Avec ses macquereaux.
(Bib. Nat., ms. français 22565, fo 41 vo.)
[21] P. 29:
◆This is indeed one of the most curious passages of the book, and I am glad to remove one of Lalanne’s doubts. Brantôme is really talking of a statue, an antique piece which was found July 21, 1594, in a field near the Saint-Martin priory. It had been admirably conserved. Unfortunately, Louis XIV. having claimed it later, it was placed on a barge which sank in the Garonne, and was never recovered. (O’Reilly, History of Bordeaux, 1863, Vol. II.) The statue is described as having had one breast uncovered and curled hair, a description that agrees only partly with Visconti’s type (Iconographie romaine, t. II., planche 28), in which Messalina is not décolleté and carries her son. Was the Bordeaux statue indeed a Messalina?
[22] P. 31:
◆Brantôme is mistaken; Nero caused Octavia to be killed. (See Suetonius, Nero, Chap. XXXV.)
◆Nero, fifth Roman Emperor, A. D. 54–63.
◆Domitian succeeded his father Titus on the Imperial throne; reigned from A. D. 81 to 96.
◆Pertinax, a man of peasant birth, but who had carved out for himself a distinguished career as soldier and administrator, was elected Emperor by the Prætorian Guards on the murder of Commodus, A. D. 193. Himself murdered after a two months’ reign.
[23] P. 32: