commenced before,--

Jactis in altum molibus.--Hor. Od. B. iii. 1. 34.

[447] Most of the gladiators were slaves.

[448] The part of the Palatium built or occupied by Augustus and
Tiberius.

[449] Mevania, a town of Umbria. Its present name is Bevagna. The
Clitumnus is a river in the same country, celebrated for the breed of
white cattle, which feed in the neighbouring pastures.

[450] Caligula appears to have meditated an expedition to Britain at the
time of his pompous ovation at Puteoli, mentioned in c. xiii.; but if
Julius Caesar could gain no permanent footing in this island, it was very
improbable that a prince of Caligula's character would ever seriously
attempt it, and we shall presently see that the whole affair turned out a
farce.

[451] It seems generally agreed, that the point of the coast which was
signalized by the ridiculous bravado of Caligula, somewhat redeemed by
the erection of a lighthouse, was Itium, afterwards called Gessoriacum,
and Bononia (Boulogne), a town belonging to the Gaulish tribe of the
Morini; where Julius Caesar embarked on his expedition, and which became
the usual place of departure for the transit to Britain.

[452] The denarius was worth at this time about seven pence or eight
pence of our money.

[453] Probably to Anticyra. See before, c. xxix. note

[454] The Cimbri were German tribes on the Elbe, who invaded Italy
A.U.C. 640, and were defeated by Metellus.

[455] The Senones were a tribe of Cis-Alpine Gauls, settled in Umbria,
who sacked and pillaged Rome A.U.C. 363.

[456] By the transmarine provinces, Asia, Egypt, etc., are meant; so
that we find Caligula entertaining visions of an eastern empire, and
removing the seat of government, which were long afterwards realized in
the time of Constantine.

[457] See AUGUSTUS, c. xviii.

[458] About midnight, the watches being divided into four.

[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 thea