[90] Tagus, a famous river in Spain, which discharges itself into the ocean near Lisbon, in Portugal. It was held of old to be full of golden sands.
[91] Orontes, the greatest river of Syria. The poet here puts the river for the inhabitants of Syria.
[92] Romulus was the first king of Rome, and son of Mars, as the poets feign. The first Romans were herdsmen.
[93] Athens, of which Pallas, the Goddess of Arms and Arts, was patroness.
[94] Antiochus and Stratocles, two famous Grecian mimics, or actors, in the poet's time.
[95] Publius Egnatius, a stoick, falsely accused Bareas Soranus, as Tacitus tells us.
[96] Grecians living in Rome.
[97] Lucius Metellus, the high priest, who, when the temple of Vesta was on fire, saved the Palladium.
[98] Roscius, a tribune, ordered the distinction of places at public shows, betwixt the noblemen of Rome and the plebeians.
[99] Alluding to the secession of the Plebeians to the Mons Sacer, or Sacred Hill, as it was called, when they were persecuted by the aristocracy. This very extraordinary resignation of their faculty, on the part of the common people, was not singular in the Roman history. It argues a much more inconsiderable population than the ancient writers would have us believe. Editor.