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1 "Sagum." This was the cloak worn by the Roman soldiers and inferior officers, in contradistinction to the "paludamentum" of the general and superior officers. It was open in the front, and usually, though not always, fastened across the shoulders by a clasp. It was thick, and made of wool.
2 This story is given also by Plutarch, in the life of Demetrius. Lysimachus was a Macedonian by birth, but son of Agathocles, a serf of Thessaly. Through his great courage, he became one of the body-guard of Alexander. Quintus Curtius tells us that, when hunting in Syria, he killed a lion of immense size single-handed, though not without receiving severe wounds in the contest. The same author looks upon this as the probable origin of the story here referred to by Pliny.
3 This is mentioned by many ancient authors; by Plutarch, Pausanias, Seneca, Justin, and by Quintus Curtius, who thinks that the account usually given is fabulous.—B.
4 Related by Plutarch, as among the acts of extravagance and folly, committed by Antony, which gave much disgust to the grave and respectable citizens of Rome.—B.
5 A famous courtezan of the time of Cicero; being originally the freed- woman and mistress of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and then successively the mistress of Antony and the poet Gallus, who mentioned her in his poems under the name of Lycoris; she did not, however, continue faithful to him.
6 Aulus Gellius, B. v. c. 14, and Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. viii. c. 48, relate a similar anecdote of Androclus or Androcles, who extracted a thorn from the foot of a lion.—B.
7 The text is in a state of extreme confusion here, and so hopelessly man- gled, that we can only guess at the sense of it. In Sillig's edition, which is generally followed, it runs to this effect: "Neque profugienti, cum potuisset, fera institerat et procumbens ad arborem hiatu quo terruerat miserationem quærebat. Os morsu avidiore inhæserat dentibus cruciabatque inedia, turn pœna in ipsis ejus telis suspectantem ac velut mutis precibus orantem, dum fortuitu fidens non est contra feram; multoque diutius miraculo quam metu cessatum est." Thus paraphrased by Sillig, who devotes a long Note to it: "The lion, therefore, being tormented by hunger and excessive pain, and thus punishing himself for his greediness in his own weapons (his teeth), looked up, and besought Elpis with silent prayers, as it were, not, as he trusted to the protection fortuitously given by the branches, to show himself distrustful of a wild beast."
8 This remark refers to what Pliny has related in c. 5, respecting the sagacity of the elephant.—B.
9 Cuvier remarks, that this "panthera" is not the same as the πάνθηρ of the Greeks. From the description of its spots and other circumstances, he thinks that it was one of the African animals, known by modern naturalists as the leopard, which appear to have been confounded by the Romans with the panther. The term "leopardus " is not met with until after the age of Pliny; it was supposed to be the produce of the pardus, or male panther, and the lioness.—B.
10 "Assectatoris sapientiæ"—"A follower of wisdom;" meaning a "philosopher."
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- Commentary references to this page
(1):
- E. T. Merrill, Commentary on Catullus, 45
- Cross-references to this page
(5):
- Harper's, Circus
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), AMPHITHEA´TRUM
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), CIRCUS
- A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), VENA´TIO
- Smith's Bio, Hanno
- Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page
(10):
- Lewis & Short, clāthri
- Lewis & Short, ēruptĭo
- Lewis & Short, eurīpus
- Lewis & Short, ferrĕus
- Lewis & Short, imprĕcor
- Lewis & Short, ĭn-ēnarrābĭlis
- Lewis & Short, lāmentātĭo
- Lewis & Short, lŏcus
- Lewis & Short, supplĭco
- Lewis & Short, tristĭtĭa