Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookuded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the "æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity. [359] _Vinum nescire._ Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December." "Then all December's revelries refuse, And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford. [360] _Acta legenti._ Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself." [361] _Russati._ Cf. ad vi., 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion." [362] _Consedere._ Cf. Ov., Met., xiii., 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad xi., 30. [363] _Bubulco._" Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain." Badham. [364] _Palmæ._ Cf. ad ix., 85. "So shall the verdant palm be duly tied To the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham. [365] _Afrorum Epimenia._ Most probably alluding to the "monthly rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi., 5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11, enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the causidicus Sabellus. [366] _Lagenæ._ Mart., _u. s._ "Five jars of meagre down-the-Tiber wine." Badham. [367] _Aureus._ About sixteen shillings English at this time. [368] _Pragmaticorum._ Cicero describes their occupation, de Orat., i., 45, "Ut apud Græcos infimi homines, mercedula adducti, ministros se præbent judiciis oratoribus ii qui apud illos πραγματικοὶ vocantur." Cf. c. 59. Quintil., iii., 6; xii., 3. Mart., xii., Ep. 72. They appear afterward to have been introduced at Rome, and are sometimes called "Tabelliones." [369] _Licet._ The Lex Cincia de Muneribus, as amended by Augustus, forbade the receipt of any fees. A law of Nero fixed the fee at 100 aurei at most. Vid. Tac., Ann., xi., 5 (Ruperti's note). Suet., Ner., 17. Plin., v., Ep. iv., 21. [370] _Quadrijuges._ It appears to have been an extraordinary fancy with lawyers of this age to be represented in this manner; cf. Mart., ix., Ep. lxix., 5, _seq._; but the details of the picture have puzzled the commentators. "Curvatum" is supposed to mean that "the spear actually seems quivering in his hand," or that it is "bent with age," or that the _arm_ is "bent back," as if in the act of throwing. Cf. Xen., Anab., V., ii., 12, διηγκυλωμένους. "_Luscâ_" may imply that the statue imitated to the life the personal defect of Æmilius; or simply the absence of the pupil (ὀμμάτων ἀχηνία), inseparable from statuary; or that Æmilius is represented as closing one eye to take better aim. "Lifts his poised javelin o'er the crowd below, And from his blinking statue threats the blow." Hodgson. [371] Cf. Mart., ix., Ep. 60. [372] _Stlataria._ _Stlata_ is said to be an old form of _lata_, as _stlis_ for _lis_, _stlocus_ for _locus_. Therefore Stlataria is the same as the "Latus Clavus," according to some commentators; or a "broad-beamed" merchant ship; and therefore means simply "imported." Others say it is a "piratical ship," such as the Illyrians used, and the word is then taken to imply "deceitful." Facciolati explains, it by "peregrina et pretiosa: longè navi advecta." [373] _Crambe._ The old Schol. quotes a proverb--δὶς κράμβε θάνατος, Grangæus another, which forcibly expresses a schoolmaster's drudgery--οἰ αὐτοὶ περὶ τῶν αὐτῶν τοῖς αὐτοῖς τὰ ἀυτά. "Till, like hash'd cabbage, served for each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last." Gifford. [374] Arcadia was celebrated for its breed of asses. Cf. Pers., Sat. iii., 9, "Arcadiæ pecuaria rudere credas." Auson., Epigr. 76, "Asinos quoque rudere dicas, cum vis Arcadium fingere, Marce, pecus." [375] _Stipulare._ "Get me his father but to hear his task For one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad. [376] _Maritus._ "The faithless husband and abandon'd wife, And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford. [377] _Tessera._ The poorer Romans received every month tickets, which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the "Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in the museum at Portici. [378] _Scindens._ "Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin. On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet." Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον. Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician (cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not the same. [379] _Mundæ._ "He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads! With ample space at his command, to tire The well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham. [380] _Algentem._ They had dining-rooms facing different quarters, according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17. _Rapiat_ rather seems to imply the former case. So Badham-- "Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon." "Algentem" favors the other view-- "Front the cool east, when now the averted sun Through the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson. [381] _Lunam._ Senators wore _black_ shoes of tanned leather: they were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence, "Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of senators was a hundred.--_Aluta_, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin. [382] _Ventidius Bassus_, son of a slave; first a carman, then a muleteer; afte |