1 B.C. 217
2 Menix (or Meninx) and Cercina were in the Lesser Syrtis. The former was supposed to have been the land of the lotus-eaters. (The modern names are Djerba and Kerkenna.)
3 Polybius (II. xcvi. 13) mentions the ransom of Cercina, and speaks of the capture not of Menix but of Cossyrus (a little island to the E. of Carthage). He says nothing of the landing in Africa.
4 B.C. 217
5 i.e. in Northern Italy, in the neighbourhood of Ariminum.
6 In this inscription the expression II dictator (as in the Fasti) or bis dictator (as in the Elogium of Fabius, C. I. L. I. 228) very likely occurred, conveying the erroneous impression that Fabius was in 217 formally elected dictator, whereas he was in fact invested with the powersof a dictator but not with the actual title. Note that at chap. viii. § 6 Livy accepted, without citing his authority, the tradition which he now rejects and ascribes to Coelius. This is a striking instance of the ancient custom of citing sources only in cases where the writer's suspicions are aroused.
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