Fasti

627. Scilicet, ut fuerit, be this as it may. This reading was formed by Heinsius. Eight MSS. read scilicet et fuerit, eleven sit licet ut fuerit, the remainder have sit licet et fuerit, which Gierig prefers, and explains thus: "Sit ita, ut eo die interdum grando cadat, et fuerit ita et olim."—Mutinensia arma. The battle of Mutina was fought A.U.C. 710, against Antony, by the consuls Hirtius and Pansa, and the propraetor, Octavianus Caesar. One of the consuls was severely wounded, and the other slain in the action; and as Octavianus either would not, or knew not how to use the victory, Antony escaped to Liguria. The flattery of the poet, therefore, goes a little too far.

629. Veneris, scil. mensis Veneris.

630. The Fordicidia were on the 15th April. Fordicidia a fordis bubus. Bos forda quae fert in ventre; quod eo die publice immolantur boves praegnantes in curiis complures. A fordis caedendis Fordicidia dicta, Varro, L. L. V. He also (R. R. II. 5, 6,) names the festival Hordicidia and Hordicalia, and the adjective Hordus, which was the Sabine word.

635. Curia. The singular for the plural. See last note and II. 527.

637. Ministri, the popae, or Victimarii.

639. Virgo. The eldest of the Vestals. The ashes were reserved to purify the people on the Palilia at the end of the month.

641. Now comes a legend as usual, to explain the origin of this practice.

649. Compare Virg. aen. vii. 81, et seq. Faunus is, as before, confounded with Pan.

651. This divining sleep was called by the Latins, incubatio; by the Greeks, [Greek: enkoimaesis]. Incubare dicuntur proprie hi, qui dormiunt ad accipienda responsa, Servius on Virg. 1. c.

655. Intonsum, II. 30. All the following practices were usual, on occasions of consulting the gods in this way. The reason of them is apparent.

662. Somnia nigra. Compare V. 547. Tibull. II. 1, 89, [Greek: Melanopterygon mater Honeiron], Eurip. Hec. 71.

669. Errantem, IV. 261. I should here, on account of nemori, be inclined to take this word in its primitive sense.—Conjux, Egeria.

673-676. On the 15th April, A.U.C. 724, Augustus was saluted Imperator.—Cyth. diem. prop. ire. He appears here to have had Homer in view, who gives this power to Juno, [Greek: Helion d' akamanta boopis potnia Hrae Hempsen ep Okeanoio roas haekonta neesthai]. II. xviii. 239.

677, 678. The XV. Kal. Maias, the Hyades, called by the Latins, Suculae, a cluster of stars in the head of the Bull set acronychally. See below, V. 163, et seq—Ubi.. Some MSS. read tibi.—Dorida. Doris, the daughter of Oceanus, wife of Nercus, and mother of the Nereïdes, is like her daughter Amphitrite, frequently put for the sea.

679, 680. The Cerealia still continued. On the XIII. Kal. Maias, there were horse-races in the Circus.—Carcere. The carceres were the place in which the horses stood, with a cord stretched before them, on the dropping of which they started; the starting-place.—Partitos, started.

681, 682. "Addebatur his ludis, hoc eodem die combustio vulpium ob vetus damnum," Neapolis. "Die. 19, Apr. vulpes in Circensibus comburuntur." Gierig; from which I think we are to infer that these critics, and those who transcribe them, consider the burning of the foxes to have formed a part of the celebration of the Cerealia in the Circus at Rome. I do not find in any of the old Calendars that such was the case, and the narrative of the poet would, as appears to me, restrict this practice to the district of Carseoli. See particularly vv. 709, 7l0.—Missae, scil. at Carseoli?—Vinctis. This is the reading of one MS. only, but that one of the best; it has been received by Heinsius and Gierig; almost all the rest have junctis; three cinctis; one victis. Five give the line thus: Cur. ig. taedis unctis ardentia missae.

683. Carseolis, at Carseoli. One of the best MSS. reads pars coli, from which Heinsius made, and received into the text, Carseoli. This town was on the Valerian road, leading from Rome to the country of the Pelignians.

684. Ingeniosus. Ingenium is used speaking of soil and plants. Nunc locus arvorum ingeniis, Virg. G. II. 177. Arbores silvestres sui cujusque ingenii poma gerunt, Columella, R. R. III. 1.

685. 686. Ovid (v. 81,) was a native of Sulmo, the chief place of this country. Compare Amorr. II. 16, I,—Humida. One MS. gives as a different reading uvida; several have obvia.

687. Solitas. Twelve MSS. read fidas.

689, 690. It appears from this and other passages that Ovid, besides consulting the Fasti and other books, was diligent in the collection of such oral traditions, as might aid him in explaining old customs and religious rites.

692. Duro, hardy, like duri messores, juvenci, humeri, etc. The following is a very pleasing description of an industrious peasant and his wife of ancient times. It would apply, without any alteration, to many a rustic couple in modern Italy.

693. Peragebat humum. "Mi hi non satis placet; Codd tamen nihil varietatis suppeditant." Gierig.

694. Curves falcis. "Falcis usus erat etiam ad premendas umbras ruris opaci. Virg. G. I. 155, et seq. Unde apparet describi hic diligentissimum colonum,"—Gierig. As the poet is speaking of a small farm in a plain, I would here restrict the meaning of falcis, which is placed immediately after the plough, to sickle. For curvae, eleven MSS. followed by Heinsius and Gierig, read cavae. One of the best has sive citruae.

695. Tibicine. The tibicen was a prop set against the wall of a house, to keep it from falling out.

703. Extrem. conval. Sal. In the end of a valley planted with sallows, that is, among the sallows which grew at the end of the valley. Two of the best MSS. read sub valle, which is the reading given by Heinsius and Gierig.

704. Cohortis. Duo erant oviaria sive cohortes; una in plano, in qua pascebantur gallinae; altera sublimis, in qua erant columbae in turribus aut summa villa. Varro, R. R. III. 3, 6. The cohort was the Greek [Greek: chortos]. It was round, as the following passage of Cato (Orig. iv.) shews, Mapalia vocantur ubi habitant; ea quasi cohortes rotunda sunt.—Aves, like the Greek [Greek: ornithes]. See on I. 455.

709-712. These lines, I think, prove the custom to have been peculiar to Carseoli. Compare the account given in the book of Judges of Sampson making use of foxes to set fire to the corn of the Philistines.

713. On the 20th April, the Sun enters Taurus.

714. A periphrasis of Aurora. Compare Met. xiii. 579. See Virg. aen. vii. 25. Homer calls Eos [Greek: krokopeplos], to which the lutea of the Latin poets corresponds. The lutum was a plant, whose juice dyed yellow. The Greek poet also styles this goddess [Greek: rododaktylos] and [Greek: rodopaechus], but as far as I know, no Greek poet gives her rose-hued horses or chariot.

715. Duce, etc. the Ram.

716. Victima major, scil, the Bull—a bad periphrasis!

717-720. In the ancient, as in the modern representations of the stellar heaven, only the forepart of Taurus was drawn. Hence, it could not be said whether it was a bull or a cow. Some, therefore, said, that it was the heifer into which Io had been changed; others, the bull which had carried Europa. In either case, it was an object of aversion to Juno.

721. On the XI. Kal. Maias, was the festival of Pales, the goddess of shepherds, named the Palilia, and celebrated by the Romans as the birthday of Rome, ([Greek: genethlian taes patridos]), the day of the foundation of the city. The poet, therefore, dwells on this important day at considerable length.—Abiit. The last syllable is long, on account of the following pause. Two MSS. give obit, exoriturque.—Palilia. Some MSS. read Parilias. Palilia dicta a Pale, quod feriae ei deae fiunt, Varro, L. L. V. Pales dea pastoralis est, cujus dies festus Palilia dicuntur, nisi quod quidam a partu Iliae Parilia dicere maluerunt, Carisius Inst. Gram. I. p. 55. Solinus, c. 1, and the Scholiast on Persius, Sat. I. also mention this derivation. This last quotes from Cicero's Philippics the following passage, which is not now to be found in them: Palilia, quae nunc Parilia mutatis literis dicimus. Parilia is also the term used by all the Greek writers, except Plutarch. There is certainly, no doubt, but that both Palilia and Parilia were in use in the time of Ovid, and that, perhaps, many regarded the latter, which would appear to come so naturally from pario, to be the true name of a festival of spring, when every herb and tree brings forth, and beast and bird produce their young. But still, as the name of the goddess was always Pales, we may be quite sure that Palilia was the original name of the festival.—Poscor, scil. ad Palilia. Poscimur Aonides. Met. v. 333. Poscimur. Hor. Car. I. 32. 1, to his lyre.

722. Pales. Pales dea est pabuli, quam alii Vestam, alii Matrem Deûm volunt. Hanc Virgilius genere feminino (Magna Pales) appellat, alii, inter quos Varro, masculino genere. Servius on Virg. G. III. 1. This male deity was viewed as the servant and bailiff, as it were, of Jupiter. Serv. on Ec. v. 35. Arnobius adv. Gentes, III. p. 123. Perhaps, according to the principle stated above, on III. 512, there was, after the usual manner, a deity of each sex united in office.

725. De vitulo cinerem. See v. 637, et seq.

726. Februa. See II. 19.

727. Palilia tam publica quam privata sunt. Et est genus hilaritatis et lusus apud rusticos, ut congestis cum foeno stipulis ignem magnum transiliant his Palilibus, se expiari credentes, Varro. See also Tibull. II. 5. Propert. iv. 1. The simple origin of this ceremony lay in the belief of the purifying nature of fire, (see v. 785) and something similar was practised by the people of the North of Europe in their heathen state; as also nearly down to the present day among the Celtic population of Ireland and Scotland. But the Romans must assign a historical cause for this, as for all their other customs; so we are told by Dionysius, that when Romulus was building the city, he had fires kindled before all the tents, and made the people jump through the flames to expiate themselves.

729. Navalibus. The usual comparison of a poem to a ship, and the progress of composing it to a voyage, II. 863. Modern poetry will also furnish instances. See, for example, Spenser's Faerie Queene, B. II. c. xii. st. 42. "Now strike your sailes yee iolly mariners, For we be come unto a quiet rode," etc.

731. See v. 639.

733. Sanguis equii, etc. This would seem to contradict the following assertion of Solinus. Et observatum deinceps, ne qua hostia Parilibus caederetur, ut dies iste a sanguine purus esset. Plutarch also says, [Greek: En archae d' os phasin, ouden empsuchon ethyon]. But, like the calf, whose ashes were used, this horse was not sacrificed on the Palilia. October equus appellabatur, qui in Campo Martio mense Octobri Marti immolabatur, cujus cauda, ut ex ea sanguis in forum distillaret, magna celeritate perferebatur in regiam, Festus. The Regia here spoken of, must have been the Atrium Vestae, see on II. 69. The blood of the horse's tail was preserved here, along with the ashes of the calf, (v. 639,) to be used on the Palilia.

734. Culmen is here the same as culmo.—Inane, as the beans had been taken out.

735. Ad. prim. crep. [Greek: Y po nukta]. This was always done in the evening.—Lustra. Several good MSS. read lustrat, others lustret.

736. The ground on these occasions was swept clean and sprinkled with water.

739. Caerulei fumi. This is to be understood of the bluish smoke-like vapour which rises from sulphur when burning.—_Viv. sulf. Vivum, quod Graeci apyron vocant, nascitur solidum, hoc est gleba, Pliny, H. N. xxxv. 15, 50. Sulphur was of great use in purification, see above, on II. 37. Ipseque ter circulus travi sulfure puro. Tibull. I. 5, 11.

741. _Maris rores, [Greek: libanotis], rosemary. This is the reading of two of the best and ten other MSS.; some have maris rorem, the rest give mares oleas, which Heinsius and Gierig prefer. "Lectio doctior (says the latter,) quam ut a librario proficisci potuerit." Olives were used in purification, Virg. aen. vi. 230, and the trees were divided into male and female. Plin. H. N. xvi. 19. On the other hand, the ros marinus, and the herba Sabina, are mentioned together in Virg. Culex. 402.—Taedam, Sextum genus (pinus) est taeda proprie dicta, abundantior succo quam reliqua, liquidior quam picea, flammis et lumini sacrorum etiam grata. Plin. H. N. xvi. 10. See Virg. aen. vii. 71, and above, II. 25.—Herb. Sab. Sec I. 343.

743. Lib. de mil. The people of Italy made a sweet kind of bread and cakes of millet. Plin. H. N. xviii. 10.—Fiscella, or fiscina, a basket made of rushes or willow twigs, Virg. G. I. 266. A basket of millet was part of the offerings on the Palilia.

745. Daps apud antiquos dicebatur res divina, quae fiebat aut hiberna semente aut verna, Festus. Hence, Heinsius would read dapi. Gierig thinks the dapes was the feast of the rustics themselves, of which a pail of milk formed a part, see v. 780. Compare II. 657, and Tibull. II. 5, 99.—Resectis. The MSS. differ greatly, giving relictis, paratis, remotis, refectis.

749. Here follows a catalogue of the transgressions, by which the superstition of antiquity thought that the anger of the rural gods might be provoked.—Sacro, scil, in loco. Many MSS. read sacra, scil. loca.

755. Degrandinat, says Gierig, may be for the simple grandinat, like depluere for pluere. The word occurs scarcely anywhere else. Burmann would read dum degrandinet, till the hail is over—a reading which I would willingly adopt.

759. Fontana. One MS. reads montana.

761. _Labra Dianae, the lavacra or bathing places of Diana and her nymphs, alluding to the fate of Actaeon. See Met. III. 161, et seq.

762. [Greek: Ou themis, ho poiman to mesambrinon, ou themis ammin Syrisden ton Pana dedoikames hae gar ap' agras Tanika kekmakus amptanetai enti ge pikros]. Theoc. Idyll. I. 15.

769. Referat, etc. Compare Virg. Ec. I. 35.

770. When making cheese. Compare Tibull. II. 3. 15.

778. Rore. Bos, like the Greek [Greek: drosos], was used for the simple aqua. See Met. III. 164, and Valken on Eur. Hipp. 121. Lenz renders in vivo rore in this place, by, In the fresh dew of evening! A proof of the liability of translators and commentators to mistake the meaning of even plain passages.

779. Camella. This was a kind of wooden vessel used by country-people.

780. Sapa. Sapam appellabant, quod de musto ad medium partem decoxerant, Varro de vita pop. Rom. p. 240. Sapa fit musto usque ad tertiam partem mensurae decocto. Plin. H. N. xiv. 9.

781, 782. See on v. 727.

783. Turba, scil. causarum.

785. Vitium, etc. Compare Virg. G. I. 89. Omne per ignem excoquitur vitium.

786. Duce. The dux ovium in this place is evidently the shepherd, who, as we have seen, used to leap through the straw-fires. In the South of Europe, the shepherds generally walk at the head of their sheep.

787-790. [Greek: To pur kathairei, to udor agnizei]. Plutarch, Q. R. 1.

791. Aqua et igni interdici solet damnatis, quam accipiunt nuptae; videlicet quia haec duae res humanam vitam maxime continent, Festus. Ad facienda foedera aqua et ignis adhibentur; unde contra quos arcere volumus e nostro consortio ei aqua et igni interdicimus, id est rebus quibus consortio copulamur, Servius on aen. vii. Banishment, we may observe, was unknown to the Roman law; the Interdictio aqua et igni, which had the effect of obliging a man to quit his country, was all that was pronounced against him. See Niebuhr's Roman History, II. 62-64.

792. Nova conjux. The bride and bridegroom used to touch fire and water.

793. Referri, to be represented, called to mind.

800. Innocuum, safe; when he was escaping from the flames of Troy. Virg. aen. II. 632.

801. Hoc. Several MSS. read nunc from which Heinsius made num. The reading of the text, besides resting on the authority of the greater number of MSS. is much to be preferred.

807. Ipse locus, etc. This very part of the poem, this very mention of the birth-day of Rome, gives me the occasion, calls on me to relate the origin of the city.

Gierig refers causas to the enquiry which the poet had been on, and understands it thus: "Quid ego altius causas illius ritus acccsso, cum ipse locus, quem incolimus, aut, si ita mavis, in quo tractando jam versor, eas mihi suppeditat?" The reading of most MSS. is ipse locum casus vati which Marsus interprets: By chance as it were, we are come to this place, where we must treat of the origin of the city.

808. Factis. This is the reading of all the MSS. Heinsius conjectured festis, which be introduced, most unwarrantably, into the text.

809. See III. 67.

812. Ambigitur, etc. See Liv. I.6, 7. Certabant urbem Romam Remoranme vocarent, Ennius.

817. Volucres. They were vultures, to which, as they injure neither cattle nor corn, the Romans gave great authority in augury.

821. All that follows was done in accordance with the ritual-books of the Etruscans. A deep (ad solidum) round pit was dug in the future Comitium. This pit was called Mundus. Into it was thrown a portion of all necessary natural productions, and each person cast into it a little of the earth of his native country. From this as a centre, the circuit of the city was described, Plutarch Rom. 11.

824. Fungitur. Most of the old MSS. read finditur, which Gierig has received. The meaning would be, the altar was cleft with the heat of the fire, like ground with that of the sun.

825. When the mundus had been made, the founder yoked a bull and a cow to a plough which had a brazen share, and made a deep furrow, to mark the line of the walls, those who followed him taking care to turn all the clods inwards; when he came to the place where a gate (porta) was to be, he lifted the plough and passed over it, (portavit).

830. Vobis. Twelve MSS. read bonis.

831. Dominae, "Domina, quae habet imperium in omnes. V. vs. 859."

Gierig. Surely it was Rome, not the earth that was to be the mistress.

Two of the best MSS. read domitae, which I think gives a better sense.

See v. 861.

833. Tonitru laevo. Laeva fulmina prospera existimantur, quoniam laeva parte mundi ortus est, Plin. H. N. ii. 53.55. Elsewhere he says, Fulmina laeva prospera, quia sacrificantis vel precantis latus laewum dextrum est ejus qui postulata largitur.

837. Celer. According to Dionysius and Plutarch, Celer was one of the companions of Romulus, and overseer of the building of the walls. In reality he was only a personification of the Equites, who were called Celeres. See Niebuhr, Roman History, Vol. i. 325.

843. Rutro. The rutrum was a kind of spade, rutrum, ut ruitrum, a ruendo, Varro, L. L. iv. Rutro, in the text, is the conjecture of Heinsius; the greater part of the MSS. read retro; some rastro, six ultro, one ristro. There can be little doubt of rutro being the true reading, as it is the term used by other writers.—Occupat. See I. 575, and Met. xii. 343.

853. Compare Hom. II. xxiv. 582, and Virg. aen. xi. 219.

855. The Romans were not called Quirites till after their union with the Sabines. Compare Virg. aen. vi. 776.

856. Remus, a tradition said, was buried on the Remaran hill, a little way from Rome.

860. Nominis hujus, i. e. Caesaris.

863-900. On the IX. Kal. Maias, was celebrated the festival, named Vinalia, in honour of Jupiter, or, as some said, of Venus. Masurius apud Macrob. (Sat. I. 4,) says, Vinaliorum dies Jovi sacer est, non, ut quidam putant, Veneri. And Varro (L. L. V.) Vinalia dicta a vino. Hic dies Jovis non Veneris. Hujus rei cura, non levis in Latio; nam aliquot locis vindemiae primum a sacerdotibus publica fiebant, ut Romae etiam nunc; nam Flamen Dialis auspicatur vindemiam, et, ut jussit vinum legere, agna Jovi facit, inter cujus exta caesa et porrecta flamen prorsus vinum legit. According to Festus and an old Kalendar, there was another Vinalia, called rustica, on the 19th August, and it is evidently of this last that Varro speaks. Ovid seems to have confounded the two, which Pliny (H. N. xviii. 29,) accurately distinguishes. Perhaps, both were sacred to Jupiter, and the circumstance of a festival of Venus falling on the vernal Vinalia, may have led to the supposition of its being sacred to her. Plutarch (Q. R. 45,) calls it Veneralia.

866. Multa agrees with apta, and is equivalent to valde. Some MSS. read culta, which Heinsius prefers.—Professarum. When a woman at Rome wished to become a meretrix, she went before the aediles and professed, that is, informed them of her intention. She was then entered among the togatae, (v. 134) See Suet. Tib. 35. Tac. Ann. II. 85. The same mutatis nominibus is the case at the present day at Rome, Paris, and other cities on the continent.—Quaestibus. Alexis, in his comedy, called [Greek: Isostasios], says of them, [Greek: Proton men gar es to kerdos kai to sulan tous pelas, talla autais parerga ginetai].

869. Sisymbria. The sisymbrium, also called thymbraeum, was an odoriferous plant growing in dry places.

870. The garlands of roses were bound with rushes.

871. A temple was dedicated to Venus Erycina at the Colline gate, A.U.C. 571, Liv. xl. 34. There was another temple of this goddess on the Capitoline hill, built by the direction of the Sibylline books, and dedicated A.U.C. 537. Syracuse was taken A.U.C. 540. Ovid, as Neapolis observed, appears to have committed two errors here; one, in confounding the two temples of Venus Erycina at Rome; the other, in making the building of a temple depend on an event which did not happen till after it had been built. Gierig defends him in the former case by saying, that v. 873-875, are merely a passing notice of the second temple: in the latter, his defence is, "Fortasse tamen Noster, more poëtarum, a parte bellum Punicum secundum indicare voluit." Greater poets, however, than Ovid, have fallen into as great errors.

874. Eryx. This mountain was near Drepanum, on the west side of Sicily. There was on it a magnificent temple of Venus, the erection of which was ascribed to aeneas and the Trojans. Virg. aen. v. 759. It is, I apprehend, far more probable, that the Venus Erycina was the Astarte or Moon-goddess of the Phoenicians, who was identified with Aphrodite and Venus, and that the founders of the temple were the Carthaginians.

877, 878. The poet would here seem to intimate, that though the festival of Venus and the Vinalia fell on the same day, they were different. See v. 899.—Quaeritis. See on V. I.

879. See the last six books of the aeneis.

880. Adorat. One MS. has adoptat, which Heinsius and Gierig follow.

882. Equo vel pede. In horse and foot.

887. Cato in primo libro Originum ait, Mezentium Rutulis imperasse, ut sibi offerrent quas diis primitias offerebant, et Latinos omnes similis imperii metu ita vocasse: Jupiter, si tibi magis cordi est nos ea tibi dare potius quam Mezentio, uti nos victores facias, Macrob. Sat. III. 5.

888. Lacubus. The lacus or vat, was the vessel placed under the wine-press, to receive the liquor that ran out.

894. Feres. One of the best MS. reads feras, which Heinsius and Gierig receive, as it is a vow. The meaning is, that as the Rutulians had vowed or promised the produce of the following vintage to Mezentius, aeneas promises it, in case of victory, to Jupiter.

897. Venerat, etc. On account of the custom of treading out the grapes. Met. II. 21, Virg. G. II. 8. I doubt if it was good taste to personify Autumn in this place. Quum satur Auctumnus quassans sua tempora ponmis, Sordidus et musto spumantes exprimit uvas, Columella, R. R. x. 43.– Sordidus. Five MSS. read horridus.

898. Vina. Five MSS. read vota.

901-904. On the VII. Kal. Maias, six days from the end of the month, was the middle of spring; the acronych setting of the Ram, rain, and the rising of the Dog, also fell on this day.

904. Signa dant imbres. The rains shew themselves. Signa dare is the Greek [Greek: episaemainein]. Were it not that the meaning of this expression is so incontrovertibly shewn by I. 315, 316, one might be disposed to understand it with Taubner, of the constellations portending rain.—Exoriturque Canis. Here is a tremendous error of our poet, for, according to Columella, Pliny, Ptolemy, and to the actual fact, the Dog sets instead of rising at this time. Thus also, Virgil, (G. I. 217,) Candidus auratis aperit cum cornibus annum Taurus, et averso cedens Canis occidit astro. One of the best MSS. reads occidit atque Canis, but I fear this is only the emendation of some one who saw the error into which the poet had fallen.

904. Nomento. Nomentum was a town of the Sabine country; a road named the Via Nomentana led to it from the Viminal gate at Rome. On the following narrative, Gierig observes, "Similia figmenta, vv. 685 et III. 541." I do not see the necessity of supposing these to be fictions. What was more natural than for the poet, when about to write a poem on the Fasti, to direct his attention to things which he had not hitherto heeded, and to inquire into the meaning of what appeared to him deserving of notice.

906. Candida pompa. The persons who formed this pomp or procession were clad in white, that is, their togae were either new, or had been scoured for the occasion. Pompa is the reading of ten MSS. all the rest have turba.

907. Flamen, scil. Quirinalis, v. 910.—Antiquae Robiginis. The festival of this goddess was called the Robigalia, and was said to have been instituted by Numa, (Plin. xviii. 69, 3,) hence the poet says, antiquae. Robigalia dicta ab Robigo. Secundum segetes huic deo sacrificatur, ne rubigo occupet segetes, Varro, L. L. V. Robigalia dies festus VII. Kal. Maias, quo Robigo deo suo, quem putabant rubiginem avertere, sacrificabant, Festus. Feriae Robigo via Claudia ad milliarium quintum, ne robigo frumentis noceat; sacrificiun et ludi cursoribus majoribus et minoribus fiunt, Verrius Flaccus in Fastis. Inde et Robigus deus et sacra ejus VII. Kal. Maias Robigalia appellantur, Servius on Geor. I. 151. In all these places, we may see, as also in Gellius, (v. 12,) it is a god Robigus that is spoken of; on the other hand, in this place, of Ovid and in Lactantius, (De Fal. Rel. I.) and Columella, it is a goddess Robigo. May we not thence infer, that as in so many other cases (see above on III. 512. IV. 722,) so in this the dualistic principle of Roman theology may be discovered? Finally, the names Robigo, Robigus, Robigalia, were frequently written Rubigo, etc.

908. Catularia porta Romae dicta est, quia non longe ab ea ad placandum Caniculae sidus frugibus inimicum rufae canes immolabantur, ut fruges flavescentes ad maturitatem perducerentur, Festus. It would appear as if there was some slight mistake here, as it was, as Festus himself tells us, (see preceding note) the god Robigus, and not the Canicula, to whom the sacrifice was made. This is also proved by the word rufae, for robus, a word of the same origin was equivalent to [Greek: xanthos], whence (Fest. s. v.) the peasants said robos boves. The Canicula however was the cause of the dog being sacrificed. Columella (R. II. x. 342). also notices this rite. Hinc mala, Rubigo virides ne torreat herbas Sanguine lactentis catuli placatur et extis. Ovid alone mentions the sheep.

910. Edidit, etc. that is prayed to this effect.

911. Aspera. The Robigo, [Greek: erusibae, miltos], or mildew, i. e. meal-dew, (It is mehlthau in German,) is a red glutinous powder, which ate into or consumed the stalks of the growing corn, and made them asperi, scabri.

913. Secundis, several MSS. read secundi.

919. Titan. So the Latin poets named the Sun, either as being the same with Hyperion the Titan or his son, Hes. Th. Mildew was thought to be produced by the rays of the sun acting on the moisture left on the stalks by dew or fog. Plin. xviii. 28.

923. Robigo signifies rust as well as mildew.

933. At the right hand of the Flamen was a woolen towel, (mantele) with the fringes, or rather nap on it, (villis solutis) for him to wipe his hands with. The finer kind of towels were without this appendage. Tonsis mantilla villis. Virg. G. III. 377.

936. Obscenae, of ill omen on account of the howling.

939. The Canicula was said to be Maera, the dog of Erigone the daughter of Icarus an Athenian, to whom Bacchus gave wine, which he shared with his workmen, who thinking he had poisoned them, put him to death. Erigone, by means of the dog discovered his body, and Bacchus touched by her grief, raised them all three to the skies, making Icarus Bootes, Erigone the Virgin, and Maera the Canicula or Procyon.

940. Praecipitur, scil. aestu, is burnt up.

941. Pro, instead of.

942. The true cause of many superstitious practices, in which the mystics find such deep meaning.

943. Phr. Ass. fratre a periphrasis of Tithonus, Ovid appears to make a mistake here and to confound Tithonus with Ganymedes, as according to most writers, Tithonus was the son of Laomedon, the son of Ilus the brother of Assaracus, whose grand-nephew therefore Tithonus was.– Titania. This is the reading of only two MSS. and was first admitted into the text by Burmann. Heinsius however had approved of it. All the rest give Tithonia, which Heinsius shews to have been frequently employed by Statius and by Valerius Flaccus but thinks that in all these places it should be changed into Titania. Aurora is called Titania, for the same reason as Diana (Luna) is called so, (Met. III. 173,) and their brother, Sol Titan; see on v. 919.

945. The Floralia began on the IV. Kal. Maias.

946. See V. 183, et seq.

949. As it was requisite that the Pontifex Maximus should reside in a public building, near the temple of Vesta, Augustus, when raised to this dignity, assigned a part of his Palatium to the public service, and removed thither the sacred fire of Vesta—Aufert, claims.—Cognati. See III. 425. Some MSS. read cognato.

950. Justi senes. Some editions read jussi, instead of justi. I know not on what authority. Patres for senes, is the reading of several MSS.

951. The temple of the Palatine Apollo formed another part of the Palatium. Suet. Aug. 29. Propert. II. 23.

952. Ipse, Augustus.

953. See I. 614.