[89] Tullianum. A part of the Mamertine Prison, so called after King Servius Tullius, who is said to have built it. The Catilinarians had been executed in the Tullianum.
[90] The stone bench. Bedsteads built of stone were not unusual even in private dwellings, as appears from numerous specimens in Pompeian houses.
[91] Amphora. A jar, usually made of clay, but sometimes of glass, running to a point at the bottom and supplied with a handle on each side. By this point the amphora was fastened into the soft earth, or the holes in the tap-room counters specially intended for them. Here allusion is made to a hole in the stone floor designed to secure the amphora.
[92] Street-porters and executioners. The profession of executioners (carnifices), to whom the execution of slaves and foreigners was committed (condemned citizens were put to death by the lictors), was held in greater obloquy than any other.
[93] Kissed the gallows. Titus Claudius means the cross, which to cultivated Romans was held in no higher esteem than the guillotine is regarded by us.
[94] Till then you will be a prisoner, but in my house. For accused persons of high rank, an arrangement existed called the libera custodia, which consisted of setting a guard over them, but permitting them to remain at large in the house of an aristocratic citizen.
[95] The supreme council of the Pontifices. The pontifices were a college of priests, that superintended the affairs of religion and worship on behalf of the government. Under Sulla they numbered fifteen; the emperors increased or diminished them according to their good pleasure. The chief of the pontifices, the Pontifex Maximus, was at the head of the college. Under the emperors the head of the government eo ipso was also Pontifex Maximus. The oversight of the manner of worship was the special duty of the pontifices.
[96] A herald now proclaimed silence. The herald (praeco) was in the habit of shouting to the crowd: “Favete linguis!”
[97] A mixture of wine, spring-water, incense, and cones. The libation with which the victim was consecrated to death was called immolatio.
[98] Your poets praise tenacity as the crown of glory. See for instance the well-known “Justum ac tenacem,” etc., (Hor. Od., III, 3.)