Publius Terentius Afer (Terence) Eunuchus 4.7

Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator)

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Eunuchus. Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). Henry Thomas Riley (Translator), George Colman (Translator). Ney York. 1874.

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Current edition Perseus

Eunuchus; or, The Eunuch (English) (Terence. The Comedies of Terence. Riley, Henry Thomas; Colman, George, translators. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1872.)

Editions (1)
Eunuchus Perseus (Terence. Publii Terentii Comoediae Sex. Parry, Edward St. John, editor. London: Whittaker and Co.; George Bell, 1857.) — 4.7 focus

Notes on the current edition

Eunuchus; or, The Eunuch

1. And his maniple: We learn from the Fasti of Ovid, B. iii., l. 117-8, that in early times the Roman armies carried bundles or wisps of hay upon poles by way of standards.
A long pole used to bear the elevated wisps, from which circumstance the manipular soldier derives his name.
It appears from this passage, and from other authors, that to every troop of one hundred men a manipulus or wisp of hay (so called from manum implere, to fill the hand, as being a handful), was assigned as a standard, and hence in time the company itself obtained the name of manipulus, and the soldier, a member of it, was called manipularis. The centurio, or leader of a hundred, was the commanding officer of the manipulus.
2. With a dish-clout: Peniculo. This word meant a sponge fastened to a stick, or the tail of a fox or an ox, which was used as dusters or dish-clouts are at the present day for cleaning tables, dishes, or even shoes. See the Menaechmi of Plautus, ver. 77 and 391.
3. Be behind the second rank: Post principia. The Captain, with that discretion which is the better part of valor, chooses the safest place in his army. The principes originally fought in the van, fronting the enemy, and behind them were the hastati and the triarii. In later times the hastati faced the enemy, and the principes were placed in the middle, between them and the triarii; but though no longer occupying the front place, they still retained the name. Thraso, then, places himself behind the middle line.
4. Pyrrhus used to proceed: He attempts to defend his cowardice by the example of Pyrrhus, the powerful antagonist of the Romans, and one of the greatest generals of antiquity. He might have more correctly cited the example of Xerxes, who, according to Justin, did occupy that position in his army.
5. I could very much: Although Vollbehr gives these words to Gnatho, yet, judging from the context, and the words ex occulto, and remembering that Thais and Chremes are up at the window, there is the greatest probability that these are really the words of Thais addressed aside to Chremes.
6. You gallows-bird: Furcifer; literally, bearer of the furca.
7. As befits gallant soldiers: Beaumont and Fletcher not improbably had this scene in view in their picture of the mob regiment in Philaster. The ragged regiment which Shakspeare places under the commend of Falstaff was not very unlike it, nor that which owned the valiant Bombastes Furioso as its Captain.