1112 ([return])
[ Lictor's rod.—Ver. 615. This conferred freedom on the slave who was touched with it. See the Fasti, Book vi. 1. 676, and the Note, lie means, that free-born women are worthy to become wives; but 'libertinæ,' or 'freed-women,' are only fit to become 'professæ,' or 'courtesans,' when they may sin with impunity, so far as the laws are concerned.]
1113 ([return])
[ Broad girth.—Ver. 622. This seems to be the kind of belt mentioned in line 274.]
1114 ([return])
[ Stalk of wetted flax.—Ver. 629. According to the common reading, this will mean that the letter is to be written on blank paper, with a stalk of wetted flax; which writing will afterwards appear, when a black substance is thrown upon it. Heinsius insists that the passage is corrupt, and suggests that 'alumine nitri' is the correct reading; in which case it would mean that alum water is to be used instead of ink. Vessius tells us that alum water, mixed with the juice of the plant 'tithymalum,' was used for the purposes of secret correspondence.]