s.
(2) These were the Consuls for the expiring year, B.C. 49 --
Caius Marcellus and L. Lentulus Crus.
(3) That is to say, Caesar's Senate at Rome could boast of those
Senators only whom it had, before Pompeius' flight, declared
public enemies. But they were to be regarded as exiles,
having lost their rights, rather than the Senators in
Epirus, who were in full possession of theirs.
(4) Dean Merivale says that probably Caesar's Senate was not
less numerous than his rival's. Duruy says there were
senators in Pompeius' camp, out of a total of between 500
and 600. Mommsen says, "they were veritably emigrants.
This Roman Coblentz presented a pitiful spectacle of the
high pretensions and paltry performances of the grandees of
Rome." (Vol. iv., p. 397.) Almost all the Consulars were
with Pompeius.
(5) By the will of Ptolemy Auletes, Cleopatra had been appointed
joint sovereign of Egypt with her young brother. Lucan
means that Caesar would have killed Pompeius if young
Ptolemy had not done so. She lost her hare of the kingdom,
and Caesar was clear of the crime.
(6) Appius was Proconsul, and in command of Achaia, for the
Senate.
(7) See Book IV., 82.
(8) Themis, the goddess of law, was in possession of the Delphic
oracle, previous to Apollo. (Aesch., "Eumenides", line 2.)
(9) The modern isle of Ischia, off the Bay of Naples.
(10) The Tyrians consulted the oracle in consequence of the
earthquakes which vexed their country (Book III., line 225),
and were told to found colonies.
(11) See Herodotus, Book VII., 140-143. The reference is to the
answer given by the oracle to the Athenians that their
wooden walls would keep them safe; which Themistocles
interpreted as meaning their fleet.
(12) Cicero, on the contrary, suggests that the reason why the
oracles ceased was this, that men became less credulous.
("De Div.", ii., 57) Lecky, "History of European Morals
from Augustus to Charlemagne", vol. i., p. 368.
(13) This name is one of those given to the Cumaean Sibyl
mentioned at line 210. She was said to have been the
daughter of Apollo.
(14) Probably by the Gauls under Brennus, B.C. 279.
(15) These lines form the Latin motto prefixed to Shelley's poem,
"The Demon of the World".
(16) Referring to the visit of Aeneas to the Sibyl. (Virgil,
"Aeneid", vi., 70, &c.)
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