1 In Augustin's letter to Evodius (169), which was written towards the end of the year 415, he mentions that this fourth book and the following one were begun and finished during that same year.
2 Comp. Racon's Essay on the Vicissitudes of Things.
5 Nonius Marcell. borrows this anecdote from Cicero, De Repub. iii.
6 It was extinguished by Crassus in its third year.
7 Cloacina, supposed by Lactantius (De falsa relig. i. 20), Cyprian (De Idol. vanit.), and Augustin (infra, c. 23) to be the goddess of the cloaca, or sewage of Rome. Others, however, suppose it to be equivalent to Cluacina, a title given to Venus, because the Romans after the end of the Sabine war purified themselves (cluere) in the vicinity of her statue.
8 Forculum foribus, Cardeam cardini, Limentinum limini.
11 Cicero, De Nat. Deor. ii. 25.
12 Virgil, Georg. ii. 325, 326.
14 Virgil, Georg. iv. 221, 222.