[118] Pliny the Younger. C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, a nephew and adopted son of the older Pliny, was born A.D. 62, at Novum Comum, now Como, on the Lake Larius, Lake of Como, on the banks of which he had several villas. (Ep. IX. 7.) He died about the year 114. A clever writer, a skilful statesman, an enthusiast for everything good and beautiful, he possessed an amiable character, but cannot be wholly absolved from the reproach of self-sufficiency. His writings, especially his letters, are an important source of information concerning the social conditions of that period. The passage in Pliny to which allusion is here made, runs: "Oh, sea! Oh, strand! Thou beloved Museion! How much ye compose and create for me!“
[119] On its pivot. Doors were not usually hung on hinges, as with us, but had on their upper and lower edges wedge-shaped pivots (cardines) which fitted into corresponding depressions in the threshold and upper part of the frame.
[120] Friend. Quintus would speak of Eurymachus as the ‘friend’ of Euterpe with intentional double meaning, half in the usual honest sense, but partly too in the sense which the feminine form, amica, had acquired in the course of time; a signification so ambiguous, that the bluntest frankness was better.
[121] Sesame cake. Sesamum σήσαμον was a plant with pods, from whose fruit was obtained a savory meal or oil.
[122] The use of spoons was not so general in Rome as with us, but was certainly customary for eating eggs in good society.
[123] Hymenaeus. A well-known poem by Catullus; the burden is: ”O Hymen, Hymenae!" (Carmen 61, Collis o Heliconis.)
[124] Caius (or Quintus) Valerius Catullus was a native of Verona (B.C. 77) and died at the age of thirty. His works were most popular at the period of our story. Martial frequently compares himself with Catullus as a recognized classic, and in one passage hopes that he may one day be esteemed as second only to Catullus. Herodianus takes one of Catullus’s poems as a model, just as a worthy citizen of Germany, who wished to essay lyric poetry, might copy Schiller.
[125] The capitoline hill. Mons Capitolinus, north of the Palatine and southwest of the Quirinal. Tarquinius Priscus erected on its summit the Capitolium, that is the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno and Minerva.
[126] Forum Romanum. The Roman forum par excellence, at the foot of the Capitoline and Palatine Hills, was the centre of public life even in the days of the republic.
[127] The sacred way (Sacra Via) divided the real Sacra Via, which led from the Capitol to the Arch of Titus, and the Summa Sacra Via (the upper sacred street) that extended from the Arch of Titus to the Flavian Amphitheatre. Hor. Sat. I, 9 (Ibam forte Via Sacra, sicut meus est mos.) It was the most frequented street in Rome. The ancient pavement exists at the present day. “Via” was the name of the large principal streets, as it still is at the present time in Italy.