[Footnote III.25: _Met his death_)--Ver. 3. The story of Hippolytus, who met his death in consequence of the treachery of his step-mother Phædra, is related at length in the Play of Euripides of that name, and in the Fifteenth Book of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The fate of Cassandra, the daughter of Priam, who in vain prophesied the fall of Troy, is related in the Second Book of the Æneid, l. 246, _et seq._] [Footnote III.26: _The white toga_)--Ver. 10. The “toga prætexta,” or Consular robe, was worn by the male children of the Romans till their sixteenth year; when they assumed the ordinary “toga,” which was called “pura,” because it had no purple border, and was entirely white.] [Footnote III.27: _The hair cut close_)--Ver. 27. This is appropriately introduced, as the hair of youths was allowed to grow long until they had reached the age of manhood, on which it was cut close, and consecrated to the Gods.] [Footnote III.28: _The Centumviri_)--Ver. 35. The “Centumviri” were a body of 105 officers, whose duty it was to assist the prætor in litigated questions. They were sometimes called “judices selecti,” or “commissioned judges.”] [Footnote III.29: _The patrons stand_)--Ver. 37. The patrons stood while pleading the causes of their clients, while the judges sat, as with us.] [Footnote III.30: _Sure source of truth_)--Ver. 43. It is suggested that the source of information here alluded to was the evidence of the slaves, who had heard their master mention in his last moments the treachery of his freedman. It is not probable that the freedman voluntarily came forward, and declared the truth to Augustus. In l. 39, Augustus is called “Divus,” as having been deified after his death. Domitian was the first who was so called during his lifetime.] FABLE XI. THE EUNUCH TO THE ABUSIVE MAN. A Eunuch had a dispute with a scurrilous fellow, who, in addition to obscene remarks and insolent abuse, reproached him with the misfortune of his mutilated person. “Look you,” said {the Eunuch}, “this is the only point as to which I am effectually staggered, forasmuch as I want the evidences of integrity. But why, simpleton, do you charge me with the faults of fortune? That {alone} is really disgraceful to a man, which he has deserved to suffer.”[31] [Footnote III.31: _Deserved to suffer_)--Ver. 7. Though this moral may apply to all misfortunes in general, it is supposed by some of the Commentators that by the insulter some individual notorious for his adulteries was intended to be represented; who consequently merited by law to be reduced to the same situation as the innocent Eunuch.] FABLE XII. THE COCK AND THE PEARL.