The Tribune's Curse (31 page)

Trans-Tiber
A newer district on the left or western bank of the Tiber. It lay beyond the old city walls.

Trebonian law
The
lex Trebonia
, proposed by the Tribune Caius Trebonius, that gave Spain to Pompey, Syria to Crassus, and Gaul and Illyricum to Caesar. One of the more fateful pieces of Roma legislation.

Triumvir
A member of a triumvirate known as the Three Men—a board or college, most famously, the three-man rule of Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. Later, the triumvirate of Antonius, Octavian, and Lepidus.

Witches
The Romans recognized three types. Most common were
saga
, “wise women” who were simply herbalists and specialists
in traditional cures for disease and injury. More ominous were
striga
, true witches (“strega” still means witch in modern Italian). These could cast spells, and had the power of the evil eye, could lay curses, and so forth. Most feared were
venefica
“poisoners.” Ancient peoples had a supernatural dread of poison and lumped its use together with sorcery rather than pharmacology. The punishments for poisoning were dreadful even by Roman standards. The Romans associated all forms of witchcraft and magic with the Marsians, a neighbor people who spoke the Oscan dialect.