Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookand Ov., Met., iii., 155, _seq._ [107] Umbritius (aruspicum in nostro ævo peritissimus, Plin., x., c. iii.) is said to have predicted Galba's death, and probably therefore, with Juvenal, cordially hated Otho. [108] _Portus_ may mean, "constructing" or "repairing" harbors; or "farming the harbor-dues," portoria. [109] Scipio's was performed by contract. Plin., H. N., xxxi., 3. [110] The spear was set up in the forum to show that an auction was going on there. Hence things so sold were said to be sold _sub hastâ_. _Domina_, implies "the right of disposal" of all things and persons there put up. This may mean, therefore, to buy a drove of slaves on speculation, and sell them again by auction; or, when they have squandered their all, put themselves up to sale. So Britann. Dryden, "For gain they sell their very head." "Salable as slaves." Hodgson. So Browne, who reads "præbere caput domino." [111] "From abject meanness lifts to wealth and power." Badham. Cf. vi., 608. [112] "Though a soothsayer, I am no astrologer." "I never examined the entrails of _a toad_." [113] "Therefore (because I will lend myself to no peculation) no great man will take me in his suite when he goes to his province." Cf. Sat. viii., 127, "Si tibi sancta cohors comitum." This is better than, "Therefore I leave Rome alone!" Markland proposes, extinctâ dextrâ. [114] "Like a dead member from the body rent, Maim'd and unuseful to the government." Dryden. "No man's confederate, here alone I stand, Like the maim'd owner of a palsied hand." Badham. "Lopp'd from the trunk, a dead, unuseful hand." Hodgson. [115] Isa., lvii., 20. [116] _Opaci_, Lubin. interprets as equivalent to turbulenti, "turbid with gold." On this Grangæus remarks, "Apage Germani haud germanam interpretationem! _opaci_ enim est umbris arborum obscuri." Cf. Mart., i., Ep. 50, "Æstus serenos aureo franges Tago _obscurus umbris arborum_." [117] "Grasp thou no boon with sadness on thy brow, Spurn the base bribe that binds a guilty vow." Badham. [118] "Shame for Rome that harbors such a crew." [119] The Roman hind, once so renowned for rough and manly virtues, now wears the costume of effeminate Greeks: or all these Greek terms, used to show the poet's supreme contempt, may refer to the games: the Trechedipna, not the thin supper-robe, but the same as the Endromis. The Ceroma, an ointment made of oil, wax, and clay, with which they bedaubed themselves. [120] Amydon in Pœonia, Tralles in Lydia, Alabanda in Caria. [121] "Work themselves inward, and their patrons out." Dryden. "Deep in their patron's heart, and fix'd as fate, The future lords of all his vast estate." Hodgson. [122] "Torrents of words that might Isæus drown." Badham. [123] Aliptes, one who anoints (ἀλείφει), and therefore trains, athletes. [124] So Johnson. "All sciences the hungry Monsieur knows, And bid him go to hell--to hell he goes!" [125] Some think there is an allusion here to a man who attempted to repeat Icarus' experiment before Nero. Vid. Suet., Nero, 13. [126] _Cottana_, "ficorum genus." Plin., xiii., 5. [127] "As if squeezed in the passage by the narrowness of the throat." [128] His powers of flattery show his ability of assuming a fictitious character as much as his skill in acting. [129] Or the "Dorian maid." They were scantily dressed. Hence the φαινομηρίδες of Ibycus. [130] _Major abolla_, seems to be a proverbial expression; it may either be the "Stoic's cloak," which was more _ample_ than the scanty robe of the Cynic; or "the _philosopher's_ cloak," which has therefore more dignity and weight with it than the soldier's or civilian's. The allusion is to P. Egnatius Celer, the Stoic, who was bribed to give the false testimony on which Bareas Soranus was convicted. V. Tac., Ann., xvi., 21, seq., and 32. [131] _Ripa._ Commentators are divided between Tarsus, Thebes, and Corinth. [132] _Togatus._ Gifford quotes Martial, x., Ep. 10. "Quid faciet pauper cui non licet esse clienti? Dimisit nostras purpura vestra togas." [133] _Collega_; alluding to the two prætors, "Urbanus" and "Peregrinus." [134] _Claudit latus._ This is the order Britannicus takes. "Claudere latus" means not only to accompany, as a mark of respect, but to give the inner place; to become his "comes exterior." Horace, ii., Sat. v., 18. So Gifford, "And if they walk beside him yield the wall." [135] "For one cold kiss a tribune's yearly pay." Hodgson. i. e., forty-eight pieces of gold. Cf. Suet., Vesp., xxiii. [136] P. Scipio Nasica (vid. Liv., xxix., 10) and L. Cæcilius Metellus. Cf. Ov., Fasti, vi., 437. [137] Possidet. Vid. Niebuhr. [138] Cf. Mart., v., Ep. 8 and 25, who speaks of one Lectius as an officious keeper of the seats. [139] Sat. x., 323. [140] "Long, long ago, in one despairing band, The poor, self-exiled, should have left the land." Hodgson. [141] "A menial board and parsimonious fare." Hodgson. [142] "Negavit." Some commentators imagine Curius Dentatus to be here alluded to. It seems better to take it as a _general_ remark. Read "culullo," not "cucullo," with Browne. [143] Cf. Mart., ix., 588. [144] _Herboso_, the first permanent theatre even in Rome itself, was built by Pompey. Cf. In gradibus sedit populus de cæspite factis. Ov., Art. Am., i., 107. Cf. Virg., Æn., v., 286. [145] "In the state show repeated now for years." Hodgson. [146] _Libis._ So many of these "complimentary cakes" are sent in honor of this event, that they are actually "sold" to get rid of them. "Good client, quickly to the mansion send Cakes bought by thee for rascal slaves to vend." Badham. [147] _Gabii_, renowned for the ease with which Sex. Tarquin duped the inhabitants. [148] _Pronum_, i. e., supinum. Hor., iii., Od. iv., 23, on a steep acclivity. [149] "And 'tis the village mason's daily calling, To keep the world's metropolis from falling." Dryden. [150] "Then bid the tenant sleep secure from dread, While the loose pile hangs trembling o'er his head." Gifford. [151] _Opici._ Cf. vi., 455. Opicæ castigat amicæ verba; i. e., barbarous, rude, unlearned, "the Goths of mice;" from the Opici or Osci, an Ausonian tribe on the Liris, from whom many barbarous innovations were introduced into Roman manners and language. "Divina" may either refer to Homer's poems, or to Codrus' own, which in his own estimation were "divine." Cf. Sat. i., 2, "rauci Theseide _Codri_." [152] _Horrida._ In all public misfortunes, the Roman matrons took their part in the common mourning, by appearing without ornaments, in weeds, and with disheveled hair. Cf. viii., 267. Liv., ii., 7. Luc., Phars., ii., 28, _seq._ [153] _Candida._ Cf. Plin., xxxiv., 5. The Parian marble was the whitest, hence Virg., Æn., iii., 126, "Niveamque Paron." [154] _Polycletus._ Cf. viii., 103. His master-piece was the Persian body-guard (cf. Ælian., V. H., xiv., 8), called the "Canon." Vid. Müller's Archæol. of Art, § 120. Euphranor the |