4

the things that befall him; in this way he was also called Quirinus, as if *kurios*, even if it seems otherwise to Diogenianus the lexicographer. For neither Romulus, nor those with him, is shown to have been ignorant at that time of the Greek language, I mean the Aeolic, as both Cato says in his *On Roman Antiquity* and the most learned Varro in the *Introductions* to the works written by him to Pompey, since Evander and the other Arcadians once came to Italy and sowed the Aeolic tongue among the barbarians. For the etymology introduced by the grammarians besides this one is, with all due respect, forced; for they wish him to have been so named from Cures, a small town of the Sabines, although he did not originate from there, but was born on the Palatine hill beside the banks of the Tiber and raised there. For tyrants love to be called *kurioi* and *despotai* but not kings. 16 6 But the dignity of Caesar is greater than that of a king, because he also anciently had the authority to give kings to the nations. For it is hateful and alien to Roman liberty to name the rulers *despotai*, but not kings, inasmuch as *despotes* is a name common to them and to those possessing a single runaway slave, while that of king is theirs and theirs alone. And it is quite clear that it is a custom for the Romans to call those who have acted as tyrants *dominos*, like Sulla and Marius indeed, and tyranny *dominatio*; how the wicked flatterers cast down the majesty of kings, introducing from ignorance that they hold first place over slaves. That this is true, it is possible to grasp also from the following. Augustus once, or perhaps Tiberius after him, having been named *despotes* by one of his flatterers, rose up and dismissed the assembly, deeming it unworthy, as he said, to converse with slaves. But since the insult had already previously been introduced as if it were an honor, the clemency of our most gentle emperor endures it, although he is moderate beyond all who have ever reigned, and to be named *despotes*, like a good father. Not because he rejoices, but rather he blushes to seem not to accept those who think they are honoring him.

CONCERNING THE INSIGNIA OF THE REX 7

Even before Romulus, the insignia of the Latin kingship were a latticed throne and

the robe called among them the *trabea*. What sort it was, I will say a little later. Whence the Roman poet in the seventh book of the *Aeneid*, describing the kingship of Latinus, makes mention of a throne and a *trabea*. But Romulus at any rate had also a crown and a sceptre with an eagle on its tip and a white ankle-length *phaenoles*, striped in front from the shoulders to the feet with purple weavings. The name for the *phaenoles* is *toga*, as if 18 it were a covering, from *tegere* by metathesis; for thus the Romans call "to cover"—and red footwear, its name *cothurnus* according to Cocceius. And this style of the so-called toga was common to both the so-called *rex* and to his subjects in peacetime. The *trabea*, however, happened to be the *paratura* of the *rex* alone, as if an official robe. It was a tunic and a semicircular cloak, which Agathocles, the tyrant of Sicily, is said to have invented first. And the throne they called *solium* in their native tongue, instead of *sellium* by metathesis, as the Roman Asper says; or else they called it *solium* instead of *solidum*, as if whole. For hollowing out a thick log into the form of a box and a seat, they would make a kind of royal platform, so that the body of the king was secured as if in a case, from the back and from either side, with no joint or added wood securing the seat, it being once and for all complete and whole. For this reason they called the king's throne a *solium*. 8 In addition to these, twelve axes preceded Romulus, corresponding to the number of vultures he saw when he began to found the city. But after Tarquinius Priscus the *rex* later conquered the Tuscans and Sabines in war,

4

τὰ προσπίπτοντα· ταύτῃ καὶ Κυρῖνος προσηγορεύθη, οἷον εἰ κύριος, κἂν εἰ ∆ιογενιανῷ τῷ λεξογράφῳ ἄλλως δοκεῖ. οὐδὲ γὰρ ἀγνοήσας ὁ Ῥωμύλος, ἢ οἱ κατ' αὐτόν, δείκνυται κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ τὴν Ἐλλάδα φωνήν, τὴν Αἰολίδα λέγω, ὥς φασιν ὅ τε Κάτων ἐν τῷ Περὶ Ῥωμαϊκῆς Ἀρχαιότητος Βάρρων τε ὁ πολυμαθέστατος ἐν Προοιμίοις τῶν πρὸς Πομπήϊον αὐτῷ γεγραμμένων, Εὐάνδρου καὶ τῶν ἄλλων Ἀρκάδων εἰς Ἰταλίαν ἐλθόντων ποτὲ καὶ τὴν Αἰολίδα τοῖς βαρβάροις ἐνσπειράντων φωνήν. ἡ γὰρ γραμματικοῖς παρὰ ταύτην εἰσαγομένη ἐτυμολογία μετὰ συγγνώμης βεβίασται· ἀπὸ Κύρεως γάρ, πολίχνης Σαβίνων, οὕτως αὐτὸν παρονομασθῆναι βούλονται, καίπερ οὐχ ὁρμώμενον ἐκεῖθεν, ἐπὶ δὲ τοῦ Παλατίνου βουνοῦ τεχθέντα τε παρὰ ταῖς ὄχθαις τοῦ Τιβέριδος καὶ τραφέντα ἐκεῖ. κυρίους γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς καὶ δεσπότας ἀλλ' οὐ βασιλέας τύραννοι φιλοῦσι καλεῖσθαι. 16 6 Κρεῖττον δὲ βασιλείας τὸ Καίσαρος ἀξίωμα, ὅτι καὶ δοῦναι βασιλέας πάλαι τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐπ' ἐξουσίας εἶχεν. μισητὸν γὰρ καὶ Ῥωμαϊκῆς ἐλευθερίας ἀλλότριον δεσπότας, ἀλλὰ μὴ βασιλέας, τοὺς κρατοῦντας ὀνομάζειν καθ' ὅ τι δεσπότης ὄνομα κοινόν ἐστιν αὐτοῖς καὶ τοῖς ἔνα δραπέτην κεκτημένοις, τὸ δὲ βασιλέων αὐτῶν καὶ μόνων. καὶ δῆλον ἄντικρυς ὅτι Ῥωμαίοις ἔθος δομινος τοὺς τυραννήσαντας ἀποκαλεῖν, ὡς δὴ Σύλλαν καὶ Μάριον, καὶ δομινατίωνα τὴν τυραννίδα· ὡς καταρρίπτουσι τὴν βασιλέων μεγαλειότητα οἱ πονηροὶ κόλακες, ἐξ ἀμαθείας δούλων αὐτοὺς πρωτεύειν εἰσάγοντες ὅτι δὲ ἀληθές, ἔξεστι καὶ ἐκ τούτων λαβεῖν. Αὔγουστός ποτε, ἢ τάχα Τιβέριος ὁ μετ' αὐτόν, πρὸς ἑνὸς τῶν κολάκων δεσπότης ὀνομασθείς, ἐξαναστὰς ἀφῆκε τὸν σύλλογον, ἀπαξιώσας, ὡς ἔφη, δούλοις διαλέγεσθαι. ἀλλ' ἤδη πρότερον ὥσπερ ἐν τιμῇ τῆς ὕβρεως εἰσαχθείσης, ἀνέχεται ἡ τοῦ ἡμερωτάτου βασιλέως ἡμῶν ἐπιείκεια, καίπερ ὑπὲρ πάντας τοὺς πώποτε βεβασιλευκότας μετριάζοντος, καὶ δεσπότης, οἷον πατὴρ ἀγαθός, ὀνομάζεσθαι. οὐχ ὅτι χαίρει ἀλλ' ἐρυθριᾷ μᾶλλον τοὺς τιμᾶν οἰομένους δοκεῖν μὴ προσίεσθαι.

ΠΕΡῚ ΤΩ͂Ν ἘΠΙΣΉΜΩΝ ΤΟΥ͂ ῬΗΓΌΣ 7

Καὶ πρὸ Ῥωμύλου ἐπίσημα τῆς Λατίνων βασιλείας ἦν θρόνος δρύφακτος καὶ

στολὴ ἡ λεγομένη παρ' αὐτοῖς τραβέα ποδαπὴ δέ τις ἦν, μικρὸν ὕστερον ἐρῶ. ὅθεν ὁ Ῥωμαίων ποιητὴς ἐν βιβλίῳ ἑβδόμῳ τῆς Αἰνηΐδος τὴν Λατίνου διαγράφων βασιλείαν θρόνου καὶ τραβέας διαμέμνηται. τῷ γε μὴν Ῥωμύλῳ καὶ στέφανος ἦν καὶ σκῆπτρον ἀετὸν ἔχον ἐπ' ἄκρου καὶ φαινόλης λευκὸς ποδήρης, ἀπὸ τῶν ὤμων ἔμπροσθεν μέχρι ποδῶν πορφυροῖς ὑφάσμασιν ῥεραβδωμένος ὄνομα δὲ τῷ φαινόλῃ τόγα, οἷον 18 εἰ σκέπασμα, ἀπὸ τοῦ τέγερε κατ' ἀντίστοιχον· οὕτω γὰρ τὸ σκέπειν Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν καὶ ὑπόδημα φοινικοῦν κόθορνος ὄνομα αὐτῷ κατὰ τὸν Κοκκήϊον. καὶ κοινὸν ἦν τουτὶ τὸ σχῆμα τῆς λεγομένης τόγας αὐτῷ τε τῷ λεγομένῳ ῥηγὶ τοῖς τε ὑπηκόοις ἐπ' εἰρήνης. ἡ μέντοι τραβέα μόνου τοῦ ῥηγὸς ἐτύγχανε παρατοῦρα, οἷον εἰ στολὴ ἐπίσημος. χιτὼν δὲ ἦν καὶ περιβόλαιον ἡμικύκλιον, ὃ πρῶτον Ἀγαθοκλέα τὸν Σικελίας τύραννον ἐξευρεῖν λόγος. τὸν δὲ θρόνον σόλιον ἐπιχωρίως ὠνόμαζον, ἀντὶ τοῦ σελλίον κατ' ἀντίστοιχον, ὥς φησιν ὁ Ῥωμαῖος Ἄσπρος· ἢ καὶ ἄλλως σόλιον, ἀντὶ τοῦ σόλιδον, ἐκάλουν, οἷον εἰ ὁλόκληρον στέλεχος γὰρ ἁδρὸν εἰς κυτίδα καὶ καθέδρας τύπον ἐξορύττοντες ἀπετέλουν βῆμά τι βασιλείᾳ, ἵνα ὥσπερ ἔν τινι θήκῃ κατησφάλισται τὸ σῶμα τοῦ βασιλέως, ἔκ τε νώτου ἔκ τε πλευρᾶς ἑκατέρας μηδεμιᾶς ἁρμογῆς ἢ προσθέτου ξύλου σφίγγοντος τὴν καθέδραν ἅπαξ ὁλοτελῆ καὶ ὁλόκληρον τυγχάνουσαν. ταύτῃ σόλιον τὸν βασιλέως θρόνον ἐκάλουν. 8 Πρὸς τούτοις ἡγοῦντο τοῦ Ῥωμύλου πελέκεις δυοκαίδεκα πρὸς τὸν ἀριθμὸν τῶν γυπῶν, ὧν εἶδεν ἀρχόμενος θεμελιοῦν τὴν πόλιν. Πρίσκου δὲ Ταρκυνίου τοῦ ῥηγὸς ὕστερον Θούσκους καὶ Σαβίνους πολέμῳ νικήσαντος,