CHAPTER 50. _The Comitial sickness_, so called because, if a case of epilepsy occurred during the meeting of the _comitia_, the assembly was immediately broken up. CHAPTER 51. _The Problems._ Aristot. Fr. ed. Rose, p. 181. _Theophrastus_, cp. fragm. 175_w_. Diog. Laert. v. 2. 13. CHAPTER 52. _Thallus contracts his hands_, &c. 'Thallus manus contrahit, tu patronos.' The pun is (_a_) bad and (_b_) untranslatable into reasonably good English. The literal meaning is 'Thallus contracts his hands, you collect advocates'. CHAPTER 55. _The comrades of Ulysses_, &c. Odyss. x. 28-55. _Aesculapius._ Cp. Florida 18. _the mysteries of father Liber._ The mysterious object is probably the mystic casket (_cista_) containing the [Greek: phallos], emblem of fertility. CHAPTER 56. _The followers of Orpheus and Pythagoras_ abstained from the slaying of animals for the service of man. Cp. Herodotus ii. 81. _Mezentius._ Cp. Verg. Aen. vii. 647 'contemptor divom'. CHAPTER 57. _Ulysses._ Odyss i. 58. CHAPTER 62. _High and low through all the town._ The pun on _oppido_, 'exceedingly,' and _oppido_, 'town,' does not admit of reproduction. CHAPTER 64. _The Phaedrus_, 247. 'For the immortal souls, when they are at the end of their course, go out and stand upon the back of heaven, and the revolution of the spheres carries them round and they behold the world beyond. Now of the heaven which is above the heavens, no earthly poet has sung or ever will sing in a worthy manner. But I must tell, for I am bound to speak truly when speaking of the truth. The colourless and formless and intangible essence is visible to the mind, which is the only lord of the soul. Circling around this in the region above the heavens is the place of true knowledge.' (Jowett's Translation). _The King._ The passage quoted is from Plato, Epist. ii, p. 312 (403). It goes on to say 'and he is the cause of all things that are beautiful'. Compare the [Greek: nous basileus] identified with the cosmic soul in the Philebus 29E-30A. CHAPTER 65. _The Laws_, pp. 955, 6. It is possible that [Greek: monoxylon] may mean 'of one wood only'. CHAPTER 66. _Marcus Antonius_, _Cnaeus Carbo_, &c. Of these _causes celebres_ nothing is known worthy of mention here. Apuleius errs in saying that Mucius accused Albucius. As a matter of fact Albucius accused Mucius on the ground of extortion. Cp. Cic. Brut. 26. 102. For the suit between Metellus and Curio cp. Ascon. in Cornel. 63. Cnaeus Norbanus should probably be Caius Norbanus, and Caius Furius, Lucius Fufius. Cp. Cic. de Off. ii. 14. 49, de Or. ii. 21. 89, and Cic. Brut. 62. 222, de Off. ii. 14. 50. CHAPTER 73. _A discourse in public._ Fragments of such discourses are to be found in the Florida. CHAPTER 75. _His gold rings._ By the time of Hadrian the wearing of a gold ring (_ius anuli aurei_) was no more than a sign of free birth, and the only privilege conferred was that of obtaining office. See _Anulus_, Dict. Ant.