[1] See also tau 465, tau 1144.
[2] Episode also mentioned in lambda 834, and detailed in Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Roman Antiquities 19.5.1, and Appian, Samnitica 7.5; more vaguely in Polybius 1.6.5. The phrasing here is derived from the quotation in lambda 834.
Lucius Megellus Postumius was sent to Tarentum (in southern Italy; cf. tau 112 and tau 113) in 282 BC to demand reparations over recent conflict; he was mocked for his imperfect Greek, and a Philonides is supposed to have grabbed Postumius' toga as he walked past, and defecated on it. (Valerius Maximus 2.2.5 reports the insult as involving urination, which Lateiner (2005:52) finds more plausible.) Postumius retorted by threatening war, and indeed Tarentum was captured by the Romans in 272. On the incident, see Lateiner (2005) and Barnes (2005).