"Get me his father but to hear his task
For one short week, I'll give you all you ask." Bad.
[376] Maritus.
"The faithless husband and abandon'd wife,
And Æson coddled to new light and life." Gifford.
[377] Tessera. The poorer Romans received every month tickets, which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the "Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in the museum at Portici.
[378] Scindens. "Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin. On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet." Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον. Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician (cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not the same.
[379] Mundæ.
"He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads!
With ample space at his command, to tire
The well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham.
[380] Algentem. They had dining-rooms facing different quarters, according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17. Rapiat rather seems to imply the former case. So Badham—
"Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon."
"Algentem" favors the other view—