[60] Nero was meditating an Ethiopian campaign when the revolt of broke out. Cp. chap. [6].
[61] Probably the colours of the different maniples as distinct from the standards of the cohorts.
[63] Freedmen who had curried favour with Nero. Polyclitus was sent to inquire into Suetonius Paulinus' administration of Britain after the revolt of Boadicea in a.d. 61. Vatinius was a deformed cobbler from Beneventum who became a sort of court buffoon, and acquired great wealth and bad influence.
[64] The cohort on guard seem to have been in mufti, without helmets and shields or their military cloaks, but armed with swords and javelins.
[65] The legionaries armed themselves with lances (hastae), and the auxiliaries with javelins (pila).
[66] The word basilica refers to the buildings round the Forum, used for legal, financial, and commercial purposes. Most of them had cloisters.
[67] The Parthian royal family: Vologaesus was king of Parthia, and his brother Pacorus viceroy of Media Atropatene.