The First Man in Rome (145 page)

triumphator  
The term for a triumphing general.

trophy  
The trophy was a suit of enemy chieftain's armor. In a practice instituted by the early Greeks, it was mounted on a frame made from a spear, fixed in the ground of the battlefield, and there dedicated to the gods who had assisted in the winning of victory. The Romans changed this practice by
erecting a permanent monument on the battlefield, and carrying all the trophies back to Rome. There the trophies were displayed in the general's triumphal parade; afterward, they were dedicated to some chosen god and set up permanently in the god's temple. Metellus Macedonicus built Rome's first marble temple (to Jupiter Stator) and installed trophies in it; Gaius Marius built a temple to Honor and Virtue, and installed his trophies in it.

Tullianum
Also known as Career. This one-roomed little building had a chamber beneath it that served as Rome's only execution cell. All the important prisoners who walked in the general's triumph were led off as the parade began the ascent to the top of the Capitoline Mount, and were strangled in the lower chamber of the Tullianum. The term "strangling" does not seem to mean bare hands were used, but a noose or garrote. The victim's body was then thrown into one of the sewer drain openings in the walls of this lower chamber. It was equally lawful (though not often done) to thrust the prisoner into the lower chamber and leave him there to starve to death.

Tullus Hostilius
The third King of Rome, and a very shadowy figure. A warlike man, he attacked, captured, and destroyed Alba Longa, then brought its people into Rome and added them to the populace; Alba Longa's ruling class became a part of Rome's patriciate. Tullus Hostilius also built the Senate House, called the Curia Hostilia in his honor.

tunic,
Tunica.
This was the basic item of clothing for almost all ancient Mediterranean peoples, including the Greeks and the Romans. As worn by a Roman of Gaius Marius's day, it had a rectangular body, without darts to confine it at the sides of the chest; the neck was probably cut on a curve for comfort, rather than kept as a straight edge continuous with the shoulders. The sleeves may have been woven as rectangular projections from the shoulders, or they may have been set in. Certainly it does not seem beyond the skill of ancient tailors to inset sleeves, for there is mention in the ancient sources of long sleeves, and these have to be set in. The statues do not indicate that the tunics of men important enough to have statues were simply joined up the sides with a gap left at the top for the arms to go through, and the sleeves of the tunics shown on military statues in particular look like proper short sleeves. The tunic was either belted with leather or girdled with a cord, and was always worn longer at the front than at the back, which was some 3 inches (75 mm) higher. Those of the knights' census wore a narrow stripe on the tunic, those of senatorial census a wide stripe. I believe these stripes were displayed on the right shoulder, rather than on the center of the chest. A wall painting from Pompeii displaying a man wearing a
toga praetexta
shows the wide stripe down the right shoulder of the tunic. So, I note, do the models employed by Dr. Lillian Wilson.

tunica palmata  
The triumphing general's tunic, which may or may not have been purple in color, but was certainly embroidered all over with palm fronds.

Tusculum   
A town on the Via Latina some 15 miles (24 km) from Rome. It was the first Latin town to receive the full Roman citizenship, in 381 B.C., and was always unswervingly loyal to Rome. Cato the Censor came from Tusculum, where his family had possessed the public horse of Roman knighthood for at least three generations.

tyro   
In Latin,
tiro.
A novice, a beginner.
Ulysses  
See Odysseus.

Utica
After the destruction of the city of Carthage by Scipio Aemilianus in 146 B.C., Utica became the most important city and port in the Roman province of Africa. Utica was the seat of the governor, and lay at the mouth of the river Bagradas.

Vale of the Salassi
The modern Val d'Aosta (see also Lugdunum Pass, Salassi).

Vediovis
A very Roman god, mysterious, and without a mythology. Nowadays he is thought to have been a manifestation of the young Jove (Jupiter); even Cicero was vague about Vediovis! Certainly he wasn't a happy god, was perhaps chthonic (associated with the underworld), and seems to have been the patron of disappointments. He had two temples at Rome, one on the Capitol, the other on Tiber Island; outside Rome he was not worshiped at all as far as we know, save at Bovillae, where some Julius erected an altar to Vediovis on behalf of the whole
gens
Julia in the year 100 B.C.

Vercellae
A small town in Italian Gaul. It lay on the north side of the Padus River, at the opening to the Vale of the Salassi. Outside it were a pair of small plains, the Campi Raudii, on which ground Marius and Catulus Caesar defeated the Cimbri in 101 B.C.

verpa
A Latin obscenity used more in verbal abuse than as a sign of contempt. It referred to the penis—apparently in the erect state only, when the foreskin is drawn back— and had a homosexual connotation. On the literary and graffitic evidence, Dr. J. N. Adams discounts the word's meaning a circumcised penis.

Vesta
A very old Roman goddess of numinous nature, having no mythology and no image (see
numen).
She was the hearth, and so had particular importance within the home and the family circle, where she was worshiped alongside the Di Penates and the Lar Familiaris. Her official public cult was equally important, and was personally supervised by the Pontifex Maximus. Her temple in the Forum Romanum was small, very old, and circular in shape; it was adjacent to the Regia, the Well of Juturna and the Domus Publicus of the Pontifex Maximus. A fire burned in the temple of Vesta permanently, and could not be allowed to go out under any circumstances.

Vestal Virgins
Vesta was served by a special priesthood, the college of six women called Vestal Virgins. They were inducted at about seven or eight years of age, took vows of complete chastity, and served the goddess for thirty years, after which they were released from their vows and sent out into the community, and could marry if they wished—though few did, for it was thought unlucky. Their chastity was Rome's luck; that is, the luck of the State. When a Vestal was deemed unchaste, she was not judged and punished out of hand, but was formally brought to trial in a specially convened court. Her alleged lovers were also tried, but in a different court. If convicted, she was cast into an underground chamber dug for the purpose; it was sealed over, and she was left there to die. In Republican times the Vestal Virgins lived in the same Domus Publicus as the Pontifex Maximus, though sequestered from him.

vexillum
  
A flag or banner.

via
  
A main highway, road, or street.
Via Aemilia   
Built in 187 B.C.

Via Aemilia Scauri
Finished about 103 B.C. Its builder was Marcus Aemilius Scaurus Princeps Senatus, censor in 109 B.C.

Via Annia
(1)    Built in 153 B.C.

Via Annia
(2)    Built in 131 B.C. There is great debate about whether this was a Via Annia or a Via Popillia. I have marked it Via Popillia on my maps after a count of my sources produced one more Via Popillia than Via Annia.

Via Appia   
Built in 312 B.C.

Via Aurelia Nova   
Built
in 118 B.C.

 
Via Aurelia Vetus   
Built
in 241 B.C.

Via Campana   
No date is available.

Via Cassia   
Built in 154 B.C.

Via Clodia
Built during the third century B.C., but of unknown certain date.

Via Domitia   
Built in 121 B.C. Its author was Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus.

Via Egnatia   
Built perhaps around 130 B.C.

Via Flaminia   
Built in 220 B.C.

Via Labicana  
Too old to date.

Via Lata   
Too old to date.

Via Latina  
Too old to date.

 
Via Minucia  
Built in 225 B.C.

 
Via Ostiensis   
Too old to date.

Via Popillia
(1)    Built in 131 B.C.

Via Popillia
(2)   Built in 131 B.C. This road is also called the Via Annia, and there is still doubt as to which man was responsible for it.

Via Postumia   
Built
in 148 B.C.

via praetoria
The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran between the camp's front and back gates.

via principalis
The wide road inside a Roman military camp that ran at right angles to the
via praetoria,
and connected one side gate with the other. The general's tent was located at the intersection of these two main
viae.

Via Salaria
Too old to date. This was probably the very oldest of Rome's long roads. A branch road was built in 283 B.C., the Via Caecilia. Yet another branch road was built in 168 B.C., the Via Claudia.

Via Tiburtina  
The old name for the first part of the Via Valeria, between Rome and Tibur.

Via Valeria    
Built in 307 B.C.

vicus
A small city street, though not necessarily a short one. The word meant not so much the thoroughfare itself as the collection of buildings on either side of the thoroughfare; it originated as the word for a rural hamlet, where the buildings straggled down either side of one street. In any city, street names do not change through the centuries, save when a monarch or a politician honors himself by giving a street his name. Thus, in making my map of the city of Rome, I have used all the street names of Imperial Roman times that did not belong to new districts or Imperial town planning; the Vicus Insteius, Vicus lugarius, Vicus Tuscus, Vicus Patricii, Vicus Longus, and the rest must always have borne these names. Similarly with the Alta Semita and the hills like the Clivus Orbius, Clivus Patricius, Clivus Capitolinus, Clivus Argentarius, Clivus Pullius in Tabernola, etc. It may be, however, that whereas we would say we lived
on
the Vicus Cuprius, a Roman would have said he lived
in
the Vicus Cuprius. Some of Rome's streets were named after the activities going on in them, like the Vicus Sandalarius ("street of cobblers"), Clivus Argentarius ("hill of the bankers"), Vicus Fabricii ("street of artificers"); others bore place names, like the Vicus Tuscus (Etruria); some simply described where they were going, like the Vicus ad Malum Punicum ("street leading to the Punic apple—pomegranate—-tree").

Vienne, Vienna
Modern Vienne. The proper name of this trading post town on the Rhodanus River was Vienna, but it is usually called by its modern name, to save confusing it with Vienna, the capital of Austria.

villa
A country residence, completely self-contained, and originally having an agricultural purpose—in other words, a farmstead. It was built around a peristyle or courtyard, had stables or farm buildings at the front, and the main dwelling at the back, of the courtyard. By the time of Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi, wealthy Romans were building villas as vacation homes rather than as farmsteads, and the architecture of the villa had changed correspondingly. Many of these holiday villas were on the seashore.

Villa Publica  
The parklike piece of land on the Campus Martius, fronted by the Vicus Pallacinae, in which the participants of a triumphal parade were gathered together before the parade set off.

vir militaris  
See Military Man.

Visurgis River  
The modern Weser, in Germany.

Vocontii   
A Celtic confederation of tribes dwelling along the Druentia River in Gaul-across-the-Alps; their lands bordered those of the Allobroges, who were to their north. They took great delight in preying upon Roman travelers on the Via Domitia as it crossed the Alps and wound down the Druentia toward the Rhodanus Valley.

Volcae Tectosages   
A Celtic confederation of tribes occupying Mediterranean Gaul beyond the Rhodanus River, and extending all the way to Narbo and Tolosa (see also Brennus [2], Tolosa).