Book IV

" Favour the poet," I said, "thou genial mother of the twin loves ;" towards the poet, she turned her countenance. 'What wilt thou of me?" she said.' Surely thou wast but just now in the habit of singing of mightier subjects; hast thou still in thy tender bosom the old wound?" By this time, Goddess, I replied, thou hast heard enough of my wound." She smiled, and immediately in that direction the sky was without a cloud.' Wounded or whole, have I ever been guilty of deserting thy standards? Thou wast ever the object of my purpose, the cause of my toil. Free from all blame, in my early years, I have sported in scenes that became my age; now a more extensive range is trodden by my steeds. I sing of the festivals with their reasons, as they are extracted from the ancient annals, and of the Constellations as they sink beneath the earth and rise again. I have now arrived at the fourth month, in which of all thou art the most extolled. Thou knowest, Venus, that both the poet and the month are devoted to thee." Influenced by my address, she lightly touched my temples with a sprig of Cytheræan myrtle, and said, Accomplish the work which thou hast undertaken." I was sensible of her power, and suddenly the peculiar reasons for the days of remark became evident; Let my bark speed onward while thus it may, and while the favouring breezes blow. Yet, if any part of my Calendar ought to affect thee, it is in April thou findest that by which thy attention ought to be detained. This month, through an illustrious line, descends to thee, and becomes peculiarly thine by the nobility, which is thy lot by adoption. This did our father, offspring of Ilia, perceive, when he planned out the lengthy year, and himself celebrated his ancestors. And as, to fierce Mars he gave the first place in the succession, because he had been the immediate cause of his being; so did he desire that Venus, found in the line of his extraction through many generations, should have the place of the second month. And while seeking the origin of his race, and the generations as they were traced upwards, he went even as far back as to the Gods themselves in the line of his kindred. Could he be ignorant, forsooth, that Dardanus was born of Electra, the daughter of Atlas? And that Electra shared the bed of Jove? His son was Ericthonius; from him Tros sprung: he was the father of Assaracus, Assaracus of Capys. This last begot Anchises, with whom, Venus did not disdain to hold the name of parent in common. Hence was born Æneas; his piety well proved, bore the sacred relics and his father sitting on his shoulders, a second pious charge, through the flames of Troy. At length we have arrived at the blessed name of Iulus, from which point the Julian house is connected with its Trojan ancestors. His son was Postumus, who, because he was born in the deep sylvan shades, was called Silvias, among the Latian nation. And he, 'Latinus, is thy sire; Alba succeeds Latinus, Epytus succeeds to thy dignity, O Alba. He gave to Capys the revived name of Troy; he, too, became thy grandsire, O Calpetus. And while, in succession to him, Tiberinus was occupying the throne of his father, he is said to have been drowned in the eddy of the Etrurian stream. And yet he had lived to see Agrippa, his son, and Remulus, his grandson, They say that against Remus the thunderbolts were hurled. After these came Aventinus, from whom the place and the hill, too, derived its name. After him the sovereignty passed to Procas; him Numitor followed, the brother of the cruel Amulius; Ilia and Lausus were the children of Numitor. Lausus falls by his uncle's sword; Ilia is beloved by Mars, and produces thee, Quirinus, with Remus, thy twin-brother. He ever boasted that his lineage was from Mars and Venus, and well did he entitle himself to gain credit for the assertion. And, that generations to come might not be ignorant of this, to the Gods of his race he consecrated the months in succession. But I conjecture that the month of Venus received its name Aprilis' from the Greek language; the Goddess obtained her name, Aphrodite' from the foam of the sea. But you must not wonder that any thing is called by a name from the Grecian tongue; for the Italian land was the Greater Græcia. Evander arrived there with a fleet, manned by his fellow countrymen; Alcides, too, came thither; each of them of Grecian extraction. The Club-bearer, as a stranger fed his herd on the pasturage of Aventine, and Albula afforded drink to a God so mighty. The chief, too, from Neritos' came thither; the Lestrygonians attest it, and that shore which still bears the name of Circe,-" And now were the walls of Telegonus erected, and the city of the watery Tibur, which Grecian hands had built. Halesus," too, had arrived, driven away by the death of the son of Atreus, from whom the Faliscan land believes that it received its name. Add Antenor as well, the adviser of peace at Troy, and, Apulian Daunus, thy son-in-law, the grandson of Æneas. At a later period, and after Antenor, did Æneas bring his Gods from the flames of Troy to our regions. Solymus from Phrygian Ida was one of his companions, from whom the city of Sulmo derives its name. Cold Sulmo, Germanicus, my native place! Ah! Wretched me! How distant is it from the Scythian soil! Shall I then, so far ?" — but suppress thy complaints, my Muse; sacred subjects must not be sung to a desponding lyre. To what point will not envy proceed? There are some, O Venus, who would rob thee of the honour of a month, and who begrudge it thee. For, because the spring at that time is opening every thing, and the contracted ruggedness of the frost is yielding, and the prolific earth is teeming, they say that April is so called from the aperient season; that month, which Venus, having laid her hand upon it, claims as her own. She indeed most worthily holds sway over the whole circle of the year; she owns a sovereignty inferior to that of no Deity. She rules the heaven, the earth, and the waves that gave her birth; and by the power of her embraces she holds sway over very kind. She it was who created all the Gods; 'twould be a tedious task to enumerate them; she furnished the primary causes for the plants and the trees. She it was that brought together the untaught minds of men, and instructed them to unite, each one with his mate. What is it but alluring delights that creates the whole race of the birds of the air? If gentle love is away, then do the flocks refuse to pair. With another male the furious ram fights with his horn, but the forehead of his beloved ewe he is careful not to hurt. The bull, at whom all the pastures and all the wood tremble, follows the heifer, divested of his fierceness. The same influence preserves whatever it is that has life beneath the wide ocean, and it fills the waters with fishes innumerable. It was she that first-divested man of his savage habits of life; from her were derived the arts of dress, and the careful attention to the person. The lover is said at first to have chaunted his serenade at the closed doors of his mistress throughout the livelong night that was denied to him; then, it was an effort of oratory to prevail upon the cruel maid, and each man was eloquent, he pleading, for himself his own cause. By means of her were a thousand arts first touched upon, and through the desire of pleasing, many things were discovered, which before lay concealed. Can any one be found to dare to deprive this Goddess of the privilege of giving her name to the second month? Far from me be such madness. What? Is it only because she is every where powerful, and honoured by many a temple, that the Goddess has a peculiar claim to honour in our city? man of Rome, it was in defence of thy ancestral Troy that Venus was wielding arms, when, mangled by the spear on her tender wrist, she lamented aloud. By the decision, too, of a Trojan she overcame two of the daughters of heaven." Ah! would that the defeated Goddesses had failed to remember this! And doubtless, she was called the daughter-in-law of Assaracus, that, in fact, in future times the great Cæsar might have ancestors sprung from the line of Iulus, her descendant. And no season was there more becoming for Venus than the spring; in spring the earth is beauteous; in spring the soil is unbound: then does the herbage raise its head, having burst the ground; then from the swelling bark does the shoot push forth the bud; and the lovely Venus is deserving of the lovely season, and, as is her wont, she is in close conjunction with her own dear Mars. In spring she bids the curved ships to go on their way along the deep that gave her birth, and no longer to dread the blustering of the winter.

Properly, ye Latian matrons and ye maidens, do ye worship the goddess, and ye who are without the fillets"' and the garment with lengthened train. Untie the golden neck I laces from her neck of marble; remove her jewels: the Goddess must be laved all over. Restore her golden necklaces; to her neck when dried: then must other flowers, then must a fresh rose be given to her. You women, too, she bids to bathe wearing chaplets of the green myrtle; and why she does so, learn now, for a cause exists. All naked, she was drying her dripping tresses on the sea-shore; the Satyrs, a wanton set, beheld the goddess. She perceived it, and concealed her person by an intervening myrtle tree; she was saved by so doing, and she desires you to commemorate the circumstance.

Learn now, why ye offer the incense to Fortuna Virilis in that place which is all moist with the application of warm water. That place beholds you all with your garments laid aside, and every imperfection of your naked person is exposed. To conceal these, and to hide them from your husbands, does Fortuna Virilis engage; and this she does, if requested so to do, with the offering of a little frankincense And be not reluctant to take the poppy bruised with the snow-white milk, and the honey trickling from the squeezed combs. When first Venus was led home by her eager husband, she drank of this; from that time she was a wife. With suppliant words appease her; under her protection abide both beauty, good morals, and fair fame. Rome had, in lapse of time, degenerated from the virtue of its ancestors; then, men of the olden time, did ye consult the Cunican Sibyl? She commanded a temple to be erected to Venus: this being duly performed on that occasion, Venus obtained the name of " Verticordia from the change of the heart. Ever do thou, most beauteous Goddess, look upon the descendants of Æneas with pleased aspect, and do thou protect so many of thy daughters-in-law.

Whilst I am speaking, the Scorpion, formidable for the sting of his elevated tail, plunges headlong into the green waves.

When the night shall have passed away, and the sky shall first begin to blush, and the birds, touched by the dewdrops, shall complain; and the traveller shall now throw aside his half-consumed torch after watching out the night, and the swain shall proceed to his wonted toil; then do the Pleiades begin to relieve the shoulders of their father Atlas: the Pleiades, which are wont to be called seven, but which really are but six in number. Either it is because but six of them came into the embraces of the Gods; for they say that Sterope shared the bed of Mars; Halcyone, that of Neptune; and you, beautiful Celseno, Maia, Electra, and Taygete, that of Jupiter. Merope, the seventh, was married to a mortal, to thee, O Sisyphus. She repents of this, and in solitude lies concealed, through shame of what she did. Or it is, because Electra could not endure to look on the ruins of Troy," and placed her hand before her eyes.

Three times let the heavens roll round on their revolving axle; three times let Titan yoke and unyoke his steeds. Forthwith the Berecynthian flute shall blow, together with the crooked horn, and the festival of the Idæan mother shall take place. Her eunuch priests shall walk in procession, and shall beat the hollow tambourines, and the cymbals, struck by the cymbals, shall send forth their tinklings. She herself shall be borne, seated on the effeminate shoulders of her companions, " carried with loud howlings through the middle of the streets. The theatre is resounding,"' and the games are now summoning us; attend the spectacle, Quirites, and let the litigious courts be rid of their strife. I wish to ask many a question: but the noise of the clashing brass quite frightens me, and the curved lotos pipe with its terrific sound. Send, Cybelean Goddess, thy grand-daughters, skilled in learning, of whom I may inquire what I wish to know. She hears my prayer, and desires them to be present at my request. Disclose to me, mindful of her command, ye daughters of Helicon, why the great Goddess takes pleasure in a perpetual noise?" Thus I spoke. Thus Erato answered me (the month of Cytherea fell to her lot, because she bears the name of tender Love), "This oracular answer was returned to Saturn, 'Best of kings, by thy son shalt thou be hurled from thy sovereignty.' " He, fearing his own offspring, devours each of them as each is born, and keeps them, thus swallowed, in his entrails. Often did Rhea complain, so often pregnant, and never yet a mother; and she grieved at her own fruitfulness. Jupiter was born; antiquity obtains credit as a witness of importance; hesitate before questioning the received belief. A stone concealed in a garment lay swallowed in the throat of the God; thus by the Destinies was the father doomed to be deceived. And now the lofty heights of Ida are resounding with the tinklings, that the babe may cry in safety with his infant voice. Some, with clubs are beating the shields, some, are rattling the empty helmets; in this work are engaged the Curetes and the Corybantes. The truth was concealed from the father; and, as an imitation of what was done in the olden time, the attendants of the Goddess still beat the brass and the hoarse sounding hides. Cymbals they strike in place of the helmets, tambourines for the shields; the pipe, just as it did formerly, yielded its Phrygian notes." She had ended; I began, " Why, to her, does the fierce race of the lions afford for the bent yoke their manes, not used to that duty?" I had ended; she then began, Their savage nature is supposed to have been tamed by her: this by her chariot has she attested." " But why is her head adorned with a crown of turrets? Was it she that gave their towers to the earliest cities ?" She nodded assent. Whence arose," said I, " the madness in her priests of mutilating their own members ?" Soon as I was silent, the maid of Pieria began to speak. Attis, a Phrygian boy, remarkable for his beauty, in the woods attached the turret-crowned Goddess to him by the ties of a pure love. Him she desired to be devoted to herself, to be the keeper of her temples; and she said, 'See that thou always keep thyself in chastity.' He pledged his faith to her commands, and said, If I prove false, may that passion by which I commit the sin be my last.' He sins, and in his passion for the Nymph Sagaritis he ceases to be that which he was before; on this account the wrath of the Goddess exacts vengeance. She destroys the Nymph by means of wounds inflicted upon a tree; she dies; that tree formed the destiny of the Naiad. He is furious; and believing that the ceiling of his chamber is falling, he takes to flight, and in his course reaches the heights of Dindymus. And at one moment he screams out, Away with those torches! at another, 'Away with the scourges!' Ofttimes he declares that the Goddesses of Palseste are nigh at hand. He mangled his body, too, with a sharp stone, and his long hair was dragged in the foul dust. His cry was, Such are my deserts: with my blood I am paying the deserved penalty; perish those which in me have been the sinning parts! perish they! again said he. He emasculated himself, and in a moment no traces of manhood were left to him. His madness became a precedent, and the effeminate priests still mutilate themselves as they toss their hair." In such words, by the eloquent lips of the Aonian Muse, was the cause revealed to me of the madness about which I had made this inquiry. Guide of my task, tell me this also, I pray; whence was she brought, when she first arrived here; or was she always in our City?" " The Mother," said she, "was ever attached to Dindymus, and Cybele, and Ida, pleasant with its fountains, and the realms of Ilium. When Æneas was carrying Troy to the fields of Italy, the Goddess was on the point of following the ships with their sacred freights. But she had perceived, that not as yet was her Divinity invited to Latium by the Destinies, and she had stopped in her native abodes. Afterwards, when Rome, powerful in her resources, beheld five centuries pass over, and raised her head aloft from the conquest of the world, the priest examined the words of destiny in the Euboean prophecies. They say that on examination there were found these words: The Mother is far away; I command thee, man of Rome, that thou fetch hither the Mother; when she comes she must be received by the hand of chastity. The senate is perplexed by the obscure terms of the mysterious oracle as to who the parent is that is away, or in what spot she must be sought. Paean is consulted, and he answers, " Send for the Mother of the Gods; she is to be found on the heights of Ida." Men of noble rank are sent on the mission. Attalus was then swaying the sceptre of Phrygia; he refuses their request to the men of Ausonia. Of miracles will I sing; the earth shook with a prolonged murmuring, and thus did the Goddess speak from her shrines: " I myself desired to be sent for. Let there be no delay; send me away, thus willing to depart. Rome is a place worthy to be the retreat of every Divinity." He, struck with terror at the sound, said, " Depart; thou wilt still be ours; Rome traces her ancestry to Phrygian forefathers." Forthwith, axes without number are felling the forests of pine, the same which Æneas, the pious Phrygian, had made use of in his flight. A thousand hands unite in the toil; and the hollow bark, ornamented with enamelled colours, bears the Mother of the inhabitants of heaven. She is carried in perfect safety over the waters of her son Neptune, and she reaches the long straits of the sister of Phryxus; she passes the destructive Rhoetean Sea, the shore of Sigaeum, Tenedos, and the ancient realms of Eetion. The Cyclades receive her, Lesbos being left behind, and the spot where the " tide breaks on the shallows of Carystum. She passes, too, over the Icarian Sea, where Icarus lost his wings that fell off, and he thereby gave a name to that extensive tract of water. Then she leaves Crete on her left, on her right, the waters of Pelops; and she comes to Cythera, sacred to Venus. Hence she enters the Trinacrian Sea, in which Brontes, Steropes, and Acmonides, are wont to dip the steel when at a white heat: she sails over the sea of Africa, and beholds, over the oars, on the left side, the realms of Sardinia; and now she makes Ausonia. She had arrived at Ostia, where the river Tiber empties itself by its two mouths into the deep, and flows in a space of greater extent. All those of the Equestrian order, and the dignified Senate, intermingled with those of Plebeian rank, come to meet her at the mouths of the Etrurian river. Then go forth together both mothers and daughters, and brides newly become daughters-in-law, and those who tend the sacred altars in the virgin state. The men weary their labouring arms with the rope tightly stretched; scarcely does the stranger bark make way against the stream. Long time had the land been parched; the drought had burnt up the grass. The keel, overpowered by the burden of the freight, rests on the shoal covered with mud. Whoever assists at the work is labouring even beyond his strength, and by the sound of his voice gives aid in keeping time to the power of his arms The vessel settles there just like an island, immoveable in the midst of the ocean. Claudia Quinta traced her descent from the noble Clausus; and her beauty was not inferior to her noble birth. Chaste, in truth, was she; but she had not the credit of being so; unjust slander had done her an injury, and she was charged on a false accusation. Her style of dress, and her having appeared in public with her hair fancifully adorned, together with the readiness of her replies to the austerity of old age, had done her this injury. Her mind, conscious of her integrity, laughed to scorn the falsehoods of report; but we are, all of us, a set too ready to believe ill.. After she had stepped forward from the train of the chaste, matrons, she took up with her hands some pure water of the stream, and thrice did she sprinkle her head, and thrice did she raise her hands to the heavens. Those who behold her, think that she is deprived of her senses. And now, with bending knee, she fixes her looks on the image of the Goddess, and with her hair all dishevelled she utters these words, Genial Goddess, thou fruitful parent of the Gods, receive these the prayers of thy supplicant on this express stipulation. My chastity is impugned. If thou condemnest me, I will confess that I have deserved it. With my death I will pay the penalty, if convicted, a Goddess being my judge. But if guilt is far from me, thou wilt give by the event a pledge of my innocence, and, chaste thyself, thou wilt follow my chaste hands." She said, and with a slight effort she drew the rope. That which I tell of is wondrous; but it is still testified by the representations of our stage. " The Goddess is moved; she follows her guide, and, by following, bestows on her her testimony of approbation. A shout, the sign of exultation, rises to the sky. They come to the bending of the river; the ancients call that place Ostia," on the Tiber, from which point it takes its course to the left. Night had come; they tie the cable to the trunk of an oak, and after a repast they consign their bodies to gentle slumber. The morning had now come; they loosen the cable from the trunk of the oak, but first they offer frankincense on an altar which they had erected; before the poop of the vessel, crowned with flowers, they sacrifice a heifer, without spot, that had neither borne the yoke nor been coupled with the bull. There is a spot where the rapid Almo flows into the Tiber, and the lesser stream loses its name in that of the greater. There does the hoary priest, in his purple vestments, lave the lady Goddess and her sacred utensils in the waters of the Almo. His attendants raise on high the howl, the maddening pipe is blown, and their effeminate hands strike the tightened hides of the oxen. Claudia walks in front, the most distinguished by the joyousness of her countenance, with difficulty now at last believed to be chaste on the testimony of a Goddess. She herself, seated in a car, is carried through the Capenian gate; the yoked oxen are strewed with flowers newly plucked. Nasica receives her; though at that time the builder of her temple, he has not always continued so. Augustus has now that character; formerly Metellus was its builder." Here Erato stopped. She paused, to see if I should make further inquiries. Tell me," said I, " why the Goddess collects a contribution in a few worthless coins ?" " Because," said she, the people contributed the brass, of which Metellus formed the shrine; thence is still extant the custom of giving the trifling coin." I inquired why people at that time in particular frequent the banquets, giving them, each in his turn," and spontaneously attend the feasts which are duly proclaimed? " Because," said she, " as with good omen did Berecynthia change her abode, so by change of place do they seek for a similar omen." I had intended to ask why the Megalesian were the first games' in our city, "when the Goddess, for she perceived it, said, " It was she that gave birth to the Gods. The others gave way to their parent; and their Mother has the first place in the honour that has been given to them." " Why, then," said I, " do we call those Galli, who have mutilated themselves; inasmuch as the Gallic region is at so great a distance from Phrygia." She said, " Between the green Cybele and the lofty Celsense there flows a stream with maddening waters, Gallus by name. The person who drinks of it goes mad; depart ye afar thence, you who have a wish for a sound mind; the person who drinks of it goes mad." Does it not seem a shame," said I, "to place the salad made of herbs on the table of the lady Goddess? Or does there exist some peculiar cause for it ?" The ancients," she replied, " are said to have used but simple milk, and such herbs as the earth spontaneously produced. The white cheese is mixed up with the bruised herbs, that the ancient Goddess in them may recognize the ancient diet."

When the next Pallantias shall have shone, the stars having retreated from the sky, and the moon shall have unyoked her snow-white steeds, that person who shall then say, " Once, on this day, was Public Fortune installed on the hill of Quirinus," will be speaking the truth.

The third day, I remember, was appointed for the games. But as I was a spectator, an old man who sat near me, said, This was the day on which Cæsar, in the Libyan regions, crushed the traitorous arms of the courageous Juba. Cæsar was my general; under him it is my boast to have served as a Tribune; he was the commander in my time of active service. By war have I obtained the distinction of this seat, by peace hast thou, being invested with office in the number of the twice five men." About to continue the conversation, we were separated by a sudden shower. The vibrating Balance was urging downwards the waters of the sky. But before the last day puts an end to the shows, the sword-girt Orion shall be plunged into the deep.

When the next dawn shall have looked upon victorious Rome, and the stars, put to flight, shall have given place to the Sun, the Circus will be thronged with the procession and the multitude of the Gods; and the first palm shall be contended for by steeds that rival the winds in speed. These are the games of Ceres; there is no need of any explanation of their origin; of themselves, both the office and the merits of the Goddess are plain to be perceived. To the first mortals, the green grass, which the earth yielded without the urgent demand of any one, was in the place of the harvest. At one time did they pluck the grass from the green sod; at another time the treetop, with its tender foliage, was their repast. Afterwards, the acorn was produced; well was it with them, now that the acorn was discovered; and the hard oak furnished a sumptuous supply. Ceres was the first to change the acorn for a more nutritious food, by inviting mankind to a better kind of diet. She it was who compelled the bulls to bend their necks to the yoke; then for the first time did the upturned earth see the light of the sun. Brass became valuable; the mass of iron still lay hid; alas! would that it had ever remained concealed. Ceres takes delight in peace; and do you, ye husbandmen, pray that peace may be everlasting, and that our Prince may be immortal. Ye may offer to the Goddess the spelt and the tribute of the crackling grain of salt, and the cloves of frankincense, upon her ancient hearths; and if ye shall be without frankincense, then set fire to the unctuous torches. Little offerings are pleasing to the good Ceres, if they are only pure. Ye aproned attendants of the priests, remove the knives afar from the ox — the ox may plough — sacrifice rather the idle swine. A neck that is fitted by nature for the yoke ought not to be smitten by the axe; let him live rather, and many a time may he labour on the hard soil. This opportunity now calls upon me to tell of the rape of the Virgin. The greater part of the story you will recal to your memory; on a few points you will require to be informed. The Trinacrian land juts out into the vast ocean with three rocks, deriving its name from the position of the spot. It is a habitation delightful to Ceres; there possesses she many a city, among which is the fruitful Henna, with its well-tilled soil. Cold Arethusa had invited the matrons of the inhabitants of heaven; the yellow-haired Goddess, too, had come to the sacred banquet. Her daughter, attended as she was by the damsels, her constant companions, was wandering with bare foot along her own meadows. There was a spot at the bottom of a shady vale, watered by the plenteous spray of the stream that falls from a height. There were as many tints there as nature possesses, and the ground was beauteous, decked with flowers of diversified hue. Soon as she beheld this she said, Come, my companions, and together with me fill your bosoms with the flowers." The worthless prize delights their girlish minds; and, in their earnestness, the toil is not felt. One is filling baskets woven of the pliant osier, another one is loading her lap, another the bosom of her dress loosened for the purpose. One is gathering marygolds, to another the beds of violets are an object of search; another, with her nail, is cropping the blossom of the poppy. Some thou engagest, O hyacinth, some thou detainest, O amaranth; some choose the thyme, some the rosemary, and some the melilote; many a rose is gathered, and many a nameless flower is there. She herself is plucking the delicate crocuses and the white lilies. In her eagerness to gather them, the distance is gradually increased, and by chance none of her companions follow their mistress. Her uncle espies her, and having seen her, in haste he bears her away, and on his azure-coloured steed carries her to his own realms. She indeed cries aloud, Alas! my dearest mother! I am being carried away! " and with her own hand she rends her garments in despair. Meantime, a way is opened to Pluto; for his steeds, unused to it, can scarcely endure the light of day. But the company of her companions, their baskets being heaped with flowers, cry aloud, " Come, Persephone, to thy presents." When thus called on, she returns not an answer; they fill the mountains with their wailings, and with sorrowing hand beat their naked bosoms. Ceres was amazed at the lamentation; she had just come to Henna, and straightway she exclaimed, "Woe is me! my daughter, where art thou?" In distraction she is hurried along, just as we are wont to hear that the Thracian Bacchanals, in their raving, go with their hair all dishevelled. As lows the mother when her calf has been torn from her udder, and she seeks for her offspring throughout the wood, even so does the Goddess; she restrains not her wailing, and is swiftly borne on her course; and she begins it from thy plains, O Henna. She finds the marks of the virgin's foot leading thence, and sees where the ground has been imprinted with the well-known pressure. Perhaps that would have been the last day of her wanderings, had not the swine confused the traces which she had discovered. And now in her course she passes the people of Leontium and the streams of Amenanus, and thy banks, grassy Acis. She passes, too, Cyane, and the spring of the gently flowing Anapus, and thee, O Gela, not to be approached by reason of thy eddies. She had now left behind Ortygia, and Megara, and Pantagias, and the spot where the ocean receives the waters of Symsethus, and the caves of the Cyclops, burned up by the forges which had been erected there, and the place which has the name of the curved sickle, and Himera, and Didyme, and Agrigentum, and Tauromenus, and Mela, the joyful pasture of the sacred oxen. Hence she goes to Camerina, and Thapsos, and the glens of the Helorus, and the spot where Eryx, ever exposed, lies open to the breeze of the Zephyr. And now had she visited the mountain of Pelorus, and Lilybæum, and Pachynus, the three headlands of her island. Wherever she comes, she fills every place with her pitiable complaints, just as when the bird is bewailing her lost Itys. In turns, she exclaims at one time, Persephone !" at another, " My daughter! " and, in alternate cries, she calls on her by either appellation. But neither did Persephone hear Ceres, nor the daughter her mother; and, in their turn, each appellation fell dead on her ear. And if Ceres saw a shepherd or any one tilling the fields, this was her one speech, 'Has any girl passed this way?" And now the world has but one hue, and all things are enwrapped in darkness; even the watchful dogs have now ceased their barking. The lofty Ætna lies on the face of the gigantic Typhoeus, with whose blazes, emitted by his pantings, the ground is on fire. Then she lights two pines for a torch: from this circumstance, even to this day, the torch is used in the sacred rites of Ceres. There is a cave, rough with the erected piles of the excavated pumice-stone, a place to be approached neither by man nor by wild beast. As soon as she arrives thither, she joins the harnessed dragons to her car, and, untouched by the waters, she traverses the waves of the ocean. She escapes the Syrtes, and thee, O Zanclæan Charybdis, and you, dogs of the daughter of Nisus, monsters boding shipwreck, and the Adriatic, extending far and wide, and Corinth, situate on two seas; and thus she arrives at thy harbours, land of Attica. Here, for the first time, immersed in sorrow, she took rest on a cold rock, — that rock even to the present day, the people of Cecrops call the Rock of Sorrow. Unshaken in her purpose, she remained unsheltered from the weather for many a day, exposing herself to the rays of the moon and the drenching shower. Each place has its own destiny; where now is Eleusis of Ceres, is said to have been the farm of the old man Celeus. He was carrying home acorns and blackberries shaken down from the bramble thickets, and dry logs for the hearth, to be lighted there. His little daughter was driving homeward two goats, from the crag, and his infant son was lying sick in the cradle. Mother," says the damsel, (the Goddess was moved at the name of mother,) " what art thou doing, thus unattended, in these lonely hills?" The old man, too, stops, though heavy is his burden, and begs of her to come under the roof of his cottage, humble though it be. She declines; she had assumed the form of an old woman, and had confined her locks with a turban. When he has renewed his invitation, she then replies, " Unharmed mayst thou be, and a parent mayst thou ever remain. My daughter has been taken away from me. Alas! how much happier is thy lot than mine !" he spoke, and a crystal drop, like a tear (for the Gods do not shed tears,) fell upon her bosom made warm thereby. Kind in disposition, the damsel and her aged father vied in weeping with her, and these were the words of the good old man, "I pray that thy lost daughter whom thou art seeking may return safe to thee; but arise, and do not despise the shelter of my humble cottage." To him the Goddess answered, " Lead on, thou knowest the art of persuading me ;" and so saying, she arises from the rock and follows after the old man. Her guide tells his companion how that his son is ill and enjoys no repose, but is kept awake by his malady. As she is about to enter the humble abode, she gathers the soporiferous poppy from the soil of the field. While she is gathering it, she is said to have tasted it with forgetful palate, and thoughtlessly to have broken her lengthened fast. Inasmuch as she put an end to her fasting in the beginning of the night, those who are initiated' choose the time of the stars appearing as the hour for breaking their fast. When she enters the threshold she sees all things pervaded by mourning: there was now no hope of recovery in the child. Having saluted the mother, (her name was Metanira,) she deigns to touch the mouth of the boy with her own. His paleness of colour departs, and sudden vigour waxes strong in his body — such a degree of strength was it that passed from the celestial lips. The whole house is joyful, that is to say, the father, the mother, and the daughter; these three formed the whole household. Presently they serve up the repast, curds dissolved in milk, and apples, and the golden honey in its fresh combs. The genial Ceres fasts, and gives to thee, O boy poppies, the promoters of sleep, to be drunk infused in warm milk. Twas midnight, and there was now the stillness of tranquil slumber; she raised Triptolemus in her lap, and thrice with her hand did she stroke him, three verses did she utter, verses not to be repeated by mortal voice; and on the hearth she covered the body of the boy with the live embers, that the fire might purge away that burden, mortality, the common lot of man. The mother, unwisely affectionate, is roused from her slumbers, and distracted, she cries out, What art thou doing?" and snatches his limbs from the fire. To whom the Goddess said, " "While in intention thou art not, yet in fact thou hast proved a cruel parent; by the fears of a mother are my gifts rendered worthless. Mortal, indeed, shall he now remain, but yet he shall be the first to plough, and to sow, and to bear away the rewards of his labour from the ground that he has tilled." Ceres thus speaks, and as she goes forth, she carries a cloud that envelopes her, and now she betakes herself to her dragon steeds, and is borne on her winged chariot. She leaves behind her the unsheltered Sunium, and Piraeus secure with its winding harbour, and the coast which is situate on its right side. Thence she enters on the Ægean sea, in which she beholds all the Cyclades, and she passes over the destructive Ionian and the Icarian sea; through the cities of Asia she seeks the long Hellespont, and soaring on high, she wends her varied way through different spots. For now she is looking down upon the Arabs that collect the frankincense, and now, upon the Indians; afterwards, the Libyan' lands, then Meroe, and then the land of Drought is beneath her. And now she reaches the Hesperian streams, the Rhine, the Rhone, and the Po, and thee, O Tiber, destined to be the parent of a mighty stream. Whither am I borne? 'twere an unlimited task to tell the lands that she wandered over — no spot in the world was left unvisited by Ceres. She wanders, too, along the sky, and she addresses those Constellations nearest to the icy Pole, that are exempt from immersion in the watery ocean. " Stars of Parrhasia, for ye are able to know all things, since never do ye set beneath the billows of the sea, discover my daughter Persephone to her wretched mother." She had thus said; and thus to her did Helice reply: " The night is free from blame; question the Sun about the stealing of the damsel, who far and wide beholds what is done in the light of the day." The Sun, being visited, says, "Labour not in vain; she whom thou art seeking, now the bride of the brother of Jove, is the mistress of the third empire." Long having complained to herself, she thus addressed the Thunderer, and deep were the traces of grief on her countenance. " If thou bearest in mind by whom Persephone was born to me, she ought to have an equal share of thy regard. Having wandered over the whole world, the lawlessness of the deed alone is discovered by me; the ravisher still holds the reward of his crime. But neither is Persephone deserving of a ravisher for her husband, nor should a son-in-law have been provided for thee and me after such a fashion as this. What greater misfortune could I have endured, as a captive, had Gyges been victorious, than I have now borne, while thou art holding the sceptre of heaven. But let him have carried her away with impunity, and let me bear these things unavenged; only let him restore her, and let him make amends for his former deeds by his recent ones." Jupiter mollifies her, and excuses the act on the plea of passion, and says, He is not a son-in-law for us to be ashamed of. I myself am not of more noble birth; my realm is situate in the heavens; one of my brothers sways the waters; another the vacant realms of Chaos. But if perchance thy resolution is unchangeable, and it is thy determination to dissolve the bonds of wedlock when once united, this that thou desirest we will assay, if it is the fact that she has continued fasting; if not, the wife of the monarch of the infernal regions she shall be. The God, bearer of the Caduceus, departs to Tartarus, having assumed his wings, and, returning sooner than is hoped for, reports the ascertained result of his visit. " The damsel that has been carried off, says he, " has broken her fast with three of the grains which the pomegranate conceals beneath its thin rind. The wretched mother grieved, in no less degree than if her daughter had that moment been carried away, and scarcely, by the lapse of time, did she recover. And thus did she say: " The heavens are not to be inhabited by me: command that I, as well, may receive admittance into the valley of Tænarus."' And she would have done so, had not Jupiter made the stipulation that Persephone should be for twice three months in each year in heaven. Then, at length, did Ceres recover her former looks and her spirits, and placed upon her locks the garlands of wheat. Plenteously, too, did the harvest spring up in the fields, whose produce had been interrupted, and hardly did the threshing floor suffice to hold the stores piled up there. Things which are white are befitting Ceres: on the feast of Ceres put on white garments; at this season the wearing of woollen robes of dark colour is not allowed.

Jupiter, surnamed Victor, takes to himself the Ides of April; on this day was a temple dedicated to him. On this day, too, if I mistake not, did Liberty, most worthy of our race, begin to possess her own mansions.

On the following day, do thou, sailor, repair to safe harbours; a gale, mingled with hail, will come from the west. In good truth, be this as it may, it is the fact, that on this day, in such a storm, did Cæsar and his troops conquer the arms of the enemy at Mutina. When now the third day of the Ides of the month of Venus shall have dawned, perform the sacrifice with a cow that is pregnant. A cow, that is bearing and with young, is called "forda," from fero," [to bear]; from this word, too, it is believed that the fcetus derives its name. Now are the cattle pregnant; the earth is teeming with the seed; to the pregnant earth a pregnant victim is offered. Some are slain in the Capitol, the heights of Jove. The court-houses receive thrice ten heifers, and become wet, besprinkled with the streams of blood. But when the attendants of the priests have snatched the calves from the womb, and have consigned the entrails, when cut out, to the smoking altars, she who is by birth the oldest of the Vestal Virgins burns the calves with fire, that, on the festival of Pales, those ashes may purify the people. When Numa was king, the crops not repaying the labour expended on them the wishes of the disappointed husbandman remained ungratified. For, at one time, the year was suffering from drought through the cold northern blasts, at another time the soil became too, luxuriant from constant showers. Often did the corn disappoint the owner, while in the rising blade, and the barren wild oat stood on the soil choked up with it. The cattle, too, before their time, used to yield immature births, and oft did the lamb, at its yeaning, prove the death of the ewe. There stood an ancient grove, which had for many a year remained inviolate by the axe, left as sacred to the Mænalian deity. He used to give responses in the stilly night to the soul when at rest; here does the King Numa offer two sheep in sacrifice. The first is offered to Faunus, the next to gentle Sleep; the fleece of each is spread upon the hard ground. Twice is his unshorn head sprinkled with water of the fountain; twice does he wreathe his temples with the beechen bough. The joys of love are forbidden; it is not allowed to place animal food on the table, and no ring is left upon the finger. Clad in a coarse garment, he places the fresh fleeces upon his person, having worshipped the Deity in an address in the form prescribed. In the meantime the night comes, her brow crowned with the poppy, and, with her, escorts the shadowy dreams. Faunus comes, and with his hard foot, pressing the fleeces of the sheep, he utters such words as, these from the right side of the couch: "O king, thou must appease the earth by the sacrifice of two cows; let the death of one yield two lives to the sacrifice. His rest is broken by terror; Numa ponders over his vision, and reflects within himself on these dark sayings and the hidden injunctions. His wife, to the grove most dear, relieves him in his perplexity, and says, " Thou art asked for the entrails of a pregnant cow." The entrails of a pregnant cow are offered, a year more happy ensues, and the earth and the cattle bring forth their increase. This day, too, did Venus once command to press on its course with greater haste, and downwards she urged the steeds of the heavens; that, with the utmost speed, on the following day, success in war might confer the title of empire on the young Augustus.

But now, when the fourth light-bearing day looks back on the by-gone Ides, on this night do the Hyades visit Doris.

When the third moon shall have dawned, after the departure of the Hyades, the Circus shall receive the steeds started from the goal. I must teach the reason why the she-foxes let go, have their tails burning with fire-brands fastened to them. Cold was the land at Carseoli, and not fit for the production of the olive, but a soil naturally fertile in corn. By this way, was I journeying to the land of the Peligni, the country of my birth, small, but ever watered by the constant rains. I entered the well-known abode of an old friend of mine; Phoebus had already taken the yoke from off his exhausted steeds. He was wont to tell me many other things, and this story as well, by which my present work might be furnished with information, 'In this plain," said he, pointing to the plain, " a frugal peasant woman, with her hardy husband, used to own a little bit of land. He used to work it himself, whether there was occasion for the use of the plough, or the curved sickle, or the spade. She sometimes used to sweep out the cottage supported on the buttress," and sometimes used to set the eggs to be hatched by the plumage of the parent bird; or now she is collecting the green mallows, or the white mushroom, or makes warm their humble hearth with the cheerful fire. And yet she finds time and employs her arms at the web constantly plied by her, and thereby she prepares a defence against the menaces of the winter. She had a son, sportive in the dawn of life; he had added two years to two 'lustra.' He catches a fox in a sloping corner at the end of the willow grove: she had carried off many a bird from their poultry yard. He wraps the captive in stubble and hay, and sets fire to her; she escapes from his hands, as he is applying the fire. Wherever she flies, she sets in a blaze the fields, at that time clothed with the harvest; the breeze gave strength to the all-consuming flames. The occurrence has long since passed away: the recollection of it still remains; for, even to this day, does the law of Carseoli forbid a she-fox when caught to be suffered to live; and that this tribe may atone for their fault, they are set on fire on the festival of Ceres, and perish in the very manner in which the one that I have mentioned destroyed the standing corn.

When next the saflfron-coloured mother of Memnon shall have come, upon her rosy-coloured steeds, to visit the broad earth, then passes away the light of the sun from the leader of the wool-bearing flock, him who betrayed Helle. As he departs, a larger animal oft used as a victim, is at hand. Whether it be a cow or a bull it is not easy to know; the fore parts appear, the hinder parts are concealed. But whether this Constellation is a bull or whether a cow, against the will of Juno, it enjoys the reward of love.

The night has passed away, and morning dawns. I am called to the Palilia; and I am not called in vain, if genial Pales favours me. Genial Pales, do thou favour the poet who celebrates thy shepherd rites; if with pious attention I describe thy festival. Many a time, in truth, have I carried in my full hand the ashes of the calf and the bean stalks, the holy purgatives. Often, in truth, have I leaped over the fires placed in three rows, and the dripping bough of laurel has flung the sprinkled waters. Lo! the Goddess has been moved, and she grants success to my undertaking. My bark leaves the dock, my sails now have favoring breezes. Proceed, you multitude, and take the fumigation from the Vestal altar — Vesta will grant it; by the gift of Vesta you will be cleansed. The blood of a horse will be the fumigation, and the ashes of a calf; and the third ingredient will be the stripped stalk of the hard bean. Shepherd, purify the full sheep at the beginning of twilight; let the water first sprinkle them, and let the broom, made of twigs, sweep the ground. Let the sheepfolds, too, be decorated with leaves and branches fastened up and let the long garland shade the ornamented doors. Let a blue smoke arise from the native sulphur, and let the ewe bleat aloud while rubbed with the brimstone as it smokes. Burn, too, rosemary, and the pitch tree, and the Sabine herbs and let the burnt laurel crackle in the midst of the hearth. Let the basket of millet accompany the cakes of millet; this rustic Goddess takes especial pleasure in this kind of food. Bring on, too, the banquet and the milk-pail, peculiarly her own; and when the banquet has been removed, appease Pales, the inhabitant of the woods, with warm milk, and say, Protect thou, alike, the cattle and those who tend the cattle, and let all harm fly afar, repelled from my stalls. Whether I have fed them on holy ground, or whether I have seated myself beneath a sacred tree, or whether any ewe of mine, unknown to me, has browsed on the grass growing over the graves, or whether I have trespassed on a grove forbidden to be entered, or whether the Nymphs have been scared away by my gaze, or whether the God, half goat in form, or whether my knife has despoiled a sacred grove of its shady bough, from which, the bundle of leaves has been given by me to my ailing ewe, do thou grant pardon to my error; nor be it a cause of evil to me, if, while the hail was pouring down, I have sheltered my flock within the rustic fane; nor be it a cause of harm to me that I have disturbed the waters of the ponds. Pardon me, ye Nymphs, if at any time the motion of the hoof has rendered turbid the streams. Do thou. Goddess, for me, appease the fountains and the Deities of the fountains; do thou propitiate the Gods that are dispersed throughout all the groves. Far be it from us to look upon the Dryades, or to behold the bathing places of Diana, or Faunus, while at midday he treads the fields. Drive disease afar; let both men and flocks enjoy the blessing of health; let, too, the dogs enjoy health, that watchful race. Let me not drive home my sheep fewer than they were in the morning; nor let me grieve as I bring home the fleeces which alone I have recovered from the wolf. Let evil hunger be afar; let grass and leaves be in abundance, and water, both to lave the limbs and to serve for the purpose of drinking. May it be my lot to press the full udders; may my cheeses bring me money home, and may the twigs, as they lie far apart in the sieve, give a passage to the liquid whey; may the ram prove a good tup, may his mate return the seed when conceived, and may there be many a lamb in my sheep-folds: may wool, too, be produced that will hurt none of my damsels, soft, and suited to even the tenderest hands. Let that happen which I pray for, and may we, at the close of the year, offer cakes of goodly size to Pales, the mistress of the shepherds. With these words must the Goddess be propitiated: turning to the east do you repeat these words three times, and in the running stream thoroughly wash your hands. Then you may drink the snow-white milk and the purple must, with the milk-bowl set on in the place of the goblet; and afterwards with active foot fling your strong limbs across the burning heaps of the crackling stubble. The ceremonial has now been told by me; the origin of that custom still remains for me to mention. The great number of the causes alleged makes me doubtful, and delays my undertaking. Devouring flame is the purifier of all things, and melts the dross from out of the metals, therefore is it used for purifying the ewes with the leader of the flock. Or is it, because there are two opposing principles in all things, fire and water, the discordant Deities, that our forefathers united these elements, and deemed it to be fitting to touch the body with the fire and the sprinkled water? or is it, because in these is the origin of life; the exile has lost " his right to enjoy these; by these the bride is wedded; that these two things they think of primary importance? For my part I hardly believe it. Some there are, who think that Phaeton is represented, and the deluging waters of Deucalion. Some, too, say that while the shepherds were rubbing stone against stone, a spark suddenly leaped forth. The first indeed was lost; but the second was caught on some straw. The fire of Pales has this for its alleged cause; or did the piety of Æneas rather give rise to this custom, to whom, when conquered, the fire gave a harmless passage? This, however, is nearer to probability, that when Rome was built, the Lares were ordered to be transferred to new abodes, and that when changing their home they set fire to their rustic habitations and the cottage now no longer to be used; and that through the flames leaped the cattle and the swains, as is still done upon thy natal day, O Rome. The very occasion itself calls for an account of its origin from the poet. The beginning of the City we have now arrived at; be thou present, great Quirinus, at the recital of thy deeds. Now had the brother of Numitor paid the penalty, and all the shepherd people were under the government of the two chieftains. They agreed to call together the shepherds, and to build a city; a question of doubt arises, which of the two should lay the foundations. "There is no need," said Romulus, " of any dispute. Great is the truthfulness of birds; let us make trial of the omen the birds." The thing proposed pleases; the one goes among the crags of the woody Palatine, the other in the morning ascends the heights of the Aventine. Remus sees six birds in succession, his brother twelve; they abide by their agreement; and Romulus has the direction of the city. A suitable day is chosen, on which lie may trace out the plan for the walls with the plough. The festival of Pales was at hand; from that time the work is commenced upon. A trench is dug down to the firm clay; fruits are thrown into the bottom of it, and some earth fetched from the neighbouring soil. The trench is filled again with the earth, and, when filled, an altar is built over it; and the hearth, but newly erected, is graced with the kindled fire. After that, pressing the tail of the plough, he traces out the walls with a furrow; a white cow with a snow-white bull bears the yoke. These were the words of the king: " Do thou, Jupiter, aid me as I found this city; and Mavors my father and mother Vesta, and all other, ye Deities, whom it is a religious duty to invoke, attend; let this work of mine rise under your auspices. Long may be its duration, may its sway be that of an all-ruling land; and under it may be both the rising and the setting of the day." Thus he prayed; Jupiter gave an omen by a peal of thunder on the left hand, and from the heavens on the left the lightnings were hurled. Rejoicing in the omen, the citizens laid the foundations, and in a short space of time there stood the new. wall. Celer urged on the work, whom Romulus himself had called, and had said to him, " Celer, be this the task of thy care, that no one pass over the walls or the furrow that has been made with the plough: him who dares to do so, put to death." Remus, in ignorance of this, begins to scoff at walls so lowly, and to say, " Shall the people receive any protection from these ?" And without pausing, he leaps over them, Celer strikes him down with a pick-axe for his daring; streaming with blood he presses the hard ground. When the King is informed of this, he swallows down the tears that inwardly arise, and keeps his sorrow shut up within his breast. He is unwilling openly to weep, and is careful to set an example of fortitude, and "With like results," says he, "may the foe pass over my walls." Yet he performs his obsequies; he then is no longer able to restrain his tears, and the affliction which he had concealed becomes manifest. He imprints the last kisses on him laid out on the bier, and he cries, " Farewell, my brother! snatched from me by no will of mine." And then he anointed the corpse about to be committed to the flames; what he did, the same did Faustulus and Acca with her sad locks dishevelled. Then did the Quirites (though not yet become entitled to that name) bewail the youth; and the last fire was applied amid laments to the funeral pile. A city arises, (who then could have believed this tale from any one ?) destined one day to place her conquering foot upon all lands. Mayst thou hold sway over the universe, and mayst thou ever be under the rule of mighty Cæsar; still continue to have more and more chiefs of that name, and oft as, in the subdued world, thou shalt stand erect, may all realms be lower than thy shoulders.

Pales has been sung by me. I, too, shall now sing of the Vinalia: but between the two festivals one day intervenes. Do, ye damsels of the town, worship the deity of Venus; very favourable is Venus to the gains of the prostitutes. Pray, with an offering of frankincense, for beauty and the public favour: pray for the arts of allurement, and for words well suited to merriment: offer to your mistress the pleasing spearmint, with her own myrtle, and the chaplets of bulrushes woven with the enwreathed roses. Now it is proper that the temple adjoining to the Collinian gate should be resorted to. From the hill of Sicily does it derive its name. And when Claudius gained possession of the Syracuse of Arethusa, thee too, O Eryx, he conquered in war. Venus was transferred thence, according to the verse of the long-lived Sibyl, and preferred to be worshipped in the city of her descendants. Why, then, they call the feast of Venus by the name of Vinalia, you now ask; and why that day is sacred to Jove? There was a war to decide the question whether Turnus or Æneas should be the son-in-law of the Latian Amata. Turnus solicited the aid of Etruria. Mezentius was famed, and fierce when once he had taken up arms: mighty as he was on horseback, even mightier was he on foot. Him, the Rutulians and Turnus endeavoured to unite to their side. On the other hand, thus the Etrurian chieftain replied: My bravery costs me no small price, I call these scars of mine to witness; this armour, too, which oft have I had sprinkled with my own blood. Do thou who seekest my aid divide with me the next new wine from thy vats — no very great reward. I delay not to give my aid. For you it is to pay; to conquer is my part. How would Æneas wish that this price had been refused to me?" The Rutulians assented: Mezentius puts on his armour; Æneas arms too, and addresses Jove in prayer: " The vintage of my foe has been promised to the Etrurian king, O Jove! Thou shalt quaff the new wine from the branch of the Latian vine !" The better vow prevails; the huge Mezentius falls, and beats the ground with his scornful breast; autumn arrives, stained with the trodden grapes; the wine owed to him is given to Jupiter, well deserving of it. Hence the day is called Vinalia. Jupiter claims it as his own, and takes pleasure in its being in the number of his festivals.

When April shall have but six days to remain, the season of the spring will be in the midst of its course; and in vain will you look for the Ram of Helle, daughter of Athamas; the rains now show themselves; the Dog, too, rises. On this day, as I was returning to Rome from Nomentum, a procession, all arrayed in white, met me in the middle of the way. The Flamen was going to the sacred grove of the ancient Goddess Rubigo, about to offer in the flames the entrails of a dog and those of a sheep. Forthwith I approached him, that I might not be unacquainted with this ceremonial: and thy Flamen, O Quirinus, gave utterance to these words: Corroding" Robigo, do thou spare the blade of the corn, and let the smooth top quiver on the surface of the ground. Do thou permit the crops, nourished by the favoring seasons of the heavens, to grow apace until they are ready for the sickle. Thy power is not harmless in its exercise. The grain which thou hast marked as thine own, the sorrowing husbandman reckons in the number of the lost. Not so injurious to the corn are the winds or the showers; nor is it so pallid when consumed by the frost, rigid as marble, as, when with his warmth, the sun makes hot the moistened stalks; in such case, dread Goddess, is thy wrath exercised. Spare, I pray thee, and keep thy rough hands from the crops; injure not our fields: to possess the power of inflicting injury is enough: seize not in thy embrace the tender crops, but rather the hard iron, and do thou first destroy that which has the power of destroying others. More to our benefit wilt thou corrode the swords and the hurtful weapons; them we want not: the world is at peace. Let the rakes and the hardy mattocks, and the crooked ploughshare, the implements of the country, be furbished: let rust stain arms; and let some one as he strives to draw his sword from the scabbard, find that it has become fast by the lapse of time. But hurt not the corn, and let the husbandman be ever enabled to pay his vows to thee, keeping thyself afar." He had spoken; in his right hand hung a towel, with a loose nap, and there was a censer of frankincense, with a bowl of wine. The frankincense and wine he placed on the altars, and the vitals of a sheep; the filthy entrails, too (of this was a witness), of an unclean dog. Then the Flamen says to me, " You ask," for in fact, I had asked, why so strange a victim is offered in sacrifice? understand the reason; there is a Dog; they call him the Icarian, and as his Constellation rises, the parched earth is athirst, and the corn is burnt up. Instead of the dog of the Constellation, this dog is placed on the altar, and it has no other reason than its name why it should thus be put to death?"

When the sister of Titan, having left the brother of the Phrygian Assaracus, has thrice raised her beams over the boundless world, the Goddess comes, wreathed with the variegated chaplets of a thousand flowers: the stage then admits the practice of a looser merriment. The festival of Flora ends on the Calends of May; then will I return to it: at this time a greater work engages me.

Vesta claims a day; on this day Vesta was received within a kindred threshold. Thus did the just Senators appoint. Phoebus has a part; to Vesta was yielded a second part. What remains from them, Augustus himself possesses. Last for ever, ye laurels of the Palatium, and long may the house stand, its front garlanded with oak. Three everlasting Gods does this one house contain.