97. The name given in the Hebrew is Ramath Lehi, which means, 'the hill or lifting up of the jaw-bone.' S. Ambrose interprets it below 'maxillae interfectionem.' He would seem to be here suggesting a Greek etymology. The Benedictine note suggests that the name Agon is a confusion on his part from the word siagw_n in Josephus.
98. Judges xv. 16.
99. Ib. 18.
100. The, words 'quasi in cubitum intexti' are probably from the Old Latin Version of the Bible. Field, on Origen's Hexapla in Ioe. (Judg. xvi. 13.) mentions that some MSS of LXX read e0an u(fa&nhj w(sei ph~xun or w(j e0pi\ ph~xun , which may very well have been translated by some such words as the above, in the Old Latin Version which S. Ambrose used.
101. Judges xvi. 20.
102. Judges xvi. 28.
103. The expression 'principes virtutum' seems to be a phrase from the Old Testament. In the Vulgate we find 'rex virtutum' Ps. lxvii, (lxviii. E.V.) 13, whore the E.V. has 'kings of armies,' and in Judith xiv. 17 (19 K.V.) 'Quod quum audissent, principes virtutis Assyriorum,' and in 1 Macc. v. 56. 'Azarias princeps virtutis.' The 'comites consistoriani' formed a sort of cabinet (consistorium) or privy council to the Emperor. The Benedictine Editors take 'principes virtutum' as meaning the Magistri militum, but the absence of any conjunction is against this.
104. This must mean the Praefectus praetorio Italiae, one of the four great Viceroys, under whom the Dioceses of the Empire were placed. He was supreme overall Italy, and the countries north of it to the Danube, and the western part of the north of Africa. He had under him three Dioceses, containing thirty Provinces.
105. The title given them is 'Decani.' They seem to have, been something like the lictors of the great officers of state, under the republic.
106. These 'vela' or hangings were a token that the building was claimed for the 'fiscus,' or private property of the Emperor, Gibbon in his grand way says, 'the splendid canopy and hangings of the royal scat were arranged in the customary manner,' but, as is noticed by the writer of the Life of S. Ambrose in Dict. of Christian Biog. it is clear from the sequel of the narrative (see § 20) that they were outside, not inside the Church.
107. The words in the original are 'missam facere.' Prof. Bright in his History notes that this is 'the earliest instance, apparently, of this term being used for the Eucharistic service.'
108. 'The introduction of barbarians into the Roman armies became every day more universal, more necessary, and more fatal. The most daring of the Scythians, of the Goths, and of the Germans, were enrolled not only in the auxiliaries of their respective nations, but in the legions themselves, and among the most distinguished of the Palatine troops.' (Gibbon, ch. xvii.) The Goths were Arians. It was much about this time that Ulfilas, the apostle of the Goths, made his famous translation of the Bible into Gothic. See Bright's Hist. of the Church p. 157.
109. Ps. xvii. 7.
110. Job ii. 9.
111. ib. 10.
112. Gen. iii. 9.
113. S. Matt. xxii. 21.
114. S. Matt. xiv. 4.
115. Ps. lxxix. 1.
116. This is the Vulgate rendering of ' At Salem is His Tabernacle.'
117. Ps. lxxvi. 2,3.
118. Ps. xxx. 9.
119. 2 Cor. xii. 10.
120. Jonah iv. 9.
121. Ib. 7.