[345] The precise site of Argiletum is disputed. Cic. Att. 12. 32 mentions it as a place where he owned some shops, and there are similar allusions to it in Mart. 1. 3. 1 &c. The name as usual was accounted for by various contradictory legends, some making Argus the son of a haruspex, killed by his father for disclosing the meaning of the human head found at the Capitol, others talking of a Roman Argillus, who was put to death in the time of the first or second Punic war, while another etymology derived the word from “argilla.” Even those who made Argus the guest of Evander represented his death differently, though they agreed in the fact that he was killed for conspiring against his host. See Serv., and comp. Varro L. L. 5. § 157.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of. Virgil. , with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. and Henry Nettleship, M.A. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane;. George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. 1876.
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