"And 'tis the village mason's daily calling,
To keep the world's metropolis from falling." Dryden.
"Then bid the tenant sleep secure from dread,
While the loose pile hangs trembling o'er his head." Gifford.
[151] Opici. Cf. vi., 455. Opicæ castigat amicæ verba; i. e., barbarous, rude, unlearned, "the Goths of mice;" from the Opici or Osci, an Ausonian tribe on the Liris, from whom many barbarous innovations were introduced into Roman manners and language. "Divina" may either refer to Homer's poems, or to Codrus' own, which in his own estimation were "divine." Cf. Sat. i., 2, "rauci Theseide Codri."
[152] Horrida. In all public misfortunes, the Roman matrons took their part in the common mourning, by appearing without ornaments, in weeds, and with disheveled hair. Cf. viii., 267. Liv., ii., 7. Luc., Phars., ii., 28, seq.
[153] Candida. Cf. Plin., xxxiv., 5. The Parian marble was the whitest, hence Virg., Æn., iii., 126, "Niveamque Paron."
[154] Polycletus. Cf. viii., 103. His master-piece was the Persian body-guard (cf. Ælian., V. H., xiv., 8), called the "Canon." Vid. Müller's Archæol. of Art, § 120. Euphranor the painter belonged, like Polycletus, to the Sicyonic school.
[155] Foruli or plutei, cases for holding MSS. Cf. ii., 7. Suet., Aug., xxxi.
[156] Cf. Mart., iii., Ep. 52.