Serranus. See [note on chap. 10].
[Chapter 89.] Multiplying by four. The pun in the word quadruplator cannot be reproduced in English. The name was given to a public informer who sued for a fourfold penalty.
a slip in the gesture. Bede (Op. Colon., mdcxii, vol. i, p. 132 b) says, 'When you say ten, you will place the nail of the forefinger against the middle joint of the thumb, when you say thirty, you will join the nails of thumb and forefinger in a gentle embrace.' Here the MSS. read adperisse, which suggests aperuisse. But aperuisse does not naturally express the gesture described by Bede, and Helm's emendation adgessisse seems necessary.
[Chapter 90.] Carmendas, Damigeron, &c. Carmendas is unknown. Damigeron is mentioned elsewhere as a magician (Tertull. de Anima, 57), but nothing is known of him. Moses appears as a magician in the magical papyri (Griffiths Thompson pap. col. v, p. 47 (13)). The miracles wrought by Moses in Egypt sufficiently account for this. Jannes, one of the Egyptian magicians worsted by Moses. Cp. Epistle to Timothy ii. 3. 8. Apollobex, a magician named Apollobeches is mentioned by Pliny, N.H. xxx. 9, as also is Dardanus. For Ostanes and Zoroaster see chaps. [25] and [27], notes.
[Chapter 95.] Cato, the earliest of the great orators of Rome: for his excellences see Cicero, Brutus, 65 sqq. (Cp. [note on chap. 17]).
Laelius, see [note on chap. 20]. Cicero selects lenitas as the chief characteristic of his style (de Orat. iii. 7. 28).
Gracchus (Caius Sempronius) was famous for the fire of his oratory (cp. Cic. Brut. 125, 126, de Orat. iii. 56. 214).
Caesar is generally praised chiefly for elegantia in his oratory, rather than for his warmth (cp. Cic. Brut. 252, 261, Quint. x. 1. 114).
Hortensius, Cicero's chief rival: a master of the Asiatic style (cp. Cic. Brut. 228, 9. 302, 3. 325-8).
Calvus, a contemporary of Cicero. One of the chief representatives of the Attic style (cp. Cic. Brut. 283).