[70] “Homeromastigæ.”
[71] “Dialectici.” By this term our author probably meant to designate those critics who were disposed to dwell upon minute verbal distinctions; “dialecticarum captionum amantes,” according to Hardouin; Lem. i. 28.
[72] “Quod argutiarum amantissimi, et quod æmulatio inter illos acerbissima.” Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 28.
[73] 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.
[74] The ancients had very exaggerated notions respecting the period of the elephant’s pregnancy; our author, in a subsequent part of his work (viii. 10), says, “Decem annis gestare vulgus existimat; Aristoteles biennio.”
[75] 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 word θεῖος φράσις. Cicero on various occasions refers to him; Brutus, 121; Orator, 17, et alibi.
[76] “Suspendio jam quærere mortem oportere homines vitæque renunciare, cum tantum licentiæ, vel feminæ, vel imperiti homines sumant, ut in doctissimos scribant;” Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 29. We learn from Cicero, De Nat. Deor. i. 33, that the name of this female was Leontium; “... sed meretricula etiam Leontium contra Theophrastum scribere ausa sit.”
[77] A. Gellius (vii. 4) refers to this work and gives an extract from it.
[78] The hostility which Cato bore to Scipio Africanus is mentioned by Livy, xxxviii. 54, and by Corn. Nepos, Cato, i.
[79] Lucius Munatius Plancus took a conspicuous part in the political intrigues of the times and was especially noted for his follies and extravagance.