Note 1 — Chapter I · THE SOLILOQUIES OF AGRIPPINA

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Note 1.—Palace of the Cæsars. (See Lanciani’s Ancient Rome in the light of Modern Discoveries, pp. 107-133.)—For Notes see section following Footnotes.

2 —

Note 2.—Lollia Paulina’s jewels.

3 —

Note 3.—Agrippina’s talking thrush.

4 —

Note 4.—Nero’s Genealogy.

5 —

Note 5.—Agrippina’s white nightingale.

6 —

Note 6.—The Bacchanalians.

7 —

Note 7.—Nero’s poetry.

8 —

‘Sub terris tonuisse putes.’

9 —

Pliny, N. H. vii. 6.

10 —

Note 8.

11 —

Note 9.

12 —

See Nisard: Poëtes de la Décadence, i. 91.

13 —

Mart. iv. 59.

14 —

Note 10.

15 —

Note 11.

16 —

A slave who carried boys’ books to school.

17 —

Note 12.—Slaves.

18 —

Note 13.—Onokoites.

19 —

Note 14.—Lines of Cleanthes.

20 —

Note 15.—Ancient wall-scribblings.

21 —

For these and similar passages of Seneca, see Epp. 31, 41, 73; De Benef., i. 6; &c.

22 —

1 Thess. iv. 1-8.

23 —

1 Thess. v. 1-11.

24 —

Note 16.—Cyzicene room.

25 —

Plat. Politicus, § 16; comp. Phædo, § 78.

26 —

Note 17.—The unconscious prophecies of heathendom.

27 —

Note 18.

28 —

Juv. Sat. iii. 60-65.

29 —

Sparteoli, ‘bucket-men,’ was the slang term for the police, perhaps from the spartum, or rope-basket covered with pitch, in which they carried water as firemen.

30 —

Note 19.—Arrest of Onesimus.

31 —

Equuleus was an instrument of torture.

32 —

Salaputium, ‘hop-o’-my-thumb.’

33 —

To offer the ears to be touched was a sign of willingness to give witness. See Hor. Sat. ix. 77; and for the reason of the custom, Pliny, N. H. xi. 103.

34 —

Ὀνήσιμος, ‘profitable.’ St. Paul plays on the meaning of the name in Philemon, 10, 11.

35 —

Cic. Pro Flacco, 27: ‘Phrygium plagis solere fieri meliorem.’

36 —

Note 20.—Agrippas.

37 —

Note 21.—Ancient dancing.

38 —

‘De Pantomimo. ‘Pugnat, ludit, amat, bacchatur, vertitur, astat, Illustrat verum, cuncta decore replet; Tot linguæ, tot membra viro: mirabilis ars est Quæ facit articulos, ore silente, loqui.’

39 —

Note 22.—Lucan’s flatteries.

40 —

Sen. Ep. 21.

41 —

Sen. Nat. Quæst. i. 5: ‘Colla Cytheriacæ splendent agitata Columbæ. Ut ait Nero Cæsar disertissime.’

42 —

Petron. Sat. 1, ‘Melliti verborum globuli.’

43 —

Pind. Ol. ii. 119.

44 —

Note 23.—The Stemma Cæsarum.

45 —

Hor. Epod. ii. 1; Lord Lytton’s version.

46 —

Virg. Georg. ii. 458.

47 —

A period of seventeen days.

48 —

Note 24.—Otho’s banquet.

49 —

See Note 25.—Tossing in a blanket.

50 —

Note 26.—Age of Britannicus.

51 —

A coin of Teos with this inscription is still extant.—Mionnet, iv. 123.

52 —

Eph. v. 14 (apparently the fragment of a hymn).

53 —

Note 27.—Making gods.

54 —

Note 28.—Greek epigram.

55 —

Note 29.—Epitaph.

56 —

Note 30.

57 —

Note 31.—Early Christian hymns.

58 —

Pliny, N. H. xxxiv. 8.

59 —

Plutarch, Sympos. i.

60 —

Note 32.

61 —

De Const. Sap. 14.

62 —

Sen. De Benef. iii. 16.

63 —

Pliny, N. H. xxxvii. 16.

64 —

Lactantius.

65 —

Il. ix. 502 (Pope).

66 —

Pliny, N. H. viii. 7.

67 —

Plutarch, De Defect. Orac. p. 419, b.

68 —

An actual ancient graffito of some imprisoned slave.

69 —

Note 33.

70 —

Sen. De Tranq. An. xiv. 7.

71 —

Sen. Ep. liv.: ‘Mors est non esse.’ Troades, v. 393: ‘Post mortem nihil est, ipsaque Mors nihil.’

72 —

Pliny, N. H. xi. 54: ‘Oculos cum osculamur, animum ipsum videmur attingere.’

73 —

Note 34.

74 —

Note 35.—The Gladiators’ School.

75 —

Note 36.—The Gladiator’s Oath.

76 —

For Spectatus—a gladiator who had made his début in the arena.

77 —

Mart. ii. 75.

78 —

Note 37.—Gladiatorial Games.

79 —

See Isidor. Orig. xviii. 53.

80 —

Pliny, N. H. x. 34.

81 —

Note 38.—Dead Gladiators.

82 —

Sen. Ep. xciii. 12; Quinct. Decl. 7.

83 —

Pliny, N. H. xxiii. 63 and passim.

84 —

Note 39.—The King of the Grove.

85 —

Petron. Sat. 47; Juv. Sat. iii. 9.

86 —

Ὡς χαριέν ἐστ’ ἄνθρωπος ἤν ἄνθρωπος ᾗ.

87 —

The author has the kind permission of the illustrious Laureatus of Vectis to make this use of his lines.

88 —

The insulæ were large, isolated lodging-houses.

89 —

Note 40.—Age of Octavia.

90 —

Note 41.—Christian Fortitude.

91 —

A real pagan epitaph.

92 —

Note 42.—Ishmael ben Phabi.

93 —

Renan, L’Antéchrist, p. 152.

94 —

Note 43.

95 —

Φράζεο τὸν πάντων ὕπατον θεὸν ἔμμεν’ ἸΑΩ.

96 —

Note 44.

97 —

Sen. Controv. iii. 12 (Boissier, p. 80).

98 —

Note 45.

99 —

Sen. Thyest. 446.

100 —

Tac. Ann. xv. 45.

101 —

The Latin Gate did not at this time exist. It was in the wall of Aurelian, of which the date is A.D. 271. But it is possible that tradition may have had reason for fixing on this locality.

102 —

Sen. Consol. ad Marc. 20.

103 —

Note 46.

104 —

Note 47.—St. John banished by Nero.

105 —

Note 48.—Icarus.

106 —

Note 49.—Danaides.

107 —

Tert. Apol. 50. Note 50.

108 —

Sen. Ep. 15, 78.

109 —

Pliny, xxxv. 33.

110 —

Pharsal. ix. 601.

111 —

Pharsal. vii. 455-459.

112 —

Pharsal. ix. 211.

113 —

Tac. Ann. xvi. 16.

114 —

Dial. de Orat. 12.

115 —

‘Stoicus occidit Baream, delator amicum, Discipulumque senex, ripa nutritus in illa Ad quam Gorgonei delapsa est pinna caballi.’ Juv. Sat. iii. 116.

116 —

De Ira, iii. 15.

117 —

Sen. Quæst. Nat. ii. 26, vi. 21.

118 —

Note 51.

119 —

‘Conqueror in all the games.’

120 —

Note 52.

121 —

ἵππων μ’ ὠκυπόδων ἀπφὶ κτύπος οὔατα βάλλει.

122 —

‘Acerrimi canes, quos ille, ut sibi uni mansuetos ... sanguine humano pascebat.’—Sen. Consol. ad Marc. xxii. 3; comp. De Benef. iii. 26.