Sentence:  Again, a man so gracious and in high favour with the Emperor, as Augustus often called him his witty <WSD>manling</WSD> (for the littleness of his stature), and, if we may trust antiquity, had designed him for a secretary of estate, and invited him to the palace, which he modestly prayed off and refused. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A little man; a man of short stature.