251 – ‘Apices’ here and in § 5 undoubtedly means ‘a letter.’
‘Apex,’ in late Latin, is used for a single letter written,
and ‘apices’ like ‘literae,’ for a continuous writing.
Aulus Gellius (xiii. 30, 10. xvii. 9, 12.) quoted in
White’s Dictionary, uses the phrase ‘literarum apices,’
and in Cod. Just. ii. 8, 6. we find ‘Augusti apices’ for
‘the Emperor’s rescripts.’
252 – Theodoret, v. 24. gives a detailed account of the ways in
which the special intervention of heaven was displayed in
Theodosius’ campaign against Eugenius. S. Aug. De Civ. Dei,
v. 26. says that Theodosius ‘contra robustissimum Eugenii
exercitum magis orando quam feriendo pugnavit,’ and, after
mentioning stories told by eye-witnesses of the manifest
intervention of God on his behalf, quotes the well-known
lines of Claudian,
O nimium dilecte Deo cui fundit ab antris
Æolus armatas hyemes, cui militat æther,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.
253 – The word here used is plural, Venetiarum. From this it has
been argued that this letter must be of later date than S.
Ambrose’s time, as Venetiæ is the usual name for the city,
which was not founded till the time of Attila. (Gibbon
ch. xxxv. vol. iv. p. 242 ed. Smith.) But he certainly uses
the plural form in Letter xviii. 21, which is undoubtedly
his, and therefore, as Tillemont has pointed out, no
argument can be founded on this against the present letter.
It is possible that under the plural form he intends to
include Venetia and Histria, which are reckoned together
as one consular province in the civil division of the
empire, (see Marquardt’s Table, in Smith’s Gibbon vol. ii.
p. 315.) and also as one ecclesiastical province in the
Exarchate of Milan, (see Bingham ix. 1, 6.) By ‘finitimis
Italiæ partibus’ he probably means Flaminia and Picenum
Annonarium, which were also included in the ‘Diocese’ of
Italy and Exarchate of Milan.