[Chapter 6.] Nabataea, a district at the north-east end of the Red Sea.
Arsaces, a king of Persia (perhaps Artaxerxes II, 379 b.c.) from whom the Parthian kings traced their descent. Here Arsacidae = Parthians.
Ityraea, a district under Mount Hermon to the north of Bashan.
Ganges. The quotation is from Statius, Silvae, ii. 4. 25.
wash gold. Lat. colare = to strain, sift.
[Chapter 7.] Alexander. This story of his portraits is told by many writers, though Lysippus is substituted for Polycletus by the more accurate, inasmuch as Polycletus was a sculptor of the fifth century, and contemporary with Pheidias! This is quite characteristic of Apuleius.
Apelles, the greatest of Greek painters, floruit circa 332 b.c.
Pyrgoteles, one of the most famous gem-engravers of Greece. Little is known of him beyond this story.
the professor's gown. Cp. Aulus Gellius, ix. 2, where a man with a long beard and huge cloak tries to persuade Herodes Atticus that he is a philosopher. Herodes replies, 'I see the cloak and the gown, but not the philosopher.'
[Chapter 9.] Hippias of Elis, one of the early sophists (middle of the fifth century b.c.); cp. Plat. Hipp. Min. 368 b.