contubernalis A military cadet, usually from a good family. He was the subaltern of lowest rank and age in the Roman military officers' hierarchy, but he was not training to be a centurion. Centurions were never cadets; they had to be experienced soldiers from the ranks with a genuine gift for command. Being relatively highborn, the contubernalis was attached to legatal staff and not required to do much actual fighting unless he chose to.
Cora River The Cure River.
Corcyra Island Modern Corfu or Kerkira Island.
Corduba Spanish Cordoba.
corona civica Rome's second-highest military decoration. A chaplet made of oak leaves, it was awarded to a man who saved the lives of fellow soldiers and held the ground on which he did this until the battle was over. It could not be awarded unless the saved soldiers swore an oath before their general that they were speaking the truth about the circumstances. L. R. Taylor argues that among Sulla's constitutional reforms was one pertaining to the winners of major military crowns: that, following the precedent of Marcus Fabius Buteo, he promoted these men to membership in the Senate no matter what their ages or their social backgrounds. Dr. Taylor's contention answers the vexed question as to when exactly Caesar entered the Senate, which she hypothesizes as aged twenty, after winning the corona civica at Mitylene. The great Matthias Gelzer agreed with her—but, alas, only in a footnote.
cubit A Greek and/or Asian measurement of length not popular among Romans. The cubit was normally held as the distance between a man's elbow and his clenched fist, and was probably about 15 inches (375mm).
cuirass Armor encasing the upper body without having the form of a shirt. It consisted of two plates of bronze, steel, or hardened leather, the front one protecting thorax and abdomen, the other a man's back from shoulders to lumbar spine. The plates were held together by straps or hinges at the shoulders and along each side under the arms. Some cuirasses were exquisitely tailored to the contours of an individual's torso, while others fitted any man of a particular size and physique. The men of highest rank—generals and legates—owned parade cuirasses tooled in high relief and silver-plated (sometimes, though rarely, gold-plated). As an indication of his imperium, the general and his most senior legates wore a thin red sash around the cuirass about halfway between the nipples and waist; the sash was ritually knotted and looped.
cultarius H. H. Scullard's spelling: The Oxford Latin Dictionary prefers cultrarius. He was a public servant attached to religious duties, and his only job appears to have been that of cutting the sacrificial victim's throat. He may also have helped tidy up afterward.
cunnus, cunni A very choice Latin obscenity: cunt, cunts.
Curia Hostilia The Senate House. It was thought to have been built by the shadowy third King of Rome, Tullus Hostilius, hence its name: "the meeting-house of Hostilius." It burned down in January of 52 b.c. when the mob cremated Publius Clodius, and was not rebuilt until Caesar became Dictator.
Curicta Island Krk Island, off the Liburnian coast of Yugoslavia.
curule, curule chair The sella curulis was the ivory chair reserved exclusively for magistrates owning imperium. Consuls, praetors and curule aediles sat in it; I have gone back to thinking that plebeian aediles did not, as they were not elected by the whole Roman People, therefore could not have owned imperium. Beautifully carved in ivory, the chair itself had curved legs crossing in a broad X, so that it could be folded up. It was equipped with arms, but had no back. Possibly once a man had been consul, as a consular he had the right to retain his curule chair and sit in it. Knowing Rome, I believe it didn't belong to the State, if the State could insist those entitled to sit in the curule chair had to commission and pay for it themselves.
Dagda The principal God of Druidism. His elemental nature was water, and he husbanded the Great Goddess, Dann.
Dann The principal Goddess of Druidism. Her elemental nature was earth and she was wife to Dagda, though not, it would seem, his inferior. She headed a pantheon of Goddesses who included Epona, Sulis and Bodb.
Danubius River The Danube, Donau or Dunarea River. The Romans knew its sources better than its outflow into the Euxine (Black) Sea; the Greeks knew its outflow better, and called it the river Ister.
Decetia An oppidum of the Aedui situated on the Liger (Loire) River. Modern Decize.
decury To the Romans, any group of ten men, be they senators or soldiers or lictors.
demagogue Originally a Greek concept, the demagogue of ancient times was a politician whose chief appeal was to the crowds. The Roman demagogue (almost inevitably a tribune of the plebs) preferred the arena of the well of the Comitia to the Senate House, but it was not part of his policy to "liberate the masses." Nor were those who flocked to hear him made up of the very lowly. The term simply indicated a man of radical as opposed to conservative bent.
denarius, denarii Save for a very rare issue or two of gold coins, the denarius was the largest denomination of coin under the Republic. Of pure silver, it contained about 3.5 grams of the metal, and was about the size of a dime—very small. There were 6,250 denarii to 1 silver talent. Of actual coins in circulation, there were probably more denarii than sesterces, but accounts were always expressed in sesterces, not denarii.
diadem This was neither crown nor tiara. It was a thick white ribbon about 1 inch (25mm) wide, each end embroidered and often finished with a fringe. It was the symbol of the Hellenic sovereign; only the king and/or queen could wear it. The coins show that it was generally worn across the forehead, but could be (as in the case of Cleopatra VII) worn behind the hairline. It was knotted at the back below the occiput, and the two ends trailed down onto the shoulders.
dignitas To the Romans this word had connotations not conveyed by the English word derived from it, "dignity." Dignitas was a man's right and entitlement to public honor through personal endeavor. It gave the sum total of his integrity, pride, family and ancestors, word, intelligence, deeds, ability, knowledge, and worth as a man. Of all the assets a Roman nobleman possessed, dignitas was likely to be the one he was most touchy about and most protective of.
domine My lord. Vocative case.
Domus Publica The official State residence of the Pontifex Maximus and, in Republican times, also the residence of the six Vestal Virgins, who were in the hand of the Pontifex Maximus. It was located in the Forum Romanum at about the middle latitude.
Druid A priest of the Druidic religion, which dominated spiritual (and often earthly) thought among the Gauls, be they Celts or Belgae. It took twenty years to train a Druid, who was required to memorize every aspect of his calling from lays to rituals to laws. Nothing was written down. Druids once consecrated as Druids held the position for life. They were permitted to marry. As directors of thought, they paid no taxes or tithes, did not do military service, and were fed and housed at the expense of the tribe. They provided the priests, lawyers and doctors.
dug-mullets A kind of fish which lived in sandy or muddy bottoms around river estuaries. I imagine they were flounders.
Durocortorum The principal oppidum of the Remi. Modern Reims.
duumviri The two men, elected annually, who headed the municipal governing body or the town governing body.
Dyrrachium Modern Durres in Albania.
Eagle Among the army reforms instituted by Gaius Marius was one which gifted each legion with a silver eagle set upon a long pole pointed at its nether end so it could be driven into the ground. The Eagle was the legion's rallying point and its most venerated standard.
Edepol! A very benign and socially unexceptionable expletive, akin to our "Oh, darn!" Edepol was reserved for men. Women said, "Ecastor!"
Elaver River The Allier River.
Elysian Fields A very special place in the afterlife for very few people. Whereas ordinary shades or spirits were thought to be mindless, twittering, flitting denizens of an underworld both cheerless and drab, some men's shades were treated differently. Tartarus was that part of Hades where men of great evil like Ixion and Sisyphus were
doomed to toil literally eternally at some task perpetually unraveled or undone. The Elysian Fields or Elysium were a part of Hades akin to what might be called Paradise, Nirvana. Interestingly, entrance to either Tartarus or Elysium was reserved for men who in some way had connections to the Gods. Those doomed to Tartarus had offended the Gods, not man. And those transported to the Elysian Fields were either the sons of Gods, married to Gods, or married to human children of the Gods. This may account for the driving wish of some men and women to be worshiped as Gods while still living, or made into Gods after death. Alexander the Great wanted to be declared a God. So, some maintain, did Caesar.
Epicurean Pertaining to the philosophical system of the Greek Epicurus. Originally Epicurus had advocated a kind of hedonism so exquisitely refined that it approached asceticism on its left hand, so to speak; a man's pleasures were best sampled one at a time and strung out with such relish that any excess defeated the exercise. Public life or any other stressful work was taboo. However, these tenets underwent considerable modification in Rome. A Roman nobleman could call himself an Epicurean yet still espouse his public career. By the late Republic, the chief pleasures of an Epicurean were food and wine.
Epirus That part of the Grecian/Macedonian west adjacent to the Adriatic Sea which extended from the Apsus (Seman) River in the north to the Gulf of Ambracia in the south, and inland to the high mountains. Modern Albania is perhaps not the right description; it goes too far north and not far enough south to be aligned with ancient Epirus.
Equites, equestrian, Ordo Equester See knights.
Esus The Druidic God of war. His elemental nature was air.
ethnarch The general Greek word for a city or town magistrate. There were other and more specific names in use, but I do not think it necessary to compound confusion in my readers by employing a more varied terminology.
Euxine Sea The modern Black Sea.
fasces These were bundles of birch rods ritually tied together into a cylinder by crisscrossed red leather thongs. Originally an emblem of the Etruscan kings, they passed into the customs and traditions of the emerging Rome, persisting in Roman life throughout the Republic and on into the Empire. Carried by men called lictors (see lictor), they preceded the curule magistrate or promagistrate as the outward indication of his imperium. There were thirty rods for the thirty curiae or original tribal divisions of Roman men under the kings. Within the pomerium of Rome only the rods went into the fasces, to indicate that the curule magistrate had the power to chastise, but not to execute; outside the pomerium two axes were inserted into the fasces to indicate that the curule magistrate had the power to execute. The only man who could bring fasces holding the axes inside the sacred boundary of Rome was the dictator. The number of fasces (and lictors) told the degree of imperium: a dictator had twenty-four, a consul and proconsul twelve, a praetor and propraetor six, and a curule aedile two.
fasti The fasti were originally days on which business could be transacted, but came to mean other things as well: the calendar, lists relating to holidays and festivals, and the list of consuls (this last probably because Romans preferred to reckon up their years by remembering who had been the consuls in any given year). For a fuller explanation, see fasti in the Glossary to The First Man in Rome.
fellatrix, fellatrices A woman or women who sucked a man's penis.
filibuster A modern term for a political practice as old as the concept of a parliament. It consisted, then as now, of "talking a motion out."
flamen A special priest dedicated to one particular Roman God. They were the oldest in time of Rome's priests. Caesar had been flamen Dialis, the special priest of Jupiter (Marius had him so consecrated at thirteen years of age); Sulla stripped him of it.
forum The public meeting place of any Roman town or city. It was surrounded by public buildings and arcades housing shops or offices.
Forum Boarium The meat markets, situated at the starting-post end of the Circus Maximus, below the Germalus of the Palatine. The Great Altar of Hercules and several different temples of Hercules lay therein.
freedman A manumitted slave. Though technically a free man (and, if his former master was a Roman citizen, himself also a Roman citizen), the freedman remained in the patronage of his former master, who had first call on his time and services.
free man A man born free and never sold into slavery.
Gades Modern Cádiz.
Gallia Gaul. Commonly regarded as the area of modern France and Belgium. There were four Gauls: the Roman Gallic Province (always called, simply, the Province), which encompassed the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea between Niceia (modern Nice) and the Pyrenees and included a tongue which went from the Cebenna (the Cevennes) to the Alps as far up as Lugdunum (modern Lyon); the lands of the Belgae, which lay to the north of the Sequana River (the Seine) from the Atlantic to the Rhenus (Rhine); the lands of the Celtae, which lay south of the Sequana and to the north of the Garumna (Garonne); and the lands collectively called Aquitania, which lay between the Garumna and the Pyrenees. The latter three Gauls together constituted Gallia Comata.
Gallia Comata Gaul of the Long-hairs. That is, un-Romanized Gaul.
games In Latin, ludi. Public entertainments put on by certain magistrates of the year, and held in one of the two circuses (usually the Circus Maximus), or both circuses. Games consisted of chariot races (the most popular events), athletic contests and theatrical performances put on in temporary wooden theaters. The Republican games did not include gladiatorial combat, which was confined to funeral games put on by private individuals in the Forum Romanum. Free Roman men and women were permitted to attend the games, but not freedmen or freed-women; the circuses could not accommodate all the free, let alone the freed.
garum A noisome concentrate made from fish which was used as a basis for many sauces. It was highly prized by gourmets.
Garumna River The Garonne River.
Gaul, Gauls For French Gaul, see Gallia. "Gaul" was what Romans called a man of Celtic or Belgic race, no matter which part of the world he inhabited. Thus there were Gauls not only in modern France, but also in Italian Gaul, Switzerland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and that part of modern Turkey around Ankara.
Genava Modern Geneve, Geneva.
gens humana The human family of peoples.
Genusus River The Shkumbin River in modern Albania.
Gergovia The principal oppidum of a very powerful Gallic tribe, the Arverni. It was near modern Clermont-Ferrand.
German Ocean Basically, the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.
Gerrae! Rubbish! Nonsense!
gladiator During Republican times there were only two kinds of gladiator, the Thracian and the Gaul. These were styles of combat, not nationalities. Republican gladiators did not fight to the death, because they were expensive investments owned privately by individuals; purchasing, training, feeding and housing a gladiator was costly. Few of them were slaves. Most were deserters from the Roman army, offered a choice between disenfranchisement and a term as a gladiator. The gladiator fought for a total of six years or thirty bouts (he had around five bouts per year), after which he was free to do as he pleased. The best gladiators were heroes to the people of Italia and Italian Gaul.
gladius The Roman sword. It was short, the blade being about 2 feet (600mm) long and sharp on both edges. It ended in a point. The handle was made of wood in the case of an ordinary soldier; those higher than a ranker who could afford it preferred a handle made of ivory carved in the shape of an eagle.
Gorgobina The principal oppidum of the Boii. Modern St.-Parize-le-Chatel.
Head Count See capite censi.
Hellenic, Hellenized These are terms relating to the spread of Greek culture and customs after the time of Alexander the Great. Life style, architecture, dress, industry, government, commerce and the Greek language were all part of it.
Heracleia Near modern Bitola, in Makedonia.
Hierosolyma The other, Hellenic name for Jerusalem.
horse See Oc
tober Horse and Public Horse.
hostis The term used when the Senate and People of Rome declared a man an outlaw, a public enemy.
Iberus River The Ebro River.
Icauna River The Yonne River.
Ides The third of the three named days of the month which represented the fixed points of the month. Dates were reckoned backward from each of these points—Kalends, Nones and Ides. The Ides occurred on the fifteenth day of the long months (March, May, July and October) and on the thirteenth day of the other months.
Ilium The Roman name for Troy.
Illerda Modern Lerida in Spain.
Illyricum The wild and mountainous lands bordering the Adriatic on its eastern side. The native peoples belonged to an Indo-European race called Illyrians, were tribalized, and detested first Greek and then Roman coastal incursions. By the time of Caesar, Illyricum was an unofficial province governed in conjunction with Italian Gaul. That Caesar's long years as governor were good for Illyricum is evidenced by the fact that Illyricum remained loyal to him during his civil wars.
imperium Imperium was the degree of authority vested in a curule magistrate or promagistrate. It meant that a man owned the authority of his office, and could not be gainsaid provided he was acting within the limits of his particular level of imperium and within the laws dictating his conduct. Imperium was conferred by a lex curiata and lasted for one year only. Extensions for prorogued governors had to be ratified by the Senate and/or People of Rome. Lictors shouldering the fasces indicated a man's imperium: the more lictors, the higher the imperium.
imperium maius Unlimited imperium, which outranked the imperium of the consuls of the year. The main benefactor of imperium maius was Pompey the Great.
in absentia Described a candidacy for public office approved of by the Senate (and the People, if necessary) and an election conducted in the absence of the candidate himself. He may have been waiting on the Campus Martius because imperium prevented his crossing the pomerium to register as a candidate and fight the election in person. Cicero when consul in 63 b.c. enacted a law prohibiting in absentia candidacy; Pompey reinforced this during his consulship without a colleague in 52 b.c.