Annotations and conjectures upon the 19 Booke.
(a) THese solemne holy-daies and feasts were kept for memorial of Adonis the darling of Venus, slaine by a wild boare in hunting, in the month of Iuly, what time Fruges sunt adultae, corne is ripe.
(i) Siccitas, i. drought.] I suppose he meaneth heat, the active qualitie: for drinesse be∣ing a passive qualitie is not so powerfull: And that he meaneth heat, it may appeare by the Plague in the Greeke campe and armie before Troy, occasioned by the arrowes of Apollo, i. the Sunne. Homer Ilia. α.
(k) By this straunger, or guest, is meant Paris, who tooke away Helena the wife of Me∣nelaus: for which indignitie and wrong arose that warre and siege which continued tenne yeares.
(l) Of this Pestilence yee may read more in Thucidides lib. 2. and in Lucretius lib. 6. where it is described verie pathetically, and to the life, and in manner word for word out of Lucretius.
(m) Leviores.] I suppose he meaneth acutiores, i. more quicke and sharpe.
(n) (o) (p) In putting downe these names of maladies, we are to observe, that Marcelli∣nus, although he was a souldior, and out of his owne element, yet speaketh not unproperly, nor doth exorbitate from the doctrine of Hippocrates, Galene, and the rest, who among these vulgar diseases called here 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, allow some to be Epidemij simply, not pestilenciall; but such as kill for the most part, to be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and pestilenciall.
(q) Rhesus] was King of Thracia, and came to aid the Trojanes against the Greekes, who together with his horses were the first night they came surprised by Diomedes and Vlisses, and slaine before they had drunke of the river Xanthus, which ran by Troy; and so Troy was lost: For the Oracle had delivered this answer, In case he and his hor••es might once drinke of that river, Troy should never be won.
(r) Proletarij and Capite censi,] were the poorer sort of the people, not ordinarily, but upon great extremitie employed in warfare, but appointed to keepe at home, ad prol••m excitandam. Alexander ab Alexand. Genial. Dierum lib. 6. cap. 22.
(s) Libitina.] The Goddesse of Funerals, supposed to be Venus Epitymbia, in whose tem∣ple at Rome were all things to bee sold necessarie for burials. The word is put for death and Funerals, at which Sword-Fencers were woont to practise their feats, and gaine well thereby: Whereupon they were tearmed Bustuarij, as using to haunt funerall fires.
(t) Ludius.] The god likewise of Games and Playes; at which also were employed, for more state and pompe, the same Sword-players, and reaped no small commoditie from thence. So that by Commercia Libitinae, and Ludij, are meant Funerals and plaies, and by consequence commoditie growing unto such Fencers at such solemnities.
(u) Claros.] A citie in Ionia, renowned for the Oracle there of Apollo, whereupon he was called Clarius.
(x) Dodona] a citie of Chaonia within Epirus, neere to which was a Wood consecra∣ted to Iupiter, and the same consisting all of Oake, wherein (by report) there s••ood the tem∣ple