[377] _Tessera._ The poorer Romans received every month tickets, which appear to have been transferable, entitling them to a certain quantity of corn from the public granaries. These tesseræ or symbola were made, Lubinus says, of wood or lead, and distributed by the "Frumentorum Curatores." In the latter days, bread thus distributed was called "Panis Gradilis," quia gradibus distribuebatur. The Congiarium consisted of wine, or oil only. The Donativum was only given to soldiers. Several of these tickets of wood and lead are preserved in the museum at Portici. [378] _Scindens._ "Præcepta ejus artis minutatim dividens." Lubin. On the principle, perhaps, that "Qui benè dividit benè docet." Britannicus, whom Heinrich follows, explains it by "deridet." Theodorus of Gadara was a professor of rhetoric in the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Vid. Suet., Tib., 57. It was he who so well described the character of the latter; calling him πήλον αἵματι πεφύρμενον. Chrysogonus, in vi., 74, is a singer, and Pollio, vi., 387, a musician (cf. Mart., iv., Ep. lxi., 9); but, as Lubinus says, the persons mentioned here are professors of rhetoric, and probably therefore not the same. [379] _Mundæ._ "He splash his fav'rite mule in filthy roads! With ample space at his command, to tire The well-groom'd beast, with hoof unstain'd by mire." Badham. [380] _Algentem._ They had dining-rooms facing different quarters, according to the season of the year, with a southern aspect for the winter, and an eastern for the summer. Cf. Plin., ii., Ep. 17. _Rapiat_ rather seems to imply the former case. So Badham-- "Courts the brief radiance of the winter's noon." "Algentem" favors the other view-- "Front the cool east, when now the averted sun Through the mid ardors of his course has run." Hodgson. [381] _Lunam._ Senators wore _black_ shoes of tanned leather: they were a kind of short boot reaching to the middle of the leg (hence, "Nigris medium impediit crus pellibus," Hor., I., Sat. vi., 27), with a crescent or the letter C in front, because the original number of senators was a hundred.--_Aluta_, "steeped in alum," to soften the skin. [382] _Ventidius Bassus_, son of a slave; first a carman, then a muleteer; afterward made in one year prætor and consul. Being appointed to command against the Parthians, he was allowed a triumph; having been himself, in his youth, led as a captive in the triumphal procession of Pompey's father. Cf. Val. Max., vi., 10. [383] _Thrasymachus_ of Chalcedon, the pupil of Plato and Isocrates, wrote a treatise on Rhetoric, and set up as a teacher of it at Athens; but, meeting with no encouragement, shut up his school and hanged himself. [384] _Secundus Carrinas_ is said to have been driven by poverty from Athens to Rome; and was banished by Caligula for a declamation against tyrants. He is mentioned, Tac., Ann., xv., 45.