discit, in senectute confiteri non vult._ Petron. _in Satyrico_, cap.
3 and 4.

[d] Here unfortunately begins a chasm in the original. The words are,
_Cum ad veros judices ventum est, * * * * rem cogitare * * * * nihil
humile, nihil abjectum eloqui poterat._ This is unintelligible. What
follows from the words _magna eloquentia sicut flamma_, palpably
belongs to Maternus, who is the last speaker in the Dialogue. The
whole of what Secundus said is lost. The expedient has been, to divide
the sequel between Secundus and Maternus; but that is mere patch-work.
We are told in the first section of the Dialogue, that the several
persons present spoke their minds, each in his turn assigning
different but probable causes, and at times agreeing on the same.
There can, therefore, be no doubt but Secundus took his turn in the
course of the enquiry. Of all the editors of Tacitus, Brotier is the
only one who has adverted to this circumstance. To supply the loss, as
well as it can now be done by conjecture, that ingenious commentator
has added a Supplement, with so much taste, and such a degree of
probability, that it has been judged proper to adopt what he has
added. The thread of the discourse will be unbroken, and the reader,
it is hoped, will prefer a regular continuity to a mere vacant space.
The inverted comma in the margin of the text [transcriber's note: not
used, but numbered with decimal rather than Roman numerals] will mark
the supplemental part, as far as section 36, where the original
proceeds to the end of the Dialogue. The sections of the Supplement
will be marked, for the sake of distinction, with figures, instead of
the Roman numeral letters.


SUPPLEMENT.