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ON CHAPTERS 28, 29 89<br />
4. senectutis extremae.defecto corpore. Note how fond<br />
<strong>Tacitus</strong> is <strong>of</strong> linking together dissiniihir constructions.<br />
5. turbandae rei publicae accerserentur, 'accused <strong>of</strong> disturbing<br />
the commonweaUh.'<br />
0. exempt!, 'released from the charge.'<br />
in patrem ex seruis quaesitum, ' the slaves were examined (by<br />
torture) for evidence against the father.'<br />
7. quaestio. Cicero {pro Sulla 76) uses quaestiones et tormenta<br />
for ' examination by torture.'<br />
8. rumore, 'murmurs.' Cf. xiv 11 aduerso rumore, iii 29<br />
secundo rumore.<br />
uulgi...mmitantium, a sense construction.<br />
robur, i.e. the Career or TulUanum at the foot <strong>of</strong> the Capitol ,<br />
in which criminals were strangled . See<br />
iii 50 neque career neque<br />
laqueus ; Hor. Odes ii 13 catenas et Italum robur; Lucr. iii 1017<br />
uerbera carnijices robur ; Livy xxxviii 59 in robore et tenebris<br />
cxspiret ; and the description in Sallust Cat. 55. <strong>The</strong> following<br />
explanation <strong>of</strong> the term is quoted from Paullus : 7-obus in carcere<br />
dicitur is locus, quo praecipitatur malejicorum gemis, quod ante<br />
arcis robustcis includebatur.<br />
9. saxum, the Tarpeian rock, on the west side <strong>of</strong> the Capitol.<br />
Cf. ii 3'2 saxo delectus. <strong>The</strong> full expression saxum Tarpeium is<br />
given in vi 19.<br />
parricidaruin poenas. A good locus classicus on this subject<br />
is Cicero pro Rose. Amer. 70-73. Cf. Digest 48-9, parricida uirgis<br />
sanguineis uerberatus, deinde culleo insuatur cum cane, gallo<br />
galUnaceo et uipera et simia. deinde in mare pr<strong>of</strong>undum culleus<br />
iactetur. If there is no sea near, then, according to Hadrian's<br />
ordinance, he is to be thrown to wild beasts. Note that par-<br />
ricidium includes the murder <strong>of</strong> any near relation. Nero is the<br />
arch-parricide in Roman literature. He deserved not once, but<br />
many times to die the parricide's death, as Juvenal says (viii<br />
213, 4):<br />
cuius supplicio non debuit una parari<br />
simia nee serpens unus nee culleus unus.<br />
A bag was hung round the neck <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> Nero's statues with<br />
the inscription : ego quid polui ? sed tu culleum meruisti (Suet.).
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