[37] Second crop of grass.
[38] An allusion to the hostility of Æetes, Medea’s father, and his fire-breathing bulls, which Jason was required to tame before he could get possession of the Golden Fleece.
[39] An allusion to the fate of Empedocles himself; see p. 236.
[40] From Saturn, an ancient Italian god fabled to have instructed the people in agriculture. The metre was accommodated to the rapid beats of the foot in the country dances at harvest-time.
[41] From Fescennium, an Etruscan town.
[42] When the Roman audience heard this sentiment, they shook the theatre with their applause.
[43] A Roman knight, Laberius, who had lost caste by appearing on the stage, made a good hit at Cicero, for his political non-committalism. As he was going to his place in the theatre one day, Cicero, who was seated in the orchestra, called out to him, “Laberius, I would make room for you, if we were not so crowded here.”—“You crowded!” answered Laberius. “Why, how is that? you generally manage to sit on two stools.”
[44] Allusion is here made to Antony’s purchase of the goods of Pompey the Great, at auction, after the defeat of the latter in the civil war.
[45] The last word of the play, which invites the applause of the audience.
[46] Amphiara’us, whose wife betrayed him for a pearl necklace, and was afterward murdered by her son.