Terence has rendered by the word _pistrinum_, the Greek σωφρονιστήριον, or house of correction, whither criminals were sent for the various terms of imprisonment proportioned to their offences. Slaves, while in this prison, were employed chiefly in grinding corn, which, from a deficiency of mechanical knowledge, was, in those times, a very laborious employment. The Athenians, who were universally celebrated for their kind and gentle treatment of slaves, were very reluctant to proceed to severer punishments than whipping or imprisonment: but when a flagrant delinquency rendered it necessary to make an example, they either burned the criminal with a hot iron, in the offending member, if possible; or put on his feet a torturing instrument, called χοῖνιξ. If the law required the criminal to suffer death, which happened in very few cases, he was either hung, beaten to death with clubs, or cast into a deep pit, called βάραθρον, filled at the bottom with sharp spikes. They sometimes had recourse to other extraordinary modes of punishment: but the before-mentioned were the most common. NOTE 89. _In truth, friend Davus, from what I have just heard._ This scene contains the second part of the narration, which possesses all the requisites enumerated by Cicero, _perspicuity, probability, brevity, and sweetness_. It is introduced with Terence’s usual art, and enough is said respecting Glycera’s birth, to prepare the mind for the _dénouement_ in the last act. This scene, and that before it, are omitted in the Conscious Lovers; and a dialogue between Humphrey and Tom, and another between Tom and Phyllis, the English Davus and Mysis, are substituted instead of them: but Phyllis is the servant of Lucinda, the lady Sir J. Bevil wishes his son to marry: and not of Indiana, the modern Glycera. The two scenes above mentioned contain only one incident: the conveyance of a letter from young Bevil to Lucinda, apprizing her of his disinclination to the match. NOTE 90. _This affair must be handled dexterously, or either my young master or I must be quite undone._ The original of this passage is as follows: _Quæ si non_ astu _providentur, me, aut herum pessundabunt_. A deviation from the customary mode of expression sometimes occurs in our author’s writings. I shall set down the most remarkable words of this nature that are to be found in this play.