philosophers, by Vespasian.

[756] There being no such place as Morbonia, and the supposed name being
derived from morbus, disease, some critics have supposed that Anticyra,
the asylum of the incurables, (see CALIGULA, c. xxix.) is meant; but the
probability is, that the expression used by the imperial chamberlain was
only a courtly version of a phrase not very commonly adopted in the
present day.

[757] Helvidius Priscus, a person of some celebrity as a philosopher and
public man, is mentioned by Tacitus, Xiphilinus, and Arrian.

[758] Cicero speaks in strong terms of the sordidness of retail trade--
Off. i. 24.

[759] The sesterce being worth about two-pence half-penny of English
money, the salary of a Roman senator was, in round numbers, five thousand
pounds a year; and that of a professor, as stated in the succeeding
chapter, one thousand pounds. From this scale, similar calculations may
easily be made of the sums occurring in Suetonius's statements from time
to time. There appears to be some mistake in the sum stated in c. xvi.
just before, as the amount seems fabulous, whether it represented the
floating debt, or the annual revenue, of the empire.

[760] See AUGUSTUS, c. xliii. The proscenium of the ancient theatres
was a solid erection of an architectural design, not shifted and varied
as our stage-scenes.

[761] Many eminent writers among the Romans were originally slaves, such
as Terence and Phaedrus; and, still more, artists, physicians and