_Decentior quam sublimior_. _Well proportioned, rather than tall_. R. _Nihil metus_. _Nothing to inspire fear in his countenance_. Antith. to _gratia--supererat_: _kindness of expression rather prevailed_. So Gr. and R. For this sense of _metus_, see note G. 2: ob metum. Död. distinguishes between _vultus_ and _oris_, making the former refer more to the _eyes_ (as if from _volvo_, the rolling of the eye), to which it belongs to express anger and fierceness; the latter to the mouth, which is more expressive of kindness. _Medio--aetatis_. We should hardly say so of a man dying at 56. But in Dial. de Clar. Orat. T. speaks of 120 years, as _unius hominis aetas_. _Et vera bona_. T. has here in mind the distinction made by philosophers, particularly the Stoics, between the virtues, which they called the only real good, and the gifts of fortune, which they declared to be indifferent.--_Et--et, both--and_, marks the distinction more strongly. _Impleverat_. _Had enjoyed to the full_. _Consulari_. _Having attained to the rank of consul_ (the summit of a Roman's ambition) _and having been honored with triumphal insignia_. Al. consularibus. But _consulari_ has the better authority and makes the better sense. _Opibus--contigerant_. _Great riches he did not desire; a respectable property it was his good fortune to possess_, cf. 5: medio rationis atque abundantiae. Al. non contigerant. But considerable property is implied in the circumstances attending his will, 43, also in his not asking the visual salary, 42. Dion Cass. says, however, (66, 20.), that A. spent his last days in want, as well as in disgrace. For another explanation of _gaudebat_, cf. n. G. 6. _Quod--ominabatur_. _Quod_ is omitted in the common editions. But it is found in the MSS. And it may be explained on the principle of Zeugma, by supplying with _durare_ and _videre_ a verb implied in _grande solatium tulit_ thus: _though (sicuti) it would have been a great gratification to A. to behold the dawn of this auspicious age and see Trajan Emperor, of which he expressed in my hearing a sort of prophetic anticipation and desire, yet (ita)_, etc. Cassius affirms (69, 12), that by auguries the elevation of Trajan to the throne was foretold, as early as A.U.C. 844, i.e. _two years before the death of A_. The reference to Trajan here, as in 3, marks clearly the date of the composition, cf. note, 3: augeatque Trajanus. _Spiramenta_. _Breathing-spells_, i.e. intervals to recover and take breath in. The word is found only in poetry and post-Augustan prose, and, in the expressive sense in which it is here used, only in Ammian. Marc. 29, 1. See Or. and Freund. _Velut uno ictu_. The commentators illustrate the force of this expression by reference to Caligula's wish (Vid. Sen. de Va. 3, 19), that the Roman people had but one neck, ut scelera sua in _unum ictum_ et unum diem cogeret.