[1688] Ælian, Var. Hist. B. xiii. c. i., relates an occurrence of this kind, about Atalanta, and Justin, B. xliv. c. 4, about Habis, a king of Spain. As to the account of Romulus having been suckled by a wolf, it was generally regarded as a legendary tale by the Romans themselves. See Livy, B. i. c. 4, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Antiq. Rom. B. i.—B.
[1689] Pliny, in B. xiii. c. 15, speaks of “tables of tiger and panther pattern,” as articles of ornamental furniture among the Romans, named from the peculiar patterns of the veins in the citrus wood, of which they were formed.—B.
[1690] This, though mentioned by Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. ix. c. 8, is probably incorrect; and still more the addition made by Ælian, Anim. Nat. B. v. c. 40, that this odour is grateful to man. It has, however, induced some to conjecture, that the animal here described might be the civet; but the description given is inapplicable to that animal; nor, indeed, does the civet appear to have been known to the ancients. For further information, see the remarks of Cuvier, Ajasson, vol. vi. p. 420, and Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 386. Pliny, in B. xxi. c. 18, says that no animal, except the panther, has any odour.—B.
[1691] Meaning the “spotted” or “parti-coloured” female.
[1692] Xenophon, in his Cynegeticon, says, that the pard is found on Mount Pangæus, in Macedonia; the truth of which is denied by Aristotle, who says that it is not to be found in Europe.
[1693] He was tribune A.U.C. 670. Cicero says, Tusc. Quæst. B. iv. c. 39, that Aufidius, although blind, was eminent for his political and literary talents. He wrote a History of Greece.—B.
[1694] 4th of May, A.U.C. 696.—B.
[1695] See also Suetonius, Life of Augustus. Martial, Spect. Ep. 18, relates a circumstance respecting a tame tiger, which occurrence appears to have taken place at the time when he wrote. Heliogabalus yoked tigers to his car, in imitation of Bacchus, as we are informed by Lampridius.
[1696] “In cavea.” In the arena or centre of the amphitheatre. This word often signifies, however, the place where the senators, equites, and plebeians, sat in the theatre: and in the later writers it is used to signify the whole amphitheatre.
[1697] A.U.C. 742.—B.