[729] _Curius_ was found by the Samnite embassadors preparing his dish of turnips over the fire with his own hands. Cic., de Sen., xvi.
"Senates more rich than Rome's first senates were, In days of yore desired no better fare." Badham.
[730] _Vulvâ._ "Nul vulvâ pulchrius amplâ." Hor., i., Ep. xv., 41. For a description of this loathsome dainty, vid. Plin., xi., 37, 84. Cf. Mart., Ep. xiii., 56.
"For feasts like these would quit the mountain's soil, And snatch an hour from customary toil." Badham.
[732] _Fabios._ Q. Fabius Maximus Rullianus, censor A.U.C. 449, obliged his colleague, P. Decius, to allow him to administer his office with all its pristine severity.
[734] _Testudo._ Cf. vi., 80, "Testudineo conopeo;" xiv., 308, "ebore et lata testudine."
"Which future times were destined to employ, To build rare couches for the sons of Troy." Badham.
[735] _Vile coronati._ Henninius suggests _vite_. The ass, by browsing on the vine, and thereby rendering it more luxuriant, is said to have first given men the idea of pruning the tendrils. Cf. Paus., ii., 38. Hyg., F., 274. The ass is always found, too, in connection with Silenus.
"Till at the soldier's foot her treasures lay, Who knew not half the riches of his prey." Hodgson.
[737] _Phaleris_: xvi., 60. Florus says Phaleræ were introduced from Etruria together with curule chairs, trabeæ, prætextæ, etc. Vid. Liv., xxxix., 31. Plin., vii., 28, 9, says Siccius Dentatus had 25 phaleræ and 83 torques. Sil., xv., 254. Cf. Virg., Æn., ix., 359. Suet., Aug., 25; Ner., 33.
[738] _Venientis._ Supposed to be a representation of Mars hovering in the air, and just about to alight by the sleeping Rhea Sylvia. The god is _armed_, because the conventional manner of representing him was by the distinction of his "framea" and "clypeus." See Addison's note in Gifford.
"Then all their wealth was on their armor spent, And war engross'd the pride of ornament." Hodgson.
"Yet justly worth your envy, were your breast But with one spark of noble spleen possess'd." Gifford.
[741] _Præsentior._ Cf. iii., 18, "Quanto _præsentius_ esset Numen aquæ." Virg., Ec., i., 42, "Nec tam præsentes alibi cognoscere Divos." Georg., i., 10, "Præsentia Numina Fauni." Hor., iii., Od. v., 2, "Præsens Divus habebitur Augustus."