Cicero, De Senectute, xiii. § 44.
18 cereo funali,* i.e. torchlight.
nullo exemplo = without any precedent.
18-19 sibi . . . sumpserat. Cicero is wrong: more probably the honour was conferred on Duilius by a vote of the Comitia Tributa.
19 dabat = excused; lit. granted, allowed.— J. S. Reid.
* The funale was a torch composed of twigs twisted into a rope (funis) and dipped in pitch or oil.—J. S. R.
References. Polybius, i. 22, for a description of the corvi, κόρακες. Sir Andrew Barton (Percy’s Reliques). Lord Howard says:—
‘Were twenty shippes, and he but one,
I swear by kirke and bower and hall,
He would overcome them every one