164 Megalius, Bishop of Calama and Primate of Numidia, by whom two years before Augustine had been ordained Bishop of Hippo. The reflections upon anger which follow the allusion here to the death of Megalius were probably suggested by the remembrance of an incident in the life of that bishop. While Augustine was a presbyter, Megalius had written in anger a letter to him for which he afterwards apologized, formally retracting calumny which it contained.
169 [Velut officiosa mendacia.]
180 The reference here is to the story of the poet Stesichorus, who, having lost his sight as a judgment for writing an attack on Helen,was miraculously healed when he wrote a poem in retractation.
182 See Letter XXVIII. sec. 5.
188 On this work of Tychonius, see Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana, b. iii., in which these seven keys for the opening of Scripture are stated and examined.
194 Tubursi, a town recently identified' half-way between Calama and Madaura.
195 They asked judges from Gaul, as a country in which none had been guilty of surrendering the sacred books under pressure of persecution. The bishops appointed were Maternus of Agrippina, Rheticius of Augustodunum, and Marinus of Arles. They were sent to Rome with fifteen Italian bishops; Melchiades, Bishop of Rome, presided in their meeting in A.D. 313, and acquitted Caecilianus.
196 "In qua semper apostolicae cathedrae viguit principatus." The use in the translalion of the indefinite article, "an apostolic chair," is vindicated by the language of Augustine in sec 26 of this letter regarding Carthage, and by the words in Letter CCXXXII. sec. 3: "Christianae societatis quae per sedes apostolorum et successiones episcoporum certa per orbem propagatione diffunditur."