[51]. Since diagrams were often drawn with sticks in the dust.

[52]. The Greek jest does not admit of translation. The same word may mean both ‘theft’ and a ‘stealthy act’.

[53]. The point lies in an ambiguity which is possible only in the Greek. The words may equally mean: ‘You issued no invitation when sacrificing your friends,’ and ‘when sacrificing, you did not invite your friends’.

[54]. Or what French would call the gouverneur.

[55]. This article is in all probability not the work of Plutarch. See the Introduction.

[56]. The play upon words (ēthikas, ‘moral’ and ĕthikas, ‘of habit’) is not adequately translatable.

[57]. The Greek text is here corrupt; the translation represents the probable sense.

[58]. The Greek text is again faulty. The sense here given is approximate.

[59]. These maxims were probably in the first instance merely hygienic, or even popular superstitions, but subsequently they received recondite interpretations.

[60]. The Greek verse is doggerel, and no attempt is made to better it in the English.