Porci et Socration: otherwise unknown, though the good Roman name of the former may indicate that he was a man of some social position, while the latter, being a Greek, was perhaps one of the favorites mentioned by Cic. Pis. 27.67 “Graeci stipati quini in lectis, saepe plures.”
sinistrae: i.e. accomplished assistants in plundering rascality; cf. Catul. 12.1n., and the familiar English expression ‘his right-hand men.’
[2] scabies: referring to their generally dissolute character.
[2] fames: referring to their greed for whatever they could lay hands on.
[2] mundi: i.e. they are the pre-eminent types of rascally greed; cf. expressions of similar character in Catul. 14.23; Catul. 21.1. If mundus is here used, as seems probable, in the sense of orbis terrarum rather than of κόσμος this is its first appearance with that meaning.
[3] Veraniolo et Fabullo cf. Intr. 68f. on the affectionate diminutive cf. Catul. 12.17.
[4] verpus Priapus: Cicero (Cic. Pis. 28.69） calls Piso an admissarius.
[4] praeposuit: i.e. favored them above the others by giving them a chance to enrich themselves.
[6] de die: to begin a feast during the working part of the day for the sake of spending a longer time at it was a mark of most excessive luxury; cf. Pl. Asin. 825 “a amicam de die potare” ; Ter. And. 965 “adparare de die convivium” ; Hor. S. 2.8.3 “de medio potare die” ; Liv. 23.8.6 “epulari coeperunt de die … ut in domo diu ac luxuriosa.”
[7] quaerunt: etc. i.e. compelled to play the parasite like Ergasilus in Pl. Capt. 461ff., in order to get a mouthful of food.
[7] in trivio: as a general lounging place, where men rich enough to furnish a dinner might be found; cf. Catul. 58.4 “quadriviis” .
[7] vocationes: not found elsewhere in the sense of ‘invitations to dinner,’ though this interpretation is justified by the use of the nouns vocatus and vocator, and of the verb vocare (cf. Catul. 44.21), and by the point of the contrast thus drawn between the lots of the two pairs of friends.
