Pliny the younger shews, that the _laticlave_ was a favour granted by the emperor on particular occasions. He says, he applied for his friend, and succeeded: _Ego Sexto latumclavum a Cæsare nostro impetravi._ Lib. ii. epist. 9. The _latusclavus_ was a robe worn by consuls, prætors, generals in triumph, and senators, who were called _laticlavii_. Their sons were admitted to the same honour; but the emperors had a power to bestow this garment of distinction, and all privileges belonging to it, upon such as they thought worthy of that honour. This is what Marcus Aper says, in the Dialogue, that he obtained; and, when the translation mentions the _manly gown_, the expression falls short of the speaker's idea. Dacier has given an account of the _laticlave_, which has been well received by the learned. He tells us, that whatever was made to be put on another thing, was called _clavus_, not because it had any resemblance to a nail, but because it was made an adjunct to another subject. In fact, the _clavi_ were purple galloons, with which the Romans bordered the fore part of the tunic, on both sides, and when drawn close together, they formed an ornament in the middle of the vestment. It was, for that reason, called by the Greeks, [Greek: mesoporphuron]. The broad galloons made the _laticlave_, and the narrow the _angusticlave_. The _laticlave_, Dacier adds, is not to be confounded with the _prætexta_. The latter was, at first, appropriated to the magistrates, and the sacerdotal order; but, in time, was extended to the sons of eminent families, to be worn as a mark of distinction, till the age of seventeen, when it was laid aside for the _manly gown_. See Dacier's _Horace_, lib. i. sat. 5; and see Kennet's _Roman Antiquities_, p. 306. [b] Marcus Aper, Julius Secundus, and Curiatius Maternus, according to Brotier and others, were natives of Gaul. Aper (section x.) mentions the Gauls as their common countrymen: _Ne quid de Gallis nostris loquamur._ If that was the fact, a _new man_ at Rome would have difficulties to surmount. Ammianus Marcellinus (a Latin historian of the fourth century) says, that at Rome the people despised every thing that did not grow before their eyes within the walls of the city, except the rich who had no children; and the veneration paid to such as had no heirs was altogether incredible. _Vile esse quidquid extra urbis pomærium nascitur, æstimant; nec credi potest qua obsequiorum diversitate coluntur homines sine liberis Romæ._ Lib. xiv. s. 5. In such a city a young man and a stranger could not expect to be favoured. [c] All causes of a private nature were heard before the _centumviri_. Three were chosen out of every tribe, and the tribes amounted to five and thirty, so that in fact 105 were chosen; but, for the sake of a round number, they were called CENTUMVIRI. The causes that were heard before that jurisdiction are enumerated by Cicero, _De Orat._ lib. i. s. 38.