[559] _Tiresias_: A Theban soothsayer whose change of sex is described by Ovid (_Metam._ iii.). [560] _The dazzling marbles_: Aruns, a Tuscan diviner, is introduced by Lucan as prophesying great events to come to pass in Rome--the Civil War and the victories of Cæsar. His haunt was the deserted city of Luna, situated on the Gulf of Spezia, and under the Carrara mountains (_Phars._ i. 586). [561] _Manto_: A prophetess, a native of Thebes the city of Bacchus, and daughter of Tiresias.--Here begins a digression on the early history of Mantua, the native city of Virgil. In his account of the foundation of it Dante does not agree with Virgil, attributing to a Greek Manto what his master attributes to an Italian one (_Æn._ x. 199). [562] _Benacus_: The ancient Benacus, now known as the Lake of Garda. [563] _The Pastors, etc._: About half-way down the western side of the lake a stream falls into it, one of whose banks, at its mouth, is in the diocese of Trent, and the other in that of Brescia, while the waters of the lake are in that of Verona. The three Bishops, standing together, could give a blessing each to his own diocese. [564] _Peschiera_: Where the lake drains into the Mincio. It is still a great fortress. [565] _Without casting lot_; Without consulting the omens, as was usual when a city was to be named. [566] _Casalodi_: Some time in the second half of the thirteenth century Alberto Casalodi was befooled out of the lordship of Mantua by Pinamonte Buonacolsi. Benvenuto tells the tale as follows:--Pinamonte was a bold, ambitious man, with a great troop of armed followers; and, the nobility being at that time in bad odour with the people at large, he persuaded the Count Albert that it would be a popular measure to banish the suspected nobles for a time. Hardly was this done when he usurped the lordship; and by expelling some of the citizens and putting others of them to death he greatly thinned the population of the city. [567] _All my thoughts, etc._: The reader's patience is certainly abused by this digression of Virgil's, and Dante himself seems conscious that it is somewhat ill-timed. [568] _The land of Greece, etc._: All the Greeks able to bear arms being engaged in the Trojan expedition. [569] _An augur_: Eurypylus, mentioned in the Second _Æneid_ as being employed by the Greeks to consult the oracle of Apollo regarding their return to Greece. From the auspices Calchas had found at what hour they should set sail for Troy. Eurypylus can be said only figuratively to have had to do with cutting the cable. [570] _Tragedy_: The _Æneid_. Dante defines Comedy as being written in a style inferior to that of Tragedy, and as having a sad beginning and a happy ending (Epistle to Can Grande, 10). Elsewhere he allows the comic poet great licence in the use of common language (_Vulg. El._ ii. 4). By calling his own poem a Comedy he, as it were, disarms criticism.