[2661] “Omine rato.” He means, that in the result, it was only too true that Antony was “victus,” conquered, and that by his enemy Octavianus.
[2662] Claudius, or Clodius Æsopus, was the most celebrated tragic actor at Rome in the time of Cicero, and was probably a freedman of the Clodian family. Horace and other authors put him on a level with Roscius. From Cicero we learn that his acting was characterized chiefly by strong emphasis and vehemence. Cicero characterizes him as a “summus artifex,” a “consummate artist.” He was a firm friend of Cicero, whose cause he advocated indirectly more than once during his banishment from Rome. It appears from Pliny, B. x. c. 72, that he was far from frugal, though he left a large fortune to his spendthrift son, Clodius Æsopus. This man, among his other feats, dissolved in vinegar (or at least attempted to do so), a pearl worth about £8000, which he took from the ear-ring of Cæcilia Metella. It is alluded to by Horace, B. ii. Sat. iii. l. 239.
[2663] Or “conchylium.” We find that Pliny generally makes a difference between the colours of the “murex,” or “conchylium,” and those of the “purpura,” or “purple.” Cuvier says, that they were the names of different shell-fish which the ancients employed for dyeing in purple of various shades. It is not known exactly, at the present day, what species they employed; but it is a fact well ascertained, that the greater part of the univalve shell-fish, more especially the Buccini and Murices of Linnæus, distil a kind of red liquid. The dearness of it arose, Cuvier thinks, from the remarkably small quantity that each animal afforded. Since the coccus, or kermes, he says, came to be well known, and more especially since the New World has supplied us with cochineal, we are no longer necessitated to have recourse to the juices of the murex.
[2664] Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. v. c. 14, says, “about six.” The murex of Pliny is the κήρυξ of Aristotle.
[2665] Aristotle says, that the purple consists of three parts, the upper being the τράχηλος, or neck; the middle the μήκων, or poppy; and the lower the πυθμήν, or trunk; and that the juice lies between the first and second of these parts, or the throat. This juice, which Pliny calls “flos,” “flower,” “ros,” “dew,” and “succus,” “juice,” is distilled, Cuvier says, not from the fauces of the animal, but from the mantle or membranous tissue which lines the shell.
[2666] See B. v. c. 7. See also B. vi. c. [36].
[2667] Which preceded the Roman consuls, who were clothed with the toga prætexta, the colour of which was Syrian purple.
[2668] Hardouin seems to think that “majestate pueritiæ” means “children of high birth;” but it was the fact that all children of free birth wore the prætexta, edged with purple, till they attained puberty. It is much more probable that by these words Pliny means the “majesty of youth,” in its simplicity and guileless nature, that commands our veneration and respect.
[2669] He means that the purple laticlave or broad hem of the senator’s toga distinguished him from the eques, who wore a toga with an angusticlave, or narrow hem.
[2670] From Cicero, Epist. Ad. Attic. B. ii. Ep. 9, we learn that purple was worn by the priests when performing sacrifice. Ajasson, however, agrees with Dalechamps in thinking that this passage bears reference to the consuls, who wore purple when sacrificing to the gods.