[Footnotes to Book IV]
[1.] I have omitted)—Ver. 5. “Divinabit” seems preferable here to “damnabit,” or “demonstrabit,” the other readings; and Burmann is probably right in supposing that he means to say that many of the Æsopian fables had not yet been used by him, and though others may make use of them as bearing a general moral, they will not be able so well as himself to point their moral in reference to individuals or classes, in consequence of his advantage in having already adapted many of them to the censure of particular vices.
[2.] Particulo)—Ver. 10. Of Particulo nothing whatever is known, except that he was a freedman.
[3.] Cannot imitate)—Ver. 16. Gronovius thinks that he alludes to the Greek proverb “Μωμεῖσθαι ῥάδιον ἢ μιμεῖσθαι.” “’Tis easier to blame than to imitate.”
[4.] Priests of Cybele)—Ver. 4. During the Festival of Cybele, the Galli or eunuch-priests of the Goddess went about with an image of her seated on an ass, and beating a tambourine, for the purpose of making a collection to defray the expenses of the worship. They were called by the Greeks μητραγύρται, “Collectors for the Mother.” See the Fasti of Ovid, B. iv., l. 350, vol. i., p. 149, of Bohn’s Translation.
[5.] Tambourines)—Ver. 7. “The tympana,” which were almost exactly similar to our tambourines, were covered with the skin of asses or of oxen, and were beaten with the hand or a small stick.
[6.] So fare you well)—Ver. 21. “Sic valeas.” —“Fare you well, if you are flour, which you are not. I wish you luck as much as I believe you are what you pretend to be, i.e., not at all.”
[7.] The horse)—Ver. 3. “Sonipes,” literally “sounding-hoof.” This was a name commonly given to the horse by the Romans. Lucan repeatedly calls a war-horse by this epithet.
[8.] Spinner of wool)—Ver. 5. “Lanificam.” Working in wool was the constant employment of the more industrious among the females of the higher class. Ovid, in the Fasti, Book ii., l. 742, represents Lucretia as being found thus employed by her husband and Tarquinius. The Emperor Augustus refused to wear any clothes that were not woven by the females of his family.