Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History Bookhis gold mountains high, and let him love no one,[816] and be loved by none. FOOTNOTES: [772] _Natali._ The birthday was sacred to the "Genius" to whom they offered wine, incense, and flowers: abstaining from "bloody" sacrifices, "ne die quâ ipsi lucem accepissent aliis demerent," Hor., ii., Ep. 144. "Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis avi," Pers., ii., 3. "Funde merum Genio," Censorin., de D. N., 3. Virg., Ecl. iii., 76. Compare Hor., Od., IV., xi., where he celebrates the birthday of Mæcenas as "sanctior pœne _natali proprio_." Cf. Dennis's Etruria, vol. ii., p. 65. [773] _Cæspes._ Hor., Od., III., viii., 3, "Positusque carbo in cæspite vivo." Tac., Ann., i. 18. [774] _Niveam._ A white victim was offered to the Dii Superi: a black one to the Inferi. Cf. Virg., Æn., iv., 60," _Junoni_ ante omnes, Ipsa tenens dextrâ pateram pulcherrima Dido _Candentis_ vaccæ media inter cornua fundit." Tibull., I., ii., 61, "Concidit ad magicos hostia _pulla_ deos." Hor., i., Sat. viii., 27," Pullam divellere mordicus agnam." [775] _Gorgone._ Cf. Vir., Æn., viii., 435, _seq._; ii., 616. [776] _Extensum._ It was esteemed a very bad omen if the victim did not go willingly to the sacrifice. It was always led, therefore, with a long slack rope. [777] _Matris._ Cf. Hor., iv., Od. ii., 54, "Me tener solvet vitulus, relicta matre." [778] _Nascenti._ Hor., iii., Od. xiii., 4, "Cui frons turgida cornibus Primis et Venerem, et prælia destinat." "He flies his mother's teat with playful scorn, And butts the oak-trees with his growing horn." Hodgson. [779] _Hispulla._ Cf. vi., 74, "Hispulla tragædo gaudet." (This was the name of the aunt of Pliny the Younger's wife, iv., Ep. 19; viii., 11.) "Huge as Hispulla: scarcely to be slain But by the stoutest servant of the train." Badham. [780] _Clitumnus_ was a small river in Umbria flowing into the Tinia, now "Topino," near Mevania, now "Timia." The Tinia discharges itself into the Tiber near Perusia. Pliny (viii., Ep. 8) gives a beautiful description of its source, now called "La Vene," in a letter which is, as Gifford says, a model of elegance and taste. Its waters were supposed to give a milk-white color to the cattle who drank of them. Virg., Georg., ii., 146, "Hinc albi, Clitumne, greges, et maxima taurus victima." Propert., II., xix., 25, "Quà formosa suo Clitumnus flumina luco Integit et niveos abluit unda boves." Sil., iv., 547, "Clitumnus in arvis Candentes gelido perfundit flumine tauros." Claudian., vi., Cons. Hon., 506. [781] _Ignis._ Grangæus interprets this of the meteoric fires seen in the Mediterranean, which, when seen single, were supposed to be fatal. Plin., ii., 37, "Graves cum solitarii venerunt mergentesque navigia, et si in carinæ ima deciderint, exurentes." These fires, when _double_, were hailed as a happy omen, as the stars of Castor and Pollux. "Fratres Helenæ lucida sidera," Hor., I., Od. iii., 2; cf. xii., 27. The French call it "Le feu St. Elme," said to be a corruption of "Helena." The Italian sailors call them "St. Peter and St. Nicholas." But these only appear at the _close_ of a storm. Cf. Hor., ii., _seq._, and Blunt's Vestiges, p. 37. [782] _Poetica tempestas._ "So loud the thunder, such the whirlwind's sweep, As when the poet lashes up the deep." Hodgson. [783] _Pictores._ So Hor., i., Od. v., 13, "Me tabulâ sacer votivâ paries indicat noida suspendisse potenti vestimenta maris Deo." It seems to have been the custom for persons in peril of shipwreck not only to vow pictures of their perilous condition to some deity in case they escaped, but also to have a painting of it made to carry about with them to excite commiseration as they begged. Cf. xiv., 302, "Naufragus assem dum rogat et pictâ se tempestate tuetur." Pers., i., 89, "Quum fractâ te in trabe pictum ex humero portes." VI., 32, "Largire inopi, ne pictus oberret cæruleâ in tabulâ." Hor., A. P., 20, "Fractis enatat exspes navibus, ære dato qui pingitur." Phæd., IV., xxi., 24. Some think that _this_ picture was _afterward_ dedicated, but this is an error. [784] _Castora._ Ov., Nux., 165, "Sic ubi detracta est a te tibi causa pericli Quod superest tutum, Pontice Castor, habes!" This story of the beaver is told Plin., viii., 30; xxxvii., 6, and is repeated by Silius, in a passage copied from Ovid and Juvenal. "Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis, Avulsâ parte _inguinibus causâque pericli_, Enatat intento prædæ fiber avius hoste," xv., 485. But it is an error. The sebaceous matter called castoreum (Pers., v., 135), is secreted by two glands near the root of the tail. (Vid. Martyn's Georgics, i., 59, "Virosaque Pontus Castorea," and Browne's Vulgar Errors, lib. iii., 4.) Pliny, viii., 3, tells a similar story of the elephant, "Circumventi a venantibus dentes impactos arbori frangunt, _prædâque se redimunt_." [785] _Bæticus._ The province of Bætica (Andalusia) takes its name from the Bætis, or "Guadalquivir," the waters of which were said to give a ruddy golden tinge to the fleeces of the sheep that drank it. Martial alludes to it repeatedly. "Non est lana mihi mendax, nec mutor aëno. Si placeant Tyriæ me mea tinxit ovis," xiv., Ep. 133. Cf. v., 37; viii., 28. "Vellera nativo pallent ubi flava metallo," ix., 62. "Aurea qui nitidis vellera tingis aquis," xii., 99. "Away went garments of that innate stain That wool imbibes on Guadalquiver's plain, From native herbs and babbling fountains nigh, To aid the powers of Andalusia's sky." Badham. [786] _Urnæ._ Vid. ad vi., 426. Pholus was one of the Centaurs. Virg., Georg., ii., 455. Cf. Stat., Thebaid., ii., 564, _seq._, "Qualis in adversos Lapithas erexit inanem Magnanimus cratera Pholus," etc. [787] _Conjuge Fusci._ Vid. ad ix., 117. [788] _Bascaudas._ The Celtic word "Basgawd" is said to be the root of the English word "basket." Vid. Latham's English language, p. 98. These were probably vessels surrounded with basket or rush work. Mart., xiv., Ep. 99. "Barbara de pictis veni bascauda Britannis; sed me jam mavolt dicere Roma suam." [789] _Olynthi._ Philip of Macedon bribed Lasthenes and Eurycrates to betray Olynthus to him. Pliny (xxxiii., 5) says he used to sleep with a gold cup under his pillow. Once, when told that the route to a castle he was going to attack was impracticable, he asked whether "an ass laden with gold could not possibly reach it." Plut., Apophth., ii., p. 178. "A store Of precious cups, high chased in golden ore; Cups that adorn'd the crafty Philip's state, And bought his entrance at th' Olynthian gate." Hodgson. [790] _Digitis._ Cf. xiv, 289, "Tabulâ distinguitur undâ." Ovid. Amor. ii. xi. 25, "Navita sollicitus qua ventos horret iniquos; Et prope tam letum quam prope cernit aquam." "Trust to a little plank 'twixt death and thee, And by four inches 'scape eternity." Hodgson. [791] _Ventre-lagenæ._ "A gorbellied flagon." Shakspeare. [792] _Secures._ "His biscuit and his bread the sailor brings On board: 'tis wel |