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Paetus

A cognomen in many Roman gentes; it signified a person who had a slight cast in the eye. This was regarded by the Romans as giving piquancy to beauty, and was ascribed by them to Venus, as in the line from the Priapea:
“Minerva flavo lumine est, Venus paeto”

which explains the passage in Horace ( Sat. i. 3, 45), where the fond father calls his squinting son paetus, i. e. “Venus-eyed.”

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