"Shall I then yield, though born perchance a slave,
To the proud beggar in his laticlave?" Hodgson.
[70] Pallas, the freedman of Claudius, was enormously rich. The wealth and splendor of Licinus is again alluded to, Sat. xiv., 305.
[71] Pedibus albis. The feet of imported slaves were marked with chalk. Cf. Sat. vii., 16. Plin., H. N., xxxv., 17.
[72] Salutato crepitat. It refers either to the chattering of the young birds, when the old birds who have been in quest of food return to their nests (the whole temple being deserted by men, serves, as the Schol. says, for a nidus to birds); or, to the noise made by the old birds striking their beaks to announce their return. Cf. Ov., Met., vi., 97.
[73] Ordine rerum. Cf. Mart., iv., Ep. 8. The Forum is the old Forum Romanum.
[74] Apollo, i. e., the Forum Augusti on the Palatine Hill. In the court where pleas were held stood an ivory statue of Apollo. Cf. Hor., i., Sat. ix., 78.
[75] "And none must venture to pollute the place." Hodgson. Tantum, i. e., tantummodo. Cf. Pers., i. Sat., 114, Sacer est locus, ite profani, Extra meiete!
[76] To all these places the client attends his patron; then, on his return, the rich man's door is closed, and he is at liberty to return home, without any invitation to remain to dinner.
"The day's attendance closed, and evening come,
The uninvited client hies him home." Badham.