Matheson Collection > Cornelli Taciti annalium

TACITUS ANNALS : NOTES
the treaty of Brunduslum between Antony and Octavian, by which
after two generations of civil war the peace of Italy seemed to be
secured. He was a patron of Horace and Vergil, and founded
a library on the Palatine. See Hor. Od. ii i and Verg. Eel. iv and
iii 86.
§ 3. audacia promptus : so ch. 58, 2 'aut numero validos aut
animo promptos.'
morum spernendus : of. ' morum di versus,' ch. 19.
§ 4. tabulas sociis : for Med. ' tabulas iis.'
aliis : presumably three, the attestation of seven Roman citizens
being requisite to a citizen's will.
§ 5. convictum, ' was proved.'
lege Cornelia: a law of Sulla, passed in 81 B.C. against forgery
or falsification of wills or suppression of a true will. The penalty
was deportation to an island with complete loss of property for
the principal offender, and exile, relegation, or expulsion from the
senate for his accessories. Antonius suffered only expulsion from
the senate, to which he was subsequently restored by Galba, who
also made him commander of a legion {Hist, ii 86, 2).
exemere, ' rescued from punishment but not disgrace.'
Ch. 41, § I. is dies: there is a similar personification of
'nox' in xiii 17, i.
iuvenem quaestorium : he was thus a senator, but of the
lowest rank.
tamquam : not necessarily a fictitious charge. See Intr. II 50.
Hispania : his name suggests that he was of a Spanish family
enfranchised when Pompeius Magnus held Spain.
§ 2. pari ignominia: probably meaning exclusion from Italy
alone.
reos : meaning perhaps the 'minus illustres' of the preceding
chapter, but it is strange that these confederates should not have
been tried in the senate with the other offenders (ch. 40, 5), and
Tacitus' language would equally well apply to persons under trial
on another charge.
apud praefectum urbis: the jurisdiction of this magistrate was
originally restricted to ordinary police cases and criminals of the
lowest rank, but it was extended as time went on, and at this period
its sphere was so far from being strictly defined that an attempt to
forestall other accusers from bringing a case before the praefect, by
taking preliminary steps to bring it before the praetor, could
be defended by an appeal to the letter of the law ('specie
legum'j.
interim, ' for a while.' The jurisdiction of the praetor being less
summary than that of the praefect, Ponticus would be able to gain
time for collusion with the other side ('praevaricatio'). It is note-
worthy that here the senate punished the presumed intention to
commit a crime, before its actual accomplishment.
§ 3. senatus consulto : meaning, perhaps, the ' senatus con-
sultum Turpilianum,' named after the consul of the year (ch. 29, i).
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