[130] XXII. They asserted--_Dictitare_. In referring this word to the circulators of the report, I follow Cortius, Gerlach, Kritzius, and Bernouf. Wasse, with less discrimination, refers it to Catiline. This story of the drinking of human blood is copied by Florus, iv 1, and by Plutarch in his Life of Cicero. Dio Cassius (lib. xxxvii.) says that the conspirators were reported to have killed a child on the occasion. [131] XXIII. Quintus Curius--the same that is mentioned in c. 17. [132] To promise her seas and mountains--_Maria montesque polliceri_. A proverbial expression. Ter. Phorm., i. 2, 18: _Modò non montes auri pollicens_. Perc., iii. 65: _Et quid opus Cratero magnos promittere emontes._ [133] With greater arrogance than ever--_Ferocius quam solitus erat._ [134] To Marcus Tullius Cicero--Cicero was now in his forty-third year, and had filled the office of quaestor, aedile, and praetor. [135] A man of no family--_Novus homo._ A term applied to such as could not boast of any ancestor that had held any curule magistracy, that is, had been consul, praetor, censor, or chief aedile. [136] XXIV. Manlius--He had been an officer in the army of Sylla, and, having been distinguished for his services, had been placed at the head of a colony of veterans settled about Faesulae: but he had squandered his property in extravagance. See Plutarch, Vit. Cic., Dio Cassius, and Appian. [137] Faesulae--A town of Etruria, at the foot of the Appennines, At evening from the top of Fesole, Or in Valdarno to descry new lands, etc. Par. L. i. 28. [138] XXV. Sempronia--Of the same _gens_ as the two Gracchi. She was the wife of Decimus Brutus. [139] Sing, play, and dance--_Psallere, saltare._ As _psallo_ signifies both to play on a musical instrument, and to sing to it while playing, I have thought it necessary to give both senses in the translation. [140] By no means despicable--_Haud absurdum._ Compare, _Bene dicere haud absurdum est,_ c. 8. [141] She was distinguished, etc.--_Multae facetiae, multusque lepos inerat._ Both _facetiae_ and _lepos_ mean "agreeableness, humor, pleasantry," but _lepos_ here seems to refer to diction, as in Cic. Orat. i. 7: _Magnus in jocando lepos._ [142] XXVI. By an arrangement respecting their provinces--_Pactione provinciae_. This passage has been absurdly misrepresented by most translators, except De Brosses. Even Rose, who was a scholar, translated _pactione provinciae_, "by promising a province to his colleague." Plutarch, in his Life of Cicero, says that the two provinces, which Cicero and his colleague Antonius shared between them, were Gaul and Macedonia, and that Cicero, in order to retain Antonius in the interest of the senate, exchanged with him Macedonia, which had fallen to himself, for the inferior province of Gaul. See Jug., c. 27.