Note v. 177 — A. PERSIUS FLACCUS (continued 3)
Reading edition
177. cretata = candidata. Togas were chalked then, as belts are pipe-clayed now. The candidate naturally put on his best. ‘My Lady Canvass in holiday attire, in spotless white.’—vigila: ‘Be up early,’ in the same sense as our phrase, ‘You must get up early to do this or that.’ There is no special reference to the morning salutatio.—cicer: Comp. Hor., Sat., 2, 3, 182: in cicere atque faba bona tu perdasque lupinis, | latus ut in circo spatiere et aeneus ut stes. The vetch was a vulgar vegetable.