---
title: "The Deified Julius · Divus Julius"
author: "Suetonius"
translator: "John C. Rolfe"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 26 of 89
url: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/26/
cite: "Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe, The Deified Julius · Divus Julius, section 26. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/26/"
---

# The Deified Julius · Divus Julius

*Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe*

## 26. Chapter 26

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/26/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/26/#p-N

[¶0] Within this same space of time he lost first his mother, then his daughter, and soon afterwards his grandson. Meanwhile, as the community was aghast at the murder of Publius Clodius, the senate had voted that only one consul should be chosen, and expressly named Gnaeus Pompeius. When the tribunes planned to make him Pompey’s colleague, Caesar urged them rather to propose to the people that he be permitted to stand for a second consulship without coming to Rome, when the term of his governorship drew near its end, to prevent his being forced for the sake of the office to leave his province prematurely and without finishing the war.

> Latin: Eodem temporis spatio matrem primo, deinde filiam, nec multo post nepotem amisit. Inter quae, consternata Publi Clodi caede re publica, cum senatus unum consulem nominatimque Gnaeum Pompeium fieri censuisset, egit cum tribunis plebis collegam se Pompeio destinantibus, id potius ad populum ferrent, ut absenti sibi, quandoque imperii tempus expleri coepisset, petitio secundi consulatus daretur, ne ea causa maturius et inperfecto adhuc bello decederet.

[¶1] On the granting of this, aiming still higher and flushed with hope, he neglected nothing in the way of lavish expenditure or of favours to anyone, either in his public capacity or privately. He began a forum with the proceeds of his spoils, the ground for which cost more than a hundred million sesterces. He announced a combat of gladiators and a feast for the people in memory of his daughter, a thing quite without precedent. To raise the expectation of these events to the highest possible pitch, he had the material for the banquet prepared in part by his own household, although he had let contracts to the markets as well.

> Latin: Quod ut adeptus est, altiora iam meditans et spei plenus nullum largitionis aut officiorum in quemquam genus publice privatimque omisit. Forum de manubiis incohavit, cuius area super sestertium milies constitit. Munus populo epulumque pronuntiavit in filiae memoriam, quod ante eum nemo. Quorum ut quam maximamaxima, G.; the other mss. have maxime. expectatio esset, ea quae ad epulum pertinerent, quamvis macellariis ablocata, etiam domesticatim apparabat.

[¶2] He gave orders too that whenever famous gladiators fought without winning the favour of the people, they should be rescued by force and kept for him. He had the novices trained, not in a gladiatorial school by professionals, but in private houses by Roman knights and even by senators who were skilled in arms, earnestly beseeching them, as is shown by his own letters, to give the recruits individual attention and personally direct their exercises. He doubled the pay of the legions for all time. Whenever grain was plentiful, he distributed it to them without stint or measure, and now and then gave each man a slave from among the captives.

> Latin: Gladiatores notos, sicubi infestis spectatoribus dimicarent, vi rapiendos reservandosque mandabat. Tirones neque in ludo neque per lanistas, sed in domibus per equites Romanos atque etiam per senatores armorum peritos erudiebat, precibus enitens, quod epistulis eius ostenditur, ut disciplinam singulorum susciperent ipsique dictata exercentibus darent. Legionibus stipendium in perpetuum duplicavit. Frumentum, quotiens copia esset, etiam sine modo mensuraque praebuit ac singula interdum mancipia e praedae praeda, Roth; et praedia, Ω. viritim dedit.

*Note: When ordinarily they would be put to death*