[56] “Musinamur.” We learn from Hardouin, Lem. i. 17, that there is some doubt as to the word employed by our author, whether it was _musinamur_ or _muginamur_; I should be disposed to adopt the former, as being, according to the remark of Turnebus, “verbum a Musis deductum.” [57] “A fine Aufidii Bassi;” as Alexandre remarks, “Finis autem Aufidii Bassi intelligendus est non mors ejus, sed tempus ad quod suas ipse perduxerat historias. Quodnam illud ignoramus.” Lem. i. 18. For an account of Aufidius Bassus we are referred to the catalogue of Hardouin, but his name does not appear there. Quintilian (x. 1) informs us, that he wrote an account of the Germanic war. [58] “Jam pridem peracta sancitur.” [59] This sentiment is not found in that portion of the treatise which has been lately published by Angelus Maius. Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 19. [60] The following is probably the passage in the Offices to which Pliny refers: “Panæcius igitur, qui sine controversia de officiis accuratissime disputavit, quemque nos, correctione quadam exhibita, potissimum secuti sumus....” (iii. 2.) [61] “Cum præsertim sors fiat ex usura.” The commentators and translators have differed respecting the interpretation of this passage; I have given what appears to me the obvious meaning of the words. [62] “Lac gallinaceum;” “Proverbium de re singulari et admodum rara,” according to Hardouin, who quotes a parallel passage from Petronius; Lemaire, i. 21. [63] The titles in the original are given in Greek; I have inserted in the text the words which most nearly resemble them, and which have been employed by modern authors. [64] “Lucubratio.” [65] The pun in the original cannot be preserved in the translation; the English reader may conceive the name Bibaculus to correspond to our surname Jolly. [66] “Sesculysses” and “Flextabula;” literally, Ulysses and a Half, and Bend-table. [67] Βιβλιοθήκη. [68] “Cymbalum mundi” and “publicæ famæ tympanum.” [69] “Pendenti titulo;” as Hardouin explains it, “qui nondum absolutum opus significaret, verum adhuc pendere, velut imperfectum.” Lemaire, i. 26. [70] “Homeromastigæ.” [71] “Dialectici.” By this term our author probably meant to designate those critics who were disposed to dwell upon minute verbal distinctions; “dialecticarum captionum amantes,” according to Hardouin; Lem. i. 28. [72] “Quod argutiarum amantissimi, et quod æmulatio inter illos acerbissima.” Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 28. [73] 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. [74] The ancients had very exaggerated notions respecting the period of the elephant’s pregnancy; our author, in a subsequent part of his work (viii. 10), says, “Decem annis gestare vulgus existimat; Aristoteles biennio.”