us, A.D.
37; the protest against the burning of books (x. praef. 6-7) would
have been as offensive to him as to Seianus.

2. There is only one book of _Suasoriae_, and the beginning of it is
lost. It gives specimens of the treatment of seven themes, _e.g._, 3,
'Deliberat Agamemnon an Iphigeniam immolet negante Calchante aliter
navigari fas esse.' It is certainly later than the _Controversiae_:
_Contr._ ii. 4, 8, 'Quae dixerit suo loco reddam, cum ad suasorias
venero.' One passage cannot have been written before A.D. 34: 2, 22,
'Scaurum Mamercum, in quo Scaurorum familia exstincta est.' It was not
published in the lifetime of Tiberius, for Seneca calls the accuser of
Scaurus 'homo quam improbi animi tam infelicis ingenii' (2, 22), and
quotes Cremutius Cordus (6, 19) whose books had been burned in
Tiberius' time.

3. Seneca wrote also on Roman history from the commencement of the
civil wars to his own time, but left the work of publication to his
son.

L. Seneca _de vita patris_ (Haase, vol. iii. p. 436), 'Si quaecumque
composuit pater meus et edi voluit iam in manus populi emisissem, ad
claritatem nominis sui satis sibi ipsi prospexerat ... Quisquis
legisset eius historias ab initio bellorum civilium, unde primum
veritas retro abiit, paene usque ad mortis suae diem,' etc.

Footnotes to Chapter III

[41] M. Valerius Probus of Berytus (Sueton. _Gramm._ 24) who
flourished, according to Jerome, A.D. 56, prepared critical editions
of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace. A commentary on the _Eclogues_ and
_Georgics_ passes under his name, but most of it is spurious.

[42] A grammarian of the fifth century A.D., who merely versifies
Donatus.

[43] On this point Professor W. M. Ramsay writes to us: 'Virgil's farm
was certainly not at Pietole (which is two miles south of Mantua, out
in the flat plain): for (1) the farm was a long way from the city (cf.
_Ecl._ 9, 59 _sqq._); (2) it was beside hills (_ibid._ 7 _sqq._); (3)
woods were on or by it (cf. Donatus "silvis coemendis"), and the flat
fertile valley was certainly not abandoned to forests. After exploring
the country, I felt clear that the farm was on the west bank of the
Mincio, opposite Valeggio, where the northern hills sink to the dead
level of the Po valley.'

[44] His knowledge of science is reflected in his works. Cf.
_Georgics_, passim, and _Ecl._ 3, ll. 40-2.

[45] The latter part of this statement is worthless: Augustus was only
a child when Virgil came