MORGAN. — THE PREFACE OF VITRUVIUS. 109 



himself makes clear what privileges he means; ef. CI. 18 f., naves 

 mercaturae causa fabricantibus magna commoda constituit pro condicione 

 cuiusque : civi vacationem legis Papiae Poppaeae, Latino ins Quiritium, 

 feminis ius IIII liberorum. Ovid seems to be aware of this sense of 

 commoda when in his account of the rape of the Sabine women (A. A. 

 1, 131) he jestingly exclaims: Romule, militibus scisti dare commoda 

 solus! Haec mihi si dederis commoda, miles ero. And Juvenal in his six- 

 teenth satire speaks of the privileges of a military career (the civilian 

 won't venture to strike the soldier whom esprit de corps protects ; the 

 soldier is not subject to the delays of law courts ; he can make a will 

 while his father is alive), and he calls these privileges once commoda (7) 

 and twice praemia (1 and 35). In another satire (9, 89) Juvenal uses 

 commoda of the privileges of the ius trium liberorum. Now out of 

 these three distinct usages of commoda, which does Yitruvius employ 

 in our preface ? What he received was something substantial, for in 

 the next sentence but one he says that it relieved him from the fear of 

 poverty for the rest of his life. We have no evidence that commoda 

 in the third sense of "privileges" would apply to his case; but in its 

 first and second senses it might apply. For while he was in active 

 service he may have received commoda of the first kind which I have 

 mentioned, that is emoluments or allowances, and perhaps also good 

 service rewards ; cf . Cic. Fam. 5, 20, 7, quod scribis de beneficiis,^ scito 

 a me ct tribunos militaris et praefectos et contubernalis dumtaxat meos 

 delatos esse. We do not know at all how much money or land was 

 given as a good service reward to any officer, but it seems improbable 

 that a functionary so humble as Vitruvius would have received much. 

 And so perhaps, when the general peace was made, Octavian be- 

 stowed upon him commoda of the second kind, a good service reward 

 in the form of a retiring gratuity (although, as I have said, we have 

 no evidence that such was given to any except common soldiers), or 

 he may have continued him in office without any actual duties, just 

 ' as Julius Caesar offered a sinecure tribuneship to Trebatius. And 

 the word primo in the next sentence in Vitruvius shows that he had 

 received commoda more than once. But obviously all this is pure 

 speculation. The word commoda in itself does not tell us whether 

 Vitruvius had retired or not; therefore it cannot be rendered by 

 "pay" or "emoluments"; or by "pension," for this implies the 

 modern practice of paying a stipend at regular intervals. The trans- 



47 It is perhaps a mere coincidence that Vitruvius uses this same word 

 just below: eo beneficio obligatus (2, 8). On beneficia, see Mommsen, Staatsr., 3 

 2, 1126, n. 1. 



