[845] Miranti is quite Juvenalian, and better than the common reading "Mirandis," or the suggestion "liranti."
[846] Mulæ. Cf. Cic., de Div., ii., 28, "Si quod rarò fit, id portentum putandum est sapientem esse portentum est; sæpius enim mulam peperisse arbitror, quam sapientem fuisse."
[847] Lapides. Cf. Liv., xxxix., 37. This prodigy was one of the causes of consulting the sacred books, which led to the introduction of the worship of Bona Dea to Rome. Cf. ad ix., 37. Liv., xxii., 1, "Præneste ardentes lapides cœlo cecidisse."
[848] Apium. Cf. Liv., xxiv., 10. Tac., Ann., xii., 64, "Fastigio Capitolii examen apium insedit: biformes hominem partus." Plin., xi., 17.
[849] Gurgitibus. Liv., xix., 44, "Flumen Amiterni cruentum fluxisse." Virg., Georg., i., 485, "Aut puteis manare cruor cessavit."
[850] Arcana. "Fidei alterius tacitè commissa sine ullis testibus." Lubin. Another interpretation is, "that, having lost it, he held his tongue, and complained to no one."
[851] Superos.
"Those conscious powers we can with ease contemn,
If, hid from men, we trust our crimes with them." Dryden.
[852] Cirrhæi, from Cirrha in Phocis, near the foot of Mount Parnassus, the port of Delphi. Cf. vii., 64, "Dominis Cirrhæ Nysæque feruntur Pectora."
[853] Spicula; probably from Tibull., I., iv., 21.