1. Cicero (1999) On the Commonwealth and On the Laws, J.E.G. Zetzel (ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), I, 39a and 41, p. 18.
2. According to Innes, classical rhetoricians used metaphor (and analogy) as a form of literary ‘ornamentation’ or as a ‘poetic device’ based on readily apparent ‘likenesses’ to communicate clear meaning. Allegory, on the other hand, denoted a ‘sustained metaphor’ often communicating a ‘hidden meaning’ (D. Innes (2003) ‘Metaphor, Simile, and Allegory as Ornaments of Style’ in G.R. Boys-Stones (ed.) Metaphor, Allegory, and the Classical Tradition: Ancient Thought and Modern Revisions (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 12–13, 19).
3. See, for example, K.W. Swart (2002) ‘The Sale of Public Offices’ in A.J. Heidenheimer and M. Johnston (eds) Political Corruption: Concepts and Contexts, 3rd edn (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers), pp. 96–7.
4. This issue is canvassed in Génaux, ‘Early Modern Corruption’, pp. 107–8; also J.-C. Waquet (1991) Corruption: Ethics and Power in Tlorence, 1600–1770, L. McCall (trans.) (Cambridge: Polity), pp. 10–14.
5. R. Fossier (2010) The Axe and the Oath: Ordinary Life in the Middle Ages, L.G. Cochrane (trans.) (Princeton: Princeton University Press), p. 271.