[93] See before, c. xxii.

[94] This senate-house stood in that part of the Campus Martius which is
now the Campo di Fiore, and was attached by Pompey, "spoliis Orientis
Onustus," to the magnificent theatre, which he built A.U.C. 698, in his
second consulship. His statue, at the foot of which Caesar fell, as
Plutarch tells us, was placed in it. We shall find that Augustus caused
it to be removed.

[95] The stylus, or graphium, was an iron pen, broad at one end, with a
sharp point at the other, used for writing upon waxen tables, the leaves
or bark of trees, plates of brass, or lead, etc. For writing upon paper
or parchment, the Romans employed a reed, sharpened and split in the
point like our pens, called calamus, arundo, or canna. This they dipped
in the black liquor emitted by the cuttle fish, which served for ink.

[96] It was customary among the ancients, in great extremities to shroud
the face, in order to conceal any symptoms of horror or alarm which the
countenance might express. The skirt of the toga was drawn round the
lower extremities, that there might be no exposure in falling, as the
Romans, at this period, wore no covering for the thighs and legs.

[97] Caesar's dying apostrophe to Brutus is represented in all the
editions of Suetonius as uttered in Greek, but with some variations. The
words, as here translated, are Kai su ei ekeinon; kai su teknon. The
Salmasian manuscript omits the latter clause. Some commentators suppose
that the words "my son," were not merely expressive of the difference of
age, or former familiarity between them, but an avowal that Brutus was
the fruit of the connection between Julius and Servilia, mentioned before