[170] This passage occurs in the life of Saturninus, who uses it in support of an invective against the Egyptians. The quotation is from a letter of Hadrian’s preserved in the works of his freedman Phlegon. (Vopiscus, in Historiæ Augustæ Scriptores, ii. 719, in the Leyden edition of 1671.) The Egyptians still hatch chickens in ovens, but the heat is supplied by a fire, and not by the hot-bed mentioned in the text. The process is described in Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, ii. 450.
[171] Axylos, a woodless tract in Asia Minor, ‘northward of the region of lakes and plains, through which leads the road from Afioum Karahissar to Koniah, a dry and naked region, which extends as far as the Sangarius and Halys.’—Leake, Asia Minor, p. 65.
[172] Evelyn narrates how he went to see some Turkish horses captured at the siege of Vienna; he admired their spirit, and says they were, ‘with all this, so gentle and tractable as called to mind what I remember Busbequius speaks of them to the reproch of our groomes in Europe, who bring up their horses so churlishly as makes most of them retain their ill habits.’—Evelyn, Diary, p. 461, Chandos Edition.
[173] ‘They were shod with yron made round and closed at the heele with a hole in the middle about as wide as a shilling. The hoofes most intire.’—Evelyn, Diary, p. 462.
[175] Cyrus, in his expedition against his brother Artaxerxes, took with him 400 waggons loaded with barley and wine that, in case provisions should be very scarce, he might have the means of supplying the Greeks, who were the flower of his army.—Xenophon, Anabasis, i. 10.
[176] The quotation is from Suetonius, Life of Julius Cæsar, chap. 67. Suetonius observes that sometimes Cæsar, after a great victory, relaxed the strict rules of discipline, and allowed his army to abandon themselves to the utmost license, boasting that ‘his soldiers, even if perfumed for a banquet, would fight well.’ The conference with Ariovistus is described in Cæsar de Bello Gallico, i. 43-45, and in Merivale, chap. vii.: ‘Each was attended by a squadron of cavalry of equal numbers. Cæsar had no Roman cavalry, nor could he safely confide in his Gaulish auxiliaries: yet he would not reject the arrangement proposed by his adversary, nor betray any appearance of distrust or dread. He caused a party of Gauls to dismount, and placed upon their horses the infantry of his favourite legion’ (the tenth). The conference was interrupted by the impatience of the German horse, who suddenly assailed the Romans with stones and arrows. See also pages 48 and 49.
[177] The Venetian ambassador to the Porte bore the title of Bailo or Baily. This title was probably given to him on account of the protection and jurisdiction he exercised with regard to the persons and goods of all Venetian subjects, who lived and traded in all the factories of the Levant. He, with the ambassadors of the Pope and the Emperor, took precedence of all other ambassadors. On account of the importance of the post, appointments to it were not made by the Senate, but by the Great Council. Marc Antonio Barbaro, the subject of Yriarte’s interesting work, La Vie d’un Patricien de Venise, was appointed to this office in 1568.
[178] This story is referred to by Bacon, Essays, XIII.: Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature. ‘The inclination to goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man; insomuch that if it issue not towards man, it will take unto other living creatures; as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds; insomuch as Busbechius reporteth, a Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl.’ Bacon, in his Essays, also alludes to Jehangir, Solyman’s son, to Roxolana, to Selim, and to the fate of Mustapha.
[179] Busbecq’s countrywomen enjoyed great liberty. ‘Les femmes, oultre ce qu’elles sont de belle et excellente forme, sont de beau maintien et gracieuses; car elles commencent dés leur enfance, selon la coustume du païs, à converser librement avec un chacun.’—L. Guicciardini, Description de tout le païs bas, p. 38.