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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
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