No More Learning

in Hippocr. “ De Vict. (Tac. Ann. iii. 49, vi. 45). He may have been
Rat. in Morb. Acut. " i. 12, 16, vol. xv. pp. 436, the same as the following Petronius, or perhaps his
437, 451), but perhaps this accusation was hardly father.
correct, as Celsus (i. c. ) says he did not adopt 8. P. PETRONIUS, was sent by Caligula to
this diet till after the violence of the fever had sub- Syria, as the successor of Vitellius, with orders to
sided.
(W. A. G. ) erect the statue of that emperor in the temple at
PETRO'NAS (Iletpwvās), the Alexandrian form Jerusalem (Joseph. Ant. xviii
. 9. & 2, B. J. ii. 10).
of the name Détpwr. (See W. Dindorf, in H. This Petronius is also mentioned as having been
Steph. ,Thes. Gr. ed. Paris. ) [PETRON. ) (W. A. G. ) the legate of Claudius. (Senec. de Morte Claudii. )
PETRO'NIA, the daughter of a man of consular 9. C. Petronius, who put an end to his own
rank, was first the wife of Vitellius, and subse- life in the reign of Nero, is supposed by many to
quently of Dolabella. On the accession of Vitellius have been the author of the Sutyricon, and is spoken
to the empire, A. D. 69, her husband Dolabella was of below.
put to death by his orders. She had a son by 10. PETRONIUS TURPILIANUS '[TURPILIA-
Vitellius named Petronianus, who was blind of NUs. ]
one eye, and whom his father put to death. (Tac. 11. PETRONIUS PRISCUS. [Priscus. )
Hist. ii. 64 ; Suet. Vilell. 6. ) The Ser. Cornelius 12. PETRONIUS SECUNDUS. [SECUNDUS. )
Dolabella Petronianus, who was consul A. D. 86, 13. PETRONIUS MAXIM US, the emperor. (Maxi-
in the reign of Domitian, may likewise have been MUS. )
a son of Petronia by her second husband.
C. PETRO'NIUS, is described by Tacitus
PETRO'NIA GENS, plebeian, laid claim to (Ann. xvi. 18, 19) as the most accomplished
high antiquity, since a Petronius Sabinus is said voluptuary at the court of Nero. His days were
to have lived in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus. passed in slumber, his nights in visiting and
[Petronius, No. 1. ] The coins struck by Peo revelry. But he was no vulgar spendthrift, no
tronius Turpilianus, who was one of the triumvirs dull besotted debauchee. An air of refinement
of the mint in the reign of Augustus, likewise pervaded all his extravagancies; with him luxury
contain reference to the real or supposed Sabine was a serious study, and he became a proficient in
origin of the gens. (TURPILLANUS. ) But during the science. The careless, graceful ease, assuming
the time of the republic scarcely any one of this almost the guise of simplicity, which distinguished
name is mentioned. Under the empire, however, all his words and actions, was the delight of the
the name frequently occurs both in writers and in fashionable world ; he gained, by polished and
inscriptions with various cognomens ; many of the ingenious folly, an amount of fame which others
Petronii obtained the consular dignity, and one of often fail to achieve by a long career of laborious
them, Petronius Maximus, was eventually raised virtue. At one time he proved himself capable of
to the imperial purple in A. D. 455. The name, better things. Having been appointed governor
however, is best known from the celebrated writer (proconsul) of Bithynia, and subsequently elevated
spoken of below.
to the consulship, his official duties were dis-
PETRONIANUS. (PETRONIA. )
charged with energy and discretion. Relapsing,
PETRONIUS. 1. PETRONIUS SABINUS, is said however, into his ancient habits, he was admitted
have lived in the reign of Tarquinius Superbus, among the few chosen companions of the prince,
and to have obtained from M. Tullius or M. Ati- and was regarded as director-in-chief of the
lins, as Dionysius calls him, the Sibylline books in imperial pleasures, the judge whose decision upon
order to take a copy of them. (Val Max. i. 1. the merits of any proposed scheme of enjoyment
$ 13; Dionys. iv. 62. )
was held as final (Neroni assumtus est ELEGANTIAE
2. C. PETRONIUS, sent as legate with L. Appu- ARBITER, dum nihil amoenum et molle affluentia
leins, in B. c. 156, to examine into the state of putat, nisi quod ei Petronius approarisset). The
affairs between Attalus and Prusias. (Polyb. xxxii. influence thus acquired excited the jealous sus-
picions of Tigellinus: Petronius was accused of
3. M. PETRONIUS Passer, mentioned by having been privy to the treason of Scaevinus a
Varro. (R. R. iii. 2. & 2).
slave was suborued to lodge an information, and
26. )


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216
PETRONIUS
PETRONIUS.
the whole of his household was arrested. Believ. | the most convincing proof of the pollution of the
ing that destructiou was inevitable, and in patient epoch to which it belongs. Without feeling any
oi delay or suspense, he resolved to die as he had inclination to pass too severe a sentence on the coj.
lived, and to excite admiration by the frivolous lector of so much garbage, the most expansive
eccentricity of his end. Having caused his veins charity will not permit us to join with Burmann
to be opened, he from time to time arrested the in regarding him as a very holy man (ritum sano-
flow of blood by the application of bandages. tissimum), a model of all the austere virtues of the
During the intervals he conversed with his friends, oiden time, who filled with pious horror on behold-
not upon the solemn themes which the occasion ing the monstrous corruption of his contemporaries,
might have suggested, but upon the news and light was irresistibly impelled to arrest, if possible, the
gossip of the day; he bestowed rewards upon some rapid progress of their degradation by holding up
of his slaves, and ordered others to be scourged: the crimes which they practised to view in all the
he lay down to sleep, and even showed himself in loathsomeness of their native deformity.
the public streets of Cumae, where these events took The longest and most important section is gene-
place ; so that at last, when he sunk from exhaustion, rally known as the Supper of Trimalchio, present-
his death (A. D. 66), although compulsory, appeared ing us with a detailed and very amusing account
to be the result of natural and gradual decay. He of a fantastic banquet, such as the most luxurious
is said to have despatched in his last moments a and extravagant gourmands of the empire were
sealed document to the prince, taunting him with wont to exhibit on their tables. Next in interest
his brutal excesses (flugitia Principis
is the well-known tale of the Ephesian Matron,
perscripsit atque olsignata misit Neroni), and to which here appears for the first time among the
have broken in pieces a murrhine vessel of vast popular fictions of the Western world, although
price, in order that it might not fall into the current from a very early period in the remote re-
hands of the tyrant. This last anecdote has been gions of the East. In the middle ages it was cir-
recorded by Pliny (H. N. xxxvii. 2), who, as well culated in the “ Seven Wise Masters," the oldest
as Plutarch (De Adulat. et Amicit. Discriin. p. 60), collection of Oriental stories, and has been intro-
give to the person in question the name of Titus duced by Jeremy Taylor into his " Holy Dying,"
Petronius. We find it generally assumed that he in the chapter * On the Contingencies of Death,
belonged to the equestrian order, but the words of &c. " The longest of the effusions in verse is a
Tacitus (Ann. xvi. 17) would lead to an opposite descriptive poem on the Civil Wars, extending to
inference, “ Paucos quippe intra dies eodem agmine 295 hexameter lines, affording a good example of
Annaeus Mella, Cerealis Anicius, Rufius Crispinus that declamatory tone of which the Pharsalia is
ac C. Petronius cecidere. Mella et Crispinus the type. We have also sixty-five iambic trime-
Equites Romani dignitate senatoria. " Now, since ters, depicting the capture of Troy (Truide Ilulosis ),
Petronius, in virtue of having been consul, must and besides these several shorter morsels are inter-
have enjoyed the dignitas senatoria, the above sen- spersed replete with grace and beauty.
tence seems to imply that Melia and Crispinus A great number of conflicting opinions have been
alone of the individuals mentioned were Equites formed by scholars with regard to the author of
Romani.
the Satyricon. Many have confidently maintained
A very singular production consisting of a prose that he must be identified with the Caius (or
narrative interspersed with numerous pieces of Titus) Petronius, of whose career we have given a
poetry, and thus resembling in form the Varronian sketch above, and this view of the question, after
Satire, has come down to us in a sadly mutilated having been to a certain extent abandoned, has
state. In the oldest MSS. and the earliest editions been revived and supported with great earnestness
it bears the title Petronii Arbitri Satyricon, and, as and learning by Studer in the Rheinisches Museum.
it now exists, is composed of a series of fragments, By Ignarra he is supposed to be the Petronius
the continuity of the piece being frequently inter- Turpilianus who was consul A. D. 61. [TURPI-
rupted by blanks, and the whole forming but a very LIANUS. ) Hadrianus Valesius places him under
small portion of the original, which, when entire, the Antonines ; his brother Henricus Valesius
contained at least sixteen books, and probably and Sambucus under Gallienus. Niebuhr, led
many more. It is a sort of comic romance, in away by ingenious but most fanciful inferences
which the adventures of a certain Encolpius and derived from a metrical epitaph, discovered in the
his companions in the south of Italy, chiefly in vicinity of Naples, imagines that he lived under
Naples or its environs, are made a vehicle for ex- Alexander Severus ; Statilius would bring him
posing the false taste which prevailed upon all down as low as the age of Constantine the Great ;
matters connected with literature and the fine arts, while Burmann holds that he flourished under Ti-
and for holding up to ridicule and detestation the berius, Caius, and Claudius, and thinks it probable
folly, luxury, impurity, and dishonesty of all that he may have seen the last days of Augustus.
classes of the community in the age and country in the greater number of these hypotheses are mere
which the scene is laid. A great variety of cha- flimsy conjectures, unsupported by any thing that
racters connected for the most part with the lower deserves to be called evidence, and altogether un-
ranks of life are brought upon the stage, and sup worthy of serious examination or discussion ; but
port their parts with the greatest liveliness and the first, although too often ignorantly assumed as
dramatic propriety, while every page overflows a self-evident and unquestionable fact, is deserving
with ironical wit and broad humour. Unfortunately of some attention, both because it has been more
the vices of the personages introduced are widely adopted than any of the others, and because
depicted with such minute fidelity that we are it appeals with confidence to an array of proofs
perpetually disgusted by the coarseness and ob- both external and internal, which may be reduced
scenity of the descriptions. Indeed, if we can to the following propositions :-
believe that such a book was ever widely circulated 1. We can trace the origin of the name Arbiter
und generally admired, that fact alone would afford | to the expression “ elegantiae arbiter," in Tacitus.


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PETRONIUS.
217
PETRONIUS.
2. When the historian states that Petronius in his there are doubtless a multitude of strange words
dying moments despatched a writing to Nero ex- and of phrases not else where to be found, but this
posing the infamy of the emperor's life, he evi. circumstance need excite no surprise when we re-
dently refers to the work of which we now possess member the various topics which fall under discus
the fragments. 3. Nero and his minions are held sion, and the singular personages grouped together
up to scorn under the guise of Trimalchio and his on the scene. The most reniarkable and startling
retainers. 4. The language bears the stamp of the peculiarities may be considered as the phraseology
best age of Latinity, and cannot have proceeded appropriate to the characters by whom they are
from any writer of the second or third century. uttered, the language of ordinary conversation, the
Upon these we may observe :-
familiar slang in every-day use among the hybrid
1. Tacitus certainly does not use Arbiter as a population of Campania, closely resembling, in all
proper name, but merely as the term best suited to probability, the dialect of the Atellan farces. On
express the meaning he wished to convey, while the other hand, wherever the author may be
Pliny and Plutarch who speak of the same Petro- supposed to be speaking in his own person, we are
nius, give no hint that he was distinguished by any deeply impressed by the extrenie felicity of the
such designation. On the other hand, it may be style, which, far from bearing marks of decrepitude
urged that although the name of Petronius is by or decay, is redolent of spirit, elasticity, and vigo-
no means uncommon in the annals of the empire, rous freshness.
the cognomen of Arbiter is never found attached to Our author is twice quoted by Terentianus
it in inscriptions or in documents of any descrip- Maurus, once under the name of Arbiter, and once
tion, which renders it probable that the word may as Petronius; and if it were certain, as some have
be regarded as a title or epithet introduced by some insisted, that Terentianus was contemporary with
grainidarian or copyist for the purpose of marking Domitian, one portion of the problem before us
out the individual described by Tacitus, and sepa- might be regarded as solved, but, unfortunately,
rating the author of the Satyricon from all other the age of the grammarian is as much a matter of
Petronii
. 2. Tacitus, to whom alone we are in controversy as that of the novelist. Again, a very
debted for precise information regarding the Petro- close resemblance has been detected between cer-
nius put to death by Nero, says not one word of tain expressions in Martial and Statius, and three
his having possessed any talent for literature ; and passages in the Satyricon. Two of these, it is
with respect to the sentence quoted above, upon true, are not found in the extant copies, but are
which so much stress has been laid, no one who adduced incidentally by St. Jerome and Fulgentius;
reads it with care, and without being wedded to a but even if we admit that there is no mistake or
preconceived opinion, can for a moment believe confusion in regard to these citations, we can form
that the words denote any thing except a short no conclusion from such a fact, for it is impossible
epistle filled with direct reproaches, composed al- to demonstrate whether Petronius copied from
most in the agonies of death to satisfy a craving Martial and Statius, or Martial and Statius from
for revenge. Indeed it is difficult to understand Petronius, or whether they may not have borrowed
how expressions so little ambiguous could have from common sources without reference to each
been interpreted by any scholar to signify an ela- other. (Petron. Satyr. 119; Mart. xiii.
62;
borate and a voluminous work of fiction. 3. The Hieron. Ep. cxxx. c. 19; Mart. ii. 12; Fulgent.
idea that Nero is shadowed forth under the form Mythol. v. ; Stat. Theb. iji. 661. ) In like manner
of Trimalchio is absolutely preposterous. Trimal- the testimonies of Macrobius (Somn. Sup. i. 2),
chio is in reality the representative of a class of Servius (Ad Virg. Aen. xii. ), Lydus (De Magist.
persons who existed in considerable numbers after i. 41), Priscian, Diomedes, Victorinus, Isidorus,
the downfal of the republic. He is depicted as a and Sidonius Apollinaris (Carm. xxiii. 155), lead
freedman of overgrown wealth, far advanced in to no result. The latter, indeed, when enumerat-
years, infiated with vulgar purse-pride and osten- ing some of the brightest lights of Roman litera-
tation, coarse in manners and conversation, unedu-ture, places “ Arbiter ” immediately before Ovid,
cated and ignorant, but eager to display an imper- the Senecas, and Martial ; but it is evident that
fect smattering of ill-digested learning, and thus he does not adopt any sort of chronological order,
constantly rendering himself ridiculous by innume- for Tacitus in his list takes precedence of the
ruble blunders, ruled by a clever bustling wife, who above, and at the commencement of his catalogue
had acquired complete dominion over him by Cicero, Livy, Virgil, Terence, Plautus, and Varro
studying bis weaknesses, greedy of flattery, in- follow in succession. l'pon this passage, which
clined to be overbearing and tyrannical, but not is very obscurely worded, rests the assertion, ad-
devoid of a sort of rough good-nature -
-a series of mitted without comment by many of the bistorians
characteristics in which it is certainly impossible to of Latin literature, that Petronius was a native
discern one trace of Nero. The notion of Burmann of Marseilles.
that Claudius was the prototype of Trimalchio, If we sift with impartiality the whole of the
although not so glaringly absurd, is equally un- evidence produced, and analyse with care the
tonable. 4. The assertion regarding the language pleadings of the contending parties, we shall feel
is frequently met by a fiat contradiction, and disposed to decide that, while upon the one hand
Reinesius has gone so far as to stigmatise it as a there are no proofs nor even probabilities which
farrago of Grecisms, Gallicisms, Hebraicisms, and can justify us in pronouncing that the author of
barbarous idioms, such as we might expect to find the Satyricou is the same person with the Petro-
in the worst writers of the worst period. This wus of Tacitus, so on the other hand there is
critic, however, and those who have embraced his good reason to believe that the miscellany in ques-
sentimento appear to have contemplated the sub- tion belongs to the first century, or that, at all
ject from a false point of view. In addition to the events, it is not later than the reign of Hadriani,
corruptions in the text which are so numerous and although we cannot pretend to fix a narrower
bupeless as to render whole sentences unintelligible, limit, uor to luziud i conjecture as to the indi-
a


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218
PETRONIUS.
PETRONIUS.
vidual by whom it was composed. In addition to forgery of such a nature could have been executed at
the considerations already indicated, which support that epoch, the scepties were compelled reluctantly
this view of the question, it will be observed that to admit that their doubts were ill founded. The
the lamentations over the decline of correct taste in title of the Codex, commonly known as the Codex
eloquence, poetry, and the fine arts, and the invec-Traguriensis, was Petronti Arbitri Satyri Frag-
tives against the destructive influence exercised mentu ex libro quinto decimo et sexto decimo, and
upon the minds of the young by the system of then follow the words · Num alio genere furi-
education then in faslion, and especially by the arum," &c. Stimulated, it would appear, by the
teachers of declamation, could proceed only from interest excited during the progress of this discus-
one who had witnessed the introduction, or at sion, and by the favour with which the new ac-
least the full development of that system, andquisition was now universally regarded, a certain
would have been completely out of place at an Francis Nodot published at Rotterdam (1:mo.
epoch when the vices here exposed had become 1693) what professed to be the Satyricon of Pe-
sanctioned by universal practice, and had long tronius complete, taken, it was said, from a MS.
ceased to excite animadversion or suspicion. Many found at Belgrade when that city was captured in
attempts have been made to account for the 1688, a MS. which Nodot declared had been pre-
strangely mutilated condition in which the piece sented to him by a Frenchman high in the im-
has been transmitted to modern times. It has perial service. The fate of this volume was soon
been suggested by some that the blanks were decided. The imposture was so palpable that
caused by the scruples of pious transcribers, who few could be found to advocate the pretensions
omitted those parts which were most licentious; put forth on its behalf, and it was soon given
while others have not hesitated to declare their up by all. It is sometimes, however, printed
conviction that the worst passages were studiously along with the genuine text, but in a ditferent
selected. Without meaning to advocate this last type, so as to prevent the possibility of mis-
hypothesis—and we can scarcely conceive that take. Besides this, a pretended fragment, said
Burmann was in earnest when he propounded it to have been obtained from the monastery of St.
it is clear that the first explanation is altogether | Gall, was printed in 1800, with notes and a
unsatisfactory, for it appears to be impossible that French translation by Lallemand, but it seems to
what was passed over could have been more have deceived nobody
offensive than much of what was retained. Ac- The best edition which has yet appeared, which
cording to another theory, what we now possess is so comprehensive as entirely to supersede all its
must be regarded as striking and favourite ex- predecessors, is that of Petrus Burmannus, 410.
tracts, copied out into the common-place book of Traj. ad Rhen. 1709; and again much enlarged
some scholar in the middle ages ; a supposition ap- and improved, 2 vol. 4to. Amst. 1743. It em-
plicable to the Supper of Trimalchio and the longer braces a vast mass of annotations, prolegomena and
poetical essays, but which fails the numerous dissertations, collected from the writings of dif-
short and abrupt fragments breaking off in the ferent critics. Those who may prefer an impres-
middle of a sentence. The most simple solution of sion of more moderate size, will find the edition of
the difficulty seems to be the true one. The ex- | Antonius, 8vo. Lips. 1781, correct and service-
isting MSS. proceeded, in all likelihood, from two able.
or three archetypes which may have been so much We find in the Latin Anthology, and subjoined
damaged by neglect, that large portions were ren- to all the larger editions of the Satyricon, a num-
dered illegible, while whole leaves and sections ber of short poema bearing the name of Petronius.
may have been torn out or otherwise destroyed. These have been collected from a great variety of
The Editio Princeps of the fragments of Petro different sources, and are the work of many different
nius was printed at Venice, by Bernardinus de hands, it being very doubtful whether any of them
Vitalibus, 4to. 1499 ; and the second at Leipzig, ought to be ascribed to Petronius Arbiter.
by Jacobus Thanner, in 1500; but these editions, (The numerous biographies, dissertations, &c.
and those which followed for upwards of a hundred by Sambucus, Gyraldus, Goldastus, Solichius,
and fifty years, exhibited much less than we now Gonsalius de Salas, Valesius, &c. , collected in the
possess. For, about the middle of the seventeenth edition of Burmann. Among more modern autho-
century, an individual who assumed the designa- rities, we may specify Cataldo Janelli, Codex Pe
tion of Martinus Statilius, although his real name rottin. Neapol. 1811, vol. ii. p. cxxiii. ; Dunlop,
was Petrus Petitus, found a MS. at Traun in History of Fiction, cap. ii. ; Niebuhr, Klein. His-
Dalmatia, containing, nearly entire, the Supper of torisch. Schrift. vol. i. p. 337, and Lectures edited
Trimalchio, which was wanting in all former by Schmitz, vol. ii. p. 325; Orelli, Corpus Inscrip.
copies. This was published separately at Padua, Lat. No. 1175; Weichert, Poetarum Lat. Relig.
in a very incorrect state (8vo. 1664), without the p. 440; Meyer, Antholog. Lat. vol i p. lxxu. ;
knowledge of the discoverer, again by Petitus bim- Wellauer, in Jahn's Juhrld. Suppl. Band, .
self (8vo. Paris, 1664), and immediately gave rise p. 194; and especially Studer, in Rheinisches
to a fierce controversy, in which the most learned Museum, Neue Folge, vol. ii. I. p. 50, ii. 2. p.
men of that day took a share, one party receiving 202, and Ritter, in he same work, vol. ii. 4. p.
it without suspicion as a genuine relic of anti- 561. )
(W. R. ]
quity, while their opponents with great vehemence PETRONIUS (Iletpávios), a writer on phar-
contended that it was spurious. The strife was macy, who lived probably in the beginning of the
not quelled until the year 1669, when the MS. first century after Christ, as he is mentioned by
was despatched from the library of the proprietor, Dioscorides (De Water. Med. praef. vol. i. p. 2), who
Nicolaus Cippius, at Traun, to Rome, where, classes him among the later authors (comp. St.
having been narrowly scrutinised by the most Epiphan. Adv. Hueres. i. 1. $ 3, p. 3, ed. Colon. 1682 ).
competent judges, it was finally pronounced to be Fabricius (Bibl. Gr. vol. xiii. p. 361, ed. vet. )
at least three hundred years old, and, since no supposes his name to have been Petronius Niger


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PETRUS.
219
PETRUS.
not
(NIGER), but this is uncertain, and in the latest / and if there is truth in the account given by Epi-
edition of Dioscorides (l. c. ), where the words kal phanius (Haeres. Ixviii. 1-5) of the origin of the
Νικήματος και Πετρώνιος Νίγερ τε και Διόδοτος | schism in the Egyptian churches, occasioned by
occur, a comma is placed between ſletpários and Meletius of Lycopolis (MELETIUS, literary and
Niyep. In Pliny (H, N. xx. 32), he is called ecclesiastical, No. 3), the conjecture is probably
Petronius Diodotus, but probably the text correct ; and if so, Peter must have obtained his
quite sound (DIODOT US). He is mentioned by release, as this imprisonment must have been ante
Galen (De Compos. Medicam. sec. Gen. ii. 5, vol. cedent to the deposition of Meletius by Petrus,
xiii. p. 5(2), where the words lletpuvios Motoas and the commencement of the Meletian schism. In
occur, which has made some persons consider Pethe ninth year of the persecution Peter was, sud-
tronius Musu to be one and the same individual, denly and contrary to all expectation, again ar-
and others conjecture that instead of lempuvios, we rested and was beheaded, by order of Maximin Daza
should read 'Aytuvos : probably, however, it is only (Maximinus II. ), without any distinct charge
necessary to insert a kal or a comma between the being brought against him. Eusebius speaks with
words. One of his medicines is quoted by Galen the bighest admiration of his piety and his attain.
(Ibid. v. ll. p. 831). (See Fabric. Bil. Gr. l. c. )ments in sacred literature, and he is revered as a
The name of M. Petronius Heras, a physician, saint and martyr both in the Eastern and Western
occurs in an ancient Latin inscription preserved by Churches. His martyrdom is placed by an ancient
Gruter.
(W. A. G. ] Oriental chronicle of the bishops of Alexandrin,
L. PETROSI'DIUS, a standard-bearer (uqui- translated by Abraham Echellensis (Paris, 1651),
lifer), died fighting bravely, when Titurius Sabi- on the 29th of the month Athur or Athyr, which
nus and Aurunculeius Cotta were destroyed with corresponds sometimes to the 25th, and sometimes
their troops, by Ambiorix, B. c. 54. (Caes. B. G. to the 26th November. His memory is now cele-
v. 37.