ius embraced the vallies in the chain of the
Alps extending between Piedmont and Dauphiny, called by the Romans the
Cottian Alps. See TIBERIUS, c. xxxvii.

[580] It was a favourite project of the Caesars to make a navigable
canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, to avoid the circumnavigation of
the southern extremity of the Morea, now Cape Matapan, which, even in our
days, has its perils. See JULIUS CAESAR, c. xliv. and CALIGULA, c. xxi.

[581] Caspiae Portae; so called from the difficulties opposed by the
narrow and rocky defile to the passage of the Caucasus from the country
washed by the Euxine, now called Georgia, to that lying between the
Caspian and the sea of Azof. It commences a few miles north of Teflis,
and is frequently the scene of contests between the Russians and the
Circassian tribes.

[582] Citharoedus: the word signifies a vocalist, who with his singing
gave an accompaniment on the harp.

[583] It has been already observed that Naples was a Greek colony, and
consequently Greek appears to have continued the vernacular tongue.

[584] See AUGUSTUS, c. xcviii.

[585] Of the strange names given to the different modes of applauding in
the theatre, the first was derived from the humming of bees; the second
from the rattling of rain or hail on the roofs; and the third from the
tinkling of porcelain vessels when clashed together.

[586] Canace was the daughter of an Etrurian king, whose incestuous
intercourse with her brother having been detected, in consequence of the
cries of the infant of which she was delivered, she killed herself. It
was a joke at Rome, that some one asking, when Nero was performing in
Canace, what the emperor was doing; a wag replied. "He is labouring in
child-birth."

[587] A town in Corcyra, now Corfu. There was a sea-port of the same
name in Epirus.

[588] The Circus Maximus, frequently mentioned by Suetonius, was so
called because it was the largest of all the circuses in and about Rome.
Rudely constructed of timber by Tarquinius Drusus, and enlarged and
improved with the growing fortunes of the republic, under the emperors it
became a most superb building. Julius Caesar (c. xxxix) extended it, and
surrounded it with a canal, ten feet deep and as many broad, to protect
the spectators against danger from the chariots during the races.
Claudius (c. xxi.) rebuilt the carceres with marble, and gilded the
metae. This vast centre of attraction to the Roman people, i