[sect. 2]
honoris causa [gap in text] honoris causa, to honor the occasion [gap in text] to save their reputation (Tyrrell). Cf. Intr. 103.
decesse: for decessisse. A rare case of syncopation, like successe (?) for successisse (Ep. XC. 2). Similar syncopated forms occur elsewhere in colloquial Latin, e.g. detraxe, Plaut. Trin. 743; despexe, Plaut. M. G. 553; lusse, Ter. Heaut. 1001; divisse, Hor. Sat. 2.3. 169. See also Intr. 82.
deliciae tuae: Cf. nostri amores, Ep. VII. 2, and mea lux, Ep. XIII.2n.
Aesopus: elsewhere praised highly as an actor by Cicero; cf. pro Sest. 120, de Div. 1.80, etc., but in his old age his voice has failed. Cf. also Ribbeck, Rmische Tragdie, 674-676.
si sciens fallo: the first words of an oath. Cf. Liv. 1.24. Ribbeck (Rm. Trag. p. 49) suggests that perhaps Aesopus played the part of Sinon in the Equus Troianus of Naevius (or of Andronicus) and that this oath was introduced in some such speech as that put into the mouth of Sinon by Vergil in Aen. 2.154.
sescenti: for an indefinitely large number; cf. miliens, Ep. V.4.
Clytaemestra: one of the plays of L. Accius
creterrarum tria milia: supposed to refer to the spoils of Troy (crateresque auro solidi, Verg. Aen. 2.765), which were represented in a realistic way upon the stage. Compare with this whole passage the trenchant criticism which Horace passes upon the taste for realism and vulgar display upon the stage in his day (Ep. 2.1.189-207).