"Regions which such a tract of land embrace, That kites are tired within the unmeasured space." Gifford.
[518] _Trifolinus ager._ Cf. Mart., xiii., Ep. 114, "Non sum de primo fateor, Trifolina, Lyæo; inter vina tamen septima vitis ero." Trifoline wines were so called from being fit to drink at the third appearance of the leaf, "quæ tertio anno ad bibendum tempestiva forent." Plin., xiv., 6. Facc. takes it from Trifolium, a mountain in Campania, perhaps near Capua. Plin., iv., 6.
[519] _Suspectumque jugum._ Either Mons Misenus (cf. Virg., Æn., vi., 234), only three miles from Cumæ, or Vesuvius, which was famous for its wines. Mart., iv., Ep. 44. Virg., Georg., ii., 224. Gaurus, now Monte Barbaro, is full of volcanic caverns. It is also called "Gierro."
"Though none drinks less, yet none more vessels fills!" Dryden.
[521] _Casulis._ Cf. xi., 153, "notos desiderat hædos."
"Sure yonder female with the child she bred, The dog their playmate, and their little shed, Had with more justice been conferr'd on me, Than on a cymbal-beating debauchee." Gifford.
[522] _Polyphemi._ For the loudness of his roar, vid. Virg., Æn., iii., 672. The meaning seems to be, "I am as badly off with but one slave as Polyphemus was with only one eye: had he had _two_ Ulysses would not have escaped him." Badham takes it of the slave calling for food.
"My hungry rascal must at home be fed, Or else, like Polypheme, he'll roar for bread!"
[524] _Durate._ A parody on Virg., Æn., i., 207, "Durate, et vosmet rebus servate secundis." Cf. Suet., Cal., 45.
"Cold! never mind! a month or two, and then The grasshoppers, my lads, will come again!" Badham.
[525] _Ruperat._ Cf. Tac., Ann., xi., 30, "At is redderet uxorem, rumperetque tabulas nuptiales." There was an express clause in the marriage contract, "liberorum procreandorum gratiâ uxorem duci."
[526] _Libris actorum._ Cf. Tac., Ann., iii., 3. Sat. ii., 136, "cupient et in acta referri." These acta were public registers, in which parents were obliged to insert the names of their children a few days after their birth. They contained, besides, records of marriages, divorces, deaths, and other occurrences of the year, and were therefore of great service to historians, who as some think employed persons to read them up for them. (Cf. acta legenti vii., 104.) Servius Tullius instituted this custom. The records were kept in the temple of Saturn.