The stuffy Subura.1 G. G. RAMSAY May Subura's dogs bark at the old rake. C. E. BENNETT A Street Both Crowded and Dirty Adds to a Poet's Discomfort in Making a Morning Call If I did not wish and deserve to see you at home in the morning, Paulus, may your Esquiline house be for me still farther off! But I am next-door neighbor to the Tiburtine column,2 where rustic Flora looks upon our ancient Jove; I must surmount the track up the hill from the Subura and the dirty pavement with its steps never dry, and I can scarce break through the long droves of mules and the blocks of marble you see hauled by many a cable. And more annoying still-after a thousand exertions, when I am fagged out, Paulus, your door-keeper says you are "not at home"! Such is the result of misspent toil, and my poor toga drenched! To see Paulus in the morning were scarcely worth the cost. A diligent client always has inhuman friends; my patron, if you do not stay in bed, you cannot be. WALTER C. A. KER Martial Does His Marketing in the Subura Birds of the cackling farmyard, and eggs of mother hens, and Chian figs yellow from insufficient heat, and the young offspring of the bleating she-goat, and olives unable now to stand the cold, and cabbages whitened by chill hoar frosts-do you believe these were sent you from my country place? Oh, how carefully wrong, Regulus, you are! My small field bears nothing but me. Whatever your Umbrian bailiff, or tenant sends you, or your country-house marked by the third milestone, or your lands in Etruria or at Tusculum-this for me is produced all over the Subura. WALTER C. A. KER 1 The Vicus Tuscus was a street leading into the Forum between the Basilica Julia and the temple of Castor. As the above references show, it was not any too respectable. 2 The Velabrum was an open place between the Forum, the Palatine and Capitoline hills, and the river. In earlier times it was marshy and often entirely inundated. After it was drained, however, it became an important trade center in which all kinds of shops were found, especially those in which food-stuffs, oil, and wine were sold. Macrobius (Sat. i. 10, 15) calls it "locus celeberrimus urbis" because of the dense crowds that thronged its streets. Its reputation was unsavory. In vicum vendentem tus et odores et piper et quidquid chartis amicitur ineptis. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 269-270. To that too fragrant quarter of the town, Where pepper, perfume, frankincense are sold, In Tusco vico, ibi sunt homines qui ipsi sese venditant. Plaut. Curc. iv. 484. In the Vicus Tuscus are people who will sell themselves for money. VELABRUM2 In Velabro vel pistorem vel lanium vel haruspicem. Plaut. Curc. 483. The baker, or the butcher, or the soothsayer in the Velabrum. Quasi in Velabro olearii. Plaut. Capt. 489. Just as the oil dealers in the Velabrum. THEATRES1 THEATRE, PORTICUS, AND CURIA OF POMPEY Ob haec simul et ob infirmam valitudinem diu cunctatus, an se contineret et quae apud senatum proposuerat agere differret, tandem Decimo Bruto adhortante, ne frequentis ac iam dudum opperientis destitueret, quinta fere hora progressus est libellumque insidiarum indicem, ab obvio quodam porrectum, libellis ceteris, quos sinistra manu tenebat quasi mox lecturus, commiscuit. Dein pluribus hostiis caesis, cum litare non posset, introiit curiam spreta religione Spurinnamque irridens et ut falsum arguens, quod sine ulla sua noxa Idus Martiae adessent: quamquam is venisse quidem eas diceret, sed non praeterisse. Assidentem conspirati specie officii circumsteterunt; ilicoque Cimber Tillius, qui primas partes susceperat, quasi aliquid rogaturus propius accessit, renuentique et gestu in aliud tempus differenti ab utroque umero togam adprehendit; deinde clamantem: Ista quidem vis est, alter e Cascis aversum vulnerat, paulum infra iugulum. Cae sar Cascae brachium arreptum graphio traiecit, conatusque prosilire alio vulnere tardatus est; utque animadvertit undique se strictis pugionibus peti, toga caput obvolvit, simul sinistra manu sinum ad ima crura deduxit, quo honestius caderet etiam inferiore corporis parte velata. Atque ita tribus et viginti plagis confossus est, uno modo ad primum ictum gemitu sine voce edito; etsi tradiderunt quidam Marco Bruto irruenti dixisse: Καὶ σὺ τέκνον; Exanimis, diffugientibus cunctis, aliquamdiu iacuit, donec lecticae impositum, dependente brachio, tres servoli domum retulerunt. Nec in tot vulneribus, ut Antistius medicus existimabat, letale ullum repertum est, nisi quod secundo loco in pectore acceperat. Suet. Caes. 81-82. 1 The Romans used temporary wooden structures for many years in the place of a permanent theatre, although several of these were elaborate and costly (Plin. N. H. xxxvi. 113-120). It was not until 55 B. C. that a stone building was erected. This was known as the Theatre of Pompey and regarded as one of the most remarkable buildings in Rome. In connection with it was a hall in which meetings of the senate were occasionally held (Julius Caesar was murdered there in 44 B. C. while attending a session) and a beautiful colonnade facing upon a garden. Two other stone buildings were erected later, the Theatre of Marcellus and the Theatre of Balbus, both of which were completed about 13 B. C. Julius Caesar is Assassinated Both for these reasons and because of poor health, he hesitated for a long time whether to stay at home and put off what he had planned to do in the senate; but at last, urged by Decimus Brutus not to disappoint the full meeting which had for some time been waiting for him, he went forth almost at the end of the fifth hour; and when a note revealing the plot was handed him by someone on the way, he put it with others which he held in his left hand, intending to read them presently. Then, after several victims had been slain, and he could not get favorable omens, he entered the House in defiance of portents, laughing at Spurinna, and calling him a false prophet, because the Ides of March were come without bringing him harm; though Spurinna replied that they had of a truth come, but they had not gone. As he took his seat the conspirators gathered about him as if to pay their respects and straightway Tillius Cimber, who had assumed the lead, came nearer as though to ask something; and when Caesar with a gesture put him off to another time, Cimber caught his toga by both shoulders; then as Caesar cried, "why, this is violence!" one of the Cascas stabbed him from one side just below the throat. Caesar caught Casca's arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time threw down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise, he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, "You, too, my child?" All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, until finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down. And of so many wounds, none turned out to be mortal, in the opinion of the physician Antistius, except the second one in the breast. J. C. ROLFE |