Σαρκοφόρου ψυχὰς δ' άνδρων ἐπὶ βήματι κρινεῖ.

Χέρσος ὅτ ̓ ἄν ποτε κόσμος ὅλος καὶ ἄκανθα γένηται,

Ριψωσί τ' εἴδωλα βροτοὶ καὶ πλοῦτον ἅπανία,

Ἰχνεύων ρήξη τὲ πύλας εἱρκτῆς αίδαο.

Σαρξ τότε πᾶσα νεκρῶν ἐς ἐλευθέριον Φάος ἥξει Τοὺς ἁγίους, ανόμους τὲ τὸ πῦρ αἰῶσιν ἐλέγξει. Οππίσα τις πράξας ἔλαθεν τότε πάλα λαλήσει

Στήθεα γὰρ ζοφόεντα θεὸς φωστήρσιν ανοίξει.

Θρηνός τ ̓ ἐκ πάντων ἔσται καὶ βρυγμός

Now the Virgin returns, the reign of Saturn returns :

Ταρταροεν χάος δείξει ποτὲ γαῖα χανοῦσα.

Ἥξουσιν δ ̓ ἐπὶ βήμα Θεοῦ βασιλῆες ἄπανίες.

Ῥεύσει δ' ουρανόθεν ποταμὸς πυρὸς, ή δέγε θείου.

Σῆμα δὲ τοι τότε πᾶσι βροτοῖς αριδεί κετον, οἷον

Τὸ ξύλον ἐν πιστοῖς τὸ κέρας τὸ που θούμενον ἔσται.

Ανδρῶν ἐυσεβέων ζωή, πρόσκομμα τε κόσμου,

Ὕδασι φωτίζος πιστοὺς ἐν δώδεκα πηγαῖς.

Ράβδος ποιμαίνουσα σιδηρείη γε κρατ τήσει.

Οὗτος ὁ νῦν προγραφεὶς ἐν ἀκροστιχίοις θεὸς ἡμῶν

Σωτὴρ ἀθάνατος βασιλεὺς ὁ παθὼν ἔνεχ ̓ ἡμῶν.

The pious Emperor acknowledges, that many looked upon thefe verfes as a forgery of fome over zealous Chriftian. But he fays, they are certainly genuine, and were tranfated into Latin by Cicero, who was murthered long before the birth of Chrift. We do not find these verfes in any of Cicero's works, that are now extant; yet it is hardly to be imagined, that Conftantine would fo openly have appealed to them, if they had not been extant

in his time. This however is certain, that there were verfes of the

Sibyls, in the cuftody of the Sui decimviri in Cicero's time, which Κ 3

were

were faid to foretel a king, and were written in the manner of an Acroftick. For that author, in his fecond book de Divinatione, gives us to understand, that there was a defign of applying the Sibylline verses, which foretold a king, to Julius Caefar. Hence he takes occafion to combat the authority of the verfes, and declares, that no prophecy ought to be believed, that mentions any thing fo contrary to the conftitution of the Roman Republick. He argues, from their being Acrofticks, that they could not be genuine, because the care and exactness required in compofing an Acroftick is inconfiftent with the fury, which is faid to have pofleffed the Sibyls, when they uttered their predictions: "Sibyllae verfus obfervamus, quos illa furens fudiffe "dicitur: quorum interpres nuper "falfa quaedam hominum fama "dicturus in fenatu putabatur, eum, quem re vera regem habebamus, appellandum quoque effe regem, fi falvi effe vellemus. "Non effe autem illud carmen fu"rentis, quum ipfum poëma deແ clarat, eft enim magis artis, et "diligentiae, quam incitationis et motus, tum vero ea, quae axpornis dicitur, quum deinceps ex primis verfus litteris aliquid "connectitur, ut in quibufdam En"nianis. Id certe magis eft ad"tenti animi, quam furentis. At

66

66

...

"praetexitur. Hoc fcriptoris eft,

non furentis; adhibentis diligen"tiam, non infani. Quamobrem "Sibyllam quidem fepofitam, et "conditam habeamus, ut, id quod

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proditum eft a majoribus, injuflu "fenatus ne legantur quidem libri, "valeantque ad deponendas potius

cr

quam ad fufcipiendas religiones: "cum antiftitibus agamus, ut quid"vis potius ex illis libris, quam regem proferant; quem Romae pofthaec nec dii nec homines effe "patiantur." Thefe arguments of Cicero are by no means a proof that the verfes of the Sibyls were forged; and if they were, it is plain, that it was done long before there were any Chriftians to forge them. Several of the moft primitive Fathers, in their difputes with the heathens, appealed to the verfes of the Sibyls, in which they told them, they might fee plainly, that the coming of Chrift was foretold by their own Oracles. This argument would have been of no weight, if the learned men of those times had not known, that fuch verfes were extant before the coming of Chrift and it is not eafy to imagine, that they could have been fo famous, over all Italy and Greece fo early as the time of Juftin Martyr, who lived about the middle of the fecond century, if they had been forged by the Chriftians. St Au-. guftin, in his Expofition of the Epiftle of St Paul to the Romans, fays he fhould not eafily have believed, that the Sibyl prophefied of

Christ,

Chrift, if Virgil, whom he calls the most noble of the Roman Poets, had not prefixed to his poem on the renovation of the age, which feems to agree with the kingdom of Chrift, the line now under confideration; "Fuerunt enim prophetae non ip“fius, in quibus etiam aliqua in"veniuntur quae de Chrifto audita

cecinerunt, ficut etiam de Sibylla "dicitur: quod non facile crede"rem, nifi quod poëtarum qui

dam, in Romana lingua nobiliffimus, antequam diceret ea de "innovatione feculi, quae in Do"mini noftri Jefu Chrifti regnum

"Cumaeum autem carmen Sybil"linum effe nemo dubitaverit."

The fame learned Father, in his eighteenth book de Civitate Dei, mentions the fame Acroftick, with that which is quoted above.

He

tells us he faw it firft in a forry Latin tranflation, but afterwards Flaccianus, a Proconful, an eloquent and learned man, having fome difcourfe with him concerning Chrift, fhewed him a Greek book, in which were fome verfes of the Erythraean Sibyl, and pointed out an Acroftick, the initial letters of which were 'Indous Χριστὸς Θεοῦ ὑιὸς σωτήρ, Jefus Chrift, the Son of God, the Saviour. He

then fets down the Latin verfion, in which the Acroftick is far from being well preferved;

O chafte Lucina, favour the birth of this infant,

quoque gazam:

Exuret terras ignis, pontumque polumque

Inquirens, tetri portas effringet Averni,

Sanctorum fed enim cunctae lux libera carni

Tradetur, fontes aeternum flamma cremabit.

Occultos actus retegens, tunc quifque loquetur

Secreta, atque Deus referabit pectora luci.

Tunc erit et luctus, ftridebunt dentibus omnes.

Eripitur folis jubar, et chorus interit aftris.

Solvetur caelum, lunaris fplendor obibit,

Dejiciet colles, valles extollet ab imo.

Non erit in rebus hominum fublime, vel altum.

Jam aequantur campis montes, et caerula ponti. Omnia ceffabunt, tellus confracta peribit.

K 4

Sic

gin to fail, and the golden age fhall rife over the whole world:

Sic pariter fontes torrentur, fluminaque igni.

Sed tuba tunc fonitum triftem dimittet ab alto

Orbe, gemens facinus miferum variofque labores:

Tartareumque chaos monftrabit terra dehifcens.

Et coram hic Domino reges fiften

tur ad unum.

Decidet e caelis ignifque et fulphuris

amnis.

St Auguftin obferves, that in all the writings of this Sibyl, whether the was the Erythraean, as fome think, or the Cuman, according to others, there is not the leaft mention of the gods of the heathen being to be worhipped; but there are fome things against them and their worshippers, fo that the may feem to be one of those who belong to the city of God. He then throws together fome fcattered quotations of Lactantius from one of the Sibyls, which moft evidently relate Chrift, and concludes, with informing us, that fome place the Ery-. thraean Sibyl, in the time of Romulus, and others in the time of the Trojan war.

to

What has been faid in this note relates chiefly to the Erythraean Sibyl; but it may be obferved, that many thought there was but one Sibyl, or confounded them all together: thus the Poet ufes the Cumaean for any Sibyl, fhe who prophefied at Cumae being most famous in Italy.

5. Magnus ab integro, &c.] Her fiod mentions five ages of the world; 1. The Golden Age, in the days of Saturn, when men lived like the gods, in fecurity, without labour, without trouble, and not fubject to the miferies of old age. Their death was like going to fleep; they enjoyed all the conveniencies of life in tranquillity; the earth produced plenty of all fruits without tillage. 2. The Silver Age, in which men were less happy, being injurious to each other, and neglecting the due worfhip of the gods. 3. The Copper, or as we commonly call it, the Brazen Age, in which men difcovered copper, made themfelyes armour with it, and were given to violence and war. 4. The age of demi-gods and heroes, who warred at Thebes and Troy. 5. The Iron Age, in which Hefiod lived, which was to end when the men of that time grew old and grey. Thus, by the great order of the ages beginning anew, Virgil means, that the Golden Age was then returning,

6. Fam redit et virgo.] The Emperor Conftantine, and many other pious Chriftians will have this to allude to the bleffed Virgin. But Virgil certainly meant Aftraea or Juftice, who is faid by the Poets to have been driven from earth to heaven, by the wickedness of mankind; and therefore her returning is one fign of the restoration of the Golden Age. In the fecond Georgick, our Poet, with great propriety, represents her, as having made her

laft

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Extrema per illos

10 thy own Apollo now reigns.

Θεογονία

soyovia he makes Niμεσις to be the daughter of Night

σε fecit.”

Hefiod makes Δίκη, or Juftice, to be the daughter of Jupiter and Themis ;

Δεύτερον ἠγάγειο λιπαρὴν Θέμικ ἥ τέκεν Ὥρας,

Ευνομίην τε, Δίκην τε, καὶ Ειρήνην

τεθαλυίαν.

But in his description of the ages, Αιδώς and Νέμεσις leave earth and go to heaven;

Καὶ τότε δὴ πρὸς ἔλυμπον ἀπὸ χθονός ἐυρυοδείης, Λευκοῖσιν φαρέεσσι καλυψαμένῳ χρόα

κάλου, Αθανάτων μετὰ φύλον ἴτον προλιπόντ ̓ ἀνθρώπους Αἰδὼς καὶ Νέμεσις.

It appears to me that Νέμεσις muft mean alfo Juftice in this place, and be the fame with Δίκη, whom he had mentioned a few lines before, together with Αιδώς, or Modefty, where he says, neither of them shall converfe with men ;

Δικὴ δ ̓ ἐν χερσὶ καὶ Αιδώς Ουκ ἔσται.

βροτοῖσι Νύξ ολοή.

Here indeed he defcribes Nemefis, as the vengeance of the gods, as the word is commonly understood; but it cannot have that meaning in the former paflage, where he fpeaks of her leaving earth, becaufe of the wickednefs of men. It muf there neceffarily mean Juftice, or else have flipt into the text erroneoufly, ing of the conftellation Virgo, makes for fome other word. Aratus fpeaka queftion, whether fhe was the daughter of Aftraeus, the father of the ftars, or of fome other, and calls her Δίκη or Juftice ; Αμφοτέροισι δὲ ποσσὶν ὑποσκέψαιο βοώτου

Παρθένον, ἡ ῥ ̓ ἐν χερσὶ φέρει στάχυν ἀιγλήεντα, Ειτ' ουν Αστραίου κείνη γένος, ὃν ρά τέ φασιν

Αστρων αρχαίων πατέρ ̓ ἔμμεναι, ει τέ τευ ἄλλου,

Ευκηλος φορέοιτο. Λόγος γε μὲν ἐνα τρέχει ἄλλος

Ανθρώποις, ὡς δῆθεν ἐπιχθονίη πάρος Δεν Ἤρχετο δ' ανθρώπων κατεναντίη, ουδέποτ ̓ ἀνδρῶν,

Ουδέποτ ̓ ἀρχαιων ἠνήνατο φύλα γυ

ναικών

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