7. strangulātus vel venēnō: he was poisoned and afterwards strangled by his favorite Marcia.
Ch. 16.
11. Pertināx: Creighton, p. 103.
Ch. 17.
18. perpetuum composuit ēdictum: this was a digest of the mass of edicts that had been issued by the praetors and the provincial governors. It was the basis of the Corpus Iūris Cīvīlis of Justinian.
19. Mulvium pontem: about two miles north of Rome, on the Via Flaminia. Here the ambassadors of the Allobroges, that had been tampered with by the fellow-conspirators of Catiline, were arrested, 63 B.C. The foundations of this bridge still remain and are built into the Ponte Mollo at the same place.
Ch. 18.
21. Septimius Sevērus: Lucius Septimius Severus was commander in chief of the army in Pannonia and Illyria at the death of Pertinax, 193 A.D. He was proclaimed emperor by the army. For nearly a hundred years the emperors were made and unmade at the will of the soldiers. Creighton, p. 104.
23. omnī memoriā: ‘in all time.’
24. fiscī advocātus: a Roman officer appointed to look after the interests of the imperial treasury.