[540] Flosculus. For many exquisite parallel passages to this, see Gifford's note.
[541] Dum bibimus.
"And while thou call'st for garlands, girls, and wine,
Comes stealthy age, and bids thee all resign." Badham.
[542] Digito. Effeminate wretches, who, as Holyday says, like women, are afraid of touching their heads with more than a finger, for fear of discomposing their curls. Pompey had this charge brought against him by one Calvus; and cf. Plut. in Vit., 48. Amm. Marcell., XVII., xi.
[543] Lares, cf. xii., 87. Hor., iii., Od. xxiii., 15, "Parvos coronantem marino Rore Deos, fragilique myrto." Plin., xi., 2, "Numa instituit deos fruge colere, et mola salsa supplicare et far torrere."
[544] Figam, a metaphor from hunting.—Tegete, cf. v., 8, "Nusquam pons et tegetis pars."—Baculo, cf. Ter., Heaut., V., i., 58.
[545] C. Fabricius Luscinus, when censor, removed from the senate P. Cornelius Rufinus, who had been twice consul and once dictator, for having in his possession more than ten pounds' weight of plate. Liv., Epit., xiv. He was censor A.U.C. 478. Cf. xi., 90, seq.
[546] Duo fortes. Persons of moderate fortune rode in their sella gestatoria, a sedan borne by two persons. The rich had litters or palanquins, called hexaphori, or octophori, according to the number of the lecticarii. Cf. i., 64. Mœsia, now Bulgaria and Servia, is said to have been famous for producing these brawny chairmen.
[547] Curvus. So Lubinus interprets it. "Cum enim laborat se incur vat." Cf. Virg., Eccl., iii., 42, "curvus arator;" so Art. Am., ii., 670, "Curva senectus." Or from his assiduity, "qui assiduus in opere est." Madan says, "Curvus means crooked, that hath turnings and windings; and this latter, in a mental sense, denotes cunning, which is often used for skillful." Cf. Exod., xxxviii., 23. The old Schol. explains it by Anaglyptarius, "a carver in low relief."
[548] Pingit. Others read fingit, and interpret it of "plaster casts." It probably refers to the "line of painted busts" to deck his corridor, perhaps of fictitious ancestors. Cf. viii., 2, "Pictosque ostendere vultus majorum."