6. Vernae were slaves born in the household of their masters, sometimes his own children by a female slave. The licentia vernularum was proverbial in Rome. The vernae and vernulae were allowed privileges not accorded to slaves obtained by purchase.
II.
In suum colorem, to its colors. The parties represented in the race-course were distinguished by different colors. The significance of the expression is therefore evident. Another less probable explanation of the passage is that the author has reference to the effect of red wine when mixed with liquids of another color.
3. As the holidays in Rome were very numerous much time was lost by those who spent all of them in idleness.
7. Cato, surnamed Uticensis, is here meant. He was the patron saint of the Roman Stoics.
9. The sentence here translated, “For death,” etc., may also mean, “For it requires less courage to meet death (once) than to seek it a second time.”
III.
6. The wild boar roasted whole was generally placed on the center of the table. Around it were piled fruits, vegetables, etc.
7. Tua felicitas. Sulla called himself Felix, and in the next section we find this epithet applied to him. The atrocities he committed are familiar to every reader of Roman history.
8. The Cornelian law. The Roman Legal Code was greatly modified under the inspiration of Sulla. The statute here referred to, fixed the penalty for homicide and similar crimes. It bore its author’s gentile name.