[62.] A word to the wise)—Ver. 540. “Dictum sapienti sat est.” The same proverb is found in the Persa of Plautus, l. 736.
[63.] To shake myself)—Ver. 585. “Me excutiam.” In reference to the custom of the Greeks, and the Eastern nations, of shaking their clothes at the door of any house which they were going to leave.
[64.] Rely on at home)—Ver. 586. “Nam ego meorum solus sum meus.” He means that he is the only person in his house friendly to himself, inasmuch as his wife, from her wealth, has supreme power over the domestics, in whom he himself can place no trust.
[65.] Good terms with him)—Ver. 635. Meaning, “Is he in his senses or not?”
[66.] Amount of his life)—Ver. 660. “Quid si animam debet?” Erasmus tells us that this was a proverb among the Greeks applied to those who ran so deeply in debt, that their persons, and consequently, in one sense, their very existence, came into the power of their creditors.
[67.] Six hundred actions)—Ver. 667. “Sescentos;” literally, “six hundred.” The Romans used this term as we do the words “ten thousand,” to signify a large, but indefinite number.
[68.] A strange black dog)—Ver. 705. This omen, Plautus calls, in the Casina, l. 937, “canina scæva.”
[69.] Through the sky-light)—Ver. 706. So in the Amphitryon of Plautus, l. 1108, two great snakes come down through the “impluvium,” or “sky-light.” On the subject of the “impluvium,” see the Notes to the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus, l. 159.
[70.] A hen crowed)—Ver. 707. Donatus tells us that it was a saying, that in the house where a hen crowed, the wife had the upper hand.
[71.] The soothsayer—the diviner)—Ver. 708. According to some accounts there was this difference between the “hariolus” and the “aruspex,” that the former foretold human events, the latter those relating to the Deities. Donatus has remarked on these passages, that Terence seems to sneer at the superstitions referred to.