34. 3.

[962] Persius died about nine days before he completed his twenty-ninth
year.

[963] Venusium stood on the confines of the Apulian, Lucanian, and
Samnite territories.

Sequor hunc, Lucanus an Appulus anceps;
Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.
Hor Sat. xi. 1. 34.
[964] Sat. i. 6. 45.

[965] Horace mentions his being in this battle, and does not scruple to
admit that he made rather a precipitate retreat, "relicta non bene
parmula."--Ode xi. 7-9.

[966] See Ode xi. 7. 1.

[967] The editors of Suetonius give different versions of this epigram.
It seems to allude to some passing occurrence, and in its present form
the sense is to this effect: "If I love you not, Horace, to my very
heart's core, may you see the priest of the college of Titus leaner than
his mule."

[968] Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the ode beginning

Septimi, Gades aditure mecum.--Ode xl. b. i.

[969] See AUGUSTUS, c. xxi.; and Horace, Ode iv, 4.