No More Learning

203. He alludes to throws of the
'tali' and 'tessera,' which were different kinds of dice. See the Note
to 1. Footnote 471: of the Second Book of the Tristia. In this line he
seems to mean the 'tessera,' which were similar to our dice, while the
'tali,' which he next mentions, had only four flat surfaces, being
made in imitation of the knuckle-bones of animals, and having two
sides uneven and rounded. The dice were thrown on a table, made for
the purpose, with an elevated rim. Some throws, like our doublets, are
supposed to have counted for more than the number turned up. The most
fortunate throw was called 'Venus. ' or 'Venereus jactus'; it is thought
to have consisted of a combination, making fourteen, the dice presenting
different numbers. Games with dice were only sanctioned by law as a
pastime during meals. ]

[Footnote 925: Make bad moves. --Ver. 204. 'Dare jacta' means 'to move
the throws,' in allusion to the game of 'duodecim scripta,' or 'twelve
points,' which was played with counters moved according to the throws
of the dice, probably in a manner not unlike our game of backgammon. The
hoard was marked with twelve lines, on which the pieces moved. ]

[Footnote 926: Or if you are throwing. --Ver. 205. By the use of the word
'seu, or,' we must suppose that he has, under the word 'numeri,' alluded
to the game with the 'tesserae,' or six-sided dice. ]

[Footnote 927: The game that imitates. --Ver. 207. He here alludes to the
'ludus latrunculorum,' literally 'the game of theft,' which is supposed
to have been somewhat similar to our chess. He refers to its name in the
words, 'latrocinii sub imagine. ' The game was supposed to imitate the
furtive stratagems of warfare: hence the men, which were usually styled
'calculi,' were also called by the name of 'latrones,' 'latrunculi,'
'milites,' 'bella-tores,' 'thieves,' 'little thieves,' 'soldiers,'
'warriors. ' As we see by the next line, they were usually made of glass,
though sometimes more costly materials were employed. The skill of
this game consisted either in taking the pieces of the adversary, or
rendering them unable to move. The first was done when the adversary's
piece was brought by the other between two of his own. See the Tristia,
Book ii. 1. 477. The second took place when the pieces were 'ligati,'
or 'ad incitas redacti,' brought upon the last line and unable to move.
White and red are supposed to have been the colour of the men. This game
was much played by the Roman ladies and nobles. ]

[Footnote 928: Hold the screen. --Ver. 209. The ancients used
'umbracula,' or screens against the weather (resembling our umbrellas),
which the Greeks called --------. They were used generally for the
same purposes as our parasols, a protection against the heat of the sun.
They seem not to have been in general carried by the ladies themselves,
but by female slaves, who held them over their mistresses. See the
Fasti, Book ii. 1. 209. These screens, or umbrellas, were much used by
the Roman ladies in the amphitheatre, to protect them from sun and rain,
when the 'velarium,' or awning, was not extended. ]

[Footnote 929: Tasteful couch. '--Ver. 211. This was probably the
'triclinium' on which they reposed at meals. The shoes were taken off
before reclining on it. Female slaves did this office for the ladies,
and males for the men. ]

[Footnote 930: Looking-glass. --Ver. 216. These were generally held by
female slaves, when used by their mistresses. See the Metamorphoses,
Book iv. 1. 349. and the Note. ]

[Footnote 931: Held the work-basket. --Ver. 219. Hercules, who Wiled the
serpents sent by Juno, is reproached for doing this, by Deianira in her
Epistle. ]

[Footnote 932: As though a servant. --Ver. 228. He is to be ready, if his
mistress goes to a party, to act the part of the slave, who was called
'adversitor,' whose duty it was to escort his master home in the
evening, if it was dark, with a lighted torch. ]

[Footnote 933: A vehicle. --Ver. 230. 'Rota,' a wheel, is, by Synecdoche,
used to signify 'a vehicle. ']

[Footnote 934: Cynthius. --Ver. 240. See the Note to line 51, of the
Epistle from Aenone to Paris. ]

[Footnote 935: Through the open roof. --Ver. 245. He gives a somewhat
hazardous piece of advice here; as he instructs him to obtain admission
by climbing up the wall, and getting in at the skylight, which extended
over the 'atrium,' or 'court,' a room which occupied the middle of
the house. The Roman houses had, in general, but one story over the
ground-floor. ]

[Footnote 936: The high window. --Ver. 246. This passage may be
illustrated by the Note to 1. 752: of Book xiv. of the Metamorphoses. ]

[Footnote 937: Day on which. --Ver. 257. He alluded to a festival
celebrated by the servants, on the Caprotine Nones, the seventh of
July, when they sacrificed to 'Juno Caprotina. ' Macrobius says that the
servants sacrificed to Juno under a wild fig-tree (called 'caprificus'),
in memory of the service done by the female slaves, in exposing
themselves to the lust ot the enemy, for the public welfare. The Gauls
being driven from the city, the neighbouring nations chose the Dictator
of the Fidenates for their chief, and, marching to Rome, demanded of the
Senate, that if they would save their city, they should send out to them
their wives and daughters The Senate, knowing their own weakness, were
much perplexed, when a handmaid, named 'Tutela,' or 'Philotis,'
offered, with some others, to go out to the enemy in disguise. Being,
accordingly, dressed like free women, they repaired in tears to the camp
of the enemy. They soon induced their new acquaintances to drink, on
the pretence that they were bound to consider the day as a festival;
and when intoxicated, a signal was giver, from a fig tree near, that the
Romans should fall on them. The camp of the enemy was assailed, and most
of them were slain. In return for their service, the female, slaves were
made free, and received marriage portion? at the public expense. Another
account, agreeing with the present passage, says, that the Gauls were
the enemy who made the demand, and that Retana was the name of the
female slave. ]

[Footnote 938: The lower classes. --Ver. 259. Witness his own appeals in
the Amores to Nape, Cypassis. Bagous, and the porter. ]

[Footnote 939: In the Sacred Street. '--Ver. 266. Presents of game and
trout very often follow a similar devolution at the present day. ]

[Footnote 940: Amaryllis was so fond of. --Ver. 267. He alludes to a
line of Virgil, which, doubtless, was then well known to all persons
of education. It occurs in the Eclogues: 'Castaneasque nuces, mea quas
Amaryllis amabat. ' 'Chesnuts, too, which my Amaryllis was so fond of. '
In the next line, he hints that the damsels of his day were too greedy
to be satisfied with chesnuts only. ]

[Footnote 941: Thrush and a pigeon. --Ver. 269. Probably live birds of
the kind are here alluded to; Pliny tells us that they were trained to
imitate the human voice. Thrushes were much esteemed as a delicacy for
the table. They were sold tied up in clusters, in the shape of a crown. ]

[Footnote 942: By these means. --Ver. 271. He alludes to those who
continued to slip into dead men's shoes, by making trifling presents of
niceties. Juvenal inveighs against this practice. ]

[Footnote 943: Poetry does not. --Ver. 274. See the remarks of Dipsas in
the Amores, Book i. El. viii. 1. 57. ]

[Footnote 944: Only rich. --Ver. 276. See the Amores, Book iii. El. ii. ]

[Footnote 945: Tyrian hue. --Ver. 297. See the Fasti, Book ii. 1. 107,
and the Note. ]

[Footnote 946: Of Cos--Ver. 298. See the Epistles of Sabinus, Ep. iii.
1. 45, and the Note. ]

[Footnote 947: A dress of felt. --Ver. 300. 'Gausape,' 'gausapa,' or
'gausapum,' was a kind of thick woolly cloth, which had a long nap on
one side. It was used to cover tables and beds, and as a protection
against wind and rain. It was worn both by males and females, and came
into use among the Romans about the time of Augustus. ]

[Footnote 948: You are setting me on fire. --Ver. 301. Burmanu deservedly
censures the explanation of 'moves incendia,' given by Crispinus,
the Delphin Editor, 'Vous mourrez de chaud,' 'You will die of heat,'
applying the observation to the lady, and not, figuratively, to the
feelings of her lover. ]

[Footnote 949: Her very embraces. --Ver. 308. The common reading of this
line is clearly corrupt; probably the reading is the one here adopted,
'Et un dat, gaudia, voce proba. ']

[Footnote 950: What advice--Ver. 368. These attempts at argument are
exhausted by Paris, in his Epistle to Helen. ]

[Footnote 952: Stinging-nettle. --Ver. 417. Pliny prescribes nettle-seed
as a stimulating medicine, mixed with linseed, hyssop, and pepper. ]

[Footnote 953: White onion. --Ver. 421. The onions of Megara are praised
by Cato, the agricultural writer. ]

[Footnote 954: Alcathous. --Ver. 421. See the Metamorphoses, Book vii. 1. ]

[Footnote 955: At first. --Ver. 467. See the beginning of the First Book
of the Metamorphoses. ]

[Footnote 956: Unclean mate. --Ver. 486. He alludes to the strong smell
of the he-goat. ]

[Footnote 957: Machaon. --Ver. 491. He was a famous physician, son of
AEsculapius, and was slain in the Trojan war. See the Tristia, Book v.
El. vi. 1. 11. ]

[Footnote 958: He came. --Ver. 496.
'Adest' seems a preferable reading to
'agit. ']

[Footnote 959: To know himself. --Ver. 600. 'Know thyself,' was a saying
of Chilo, the Lacedaemonian, one of the wise men of Greece. This maxim
was also inscribed in gold letters in the temple of Apollo at Delphi.
'Too much of nothing' was a second maxim there inscribed; and a third
was, 'Misery is the consequence of debt and discord. ']

[Footnote 960: Drinks with elegance. --Ver. 506. It is hard to say what
art in drinking is here alluded to; whether a graceful air in holding
the cup, or the ability of drinking much without shewing any signs of
inebriety.

Let the old woman come. --Ver. 329. In sickness it was the
custom to purify the bed and chamber of the patient, with sulphur
and eggs. It seems also to have been done when the patient was pining
through unrequited love. Apulius mentions a purification by the priest
of Isis, who uses eggs and sulphur while holding a torch and repeating
a prayer. The nurse of the patient seems here to be directed to perform
the ceremony. ]

[Footnote 961: The Fasti, Book ii. 1. 19, and Book iv. 1. 728. From a
passage of Juvenal, we find that it was a common practice to purify with
eggs and sulphur, in the month of September, * On Athos. --Ver. 517. See
the Metamorphoses, Book ii. 1. 217, and the Note. ]

[Footnote 962: On Hybla. --Ver. 517. See the Tristia, Book v. El. xiii.
1. 22. ]

[Footnote 963: Off your head. --Ver. 528. Iphis, in the fourteenth Book
of the Metamorphoses, 1. 732, raises his eyes to the door-posts of his
mistress, 'so often adorned by him with wreaths. ']

[Footnote 964: The senses. --Ver. 532. He seems to believe, with Nixon
d'Enelos, in the existence of a sixth sense. ]

[Footnote 965: Of mighty Jove. --Ver. 540. He alludes to the triumphal
procession to the Capitol. ]

[Footnote 966: Gentle sleep. --Ver. 546. See the Amores, Book iii. El.
i. 1. 51. He means to say that husbands give a certain latitude to their
wives, who do not fail to improve upon it. ]

[Footnote 967: Own husband. --Ver. 551. See the Amores, Book i. El. iv.
1. 38. ]

[Footnote 968: Other men visit. --Ver. 554. 'Viri' seems to be a better
reading than 'viro. ']

[Footnote 969: Mars and Venus. --Ver. 562. See the Metamorphoses, Book
iv. 1. 173. ]

[Footnote 970: Says, laughing. --Ver. 585. See a similar passage in the
Metamorphoses, Book iv. 1. 187. ]

[Footnote 971: For Thrace. --Ver. 588. He was much venerated by the
warlike Thracians. ]

[Footnote 972: Paphos. --Ver. 588. See the Metamorphoses, Book x. 1.
298. ]

[Footnote 973: Fire and water render. --Ver. 598. Among the Romans, when
the bride reached her husband's house, he received her with fire and
water, which it was the custom for her to touch. This is, by some,
supposed to have been symbolical of purification; or it was an
expression of welcome, as the interdiction of fire and water was the
formula for banishment. ]

[Footnote 974: My sallies. --Ver. 600. See Book L 1. 31, and the Note.
See also the Fasti, Book iv. 1. 866, and the Note. ]

[Footnote 975: The rites of Ceres. --Ver. 601. He alludes to the
mysterious rites of Ceres, in the island of Samothrace. ]

[Footnote 976: Not enclosed in chests. --Ver. 609. Certain chests were
carried in the procession at the festival of Ceres, the contents of
which, if there were any, was a mystery to the uninitiated. ]

[Footnote 977: The left hand. --Ver. 614. This is the attitude of the
Venus de Medicis. ]

[Footnote 978: At a heavy price. --Ver. 626. Men spend their money on
debauchery, only for the pleasure of talking of it. ]

[Footnote 979: Waving wings. --Ver. 644. He refers to Perseus admiring
the swarthy Andromeda. ]

[Footnote 980: Of larger stature. --Ver. 645. She was remarkable for her
height. ]

[Footnote 981: Green bark. --Ver. 639. He speaks of the slip engrafted in
the stock. ]

[Footnote 982: What Consulship. --Ver. 663. The age of persons was
reckoned by naming the Consulship in which they were born; the period
of which was Known by reference to the 'Fasti Consulares. ' See the
Introduction to the Fasti. ]

[Footnote 983: Rigid Censor. --Ver. 664. It was the duty of the Censor to
make enquiries into the age of all individuals. ]

[Footnote 984: Best years. --Ver. 666. Even in those days, it was
considered ungallant to make too scrutinizing enquiries into the years
of ladies of 'a certain age. ']

[Footnote 985: Kind of warfare. --Ver. 674. See the Amores, Book i. El.
ix. 1. 1. ]

[Footnote 986: Besides in these. --Ver. 675. In reference to females of a
more advanced age. ]

[Footnote 987: Seven times five years. --Ver. 694. He probably means,
in this passage, a lustrum of five years. Burmann justly observes, that
'cito,' 'quickly,' or 'soon,' can hardly be the proper reading, as it
seems to contradict the meaning of the context. He suggests 'nisi,'
meaning 'but,' or 'only. ' See the Fasti, Book iii. 1. 166, and the Note.
Also the Tristia, Book iv. El. xvi. 1. 78. ]

[Footnote 988: Stored up in the times. --Ver. 696. He uses this
metaphorical expression to signify that he admires females when of
a ripe and mature age See the Amores, Book ii. El. v. 1. 54, and the
Note. ]

[Footnote 989: The shooting grass. --Ver. 698. In Nisard's translation,
the words 'prata novella' are rendered 'l'herbe nouvellement coupee,'
'the grass newly cut. ' This is not the meaning of the passage. He
intends to say that the grass just shooting up is apt to cut or prick
the naked foot. ]

[Footnote 990: Hermione. --Ver. 699. She was the daughter of Helen and
Menelaus. ]

[Footnote 991: Gorge. --Ver. 700. She was the daughter of Altnea, and
sister of Meleager. She married Andraemon. ]

[Footnote 992: Podalirius. --Ver. 735. The brother of Machaon. See the
Tristia Book v.