FOOTNOTES [1]The Romans carried the art of short-hand to its highest perfection, as appears from the following epigram of Martial: “_Currant verba licet, manus est velocius illis; Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus._” xiv. 208. “Swift though the words, (the pen still swifter sped) The hand has finished, ere the tongue has said.” [2]It seems probable that this was the first eruption of Mount Vesuvius, at least of any consequence. Dio, indeed, and other ancient authors speak of it as burning before; but still they describe it as covered with trees and vines, so that the eruptions must have been inconsiderable. [3]The Stoic and Epicurean philosophers held that the world would eventually be destroyed by fire, and all things would fall into original chaos, not excepting even the national gods themselves from the destruction of this general conflagration. [4]The allusion, otherwise obscure, is to the fact that some friends of Catullus had filched a set of table-napkins, which had been given to him by Veranius and Fabius, and substituted others in their place. [5]“Sesculysses” and “Flextabula;” literally, Ulysses and a Half, and Bend-table. [6]Pliny the younger, in one of his letters (iii. 5), where he enumerates all his uncle’s publications, informs us, that he wrote “a piece of criticism in eight books, concerning ambiguity of expression.” Melmoth’s Pliny, i. 136. [7]His real name was Tyrtamus, but in consequence of the beauty of his style, he acquired the appellation by which he is generally known from the words θειος φρασις. Cicero refers to him in Brutus, 121; Orator, 17; and on various other occasions. [8]“Spartum;” this plant was used to make bands for the vines and cables for ships. [9]The term _Mundus_ is used by Pliny, sometimes to mean _the earth_ and its immediate appendages, the visible solar system; and at other times _the universe_; while in some instances it is used in a rather vague manner, without any distinct reference to either one or other of the above designations. I have usually translated it by the term _world_, as approaching nearest to the sense of the original. [10]The astronomy of our author is derived mainly from Aristotle. [11]This theory of the “music of the spheres” was maintained by Pythagoras, but was derided by Aristotle. [12]The letter Δ, in the constellation of the triangle; but except in this one case, the constellations have no visible resemblance to the objects of which they bear the name. [13]Iliad, iii. 277, and Od. xii. 323. [14]The author here alludes to the figures of the Egyptian deities that were engraved on rings. [15]His specific office was to execute vengeance on the impious.