[670] Laqueos. Ov., Met., iv., 176, "Extemplo graciles ex ære catenas, Retiaque et laqueos quæ lumina fallere possint, elimat." Art. Am., ii., 561, seq. Hom., Odyss., viii., 266.
[671] Servilia; i. e., some one as rich and debauched as Servilia, sister of Cato and mother of Brutus, with whom Cæsar intrigued, and lavished immense wealth on her. Vid. Suet, Jul., 50. Her sister, the wife of Lucullus, was equally depraved.
[672] Mores.
"In all things else, immoral, stingy, mean,
But in her lusts a conscionable quean." Dryden.
[673] Hæc, sc. Phædra, daughter of Minos, king of Crete.
[674] Stimulos.
"A woman scorn'd is pitiless as fate,
For then the dread of shame adds stings to hate." Gifford.
[675] Cæsaris uxor. The story is told in Tacitus, Ann., xi., 12, seq. "In Silium, juventutis Romanæ pulcherrimum ita exarserat, ut Juniam Silanam nobilem fœminam, matrimonio ejus exturbaret vacuoque adultero potiretur. Neque Silius flagitii aut periculi nescius erat: sed certo si abnueret exitio et nonnullâ fallendi spe, simul magnis præmiis, opperiri futura, et præsentibus frui, pro solatio habebat." This happened A.D. 48, in the autumn, while Claudius was at Ostia. It was with great difficulty, after all, that Narcissus prevailed on Claudius to order Messalina's execution, cf. xiv., 331; Tac., Ann., xi., 37; and she was put to death at last without his knowledge.
[676] Auspex. Suet., Claud. "Cum comperisset [Valeriam Messalinam] super cætera flagitia atque dedecora, C. Silio etiam nupsisse, dote inter auspices consignatâ, supplicio affecit." C. 26; cf. 36, 39.
[677] Lucernas. "Before the evening lamps 'tis thine to die." Badham.