[639] Veii; see the note, NERO, c. xxxix.

[640] The conventional term for what is most commonly known as,

"The Laurel, meed of mighty conquerors,
And poets sage,"--Spenser's Faerie Queen.

is retained throughout the translation. But the tree or shrub which had
this distinction among the ancients, the Laurus nobilis of botany, the
Daphne of the Greeks, is the bay-tree, indigenous in Italy, Greece, and
the East, and introduced into England about 1562. Our laurel is a plant
of a very different tribe, the Prunes lauro-cerasus, a native of the
Levant and the Crimea, acclimated in England at a later period than the
bay.

[641] The Temple of the Caesars is generally supposed to be that
dedicated by Julius Caesar to Venus genitrix, from whom the Julian family
pretended to derive their descent. See JULIUS, c. lxi.; AUGUSTUS, c. ci.

[642] A.U.C. 821.

[643] The Atrium, or Aula, was the court or hall of a house, the
entrance to which was by the principal door. It appears to have been a
large oblong square, surrounded with covered or arched galleries. Three
sides of the Atrium were supported by pillars, which, in later times,
were marble. The side opposite to the gate was called Tablinum; and the
other two sides, Alae. The Tablinum contained books, and the records of
what each member of the family had done in his magistracy. In the Atrium
the nuptial couch was erected; and here the mistress of the family, with
her maid-servants, wrought at spinning and weaving, which, in the time of
the ancient Romans, was their principal employment.

[644] He was consul with L. Aurelius Cotta, A.U.C. 610.

[645] A.U.C. 604.

[646] A.U.C. 710.

[647] A.U.C 775.

[648] A.U.C. 608.

[649] Caius Sulpicius Galba, the emperor's brother, had been consul
A.U.C. 774.

[650] A.U.C. 751.

[651] Now Fondi, which, with Terracina, still bearing its original name,
lie on the road to Naples. See TIBERIUS, cc. v. and xxxix.

[652] Livia Ocellina, mentioned just before.

[653] A.U.C. 751.

[654] The widow of the emperor Augustus.

[655] Suetonius seems to have forgotten, that, according to his own
testimony, this legacy, as well as those left by Tiberius, was paid by
Caligula. "Legata ex testamento Tiberii; quamquam abolito, sed et Juliae
Augustae, quod Tiberius suppresserat, cum fide, ac sine calumnia
repraesentate persolvit." CALIG. c. xvi.

[656] A.U.C. 786.

[657] Caius Caesar Caligula. He