The Princess and the Pirates (30 page)

Then came the name of the family branch (cognomen). This name 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.

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) 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.”

Forum
An open meeting and market area. Roman citizens spent much of their day there. The courts met outdoors in the Forum when the weather was good.

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
(
pi.
ludi
) Public religious festivals put on by the state. Games usually ran for several days. They 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.
Ludi
were also training schools for gladiators, although the gladiatorial exhibitions were not
ludi.

Gymnasium, palaestra
Greek and Roman exercise facilities. In Rome they were often an adjunct to the baths.

Hospitium, hospitia
Hospitium
was a contract of mutual obligation between individuals and families. When a hospes visited the home of another, the provider was obligated to provide him with food and shelter, medical care if sick, aid in the law courts should such be necessary, and a proper funeral and burial should he die when visiting.
Hospitium
was symbolized by an exchange of tokens, and it was hereditary. An Athenian, for instance, who appeared at a Roman house with a
hospitium
token had to be given hospitality, even if the tokens had been exchanged by great-grandfathers a century before.

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.

Lex Gabinia
Roman military commands and governorships were apportioned by laws introduced to the Plebeian Assembly by the tribunes. Each law bore the name of the tribune who introduced it. The
lex Gabinia
gave Pompey his extraordinary command of the whole Mediterranean for his campaign against the pirates. The law was introduced by the tribune Aulus Gabinius.

Legatus, legati
When a praetor or consul stepped down from office and went out to govern a province, he could name a
legatus
as his assistant. The
legatus
had to be approved by the popular assemblies. If he was engaged in a major war, as Caesar was in Gaul, he might have several
legati.
The duties of a
legatus
were determined by the governor.

Legions, legionaries
In the Republic, a legion was a Roman army consisting on paper of 6,000 men, but the real number was usually closer to 4,000. Legionaries were citizens and fought as heavy infantry. A legion was usually accompanied by a roughly similar number of noncitizen auxiliaries who usually supplied the archers and slingers, light-armed skirmishers, and cavalry.

Munera
Special Games, not part of the official calendar, at which glad-iators were exhibited. They were originally funeral games and were always dedicated to the dead.

Naval forces
In the Roman navy, sailors were hired civilians. Marines were soldiers assigned to the ships, usually with lower pay and lesser status than legionaries. Rowers were also hired freemen. Despite
Ben-Hur,
Roman galleys were never rowed by slaves or convicts. That was a practice of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Coast guards were usually provided by local officials and served primarily to foil smugglers.

Naval Titles

Admiral
The Roman title was
duumvir.
A
duumvir
was appointed by the senate to command a fleet.

Commodore
In the Romen navy, any officer in command of a flotilla. The word “commodore” is modern.

Hortator
The coxswain of a rowed vessel. He kept the rowers in time by voice, flute, or drum.

Leadsman
A sailor whose task was to determine the depth of the water beneath the ship with a weighted rope knotted at intervals.

Poleman
A sailor charged with wielding a pole to keep the ship from scraping against the wharf or another ship.

Skipper
An informal term for the captain of a ship. The term is modern, from a Dutch word meaning “shipman.”

Nobiles, Nobilitas
Rome had no official aristocracy, but families that counted consuls among their ancestors were classes as
nobiles.

Offices
A tribune of the people was a representative of the plebeians with power to introduce laws and to veto actions of the Senate. Only plebeians could hold the office, which carried no imperium. Military tribunes were elected from among the young men of senatorial or equestrian rank to be assistants to generals. Usually it was the first step of a man’s political career.

A Roman who embarked on a political career had to rise through a regular chain of offices. The lowest elective office was quaestor: bookkeeper and paymaster for the Treasury, the Grain Office, and the provincial governors. These men did the scut work of the Empire.

Next were the aediles. They were more or less city managers who saw to the upkeep of public buildings, streets, sewers, markets, and the like. There were two types: the plebeian aediles and the curule aediles. The curule aediles could sit in judgment on civil cases involving markets and currency, while the plebeian aediles could only levy fines. Otherwise, their duties were the same. They also put on the public games. The government allowance for these things was laughably small, so they had to pay for them out of their own pockets. It was a horrendously expensive office, but it gained the holder popularity like no other, especially if his games were spectacular. Only a popular aedile could hope for election to higher office.

Third was praetor, an office with real power. Praetors were judges, but they could command armies and after a year in office they could go out to govern provinces, where real wealth could be won, earned, or stolen. In the late Republic, there were eight praetors. Senior was the
praetor urbanus,
who heard civil cases between citizens of Rome. The
praetor peregrinus
(praetor of the foreigners) heard cases involving foreigners. The others presided over criminal courts. After leaving office, the ex-praetors became propraetors and went to govern propraetorian provinces with full imperium.

The highest office was consul, supreme office of power during the Roman Republic. Two were elected each year. For one year they fulfilled the political role of royal authority, bringing all other magistrates into the service of the people and the City of Rome. The office carried full imperium. On the expiration of his year in office, the ex-consul was usually assigned a district outside Rome to rule as proconsul. As proconsul, he had the same insignia and the same number of lictors. His power was absolute within his province. The most important commands always went to proconsuls.

Censors were elected every five years. It was the capstone to a political career, but it did not carry imperium, and there was no foreign command afterward. Censors conducted the census, purged the Senate of unworthy members, and doled out the public contracts. They could forbid certain religious practices or luxuries deemed bad for public morals or generally “un-Roman.” There were two Censors, and each could overrule the other. They were usually elected from among the ex-consuls.

Under the Sullan Constitution, the quaestorship was the minimum requirement for membership in the Senate. The majority of senators had held that office and never held another. Membership in the Senate was for life unless expelled by the Censors.

No Roman official could be prosecuted while in office, but he could be after he stepped down. Malfeasance in office was one of the most common court charges.

The most extraordinary office was dictator. In times of emergency, the Senate could instruct the consuls to appoint a dictator, who could wield absolute power for six months. Unlike all other officials, a dictator was unaccountable: He could not be prosecuted for his acts in office. The last true dictator was appointed in the third century
B.C.
The dictatorships of Sulla and Julius Caesar were unconstitutional.

Patrician
The noble class of Rome.

Plebeian
All citizens not of patrician status; the lower classes, also called “plebs.”

Pontifical College
The pontifices were a college of priests not of a specific god (see Priesthoods) but whose task was to advise the Senate on matters of religion. The chief of the college was the Pontifex Maximus, who ruled on all matters of religious practice and had charge of the calendar. Julius Caesar was elected
Pontifex Maximus,
and Augustus made it an office held permanently by the emperors. The title is currently held by the Pope.

Popular Assemblies
There were three: the Centuriate Assembly (
comitia centuriata
) and the two tribal assemblies:
comitia tributa and consilium plebis.

Praetor’s court
The standard Roman law court. Praetors were judges.

Priesthoods
In Rome, the priesthoods were offices of state. There were two major classes: pontifices and flamines. College of Pontifices were members of the highest priestly college of Rome. They had superintendence over all sacred observances, state and private, and over the calendar. Head of their college was the
Pontifex Maximus,
a title held to this day by the Pope.
The flamines
were the high priests of the state gods: the
Flamen Martialis
for Mars, the
Flamen Quirinalis
for the deified Romulus, and, highest of all, the
Flamen Dialis,
high priest of Jupiter. The
Flamen Dialis
celebrated the Ides of each month and could not take part in politics, although he could attend meetings of the Senate, attended by a single lictor. Each had charge of the daily sacrifices, wore distinctive headgear, and were surrounded by many ritual taboos.

Technically, pontifices and flamines did not take part in public business except to solemnize oaths and treaties, give the god’s stamp of approval to declarations of war, etc. But since they were all senators anyway, the ban had little meaning. Julius Caesar was
Pontifex Maximus
while he was out conquering Gaul, even though the
Pontifex Maximus
wasn’t supposed to look upon human blood.

Publicani (sing,
publicanus
)
Every five years censors were elected who let the contracts for public work: tax collecting, road building, etc. The bidders on these contracts were known as publicani.

Rites, Festivals

Aphrodisia
A festival dedicated to the goddess Aphrodite. They were held everywhere, but the one at Cyprus, putative birthplace of Aphrodite, was especially famous and splendid.

Cult of Dionysus
An uproarious, orgiastic cult that traveled from city to city throughout the ancient world. The female devotees of Dionysus, called maenads or bacchantes, were rumored to enter homicidal frenzies at the climax of an orgy and rip men to pieces with their hands and teeth. The cult was often suppressed in Italy but kept coming back.

Eleusinian Mysteries
The most famous mystery cult of antiquity, its initiates included many famous men, including Cicero, who described its rites as very moving. It was forbidden for anyone to describe the ritual, but it seems to have involved resurrection and rebirth.