[1]: Fannius had been praetor, and before a cause came to actual trial, in came before the praetor, who decided whether there were sufficient grounds for allowing the trial to proceed; much as our grand jury does now.
[2]: A municeps was a citizen of a municipium. For a full explanation of these terms see Smith, Dict. Ant. p.259, v. Colonia.
[3]: The Latin word is hospes, answering to the Greek ξένος.
[4]: The decuriones were the senators in a colony. Only a decuric could be a magistrate, and their body possessed whatever power had once belonged to the community. Smith, Dict. Ant. v. Colonia.
[5]: Scaevola was trying to effect an accommodation between the parties of Sulla and Marius when he was murdered by them.
[6]: The Remmia Lex fixed the punishment for calumnia; but it is not known when this law was passed, nor what were its penalties, Smith, Dict Ant. v. Calumnia.
[7]: The letter was K, which was branded on the forehead of those who were convicted of bringing false accusations, being the first letter of the word kalumnia as it was originally spelt. It was also the first letter of the word kalendae and on the calends of each month debts were accustomed to be got in and bonds were liable to be paid.
[8]: There is a pun here on the word sector, which means not only a broker, but also a cut-throat, a murderer.
[9]: There is a little dispute as to Cicero’s exact meaning here. Some think there is a sort of pun on the similarity of sound between Cannensis and Cinnanensis and that allusion is intended to the destruction of Cinna’s army, in which a great number of Roman knights were slain. Facciolati thinks that the battle of Cannae is mentioned, not on account of the battle itself but of what followed it; so that as, after the battle of Cannae, the dictator was forced to intrust arms even to slaves, now, after the proscriptions of Sulla, the most worthless men were allowed to put themselves forth as accusers.
[10]: The Lacus Servilius was at Rome, and was the place where Sulla murdered a great many Romans, and set up their heads, even the heads of senators, to public view; so that Seneca says of the lake, id enim proscriptionis Sullanae spoliorum est.
[11]: This is a fragment of a play of Ennius; by the words, Phrygian steel he points out that these murders were chiefly committed by slaves, great numbers of whom had lately been imported from Phrygia. Facciolati thinks too that allusion is made to the Oriental and luxurious manners of Sulla.
[12]: In the Brutus Cicero speaks of Antistius as a tolerable speaker; he calls him here Priam, meaning that he acted as a sort of leader and king among the accusers.
[13]: The Latin word is lemniscatus, literally, adorned with ribbons hanging down all from a garland or crown. Palma lemniscata is a palm branch (i.e. a token of victory,) given to a gladiator or general when the victory was very remarkable. Cicero understands it of a murder which was connected with very great gains. Riddle, Lat. Dict. v. Lemniscatus.
[14]: There is a pun here on the word pons. Pons means not only a bridge, but also the platform over which men passed to give their votes at elections; and men above sixty had no votes, and all having none were called depontati or dejecti de ponte.
[15]: In a question of fact the accuser alone was permitted to submit witnesses; the defendant could not do so.
[16]: This is a pun on the name of Chrysogonus, all derived from the Greek word χρυσός, gold; and γόνος, birth.
[17]: Valerius Flaccus had been created Interrex on the death of the two consuls, Marius and Carbo. He appointed Sulla dictator, and passed a law that whatever Sulla had done should be ratified; so that Cicero’s meaning here is, that he does not know which was the nominal author of the law he is quoting, Valerius or Sulla.
[18]: Cicero dwells on the felicitas of Sulla, because Felix was the name which Sulla himself assumed, priding himself especially on his good fortune.
[19]: In the tenth chapter she is called the daughter of Metellus Nepos; so, if the reading there be correct, it must be corrupt here, which is probably the case. According to Graevius, she was a woman held in such esteem that, in the Marsic war, the temple of Juno Sospita was restored by a decree of the senate in compliance with a dream seen by her, as Cicero records in the treatise De Divinatione.