The October Horse: A Novel of Caesar and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough
beak In Latin, rostrum. The beak, of oak or bronze, projected forward of a warship’s bows just below the waterline, and was used to hole or damage an enemy vessel during an activity called “ramming.”
Belgae The fearsome confraternity of tribes inhabiting northwestern and Rhineland Gaul. Of mixed Germano-Celtic blood, they comprised tribes like the Nervii, who fought on foot, and the Treveri, who fought from horseback.
biga A chariot drawn by two horses.
bireme A galley constructed for use in naval warfare and meant to be rowed rather than sailed, though like all war galleys it was equipped with a mast and sail (left ashore if battle seemed likely). Some biremes were decked or partially decked, but most were open.
It seems that the oarsmen did sit on two levels at separate banks of oars, the upper bank accommodated in an outrigger, and the lower bank poking through leather-valved ports in the hull. One man powered one oar; there were upward of 100 rowers. It was much longer than it was wide in the beam (the ratio was about 7:1), and probably measured about 100 feet (30 meters) in length. A beak (q.v.) was mandatory. The bireme was not designed to carry marines or artillery, or grapple to engage other vessels in land-style combat.
Built of fir or some other lightweight pine, the bireme could be manned only in fair weather, and fight only in calm seas. Like all warships, it was not left in the water even overnight, but stored ashore in ship sheds or pushed up on a beach. Throughout Greek and Romanly Roman times all warships were rowed by professional oarsmen, never by slaves. Slaves sent to the galleys were a feature of Christianized times.
boni Literally, “the good men.” First mentioned in a play by Plautus called The Captives, the term came into political use during the time of Gaius Gracchus (q.v.). In the time of Cicero and Caesar, the boni were men of ultra-conservative leanings.
Bononia Modern Bologna, in northern Italy.
Brundisium Modern Brindisi, on the Adriatic coast of Italy.
Bruttium In ancient times, the toe of the Italian boot.
Burdigala Modern Bordeaux, in France.
Buthrotum In modern Albania, it is now an uninhabited site called Butrinto.
cacat! Shit!
Calabria In ancient times, the heel of the Italian boot.
caligae Legionary footwear, open to the air but more supportive than a sandal. The very thick leather sole was studded with metal hobnails, thus raising the marching foot too high off the ground to pick up painful grit or gravel, while the shoe’s open nature kept the foot healthy. In icy or snowy weather, the legionary wore thick socks, rabbit skins or similar inside it.
Campania The fabulously rich and fertile volcanic basin that lay between the mountains of Samnium and Apulia and the Tuscan (Tyrrhenian) Sea, and extended from Tarracina in the north to a point just south of the Bay of Naples. Very well watered, it grew bigger, better, and more of everything than anywhere else in Italy. Early colonized by the Greeks, it fell under Etruscan domination, then belonged to the Samnites, and finally was subject to Rome. The strong Greek and Samnite elements in its population made it a grudging subject, and it was an area always prone to insurrection.
campus A plain or flat piece of ground.
Capua The largest inland city of Campania. It had a long history of broken pledges to Rome which led to Roman reprisals stripping it of its extensive and immensely valuable public lands; these included the ager Falernus, source of Italy’s best wines. By Caesar’s time, Capua had become the center of a huge martial industry, catering for the needs of the army camps and gladiator schools all around it.
Carrhae Today, a tiny village named Harran in the extreme south of Turkey near the Syrian border. It was the site of a severe Roman defeat when the Parthians attacked the army of Marcus Crassus.
carpentum A four-wheeled, closed carriage drawn by four to eight mules. Its driver was the carpentarius.
Carthage A Phoenician civilization centered upon modern Tunisia, in north Africa. At the height of its power, chiefly maritime, Carthage had an empire including Sicily, Sardinia and all Spain. During the course of three wars with Rome lasting 150 years, its power ebbed and vanished. Its most famous citizen was Hannibal. The adjective pertaining to Carthage is “Punic” (Phoenician).
casus belli A reason for war.
Catabathmos The uninhabited coast between Egypt and Cyrenaica.
catapult In Republican times, a piece of artillery designed to shoot wooden bolts or sharpened logs. The principle was the same as a crossbow. Small catapults were called scorpions.
cella A room without a special function. The word is usually applied to the room inside a temple.
Cenabum Modern Orleans, in France.
censor The most senior of all Roman magistrates, though he did not own imperium, therefore was not escorted by lictors. To run for censor, a man had to have been consul, and only famous ones bothered to stand. Two censors were elected by the Centuriate Assembly to serve for a period of five years, called a lustrum. Censors inspected and regulated membership in the Senate, and in the Classes and tribes of Roman citizens. They also held a full census of all Roman citizens everywhere in the world. They let the State contracts, and undertook various public works. Usually they could not get on together, and were prone to resign long before the lustrum was completed.
Centuries Actually, any body of 100 men. Here, the groups of men in the Classes. Except for the senior eighteen centuries, these groups came to hold many more than 100 men.
centurion A regular professional officer in a legion. He cannot be likened to a modern non-commissioned officer, for he enjoyed an exalted status unaffected by social distinctions. Promotion was up fromthe ranks; all centurions started off as ranker soldiers. Centurion seniority was graduated in a manner so tortuous that no modern scholar has worked out how many grades there were, or how they progressed. The ordinary centurion commanded the century of 80 soldiers and 20 noncombatant servants who were also citizens. The names of the two most senior grades have survived: the pilus prior was the senior centurion of his cohort, and the primus pilus (shortened by Caesar to primipilus) was the senior of the entire legion.
The centurion’s badges of office were unmistakable: a shirt of metal scales rather than chain mail; shin guards or greaves; a helmet crest of stiff horsehair that fanned sideways instead of back-to-front; and a stout knobkerrie of vine wood. He was usually festooned with decorations for valor.
Cephallenia An island in the Ionian Sea to the west of Greece.
Cercina Modern Kerkenna, an island off the coast of Tunisia.
chersonnese The Greek word for a peninsula.
Cimbric Chersonnese The Jutland peninsula (Denmark).
Cimmeria Situated at the top of the Black Sea, in ancient times it incorporated not only the Crimean peninsula, but much of the territory around it.
circumvallation A siege wall entirely surrounding the enemy.
circus An open air arena designed for chariot racing, therefore much longer than wide, and equipped with wooden bleachers for the spectators. A narrow island called the spina divided the arena itself down the middle; accidents happened when the chariots tried to drive around the metae (spina ends) at a sharp angle.
Classes There were five Classes of Roman citizens, numbered from First to Fifth, each comprised of Centuries. A means test was imposed by the censors, based on a man’s income. Many Roman citizens were too poor to qualify for a Class (see Head Count). Electorally the Classes were heavily weighted in favor of the most affluent, the First Class, to which members of the Senate belonged. See also Eighteen. client, clientele Aman of free or freed status (he did not have to be a Roman citizen) who pledged himself to a man he called his patron was a client in the patron’s clientele. The client undertook in the most solemn and binding way to obey the wishes and serve the interests of his patron, in return for various favors (usually gifts of money, or jobs, or legal assistance). The freed slave was automatically the client of his former master. So important was the client-patron rela
client-king A king who pledged himself to Rome or a Roman.
cognomen The last name of a Roman male anxious to distinguish himself from all his fellows having the same first and family name as he. In some cases a man might have several cognomina, as Gaius Julius Caesar Strabo Vopiscus Sesquiculus. Caesar: “a fine head of hair.” Strabo: “cross-eyes.” Vopiscus: “the survivor of twins.” Sesquiculus: “an arsehole and a half.” Which indicates that the cognomen was a nickname, often either sarcastic or describing some physical imperfection.
cohort The tactical unit of the legion, comprising six centuries of troops; in normal circumstances, a legion contained ten cohorts. Roman armies were sometimes enumerated in cohorts rather than in legions, indicating that the troops had not served together as legions.
comitium, comitia See Assembly.
CONDEMNO The word employed by a court jury delivering a verdict of “guilty.”
confarreatio The oldest and strictest of the three Roman marriage forms. Usually only patricians practiced it, but it was not compulsory. Confarreatio was unpopular, for two reasons: it gave a woman absolutely no freedom or independence; it virtually negated divorce, which, if diffareatio, was so awful that few could face it.
conscript fathers By Caesar’s day, a courtesy title for senators. It originated under the Kings of Rome, who called their council members “fathers.” After they were adlected by the censors, they became “conscript fathers.” Once election to the Senate came in, the term held no significance.
consul The consul was the most senior Roman magistrate owning imperium (q.v.). Modern scholars refer to the consulship, as a consulate is a diplomatic institution nowadays.
Two consuls were elected by the Centuriate Assembly each year to serve for one year. The senior of the two was the one who polled the required number of Centuries first. Each was preceded by twelve lictors. They entered office on January 1, New Year’s Day. The senior consul held the fasces (q.v.) for the month of January, which meant his junior colleague just looked on. They then alternated holding the fasces month by month.
Consuls could be either patrician or plebeian; two plebeians could hold office together, but not two patricians. The proper age was forty-two, twelve years after entering the Senate at thirty. A consul’s imperium knew no bounds; it operated not only in Rome, but everywhere Roman, and overrode the imperium of a governor in his province. If armies went into the field, the consul(s) had first choice of commanding them.
consular The title given to a man who had been consul.
consultum, consulta The proper name for a senatorial decree. These decrees did not have the force of law. In order to become law, a senatorial decree had to be passed by an Assembly, and sometimes it was rejected. However, many decrees were not sent to an Assembly, yet were accepted in the spirit of law: decisions about who governed a province, declaration and pursuit of a war, and foreign affairs were in the purlieu of the Senate.
contio, contiones The contio was a preliminary meeting of an Assembly, and saw debate about promulgated laws.
contubernalis A subaltern of lowest rank in the military command chain, but excluding the centurions. Contubernales were noble youths serving an obligatory year of military experience as part of a future public career rather than an army career.
Corcyra Modern Kérkyra or Corfu Island, in the Adriatic.
Corduba Modern Cordoba, in Spain.
Cornelia the Mother of the Gracchi Daughter of Scipio Africanus and Aemilia Paulla, she married the much older eminent consular Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and bore him a total of twelve babies. Only three did she manage to rear to maturity: the famous Gracchi (q.v.) and a daughter, Sempronia, who married Scipio Aemilianus (q.v.). When her husband died she declared remarriage unbefitting a Roman noblewoman, and refused, among other suitors, Ptolemy Euengetes Gross-belly of Egypt. One son was murdered, the other suicided, and her daughter was believed to have poisoned her husband, but Cornelia was unbowed, and lived to be very old.
She became the beau ideal of Roman womanhood to later Roman noblewomen, for her heroism in the face of tragedy and her quite unconquerable spirit. Her letters and essays were highly esteemed. After she died her tomb was never without flowers; though the cult was never accorded official sanction, ordinary Roman women worshiped her as a goddess.
corona civica The crown made of oak leaves awarded to a soldier who saved the lives of fellow soldiers, captured enemy ground in a battle and held it until after the battle ended.
corona vallaris A gold crown awarded to the man who was first over the walls of an enemy camp. Gold crowns, oddly, were given for lesser feats of valor. The major crowns were of plant matter.
Cularo Modern Grenoble, in alpine France.
cunnus, cunni A choice Latin obscenity for the female genitalia.
cursus honorum The “way of honor” denoting the path from new senator to consul. It incorporated quaestor and praetor, but not aedile or tribune of the plebs.
curule chair Curule magistrates were those entitled to sit on a curule chair. This was carved out of ivory, had curved legs crossing in a broad X, was equipped with low arms, but had no back. It seems to have folded up for easy carrying.
Dagda and Dann The principal god and goddess of the Druidic pantheon. Dagda’s elemental nature was water, Dann’s earth.
Danubius River The modern Danube, Donau, or Dunarea.
demagogue Originally a Greek concept, meaning a politician who aimed to appeal to the crowds. The Roman demagogue was almost inevitably a tribune of the plebs (q.v.), but it was no part of his platform to “liberate the masses”-nor were the men who listened to him from the ranks of the lowly. The term was used in a derogatory sense by ultra-conservative politicians.
denarius, denarii The largest denomination of Roman coin. Of silver (save for a rare issue of gold), it was worth 4 sesterces and was about the size of a dime. There were 6,250 denarii to the talent.
Dertona Modern Tortona, in northwestern Italy.
diadem The Hellenistic symbol of sovereignty; something more costly was felt too ostentatious. It was a white ribbon about an inch wide, worn around the head and tied beneath the occiput. The two ends, sometimes fringed, strayed on to the shoulders.
dictator An unelected Roman magistrate appointed by the consul on instruction from the Senate to deal with an extraordinary crisis in government, originally a war involving threatened invasion of the home territory. His duties were therefore supposed to be military; his other title was magister populi, Master of the Infantry, and his first act was to appoint his subordinate, the magister equitum, or Master of the Horse. As seen during the early Republic, his function was to undertake the war and leave at least one consul free to carry on with civilian government. The post was for six months only, the duration of the campaigning season. Appointment was by lex curiata (q.v.). The dictator was preceded by twenty-four lictors whose fasces held the axes, even within the pomerium (q.v.).
Alone among the magistrates, the dictator was indemnified against his actions while in office, could not be brought to trial for them after he stepped down. But gradually, as Rome’s early foes were subjugated, the need for a dictator subsided. This, combined with the Senate’s mistrust of the office, resulted in attempts to deal with crises in a less individually authoritarian way, by using the Senatus Consultum Ultimum (q.v.) instead.
When Sulla was appointed Dictator in 81 B.C., after marching on Rome, he deliberately arrogated powers that were real enough at law, but not traditional. Inviolate and indemnified, he used the office to enact laws and frame a new constitution, to fill the empty Treasury, and rid himself of his enemies by executing them. When he did not step down after six months, many assumed he never would, but in 79 B.C. he resigned from all public life. Thus when Caesar became dictato
dignitas An almost untranslatable concept. It was a man’s personal share of public standing in Rome, and involved his moral and ethical worth, his reputation, his entitlement to respect and proper treatment by his peers and by the history books. It was an accumulation of personal clout stemming from his own unique qualities and deeds.
Dionysus A Greek rather than a Roman god, his worship seems to have originated in Thrace, where it was bloodily orgiastic. In later times his worship was a gentler affair, involving wine.
diverticulum A road interlinking the main arterial roads that radiated outward from the gates of Rome. A “ring road.”
domine, domina My lord, or my lady (vocative case).
Druidism The major Celtic religion, mystical and animist. It did not appeal to Mediterranean peoples, who deplored its bizarre qualities, particularly human sacrifice.
duumvir One of two men who headed the local government of a town or municipality in a Latin-speaking region.
Dyrrachium Modern Durrës, in Albania.
Eagle The silver standard displaying a spread-winged eagle that Gaius Marius (q.v.) gave each legion to furnish his propertyless soldiers with a patriotic symbol. It was virtually worshiped.
Ecastor! The socially acceptable exclamation women used. It referred to the god Castor.
Ecbatana Modern Hamadan, in Iran.
Edepol! The socially acceptable exclamation used by men. It referred to the god Pollux, Castor’s less esteemed twin.
edicta The tenets of procedure issued by a magistrate when he took office; they were guidelines to help those applying to him for legal or administrative decisions.
Eighteen The eighteen most senior Centuries of the First Class, wherein were contained those men who expected by right of family and birth to enter upon a public career, or adorn the top ranks of the business world. The Eighteen were limited to 100 men in each.