• Pistoia is supposed to have been founded by the soldiers of Catiline. Brunetto Latini, Tresor , I i 37, says:⁠— “They found Catiline at the foot of the mountains and he had his army and his people in that place where is now the city of Pestoire. There was Catiline conquered in battle, and he and his were slain; also a great part of the Romans were killed. And on account of the pestilence of that great slaughter the city was called Pestoire.” The Italian proverb says, Pistoia la ferrigna , iron Pistoia, or Pistoia the pitiless. ↩
• Capaneus, Canto XIV 44. ↩
• See note 181 . ↩
• Cacus was the classic Giant Despair, who had his cave in Mount Aventine, and stole a part of the herd of Geryon, which Hercules had brought to Italy. Virgil, Aeneid , VIII , Dryden’s Tr. :⁠— “See yon huge cavern, yawning wide around, Where still the shattered mountain spreads the ground: That spacious hold grim Cacus once possessed, Tremendous fiend! half human, half a beast: Deep, deep as hell, the dismal dungeon lay, Dark and impervious to the beams of day. With copious slaughter smoked the purple floor, Pale heads hung horrid on the lofty door, Dreadful to view! and dropped with crimson gore.” ↩