Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises.

[971] It is satisfactory to find that the best commentators consider the
words between brackets as an interpolation in the work of Suetonius.
Some, including Bentley, reject the preceding sentence also.

[972] The works of Horace abound with references to his Sabine farm
which must be familiar to many readers. Some remains are still shewn,
consisting of a ruined wall and a tesselated pavement in a vineyard,
about eight miles from Tivoli, which are supposed, with reason, to mark
its site. At least, the features of the neighbouring country, as often
sketched by the poet--and they are very beautiful--cannot be mistaken.

[973] Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were consuls A.U.C. 688.
The genial Horace, in speaking of his old wine, agrees with Suetonius in
fixing the date of his own birth:

O nata mecum consule Manlio
Testa.--Ode iii. 21.
And again,

Tu vina, Torquato, move
Consule pressa meo.--Epod. xiii. 8.

[974] A.U.C. 745. So that Horace was in his fifty-seventh, not his
fifty-ninth year, at the time of his death.

[975] It may be concluded that Horace died at Rome, under the hospitable
roof of his patron Mecaenas, whose villa and gardens stood on the
Esquiline hill; which had formerly been the burial ground of the lower
classes; but, as he tells us,

Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque
Aggere in aprico spatiare.--Sat. i. 8.

[976] Cordova. Lucan was the son of Annaeus Mella, Seneca's brother.

[977] This sentence is very obscure, and Ernesti considers the text to
be imperfect.

[978] They had good reason to know that, ridiculous as the tyrant made
himself, it was not safe to incur even the suspicion of being parties to
a jest upon him.

[979] See NERO, c. xxxvi.

[980] St. Jerom (Chron. Euseb.) places Lucan's death in the tenth year
of Nero's reign, corresponding with A.U.C. 817. This opportunity is
taken of correcting an error in the press, p. 342, respecting the date of
Nero's accession. It should be A.U.C. 807, A.D. 55.

[981] These circumstances are not mentioned by some other writers. See
Dr. Thomson's account of Lucan, before, p. 347, where it is said that he
died with philosophical firmness.

[982] We find it stated ib. p. 396, that Lucan expired while pronouncing
some verses from his own Pharsalia: for which we have the authority of
Tacitus, Annal. xv. 20. 1. Lucan, it appears,