[152] That is, 'on the 6th day before the 1st of November,' or on the 27th of October. In such computations with _ante_ and _post_, the point of time from which the calculation begins is included. See Zumpt, S 867. But we here reckon according to the calendar such as it was subsequently reformed and rectified by J. Caesar. [153] _Portenta_ are chiefly human beings or animals presenting at their birth anything abnormal or monstrous; _prodigia_, on the other hand, are strange phenomena in the heavens; and the superstition of the ancients regarded both as signs sent by the gods to warn men. [154] _Senati_ for _senatus_. See Zumpt, S 81. [155] _Hi utrique_ for _horum uterque_. Zumpt, S 141, note 2. [156] Both had received the military command (_imperium_) from the senate and people: Marcius Rex as proconsul of Cilicia, and Metellus for the purpose of subduing Crete. After their return from their provinces, they tarried for a time outside the walls of Rome (_ad urbem_), because, by entering the city, they would have lost their imperium, which they were anxious to retain until their solemn entrance in a military procession (the triumph), to which the senate had not yet given its sanction. Accordingly, as they were still generals in active service, they could legally be intrusted with the military command in the disturbed districts of Italy. [157] The intrigues of some influential members of the senate, who had either received bribes from the opponents of the two commanders, or expected some from the commanders themselves, prevented the resolution of the senate here alluded to. Respecting _mos erat vendere_, see Zumpt, S 598. [158] Supply to the two names of places _missus est_, which is implied in the preceding sentence. [159] _Sestertia centum_; that is, _centum millia sestertiorum_, or the ancient census of the citizens of the first class; for the neuter sestertia was used in calculations as an imaginary coin of _mille sestertii_ or ten nummi aurei. [160] 'According to the means of every town.' As the Roman gladiators might easily be tempted to join in conspiracies, they were quartered at a distance from Rome, in the towns of a certain class of Roman citizens (_municipia_); and the citizens of such places were ordered to watch over those bands of gladiators, that they might not make their escape. _Familiae_, in its proper sense, signifies the whole body of slaves belonging to one master. [161] _Minores magistratus_ are those officers who did not, by virtue of their office, become members of the senate. The quaestors, accordingly, did not belong to them, but they comprised the masters of the mint, the superintendents of the paving of the roads, and especially the superintendents of all matters connected with prisons, and the _decemviri litibus judicandis_.