Ancient Rome from the Earliest Times Down to 476 A.D.

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Allyn and Bacon, 1890 - Rome - 284 pages
 

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Page 219 - Gothic historian, bore the stamp of his national origin; and the portrait of Attila exhibits the genuine deformity of a modern Calmuk; a large head, a swarthy complexion, small, deep-seated eyes, a flat nose, a few hairs in the place of a beard, broad shoulders, and a short square body, of nervous strength, though of a disproportioned form.
Page 259 - ... the Roman games, which continue even to our time. He also conquered the Sabines, and added a considerable extent of territory, which he took from that people, to the lands of Rome; he was also the first that entered the city in triumph. He built the walls and sewers, and commenced the Capitol. He was killed in the thirty-eighth year of his reign, by the sons of Ancus, the king whom he had succeeded.
Page 171 - The triumph was followed, as usual, by games and festivals, which kept the populace in a fever of delight and admiration.
Page 242 - These were sometimes followed by players and buffoons (scurrae, histriones), of whom one, called archimimus, represented the character of the deceased, and imitated his words and actions. Then came the slaves whom the deceased had liberated, wearing the cap of liberty...
Page 180 - Thus it happened that he was used and then pushed aside, attracted and repelled, deceived by the weakness of his friends and the strength of his adversaries ; and at last threatened by both extreme parties, between which he tried to steer his way.
Page 112 - ... support a system which had brought the country so near to ruin. He had no belief in the visions of the demagogues, but the time was not ripe to make an end of it all. Had he tried, the army would not have gone with him, so he sat still till faction had done its work. The popular heroes of the hour were the tribune Saturninus and the praetor Glaucia. They carried corn laws and land laws — whatever laws they pleased to propose. The administration remaining with the Senate, they carried a vote...
Page 120 - Cinna, raised to the consulate by the popular party, endeavored to restore the exiled Marius and to re-enact the laws of Sulpicius. But the aristocrats took arms. Cinna, forced to fly, threw himself, like Sulla, upon the legionaries, and having obtained their support, and also that of the Italians...
Page 239 - The imperator himself in a circular chariot of a peculiar form, drawn by four horses, which were sometimes, though rarely, white.
Page 163 - ... thoughts were still bent upon how to secure the largest share of plunder for themselves. The battle of Pharsalia was not the most severe, still less was it the last, action of the war. But it acquired a special place in history, because it was a battle fought by the Roman aristocracy in their own persons in defence of their own supremacy. Senators and the sons of senators; the heirs of the names and fortunes of the ancient Roman families; the leaders of society in Roman saloons, and the chiefs...
Page 239 - The clear open space in the center of the amphitheatre [a place in ancient Rome for the exhibition of public shows of combatants, wild beasts, and naval engagements] was called the arena, because it was covered with sand, or sawdust, to prevent the gladiators [men who fought with swords in the amphitheatre and other places, for the amusement of the Roman people] from slipping, and to absorb the blood. Argent comptant. Fr. — "Ready money.

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