[830] 'Obsonia.'
[831] 'Cum apud rerum Dominum solemni more pranderemus.'
[832] 'Silanum.' Mount Sila is a range of hills in Calabria immediately to the north of Squillace, forty miles from north to south, and twenty miles from east to west, and occupying the whole of the projecting portion of the south-east side of Italy between the Gulf of Squillace and the Bay of Taranto. The highest peaks, which are about 5,700 feet high, are covered with snow during half the year. It is said that from the beginning of June till far on into October, 15,000 head of cattle and 150,000 sheep, besides horses and mules, graze in these uplands. (See Gael-Fells: Unter Italien, p. 721.)
[833] From the description of Cassiodorus, it seems to have been a kind of cream cheese.
[834] 'Non stipsi asperum sed gratum suavitate perquire.' The same peculiar word, stipsis, which we had in Letter [xii. 4]. What meaning are we to assign to the word?
[835] 'Magnis odoribus singulare:—quod ita redolet ore ructatum ut merito illi a palma nomen videatur impositum.'
[836] Baronius (Ad Ann. 591) quotes this letter of Cassiodorus to explain an allusion in the life of Pope Gregory the Great, who refused to receive a present of 'Palmatiana' from the Bishop of Messina, and insisted on paying for it.
[837] 'Facientes laicum commodum substantiam clericorum.'
[838] 'Edictali programmate definimus, ut qui in hac fuerit ulterius fraude versatus et militiâ careat et compendium propriae facultatis amittat.' The last clause is perhaps purposely vague. We should have expected to hear something about restitution, but the words will not bear that meaning.
[839] I do not understand the following sentences: 'In hortis autem rusticorum agmen habetur operosum: quia olus illic omne saporum est marinâ irroratione respersum. Quod humanâ industriâ fieri consuevit, hoc cum nutriretur accepit.' Can they have watered any herbs with salt water?