333 ([return])
[ Strenas; the French etrennes.]
334 ([return])
[ “Tiberius pulled down the temple of Isis, caused her image to be thrown into the Tiber, and crucified her priests.”—Joseph. Ant. Jud. xviii. 4.]
335 ([return])
[ Similia sectantes. We are strongly inclined to think that the words might be rendered “similar sects,” conveying an allusion to the small and obscure body of Christians, who were at this period generally confounded with the Jews, and supposed only to differ from them in some peculiarities of their institutions, which Roman historians and magistrates did not trouble themselves to distinguish. How little even the well-informed Suetonius knew of the real facts, we shall find in the only direct notice of the Christians contained in his works (CLAUDIUS c. xxv., NERO, c. xvi.); but that little confirms our conjecture. All the commentators, however, give the passage the turn retained in the text. Josephus informs us of the particular occurrence which led to the expulsion of the Jews from Rome by Tiberius.—Ant. xviii. 5.]
336 ([return])
[ Varro tells us that the Roman people “were more actively employed (manus movere) in the theatre and circus, than in the corn-fields and vineyards.”—De Re Rustic. ii. And Juvenal, in his satires, frequently alludes to their passion for public spectacles, particularly in the well-known lines—
————Atque duas tantum res serrius optat,
Panem et Circenses. Sat. x. 80.]