age commence ;

περ ̓ ἐοῦσα,

Καὶ ἑ Δίκην καλέεσκον.

He tells us also, that after the copper age began, and men made war one with another, fhe hated them, and went up to heaven;

found the name Aftraea in any-author, older than Ovid, and fufpect, that we ought to interpret Aftraea father Aftraeus, and not the virgin virgo, the Afraean virgin, from her Aftraea. Thus Daphne is called nympha Peneia, the Peneian nymph, from her father Peneus, and not the

ἐγένοντο Χαλκείη γενεή, προτέρων ὁλοώτεροι άνδρες,

Οι πρῶτοι κακόεργον ἐχαλκεύσαντο μαχαίραν Ἐινοδίην, πρῶτοι δὲ βοῶν ἐπάσαντ' · ἀροτήρων, Καὶ τότε μισήσασα Δίκη κέινων γένος ἀνδρῶν, Ἐπλαθ ̓ ὑπουρανίη, ταύτην δ ̓ ἄρα νάσσατο χώραν

Ἦχί περ ἐννυχιή ἔτι φαίνεται ανθρώ

well grounded, it is a common error, to call Juftice Aftraca.

Redeunt Saturnia regna.] Hefiod fays the golden age was under the reign of Saturn in heaven ;

Ως ὁμόθεν γεγάασι θεοὶ θνητοί τ' ἄνθρωποι, Χρύσεον μὲν πρώτιστα γένος μερόπων ἀνθρώπων ̓Αθάναλοι ποίησαν ὀλύμπια δώματ' ἔχοντες, Οι μὲν ἐπὶ κρόνου ἦσαν, ὅτ ̓ ὀυρανῷ ἐμβασίλευεν,

The Emperor Conftantine is of opi7. Jam nova progenies, &c.] nion, that this verfe plainly alludes to our bleffed Saviour ; Τοῦτον Τιβέ ριος διεδέξατο καθ' ὅν χρόνον ἡ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἐξέλαμψε παρουσία, καὶ τὸ τῆς ἁγιοτάτης θρησκείας ἐπεκράτηση μυσ τήριον, ἥ τε νέα του δήμου διαδοχή συ ท νέστη, περὶ ἧς διμαι λέγειν τὸν ἐξοχώ τατον τῶν κατὰ Ἰταλιάν ποιητων "Ενθεν ἔπειτα νέων πληθὺς ἀνδρῶν ἐφα άνθη.

8. Τι

8. Tu modo nafcenti, &c.] The Poet now invokes Lucina, and intreats her to favour the birth of the infant, of whom there were fuch great expectations at this time; and declares, that it was to be in the confulfhip of Pollio.

Nafcenti puero.] The child, that was to be born in that age, when the world fhould be at peace, as was foretold by the Oracles, was without doubt our bleffed Saviour. But the Poet, ignorant of the true sense of the prophecies, underftands them to mean the peace, which was fettled, when he wrote this Eclogue, and applies all the bleffings, which were promised to the reign of Chrift, to a child that was then expected to come into the world. The Commentators have not determined, with any certainty, what child it was, to whom these promised bleffings are afcribed by the Poet. Servius tells us, that Afinius Pollio having taken Salonae, a city of Dalmatia, and obtained a triumph, and afterwards the Confulfhip had that very year a fon, who was called Saloninus from the name of the captive city, and that this Saloninus is the child, whom Virgil here celebrates. This opinion is generally received, on the authority of Servius. But Ruaeus, fhews plainly, that this must be a mistake. He obferves that Saloninus was not the fon, but the grandson of Pollio, and that he could not be born about the time of writing this Eclogue, becaufe he died a young man fixty

and the great months fhall begin to proceed.

years afterwards, being defigned the husband of Tiberius Caefar's granddaughter, for proof of which he refers us to the third book of the Annals of Tacitus. The words of Tacitus are thefe; "Obiere eo "anno viri illuftres, Afinius Salo"ninus, M. Agrippa et Pollione "Afinio avis, fratre Drufo infignis, "Caefarique progener deftinatus." Here indeed Tacitus does not fay exprefsly, that Afinius Saloninus was a young man, but it may be fuppofed, that he was many years under fixty, when he was proposed for a husband to the Emperor's grand-daughter. Ruaeus farther obferves, that the fon of Pollio was named C. Afinius Gallus, and not Saloninus, which is certain. Befides, it may be confidered, that Tacitus calls M. Agrippa, the grandfather of Saloninus. Agrippa must therefore have been his mother's father; and indeed Tacitus himself informs us, that Vipfania, the daughter of Agrippa was married firft to Tiberius, and afterwards to Afinius Gallus. "Ducta in ma"trimonium Vipfania M. Agrippae "filia, quae quondam Tiberii uxor fuerat.' Now Tiberius was born little above a year before the confulfhip of Pollio, that is, under Lepidus and Plancus, just after the battle of Philippi, as we are informed by Suetonius; "Natus eft "Romae in palatio, XVI. Cal. "Decemb. M. Aemilio Lepido " iterum, L. Munatio Planco Coff. "poft bellum Philippenfe. Sic enim

66

EV

"in faftos actaque publica relatum "eft." Dio tells us, that after the death of Agrippa, who had married Julia, the daughter of Auguftus, Tiberius was compelled to part with his first wife, the daughter of Agrippa, by a former marriage, who had one child by him already, and was big with another, and to take Julia; 5 γοῦν ὁ ̓Αγρίππας . . . ἐτεθνήκει τὸν Τιβέριον καὶ ἄκων προσείλετο . . καὶ προαποσπάσας καὶ ἐκείνου την γυ} ναῖκα, καίτοι τοῦ τε Αγριππου θυγατέρα ἐξ ἄλλης τινὸς γαμετῆς δυσαν, καὶ τέκνον τὸ μὲν ἤδη τρέφουσαν, τὸ δὲ γαστρὶ ἔχουσαν, τὴν τε Ιουλίαν οἱ εγγυήσει From these authorities confidered together it appears, that Saloninus could not poffibly be born till many years after his grandfather Pollio was conful. For before his mother Vipfania was married to his father Afinius Gallus, fhe had been wife to Tiberius, and had two children by him; and this very Tiberius could not be above two years old in the confulfhip of Pollio. This divorce alfo is placed by Dio in the confulfhip of M. Valerius Meffala Barbatus, and P. Sulpicius Quirinius, which was twenty-eight years after that of Pollio. Therefore fo far was this Saloninus from being born in his grandfather's confulfhip, that, according to Dio, he could not poffibly come into the world, till near thirty years after it. Ruaeus alfo obferves, that Pollio did not take Salonae, till the year after

his confulfhip; fo that he could not give that name to a fon, who was born before he had obtained the victory. We may therefore conclude, with Ruaeus, that this story of Saloninus, who, according to Servius, died almoft as foon as born," is not to be credited. That learned Commentator feems to be of opinion, that the child, whofe nativity the Poet celebrates, is Afinius Galwhen his father was conful. But lus, who might perhaps be born, other learned men are of opinion, that the glories prophelied of this child, are greater, than could with decency be fuppofed to belong to a fon of Pollio; and therefore that the child intended is more probably fome near relation of Auguftus himfelf. The authors of the Journal de Trevoux fuppofe it was Drufus, the fon of Livia Drufilla, who was with child of him by her former hufband Tiberius Nero, when Auguftus married her. Thus Suetonius,

"Liviam Drufillam matrimonio "Tiberii Neronis, et quidem

jag i Tus Alovías épavero, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν Σκριβωνίαν τεκοῦσαν οι θυγάτριον ἀπεπεμψατο αυθημερόν. According to the fame accurate author, it was in the following year, when Appius Claudius Pulcher, and C. Norbanus Flaccus were Confuls, that Auguftus married Livia, who was then fix months gone with child, by Tiberius Nero; Ἐπὶ δ ̓ Αππίου τε Κλαυδίου και Γαΐου Νωρβανου υπάτων. . . . . Ταῦτά τε οὖν τότε ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ Καῖσαρ τήν Λι ουταν ἔγημεν· ἦν δὲ θυγάτηρ μέν Λιουΐον Δρόυσου, ὃς ἔν τε τοῖς ἐκτεθεῖσιν ἐν τῷ λευκώματι ἐγεγόνει, καὶ ἑαυτὸν μετὰ τήν ἐν Μακεδονία ἦταν κατεχρήσατο· γυνὴ δὲ τοῦ Νέρωνος, μεθ' ου συνδιέφυγεν, ὥσπερ ἔἴρηται· καὶ ἐχύει γε ἐξ αὐτοῦ μῆνα ἕκτον. She was delivered of Claudius Drufus Nero, whom Auguftus returned to

n

his proper father; Συνοικοῦσα δὲ ἡ γυνὴ τῷ Καίσαρι, τίκτει Κλαύδιον Δροῦσον Νέρωνα καὶ αὐτὸν ὁ Καίσαρ ἀνείλετο, καὶ τῷ πατρὶ ἔπεμψεν.

It

is true indeed, that Drufus was intended to fucceed Auguftus, but not till after the death of Marcellus, and we find, that when Auguftus married Livia he was fo far from looking upon the child as his own, that he fent him away to his father Tiberius.

they shall be frustrated, and deliver the world from perpetual fear.

Claudius and Norbanus, so that his mother could not even be with child of him during the confulhip of C. Afinius Pollio. It is with much Afinius Pollio. greater probability, that Catrou has afferted Marcellus, the fon of Octavia to be the child in queftion. "In the year of Rome, fays he,

714, when Afinius Pollio and "Domitius Calvinus were Con"fuls, the people of Rome com

pelled the Triumvirs Octavian "and Anthony to make a durable It was

peace between them. "hoped, that thereby an end would "be put to the war with Sextus "Pompey, who had made himself "mafter of Sicily, and by the in"terruption of commerce, had

caufed a famine in Rome. To "make this peace the more firm, "they would have Anthony, whose "wife Fulvia was then dead, marry "Octavian Caefar's fifter Octavia, "who had lately lost her husband

Marcellus, and was then big "with a child, of which he was "delivered, after her marriage "with Anthony. This child re"tained the name of his own fa"ther Marcellus, and as long as "he lived, was the delight of his "uncle Octavian, and the hope of "the Roman people. It is he that

is the fubject of this Eclogue.

Virgil addreffes it to Pollio, who "was at that time Conful, and "thereby makes a compliment to "Caefar, Anthony, Octavia, and "Pollio, all at once. The Mar

❝ cellus,

gods,

"cellus whofe birth is here cele"brated, is the fame whofe death "is lamented by Virgil in the fixth "Aeneid. The Poet borrows what "was predicted by the Cumaean "Sibyl, concerning Jefus Chrift; "and applies it to this child." This learned Jefuit is fo confident of the truth of his affertion, that he has made no fcruple to alter the, ufual title of this Eclogue, and to call it Marcellus. Indeed the fitnefs of Marcellus, to be the subject of our Eclogue, and the authority of one fo throughly verfed in the Roman History as Catrou, would make one fubfcribe almoft implicitly to this fyftem. But before we give our entire assent to it, it may not be amifs to confider the weight of his arguments. I. Dio relates, that "Octavia, the mother of Mar"cellus, was married to Anthony, "in the confulfhip of Pollio, and "adds, that at the time of this "marriage, fhe was big with child "by Marcellus, her former huf"band, who was lately dead.” Dio does fay expressly, that Octavia, the fifter of Auguftus, was at that time married to Anthony, being then big with child; Tv Onтαουΐαν τήν τοῦ Καίσαρος ἀδελφήν ἐπειδὰν ὁ ἀνὴρ αυτὴς ἐτετλευτήκει, και κύουσαν προμνηστευσάμενοι. 2. “ Ser"vius, on the fixth book of the "Aeneid, fays Marcellus. "eighteen years old, when he "died at Baiae, Periit decimo octa

was

་

vo, in Baiano. Now Dio places "his death in the year of Rome "731, therefore reckoning back"wards from 731 to 714, we "fhall find the eighteen years af"figned by Servius. However, as "Marcellus did not die till the lat"ter end of 731, he must have "been near 19 when he died, "which is the age affigned him by "F. Labbe, in his Chronology." The words of Servius are, "Hic "decimo fexto anno incidit in va"letudinem; et periit decimo oc"tavo, in Baiano, cum aedilita"tem gereret." But, with that learned writer's leave, if Marcellus was born in 714, he could but just have entered into his eighteenth in 731. Propertius, who lived at the time, and ought to have known the true age of that illuftrious young Roman, fays he died in his twentieth year.

"Occidit, et mifero fteterat vigefi