_Vulgus_. The lower classes, _the ignorant and indolent rabble_.-- _Populus_. _The common people, tradesmen, mechanics_, and the like. Hence, _aliud agens_, which implies that they were too busy with something else of a private nature, to give much attention to public affairs or the concerns of their neighbors.--_Populus_ and _vulgus_ are brought together in a similar way, Dial. de Clar. Orat. 7: Vulgus quoque imperitum et tunicatus hic populus, etc. _Nobis--ausim_. _I should not dare to affirm that we_ (the friends of A.) _found any conclusive proof_, that he was poisoned.--_Ceterum_. _But_. This implies that the circumstantial evidence, which he goes on to specify, convinced the writer and his friends, as well as the public, that poison administered by direction of Dom., was really the means of hastening A. out of the world. Dion Cassius expressly affirms, that he was poisoned, 66, 20. _Principatus_. The imperial government in general, i.e. former Emperors. _Momenta ipsa deficientis_. _Each successive stage of his decline_. _Ipsa_ is omitted in the common editions. But it rests on good authority and it adds to the significance of the clause: _the very moments_, as it were, were reported to Dom. _Per dispositos cursores_. Dom. appears not to have been at Rome at this time, but in the Alban Villa (cf. 45), or somewhere else. _Constabat_. That was an _admitted point_, about which there was entire _agreement_ (_con_ and _sto_). _Animo vultuque_. Hendiadys: _he wore in his countenance an expression of heartfelt grief_. _Securus odii_. Now, that A. was dead, Dom. had nothing to fear in regard to the _object of his hatred_, or the _gratification of his hate_. _Odii_. Gen. of the respect.--_Qui--dissimularet_. _Qui==talis, ut_, hence the subj. H. 501, I.; Z. 558. _Lecto testamento_. When A.'s _will was read_. _Honore judicioque_. As if a mark of honor and esteem. E. says==judicio honorifico.--_Piissimae_, devoted, affectionate. _Malum principem_. It was customary for rich men at Rome, who were anxious to secure any of their property to their heirs, to bequeath a part of their estates to _bad emperors_ in order to secure the remainder from their rapacity. This and several preceding sections present a most graphic _outline_ of the _life and times_ of Dom., the more to be prized, because the full _picture_, which T. doubtless drew of him in the Histories, is lost. The Histories and the Annals are a vast portrait gallery full of such pictures drawn to the life. XLIV. _Natus--excessit_. The dates assigned for A.'s birth and death, do not agree with the age ascribed to him. They may be harmonized in either of two ways, each of which has its advocates: by reading _primum_ instead of _tertium_, or, which is perhaps a more probable amendment, since it only alters the relative position of the two characters, by reading LIV instead of LVI. _Quod si_. And if, _now if_.--_Habitum_. _Personal appearance_, cf. G. 5.