¹ For the parallels and dating I am indebted to Mr. P. E. Corbett, who is familiar with the series of Classical pottery from the American excavation in the Agora at Athens.

² Cf. the phrase novitas mundi in Lucr. v. 818, quoted by Poynton.

³ Cf. Horace's homines recentes, Od. i. 10. 2 ; but also note that the phrase could as easily mean ‘modern men’ as in the first chapter of Varro's Res Rusticae; similarly ultimus, although it normally means ‘last’, can also mean ‘first’, as in Hor. Od. i. 16. 18.

⁴ Cf. Martial's cana saecula viii. 80. 2, where Catullus' own phrase is used in contrarian partem.