History of the Wars Volume II Part 10

[20]

Pharas and the other Eruli.

[21]

Cf. ch. vi. 4.

[22]

"Auxiliaries"; see Book III. xi. 3.

[23]

_i.e._ there in Africa, as successor to the throne of the Vandal kings.

[24]

Book III. xxv. 2-4.

[25]

Examples of the Roman system have come to light in Egyptian papyri: cf.

the declarations of personal property, [Greek: apographai], _Pap.

Lond._, I., p. 79; _Flinders Petrie Pap._, III., p. 200, ed. Mahaffy and Smyly.

[26]

Since a triumph was granted only to an _imperator_, after the establishment of the princ.i.p.ate by Augustus all triumphs were celebrated in the name of the emperor himself, the victorious general receiving only the _insignia triumphalia_. The first general to refuse a triumph was Agrippa, after his campaign in Spain, about 550 years before Belisarius' triumph in Constantinople.

[27]

The barriers (_carceres_), or starting-point for the racers, were at the open end of the hippodrome, the imperial box at the middle of the course at the right as one entered.

[28]

Cf. Book III. v. 3; that was in A.D. 455. The spoliation of Jerusalem by t.i.tus had taken place in A.D. 70.

[29]

Ecclesiastes, i. 2.

[30]

Not an actual "triumph," but a triumphal celebration of his inauguration as consul.

[31]

The reference is to the old custom of distributing to the populace largesses (_congiaria_) of money or valuables on the occasion of events of interest to the imperial house, such as the emperor's a.s.sumption of the consular office, birthdays, etc. The first largess of this kind was made by Julius Caesar.

[32]

Cf. Book IV. ii. 1.

[33]

The Canaanites of the Old Testament.

[34]

_i.e._, Clypea, or Aspis, now Kalibia, on the Carthaginian coast.

[35]

_i.e._, from Tangier, opposite Cadiz, to Algiers. On Caesarea see IV. v.

5 and note.

[36]

"On the borders of Mauretania" according to Procopius, _De aedificiis_, vi. 6. 18.

[37]

Chap. x. 6.

[38]

Book III. viii. 25, 26.

[39]

The side toward the mountains; cf. -- 20.

[40]

In the late Empire the _excubitores_, 300 in number, const.i.tuted the select guard of the palace. Their commander, _comes excubitorum_, held high rank at court; cf. VIII. xxi. 1, where we are told that Belisarius held this position, and _Arcana_ 6. 10, where Justin, afterwards emperor, is mentioned.

[41]

Cf. chap. viii. 14. Procopius has explained in III. xi. 6 that Solomon was a eunuch.

[42]

See III. viii. 5.

[43]

A _comes foedtratorum_, mentioned in III. xi. 6.