[Footnote 301: The watery Peligni.--Ver. 1. In the Fourth Book of
the Fasti, 1. 81, and the Fourth Book of the Tristia, 1. x. El. 3, he
mentions Sulmo, a town of the Peligni, as the place of his birth. It was
noted for its many streams or rivulets.]
[Footnote 302: And Gyges.--Ver. 12. This giant was more generally
called Gyas. He and his hundred-handed brothers, Briareus and Cæus, were
the sons of Coelus and Terra.]
[Footnote 303: Verses bring down.--Ver. 23. He alludes to the power of
magic spells, and attributes their efficacy to their being couched
in poetic measures; from which circumstance they received the name of
'carmina.']
[Footnote 304: And by verses.--Ver. 28. He means to say that in the
same manner as magic spells have brought down the moon, arrested the
sun, and turned back rivers towards their source, so have his Elegiac
strains been as wonderfully successful in softening the obduracy of his
mistress.]
[Footnote 305: Bagous.--Ver. 1. The name Bagoas, or, as it is here
Latinized. Bagous, is said to have signified, in the Persian language,
'an eunuch.' It was probably of Chaldæan origin, having that meaning.
As among the Eastern nations of the present day, the more jealous of the
Romans confided the care of their wives or mistresses to eunuch slaves,
who were purchased at a very large price.]
[Footnote 306: Daughters of Danaus.--Ver. 4. The portico under the
temple of Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, was adorned with the statues of
Danaus, the son of Belus, and his forty-nine guilty daughters. It was
built by Augustus, on a spot adjoining to his palace. Ovid mentions
these statues in the Third Elegy of the Third Book of the Tristia, 1.
10.]
[Footnote 307: Let him go.--Ver. 20. 'Eat' seems here to mean 'let
him go away' from the house; but Nisard's translation renders it 'qu'il
entre,' 'let him come in.']
[Footnote 308: At the sacrifice.--Ver. 23. It is hard to say what 'si
faciet tarde' means: it perhaps applies to the rites of Isis, mentioned
in the 25th line.]