The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 04: CaligulaSuetonius
History
The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Volume 04: Caligula
Suetonius
Emperors -- Rome -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Rome -- History -- Empire, 30 B.C.-284 A.D.
[459] Scabella: commentators are undecided as to the nature of this
instrument. Some of them suppose it to have been either a sort of cymbal
or castanet, but Pitiscus in his note gives a figure of an ancient statue
preserved at Florence, in which a dancer is represented with cymbals in
his hands, and a kind of wind instrument attached to the toe of his left
foot, by which it is worked by pressure, something in the way of an
accordion.
[460] The port of Rome.
[461] The Romans, in their passionate devotion to the amusements of the
circus and the theatre, were divided into factions, who had their
favourites among the racers and actors, the former being distinguished by
the colour of the party to which they belonged. See before, c. xviii.,
and TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.
[462] In the slang of the turf, the name of Caligula's celebrated horse
might, perhaps, be translated "Go a-head."
[463] Josephus, who supplies us with minute details of the assassination
of Caligula, says that he made no outcry, either disdaining it, or
because an alarm would have been useless; but that he attempted to make
his escape through a corridor which led to some baths behind the palace.
Among the ruins on the Palatine hill, these baths still attract
attention, some of the frescos being in good preservation. See the
account in Josephus, xix. 1, 2.
[464] The Lamian was an ancient family, the founders of Formiae. They
had gardens on the Esquiline mount.
End of Project Gutenberg's Caius Caesar Caligula (Caligula),
by C. Suetonius Tranquillus
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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