oned, the hearing of which was so protracted that
lights were required in the court; and sometimes they lasted, we are
told, as long as eleven or twelve days.

[171] Orcini. They were also called Charonites, the point of the
sarcasm being, that they owed their elevation to a dead man, one who was
gone to Orcus, namely Julius Caesar, after whose death Mark Antony
introduced into the senate many persons of low rank who were designated
for that honour in a document left by the deceased emperor.

[172] Cordus Cremutius wrote a History of the Civil Wars, and the Times
of Augustus, as we are informed by Dio, 6, 52.

[173] In front of the orchestra.

[174] The senate usually assembled in one of the temples, and there was
an altar consecrated to some god in the curia, where they otherwise met,
as that to Victory in the Julian Curia.

[175] To allow of their absence during the vintage, always an important
season in rural affairs in wine-growing countries. In the middle and
south of Italy, it begins in September, and, in the worst aspects, the
grapes are generally cleared before the end of October. In elevated
districts they hung on the trees, as we have witnessed, till the month of
November.

[176] Julius Caesar had introduced the contrary practice. See JULIUS,
c. xx.

[177] A.U.C. 312, two magistrates were created, under the name of
Censors, whose office, at first, was to take an account of the number of
the people, and the value of their estates. Power was afterwards granted
them to inspect the morals of the people; and from this period the office
became of great importance. After Sylla, the election of censors was
intermitted for about seventeen years. Under the emperors, the office of
censor was abolished; but the chief functions of it were exercised by the
emperors themselves, and frequently both with caprice and severity.

[178] Young men until they were seventeen years of age, and young women
until they were married, wore a white robe bordered with purple, called
Toga Praetexta. The former, when they had completed this period, laid
aside the dress of minority, and assumed the Toga Virilis, or manly
habit. The ceremony of changing the Toga was performed with great
solemnity before the images of the Lares, to whom the Bulla was
consecrated. On this occasion, they went either to the Capitol, or to
some temple, to pay their devotions to the Gods.

[179] Transvectio: a procession of the equestrian