[27] P. 36:
◆It is not Semiramis, but Thomyris, who, according to Justin (Bk. I.) and Herodotus (Bk. II.), thrust the head of Cyrus into a vat of blood. Xenophon says, on the contrary, that Cyrus died a natural death.
[28] P. 40:
◆Albert de Gondy, Duke de Retz, was reputed as a practitioner of Aretino’s principles. His wife, Claudine Catherine de Clermont, deserved, perhaps wrongfully, to occupy a place in the pamphlet entitled: “Bibliothèque de Mme. de Montpensier.”
[29] P. 41:
◆Elephantis is referred to by Martial and Suetonius as the writer of amatory works—“molles Elephantidos libelli,” but nothing is known of her otherwise. She was probably a Greek, not a Roman.
◆Heliogabalus, or Elagabalus, Emperor from A. D. 218 to 222. Born at Emesa, and originally high-priest of Elagabalus the Syrian Sun-god. After a very short reign marked by every sort of extravagant folly, he was succeeded by Alexander Severus.
◆The Cardinal de Lorraine, Cardinal du Perron, and others, had been already represented in the same way along with Catherine de Medici, Mary Stuart and the Duchesse de Guise, in two paintings mentioned in the Légende du Cardinal de Lorraine, fol. 24, and in the Réveille-Matin des Français, pp. 11 and 123.
[30] P. 42:
◆I agree with Lalanne that this prince was no other than the Duke d’Alençon. As to the fable of the coupling of the lions, it came from an error of Aristotle, which was repeated by most naturalists until the eighteenth century.