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Chapter 20
Mr. Arabin

Inauspicious
This Latinate word meaning "unlucky" or "unfavorable" is an adjective which comes from the Latin noun auspicium which referred to bird divination.  Something "auspicious" would have been a favorable omen from the birds.  The "in-" prefix of course negates the word.  [JC]

Labor omnia vincit improbus
"Persistent work conquers all things."  This comes from Book 1 of Virgil's Georgics.  Trollope uses this quotation to describe how Mr. Arabin has gotten to his current position.  [JC]

Greek accents
"[Mr. Arabin laughed] down a species of pedantry which, at the age of twenty-three, leaves no room in a man's mind for graver subjects than conic sections or Greek accents."  This mention of Greek accents refers to the practice of learning the fine points of Greek accentuation at the university.  [JC]

Saturnine
This word means "melancholy" or "sullen" according to the American Heritage Dictionary.  This comes from the astrological influence that the planet Saturn was thought to have on people's temperaments.  The planet itself is named after the Roman god Saturn, who was the god of agriculture.  [JC]

Sixteen implicitly acceded to the dictum of seventeen
Here Trollope pokes gentle fun at the triviality of the Misses Grantly by employing a Latinate word where such high language is obviously (obvious to the reader and to himself, that is) not necessary.  The difference of a year is a great one when a person is of such a young age, so what the elder sister said would certainly have had all the authority of a formal "dictum" as the girls saw it.  [JC]

Reverend Augustus Green
The name Augustus recalls the first Roman emperor, Augustus Caesar.  It is no wonder (and perhaps a source of amusement) that Augustus Green, who comes from such a wealthy family that he is able to "devote the whole proceeds of his curacy to violet gloves and unexceptionable neck ties," would have been named after such high-status classical figure.  [JC & RR]

Stoicism, modern and ancient
Stoicism was a philosophy started in ancient Greece which held that nothing external was important, and so it should all be considered with indifference.  Wealth and poverty were equally unimportant and were to be held with equal indifference.  The philosopher Zeno was considered one of its main founders.  The "modern stoicism" to which Trollope refers is that which inspired Mr. Arabin (in his younger days) to give up the types of things that would have made his life comfortable, such as a wife and family.  It is the belief "that joy and sorrow were matters which here should be held as perfectly indifferent" because all that matters is the afterlife.  Trollope rejects both forms of stoicism as "an outrage on human nature."  It was wrong of Mr. Arabin to preach that joy and sorrow should be taken with indifference because "these things were not indifferent to him."  They are no more indifferent to Mr. Arabin than to anyone else, which is why stoicism "can find no believing pupils and no true teachers."  [JC]

Chapter 21
St. Ewold's Parsonage

A pagan, too, with his multiplicity of gods…
Eleanor has rebuked Mr. Arabin for quarreling with men of his own church.  Arabin goes on to point out that a Muslim would likely make the same rebuke to him for disagreeing with Catholic doctrine.  Then Arabin says that a pagan would allow even less cause for disagreement between even a Muslim and a Christian, seeing as they both have only one God where pagans have many.  In classical Latin, paganus merely gives the sense of "rustic, rural", with a later connotation of "not enrolled in the military."  Since early Christians referred to themselves as soldiers in the army of Christ, someone by contrast not "in the army" would be paganus, a non-believer in Christianity, and thus probably a follower of the pre-Christian Roman polytheistic traditions.  Perhaps Trollope is using a very subtle means to comment on his own views of Church dissensions, that since the differences would be so slight as to be unimportant to classical pagans, Trollope himself finds them a bit tiresome.
OED  [JM]

To thunder forth accusations
Mr. Arabin is speaking to Eleanor about contention between factions of Christianity, and goes on to say that it is easy to condemn others as politicians and newspaper writers do.  This mention of newspaper writers might be referring to the Jupiter and its tendency to fire off media "thunderbolts."  Trollope has established a long-running comparison between this newspaper and the king of the Roman gods, Jupiter, and between the articles in the paper and the lightning bolts of the god, with which he strikes his enemies.  It is as Arabin is saying; newspapers have complete power to vilify someone, a power that Trollope plays up as godlike.  [JM]

Chapter 22
The Thornes of Ullathorne

As men who have Sophocles at their fingers' end regard those who know nothing of Greek
Trollope uses a simile here to describe the extreme emphasis which Mr. Thorne places on people's family history. He is said to view individuals of less noble blood in a condescending manner much like highly educated people (who would be able to read and understand Sophocles, a Greek tragic playwright) might look down on and even pity those with less education. [MD]

Genuine as ichor
Ichor is described in Homer's Iliad (5.339-340) as the immortal blood of the gods.  Mr. Thorne is here likening the blood of his family to the blood of the gods, comparing his nobility to that of a separate, higher race of beings.  [MD]

Fifty-three Trojans
Trollope here refers to fifty-three members of the British Parliament, who are unflinchingly stubborn, as Trojans. I think that this is a reference to the warriors of the ancient city of Troy who fought the invading Greeks up until the very end (Homer's Iliad and Vergil's Aeneid).  [MD]

Eleusinian mysteries
Eleusis, a city in Attica, was the site of these religious rites performed by the ancient Greeks. We know that the initiates were honoring the Greek goddess Demeter, but less is known about the procedures themselves. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter provides a mythological explanation for the foundation of the rites.
The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology [MD]

Palladium
According to the OED, this word refers to a statue of the Greek goddess Athena, specifically the one which guarded the city of Troy because she was the patron goddess of the Trojan people. When this statue was stolen, Troy fell, and that is what Trollope is referring to here. When free trade opened up in England and the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846 by a member of the Tory party, Mr. Thorne felt betrayed by his own political party, the only ones whom he believed would uphold his views. Free trade and the Corn Laws, then, were Mr. Thorne's own personal palladium, which he believed had helped stabilize England and sustain it from economic ruin.  [MD]

The feeling of Cato
Marcus Porcius Cato of Utica (95-46 BCE) was a Roman politician, who became involved in the civil war involving Julius Caesar and Pompey. In 52 BCE, he resigned his position as praetor and supported Pompey's election as sole consul. In the war, he served in Sicily and Asia, and after the conflict went to Africa to placate many of Pompey's supporters. In April 46 BCE Cato committed suicide rather than accept a pardon from Caesar. He became a martyr with this act and was highly respected for it; therefore, he was an inspiration to many later political martyrs, and this is the context in which Trollope uses his name.
OCD  [MD]

St. Augustine
A reference to St. Augustine, first a priest and later a bishop, who lived during the fourth and fifth centuries CE. St. Augustine was a very popular Christian writer, who wrote such works as the Confessiones (Confessions) and De Civitate Dei (The City of God), which would influence Christian doctrine for centuries.
http://www.ccel.org/a/augustine/augustine.html  [MD]

Miss Thorne armed for battle  
This scene may humorously recall the depiction of Hera in Homer's Iliad (book 14) when she dresses up in order to seduce Zeus. Although she is not actually readying herself to fight, Hera's toilette is presented as equivalent to men's preparations for battle; her clothing and jewelry is equal to their armor and weapons.  Trollope describes Miss Thorne, after she is dressed, as being "armed" head-to-foot, as though she herself was getting ready to fight, though her battle is one of hospitality rather than one of seduction.  Trollope also compares twenty-nine of Miss Ullathorne's skirts to twenty-nine shields of Scottish heroes and describes them as being just as protective.  [MD & RR]

The ruins of the Colosseum
The Colosseum was a massive structure built in Rome by the Flavian emperors (begun by Vespasian and finished under his son Titus) and was used to house gladiatorial games and other contests. The worldwide popularity of the now somewhat debilitated structure is what Trollope is referring to here, and it is mentioned alongside the names of other famous landmarks.  [MD]

Fawns, nymphs, satyrs, and a whole tribe of Pan's followers
Pan was the god of shepherds and their flocks in ancient Arcadia, and he had the legs and horns of a goat himself. He lived in the mountains dancing, singing, and playing his pipes with nymphs, who were his companions. Pan is often grouped with satyrs in classical depictions, and this is a result of their similar physical appearances.
The Meridian Handbook of Classical Mythology by Edward Tripp  [MD]

Fawns and satyrs
A continuation of the above.  [MD]

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