A History of Rome During the Later Republic and Early Principate Part 14

[14] The other sources were the _portoria_ and the _vicesima libertatis_.

Even at a period when the revenues from the provinces were infinitely larger than they were at the present time Cicero could write, with reference to Caesar's proposal for distributing the Campanian land, Portoriis Italiae sublatis, agro Campano divisor, quid vectigal superest domestic.u.m praeter vicensimam? (Cic. _ad Att_. ii. 16. i).

[15] See the map attempted by Beloch in his work _Der Italische Bund unter Roms Hegemonie_.

[16] Vellei. ii. 7. See ch. iv., where the att.i.tude of the senate towards the proposals for transmarine settlement made by Caius Gracchus is described.

[17] Polyb. x.x.xii. 11.

[18] Besides the continued war in Spain from 145 to 133 there were troubles in Macedonia (in 142) and in Sicily during this period of comparative peace. _Circa_ 140-135 commences the great slave rising in that island, and in the latter year the long series of campaigns against the free Illyrian and Thracian peoples begins.

[19] The _officia_ of the _villicus_ have become very extensive even in Cato's time (Cato _R.R_. 5). Their extent implies the a.s.sumption of very prolonged absences on the part of the master.

[20] Lucullus paid 500,200 drachmae for the house at Misenum which had once belonged to Cornelia. She had purchased it for 75,000 (Plut. _Mar_.

34). Marius had been its intermediate owner. Even during his occupancy it is described as [Greek: _polytelaes oikia tryphas echousa kai diaitas thaelyteras hae kat andra polemon tosouton kai strateion autourgon_.]

[21] Diod. x.x.xvii. 3.

[22] Sulla rented one of the lower floors for 3000 sesterces (Plut.

_Sulla_ 1).

[23] The _coenaculum_ is mentioned by Livy (x.x.xix. 14) in connection with the year 186 B.C. It is known both to Ennius (ap. Tertull. _adv_.

Valent. 7) and to Plautus (_Amph_. iii. 1. 3).

[24] Festus p. 171. The _insula_ resembled a large hotel, with one or more courts, and bounded on all sides by streets. See Smith _Dict. of Antiq_. (3rd ed.) i. p. 665.

[25] Val. Max. viii. 1. d.a.m.n. 7 Admodum severae notae et illud populi judicium, c.u.m M. Aemilium Porcinam (consul 137 B.C.) a L. Ca.s.sio (censor 125 B.C.) accusatum crimine nimis sublime extructae villae in Alsiensi agro gravi multa affecit. The author does not sufficiently distinguish between the censorian initiative and the operation of the law. The pa.s.sage is important as showing the existence of an enactment on the height of buildings. See Voigt in Iwan-Muller's _Handbuch_ iv. 2, p.

394, and cf. Vellei. ii. 10. Augustus limited the height of houses to 70 feet (Strabo v. p. 235).

[26] Diodor. v. 40 (The Etruscans) [Greek: _en ... tais oikiais ta peristoa pros tas ton therapeuonton ochlon tarachas exeuron euchraestian_.] See Krause _Deinokrates_ p. 528.

[27] In spite of the plural form _fauces_ (Vitruv. vi. 3. 6) may denote only a single pa.s.sage. See Marquardt _Privatl_. p. 240; Smith and Middleton in Smith _Dict. of Antiq_. i. p. 671.

[28] For this _atriensis_, the English butler, the continental porter, see the frequent references in Plautus (e.g., _Asin_. ii. 2. 80 and 101; _Pseud_. ii. 2. 15), Krause _Deinokrates_ p. 534 and Marquardt _Privatl_. p. 140.

[29] Plin. _H.N_. x.x.xv. 6 Stemmata vero lineis discurrebant ad imagines pictas. It is not known at what period the _imagines_ were transferred from the Atrium to the Alae.

[30] Overbeck _Pompeii_ p. 192; Krause _Deinokrates_ p. 539.

[31] For the practice started, or developed, by Caius Gracchus of receiving visitors, some singly, others in smaller or larger groups, see Seneca _de Ben_. vi. 34. 2 and the description of Gracchus' tribunate in chapter iv.

[32] Festus p. 357 (according to Mommsen, Abh. der Berl. Akad.

Phil.-hist. Cla.s.se, 1864 p. 68). Tablinum proxime atrium locus dicitur, quod antiqui magistratus in suo imperio tabulis rationum ibi habebant publicarum rationum causa factum loc.u.m; Plin. _H.N_. x.x.xv. 7 Tabulina codicibus implebantur et monimentis rerum in magistratu gestarum.

Marquardt, however (_Privatl_. p. 215) thinks that the name _tablinum_ is derived from the fact that this chamber was originally made of planks (_tablinum_ from _tabula_, as _figlinum_ from _figulus_).

[33] The earliest instances of extreme extravagance in the use of building material--of the use, for instance, of Hymettian and Numidian marble--are furnished by the houses of the orator Lucius Licinius Cra.s.sus (built about 92 B.C.) and of Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, consul in 78 B.C. This growth of luxury will be treated when we come to deal with the civilisation of the Ciceronian period.

[34] As Krause expresses it (_Deinokrates_ p. 542), at the final stage we find a Greek "Hinterhaus" standing behind an old Italian "Vorderhaus".

[35] The case mentioned by Juvenal (xi. 151)

Pastoris duri hic est filius, ille bubulci.

Suspirat longo non visam tempore matrem, Et casulam, et notos tristis desiderat haedos,

must have been of frequent occurrence as soon as the urban and rustic _familiae_ had been kept distinct.

[36] Suetonius says (_de Rhet_. 3) of L. Voltacilius Pilutus, one of the teachers of Pompeius, Servisse dicitur atque etiam ostiarius vetere more in catena fuisse.

[37] For these _atrienses, atriarii, admissionales, velarii_ see Wallon _Hist. de l'Esclavage_ ii. p. 108.

[38] Diod. x.x.xvii. 3; Sall.u.s.t (_Jug_. 85) makes Marius say (107 B.C.) Neque pluris pretii coquum quam villic.u.m habeo. Livy (x.x.xix. 6) remarks with reference to the consequences of the return of Manlius' army from Asia in 187 B.C. Tum coquus, vilissimum antiquis mancipium et aestimatione et usu, in pretio esse; et, quod ministerium fuerat, ars haberi coepta.

[39] Plin. _H.N_. xviii. 108 Nec coquos vero habebant in servitiis eosque ex macello conducebant. The practice is mentioned by Plautus (_Aul_. ii. 4. 1; iii. 2. 15).

[40] _Condus promus_ (Plaut. _Pseud_. ii. 2. 14).

[41] Wallon op. cit. ii. p. 111.

[42] C. Gracchus ap. Gell. x. 3. 5.

[43] Polyb. x.x.xii. 11; Diodor. x.x.xvii. 3.

[44] Diod. l.c.

[45] Plin. _H.N_. x.x.xiii. 143 Invenimus legatos Carthaginiensium dixisse nullos hominum inter se benignius vivere quam Romanos. Eodem enim argento apud omnes cenitavisse ipsos.

[46] Val. Max. ii. 9, 3.

[47] Plin. _H.N_. x.x.xiii. 141.

[48] Vellei. i. 13.

[49] Polyb. xl. 7.

[50] Liv. x.x.xix. 6 Lectos aeratos ... plagulas ... monopodia et abacos Romam advexerunt. Tunc psaltriae sambucistriaeque et convivalia ludionum oblectamenta addita epulis. Cf. Plin, _H.N_. x.x.xiv. 14.

[51] Polyb. ix. 10 [Greek: _Rhomaioi de metakomisantes ta proeiraemena tais men idiotikais kataskenais tous auton ekosmaesan bious, tais de daemosiais ta koina taes poleos_.] Another great raid was that made by Fulvius n.o.bilior in 189 B.C. on the art treasures of the Ambraciots (Signa aenea marmoreaque et tabulae pictae, Liv. x.x.xviii. 9).

[52] Plin. _H.N_. xv. 19 Graeci vitiorum omnium genitores.

[53] Cic. _pro Arch_. 3. 5 Erat Italia tum plena Graecarum artium ac disciplinarum ... Itaque hunc (Archiam) et Tarentini et Regini et Neapolitani civitate ceterisque praemiis donarunt: et omnes, qui aliquid de ingeniis poterant judicare, cognitione atque hospitio dignum existimarunt.

[54] Cic. _de Rep_. ii. 19. 34 Videtur insitiva quadam disciplina doctior facta esse civitas. Influxit enim non tenuis quidam e Graecia rivulus in hanc urbem, sed abundantissimus amnis illarum disciplinarum et artium. Cicero is speaking of the very earliest h.e.l.lenic influences on Rome, but his description is just as appropriate to the period which we are considering.

[55] Plut. _Paul_. 28.

[56] Sulla brought back the library of Apellicon of Teos, Lucullus the very large one of the kings of Pontus (Plut. _Sulla_ 26; _Luc_. 42; Isid. _Orig_. vi. 5). Lucullus allowed free access to his books. Here we get the germ of the public library. The first that was genuinely public belongs to the close of the Republican era. It was founded by Asinius Pollio in the Atrium Libertatis on the Aventine (Plin. _H.N_. vii. 45; Isid. _Orig_. vi. 5).

[57] Macrob. _Sat_. iii. 14. 7.