[17] The Oscan form of Pacuvi.
[18] The term doctus refers to his knowledge of the Greek laws of artistic composition.
[19] After Ambivius’ name appears in most of the didascaliae ‘L. Hatilius Praenestinus.’ Probably this person was an actor at some later productions, and his name has in this way crept into the MSS.
[20] Tibiae were called pares or impares according as they were or were not of the same length and key. Duae dextrae were two pipes both playing the treble. Tibiae Sarranae, from Sarra, the old Latin name for Tyre, were a special form of tibiae pares.
[21] Mediocritas = τὸ μέσον, the intermediate style between τὸ ἁδρόν, ‘the florid’ (ubertas), and τὸ ἰσχνόν, ‘the simple’ (gracilitas). See W. Peterson’s note on Quint. x. 1, 44.
[22] For the omission of names, cf. iv. 12 (Jordan), ‘dictatorem Karthaginiensium magister equitum monuit’ (of Hannibal and Maharbal).
[23] This means that Lucilius would represent the nom. plu. by -ei and the gen. sing, by -i.
[24] The fabula Atellana was a species of farce adopted by the Romans from the Oscan town of Atella in Campania. See Livy, vii. 2, for this and the early history of the Roman drama.
[25] Q. Hortensius Hortalus (B.C. 114-50), Cicero’s rival as an orator, and author of Annales (Vell. ii. 16, 3), a Rhetoric (Quint. ii. 1, 11), and love poems (Ovid Tr. ii. 441).
[26] According to ad Att. ii. 1, 3 (if genuine), Cicero intended to publish speeches 9-11 in a collection of ‘orationes consulares’ (‘Hoc totum σῶμα curabo ut habeas’).