[13] Our heart in its tender mercy. See Suet. Dom. 11: “He never uttered a harsh sentence, without a preface about his mildness.”
[14] Toga Virilis. Donning the toga virilis, by which the boy was regarded as a man, was an important family festival.
[15] Rhea gave birth to Zeus. Zeus, according to Greek tradition, was born of Rhea, in a cave on Mt. Ida, at Crete.
[16] Pylian Nestor. Nestor, king of Pylos, was considered in ancient times the type of vigorous old age.
[17] Feast of Minerva. Reference is here made to the Quinquatria (a five-day festival, principally for the benefit of workmen, artists, etc., as well as school-boys) which Domitian ordered to be annually celebrated in the month of March, at his Albanian estate.
[18] This poem is an almost literal translation from Martial, Ep. IV, 1.
[19] He was writing down on a wooden tablet the names of those whom he devoted to death. The story of this wooden tablet, according to its actual characters, is borrowed from the account of Dio Cassius, (LXVII, 15).
[20] Garum. A delicacy similar to our caviare, prepared from the entrails of sea-fish.
[21] Milk cooled with ice. In well-to-do families, the drinks, etc. during the warm season of the year, were cooled by snow or ice. See Mart. Ep. XII, 17 (“Caecubum cooled with snow-water”) XIV, 103, 104, etc.
[22] Fathers. This nearly corresponds with the Latin patres conscripti, as the senators were called.