[43] Semele, the daughter of the Theban king Cadmus, at the instigation of the jealous Hera, entreated Zeus, who loved her, to appear before her in all the splendor of his divine majesty. As Zeus had sworn by the Styx to grant her request, he was bound. He approached the unfortunate girl with lightning and thunder—and the heavenly flames consumed her. Dying, she gave birth to Dionysus (Bacchus).
[44] The room quivered under her feet. Hippolytus, in his “Refutation of Heresies,” gives a number of directions for the magical appearances commonly used by the conjurers and miracle-workers of those times; among them is one in a MS. not wholly preserved, for the production of an earthquake.
[45] Pulvinar (from pulvinus, the pillow and cushion) was originally the name given to a cushioned seat covered with costly tapestry, placed for the gods at the so-called lectisternium (banquet of the gods). Statues of the gods were placed on this pulvinar, and food was offered them, (See Liv. V, 13, 16). But the name was also applied to the couches of goddesses and empresses—(See Cat. 64; Ov. Pont. II, 2, 71; Juv. VI, 31)—and lastly to the cushions of the imperial box at the circus and amphitheatre. See Suet. A. 45.
[46] Well—that blood has been shed. See Suet. Dom. 16, where it is related that the emperor, tortured by forebodings, once accidently scratched himself till the blood came, and then exclaimed: “Would this might be enough!”
[47] Apodyterium, (ἀποδυτήριον) the room where the clothing was removed at the baths. See Plin. Ep. V, 6, where a dressing-room at the bath of a villa is mentioned.
[48] Elaothesium, (ἐλαιοθήσιον) the anointing-room, the oil-room. See Vitr. V. 11, 2.
[49] Gymnasium, (γυμνάσιον] from γυμνός, naked) the wrestling-room.
[50] Will of a childless senator. See note, [324], Vol. I. That such stories of wills formed one of the principal subjects of city gossip (fabulae urbis) appears in Juv. Sat. I, 144, where the failure of a will attracts attention, and Plin. Ep. VIII, 18, where the will of Domitius Tullus is mentioned. The passage runs as follows: “The most contradictory rumors are circulating through the whole city. Many call him ungrateful, false and faithless.... Others, on the contrary, praise him, because he disappointed the unworthy hopes of these people.” And at the close of the long letter: “Now you know all the city news, for nothing is talked of except Tullus.”
[51] An incident in the life of a certain attorney-at-law. The following episode was suggested by Mart. Ep. IV, 46, where a lawyer named Sabellus, is derided precisely as here described. There, however, the point in question did not concern the payment for a lawsuit won, but the customary gifts at the Saturnalia. The lines given as improvised verse, a little farther on, are to be found in Martial (verse 5-10.)
[52] Falernian chitterlings, from the Etruscan city of Falerii. The inhabitants of this city were called Faliscans.