Roman Antiquities, and Ancient Mythology Part 9

Senators had a broad stripe of purple, sewed on the breast of their tunic, called _latus clavus_, which is sometimes put for the _tunic_ itself, or the dignity of a senator.

The _equites_ were distinguished by a narrow stripe called _angustus clavus_.

The Romans wore neither stockings nor breeches, but used sometimes to wrap their legs and thighs with pieces of cloth called from the parts which they covered, _tibialia_ and _feminalia_.

The chief coverings for the feet were the _calceus_, which covered the whole foot, somewhat like our shoes, and was tied above with a _latchet_ or lace, and the _solea_, a slipper or sandal which covered only the sole of the foot, and was fastened on with leather thongs or strings.

The shoes of the senators came up to the middle of their legs, and had a golden or silver crescent on the top of the foot. The shoes of the soldiery were called _caligae_, sometimes shod with nails. Comedians wore the _socci_ or slippers, and tragedians the _cothurni_.

The ancient Romans went with their heads bare except at sacred rites, games, festivals, on journey or in war.--Hence, of all the honors decreed to Caesar by the senate, he is said to have been chiefly pleased with that of always wearing a laurel crown, because it covered his baldness, which was reckoned a deformity. At games and festivals a woollen cap or bonnet was worn.

The head-dress of women was at first very simple. They seldom went abroad, and when they did they almost always had their faces veiled. But when riches and luxury increased, dress became, with many, the chief object of attention. They anointed their hair with the richest perfumes, and sometimes gave it a bright yellow color, by means of a composition or wash. It was likewise adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones: sometimes with garlands and chaplets of flowers.

CHAPTER XX.

_Of the Fine Arts and Literature._

The Romans invented short or abridged writing, which enabled their secretaries to collect the speeches of orators, however rapidly delivered. The characters used by such writers were called notes. They did not consist in letters of the alphabet, but certain marks, one of which often expressed a whole word, and frequently a phrase. The same description of writing is known at the present day by the word _stenography_. From notes came the word _notary_, which was given to all who professed the art of quick writing.

The system of note-writing was not suddenly brought to perfection: it only came into favor when the professors most accurately reported an excellent speech which Cato p.r.o.nounced in the senate. The orators, the philosophers, the dignitaries, and nearly all the rich patricians then took for secretaries note-writers, to whom they allowed handsome pay. It was usual to take from their slaves all who had intellect to acquire a knowledge of that art.

The fine arts were unknown at Rome, until their successful commanders brought from Syracuse, Asia, Macedonia and Corinth, the various specimens which those places afforded. So ignorant, indeed, were they of their real worth, that when the victories of Mummius had given him possession of some of the finest productions of Grecian art, he threatened the persons to whom he intrusted the carriage of some antique statues and rare pictures, "that if they lost those, they should give him new ones." A taste by degrees began to prevail, which they gratified at the expense of every liberal feeling of public justice and private right.

The art of printing being unknown, books were sometimes written on parchment, but more generally on a paper made from the leaves of a plant called _papyrus_, which grew and was prepared in Egypt. This plant was about ten cubits high, and had several coats or skins, one above another, which they separated with a needle.

The instrument used for writing was a reed, sharpened and split at the point, like our pens, called _calamus_. Their ink was sometimes composed of a black liquid emitted by the cuttle fish.

The Romans commonly wrote only on one side of the paper, and joined one sheet to the end of another, till they finished what they had to write, and then rolled it on a cylinder or staff, hence called _volumen_.

But _memoranda_ or other unimportant matters, not intended to be preserved, were usually written on tablets spread with wax. This was effected by means of a metal pencil called _stylus_, pointed at one end to sc.r.a.pe the letters, and flat at the other to smooth the wax when any correction was necessary.

Julius Caesar introduced the custom of folding letters in a flat square form, which were then divided into small pages, in the manner of a modern book. When forwarded for delivery, they were usually perfumed and tied round with a silken thread, the ends of which were sealed with common wax.

Letters were not subscribed; but the name of the writer, and that of the person to whom they were addressed, were inserted at the commencement--thus, Julius Caesar to his friend Antony, health. At the end was written a simple, Farewell!

The Romans had many private and public libraries. Adjoining to some of them were museums for the accommodation of a college or society of learned men, who were supported there at the public expense, with a covered walk and seats, where they might dispute.

The first public library at Rome, and probably in the world, was erected by Asinius Pollio, in the temple of liberty, on Mount Aventine. This was adorned by the statues of the most celebrated men.

CHAPTER XXI.

_Roman Houses._

The houses of the Romans are supposed at first to have been nothing more than thatched cottages. After the city was burnt by the Gauls, it was rebuilt in a more solid and commodious manner; but the streets were very irregular.

In the time of Nero the city was set on fire, and more than two-thirds of it burnt to the ground. That tyrant himself is said to have been the author of this conflagration. He beheld it from the tower of Maecenas, and being delighted, as he said, with the beauty of the flames, played the taking of Troy, dressed like an actor.

The city was then rebuilt with greater regularity and splendor--the streets were widened, the height of the houses was limited to seventy feet, and each house had a portico before it, fronting the street.

Nero erected for himself a palace of extraordinary extent and magnificence. The enclosure extended from the Palatine to the Esquiline mount, which was more than a mile in breadth, and it was entirely surrounded with a s.p.a.cious portico embellished with sculpture and statuary, among which stood a colossal statue of Nero himself, one hundred and twenty feet in height. The apartments were lined with marble, enriched with jasper, topaz, and other precious gems: the timber works and ceilings were inlaid with gold, ivory and mother of pearl.

This n.o.ble edifice, which from its magnificence obtained the appellation of the golden house, was destroyed by Vespasian as being too gorgeous for the residence even of a Roman emperor.

The lower floors of the houses of the great were, at this time, either inlaid marble or mosaic work. Every thing curious and valuable was used in ornament and furniture. The number of stories was generally two, with underground apartments. On the first, were the reception-rooms and bed-chamber; on the second, the dining-room and apartments of the women.

The Romans used portable furnaces in their rooms, on which account they had little use for chimneys, except for the kitchen.

The windows of some of their houses were glazed with a thick kind of gla.s.s, not perfectly transparent; in others, isingla.s.s split into thin plates was used. Perfectly transparent gla.s.s was so rare and valuable at Rome, that Nero is said to have given a sum equal to 50,000 for two cups of such gla.s.s with handles.

Houses not joined with the neighboring ones were called _Insulae_, as also lodgings or houses to let. The inhabitants of rented houses or lodgings, _Insularii_ or _Inquilini_.

The princ.i.p.al parts of a private house were the _vestibulum_, or court before the gate, which was ornamented towards the street with a portico extending along the entire front.

The _atrium_ or hall, which was in the form of an oblong square, surrounded by galleries supported on pillars. It contained a hearth on which a fire was kept constantly burning, and around which were ranged the _lares_, or images of the ancestors of the family.

These were usually nothing more than waxen busts, and, though held in great respect, were not treated with the same veneration as the _penates_, or household G.o.ds, which were considered of divine origin, and were never exposed to the view of strangers, but were kept in an inner apartment, called _penetralia_.

The outer door was furnished with a bell: the entrance was guarded by a slave in chains: he was armed with a staff, and attended by a dog.

The houses had high sloping roofs, covered with broad tiles, and there was usually an open s.p.a.ce in the centre to afford light to the inner apartments.

The Romans were unacquainted with the use of chimnies, and were consequently much annoyed by smoke. To remedy this, they sometimes anointed the wood of which their fuel was composed, with lees of oil.

The windows were closed with blinds of linen or plates of horn, but more generally with shutters of wood. During the time of the emperors, a species of transparent stone, cut into plates, was used for the purpose.

Gla.s.s was not used for the admission of light into the apartments until towards the fifth century of the christian era.

A villa was originally a farm-house of an ordinary kind, and occupied by the industrious cultivator of the soil; but when increasing riches inspired the citizens with a taste for new pleasures, it became the abode of opulence and luxury.

Some villas were surrounded with large parks, in which deer and various foreign wild animals were kept, and in order to render the sheep that pastured on the lawn ornamental, we are told that they often dyed their fleeces with various colours.

Large fish ponds were also a common appendage to the villas of persons of fortune, and great expense was often incurred in stocking them. In general, however, country houses were merely surrounded with gardens, of which the Romans were extravagantly fond.

CHAPTER XXII.

_Marriages and Funerals._