1067 Philonides has been already mentioned, B. ii. c. 73, as being in the habit of going from Sicyon to Elis in nine hours.—B.

1068 We may consult the learned notes of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 99, respecting the exact distances here indicated by Pliny. We may remark, that a stadium is about one-eighth of a mile, according to which estimate, Philippides must have gone 142 miles in two days, and the other 150 miles in one day; as it is implied, that these journeys were performed on foot, even the former of them is obviously impossible.—B. Query, however, as to this last assertion; according to recent pedestrian feats, it does not appear to be absolutely impossible.

1069 See B. ii. c. 72.

1070 This feat is no less incredible than those mentioned above.—B.

1071 We have an account of this journey of Tiberius in Dion Cassius. Val. Maximus, B. v. c. 6, also enumerates this among the extraordinary examples of fraternal affection.—B. We learn also from Suetonius, that on learning the accident, a fall from his horse, which had happened to his brother Drusus, Tiberius took horse at Ticinum, and travelled night and day till he reached his brother, who was then in Germany, near the Rhine. He accompanied the body to Rome, preceding it on foot all the way. There is extant a “Consolation to Livia Augusta,” written on this occasion, some have thought, by Pedo Albinovanus, but it is more likely to have been the work of Ovid.

1072 This statement must have been in some of his lost works.

1073 Pliny probably here refers to a passage in the Acad. Quæst. B. iv. c. 81, where Cicero speaks of a person who could see objects, it was said, at a distance of 1800 stadia, equal exactly to 125 miles.—B.

1074 The actual distance between the promontory of Sicily and the nearest part of Carthage is between fifty and sixty miles. The acute vision of Strabo is mentioned by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B.

1075 See also B. xxxvi. c. 4. He was a Lacedæmonian sculptor, who, according to Athenæus, also executed embossed work on vases.

1076 His works in ivory were said to have been so small, that they could scarcely be seen without placing them on black hair.

1077 Cicero, Acad. Quæst. B. iv. c. 120, speaks of “one Myrmecides, a maker of minute objects of art;” Ælian, Vac. Hist. B. i. c. 17, also speaks of these minute performances of Myrmecides, and styles them “a waste of time.” Pliny, in a subsequent part of his work, B. xxxi. c. 4, speaks of similar minute works, executed by these artists in marble; but the account which he gives is scarcely credible.—B.

1078 See B. xxxvi. c. 5.

1079 It would appear that there is a little confusion here of events. Sybaris, so noted for its luxury and effeminacy, was destroyed by the people of Crotona, under the command of the athlete Milo, B.C. 510. In B.C. 360. the Crotoniats were defeated at the river Sagras, by the Locrians and Rhegians, 10,000 in number, although they are said to have amounted to 130,000. Now it was on the occasion of this latter battle, that, according to Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. ii., the noise was heard at Olympia, where the games were being celebrated. Be it as it may, the story is clearly fabulous.

1080 Ajasson discusses at some length, the possibility of the fact here mentioned, and concludes, that it is not to be credited: he estimates the distance between these two places at 120 miles.—B.

1081 As to the miraculous annunciation of the victory of Marius and Catulus over the Cimbri, see B. ii. c. 58.

1082 Meaning, thereby, the twin brothers, Castor and Pollux; who were said to have announced at Rome the victory gained the day before by Paulus Æmilius over King Perseus.

1083 This circumstance is mentioned by Pausanias, in his Attica. She was an Athenian hetæra, or courtesan, beloved by Aristogiton, or, according to Athenæus, by Harmodius. On the murder of Hipparchus, the son of Pisistratus, she was put to the torture, being supposed to have been privy to the conspiracy; but she died under her sufferings without making any disclosure, and, according to one account, bit off her tongue, that no secret might be betrayed by her. The Athenians erected in her honour a bronze statue of a lioness (in reference to her name), without a tongue, in the vestibule of the Acropolis.

1084 This story is related by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 3, it is also alluded to by Cicero, Tus. Quæst. B. ii. c. 22, and De Nat. Deor. B. ii. c. 33; but he only speaks of his tortures, without mentioning what Pliny states of his biting off his tongue.—B. He was a philosopher of Abdera, of the school of Democritus, and flourished about B.C. 340. Towards Alexander the Great, whom he accompanied into Asia, he acted the part of a base flatterer. He was pounded to death in a mortar, by order of Nicocreon, king of Cyprus.

1085 This statement is also made by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7. Xenophon, Cyropædia, B. v., speaks of the retentive memory of Cyrus, but considerably qualifies the account here given: he says that Cyrus knew the names of all his commanders or prefects, and of all those to whom he had occasion to give particular orders.—B.

1086 This account is similar to that given by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7, and by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii. c. 7. We have a learned dissertation by Ajasson, in which he discusses the possibility of one individual understanding so great a number of languages, as well as the question, whether it is possible that so great a number of languages were spoken by the subjects of Mithridates. His conclusions greatly tend to prove both these points; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 295.—B.

1087 This invention is referred to by Cicero, De Nat. Deor., B. ii. c. 86. Cicero also speaks of the remarkable powers of memory possessed by Charmidas and Metrodorus, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 88, and Tusc. Quæst. B. i. c. 24.—B.

1088 Ajasson gives an account of some of the principal writers in what has been termed the science of Mnemonics, or artificial memory: he particularly commends the lectures of Aimé of Paris on the subject; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 310, et seq.—B.

1089 This circumstance is related by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B.

1090 This is not always the case. In dreams we often recollect past events and localities; we know in what part of the world we are, and even remember the substance of former dreams, and the fact that we have dreamt of a similar subject before.

1091 The conqueror of Syracuse, and five times consul at Rome. He was Born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, B.C. 208, in the vicinity of Venusia.

1092 Ajasson remarks concerning the number of battles in which Cæsar is said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much exceeded by some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an individual, “who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so reigned much too long,” was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles.—B.

1093 Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from their strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated.

1094 This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch mentions a similar circumstance with respect to Pompey.—B.

1095 Or Bacchus.—“Father Liber” is the name always given to him by Pliny.

1096 “Magnus.” Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylla saluted him with the name of “Magnus,” which surname he ever afterwards retained.—B.

1097 Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to any one who was not either consul or prætor.—B.

1098 Sertorius had joined the party of Marius and Cinna, in opposition to that of Sylla. He fled into Spain, and maintained the war successfully in that country, until he was treacherously assassinated by one of his supposed partisans. This may appear a sufficient reason for his not being mentioned by Pompey.—B.

1099 “Toties imperator antequam miles.” He had been raised to the highest rank without passing through the various gradations of military life.—B.

1100 Speaking of this honorary crown, Pliny says, B. xvi. c. 4, “At the present day it is not given to the victor himself, but proclamation is made that he confers the crown upon his country.”

1101 It is noticed by the commentators, that Aulus Gellius, speaking of this building, calls it the Temple of Victory, B. x. c. 1; the error, it is supposed, may have arisen from Pompey having placed a statue of Victory in the Temple.—B.

1102 29th of September.

1103 Pliny, referring to these events, in a subsequent place, B. xxvii. c. 6, says that it took place “pridie Kalend. Octob. die natalis sui.” Plutarch informs us, that the triumph lasted two days, a circumstance which may assist us in reconciling these dates. The same author gives a very minute detail of all the transactions here referred to.—B.

1104 According to the chronology ordinarily adopted, this would be in the year of the City 692.—B.

1105 By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work, the ancients often designated not the large tract to which we now apply the name, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the Ægean sea.—B.

1106 See B. xiv. c. 5.

1107 Val. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time.—B.

1108 We meet with a passage in Livy, B. xxxix. c. 44, illustrative of this view of Cato’s character. In Cicero’s treatise, De Senectute, where Cato bears a prominent part, frequent allusion is made to the strictness and even severity of his principles, although the general impression which we receive of his character and manners is highly interesting, and, upon the whole, not unamiable.—B.

1109 Plutarch says, that nearly fifty impeachments were brought against him, the last when he was eighty-six years of age.—B.

1110 There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining who was the individual here referred to; the subject is discussed at some length by Hardouin, who shows that it is probable, that it was Lucius Cæcilius, who was slain in a battle with the Gauls, A.U.C. 470, and in the consulship of Dolabella and Domitius.—B.

1111 The name of this consul has been the subject of much discussion among the commentators. Livy, B. iii. c. 31, has been referred to, as calling him Atermius; but in some of the best editions, he is named Aterius. The tribunate of Dentatus took place A.U.C. 299, fifty-five years after the expulsion of the kings.—B.

1112 When a Roman overcame an enemy with whom he had been personally engaged, he took possession of some part of his armour and dress, which might bear testimony to the victory; this was termed the “spolium.”—B.

1113 “Hasta pura;” these words, according to Hardouin, signify a lance without an iron head. We are told that it was given to him who gained the first victory in a battle; it was also regarded as an emblem of supreme power, and as a mark of the authority which one nation claimed over another.—B.

1114 “Phaleris.” These were bosses, discs or crescents of metal, sometimes gold. They were mostly used in pairs, and as ornaments for the helmet; but we more commonly read of them as attached to the harness of horses, and worn as pendants from the head, so as to produce a terrific effect when shaken by the rapid movements of the horse.

1115 The “torques” was an ornament of gold, twisted spirally and bent into a circular form, and worn among the upper classes of the Persians, the Gauls, and other Asiatic and northern nations. They are often found both in France and Ireland, as well as in this country, but varying greatly in size and weight.

1116 Golden “armillæ,” or bracelets, were worn by the Gauls on the arms and the legs. The Sabines also wore them on the left arm, at the time of the foundation of Rome.

1117 The word “fiscus” signifies a wicker basket or pannier, probably of peculiar construction, in which the Romans were accustomed to keep and carry about large sums of money. In process of time the word came to signify a treasure or money-chest.

1118 We have nearly the same detail of the honours bestowed on Dentatus by Val. Maximus, B. iii. c. 2. Pliny again speaks of Dentatus, and the honours bestowed upon him, B. xxii. c. 5; and especially notices the “corona graminea,” the grass or obsidional crown, as the highest of his honours. The different kinds of honorary crowns are very fully described in B. xvi. c. 3, 4, and 5; in B. xxii. c. 4, we have a particular account of the “corona graminea;” in c. 5, mention is made of its having been given to Dentatus, and, in the next, other individuals are enumerated to whom it had been presented.—B.

1119 T. Romilius Rocus Vaticanus was consul B.C. 455. Having defeated the Æqui, and gained immense booty, instead of distributing it among the soldiers, he and his colleague sold it, on account of the poverty of the treasury. They were, in consequence, brought to trial, and Veturius was sentenced to pay 10,000 asses. He was, however, elected augur in 453, as some compensation for the ill-treatment he had experienced.

1120 Livy, B. iii. c. 31, gives an account of the conviction of Romilius, but says, that it was effected by C. Claudius Cicero, the tribune of the people. To obviate the discordance in the names, some commentators have proposed to substitute the words “Lucio Siccio” for “Claudio Cicerone.”—B.

1121 We have an account of the victories, honours, and unfortunate fate of Manlius in Livy, B. vi. c. 14-20. In enumerating the honours conferred upon him, the numbers are given somewhat differently in c. 20; thirty spoils of enemies slain, forty donations from the generals, two mural and eight civic crowns.—B.

1122 M. Sergius Silus. He was one of the city prætors B.C. 197.

1123 Among the Jews and other nations of antiquity, it was considered an essential point for the priests to be without blemish, perfect and free from disease.—B.

1124 In allusion to the compliment paid by the senate to the consul, M. Terentius Varro, by whose rashness the battle of Cannæ was lost. On his escape and safe return to Rome, instead of visiting him with censure, he received the thanks of the senate, “that he had not despaired of the Republic.”

1125 It appears somewhat remarkable, considering the extraordinary acts of valour here enumerated, as performed by Sergius, that we hear so little of him from other sources.—B.

1126 Hardouin takes the meaning to be, that though ill fortune overtook the Romans in their wars with Hannibal, nevertheless Sergius defeated Fortune herself, in dying before his country was overwhelmed by those calamities.

1127 Pliny informs us, B. xiii. c. 1, that the art of making perfumes originated with the Persians.—B.

1128 The city was taken by him by assault, and all its buildings, with the exception of the house of Pindar, levelled to the ground; most of the inhabitants were slaughtered, and the rest sold as slaves.

1129 Stagirus, or Stagira, a town of Macedonia, in Chalcidice, on the Strymonic Gulf. It was a colony of Andros, founded B.C. 656, and originally called Orthagoria. It was destroyed by Philip, and, according to some accounts, was rebuilt by him, as having been the native place of Aristotle.

1130 Archilochus of Paros was one of the earliest Ionian lyric poets, and was the first who composed in Iambic verse according to fixed rules. He flourished about 714-676 B.C. Pliny speaks here of his murderers; but it is generally stated by historians that he was murdered by one individual by some called Calondas, or Corax, a Naxian, by others Archias.

1131 We may here refer to some remarks by Hardouin and Ajasson on the actual sum obtained by Isocrates; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 126, 127.—B.

1132 This anecdote is related by Cicero, De Oratore, B. iii. c. 56, and by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 10.—B.

1133 This is rather a strong expression, and it is doubtful if the great historian at all deserves it. The facts of the case seem to have been as follow. Thucydides was employed in a military capacity, and was in command of an Athenian squadron of seven ships at Thasos, B.C. 424, when Eucles, who commanded in Amphipolis, sent for his assistance against Brasidas, who was before that town with an army. Fearing the arrival of a superior force, Brasidas offered favourable terms to Amphipolis, which were readily accepted, as there were but few Athenians in the place. Thucydides arrived at Eion, on the mouth of the Strymon, the evening of the same day on which Amphipolis surrendered: and though too late to save Amphipolis, prevented Eion from falling into the hands of the enemy. It was in consequence of this failure, that he became voluntarily an exile, perhaps to avoid the still severer punishment of death, which appears to have been the penalty of such a failure as that which he had, though unavoidably, committed. It is most probable that he returned to Athens about B.C. 403, the period of its liberation by Thrasybulus.

1134 The following passage in Livy, B. vi. c. 34, may serve to illustrate this remark of Pliny:—“The lictors of Sulpicius, the military tribune, when he went home from the forum, knocked at the door with his staff, as the usual custom is.”

1135 Of Cyrene, the Academic philosopher. In B.C. 155, being then fifty-eight years old, he was chosen with some others to deprecate the fine of 500 talents which had been imposed on the Athenians for the destruction of Oropus. It was then that, in presence of Cato the Elder, he delivered his famous orations on Justice. The first oration was in commendation of the virtue, and on the ensuing day the next was delivered, by which all the arguments of the first were answered, and justice shown to be not a virtue, but only a matter of compact for the maintenance of civil society. The honesty of Cato was greatly shocked at this, and he moved the senate to send the philosopher back to his school, and save the Roman youth from his demoralizing doctrines. He lived twenty-eight years after this, and died at Athens B.C. 129, aged eighty-five, or, according to Cicero, ninety.

1136 This is related by Plutarch, in his Life of Cato. His general dislike of the Grecian character is again mentioned, B. xxix. c. 7.—B.

1137 See B. xxxiv. c. 19.

1138 We have an account of this embassy in Plutarch. Pliny informs us, B. xxxiv. c. 20, that the only article which Cato retained, of the works of art that he brought from Cyprus, was the statue of Zeno, “not for its intrinsic merit, but because it was the statue of a philosopher.” Valerius Paterculus, B. ii. c. 45, and Plutarch refer to this transaction.—B.

1139 This circumstance is related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 14, and is referred to by Cicero in his defence of Archias, sec. 9.—B.

1140 M. Varro, the philosopher, sometimes called “the most learned” of the Romans. His command under Pompey, in the war against the Pirates, has been already mentioned in B. iii. c. 16. He also served under him against Mithridates, and was his legatus in Spain, at the first outbreak of the civil wars.

1141 Pliny refers to the same subject: in B. xxxv. c. 2, he speaks of Pollio as “qui primus, bibliothecam dicando, ingenia hominum rempublicam fecit”—“The first who, by forming a public library, made public property the genius of learned men.” Aulus Gellius, B. vi. c. 18, informs us, that the first library, formed for the use of the public, was that collected at Athens by Pisistratus.—B. Ptolemy Philadelphus, the king of Pergamus, and Lucullus, had formed extensive libraries, but solely for their own use, and not that of the public.

1142 Some of these are given by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 15.—B. It is very doubtful, however, if Greece did not greatly excel Rome in this respect.

1143 Meaning Cicero, the orator and philosopher.

1144 Cicero, in an Epistle to Atticus, B. ii. c. i., enumerates what he styles his consular orations: the total number is twelve, and among them we find all those here referred to by Pliny.—B.

1145 The individual referred to is L. Roscius Otho; by his law the Roman equites, who, before this time, sat mingled with the people generally, had appropriate seats allotted to them. Cicero designates this oration, “De Othone.”—B.

1146 This title was bestowed upon him by the general acclamation of the people, at the end of his consulship. We have an account of it in Plutarch.—B.

1147 This remark is not found in any of Cæsar’s works now extant.—B.

1148 These terms signify “acute” and “judicious;” they are derived respectively from “cautus” and “cor.”—B.

1149 Son of Damagetus, and one of the Seven Sages. He flourished towards the beginning of the sixth century B.C. Herodotus says that he held the office of Ephor Eponymus in Ol. 56. He was a man remarkable for his wisdom and his sententious brevity, so characteristic of his Spartan origin.

1150 It appears somewhat doubtful to which of the Grecian sages the credit of this maxim is due.—B.

1151 We have an account of Melampus, probably the same as the person here styled Melampodes, in Herodotus, B. ii. c. 49, and B. ix. c. 34; Ajasson, in Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 135, has given a list of writers who have referred to him as an eminent soothsayer. Pliny mentions him in a subsequent passage, B. xxv. c. 21, as celebrated for his skill in the art of divination.—B.

1152 Marcius is said by Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 50, to have given his predictions in verses.—B.

1153 We have an account of this in Livy, B. xxix. c. 14, and B. xxxvi. c. 40; it is also referred to by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15.—B.

1154 In consequence of the number of eminent men who bore the name of Scipio, it is not easy, in all cases, to decide to which of them certain transactions ought to be referred. In this instance, it has been doubted, whether it was the same Scipio who was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship, and who died in a foreign country. Livy, B. xxxv. c. 24, remarks, “P. Corn. Cn. F. Scipio” had been an unsuccessful candidate for the consulship; and afterwards, B. xxxix. c. 40, that “P. and L. Scipio” were unsuccessful candidates for the office of censor. Val. Maximus expressly states, B. v. c. 3, that it was Scipio Nasica, who, in consequence of the little estimation in which he was held by his fellow-citizens, went to Pergamus, and “lived there the remainder of his life, without feeling any regrets for his ungrateful country.”—B.

1155 We have this anecdote related by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 15. He informs us, that it was the statue of Venus Verticordia which was ordered to be consecrated; the more readily to win the hearts of the maidens and matrons from wanton thoughts to a life of chastity.—B.

1156 Her story is told at great length by Ovid, in the Fasti, B. iv. l. 305, et seq. Her name was Claudia Quinta, and she is supposed to have been the sister of Appius Claudius Pulcher, and grand-daughter of Appius Claudius Cæcus. The vessel which was conveying the statue of Cybele from Pessinus to Rome having stuck fast on a shallow at the mouth of the Tiber, the soothsayers declared that none but a really chaste woman could move it. Claudia, who had been previously accused of unchastity, being in the number of the matrons who had accompanied Scipio to Ostia to receive the statue, immediately presented herself, and calling upon the goddess to vindicate her innocence, seized the rope, and the vessel moved forthwith. A statue was afterwards erected to her in the vestibule of the temple of the goddess.

1157 Solinus and Festus differ somewhat from Pliny, in stating that it was her father whose life was thus saved by the affectionate daughter. Valerius Maximus, who tells the story, says that the family was “ingenui sanguinis,” meaning “of genteel origin.” Such families were, however, sometimes reduced, even among the Romans, to a level with the plebeian classes.

1158 A.U.C. 604.

1159 This theatre is again mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 12. It was built of stone, and erected by Augustus in honour of his nephew Marcellus. This is related by Valerius Maximus, B. v. c. 8, somewhat more in detail, and with a degree of animation, which is not frequently to be met with in that author.—B.

1160 Cicero, De Divin. B. i. c. 18, Val. Maximus, B. iv. c. 6, and Plutarch, relate this more circumstantially. The serpents were of different sexes; if the male serpent was killed, his own death was to be the consequence; if the female, that of his wife, Cornelia.—B.

1161 Pliny gives an account of the circumstances which attended the death of Lepidus, in the 54th Chapter. He was the father of the triumvir.—B.

1162 Or Rutilius, consul B.C. 132, the year after the death of Tiberius Gracchus, whose adherents he prosecuted with the greatest cruelty. He also obtained a triumph for bringing to a conclusion the Servile war. He was an intimate friend of the younger Scipio Africanus, who obtained the consulship for him, but failed in gaining that honour for his brother Lucius. About the same period, he was condemned, in the tribuneship of Caius Gracchus, for his illegal acts in the prosecution of the adherents of Tiberius Gracchus. It has been suggested that this indignity may have had a greater share than the ill success of his brother in causing his death.

1163 Pliny again speaks of the great talents of Hippocrates, B. xxvi. c. 6, and B. xxix. c. 2.—B.

1164 We have an account of the origin of these games in Livy, B. xxix. c. 14.—B.

1165 Cleombrotus is supposed to be the same person who is mentioned in B. xxix. c. 3, as Erasistratus, the grandson of Aristotle. From Suidas we learn that a near relative of his was called Cleombrotus, though, from his perplexed language, it is impossible to say whether father or uncle. The story to which Pliny is supposed here to refer is a curious one. Antiochus, the son of Seleucus Nicator, fell in love with Stratonice, whom his father had married in his old age, but struggled to conceal his passion. The skilful physician discovered the nature of his disease; upon which he reported to Seleucus that it was incurable, for that he was in love, and it was impossible that his passion could be gratified. The king, greatly surprised, inquired who the lady was; to which Erasistratus replied that it was his own wife; whereupon Seleucus began to try and persuade him to give her up to his son. The physician upon this asked him if he would do so himself, if it were his own wife. Seleucus declared that he would; upon which Erasistratus disclosed to him the truth. Seleucus not only gave up Stratonice to his son, but resigned to him several provinces. Erasistratus was one of the most famous physicians and anatomists of antiquity.

1166 It was on this occasion that a label was said to have been fastened on the arrow, inscribed, “To Philip’s right eye.” The inhabitants were permitted to depart, however, when the city was taken, with one garment to each person.

1167 This accident occurred to Philip, at the siege of Methone, of which we have a brief account in Diodorus Siculus, B. xvi. c. 7, and in Justin, B. vii. c. 6; but neither of these authors makes any mention of Critobulus. Quintus Curtius, B. ix. c. 5, informs us, that Critobulus exhibited great skill in relieving Alexander the Great from the effects of a dangerous wound, which he received in India; but he does not refer to the fact here mentioned.—B.

1168 At the present day, this mode of treatment would have figured as the “wine-cure.”

1169 See B. xxvi. c. 8.

1170 Pliny again speaks of Asclepiades, in B. xxvi. c. 7, and B. xxix. c. 5. The anecdote respecting the man who was saved from the funeral pile is referred to by Celsus, B. ii. c. 6.—B. Pliny says, in B. xxvi. c. 7, that Asclepiades first came to Rome as a teacher of rhetoric, and that being unsuccessful, he turned his attention to medicine. Bruce, the Abyssinian traveller, also met his death by falling down stairs. Rabelais, in the prologue to his Fourth Book, refers to this peculiar death of Asclepiades.

1171 This is related more at large by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7, and by Plutarch.—B.

1172 Mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 31.

1173 Val. Maximus refers to Philon and his public works, in B. viii. c. 12.—B. He was an architect of eminence in the reign of the successors of Alexander. He built for Demetrius Phalereus, about B.C. 318, the portico of twelve Doric columns to the great temple at Eleusis. He also formed a basin in the Piræus, which was destroyed at the taking of Athens by the Romans under Sylla.

1174 See B. v. c. 11, and B. xxxiv. c. 42.

1175 Plutarch, in his life of Alexander, mentions the restriction made in favour of Lysippus, but does not extend it to Apelles; he does not speak of Pyrgoteles. We have an apposite allusion to this circumstance by Horace, Ep. B. i. l. 239, 240. Boileau has elegantly imitated Horace, in his “Discours au Roi.”—B. For further particulars of him, see B. xxxiv. c. 17 and 19. He was a native of Sicyon, and at first a simple worker in bronze, but eventually obtained the highest rank among the Grecian statuaries.

1176 According to the usual estimate of the value of the Attic talent, £193 12s., the sum given for this picture would be about £19,000.—B.

1177 Nearly all the topics here treated of are again mentioned in B. xxxv., which is devoted to the fine arts. The 34th, 35th, and 36th Chapters of that Book, contain an account of all the celebrated painters of antiquity, and their principal works.—B.

1178 Between £15,000 and £16,000.—B.

1179 “Poliorcetes.”

1180 We have a further account of this artist in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. c. 39 and 40, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.

1181 This is referred to by Pliny, B. xxxvi. c. 4, and by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 4.—B.

1182 He is again mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. 19, B. xxxv. c. 34, and B. xxxvi. c. 4.—B.

1183 Mentor is noticed for his skill in carving, B. xxxiii. c. 55.—B. Littrè says, on referring to that passage, “we find that he was a worker in silver, and a maker of vases of great value.” He seems disinclined to believe that he was a statuary. As Pliny tells us, ubi supra, none of his public works were in existence in Pliny’s time. Some small cups, however, existed, which were highly prized, though some were undoubtedly spurious.

1184 Now Pesaro.

1185 We have the same difficulty in ascertaining the sums here mentioned, as in all former cases. Holland estimates the sum given for Daphnus at 300,700 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175.—B.

1186 “Dispensator;” we have an explanation of this term, B. xxxiii. c. 13.—B.

1187 Holland estimates the sum paid for the enfranchisement of this man at 120,000 sesterces, vol. i. p. 175.—B.

1188 In his capacity, probably, of contractor for provisions and stores.

1189 Holland estimates the price paid on this occasion at 3,500 sesterces, ubi supra, thus differing exceedingly from Ajasson’s estimate.—B.

1190 “Quam quidam injuriam lucri fecit ille mercatus in luctu civitatis, quoniam arguere nulli vacabat.” We can see the meaning of this passage, but a literal translation of it, as it stands, is out of the question.

1191 “Virtus”—“manliness,” that being esteemed by the Romans the ideal of true virtue.

1192 It appears that a similar custom prevailed among the Scythians, according to Phylarchus, from whom Pliny probably took his account of it; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 151.

1193 As being fraught with an intensity of pain, which no number of days passed in pleasure can compensate.

1194 She was the daughter of Leotychides, and the wife of Archidamas, and mother of Ægis. Ajasson expresses his surprise, that so diligent a collector of facts as Pliny, should have been acquainted with only one example of this kind.—B. “The following are additional instances collected by Ajasson:—1. Olympias, daughter of Neoptolemus, king of Epirus, wife of Philip II., king of Macedon, and mother of Alexander the Great, king of Macedon. 2. Roxana, daughter of king Darius Codomannus, and wife of Alexander the Great; her son by whom was proclaimed king by certain generals of Alexander, but was shortly after slain at Amphipolis. 3. Laodice the Younger, daughter of king Antiochus Soter, sister and wife of Antiochus Theös, and mother of king Seleucus Callinicus. 4. Berenice, daughter of king Ptolemy Philadelphus; married to her brother king Ptolemy Euergetes, and mother of Ptolemy Philopater, by whom she was put to death. 5. Cleopatra, daughter of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria: she became the wife of king Ptolemy Epiphanes, and was mother of king Ptolemy Philometor. 6. Cleopatra Cocce, daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, married her uncle, king Ptolemy Physcon, and became mother of kings Ptolemy Lathyrus and Alexander I. 7. Cleopatra, another daughter of Ptolemy Philometor, married first to Alexander Balas, the usurper of the throne of Scythia, then to king Demetrius Nicator, and then to Antiochus Venator. Her sons by Nicator were Seleucus V. and Antiochus Gryphus, both of whom became kings of Syria; and her son Cyzicenius by Antiochus Venator, likewise became king of Syria. 8. Selene or Cleopatra, daughter of king Ptolemy Physcon, was married, first, to king Ptolemy Lathyrus, secondly, to king Antiochus Gryphus, and thirdly, to king Antiochus Eusebes. She was mother of king Antiochus Asiaticus. In all, she had nine kings as her near relations or connections. 9. Stratonice, daughter of king Demetrius Poliorcetes, was married first to king Seleucus Nicator, and then to king Antiochus Soter, and was mother of king Antiochus Therös.

1195 Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 15, gives nearly the same account of a person whom he calls Pherenice; from the resemblance of the names, it has been supposed, that they may both refer to the same individual.—B.

1196 He alludes to the three persons, father, son, and grandson, known by the name of C. Scribonius Curio. The first was prætor B.C. 121, one of the most distinguished orators of his time. His son, who acquired some reputation as an orator, was tribune of the people B.C. 90, prætor B.C. 82, and consul in B.C. 76, with Cn. Octavius. He is represented as being possessed of great eloquence, and of extreme purity and brilliancy of diction, but to have had none of the other requisites of an orator. Like his son, he enjoyed the friendship of Cicero. The younger Curio was an orator of great talents, which, from want of industry, he left uncultivated. Cicero endeavoured to direct his talents into a proper channel, but all in vain, and he remained to the end a man of worthless and profligate character. He was married to Fulvia, who afterwards became the wife of Antony.

1197 Hardouin observes, that M. Fabius Ambustus was three times consul, Quintus Fabius Rullianus five times, and Q. Fabius Gurges three times.—B.

1198 We have a similar account of the fate of Fidustius in Dion Cassius, by whom he is named Filuscius.—B. He was at length slain by order of Antony.

1199 We have an account of the vicissitudes in the life of Ventidius Bassus in A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 4, and in Valerius Paterculus, B. ii. c. 65. We learn from these writers, that Ventidius was a native of Picenum, and that, when that city was taken by Cneius Pompeius, in the Social war, Ventidius, then an infant, was carried in his mother’s arms, before the car of the conqueror.—B.

1200 The passage of Cicero referred to, occurs in a letter to Plancus, Ep. ad Fam. B. x. Ep. 18, where, speaking of Ventidius, who had united himself to the party of Antony, he says, “And I look down upon the camp of the mule-driver, Ventidius.”

1201 “Caliga.” A strong heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers and centurions; but not by the superior officers. The term “a caligâ,” therefore, had the same meaning as our expression, “from the ranks.” The Emperor Caligula received that surname when a boy, in consequence of wearing the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier.

1202 In the year A.U.C. 704.

1203 He was a native of Gades, in Spain. A party of the Roman nobles induced an inhabitant of Gades to accuse him of having illegally assumed the privileges of a Roman citizen. The cause was tried B.C. 55, and he was supported by Pompey and Crassus, and defended by Cicero. One of the tests of the being a Roman citizen, was the immunity from being scourged, according to the provisions of the Porcian law. So St. Paul, who, as a citizen of Tarsus, enjoyed the rights of a Roman citizen, says to the centurion, Acts xxii. 25, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?”

1204 The accusation against Balbus appears to have been his illegal usurpation of the rights of a Roman citizen, being born a foreigner. Pliny has previously informed us, B. v. c. 5, that he was a native of Gades or Cadiz. He was elected consul A.U.C. 713.—B.

1205 L. Fulvius Curius, consul B.C. 322. In B.C. 313 he was master of the horse to the dictator, L. Æmilius.

1206 “Felix.” Hardouin informs us, that he transmitted this surname to his descendants; among them was Felix, the governor of Judæa, before whom St. Paul was taken for judgment.—B.

1207 “Infelix.”

1208 According to Pliny, B. xi. c. 39, and Plutarch, Sylla was affected by what has been termed the “Morbus pediculosus” or “Lousy disease.” Plutarch, however, ascribes his death to the bursting of an internal abscess; and the same cause is assigned by Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 3.—B. It was probably of a similar disease that Herod Agrippa died, whom we find mentioned in Acts xii. 23, as being eaten of worms.

1209 Plutarch refers to a dream which Sylla had a short time before his death, but it does not seem to correspond to the one here alluded to.—B. “Plutarch relates that shortly before his death, Sylla dreamed that his son Cornelius, who died before his wife, Cecilia Metella, appeared to him, and summoned him away to join his mother. Appian also states that just before his death, Sylla beheld a spirit in a dream, which summoned him by name; upon which he called together his friends, made his will, and died soon after of a fever. Only two days before his death he finished the twenty-second book of his Memoirs, in which, foreseeing his end, he boasted of the prediction of the Chaldæans, that it was his fate to die after a happy life, and in the height of his prosperity.

1210 This is referred to by Tacitus, Hist. B. iii. c. 73.—B. Plutarch tells us that Catulus performed this ceremony of dedication.

1211 His consulships were A.U.C. 502 and 506.—B.

1212 Hardouin informs us, that a certain number of public officers, which varied from three to twenty, were appointed to divide the lands of the conquered people among the Roman colonists. Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 159.—B.

1213 The commentators have endeavoured to prove, and not without some success, that Pliny is not correct in the remark, that the first elephants brought to Rome, were those which followed in the triumph of Metellus. He has himself informed us, B. viii. c. 6, that they were introduced by Curius Dentatus, in his triumph over Pyrrhus, some years before that of Metellus. The same fact is also stated by Florus, B. i. c. 18.—B.

1214 Ovid, Fast. B. vi. l. 436, et seq., and Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 4, allude to this circumstance.—B.

1215 This fact has been supposed by Hardouin to be controverted by the statement of Aulus Gellius, who says, B. iii. c. 18, that all the senators, who had passed the curule chair, were carried to the curia or senate-house, in a chariot. But, as Ajasson correctly observes, Aulus Gellius does not assert that the senators were carried at the public expense, which was the case with Metellus.—B.

1216 Val. Maximus, B. vii. c. 1, details the various fortunate circumstances which occurred to Q. Metellus; he makes no mention, however, of the violent attack made upon him by Labeo; indeed, he expressly states, that his good fortune continued to the last moments of his life.—B.

1217 Val. Maximus, ubi supra, and Velleius Paterculus, B. i. c. 11, speak of the honours obtained by the four sons of Q. Metellus; they are also alluded to by Cicero in his 8th Philippic, sec. 4., and his Tusc. Quæst. B. i. c. 35.—B.

1218 Dalechamps remarks, that we find in the ancient historians a similar account relative to M. Drusus, who, when tribune of the people, hurried off the consul Philippus with such violence to prison, that the blood started from his nostrils: also of P. Sempronius, the tribune of the people, who, had it not been for the opposition offered by his colleague, would have carried the censor Appius Claudius to prison.

1219 This attack of Labeo on Metellus is mentioned in the Epitome of Livy, B. lix. The tribunes of Rome were styled “sacrosancti,” and it was considered a capital crime to offer personal violence to them, under any circumstances. Hardouin remarks, that the tribune who came to the rescue of Metellus must have been a military tribune, who, in virtue of his office, had a right to claim the services of Metellus for the army.—B.

1220 Cicero, in his oration “Pro Domo suâ,” sec. 47, refers to the consecration of the property of Metellus, as a case analogous to that of his own house, which had been similarly consecrated by Clodius.—B. It seems to have been the custom, when a person had been capitally condemned, for the tribune of the people to consecrate his property, with certain formalities, to some god or goddess; after which it could not, under ordinary circumstances, be recovered, whether the sentence was revoked or not. Cicero had been capitally condemned through the instrumentality of Clodius, and obliged to fly from Rome.

1221 It was a common expression among the Romans, for a person, “obtorto collo ad prætorem trahi,” “to be dragged to the prætor with his neck wrenched;” and we meet with it repeatedly in the writings of Plautus. It would appear that it was customary for the lictors or officers of justice to seize criminals in a peculiar manner, perhaps with a rope, and with the exercise of great violence, whatever their rank.

1222 According to the remark of Dalechamps, it appears to have been not unusual with the Roman magistrates, when resistance was offered to their order, to seize the party by the throat, as is here stated to have been done by Labeo.—B.

1223 There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining the names which should be given to the sons of Metellus, as the MSS. differ, and there appears to be no means of coming to any accurate decision, by a reference to other authorities. The essential circumstance, however, is, that two of the sons had obtained the honour of a triumph, and had acquired appropriate surnames.—B. Metellus Diadematus has been much confounded with his cousin, Metellus Dalmaticus. Diadematus was so called, from his wearing, for a long time, a bandage round his forehead, in consequence of an ulcer. He was consul B.C. 117.

1224 By being dragged, and not proceeding willingly, in order to gain time for succour, and so save himself from being hurled from the Tarpeian rock.

1225 Which allowed the laws to take their course, even against an individual of the first consequence in the state.—B.

1226 In the class of those who were considered peculiarly fortunate; “hâc censurâ,” literally, “in this assessment,” in allusion to the classification of the citizens of Rome, according to the estimate of their property.—B.

1227 In B.C. 45, when, being but about eighteen years of age, he had the presumption to ask his uncle for the office of “magister equitum;” upon which Julius Cæsar bestowed it on M. Lepidus, probably being of opinion that his nephew was not yet fit for the office.

1228 In his triumvirate with Antony and Lepidus, he showed himself no less cruel than his colleague, Antony, notwithstanding the gloss which Pliny attempts to throw over his actions. Two thousand equites and three hundred senators are said to have been put to death during this proscription.

1229 Augustus was detained at Dyrrhachium for some time before the battle of Philippi by illness, and had not recovered when the battle took place.

1230 In the first engagement at Philippi, Brutus defeated the army of Augustus, while Cassius was defeated by Antony. Appian speaks also of his concealment in a marsh to the south of Philippi.

1231 In his war against Sextus Pompeius, his fleet was twice shattered by shipwreck off the coast of Sicily, and he suffered several defeats by sea.

1232 C. Proculeius, a member of the equestrian order, and a familiar friend of Augustus. It is of him that Horace speaks in the lines (II. Ode 2),

He was one of the Romans to whom Augustus thought of giving his daughter Julia in marriage. The mode of his death is mentioned in B. xxxvi. c. 59.

1233 This circumstance is stated more fully by Suetonius in his Life of Augustus; he tells, that “in crossing from Sicily to Italy to rejoin his forces, Augustus was unexpectedly attacked by Demochares and Apollophanes, two of Pompey’s captains, and only escaped in a small vessel with the greatest difficulty.”

1234 L. Antonius having raised an army at Præneste, took possession of the town of Perusia, which was blockaded by Augustus, and Antonius was at last obliged to surrender. During this siege Augustus encountered several dangers, and was once nearly killed while sacrificing beneath the walls, by a band of gladiators, who came upon him unawares.

1235 The victory was long doubtful, and it was only the sudden panic of Cleopatra, that finally ensured it to Augustus.

1236 The exact nature of the accident here alluded to, is discussed by Hardouin, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 169; he concludes, from the account of Suetonius and of Dion Cassius, that it was owing to the fall of a gallery, which extended between two towers.—B.

1237 These are fully described by Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, c. 80 and 81.

1238 M. Claudius Marcellus, the son of Octavia, sister of Augustus. He was adopted by Augustus. Tacitus seems to hint that he was greatly beloved by the Roman people, and it is not improbable that Augustus may have become suspicious or jealous of him; his decease took place in his twentieth year.

1239 To Mitylene. This refers to the jealousy between Marcellus and his brother-in-law, M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Pliny probably uses the term “pudenda,” implying that Augustus showed neither firmness nor gratitude on this occasion; for anxious, at any cost, to prevent these differences, he sent Agrippa, against his will, as proconsul to Syria; immediately on which Agrippa left Rome, but stopped at Mitylene, and left the government of Syria to his legatus. Upon the death of Marcellus, Agrippa returned to Rome.

1240 Dion Cassius mentions three conspiracies, the first by Fabius Cæpio and Muræna, a second, of which he does not name the authors, and a third by Cornelius Cinna.

1241 Said in allusion to the suspicious deaths of his grandchildren Lucius and Caius, the children of his daughter Julia by Agrippa. They were probably removed by the criminal acts of Livia; but some historians have hinted that Augustus was privy to their destruction, the object of which was to remove all obstacles that lay in the way of Tiberius to the throne.

1242 Implying that he was conscience-stricken at his share in their death, as well as struck with sorrow and remorse.

1243 She was his only child; Scribonia was her mother. She was first married to her cousin Marcellus; on his death to L. Vipsanius Agrippa, and after his decease to Tiberius Nero, the son of Livia. Her profligacy was universally known, and Augustus did not scruple to enlarge upon it before the senate; but Pliny is the only writer who states that she contemplated an attempt on the life of his father; though Suetonius says that she became, at a late period of her reign, an object of interest to those who were disaffected. Julia was first banished to Pandataria, off the coast of Campania, and then to Rhegium, which she was never allowed to leave. Her death took place A.D. 14.

1244 Tiberius Nero, afterwards emperor. Pliny here alludes to his retirement to Rhodes, where he remained seven years. Tacitus represents that his chief reason for leaving Rome was to escape the society of his wife Julia, who treated him with the utmost contempt, and whose licentious life was not unknown to him. During this retreat he devoted himself to the study of astrology. He left Rome without the consent of Augustus, who was equally unwilling to allow of his return.

1245 Julia, one of the daughters of Julia and Agrippa, and the wife of L. Æmilius Paulus. She fully inherited the vices of her mother. For an adulterous intercourse with D. Silanus she was banished, by Augustus to Tremerus, off the coast of Apulia, where she survived twenty years, dependent on the bounty of the empress Livia. A child born after her disgrace, was, by order of Augustus, exposed as spurious. She is supposed by some to be the Corinna of Ovid’s amatory poems.

1246 He probably alludes to the rising of some tribes in the provinces on the north-eastern coast of the Adriatic, in B.C. 35, who refused to pay their tribute. They were finally vanquished by Statilius Taurus, B.C. 33.

1247 After the defeat of his general Varus, by Arminius, in Germany.

1248 This pestilence is also mentioned by Dion Cassius; it took place A.U.C. 732.—B.

1249 We have an account of the disastrous expedition of Varus in Florus, B. iv. c. 12.—B.

1250 Suetonius speaks of calumnious pamphlets (libelli), that were circulated about, even in the senate-house, to his extreme disparagement.

1251 A posthumous son of M. Vipsanius Agrippa by Julia, the daughter of Augustus, by whom he was adopted together with Tiberius. He was afterwards banished to Planaria, off the coast of Corsica, on account of his savage and intractable character, though guilty of no crime. Augustus is said to have privately visited him there, which, coming to the ears of Livia, increased her enmity against this youth, and he was murdered by her orders or those of Tiberius.

1252 Tacitus, Ann. B. i. c. 3, says that he was banished by the artifices of Nero.—B.

1253 After his death his solemn apotheosis took place in the Campus Martius. In some of the coins which were struck even during his life-time, he was called “Divus,” or “the god.”

1254 For Tiberius Nero, the father of Tiberius Cæsar, took the side of M. Antonius in the Civil War.—B.

1255 We have no mention of Pedius, or Phedius, as he is named in some of the MSS., in any of the ancient authors. A story of the same import is related of Solon and Tellus, by Herodotus, B. i. c. 30, and by Plutarch.—B.

1256 A town of Arcadia. See B. iv. c. 10.

1257 This is also related by Valerius Maximus, B. vii. c. 1.—B.

1258 This is very similar to Virgil’s beautiful description of the old man Corycius, in the Georgics, B. iv. l. 125, et seq.

1259 We have some account of Euthymus in Pausanias, B. vi., and in Ælian, Var. Hist. B. viii. c. 18.—B.

1260 It has been conjectured by Poinsinet, that the word “Callimachus” does not refer to the well-known poet of that name, nor to any other individual, but that it was the title of the president of the Olympic games. The opinion is not without plausibility, but is scarcely sanctioned by sufficient authority.—B.

1261 Pliny here alludes to the doctrine of astrology, which forms the especial subject of the next Chapter.—B.

1262 These statements are not found in any of the works of Hesiod now extant; it is scarcely necessary to observe, that they are entirely without foundation, and contrary to all observation and experience.—B.

1263 The great age of Arganthonius is referred to by Lucian, in his treatise “De Macrobiis,” “on Long-lived Men;” by Herodotus, B. i. c. 163; by Cicero, de Senect. sec. 19; and by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13; the three latter writers agree in making his age 120 years, and hence Pliny assigns to him the same age in the next page.—B. St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, B. xv., quotes this passage of Pliny, and mentions the age of Arganthonius, as stated by him, to have been 152 years. For Tartessus, in Spain, see B. iii. c. 3, and B. iv. c. 36.

1264 His story is told by Ovid, Met. B. x., where he is said to have become unwittingly the father of Adonis, by his own daughter Myrrha (or Smyrna), in consequence of the anger of Venus or Aphrodite. He was said to have founded the city of Cinyra in Cyprus.

1265 Callimachus mentions a person of this name, who wrote a treatise on the art of making cheesecakes. There was also a physician so called, who flourished in the fifth century B.C., and who is said by Galen to have been the first who wrote a treatise on the probe. Whether either of these individuals is the person here alluded to, is unknown.

1266 We have the same statement as to the age of Epimenides, in Valerius Maximus, B. viii. s. 13; he also, in the same section, gives an account of the Epii, of Pictoreus, of Dandon, and of the king of the island of the Tyrians, all of which agree with the present statement, except that the person mentioned by Damastes is called Literius, and the last-named individual is styled the king of the island of the Lutmii.—B.

1267 The king of the Tartessi, mentioned above.—B.

1268 Pliny has already spoken of the vigorous old age of Masinissa, in the 12th Chapter of the present Book.—B.

1269 We have an account of Gorgias in Cicero, de Senect. sec. 9; in Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13, and in Lucian.—B.

1270 Valerius Maximus, ubi supra, reduces this to sixty-two years.—B.

1271 We have the same statement respecting Perperna in Valerius Maximus, but he does not mention his age.—B.

1272 The names of the succeeding censors were C. Claudius Pulcher, and T. Sempronius Gracchus.

1273 V. Maximus gives the same account of the age of Corvinus, but he states the interval between his consulships to have been forty-seven years. According to the Fasti, in Dr. Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities, the interval was forty-eight years, from A.U.C. 406 to A.U.C. 455.—B.

1274 The honour of the curule-chair—“sella curulis.” It was attached to the offices of consul, prætor, and ædile; Corvinus had, therefore, been elected to one or other of these offices twenty-one times.—B.

1275 Valerius Maximus gives the same account of Metellus. He also informs us that Metellus, although of an advanced age when created pontiff, held the office for twenty-two years; so also Cicero, de Senect. sec. 9.—B.

1276 We have the same account of these females in Valerius Maximus. He adds, that Clodia survived all her children; Seneca, Epist. 77, also refers to the great age of Statilia.—B.

1277 “Emboliaria,” an actress in the “embolium,” or interlude of the Roman stage; also called “acroama,” by Cicero. It appears to have been a concert of musical instruments, perhaps accompanied by dancing.

1278 Their consulship was A.U.C. 761.—B.

1279 Their consulship was A.U.C. 671, which would leave an interval of ninety years between her first appearance and her appearance at the votive games.—B.

1280 “Togatus saltare instituit.” He acted in the “togatæ fabulæ,” comedies representing Roman life, or the life of those who wore the toga, the civic costume of the Romans. The Greek comedies were called “palliatæ.”

1281 The secular games of Augustus are stated by Suetonius, in his Life of Augustus, c. 31, and by Dion Cassius, to have taken place A.U.C. 739.—B.

1282 “We have an account of Epigenes, by Hardouin, Lemaire, vol. i. pp. 86, 87, where he is designated Rhodius. He is referred to by Varro, Columella, and Seneca; Pliny mentions him in other parts of his work.—B.

1283 Berosus has been referred to in the 37th Chapter of the present Book.—B.

1284 For some account of Petosiris and Necepsos, see end of B. ii.

1285 Literally, the fourth part; according to Hardouin’s explanation, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 186.—B.

1286 Literally ... “repetitions.” Dalechamps explains it as indicating, “that part of the heavens which is distant thirty parts; that is to say, two signs from the horoscope;” Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 187.—B.

1287 Ajasson refers us to Jul. Firmicus for an explanation of the difference which may exist in the length of the lives of individuals as depending on their natal day; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 186. It appears to have been one of the leading tenets of the astrologers, that the favourable influence of the ascending sign is diminished or counteracted by the rays of other planets, or of the sun, falling upon the sign in certain directions or at certain angles, and that the length of the life of the individual is shortened in proportion to this injurious effect.—B.

1288 This term means, literally, “increasing by a regular scale,” or, “according to a proportional series of numbers;” the multiples of 7 have been generally supposed to be the critical periods of human life, and, more especially, 63, or 9 times 7, which was accordingly termed “the grand climacteric.”—B.

1289 This census appears to have taken place A.D. 74, under the fifth consulship of Vespasian, and the third of Titus; according to Censorinus, it was the last of which we have any distinct account.—B.

1290 “Vasaria;” it is said, by the commentators, to be a term of German origin, derived from a word which signified the bark of a tree. It does not appear, however, from what cause it was appropriated to the sense in which it is used by Pliny. The word is found in Cicero’s oration against Piso, sec. 35; but is there applied to a totally different object.—B.

1291 Now Brigella or Brescella. Parma still retains its ancient name, Placentia is now Piacenza, and Faventia the modern Faenza.

1292 Probably the same as the Velia, mentioned by Phlegon Trallianus as famous for the longevity of its inhabitants.

1293 “Marcus Mucius, M. Filius, Galeria, Felix.” It has been doubted by the commentators, whether the word Galeria refers to the name of the mother of Mucius, or to the tribe to which he belonged. The latter is, perhaps, the more natural interpretation. Hardouin and Ajasson, however, adopt the opinion, that Galeria was the mother of Marcus; Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 191, 192. We meet with a precisely similar construction of words in Cicero, 9th Philip. sec. 7; “Ser. Sulpicius, Q. Filius, Lemonia Rufus.”—B.

1294 The son of Panthöus, and friend of Hector. He was famous for his wisdom and prudence in giving counsel. See Iliad, B. xviii. l. 249-52.

1295 The passage referred to is in the Iliad, B. xviii. l. 249-51.—B.

1296 Respecting Cælius [formerly called Cæcilius in most editions] Hardouin informs us that he was the accuser of Calpurnius, that he was prætor during the consulship of P. Lentulus Spinther and L. Metellus Nepos, and was oppressed by Clodius. Pliny refers to Cælius, and his accusation of Calpurnius, in a subsequent passage, B. xxvii. c. 2.—B. Licinius Calvus Macer was by some considered, as an orator, to rival even Cicero himself; and as a poet, is generally mentioned by the side of Catullus. He exhausted his constitution by his severe application, and died in his thirty-fifth or thirty-sixth year. He was remarkable for the extreme shortness of his stature. Cælius was a partisan of Pompey, and was eventually put to death at Thurii.

1297 Consul A.U.C. 463; he is generally called Rufinus.—B.

1298 This anecdote is mentioned by Cicero, De Nat. Deor. B. iii. c. 28, and by Valerius Maximus, B. i. c. 8.—B. He was tyrant of Pheræ and Tagus in Thessaly, and was finally assassinated.

1299 He was consul A.U.C. 633; in consequence of the victories which he obtained over the Allobroges, he obtained the agnomen of “Allobrogicus.”—B.

1300 Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13, refers to the great age of Xenophilus, but designates him “Pythagoræus;” he says that he obtained his information respecting him from Aristoxenus, the musician, which may have led to an inaccuracy on the part of Pliny. Poinsinet endeavours to reconcile the discrepancy, by the circumstance, that music formed a prominent part of the Pythagorean discipline.—B.

1301 “Per sapientiam mori.” Many conjectures have been formed respecting the meaning of this passage, which is obscure. Attempts have been made to amend the reading of the text, but, as it appears, without success; see the notes of Hardouin, Ajasson, and others, Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 197, 8.—B. It is pretty clear, however, that Pliny here refers to what, in the next Chapter, he calls “sapientiæ ægritudo,” the malady by the Greeks called “phrenesis,” and by us “frenzy,” which attacks the seat of wisdom, the understanding. Many pages have been written upon the meaning of this passage, obvious as it seems to be.

1302 The same doctrine is advanced in B. xxviii., which treats of medicine, see c. 10.—B.

1303 Among the ancients, all the manufactures and mechanical arts were carried on by slaves; they were, consequently, subjected to the same kinds of morbid causes which are found, in modern times, to be so detrimental to certain descriptions of workmen.—B.

1304 Our own experience has taught us the truth of this observation in the case of the cholera; and the great plague of 1348, which is thought to have swept off one-third of mankind, is supposed to have travelled to Europe from the vicinity of the Ganges.

1305 Dalechamps correctly remarks, that the laughter here referred to, is not the indication of mirth, but what has been termed the “risus Sardonicus,” the “Sardonic laugh,” produced by a convulsive action of the muscles of the face; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 201.—B.

1306 “Sapientiæ ægritudine.” See Note 1301 above.

1307 Pliny probably took this notion from Celsus, who speaks of this as being a fatal symptom, B. ii. c. 6; “si manibus qui in febre, &c., in veste floccos legit, fimbriasque diducit....”—B.

1308 “Venarum percussa;” the ancients were not acquainted with the relation which exists between the arteries and the veins, or the appropriate functions of these parts.—B.

1309 In Seneca, Contr. B. ii., we find the remark, “Such genius, at so early an age, bodes no long life.” Apuleius, quoting from some Greek writer, says, “Odi puerulos præcoci sapientiâ.” “I hate your bits of boys, with their precocious wisdom.” We have a somewhat similar saying to the above passage from Seneca, “He is too wise,” or “too clever to live long.”

1310 This remark has been confirmed by various writers, ancient and modern; it appears to depend upon an unnatural development of the cerebral and nervous system, which renders it more liable to disease, and less able to bear the impressions to which it is ordinarily exposed.—B.

1311 This was probably Phthiriasis, or the “morbus pediculosus,” which has been previously mentioned in this book with reference to Sulla, and of which, probably, Herod Agrippa died. Some authors state that Pherecydes put an end to his life by throwing himself from a rock at Delphi; others give other accounts of his death.

1312 This circumstance is mentioned by Seneca, De Provid. c. 3.—B.

1313 We have the same account of Antipater in Valerius Maximus, B. i. c. 8. He was the preceptor of Cato of Utica; Cicero makes honourable mention of him, De Oratore, B. iii. c. 50.—B.

1314 We have an account of the death of Aviola, in Valerius Maximus, B. i. c. 8. This name occurs in the Consular Fasti, A.U.C. 806; but it could not be that of the person referred to by Valerius Maximus, as his work was published under the reign of Tiberius, who died A.U.C. 789. We have also an account of the death of Lamia in Valerius Maximus, as occurring under the same circumstances with that of Aviola.—B.

1315 Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 251, 252, supposes, that Messala and Rufus are the names of two writers, and not, as usually supposed, of one only. The conjecture appears not improbable.—B.

1316 Plutarch, “De Deo Socratis,” gives us the same account of Hermotinus. Ajasson has remarked, not inaptly, that this story is very similar to the modern statements as to the effect of animal magnetism, Lemaire, iii. 207.—B. Apuleius, in his “Defence,” has a passage which is remarkable as clearly bearing reference to the doctrines inculcated by the mesmerists of modern times; be says, “Quin et illud mecum reputo, posse animum humanum, præsertim puerilem et simplicem seu carminum avocamento, sine odorum delenimento, soporari et ad oblivionem præsentium externari; et paulisper remotâ corporis memoriâ, redigi et redire ad naturam suam quæ est immortalis scilicet et divina; atque ita veluti quodam sopore futura rerum præsagire.”

1317 We have no notice of any people, under this appellation, in Greece; Cantharus, however, occurs as the name of an individual, and possibly these may have been his descendants, or the members of his family.—B.

1318 See B. v. c. 44.

1319 We have an account of Aristeas in Herodotus, iv. 13, but somewhat different from that here given; Aristeas is also mentioned by Apollonius in his Hist. Mirab., and A. Gellius, B. ix. c. 4.—B. He was an epic poet, who flourished in the time of Crœsus and Cyrus. Herodotus mentions a story that he reappeared at Metapontum, in Italy, 340 years after his death. He is generally represented as a magician, whose soul could leave, and re-enter his body at pleasure.

1320 A poet and prophet of Crete. The story was, that being sent by his father to fetch a sheep, he went into a cave, and fell into a sleep, from which he did not awake for fifty-seven years. On awaking, he sought for the sheep, and was astonished on finding everything altered. On returning home, he found that his young brother had in the meantime become an aged man. His story is only equalled by the famous one of the Seven Sleepers of Damascus, who fell asleep in the time of the Decian persecution of the Christians, and slept in a cave till the thirtieth year of the reign of the Emperor Theodosius, 196 years. It is not improbable that it is to this story about Epimenides, that we are indebted for the amusing story of Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving.

1321 We have the life of Epimenides by Diogenes Laertius, who gives an account of this long-continued sleep. It is also mentioned by other writers, but there is some difference in their statements as to its length.—B.

1322 According to the interpretation of Dalechamps, “spiritus et animæ interceptioni ac privationi,” “the interception and privation of the breath and faculties;” Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 208.—B.

1323 He probably alludes to what are known among us as hysteria, or hysterical affections.

1324 We have an account of Heraclides in Diogenes Laertius; he was a native of Pontus, and a pupil of Aristotle.—B.

1325 This circumstance is not mentioned in either of the two works of Varro which have come down to us, “De Re Rusticâ,” and “De Linguâ Latinâ.”—B.

1326 They were a body of commissioners appointed for the distribution of lands in Campania; Julius Cæsar, when consul, having caused a law to be passed, dividing that territory among such of the Roman citizens as should have three or more children.

1327 We are not informed, whether these persons of the name of Corfidius, were in any way connected, nor, indeed, do we appear to have any certain knowledge of their history.—B. L. Corfidius, a Roman eques, is mentioned by Cicero, in his oration for Ligarius, B.C. 46, as one of the distinguished men who were then interceding with Cæsar on behalf of Ligarius; but after the oration was published, Cicero was informed that he had made a mistake in mentioning the name of Corfidius, as he had died before the speech was delivered. It does not appear certain that he was one of the parties here mentioned: but it is not improbable that he was the brother whose sudden death is mentioned below.

1328 Among the ancients, servants used to be summoned by clapping the hands, as they are, in modern times, by ringing of bells.—B. The same practice still prevails in the east.

1329 In the twenty-third Chapter of the present Book.—B.

1330 Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 12, and Diodorus Siculus, B. xiii. c. 14, gives the same account. It has been said, that, when he heard the news, he called for a draught of wine, and was choked with a grape-stone; this incident forms the subject of an epigram by Simonides, quoted by Hardouin, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 210.—B.

1331 There is reason to believe, that the prize was given rather to the rank, than to the poetry of Dionysius; see the remarks of Ajasson, Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 210, 211.—B.

1332 This anecdote is related by Livy, B. xxii. c. 7; by Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 12; and by Aulus Gellius, B. iii. c. 15; the two former, however, state, that it occurred after the battle of Thrasymenus.—B.

1333 Cicero, De Fato, sec. 6, styles Diodorus, “valens dialecticus.”—B.

1334 According to Hardouin, these were Lucius, the prætor, and Caius, the father of the dictator; they were brothers, and the sons of C. Cæsar.—B.

1335 Thirty-first of December; consequently his tenure of office was for a few hours only. Cicero indulged in several jokes upon his consulship, remarking that no one had died during it; and that the consul was extremely vigilant, for that he had never slept during his term of office.

1336 This took place A.U.C. 708; Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, gives us an account of the jests passed by Cicero and others on the brief duration of his office.—B.

1337 He is supposed to have been the same person who was consul A.U.C. 732.—B.

1338 The Comitium was a place in the forum at Rome, where the “comitia curiata” were held, and certain offences tried and punished. It was here also that the tribunal, or “suggestum,” was situate.

1339 We are informed by Hardouin, that he held the office of Prætor A.U.C. 660.—B.

1340 “A puero;” not necessarily a slave, as Littrè seems to think.

1341 On Hardouin’s authority, we learn that A. Pompeius was surnamed Bithynicus, and was prætor A.U.C. 680.—B.

1342 The death of Thalna is given somewhat more in detail by Valerius Maximus, B. ix. c. 12; it took place A.U.C. 590.—B.

1343 The ancients reckoned the hours from sun-rise; in summer, the second hour of the day would be six o’clock A.M., and in the winter, a quarter past eight.—B.

1344 Bankers, and usurers more especially, had their shops in the Roman Forum.

1345 “Cum vadimonium differri jubet.”—B.

1346 Augustus built a third Forum, because the old one and that of Julius Cæsar, were not found sufficient for the great increase of business. He adorned it with a temple of Mars, and the statues of the most distinguished Romans.

1347 According to Hardouin, this ivory statue was in the eighth region of the city.—B.

1348 “Specillum;” this instrument is mentioned by Celsus, B. vi. c. 6, 25, et alibi. There has been a considerable discussion among the commentators respecting the “specillum;” see Lemaire, vol. iii. pp. 213, 214. From the uses to which it was applied by Celsus, we can have little doubt upon the subject. Poinsinet and Ajasson employ the equivalent French term “eprouvette.”—B.

1349 “Mulsum” was the most universally esteemed of all the beverages used among the Romans. It seems to have been of two kinds: in the one case honey was mixed with wine, in the other with must. Massic or Falernian wine was preferred for the purpose, and new Attic honey. The proportions were four measures of wine to one of honey; and various perfumes and spices were added. See B. xxii, c. 4. It was especially valued as the most appropriate draught on an empty stomach.

1350 The Cornelius Gallus here mentioned could not have been the poet of the same name, because, as we are informed, he died by his own hand. The death of the poet Gallus is alluded to by Ovid, Amores, B. iii. El. 9, l. 64.—B. A similar fate is said, by Tertullian, to have overtaken Speusippus, the Platonic philosopher. The same was also said by some of the poet Pindar.

1351 Val. Maximus, B. ix. c. 12, gives the same account of the death of Gallus and Haterius.—B.

1352 Which was usually worn by the Romans at their entertainments.

1353 Considering some of the above cases, Pliny must have had a curious notion of a happy death. Ovid would have agreed with him in one respect; for in his amatory poems, he expresses a wish that he may die of a surfeit of sensual enjoyment.

1354 The great-grandfather of the Emperor Nero. We have a reference to his death by Seneca, De Benef. B. iii. c. 24, and a more full account of it by Suetonius, Life of Nero, c. 2.—B.

1355 The charioteers at Rome were divided into four companies, or “factiones,” each distinguished by a colour, representing the season of the year. These colours were green for the spring, red for the summer, azure for autumn, and white for the winter. Domitian afterwards increased them to six, adding the golden and the purple. The most ardent party spirit prevailed among them, and the interest in their success extended to all classes and both sexes.

1356 In the thirty-sixth Chapter of this Book.—B.

1357 It would appear, from Dalechamps and Hardouin, that this statement, respecting the period when the custom of burning the body after death was first adopted by the Romans, is incorrect, Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 219. There is much uncertainty as to its origin, and the source from which they borrowed it. We learn from Macrobius, that the practice was discontinued in his time, i. e. in the fourth century after Christ.—B.

1358 We have the same remarks, respecting the antiquity of the custom of interring the body, the continued adoption of it by the Cornelian family, and the supposed notion of Sylla, in ordering his own body to be burnt, in Cicero, De Leg. B. ii. c. 22, from whom it is probable Pliny may have borrowed them.—B.

1359 We have no English term that will preserve the distinction which Pliny makes between the two modes of disposing of the body after death.—B.

1360 He views the state after death in the same light as Democritus and Epicurus, utterly denying the immortality of the soul; though it cannot be said that he looks upon life in the same cheerful, laissez-faire manner in which it was regarded by the latter of these philosophers.

1361 Hardouin remarks, that the ancients made a distinction between the souls of the dead, and their spirits or shades, “umbræ.” The former were supposed to remain on the earth, while the latter were removed either to Elysium or to Tartarus, according to the character or actions of the deceased.—B.

1362 According to Varro, Democritus directs, that the body shall not be burnt after death, but preserved in honey; on which Varro remarks, how greatly such a practice would tend to raise the price of that article.—B.

1363 It has been conjectured, that Bacchus derived his name from the Greek word Βάσκω, on account of his numerous journies into different parts of the world; it was during these that he conveyed to the various nations which he visited the arts of civilized life.—B.

1364 We have a long discussion by Poinsinet, vol. iii. pp. 234, 235, on the derivation of the name of Ceres, in which he endeavours to explain the various attributes that were ascribed to her. The character in which she was generally regarded by the writers of antiquity, was the one here given to her by Pliny; in proof of which we may refer, among other authorities, to Virgil, Geor. B. i. l. 147. and to Ovid, Metam. B. iii. l. 341.—B.

1365 The earliest method of reducing corn to the state proper for the food of man, was by pounding it in a mortar; afterwards, when it was ground between stones, they were moved by the hand, as is still the practice in many parts of the East. It was not until a comparatively late period that water was employed as the moving power for mills.—B.