[307] 'Obsessio secura.'
[308] 'Tenens claustra provinciae.'
[309] 'Nostri sedes delegit fovere Imperii.'
[310] The Ostia are denoted by A and the Hermulae by H in the accompanying plan. (See [page 230].)
[311] 'Ut quadrigis progredientibus, inde certamen oriretur: ne dum semper propere conantur elidere, spectandi voluptatem viderentur populis abrogare.' In fact, to compel the charioteers to start fair.
[312] Each sign of the Zodiac was considered to have three decani, occurring at intervals of ten days.
[313] 'Unde illuc delphini aequorei aquas interfluunt.' The sentence is very obscure, but the allusion must be to the dolphins, the figures of which were placed upon the spina.
[314] 'Obeliscorum quoque prolixitates ad coeli altitudinem sublevantur: sed potior soli, inferior lunae dicatus est: ubi sacra priscorum Chaldaicis signis, quasi litteris indicantur.'
[315] I can extract no other meaning than the above from this extraordinary sentence: 'Circenses, quasi circu-enses: propterea quod apud antiquitatem rudem, quae necdum spectacula in ornatum deduxerat fabricarum, inter enses et flumina locis virentibus agerentur.'
[316] Missibus. In a previous sentence Cassiodorus makes the acc. plural missos.