[2] tota: emphatic cf. Verg. A. 1.272 ter centum totos annos.
[2] milia decem: sc. sestertium (= decem sestertia) the coincidence of this sum with that mentioned in Catul. 103.1 suggests that the two epigrams concern the same event.
[4] decoctoris Formiani: i.e. Mamurra, whose native city was Formiae (cf. Catul. 57.4; Hor. S. 1.5.37), and who is scored in Catul. 29.1ff. for squandering his ancestral estates and the large gifts of his patrons, cf. Catul. 43.5
[5] propinqui: etc. early legislation in Rome provided for investigation into the question of a person's sanity, and for the interests of relatives in such a case; cf. Leg. XII Tab. ap. Cic. de Inv. 2.50.148 “Si furiosus escit, adgnatum gentiliumque in eo pecuniaque eius potestas esto” ; Hor. S. 2.3.217 “interdicto huic omne adimat ius praetor et ad sanos abeat tutela propinquos.”
[7] nec rogare: etc. the passage is hopelessly difficult (cf. Crit. App.), but the emendation of Froelich departs least from the MSS., and is otherwise more nearly satisfactory than any other attempt. The idea is that if the girl would only consult her mirror (cf. Mart. 2.41.8 “si speculo mihique credis” ), she would herself be convinced of the folly of expecting ten sestertia. With aes (= speculum) cf. χαλκός in Aesch. Frag. 384 “κάτοπτρον εἴδους χαλκός ἐστ᾽, οἶνος δὲ νοῦ” .
[8] imaginosum: ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, but it must be used of the mirror because it pictures (imagines reddit) everything presented before it; cf. gloss. Labb. p. 87 “imaginosusεἰκονώδης” .
