This circumstance is so much the more extraordinary, as a play was seldom exhibited on the Roman stage oftener than on four or five occasions, before it was laid aside; and new pieces were usually provided for every festival: with what enthusiastic applause then, must the Eunuch have been received, when the audience with the loudest acclamations, called for a second representation of this admirable comedy on the same day! It is necessary to explain that the actors had sufficient time to repeat their performance, as dramatic entertainments were usually frequented by the Romans, not in the evening as among the moderns, but in the course of the day, and generally previous to the hour of their principal repast. NOTE 18. _Eight thousand sesterces._ Eight thousand sesterces were equal to 64_l._ 11_s._ 8_d._ sterling. The Romans reckoned their money by sesterces: the _sestertius_, which was a brass coin, worth 1. d. 3 qrs. ¾, must not be confounded with the _sestertium_, which was no coin, but money of account, and equal in value to _one thousand sesterces_. NOTE 19. _Varro._ Marcus Terentius Varro was born at Rome in the year of the city 632; at the time of the sedition of Caius Gracchus. Varro was the intimate friend of Pompey: and obtaining the consulship in the year 680, had the mortification to find the efforts of himself and his colleague, inadequate to suppress the insurrection of Spartacus, whose successes at the head of the rebellious gladiators, alarmed all Rome. The military occupations of Varro did not prevent his close attention to literature: his writings were very voluminous; and those of them which remain are deservedly in high estimation. NOTE 20. _And as for what those malicious railers say, who assert that certain noble persons assist the poet._