The First Man in Rome (130 page)

chersonnese
The Greeks' word for a peninsula, though they used it somewhat more flexibly than modern geographers. Thus the Tauric Chersonnese, the Thracian Chersonnese, the Cimbrian Chersonnese, etc.

Cherusci
A confraternity of German tribes who lived in the area around the Amisia River (now the Ems) and the Visurgis River (now the Weser). Some segments of the Cherusci left this homeland about 113 B.C. to join the mass migration of the German Teutones and Cimbri.

Cimbri
A very large confraternity of German tribes who lived in the more northern half of the Cimbrian Chersonnese until, in 120 B.C. or thereabouts, a massive natural disaster forced them to leave their homeland. Together with their immediate southern neighbors, the Teutones, they began an epic trek to find a new homeland—a trek which lasted nearly twenty years, took them thousands of miles, and finally brought them up against Rome—and Gaius Marius.

Cimbrian Chersonnese
Modern Denmark, also known as the Jutland Peninsula.

Circei, Circeii
The area, including Mount Circeii, which formed the coastal boundary between Latium and Campania. The town of the same name occupied the Tarracina side
of
the Circeian Promontory, and was a popular Republican seaside resort.

circus
A place where chariot races were held. The course itself was long and narrow, and was divided lengthwise by a central barrier, the
spina,
the ends of which were conical stones called
metae,
which formed the turning points for the chariots. Bleacher-style tiers of wooden seats completely fenced it in. The seven laps of a race were monitored by seven eggs in cups, and seven dolphins; both were probably always there, but Agrippa certainly gave the Circus Maximus new and better dolphins. A race normally took about twenty-five minutes to complete. It is now thought that all four colors-—red, green, white, and blue—were a part of the races throughout the middle and late Republic as well as during the Empire. I imagine four colors meant four competitors.

Circus Flaminius
The circus situated on the Campus Martius not far from the Tiber and the Forum Holitorium. It was built in 221 B.C., and sometimes was made to serve as a place for a comitial meeting, when the Plebs or the People had to assemble outside the
pomerium.
There were several temples within the Circus Flaminius, among them one to Vulcan, and the very beautiful, very famous temple of Hercules and the nine Muses.

Circus Maximus
The old circus built by King Tarquinius Priscus before the Republic began. It filled the whole of the Vallis Murcia, between the Palatine and Aventine mounts. It held somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 people, even in Republican times; during the Republic, only Roman citizens were admitted, and there is ample evidence to suggest that freedman citizens were still classified as slaves when it came to admission to the circus; I imagine that freedmen were excluded because too many people wanted to go to the circus. Women were allowed to sit with men.

citadel
Properly, a fortress atop a precipitous hill, or that part of a larger fortified place occupying the heights, and surrounded by its own walls.

citizenship
For the purposes of this book, the Roman citizenship. Possession of it entitled a man to vote in his tribe and his class (if he was economically qualified to belong to a class) in all Roman city elections. He could not be flogged, he was entitled to the Roman trial process, and he had the right of appeal. At various times both his parents had to be Roman citizens, at other times only his father (hence the
cognomen
Hybrida). The citizen was liable to military service, though, prior to Gaius Marius, only if he owned sufficient property to buy his arms and support himself on campaigns beyond the very small sum he was paid by the State, usually at the end of a campaign.

classes
The five economic divisions of property-owning or steady-income-earning Roman citizens. The members of the First Class were the richest, the members of the Fifth Class the poorest. The
capite censi
did not belong to a class.

client
In Latin,
cliens.
The term denoted a man of free or freed status (he did not have to be a Roman citizen, however) who pledged himself to a man he called his patron
(patronus).
The client undertook in the most solemn and morally binding way to serve the interests and obey the wishes of his patron, in return for various favors (these were usually gifts of money, or positions, or legal assistance). The freed slave was automatically the client of his former master, until discharged of this obligation—if he ever was. A kind of honor system governed a client's conduct in respect of his patron, and was remarkably consistently adhered to. To be a client did not necessarily mean a man could not also be a patron; more that he could not be an ultimate patron, for his own clients technically were the clients of his patron also. There were laws governing the foreign client-patron relationship; concerning foreign client-kingdoms or states owning Rome as patron, there was a legal obligation to ransom any kidnapped Roman citizen, a fact that pirates relied on heavily as an additional source of income. Thus, not only individuals could become clients; whole towns and even countries could be clients.

client-king
A foreign monarch who pledged himself as client in the service of Rome as his patron, or sometimes in the service of a Roman individual as his patron. The title "Friend and Ally of the Roman People" was a statement of clientship.

Clitumnus River   
A river in Umbria, Italy.

clivus  
A street on an incline—that is, a hilly street. Rome, a city of hills, had many.

cloaca, cloacae
(pl.)
A drain, particularly a sewer. There seems no doubt that a very extensive system
of cloacae
was put down very early on in Rome's history. Livy says that after the Gauls virtually demolished the city in 390 B.C., the rebuilding was not planned as it ought to have been, due to the Senate's fear that the Plebeian Order would move holus-bolus to Veii unless allowed to do precisely what they wanted. So where in the old city plan the streets had been wider, and followed the course of the main sewers, the new city saw narrower and more tortuous streets, and many buildings put on top of the main sewers.

Cloaca Maxima
The system of sewers which drained the Subura, the upper Esquiline, the Capitol, the Forum Romanum, and the Velabrum; it entered the Tiber between the Pons Aemilius and the Wooden Bridge (Pons Sublicius), but closer to the Pons Aemilius. The ancient river which formed its first tunnels was the Spinon.

Cloaca Nodina
The system of sewers which drained the Palatine, the lower Esquiline and Oppian mounts, the area of the Circus Maximus, and some of the Aventine. It followed the course of the ancient river Nodina and its tributaries, and entered the Tiber just upstream of the Wooden Bridge (Pons Sublicius).

Cloaca Petronia
The system of sewers which drained the Viminal, Quirinal, and Campus Martius, following the original course of the ancient river Petronia and its tributaries. It entered the Tiber just upstream of Tiber Island; from this point downstream, the Tiber was not used for swimming.

Coan
Pertaining to the island of Cos, one of the Sporades, and located off the coast of Asia Minor. The adjective "Coan" was attached to a famous export of Cos—Coan silk. This was not real silk, but wild silk (real silk did not reach the Mediterranean until the early Empire). Coan silk was much esteemed by prostitutes, to the extent that a prostitute was simply called a Coan.

cognomen, cognomina
(pl.)
The last name of a Roman male anxious to distinguish himself from all his fellows having the same first and gentilicial (family) names. In some families it became necessary to have more than one
cognomen;
for example, take Quintus Caecilius Metellus Pius Scipio Nasica! The
cognomen
usually pointed out some physical or character idiosyncrasy—jug ears or flat feet or a humpback—or else commemorated some great feat, as in the Caecilii Metelli who were cognominated Dalmaticus, Balearicus, Numidicus. Many
cognomina
were heavily sarcastic or extremely witty. For the meanings of a number of
cognomina,
see pages 1060-1065.

cohort
The tactical unit of the Roman legion, comprising six centuries of troops; in normal circumstances, a legion had ten cohorts. It was customary to speak of the size of a Roman army under three or four legions in strength in terms of cohorts rather than legions.

college
A body formed by the association of a number of men having something in common. Thus, there were priestly colleges, political colleges like that of the tribunes of the plebs, religious colleges like that of the lictors, and work-related colleges. Certain groups of men from all walks of life (including slaves) banded themselves together in colleges which looked after the city of Rome's crossroads and conducted the annual feast of the crossroads, the Compitalia.

Comitia
See Assembly.

Comum
Modern Como, in northern Italy.

CONDEMNO
One of two words employed by a jury when delivering a verdict of "guilty." The other word was
DAMNO
(see that entry).

confarreatio
The oldest and strictest of the three forms of Roman marriage. By the time of Gaius Marius, only patricians still practised it—but by no means all patricians, as it was not mandatory. The
confarreatio
bride passed from the hand of her father to the hand of her husband, thus preventing her acquiring any measure of independence; this was one reason why
confarreatio
was not popular, as the other forms of marriage allowed a woman more control over her business affairs and dowry. The difficulty of divorce was the other cause of its unpopularity; divorce
(diffarreatio)
was a dismal, religiously and legally arduous business considered more trouble than it was worth, unless the circumstances left no other alternative.

Conscript Fathers
As established by the kings of Rome, the Senate consisted of one hundred patricians titled
patres,
which means "fathers." Then after the Republic was established and plebeians were admitted to the Senate, and its membership had swollen to three hundred, and the censors were given the duty of appointing new senators, the word "conscript" came into use as well, because the censors conscripted these new members. By the time of Gaius Marius, the two terms had been run together, so that the members of the Senate were addressed as Conscript Fathers.

consul
The consul was the most senior Roman magistrate owning imperium, and the consulship (modern scholars do not refer to it as the "consulate" because a consulate is a modern diplomatic institution) was considered the top rung of the
cursus honorum.
Two consuls were elected each year by the Centuriate Assembly, to serve for one year. The senior of the two—who had polled his requisite number of centuries first—held
the fasces
for the month of January, which meant he officiated while his junior colleague looked on. The first day of a consul's office was New Year's Day, January 1. Each consul was attended by twelve lictors, but only the lictors of the consul officiating during the month carried
the fasces
on their shoulders. By the time of Gaius Marius, consuls could be either patrician or plebeian, excepting only that two patricians could not hold office together. The proper age for a consul was forty-two, twelve years after entering the Senate at thirty. A consul's imperium knew no bounds; it operated not only in Rome but throughout Italy and the provinces as well, and overrode the imperium of a proconsular governor. The consul could command any army.

consular
The title given to a man who had been a consul. He was held in special esteem by the ordinary members of the Senate, was asked to speak ahead of junior magistrates, and might at any time be sent to govern a province should the Senate require the duty of him. He might also be asked to take on other duties, like caring for the grain supply.

consultum, consulta
(pl.)
The proper term for a senatorial decree. These decrees did not have the force of law; in order to become law, a
consultum
had to be presented to the Assembly of the People or to the Plebeian Assembly, which then passed the
consultum
into law—or did not. However, many
consulta
did not go to one of the tribal assemblies, yet were accepted as law; such were senatorial decisions about who was to govern a province, or the declaration or pursuit of war, or who was to command an army. Foreign affairs were normally conducted through unratified senatorial
consulta.