"Who writes his Atreus, as his friends allege, With half his household goods and cloak in pledge." Badham. [355] _Statius_ employed twelve years upon his Thebais. (Cf. xii., 811.) It was not completed till _after_ the Dacian war, but was written _before_ the 1st book of the Silvæ, the date of the 4th book of which is known to be A.D. 95. We may therefore assume the date of the Thebais to be about 94. [356] _Vendat._ Holyday quotes from Brodæus the price given to Terence for his Eunuchus, viz., eight sestertia, about sixty-five pounds. [357] _Agave._ Probably a pantomimic ballet on a tragic subject; for, as Heinrich says, what had Paris, the mime, to do with a _new tragedy_? These and the following lines are said to have been the cause of Juvenal's banishment. [358] _Semestri_ is said to refer to an honorary military commission, conferred on favorites, even though not in the army, and called "Semestris tribunatus militum." It lasted for six months only, but conferred the privilege of wearing the equestrian ring, with perhaps others. It is alluded to in Pliny, iv., Epist. 4, who begs of Sossius the consul in behalf of a friend, "Hunc rogo semestri tribunatu splendidiorem facias." There are divers other interpretations, but this appears the simplest and most probable. To confound it with the "æstivum aurum" (i., 28), is a palpable absurdity. [359] _Vinum nescire._ Cf. Hor., ii., Sat. iii., 5, "At ipsis Saturnalibus huc fugisti Sobrius." Stat., Sylv., I., vi., 4, "Saturnus mihi compede exsolutâ, et multo gravidus mero December." "Then all December's revelries refuse, And give the festive moments to the Muse." Gifford. [360] _Acta legenti._ Either the "notary public," or "keeper of the public records," or the historian's reader, who collected facts for the author, or "any one who read aloud the history itself." [361] _Russati._ Cf. ad vi., 589. So the charioteer of "the white" was called Albatus. Lacerna, or Lacerta, was a charioteer in the reign of Domitian, some say of Domitian himself. One commentator takes Lacerna to be "any soldier wearing a red cloak;" as Paludatus is "one wearing the general's cloak." Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 78, "Prasinus Porphyrion." [362] _Consedere._ Cf. Ov., Met., xiii., 1, "Consedere duces; et, vulgi stante corona, Surgit ad hos clypei dominus septemplicis Ajax." Cf. ad xi., 30. [363] _Bubulco._" Before some clod-pate judge thy vitals strain." Badham. [364] _Palmæ._ Cf. ad ix., 85. "So shall the verdant palm be duly tied To the dark staircase where such powers reside." Badham. [365] _Afrorum Epimenia._ Most probably alluding to the "monthly rations of onions" allowed to African slaves, who were accustomed to plenty of them in their own country (cf. Herod., ii., 125. Numb., xi., 5), where they grew in great abundance. Martial, ix., Ep. xlvi., 11, enumerates "bulbi" among the presents sent at the Saturnalia to the causidicus Sabellus.