force of the word fteterat, and "this expreffion agrees with a per"fon, who is almoft nineteen. "However, if Propertius did mean, "that Marcellus was twenty, it is "being very exact for a Poet, not 66 to mistake one fingle year." As for the word fteterat, Catrou certainly ftrains it to a fignification, that cannot be admitted. The word is not fo obfcure, as he would have us believe. Sto applied to time, fignifies the appointed time, decreed by fate for our death. In this fenfe it is plainly used by Virgil, in the tenth Aeneid;

and be himself shall be seen by ... them,

"reparabile tempus

❝ Omnibus eft vitae."

Therefore the words of Propertius evidently mean, that Marcellus died in his twentieth year; fo that I do not fee any other way of getting rid, of this difficulty, than by fuppofing, that Propertius, as a Poet, did not think himself obliged to be exact to Catrou mentions a year or two. another objection against his fyftem. "Marcellus was Aedile, the year in which he died, and at that "time Tiberius was only Quaeftor. "But, according to Paterculus, << Tiberius was then nineteen

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objection: only the learned father has ftrained the point a little too far, in making Marcellus and Tiberius to be of the fame age; for Tiberius muft have been two years. older, than the hero of this Eclogue. Thus far I have confidered the arguments, which Catrou uses in fupport of his fyftem, and the objections brought against it, with the utmost impartiality. I fhall: now beg leave to examine a circum ftance or two, which perhaps may give fome light into this difficulty.. Dio tells us, that when Augustus was Conful the tenth time, together with C. Norbanus, that is, in the year of Rome 730, there was a decree of the Senate made, that Marcellus should then have a feat in the fenate, and leave to fue for the Confulfhip ten years before the lawful age; and that Tiberius fhould

years

have leave to fue for any office five before the ufual time; whereupon the former was immediately made Aedile, and the latter Quaeftor; T Te Mapnéλλw Bouλεúεiv. Tε ἐν τοῖς ἐστρατηγηκόσι, καὶ τὴν ὑπατείαν δέκα ἐᾶτο ἕτεσιν ήπερ ενενόμιστο, αἰτῆσαι καὶ τῷ Τιβερίω, πέντε πρὸ ἑκάστης ἀρχῆς ἕτεσι τὸ αυτὸ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι εδόθη· καὶ παραχρῆμα γε ουτος μὲν, ταμίας, ἐκεῖνος δὲ, ἀγορανόμος, ἀπεδείχθησαν. But though Dio feems to fay, that by this decree, Marcellus had liberty to fue for the Confulship only, before the usual time, we must certainly underftand, that it extended to other offices; elfe it could have had no effect in procuring the Aedileship. It is not certainly agreed by the Criticks, what was the legal age for obtaining these offices. Lipfius fays a Quaeftor was to be twenty-five, and an Aedile twenty-feven or twenty-eight. The learned Dr Middleton, in his Treatife on the Roman Senate takes the Quaeftorian age, which was the fame with the Senatorian, to have been thirty years compleat. We have feen already, that Tiberius was born Nov. 16, 712. Therefore he could be no more than eighteen years compleat, when he was chofen Quaeftor. But he was allowed to fue for that office five years before the legal time; therefore he was to have leave to do that at eighteen which others might do at twenty-three, This falls

....

fhort of the loweft Quaeftorian age that has been fuppofed, by two years. To reconcile this difficulty, we must have recourfe to another paffage in Dio, where Maecaenas advifes Auguftus to alter the laws to as to reduce it to that which is relating to the age of magistrates, aligned by Lipfius; for he would have the Senatorian age to be twenty five, and the Praetorian thirty; Ἐς δὲ τὸ συνέδριον πεντεκαιεικοσιέτεις ταμιεύσαντές τε, καὶ ἀγορανο μήσαντες, ἤ δημαρχήσαντες, στρατη γείτωσαν, τριακοντοῦται γενόμενοι. It appears by this, that there was a confultation about that time concerning the alteration of thefe laws, and we may conclude that twentythree was then fettled to be the Quaeftorian age; for otherwise Tiberius could not have been made Quaeftor in 730. Now if Marcellus was born about the latter end of 714, the year of Pollio's Confulfhip, he was fixteen in 730. He

was enabled to fue for an office ten'

years before the usual time, which made him equal to twenty-fix, three years more than Tiberius, which difference we find to have been between the Aediles and Quaeftors. Thus it seems highly probable, that Auguftus had firft fettled the age of a Quaeftor to be twenty-three, and that of an Aedile to be twenty-fix, about the year of Rome 725, for it was in that year that Maecaenas gave the advice above-mentioned, and that afterwards, in the year

730, being willing to advance his nephew and fon-in-law to thofe dignities, he procured the decree to be made, that Marcellus who was then fixteen, might fue for the Aedilefhip ten years before the ufual time, and that Tiberius, who was then eighteen, might do it five years before the ufual time, which enabled them to enjoy the refpective offices, to which he intended to promote them. This appears to me to be a ftrong confirmation of Catrou's fyftem, as it makes it highly probable, that Marcellus was born about the latter end of the year of Rome 714, and confe+ quently, that he was the Hero of the Eclogue now under confideration.

10. Cafta fave Lucina.] Lucina is the goddefs prefiding over childbirth. Some will have her to be the fame with Juno, because the women in labour used to call upon Juno Lucina for help. But Cicero, in his fecond book de Natura Deo rum, tells us exprefsly, that he is the Moon, whom the Greeks call Lucina and Diana, and the Romans Juno Lucina. He adds, that fhe prefides over child-birth, because the time of pregnancy is counted by the revolutions of the Moon ; and mentions a jeft of Timaeus, who having related in his Hiftory, that the temple of the Ephefian Diana was burnt, on the fame night that Alexander was born, added, that it was no wonder, when Diana chose to be from home, to attend

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But to thee, O child, fhall the earth pour forib ber firft. gifts, without culture,

tanquam vagantibus. Diana dicta, "quia noctu quafi diem efficeret. "Adhibetur autem ad partus, quod "ii maturefcunt aut feptem non

nunquam, aut plerumque novem "lunae curfibus: qui quia menfa fpatia conficiunt menfes nomi"nantur. Concinne quidem, ut multa, Timaeus; qui tum in hiftoria dixiffet, qua nocte natus "Alexander effet, eadem Dianae Ephefiae templum' deflagraviffe, adjunxit minime id effe miran "dum, quod Diana, cum in partu "Olympiadis adeffe voluiffet, ab fuiffet domo." fuiffet domo." Catullus alfo, in his.. Ode to Diana, fays exprefsly, that he is Juno Lucina, Trivia, and the Moon;

zwith baccar,

ferve, by the invocation of Lucina here, that the child was not yet born.

Tuus jam regnat Apollo.] Apollo was the brother of Diana, which feems to be the caufe why tuus is here used, thy own Apollo, that is, thy brother Apollo. Servius fays, the Poet here alludes to the laft age, which the Sibyl had faid, fhould be under the Sun; and at the fame time to Auguftus, to whom a ftatue was erected, with all the diftinctions of Apollo. He obferves alfo, that Octavia, the fifter of Auguftus, was thought to be meant by Lucina. La Cerda mentions another opinion, that Apollo himfelf might be then faid to reign, because his prophecies, by the mouth of the Sibyl were then fulfilled: but he himself feems to think that Auguftus is meant. Ruaeus thinks, that Apollo himself is intended, whofe prophecies were now fulfilled. Catrou is fully perfuaded, that Lucina and Apollo are Octavia and Auguftus. That illuftrious

lady, fays he, had all the cha "racters of the chafte goddefs. "The regularity of her conduct

was always without reproach. "She is invited to caft a favourable "look on Marcellus in his birth, as the child will foon be invited to fmile on his mother. The "allegory of Lucina and Apollo, applied to Octavia and Caefar, "has fomething noble and happy in it. It is eafy to perceive Caefar under the figure of Apollo:

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"the Triumvir was fond of being "honoured under the name of this "god. The preceding year he "had erected a temple to him; and as Anthony had taken the name "of Bacchus, Octavian took the "name and the fymbols of Apollo. "It would have been an indifcre"tion in the Poet, to have made "ufe of the word regnat, if he "had applied it directly, and with" out a metaphor to Caefar. But "he applies it immediately to A"pollo, and it was a received term, " in fpeaking of a planet or of a "conftellation." That Octavia was a lady of the ftricteft virtue is cer tain; but it does not feem to be a confequence of her virtue, that the was to be invoked under the name of Lucina, to favour her own delivery, which feems to be a very odd imagination. Nor will the child be invited to fmile on his mother, but to know his mother by her fimiling on him. See the note on ver. 60. As for the temple of Apollo, if we may believe Dio Caffius, it was after the fea fight at Actium, that Auguftus made offerings to that deity, who was peculiarly worshipped at Actium, and builded a larger temple for him, which was not finished till twelve years after this Eclogue was written. As for Anthony the fame author tells us, that it was after the peace made between Auguftus and him, that he went into Greece, and took upon him the name of another Bac chus, in which the people were fond

of

of humouring him, and the Athehians carried it fo far as to make a match between the new Bacchus and their goddefs Minerva. An thony approved of the marriage, and demanded of them a large fum of money for her portion. Thus according to Dio, Anthony's taking the name of Bacchus was not till after the time of writing this Eclogue, and the building of the temple of Apollo was many years after that. Some have been fo weak as to imagine, that the Poet here alludes to a famous fup per mentioned by Suetonius, where Auguftus and his friends took upon themselves the character of feveral deities, and Auguftus that of Apollo, which is highly improbable. This ftory is not very authentic, according to Suetonius himfelf, and if Augustus had this frolick, it was in private; "Coena quoque ejus fe scretior in fabulis fuit." It was performed, when there was a fearcity in the city, which might probably be that which happened foon after the agreement between Au guftus and Anthony, and therefore might not happen foon enough to give rife to any expreffion in this Eclogue. It was cenfured as an impious and profane action, by all that knew of it; and therefore, if there is any truth at all in the ftory, it cannot be imagined, that Virgil would compliment Auguftus with the name of a deity, which he had affumed at a riotous entertainment, and had reason to be heartily a

20 and colocafia mixt with fmiling acanthus.

fhamed of. A better reafon for Auguftus to be called Apollo, than any I have feen produced, might have been brought from the beginning of the forty-fifth book of Dio; where we are told, that one principal reafon, why Julius Caefar thought of making Auguftus his heir, was that his mother Attia affirmed pofitively, that she had conceived him by Apollo; that having flept in the temple of that god, the feemed to admit the embraces of a dragon, and that her reckoning went on duly from that' time. But it seems not at all likely, that Virgift would have infinuated in this Eclogue, which is dedicated; to Pollio, that Auguftus then reigned. Pollio was the friend of Anthony, and had a large fhare in reconciling the two great Triumvirs. Now if Virgil would make his court to Pollio, he fhould at least have faid they reigned jointly. In truth I believe the complement was defigned to Pollio himfelf. He was at that time the chief Magiftrate, had a large fhare in bringing about the reconciliation, was a patron of the Muses, and a good Poet himfelf. Therefore Apollo might be faid to reign, when one of his fa-` vourite fons was in fo high a ftation. It may be obferved alfo, that the Poet immediately flides into the mention of Pollio's confulfhip, as the appointed time for all these promifed bleffings.

11. Te confule.] Here the Poet plainly points out the time, when L 2 this

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