[1375] Torosa. Applied properly to the broad muscles in the breast of a bull. Ov., Met., vii., 428, "Feriuntque secures Colla torosa boüm."
[1376] Surrentina. Surrentum, now "Sorrento," on the coast of Campania, was famous for its wines. Ov., Met., xv., 710, "Et Surrentino generosos palmite colles." Pliny assigns it the third place in wines, ranking it immediately after the Setine and Falernian. He says it was peculiarly adapted to persons recovering from sickness. XIV., vi., 8; XXIII., i., 20. Surrentum was also famous for its drinking-cups of pottery-ware. XIV., ii, 4. Mart., xiv., Ep. 102; xiii., 110.
[1377] Tremor. So Hor., i, Epist. xvi., 22, "Occultam febrem sub tempus edendi dissimules, donec manibus tremor incidat unctis."
[1378] Trientem, or triental, a cup containing the third part of the sextarius (which is within a fraction of a pint), equal to four cyathi Cf. Mart., vi., Ep. 86, "Setinum, dominæque nives, densique trientes, Quando ego vos medico non prohibente bibam?"
[1379] Amomis. Juv., iv., 108, "Et matutino sudans Crispinus amomo, Quantum vix redolent duo funera." The amomum was an Assyrian shrub with a white flower, from which a very costly perfume was made. Plin., xiii., 1.
[1380] Rigidos calces. Vid. Plin., vii., 8. The dead body was always carried out with the feet foremost.
[1381] Hesterni Quirites. Slaves, when manumitted, shaved their heads, to show that, like shipwrecked mariners (Juv., xii., 81), they had escaped the storms of slavery, and then received a pileus (v., 82) in the temple of Feronia. Cf. Plaut., Amph., I., i., 306. The temple, according to one legend, was founded by some Lacedæmonians who quitted Sparta to escape from the severity of Lycurgus' laws. Many persons freed all their slaves at their death, out of vanity, that they might have a numerous body of freedmen to attend their funeral.
[1382] Visa est. So iv., 47, "Viso si palles improbe numo."
[1383] Cribro. The coarse sieve of the common people would let through much of the bran. The Romans were very particular about the quality of their bread. Cf. Juv., v., 67, seq.
[1384] Beta. Martial calls them fatuæ, from their insipid flavor without some condiment, and "fabrorum prandia." xiii., Ep. xiii.