heir inftituting, with extraordinary pomp, certain nnual games to Apollo. The year in which the fecular games were perormed, the Apollinarian were blended with hem, as Macrobius informs us, Lib. xvii. The Sibylline books continued in high reveence, till about the time of Theodofius the elder, when the greatest part of the fenate being conerted to Christianity, they began to be regarded fables; and at laft, in the reign of Honorius, tilicho burnt them. The book which at prefent goes under the ime of the Sibylline Oracles (λianos xenoμòi) plainly a modern counterfeit. Ver. 24. Troy was destroyed, A. M. 2820, Eneas landed in Italy fome years after, where he arried the daughter of King Latinus, and in her ght fucceeded to his throne. His pofterity enyed, from him, the fovereignty, by regular fucflion, till Aurelius feized on the crown, in predice of his elder brother Numitor, and continued quiet poffeffion of the regal dignity, till he was by Romulus and Remus, the fons of Illa, Nuitor's daughter. These feated their grandfather on the throne; and two years after founded ome. Ufher places this laft event before the 8th lympiad, A. M. 3250. Others, with Varro, fix it the 3d Olympiad, and 433d year after the deaction of Troy, in the 3960th of the Julian iod, 753 years before the nativity of our Sa Ver. 31. Such, at that time, was the condition Qui fa quella di Imperio antica fede | But more folemnly picturefque is the following fcription of the ruins of Rome by Mr. Dyer: The rough relics of Carina's ftreet, Where now the thepherd to his nibbling fheep its piping, with his oaten reed: as erft here pip'd the fhepherd to his nibbling sheep When th' humble roof Anthife's fon explor'd f good Evander, wealth-defpifing king, Amid the thickets: So revolves the scene, Dodley's Collect. vol. i. By Jove's temple, the poet means the Capitol; which in the days of Auguftus, was, for structure, embellishment, and riches, one of the most noble and magnificent edifices in the world. When it was destroyed by fire, an event which we have already taken notice of, Auguftus undertook to rebuild it, but died ere it was finished: this, it is faid, he, in his laft moments, regretted as the only thing wanting to complete his felicity. It was not, however, wholly rebuilt till the confulfhip of Catulus, who had the honour to dedicate it, and to have his name infcribed upon it. And indeed Catulus well merited that diftinction; for, befides many other marks of his munificence, he gilded over with gold all the copper tiles of the temple. Pliny obferves, that this was the first time gold was used on the outfide of buildings. Thus the fire, to speak in the beautiful words of Cicero, feemed to have been fent from heaven, not to deftroy, but to raise to Jupiter a temple more worthy of his majesty. On the first of January, the confuls always went in procellion to this temple; and all who entered the city in triumph, repaired thither in pomp to pay their folemn thanks to Jove. Grammarians made a difference between "Arx” and "Capitolium;" but, if we are not mistaken, they are fometimes indifcriminately used. The verfes from line twenty-ninth of the verfion, to that where the Sibyl addresses Æneas, may appear too long, as it diverts the attention from the Cumaan Sibyl, who is about to prophefy: But as the prophetefs's allufion to the particular place, where the defcendants of Æneas were to found their eternal city, might have, perhaps, appeared obfcure (a defect to which prophetic language is liable) without a previous and more full defcription; our poet's conduct, it would feem, is not fo foreign to the purpose, as might at first be imagined. See Ovid, Faft. and Propert. lib. iv. for similar defcriptions. Ver. 32. In a former note we have taken notice of the meannefs of infant Rome: Neither did it greatly improve in magnificence till many centuries after. Their temples indeed were adorned his life of Marcellus, made the city rather dreadwith trophies; but thefe, as Plutarch obferves in ful than pleasing. After the conqueft of Syracufe by Marcellus, the Romans became acquainted with the finer arts, and no doubt their architecture was alfo improved: And yet Auguftus boafted, that he had found Rome ill built of brick, but left a city of marble: "marmoream fe relinquere, quam lateritiam accepiffet." Suet. in Aug. § 28. Ver. 33. It was cuftomary to fprinkle the fylvan gods Pan and Pales with milk. Plutarch informs us, that Rome was founded on the 21st of April; and that on that day a folemn feftival was ever afterwards held. This feftival was formerly called by the Romans Palilia; but, upon building a temple afterwards to Roma and Venus, they changed the name of this feftival into that of Romana. Ver. 36. The curious in antiquities may either confult Servius, or Virgil's Bucolics, or Julius Scaliger, lib. i. Poet. cap. 4. concerning the fylvan pipe of the ancient fhepherds. Some attribute the invention of it to Pan, and others to Marfyas. It confifted of feven reeds (joined together by thread and wax) equal at top, where the lips were applied, but unequal below, 86 qua exibat fpiritus." But no words can convey so diftin&t an idea of this ancient mufical inftrument, as the infpection of its figure upon antiques, of which many are to be found in Boiffard, Gorlæus, and others. It appears from § 9. of the fecond epifle of that famous Italian traveller, Pietro della Valle, that the Turks, in his time, ufed a pipe, which they called "mufcab," and which very much resembled that played on by the ancients. Ver. 39. So where Velabrian fireets, &c.] This was a large ftreet in the eighth, or as others fay, in the eleventh divifion of Rome. The place which this street afterwards occupied, had been, in former times, a boggy lake, and expofed to frequent inundations from the Tyber; but Tarquinius Prifcus having effectually drained it, it became, in process of time, one of the nobleft streets in the city. in the fame manner, Orodes, in Virgil, v Mezentius of his fate. Both these kinds of pretion are great: and if the latter, as the fame thor alleges, is the greatest; the firft, however, his own acknowledgement, is the most poetical Nor are these two the only kinds of porta prophecy. Heroic poets often use another, foretelling the death of a hero, at a time when is perhaps exulting in victory. Virgil afforda an instance of this, Æn. x. in relation to the den. of Pallas by Turnus. That form of prophecy, distinguished above by:title of prevention, gives an uncommon greates and energy to the language: It places diftant a full before our eyes, and carries a certain belt » and affurance with it, that is wonderfully pic prophecy being of great strength in poffeffing ne captivating the reader, as we love to look futurity. Thus it flatters the powers and capac of our own minds, at the fame time that it g an air of fuperior knowledge and authority tem poet. This speech of the Sibyl includes in a thefe advantages: It is not only preventive, prophetical. Perhaps there are no speechs a the fourth book of the Odyfley, or fin Eneid, more remarkable for their p beauty, than this is. The fubject of this is the fpeaker more venerable, and the designs poet himself more truly great. The terrifying raptures of Theochymal. xx. which reprefent the fall of the fut which contain a higher orientalism than meet with in any other part of Homer's w may be compared, as Mr. Spence obferves excellent Dialogues on the Odyffey, with Joel fays in a truly infpired language: Ver. 45. In Virgil, Creufa appeared to Eneas," fhow thee wonders in the heavens and a and prophefies to him his future fettlement. The ancients generally fuppofe, that the fouls of the departed are endowed with a power of predicting future events; but no prophecy was fo awfully ftriking, none more to be depended upon, than what proceeded from the mouth of a Sibyl. Hence the reverence paid by the Romans to the Sibylline boks; and hence it was that Auguftus himfelf affected fo much to rely upon their declarations. Thus has Tibullus happily blended fubli. mity with art. The Sibyl concludes her prophecy with a prayer to Apollo, by which the inte refts that god in the events of her prediction; and from this circumftance, the propriety of our poet's addrefs to Apollo, in the beginning of the elegy, more confpicuously appears. Poetical prophecy makes the reader acquainted, before hand, with fome events, which are to happen in the progrefs of the poem: and prevention (as an elegant critic calls it) is when fuch things are fpoken of at prefent, which nevertheless are not to come to pafs for years or ages. The fame critic obferves, that poetical predictions are generally uttered by superior beings; or if human beings are introduced, they are either fuch as are already in another state of existence, or just on the verge of quitting this. Thus, Hec. tor, in Homer, foretels the death of Achilles; and, "earth: Blood, and fire, and pillars of A God thyself, &c.] The poet Such is the poetical account of Encas's des ture from life; but antiquaries differ widely the manner of his death. Some affert, that a body was found drowned in the Numicius, 1 his rencounter with Mezentius; while maintain, that he was indeed killed on the h of that river, but that his body, tumbling into ftream, could never be recovered; and that it hence artfully given out by his fucceffors, that gods had taken him to themfelves. Accord he was honoured with the appellation of a 12 Indiges," or avlewrody; and Dionyfius Halicar- PATRI. DEO. INDIGETI but that he had many monuments erected to him, afleep on it. And on the reverfe of a medal Pendentifque Dei perituro oftenderet hofti. For the Roman foldiers, who were not a little But why is Numicius called facred?" (veneranda Numici unda)." Servius, in his notes on the feventh neid, ver. 150. affigns the following reafon: "Numicius ingens ante fluvius fuit; quo repertum eft cadaver Æneæ, & confecratum, post paulatim defcrefcens, in fontem redactus eft: qui pfe ficcatus eft, facris interceptus. Veftæ enim ibari, non, nifi de hoc flumine, licebat." Brockh. Ver. 56. In the first battle, which Æneas caried on against the Latins and Rutulians, proper fraudatus Lavinia nuptias," Latinus was Ver. 63. This apostrophe to the cattle that lain; upon which, the Rutulian prince, Turnus, were feeding on the feven hills, where Rome afmplored aid from Mezentius, king of the Tuf- terwards flood, is highly picturesque; it more ans; and fell in the fecond action; but Æneas than places the object before the eyes of the ever afterwards appeared, as the Scholiaft tells reader: Such is the magic of poetry! The hes. In the third and laft engagement, Afcanius roic poets, but especially the facred and prophetic evenged the death of his father, by killing Me-writers, abound with these bold fallies of imagi entius. 1 But why does the poet bestow on Turnus the pithet "Barbaro," fince that prince, as Amata, Virgil, informs us, was of Grecian original? yllenius endeavoured to folve this question, by ppofing, that Turnus spoke bad Latin, "vel æfus, vel balbus erat." But there is no occafion r any fuch hypothefis, fince we find, from Plau8, that the Romans called both Italians and Lans," Barbari." Vide Feft. in voc. Barbar. rockb. Ver. 57. Lavinium greets my dier.] This is the ty, which Eneas is laid to have built in honour f his wife Lavinia. See more of this in the wenty-eight chapter of the first book of Dionyf. Halicarnaff. in Virgil, Æn. i. ver. 258. in Livy, ook i. cap. 1. and 3. in the author of the book titled, De Orig. Roman, and in Juftin. lib. xliii. ap. I. Breekh. Ver. 59. Broekhufius is ample in citing authoities to prove, that Ilia was neither asleep, or ra ifhed (contrary to what is afferted in the text), when Mars, or whoever was the father of Ronulus and Remus, begot thefe twins upon her. After her delivery the drowned herself in the Ty›er; and hence she is faid, by the poets, to have een married to that river. Ver. 62. Mars was fo fond of his helmet, hield, and javelin, that he did not quit them, even when going upon his amours, of which he had feveral; but as the most famous of these was bis intrigue with Ilia, or, as others call her, Rhea, Sylvia, the mother of Romulus and Remus, fo it became a popular fubject for the medalifts, ftatuaries and painters, as well as poets, among the Romans. In a relievo, in the poffeilion of the Mellini family, at Rome, we fee Mars defcended upen earth, and moving towards Rhea, who is TRANS. II. nation. Ver. 65. The Romans were early made to be lieve the gods had predetermined that their city fhould be the metropolis of the world. Hence Horace writes, Gentibus eft aliis tellus data limite certo; Romanæ fpatium eft urbis et orbis idem. Terrarum domina gentiumque Roma. Into how many misfortunes this belief plunged that ftate, and efpecially the nations around, let her own annals testify! Ver. 69. A frequent chewing of the laurel was fuppofed to be of great efficacy in raising a fpirit of divination and poetry. See Spanheim's learned notes on the ninty-fourth verfe of Callimachus's Hymn to Delos. With a view to this, we may fuppofe it was that Commodus, as Xiphilinus tells the story, eat the laurel leaves with which he was crowned : δάφνης φυλλὰ ὁ εκ της στέφανα εικο autos dispusov. Ver. 71. Critics differ greatly in the number, as well as in the names of the Sibyls; nor are they better agreed with regard to their parentage, country, reputation, and the age in which they lived. Varro makes them to have been ten in number, Sujdas, in his catalogue of them, gives us only nine. Ælian and Aufonius limit them to four; while Aulus Gellius and Pliny the elder acknowledge but one. But Rofinus adopted Var ro's opinion; and has, from good authority too, given us their several names. Lib. iii. cap. 24. Our poet mentions four of the Sibyls by name, viz. Herophile, Mermeffia, Amalthea, and Albu na. Rofinus makes the firft and third of these to be the fame with the Cumzan Sibyl; but we have 3 D the authority of Paufanias for afferting that Herophile was born on Mount Ida, of a mortal father, but immortal mother; that the lived before the time of the Trojan war, and predicted the rape of Helen, and the fall of the Trojan empire. In her verfes too, were probably fcattered fome admonitions, "admonuit," exciting the Romans, who by Æneas were of Trojan defcent, to act a friendly part to the Phrygians, and by their good offices compenfate to them all the loffes they had fuftained by the deftruction of Troy; and therefore our poet mentions her, and defires Apollo to guide Meffalinus alfo in the interpretation of her prophetic writings, as well as in thofe of the other three. This method of explaining Quidquid Amalthea, quidquid Mermeflia dixit, Herophile Phabo grata quod admonuit : Quodque Albuna facras Tiberis per flumina fortes Portarit, ficco perlueritque finu. removes all the difficulty of connection, which commentators faw, but never offered to unriddle, till Vulpius, p. 259. by joining thefe four lines with Phoebe facras Meffalinum fine tangere chartas Vatis: et ipfe, precor, quid canat illa, doce. in one common petition to Apollo, made fenfe of the paffage. Herophile is called in the text, "Grata Phoebo;" and Paufanias, lib. x. cap. 12. tells us, that in her verfes, the fometimes called herself the wife, fometimes the daughter, and sometimes the fifter of Apollo. She vifited Claros, Delos, and Delphi, where, from a stone, which that ancient Greek traveller faw, fhe uttered oracles: but she past most of her time at Samos; and, dying at Troas, was buried in the grove of Smintheus, where he read her epitaph, which he has preferved. Mermeffia, although our poet makes her a diftinct perfon, was probably the fame as the former, fince antiquaries inform us that he was born at Mermeffus, a paftoral village of Mount Ida. She is alfo called Marpeffia; and we learn from Paufanias, lib. x. that in his time the veftiges of the ancient city of Marpeffus were still to be feen on Mount Ida. Albuna was worshipped as a goddess at Tibur, upon the banks of the Anio, in whofe ftream her image was found, holding in its hand a book, which being uninjured by the water, was conveyed, according to Lactantius, to the Capitol. But our poet feems to infinuate, that the fwam across the Tyber with her prophecies in her bofom; and that though its waters touched thefe compofitions, yet had they not the power to wet them. but though all these Sibyls were eminent, the Cumaan Sibyl was chiefly regarded by the Romans; who, according to Livy, brought nine books to Tarquinius Prifeus, offering them to him for three hundred pieces of gold (Philippi). The king deriding her price, the inftantly burnt three of them in his fight, and then demanded the fame fum for the fix. Tarquin hereupon calling her an extravagant mad-woman, the committed three more to the flames, and afked him ftill the fame money for the remainder. The king, aftonite! at this, paid her what the demanded; and recei ing the volumes, which were fuppofed to conta the future deftinies of Rome, depofited them i the Capitol, as above related. Pliny, in talking of the oldeft ftatues which were to be found in his time at Rome, has the following paffage: "Equidem et Sibylla j roftra effe, non miror, tres fint, licet; una quan Sex. Pacuvius Taurus ædilis plebis reftituit: daz quas M. Meffala (Corvinus's father) primas po tarem has, et A&ii Navii, pofitas ætate Targur Prifci, nifi regum antecedentium effent in Cap tolio." Lib. xxxiv. cap. 5. Ver. 79. When flony tempefis fell, &c.) See inftances of all thefe prodigies in the fixth chapt of the first book of Valerius Maximus. A late Italian author ingeniously accounts fhowers of ftones, and all the other kind fhowers, which hiftorians and naturalifts tion. See alfo Lucan's ninth book. Ibid. When comets glar'd.] Few prejudian m more ancient than that which makes comra tend the downfal of empires. A founder phy has at laft taught us, that though lefs known, they are not more ominous th planets; and yet Mr. Whifton was of that this earth will be finally deftroyed by 1 comet. Ver. 83. To charge the clarion, t.] Infkannas ví this prodigy are frequent in both the R poets and hiftorians, to the difgrace of the l Ver. 86. Although an eclipse of the fin ever regarded by the Romans as a prodig which Tibullus fpeaks of, and which h when Cæfar was killed, was, fays Brod moft prodigious, fince it lafted almoft at year. What? and is nature then to be hook convulfions, to be forced out of her natural com when a tyrant is cut off? This is the langu of base adulation, but not of found philcopy When, indeed, a friend to man perishes, all elements may with propriety be introduced menting his fall; and yet, as the author of excellent ode to mankind fings, it too general happens, that, Thofe have no charms to please the sense, To win the mufes' throng; And nature mourns his wrong. Ver. 92. Monstrous births, by way of exp tion, were either thrown into the fea, or with "pyrum fylvaticum," and fuch like "pla tæ infelices," as the Romans called them, fram the fuppofed circumftance of their being under the protection of the "Dii luferi et Avertent See inftanees of this in Livy and Jain, Chlo quens. Ver. 102. Ovid, in that aftonishing work of his, intituled Fafti, gives us the following accurate description of the Palilia. Certe ego de vitulo, cinerem, ftipulafque fatales Sæpe tuli plena februa casta manu. Certe ego tranfilii pofitas ter in ordine flammas ; Virgaque lauratas aurea mifit aquas. And again, Tum licet, appofita veluti cratere camella, Lac niveum potes, purpureamque fapam : Moxque per ardentes ftipulæ crepitantis acervos, Trajicias celeri ftrenua membra pede. Lib. iv. Ver. 104. The original of this paffage cannot be expreffed in poetical English. It defcribes a method of kiffing, wherein the person to be kiffed, was, by the faluter, held and pulled forward by the ears till his lips met the others. This, according to Broekhufius, the Italians call a Florentine kifs. Vide Kemp. Differt. de Ofcul. Ver. 106. Such domeftic defcriptions are often more pleafing than the boldest flights of poetry! Tibullus abounds in them: They are certain figns of the goodness of a writer's heart. Ver. 121. The form of deprecation was this: To confefs that the perfon injured did not deserve the curfe; that they wished it had not been pronounced; and owned themselves actuated by a bad difpofition: "Mente mala, mala fatebantur." Nennius, as Broekhufius remarks, was the first who explained the former part of the Latin deprecation, as Douza did the laft. This was a better method furely of making fatisfaction than what we moderns have fubftituted in its place, the piftol and fword. Ver. 114. The reader by this time must have perceived a frequent recurrence of ideas in Tibul lus; yet are both Ovid and Propertius equally reprehenfible on that account. Ver. 139. Bacchus, or (as Sir Ifaac Newton has proved) the Egyptian Sefoftris, after his return from his Indian conquest, gave the first inIftance of this ungenerous ceremony, which the Romans afterwards adopted. It is impoffible to read the defcription of thofe arrogant exhibitions of profperity, without being ftruck with indignation and we can never think highly of the humanity of that people who could behold with pleafure fuch ftriking inftances of calamity, and of the caprice of fortune, as thofe folemnities afforded; when the greatest monarchs of the earth were fometimes dragged from their thrones, to attend in chains the infolent parade of an infulting conqueror. But it was natural for the Romans to enjoy that with infolence which they gained by oppreffion. Ver. 140. Thefe were at first of wood; but in Cæfar's laft triumph they were of filver. Ver. 144. "Laureati milites (fays Feftus Pompeius) fequebantur currum triumphantis, ut quafi purgati, a cæde humana intrarent urbem." Ver. 191. The poet, as Vulpius obferves, wishes eternal chastity to Diana, because Orion, one of the giants, had endeavoured, but in vain, to ra with her. Teftis mearum centimanus Gyas Lib. iii. Od. A This truth fhall hundred-handed Gyas tell, And warm Orion, who with impious love Tempting the goddefs of the fylvan feene, Was, by her virgin darts, gigantic victim, flain. Francis ELEGY VI. MACER campaigns; who now will thee obey, 'Tis, Cupid thine, the wanderer to reclaim, 20 My vaunts how vain! debarr'd the cruel maid, |