212 
Pliny's natueal histoky. 
[Book VII. 
Varro informs us,^ that when he was one of the *'viginti- 
viri," or twenty commissioners,^ appointed to superintend the 
division of the lands at Capua, a man who had been carried to the 
funeral pile, returned on foot from the Porum to his own house, 
and that the very same thing happened also at Aquinum. He 
states also, that Corfidius, who had married his maternal aunt, 
came to life again, after the funeral had been all arranged, and 
that he afterwards attended the funeral of the person who had 
so arranged his own. He gives in addition some other mar- 
vellous relations, the whole of which it may be as well to set 
forth ; he says that there were two brothers, members of the 
equestrian order, and named Corfidius i"^ it so happened that 
the elder of these was seen to breathe his last to all appear- 
ance, and on opening his will, it was found that he had named 
his brother his heir, who accordingly ordered his funeral. In 
the meanwhile, however, he who had been thought to be dead, 
clapping his hands, ^ summoned the servants, and told them 
that he was just come from his brother's house, who had placed 
his daughter in his charge ; in addition to which, he had men- 
tioned to him the place where he had secretly buried some gold, 
and had requested that the funeral preparations which had been 
made, might be employed for himself. While he was stating 
to this effect, the servants of his brother came in the greatest 
haste, and informed them that he was dead : the gold too, 
5 This circumstance is not mentioned in either of the two works of Varro 
which have come down to us, " De Ee Eustica," and De Lingua La- 
tina"— E. 
6 They were a body of commissioners appointed for the distribution of 
lands in Campania ; Julius Csesar, when consul, having caused a law to be 
passed, dividing that territory among such of the Eoman citizens as should 
have three or more children. 
We are not informed, whether these persons of the name of Corfidius, 
were in any way connected, nor, indeed, do we appear to have any certaiu 
knowledge of their history. — E. L. Corfidius, a Eoman eques, is men- 
tioned by Cicero, in his oration for Ligarius, B.C. 46, as one of the distin- 
guished men who were then interceding with Caesar on behalf of Ligarius ; 
but after the oration was published, Cicero was informed that he had made 
a mistake in mentioning the name of Corfidius, as he had died before the 
speech was delivered. It does not appear certain that he was one of the 
parties here mentioned : but it is not improbable that he was the brother 
whose sudden death is mentioned below. 
® Among the ancients, servants used to be summoned by clapping the 
hands, as they are, in modern times, by ringing of bells. — E. The same 
practice still prevails in the east. 
