often saw Caius Duilius, the son of Marcus, who first gained a naval victory over the Carthaginians, returning home from supper. He took delight in the frequent escort of a torch-bearer and a flute-player,—the first person not actually in office who ventured on such display,—a liberty assumed on the score of his military fame.[1] But why am I talking about others? I now return to my own case. In the first place, I have for many years belonged to a guild.[2] Indeed, guilds were established when I was Quaestor, at the time when the Idaean rites in honor of the Great Mother were adopted in Rome. I then used to feast with my guild fellows, moderately on the whole, yet with something of the joviality that belonged to my earlier years; but with advancing age, day by day, everything is tempered down. Nor did I ever measure my delight
- ↑ Dr. Schmitz, in Smith's Dictionary, says, undoubtedly on competent authority, though I can find none, that the torch-bearer and the flute-player were permitted to Duilius as a reward for his victory. Livy says, in almost the same words with those in our text, that Duilius assumed these marks of distinction.
- ↑ Club would perhaps be a better rendering. The Roman clubs were formed nominally in honor of some divinity, but grew naturally into associations for convivial enjoyment, by the same tendencies which in Christendom have converted holy days into holidays. Whenever a new worship was introduced, a new club was formed to take it in charge. Cato's club was formed at the time when a shapeless stone, probably meteoric,—said to have fallen from heaven on Mount Ida, and worshipped under the name of Magna Mater, or Cybele,—was brought to Rome, in accordance with counsels said to have been derived from the Sibylline oracles.
