[33] _Reponam_, "repay in kind." A metaphor taken from the payment of debts.
[34] _Codrus_; a poor poet in every sense, if, as some think, he is the same as the Codrus mentioned iii., 203.
[35] _Recitaverit._ For the custom of Roman writers to recite their compositions in public, cf. Sat. vii., 40, 83; iii., 9. Plin., 1, Ep. xiii., "queritur se diem perdidisse." _Togata_ is a comedy on a Roman subject; _Prætexta_, a tragedy on the same; _Elegi_, trifling love-songs.
[36] _In tergo._ The ancients usually wrote only on one side of the parchment: when otherwise, the works were called "Opisthographi," and said to be written "aversa charta."
[37] _Venti_; cf. xii., 23, where he uses "Poëtica tempestas" as a proverbial expression.
[38] _Aurum_; probably a hit at Valerius Flaccus, his contemporary.
[39] _Julius Fronto_ was a munificent patron of literature, thrice consul, and once colleague of Trajan, A.D. 97. Cassiod.
[40] "Jam a grammaticis eruditi recessimus." Brit.; and so Dryden.
[41] "That to sleep soundly, he must cease to rule." Badham.
[42] Lucilius was born at _Aurunca_, anciently called Suessa.
[43] _Spado_, for the reason, vid. Sat. vi., 365.
[44] _Mævia._ The passion of the Roman women for fighting with wild beasts in the amphitheatre was encouraged by Domitian, but afterward restrained by an edict of Severus.
[45] "Who reap'd my manly chin's resounding field." Hodgson. Either Licinus, the freedman of Augustus, is referred to (Hor., A. P., 301), or more probably Cinnamus. Cf. Sat. x., 225. Mart., vii., Ep. 64.
[46] This is the most probable meaning, and adopted by Madan and Browne; but there are various other interpretations: e. g., "Cumbered with his purple vest." Badham. "With cloak of Tyrian dye, Changed oft a day for needless luxury." Dryden. "While he gathers now, now flings his purple open." Gifford. "O'er his back displays." Hodgson.
[48] "Fat Matho plunged in cushions at his ease." Badham.
[49] Cf. Mart., i., v., 5, "Quâ Thymelen spectas derisoremque Latinum."
[50] _Cœlum._ There is probably a covert allusion here to Adrian, who gained the empire through the partiality of Plotina, in spite of the will of her dying husband Trajan.
[51] _Lugdunensem._ There was a temple erected in honor of Augustus at Lyons, A.U.C. 744, and from the very first games were celebrated there, but the contest here alluded to was instituted by Caligula. Cf. Suet., Calig., xx. It was a "certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ," in which the vanquished were compelled to give prizes to the victors, and to write their praises. While those who "maximè displicuissent" had to obliterate their own compositions with a sponge or their tongues, unless they preferred being beaten with ferules, or ducked in the nearest river. Caligula was at Lyons, A.D. 40, on his way to the ocean.