[86.] Mutina.]—Ver. 823. This was a place in Cisalpine Gaul, where Augustus defeated Antony, and took his camp.
[87.] Philippi.]—Ver. 824. Pharsalia was in Thessaly, and Philippi was in Thrace. He uses a poet’s license, in treating them as being the same battle-field, as they both formed part of the former kingdom of Macedonia. Pompey was defeated by Julius Cæsar at Pharsalia, while Brutus and Cassius were defeated by Augustus and Antony at Philippi. The fleet of the younger Pompey was totally destroyed off the Sicilian coast.
[88.] The wife.]—Ver. 826. Mark Antony was so infatuated as to divorce his wife, Octavia, that he might be enabled to marry Cleopatra.
[89.] Canopus.]—Ver. 828. This was a city of Egypt, situate on the Western mouth of the river Nile.
[90.] His hallowed wife.]—Ver. 836. Augustus took Livia Drusilla, while pregnant, from her husband, Tiberius Nero, and married her. He adopted her son Tiberius, and constituted him his successor.
[91.] With like years.]—Ver. 838. Julius Cæsar was slain when he was fifty-six years old. Augustus died in his seventy-sixth year.
[92.] Threefold world.]—Ver. 859. This is explained as meaning the realms of the heavens, the æther and the air; but it is difficult to guess exactly what is the Poet’s meaning here.
[93.] Companions of Æneas.]—Ver. 861. He probably refers to the Penates which Æneas brought into Latium. Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that he had seen them in a temple at Rome, and that they bore the figures of two youths seated and holding spears.
Supplementary Notes (added by transcriber)
[A.] If any thing is noxious: Word “If” missing from text, with no blank space. Latin reads “siqua nocent”.