Balbus is
often mentioned in Cicero's correspondence. After Caesar's death he
attached himself to Caesar Octavianus, and he was consul B.C. 40. He
left a journal of the events of his own and Caesar's life. He also
urged Hirtius (Pansa) to write the Eighth Book of the Gallic War
(Preface addressed to Balbus), Suetonius, Caesar, 81.]
[Footnote 592: The Lupercalia are described in the Life of Romulus, c.
21. The festival was celebrated on the 15th of February. It was
apparently an old shepherd celebration; and the name of the deity
Lupercus appears to be connected with the name Lupus (wolf), the
nurturer of the twins Romulus and Remus. Shakspere, who has literally
transferred into his play of Julius Caesar many passages from North's
Plutarch, makes Caesar say to the consul Antonius--
Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calphurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse.
Act i. Sc. 2.]
[Footnote 593: Dion Cassius (44. c. 9) speaks of the honours conferred
on Caesar and his supposed ambitious designs.]
[Footnote 594: The Latin word "brutus" means "senseless," "stupid."
The Cumaei, the inhabitants of Cume in AEolis, were reckoned very
stupid. Strabo (p. 622) gives two reasons why this opinion obtained;
one of which was, that it was not till three hundred years after the
foundation of the city that they thought of making some profit by the
customs duties, though they had a port.
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