831 (return)
[ Pliny describes this
stone as being brought from Cappadocia, and says that it was as hard as
marble, white and translucent, cxxiv. c. 22.]
832 (return)
[ See note to c. xvii.]
833 (return)
[ The guilt imputed to
them was atheism and Jewish (Christian?) manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.]
834 (return)
[ See VESPASIAN, c. v.]
835 (return)
[ Columella (R. R. xi.
2.) enumerates dates among the foreign fruits cultivated in Italy,
cherries, dates, apricots, and almonds; and Pliny, xv. 14, informs us that
Sextus Papinius was the first who introduced the date tree, having brought
it from Africa, in the latter days of Augustus.]
836 (return)
[ Some suppose that
Domitilla was the wife of Flavius Clemens (c. xv.), both of whom were
condemned by Domitian for their “impiety,” by which it is probably meant
that they were suspected of favouring Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia
Domitilla the niece of Flavius Clemens, and says that she was banished to
Ponza, for having become a Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop
of Rome, is said to have been of this family.]
837 (return)
[ A.U.C. 849.]
838 (return)
[ See c. v.]
839 (return)
[ The famous library of
Alexandria collected by Ptolemy Philadelphus had been burnt by accident in
the wars. But we find from this passage in Suetonius that part of it was
saved, or fresh collections had been made. Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7)
informs us that forty thousand volumes were burnt; and Gellius states that
in his time the number of volumes amounted to nearly seventy thousand.]
840 (return)
[ This favourite apple,
mentioned by Columella and Pliny, took its name from C. Matius, a Roman
knight, and friend of Augustus, who first introduced it. Pliny tells us
that Matius was also the first who brought into vogue the practice of
clipping groves.]
841 (return)
[ Julia, the daughter of
Titus.]
842 (return)
[ It will be understood
that the terms Grammar and Grammarian have here a more extended sense than
that which they convey in modern use. See the beginning of c. iv.]
843 (return)
[ Suetonius’s account of
the rude and unlettered state of society in the early times of Rome, is
consistent with what we might infer, and with the accounts which have come
down to us, of a community composed of the most daring and adventurous
spirits thrown off by the neighbouring tribes, and whose sole occupations
were rapine and war. But Cicero discovers the germs of mental cultivation
among the Romans long before the period assigned to it by Suetonius,
tracing them to the teaching of Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities
on the coast of Italy in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus.—Tusc.
Quaest. iv. 1.]
844 (return)
[ Livius, whose cognomen
Andronicus, intimates his extraction, was born of Greek parents. He began
to teach at Rome in the consulship of Claudius Cento, the son of Appius
Caecus, and Sempronius Tuditanus, A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded
with Titus Livius, the historian, who flourished in the Augustan age.]
845 (return)
[ Ennius was a native of
Calabria. He was born the year after the consulship mentioned in the
preceding note, and lived to see at least his seventy-sixth year, for
Gellius informs us that at that age he wrote the twelfth book of his
Annals.]
846 (return)
[ Porcius Cato found
Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered that island during his praetorship.
He learnt Greek from Ennius there, and brought him to Rome on his return.
Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a long course of years, having M. Cato
among his pupils.]
847 (return)
[ Mallos was near Tarsus,
in Cilicia. Crates was the son of Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for
his critical skill had the surname of Homericus.]
848 (return)
[ Aristarchus flourished
at Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy Philometer, whose son he educated.]
849 (return)
[ A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.]
850 (return)
[ Cicero (De Clar. Orat.
c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1) places the death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for
which there are other authorities; but this differs from the account given
in a former note.]
851 (return)
[ The History of the
first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned by Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.]
852 (return)
[ Lucilius, the poet, was
born about A.U.C. 605.]
853 (return)
[ Q. Metellus obtained
the surname of Numidicus, on his triumph over Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644.
Aelius, who was Varro’s tutor, accompanied him to Rhodes or Smyrna, when
he was unjustly banished, A.U.C. 653.]
854 (return)
[ Servius Claudius (also
called Clodius) is commended by Cicero, Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his
singular death mentioned by Pliny, xxv. 4.]
855 (return)
[ Daphnis, a shepherd,
the son of Mercury, was said to have been brought up by Pan. The humorous
turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius’s cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides
is the plural of Daphnis; therefore the herd or company, agaema; and Pan
was the god of rustics, and the inventor of the rude music of the reed.]
856 (return)
[ Oppius Cares is said by
Macrobius to have written a book on Forest Trees.]
857 (return)
[ Quintilian enumerates
Bibaculus among the Roman poets in the same line with Catullus and Horace,
Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know nothing; even the name is supposed to be
incorrectly given. Apuleius mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by
Suetonius hereafter in c. xi., where likewise he gives an account of
Valerius Cato.]
858 (return)
[ Probably Suevius, of
whom Macrobius informs us that he was the learned author of an Idyll,
which had the title of the Mulberry Grove; observing, that “the peach
which Suevius reckons as a species of the nuts, rather belongs to the
tribe of apples.”]
859 (return)
[ Aurelius Opilius is
mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius. His cotemporary and friend, Rutilius
Rufus, having been a military tribune under Scipio in the Numantine war,
wrote a history of it. He was consul A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to
the general grief of the people, A.U.C. 659.]
860 (return)
[ Quintilian mentions
Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that Cicero was among his pupils. The date
of his praetorship, given below, fixes the time when Gnipho flourished.]
861 (return)
[ This strange cognomen
is supposed to have been derived from a cork arm, which supplied the place
of one Dionysius had lost. He was a poet of Mitylene.]
862 (return)
[ See before, JULIUS, c.
xlvi.]
863 (return)
[ A.U.C. 687.]
864 (return)
[ Suetonius gives his
life in c. x.]
865 (return)
[ A grade of inferior
officers in the Roman armies, of which we have no very exact idea.]
866 (return)
[ Horace speaks feelingly
on the subject:
867 (return)
[ Domitius Marsus wrote
epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid and Martial.]
868 (return)
[ This is not the only
instance mentioned by Suetonius of statues erected to learned men in the
place of their birth or celebrity. Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was
represented in a sitting posture, and with the gown of the Greek
philosophers.]
869 (return)
[ Tacitus (Annal. cxi.
75) gives the character of Atteius Capito. He was consul A.U.C. 758.]
870 (return)
[ Asinius Pollio; see
JULIUS, c. xxx.]
871 (return)
[ Whether Hermas was the
son or scholar of Gnipho, does not appear,]
872 (return)
[ Eratosthenes, an
Athenian philosopher, flourished in Egypt, under three of the Ptolemies
successively. Strabo often mentions him. See xvii. p. 576.]
873 (return)
[ Cornelius Helvius Cinna
was an epigrammatic poet, of the same age as Catullus. Ovid mentions him,
Tristia, xi. 435.]
874 (return)
[ Priapus was worshipped
as the protector of gardens.]
875 (return)
[ Zenodotus, the
grammarian, was librarian to the first Ptolemy at Alexandria, and tutor to
his sons.]
876 (return)
[ For Crates, see before,
p. 507.]
877 (return)
[ We find from Plutarch
that Sylla was employed two days before his death, in completing the
twenty-second book of his Commentaries; and, foreseeing his fate,
entrusted them to the care of Lucullus, who, with the assistance of
Epicadius, corrected and arranged them. Epicadius also wrote on Heroic
verse, and Cognomina.]
878 (return)
[ Plutarch, in his Life
of Caesar, speaks of the loose conduct of Mucia, Pompey’s wife, during her
husband’s absence.]
879 (return)
[ Fam. Epist. 9.]
880 (return)
[ Cicero ad Att. xii.
36.]
881 (return)
[ See before, AUGUSTUS,
c. v.]
882 (return)
[ Lenaeus was not
singular in his censure of Sallust. Lactantius, 11. 12, gives him an
infamous character; and Horace says of him,
883 (return)
[ The name of the well
known Roman knight, to whom Cicero addressed his Epistles, was Titus
Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was the name of a family at Rome, no
connection between it and Atticus can be found, so that the text is
supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was an uncle of Atticus, and
adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this chapter probably assumed his
name, he having been the property of Caecilius; as it was the custom for
freedmen to adopt the names of their patrons.]
884 (return)
[ Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c.
viii. Her name was Pomponia.]
885 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.]
886 (return)
[ He is mentioned before,
c. ix.]
887 (return)
[ Verrius Flaccus is
mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction with Athenodorus of Tarsus, a
Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C. 2024, which is A.U.C. 759;
A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius, Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.]
888 (return)
[ Cinna wrote a poem,
which he called “Smyrna,” and was nine years in composing, as Catullus
informs us, 93. 1.]
889 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii.
lxix.]
890 (return)
[ Cornelius Alexander,
who had also the name of Polyhistor, was born at Miletus, and being taken
prisoner, and bought by Cornelius, was brought to Rome, and becoming his
teacher, had his freedom given him, with the name of his patron. He
flourished in the time of Sylla, and composed a great number of works;
amongst which were five books on Rome. Suetonius has already told us
(AUGUSTUS, xxix.) that he had the care of the Palatine Library.]
891 (return)
[ No such consul as Caius
Licinius appears in the Fasti; and it is supposed to be a mistake for C.
Atinius, who was the colleague of Cn. Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and
wrote a book on the Civil War.]
892 (return)
[ Julius Modestus, in
whom the name of the Julian family was still preserved, is mentioned with
approbation by Gellius, Martial, Quintilian, and others.]
893 (return)
[ Melissus is mentioned
by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.]
894 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix.
p. 93, and note.]
895 (return)
[ The trabea was a white
robe, with a purple border, of a different fashion from the toga.]
896 (return)
[ See before, c. x.]
897 (return)
[ See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i.
and note.]
898 (return)
[ Remmius Palaemon
appears to have been cotemporary with Pliny and Quintilian, who speak
highly of him.]
899 (return)
[ Now Vicenza.]
900 (return)
[ “Audiat haec tantum vel
qui venit, ecce, Palaemon.”—Eccl. iii. 50.]
901 (return)
[ All the editions have
the word vitem; but we might conjecture, from the large produce, that it
is a mistake for vineam, a vineyard: in which case the word vasa might be
rendered, not bottles, but casks. The amphora held about nine gallons.
Pliny mentions that Remmius bought a farm near the turning on the Nomentan
road, at the tenth mile-stone from Rome.]
902 (return)
[ “Usque ad infamiam
oris.”—See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the notes.]
903 (return)
[ Now Beyrout, on the
coast of Syria. It was one of the colonies founded by Julius Caesar when
he transported 80,000 Roman citizens to foreign parts.—JULIUS,
xlii.]
904 (return)
[ This senatus consultum
was made A.U.C. 592.]
905 (return)
[ Hirtius and Pansa were
consuls A.U.C. 710.]
906 (return)
[ See NERO, c. x.]
907 (return)
[ As to the Bullum, see
before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]
908 (return)
[ This extract given by
Suetonius is all we know of any epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus
Titinnius.]
909 (return)
[ See Cicero’s Oration,
pro Caelio, where Atracinus is frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and
iii.]
910 (return)
[ “Hordearium rhetorem.”]
911 (return)
[ From the manner in
which Suetonius speaks of the old custom of chaining one of the lowest
slaves to the outer gate, to supply the place of a watch-dog, it would
appear to have been disused in his time.]
912 (return)
[ The work in which
Cornelius Nepos made this statement is lost.]
913 (return)
[ Pliny mentions with
approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some treatises in which trees are
represented as speaking; and the period in which he flourished, agrees
with that assigned to the rhetorician here named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii.
25.]
914 (return)
[ Isauricus was consul
with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705, and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]
915 (return)
[ A river in the ancient
Campania, now called the Sarno, which discharges itself into the bay of
Naples.]
916 (return)
[ Epidius attributes the
injury received by his eyes to the corrupt habits he contracted in the
society of M. Antony.]
917 (return)
[ The direct allusion is
to the “style” or probe used by surgeons in opening tumours.]
918 (return)
[ Mark Antony was consul
with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709. See before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.]
919 (return)
[ Philipp. xi. 17.]
920 (return)
[ Leontium, now called
Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the foundation of which is related by
Thucydides, vi. p. 412. Polybius describes the Leontine fields as the most
fertile part of Sicily. Polyb. vii. 1. And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii.
46, 47.]
921 (return)
[ Novara, a town of the
Milanese.]
922 (return)
[ St. Jerom in Chron.
Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius Plancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a
celebrated orator. He founded Lyons during the time he governed that part
of the Roman provinces in Gaul.]
923 (return)
[ See AUGUSTUS, c.
xxxvi.]
924 (return)
[ He meant to speak of
Cisalpine Gaul, which, though geographically a part of Italy, did not till
a late period enjoy the privileges of the other territories united to
Rome, and was administered by a praetor under the forms of a dependent
province. It was admitted to equal rights by the triumvirs, after the
death of Julius Caesar. Albutius intimated that those rights were now in
danger.]
925 (return)
[ Lucius Fenestella, an
historical writer, is mentioned by Lactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who
says, that he died towards the close of the reign of Tiberius.]
926 (return)
[ The second Punic war
ended A.U.C. 552, and the third began A.U.C. 605. Terence was probably
born about 560.]
927 (return)
[ Carthage was laid in
ruins A.U.C. 606 or 607, six hundred and sixty seven years after its
foundation.]
928 (return)
[ These entertainments
were given by the aediles M. Fulvius Nobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio,
A.U.C. 587.]
929 (return)
[ St. Jerom also states
that Terence read the “Andria” to Caecilius who was a comic poet at Rome;
but it is clearly an anachronism, as he died two years before this period.
It is proposed, therefore, to amend the text by substituting Acilius, the
aedile; a correction recommended by all the circumstances, and approved by
Pitiscus and Ernesti.]
930 (return)
[ The “Hecyra,” The
Mother-in-law, is one of Terence’s plays.]
931 (return)
[ The “Eunuch” was not
brought out till five years after the Andria, A.U.C. 592.]
932 (return)
[ About 80 pounds
sterling; the price paid for the two performances. What further right of
authorship is meant by the words following, is not very clear.]
933 (return)
[ The “Adelphi” was first
acted A.U.C. 593.]
934 (return)
[ This report is
mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), who applies it to the younger
Laelius. The Scipio here mentioned is Scipio Africanus, who was at this
time about twenty-one years of age.]
935 (return)
[ The calends of March
was the festival of married women. See before, VESPASIAN, c. xix.]
936 (return)
[ Santra, who wrote
biographies of celebrated characters, is mentioned as “a man of learning,”
by St. Jerom, in his preface to the book on the Ecclesiastical Writers.]
937 (return)
[ The idea seems to have
prevailed that Terence, originally an African slave, could not have
attained that purity of style in Latin composition which is found in his
plays, without some assistance. The style of Phaedrus, however; who was a
slave from Thrace, and lived in the reign of Tiberius, is equally pure,
although no such suspicion attaches to his work.]
938 (return)
[ Cicero (de Clar. Orat.
c. 207) gives Sulpicius Gallus a high character as a finished orator and
elegant scholar. He was consul when the Andria was first produced.]
939 (return)
[ Labeo and Popilius are
also spoken of by Cicero in high terms, Ib. cc. 21 and 24. Q. Fabius Labeo
was consul with M. Claudius Marcellus, A.U.C. 570 and Popilius with L.
Postumius Albinus, A.U.C. 580.]
940 (return)
[ The story of Terence’s
having converted into Latin plays this large number of Menander’s Greek
comedies, is beyond all probability, considering the age at which he died,
and other circumstances. Indeed, Menander never wrote so many as are here
stated.]
941 (return)
[ They were consuls
A.U.C. 594. Terence was, therefore, thirty-four years old at the time of
his death.]
942 (return)
[ Hortulorum, in the
plural number. This term, often found in Roman authors, not inaptly
describes the vast number of little inclosures, consisting of vineyards,
orchards of fig-trees, peaches, etc., with patches of tillage, in which
maize, legumes, melons, pumpkins, and other vegetables are cultivated for
sale, still found on small properties, in the south of Europe,
particularly in the neighbourhood of towns.]
943 (return)
[ Suetonius has quoted
these lines in the earlier part of his Life of Terence. See before p. 532,
where they are translated.]
944 (return)
[ Juvenal was born at
Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, as appears by an ancient MS., and is
intimated by himself. Sat. iii. 319.]
945 (return)
[ He must have been
therefore nearly forty years old at this time, as he lived to be eighty.]
946 (return)
[ The seventh of
Juvenal’s Satires.]
947 (return)
[ This Paris does not
appear to have been the favourite of Nero, who was put to death by that
prince (see NERO, c. liv.) but another person of the same name, who was
patronised by the emperor Domitian. The name of the poet joined with him
is not known. Salmatius thinks it was Statius Pompilius, who sold to
Paris, the actor, the play of Agave;
948 (return)
[ Sulpicius Camerinus had
been proconsul in Africa; Bareas Soranus in Asia. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 52;
xvi. 23. Both of them are said to have been corrupt in their
administration; and the satirist introduces their names as examples of the
rich and noble, whose influence was less than that of favourite actors, or
whose avarice prevented them from becoming the patrons of poets.]
949 (return)
[ The “Pelopea,” was a
tragedy founded on the story of the daughter of Thyestes; the “Philomela,”
a tragedy on the fate of Itys, whose remains were served to his father at
a banquet by Philomela and her sister Progne.]
950 (return)
[ This was in the time of
Adrian. Juvenal, who wrote first in the reigns of Domitian and Trajan,
composed his last Satire but one in the third year of Adrian, A.U.C. 872.]
951 (return)
[ Syene is meant, the
frontier station of the imperial troops in that quarter of the world.]
952
[ A.U.C. 786, A.D. 34.]
953 (return)
[ A.U.C. 814, A.D. 62.]
954 (return)
[ Persius was one of the
few men of rank and affluence among the Romans, who acquired distinction
as writers; the greater part of them having been freedmen, as appears not
only from these lives of the poets, but from our author’s notices of the
grammarians and rhetoricians. A Caius Persius is mentioned with
distinction by Livy in the second Punic war, Hist. xxvi. 39; and another
of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. ii. 6, and by Pliny; but whether the
poet was descended from either of them, we have no means of ascertaining.]
955 (return)
[ Persius addressed his
fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus. He was a native of Leptis, in Africa,
and lived at Rome in the time of Nero, by whom he was banished.]
956 (return)
[ Caesius Bassus, a lyric
poet, flourished during the reigns of Nero and Galba. Persius dedicated
his sixth Satire to him.]
957 (return)
[ “Numanus.” It should be
Servilius Nonianus, who is mentioned by Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6.]
958 (return)
[ Commentators are not
agreed about these sums, the text varying both in the manuscripts and
editions.]
959 (return)
[ See Dr. Thomson’s
remarks on Persius, before, p. 398.]
960 (return)
[ There is no appearance
of any want of finish in the sixth Satire of Persius, as it has come down
to us; but it has been conjectured that it was followed by another, which
was left imperfect.]
961 (return)
[ There were two Arrias,
mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal. xvi. 34. 3.]
962 (return)
[ Persius died about nine
days before he completed his twenty-ninth year.]
963 (return)
[ Venusium stood on the
confines of the Apulian, Lucanian, and Samnite territories.