Stanza lx. line 1.

These stanzas were written in Castri (Delphos), at the foot of
Parnassus, now called [Greek: Liakyra] (Liakura), Dec. [16], 1809.

14.

Fair is proud Seville; let her country boast
Her strength, her wealth, her site of ancient days.
Stanza lxv. lines 1 and 2.

Seville was the Hispalis of the Romans.

15.

Ask ye, Boeotian Shades! the reason why?
Stanza lxx. line 5.

This was written at Thebes, and consequently in the best situation for
asking and answering such a question; not as the birthplace of Pindar,
but as the capital of Boeotia, where the first riddle was propounded and
solved.

[Byron reached Thebes December 22, 1809. By the first riddle he means,
of course, the famous enigma of Oedipus--the prototype of Boeotian wit.]

16.

Some bitter o'er the flowers its bubbling venom flings.
Stanza lxxxii. line 9.

"Medio de fonte leporum
Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipseis floribus angat."
Lucr., iv. 1133.

17.

A Traitor only fell beneath the feud.
Stanza lxxxv. line 7.

Alluding to the conduct and death of Solano, the governor of Cadiz, in
May, 1808.

[The Marquis of Solano, commander-in-chief of the forces at Cadiz, was
murdered by the populace. The "Supreme Junta" of Seville had directed
him to attack the French fleet anchored off Cadiz, and Admiral Purvis,
acting in concert with General Spencer, had offered to co-operate, but
Solano was unwilling to take his orders "from a self-constituted
authority, and hesitated to commit his country in war with a power whose
strength he knew better than the temper of his countrymen." "His
abilities, courage, and unblemished character have never been
denied."--Napier's _War in the Peninsula_, i. 20, 21.]

18.

"War even to the knife!"
Stanza lxxxvi. line 9.

"War to the knife." Palafox's answer to the French general at the siege
of Saragoza.

[Towards the close of the first siege of Zaragoza, August 5, 1808,
Marshal Lefebvre (1755-1820), und