 Domission, Part 1, from the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Swatonius Tranquillus. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Swatonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forester. Domission, Part 1, paragraphs 1 through 10. Domission was born upon the ninth of the Callens of November, when his father was consul-elect being to enter upon his office the month following, in the sixth region of the city, at the pomegranate, in the house which he afterwards converted into a temple of the Flavian family. He is said to have spent the time of his youth in so much want and infamy that he had not one piece of plate belonging to him, and it is well known that Claudius Polio, a man of Praetorian rank against whom there is a poem of Nero's extant, entitled Lucio, kept a note in his handwriting, which he sometimes produced, in which Domission made an asignation with him for the foulest purposes. Some, likewise, have said that he prostituted himself to Nerva, who succeeded him. In the war with Vitalius he fled into the capital with his uncle Sabinus, and a part of the troops they had in the city. But the enemy breaking in, and the temple being set on fire, he hid himself all night with the Sacristan, and next morning, assuming the disguise of a worshipper of Isis, and mixing with the priests of that idle superstition, he got over the Tiber, with only one attendant, to the house of a woman who was the mother of one of his school fellows, and lurked there so close that, though the enemy who were at his heels searched very strictly after him, they could not discover him. At last, after the success of his party, appearing in public and being unanimously saluted by the title of Caesar, he assumed the office of preter of the city, with consular authority, but in fact had nothing but the name, for the jurisdiction he transferred to his next colleague. He used, however, his absolute power so licentiously, that even then he plainly discovered what sort of prince he was likely to prove. Not to go into details, after he had made free with the wives of many men of distinction, he took Domitia Longaina from her husband, Ilius Lamia, and married her, and in one day disposed of about twenty offices in the city and the provinces, upon which Vespasian said several times he wondered he did not send him a successor, too. He likewise designed an expedition into Gaul and Germany, without the least necessity for it, and contrary to the advice of all his father's friends, and this he did only with the view of equaling his brother in military achievements and glory. But for this he was severely reprimanded, and that he might the more effectually be reminded of his age and position was made to live with his father, and his litter had to follow his father's and brother's carriage, as often as they went abroad, but he attended them in their triumph for the conquest of Judea, mounted on a white horse. Of the six consulships which he held, only one was ordinary, and that he obtained by the session and interest of his brother. He greatly affected a modest behavior, and, above all, a taste for poetry, in so much that he rehearsed his performances in public, though it was an art he had formerly little cultivated, and which he afterwards despised and abandoned. And, however, as he was at this time to poetical pursuits, yet when Vologisus, king of the Parthians, desired succors against the Alani, with one of Vespasian's sons to command them, he labored hard to procure for himself that appointment. But the scheme proving abortive, he endeavored by presence and promises to engage other kings of the east to make a similar request. After his father's death, he was for some time in doubt whether he should not offer the soldiers a donative double to that of his brother, and made no scruple of saying frequently that he had been left his partner in the empire, but that his father's will had been fraudulently set aside. From that time forward he was constantly engaged in plots against his brother, both publicly and privately, until, falling dangerously ill, he ordered all his attendants to leave him under pretense of his being dead, before he really was so, and, at his decease, paid him no other honor than that of enrolling him amongst the gods, and he often, both in speeches and edicts, carped at his memory by sneers and insinuations. In the beginning of his reign, he used to spend daily an hour by himself in private, during which time he did nothing else but catch flies and stick them through the body with a sharp pin. When someone, therefore, inquired whether any one was with the emperor, it was significantly answered by Vibious Crispus not so much as a fly. Soon after his advancement, his wife Domitia, by whom he had a son in his second consulship, and whom the year following he complimented with the title of Augusta, being desperately in love with Paris, the actor, he put her away. But within a short time afterwards, being unable to bear the separation, he took her again, under pretense of complying with the people's importunity. During some time there was in his administration a strange mixture of virtue and vice, until at last his virtues themselves degenerated into vices, being, as we may reasonably conjecture concerning his character, inclined to avarice through want and to cruelty through fear. He frequently entertained the people with most magnificent and costly shows not only in the amphitheater but the circus, where, besides the usual races with chariots drawn by two or four horses abreast, he exhibited the representation of an engagement between both horse and foot, and a sea-fight in the amphitheater. The people were also entertained with the chase of wild beasts and the combat of gladiators, even in the night-time by torchlight. Nor did men only fight in these spectacles, but women also. He constantly attended at the games given by the questers, which had been this used for some time, but were revived by him, and upon those occasions always gave the people the liberty of demanding two pairs of gladiators out of his own school, who appeared last in court uniforms. Whenever he attended the shows of gladiators, there stood at his feet a little boy dressed in scarlet, with a prodigiously small head, with whom he used to talk very much and sometimes seriously. We are assured that he was overheard asking him if he knew for what reason he had in the late appointment made Metius Rufus governor of Egypt. He presented the people with naval fights, performed by fleets almost as numerous as those usually employed in real engagements, making a vast lake near the Tiber and building seats round it, and he witnessed them himself during a very heavy reign. He likewise celebrated the secular games, reckoning not from the year in which they had been exhibited by Claudius, but from the time of Augustus's celebration of them. In these, upon the day of the Circassian sports, in order to have a hundred races performed, he reduced each course from seven rounds to five. He likewise instituted, in honor of Jupiter capitalinus, a solemn contest in music to be performed every five years, besides horse racing and gymnastic exercises, with more prizes than are at present allowed. There was also a public performance in Elocution, both Greek and Latin, and besides the musicians who sung to the harp, there were others who played concerted pieces or solos, without vocal accompaniment. Young girls also ran races in the stadium, at which he presided in his sandals, dressed in a purple robe made after the Grecian fashion, and wearing upon his head a golden crown bearing the effigies of Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva, with the flamen of Jupiter, and the College of Priests sitting by his side in the same dress, excepting only that their crowns had also his own image on them. He celebrated also upon the Alban Mount every year the Festival of Minerva, for whom he had appointed a College of Priests, out of which were chosen by lot persons to preside as governors over the College, who were obliged to entertain the people with extraordinary chases of wild beasts and stage plays, besides contests for prizes in oratory and poetry. He thrice bestowed upon the people a large s of three hundred cisterces each man, and at a public show of gladiators, a very plentiful feast. At the Festival of the Seven Hills, he distributed large hampers of provisions to the senatorian and equestrian orders, and small baskets to the common people, and encouraged them to eat by setting them the example. The day after, he scattered among the people a variety of cakes and other delicacies to be scrambled for, and on the greater part of them falling amidst the seats of the crowd, he ordered five hundred tickets to be thrown into each range of benches belonging to the senatorian and equestrian orders. He rebuilt many noble edifices which had been destroyed by fire, and amongst them the capital which had been burnt down a second time, but all the inscriptions were in his own name, without the least mention of the original founders. He likewise erected a new temple in the capital to Jupiter Custos, and a forum, which is now called Nervus, as also the temple of the Flavian family, a stadium, an odium, and an omakia, out of the stone dug from which the sides of the Circus Maximus, which had been burnt down, were rebuilt. He undertook several expeditions, some from choice, and some from necessity. That against the catty was unprovoked, but that against the Sarmatians was necessary, an entire legion, with its commander having been cut off by them. He sent two expeditions against the Dacians, the first upon the defeat of Opius Sabinus, a man of consular rank, and the other upon that of Cornelius Fuscus, the defect of the Praetorian cohorts, to whom he had entrusted the conduct of that war. After several battles with the catty and daisy, he celebrated a double triumph. But for his successes against the Sarmatians, he only bore in procession the laurel crown to Jupiter Capitalinus. The civil war, begun by Lucius Antonius, governor of Upper Germany, he quelled, without being obliged to be personally present at it, with remarkable good fortune. Before, at the very moment of joining battle, the Rhine suddenly thawing, the troops of the Barbarians, which were ready to join El Antonius, were prevented from crossing the river. Of this victory he had noticed by some presages, before the messengers who brought the news of it arrived. For upon the very day the battle was fought, a splendid eagle spread its wings round his statue at Rome, making most joyful cries, and shortly after, a rumor became common that Antonius was slain, nay, many positively affirmed that they saw his head brought to the city. He made many innovations in common practices. He abolished the sportula, and revived the old practice of regular suppers. To the four former parties in the Circassian games, he added two new, who were gold and scarlet. He prohibited the players from acting in the theater, but permitted them the practice of their art in private houses. He forbade the castration of males, and reduced the price of the eunuchs who were still left in the hands of the dealers and slaves. On the occasion of a great abundance of wine, accompanied by a scarcity of corn, supposing that the tillage of the ground was neglected for the sake of attending too much to the cultivation of vineyards, he published a proclamation forbidding the planting of any new vines in Italy, and ordering the vines in the provinces to be cut down, nowhere permitting more than one half of them to remain. But he did not persist in the execution of this project. Some of the greatest offices he conferred upon his freedmen and soldiers. He forbade two legions to be quartered in the same camp, and more than a thousand cesterces to be deposited by any soldier with the standards, because it was thought that Lucius Antonius had been encouraged in his late project by the large sum deposited in the military chest by the two legions which he had in the same winter quarters. He made an addition to the soldier's pay of three gold pieces a year. In the administration of justice he was diligent and assiduous, and frequently sat in the forum, out of course, to cancel the judgments of the court of the one hundred which had been procured through favor or interest. He occasionally cautioned the judges of the court of recovery to beware of being too ready to admit claims for freedom brought before them. He set a mark of infamy upon judges who were convicted of taking bribes, as well as upon their assessors. He likewise instigated the tribunes of the people to prosecute a corrupt edile for extortion, and to desire the senate to appoint judges for his trial. He likewise took such effectual care in punishing magistrates of the city and governors of provinces, guilty of malversation, that they never were at any time more moderate or more just. Most of these, since his reign, we have seen prosecuted for crimes of various kinds. Being taken upon himself the reformation of the public manners, he restrained the license of the populace in sitting promiscuously with the knights in the theatre. Scandalous libels, published to defame persons of rank of either sex, he suppressed and inflicted upon their authors a mark of infamy. He expelled a man of questorian rank from the senate for practicing mimicry and dancing. He debarred infamous women the use of litters, as also the right of receiving legacies or inheriting estates. He struck out of the list of judges a Roman knight for taking again his wife whom he had divorced and prosecuted for adultery. He condemned several men of the senatorian and equestrian orders upon the scantinian law. The lewdness of the Vestal Virgins, which had been overlooked by his father and brother, he punished severely but in different ways. Viz, offenses committed before his reign with death and those since its commencement according to ancient custom. According to the two sisters called Osalati, he gave liberty to choose the mode of death which they preferred and banished their paramours. But Cornelia, the president of the Vestals, who had formerly been acquitted upon a charge of incontinence, being a long time after again prosecuted and condemned, he ordered to be buried alive and her gallants to be whipped to death with rods in the Commitium, accepting only a man of praetorian rank, to whom, because he confessed the fact while the case was dubious, and it was not established against him, though the witnesses had been put to the torture, he granted the favour of banishment. And to preserve pure and undefiled the reverence due to the gods, he ordered the soldiers to demolish a tomb, which one of his freedmen had erected for his son out of the stones designed for the Temple of Jupiter, capital Linus, and to sink in the sea the bones and relics buried in it. Upon his first succeeding to power, he felt such an abhorrence for the shedding of blood that before his father's arrival in Rome, calling to mind the verse of Virgil, Impia Quam Caesis Genes est Epulata Juvencis, ere impious man, restrained from blood in vain, began to feast on flesh of bullock slain, he designed to have published a proclamation to forbid the sacrifice of oxen. Before his accession to the imperial authority, and during some time afterwards, he scarcely ever gave the least grounds for being suspected of covetousness or avarice. But on the contrary, he often afforded proofs, not only of his justice but his liberality. To all about him he was generous even to profusion, and recommended nothing more earnestly to them than to avoid doing anything mean. He would not accept the property left him by those who had children. He also set aside a legacy bequeathed by the will of Ruscus Caipio, who had ordered his heir to make a present yearly to each of the senators upon their first assembling. He exonerated all those who had been under prosecution from the treasury for above five years before, and would not suffer suits to be renewed, unless it was done within a year, and on condition that the prosecutor should be banished if he could not make good his cause. The secretaries of the questers having engaged in trade, according to custom, but contrary to the Claudian law, he pardoned them for what was past. Such portions of land as had been left when it was divided amongst the veteran soldiers, he granted to the ancient possessors as belonging to them by prescription. He put a stop to false prosecutions in the exchequer by severely punishing the prosecutors, and this saying of his was much taken notice of that a prince who does not punish informers encourages them. But he did not long persevere in this course of clemency and justice, although he sooner fell into cruelty than into avarice. He put to death a scholar of Paris, the pantomimic, though a minor, and then sick, only because, both in person and the practice of his art, he resembled his master, as he did likewise Hermogenes of Tarsus for some oblique reflections in his history, crucifying, besides, the scribes who had copied the work. One who was a master of a band of gladiators, happening to say that a thrax was a match for a marmillo, but not so for the exhibitor of the games, he ordered him to be dragged from the benches into the arena and exposed to the dogs, with this label put upon him, a parmalarian guilty of talking impiously. He put to death many senators, and amongst them several men of consular rank. In this number were Civica Serialis, when he was pro-consul in Africa, Salvidianus Orphetus, and Asilius Glabrio in exile, under the pretense of their planning to revolt against him. The rest he punished upon very trivial occasions, as Ilius Lamia for some jocular expressions which were of old date and perfectly harmless, because, upon his commending his voice after he had taken his wife from him, he replied, Alas, I hold my tongue. And when Titus advised him to take another wife, he answered him thus, What, have you a mind to marry? Salvius Cocheanus was condemned to death for keeping the birthday of his uncle Otho, the emperor. Meteus Pomposianus, because he was commonly reported to have an imperial nativity, and to carry about with him a map of the world upon Vellum, with the speeches of kings and generals extracted out of Titus Livius, and for giving his slaves the name of Mago and Hannibal, Salustius Luculus, lieutenant in Britain, for suffering some lances of a new invention to be called Luculean, and Junius Rusticus for publishing a treatise in praise of Piteus Thracia and Helvidius Priscus, and calling them both most upright men. Upon this occasion he likewise banished all the philosophers from the city and Italy. He put to death the younger Helvidius for writing a farce in which, under the character of Paris and Poinoni, he reflected upon his having divorced his wife, and also Flavius Sabinus, one of his cousins, because upon his being chosen at the consular election to that office, the public crier had by a blunder proclaimed him to the people not consul, but emperor. Becoming still more savage after his success in the Civil War, he employed the utmost industry to discover those of the adverse party who absconded. Many of them he racked with a new invented torture, inserting fire through their private parts, and from some he cut off their hands. It is certain that only two of any note were pardoned, a tribune who wore the narrow stripe, and a centurion, who, to clear themselves from the charge of being concerned in any rebellious project, proved themselves to have been guilty of prostitution, and consequently incapable of exercising any influence either over the general or the soldiers. End of Domitian Part 1. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Swatonius Tranquillus, translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester. Domitian Part 2. Paragraphs 11 through 23. His cruelties were not only excessive, but subtle and unexpected. The day before he crucified a collector of his rents, he sent for him into his bed-chamber, made him sit down upon the bed by him, and sent him away well-pleased, and, so far as could be inferred from his treatment, in a state of perfect security, having vouchsafed him the favor of a plate of meat from his own table. When he was on the point of condemning to death Araitinus Clemens, a man of consular rank, and one of his friends and emissaries, he retained him about his person in the same or greater favor than ever, until at last, as they were riding together in the same litter, upon seeing the man who had informed against him, he said, Are you willing that we should hear this base slave to-morrow? Contemptuously abusing the patience of men, he never pronounced a severe sentence without prefacing it with words which gave hopes of mercy, so that at last there was not a more certain token of a fatal conclusion than a mild commencement. He brought before the Senate some person accused of treason, declaring that he should prove that day how dear he was to the Senate, and so influenced them that they condemned the accused to be punished according to the ancient usage. Then as if alarmed at the extreme severity of their punishment, to lessen the odiousness of the proceeding he interposed in these words, for it is not foreign to the purpose to give them precisely as they were delivered. Permit me, conscript Fathers, so far to prevail upon your affection for me, however extraordinary the request may seem, as to grant the condemned criminals the favor of dying in the manner they choose. For by so doing ye will spare your own eyes, and the world will understand that I interceded with the Senate on their behalf. Having exhausted the ex-checker by the expense of his buildings and public spectacles, with the augmentation of pay lately granted to the troops, he made an attempt at the reduction of the army in order to lessen the military charges. But reflecting that he should, by this measure, expose himself to the insults of the barbarians, while it would not suffice to extricate him from his embarrassments, he had recourse to plundering his subjects by every mode of exaction. The estates of the living and the dead were sequestered upon any accusation by whomesoever preferred. The unsupported allegation of any one person, relative to a word or action construed to affect the dignity of the emperor, was sufficient. Inheritances, to which he had not the slightest pretension, were confiscated. If there was found so much as one person to say, he had heard from the deceased when living that he had made the emperor his heir. Besides the exactions from others, the poll tax on the Jews was levied with extreme rigor, both on those who lived after the manner of Jews in the city without publicly professing themselves to be such, and on those who, by concealing their origin, avoided paying the tribute imposed upon that people. I remember when I was a youth, to have been present when an old man, ninety years of age, had his person exposed to view in a very crowded court, in order that, on inspection, the procurator might satisfy himself whether he was circumcised. From his earliest years Domitian was anything but courteous, of a forward, assuming disposition, and extravagant both in his words and actions. When Kainis, his father's concubine, upon her return from Istria, offered him a kiss, as she had been used to do, he presented her his hand to kiss. Being indignant that his brother's son-in-law should be waited on by servants dressed in white, he exclaimed, "'Ugagathon palikoi ranyi. Too many princes are not good.'" After he became emperor, he had the assurance debosed in the senate that he had bestowed the empire on his father and brother, and they had restored it to him, and upon taking his wife again after the divorce, he declared by proclamation that he had recalled her to his pulviner. He was not a little pleased, too, at hearing the acclamations of the people in the amphitheater on a day of festival, all happiness to our lord and lady. But when, during the celebration of the capital-line trial of skill, the whole concourse of people entreated him with one voice to restore Palforius Sura to his place in the senate, from which he had been long before expelled, he having then carried away the prize of eloquence from all the orators who had contended for it, he did not vouchsafe to give them any answer, but only commanded silence to be proclaimed by the voice of the crier. With equal arrogance, when he dictated the form of a letter to be used by his procurators, he began it thus, Our Lord and God commands so and so, whence it became a rule that no one should style him otherwise either in writing or speaking. He suffered no statues to be erected for him in the capital unless they were of gold and silver and of a certain weight. He erected so many magnificent gates and arches, surmounted by representations of chariots drawn by four horses and other triumphal ornaments in different quarters of the city, that a wag inscribed on one of the arches the Greek word axke, it is enough. He filled the office of consul seventeen times which no one had ever done before him, and for the seven middle occasions in successive years, but in scarcely any of them had he more than the title, for he never continued in office beyond the calends of May, and for the most part only till the Ides of January. After his two triumphs, when he assumed the cognomen of Germanicus, he called the months of September and October Germanicus and Domitian, after his own names, because he commenced his reign in the one and was born in the other. Becoming by these means universally feared and odious, he was at last taken off by a conspiracy of his friends and favorite freedmen in concert with his wife. He had long entertained a suspicion of the year and day when he should die, and even of the very hour and manner of his death, all which he had learned from the Chaldeans, when he was a very young man. His father once at supper laughed at him for refusing to eat some mushrooms, saying that if he knew his fate he would rather be afraid of the sword. Being therefore in perpetual apprehension and anxiety, he was keenly alive to the slightest suspicions, in so much that he is thought to have withdrawn the edict ordering the destruction of the vines, chiefly because the copies of it which were dispersed had the following lines written upon them. It was from the same principle of fear that he refused a new honor, devised and offered him by the senate, though he was greedy of all such compliments. It was this, that as often as he held the consulship, Roman knights, chosen by Lot, should walk before him, clad in the trabia, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the harem, or in the trabia, with lances in their hands, amongst his lictors and the porators. As the time of the danger which he apprehended grew near, he became daily more and more disturbed in mind, in so much that he lined the walls of the porticoes in which he used to walk, with the stone called Fengates, by the reflection of which he could see every object behind him. He seldom gave an audience to persons in custody, unless in private, being alone, and he himself holding their chains in his hand. To convince his domestics that the life of a master was not to be attempted upon any pretext, however plausible, he condemned to death Epaphroditus his secretary, because it was believed that he had assisted Nero in his extremity to kill himself. His last victim was Flavius Clemens, his cousin German, a man below contempt for his want of energy, whose sons, then of a very tender age, he had avowedly destined for his successors, and discarding their former names, had ordered one to be called Vespasian, and the other Domitian. Nevertheless, he suddenly put him to death upon some very slight suspicion, almost before he was well out of his consulship. By this violent act he very much hastened his own destruction. During eight months together there was so much lightning at Rome, and such accounts of the phenomenon were brought from other parts that at last he cried out, let him now strike whom he will. The capital was struck by lightning, as well as the temple of the Flavian family, with the Palatine house, and his own bed-chamber. The tablet also, inscribed upon the base of his triumphal statue, was carried away by the violence of the storm, and fell upon a neighboring monument. The tree which just before the advancement of Vespasian had been prostrated and rose again, suddenly fell to the ground. The goddess Fortune of Preneste, to whom it was his custom on New Year's Day to commend the Empire for the ensuing year, and who had always given him a favorable reply, at last returned him a melancholy answer not without mention of blood. He dreamt that Minerva, whom he worshipped even to a superstitious excess, was withdrawing from her sanctuary, declaring she could protect him no longer, because she was disarmed by Jupiter. Nothing however so much affected him as an answer given by Ask Letario, the astrologer, and his subsequent fate. This person had been informed against, and did not deny his having predicted some future events of which, from the principles of his art, he confessed he had a foreknowledge. Domitian asked him what end he thought he should come to himself, to which, replying, I shall in short time be torn to pieces by dogs, he ordered him immediately to be slain, and in order to demonstrate the vanity of his art, to be carefully buried. But during the preparations for executing this order, it happened that the funeral pile was blown down by a sudden storm, and the body, half burnt, was torn to pieces by dogs, which being observed by Latinus, the comic actor, as he chanced to pass that way, he told it, amongst the other news of the day, to the Emperor at Supper. The day before his death he ordered some dates served up at table, to be kept till the next day, adding, if I have the luck to use them. And turning to those who were nearest him, he said, to-morrow the moon in Aquarius will be bloody instead of watery, and an event will happen, which will be much talked of all the world over. But midnight he was so terrified that he leaped out of bed. That morning he tried and passed sentence on a soothsayer sent from Germany, who being consulted about the lightning that had lately happened, predicted from it a change of government. The blood running down his face as he scratched an ulcerous tumor on his forehead, he said, would this were all that is to befall me? Then upon his asking the time of the day, instead of five o'clock, which was the hour he dreaded, they purposely told him it was six. Overjoyed at this information, as if all danger were now passed, and hastening to the bath, Parthenius, his chamberlain, stopped him, by saying that there was a person come to wait upon him about a matter of great importance, which would admit of no delay. Upon this, ordering all persons to withdraw, he retired into his chamber, and was there slain. During the contrivance and mode of his death, the common account is this. The conspirators being in some doubt when and where they should attack him, whether he was in the bath or at supper, Stefanus, a steward of Domitilus, then under prosecution for defrauding his mistress, offered them his advice and assistance, and wrapping up his left arm as if it was hurt in wool and bandages for some days to prevent suspicion, at the hour appointed he secreted a dagger in them. Pretending then to make a discovery of conspiracy, and being for that reason admitted, he presented to the emperor a memorial, and while he was reading it in great astonishment, stabbed him in the groin. But Domitian, though wounded, making resistance, Claudianus, one of his guards, Maximus, a freedman of Parthenius's, Satorius, his principal chamberlain, with some gladiators, fell upon him and stabbed him in seven places. A boy who had the charge of the lorries in his bed-chamber, and was then in attendance as usual, gave these further particulars, that he was ordered by Domitian, upon receiving his first wound, to reach him a dagger which lay under his pillow, and call in his domestics, but that he found nothing at the head of the bed, accepting the hilt of a pondyard, and that all the doors were fastened. That the emperor, in the meantime, got hold of Stefanus, and throwing him upon the ground, struggled a long time with him, one while endeavouring to wrench the dagger from him, another while, though his fingers were miserably mangled, to tear out his eyes. He was slain upon the fourteenth of the calendar of October, in the forty-fifth year of his age, and the fifteenth of his reign. His corpse was carried out upon a common beer by the public bearers, and buried by his nurse Phyllis, at his suburban villa on the Latin Way. But she afterwards privately conveyed his remains to the temple of the Flavian family, and mingled them with the ashes of Julia, the daughter of Titus, whom she had also nursed. He was tall in stature, his face modest and very ruddy. He had large eyes, but was demcited, naturally graceful in his person, particularly in his youth, excepting only that his toes were bent somewhat inward. He was at last disfigured by baldness, corpulence, and the slenderness of his legs, which were reduced by a long illness. He was so sensible how much the modesty of his countenance recommended him, that he once made this boast to the Senate. Thus far you have approved both of my disposition and my countenance. His baldness so much annoyed him, that he considered it an affront to himself, if any other person was reproached with it, either in jest or in earnest, though in a small tract he published, addressed to a friend, concerning the preservation of the hair, he uses for their mutual consolation the words following. Uch oraas oyos kago kalos te megas te, siest thou my graceful mean, my stately form? And yet the fate of my hair awaits me, however I bear with fortitude this loss of my hair while I am still young. Remember that nothing is more fascinating than beauty, but nothing of shorter duration. He so shrunk from undergoing fatigue, that he scarcely ever walked through the city on foot. In his expeditions and on a march he seldom rode on horseback, but was generally carried in a litter. He had no inclination for the exercise of arms, but was very expert in the use of the bow. Many persons have seen him often kill a hundred wild animals of various kinds at his albin retreat, and fix his arrows in their heads with such dexterity that he could, in two shots, plant them like a pair of horns in each. He would sometimes direct his arrows against the hand of a boy standing at a distance, and expanded as a mark with such precision that they all passed between the boy's fingers without hurting him. In the beginning of his reign he gave up the study of the liberal sciences, though he took care to restore, at a vast expense, the libraries which had been burnt down, collecting manuscripts from all parts, and sending scribes to Alexandria, either to copy or correct them. Yet he never gave himself the trouble of reading history or poetry, or of employing his pen even for his private purposes. He perused nothing but the commentaries and acts of Tiberius Caesar. His letters, speeches, and edicts were all drawn up for him by others, though he could converse with elegance and sometimes expressed himself in memorable sentiments. "'I could wish,' said he once, that I was but as handsome as Metius fancies himself to be. And of the head of someone whose hair was partly reddish and partly gray, he said that it was snow sprinkled with mead. "'The lot of princes,' he remarked, was very miserable, for no one believed them when they discovered a conspiracy until they were murdered. When he had leisure he amused himself with dice, even on days that were not festivals, and in the morning. He went to the bath early, and made a plentiful dinner, in so much that he seldom ate more at supper than a Metian apple, to which he added a draft of wine out of a small flask. He gave frequent and splendid entertainments, but they were soon over, for he never prolonged them after sunset, and indulged in no revel after. Before till bedtime he did nothing else but walk by himself in private. He was insatiable in his lusts, calling frequent commerce with women as if it was a sort of exercise, clinopaline, bed wrestling. And it was reported that he plucked the hair from his concubines and swam about in company with the lowest prostitutes. His brother's daughter was offered him in marriage when she was a virgin, but being at that time enamored of Domitia, he obstinately refused her. Yet not long afterwards, when she was given to another, he was ready enough to debauch her, and that even while Titus was living. But after she had lost both her father and her husband, he loved her most passionately, and without disguise, in so much that he was the occasion of her death by obliging her to procure a miscarriage when she was with child by him. The people showed little concern at his death, but the soldiers were roused by it to great indignation and immediately endeavored to have him ranked among the gods. They were also ready to revenge his loss if there had been any to take the lead. However, they soon after effected it by resolutely demanding the punishment of all those who had been concerned in his assassination. On the other hand, the Senate was so overjoyed that they met in all haste, and in a full assembly reviled his memory in the most bitter terms, ordering ladders to be brought in, and his shields and images to be pulled down before their eyes, and dashed in pieces upon the floor of the Senate House passing at the same time a decree to obliterate his titles everywhere, and abolish all memory of him. A few months before he was slain, a raven on the capital uttered these words, all will be well. Some person gave the following interpretation of this prodigy. Nupr tarpeo quysedit colmine cornyx, est benne, non potuit dicare, dixit erit. Late croaked a raven from tarpeya's height, all is not yet, but shall be right. They say likewise that Domitian dreamed that a golden hump grew out of the back of his neck, which he considered as a certain sign of happy days for the empire after him. Such an auspicious change indeed shortly afterwards took place through the justice and moderation of the succeeding emperors. End of Domitian. Lives of the eminent grammarians part one of the lives of the twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilis. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Linny. The Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Suetonius Tranquilis. Translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forester. Lives of the eminent grammarians part one. The science of grammar was, in ancient times, far from being in vogue at Rome. Indeed, it was of little use in a rude state of society when the people were engaged in constant wars and had not much time to bestow on the cultivation of the liberal arts. At the outset, its pretensions were very slender. For the earliest men of learning, who were both poets and orators, may be considered as half Greek. I speak of Lévius and Aeneus, who are acknowledged to have talked both languages as well at Rome as in foreign parts. But they only translated from the Greek, and if they composed anything of their own in Latin, it was only from what they had before read. For although there are those who say that this Aeneus published two books, one on letters and syllables, and the other on meters, Lucius Cata has satisfactorily proved that they are not the works of the poet Aeneus, but of another writer of the same name, to whom also the treatise on the rules of augury is attributed. Crates of Malus then was, in our opinion, the first who introduced the study of grammar at Rome. He was contemporary with Aris Tarkas, and having been sent by King Attilus as envoy to the Senate in the interval between the second and third Punic Wars, soon after the death of Aeneus, he had the misfortune to fall into an open sewer in the palatine quarter of the city and broke his leg. After which, during the whole period of his embassy in Convalescence, he gave frequent lectures, taking much pains to instruct his hearers, and he has left us an example well-worthy of imitation. It was so far followed that poems, hitherto little known, the works either of the seized friends or other approved writers were brought to light, and, being read and commented on, were explained to others. Thus Caius Octavius Lampadio edited the Punic War of Neveus, which, having been written in one volume without any break in the manuscript, had divided into seven books. After that, Quintus Varganteus undertook the annals of Aeneus, which he read on certain fixed days to crowded audiences. So Lelius Arkelaus and Vectius Filocamas read and commented on the satires of their friend Lassilius, which Leneus Pompeius of Friedman tells us he studied under Arkelaus and Valerius Cato under Filocamas. Two others also taught and promoted grammar in various branches, namely Lassius Elius Lanuvinus, the son-in-law of Quintus Elius, and Servius Claudius, both of whom were Roman knights, and men who rendered great services both to learning and the Republic. Lassius Elius had a double cognomen, for he was called Precanius, because his father was a herald, Stillo, because he was in the habit of composing orations for most of the speakers of highest rank. Indeed, he was so strong a partisan of the nobles that he accompanied Quintus Metellus Namedicus in his exile. Servius, having clandestinely obtained his father-in-law's book before it was published, was disowned for the fraud, which he took so much the hard that overwhelmed with shame and distress, he retired from Rome. And being seized with the fit of the gout and his impatience, he applied a poisonous ointment to his feet, which half killed him, so that his lower limbs mortified while he was still alive. After this, more attention was paid to the science of letters, and it grew in public estimation, in so much that man of the highest rank did not hesitate in undertaking to write something on the subject. And it is related that sometimes there were no less than 20 celebrated scholars in Rome. So high was the value, and so great were the rewards of grammarians, that Laetaceus Daphnides, jocularly called pens heard by Leneus Melissus, was purchased by Quintus Catullus for 200,000 cisterces, and shortly afterwards made a freedman. And that Lysius Apelaus, who was taken into the pay of Episius Calvinus, a wealthy Roman knight, at the annual salary of 10,000 crowns, had many scholars. Grammar also penetrated into the provinces, and some of the most eminent amongst the learned were taught it in foreign parts, particularly in Gallia Togata. In the number of these, we may reckon Octavius Telser, Cisthenius Jacus, and Opius Carus, who persisted in teaching to a most advanced period of his life, at a time when he was not only unable to walk, but his side failed. The appellation of grammarian was borrowed from the Greeks, but at first, Latin is called such person's literati. Cornelius Nepus, also in his book, where he draws a distinction between a literate and a philologist, says that in common phrase, those are properly called literati, who are skilled in speaking or writing with care or accuracy, and those more specially deserved a name who translated the poets and were called grammarians by the Greeks. It appears that they were named literators by Masala Corvinus, in one of his letters, when he says, that it does not refer to Furious Bibacolus, not even to Sigida, nor to Cato, the literator, meaning, doubtless, that Valerius Cato was both a poet and an eminent grammarian. Some there are who draw a distinction between a literati and a literator, as the Greeks do, between a grammarian and a grammatist, applying the former term to men of real erudition. The latter, to those whose pretensions to learning are moderate. And this opinion Orbelius supports by examples, for he says that in old times, when a company of slaves was offered for sale by any person, it was not customary, without good reason, to describe either of them in the catalogue as a literati, but only as a literator, meaning that he was not a proficient in letters, but had as mattering of knowledge. The early grammarians taught rhetoric also, and we have many of their treatises, which include both sciences, whence it arose, I think, that in later times, although the two professions had then become distinct, the old custom was retained, or the grammarians introduced into their teaching, some of the elements required for public speaking, such as the problem, the peripherals, the choice of words, the description of character, and the like. In order that they might not transfer their pupils to the rhetoricians no better than ill-talked boys. But I perceive that these lessons are now given up in some cases, on account of the want of application, or the tender years of the scholar, for I do not believe that it arises from any dislike in the master. I recollect that when I was a boy, it was the custom of one of these, whose name was Princips, to take alternate days for declaiming and disputing, and sometimes he would lecture in the morning and the claim in the afternoon, when he had his pulpit removed. I heard also that even within the memories of our own fathers, some of the pupils of the grammarians passed directly from the schools to the courts, and at once took a high place in the ranks of the most distinguished advocates. The professors at that time were, indeed, men of great eminence, of some of whom I may be able to give an account in the following chapters. Savius Nicanor first acquired fame and reputation by his teaching. And besides, he made commentaries, the greater part of which, however, are said to have been borrowed. He also wrote a satire in which he informs us that he was a fridman and had a double cognomen in the following verses. Savius Nicanor, Marci Libertus Negabit, Savius Pustumius Idem, Sed Marcus Dochebit. What Savius Nicanor, the fridman of Marcus, will deny, the same Savius, called also Pustumius Marcus, will assert, it is reported that, in consequence of some infamy attached to his character, he retired to Sardinia, and there ended his days. Aurelius Apilius, the fridman of some Epicurean, first taught philosophy, then rhetoric, and less of all, grammar. Having closed his school, he followed Rutilius Rufus when he was benched to Asia, and there the two friends grew old together. He also wrote several volumes on a variety of learned topics, nine books of which he distinguished by the number and names of the nine muses, as he says, not without reason, they being the patrons of authors and poets. I observe that its title is given in several indexes by a single letter, but he uses two in the heading of a book called Pinex. Marcus Antonius Nifo, freeborn native of Gaul, was exposed in his infancy, and, afterwards, received his freedom from his foster father, and, as some say, was educated at Alexandria, where Dionysus Schitobrachion was his fellow pupil. This, however, I am not very ready to believe, as the times at which they flourished scarcely agree. He is sad to have been a man of great genius, of singular memory, well-read in Greek as well as Latin, and of a most obliging and agreeable temper, who never haggled about remuneration, but generally left it to the liberality of his scholars. He first taught in the House of Julius Caesar, when the letter was yet but a boy, and afterwards in his own private house. He gave instruction in rhetoric also, teaching the rules of eloquence every day, but declaiming only on festivals. It is sad that some very celebrated men frequented his school, and, among others, Marcus Cicero, during the time he held the pretership. He wrote a number of works, although he did not live beyond his 50th year. But Ateis, the philologist, says that he left only two volumes, the Latino Cermone, and that the other works ascribed to him were composed by his disciples, and were not his, although his name is sometimes to be found in them. Marcus Pampilius Andronikus, a native of Syria, while he professed to be a grammarian, was considered an idol follower of the Epicurean sect, and little qualified to be a master of a school. Finding, therefore, that at Rome, not only Antonio's Nepho, but even other teachers of last note were preferred to him, he retired to Cumae, where he lived at his eats. And, though he wrote several books, he was so needy and reduced to such straights as to be compelled to sell that excellent little work of his, the index to the annals for 16,000 cestors. Orbilius had informed us that he redeemed this work from the oblivion into which it had fallen, and took care to have it published with the author's name. Orbilius Papillus of Beneventum, being left an orphan by the death of his parents, who both fell a sacrifice to the plots of their enemies on the same day, acted at first as a parator to the magistrates. He then joined the troops in Macedonia when he was first decorated with the plumbed helmet, and afterwards promoted to serve on horseback. Having completed his military service, he resumed his studies, which he had pursued with no small diligence from his youth upwards. And, having been a professor for a long period in his own country at last, during the consulship of Cicero, made his way to Rome, where he taught with more reputation than profit. For, in one of his works, he says that he was then very old and lived in a garret. He also published a book with the title of Periologus, containing complaints of the injurious treatment to which professors submitted, without seeking redress at the hands of parents. He saw our temper betrayed itself, not only in his disputes with the Sophists opposed to him, whom he lashed on every occasion, but also towards his scholars, as Horace tells us, who calls him a flogger, and the mischievous Marces, who says of him, and not even men of rank escaped his sarcasm. For, before he became noticed, happening to be examined as a witness in a crowded court, Varo, the advocate on the other side, put the question to him, what he did, and by what profession he gained his livelihood. He replied that he lived by removing hunchbacks from the sunshine and the sun, and by removing the sun, and by removing hunchbacks from the sunshine into the shade, alluding to Morena's deformity. He lived till he was near a hundred years old, but he had long lost his memory, as the verse of Bibaculus informs us. Orbilius Ubinam est Litherarum Oblivio. Where is Orbilius now, that rack of learning lost? His statue is shown in the capital, at Beneventum. It stands on the left hand, and is sculptured in marble, representing him in a sitting posture, wearing the pallium, with two writing cases in his hand. He left a son, named also Orbilius, who, like his father, was a professor of grammar. Ateus, the philologist of Friedman, was born at Athens. Of him, Capito Ateus, the well-known jurist consul, says that he was a rhetorician among the grammarians, among the rhetoricians. A sinuospolio, in the book in which he finds fault with the writings of Salus, for his great affectation of obsolete words, speaks thus. In this work, his chief assistant was a certain Ateus, a man of rank, a splendid Latin grammarian, the aether and preceptor of those who studied the practice of declamation. In short, one who claimed from himself a philologist. Writing to Lycius Hermes, he says, that he had made great proficiency in Greek literature and some in Latin, that he had been a hearer of Antonio's nifo, and his Hermes, and afterwards, began to teach others. Moreover, that he had for pupils many Lycius youths, among whom were the two brothers Apius and Pulcher Claudius, and that he even accompanied them to their province. He appears to have assumed the name of Philologus, because, like Aerothostanus, who first adopted that cognomen, he was in high repute for his rich and varied stores of learning, which indeed it was evident from his commentaries, though but few of them are extinct. Another letter, however, to the same Hermes, shows that they were very numerous. Remember, it says, to recommend generally our extracts, which we have collected, as you know, from the collections into 800 books. He afterwards formed an intimate acquaintance with Caio Celestius, and on his death, with Azenius Polio. And when they undertook to write a history, he supplied the one with short annals of all Roman affairs, from which he could select a pleasure, and the other with rules on the art of composition. I am, therefore, surprised that Azenius Polio should have supposed the habit of collecting old words and fears of speech for Celest, when he must have known that his own advice was that none but well-known and common and appropriate expressions should be made use of, and that, above all things, the obscurity of the style of Celest and his bold freedom in translations should be avoided. End of lives of the Eminent Grimariens, Part 1 Recording by Leni, Part 2 Lives of the Eminent Grimariens, Part 2 of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaia Suetonius Tranquilis by Gaia Suetonius Tranquilis by Gaia Suetonius Tranquilis This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Leni, the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaia Suetonius Tranquilis Translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester Lives of the Eminent Grimariens, Part 2 Valerio Scato was, as some have informed us, the freedman of one Bersenas, a native of Gaul. He himself tells us in his little work called Indignatio that he was born free and being left an orphan was exposed to be easily stripped of his patrimony during the license of Silas administrations. He had a great number of distinguished pupils and was highly esteemed as a preceptor suited to those who had a poetical turn as appears from these short lines. Cato Grammaticus Latina Siren qui solus legit poetas. Cato, the Latin Siren, grammar taught and verse to form the poet's skill and poetry rehearse. Besides his treatise on grammar, he composed some poems of which his Lidia and Diana are most admired. Tessida mentions his Lidia. Lidia Doctorum Maximacura Liber Lidia, a work the man of learning dear. Sina thus notices the Diana. Secula Permania Nostridiana Catonis Immortal be our Cato song of Diana. He lived to extreme old age but in the lowest state of penery and almost an actual want having retired to a small cottage when he gave up his stuscolan villa to his creditors as Bibacolus tells us. Si quis forte mei domon Catonis depictas minio assulas et ilos custodis widit hortulos briapi miratur, vibus ili dischiplinis, tantam sii sapientia masecutus, quantres cauliculi et celibra farris, rachemi duo, tegula subuna, proprenutriant senectam. If perchance anyone has seen the house of my Cato with marble slabs of the richest hues and his gardens worthy of having priapas for their guardian he may well wonder by what philosophy he has gained so much wisdom that a daily allowance of three culverts, half a pound of meal and two bunches of grapes under a narrow roof should serve for his subsistence to extreme old age. And his ass in another place. Catonis modogale tusculanum totta creditor urbe wenditabat miratisumus unicum magistrum sumum grammaticum optimum poetam omnes solvere post sequestionis unum difficile expedire nomen of Zenodotis We lately saw my Gales Catos Tusculan Vila exposed to public sale by his creditors and wondered that such an unrivaled master of the schools, most eminent grammarian and accomplished poet, could solve all prepositions and yet found one question too difficult for him to settle, how to pay his debts. We finding the genius of Zenodotis the wisdom of crates Cornelius Epicadius a freedman of Lyceus Cornelius Silla the dictator, was his aparitor in the augural priesthood and much beloved by his son Faustus so that he was proud to call himself the freedman of both. He completed the last book of Silla's commentaries, which his pageant had left and finished. Cornelius Hiera was bought by his master out of a slave dealer's cage and obtained his freedom on account of his devotion to learning. It is reported that his disinterestedness was such that he gave gratuitous instruction to the children of those who were prescribed in the time of Silla. Carthius Nysia was the intimate friend of Neus Pompeius and Caius Memius but having carried notes of Pompey's wife, when she was debauched by Memius, Pompey was indignant and forbade him his house. He was also on familiar terms with Marcus Cicero, who thus speaks of him in his epistle to Dolabella. I have more need of receiving letters from you than you have of desiring them from me. For there is nothing going on at Rome in which I think you would take any interest except perhaps that you may like to know that I am appointed umpire between our friends Nysius and Viteus. The one it appears alleges in two short verses that Nysius owes him money. The other, like in Aristarchus, cavals at them. I, like an old critic, am to decide whether they are Nysius or Sparius. Again, in a letter to Atticus, he says As to what you write about Nysius, nothing could give me greater pleasure than to have him with me if I was in a position to enjoy his society. But my province is to me a place of retirement and solitude. Cicca easily reconciled himself to this state of things and therefore I would prefer having him. Besides, you are well aware of the feebleness and the nice and luxurious habits of our friend Nysius. Why should I be the means of making him uncomfortable when he can afford me no pleasure? At the same time, I value his goodwill. Leneus was a freedman of Pompey the Great and attended him in most of his expeditions. On the death of his patron and his sons, he supported himself by teaching in a school which he opened near the temple of Telus in the Corium in the quarter of the city where the house of Pompey stood. Such was his regard for his patron's memory that when Celest described him as having a brazen face and a shameless mind, he lashed the historian in a most bitter satire. As a bull's spizzle, a gormandizer, a braggart and a tipler, a man whose life and writings were equally monstrous. Besides charging him with being a most unskillful plagiarist who borrowed the language of Cato and other old writers, it is related that in his youth, having escaped from slavery by the contrivance of some of his friends, he took refuge in his own country and that after he had applied himself to the liberal arts, he brought the price of his freedom to his former master who, however, struck by his talents and learning gave him many missions gratuitously. Quintus Sicilius and a pirate by descent but born at Tuscalum was a freedman of Atticus Satrius, a Roman knight to whom Cicero addressed his epistles. He became the tutor of his patron's daughter who was contracted to Marcus Agrippa but being suspected of an illicit intercourse with her and sent away on that account, Hibbet took himself to Cornelius Gallus and lived with him on terms of the greatest intimacy which, indeed, was imputed to Gallus as one of his heaviest offenses by Augustus. Then, after the condemnation and death of Gallus, he opened a school but had few pupils and those very young nor any belonging to the higher orders excepting the children of those he could not refuse to admit. He was the first, it is said, who held disputations in Latin and who began to lecture on Virgil and the other modern poets which the verse of the Mishes Marces points out Various flakas, a freedman, distinguished himself by a new mode of teaching for it was his practice to exercise the wits of his scholars by encouraging emulation among them not only proposing the subjects on which they were to write but offering rewards for those who were successful in the contest. These consisted of some ancient, handsome, or rare book. Being in consequence selected by Augustus as preceptor to his grandsons he transferred his entire school to the Palatium but with the understanding that he should admit no fresh scholars. The hall in Catelyn's house which had then been added to the palace was assigned him for his school with a yearly allowance of 100,000 sisterces. He died of old age in the reign of Tiberius. There is a statue of him in Prineast in the semi-circle at the lower side of the Forum where he had set up calendars arranged by himself and inscribed on slabs of marble. Lucius Cersicius, a native of Tarentum and in rank of Friedman had the cognomen of Posidus which he afterwards changed for Pansa. His first employment was connected with the stage and his business was to assist the writers of forces. After that he took to giving lessons in a gallery attached to a house until his commentary on the Smyrna so brought him into notice that the following lines were written on him. Crescius only counts on Smyrna's love fruitless the wooings of the unlettered proof. Crescius she receives with loving arms for he alone unveiled her hidden charms. However, after having taught many scholars, some of whom were of high rank and amongst others Julius Antonius, the triumphor's son, so that he might even be compared with various flakas he suddenly closed his school and joined the sect of Quintus Quintinius, the philosopher. Scribonius Aphrodisius the slave and disciple of Herbilius who was afterwards redeemed and presented with his freedom by Scribonia the daughter of Leibow who had been the wife of Augustus taught in the time of Varius his books on orthography he also revised not without some severe remarks on his pursuits and conduct. Nius Julius Hygenus the man of Augustus was a native of Spain although some say he was born in Alexandria and that when that city was taken Caesar brought him then a boy to Rome. He closely and carefully imitated Cornelius Alexander, a Greek grammarian who for his antiquarian knowledge was called by many polyhistor and by some history. He had the charge of the Palatine library but that did not prevent him from having many scholars and he was one of the most intimate friends of the poet Ovid and of Caius Licinius, the historian a man of consular rank who was related that Hygenus died very poor and was supported by his liberality as long as he lived Julius Modestus who was a freedman of Hygenus followed the footsteps of his patron in his studies and learning Caius Melissa a native of Spoletum was freeborn but having been exposed by his parents in consequence of quarrels between them he received a good education from his foster father by whose care and industry he was brought up and was made a present of to Messenas as a grammarian finding himself valued and treated as a friend he preferred to continue in his state of gratitude although he was claimed by his mother choosing rather his present condition than that which his real origin entitled him to in consequence his freedom was speedily given him and he even became a favorite with Augustus by his appointment he was made curator of the library in the portico of Octavia and as he himself informs us undertook to compose when he was a sexagenarian he wrote lots of witticisms which are now called the book of jests of these he accomplished 150 to which he afterwards added several more he also composed a new kind of story about those who were the toga and called it Trabiad Marcus Spomponius Marcellus a very severe critic of the latin tongue who sometimes pleaded causes in a certain address on the plantus behalf persisted in charging his adversary with making a solosism until Cassius Severus appealed to the judges to grant an adjournment until his client should produce another grammarian as he was not prepared to enter into a controversy respecting a solosism instead of defending his client's rights on another occasion when he had found fault with some expression in a speech made by Tiberius Cassius Capito affirmed that if it was not latin at least it would be so in time to come Capito is wrong cried Marcellus it is certainly in your power Caesar to confer the freedom of the city on whom you please but you cannot make words for us Asinius Gallus tells us that he was formerly a pugilist in the following epigram We caput atlaiuam deikit glossema ta nobis praikipit os nulum welpotius pugilis who ducked his head to shun another's fist though he expound old sauce yet, well, I whisked with pummeled nose and face his but a pugilist Remius Palaiman of Isentia the offspring of a bound woman acquired the rudiments of learning first as the companion of a weavers and then of his master's son at school being afterwards made free he taught at Rome where he stood highest in the rank of the grammarians but he was so infamous for every sort of vice that Iberius and his successor Claudius publicly denounced him as an improper person to have the education of boys and young men interested to him still his powers of narrative and agreeable style of speaking made him very popular besides which he had the gift of making extempore verses he also wrote a great many in various and uncommon meters his insolence was such that he called Marcus Varo a hog and brag that letters were born and would perish with him and that his name was not introduced inadvertently in the bucolic as virtual divine that a Palaiman would someday be the judge of all poets and poems he also boasted that having once fallen into the hands of robbers they spared him on account of the celebrity his name had acquired he was so luxurious that he took the bath many times in a day nor did his means suffice for his extravagance although his school brought him in 40,000 cesterces yearly and he received not much less from his private estate which he managed with great care he also kept a broker's shop for the sale of old clothes and it is well known that a vine he planted himself yielded 350 bottles of wine but the greatest of all his vices was his unbridled licentiousness in his commerce with women which he carried to the utmost pitch of foul indecency they tell a droll story of someone who met him in a crowd and upon his offering to kiss him could not escape the salute master said he do you want to mouth everyone you meet within a hurry marcus valerius prebus of baritus after long aspiring to the rank of centurion being at last tired of waiting devoted himself to study he had met with some old authors at a booksellers shop in the provinces where the memory of ancient times still lingers and is not quite forgotten as it is at Rome being anxious carefully to reproduce these and afterwards to make acquaintance with other works of the same kind he found himself an object of contempt and was laughed at for his lectures instead of their gaining him fame or profit still however he persisted in his purpose and employed himself in correcting illustrating and adding notes to many works which he had collected his labors being confined to the ruins of a grammarian and nothing more he had properly speaking no scholars but some few followers for he never taught in such a way as to maintain the character of a master but was in the habit of admitting one or two perhaps at most three or four disciples in the afternoon and while he lay at ease and chatted freely on ordinary topics he occasionally read some book to them and that did not often happen he published a few slide treatises on some subtle questions besides which he left a large collection of observations on the language of the ancients End of lives of the eminent grammarians Recording by Leni in Rio de Janeiro, 2008 Recording that in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Ann Cheng The Lies of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Ritonius Tranquillus translated by Alexander Thompson and edited by T. Forrester Lies of the eminent returitions, paragraphs 1 through 6 Retoric also as well as grammar was not introduced amongst us till the late period and with still more difficulty in as much as we find that at times the practice of it was even prohibited In order to leave no doubt of this I will sub-join an ancient decree of the senate as well as an edict of the censors In the consulship of Gaius Fanius Strabo at Marcus Polarius Messila the pre-tor Marcus Pomponius moved the senate that an act be passed respecting philosophers and returitions In this matter they have decreed as follows It shall be lawful that this act be passed as follows It shall be lawful for Marcus Pomponius the pre-tor to take such measures and make such provisions as the good of the Republic and the duty of his office require that no philosophers or returitions be suffered at Rome After some interval the censor Gnius Dmitius Ahinobarbis and Lucius Likinius Crassus issued the following edict upon the same subject It is reported to us that certain persons have instituted a kind of discipline that our youth resort to their schools that they have assumed the title of Latin returitions and that young men waste their time there for whole days together Our ancestors have ordained what instruction it is fitting their children should receive and what schools they should attend These novelties contrary to the customs and instructions of our ancestors we neither approve nor do they appear to us good Therefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our judgement both of those who keep such schools and those who are in the practice of frequenting them that they meet our disapprobation However, by slow degrees rhetoric manifested itself to be a useful and honourable study and many persons devoted themselves to it both as a means of defence and of acquiring a reputation Cicero declaimed in Greek until his petorship but afterwards as he grew older in Latin also and even in the consulship of Hirtis and Panzer whom he calls his great and noble disciples Some historians state that Gnaeus Pompey resumed the practice of declaiming even during the Civil War in order to be better prepared to argue against Gaeus Curio a young man of great talents to whom the defence of Caesar was entrusted They say likewise that it was not forgotten by Mark Anthony nor by Augustus even during the War of Moderna Nero also declaimed even after he became Emperor in the first year of his reign which he had done before in public but twice Many speeches of orators were also published In consequence public favour was so much attracted to the study of rhetoric that a vast number of professors and learned men devoted themselves to it and it flourished to such a degree that some of them raised themselves by it to the rank of Senators and the highest offices But the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all nor indeed did individuals always confine themselves to the same system but each varied his plan of teaching according to circumstances for they were accustomed in stating their argument with the utmost clearness to use figures and apologies to put cases as circumstances required and to relate facts sometimes briefly and succinctly and at other times more at large and with greater feeling nor did they omit on occasion to resort to translations from the Greek and to expatiate in the praise or to launch their censures on the faults of illustrious men They also dealt with matters connected with everyday life pointing out such as are useful and necessary and such as are hurtful and needless They had occasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts and to detract from that of historical narratives which sought the Greeks call propositions, refutations and corroboration until by a gradual process they have exhausted these topics and arrive at the gist of the argument Among the ancients subjects of controversy were drawn either from history as indeed some are even now or from actual facts of recent occurrence It was therefore the custom to state them precisely with details of the names of places We certainly so find them collected and published and it may be well to give one or two of them literally by way of example A company of young men from the city having made an excursion to Austria in the summer season and going down to the beach fell in with some fishermen who were casting their nets in the sea Having bargained with them for the haul whatever it might turn out to be for a certain sum they paid down the money and the nets were being drawn and when at last they were dragged on the shore there was no fish in them but some gold sewn up in a basket The buyers claimed the haul is theirs the fishermen assert that it belongs to them Again some dealers having to land from a ship at Brindism a cargo of slaves among which there was a handsome boy of great value they in order to deceive the collectors of the customs smuggled him ashore in the dress of a free born youth and hung about his neck the fraud easily escaped detection they proceeded to roam the affair becomes a subject of judicial inquiry it is alleged that the boy was entitled to his freedom because his master had voluntarily treated him as free formally they called these by a Greek term syntaxase but of late controversies but they may be either fictitious cases or those which come under trial in the courts of the eminent professors of this science of whom any memorials are extant it would not be easy to find many others than those of whom I shall now proceed to give an account Lucius Plotius Gallus of him Marcus Tullius Cicero thus writes to Marcus Titinius I remember well that when we were boys one Lucius Plotius first began to teach Latin and as great numbers flocked to his school so that all who were most devoted to study were eager to take lessons from him it was a great trouble to me that I too was not allowed to do so I was prevented however by the decided opinion of men of the greatest learning who considered that it was best to cultivate the genius by the study of Greek this same Gallus for he lived to a great age was pointed at by Marcus Tullius in a speech which he was forced to make in his own cause as having supplied his accuser at Drachinas with materials for his charge suppressing his name he says that such a rhetorician was like barley bread compared to a wheat and loath windy, chaffee and coarse Lucius Octosinius Plotius is said to be a slave and according to the old custom a chain to the door like a watchdog until having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotion to learning he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in accordance he was prosecuting after that becoming a professor of rhetoric he gave instructions to Gnius Pompey the Great and composed an account of his actions as well as those of his father being the first freedman according to the opinion of Cornelius Depos who ventured to write history which before his time had not been done by anyone who was not of the highest ranks in society about this time Epidius having fallen into disgrace for bringing a false accusation opened a school of instruction in which he taught among others Mark Antony and Augustus on one occasion Gaius Canuteus jeered them for presuming to belong to the party of the consul Izzaricus in his administration of the Republic upon which he replied that he would rather be the disciple of Izzaricus than of Epidius the false accuser this Epidius came to be descended from Epidius Nunzio who as ancient traditions assert fell into the fountain of the river Sarnus when the streams were overflown and not being afterwards found was reckoned among the number of the gods Sextus Clodius a native of Sicily a professor both of Greek and Latin eloquence had bad eyes and a facetious tongue it was a saying of his that he lost a pair of eyes from his intimacy with Mark Antony the triumpheer of his wife Fulvia when there was a swelling in one of her cheeks he said that she tempted the point of his style not did Antony think any of the worse of him from the joke but quite enjoyed it soon afterwards when Antony was consul he even made him a large grant of land which Cicero charges him with in his Philippics you patronize he said a master of the schools for the sake of his buffoonery and make a rhetorician one of your pot companions allowing him to cut his jokes on anyone he pleased a witty man no doubt but it was an easy matter to say smart things of such as you and your companions but listen constiped fathers while I tell you what reward was given to this rhetorician and that the wounds of the republic would be laid bare to view you assigned two thousand acres of the Leontine territory to sex disclosius the rhetorician and not content with that exonerated the estate from all taxes hear this and learn from the extravagance of the grant how little wisdom was displayed in your acts Gaius albutius Silas of Navarra while in the execution of the office of Edal in his native place he was sitting for the administration of justice was dragged by the feet from the tribunal by some persons against whom he was pronouncing a decree in great indignation at this usage he made straight for the gate of the town and proceeded to roam there he was admitted to fellowship and lodged with Plancus the orator whose practice it was before he made a speech in public to set up someone to take the contrary side of the argument the office was undertaken by albutius with such success that he silenced Plancus who did not venture to put himself in competition with him this bringing him into notice he collected an audience of his own and it was his custom to open the question proposed for debate sitting but as he warmed the subject he stood up and made his peroration in that posture his declarations were different kinds sometimes brilliant and polished at others that they might not be thought to savor too much of the schools he curtailed them of all ornament unused only familiar phrases he also pleaded causes but rarely being employed in such as were the highest importance and in every case undertaking the peroration only in the end he gave up practising the forum partly from shame partly from fear for in a certain trial before the court of the one hundred having lashed the defendant as a man void of natural affection for his parents he called upon him by a bold figure of speech to swear by the ashes of his mother and father which lay unburied his adversary taking him up for the suggestion and the judges frowning upon it he lost his cause and was much blamed at another time on a trial for murder at Milan before Lucius Piso the proconsul having to defend the culprit he worked himself up to such a pitch of vehemence that in a crowded court who loudly applauded him notwithstanding all the efforts of the lictor to maintain order he broke out into a lamentation on the miserable state of Italy then in danger of being again reduced he said into the form of a province and turning to the statue of Marcus Brutus which stood in the forum he invoked him as the founder and vindicator of the liberties of the people for this he narrowly escaped a prosecution suffering at an advanced period of life from an ulcerated tumour he returned to Navarra and calling the people together in a public assembly addressed them in a set speech of considerable length explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end to existence and this he did by abstaining from food end of lives of the eminent veterinarians