I rub down the horse’s forehead with care, stroke back his ears, take off his bridle and walk him slowly at a gentle pace, until the usual and natural relief of the belly should drain away the discomfort of his weariness.

Helm deletes a word here. The manuscripts read equi sudorem frontem, “the horse’s sweat forehead,” which cannot stand. The older editions mend it to sudorem a fronte, “the sweat from his forehead,” and so most translations have Lucius wipe away the sweat. Helm prints Friedrich Leo’s deletion, equi [sudorem] frontem: Lucius rubs down the horse’s forehead. In his notes Helm weighs keeping the sweat, as sudorem fronte ⟨defluentem⟩, “the sweat running from his forehead.” Square brackets in Helm mean the editor deletes a word; this reader drops it from the line and keeps it in the frozen text. The end of the sentence is a joke told in the grand style. The “usual and natural relief of the belly” is the horse relieving himself. Lewis & Short’s first sense for eliquare is “to clarify, strain,” of wine drawn off its lees; in the next sense the stress falls on the simple verb, “to cause to flow clearly, to pour forth.” Lucius walks the horse until it can do what horses do after a long ride.