She had lived
in obscurity since her husband's proscription and death, his party
having been put down so effectually that it was dangerous to appear to
be her friend. Caesar, however, made preparations for a magnificent
funeral for her. There was a place in the Forum, a sort of pulpit, where
public orators were accustomed to stand in addressing the assembly on
great occasions. This pulpit was adorned with the brazen beaks of ships
which had been taken by the Romans in former wars The name of such a
beak was _rostrum_; in the plural, _rostra_. The pulpit was itself,
therefore, called the _Rostra_, that is, The Beaks; and the people were
addressed from it on great public occasions.[2] Caesar pronounced a
splendid panegyric upon the wife of Marius, at this her funeral, from
the Rostra, in the presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and he
had the boldness to bring out and display to the people certain
household images of Marius, which had been concealed from view ever
since his death. Producing them again on such an occasion was annulling,
so far as a public orator could do it, the sentence of condemnation
which Sylla and the patrician party had pronounced against him, and
bringing him forward again as entitled to public admiration and
applause.
Pages:
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50