Book ix

. 1. 521, with the Note.]

[Footnote 170: So well filled.--Ver. 7. 'Peraratas' literally means 'ploughed over'; which term is properly applied to the action of the 'stylus,' in ploughing through the wax upon the tablets. Suetonius relates that Julius Caesar, when he was murdered in the Senate House, pierced the arm af the assassin Cassius with his 'stylus.']

[Footnote 172: A long answer.--Ver. 19. She is to write at once, on having read his letter through. This she could do the more readily, as she could use the same tablets, smoothing the wax with the broad end of the 'graphium,' or 'stylus.']

[Footnote 175: Holding the pen.--Ver. 23. 'Graphium' was the Greek name for the 'stylus,' or pen used for writing on the wax tablets. It was generally of iron or copper, but sometimes of gold. The case in which it was kept was called 'graphiarium,' or 'graphiaria theca.']

[Footnote 176: Of worthless maple.--Ver. 28. He calls the wood of the tablets 'vile,' in comparison with their great services to him: for, according to Pliny,