"Is your attention to such suppliants given?
If so, there is not much to do in heaven." Gifford.
[272] Varicosus. His legs will swell (like Cicero's and Marius's) from standing so long praying.
"The poor Aruspex that stands there to tell
All woman asks, must find his ankles swell." Badham.
[273] Paludatis. Cf. Cic., Sext., 33.
[274] Seres. What country these inhabited is uncertain, probably Bocharia. It was the country from which the "Sericæ vestes" or "multitia" (ii., 66) came.
[275] Instantem. Cf. Hor., iii., Od. iii., 3, "vultus instantis tyranni." Trajan made an expedition against the Armenians and Parthians A.D. 106; and about the same time there was an earthquake in the neighborhood of Antioch (A.D. 115), when mountains subsided and rivers burst forth. Dio Cass., lxviii., 24. Trajan himself narrowly escaped perishing in it. The consul, M. Verginianus Pedo, was killed. Trajan was passing the winter there, and set out in the spring for Armenia.—Cometem. Cf. Suet., Ner., 36, "Stella crinita quæ summis potestatibus exitium portendere vulgo putatur."
[276] Excipit.
"Hear at the city's gate the recent tale,
Or coin a lie herself when rumors fail." Hodgson.
[277] Niphates. Properly a mountain in Armenia, from which Tigris takes its rise, and which, in the earlier part of its course, may have borne the name of Niphates. Lucan, iii., 245, and Sil. Ital., xiii., 765, also speak of it as a river. Gifford thinks it is a sly hit at the lady, who converts a mountain into a river.
[278] Exorata implies that their prayers were heard, otherwise their punishment would have been still more cruel.