[Footnote 1:  The ager publicus or public land consisted of the landed estates which had belonged to the kings, and were increased by land taken from enemies who had been captured in war.  The patricians had gained exclusive occupation of this, for which they paid a nominal rent in the shape of produce and tithes:  the state, however, still retained the right of disposal of it.  By degrees the ager publicus fell into the hands of a few rich individuals, who were continually buying up smaller estates, which were cultivated by slaves, thus reducing the number of free agricultural labourers.]

[Footnote 2:  Directly, rather than by lot as was usual.]

[Footnote 4:  In later times the censor performed this office.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 5:  This decree was practically a bestowal of absolute power.—­D.O.]

[Footnote:  In later times the proconsul was the consul of the previous year, appointed to act as such over one of the provinces.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 7:  This gate was on the west side, in the rear, farthest from the enemy:  it was so called from the decumanus, a line drawn from east to west, which divided the camp into two halves:  see note in revised edition of Prendeville’s Livy.]

[Footnote 8:  August 1st]

[Footnote 9:  The consular year, not the civil one, which began in January:  the time at which the consuls entered upon office varied very much until B.C. 153, when it was finally settled that the date of their doing so should be January 1st.]

[Footnote 10:  Called “Via Praenestina” beyond Gabii.]

[Footnote 11:  That is, broke up camp.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 12:  The people of Rome had been divided in early times into thirty curies:  each of these had an officiating priest, called curio, and the whole body was under the presidency of the curio maximus.]

[Footnote 13:  The ten leading senators held the office in rotation for five days each, until the consular comitia were held.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 14:  August 11th]

[Footnote 15:  A lesser form of triumph.]

[Footnote 16:  The Sibylline books, supposed to have been sold to Tarquinius Superbus by the Sibyl of Cumae:  they were written in Greek hexameter verses.  In times of emergency and distress they were consulted and interpreted by special priests (the duumviri here mentioned).]

[Footnote 17:  It will be frequently observed that the patricians utilized their monopoly of religious offices to effect their own ends.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 18:  Curule chairs of office.]

[Footnote 19:  That is, recruits.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 20:  The worst quarter of the city—­its White chapel as it were.  It lay, roughly speaking, from the Forum eastward along the valley between Esquiline and Viminial Hills.—­D.O.]

[Footnote 21:  That is, to insure punishment and practically abnegate the right an accused person had of escaping sentence by voluntary exile.—­D.O.]