Rufa Rufulum: perhaps the similarity in name denotes some relationship (cf. Lesbius and Lesbia in Catul. 79.1ff.), the diminutive being used sneeringly.
[2] sepulcretis: ἅπαξ λεγόμενον; apparently used of common and cheap places of burial; with the form cf. arboretum, rosetum, busticetum, etc.
[3] rapere: etc. i.e. pilfer the food placed on the funeral pyre to be burned with the body (cf. Verg. A. 6.224 “congesta cremantur turea dona, dapes, fuso crateres olivo” ). On such bustirapi (Pl. Ps. 361) cf. Ter. Eun. 491 “e flamma petere te cibum posse arbitror” ; Ov. Ib. 20 “hic praedam medio raptor ab igne petit” ; Mart. 11.54. So poverty and hunger are satirized in Catul. 21.1ff. and Catul. 23.1ff.
[4] prosequens: i.e. stooping down to grasp it.
[5] semiraso: i.e. careless about shaving, and hence ‘squalid’; cf. Catul. 54.2 “semilauta” ; Luc. Phar. 8.738 “sordidus ustor” .
[5] tunderetur: caught in the act and beaten by the ustor, commonly a slave of low degree belonging to the libitinarii who attended to the burning of bodies.
