[240] 'Expensae publicae' perhaps = curatores annonae.
[241] For a fuller translation of this marvellous letter, see Introd. [p. 18].
[242] See remarks on this letter in Dahn, Könige der Germanen iv. 147-8. Some MSS. read Coion or Goinon, as the name of the Senator to whom it is addressed.
[243] 'Quae circa referendos curiae priscus ordo designavit.'
[244] Either 509-510 or 524-525; more probably the former.
[245] An unintelligible translation doubtless, but is the original clearer? 'Burgundionum dominus a nobis magnopere postulavit ut horologium quod aquis sub modulo fluentibus temperatur et quod solis immensi comprehensa illuminatione distinguitur ... ei transmittere deberemus.' It is pretty clear that the first request of the Burgundian King was for a clepsydra of some kind. The second must be for some kind of sundial, but the description is very obscure.
[246] Evidently 'sic enim Atheniensium scholas longe positus introisti' does not mean that Boethius actually visited Athens, but that he became thoroughly at home in the works of Athenian philosophers.
[247] 'Portamque dierum tali nomine dicatus annus, tempos introeat.' The figure here used seems borrowed from Claudian, In Primum Cons. Stilichonis ii. 425-476.
[248] 'Cum soli genitalis fortunâ relictâ, velut quodam postliminio in antiquam patriam commeasses.'