A Point of Law (32 page)

Curia
The meetinghouse of the Senate, located in the Forum, also applied to a meeting place in general. They included the Curia Hostilia, Curia Pompey, and Curia Julia. By tradition they were prominently located with position to the sky to observe omens.

Curule
A curule office conferred magisterial dignity. Those holding it were privileged to sit in a curule chair—a folding camp chair that became a symbol of Roman officials sitting in judgment.

Duumvir
A duumvirate was a board of two men. Many Italian towns were governed by
duumviri
. A
duumvir
was also a Roman admiral, probably dating from a time when the Roman navy was commanded by two senators.

Eagles
The eagle was sacred to Jupiter, and from the time of Caius
Marius gilded eagles were the standards of the legions. Thus, a soldier served “with the eagles.”

Extortion court
A court presided over by a praetor that dealt only in cases of extortion, blackmail, and protection rackets, a plague of the time.

Families and Names
Roman citizens usually had three names. The given name (
praenomen
) was individual, but there were only about eighteen of them: Marcus, Lucius, etc. Certain praenomens were used only in a single family: Appius was used only by the Claudians, Mamercus only by the Aemilians, and so forth. Only males had praenomens. Daughters were given the feminine form of the father’s name: Aemilia for Aemilius, Julia for Julius, Valeria for Valerius, etc.

Next came the
nomen
. This was the name of the clan (gens). All members of a gens traced their descent from a common ancestor, whose name they bore: Julius, Furius, Licinius, Junius, Tullius, to name a few. Patrician names always ended in
ius
. Plebeian names often had different endings. The name of the clan collectively was always in the feminine form, e.g., Aemilii.

A subfamily of a gens is the
stirps
. Stirps is an anthropological term. It is similar to the Scottish clan system, where the family name “Ritchie” for instance, is a stirps of the Clan MacIntosh. The
cognomen
gave the name of the stirps, i.e., Caius Julius Caesar. Caius of the stirps Caesar of gens Julia.

The name of the family branch (
cognomen
) was frequently anatomical: Naso (nose), Ahenobarbus (bronzebeard), Sulla (splotchy), Niger (dark), Rufus (red), Caesar (curly), and many others. Some families did not use cognomens. Mark Antony was just Marcus Antonius, no cognomen.

Other names were
honorifics
conferred by the Senate for outstanding service or virtue: Germanicus (conqueror of the Germans), Africanus (conqueror of the Africans), Pius (extraordinary filial piety).

Freed slaves became citizens and took the family name of their master. Thus the vast majority of Romans named, for instance, Cornelius
would not be patricians of that name, but the descendants of that family’s freed slaves. There was no stigma attached to slave ancestry.

Adoption was frequent among noble families. An adopted son took the name of his adoptive father and added the genetive form of his former nomen. Thus when Caius Julius Caesar adopted his great-nephew Caius Octavius, the latter became Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus.

All these names were used for formal purposes such as official documents and monuments. In practice, nearly every Roman went by a nickname, usually descriptive and rarely complimentary. Usually it was the Latin equivalent of Gimpy, Humpy, Lefty, Squint-eye, Big Ears, Baldy, or something of the sort. Romans were merciless when it came to physical peculiarities.

Fasces
A bundle of rods bound around with an ax projecting from the middle. They symbolized a Roman magistrate’s power of corporal and capital punishment and were carried by the lictors who accompanied the curule magistrates, the
Flamen Dialis
, and the proconsuls and propraetors who governed provinces.

First Citizen
In Latin:
Princeps
. Originally the most prestigious senator, permitted to speak first on all important issues and set the order of debate. Augustus, the first emperor, usurped the title in perpetuity. Decius detests him so much that he will not use either his name (by the time of the writing it was Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus) or the honorific Augustus, voted by the toadying Senate. Instead he will refer to him only as the First Citizen.
Princeps
is the origin of the modern word “prince.”

Flamines
(
See priesthoods
.)

Floralia
Festival of the goddess Flora.

Forum
An open meeting and market area. The premier forum was the Forum Romanum, located on the low ground surrounded by the Capitoline, Palatine, and Caelian Hills. It was surrounded by the most important temples and public buildings. Roman citizens spent much of their day there. The courts met outdoors in the Forum when the weather was good. When it was paved and devoted solely to public
business, the Forum Romanum’s market functions were transferred to the Forum Boarium, the Cattle Market near the Circus Maximus. Small shops and stalls remained along the northern and southern peripheries, however.

Freedman
A manumitted slave. Formal emancipation conferred full rights of citizenship except for the right to hold office. Informal emancipation conferred freedom without voting rights. In the second or at least third generation, a freedman’s descendants became full citizens.

Games
Ludus
, pl.
Ludi
Public religious festivals put on by the state. There were a number of long-established
ludi
, the earliest being the Roman Games
(ludi Romani)
in honor of Jupiter Optimus Maximus and held in September. The
ludi Megalenses
were held in April, as were the
ludi Cereri
in honor of Ceres, the grain goddess and the
ludi Floriae
in honor of Flora, the goddess of flowers. The
ludi Apollinares
were celebrated in July. In October were celebrated the
ludi Capitolini
, and the final games of the year were the Plebeian Games
(ludi Plebeii)
in November. Games usually ran for several days except for the Capitoline games, which ran for a single day. Games featured theatrical performances, processions, sacrifices, public banquets, and chariot races. They did not feature gladiatorial combats. The gladiator games, called
munera
, were put on by individuals as funeral rites.

Imperium
The ancient power of kings to summon and lead armies, to order and forbid, and to inflict corporal and capital punishment. Under the Republic, the imperium was divided among the consuls and praetors, but they were subject to appeal and intervention by the tribunes in their civil decisions and were answerable for their acts after leaving office. Only a dictator had unlimited imperium.

Insula
Literally, “island.” A detached house or block of flats let out to poor families. Fire was their deadliest enemy.

Iudex
An investigating official appointed by a praetor.

Iugerum
, pl.
iugera
An
iugerum
was a Roman area measurement equivalent to about 5/8 of an acre, where an acre is a square of four sides of 208.71 feet or 63.61 meters, thus an
iugarum
was 130.44 feet
or 39.75 meters per side of a square. It traditionally was the amount of land that a yoke of oxen could plow in a day. A plebeian family could subsist on the annual income from 7 to 10
iugera
. Publius Manilius Scrofa’s estate of 200
iugera
would be about 125 acres or nearly 5 miles square.

Janitor
A slave doorkeeper, so called for Janus, god of gateways. In some houses they were chained to the door.

Legion
They formed the fighting force of the Roman army. Through its soldiers, the Empire was able to control vast stretches of territory and people. They were known for their discipline, training, ability, and military prowess.

Lictor
Bodyguards, usually freedmen, who accompanied magistrates and the
Flamen Dialis
, bearing the fasces. They summoned assemblies, attended public sacrifices, and carried out sentences of punishment.
Lupanar
A brothel.

Lustrum
A ceremony of purification performed every five years by the census.

Master of Horse
(Magister Equitum)
When the Senate named a dictator, the dictator immediately named a Master of Horse, who was his second in command, charged with carrying out his decrees. Essentially, the enforcer and hatchetman. Marc Antony was Caesar’s Magister Equitum.

Military Terms
The Roman legionary system was quite unlike any military organization in existence today. The regimental system used by all modern armies date from the Wars of Religion of the sixteenth century. These began with companies under captains that grouped into regiments under colonels, then regiments grouped into divisions under generals, and by the Napoleonic wars they had acquired higher organizations such as corps, army groups, and so forth, with an orderly chain of command from the marshal down through the varying degrees of generals, colonels, majors, captains, sergeants, corporals, and finally the privates in the ranks.

The Roman legions had nothing resembling such an organization. At the time of the SPQR novels the strength of a legion was theoretically 6,000 men, but the usual strength was around 4,800. These were divided into sixty centuries. Originally, a century had included one hundred men, but during that time there were about eighty. Each century was commanded by a centurion, making sixty centurions to the legion. Six centuries made a cohort. Each centurion had a
optio
as his second in command. The centurionate was not a single rank, but a complex of hierarchy and seniority, many details of which are obscure. We know that there were first-rank and second-rank centurions. The senior centurion of the legion was
primus pilus
, the “first spear.” He was centurion of the first century of the first cohort and outranked all others. Centurions were promoted from the ranks for ability and they were the nearest thing a legion had to permanent officers. All others were elected or appointed politicians.

Legionaries were Roman citizens. They fought as heavy infantry fully armored and armed with the heavy javelin
(pilum)
, the short Spanish sword
(gladius Hispaniensis)
, and the straight, double-edged dagger
(pugio)
. They carried a very large shield
(scutum)
that at that time was usually oval and curved to fit around the body. Besides holding the center of the battle line, legionaries were engineers and operated the siege weapons: catapults, team-operated crossbows, and so forth.

Attached to each legion were usually an equal number of
auxilia
, noncitizen troops often supplied by allies. These were lightly armed troops, skirmishers, archers, slingers, and other missile troops, and cavalry. The legion had a small citizen cavalry force but depended upon the
auxilia
for the bulk of the cavalry. Through long service an auxiliary could earn citizen status, which was hereditary and his sons could serve in the legions.
Auxilia
received lower pay and had lower status, but they were essential when operating in broken terrain or heavy forest, where the legions could not be used to advantage. In battle they often held the flanks and usually, with the cavalry, were charged with pursuing a broken and fleeing enemy, preventing them from reforming or counterattacking.

There were other formations within a legion, some of them obscure. One was the
antesignani
, “those who fight before the standards.” Already nearly obsolete, they were apparently an elite strike force, though how it was manned and used is uncertain. Apparently exceptional bravery was required for assignment to the
antesignani
.

There were awards for valor. Greatest of these were the crowns. The Civic Crown
(corona civica)
was awarded for saving the life of a fellow citizen in battle. The Wall Crown
(corona muralis)
was awarded to the first man atop an enemy wall or battlement. The Grass Crown
(corona graminea)
was awarded by the centurions to a general who had won a great victory. It was braided from grass growing on the battlefield. There was great competition among officers for the crowns, because they made election to higher office a near certainty. The citizens loved them. For the rankers there were bracelets awarded for valor. Among Roman men only soldiers wore bracelets, and these only as decorations for bravery. Torques, twisted Gallic neck-rings in miniature form, were also awarded in pairs, slung over the neck on a scarf. Centurions might be awarded
phalerae:
seven or nine massive silver discs worn on a harness atop the armor. Apparently these were for exceptional service rather than a single feat.

In Decius’s time the legions were still formed as a unit, served for a number of years, then discharged collectively. Even when on many years’ service, they were ceremonially disbanded, then reformed every year, with the soldier’s oath renewed each time. This archaic practice was extremely troublesome, and when a few years later Augustus reformed the military system, legions became permanent institutions, their strength kept up by continuous enlistment of new soldiers as old ones retired or died. Many of the Augustan legions remained in service continuously for centuries.

The commander of a legion might be a
consul
or
praetor
, but more often he was a
proconsul
or
propraetor
who, having served his year in Rome, went out to govern a province. Within his province he was commander of its legions. He might appoint a legate
(legatus)
as
his assistant. The legate was subject to approval by the Senate. He might choose a more experienced military man to handle the army work while the promagistrate concentrated upon civil affairs, but a successful war was important to a political career, while enriching the commander. For an extraordinary command, such as Caesar’s in Gaul, or Pompey’s against the pirates, the promagistrate might be permitted a number of legates.