[103] Q. Marcius Rex married a sister of Clodius, and dying, left him no legacy.
[104] L. Afranius.
[105] Reading deterioris histrionis similis, "like an inferior actor."
[106] Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, married to Cato's sister. Consul B.C. 54. A strong aristocrat and vehement opponent of Cæsar.
[107] Aufidius Lurco had apparently proposed his law on bribery between the time of the notice of the elections (indictio) and the elections themselves, which was against a provision of the leges Ælia et Fufia. What his breach of the law was in entering on his office originally we do not know: perhaps some neglect of auspices, or his personal deformity.
[108] I.e. to Quintus Cicero, now proprætor in Asia, who apparently wished his brother-in-law to come to Asia in some official capacity.
[109] Some epigrams or inscriptions under a portrait bust of Cicero in the gymnasium of Atticus's villa at Buthrotum. Atticus had a taste for such compositions. See Nepos, Att. 18; Pliny, N. H. 35, § 11.
[110] Cicero had defended Archias, and Thyillus seems also to have been intimate with him: but he says Archias, after complimenting the Luculli by a poem, is now doing the same to the Cæcilii Metelli. The "Cæcilian drama" is a reference to the old dramatist, Cæcilius Statius (ob. B.C. 168).
[111] Of Amaltheia, nurse of Zeus in Crete, there were plenty of legends. Atticus is making in his house something like what Cicero had made in his, and called his academia or gymnasium. That of Atticus was probably also a summer house or study, with garden, fountains, etc., and a shrine or statue of Amaltheia.
[112] Cicero is evidently very anxious as to the misunderstanding between Quintus and his brother-in-law Atticus, caused, as he hints, or at any rate not allayed, by Pomponia. The letter is very carefully written, without the familiar tone and mixture of jest and earnest common to most of the letters to Atticus.