xiv. 208.
“Swift though the words, (the pen still swifter sped)
The hand has finished, ere the tongue has said.”
[2]It seems probable that this was the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, at least of any consequence. Dio, indeed, and other ancient authors speak of it as burning before; but still they describe it as covered with trees and vines, so that the eruptions must have been inconsiderable.
[3]The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world would eventually be destroyed by fire, and all things would fall into original chaos, not excepting even the national gods themselves from the destruction of this general conflagration.
[4]The allusion, otherwise obscure, is to the fact that some friends of Catullus had filched a set of table-napkins, which had been given to him by Veranius and Fabius, and substituted others in their place.
[5]“Sesculysses” and “Flextabula;” literally, Ulysses and a Half, and Bend-table.
[6]Pliny the younger, in one of his letters (iii. 5), where he enumerates all his uncle’s publications, informs us, that he wrote “a piece of criticism in eight books, concerning ambiguity of expression.” Melmoth’s Pliny, i. 136.
[7]His real name was Tyrtamus, but in consequence of the beauty of his style, he acquired the appellation by which he is generally known from the words θειος φρασις. Cicero refers to him in Brutus, 121; Orator, 17; and on various other occasions.
[8]“Spartum;” this plant was used to make bands for the vines and cables for ships.