352 PLiirr's natural histoet. [Book XXXVI. 



This is indeed holding life cheap ; and can we, after this, 

 complain of our disasters at Cannae ? How vast the catastrophe 

 that might have ensued ! When cities are swallowed np by 

 an earthquake, it is looked upon by mankind as a general cala- 

 mity ; and yet, here have we the whole Roman people, em- 

 barked, so to say, in two ships, and sitting suspended on a 

 couple of pivots ; the grand spectacle being its own struggle 

 with danger, and its liability to perish at any moment that the 

 overstrained machinery may give way ! And then the object, 

 too, of all this — that public favour may be conciliated for the 

 tribune's^^ harangues at a future day, and that, at the Rostra, 

 he may still have the power of shaking the tribes, nicely 

 balanced^ as they are ! And really, what may he not dare 

 with those who, at his persuasion, have braved such perils as 

 these ? Indeed, to confess the truth, at the funeral games 

 celebrated at the tomb of his father, it was na less than the 

 whole Roman people that shared the dangers of the gladiatorial 

 combats. When the pivots had now been sufficiently worked 

 and wearied, he gave another turn to his magnificent displays. 

 For, upon the last day, still preserving the form of the amphi- 

 theatre, he cut the stage in two through the middle, and exhi- 

 bited a spectacle of athletes; after which, the stage being 

 suddenly withdrawn on either side, he exhibited a combat, 

 upon the same day, between such of the gladiators as had 

 previously proved victorious. And yet, with all this. Curio 

 was no king, no ruler of the destinies of a nation, nor yet a 

 person remarkable for his opulence even ; seeing that he pos- 

 sessed no resources of his own, beyond what he could realize 

 from the discord between the leading men.^ 



But let us now turn our attention to some marvels which, 

 justly appreciated, may be truthfully pronounced to remain 

 unsurpassed. Q. Marcius Rex,^ upon being commanded by 

 the senate to repair the Appian* Aqueduct, and those of the 



^9 In allusion, probably, to the addresses delivered by Curio, when 

 tribune, from the Rostra, in favour of Ctesar. 



^ " Pensiles." Pliny not improbably intends a pun here, this word 

 meaning also " suspended," or " poised" — in reference, probably, to their 

 suspension on the pivots in Curio's theatres. 



^ Between Caesar and Pompey, which he is supposed to have inflamed 

 for his own private purposes. 



3 He was praetor b.c. 144; and, in order that he might complete big 

 aqueduct, his office was prolonged another year. 



^ This aqueduct was begun by Appius Claudius Caecus, the censor, and | 

 was the first made at Rome ; b.c. 313. 



1 



