The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 01: Julius Caesar by Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus
page 82 of 99 (82%)
page 82 of 99 (82%)
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[1] Plin. Epist. i. 18, 24, iii. 8, v. 11, ix. 34, x. 95. [2] Lycee, part I. liv. III. c. i. [3] Julius Caesar Divus. Romulus, the founder of Rome, had the honour of an apotheosis conferred on him by the senate, under the title of Quirinus, to obviate the people's suspicion of his having been taken off by a conspiracy of the patrician order. Political circumstances again concurred with popular superstition to revive this posthumous adulation in favour of Julius Caesar, the founder of the empire, who also fell by the hands of conspirators. It is remarkable in the history of a nation so jealous of public liberty, that, in both instances, they bestowed the highest mark of human homage upon men who owed their fate to the introduction of arbitrary power. [4] Pliny informs us that Caius Julius, the father of Julius Caesar, a man of pretorian rank, died suddenly at Pisa. [5] A.U.C. (in the year from the foundation of Rome) 670; A.C. (before Christ) about 92. [6] Flamen Dialis. This was an office of great dignity, but subjected the holder to many restrictions. He was not allowed to ride on horseback, nor to absent himself from the city for a single night. His wife was also under particular restraints, and could not be divorced. If she died, the flamen resigned his office, because there were certain sacred rites which he could not perform without her assistance. Besides other marks of distinction, he wore a purple robe called laena, and a conical mitre called apex. |
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