[2821] “Xerxen togatum,” or “the Roman Xerxes,” in allusion to Xerxes cutting a canal through the Isthmus, which connected the Peninsula of Mount Athos with Chalcidice. See B. iv. c. 17, and the Note, vol. i. p. 300.
[2822] Probably the same person as the C. Hirrius Posthumius, who is mentioned as a voluptuary by Cicero, De Fin. B. ii. c. 22, § 70. Varro speaks of him, as expending the rent of his houses, amounting to twelve millions of sesterces, in bait for his murenæ.
[2823] This is, probably, the meaning of “quadragies” here, though it has been translated 400,000.
[2824] See B. iii. c. 9.
[2825] Porphyry, Tzetzes, and Macrobius relate the same story.
[2826] See B. vii. c. [18], and B. xxxv. c. 36. Her grandson, Caligula, is supposed to have hastened her death.
[2827] Hirpinius is the more common reading. He is mentioned in B. viii. c. 78. If the reading “Lupinus” is adopted, nothing seems to be known of this epicurean trifler.
[2828] Our periwinkles.
[2829] See B. iii. c. 17.
[2830] Off the coast of Africa, see B. v. c. 1. These periwinkles, or sea-snails, are again mentioned in B. xxx. c. 15.