drest, was "a respectable
and opulent lady," the daughter of Cremutius Cordus.]

[Footnote 79: Made Consul with Julius Caesar in 59 B.C. He represented
the aristocratic party and bitterly opposed some of the measures of
Caesar. In the war with Pompey he joined his forces to those of
Pompey.]

[Footnote 80: A legendary maiden delivered as hostage to Lars Porsena
of Clusium, but who escaped by swimming across the Tiber.]

[Footnote 81: Marcus Livius Drusus was a politician, who in 91 B.C.
became tribune of the plebs. He was about to bring forward a proposal
giving citizenship to the Italians when he was assassinated, an event
which precipitated the Social War.]

[Footnote 82: From the "Minor Essays." Translated by Aubrey Stewart.
"This," says Alexander Thomson, the eighteenth-century translator of
Suetonius, "appears to have been written in the beginning of the reign
of Nero, on whom the author bestows some high encomiums which at that
time seem not to have been destitute of foundation."]

[Footnote 83: Burrus in 52 A.D. had been made sole Praetorian Praefect
by Claudius and, conjointly with Seneca, was entrusted with the
education of Nero. It was his influence with the Praetorian Guards that
secured to Nero in 54 the independent succession. He was put to death
by poison, under orders from Nero, who had been offended by the
severity of his moral conduct.]

[Footnote 84: From Epistle 85. Translated by Thomas Lodge. Printed
here with the spelling and punctuation of the first edition (1613).]

[Footnote 85: From Book VII of the "Minor Essays." Translated by
Aubrey Stewart. This essay addrest to Gallio, Seneca is thought to
have intended "as a vindication of himself against those who
calumniated him on account of his riches and manner of living."]

PLINY THE ELDER

Born in Como, in 23 A.D.; perished in the eruption of
Vesuvius in 79; celebrated as naturalist; commanded cavalry
in Germany at the age of twenty-three; procurator in Spain
under Nero; wrote voluminously on military tactics, history,
grammar and natural science; his death due to his efforts to
observe more closely the eruption; of all his writings only
his "Natural History" in thirty-seven books has survived.

I

THE QUALITIES OF THE DOG[86]

Among the animals that are domesticated with mankind there are many
circumstances that are deserving of being known: among these there are
more particularly that mos