeness of this
+simple diet of the legionary. For his quarters he will be one of ten
+sharing the same tent under the supervision of a kind of corporal.
+There are no married quarters. Not only are women not permitted in the
+camp, but the soldier cannot legally marry during his term of service.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 100.--CENTURION.]
+
+Scius will meet with no gentle treatment while in his pupilage. The
+grim centurion, or commander of his company, is a man of iron, who has
+risen from the ranks; his methods are sharp and summary, and he
+carries a tough switch of vine-wood, with which he promptly belabours
+the idle or the stupid. Any neglect of duty or act of disobedience is
+inevitably Punished, sometimes by hard labour in digging trenches,
+sometimes by a fine, sometimes by stripping the soldier of his armour
+and making him stand for hours in civilian attire as a butt for
+ridicule in the middle of the camp, sometimes by a lowering of his
+rank corresponding to the modern taking away of a "man's stripes." If
+a soldier proves a hopeless case he is expelled with ignominy from the
+camp and army. If he deserts or plays the traitor he may either be
+decapitated or beaten to death with cudgels. If a whole company or
+regiment gets into disgrace, it may have to put up with barley
+instead of wheat for its rations, and if it is guilty of gross
+insubordination, or of some crime which cannot be sheeted home to the
+individual, it may be "decimated," or, in other words, every tenth
+man, drawn by lot, may be condemned to death. The last, of course, is
+an extreme measure, and is only mentioned here as belonging to extreme
+cases.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 101.--STANDARD BEARER.]
+
+On the other hand, if Scius is a smart soldier he will gradually gain
+recognition as such. He may become the head man in his mess of ten; or
+be made an orderly, to carry the watchword round to the messes; or he
+may be chosen by the centurion as his subaltern. As he gains maturity
+and steadiness, and wins confidence, he may be elected to bear the of
+his company, in which case a bear's skin will be thrown over his
+shoulders, and the top of his helmet will be concealed beneath the
+head of that beast, worn as a hood. Being a saving man, and taking a
+pride in himself, he will gradually decorate his sword-belt and
+girdle, and perhaps his scabbard, with silver knobs and ornaments.
+Also behaving well in the victorious brushes with the Britons, he will
+acquire, besides occasional loot and booty-money, a number of metal
+medallions or disks, to be strung across his breast somewhat after the
+manner of the modern war-medals. Gradually, as he becomes a veteran,
+he may rise to be centurion, when he will wear a crest upon his helmet
+and greaves upon his shins, have his corslet of scale-armour covered
+with medallions, and will himself carry the vine-rod of authority. If
+he should ever succeed in becoming, not merely the centurion of his
+company, but the first or senior of all the sixty centurions belonging
+to the whole legion, he will rank practically as a commissioned
+officer, will retire on a competence if he does retire, and will in
+all probability be made a knight. In that case he may proceed to
+higher commands, as if he had been born in that order to which he has
+at last attained.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 102.--BAGGAGE-TRAIN.]
+
+But all this promotion is yet a long way off. One morning, while Scius
+is still a private, he hears, not the "taratantara" of the long
+straight trumpet which calls to ordinary work, but the sound of the
+military horn, which means that the legion is to march. He helps to
+pack up the tent, the hand-mills, and other indispensable needments,
+and to place them on the mules, packhorses, or waggons. He then puts
+on his full armour, although, if it is hot, and if there is no
+immediate danger, he may sling his helmet over his shoulder, while his
+shield, marked with his name and company, may perhaps be stacked with
+others in a baggage-waggon. His food-supply for sixteen days--the
+Roman fortnight--is wrapped in a parcel, and this, together with his
+eating and drinking vessels and any other articles such as would
+appertain to a modern knapsack, is carried over his shoulder on a
+forked stick. It is known that to-night the army will be obliged to
+camp on the way, and it is a binding rule of the service that no camp
+arrangements shall be left to chance. Surveyors will ride on ahead
+with a body of cavalry, and will choose a suitable position easily
+defended and with water near. They will then outline the boundaries
+according to a certain scale, and will parcel out the interior,
+according to an almost invariable system, into blocks or sections to
+accommodate certain units. When the legion arrives, it marches in with
+a perfect understanding as to where each company of men and each part
+of the baggage-train is to quarter itself. Being in an enemy's country
+it is not enough simply to post sentries. A trench must be dug and a
+palisade erected round the camp, and for that purpose every soldier on
+the march has carried a couple of sharpened stakes and a sort of small
+pickaxe. It may therefore be readily understood that Scius is heavily
+laden. Besides the weight of his body-armour and his shield, pike, and
+sword, his orthodox burden is about forty-five English pounds.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 103.--SOLDIERS WITH PACKS.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 104--ROMAN SOLDIERS MARCHING. (Scheiber.)]
+
+Before entering upon this description of service and armour of the
+legionary troops, it was stated that the legions made up but one-half
+of Roman army, the other half consisting of what were known as
+"auxiliaries." If there were in the whole Roman empire 150,000
+soldiers of the kind described there were also about 150,000 of a
+different type. Just as it is a natural part of the British policy to
+raise bodies of Indian or African troops from among the non-British
+subjects of the empire, so it was an obvious course for the Romans to
+raise native troops in Africa, Syria, Spain, Gaul, Britain, or the
+German provinces on the western bank of the Rhine. And just as the
+British bring their non-British regiments into connection with the
+regular army, and put them under the command of British officers, so
+the Romans associated their "auxiliary" soldiery, mostly under Roman
+officers, with the regular force of the legions. To every legion of
+6000 men there was attached, under the same general of division, a
+force of about 6000 men of non-Roman standing. The subject people of a
+province was called upon to recruit a certain quota of such troops,
+and, when so recruited, the soldiers of this class were required to
+serve for twenty-five years. At the expiration of their term they
+became Roman citizens, and their descendants ranked as such in the
+enjoyment of Roman opportunities. Such forces were not themselves
+formed into "legions" under an "eagle"; they served in separate
+regiments. Some of them were infantry almost indistinguishable from
+the Roman; others were armed in a different manner as to shield,
+spear, and sword; others were light skirmishing troops using their
+native weapons, such as javelins, slings, and bows. A very large
+proportion were cavalry, and whereas a legion possessed only 120 Roman
+horsemen, the auxiliary cavalry attached to it would number one or
+more regiments of dither 1000 or 500 men each. But it was also part of
+the Roman policy to employ such auxiliary troops, not in the region in
+which they were raised and among their own people, but elsewhere, and
+sometimes even at the opposite extremity of the empire. Thus in
+Britain might be found, not only Germans and Batavians, but Spaniards
+or Syrians, while in Syria there might be quartered Africans or
+Germans, and in Africa troops from the modern Austria. We cannot call
+this custom an invariable one, but it was usual, and obviously it was
+politic.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 105.--Imperial Guards.]
+
+To these two co-operating forces--legions and auxiliaries--we must add
+the Imperial Guards, twelve regiments of 1000 men each, quartered in
+Italy, and generally congregated in a special camp just outside the
+gate at the top of the Quirinal and Viminal Hills beyond the modern
+railway station. Like other Guards, these were a picked body,
+containing many volunteers from Italy itself, while others came from
+the most romanized parts of Gaul or elsewhere. They enjoyed many
+privileges, wore a more gorgeous armour, served only sixteen years and
+received double pay. Frequently it came to be the case that this
+particular body of troops was the one which made and unmade emperors,
+chiefly under the influence of pecuniary promises or largess. Besides
+these, 6000 City Guards were in barracks inside the metropolis for the
+protection of the town; 7000 _gendarmerie_, already mentioned, served
+as night-watch and fire-brigade, but perhaps scarcely rank as
+soldiers. Here and there in the empire there also existed separate
+volunteer detachments of various dimensions serving on special duty,
+and it was to one of these that belonged the Cornelius of the Acts of
+the Apostles, who is there described as a centurion of the "Italian
+band."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 106.--BESIEGERS WITH THE "TORTOISE."]
+
+It would carry us too far afield if we entered into detailed
+descriptions of Roman warfare--of Roman marches, Roman camps, and
+fortifications, Roman sieges, and military engines. Otherwise it would
+be highly interesting to watch the attack made upon an enemy's wall or
+gate by a band of men pushing in front of them a wicker screen covered
+with hide, or holding their shields locked together above their heads,
+so as to form a roof to shelter them from the spears, stones,
+firebrands, and pots of flame which rained down from the walls.
+
+[Illustration: FIG 107.--ROMAN ARTILLERY.]
+
+Or we might see moving up on wheels a shed, from the open front of
+which protrudes the great iron head of a ram affixed to a huge beam.
+If you were under the shed, you would see that the beam was perhaps as
+much as 60 feet in length, and that it was suspended on chains or
+ropes by which it could be swung, so that the head butted with a
+deadly insistence upon the masonry of the wall. Meanwhile the enemy
+from the ramparts are doing their best to set the shed on fire, to
+break off the ram's head with heavy stones, to pull it upwards by a
+noose, or to deaden the effect of the shock by lowering stuffed sacks
+or other buffer material between it and the wall. At another point, in
+place of the shed, there is rolled forward a lofty construction like a
+tower built in several stories. When this approaches the wall it will
+overtop it, and a drawbridge with grappling irons may be dropped upon
+the parapet. Elsewhere there is mining and countermining. From a safer
+distance the artillery of the time is hurling its formidable missiles.
+There is the "catapult," which shoots a giant arrow, sometimes tipped
+with material on fire, from a groove or half-tube to a distance of a
+quarter of a mile. The propelling force, in default of gunpowder or
+other explosive, is the recoil of strings of gut or hair which have
+been tightened by a windlass. There is also the heavier "hurler,"
+which works in much the same manner, but which, instead of arrows,
+throws stones and beams of from 14 pounds to half a hundredweight,
+doing effective damage up to a distance of some 400 yards.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 108.--AUXILIARY CAVALRYMAN.]
+
+Scius joins his legion as a private infantry soldier. He is in the
+"hobnailed" service. But if our young noble, Publius Silius Bassus,
+enters upon a military career, he will probably become one of the 120
+Roman horsemen attached to the legion, and will be serving as a
+"knight" or "gentleman," with servants to relieve him of his rougher
+work. The cavalrymen among whom he serves do not ride upon a saddle
+with stirrups, but on a mere saddlecloth. On their left arm is a round
+shield or buckler; they carry a spear of extreme reach, wear a longer
+sword than the infantrymen, and on their back is a quiver containing
+three broad-pointed javelins, very similar to assegais, which serve
+them as missiles. If by good service they obtain medallions like the
+infantry, they will fasten them to the bridles and breast-straps of
+their horses, and altogether will make a fine and jingling show.
+Through the influence of his family, Publius will most likely be taken
+under the personal supervision of the general in command, will
+frequently mess with him, and will perhaps act as a kind of honorary
+aide-de-camp. After a sufficient initiation into military business, he
+will be appointed what may be called colonel of an infantry regiment
+of auxiliaries, then colonel of a regiment of the legion, and
+subsequently, if he is following the profession, colonel of a regiment
+of the auxiliary cavalry. He does not at any time pass through the
+rank of centurion, any more than the British officer passes through
+that of sergeant-major. The class distinction is at least as great in
+the case of the Romans.
+
+When the young noble has completed this series of services--although
+the whole of it is not absolutely necessary, and it will be sufficient
+if he has been six months titular colonel of a regiment of the
+legion--he may perhaps return to Rome, and at the age of twenty-five
+may enter upon his first public position, and so become himself a
+senator. His duties may be connected with the Treasury at Rome itself,
+or more probably he will accompany a proconsul who is on his way to
+govern a province for a year--perhaps Andalusia, or Macedonia, or
+Bithynia. To his chief he stands for that year in a kind of filial
+relation. His main business will be to supervise the financial
+affairs, to act as paymaster, and to keep the accounts of the
+province, but he will also, when required, administer justice in place
+of the governor. In this capacity he learns the methods of provincial
+government in readiness for the time when he himself may be made a
+governor, whether by the senate or by the emperor. His next step
+upward will be to the post of aedile, one of the officials who control
+the streets, public buildings, markets, and police of Rome. By the age
+of thirty he may arrive at the second highest step on the official
+ladder, in a position which qualifies him to preside over a court of
+law. Or it may bring with it no greater function than that of
+presiding over "games" in the circus or amphitheatre, and of spending
+a liberal sum of money of his own upon making them both magnificent
+and novel. After this he may receive from the emperor the
+command of a brigade--the 12,000 men composed of a legion and its
+auxiliaries--perhaps at Cologne or Mainz, perhaps at Caerleon-on-Usk,
+perhaps near Antioch. In this position his movements are subject to
+the authority of the governor of the province, who is the "lieutenant"
+or "deputy" of His Highness in the larger capacity, while he himself
+is but a "lieutenant" of Caesar as commanding one of his legions.
+
+He may now himself be appointed governor to a province, but hardly yet
+to those which are the "plums" of the empire. There is still one
+highest post for him to fill. This is the consulship. Under the
+republic the two consuls had been the highest executive officers of
+the state, and the year was dated by their names. Nominally they were
+still in the same position, and the sane emperors made a point of
+treating them with all outward respect. They took precedence of all
+but "His Highness the Head of the State." But whereas under the
+republic there had been but two consuls holding joint office for the
+year, under the emperors the post had become to such a degree
+complimentary, and there were so many nobles who desired the honour or
+to whom the emperor was minded to grant it, that it became the custom
+to hold the position only for two months, so that twelve persons in
+each year might boast of being ex-consuls or having "passed the
+consul's chair."
+
+Publius Silius, we may suppose, passes up each step of the ladder, or
+what was called the "career of honours," and becomes senatorial
+governor of no less important a province than "Asia"--that nearer
+portion of Asia Minor which contained flourishing cities like Smyrna,
+Ephesus, and Rhodes. In that office, as in any other which he may
+hold, it behoves him to comport himself with caution and modesty. If
+he is a man of unusual influence or popularity he will do well to keep
+the fact concealed. There must be nothing in his demeanour or his
+speech to lay him open to a charge of becoming dangerous to the
+emperor. That emperor is Nero; and even stronger and saner emperors
+than Nero watched suspiciously the behaviour of aspiring men.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+
+ROMAN RELIGION--STATE AND INDIVIDUAL
+
+To undertake to set forth with any definiteness the "religious ideas
+of a Roman" of A.D. 64 would be an extremely difficult task. Those
+ideas would differ with the individual, being determined or varied by
+a number of considerations and influences--by locality, education, and
+temperament. Silius would not hold the views of Scius and probably not
+those of Marcia. We may speak of the "State religion" of Rome, as
+distinct from various other religions tolerated and practised in
+different parts of the empire, but it is scarcely possible to define
+the contents of that "State religion." There were certain special
+priests and priestly bodies who saw to it that certain rites and
+ceremonies should be perfortied scrupulously in a prescribed manner
+and on prescribed dates; but these were officers of the state, whose
+knowledge and functions were confined to the ritual observances with
+which they had to deal. They were not persons trained in a system of
+theology, nor were they preachers of a code of doctrines or morals;
+they had no "cure of souls," and belonged to no church; they had no
+_credo_ and no Bible or corresponding authority to which to refer.
+Though most well-informed persons could have told the names of the
+prominent deities in the calendar--such as Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, and
+Ceres--perhaps scarcely any one but an encyclopaedist or antiquarian
+could have named one-half of the total. It is not merely that the
+deities on the list were so numerous. There were other reasons for
+ignorance or vagueness. In the first place, the line between the
+operations of one deity and those of another was often too fine to
+draw, and deities originally more or less distinct came to be confused
+or identified. Secondly, it was often hard, if not impossible, to make
+up one's mind whether a so-called deity--such as Virtue, Peace, or
+Health--was supposed to have a real existence, or whether it was
+simply the personification of an abstract quality. Thirdly, many of
+the ancient divinities had fallen out of fashion, and to a large
+extent out of memory, while many new ones--Isis and Serapis for
+example--had come, or were coming, into vogue.
+
+The state possessed its old-established calendar of days sacred to a
+number of deities, and its code of ritual to be performed in their
+honour. There were ancient prescriptions as to what certain priests
+should wear, what they should do or avoid in their priestly character,
+what victims--ox, sheep, or pig--they should sacrifice, what
+instruments they should use for the purpose, and in what formula of
+words they should pray in particular connections. There was a standing
+commission, with the Pontifex Maximus--at this date that excellent
+religious authority, the emperor Nero--at its head, to safeguard the
+state religion, to see that its requirements were carried out, and
+that no one ventured to commit an outrage towards it. But the state
+could not have told you with any precision that you must believe in
+just so many deities and no others; it could not have told you
+precisely what notions to entertain concerning those deities whom it
+did officially recognise; it dictated no theological doctrines;
+neither did it dictate any moral doctrines beyond those which you
+would find in the secular law. It reserved the right to prevent the
+introduction of foreign or new divinities if it found sufficient
+cause; but so long as the temples, the rites and ceremonies, the
+cardinal moral axioms of the Roman "religion," and the basic
+principles of Roman society were respected, the state practised no
+sort of inquisition into your beliefs or non-beliefs, and in no way
+interfered with your particular selection of favourite deities.
+
+Polytheism in an advanced community is always tolerant, because it is
+necessarily always indefinite. What it does not readily endure is an
+organised attack upon the entire system, whether openly avowed or
+manifestly implied. Even undisguised unbelief in any deity at all it
+is often willing to tolerate, so long as the unbelief is rather a
+matter of dialectics than anything else, and makes no attempt at a
+crusade. When a state so disposed is found to interfere with a novel
+religion, it will generally be easy to perceive that the jealousy is
+not on behalf of the deities nor of a creed, but on behalf of the
+community in its political, economic, or social aspect. This, however,
+is perhaps to anticipate. Let us endeavour to realise as best we can
+the religious situation among the Roman or romanized portion of the
+population.
+
+Though we are not here directly concerned with the steps by which the
+Roman religion had come to be what it was, we can scarcely hope to
+understand the position without some comprehension of that
+development. The Romans were a conservative people, and many of the
+peculiarities of their worship were due to the retention of old forms
+which had lost such spirit as they once possessed.
+
+In the infant days of the nation there had been no such things as gods
+in human shape, or in recognisable shape at all. There were only
+"powers" or "influences" superior to mankind, by whose aid or
+concurrence man must work out his existence. The early Romans and such
+Italian tribes as they became blended with were, as they still are,
+extremely superstitious. In a pre-scientific age they, like other
+peoples, were at a loss to understand what produced thunder and
+lightning, rain, the fertility or failure of crops, the changes of the
+seasons, the flow or cessation of springs and streams, the
+intoxication or exhilaration proceeding from wine, and a multitude of
+other phenomena. Fire was a perplexing thing; so was wind: the woods
+were full of mysterious sounds and movements. They could comprehend
+neither birth nor death, nor the fructification of plants. The
+consequence was a feeling that these things were due to unseen
+agencies; and the attempt was made to bring those powers into some
+sort of relation with mankind, either by the compulsion of magical
+operations and magical formulae, or by sacrifices and offerings of
+propitiation, or by promises. A superhuman power might be placed under
+a spell, or placated with food and drink, or persuaded by a vow. Such
+"powers" were exceedingly numerous. Greatest of all, and recognised
+equally by all, was the power working in the sky with the thunder and
+the rain. Its presence was everywhere alike, and its operations most
+palpable at every season. Countless others were concerned with
+particular localities or with particular functions. Every wood, if not
+every tree, and also every fountain, was controlled by some such
+higher "power"; every manifestation or operation of nature came from
+such an "influence." There was no kind of action or undertaking, no
+new stage of life or change of condition, which did not depend for
+help or hindrance upon a similar power. At first the "powers" bore no
+distinctive names, and were conceived in no definite shapes. They were
+not yet gods. The human being who sought to work upon them to favour
+him could only do, say, and offer such things as he thought likely to
+move them. But in process of time it became inevitable that these
+superhuman agencies should be referred to under some sort of title,
+and the title literally expressed the conception. Hence a multitude of
+names. Not only was there the ever-prominent Jupiter or "sky-father";
+there a veritable multitude of powers with provinces great and small.
+Among the larger conceptions the power concerned with the sowing of
+seed was Saturn that with the growth of crops was Ceres, that with the
+blazing of fire was Vesta. Among the smaller the power which taught a
+babe to eat was Edulia that which attended the bringing home of a
+bride was Domiduca. The ability to speak or to walk was supposed to be
+imparted by separate agencies named accordingly. Flowers depended on
+Flora and fruits on Pomona.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 109.--JUPITER.]
+
+But to assign a name is a great step towards creating a "power" into a
+"god," and such agencies began to take shape in the mind of those who
+named them. This was the second stage. Jupiter, Ceres, Saturn, and
+almost all the rest became "gods." The powers in the woodlands--a
+Silvanus or Faunus--became embodied, like the more modern gnomes and
+kobbolds. Once imagine a shape, and the tendency is to give it visible
+form in an image "like unto man," and to honour it with an abode--a
+temple or shrine. The earliest Romans known to us erected no images or
+temples, but they were not long in creating them. Particularly rapid
+was the reducing of a god to human form when they came into close
+contact with the Etruscans and the Greeks. For all the important
+deities poetry and art combined to evolve an appropriate bodily form,
+which gradually became conventional, so that the ordinary notion of a
+Jupiter, a Juno, a Mercury, or a Ceres was approximately that which
+had been gathered from the statue thus developed. This trouble was not
+taken with all the most ancient divinities. Many of the old rural and
+local deities, and many of those with quite minor provinces, were left
+vague and unrealised. They were represented in no temples and by no
+statues. Naturally as the Roman state grew from a set of neighbouring
+farms into a great city, and from a small settlement into a vast
+empire, the little local gods fell into the background. The deities
+which concerned the state, and to which it erected temples, were those
+with the more far-reaching operations--such as the gods identified
+with the sky and its thunders, with war, with fertility, with the sea,
+with the hearth-fire of all Rome. The rest might well be left to
+localities or to domestic worship.
+
+From the early days of Rome there existed a calendar for festivals to
+certain divinities important to the little growing town, and a code of
+ceremonies to be performed in their honour, and of formulae of prayer
+to be offered to them. The later Romans, in their characteristic
+conservatism, adhered to those festivals, to that ritual, and to those
+formulae, even when some of the deities had ceased to be of
+appreciable account, and when neither the meaning of the ritual nor
+the sense of the old words was any longer understood by the very
+priests who used them.
+
+Reflect a moment on this situation. First, we have a number of deities
+of the first rank, housed in temples, embodied in statues, and
+recognised in all the Roman world; next a number of minor divinities
+whose operations and worship may be remotely rural or otherwise local,
+and whose functions are by no means always distinguishable from those
+of the greater gods; then a series of more or less unintelligible
+ceremonials carried out by ancient rule in honour of divinities often
+practically forgotten; outside these a number of vague powers
+presiding over small domestic and other actions; finally, a peculiar
+Roman tendency--in keeping with the last--to erect into divinities,
+and to symbolise in statue housed in temples, all manner of abstract
+qualities and states, such as Hope, Harmony, Peace, Wealth, Health,
+Fame, and Youth.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 110.--A SACRIFICE.]
+
+Reflect again that, when the Romans, as they spread, came into contact
+with Greeks, Egyptians, or other foreigners, they met with deities
+whose provinces were necessarily often identical with or closely akin
+to their own. Then remember that there is no church and no official
+document to define the complete list of Roman gods. Does it not
+follow, as a matter of course, on the one hand, that the importation
+of new gods was an easy matter, and on the other, that no individual
+Roman could draw the line as to the number of even the old-established
+deities in whom he should or should not believe?
+
+The guardians of the public religion were satisfied if the due rites
+were paid by the state to those deities, on those dates, and precisely
+in that manner, which happened to be prescribed in the official
+religious books. For the rest they left matters to the individual.
+
+So much it has been necessary to say in order to account for existing
+attitudes. We must use the plural, since the attitude of the state
+officials is but one of several, and, inasmuch as the state officials
+themselves were not a theological caste but only secular servants of
+the community administering the regulations for external worship as
+laid down in the records, it often happened that their official
+attitude had nothing to do with their individual beliefs. Often they
+did not know or care whether there was a real religious efficacy in
+the acts which they performed; sometimes all that they knew was that
+they were doing what the state required to be done properly by some
+one.
+
+Cicero quotes a dictum of a Pontifex Maximus that there was one
+religion of the poet, another of the philosopher, and another of the
+statesman. This is true, but it is hardly adequate. We must at least
+add that of the common people. A well-known statement of more modern
+birth puts the case--rather too strongly--that at our period all
+religions were regarded by the people as equally true, by the
+philosopher as equally false and by the statesman as equally useful.
+We may begin with the ordinary people of whatever station, who were
+not poets nor thinkers nor magistrates. It is an error to suppose that
+such Romans of the first century were either atheistic or indifferent
+to religion. Their fault was rather that they were too superstitious,
+ready to believe too much rather than too little, but to believe
+without relating their belief to conduct. They did not question the
+existence of the traditional gods, nor the characters attributed to
+them; they were ready to perform their dues of worship and to make
+their due offerings, but all this had no bearing upon their own
+morality. They believed with the terror of the superstitious in omens
+and portents, and in rites of expiation and purification to avert the
+threatened evil. They were alarmed by thunder and lightning,
+earthquakes, bad dreams, ravens seen on the wrong side of the road,
+and other evil tokens. They commonly accepted the existence of malign
+spirits, including ghosts. They were prepared to believe that on
+occasion a statue had bled or turned round on its base; that an ox had
+spoken in human language; or that there had been a rain of blood.
+There were doubtless exceptions, and superstition was less dire and
+oppressive than once it was. More than fifty years before our date
+Cicero had said that even old women no longer shuddered at the terrors
+of an underworld, and fifty years after it the satirist asserts the
+same of children. But both writers are speaking somewhat
+hyperbolically. Doubtless it had been wondered how two augurs could
+look at each other without a smile, but there is nothing to show that
+even a minority of augurs were acutely conscious of anything to smile
+at.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 111.--ISIS WORSHIP. (Wall-Painting.)]
+
+In the multiplicity of deities the ordinary people were prepared to
+accept as many more as you chose to offer them, especially if the
+worship attaching to them contained mystic or orgiastic ceremonies. By
+this date the populace had become exceedingly mixed, especially in the
+capital, and the cool hard-headed Roman stock had been largely
+replaced or leavened by foreign elements, especially from the East.
+The official worship of the state was formal and frigid; it offered
+nothing to the emotions or the hopes. Many among the people felt an
+instinct for something more sacramental, and especially attractive was
+any form of worship which promised a continued existence, and probably
+a happier existence, after death. Even the mere mysteriousness of a
+form of worship had its allurements. Hence a tendency to Judaism,
+still more to the Egyptian worship of Isis and Osiris. The latter made
+many proselytes, particularly among the women, and contained ideas
+which are by no means ignoble but to our modern minds far more truly
+"religious" than anything to be found in the native Roman cults. To
+pass through purification, to practise asceticism, to feel that there
+was a life beyond the grave apportioned to your deserts, to go through
+an impressive form of worship held every day, and to have the emotions
+thus worked upon--all this supplied something to the moral nature
+which was lacking in the chill sacrifices and prayers to Jupiter and
+the other national divinities. In vain had the authorities, in their
+doubt as to the moral effects, tried on several occasions to suppress
+this foreign worship; it always revived, and it now held its
+established place both in the imperial city and in the provinces,
+particularly near the sea, for it was especially a sailors' religion.
+Rome, like Pompeii, had its temple of Isis and her daily celebrations.
+There was, however, no necessary conflict between this worship and the
+official religion. It was quite possible to accept Isis while
+accepting Jupiter. Nor, though this particular cult has required
+mention, must it be taken as belonging to more than a section of the
+Roman population. Most Romans would look upon it and other deviations
+with acquiescence, some with contempt, and perhaps some with a shake
+of the head, while themselves satisfied with an indifferent conformity
+to the more established customs of the state.
+
+Setting aside the devotees of the mystic, the more ordinary point of
+view was that between Romans and the established gods of Rome there is
+an understanding. The gods will support Rome so long as Rome pays to
+them their dues of formal recognition. Their ritual must not be
+neglected by the authorities; it is not necessary for an individual
+member of the community to concern himself further in the matter. The
+state, through its appointed ministers, will make the necessary
+sacrifices and say the necessary words; the citizen need not put in an
+appearance or take any part. He will not do or say anything
+disrespectful towards the deities in question, and he will enjoy the
+festivals belonging to them. If remarkable portents and disasters
+occur, he will agree that there is something wrong in the behaviour of
+the state, and that there must be some public purification or other
+placation of the gods. If the state orders such a proceeding, he will
+perform whatever may be his share in it. So far he is loyal to the
+"religion of the state."
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 112.--HOUSEHOLD SHRINE. (Pompeii.)]
+
+In his private capacity he has his own wants, fears, and hopes. He
+therefore betakes himself to whatever divinity he considers most
+likely to help him; he makes his own prayers and vows an offering if
+his request is granted. Reduced to plain commercial language his
+ordinary attitude is--no success, no payment. A cardinal difference
+between the religion of the Romans and our own is to be seen in the
+nature of their prayers. They always ask for some definite
+advantage--prosperity, safety, health, or the like. They never pray
+for a clean heart or for some moral improvement. Of more importance
+than the man's moral condition will be his scrupulous observance of
+the right external practices. Unlike the Greek, he will cover his head
+when he prays. He will raise his hand to his lips before the statue,
+or, if he is appealing to the celestial deities, he will stretch his
+palms upwards above his head; if to the infernal powers, he will hold
+them downwards. These are the things that matter.
+
+At home, if he belongs to the better type of representative citizen,
+our Roman has his household shrine and his household divinities, whom
+he never neglects. If he is very pious, he may pray to them every
+morning, or at least before every enterprise. In any case he will
+remember them with a small offering when he dines. There are the "gods
+of the stores"--his "penates"--certain deities whom he has selected as
+guardians of his belongings, and who have their little images by the
+hearth in the kitchen. There is the household "protector," or more
+commonly there are two, who may be painted under the form of
+lightly-stepping youths in a little niche or shrine above a small
+altar. To these he will offer fruits, flowers, incense, and cakes. And
+there is the "Genius" of the master of the house, who is also painted
+on the wall, or who may be represented by his own portrait bust or by
+the picture of a snake. That "Genius" means the power presiding over
+his vitality and health and wellbeing. If he is an artisan and belongs
+to a guild, he will pay special worship to the patron god or goddess
+of that guild--to Vesta, if he is a baker, to Minerva, if he is a
+fuller. Out of doors he will find a street shrine in the wall at a
+crossing, pertaining to the tutelary god of what may be called his
+"parish," and this he will not neglect. Like all other orthodox Romans
+he will not undertake any new enterprise--betrothal, marriage,
+journey, or important business--without ascertaining that the auspices
+are favourable.
+
+In a general way he has a notion that the gods are displeased at
+certain forms of crime, and that they approve of justice and the
+carrying out of compacts. The gods overlook the state, because the
+state engages them so to do, and therefore to break the laws of the
+state is to anger the gods of the state. But this is rather subtle for
+the common man, and there is generally no understood immediate
+relation between these gods and his moral conduct, unless he has sworn
+an oath by one or other of them. The purpose of calling a god to
+witness is to bring upon a perjurer the anger of the offended deity.
+But he entertains no such conception as the modern one of "sin" or of
+"remorse for sin." "Sin" is either a breach of the secular law or
+breach of a contract with a deity and "remorse" is but fear of or
+regret for the consequences.
+
+His morality is determined by the laws of the state, family
+discipline, and social custom. For that reason his vices on the
+positive side will mostly be those of his appetites, and on the
+negative side a want of charity and compassion. He may be guiltless of
+lying and stealing, murder and violence; he may be honest and
+law-abiding; but there is nothing to make him temperate, continent, or
+gentle. His avowed code is "duty," and duty is defined by law and
+tradition.
+
+If this is the religious condition of the common-place man or woman--a
+blend of superstition, formalism, and tolerance--it is by no means
+that of the educated thinker. Such persons were for the most part
+freethinkers. Many of them, finding no better guide to conduct,
+conform to the "religion" of the state without any real belief in its
+gods or attaching any importance to its ceremonies. They do not feel
+called upon to propagate any other views, and they probably think the
+current notions are at least as good for the ignorant as any others.
+If they are poets, like Horace or Lucan, they will dress up the
+mythology, mostly from Greek models, and write fluently about Jupiter
+and Juno, Venus and Mercury, either attributing to them the recognised
+characters and legends, or varying them so as to make them more
+picturesque and interesting--perhaps even improving them--but all the
+time believing no more in the stories they are telling, or in the
+deities themselves, than Tennyson need have believed in King Arthur
+and Guinevere. The gods are good poetic material and are sure to
+afford popular, or at least inoffensive, reading. The poets doubtless
+do something to humanise and beautify the popular conception of a
+deity, but they seldom deliberately set out with any such purpose. If
+the educated are not poets, but public men of affairs, they may
+believe just as little, and yet regard the established cult of the
+gods as an excellent discipline for the vulgar and the best known
+means of upholding the national principle of "duty." If they are
+philosophers they may not, and the Epicureans in reality do not,
+believe in the gods at all--certainly not as they are generally
+conceived--and will openly discuss in speech and in writing the
+question of their existence or non-existence, and of their character
+and nature if they do exist. They will endeavour to substitute for the
+barren formalism of rites and ceremonies, or the inconsistent or
+incomplete traditional morality of duty, another set of principles as
+a sounder guide to life and conduct. Some are monotheists, some are
+simply in doubt. Says Nero's own tutor, Seneca, "Do you want to
+propitiate the gods? Then be good. The true worshipper of the gods is
+he who acts like them." "Better," remarks Plutarch, "not believe in a
+God at all than cringe before a god who is worse than the worst of
+men." In the actual worship of images none of them believe. One
+conspicuous writer of the time says: "To look for a form and shape to
+a god, I consider to be a mark of human feebleness of mind."
+Concerning the schools of thought and in particular the tenets of
+those Stoics and Epicureans whom St. Paul met at Athens, and whom he
+could meet in educated circles all over the Roman Empire, we shall
+have to speak in a following chapter, when summing up the intellectual
+and moral condition of the time. Meanwhile it should be understood
+that, though a profound or anything approaching a professional study
+of philosophy was discouraged among the true Romans--more than once
+the professional philosophers were banished from the capital--there
+were few cultivated persons who did not to some extent dabble in it,
+and even go so far as to profess an adherence to one school or
+another. None of these men believed in the "Roman religion" as
+administered by the state, although many of them were administering it
+themselves. The same man could one day freely discuss the gods in
+conversation or a treatise, and the next he might be clad in priestly
+garb and officially seeing that the rites of sacrifice were being
+religiously carried out in terms of the books, or that the auspices
+were being properly taken.
+
+It does not, however, follow at all that because poet or public man
+cared nothing for the pantheon and all its mythology, he was therefore
+without his superstitions. He might still tremble at signs and
+portents, at comets, at dreams, and at the unpropitious behaviour of
+birds and beasts. He might believe in astrology and resort to its
+professors, called the "Chaldaeans." On the other hand he might laugh
+at such things. It was all a matter of temperament. It certainly was
+not every man who dared to act like one of the Roman admirals. When it
+was reported that the omens were unpropitious to an imminent battle
+because the sacred chickens "would not eat," he ordered them to be
+thrown into the sea so that at least they might drink. The
+freethinkers were in advance of their times. "Science" in the modern
+sense hardly existed, and until phenomena are explained it is hard to
+avoid a perplexity or astonishment which is equivalent to
+superstition.
+
+Consider now these various states of mind--that of the people, ready
+to add almost any deity to the large and vague number already
+recognised; that of the poet, who finds the deities such useful
+literary material; that of the magistrate or public man, who, without
+enthusiasm or necessary belief, regards religion as a thing useful to
+society; and that of the philosopher, who thinks all the current
+religious conceptions unsound, if not absurd, and morally almost
+useless.
+
+Manifestly a society so composed will be one of unusual tolerance. The
+Romans had no disposition to force their religion on the subject
+provinces of the empire. Their religion was the Roman religion; the
+religion of the Greeks might be left Greek, the Jewish religion
+Jewish, and the Egyptian religion Egyptian. Any nation had a right to
+the religion of its fathers. Nay, the Jews had such peculiar notions
+about a Sabbath day and other matters that a Jew was exempted from the
+military service which would have compelled him to break his national
+laws. All religions were permitted, so long as they were national
+religions. Also all religious views were permitted to the individual,
+so long as they were not considered dangerous to the empire or
+imperial rule, or so long as they threatened no appreciable harm to
+the social order. If a Jew came to Rome and practised Judaism well and
+good. It was, in the eyes of the Romans, a narrow-minded and
+uncharitable religion, marked by many strange and absurd practices and
+superstitions, but if a misguided oriental people liked to indulge in
+it, well and good. Even if a Roman became a proselyte to Judaism, well
+and good, so long as he did not flout the official religion of his own
+country. If the Egyptians chose to worship cats, ibises, and
+crocodiles, that was their affair, so long as they let other people
+alone. In Gaul, it is true, the emperor Claudius, predecessor of Nero,
+had put down the Druids. Earlier still the Druids had already been
+interfered with; but that was because the Druids--those weird old
+white-sheeted men with their long beards and strange magic--were
+performing human sacrifices--burning men alive in wicker frames--and
+such conduct was not only contrary to the secular law of Rome, but
+even to natural law. And when Claudius finally suppressed them, or
+drove the remnant out of Gaul into Britain, it was not simply because
+they worshipped non-Roman gods and performed non-Roman rites, but
+because they were, as they had always notoriously been, a dangerous
+political influence interfering with the proper carrying out of the
+Roman government.
+
+And when we come to Christianity it must be remarked that, so long as
+that nascent religion was regarded as merely a variety of Judaism, it
+was actually protected by the Roman power, and owes no little of its
+original progress to the fact. In the Acts of the Apostles it is
+always from the Roman governor that St. Paul receives, not only the
+fairest, but the most courteous treatment. It is the Jews who
+persecute him and work up difficulties against him, because to them he
+is a renegade and is weaning away their people. To the philosophers at
+Athens he appears as the preacher of a new philosophy, and they think
+him a "smatterer" in such subjects. To the Roman he is a man charged
+by a certain community with being dangerous to social order, to wit,
+causing factious disturbances and profaning the temple; and since he
+refuses to let the local authorities judge his case, and has exercised
+his citizen privilege by appealing to Caesar, to Caesar he is sent.
+And, when a prisoner in somewhat free custody at Rome, note that he is
+permitted to speak "with all freedom," and that in the first instance
+he is acquitted.
+
+True, but the fact remains that Nero burnt Christians in his gardens
+after the great fire of Rome, and that certain later emperors are
+found punishing Christians merely for avowing themselves such. Why was
+Christianity thus singled out? It was not through what can be
+reasonably called "religious intolerance," for, as has been said, the
+Romans did not seek to force Roman religion on other peoples nor did
+they make any inquisition into the beliefs of Romans themselves. The
+reasons for singling out Christianity for special treatment are
+obvious enough. The question is not whether the reasons were sound,
+whether the Romans properly understood or tried to understand, whether
+they could be as wise before the event as we are after it, but whether
+the motive was what we should call a "religious" one. To allow
+Epicureans to deny the existence of gods at all, and to make scornful
+concessions to the peculiar tenets of Jews, could not be the action of
+a people which was bigoted. If there was bigotry and intolerance, it
+was political or social bigotry and intolerance, not religious. To
+prevent any possible misconception let the present writer say here
+that he considers the principles of Christianity, as laid down by its
+Founder and as spread by St. Paul, to have been the most humanizing
+and civilising influence ever brought to bear upon society. But that
+is not the point. The early Christians were treated as they were, not
+because they held non-Roman views, but because they held anti-Roman
+views; not because they did not believe in Jupiter and Venus, but
+because they refused to let any one else believe in them; not because
+they threatened to weaken Roman faith, but because they threatened to
+weaken and even to wreck the whole fabric of Roman society; not
+because they were known to be heretics, but because they were supposed
+to be disloyal; not because they converted men, but because they
+appeared to convert them into dangerous characters. As it has been
+put, the Christians were regarded as the "Nihilists" of the period. We
+are apt to judge the Romans from the standpoint of Christianity
+dominant and understood; it is fairer to judge them from the
+standpoint of a dominant pagan empire looking on at a strange new
+phenomenon altogether misunderstood and often deliberately
+misrepresented. Moreover--and the point is worth more attention than
+it commonly receives--we have only to read the Epistles to the
+Corinthians, to perceive that the early Christian gatherings were by
+no means always such meek, pure, and model assemblages as they are
+almost always assumed to have been. Some of the members, for instance,
+quarrelled and "were drunken." There were evidently many unworthy
+members of the new communion, and of course there were also many
+manifestations of insulting bigotry on their part. The class of
+society to which the Christians belonged was closely associated in the
+Roman mind with the rabble and the slave, if not with criminals. What
+the pagan observer saw in the new religion was "a pestilent
+superstition," "hatred of the human race," "a malevolent
+superstition." He thought its practices to be connected with magic.
+The _intransigeant_ Christian refused to take the customary oath in
+the law courts, and therefore appeared to menace a trustworthy
+administration of the law. He took no interest in the affairs of the
+empire, but talked of another king and his coming kingdom, and he
+appeared to be an enemy to the Roman power. He held what appeared to
+be secret meetings, although the empire rigidly suppressed all secret
+societies. He weakened the martial spirit of the soldier. He divided
+families--the basis of Roman society--against themselves. He was a
+socialist leveller. He threatened with ruin all the trades connected
+with either the established worship--as amongst the silversmiths at
+Ephesus--or with the luxuries and amusements of life. Those amusements
+in circus or amphitheatre he hated, and therefore appeared
+misanthropic. He not only stood aloof from the religious observances
+of the state and the household, but treated them with contempt or
+abhorrence.
+
+Moreover, at this date, he refused to acknowledge the one great symbol
+of the imperial authority. This was the statue of the emperor. When
+that statue was set up in every town it was not understood by any
+intelligent man that the emperor was actually a god, or that, when
+incense was burnt before the statue, it was being burned to the
+emperor himself as deity. But just as every householder had his
+attendant "Genius"--the power determining his vital functions and
+well-being--which was often represented as a bust with the man's own
+features, so the statue of the Augustus, "His Highness," represented
+the Genius of that Head of the State, and the offering of incense was
+meant as an appeal to the Genius to keep the emperor and the imperial
+power "in health and wealth long to live." The man who refused to make
+such an offering was necessarily considered to be ill-disposed to the
+majesty and welfare of the Head of the State, and therefore of the
+state itself. The Roman attitude towards the early Christians was
+partly that of a modern government towards Nihilists, and partly that
+of a generation or two ago to a blend of extreme Radical with extreme
+atheist.
+
+We are not here concerned with the whole story of the persecution of
+the Christians, but only with the situation at and immediately after
+the date we have chosen. It is at least quite certain that when Nero
+burned the Christians in the year 64 he was treating them, not as the
+adherents of a religion, but as social criminals or nuisances. How far
+his notions of Christianity may have been influenced by Poppaea we do
+not know. At least he believed he was pleasing the populace.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+
+STUDY AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AMONG THE ROMANS
+
+In describing the education of a Roman youth, and also in setting
+forth the various religious attitudes of the time, mention has been
+made of the pursuit of philosophy. Religion supplied no real guide to
+moral conduct, and education provided little exercise for the
+cultivation of the higher intellectual faculties. It was left for
+philosophy to fill these blanks as best it could. Unlike the Greeks,
+the Romans, great as they were in law-making and administration, had
+little natural gift or taste for abstract thought. All the philosophic
+sects had been founded and continued by Greeks, and it was still to
+the Greek half of the empire that the contemporary world looked for
+the best schools and teachers of philosophy. The genuine Roman spirit
+at all times felt some mistrust of such studies, especially if they
+tended to carry the student away from practical life into the "shade"
+and the "corner," or if they tended to subvert the traditional notions
+of "duty" as inculcated by Roman law, Roman custom, and the religion
+of the state. Nevertheless, not only did many Romans, even of mature
+years, resort to the philosophic "Universities" of the time, but
+wealthy houses often maintained a domestic philosopher, whose business
+it was to supply moral teaching and intellectual companionship to his
+employer. Some, indeed, preferred merely a _savant_, who might "post"
+them with information concerning Greek writers, explain difficulties,
+and act in general as a literary _vade mecum_. In many cases, if not
+in most, the Roman aristocrat or plutocrat treated such a retainer as
+a social inferior.
+
+The Roman attitude towards thought and learning too often reminds one
+of a certain modern type which has been irreverently described as
+being "death on culture." While the Greek and graecized oriental loved
+research, discussion, dialectics, ethical and scientific conversation,
+and literary coteries for their own sake, the Roman more commonly
+regarded such things as means for sharpening his abilities and for
+imparting distinction in social intercourse. Doubtless there were, and
+had been, exceptions. No Greek philosopher could be more in earnest
+than Lucretius, the Roman poet of the later republic, and doubtless
+there were no few Romans unknown to fame who both grappled seriously
+with Greek philosophy and also endeavoured to carry it religiously
+into practice. Yet for the most part the Roman, even when he is a
+writer upon such subjects, carries with him the unmistakable air of
+the amateur or the dilettante. In reading Seneca, as in reading
+Cicero, we feel that we are dealing with an able man possessed of an
+excellent gift for popular exposition or essay-writing, but hardly
+with a man of original philosophic endeavour or of strong practical
+conviction. And when we read the letters of the younger Pliny, we
+perceive a genuine admiration for men of thought and a genuine liking
+for "things of the mind," but we also discern that his dealing with
+philosophers and philosophy is strictly such as he deems "fit for a
+gentleman."
+
+In his own way and for his own ends the Roman could be intensely
+studious. He was eager to know and to possess information; but his
+native taste was for information of a positive kind, for definite
+facts more or less encyclopaedic--the facts of history, of science, of
+art, of literature, or even of grammar. His natural bent was not
+towards pure speculation. The elder Pliny was in his prime in the
+later days of Nero, and though he is perhaps an extreme type, he is
+nevertheless a type worth contemplating. His nephew writes a letter to
+a friend in which he gives a formidable list of works which the uncle
+had written or rather compiled, culminating in that huge miscellany
+known as his _Natural History_--a book dealing, not only with
+geography, anthropology, physiology, zoology, botany, mineralogy, but
+also with fine art. How did he lead the ordinary Roman official life
+and yet accomplish all this before he was fifty-six? Here is the
+explanation. "He had a keen intellect, incredible zeal, and the
+greatest capacity for wakefulness. The end of August had not come
+before he began to work by lamplight long before dawn; in winter he
+began as early as one or two o'clock in the morning. It is true that
+he could readily command sleep, which visited and left him even during
+his studies. Before daylight he used to go to the emperor
+Vespasian--who also worked before day--and thence to his appointed
+duty. Returning home he gave the remainder of his time to his studies.
+After his _dejeuner_--which, like any other food that he took in the
+daytime, was light and digestible in the old-fashioned style--if it
+was summer, some leisure moments were spent in lying in the sun; a
+book was read, and he marked passages or made extracts. He never read
+anything without making excerpts, for he used to say that no book was
+so bad as to contain no part that was useful. After sunning himself he
+generally took a cold bath. He then took a snack and a very brief
+siesta, subsequently reading till dinner-time as if it were a new day.
+During dinner a book was read and marked, all very rapidly. I recall
+an occasion on which a certain passage had been badly delivered by his
+reader, whereupon one of the company stopped him and made him read it
+again. Said my uncle, 'I suppose you had caught the meaning?' The
+friend nodded. 'Then why did you call him back? We have lost more than
+ten lines by this interruption of yours.' So economical was he of
+time. In summer he rose from dinner while it was still light, and in
+winter within an hour after dark, as if compelled by some law. Such
+was his day amid all his work and the roar of the city. But when on
+holiday the only time he was not I studying was bath-time. By bath I
+mean when he I was actually right inside; for while he was under
+scraper and towel he would be read to or dictate. When travelling he
+thought of nothing else: at his side was a shorthand writer with a
+book and his tablets. In winter the writer's hands were protected by
+mittens, so that not even the sharpness of the weather should rob him
+of a moment. For the same reason even at Rome he used to ride in a
+sedan-chair (and not in a litter). I remember how he once took me to
+task for walking. Said he, 'You need not have wasted these hours;' for
+he considered as wasted all hours not spent upon study. It was by
+application like this that he completed all those volumes and also
+left to me a hundred and sixty note-books full of selections, written
+in very small hand on both sides of the paper. He used himself to say
+that, when he was the emperor's financial agent in Spain, he could
+have sold these note-books to Largius Licinus for L3000, and at that
+time they were considerably less numerous." ... "And so," writes the
+nephew, "I always laugh when certain people call _me_ studious, for,
+compared to him, I am a most indolent person."
+
+And yet what does this "most indolent person" himself do in the course
+of a lifetime? After a complete oratorical education of the typical
+Roman kind he enters upon a full public career. He undergoes his
+minimum military service with the legions in Syria. He returns to Rome
+and passes right up to the consulship, acquiring particular ability in
+connection with the Treasury. Often he acts as adviser to other
+officers. Apart from his public position he is a pleader before the
+courts. He takes a prominent part in the debates of the senate. He
+belongs to one of the priestly bodies. He does his share in providing
+the public games. He is appointed "Minister for the regulation of the
+Tiber and of the Sewerage." He is afterwards made governor of
+Bithynia, which has fallen into financial disorder and requires
+reorganisation. He possesses numerous estates and has many tenants to
+deal with. He writes speeches, occasional poems, and a large number of
+letters carefully phrased with a view to publication. His social or
+complimentary duties are numerous and exacting. One day he goes out
+hunting wild boar on one of his estates, and kills three of them. How,
+think you, does he pass the time while the beaters are driving the
+animals towards the net? He is thinking up a subject and making notes,
+and actually finds the silence and solitude helpful. He concludes his
+short letter on the subject by advising his friend "when you go
+hunting, take my advice and carry your writing-tablets as well as your
+luncheon-basket and flask: you will find that Minerva roams the hills
+no less than Diana." Pliny the Younger is writing, it is true, a
+generation after Nero, but there had been no appreciable change in
+Roman intellectual tastes during that short interval.
+
+The Roman may have had little inclination towards abstract thinking,
+but he was not an idle-minded man. Even the emperors often cultivated
+the muse. Nero we have seen, wrote verses, while his predecessor
+Claudius bore a strangely near resemblance to our own James I., not
+only in respect of his weakness of character, but also of his
+pretensions to erudition and authorship. We can hardly read the
+literature of this and the next half-century without being amazed at
+the number of names of writers who gained or sought some share of
+repute, although few of them have left works important enough to have
+been kept alive till now. It is true that through all the writing of
+this time there runs what has been called the "falsetto" note, a fact
+which is due partly to the absence of live national questions or the
+freedom to discuss them, and partly to the false principles of the
+rhetorical training already described. The general desire was to show
+cleverness, wide reading, and information; there was no impulse to
+great creation or to exhibitions of profound feeling. Epigram and
+"point" are no less compassed in the overstrained epic of Lucan, and
+in the philosophic essays of Seneca, than in the satires of Persius.
+It is probable that what have been called intellectual "interests"
+were never more widely spread than in the _pax Romana_ of the first
+and second centuries A.D. We gather from literature that books
+innumerable were produced on subjects often as special and minute as
+those selected for a German thesis, and that almost every town worth
+the name, at least in the Greek-speaking part of the empire, produced
+an author of sorts. But when we look into the symposia or chat of
+Plutarch or Aulus Gellius, we cannot fail to note that a large
+proportion of this intellectual and literary activity was being
+frittered away on questions either stereotyped and threadbare, or of
+no appreciable utility either to knowledge or conduct. As for
+dilettante production at Rome itself Pliny remarks in one letter:
+"This year has produced a large crop of poets: there was scarcely a
+day in the whole month of April on which some one did not give a
+reading." During the generation into which Nero was born and that
+which followed him, we meet with no great creative work in either
+prose or poetry, no great contribution to the progress of science or
+thought. The most generally interesting writer of the whole period was
+the Greek Plutarch, but though the _Parallel Lives_ which he was
+preparing are immortal in their kind, and though his _Moral Essays_
+are often most excellent reading, it cannot be said that he is a
+profound original thinker or a creator of anything more than a taking
+literary form. Next to him in value, earlier in date, stands Seneca,
+who, like Plutarch, is a lively thinker and a deft essayist, with the
+same love for a quotation and the same wide interests, but assuredly
+not a considerable enlarger of the field of human thought. To those
+who know Montaigne, the best notion of Seneca and Plutarch will be
+formed by remembering that his essays are admitted by himself to be
+"wholly compiled of what I have borrowed from them." The elder Pliny
+supplies us with extracts and summaries of the knowledge or the
+notions then extant, and we have writings on agriculture by Columella.
+The youthful and rather awkward satirist Persius sees the life which
+he criticises rather through the medium of books than through his own
+eyes. Such works of the period as have gained any kind of immortality
+are certainly interesting and often instructive, but they indicate a
+period in which reading is chiefly cultivated amusement, and knowledge
+rather sought as a pastime and an accomplishment than as a power. The
+favourite reading must contain matter or sense, not too deep or
+exacting; and it must possess a style. Perhaps writers as various as
+Dryden, Pope, Horace Walpole, Samuel Johnson, De Quincey, Macaulay,
+or, on a lower platform, the authors of collections like the
+_Curiosities of Literature_ would have been quite at home in this
+period: but it would have produced no Shakespeare, Milton, or
+Wordsworth. The agreeable poem, the well-expressed essay, are the
+approved reading for men of indolent bent: the informative collection
+for the more curious, serious, or practical-minded. If the early
+empire is "despotism tempered by epigram," it is perhaps not
+altogether untrue that the contemporary literature was pedantry
+tempered by epigram, or at least by quotation.
+
+Science, though its matter was attractive enough to the practical
+Roman, was at a standstill. So far as it existed it was Greek. The
+Greeks had done almost all that could be done by sheer brain-power and
+acumen. They could hardly proceed further without those finer
+instruments which we possess, but which they did not. Though they knew
+of certain magnifying glasses, they had no real telescopes or
+microscopes, no mariner's compass or chronometers, no very delicate
+balances. They possessed a magnificent thinking apparatus and put it
+to admirable use. The modern scientist has generally nothing but
+admiration for their keen insight, and for the brilliant hypotheses
+which they invented and which were frequently but unverified
+anticipations or partial anticipations of theories now in vogue. Where
+they stopped short was at experiment in test of hypothesis. Of all
+exploits of pure thinking in the domain of science perhaps the
+greatest has been the conception that the earth, instead of being a
+flat disk, is a sphere. This theory was held before the age of Nero by
+ancient astronomers and geographers, who had derived the notion partly
+from the eclipses of the moon--of which they well understood the
+cause--and partly from the rising of objects above the horizon. They
+understood also that in a sphere there was gravitation to the centre,
+and were able so to comprehend the level surface of water on the
+globe. The geographer Strabo, more than a generation before our chosen
+date, readily conceives that, if one sailed straight westward out of
+the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar, he would
+ultimately come back round the world by way of the East--that is to
+say, by India. It was not left for Columbus to invent that doctrine.
+It is true that in calculating the circumference of the earth they had
+made it as much as one-seventh too large, but the wonder is that they
+came so near as they did. In regard to the distance of the moon they
+were not more than 1/12th from the modern estimate. The possibility of
+error in dealing with the sun was much greater, and their 51,000,000
+miles is little more than half of what it should have been. Exactly
+how far this doctrine of the sphericity of the earth was popularly
+entertained we cannot tell; it was probably almost confined to those
+directly interested in the question. A theory, anticipating Galileo,
+that it is the earth which moves round the sun, had been mooted, but
+certainly had very little currency. Nor was speculation confined to
+such astronomical conclusions. In the region of physical geography
+rational attempts were made to account for various phenomena, such as
+the existence of deltas or the risings of the Nile, or the appearance
+of sea-shells high on dry land. Strabo, in dealing with the Black Sea,
+has his theories of the elevation or subsidence of land. He also
+suggests previous volcanic conditions of certain districts which had
+been quiescent from before the memory or tradition of the inhabitants.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 113.--WORLD AS CONCEIVED ABOUT A.D. 100.]
+
+Sound methods of discovering latitude and longitude were not yet in
+use, and therefore a map of the world according to ideas current in
+the first century would present a strange aspect to us. There is much
+error in the placing of towns or districts upon their parallels; and
+coasts or mountain ranges, particularly, of course, on the outskirts
+of the empire or in the less familiar lands beyond its bounds, are
+perhaps made to run north instead of north-west, or east instead of
+south-east. It follows that measurements of distances especially
+across the wider seas, were often very inaccurate, although within and
+about the Mediterranean there was so much traffic and such close
+observation of the stars that the errors were gradually reduced. The
+mariner, when he did not follow the coast and guide his course by
+familiar landmarks, steered by the stars, but of these he had a very
+intimate knowledge, to which he joined a close observation of the
+prevailing direction of the winds at the various seasons. There was a
+well-ordered system of lighthouses, and charts and mariners' guides
+were not wanting. In the winter months navigation over long distances
+was regularly suspended, and ships waited in port for the spring.
+
+So far as acquaintance with the world was concerned, we have
+sufficient evidence that the trader knew his way very well down the
+African coast as far as Zanzibar, and along the southern shores of
+Asia as far as Cape Comorin. With Ceylon his acquaintance was vague,
+and only by tradition did he know of Further India by way of the sea
+and of China by way of the land. In the interior of Africa the
+caravans reached the Oases, and by way of Nile or caravan there was
+trade with the Soudan. Outside the Straits of Gibraltar, the Canary
+Islands and Madeira--known indiscriminately as the "Fortunate Isles,"
+or "Isles of the Blest"--were in touch with the port of Cadiz. The
+shape of Great Britain beyond England was indefinite, although it was
+known to be an island, with the Shetlands lying beyond. Ireland was
+also recognised as an island and its relative size was not greatly
+misconceived. The chief misconception in this corner of Europe was
+that of orientation, Britain being placed either far too near or far
+too parallel to Spain (through a large error as to the shape of the
+Bay of Biscay). Meanwhile the coast of the Netherlands and Germany was
+made to run in a line much too closely parallel to the eastern shores
+of Britain. Scandinavia was known from navigating explorers and from
+the amber trade, but was commonly regarded as a large island.
+Knowledge of the Baltic did not extend beyond about the modern Riga,
+and of the whole region thence to the Caspian only the dimmest notions
+were entertained.
+
+From what has been said concerning the calculation of the earth's
+diameter and of the distances of the sun and moon, it may be readily
+understood that the ancient mathematician had arrived at great
+proficiency in the geometrical branch of mathematics. This should
+cause no surprise when we remember what is meant by "Euclid." That
+eminent genius had lived at Alexandria three centuries and a half
+before the age of Nero, and he by no means represents all that was
+known of such mathematics at the latter date. The ancients were quite
+sufficiently versed in the solution of triangles to have made the
+necessary calculations in geography and astronomy, if they had but
+possessed the right instruments. Perhaps only an expert should
+deal--even in the few sentences required for our purpose--with such
+matters as the calculation of the capacity and proportional relations
+of cylinders, or with the mechanics and hydrostatics of Archimedes.
+That philosopher so far understood the laws of applied force that he
+had boasted: "Give me a place to stand on and I will move the world."
+What he and others had learned concerning fluid pressure, or
+concerning pulleys, levers, and other mechanical devices, had not been
+lost by the Greeks and had been borrowed from them for full practical
+use by the Romans. They knew how to lift huge weights, and how to hurl
+heavy missiles by the artillery previously mentioned. Experiments had
+been made at Alexandria in the use of steam-power, but had led to
+nothing practical. It is obvious also from their buildings and works
+of engineering, even without explicit statement, that they well
+understood the distribution of weight and the laws of stability. The
+laws of acoustics were understood with sufficient clearness to make
+them applicable with success to theatres. In practical mensuration--a
+daily necessity for men who were perpetually allotting lands or
+marking out camps--the Romans were experts. In pure arithmetic the
+contemporary world had made some considerable advance, such as in the
+extraction of square-roots and cube-roots; but, as has been already
+said, the Roman interest was virtually confined to such arithmetic or
+mathematics as appeared to possess some bearing on actual use.
+
+Of chemistry, in the modern scientific sense, the ancients knew almost
+nothing. Empirically they were aware of certain properties exhibited
+by substances, and could perform certain manipulations; but, like
+moderns down to a very recent time, they had no real understanding of
+the quantitative or qualitative relations of elements. Long ago Greek
+philosophy, followed by the Epicurean school, had set forth an "atomic
+theory," which on the surface is surprisingly like the modern chemical
+hypothesis; but this contained strange and illogical features and had
+no connection with actual practice. In this department the chief
+proficiency of the world of this date lay in metallurgy, in which the
+processes empirically discovered, chiefly by Egyptians and
+Phoenicians, were closely similar to those now employed. They
+thoroughly understood the smelting of ores, but could render no
+scientific account of the processes. Botany was in a very crude
+condition, scarcely extending beyond such knowledge as was required on
+the one hand for farming and horticulture, and on the other for the
+vegetable medicines used by contemporary physicians.
+
+The doctoring of the time was also, of course, largely empirical, but
+assuredly hardly more so than it was a century or so ago, and
+distinctly more rational than it became in the Middle Ages. We cannot
+conceive of a reputable doctor at Rome prescribing the nauseous
+mediaeval absurdities. Practical surgery must have been surprisingly
+advanced, and there is scarcely a modern surgeon who does not exclaim
+in admiration of the instruments discovered at Pompeii and now
+preserved in the Naples Museum (see FIG. 69). In physic it is, of
+course, tolerably certain that many of the remedies or methods of
+treatment were of the sound and simple kind discovered by the long
+experience of mankind and often put in use by our grandmothers.
+The defect contemporary medicine was that it was almost wholly
+empirical. The ancient surgeon could doubtless perform ordinary
+operations--amputations and excisions--with neatness, and the ancient
+physician knew perfectly well what to do with the ordinary
+complaints--the fevers and agues, the bilious attacks, the gout, or
+the dropsy--but he was baffled by any new conditions. Moreover, if he
+could diagnose and cure, he could seldom prevent, inasmuch as he had
+little understanding of the causes of maladies. He had everything to
+learn in regard to sanitation and the preventing of infection. A
+plague would sometimes kill half the people in a town or district, and
+the loss of 30,000 persons in the metropolis would probably appear to
+most Romans as a visitation of the gods, nor is it certain that the
+doctors would generally disagree with that view. Though there were
+many quacks, it is not the case that the reputable medical men--most
+of them Greek, some of them Romans, who borrowed a Greek name because
+it "paid"--lacked the scientific spirit or such knowledge as the time
+afforded. They went to the medical school at Alexandria or elsewhere,
+and studied their treatises on physic and anatomy, but, at least in
+the latter subject, they were sadly hampered. Dissection of human
+bodies was forbidden by law as being a desecration of the dead, and
+though it might sometimes be practised _sub rosa_, it was the general
+custom to perform the dissections on other animals, particularly
+monkeys, and to argue thence erroneously to mankind.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+
+PHILOSOPHY--STOICS AND EPICUREANS
+
+With such an unsatisfactory equipment of science, and with such a
+vague and morally inoperative religion, it was no wonder that the
+higher minds of the contemporary world turned to the study of
+philosophy. Of such studies there had been many schools or sects, but
+at this date we have chiefly to reckon with two--the Stoics and
+Epicureans. There were, it is true, the Academics, who disputed
+everything, and held no doctrine to be more true than its contrary.
+There were Eclectics, who picked and chose. But the majority of those
+who affected a positive philosophy attached themselves either to the
+Stoic or else to the Epicurean system, not necessarily with orthodox
+rigidity on every point, but as a general guide--at least in
+theory--to the conduct of life. Where we belong to a certain religious
+denomination or church, and "sit under" a certain class of preachers,
+they belonged to a certain school of philosophy, and attended the
+lectures of certain of its expounders. Instead of a chaplain or parish
+clergyman they engaged or associated with an expert in their special
+system. But just as the Frenchman remarked, "_Je suis catholique, mais
+je ne pratique pas_," so might one be in principle a good Stoic
+without much exercise of the accepted doctrines. The distinction
+between the tenets of the two great schools was wide, but within each
+school itself individuals might differ as widely as "Broad Church"
+from whatever its opposite may be called. The choice between the two
+schools was mainly a matter of temperament. Persons of the sterner
+type of mind, caring comparatively little for the physical comforts
+and gracious amenities of life, and possessed of a strong sense of
+duty and decorum--inclined, perhaps, not only to piety and
+self-abnegation, but also to be somewhat dour and uncompromising--were
+naturally attracted to Stoicism. Those of the complementary character
+preferred the doctrines of Epicurus. The Stoics were the Pharisees,
+the Epicureans the Sadducees, of pagan philosophy. As the Pharisees
+were the most Hebraic of the Hebrews, so it was Stoicism that came to
+be the characteristic Roman creed. The ordinary Roman had been brought
+up in the tradition of obeying the law of the state and the claims of
+duty; he had high notions of personal dignity and a leaning to the
+heroic virtues. Give him a strong, consistent, and elevating religion
+and he would be normally a pious man. Stoicism supplied him with a
+standard which was in keeping with such tendencies. About Epicureanism
+there was nothing heroic or elevating.
+
+Put briefly, and therefore crudely, the Epicurean doctrine was that
+happiness is the end of life. What men seek, and have a right to seek,
+is the most pleasant existence. Our conduct should secure for us as
+much real pleasure as possible. Now at first sight this looks like
+what it was opprobriously called by its enemies, "the philosophy of
+the pig-sty." It by no means meant this to its founder. For what is
+"pleasure"? Not by any means necessarily the gratification of the
+moment, physical or otherwise. A present pleasure may mean future
+pain, either of body or of mind. Wrong actions and bestial enjoyments
+bring their own penalty. You must choose wisely, and so direct your
+life that you suffer least and enjoy most consistently. Temperance and
+wisdom are therefore virtues necessary to a true Epicurean. You desire
+health; therefore you will live, as Epicurus lived, on simple and
+wholesome food. You desire tranquillity or peace of mind; therefore
+you will abstain from all perverse acts and gratifications, desires
+and emotions, which disturb that peace. In short the thing to be
+sought is nothing else but this grateful composure of mind--a thing
+which you cannot have if you are always wanting this or that and
+either abusing or misusing your bodily or mental functions, or
+needlessly mortifying yourself. To the plain man this apparently meant
+"Take life easily and keep free of worry." Naturally the plain man's
+ideas of taking life easily became those of taking pleasures as they
+come, indolently accepting the agreeables of life and feeling no call
+to make much of its duties. It is all very well for a high-minded
+philosopher to avoid a pleasure in order to avoid its pain, and to
+realize that a pleasure of the mind is worth more than a pleasure of
+the body, but one cannot expect the ordinary pupil--the _homme moyen
+sensuel_--to comprehend this attitude with heartiness sufficient to
+put it into practice. It followed therefore that the Epicurean tended,
+not only to become lazy, but to become vicious, or to make light of
+vices. This was not indeed true Epicureanism, and Epicurus is not to
+blame for it; it simply shows that Epicureanism, whatever its logical
+or other merits, provided no sufficient stimulus to a right life. As
+regards theology the position of the school was that there might very
+well be such things as higher beings--there was nothing in physical
+philosophy to make them any more impossible than a man or a fish--but
+that, if they existed, they were not concerned with man's affairs; his
+moral conduct, like his sacrifices and prayers, was not matter for
+their consideration. No need, therefore, to let superstition worry
+you, or to trouble about future punishment. Conduct your life
+according to the same principles laid down, and let the gods--if there
+be any--look to themselves. Naturally the result of such a position is
+that ceasing to regard the gods means ceasing to believe in them, and,
+as a Roman writer says: "In theory it leaves us the gods, in practice
+it abolishes them."
+
+The other school--that of the Stoics--is perhaps less easily
+comprehended, nor can it be said that its doctrines were always quite
+so coherent. Again we may put the position briefly, and therefore,
+perhaps, only approximately. The rule of life is to live as "nature"
+directs. Nature has its laws, which you cannot disobey with impunity.
+The law of nature is the mind of God. The material universe is the
+body, God is its soul, and He directs the workings of nature with
+foreknowledge and perfect wisdom. If man can only be brought to act in
+strict accordance with the mind of God--or law of nature--he is sure
+of perfect well-being, because he can do nothing as it should not be
+done. If he can only arrive at such perfect operation of his mental
+processes, he will necessarily be the perfect speaker, the perfect
+ruler, the perfect craftsman, the perfect performer of every task,
+including the securing of his own happiness. Doubtless this is logical
+enough, but how is one to attain to such right mental operations, and
+to become what was called a "sage"? Only by acting always according to
+reason and not according to passion. That and that alone is "virtue."
+The divine mind is not swayed by passion--by hope, fear, exultation,
+or grief--but only and always by reason. Learn therefore to obey
+reason and reason only. Do not permit yourself to be drawn from the
+true path by fear of threats, even of death, nor by grief, even for
+your dearest friends. Such feelings warp your reason, distract
+your judgment, and deflect you from the right course. When
+passion--feeling--comes in conflict with reason, you must drive
+feeling away. Your reason may not always be right; nevertheless it is
+the best guide you have, and you must cultivate it to act as rightly
+as possible. Remember that the power to act in accordance with the
+divine mind--the law of nature--lies in your own will; things external
+have nothing to do with that straight-forward proceeding--they cannot
+help you, and you must not let them hinder you. The condition of your
+mind is everything; as long as its operation is right, you are living
+in the right way. Your mind may act as rightly in poverty as in
+riches; you may be equally wise and virtuous whether you have the
+external advantages or not. You must therefore learn to ignore these
+things--pain, grief, fear, joy, and all the other perturbing
+influences. Cultivate, therefore, right reason and the absence of
+emotions.
+
+This, you will say, is a very high, unattainable, if not inhuman,
+standard. Quite so, and therefore, while Epicureanism often produced
+vicious men, this often produced pretenders and even hypocrites.
+Nevertheless it is better to set oneself a high standard than a low
+one, and a Roman who endeavoured to control himself by reason, and to
+place himself above fear and pain, was thereby on the way to be brave,
+patient, truthful, and just. Those who would see what high character
+could be associated with Stoicism--whether as the result or as the
+motive of the choice of the school--should read Epictetus, whose text,
+written early in the next century, was "sustain and abstain," and also
+the great-minded gentle Emperor Marcus Aurelius. A logical outcome of
+Stoicism was that you should say only the thing which reason approved,
+and say it unafraid. A good republican virtue, this, but under the
+emperors a dangerous one, as an honest Stoic like Thrasea found out.
+In practice there was naturally much qualifying or mellowing of the
+rigid Stoic attitude: the exigencies of actual life had to be met part
+of the way, and both Greek and Roman Stoics were often only Stoics in
+part--the complete "sage" was of course impossible.
+
+As for the gods, it is obvious that the Stoics were pantheists; there
+was one God, and He was the soul of the universe. They also, of
+course, recognised His providence. What then of the gods of the state?
+Some did not attempt to discuss them. Others treated the various
+so-called separate deities in the list as being only so many
+manifestations or avatars of the same divine power, and whether they
+were content or not with that attempt at harmonisation, who shall say?
+
+Meanwhile, at least in the eastern part of the empire, you might meet
+with another type of philosopher, the Cynic, belonging to the same
+school as the famous Diogenes, who had lived in that large earthenware
+jar commonly known as his "tub." Like the Stoic, the Cynic held that
+externals were of no value, and therefore he contented himself with a
+piece of bread, a wallet full of beans, and a jug of water. Like the
+Stoic, he believed in perfect freedom of speech, and therefore he
+spoke loudly and often abusively of all and sundry who appeared to him
+to deserve it. Some such men doubtless were sincere enough, like the
+earlier hermits or preaching friars, but many of them were simply idle
+and virulent impostors who thoroughly deserved that name of the "dog"
+which was commonly given to them, and which came to designate their
+school.
+
+The mention of impostors and hypocrites brings us naturally to a point
+which may have been foreseen. To the ancient world the professional
+philosophers were the nearest approach to our professional clergy.
+They affected an appearance accordingly; and the philosopher was
+regularly known by his long beard, his coarse cloak, and his staff.
+But, alas! there were many who disgraced their cloth. There were Stoic
+teachers who practised all manner of secret vices, and whose behaviour
+was in outrageous contradiction to their creed of the "absence of
+emotions." There were not only many Honeymans, there were many
+Stigginses. There were idlers and vagabonds on a level with the
+mendicant friars and pardon-sellers of the time of Chaucer. There were
+pompous hypocrites. Also side by side with the serious and earnest
+philosopher, as deeply learned in the books of his sect as a modern
+divine, there were charlatans and dabblers. It is unfortunately in
+this last light that the Apostle Paul appeared to the professional
+Stoic and Epicurean teachers of Athens. They were the finished
+products of the philosophic schools of the most famous universities,
+while he was supposed by them to be teaching some new kind of
+philosophy. Philosophers were apt to be itinerant, and St. Paul was
+looked upon as but another of these new arrivals. In his language they
+detected what seemed to be borrowed notions not consistently bound
+together, and they therefore called him by a name which it is not easy
+to translate. Literally it is "a picker up of seeds"--that is to say,
+a sciolist who gathers scraps from profounder people and gives them
+out with an air. Perhaps the nearest, although an undignified, word is
+"quack." That Paul possessed a knowledge of Greek philosophy, and
+particularly of Stoicism, is practically certain. He came from Tarsus
+in Cilicia, and Cilicia was the native home of many leading Stoics,
+including its greatest representative in all antiquity. He had been
+taught by Gamaliel, who was versed in "the learning of the Greeks."
+His address at Athens was deliberately meant to bear a relation to the
+philosophy of the experts who were present, but necessarily it could
+only introduce a few salient allusions, such as even a dabbler could
+have picked up, and we can hardly blame the specialists for their
+erroneous judgment. As he says himself: "The Greeks demand philosophy;
+but we proclaim a Messiah crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block,
+and to the Greeks a folly."
+
+To discuss further the moral ideas of the Roman world would consume
+more space and time than can be afforded here. It may, however, be
+worth while to mention that suicide was commonly--and especially by
+the Stoics--looked upon as a natural and blameless thing, when calm
+reason appeared to justify the proceeding, and when due consideration
+was given to social claims. To seek a euthanasia in such cases was an
+act of wisdom. Belief in an underworld or an after life was not rare
+among the common people, but it certainly did not exist in any force
+among the cultivated classes. It was taught neither by philosophy nor
+by the religion of the state. Yet the sense that rewards or
+punishments are unfairly meted out in this world was strong in many a
+mind, and this is one of the facts which account for the hold taken
+upon such minds, first by the religion of Isis, and then in a still
+greater and more abiding measure by Christianity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+
+THE ROMAN PROFUSION OP ART
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 114.--THE DYING GAUL.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 115.--A "CANDELIERA" OR MARBLE PILASTER OF THE
+BASILICA AEMILIA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 116.--FRAGMENTS OF THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE REGIA.]
+
+It would be a more than agreeable task to deal at some length with the
+art of the Roman world of this period, but the subject is vast, and
+demands a treatise to itself. How general was the love of art--or at
+least the recognition of its place in life--must be obvious to those
+who have seen the great collections in Rome, gathered partly from the
+city itself and partly from the towns and country "villas" of Italy,
+and those in the National Museum at Naples, acquired mainly from the
+buried cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Nor are we amazed merely at
+the quantity of statues, statuettes, busts, reliefs, paintings, mosaic
+gems and cameos, and artistically wrought objects and utensils, which
+have been preserved while so many thousands of such productions have
+disappeared in the conflagrations of Rome, the vandalisms of the
+ignorant, or the kilns and melting-pots of the Middle Ages. The
+quality is still more a source of delight than the quantity. This last
+sentence, of course, contains a truism, since art is no delight
+without high quality. If we had only preserved to us such masterpieces
+as the Capitoline Venus, the Dying Gaul, the Laocoon, the Dancing
+Faun, the so-called Narcissus, and the Resting Mercury, we should
+realise something of the exquisite skill in plastic art which had been
+attained in antiquity and has never been attained since. But we might
+perhaps imagine that these were altogether exceptional pieces and the
+choicest gems possessed by the world of the time. Yet the preservation
+of these is but an accident, and there is no reason to believe them to
+be more than survivals out of many equally excellent. On the contrary,
+our ancient authorities--such as the elder Pliny--prove that there was
+a multitude of similar creations contained in public buildings alone.
+Pompeii, it has already been said more than once, was a provincial
+town in no way distinguished for the high culture of its inhabitants;
+yet there is scarcely a house of any consideration which has not
+afforded some example of fine art in one form or another. We know that
+several of the Roman temples--such as those of Concord in the Forum
+and of Apollo on the Palatine--were veritable galleries of
+masterpieces; and that the rich Romans adorned both their town houses
+and country villas with dozens of statues, colossal, life-size, or
+miniature, by distinguished masters. But still more striking is the
+fact that the comparatively small homes of Pompeii often possessed a
+work for which no price would now be too large, and of which we are
+content even to obtain a tolerably good copy. At Herculaneum there
+evidently lived persons of greater literary and artistic I refinement
+than at Pompeii, and the discoveries from that only very partially
+excavated town make an incalculably rich show of their own. What then
+would be the case with Naples, Baiae, the resorts all along the coast
+as far as the Tiber, the luxurious villas on the Alban Hills, and the
+great metropolis itself?
+
+Yet the fact of this universal recognition of art is scarcely made so
+impressive by these collected specimens of perfect taste and perfect
+execution, as it is incidentally by observing the delicate and
+graceful finish of some moulding on a chance fragment from a building,
+such as the Basilica Aemilia or the office of the Pontifex in the
+Forum, or the exquisite chiselling of trailing ivy upon a cup from
+Herculaneum (FIG. 56), or the dainty pattern wrought on no more
+important a thing than a bucket (FIG. 58), or the graceful shape
+imparted to a household lamp (FIG. 54). Water could hardly be
+permitted to spout in a peristyle or garden without doing so from some
+charming statuette, animal figure, or decorative mask or head. When
+fine art is sought in things like these, we may guess how
+uncompromisingly it was sought in things more avowedly "on show."
+
+The age with which we have been dealing fell within the most
+flourishing period of Roman, or rather Graeco-Roman, taste and
+craftsmanship. A hundred years later both taste and execution were
+declining, and by the age of Constantine--two centuries and a half
+after Nero--not one artist could pretend to achieve such work as had
+belonged to a multitude between the reigns of Augustus and Hadrian.
+
+It is not indeed probable that, even at our date, the large and noble
+simplicity of the older Greek masters could be rivalled. It is not
+probable that most of the former creations of art still preserved
+could have been wrought as originals by any Greek or Roman artist
+living in the time of Nero. Nevertheless technical craftsmanship was
+still superb, and while the contemporary artist could not create a
+splendid original, he was at least able to create an almost perfect
+copy. The Roman public buildings and private houses were enriched with
+a host of such copies, or, when not exact copies, with modifications
+which, though not improvements, were at least such as could not offend
+by displaying a lack of technical mastery. Let us grant that it was
+for the most part Greeks who were the artists; nevertheless the Greek
+is an active member of the Roman world and of its metropolitan life,
+and he executes his work to the order of the Roman state or the Roman
+patron; and therefore the art of the time deserves to be called Roman
+in that sense. There is little doubt that the Romans, if left to
+themselves, would have developed only the solid, or the gorgeous, or
+the baroque. But influences which penetrate a society are part of that
+society, and the Greek influence accepted by the Roman becomes a Roman
+principle.
+
+Perhaps it is also true that many a Roman who possessed fine works of
+art, and even exquisite ones, was not in reality a true connoisseur;
+that, even if he were, he lacked instructive and ardent appreciation
+of art for its own sake; and that, like his cultivation of
+intellectual society or learning, his cultivation of art was rather
+that of a man determined to be on a level with the culture of his
+times. Nevertheless the fact is palpable, that the cultivation was
+there, and was displayed in public architecture and in household
+embellishment in a way which puts the modern world to shame. With us
+art is a luxury for the few, and a keen enjoyment for still fewer; in
+the age of Nero it penetrated the life of every class.
+
+In architecture the native Roman gift was for the practical combined
+with the massive and grandiose. The structures in which they
+themselves excelled were the amphitheatre, the public baths, the
+triumphal arch, the basilica, the bridge, and the aqueduct. Their
+mastery of the arch, their excellent concrete, and their engineering
+genius, enabled them to produce works in this kind which had had no
+parallels in the Greek world. Nor had the Greeks felt the same need
+for such buildings. They had been innocent of gladiatorial shows, and
+they had been unfortunately too innocent of large conceptions in the
+way of water-supply. When an amphitheatre or aqueduct of the Roman
+kind was to be found in the graecized half of the empire, it was
+constructed under Roman influence. The modern may well afford to
+wonder at and envy the profusion of such structures in the ancient
+world. How noble and at the same time how strong was the work of the
+Romans when they undertook to supply even a provincial town with
+abundant and adequate water, is manifest from such aqueducts as are
+still to be seen at Nimes (FIG. 1) or at Segovia. In other
+architectural conceptions the Romans of the time of Nero mainly
+followed the Greek lead and employed Greek artists. The architectural
+"orders" were Greek, with sundry Graeco-Roman modifications,
+particularly in the way of more ornate or fantastic Corinthian
+capitals; the notions of sculptural decoration were equally of
+Hellenic origin. Their theatres also were of the Greek kind adapted in
+non-essentials to the somewhat different conditions of a Roman
+performance. The Greek taste in decoration was the simpler and purer:
+the Roman cultivated the sumptuous and the ornate, sometimes, with
+conspicuous success, often with an overloaded effect. As Friedlander
+(who, however, deals with a much longer period than ours) puts the
+matter: "Nowhere, least of all at Rome, was an important public
+building erected without the chiseller, the stucco-worker, the carver,
+the founder, the painter, and mosaic-maker being called in. Statues,
+single or in groups, filled gables, roofs, niches, interstices of
+columns, staircases in the temples, theatres, amphitheatres,
+basilicas, public baths, bridges, arches, portals, and viaducts. . . .
+Triumphal arches generally had at their summits equestrian figures,
+trophies, chariots of four or six horses, driven by figures of
+victory. Reliefs and medallions bedecked the frieze, and reliefs or
+paintings the walls; ceilings were gay with stucco or coloured work,
+and the floors with glittering mosaics. All the architectural
+framework, supports, thresholds, lintels, mouldings, windows, and even
+gutters were overloaded with decorative figures."
+
+It was above all in plastic art that the contemporary world was
+enormously rich. Not only could no public building dispense with such
+decorations as those above mentioned; no private house of the least
+pretensions was without its statues, busts, statuettes, carved
+reliefs, and stucco-work. Never was statuary in marble or bronze so
+plentiful in every part of the empire, in public squares, or in the
+houses of representative people--in reception-hall, peristyle court,
+garden, or colonnade. Portrait statues in the largest towns were to be
+counted by hundreds, and sometimes by thousands. Men distinguished in
+war, in letters, in public life, and in local benefactions were as
+regularly commemorated by statues or busts as they are in modern times
+by painted portraits. Sometimes--unlike the modern portraits of
+course--these were paid for by the recipient of the compliment. In the
+comparatively unimportant Forum of Pompeii there stood five colossal
+statues, between seventy and eighty life-size equestrian statues, and
+as many standing figures, while the public buildings surrounding this
+open space contained their dozen or twenty each. As has been said
+already, most of the best work in sculpture--apart from these bronze
+and marble portraits of contemporaries--was reproduction of Grecian
+masterpieces dating from the time of Pheidias onward. Particularly did
+the Roman affect the more elaborate work of the period of the later
+"Macedonian" kings. Where the actual work was not exactly copied it at
+least supplied the main conception or motive. It followed naturally
+that there would be in existence many copies of the same piece, and,
+in procuring these, both the public and the householder would feel
+relieved of any danger of betraying the wrong taste. The workshops or
+studios of Greek artists turned out large numbers of a given
+masterpiece--a Faun, a Venus, or a Discobolus--at prices from L50 or
+so upwards. It followed also that there were numerous imitations
+passed off as originals, and many a wealthy man boasted of possessing
+an "original" or a genuine "old master"--a Praxiteles or a
+Lysippus--when he owned but a clever reproduction. The same remark
+applies, not only to the statues, but to the genre-groups and animal
+forms of which such fine examples can be seen in the Vatican Museum,
+and also to silver cups by "Mentor" or to bronzes of Corinth.
+Petronius, the coarse but witty "arbiter of taste" under Nero, mocks
+at the vulgar _nouveau riche_ who imagined that the Corinthian bronzes
+were the work of an artist named Corinthus.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 117.--WALL-PAINTING. (Woman with Tablets.)]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 118.--WALL-PAINTING FROM HERCULANEUM. (Women
+playing with Knuckle-Bones.)]
+
+Next to sculpture came painting, and in this art Romans themselves
+appear to have often acquired a technical skill which rivalled that of
+the Greeks. There is also plenty of evidence that among the pictorial
+artists there were no few women. For us practically the only painting
+of the time which has been preserved is that upon the walls of private
+houses, and it is probable that we see some of the worst specimens of
+the kind as well as some of a high order of excellence. It is not
+difficult to distinguish between the truly artistic design and
+colouring of wall-pictures in the House of Vettii or of the "Tragic
+Poet" and the crude journeyman work in sundry other Pompeian houses
+which must have belonged to anything but connoisseurs. Paintings, it
+must be remembered, were the ancient wall-papers, as well as the
+ancient pictures. Here, as in sculpture, we find the same or similar
+motives and groupings repeated in a way which shows that the
+painter--or rather the collaborating painters--must have been
+reproducing or adapting an original which was particularly admired or
+had obtained a fashionable vogue. The wall-pictures, done in fresco or
+distemper and in various dimensions, fall into four main classes.
+There are landscapes, from a pretty realistic garden scene to a
+fantastic stretch of sea and land diversified with woods, rocks,
+figures, and buildings. There are subjects from mythology and from
+poetical "history" or legend, chiefly representing "moments of
+dramatic interest." There are genre-pictures, such as those of the
+Cupids acting as goldsmiths, oil-dealers, or wine-merchants. Finally
+there are pictures of still-life--of fishes, birds, fruits, and other
+objects--often admirable in their kind. Serving as frame or setting to
+many of the scenes there are architectural paintings--sometimes in
+complicated but highly skilful perspective, but often extremely unreal
+and confusing in conception--representing columns and pediments of
+buildings. It must here suffice to offer one or two characteristic
+examples out of the multitude of wall-paintings which have been found
+(see also Figs. 43, 44).
+
+Though Romans themselves, and even persons of standing, sometimes
+dabbled in the fine arts, it is unquestionable that they commonly
+regarded the professional artist as only a superior tradesman. They
+admired his skill, but rendered little esteem to the man. A Roman
+knight or a Roman lady might occasionally paint for pleasure; Nero
+himself might model a figure or handle a brush; but so soon as art
+ceased to be dilettante and became a calling, so soon as its work was
+produced for payment, the artist ranked with other hirelings, however
+superior he might be in kind. Seneca expresses an open contempt,
+although he is perhaps, here as elsewhere, judging by a standard more
+severe than that of his contemporaries in general. To some extent this
+attitude is explained by the very abundance of objects of art, and by
+the immense number of artists, now nameless, belonging to the period;
+it is also to some extent excused by the fact that the craftsmanship,
+however consummate, was not at this period accompanied by the
+originality of the great Greek times from which it borrowed. Much of
+the work--particularly perhaps in painting and metal-chasing--was done
+by slaves. Apart from this consideration, the studios were so numerous
+and taught so well, that there must have been thousands of persons
+working either alone or co-operatively, whose position, however
+excellent the performance, became analogous to that of a
+house-decorator. On a wall to be painted in fresco a number of
+painters would be employed together. Throughout the Roman world,
+wherever works of art were wanted, the professional would travel,
+often with his assistants, and take up a contract. In modern parlance,
+the communities requiring some monument of art "called for tenders"
+and were prone to accept the lowest.
+
+Whatever abundance of art the Roman world cultivated and possessed;
+however indispensable to a public place was a wealth of buildings with
+lavish decoration of sculptured pillars, of statues, or of triumphal
+arches; however necessary to a private house were originals, supposed
+originals, and copies in the way of statuary, paintings, bronzes,
+mosaics, and other means of artistic adornment; it is very doubtful
+whether any large number of Romans entertained that spontaneous
+enjoyment of the beauty of art which is known as genuine "artistic
+feeling." In their literature we look in vain for any expression of
+enthusiasm on the subject. There are many references to works of art,
+but none which possess any intense glow of warmth. Doubtless art was
+so abundant that, as has already been said in reference to the
+appreciation of natural beauty, the absence of "gush" need not
+indicate absence of real enjoyment. Enjoyment there was, but it was
+apparently for the most part the enjoyment either of the collector or
+of the man who realises that an appreciation of art demands a large
+place in culture, and who is determined to be as well supplied and as
+well informed as his neighbour, while his judgment of a piece of work,
+though far from unintelligent, and often excellent in regard to
+principles of design and technical execution, is mainly the result of
+a deliberate training and cult, and is in consequence somewhat chill
+and detached.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 119.--LYRE AND HARP.]
+
+Of music the Romans were passionately fond, but the music itself was
+of a description which perhaps would hardly commend itself to modern
+notions, particularly those of northern Europe. The instruments in use
+were chiefly the harp, the lyre, and the flageolet (or flute played
+with a mouthpiece). To these we may add for processions the straight
+trumpet and the curved horn, and, for more orgiastic occasions or
+celebrations, the panpipes, cymbals, and tambourine or kettledrum.
+Performers from the East played upon certain stringed instruments not
+greatly differing from the lyre and harp of Greece and Italy. Women
+from Cadiz used the castagnettes. Hydraulic organs with pipes and keys
+were coming into vogue, and the bagpipes were also sufficiently
+familiar. In the use of all these instruments the ancients knew
+nothing of the harmonisation of parts; to them harmony and concerto
+implied no more than unison, or a difference of octaves. Whatever
+emotions may have been evoked by the music so produced, it cannot be
+imagined that they were of the intensity or subtlety of which the
+modern art and instruments are capable. Apart from the professionals,
+many Roman youths and the majority of Roman girls learned both to play
+and Sing, the instrument most affected being the harp, and the teacher
+of harp-playing being held in the highest esteem and receiving the
+highest emoluments. Sacrifices were regularly accompanied by the
+flageolet; processions by this and the trumpet; the rites of Bacchus
+by pipes, tambourines, and cymbals; performances in the theatre by an
+immense orchestra of various instruments; the more elaborate dinners
+by flute, harp, concerto of the two, singing, and such coarser and
+more exciting performances as were to the taste of the host or his
+company. The greatest houses kept their own choir and orchestra of
+slaves; the less wealthy hired musicians as they needed them. As for
+the Romans themselves, certain religious ceremonies called for singing
+of boys and girls in chorus; and in a purely domestic way the women of
+the house played on the harp and sang. Where there was singing, the
+words dominated the music and not the contrary, but snatches from
+recent popular pieces were sung and hummed in the streets for the sake
+of their taking air, just as they are in modern times. We cannot
+conceive of any Roman festivity without abundance of music. When in
+spring at Baiae on the Bay of Naples the holiday frequenters of that
+resort were rowed about the Lucrine Lake in their flower-bedecked
+gondolas or boats with coloured sails, the musicians were no less in
+evidence than they are now at every opportunity on the waters of the
+same bay or in the evening on the Grand Canal at Venice. In the truly
+Greek portion of the empire music, though no more advanced in method,
+was for the most part of a finer and severer kind; but at
+Alexandria--where it amounted to a mania--the influence of the native
+Egyptian style, blent with the more passionate among the Greek modes,
+had produced a music extremely exciting and highly demoralising.
+
+On the whole, it may reasonably be held that music played at least as
+important a part both in the houses and the public entertainments of
+the ancient Romans as it plays in modern Italy. The artists were as
+carefully trained, the audiences as critical or as receptive, the
+personal affectations of the musicians as characteristic, and their
+effect on emotional admirers of the opposite sex as great, as they are
+at the present day. The difference between the two ages consists in
+the nature of the music itself, and in the instruments through which
+it is respectively delivered; and in these respects the advantage is
+entirely with the modern world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+
+THE LAST SCENE OF ALL--BURIAL AND TOMBS
+
+Whatever conceptions may have been entertained as to existence beyond
+the grave, there was no doubt in the Roman mind as to the claim of the
+dead to a proper burial and a worthy monument. It had once on a time
+been a matter of universal belief that the spirit which had departed
+from an unburied corpse could find no admittance to the company in the
+realms of Hades. It could not join "the majority" below. Originally no
+doubt the notion was simply that, as the body had not been consigned
+to the earth, the spirit also remained homeless above ground.
+Gradually this fancy shifted to the notion that, through neglect of
+burial, the dead man was dishonoured--he had no friends--and that his
+spirit was thereby disgraced and unworthy of reception by the powers
+beneath. It must therefore remain shivering on the near side of the
+river across which the grim Charon ferried the more fortunate souls.
+Even when the body had been decently buried, the spirit, though
+received into the gloomy realm, called for continued respect on the
+part of its friends on earth. Unless it received its periodical
+honours and was commemorated by a fitting sepulchre, it would meet
+with slights from other ghosts and would feel its position keenly.
+Naturally it would then do its best, by some form of haunting, to
+punish the living for their disregard and forgetfulness. From such
+considerations there arose in very ancient days in Italy, as in
+Greece, a great anxiety to perform scrupulously "the dues" of the
+defunct. Even if the body could not be found, it was obligatory to
+perform the obsequies and to build a cenotaph. If a stranger came
+across a dead body he must not pass it by without throwing at least
+three handfuls of dust or earth upon it and bidding it "Farewell."
+
+Though the burial customs still employed sprang from old fancies like
+these, we are not to suppose that such notions were in full life in
+the Roman world of our period. Poets might play with them, and some
+ignorant folk might still vaguely entertain them. The mere belief in
+ghosts was doubtless general, and even the learned argued the question
+of their existence. Here are parts of another letter culled from Pliny
+already several times quoted. He writes to his friend Sura: "I should
+very much like to know whether you think that apparitions actually
+exist, with a real shape of their own and a kind of supernatural
+power, or that it is only our fear which gives an embodiment to vain
+fancies. My own inclination is to believe in them, and chiefly because
+of an experience which, I am told, befell Curtius Rufus." He then
+speaks of a phantom form which prophesied that person's fortune.
+"Another occurrence, quite as wonderful and still more terrifying, I
+will relate as I was told it. There was at Athens a house which was
+roomy and commodious, but which bore an ill-name and was
+plague-stricken. In the silence of the night there was heard a sound
+of iron. On closer attention it proved to be a rattling of chains,
+first at a distance and then close at hand. Soon there appeared the
+spectre of an old man, miserably thin and squalid, with a long beard
+and unkempt hair. On his legs were fetters, and on his hands chains,
+which he kept shaking. In consequence the inhabitants spent horrible
+and sleepless nights; the sleeplessness made them ill, and, as their
+terror increased, the illness was followed by death.... As a result
+the house was deserted and totally abandoned to the ghost.
+Nevertheless it was advertised, on the chance that some one ignorant
+of all this trouble" (note the commercial morality) "might choose to
+buy it or rent it. To Athens there comes a philosopher named
+Athenodorus, who reads the placard. On hearing the price and finding
+it so cheap, he has his suspicions" (the ancient philosopher had his
+practical side), "makes enquiry, and learns the whole story. So far
+from being less inclined to hire it, he is only the more willing. On
+the approach of evening he gives orders for his couch to be made up in
+the front part of the house, and asks for his tablets, pencils, and a
+light. After dismissing his attendants to the back rooms, he applies
+all his attention, as well as his eyes and hand, steadily to his
+writing, for fear his mind, if unoccupied, might conjure up imaginary
+sounds and causeless fears. At first there was the same silence of the
+night as elsewhere; then there was a shaking of iron, a movement of
+chains. The philosopher refused to lift his eyes or stop his pencil;
+instead he braced up his mind so as to overcome his hearing. The noise
+grew louder; it approached; it sounded as if on the threshold; then as
+if within the room. He looks behind him; sees and recognises the
+apparition of which he has been told. It was standing and beckoning to
+him with its finger, as if calling him. In answer our friend makes it
+a sign with his hand to wait a while, and once more applies himself to
+tablet and pencil. The ghost began to rattle its chains over his head
+while he was writing. He looks behind him again, sees it making the
+same signal as before, and promptly picks up the light and follows. It
+goes at a slow pace, as if burdened with chains, then, after turning
+into the open yard of the house, it suddenly vanishes and leaves him
+by himself. At this he gathers some grass and leaves, and marks the
+spot with them. The next day he goes to the magistrates and urges them
+to dig up the spot in question; and they find bones tangled with
+chains through which they were passed... These they put together and
+bury at the public charge. The spirit being thus duly, laid, the house
+was henceforward free of them."
+
+Whatever the Roman beliefs on this point, so far as funeral rites and
+ceremonies were concerned, they were carried out simply in accordance
+with custom and tradition. The Romans of this date no more analysed
+their motives and sentiments than we do ours in dealing with such
+matters. They honoured the dead with funeral pomp and conspicuous
+monument; but, at the bottom, it was often more out of respect for
+themselves than because they imagined that it made any difference to
+the departed. In a very early age it had been considered that the
+spirit led in the underworld a feeble replica of human existence: it
+required food, playthings, utensils, money, as well as consideration.
+Hence food was periodically poured into the ground, playthings and
+utensils were burned on the pyre or laid in the coffin, and money was
+placed in that most primitive of purses, the mouth. Conservatism is
+nowhere so strong as in rites and ceremonies, and therefore the Romans
+continued to burn and bury articles along with the remains of the
+dead, and they continued to put a coin in the mouth before the burial.
+But it would be absurd to suppose that an intelligent Roman of our
+date would have offered the original and ancient motives for this
+conduct as rational motives still actuating himself. Enough that
+convention expected certain proceedings as "due" and "proper": a true
+Roman would not fail to perform what convention decreed.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 120.--"CONCLAMATIO" OF THE DEAD.]
+
+Our friend the elder Silius dies a natural death, after completing the
+fullest public career. His family has its full share of both affection
+and pride, and therefore his obsequies will be worthy of his character
+and standing. When his Greek physician Hermogenes assures the watching
+family that life is departing, Marcia or Publius or Bassa will
+endeavour to catch the last breath with a kiss, and will then close
+the eyelids. Upon this all those who are present will call "Silius!
+Silius! Silius!" The original motive of this cry--which has its modern
+parallel in the case of a dead Pope--was to make sure that the man was
+actually dead and beyond reply. This point made certain, the
+professional undertaker is called in and instructed to take charge of
+all the proceedings usual in such cases. It is he who will provide the
+persons who are to wash and anoint the body and lay it in state, and
+also, on the day of the procession, the musicians, the wailing-women,
+the builders of the funeral pyre, and others who may be necessary,
+together with the proper materials and accessories. He will further
+see that the name of Quintus Silius Bassus is registered in the
+death-roll in the temple of "Juno the Death-Goddess," and that the
+registration fee is paid. The name will also appear in the next issue
+of the "Daily News." The body, anointed so as to preserve it till the
+third day, and dressed in the toga--which will be that of the highest
+position he ever occupied--is laid in state in the high
+reception-hall, with the feet pointing to the door. On the bier are
+wreaths, by it is burning a pan of incense, in or before the vestibule
+is placed a cypress tree or a number of cypress branches for warning
+information to the public.
+
+On the day next but one after death the contractor, attended by
+subordinates dressed in black, marshals his procession. Though it is
+daytime, the procession will be accompanied by torches--another piece
+of conservatism reminiscent of the time when funerals took place at
+night, as they still did with children and commonly with the lower
+orders. First go the musicians, playing upon flageolet, trumpet, or
+horn; behind these, professional wailing-women, who raise loud
+lamentation and beat their breasts. Next come the wax-masks, already
+mentioned, of the distinguished ancestors of the Silii. These, which
+are life-like portraits, have been taken out of their cupboards in the
+wing of the reception-hall, and are worn over their faces by men of a
+build as nearly as possible resembling that of the ancestors
+represented. Each man also wears the insignia of the character for
+whom he stands. The more of such "effigies" a house could produce, the
+greater its glory. Such, however, was not the original purpose of this
+part of the procession, for--though it had doubtless been generally
+forgotten--the intention was to represent the deceased as being
+conducted into the underworld by an honourable company already
+established there. After the effigies comes that which would
+correspond to our hearse. It is, however, no hearse of the modern
+kind, but a bier or couch with the usual embellishment of ivory and
+with covers of purple worked with gold. On this the body lies, open to
+the sky, like that of Juliet. The bearers are either relatives or such
+slaves as have been set free under Silius's last will. Behind come the
+nearest relatives or heirs, the freedmen, friends, and clients, all
+clothed in black, except the women, who are in white, without colour
+or gold upon their dress. Young Publius will walk with his head
+covered by his toga; Bassa with her hair loose and dishevelled. The
+whole party will utter lamentations, though under more restraint than
+those of the professional women in front.
+
+Silius having been a senator and a man of other official standing, the
+procession passes from the Caelian Hill along the Sacred Way to the
+Forum, as far as the Rostra or speaking-platform. There the bier is
+set down, the "ancestors" seat themselves on the folding-stools which
+were the old-fashioned chairs of the higher officers, and one of the
+relatives delivers an oration in praise, not only of Silius, but of
+his family as represented in the ancestors.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 121.--TOMB OF CAECILIA METELLA.]
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 122.--STREET OF TOMBS. (POMPEII.)]
+
+The procession then forms again, and the party proceeds to whatever
+place outside the walls may contain the family tomb of the Silii. No
+burial is allowed within the city proper, and for our purposes we will
+assume that the place is distant nearly a mile along the Appian Way.
+We will assume also that Silius is to be cremated, and not simply
+buried in a coffin or a marble sarcophagus. Few persons of the higher
+classes, except certain of the Cornelii, are buried at this date,
+although there is nothing in law or custom to prevent the choice.
+There exists no "crematorium," and the Silii are regularly burned at
+their own sepulchral allotment beside the "Queen of Roads."
+
+If you were with the procession on this day you would find yourself
+before one of an almost continuous chain of monuments, built in all
+manner of shapes and sizes--such as great altars, small shrines,
+pyramids (like that of Cestius on another road), or round towers like
+the beautiful tomb of Caecilia Metella. The exterior of these
+structures is often adorned with commemorative or symbolic carvings,
+and the inside, which may be wholly above the surface or partly sunk
+beneath--is a chamber surrounded by niches, in which are placed the
+urns containing the ashes of the dead. Perhaps an illustration of the
+present state of the "Street of Tombs" at Pompeii will afford some
+notion, although the sepulchres of that provincial place by no means
+matched those upon the various roads outside the Roman gates. Often
+the monumental chamber stands somewhat back from the road, leaving
+space for a large semicircular seat of stone open to public use, its
+back wall being inscribed with some statement of honour to the family.
+Round the sepulchre--"where all the kindred of the Silii lie" is a
+space of ground, planted with shrubs and trees, and surrounded by a
+low wall. Somewhere near, on an open level, the funeral pile has been
+built of pine-logs, with the interstices stuffed with pitch,
+brushwood, or other inflammable material. It is natural that the pyre
+should take the shape of an altar and that cypress branches should
+lean against the sides.
+
+Upon the summit of this pile is laid Silius on his bier; incense and
+unguents are shed over him; wreaths and other offerings, often of no
+little value, are cast upon the heap. While loud cries of lamentation
+are being raised by the company present, a near kinsman approaches the
+pile with a torch, and, turning his face away, sets fire to the whole
+structure. It speedily burns down, the last embers are quenched with
+wine, the general company thrice cries "farewell," and, except for the
+nearest relatives, the procession returns to the city. The relatives
+who stay take off their shoes, wash their hands, and proceed to gather
+up the bones--which they cleanse in wine and milk--and the ashes,
+which they mix with perfume. These remains are then placed in the urn
+of bronze, marble, alabaster, or maybe of coloured glass, and the urn
+fills one more niche in the chamber of the monument.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 123.--COLUMBARIUM.]
+
+Now and then there were more magnificent obsequies than those of
+Silius. A "public" funeral might be decreed to a man who had deserved
+conspicuously well of the state. On such an occasion the crier would
+go round, calling "Oyez, come all who choose to the funeral of
+So-and-So." The invitation meant, not merely participation in a solemn
+procession, but also in the funeral feast, and probably an exhibition
+of gladiators. On the other hand the majority of burials were
+naturally of a far more simple and inexpensive kind. The poor could
+not afford to use unguents and keep their dead till the third day;
+they could not afford real cypress trees, but must use cheaper
+substitutes, if anything at all. They could not afford all the
+processionists and paraphernalia of the undertaker, but must be
+satisfied with four commonplace bearers, who hurried away the corpse
+in the evening, not on a couch but in a cheap box, and carried it out
+to the common necropolis beyond the Esquiline Gate. Seldom could they
+afford the fuel to burn the body, and in many cases it must simply be
+thrown into a pit roughly dug and there left without monument. To
+secure more respect and decency there were many burial clubs, whether
+connected with the trade-guilds or not, and these procured a joint
+tomb of the kind known as a "dovecote," or columbarium, from the
+resemblance of its niches to so many pigeon-holes. These cooperative
+sepulchres were underground vaults, and it is perhaps hardly necessary
+to point out their direct relation to the Christian catacombs. Similar
+tombs were sometimes used by the great Roman families for the remains
+of the freedmen and slaves of their house.
+
+[Illustration: FIG. 124.--TEMPLE OF JUPITER ON THE CAPITOL (Platform
+omitted).]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Actors, contempt for, 268
+Advertisements, 257
+Aemilia, Basilica, 108
+Africa, 45
+Age, coming of, 332
+Agriculture, implements of, 252
+Alexander the Great, 34
+Alexandria, 14, 25, 34, 44
+Amphitheatres, 280
+  performances, 282
+Amulets, 318
+Andalusia, 36
+Antioch, 14, 43
+Appian Way, 22, 118
+Aqueducts, 136
+Architecture, 112, 422-424
+Argiletum, the, 108
+Aristocrat, clients of, 206
+  daily life of, 193
+  dress of, 196
+  as pleader in law-courts, 216
+  social duties of, 217
+Army, the, 12, 52, 338-358
+  artillery, 356
+  auxiliaries, 352
+  camping arrangements, 349
+  cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+  composition, 339
+  dress and equipment, 342
+  Imperial Guards, 353
+  infantry, 339, 352
+  legionaries, 339
+  pay and rations, 344
+  promotion, 347
+  terms of service, 340
+  training, 340, 345
+  typical soldier's life, 342-350
+Art, 416-433
+  apparent lack of artistic feeling, 429
+  contempt for professional artists, 428
+  influence of Greece, 421
+  profession and quality of, 416-420
+  statues, 418, 424
+  wall-paintings, 425-428
+Artemis, temple of, 42
+Artillery, 356
+Asia Minor, towns of, 42
+Astronomy, 359
+Athens, 40
+Athletics, 263
+Auctioneers, receipt tablets of, 250
+Augustus, title of emperor, 55
+Augustus, Forum of, 188
+  mausoleum of, 120
+Authors, amateur, 219, 235
+
+Baetica (_see_ Andalusia)
+Bakers, 248
+Bandits, 24
+Banking, 216, 239
+Basilica Aemilia, 108
+  of Julius, 106
+Baths, 122, 124
+Beard, method of wearing, 195
+Beds, 182
+Beggars, 243
+Betrothal ceremony, 296
+Boadicea, 39
+Books, size and shape of, 335-337
+Booksellers, 109, 247
+Boots (_see_ Shoes)
+Boxing-gloves, 265
+Breakfast, 200
+Britain, 39
+Burial, 434-447
+  funeral rites, 439-445
+  offerings to the dead, 438
+  tombs, 444, 446
+
+Caligula, 73, 95, 115, 234
+Camps, military, 349
+Campus Martius, the, 120
+Carpets, absence of, 180
+Carriages, 19
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Cavalry, 339, 353, 356
+Census of Augustus, 85
+Chariot-races, 263, 274, 280
+  colours in, 274, 278
+  horses, 275
+  prizes, 278
+  procession of chariots, 277
+Charts, 18
+Chemistry, 402
+Children:
+  ceremony at birth and naming, 317
+  coming of age, 332
+  early life, 319
+  education, 320-335
+  parental power over, 315-317
+  privileges of parents, 314
+  registration, 318
+Christians, earlier tolerance towards, 383
+  their subsequent persecution, 79, 384-387
+Circus Maximus, 128, 173
+Citizens: as clients of the wealthy, 206
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+  freed slaves may become, 204
+  rights of, 56, 92
+Civilisation, Roman, 30
+  Greek, 32
+  Asiatic, 33
+_Claqueurs_, in law-courts, 217
+  in theatres, 273
+  Nero's use of, 77
+Class distinctions, 66
+Clients, 206, 222, 245
+  dinner to, 235
+  escort to patron, 211
+  literary, 208
+Cloaks, 220
+Clocks, water, 192
+"Colony," formation of, 84
+Columbarium, joint sepulchre, 447
+Commerce, 36
+Concord, Temple of, 105
+Concrete, extensive use of, in building, 138
+Consulship, the, 359
+Cook-shops, 258
+Corinth, 40
+Corn, monthly allowances of, 242
+  corn-lands, 45
+Couches, 181, 226
+Cremation, 445
+Crops, rotation of, 252
+Customs duties, 87
+Cynics, the, 412
+
+Damascus, 44
+Dancing girls, 232
+Dead, offerings to the, 438
+Decoration, house, 150, 164
+  in theatres, 267
+Deities, festivals of, 261
+  household, 376
+  official duties to, 374
+  variety of, 362, 366, 368
+Delphi, 40
+Dicing, 232, 258
+Dinners:
+  conversation and entertainment at, 231, 235
+  description of, 229, 234
+  exaggerated accounts, 228
+  extravagance of Court, 234
+  to clients, 235
+  wine at, 233
+Dissection, human, prohibition of, 404
+Divorce, 304
+Doles of corn and money, 242
+Doors, 145
+Dowry, 299
+Drainage, 161
+Drama, low level of the, 268, 270
+Dress:
+  distinctions of, 65
+  for dinner, 226
+  hats, 212
+  mantles, 221, 274
+  military, 342
+  toga, 197, 332
+  theatrical, 269
+  typical aristocrat's, 196
+  women's, 308-313
+Druids, the, 382
+
+Education:
+  of boys, 321-326
+  of girls, 327
+  ideal of, 320
+  physical training, 331
+  primary and secondary, 327-331
+Egypt, 45
+Elections, municipal, 255
+Emblems, city, 47
+Emperor, the:
+  dependence upon the army, 52
+  nomination of Senators by, 60
+  powers of, 50
+  and the Senate, 57
+  symbolic character of statue, 386
+Empire, the Roman:
+  Eastern and Western halves, 35
+  extent, 6, 8
+  expeditions, 7
+  government, 9
+  military and naval forces, 12
+  provinces, 30
+  roads, 16
+  security under, 12
+Ephesus, 42
+Epicureans, the, 407-409
+Etiquette, exactions of, 217
+Euclid, 401
+
+Festivals, 261
+Field-glass, primitive, 275
+Fingers, use of, at meals, 228
+Fires, destructive, 98, 133
+Floors, 149, 180
+Flour-mills, 248
+Food, 200, 230, 258
+Foreigners, 67
+Forum, the, 102
+  public life in, 214
+"Free" towns, 90
+Freedmen, 204, 245
+  wealth of, 205
+Freethought, 378-381
+"Friends of Caesar," 211
+Frontiers, protection of, 12
+Fullers, 250
+Funeral rites, 439-445
+Furniture:
+  beds, 182
+  chairs and couches, 181
+  chests, 185
+  kitchen utensils, 189
+  lamps, 186
+  mirrors, 186
+  silver and glass ware, 188
+  tables, 183
+  tripods, 184
+
+Games, 214, 222, 232, 262
+Gaul, 37
+  tribes of, 38
+Geographical knowledge, 398-401
+Ghosts, belief in, 435-437
+Gladiators, 264, 280, 282, 285-288
+  female spectators at combats, 288
+"Golden House," the, 116
+"Golden Milestone," the, 105
+Goldsmiths, 250
+Government, system of, 49
+   emperor, 50
+   "knights," 63
+  provinces, 82-95
+  Senate, 56
+  tribunes, 53
+Governors, provincial, dress of, 93
+  duties, 91
+  emoluments, 94
+Greece, indebtedness to, 32
+  influence of art of, 421
+  language and culture, 34
+  scientific thought, 397
+Greeks, prominence of, 67
+Greeting, manner of 211
+Guards, Imperial, 353
+Guides, professional, 19
+Guilds, _trade_, 254
+
+Hair, method of wearing, 37, 195 298, 311
+Hairpins, 311
+Hats, 212
+Health resorts, 174
+Heating, domestic, 161
+Holidays, 254
+  number of, 260
+Homestead, country, 169
+Horses, in chariot-races, 275
+Hotels, scarcity of, 22
+Hour of rising, 195
+House, country, 175-179
+House, typical town, 143-163
+  decoration, 150, 164
+  dining-rooms, 155
+  doors, 145
+  exterior, 144
+  floors, 149
+  garden, 154, 156
+  hall, 148
+  heating system, 161
+  kitchen, 156
+  library and picture-gallery, 158
+  lighting, 145, 150, 153, 160, 186
+  peristyle, 154
+  reception-room, 153
+  roofs, 141, 162
+  shrine, 157, 376
+  water-supply and drainage, 160
+  vestibule, 146
+Houses, 131
+  height of, 131, 139
+  lighting of, 141
+  tenement blocks,140
+
+Imperial Guards, 353
+Infantry, 339, 352
+Inns, 20
+Instruments, musical, 430
+Interest, rates of, 239
+Isis-worship, 373
+Italy, 30
+
+Janitors, 209
+Janus, Temple of, 110
+Jerusalem, 14, 44
+Jewelry, female love of, 297, 312
+Jews, colony of,  67
+  rebellious among, 10
+  toleration shown to, 382
+Jove, Temple of, 105
+Julius, Basilica of, 106
+Jurymen, 217
+Juvenal, on marriage, 293
+
+Kissing, excessive, 211
+Kitchens, 156, 170, 189
+"Knights," order of:
+  composition, 63
+  dress, 66
+  occupations, 238
+  privileges, 64
+Knives and forks, absence of, 189, 228
+
+Lamps, 186
+Land-tax, 85
+Land-travelling, 16-25
+Language, 32, 36, 91
+  of the people, 258
+  predominance of the Greek, 34
+Law-courts, pleaders in, 216
+ president and jury, 217
+Learning, tastes in, 398
+Legacies, 314
+Legions, number and name of, 341
+  strength, 339
+Life, social, aristocratic, 193-237
+  middle and lower class, 238-259
+Literature, 394-396
+  literary dependants, 208
+Litter, 211
+Loafers, 241
+Local government, 89
+Lugdunum (Lyons), 14, 38
+Luncheon, 219
+
+Macedonia, 40
+Marriage, 220
+  betrothal ceremony, 296
+  divorce, 304
+  dowry, 299
+  festivities, 300
+  two forms of, 290
+  Juvenal on, 293
+  legal age for, 294
+  not based on love, 292, 294
+  matrimonial freedom, 291
+  morganatic, 295
+  wedding ceremony, 297
+Mars, Temple of, 118
+Martial on country life, 172
+Masks:
+  at funerals, 152, 440
+  theatrical, 268
+Mathematics, 401
+Mausoleum of Augustus, 120
+Meals:
+  breakfast, 200
+  luncheon, 219
+  dinner, 226, 229
+Medicine, 403
+Mediterranean Sea, 46
+Milestones, 18, 28
+Mines, 37
+Mirrors, 186
+Money-lending, 238
+Morals, 378
+Municipal elections, 255
+Music, as part of education, 331, 341
+  fondness for, 430
+  instruments, 430
+Mysticism, 372
+
+Names, family, 194
+  of slaves, 204
+Navy, 12
+Nero:
+  musical eccentricities of, 78
+  persecution of Christians by, 79, 383, 387
+  personal appearance, 80, 213
+  powers vested in, 55, 71
+  reception by, 213
+  reign, 74
+  vices and follies 75, 116
+New Year's Day, 262
+News-sheets, official, 215
+Noises, street, 134, 195
+
+Oath of obedience, military, 342
+Officials, public, 358
+Oratory, school of, 329
+Ornament, architectural, 112, 423
+
+Paintings, wall, 325-328
+Palatine Hill, 115
+Pantheon, the, 121
+Papyri, 336
+Passes, Alpine, 39
+Patriotism, municipal, 90
+Paul, St., 34, 42, 80, 197, 383, 413
+_Pax Romana_, the 9, 12
+Pedigrees, 152
+"People," the, 67, 241
+  doles of corn and money to, 242
+Person-tax, 87
+Philosophy, study of, 332-335, 380
+Pipes, lead, 160
+Pliny the elder, literary industry of, 390-392
+Pliny the younger, 236, 294, 305, 321, 392, 435
+Plutarch, 334, 395
+Police, soldiers as, 14
+Polytheism, 364
+Population of the city, 101
+Portugal, 37
+Present-giving, prominence of, 262
+Priests, 361
+Processions:
+  chariot, 227
+  funeral, 440
+  wedding, 300
+Proconsuls, 93
+Provinces, 30
+  civilisation of, 31
+  commerce, 36
+  contributions by, 85
+  distinctions between, 35
+  government, 82-95
+  language, 32
+Public service, 358-360
+Publicans (tax-collectors), 89, 240
+
+Record Office, the, 105
+Religion, 333, 361-387
+  attitude of state towards, 361-364, 370
+  conservatism in, 364, 368
+  free-thought, 378-381
+  mixed elements, 370
+  mysticism in, 372
+  polytheistic character of, 364
+  priests, 361
+  private observances, 375
+  superstitions in, 371
+  tolerance in, 381
+  treatment of Christians, 383-387
+Rhodes, 42
+Rings, 200
+Roads, military, 16
+  construction and upkeep, 18
+  variety of traffic, 22
+Rome in A.D., 64
+  appearance, 96-100
+  baths, 122
+  extent and population, 100-102
+  habits of the people, 102
+  public buildings, 102-129
+  streets, 130-138
+  theatres, 123
+Roofs 141, 162
+Rostra, the, 104
+
+Sandals, 309
+Saturn, Temple of, 105
+Saturnalia, the, 261
+Schools, 321-331
+Science, 396-405
+Sculpture, 418, 424
+Sea-travelling, 25-28
+Senate, the, 56, 71
+  imperial nomination to, 60
+  qualifications for membership, 59
+  relations with the emperor, 57, 72
+  senators' dress, 65
+  training of members, 62
+Senate-House, the, 109
+Seneca, 395
+Sewers, 130
+Ships, 26
+Shoes, 197,310
+Shops, 133, 141, 222
+Shrine, household 159, 376
+Sidon, 44
+Signs, trade, 251
+Slaves, 68, 206, 211, 240
+  citizenship bestowed on, 204
+  domestic, 201
+  dress, 202
+  licence at Saturnalia, 261
+  as musicians, 431
+  names, 204
+  occupations, 246
+  treatment, 203
+Smyrna, 42
+Snails, breeding of, 46
+Social life, of aristocrats, 193-237
+  of middle and lower classes, 238-259
+Spain, 36
+Spoons, 228
+Sports, 178, 263
+Statues, 418, 424
+Stoics, the, 409-412
+Strabo, 379
+Streets, 130
+  narrowness of, 132
+  noisiness, 134, 195
+  paving, 137
+  regulation of traffic, 131
+Suicide, attitude regarding, 23
+Sun-dials, 191
+Superstitions, 371
+Surgery, 404
+
+Tarragona, 37
+Tarsus, 42
+Taxes:
+  collection 89, 240
+  farming of, 239
+  land, 85
+  miscellaneous 88
+  personal, 87
+Temple, description of, 123, 265
+Temples: of
+  Concord, 105
+  Janus, 110
+  Jove, 105
+  Mars, 118
+  Saturn, 105
+  Vesta, 114
+Theatres, 123, 265
+  actors' status 268
+  _claqueurs_, 273
+  compared with Greek, 266
+  curtain, 267
+  decoration, 267
+  masks and dresses, 268
+  music and dancing, 270
+  plays performed, 268, 270-273
+  scenery, 267
+  seats, 267
+  women's presence not encouraged, 266
+Tiles, 157, 162
+Time, method of telling, 192
+Toga:
+  colours of 218
+  compulsory use on formal occasions 198
+  distinctive meaning of, 197, 214
+Toleration, religious, 381
+Tombs, 253, 444
+Trade guilds 254
+  signs, 251
+Trade routes, 27
+Travelling, land and sea:
+  accommodation, 20
+  dangers 24, 29
+  modes, 19
+  period and routes, 25
+  speed, 25, 28
+"Tribunes of the commons," 53
+Tunics, 196, 308
+Tyre, 44, 45
+
+Utensils, kitchen, 189
+
+Vehicles, 19
+Vesta, Temple of, 114
+
+Water-clocks, 192
+Water-supply, 135, 160
+Wedding ceremony, 297
+Wild-beast fights, 282, 284
+Windows, 141, 145, 150, 60
+Wine, 233, 241
+Women:
+  fondness for jewelry, 297, 312
+  divorce, 304
+  domestic virtues, 307
+  dowry, 299
+  dress, 308-313
+  marriageable age, 294
+  position after marriage, 289, 301
+  presence at theatres not encouraged, 266
+  property after marriage, 299, 302
+  types of, 302, 306
+Working-classes, the, 214
+  competition with slave-labour 246
+  dress and food 258
+  language 258
+  life of 253, 256
+  professions all ranked among, 258
+Writing materials, 323, 337
+
+Youths:
+  coming of age of 218, 382
+  military training, 338
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE IN THE ROMAN WORLD OF NERO AND
+ST. PAUL***
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