We have now to open a new and more attractive gallery of Imperial portraits, to pass in review the wives of those great Emperors who restored the high character of Rome and strengthened anew the fabric13 of the Empire. A very brief summary of events will suffice to link the C?sars with the Antonines, and introduce to us one or two curious types of Empresses who dimly figure in the transition.
123 For a year after the fall of Statilia Messalina the throne of the Empress was vacant, and that of the Emperor had three successive occupants. Galba was a widower14 at the time of his elevation15 to the throne. We saw in an earlier chapter that Agrippina had wished to marry him twenty-six years earlier, and he had refused. His wife, Lepida, was a delicate woman, of high character, and he refused to divorce her. She had an energetic champion in her mother, who fought Agrippina sturdily and, if the story be true, laid fair patrician16 hands on her. But Lepida died long before her husband was made Emperor, and he refused to marry again. His reign17 was brief. Tradition has blamed him for an excessive sternness and parsimony18. They were not inopportune vices19, but Rome had been too long habituated to indulgence, and Galba was too confident. The discontent at Rome was inflamed21 by the news of the revolt in the provinces, and within a few weeks the Guards, to whom he had refused the customary donation, set up a new Emperor, and put Galba to death.
The new ruler was no other than the first husband of Popp?a, the companion of Nero’s revels22, Salvius Otho. Rome acclaimed23 the choice, and expected that the circus and theatre were about to reopen their doors. But Otho, who had matured during his years of office in Spain, turned from them in disgust. He did, it is true, restore the statues of Popp?a, and contemplated24 restoring the discarded statues of Nero, but the alienation25 of Roman feeling from him is a proof that he intended to rule with sobriety. The same spirit is seen in the fact that he corresponded affectionately with Statilia Messalina, and apparently26 thought of marrying her. But the legions in the provinces almost immediately rebelled against him, and, in the midst of the struggle, he committed suicide.
There had been no Empress of Rome for twelve months. With the death of Otho, and the accession of Vitellius, we come to the eleventh Empress, Galeria Fundana, a very new and incongruous type in the series of Imperial women.
124 The name of Vitellius is already familiar to us. His father was the fulsome27 courtier who had inspired Caligula with the idea that he was a god, and who had worn one of Messalina’s little silk shoes under his tunic28. His wife, Sextilia, was a woman of strict morality and unambitious temper, but their son, the younger Vitellius, lived in too tainted29 an atmosphere to prefer the plainness of his mother to the craft and greed of his father. He had learned vice20 in the band of young men who brought so evil a fame on Tiberius’s villa30 at Capri, and had made his way astutely31 through the successive reigns32 of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. He had made a considerable fortune as proconsul of Africa, and had, on his return to Rome, married Petronia, the daughter of a wealthy consul33. She settled her large fortune on her son, and when Vitellius, having consumed his own wealth in luxury and riot, went on to sacrifice his son for the purpose of securing the fortune held in his name, Petronia angrily remonstrated34, and was divorced.
He then married Galeria Fundana. She was, says Tacitus, “a pattern of virtue35,” and since this defect—as Vitellius would find it—was united with plainness of person, modesty36 of taste, and dull, if not defective37, conversation, the match was a singularly unhappy one. Vitellius had so far squandered his money that he was unable to pay his expenses to Lower Germany when Galba gave him the command of the troops there. How he obtained that important appointment is not clear. Some say that Galba selected him because he was not ambitious; others that he secured it through the influence of the “blue” faction38 at the Circus, of which he was a partisan39. He mortgaged his house, and Sextilia sold her jewels, to obtain funds for the journey. Fundana and her child were left in a poor tenement41 at Rome, little dreaming that they would be summoned from it to Nero’s “golden house” in a few weeks.
It is expressly recorded that Sextilia and Fundana had no ambition, and dreaded42 lest Vitellius should aspire44 to125 reach the dizzy heights which some early prophet had promised him. They were, therefore, dismayed to hear, shortly after his arrival on the Rhine, that the troops were offering to secure the throne for him. His genial45 and indulgent treatment of the soldiers was a betrayal of his trust to the stern Galba, and may have been deliberately46 effected to win their support. He became very popular, and was hailed as a second “Germanicus.” Galba was presently murdered, and, as the German legions had had no part in the choice of Otho, they urged Vitellius to lead them against him. Vitellius wavered for a time between the safe and considerable means of self-indulgence, which he had as commander, and the uncertain, but immeasurably greater, prospect47 which the throne suggested to his sensual dreams. The officers conquered his hesitation48, and he set out for Rome in the rear of the eight legions who had declared for him.
Sextilia and Fundana seemed to be in peril49 when the news came to Rome that Vitellius was marching upon the city. It is said that Vitellius threatened reprisals50 if his family were injured, but there is no indication that Otho would stoop to take a revenge on women and children. They saw him march out at the head of his troops to give battle to Vitellius, and waited anxiously, with all Rome, to hear the issue of the civil war. And while Senate and people were enjoying the mummery of the theatre, a horseman rode in with the news that Otho had taken his own life, and Vitellius was leading his German troops upon Rome. Senate and people united at once to receive him, and sent him the title of Augustus. He politely declined it for the time, and continued his leisurely51 march upon the city. There had been many a triumphant52 march over the roads of Italy in the annals of Rome, but never one so singular as that of the new monarch53. “The roads from sea to sea groaned54 with the burden of his luxuries,” says Tacitus; and, if we distrust Tacitus, as an admirer of Vitellius’s rival and successor, all the Roman writers agree that his first use of supreme55 power was to command a126 stupendous ministration to his sensual appetites. He ordered his legions to move slowly southward, while he, in their train, exhausted56 each successive region of its delicacies57, and filled the days and nights with his princely feasting. His example encouraged his wild German troops, and their line of march could be traced across Gaul and Italy by their pillage58, cruelty, and debauchery.
The repeated messages from the provinces filled Rome with laughter, in spite of its anxiety. People remembered this princely epicure59 sheltering, a few months before, in the poorer quarter of the town and evading60 the duns. The modest and virtuous61 Sextilia and Fundana shrank in pain from the hollow flattery which was paid them, and followed the march of the Emperor with disgust. He was approaching Rome at the head of sixty thousand men. Legions of tall, fierce, fur-clad Germans, with heavy javelins62, were thundering along the Italian roads and terrifying the peasantry. In their rear was a vast army of slaves, cooks, comedians63, charioteers, and other ministers to the Imperial appetite. He had sent for the whole of Nero’s servants and appointments. It was said that he even intended to outrage64 one of the most sacred traditions of the city by entering it in full armour65, at the head of an army with drawn66 swords; but the friends who met him at the Milvian Bridge persuaded him to change his costume, and sheathe67 the swords of his soldiers. He entered, in civil toga, at the head of the terrible Germans, his officers clad in white as they bore the eagles. After visiting the Capitol, and addressing the Senate in terms of pleasant submissiveness to that body and of somewhat nauseating68 praise of himself, he settled in Nero’s magnificent palace with Fundana and her child. His troops, debauched with the license69 of their march, scattered70 in disorder71 through the city; and Rome resigned itself to the inauspicious rule of its eighth Emperor.
We may dismiss the nine months in which Galeria Fundana was Empress of Rome in a phrase: she was a helpless and disgusted spectator of the most imperial127 debauch9 that Rome had yet witnessed. Dio strangely accuses her of haughtily72 complaining of the poverty of the robes she found in Nero’s golden house, but the testimony73 to her modesty is too strong for us to admit this. A more credible74 statement in the chroniclers is that she begged to be allowed to retire to a humble75 dwelling76 of her own, and Vitellius refused. His mother did not long survive her mortification77. One rumour78 preserved in Suetonius is that Vitellius had her starved to death, as it was predicted that she would outlive him; another version says that he sent her poison, at her own request. Fundana was left alone to bewail his colossal79 gluttony. She saw his chief officers encourage him in his stupefying orgies, while they enriched themselves; and she had to submit in silence while his sister-in-law, Triaria, “a woman of masculine fierceness,” goaded80 him to continued excesses. During the few months of his reign he spent 900,000,000 sesterces (about ￡7,000,000) in eating, drinking, and entertainment. He had three meals during the day, and ended with a costly81 and drunken supper. His brother one day entertained him at a banquet, at which two thousand choice fishes and seven thousand rare birds were served. Vitellius in return gave a banquet, at which one dish—a compound of the livers of pheasants, the tongues of flamingoes, the brains of peacocks, the entrails of lampreys, and the roes82 of mullets—cost more than the whole of his brother’s dinner.
From this loathsome83 and stupid dream of Imperial power Vitellius was at length awakened84 by the echoes of rebellion in the provinces. After a few futile85 executions, and several relapses into his besetting86 gluttony, he was forced to set out for the north. He quickly returned, however, and wandered about Rome in hysterical87 impotence, while the followers88 of Vespasian closed upon the city. Civil war had broken out, and the Romans gazed with horror on the sacred Capitol besieged89 by the German troops and bursting into flames. At last Vitellius came out with Fundana and her child, in mourning dress, and announced that he would resign. The consul refused his sword, and128 the mournful procession directed its steps towards his brother’s house. He was persuaded to return to the palace, but the Vespasianists captured Rome, and he was taken to Fundana’s house on the Aventine. From this he somehow wandered back to the palace. “The awful silence terrified him; he tried the closed doors, and shuddered90 at the empty chambers,” says Tacitus. Dazed and incapable91 of flight, he hid in the sordid92 room where the dogs were kept. Here the soldiers found him, torn and bleeding, and forced him to walk the streets, while they kept his head erect93 with the point of a sword, and the people flung filth94 and epithets96 at him. They then inflicted97 on him a slow and painful death, and flung his remains98 in the Tiber.
Fundana was spared, and her daughter honourably99 given in marriage, by his magnanimous successor. From the brief and unwelcome splendour of the “golden house” she passed into private life, and lived only to bemoan100 the cruel fate that had lifted her husband to the intoxicating101 height of the Roman throne.
There was no Empress in the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, but a word may be said of the two remarkable102 women who shared their power to some extent. Vespasian, whose sober and solid administration it would be pleasant to contrast with the orgiastic reigns of his predecessors104, was a rough soldier, of humble extraction and homely105 ways. He had, in the time of Caligula, married the mistress of a knight106, Flavia Domitilla, who remains little more than a name in the chronicles. He had won distinction under Narcissus, but the triumph of Agrippina drove him and Domitilla into exile. Nero employed him to crush the rebellion in Jud?a, and it was during this campaign that his wife died, leaving him with her two sons—his successors—Titus and Domitian. He was, therefore, a widower when the Eastern troops made him Emperor, but he took into his palace, and treated as Empress, an emancipated107 slave of the name of C?nis.
The mistress of Vespasian has the distinction of being associated—actively and usefully associated—with him in129 one of the soundest attempts to restore the decaying Empire. She had been in the service of Antonia, the grandmother of Agrippina, and is said to have been the one who first disclosed to Tiberius the perfidy108 of Sejanus. From the first she was a dangerous rival of Domitilla, and, when his wife died, Vespasian entered into the quasi-matrimonial relation with her which is known in Roman law as contubernium. She would probably have been Empress if the law had permitted him to contract a solemn marriage with her. She had considerable ability, but an unhappy reputation for extortion and the sale of offices. It is not clear, however, that the wealth she obtained did not contribute to Vespasian’s rehabilitation109 of the resources of the Empire. They abandoned and destroyed the golden house of Nero, the central site of which is now marked by the Flavian Amphitheatre, or Coliseum. In their quiet gardens in the Quirinal they received any citizen who cared to visit them, and maintained no timorous110 hedge of soldiers between themselves and their people. They wished to see money spent on public purposes, or hoarded111 for public emergencies, rather than squandered. “My hand is the base of the statue: give me the money,” C?nis is said to have told a wealthy man who proposed to raise a statue to her; but Dio informs us that this and other stories of C?nis’s avarice112 properly belong to Vespasian. She died, however—if the date assigned in Dio is correct—in the second year of Vespasian’s reign, and must not be credited with too large a share in that great purification of Rome and reinvigoration of its life with healthy provincial113 blood which Tacitus regards as the beginning of the recovery of the Empire.
Titus, who succeeded his father in the year 79, and reigned114 for two years, threatened at one time to give Rome an even more singular and unwelcome type of Empress. He had in early youth married Arricidia Tertulla, who died soon afterwards, and then Marcia Furnilla, a lady of illustrious family. He left his wife130 in Rome when he took command under his father in Jud?a, and became infatuated with a brilliant princess of the Herod family, Berenice. He divorced Furnilla, and brought Berenice to live with him at Rome. But the Romans resented the prospect of a Jewish Empress, and she was forced to return. On his accession to the throne he made no attempt to enforce her on them. He reigned alone for two years, “the love and delight of the human race,” and maintained the sober administration of his father.
With the accession of his younger brother, Domitian, Rome received a new Empress, and, by an unhappy coincidence, saw the imperial palace return to the evil ways of the C?sars. Those of our time who attach almost the entire importance to stock or birth, and little to circumstances, in the formation of character, will find a peculiar115 problem in Domitian and his wife. The Emperor was the second son of the “plain Sabine burgher” and sturdy soldier, Vespasian, and of the lowly provincial woman, Flavia Domitilla. The Empress, Domitia Longina, was the daughter of Domitius Corbulo, one of the strongest and ablest generals that Rome produced in the first century. Yet of these sound and vigorous stocks came, in one generation, one of the most morbid116 of the Emperors and an Empress who, in some respects, rivalled Messalina. Rome knew them both, and had no false hope.
Domitia—as she is usually called—makes her first appearance as a young girl of great beauty and promise, caressed117 and protected by the wealth and prestige of her distinguished118 father, who, it is interesting to note, was a brother of Caligula’s masculine wife C?sonia. She was married to a noble of distinction and character, Lucius ?lius Lamia ?milianus, and she seems to have been an estimable young matron until her father incurred119 the anger of Nero and was forced to commit suicide. Procopius and Josephus, indeed, represent her as virtuous to the end, but there seems to be little room for doubt that the nearer and131 less indulgent authorities are correct. Her young mind opened on the sordid scenes of the closing part of Nero’s reign and the folly120 of Vitellius. She then met the fascinating and effeminate Domitian, and very speedily capitulated to his assaults.
DOMITIA
Gibbon speaks of him as “the timid and inhuman122 Domitian,” while Dio opens his biographical sketch123 of the Emperor with the deliberate epithet95, “bold and wrathful.” We shall find a very natural dread43 of assassination124 in Domitian’s later years, but he was undoubtedly125 bold and crafty126 in the service of Venus, and a stranger to moral sentiment. His elder brother Titus had developed the manly127 qualities of their father on the battlefields of Jud?a, and had proved strong enough to crush his irregular feelings on his accession to the throne. Domitian had remained at Rome, discharging only civic128 duties, and had become one of the most heartless dandies in the group of degenerate129 young patricians130. During the civil strife131 of the Vitellianists and Vespasianists on the streets of Rome he had made his escape in the fitting disguise of a priest of Isis. Titus knew his vicious and luxurious132 ways, and endeavoured to check him by offering him his own charming daughter Julia in marriage; but Domitian was engaged in fascinating the pretty and accomplished133 wife of Lamia ?milianus, and refused. Titus, on his accession, associated him in the government, and his first act was to separate his mistress from her husband, and marry her.
Domitia’s triumph was quickly tempered with mortification. Julia married her cousin Sabinus, and, out of pique134 or devilry, Domitian now discovered her charm and seduced135 her. To such a pair as these the attainment136 of supreme power meant an occasion of Imperial license, and sober Romans saw their community rapidly lose the ground that had been won in the previous reigns. It was even rumoured137 that Domitian had hastened his brother’s death by putting him in a box of snow during his last illness, though this remains no more than an idle rumour. At all events, Domitia soon discovered the despicable character132 for whom—or for whose prospects—she had abandoned her saner138 husband. While the affairs of the Empire needed his most strenuous139 attention, he would spend hours catching140 flies and spitting them with a bodkin; and from the spitting of flies he presently passed to the larger sport of murdering men. He conducted his little frontier-wars from safe and luxurious quarters, and came home to enjoy a triumph and erect a colossal bronze memorial of his valour. He banished141 eunuchs from Rome, and kept them in his palace; waged war against vice in all forms, and practised it in all forms. In the general relaxation142 of Roman manners even the Vestal Virgins143 had been for some decades permitted an alleviation144 of their onerous145 vows146. Domitian posed as a moralist, on no other apparent ground than that he was closely acquainted with every shade of immorality147, and drastically punished them. He raised fine public buildings, and depleted148 the public treasury149 by reckless expenditure150 and incompetent151 administration; prosecuted152 officials for extortion, and put men to death for their wealth; gave brilliant entertainments, and darkened the city and the Empire with his sanguinary brooding.
If we were to accept Josephus’s estimate of the virtue of Domitia, we should conceive her as living in melancholy153 isolation154 in the gloomy palace, an outraged155 spectator of her husband’s relations with Julia. But there is good evidence that she sought relief with something of the freedom of a Messalina. An authentic156 occurrence in the third year of Domitian’s reign puts her guilt157 beyond question. He had the actor Paris murdered in the street, and divorced Domitia. The people boldly sympathized with her, and covered with flowers the spot on which Paris had been killed. The Emperor had a number of them executed, but public feeling seems to have been expressed so strongly that he was forced to recall Domitia to the palace, and the sordid comedy ran on amid the jeers158 of Rome. A poet was put to death for making it the theme of his verse; Domitia’s former husband and others were executed for their freedom of speech. Then the beautiful and captivating133 Julia perished miserably159 in an attempt of Domitian’s to destroy the too obvious proof of their incest, and he became more sombre than ever.
This is not the place to tell the long and dreary160 story of the reign of Domitian, of which, for twelve further years, the Empress remains an inconspicuous, and perhaps a sobered, spectator. For a few years he maintained his singular and obscure mixture of good and evil, but the brighter features of his administration gradually faded, and a horrible gloom settled on the palace and the city. Hosts of spies and informers sprang up; large numbers of nobles, of both sexes, were executed or banished, on the slightest suspicion, and their wealth divided between the informers and the Emperor’s shrinking treasury. So great was his dread of assassination that he lined the portico161 at the palace, in which he used to walk, with white glazed162 tiles that would reflect the approach of any person behind him. But an extraordinary incident that Dio relates will suffice to give some idea of the reign of terror under which the Empress and all Rome suffered.
A number of the leading citizens of Rome were summoned to a banquet at the palace at a late hour of the night. They were frozen with horror when they found that the entire dining-room—walls, ceiling, and floor—was draped in black, and a miniature tombstone, with his name engraved163 on it, was placed opposite each guest. As they gazed, a number of nude164 boys, whose bodies were washed with ink, burst into the room and danced amongst them, and then the dishes of a funeral banquet were served. The guests sat silent and shivering; the Emperor grimly discoursed165 to them of deaths and executions. When the banquet was over, they were relieved to find themselves dismissed. They found, however, that their litters had been sent away, and they were put into strange vehicles, with strange servants. The gloomy journey ended at their own houses, and they were beginning to breathe, when they were thrown into fresh alarm by the news that a messenger had come from the palace. The messenger to134 each guest was one of the dancing boys, now cleaned, perfumed, and clothed with flowers, bearing the gold and silver vessels166 which the guest had used at the banquet. The boys and the dishes were presented to them with the Emperor’s greeting.
Unhappily, Domitian did not confine himself to intimidation167. The heads of the wealthier nobles fell in quick succession, and, in great secrecy168, amid an army of spies, the Empress and a few others came to an understanding. The story of the actual fall of the tyrant169 has clearly been embroidered170 with a good deal of unauthentic detail in popular gossip, but even in its most sober version it does not lack romance.
The version which Dio assures us he “had heard” is one that the conscientious171 historian must hesitate to accept. The Emperor, he says, had been informed of the conspiracy172, and had drawn up a list of those who were to be executed for taking part in it. He put the list under his pillow, with the sword which he always kept there, and went to sleep. We have previously173 seen something of the bejewelled boys who used to run with great freedom about the palaces of the Romans of the first century. Domitian, the great censor174 of other people’s vices, had a number of them, and the legend is that one of them, playing in his bedroom, noticed the parchment under his pillow, and took it out into the palace. Domitia met the boy, and idly glanced at the parchment. She saw her own name at the head of the list of the condemned175, and at once summoned the other conspirators176. They entered the Emperor’s room, snatched the sword from under his pillow, and despatched him.
Pretty as the story is, we must prefer the more prosaic178 account given us by Suetonius, who lived in the next generation. Domitia felt that the Emperor had at last conceived a design on her life, and she sent her steward179 to despatch177 him. He offered Domitian a fictitious180 report of a plot, and stabbed him while he read it. Other servants rushed in at the signal, and completed the assassination.135 It is the one action that historians have recorded to the honour of the twelfth Empress of Rome, and we leave her company with little regret. She was an ordinary woman of the patrician world at the time—fair, frail181, accomplished, and luxurious. With the death of her husband she merges182 in the indistinguishable crowd of selfish and wayward ladies on whom Juvenal was then beginning to pour his exaggerated rhetoric183.
It remains to describe very briefly184 how the sceptre passes into the nobler hands of the Stoic185 Emperors and their wives. The throne was offered to, and accepted by, M. Cocceius Nerva, an aged40 noble of known moderation and long public service. He at once removed all traces of the hateful reign of his predecessor103, and entered upon a sober and useful administration of the Empire. He was in the later sixties of his age, and we find no mention of a wife. But the task of enforcing sobriety on so corrupted186 a population was too great for his age and moderate ability. A conspiracy against him was discovered. He disarmed187 the conspirators by inviting188 them to sit by him in the theatre, and even putting a sword in their hands and asking them what they thought of its keenness; but he saw that a stronger man was needed, and he chose as his colleague Marcus Ulpius Nerva Trajanus, a Spaniard of great military ability and commanding personality, who was then at the head of the troops in Germany. Nerva died soon afterwards, and, with the accession of Trajan, we come to the thirteenth Empress of Rome and the commencement of a new and more splendid chapter in the story of the Empire.
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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cupidity
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| n.贪心，贪财 | |
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appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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insanity
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| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
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consorts
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| n.配偶( consort的名词复数 )；（演奏古典音乐的）一组乐师；一组古典乐器；一起v.结伴( consort的第三人称单数 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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insipidity
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| n.枯燥无味，清淡，无精神；无生气状 | |
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squandered
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| v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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debauch
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| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
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obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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lamentable
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| adj.令人惋惜的，悔恨的 | |
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corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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patrician
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| adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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parsimony
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| n.过度节俭，吝啬 | |
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vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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revels
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| n.作乐( revel的名词复数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉v.作乐( revel的第三人称单数 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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alienation
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| n.疏远；离间；异化 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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fulsome
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| adj.可恶的，虚伪的，过分恭维的 | |
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tunic
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| n.束腰外衣 | |
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29
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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30
villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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31
astutely
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| adv.敏锐地；精明地；敏捷地；伶俐地 | |
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32
reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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33
consul
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| n.领事；执政官 | |
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34
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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35
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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36
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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37
defective
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| adj.有毛病的，有问题的，有瑕疵的 | |
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38
faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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39
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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40
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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41
tenement
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| n.公寓；房屋 | |
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42
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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43
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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44
aspire
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| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
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45
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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46
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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47
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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48
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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49
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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50
reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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51
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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52
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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53
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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54
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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55
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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56
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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57
delicacies
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| n.棘手( delicacy的名词复数 )；精致；精美的食物；周到 | |
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58
pillage
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| v.抢劫；掠夺；n.抢劫，掠夺；掠夺物 | |
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59
epicure
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| n.行家，美食家 | |
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60
evading
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| 逃避( evade的现在分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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61
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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62
javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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63
comedians
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| n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 ) | |
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64
outrage
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| n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒 | |
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65
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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66
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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67
sheathe
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| v.（将刀剑）插入鞘；包，覆盖 | |
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68
nauseating
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| adj.令人恶心的，使人厌恶的v.使恶心，作呕( nauseate的现在分词 ) | |
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69
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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70
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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71
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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72
haughtily
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| adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
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73
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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74
credible
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| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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75
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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76
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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77
mortification
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| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
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78
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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79
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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80
goaded
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| v.刺激( goad的过去式和过去分词 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
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81
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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82
roes
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| n.獐( roe的名词复数 )；獐鹿；鱼卵；鱼精液 | |
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83
loathsome
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| adj.讨厌的，令人厌恶的 | |
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84
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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85
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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86
besetting
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| adj.不断攻击的v.困扰( beset的现在分词 )；不断围攻；镶；嵌 | |
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87
hysterical
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| adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的 | |
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88
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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89
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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90
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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91
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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92
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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93
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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94
filth
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| n.肮脏，污物，污秽；淫猥 | |
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95
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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96
epithets
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| n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 ) | |
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97
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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99
honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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100
bemoan
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| v.悲叹，哀泣，痛哭；惋惜，不满于 | |
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101
intoxicating
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| a. 醉人的,使人兴奋的 | |
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102
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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103
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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104
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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105
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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106
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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107
emancipated
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| adj.被解放的，不受约束的v.解放某人（尤指摆脱政治、法律或社会的束缚）( emancipate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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108
perfidy
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| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
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109
rehabilitation
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| n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位 | |
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110
timorous
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| adj.胆怯的，胆小的 | |
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111
hoarded
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| v.积蓄并储藏（某物）( hoard的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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112
avarice
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| n.贪婪；贪心 | |
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113
provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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114
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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115
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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116
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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117
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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119
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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120
folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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121
bust
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| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
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122
inhuman
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| adj.残忍的，不人道的，无人性的 | |
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123
sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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124
assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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125
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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126
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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127
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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128
civic
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| adj.城市的，都市的，市民的，公民的 | |
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129
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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130
patricians
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| n.（古罗马的）统治阶层成员( patrician的名词复数 )；贵族，显贵 | |
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131
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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132
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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133
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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134
pique
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| v.伤害…的自尊心，使生气 n.不满，生气 | |
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135
seduced
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| 诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷 | |
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136
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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137
rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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138
saner
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| adj.心智健全的( sane的比较级 )；神志正常的；明智的；稳健的 | |
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139
strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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140
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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141
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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142
relaxation
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| n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐 | |
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143
virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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144
alleviation
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| n. 减轻，缓和，解痛物 | |
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145
onerous
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| adj.繁重的 | |
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146
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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147
immorality
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| n. 不道德, 无道义 | |
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148
depleted
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| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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149
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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150
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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151
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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152
prosecuted
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| a.被起诉的 | |
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153
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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154
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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jeers
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| n.操纵帆桁下部（使其上下的）索具；嘲讽( jeer的名词复数 )v.嘲笑( jeer的第三人称单数 ) | |
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159
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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portico
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| n.柱廊，门廊 | |
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glazed
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| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
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163
engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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164
nude
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| adj.裸体的；n.裸体者，裸体艺术品 | |
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165
discoursed
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| 演说（discourse的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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166
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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167
intimidation
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| n.恐吓，威胁 | |
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168
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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170
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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171
conscientious
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| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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172
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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previously
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| adv.以前，先前（地） | |
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174
censor
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| n./vt.审查，审查员；删改 | |
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condemned
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| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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177
despatch
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| n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道 | |
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178
prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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179
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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fictitious
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| adj.虚构的，假设的；空头的 | |
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181
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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182
merges
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| （使）混合( merge的第三人称单数 )； 相融； 融入； 渐渐消失在某物中 | |
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183
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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184
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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185
stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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186
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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187
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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inviting
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| adj.诱人的，引人注目的 | |
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