standing the reference, which is to disreputable women, then, as now, vulgarly ostentatious.

590. Phalae were wooden towers erected for fights in the Circus; in the centre of the arena were columns supporting figures of dolphins.

610. Thessaly was notorious for witches.

615. The Emperor Gaius (Caligula), uncle of Nero, was supposed to be mad—a charitable explanation of his monstrous cruelty and caprice; Juvenal and Suetonius attribute the madness to a love potion given by his wife.

620. Compare v, 147. Agrippina poisoned her husband, the Emperor Claudius, with a drugged mushroom; he had been almost a buffoon in life, and his death and deification gave occasion for scornful satire.

633. Pappas tutor-paedagogus.

:

634. Cothurnum: the high shoe worn by tragic actors. 636. Sophocles is taken as a typical tragedian.

637. The Rutuli were an ancient people of Italy.

643-4. Medea and Procne both killed their own children, and are the stock mythological instances of maternal heartlessness.

655. The Belides, daughters of Danaus: Eriphyle: and Clytemnestra, daughter of Tyndarus, slew their own husbands. 660. Atrides: Agamemnon, husband of Clytemnestra; the parallel is sustained-" the modern Agamemnon.'

661. Mithridates, King of Pontus, was three times defeated by the Romans. It was believed that he had invented an antidote to poison which successfully protected his life from such attempts upon it; this Gifford here terms "mithridate."

NOTES TO SATIRE VII

1. It is much disputed which emperor is meant by "Caesar"; Trajan, Nerva, Domitian, Hadrian, are all suggested; perhaps the ambiguity is intentional; the Emperor is the sole hope, because (and this is the point of the whole satire) there is none elsewhere.

2. Camenas: the Muses.

6-8. Clio represents her sister Muses; they have left their home in Greece, and are forced to jostle for bread in Rome. Pieria: sacred to the Muses; poetic.

16. i.e. They had once been slaves. Slaves were exposed for sale at Rome barefooted.

19. Laurum: to chew laurel-leaves was supposed to produce inspiration.

25. Veneris marito: Vulcan, god of fire.

32. "Juno's bird" is the peacock.

35. Terpsichore here stands for the Muses or any one of them.

37. The punctuation follows Gifford; most texts now put the stop after relicta instead of after colis.

59-60. Aonia was the part of Boeotia (in Greece) sacred to the Muses. The Bacchanals and other frenzied votaries of gods carried a staff called a "thyrsus"; it is the emblem of inspiration.

67. Rutulum: Turnus, whom Aeneas conquered. Cf. Aeneas VII, 445.

73. Atreus: the name of the tragedy which Lappa is

writing.

87. Paris was a dancer and actor of great popularity and influence at court.

89. Semestri auro : "a gold ring" (the sign of knightly rank) "given for six months' service." i.e. A poet might be given a sinecure appointment in the army, and thus raised to a knight's estate.

92. Pelopea, Philomela: pieces acted by Paris.

104. Gifford seems to misunderstand acta legenti; it means the slave who read out the Gazette or official record of events.

114. Russati: "belonging to the red party"; four parties"factiones"-competed in the Circus, each with its own racing colour-red, white, blue, and green.

115 The passage alludes to Ovid's description of the contention, before the Greek host, between Ajax and Ulysses for Achilles' arms.

121-2. The punctuation follows Gifford; the best texts put a full stop after lagenae, a comma after egisti.

134. What stlataria means is still uncertain. The interpreters are divided between "costly" and "deceptive."

159. The heart is represented as the seat of intellect.

166. Gifford read ast for haec; hence his translation.

167-8. The professors of rhetoric (sophistae) leave the mythological subjects of declamation in order to engage in real law suits to recover their fees.

171. The gladiator on his honourable discharge received a "rudis," or fencing-foil, as a token of long service ended.

vi, 113

Cf.

174. Tessera: a tally that could be exchanged for corn. 176-7. Gifford no doubt read scindens, not scindes; he is accordingly misleading. Chrysogonus and Pollio were musicians. The meaning is: "When you see what a high fee a musicmaster gets in comparison, you will tear up Theodorus' book on rhetoric, in disgust with the profession.'

186. Quintiliano: a notable professor of rhetoric.

192. Strictly speaking, the crescent sewed upon the shoe was the sign of patrician not senatorial rank.

199. Ventidius rose from captive to consul; Servius Tullius, a servant's son, became King of Rome (cf. viii, 259).

203. Cathedrae: the desk from which rhetoricians taught their pupils; the chair of rhetoric."

206. Capital punishment at Athens was inflicted by means of hemlock; Socrates was put to death in this way. 210. The centaur Chiron taught Achilles music. 214. Quem is now generally read instead of qui. Qui implies that Rufus accused Cicero of barbarity of style; quem that his class nicknamed Rufus the Gallic Cicero," he being a Gaul. Gifford evidently read qui.

218. Acoenonoetus: unfeeling, inhuman, unsympathetic.

NOTES TO SATIRE VIII

14. The Gens Fabia claimed descent from Hercules.

23. Virgas: rods carried by the lictors in front of the consuls as emblems and instruments of authority.

29. Osiri: see note on vi, 534.

46. Cecrops was, according to legend, the first king of Athens.

47. Quiritem: a Roman citizen.

56. Tencrorum proles : Aeneas was a Trojan ; see note to I, 100. 62-3. Corytha and Hirpinus were presumably horse-dealers. 67. Instead of Nepotis, nepotes is now generally read.

68. Privum: "something of your own," is now regarded as a certain correction for primum; Gifford read primum.

73. Gifford is perhaps misleading. Sensus communis here is thought to mean "sympathy with one's fellow-men," "feeling for others."

81. Phalaris was a Sicilian tyrant, who roasted his enemies alive in a brazen bull.

86. Gaurana: from the Lucrine lake in Campania. Cosmus was a perfumer.

87-8. The provinces were governed by men of birth or distinction sent from Rome.

93. Gifford read Tutor for Numitor. Capito was condemned for extortion in a province.

97. Gifford rightly treats this as a proverbial expression. Tace means "leave off complaining"; for to lodge complaints does no good and costs money.

103-4. Polyclitus was a sculptor, Mentor a "caelator "—one who chased and embossed plate.

105-6. Dolabella, Antonius, Verres: the names of notoriously extortionate and rapacious provincial governors.

120. Marius: he was sentenced in 100 A.D.

See I, 49.

126. The Sibyl's oracles, written on palm-leaves, were long preserved religiously at Rome.

128. Acersecomes a Greek word meaning "unshorn"; here, a favourite slave who wears his hair long.

B B

NOTES TO SATIRE X

11. The reference is to Milo, a celebrated "strong man," who died "wedg'd in the timber which he strove to rend.”

25. Foro: the bankers kept their money and did their business in the Forum,

28. Democritus was called the laughing, Heraclitus the weeping, philosopher, since the spectacle of human life was said to have moved the one to perpetual laughter, the other to perpetual tears.

38. Tunica Jovis: a triumphal vestment kept in the temple of Juppiter Capitolinus.

50. Democritus was born at Abdera in Thrace, a town proverbial for the stupidity of its people.

53. The middle finger was used in gesture to express insult and contempt; it is often called infamis digitus.

55. Incerare: referring to waxen tablets fastened to the statues of the gods; on the tablets prayers and vows were written.

63. Sejanus was first favourite and prime minister of the Emperor Tiberius; his downfall was sudden and complete ; Tiberius sent a letter from his palace in Caprae to the Senate at Rome suggesting the removal of Sejanus, who was instantly destroyed, with his statues.

66. Cretatum: "chalked"; any dark patch on the animal must be whitewashed.

74. Nurtia: an Etruscan goddess; Sejanus was born in Etruria, and is thus called Tuscus.

84. i.e. as Ajax in madness killed unoffending sheep, so Tiberius may confound the innocent with the guilty.

91. Curules: i.e. curules sellas, magisterial seats, magistracies, the consulship.

109. The reference is to Julius Caesar.

115. The Quinquatrus was an annual festival in honour of Minerva; 116 probably refers to the boy's offering to the treasury of the goddess.

122, etc. Cicero's second Philippic oration enraged Antony, against whom it was directed, and led him to compass Cicero's