Part 17

The highest cast was so called.

Enlarged by Tiberius and succeeding emperors. The ruins of the palace of the Caesars are still seen on the Palatine.

Probably travertine, a soft limestone, from the Alban Mount, which was, therefore, cheaply procured and easily worked.

It was usual among the Romans to have separate sets of apartments for summer and winter use, according to their exposure to the sun.

This word may be interpreted the Cabinet of Arts. It was common, in the houses of the great, among the Romans, to have an apartment called the Study, or Museum. Pliny says, beautifully, "O mare! O littus! verum secretumque mouseion, quam multa invenitis, quam multa dictatis?" O sea! O shore! Thou real and secluded museum; what treasures of science do you not discover to us, how much do you teach us!--Epist. i. 9.

Mecaenas had a house and gardens on the Esquiline Hill, celebrated for their salubrity--

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitore salubribus.--Hor. Sat. i. 3, 14.

Such as Baiae, and the islands of Ischia, Procida, Capri, and others; the resorts of the opulent nobles, where they had magnificent marine villas.

Now Tivoli, a delicious spot, where Horace had a villa, in which he hoped to spend his declining years.

Ver ubi longum, tepidasque praebet Jupiter brumas: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ibi, tu calentem Debita sparges lachryma favillam Vatis amici. Odes, B. ii. 5.

Adrian also had a magnificent villa near Tibur.

The Toga was a loose woollen robe, which covered the whole body, close at the bottom, but open at the top down to the girdle, and without sleeves. The right arm was thus at liberty, and the left supported a flap of the toga, which was drawn up, and thrown back over the left shoulder; forming what is called the Sinus, a fold or cavity upon the breast, in which things might be carried, and with which the face or head might be occasionally covered. When a person did any work, he tucked up his toga, and girt it round him. The toga of the rich and noble was finer and larger than that of others; and a new toga was called Pexa. None but Roman citizens were permitted to wear the toga; and banished persons were prohibited the use of it. The colour of the toga was white. The clavus was a purple border, by which the senators, and other orders, with the magistrates, were distinguished; the breadth of the stripe corresponding with their rank.

In which the whole humour of the thing consisted either in the uses to which these articles were applied, or in their names having in Latin a double signification; matters which cannot be explained with any decency.

Casum bubulum manu pressum; probably soft cheese, not reduced to solid consistence in the cheese-press.

A species of fig tree, known in some places as Adam's fig. We have gathered them, in those climates, of the latter crop, as late as the month of November.

Sabbatis Jejunium. Augustus might have been better informed of the Jewish rites, from his familiarity with Herod and others; for it is certain that their sabbath was not a day of fasting. Justin, however, fell into the same error: he says, that Moses appointed the sabbath-day to be kept for ever by the Jews as a fast, in memory of their fasting for seven days in the deserts of Arabia, xxxvi. 2. 14. But we find that there was a weekly fast among the Jews, which is perhaps what is here meant; the Sabbatis Jejunium being equivalent to the Naesteuo dis tou sabbatou, 'I fast twice in the week' of the Pharisee, in St. Luke xviii. 12.

The Rhaetian wines had a great reputation; Virgil says,

------Ex quo te carmine dicam, Rhaetica. Georg. ii. 96.

The vineyards lay at the foot of the Rhaetian Alps; their produce, we have reason to believe, was not a very generous liquor.

A custom in all warm countries; the siesta of the Italians in later times.

The strigil was used in the baths for scraping the body when in a state of perspiration. It was sometimes made of gold or silver, and not unlike in form the instrument used by grooms about horses when profusely sweating or splashed with mud.

His physician, mentioned c. lix.

Sept. 21st, a sickly season at Rome.

Feminalibus et tibialibus: Neither the ancient Romans or the Greeks wore breeches, trews, or trowsers, which they despised as barbarian articles of dress. The coverings here mentioned were swathings for the legs and thighs, used mostly in cases of sickness or infirmity, and when otherwise worn, reckoned effeminate. But soon after the Romans became acquainted with the German and Celtic nations, the habit of covering the lower extremities, barbarous as it had been held, was generally adopted.

Albula. On the left of the road to Tivoli, near the ruins of Adrian's villa. The waters are sulphureous, and the deposit from them causes incrustations on twigs and other matters plunged in the springs. See a curious account of this stream in Gell's Topography, published by Bohn, p 40.

In spongam incubuisse, literally has fallen upon a sponge, as Ajax is said to have perished by falling on his own sword.

Myrobrecheis. Suetonius often preserves expressive Greek phrases which Augustus was in the habit of using. This compound word meant literally, myrrh-scented, perfumed.

These are variations of language of small importance, which can only be understood in the original language.