"Gibbon, speaking of this Book of Sentences, in a note on his 54th chapter, says, 'Of a list of criminals which fills nineteen folio pages, only fifteen men and four women were delivered to the secular arm.' Vol. v. p. 535. I believe he should have said thirty-two men and eight women; and imagine that he was misled by the fact that the index-maker most commonly (but by no means always) states the nature of the sentence passed on each person. From the book, however, it appears that forty persons were so delivered, viz., twenty-nine Albigenses, seven Waldenses, and four Beguins."
The following mistake was pointed out by the learned Cork correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine, I think in 1838; it has misled the writer of the article "Anicius", in Smith's Dictionary of Ancient Biography, and is not corrected by Mr. Milman (Gibbon, chap. xxxi. note 14 and text):—
"During the first five ages, the name of the Anicians was unknown. The earliest date in the annals of Pighius is that of M. Anicius Gallus, Tr. Plebis A.U.C. 506. Another Tribune, Q. Anicius, A.U.C. 508, is distinguished by the epithet Prænestinus."
We learn from Pliny, H.N. xxxiii. 6., that Q. Anicius Prænestinus was the colleague as curule ædile of Flavius, the famous scriba of Appius Cæcus, B.C. 304, A.U.C. 450. (See Fischer, Röm. Zeittafeln, p. 61-2.) Pliny's words are—
"[Flavius] tantam gratiam plebis adeptus est ... ut ædilis curulis crearetur cum Q. Anicio Prænestino."
Gibbon's chapter on Mahomet seems to be particularly superficial; it is to be hoped that a future editor will correct it by the aid of Von Hammer's labours.
J.E.B. MAYOR.
Marlborough College.