[b] Marcus Aper, Julius Secundus, and Curiatius Maternus, according to Brotier and others, were natives of Gaul.  Aper (section x.) mentions the Gauls as their common countrymen:  Ne quid de Gallis nostris loquamur. If that was the fact, a new man at Rome would have difficulties to surmount.  Ammianus Marcellinus (a Latin historian of the fourth century) says, that at Rome the people despised every thing that did not grow before their eyes within the walls of the city, except the rich who had no children; and the veneration paid to such as had no heirs was altogether incredible. Vile esse quidquid extra urbis pomaerium nascitur, aestimant; nec credi potest qua obsequiorum diversitate coluntur homines sine liberis Romae. Lib. xiv. s. 5.  In such a city a young man and a stranger could not expect to be favoured.

[c] All causes of a private nature were heard before the centumviri.  Three were chosen out of every tribe, and the tribes amounted to five and thirty, so that in fact 105 were chosen; but, for the sake of a round number, they were called CENTUMVIRI.  The causes that were heard before that jurisdiction are enumerated by Cicero, De Orat. lib. i. s. 38.

[d] The translation says, the wills and codicils of the rich; but it is by no means certain that those words convey the meaning of the text, which simply says, nec codicillis datur.  After due enquiry, it appears that codicillus was used by the Latin authors, for what we now call the letters patent of a prince.  Codicils, in the modern sense of the word, implying a supplement to a will, were unknown to the intent Roman law.  The Twelve Tables mention testaments only.  Codicils, in aid to wills, were first introduced in the time of Augustus; but, whatever their operation was, legacies granted by those additional writings were for some time of no validity.  To confirm this, we are told that the daughter of Lentulus discharged certain legacies, which, being given by codicil, she was not bound to pay.  In time, however, codicils, as an addition made by the testator to his will, grew into use, and the legacies thereby granted were confirmed.  This might be the case in the sixth year of Vespasian, when the Dialogue passed between the parties; but it is, notwithstanding, highly probable, that the word codicilli means, in the passage before us, the letters patent of the prince.  It is used in that sense by Suetonius, who relates, that Tiberius, after passing a night and two days in revelling with Pomponius Flaccus and Lucius Piso, granted to the former the province of Syria, and made the latter prefect of the city; declaring them, in the patents, pleasant companions, and the friends of all hours. Codicillis quoque jucundissimos et omnium horarum amicos professus. Suet. in Tib. s. 42.

[e] The common people are called, in the original, tunicatus populus; that class of men, who wore the tunic, and not the toga, or the Roman gown.  The tunica, or close coat, was the common garment worn within doors, and abroad, under the toga.  Kennet says, the proletarii, the capite censi, and the rest of the dregs of the city, could not afford to wear the toga, and therefore went in their tunics; whence Horace says (lib. i. epist. 7).