Perhaps the point of the reply lay in the temple of Jupiter Tonans
being placed at the approach to the Capitol from the Forum? See c. xxix.
and c. xv., with the note.

[243] If these trees flourished at Rome in the time of Augustus, the
winters there must have been much milder than they now are. There was
one solitary palm standing in the garden of a convent some years ago, but
it was of very stunted growth.

[244] The Republican forms were preserved in some of the larger towns.

[245] "The Nundinae occurred every ninth day, when a market was held at
Rome, and the people came to it from the country. The practice was not
then introduced amongst the Romans, of dividing their time into weeks, as
we do, in imitation of the Jews. Dio, who flourished under Severus, says
that it first took place a little before his time, and was derived from
the Egyptians."--Thomson. A fact, if well founded, of some importance.

[246] "The Romans divided their months into calends, nones, and ides.
The first day of the month was the calends of that month; whence they
reckoned backwards, distinguishing the time by the day before the
calends, the second day before the calends, and so on, to the ides of the
preceding month. In eight months of the year, the nones were the fifth
day, and the ides the thirteenth: but in March, May, July, and October,
the nones fell on the seventh, and the ides on the fifteenth. From the
nones they reckoned backwards to the calends, as they also did from the
ides to the nones."--Ib.

[247] The early Christians shared with the Jews the aversion of the
Romans to their religion, more than that of others, arising probably from
its monotheistic and exclusive character. But we find from Josephus and
Philo that Augustus was in other respects favourable to the Jews.

[248] Strabo tells us that Mendes was a city of Egypt near Lycopolis.
Asclepias wrote a book in Greek with the idea of theologoumenon, in
defence of some very strange religious rites, of which the example in the
text is a specimen.

[249] Velletri stands on very high ground, commanding extensive views of
the Pontine marshes and the sea.

[250] Munda was a city in the Hispania Boetica, where Julius Caesar
fought a battle. See c. lvi.

[251] The good omen, in this instance, was founded upon the etymology of
the names of the ass and its driver; the former of which, in Greek,
signifies fortunate, and the latter, victorious.

[252] Aesa