[3] Drusus’ expedition of 11 B.C. is probably alluded to (Vell., 2, 97, 2-3; Suet., Aug., 21; Dio 35, 2, 4; Tac., Ann., 2, 26, 12, 39). There is a noteworthy consonance between the phrase of Nicolaus, ‘nor had they been subject within the memory of any one’ and Mon. Anc., 5, 44, ‘Pannoniorum gentes quas ante me principem populi Romani exercitus nunquam adiit.’ This may be due to the use by Nicolaus of Augustus’ memoirs.
[4]Adriatic.
[5] Tiberius succeeded Agrippa as leader of expeditions against the Pannonians (Mon. Anc., 30; Dio 54, 36, 2-3).
[6] A remark of the excerptor is enclosed within the parentheses.
2.[7] Nicolaus employs the method of a Peripatetic in presenting the order of events in the life of an individual. (Leo, die Griech. Röm. Biogr., p. 190).
[8] His family was from Velitrae (Suet., Aug., 1, 94; Dio 45, 1, 1). C. Octavius the father was praetor (Cic., Q. frat. 1, 1, 7) and proconsul for Macedonia (Suet., Aug., 3; CIL 6, 1311) and was only prevented by death from attaining the consulship. (Cic., Phil., 3, 6, 15).
[9] C. Octavius is characterized as rich by Velleius (2, 59).
[10] C. Octavius died in 58 B.C. when his son was 4 years old (Suet., Aug., 8).
[11] One of those involved was C. Toranius, who had been an aedile with the elder C. Octavius (CIL 6, 1311). He was in due time proscribed by Augustus, (App., 4, 12; Suet., Aug., 27) so that Octavius’ remission of his claims and apparent satisfaction with his remainder as expressed by Nicolaus did not prevent a subsequent day of reckoning.
3.[12] Nicolaus’ statement of Octavius’ age is not corroborated by Suetonius (Aug. 8) nor by Quintilian (12, 6, 1) who give Octavius’ age as 12 years when the oration was given. Perhaps separate occasions are referred to by Nicolaus and the other writers. If a closer agreement is to be desired, ἐννέα could be altered to ἕνδεκα (Müller). Suetonius identifies this occasion with the death of Octavius’ grandmother Julia, while Nicolaus does not expressly do so. His mention of Julia’s death in the following sentence, however, admits of the inference that the one occurrence suggested the other to his mind, and that there was therefore some connection between them.