[375]. Ad fam. ix. 16.
[376]. Ad Att. xvi. 11.
[377]. Ibid. xiv. 12.
[378]. Ad fam. xii. 25: Quem ructantem et nauseantem conjeci in Caesaris Octaviani plagas.
[379]. Orelli, Fragm. Cic. p. 465.
[380]. Suet. Aug. 101.
[381]. Exploration archéologique de la Galatie, etc., par MM. Perrot, Guillaume et Delbet. Paris, 1863. Didot. As the Galatians spoke Greek and understood Latin ill, the official text was put in the place of honour, in the temple itself, and the translation was placed outside where every one might read it, in order to bring the narrative of Augustus within their reach. But the exterior of the temple has not been any more respected than the interior. The Turks have fixed their houses against the walls, carelessly driving their beams into the marble, and using the solid masonry as a support for their brick and mud party-walls. All the skill of M. Perrot and his companion M. Guillaume was required to penetrate into these inhospitable houses. When they had entered they met with still greater difficulties. It was necessary to demolish the walls, take away the beams and support the roofs in order to reach the ancient wall. This was but little. The wall was hammered and cracked, blackened by dirt and smoke. How could the inscription that covered it be deciphered? It was necessary to remain for weeks in dark and foul rooms, or on the straw of a loft, working by candlelight, throwing the light in every direction on the surface of the marble, and thus gradually winning each letter by extraordinary efforts of courage and perseverance. This painful labour was rewarded by complete success. Of nineteen columns of Greek text, the English traveller Hamilton had copied five completely and fragments of another; M. Perrot brings back twelve entirely new ones. One only, the ninth, could not be read; it was behind a thick party-wall that it was found impossible to pull down. These twelve columns, although they have suffered much from the ravages of time, fill up in great part the lacunae of the Latin text. They make us acquainted with entire paragraphs of which no traces remain in the original; and even in passages where the Latin was better preserved they rectify at almost every step mistakes that had been made in the interpretation of the text. M. Egger, in his Examen des historiens d’Auguste, p. 412 et seq., has carefully and critically studied the inscription of Ancyra. M. Mommsen, with the help of M. Perrot’s copy, is preparing a learned work on this inscription, after which, no doubt, nothing will remain to be done. (M. Mommsen’s work, that was announced in the first edition of this book, has since appeared under the title: Res gestae divi Augusti ex monumentis Ancurano et Apolloniensi.)
[382]. Dio, lii. 14–40. See what M. Egger says of Dio in his Examen des hist. d’Aug. ch. viii.
[383]. The figure cannot be read either in the Latin or Greek.
[384]. The figure cannot be read. The great number of gladiators who fought, and no doubt perished in these bloody fêtes will be noticed. Seneca, to show how far men can become indifferent to death, relates that, under Tiberius, a gladiator complained of the rarity of these grand massacres; and alluding to the time of Augustus said: “That was a good time! Quam bella aetas periit!”