[Footnote 48: Quintus Fabius Pictor, the historian.--D.O.]
[Footnote 49: The ager publicus consisted of the landed estates which had belonged to the kings, and were increased by land taken from enemies who had been conquered in war. The patricians, having the chief political power, gained exclusive occupation (possessio) of this ager publicus, for which they paid a nominal rent in the shape of produce and tithes. The nature of the charge brought by Cassius was not the fact of its being occupied by privati, but by patricians to the exclusion of plebeians.]
[Footnote 50: "Quaestors," this is the first mention of these officers in Livy; in early times it appears to have been part of their duty to prosecute those who were guilty of treason, and to carry out the punishment.]
[Footnote 51: On the west slope of the Esquiline.--D.O.]
[Footnote 52: There seems to be something wrong in the text here, as the subterfuge was distinctively a patrician one, and the commons had nothing to gain and all to lose by it. If Livy means that the commons provoked war by giving cause for the patricians to seek refuge in it, he certainly puts it very vaguely.--D. O.]
[Footnote 54: By being buried alive. The idea being that the ceremonies could not be duly performed by an unchaste vestal.--D. O.]
[Footnote 55: By his power of veto.--D.O.]
[Footnote 56: These were veterans and formed the third line. The first were the "hastati," so called from their carrying long spears, which were later discarded for heavy javelins. The second were the "principes," the main line.--D. O.]
[Footnote 57: The space assigned for the general's tent.--D. O.]
[Footnote 58: The legati of a general were at once his council of war and his staff.--D. O.]
[Footnote 59: There is much in the description of this battle not easy to understand, and I am inclined to believe it was at least no better than drawn. The plundered camp, the defeat of the triarii, and the failure to mention pursuit or consequences, all favour this supposition.--D. O.]
[Footnote 60: It was to be victory or annihilation.--D. O.]
[Footnote 61: so called from the altar of Carmenta, which stood near it. It was located in or near what is now the Piazza Montanara, and was always after considered a gate of evil omen.--D. O.]