[169] These remarks refer to something in Atticus's letter.
[170] Gaius Antonius, about to be prosecuted for maiestas on his return from Macedonia.
[171] P. Nigidius Figulus, a tribune (which dates the letter after the 10th of December). The tribunes had no right of summons (vocatio), they must personally enforce their commands.
[172] "The Conqueror," i.e., Pompey. Aulus's son is L. Afranius.
[173] I.e., his military get-up.
[174] Cyrus was Cicero's architect; his argument or theory he calls Cyropædeia, after Xenophon's book.
[175] He supposes himself to be making a mathematical figure in optics:
[176] The theory of sight held by Democritus, denounced as unphilosophical by Plutarch (Timoleon, Introd.).
[177] Apparently a villa in the Solonius ager, near Lanuvium.