Note 1663 — BOOK IV.

Cicero (de Orat., iii., 23) quotes these lines of Lucilius, when speaking of a certain Velocius, who, when a youth, had applied himself with great success to the gladiatorial art, so as in fact to be a match for any one, but afterward never practiced it. The relative claims of the readings civis and cuivis are discussed at great length in Harles' note to the passage of Cicero (q. v., ed. Lips., 1816). The rudis was the wooden sword with which the gladiators practiced; the sica being used in the ludus. They also received a rudis as a token of their release from service. Hence "rudem poscere," "rude donatus," etc. Ov., Am., II., ix., 22. Cic., Phil., ii., 29. Hor., i., Ep. i., 2. Suet., Cal., 32.