[587] _Exercitibus præponere._ Vid. Tac., Ann., iv., 2, "Centuriones ac Tribunos ipse deligere: neque senatorio ambitu abstinebat clientes suos honoribus aut provinciis ornando, facili Tiberio atque ita prono ut socium laborum celebraret."
"Arraign Thy feeble sovereign in a guardian's strain, Who sits amid his foul Chaldæan herd In that august domain to Rome preferr'd." Badham.
[589] _Sedentis._ Cf. Suet., Tib., 43; Tac., Ann., vi., 1. Grangæus supposes this word to have reference to the Sellaria there described. It probably only refers to his luxury and indolence. Tiberius was with Augustus when he visited Capreæ shortly before his death: "remisissimo ad otium et ad omnem comitatem animo. Vicinam Capreis insulam ἀπραγοπόλιν appellabat à desidiâ secedentium illuc e comitatu suo." Cf. c. 40. Tac., Ann., iv., 67.
[590] _Augusta._ The old reading was angustâ. The alteration of a single letter converts a forceless expletive into an epithet full of picturesque and historic truth.
[591] _Egregios equites._ The flower of the Roman army, the prætorian troops, of which Sejanus was præfect.
"To pound false weights and scanty measures break." Dryden.
[593] _Ulubris._ Cf. Hor., i., Ep. xi., 30, "Est Ulubris, animus si non tibi deficit æquus." Another joke at the expense of the plebeian ædiles (cf. iii., 162), who had the charge of inspecting weights and measures, markets and provisions, roads, theatres, etc. These functionaries still exist (as Gifford says), "as ragged and consequential" as ever, in the Italian villages, retaining their old name of Podestà.
"Deal out the law, and curb with high decree The tricks of trade at empty Ulubræ." Hodgson.
[594] _Altior._ The idea is probably borrowed from Menander, ἐπαίρεται γὰρ μεῖζον, ἵνα μεῖζον πέσῃ. So hence Horace, ii., Od. x., 10, "Celsæ graviore casu decidunt turres." So Claudian in Rufin., i., 22, "Tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant;" and Shakspeare, "Raised up on high to be hurl'd down below."
"With hideous _ruin_ and combustion down." C. Badham.
[596] _Crassos._ M. Licinius Crassus and his son Publius; both killed in the Parthian war.
[597] _Pompeios._ Cn. Pompeius Magnus, and his two sons, Cnæus and Sextus.
"The stubborn pride of Roman nobles broke, And bent their haughty necks beneath his yoke." Dryd.