Dio's Rome Volume VI Part 6

[Footnote: From Homer's Iliad, XI, verses 163-4.]

PRESERVED FROM BOOKS PRECEDING No. 36.

(The "Fragments" of Dio.)

[Frag. I]

1. Dio says: "I am anxious to write a history of all (that is worth remembering) done by the Romans both at peace and in war, so as to have nothing essential lacking, either of those matters or of others.

(Valesius, p. 569.)

2[lacuna] everything about them, so to speak, that has been written by any persons, and I have put in my history not everything but what I have selected. However, let no one entertain any suspicions (as has happened in the case of some other writers), regarding the truth of it merely because I have used elaborate diction to whatever extent the subject matter permitted; for I have been anxious to be equally perfect in both respects so far as was possible. I will begin at the point where I have obtained the clearest accounts of what is reported to have taken place in this land which we inhabit.

This territory in which the city of Rome has been built" [Lacuna]

(Mai, p. 135.)

[Frag. II]

1. Ausonia, as Dio Cocceia.n.u.s writes, is properly the land of the Aurunci only, lying between the Campanians and Volsci along the sea-coast. Many persons, however, thought that Ausonia extended even as far as Latium, so that all of Italy was called from it Ausonia. (Isaac Tzetzes on Lycophron, 44. and 615, 702.)

2. Where now Chone is there was formerly a district called Oenotria, in which Philoctetes settled after the sack of Troy as Dionysius and Dio Cocceia.n.u.s and all those who write the story of Rome relate. (Idem, v.

912.)

3. -- About the Etruscans Dio says: "These facts about them required to be written at this point in the narrative, and elsewhere something else and later some still different fact will be told as occasion demands, in whatever way the course of the history may chance to prepare the point temporarily under discussion. Let this same explanation be sufficient [Footnote: The MS. here has [Greek: ekontes] = "being (plural) sufficient." I have adopted the reading [Greek: eketo], suggested by Melber.] to cover also the remaining matters of importance. For I shall recount to the best of my ability all the exploits of the Romans, but as to the rest only what has a bearing on the Romans will be written."

(Mai, p. 136.)

[Frag. III]

1. Dio and Dionysius give the story of Cacus (Tzetzes, History, 5, 21).

2. In this way the country was called Italy. Picus was the first king of it, and after him his son Faunus, when Heracles came there with the rest of the kine of Geryon. And he begat Latinus by the wife of Faunus, who was king of the people there, and from him all were called Latins. In the fifty-fifth year after Heracles this aeneas, subsequent to the capture of Troy, came, as we have remarked, to Italy and the Latins. He landed near Laurentum, called also Troy, near the River Numicius along with his own son by Creusa, Ascanius or Ilus. There his followers ate their tables, which were of parsley or of the harder portions of bread loaves (they had no real tables), and likewise a white sow leaped from his boat and running to the Alban mount, named from her, gave birth to a litter of thirty, by which she indicated that in the thirtieth year his children should get fuller possession of both land and sovereignty. As he had heard of this beforehand from an oracle he ceased his wanderings, sacrificed the sow, and prepared to found a city. Latinus would not put up with him, but being defeated in war gave aeneas his daughter Lavinia in marriage. aeneas then founded a city and called it Lavinium. When Latinus and Thurnus, king of the Rutuli, perished in war each at the other's hands, aeneas became king. After aeneas had been killed in war at Laurentum by the same Rutuli and Mezentius the Etruscan, and Lavinia the wife of aeneas was pregnant (of Silvius [Footnote: Reimar thinks this word a later interpolation.]), Ascanius the child of Creusa was king. He finally conquered Mezentius, who had opposed him in war and had refused to receive his emba.s.sies but sought to command all the dependents of Latinus for an annual tribute. When the Latins had grown strong because of the arrival of the thirtieth year, they scorned Lavinium and founded a second city named from the sow Alba Longa, i. e. "long white,"--and likewise called the mountain there Alba.n.u.s. Only, the images from Troy turned back a second time to Lavinium.

After the death of Ascanius it was not Ascanius's son Iulus who became king, but aeneas's son by Lavinia, Silvius,--or, according to some Ascanius's son Silvius. Silvius again begat another aeneas, and he Latinus, and he Capys. Capys had a child Tiberinus, whose son was Amulius, whose son was Aventinus.

So far regarding Alba and Albanians. The story of Rome follows.

Aventinus begat Numitor and Amulius. Numitor while king was driven out by Amulius, who killed Numitor's son aegestes in a hunting party and made the sister of aegestes, daughter of the aforesaid Numitor, Silvia or Rhea Ilia, a priestess of Vesta, so that she might remain a virgin.

He stood in terror of an oracle which foretold his death at the hands of the children of Numitor. For this reason he had killed aegestes and made the other a priestess of Vesta, that she might continue a virgin and childless. But she while drawing water in Mars's grove conceived, and bore Romulus and Remus. The daughter of Amulius by supplication rescued her from being put to death, but the babes she gave to Faustulus, a shepherd, husband of Laurentia, to expose in the vicinity of the river Tiber. These the shepherd's wife took and reared up; for it happened that she had about that time brought forth a still-born infant.

When Romulus and Remus were grown they kept flocks in the fields of Amulius, but as they killed some of the shepherds of their grandfather Numitor a watch was set for them. Remus being arrested, Romulus ran and told Faustulus, and he ran to narrate everything to Numitor.

Finally Numitor recognized them to be his own daughter's children.

They with the a.s.sistance of many persons killed Amulius, and after bestowing the kingdom of Alba on their grandfather Numitor themselves made a beginning of founding Rome in the eighteenth year of Romulus's life. Prior to this great Rome, which Romulus founded on the Palatine mount about the dwelling of Faustulus, another Rome in the form of a square had been founded by a Romulus and Remus older than these.

(Is. Tzetzes on Lycophron, 1232. Consequently Dio must have written what is found in Zonaras 7, 3 [vol. II, p. 91, 7-10:]) "Romulus has been described as eighteen years old when he joined in settling Rome.

He founded it around the dwelling of Faustulus. The place had been named Palatium."

3. I have related previously at some length the story how aeneas founded Lavinium, though these ignorant persons say Rome. See how _they_ tell the story. aeneas received an oracle to found the city on the spot where his companions should devour their own tables. Now when they came to Italy and were in want of tables they used loaves instead of tables. Finally they ate also the tables--or the loaves. aeneas, consequently, understanding the oracle founded there the Lavinian city, even if the ignorant do say Rome. (Is. Tzetz. on Lycophr. 1250.) (Cp. Frag. III, 4.)

4. --Rome is part of the Latin country and the Latins have the same name as Latinus, who is said to be the son of Odysseus and Circe, and the Tiber, once called Albulus, received its change of name from the fact that King Tiberius lost his life in it; this is proclaimed by Dio's history among others. The Tiberius here meant by the history is not the one subsequent to Augustus, but another who came earlier. He, they say, died in battle and was carried away by the stream, and so left his own name to the river. (Eustathius on Dionysius, 350.)

5. Arceisius--Laertes was a son of Arceisius who was so called either from [Greek: arkeo arkeso] [Footnote: These are the first two princ.i.p.al parts of a Greek verb meaning "to be sufficient."] as if he were able merely to be sufficient ([Greek: eparkeo]), whence comes the epithet [Greek: podarkaes] (sufficient with the feet) or else because an _arkos_ or _arktos_ (bear) suckled him, just as some one else was suckled by a horse or goat, and still others by a wolf, among whom were also the Roman chiefs (according to Dio),--Remus, that is to say, and Romulus, whom a wolf (lykaina) suckled, called by the Italians _lupa_; this name has been aptly used metaphorically as a t.i.tle for the _demi-monde_.

(Eustathius on the Odyssey, p. 1961, 13-16.)

[Frag. IV]

1. [Lacuna] [lacuna] (for it is not possible that one who is a mortal should either foresee everything, or find a way to turn aside what is destined to occur) children to punish his wrongdoing were born [infinitive] of that maiden. [Footnote: I.e., Rhea Sylvia.] (Mai, p.

136.)

2. --Romulus and Remus, by their quarrel together, made it plain that some can bear dangers straight through life altogether more easily than good fortune. (Mai, p. 136.)

3. On Romulus and Remus Dionysius of Halicarna.s.sus makes remarks in his History, and so do Dio and Diodorus. (Scholia of Io. Tzetzes in Exeg. Hom. II. p. 141, 20.)

4. After they had set about the building of the city a dispute arose between the brothers regarding the sovereignty and regarding the city, and they got into a conflict in which Remus was killed. (Zonaras, 7, 3, vol. II, p-90, 7 sqq.) (Cp. Haupt, _Hermes_ XIV.)

5. Whence also the custom arose that he who dared to cross the trench of the camp otherwise than by the usual paths should be put to death.

(Zonaras, ib., p. 90, 16-18.)

6. They themselves [Footnote: The Caeninenses, Crustumini, and Antemnates are meant (Bekker).--Compare Livy, I, 10, 11.] learned well and taught others the lesson that those who take vengeance on others are not certainly right merely because the others have previously done wrong, and that those who make demands on stronger men do not necessarily get them, but often lose the rest besides. (Mai, p. 136.)

7. --Hersilia and the rest of the women of her kin on discovering them one day drawn up in opposing ranks ran down from the Palatine with their little children (children had already been born), and rus.h.i.+ng suddenly into the s.p.a.ce between the armies aroused much pity by their words and their actions. Looking now at the one side and now at the other they cried: "Why, fathers, do you do this? Why, husbands, do you do it? When will you stop fighting? When will you stop hating each other? Make peace with your sons-in-law! Make peace with your fathers-in-law! For Pan's sake spare your children, for Quirinus's sake your grandchildren! Pity your daughters, pity your wives! For if you refuse to make peace and some bolt of madness has fallen upon your heads to drive you to frenzy, then kill at once us, the causes of your contention, and slay at once the little children whom you hate, that with no longer any name or bond of kins.h.i.+p between you you may gain the greatest of evils--to slay the grandsires of your children and the fathers of your grandchildren." As they said this they tore open their garments and exposed their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and abdomens, while some pressed themselves against the swords and others threw their children against them. Moved by such sounds and sights the men began to weep, so that they desisted from battle and came together for a conference there, just as they were, in the _comitium_, which received its name from this very event. (Mai, p. 137.)

8. Tribous Trittys; or a third part. Romulus's heavy-armed men, three thousand in number (as Dio tells us in the first book of his History), were divided into three sections called _tribous_, i. e. trittyes, which the Greeks also termed "tribes." Each trittys was separated into ten _Curiae_ or "thinking bodies"--_cura_ meaning thoughtfulness--and the men who were appointed to each particular _curia_ came together and thought out the business in hand.

Among the Greeks the _curiae_ are called _phratriae_ and _phatriae_--in other words _a.s.sociations, brotherhoods unions, guilds_--from the fact that men of the same _phratry phrased_ or revealed to one another their own intentions without scruple or fear.

Hence fathers or kinsmen or teachers are _phrators_,--those who share in the same _phratry_. But possibly it was derived from the Roman word _frater_, which signifies "brother." (--Glossar. Nom. Labbaei.)

9. (And he named the people _populus_.) Hence in the Law Books the popular a.s.sembly has the name _popularia_. (Zonaras 7, 3 (vol. 11, p.

91, 17 and 18.) Cp. Haupt, _Hermes_ XIV.)

10. She [i. e. Tarpeia] having come down for water was seized and brought to Tatius, and was induced to betray the fathers. (Zonaras, ib., p. 93, 15-17.)

11. It is far better for them [senate-houses?] to be established anew than having existed previously to be named over. (Mai, p. 137.)

12. --Romulus a.s.sumed a rather harsh att.i.tude toward the senate and behaved toward it rather like a tyrant, and the hostages of the Veientes he returned [Footnote: Mai supplies the missing verb.] on his own responsibility and not by common consent, as was usually done. When he perceived them vexed at this he made a number of unpleasant remarks, and finally said: "I have chosen you, Fathers, not for the purpose of your ruling me, but that I might give directions to you." (Mai, p. 138.)

[What is said of Romulus in John of Antioch, Frag. 32 (Mueller) to have been drawn from the extant books of Dio. Cp. Haupt, _Hermes_ XIV.]

13. Dio I: "Thus by nature, doubtless, mankind will not endure to be ruled by what is similar and ordinary partly through jealousy, partly through contempt of it." [Footnote: This is probably a remark in regard to the quarrels of the Roman elders over the kingdom after the death of Romulus.--Compare Livy. I, 17.] (--Bekker, Anecd. p. 164, 15.)

14. Dio in I: "What time he threw both body and soul into the balance, encountering danger in your behalf." [Footnote: Perhaps a reference to the father of Horatius defending his son, or even to Romulus.] (Ib. p.

165, 27.)