Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History BookItal., x., 15. The Vascones lived in the northeast of Spain, near the Pyrenees, in parts of Navarre, Aragon, and old Castile. They and the Cantabri were the most warlike people of Hispania Tarrocensis. Their southern boundary was the Iberus (Ebro). Their chief cities were Calagurris Nassica (now Calahorra in New Castile), on the right bank of the Iberus; and Pompelon (now Pampeluna), at the foot of the Pyrenees, said to have been founded by Cn. Pompeius Magnus, vid. Plin., III., iii., 4. It is doubtful which of these two cities held out in the manner alluded to in the text. Sertorius was assasinated B.C. 72, and the Vascones, whose faith was pledged to him, sooner than submit to Pompey and Metellus, suffered the most horrible extremities, even devouring their wives and children. Cf. Liv., Epit. xciii. Flor., III., xxxii. Val. Max., VII., vi. Plut. in v. Sert. The Vascones afterward crossed the Pyrenees into Aquitania, and their name is still preserved in the province of Gascogne. [1110] _Egestas._ "When frowning war against them stood array'd With the dire famine of a long blockade." Hodgson. [1111] _Miserabile._ ii., 18, "Horum simplicitas _miserabilis_." [1112] _Post omnes herbas._ "For after every root and herb were gone, And every aliment to hunger known; When their lean frames and cheeks of sallow hue Struck e'en the foe with pity at the view; And all were ready their own flesh to tear, They first adventured on this horrid fare." Gifford. [1113] _Viribus._ The abstract used for the concrete. Another reading is, _Urbibus_, referring to Calagurris and Saguntus. Valesius proposed to read "Ventribus," which Orellius receives. [1114] _Quædam pro vita._ Cf. Arist., Eth., iii., 1, Ἔνια δ' ἴσως οὐκ ἔστιν ἀναγκασθῆναι ἀλλὰ μᾶλλον ἀποθνητέον, παθόντα τὰ δεινότατα. Plin., xxviii., 1, "Vitam quidem non adeo expetendam censemus ut quoquo modo protrahenda sit." Sen., Ep. 72, "Non omni pretio vita emenda est." [1115] _Gallia._ Cf. ad i., 44. Suet., Cal., xx., "Caligula instituit in Gallia, Lugduni, certamen Græcæ Latinæque facundiæ." Quintil., x., 1. Sat., vii., 148, "Accipiat te Gallia, vel potius nutricula causidicorum Africa, si placuit mercedem ponere linguæ." [1116] _Britannos._ Tac., Agric., xxi, "Ingenia Britannorum studiis Gallorum anteferre: ut qui modo linguam Romanam abnuebant, eloquentiam concupiscerent." [1117] _Thule._ Used generally for the northernmost region of the earth. Its position shifted with the advance of their geographical knowledge; hence it is used for Sweden, Norway, Shetland, or Iceland. Virg., Georg., i., 30, "Tibi serviat ultima Thule." [1118] _Saguntus_, now "Mur Viedro" in Valencia, is memorable for its obstinate resistance to Hannibal, during a siege of eight months (described Liv., xxi., 5-15). Their fidelity to Rome was as famous as that of the Vascones to Sertorius; but their fate was more disastrous; as Hannibal took Saguntus and razed it to the ground, after they had endured the most horrible extremities, whereas the siege of Calagurris was raised. Cf. ad v., 29. [1119] _Taurica._ The Tauri, who lived in the peninsula called from them Taurica Chersonesus (now Crimea), on the Palus Mæotis, used to sacrifice shipwrecked strangers on the altar of Diana; of which barbarous custom Thoas their king is said to have been the inventor. Ov., Trist., IV., iv., 93; Ib., 386, "Thoanteæ Taurica sacra Deæ." Pont., I., ii., 80: III., ii., 59. Plin., H. N., IV., xii., 26. On this story is founded the Iphigenia in Tauris of Euripides, and from this was derived the custom of scourging boys at the altar of Artemis Orthias in Sparta. [1120] _Gravius cultro._ "There the pale victim only fears the knife, But thy fell zeal asks something more than life." Hodgson. [1121] _Invidiam facerent._ Cf. Ov., Art. Am., i., 647, "Dicitur Ægyptos caruisse juvantibus arva Imbribus, atque annos sicca fuisse novem. Cum Thracius Busirin adit, monstratque piari Hospitis effuso sanguine posse Jovem. Illi Busiris, Fies Jovis hostia primus, Inquit et Ægypto tu dabis hospes opem." It is to this story Juvenal probably alludes. But _invidiam facere_ means also "to bring into odium and unpopularity" (cf. Ov., Met., iv., 547), and so Gifford understands it. "What more effectual means could these cannibals devise to incense the god and provoke him to withhold his fertilizing waters, thereby bringing him into unpopularity." Cf. Lucan, ii., 36, "Nullis defuit aris Invidiam factura parens," with the note of Cortius. [1122] _Fictilibus phaselis._ Evidently taken from Virg., Georg., iv., 287, "Nam quâ Pellæi gens fortunata Canopi Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum Et circum _pictis_ vehitur sua rura _phaselis_." The deficiency of timber in Egypt forced the inhabitants to adopt any expedient as a substitute. Strabo (lib. xvii.) mentions these vessels of pottery-ware, varnished over to make them water-tight. Phaselus is properly the long Egyptian kidney bean, from which the boats derived their name, from their long and narrow form. From their speed they were much used by pirates, and seem to have been of the same build as the Myoparones mentioned by Cicero in Verrem, ii., 3. Cf. Catull., iv., 1, "Phaselus ille quem videtis hospites Ait fuisse navium celerrimus." Mart., x., Ep. xxx., 12, "Viva sed quies Ponti Pictam phaselon adjuvante fert aurâ." Cf. Lucan, v., 518. Hor., iii., Od. ii., 29. Virg., Georg., i., 277. Arist., Pax, 1144. "Or through the tranquil water's easy swell, Work the short paddles of their painted shell." Hodgson. [1123] _Lacrymas._ So the Greek proverb, ἀγαθοὶ δ' ἀριδάκρυες ἄνδρες. [1124] _Pupillum._ Cf. i., 45, "Quum populum gregibus comitum premit hic spoliator Pupilli prostantis," x., 222, "Quot Basilus socios, quot circumscripserit Hirrus pupillos." [1125] _Incerta._ Hor., ii., Od. v., "Quem si puellarum insereres choro Miré sagaces falleret hospites Discrimen obscurum solutis Crinibus ambiguoque vultu." "So soft his tresses, filled with trickling pearl, You'd doubt his sex, and take him for a girl." Dryden. [1126] _Minor igne rogi._ Infants under forty days old were not burned, but buried; and the place was called "Suggrundarium." Vid. Facc. in voc. Cf. Plin., H. N., vii., 16. [1127] _Arcana._ Hor., iii., Od. ii., 26, "Vetabo qui _Cereris_ sacrum vulgârit _arcanæ_, sub îsdem sit trabibus fragilemve mecum solvat phaselon." Cf. Sat. vi., 50, "Paucæ adeo Cereris vittas contingere dignæ." None were admitted to initiation in the greater mysteries without a strict inquiry into their moral character; as none but the chastest matrons were allowed to be priestesses of Ceres. For the origin of the use of the torch in the sacred processions of Ceres, see Ovid, Fast., iv., 493, _seq._ [1128] _Aliena._ From Ter., Heaut., I., i., 25, "Homo sum; humani nihil à me alienum puto." Cf. Cic., Off., i., 9. [1129] _Sortiti in |