Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Booka rim (alveolus or abacus), out of a dice-box made of horn, box-wood, or ivory. This fritillus was a kind of _cup_, narrower at the top than below. When made in the form of a tower, with graduated intervals, it was called pyrgus, turricula, or phimus. [924] _Ludit._ "Repeats in miniature the darling vice; Shakes the low box, and cogs the little dice." Gifford. [925] _Tubera._ Cf. v., 116, _seq._ Mart., Ep. xiii., 50. [926] _Boletum._ Cf. v., 147. Mart., Ep. xiii., 48. [927] _Ficedulas._ Mr. Metcalfe translates "snipes." Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 49, "Cum me ficus alat, cum pascar dulcibus uvis, Cur potius nomen non dedit uva mihi?" [928] _Gula_, i., 140. [929] _Septimus._ Plin., vii., 16, "Editis infantibus primores dentes septimo gignuntur mense: iidem anno septimo decidunt, aliique sufficiuntur." [930] _Barbatos._ Pers., iv., 1, "Barbatum hoc crede magistrum dicere sorbitio tollit quem dira cicutæ." Cic., Fin., iv., "Barba sylvosa et pulchre alita, quamvis res ipsa sit exterior et fortuita, inter hominis eruditi insignia recensetur." [931] _Rutilus._ Used probably indefinitely, as in Sat. xi., 2, "Si Rutilus, demens." Rutilus was a surname of the Marcian, Virginian, and Nantian clans. [932] _Servorum._ Gifford quotes an apposite passage from Macrobius, i., 2, "Tibi autem unde in servos tantum et tam immane fastidium? Quasi non ex iisdem tibi constent et alantur elementis, eumdemque spiritum ab eodem principe carpant!" [933] _Sirena._ Cf. ix., 150. [934] _Antiphates_, king of the cannibal Læstrygones. Hom., Odys., x., 114, _seq._ Ovid, Met., xiv., 233, _seq._ [935] _Tortore._ vi., 480, "Sunt quæ tortoribus annua præstent." "Knows no delight, save when the torturer's hand Stamps for low theft the agonizing brand." Gifford. [936] _Ergastula._ Cf. ad viii., 180. Put here, as in vi., 151, for the slaves themselves. As 15 freemen were said to constitute a _state_, and 15 slaves a _familia_, so "_quindecim vincti_" form one Ergastulum. It properly means the Bridewell, where they were set to "travaux forcis." Liv., ii., 23; vii., 4. The country prisons were generally under-ground dungeons. Branding on the forehead was a common punishment. Thieves had the word "Fur" burnt in; hence called "literati homines," "homines trium literarum." Plaut., Aul., II., iv., 46. Cicero calls one "compunctum notis, stigmatiam," Off., ii., 7. So "Inscripti vultus," Plin., xviii., 3. "Inscripti," Martial, Ep. viii, 79. Cf. Plin., Paneg., 35. Sat. x., 183. Plaut., Cas., II., vi., 49. [937] _Largæ._ Cf. vi., 239, "Scilicet expectas ut tradat mater honestos atque alios mores quam quos habet?" x., 220, "Promptius expediam quot amaverit Hippia mæchos." [938] _Dictante._ vi., 223, "Illa docet missis a corruptore tabellis, nil rude, nil simplex rescribere." [939] _Exempla._ From Cic, Ep., iv., 3, "Quod exemplo fit, id etiam jure fieri putant." [940] _Exempla domestica._ "Thus Nature bids our home's examples win The passive mind to imitative sin, And vice, unquestion'd, makes its easy way, Sanction'd by those our earliest thoughts obey." Badham. [941] _Luto._ Callim., fr. 133, εἴ σε Προμηθεὺς ἔπλασε καὶ πηλοῦ μὴ 'ξ ἑτέρου γέγονας. Ovid, Met, i., 80, "Sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto æthere cognati retinebat semina cœli; Quam satus Iapeto mixtam fluvialibus undis finxit in effigiem moderantûm cuncta Deorum." Cf. Sat. vi., 13, "Compositive luto nullos habuere parentes." [942] _Orbita_, from orbis; "the track of a wheel." So by the same metaphor the "_routine_," or course of life. [943] _Abstineas._ "O cease from sin! should other reasons fail Lest our own frailties make our children frail." Badham. [944] _Brutus_ was the son of Servilia, the sister of Cato of Utica (cf. x., 319). So Sen., Ep. 97, "Omne tempus Clodios, non omne Catones fert." [945] _Procul hinc._ The formula at religious solemnities. Cf. ii., 89. Ov., Met., vii., 255, "Hinc procul Æsonidem, procul hinc jubet ire ministros, et monet arcanis oculos removere profanos." [946] _Parasiti._ Cf. i., 139. [947] _Reverentia._ "His child's unsullied purity demands The deepest reverence at a parent's hands." Badham. [948] _Censoris._ Henninius' reading and punctuation is followed here. "Oh yet reflect! For should he e'er provoke, In riper age, the Law's avenging stroke (Since not alone in person and in face, But morals, he will prove your son, and trace, Nay pass your vicious footsteps), you will rail, And name another heir, should threatening fail!" Gifford. [949] _Cerebro._ Plin., ix., 37, "Cerebrum est velut arx sensuum: hic mentis est regimen." [950] _Cucurbita._ Properly a kind of gourd, κολοκύνθη thence from its shape, and perhaps too from its _use_, applied to a cupping-glass. These were made of horn, brass, and afterward of glass. The Greeks, from the same cause, called it σικύα, or κύαθος (cf. Schol. ad Arist., Lys., 444). It is called _ventosa_ from the rarefication of the air in the operation, and was applied to relieve the head. Hence _cucurbitæ caput_ is used for a fool. Cf. Appul., Met., I, "Nos cucurbitæ caput non habemus, ut pro te moriamur!" [951] _Lavet._ Browne says, "Who washes silver plate?" and prefers the reading "leve." "But might not his _patellæ_ be of silver?" iii., 261, "Domus intereà secura _patellas_ jam _lavat_." [952] _Aspera._ Cf. i., 76, "Argentum vetus et stantem extrà pocula caprum." v., 38, "Inæquales beryllo phialas." Virg., Æn., ix., 266, "Argento perfecta atque _aspera_ signis pocula." Ovid., Met., v., 81, "Altis exstantem signis cratera." xii., 235, "Signis exstantibus _asper_ Antiquus crater." xiii., 700, "Hactenus antiquo signis fulgentibus ære, Summus inaurato crater erat asper acantho." "'Sweep the dry cobwebs down!' the master cries, Whips in his hand, and fury in his eyes: 'Let not a spot the clouded columns stain, Scour you the figured silver; you the plain!'" Gifford. [953] _Patriæ populoque_, an ancient formula. Cf. Liv., v., 41. So Horace joins them, "Hoc fonte derivata clades in patriam populumque fluxit," iii., Od. vi., 20 (vid. Orell. in loc.). Ovid, Met., xv., 572, "Seu lætum est, patriæ lætum, populoque Quirini." "Thy grateful land shall say 'tis nobly done, If thou bring'st up to public use thy son; Fit for the various tasks allotted men, A warlike chief, a prudent citizen." Hodgson. [954] _Serpente._ Pliny (H. N., x., 23) alludes to the same circumstance with regard to storks. "Illis in Thessaliâ tantus honos serpentum exitio habitus est, ut ciconiam occidere capitale sit, eadem legibus pœna, quâ in homicidas." "Her progeny the stork with serpents feeds, And finds them lizards in the devious meads: The little storklings, when their wings are grown, Look out for snakes and lizards of their own." Badham. [955] _Famulæ Jovis._ Æsch., Prom. V., 1057, Διὸς πτηνὸς κύων, δαφοινὸς ἀετός. Hor., iv., |