Book I

The festivals, arranged throughout the Latian year, together with their origin and the constellations as they set beneath the earth and rise, I will celebrate. Receive, Cæsar Germanicus, this work with benignant aspect, and direct the course of my timid bark; and not disdaining a mark of attention thus slight, be propitious to this act of duty consecrated to thee. Thou wilt here review the sacred rites brought to light from the ancient annals, and see by what memorable fact each day has been distinguished. Here, too, thou wilt find the household festivals peculiar to thy own family. Often must thy sire, often thy grandsire, become the subjects of thy perusal. The rewards of honour distinguishing the painted calendar, which they bear, thou, too, with thy brother Drusus, shalt obtain. Let others sing the arms of Cæsar; we will sing the altars of Cæsar, and those days which he has added to the festivals. Do thou favour me while endeavouring to recount the praises of thy kindred, and dispel from my breast its trembling fears. Show thyself propitious to me; then wilt thou have given me energy for my verses, for according to thy countenance does my genius stand or fall. My page, about to be submitted to the judgment of a prince thus learned, is moved with cave, as though sent to the Clarian God to be perused. For we have felt how great is the fluency of thy polished eloquence, when it bore civic arms in behalf of the trembling accused. We know, too, when inclination has impelled thee towards our arts, how copious the streams of thy genius flow. If it is lawful and right, do thou a poet guide the reins of a poet, so that under thy auspices the whole year may proceed favourably.

When the founder of the city divided the periods, he appointed that there should be twice five months in his year. In good truth Romulus, thou wast better acquainted with arms than with the stars, and thy greater care was to conquer thy neighbours. Yet, Cæsar, there is. a reason which may have influenced him, and he has a ground on which he may defend his error. That period which is sufficient to elapse until the infant can come forth from the womb of its mother, he determined to be sufficient for the year. During so many months after the funeral of her husband, does the wife keep up the sad emblems of mourning in her widowed home. This then the care of Quirinus, arrayed in the regal robe, regarded when he gave to the rude people the ordinances pertaining to the year. The first month was that of Mars; the second that of Venus; she the origin of his family, he, the sire of Romulus himself. The third month was so called from the aged, the fourth from the name of the young;-' the rest that follow were denoted by their numerical place. But Numa passed by neither Janus nor the shades of his ancestors, and added two to the ancient months. That, however, you may not be ignorant of the privileges' of the various days, every light-bearing day has not the same office; that will be inauspicious throughout which the three words are not spoken, that auspicious throughout which it will be allowable for suits to be pleaded by law. But do not suppose that its own privileges last throughout the whole day; that which now will be auspicious, in the morning was inauspicious. For as soon as the entrails have been offered to the Deity, it is lawful to speak upon every subject, and the Praetor, honoured by his office then has his decrees unobstructed. There is also the day on which it is the usage to shut the people within the polling inclosures for the purposes of election. There is also the market day which always returns after the ninth revolution. The care of Juno claims for itself the Ausonian calends; on the ides, a white lamb, of larger growth, falls in honour of Jupiter. The guardianship of the Nones is without the care of a Deity; of all these (beware that you be not deceived) the morrow will be inauspicious. The omen is derived from the event itself, for on those days Rome sustained sad losses in adverse warfare. These circumstances, as being inherent to the whole of the festivals, will be here stated by me once for all, that I may not be forced to interrupt the order of the matters treated of by me.

Lo, Germanicus! Janus announces to thee a prosperous year, and is present at the outset in my verse. Janus, thou of the two heads! origin of the year silently rolling on, thou who alone of the Gods above, dost behold thy own back, be thou propitious to our princes, through whose toils both the fertile earth and the sea enjoy undisturbed peace. Be thou, O Quirinus, propitious to thy senators, and to thy people, and by thy nod of approbation unlock the white temples." A favourable day is dawning, be ye propitious both in your language and in your feelings; now on the auspicious day must auspicious language be used. Let our ears be relieved from strife, and forthwith let maddening discords be far away; and thou envious tongue, postpone thy occupation. Do you perceive how the sky is gleaming with the perfume-bearing fires, and how the Cilician ear is crackling on the kindled hearths? The flame with its brightness irradiates the gold of the temples, and diffuses its tremulous beam throughout the highest part of the building. With unpolluted garments they go to the Tarpeian heights, and the people itself harmonizes by the colour of its dress with the festival. And now the new fasces precede, the new purple glistens, and the much distinguished chair of ivory is sensible of new weights. The steers unacquainted with toil, which the Faliscan herbage has fed on its own fields, offer their necks to the blow. Jupiter, when he looks from his height over the whole earth, has nothing which he can behold but that which is under Roman sway. Hail! joyous day, and ever return more happy, worthy to be honoured by a people all-powerful throughout the world. But, O Janus, thou of the double form, what kind of deity shall I pronounce thee to be? for Greece has no divinity corresponding to thee. Do thou, at the same time, declare the reason why thou alone of all the inhabitants of heaven lookest upon that which is behind thee, and that which is before thee at the same time. While I was revolving these things in my mind, my tablets being taken in hand, the house seemed to be brighter than it was before. Then the divine Janus, wondrous with his double form, suddenly presented his two-fold features to my eyes. I was struck with amazement, and felt my hair stiffen with terror, and my breast was frozen with a sudden chill. He, holding in his right hand a staff, and in his left a key, uttered these accents to me from the mouth of his front face, " Having laid aside thy terror, thou poet, labouring at the history of the days, learn what thou dost ask, and in thy mind understand my words. The ancients (for I am a being of the olden time) called me Chaos — behold, of how remote a period I shall sing the transactions. This air, full of light, and the other three elementary bodies which remain, fire, the waters, and the earth, were one confused heap. When once this mass was broken up by the discord of its component parts, and, dissolving, passed away into new abodes, flame soared on high, the nearer place received the air, and the earth and sea settled in a middle position. Then I, who had been but a mass and bulk without form, passed into a shape and limbs befitting a god. And even now, in me that part which is before, and that which is behind, appears to be the same, a slight mark of my former shapeless figure. Hear, too, what is another cause of the form thus inquired after by thee, that thou mayest at the same time learn this and my office. Whatever thou beholdest around thee, the sky, the sea, the air, the earth, all these have been shut up and are opened by my hand. In my power alone is the guardianship of the vast universe, and the prerogative of turning the hinge is entirely my own. When it has been my pleasure to send forth Peace from her tranquil habitation, then at liberty she treads her paths unobstructed by the restraints of war. The whole world would be thrown into confusion in deadly bloodshed, did not my rigid bolts confine imprisoned warfare. Together with the gentle seasons I preside over the portals of Heaven; through my agency Jupiter himself doth pass and repass. Thence am I called Janus, to whom, when the priest lays on the altar the offering cake of bread-corn and the spelt mixed with salt, — (thou wilt smile at my epithets,) for I, the same deity, am at one time called Patuleius, and at another time Clusius, by the lips of the sacrificer. In good truth, that rude antiquity wished by the changes of my name to express my different duties. My power has now been related. Next learn the reason of my shape, although thou already perceivest it, in some degree, at least, from what I have already said. Every gate has two fronts, one on either side, of which the one looks out upon the people, but the other looks inward upon the household shrine;" and as the gate-keeper among you mortals, sitting near the threshold of the front of the building, sees both the goings out and the comings in, so do I, the door-keeper of the vestibule of heaven, at the same time look forth upon the regions of the east and the west." Thou seest the faces of Hecate turned in three directions, that she may watch the cross roads where they are cut into three pathways; to me, too, it is given, in order that I may not lose time in the bending of my neck, to look two ways without moving my body." He had said thus far, and by his countenance acknowledged that he would not be difficult to be moved by me, if I wished to make further inquiries. I took courage, and, undismayed, gave thanks to the deity, and looking upon the ground, spoke a few words. Say, now, I pray thee, why the new year begins with the frost of winter, which might better have been begun in the spring? Then all things are blooming, then is the youthful season of the year, and the young bud is swelling from the teeming shoot. Then the tree is covered with the newly formed leaves, the corn blade shoots from the seed to the surface of the ground; the birds, with their melodies, soothe the genial air, and the flocks gambol and disport in the meadows. Then is the sunshine refreshing; and the stranger swallow comes forth, and builds her fabric of clay beneath the lofty rafter. Then, too, is the field subjected to cultivation, and renewed by the plough. This, in justice, should have been called the opening of the year." I had made my inquiry in many words; he causing no delay by many, thus compressed his words into two lines. " The winter solstice is the first day of the new, and the last of the old sun; Phoebus and the year take the same period for commencement." After these things I was wondering, and inquired why the first day was not exempt from the litigation of the courts J' Understand the reason," says Janus; I have assigned the very earliest hours of the year for the transaction of business, lest the whole year might be spent in idleness from a had precedent. For the same reason, each person takes a slight taste of his calling by doing something on that day, but does no more than merely give evidence of his ordinary employment. After that I asked, "Why, although I am propitiating the power of other gods, do I, O Janus, present the frankincense and the wine to thee, the first of all ?" That by means of me," who guard the threshold, thou mayst have," says he, "access towards whatever deities thou mayst wish." "But why are congratulatory expressions uttered in thy calends, and why do we then give and receive in return good wishes ?" Then the god, leaning on the staff which his right hand bore, answers, "Omens of the future are wont to be derived from beginnings. To the word first spoken, ye mortals, turn your timid ears: and the augur observes the bird that is first seen by him. Then the temples and the ears of the gods are open, no tongue utters unheeded prayers, and all that is said has its due weight." Janus had concluded, and I made no long silence, but with my words followed close on his last accents. "What means," said I, "the palmdate, and the shrivelled dried fig, and the white honey given as a present, in the snow-white jar?" "A fair omen," said he, " is the reason, that the like grateful flavour may attend upon our transactions, and that the year may in sweetness go through the course which it has begun." " I see," said I, "why sweets are given as presents: add the meaning of the little coin also given, that no part of thy festival may be imperfectly understood by me." He smiled and said, " Oh! how little are the habits of thy own times known to thee, who canst suppose that honey is sweeter than the acquisition of money. Scarcely did I see any one, even when Saturn reigned, to whose spirit gain was not sweet. With time, increased that love of acquiring, which is now at its height, and has scarcely a further point to which it can proceed. Wealth now is more valued than in the years of the olden time, while the people still were poor, while Rome was but newly built, while a little cottage received Quirinus, the begotten of Mars, and the sedge of the stream afforded him a scanty couch. In those times scarcely could Jupiter stand at full length in his narrow temple, and in his right hand was a thunderbolt of clay. Then used they to adorn the capitol with boughs, which now they adorn with gems; and the senator himself used to tend his own sheep. Nor was it then reckoned a disgrace to have enjoyed undisturbed slumber on the bed of straw, and to have heaped the hay as a pillow under one's head. The consul used to give laws to the people, the plough being but just laid aside, and the possession of a small ingot of silver was deemed a crime. But after the Fortune of this place raised on high her head, and Rome reached with her height to the gods above, both wealth increased and the maddening lust for wealth; and although men possess very much they still desire more. They struggle to acquire, in order that they may lavish; and then to obtain again that which they have lavished; and the very changes, from wealth to poverty, afford nourishment to their vices. So with one whose stomach has swelled with the suffusion of water, the more that water that has been drunk, the more is it thirsted for. Money now is the only thing prized; wealth alone gives honours; wealth gives friendships: the poor man every where lies prostrate. But thou askest me why the omen of the small coin is deemed desirable, and why the ancient pieces of brass are welcome to our hands. In olden times they used to give pieces of brass; at the present day there is a better omen in gold, and the ancient coinage beaten out of the field, yields to the new. Us deities, too, though we approve of the temples of ancient fashion, golden ones please right well; that grandeur suited to a divinity. We praise the olden times, but adopt the manners of our own day; yet the habits of either age are equally worthy to be adopted. He had finished his instructions; then once again, as before, in mild accents I thus addressed the key-bearing god: — Many things, indeed, I have learned, but why on the brass coin is there stamped on one side the figure of a ship, and on the other, a two-headed form? "Thou mightst," said he, " recognise me in the two-fold form, had not the very length of time worn away the workmanship. The cause of the ship inscribed remains to be told. In a ship, the scythe-wielding God having first wandered over the whole world, came up the Etrurian river. I remember the reception of Saturn in this land; he had been expelled by Jupiter from the realms of heaven. Thence for a long time did the name of Saturn abide with that nation; the country also was called Latium from the god being there latent. Moreover pious posterity preserved the ship upon the brass coin, attesting the arrival of the god, their guest. I myself inhabited the soil along which, on its left side, glides the most gently flowing wave of the sandy Tiber. Here, where now Rome is, a forest, untouched by the axe, used to flourish, and a state so mighty was a place of pasturage for a few oxen. My place of retreat was that hill, which this age, paying me all adoration, denominates after my name, and calls it the Janiculum." Then, too, was I reigning, when the earth was fit to receive the gods, and the divinities were interspersed among the abodes of men. Not as yet had mortal crime driven Justice away. She was the last of the deities that left the earth; and instead of fear, a sense of propriety used then without any other restraint to govern the people: it was no difficulty to enforce justice among the just. I had no concern with warfare; I used then to have but peace and the thresholds under my protection; and," shewing his key, these," says he, "are the arms which I properly bear." The god had closed his lips; then thus I open mine, my words eliciting those of the divinity— " Since there are so many vaulted archways, why dost thou stand consecrated by a statue in one alone, here where thou hast a shrine adjoining to the two market places. He, with his hand stroking the beard that flowed down upon his breast, forthwith related the warfare of the Œbalian Tatius, and how the faithless guard, captivated with the Sabine bracelets, conducted Tatius to the approaches of the lofty citadel. 'From that," said he,' there was, as there is now, a steep path by which you descend to the vallies and the market places. And now had he reached the gate whose resisting bolts Juno the daughter of Saturn had insidiously removed: when fearing to enter on a contest with a deity so powerful, I slily put in practice the resources of my peculiar art. I opened the mouths of the fountains, in which kind of aid I am distinguished, and I showered forth sudden streams of water. But first I mingled sulphur in the hot streamlets, that the boiling flood might obstruct the passage of Tatius. When the useful quality of this stream, after the repulse of the Sabines, was perceived, and the appearance which it formerly had was restored to the place now secure from the enemy, an altar was erected to me, united with a little chapel: this with its flames consumes the spelt meal with the salt and flour cake of sacrifice "But why dost thou lie concealed in time of peace, and why art thou revealed, when arms are taken up ?" There was no delay, the cause of the circumstance inquired after was told me in answer.' In order that the means of returning may lie open in readiness for the people when they have gone forth to war, the whole of my gate stands wide open, the bolt being removed. In times of peace I bar my doors, that she may by no means be enabled to depart; and under the sway of Cæsar's name long shall I remain shut up." He spoke, and raising his eyes that looked both before and behind, he looked upon whatever there was in the whole world. There was peace: and the Rhine, the occasion of thy triumph, Germanicus, had now surrendered to thee its subservient streams. O Janus, make peace everlasting, and them to be the ministers of peace, and grant that the author of this change may not abandon his office. But, as I was enabled to learn from the list of the festivals, on this day our forefathers consecrated two temples. The sacred Island which the river surrounds with its divided stream, received the son of Phoebus and the nymph Coronis. Jupiter occupies a share; one place received them both, and the temple of the grandson is joined to that of his mighty grandsire. What forbids me, also, to mention the stars, how each of them rises and sets? That, too, was a part of my promised undertaking. Blessed spirits were they to whom first it was a care to learn these things, and to ascend to the mansions on high. It is worthy of belief that they raised their heads equally above the vices and the haunts of mortals. Neither lust nor wine enfeebled their exalted minds, nor the duties of the Forum, nor the toils of warfare. Nor did giddy ambition, nor glory overspread with artificial glare, nor the craving for vast riches, disquiet them. It is they who have brought the far distant stars to our eyes, and have subjected the heavens to their intellect. Thus is heaven won, not that Olympus for that purpose should bear Ossa, and the peak of Pelion touch the loftiest stars. We, too, under the guidance of these, will apportion out the skies, and will assign their own peculiar days according to the appointed constellations. When, therefore, the third night before the approaching nones shall come, and the ground shall grow damp, besprinkled with the dew of heaven, in vain will the claws of the eight-footed Crab be sought for; he has sunk headlong beneath the western waters. When the nones are lust arriving, the showers issuing from the black clouds will give you indications as the Lyre rises.

Add four days passed in regular succession, to the nones, Janus will have to be appeased on the Agonalian day. The aproned priest may perhaps be the origin of the appellation, under the blow of whom the victim falls in honour of the celestial gods; for he, when about to stain with reeking gore the knives already unsheathed, always asks the question, "Do I proceed ?" Nor does he proceed unless commanded so to do. Some think that the day has the name of Agonal, from the act of driving, because the sheep do not come of their own free will to the sacrifice, but are driven. Some think that this festival was called " Agnalia" - by the ancients, although by that derivation one letter is re moved from its proper place; or is that day thus named from the agony of the sheep, because the victim shudders at the knives perceived by it as they lie in the water? Some, too, think that the day derived a Grecian epithet from the games that were wont to be celebrated in the time of our forefathers. The ancient dialect, too, called sheep by the name of " Agonia ;" and in my opinion the last is the true reason for the name, and to this extent that reason is ascertained for certain, that the king of the sacred rites is in duty bound to propitiate the divinities with the mate of the fleece-bearing ewe. That sacrifice which has fallen by the unadulterated salt that had efficacy to render the gods propitious to man. Not yet had the stranger ship, impelled through the waters of the ocean, imported the myrrh that is distilled from the bark in tear-like drops. In those days neither Euphrates had sent its frankincense, nor India its zedoary, nor were the filaments of the ruddy crocus then known. The altar used to send forth its smoke, contented with the Sabine herbs, and the laurel was burned with no small crackling noise. If there was any one who could add violets to the chaplets wrought from the flowers of the meadow, that person was a rich man. The knife of the present day, which opens the entrails of the stricken bull, had in those times no employment in the sacred rites. Ceres was the first who took pleasure in the blood of an animal — namely, the ravenous sow, avenging the injury done to her property by the merited death of the transgressor. For in the early part of the spring she found that the crops of corn, swelling with their young milky juice, were rooted up by the snout of the bristly swine. From that day the swine paid the penalty. You, he-goat, warned by her example, wish that you had abstained from the shoot of the vine. A person looking upon him while imprinting his teeth upon the vine would naturally utter some such expression as this, with no silent indignation. Well gnaw away at the vine. Master goat; there will still be enough juice in it to be sprinkled upon your horns, when you shall be standing a victim at the altar, Truth attends his words. Bacchus, thy foe given up to thee for punishment, has his horns sprinkled with the outpoured wine Her guilt was fatal to the sow — fatal, too, was his guilt to the goat. But what didst thou, O ox, and what did ye, O gentle sheep, to deserve a like fate?

Aristæus was weeping, because he had seen that his bees, destroyed together with their progeny, had deserted the unfinished honeycombs. Him, then, while grieving, his Cærulean mother with difficulty consoled, and added to what she had said these last words: " Cease thy tears, my son, Proteus will alleviate thy losses, and will teach thee in what manner thou mayst recover what has been lost. That however, he may not deceive thee by his transformations, let strong fetters bind both his hands." The youth comes to the prophet, and seizing the arms relaxed in sleep of the watery sire, binds them together. He, versatile in form, by his peculiar art changes his appearance, but afterwards, overcome by the fetters, he returns to his natural shape, and, raising his countenance all streaming, with his azure-coloured beard, he said, " Dost thou seek to know by what art thou mayst recover thy bees? Bury in the earth the carcase of a slaughtered ox: he, when so buried, "will supply what thou now askest of me. The shepherd performs his commands. The swarms throng from the putrefying ox. The death of a single being has produced a thousand new lives. Fate, too, demands the sheep. She her impiety once cropped the sacred plants, which a pious old dame was accustomed to offer to the rustic deities. What remains in safety, when both the sheep that bear the fleece, and the oxen that till the fields, resign their lives upon the altars? Persia propitiates by the sacrifice of the horse, Hyperion begirt with rays of light, that no sluggish victim may be offered to the swift god. Because the hind was once slain in honour of the triune Diana in the stead of a virgin, at the present day she is sacrificed though not in the stead of a virgin. I have seen the Sapaeans and him who dwells near thy snows, O Hæmus, offer to Trivia the entrails of dogs.

The ass too is slain for the lustful guardian of the fields. The reason is indeed one that must cause shame, but quite suited to the character of this divinity. Greece was celebrating the festivals of ivy-crowned Bacchus, which every third winter brings round at the established period. The guardian deities of cool Lycseum came thither, and any one besides that was no enemy to mirth; the Pans, and the youthful troop of Satyrs prone to lust, and the goddesses who inhabit the streams and lonely fields. The aged Silenus too, had arrived upon his ass with bending back, and Priapus, who with ruddy aspect scares away the timorous birds. They, having found a grove well suited for their merry carousals, reclined on the couches bestrewed with grass. Bacchus gave the wine; each had brought a chaplet for himself; a rivulet rolled by its waters, to be but sparingly mixed. The Naiad nymphs were there, some with locks dishevelled without the application of the comb, others with their hair arranged both with taste and labour. This one waits upon them with her robe gathered up above the middle of the leg, another exposed as to her breast, with the bosom of her dress slashed asunder. This one bares her shoulder, another sweeps her robe along the grass — no sandals confine their delicate feet. On this side some are kindling the gentle flames of desire in the Satyrs, some in thee who hast thy temples wreathed with pine. Thee too, Silenus, of lust inextinguishable, they inflame. It is lust alone that precludes thee from being aged. But the ruddy Priapus, the deity and guardian of the gardens, was charmed by Lotis above them all. Her he desires — her he longs after — for her alone he sighs; he signifies his wishes by his nods, and entreats her by signs. Cold disdain is innate in the fair, and haughtiness accompanies beauty. By her countenance, she despises and she scorns him.

It was night, and, wine producing slumber, their bodies lay overpowered by drowsiness, in various places. Lotis, as she was wearied with sport, lay, the most remote of all, on the grassy earth, beneath the overshadowing boughs of a maple. Her lover rises, and, holding his breath, stealthily advances his silent footsteps, treading on tiptoe. When now he had reached the sequestered resting place of the nymph, fair as snow, he takes care lest the very drawing of his breath should make a noise. And now was he poising his body on the grass close by her, yet still was she sunk in deep sleep. He is overjoyed, and drawing aside her garment from her feet, began to proceed along the blissful path to the accomplishment of his desires. When, lo! braying with hoarse throat, the ass that bore Silenus sent forth unseasonable sounds. Alarmed, the nymph starts up, and with her hands flings back Priapus, and then flying arouses the whole grove. The god, already too well prepared for his lustful attempt, was an object of ridicule to all by the light of the moon. The author of the outcry paid the penalty by death, and hence is an acceptable victim to the god of the Hellespont. You, ye birds, charmers of the fields, a race accustomed to the groves, and guiltless, had been as yet unharmed; you, who build your nests, who cherish your eggs with your plumage, and warble delightful strains from your ready throats. But these things avail you nothing, because you are accused of the power of utterance, and the gods believe that you disclose their purposes. And this charge not entirely groundless; for, as each is most familiar with the gods, at one time, by your wings, at another, by your voices, you give true indications. The race of the fowls, for so long a time secure, at length came to be slain in its turn, and the entrails of the informer against them then delighted the gods. For that reason, often is the white ring-dove, the consort, torn from her mate, burned on the glowing hearths. Nor does the defence of the Capitol avail, to prevent the goose from affording its liver for thy dishes, O dainty daughter of Inachus. On the night of this day, the crested bird is slain in honour of the goddess Night, because with watchful throat he calls forth the warm day. In the mean time the Dolphin, a bright constellation, rises over the deep, and puts forth his head from his native waters.

The next day marks the winter by a central line," and the part of it which will then remain, will be equal to that which is past.

The next dawn, Tithonus having been left by her, shall look upon the pontifical ceremonies of the Arcadian goddess. Thee too, sister of Turnus, the same day received in thy temple, here where the Plain of Mars is traversed by the aqueduct of the Virgin. Whence shall I derive the causes and the forms of these sacred rites? Who can guide my sails in the midst of the deep. Instruct me thyself, thou who hast a name derived from song, and favour my undertaking, lest thy glory be lost in uncertainty. Having an origin before that of the moon" (if we credit it when speaking of itself), the land derives its name from the great Arcas. " Here was Evander, "' who, although on either side of illustrious origin, was more noble in the line of his sacred mother: who, as soon as she had conceived the inspiration of heaven in her soul, used to utter from her unerring lips verses redolent of the divinity. She had told her son that troubles were impending over him and herself, and many things besides, which obtained their fulfilment in the lapse of time. For now the youth exiled with his mother, too true a prophetess, leaves Arcadia and his Parrhasian home. To him, as he wept, his mother said, " Stay thy tears, my son, this turn of fortune must be borne by thee with manful spirit. This was thy destiny; it is no guilt of thy own that has exiled thee, but a god; thou hast been banished from thy city by the anger of a divinity. Thou art now enduring, not the penalty of a misdeed, but the wrath of a deity; it is some consolation that guilt does not accompany thy great misfortunes. As the mind of each man is conscious of good or evil, so does he conceive within his breast hope or fear, according to his actions. Mourn not as though thou wert the first that had suffered such ills; the same storm has borne down many a mighty man. The same did Cadmus suffer, who long ago, when banished from the Tyrian shores, took up his abode, an outcast, on the Aonian soil. The same did Tydeus, the same did Pagasæan Jason suffer; and others besides, whom to enumerate would be a task too tedious; To the brave man every land is a country, as, to the fishes the ocean, and as, to the bird the whole extent of space in the world of air. Nor does bleak winter freeze throughout the whole of the year; to thee too— believe me — the hours of spring will yet come." Evander, with mind emboldened by the words of his parent, cuts the waves with his bark, and reaches Hesperia.

And now, by the advice of the skilled Carmentis, he had directed his bark into the river, and was proceeding against the stream of the Etrurian current. She beholds the bank of the river, to which the fords of Terentus are adjacent, and the cottages scattered over the lonesome districts. And as she was, with her locks all dishevelled, she stood before the poop, and with stern look withheld the hand of him who was guiding the vessel's course. Then stretching forth her arms towards the right bank afar, she thrice strikes the pine wood deck with frantic foot. Scarcely, yes, scarcely, was she restrained by the hand of Evander from springing forward, in her haste to stand upon the shore. '" Hail, gods of the regions sought by us," she said, " and thou country that shalt hereafter give new gods to Heaven, and ye rivers and fountains, which this strange land enjoys; ye too, nymphs of the groves, and ye choirs of the Naiads. With favouring omens be ye seen by my son and by me, and may that bank be trodden with an auspicious step. Am I deceived? or shall these hills become a vast city, and shall the rest of the world seek laws from this land? To. these mountains the sway of the whole earth is promised one day; who could suppose the place to have so high a destiny? And soon shall the Dardanian ships touch at these shores; here too shall a woman be the cause of a fresh war. Pallas, my beloved grandson, why dost thou put on these fatal arms? Yet put them on; thou wilt be slain with no mean avenger of thy death. Troy! although conquered, thou shalt conquer, and overthrown, thou shalt rise again; that same ruin shall overwhelm the homes of thy foes. Burn Neptunian Pergamus, ye triumphant flames; Is not that heap of ashes more exalted than the whole world? Presently shall pious Æneas bring hither the sacred relics, and his father, a second sacred charge; receive, O Vesta," the gods of Ilium. The time will come, when the same person shall have the charge of thee and of the world as well, and thy sacred rites'-' shall be performed by a worshipper, himself a god. In the hands of the Augusti shall remain the guardianship of their native country; it is the decree of heaven that this house should hold the reins of empire. One thence sprung, the grandson and the son of a god, though he himself refuse it, shall bear with godlike mind the burden which his father bore. And as I shall, in times to come, be consecrated in everlasting shrines, so shall Augusta Julia be a new divinity. When, with such sayings as these she came down to our own times, her prophetic tongue stopped short in the very midst of her accents. Landing from his ship, the exile stood on the Latian herbage; happy the man to whom that country was a place of exile! And no long delay was there; new habitations were erected, and throughout the Ausonian hills there was no one greater than the Arcadian. Lo, the club-bearing hero hither drives the kine of Erythæa, having travelled over the length of the vast world. And now while the Tegæan house is his place of entertainment, his kine untended wander through the luxuriant fields. It was dawn; startled from his slumber, the Tirynthian guest perceives that two bulls are missing from his number. He seeks them, and he sees not a trace of the noiseless theft; the fierce Cacus had dragged them backwards into his cave; Cacus, the dread and disgrace of the Aventine forest, no slight curse to both neighbours and travellers. Hideous was the appearance of the creature; his strength was in proportion to his bulk, his body was huge: Mulciber was the sire of this monster, and for his habitation there was a mighty cavern made secret by long passages retreating within, a den that could hardly be found by the wild beasts themselves. Human heads and arms hang nailed over the lintels, and the ground is quite blanched, frightful with the bones of men. The son of Jove was departing, a part of his oxen having been thus carelessly tended by him, when the stolen animals uttered a lowing with a hoarse voice. "I accept the recall," he says; and tracing the sound, the avenger comes through the woods to the accursed cave. The other had obstructed the approach by the barrier of a mountain fragment; hardly could twice five yokes of oxen have moved that mass. The Hero strains with his shoulders, (the heavens, I should tell you, had once rested on them), and moving it dislodges the mighty weight. As soon as it was uptorn, the crash startled the very sky, and the earth sank down, struck by the weight of the mass. Cacus begins the attack hand to hand, and fiercely maintains the combat with stones and stakes; and when he fails in the use of these resources, with but little courage left, he resorts to the arts of his father, and vomits forth flames from his resounding throat. Often as he blows them forth, you would believe that Typhœus is breathing, and that the rapid flash is hurled from the fires of Ætna. Alcides grapples with him, and his trebly knotted club, swung back three or four times, was planted full upon the face of him opposing. He falls, and belches forth smoke mingled with blood; and dying, with his broad chest, he beats the ground. Of those bulls, the conqueror offers one to thee, O Jupiter, and invites Evander and the inhabitants of the country; he builds an altar to himself, which is styled 'the Greatest,' in the spot where a part of the city has its name derived from an ox. And now the mother of Evander is not silent the fact, that the time is near at hand when the earth shall have sufficiently enjoyed the presence of her own Hercules. But, as in her life she was most pleasing to the gods, so, now herself a goddess, the blessed prophetess possesses this. day as her own in the month of Janus.

On the Ides, the undefiled priest in the temple of Jupiter, offers on the flames the entrails of a wether; then every province was restored to our people, and thy grandsire was called by the title of Augustus. Pass in review the waxen images as they are distributed through the halls of the ennobled; titles so great as his never fell to the lot of any one man. Africa calls her conqueror after herself; another hero in his title records the subjection of the Isaurian power, another the subjection of the Cretans. The Numidians render one man titled, Messana makes another great in story — another has derived his distinction from the city of Numantia. Germany gave to Drusus both death and a title. Ah me! how short-lived was that heroic career! Were Cæsar to seek his names from the conquered, he would have to assume as many in number as the vast world contains nations. Some celebrated by one circumstance derive their titles therefrom, — -for instance, the title gained from a breast-chain won, or the assistance afforded by a raven. O thou entitled Great, thy title is the full measure of thy achievements; but he who overcame thee was too great for any title. And there is no giadation of epithet beyond the Fabii that house was entitled 'the greatest,' for their services. But yet all these are rendered illustrious by honours merely human; he, however, has a title in common with supreme Jove. Our forefathers style the sacred rites' august; the temples are called august when consecrated in due form by the hand of the Pontiffs. Augury too is derived from the source of this word, and whatsoever Jupiter blesses with increase by his aid. May he increase the sway of our chief, may he increase his years; and, Cæsar, long may the chaplet of oak-leaves " shade thy doors. The gods being propitious, may the inheritor of a title so illustrious take upon himself the burden of the world with the same auspices that his father did.

When the third Titan shall look back upon the by-gone Ides, there will be a repetition of the sacred rites of the Parrhasian goddess. For in former days, before the circumstances to which I allude, covered chariots used to carry the Ausonian matrons; (these, too, I believe to have been named after the parent of Evander.) In after-times this honour being withdrawn from them, each matron formed the determination by no issue to renew the image of her hated lord; and that she might yield no offspring, reckless, with secret blows'- she was in the habit of loosening from her womb the growing burden. They say that the senate reprimanded the matrons who had dared to perpetrate these inhuman deeds, but that nevertheless they restored the privilege that had been taken from them. And they now order two sets of festivals to be kept in honour of the Tegæan mother, both for the boys and the girls.-" It is not allowed to bring within her holy place any thing made of hide, that substances deprived of life, by dying a natural death, may not defile the unpolluted hearth. If you are one who have any taste for ancient ceremonies, stand by the priest who is praying; you will then catch names which were unknown to you before. Porrima and Postverta are being propitiated, either thy sisters, O Mænalian nymph, or companions of thy exile. The one is believed to have sung of that which was long past, the other to have prophecied what would happen hereafter in the revolution of time.

Fair Concord, the succeeding day placed in thee in a snow-white shrine, where elevated Moneta raises her steps on high: now with ease wilt thou look down upon the Latian crowd; now have the august hands of Cæsar replaced thee.

Furius, the conqueror of the Etrurian people, vowed the ancient temple, and long since discharged the obligations of his vow. The occasion was, that the commonalty having taken up arms, had seceded from the senators, and Rome herself was in dread of her own strength. The late occasion is a more happy one; Germany, venerated chief, extends her dishevelled locks, vanquished under thy auspices. Thence it is that thou hast offered the first fruits of a nation, and hast constructed a temple to the goddess, the peculiar object of thy veneration. This, thy ancestress has endowed both with property and with its altar, the only woman found worthy of the couch of our great Jove.

When this festival shall have passed by, then, O Phoebus, Capricorn being left, thou wilt run thy course through the constellation of the youth that carries the water.

When the seventh Orient sun from this shall have plunged himself into the waves, then shall no Lyre be glittering throughout the whole heavens. After the setting of this constellation, at the approach of night, the fire which twinkles in the centre of the lion's breast shall be plunged into the deep.

Three or four times had I turned over the calendar that marks out the seasons of observance, and yet no Sementive holiday was found by me; when the Muse (for she perceived my difficulty) says, This festival is announced by proclamation; why dost thou seek from the calendar to find a moveable feast? And yet, although the day of the festival is unfixed, the season is fixed; it is when the ground is impregnated with the scattered seed. Bedecked with garlands, stand at the well-filled stall, ye oxen; with the warm spring your task shall return. Let the farmer hang on its peg the plough discharged from service; the cold ground shudders at an incision. Do, farmer, give some rest to the earth, now that seed-time is past; give some rest to the men, too, who have tilled the ground. Let the hamlet keep holiday; purify the village, ye swains, and to the hamlet's altars give your yearly cakes. Let Ceres and Tellus, mothers of the fruits, be propitiated with their own corn, and the entrails of a pregnant sow. Ceres and the earth discharge an united duty. The one supplies the origin of the crops, the other the situation. Partners in toil are they, by whom antiquity was civilized, and the acorn from the oak-tree was replaced by a more wholesome food. Glut the greedy husbandmen with boundless crops, that they may receive rewards worthy of their tillage. Give ye uninterrupted growth to the tender seed, and let not the shooting blade be withered during the cold snows. While we are sowing, clear the skies with cloudless breezes; when the seed is covered in, besprinkle it with the rain of heaven. And do ye take heed that the birds, a nuisance to the tilled fields, do not in mischievous flocks lay waste the gifts of Ceres. You, too, ye ants, spare the grain when sown; after the harvest there will be a better opportunity for plunder. Meanwhile, let the standing corn spring up free from the leprous mildew, and let not the sickly crop grow wan from the distempered atmosphere; neither let it pine away from meagreness, nor let it, too luxuriant and all run to blade, perish by its own rankness. Let the fields also be clear of darnel that weakens the eyes, and let not the sterile wild oat rise in the cultivated soil. Let the land return, with heavy interest, the produce of the wheat and the barley, and the spelt destined twice to endure the fire. These wishes do I entertain for you, these wishes entertain for yourselves, ye husbandmen, and may either goddess render these prayers efficient. Wars long engaged mankind; the sword was more handy than the ploughshare, and the ploughing bull gave place to the charger. Then the hoes used to lie idle, the spades were turned into pikes, and from the pondrous harrow the helmet was wrought. Thanks to the gods and to thy house! wars long since bound in chains lie prostrate under our feet. Let the ox come beneath the yoke, and the seed beneath the ploughed soil. Peace nurtures Ceres; Ceres is the nursling of Peace.

But on the day which is the sixth before the approaching calends, their temple was dedicated to the gods, the sons of Leda. The brothers sprung from the race of the gods erected it in honour of the divine brothers, near the lake of Juturna. My song itself now brings me to the altar of Peace. This will be the second day from the end of the month. Come hither, O Peace, with thy well arranged tresses encircled with Actian boughs, and in thy gentleness take up thy abode through the whole world. While there are no foes, let there be no occasion for triumph; thou shalt be to our chieftains a boast greater than war. Let the soldier bear arms, only for the purpose of putting down the use of arms. By the wildly sounding trumpet let no blast be sounded but that of the pageant. Let all the earth, far and near, dread the descendants of Æneas; and if there shall be any land that dreads not Rome, then let it love her. Throw, ye priests, the incense on the fires lighted in honour of Peace, and let the white victim fall, with stricken forehead. Entreat too, the gods inclining to your hallowed prayers, that the family which gives us peace may equal her in eternal duration. But now the first portion of my task is completed, and together with its month my little book comes to a close.