FOOTNOTES:
[1746] Jugurthinus is properly the proud title of Marius. (Ov., Pont., IV., iii., 45, "Ille Jugurthino clarus Cimbroque triumpho.") It is here applied ironically to Lucius Opimius, who so notoriously received bribes from Jugurtha, when he went over, as chief of the ten commissioners, to arrange the division of the kingdom between Jugurtha and Adherbal, B.C. 117. (Sall., Bell. Jug., xvi.) He had been before honorably distinguished by the taking of Fregellæ, when in rebellion against Rome, while he was prætor. The safety of the Roman state had also been committed to him when consul (B.C. 121) during the riots of Caius Gracchus, which by his prompt measures he was the main instrument in quelling. (Hence Cicero styles him "civis præstantissimus." Brut., 34.) For this he was accused by the democratic party, but was acquitted; his defense being conducted by the same Papirius Carbo who had assailed Scipio Africanus after the death of Tiberius Gracchus ("aliâ tum mente Rempublicam capessens." Cic., de Or., ii., 25). The partisans of Gracchus, however, afterward crushed him by means of the Mamilian law, along with many other excellent men. Cic., Brut., u. s. Sall., Bell. Jug., 40. He was consul with Q. Fabius Maximus, who that year overthrew the Allobroges and Arverni. His consulship was long remembered as having been a splendid year for wine, hence called Opimianum. Cic., Brut., 83. Of his father Quintus, Cicero speaks in nearly the same terms as Lucilius does here: "Q. Opimius, consularis, qui adolescentulus malè audisset." De Orat., ii., 68.
[1747] Cephalo, like Capito, was probably a nickname from the size of his head. Sector is used by Plautus exactly in the sense of the English "cut-purse." Sector Zonarius, i. e., Crumeniseca, βαλαντιοτόμος. Trinum., IV., ii., 20. It is applied by Cicero to a mean fellow, who buys at auction the confiscated goods of proscribed persons to retail again. Cic., Rosc. Am., 29. Ascon. in Verr., II., i., 20. Cf. Nonius, s. v. Secare. Damnare, i. e., "exhæredare." Non.
[1748] παναίθου (cf. Horn., Il. xiv., 372) is an epithet applied to a helmet. Why it was given to this Cotta is not known. Gerlach supposes him to be the L. Cotta mentioned by Cicero (de Orat., iii., 11) as affecting a coarse and rustic style of speaking, "gaudere videtur gravitate linguæ, sonoque vocis agresti," and that this name was given him by way of irony. He would be most justly entitled to the epithet of Crassus, "the coarse," which was probably given for the same reason. (Crassus not being the regular cognomen of the Aurelian gens, to which Cotta belonged, but of the Licinian.) Valerius Maximus gives a story of the sordid avarice of the father, which illustrates what Lucilius says, that when tribune of the Plebs he took advantage of the "sacrosanct" character of his office to refuse paying his creditors their just claims, but was compelled to do so by his colleagues. (Pighius assigns this event to B.C. 155.) He was afterward accused by P. Corn. Scipio Africanus minor; but being defended by Q. Metellus Macedonicus, was acquitted. Cf. Cic., Brut., 21, where he gives him the epithet "veterator." He was one of the partisans of the Gracchi.
[1749] Asellus is probably the same whom Cicero mentions (de Orat., ii., 64), about whom Scipio made the pun, which is, of course, as Cicero says, untranslatable: "Cum Asellus omnes provincias stipendia merentem se peragrâsse gloriaretur, 'Agas Asellum,'" etc.
[1750] Granius, a præco, though a great favorite with the plebeians, who used to retail his witticisms with great zest, was on terms of intimate friendship with Crassus, Catulus, T. Tinca Placentinus, and other men of high rank, whom he used to criticise with the greatest severity and freedom, and hold, especially with the latter, contests in sharp repartee. (Vid. Cic., Brut., 43, 46: de Orat., ii., 60, 70, where some of his witticisms are quoted.)
[1751] Gerlach refers this Fragment to the presents sent by Attalus. "Datis" he takes to mean any common name, but would suggest "ducis."
[1752] Rudus is applied to a mixture of stones, gravel, and rubble, cemented together with lime, used by the Romans as a substratum for a path or pavement. Cat., R. R., 18. Plin., xxxvi., 25. Cf. Liv., xli., 27, "Vias sternendas silice in Urbe glareâ extra Urbem locaverunt." Tibull., I., viii., 59.
[1753] This Fragment is most probably connected with Fr. 3, as both strigosus and bovinator are applied to beasts who refuse to move; and hence to persons who use all kinds of artifices to avoid the payment of their just debts.
[1754] Cf. vi., 13; x., 4.