The Daughters having performed his Command I went in eat and drank with him and then with all Submission entreated him to give me his Daughter Sephora to Wife which he promised to do provided I could bring to him a Rod which was in his Garden to which I agreed went to see for the Rod and when I found it I plucked it out of the Ground and carried it to him Jethro was surprized hereat and reflecting upon what I had done he cried out and said This is certainly that Prophet of whom the Seers of Israel have spoken who is to lay Egypt waste and to destroy its People and being thus possest he all in a Rage took me and threw me into a deep Pit that was in his Garden Sephora was not a little concerned at this Adventure no more than my self and she studied at the same time how she might save a Man's Life who had obliged her Hereupon she prayed her Father that he would let her tarry at home to look after the House and send her Sisters to the Fields to keep his Cattle Her Father in answer told her Daughter It shall be so that thy Sisters shall go and look after the Cattle but thou shalt tarry here and take Care of Matters at home Thus Sephora finding her self alone she fed me every Day with the daintiest Victuals and the same whereof her Father Jethro eat and that for Seven Years which was the time I tarried in the said Pit But at the End of that time Sephora spoke to her Father in this manner Father 'T is a long time since you have thrown into this Ditch that Egyptian who brought the Rod to you from the Place in the Garden wherein you had put it suffer now the Pit to be opened and let us see what will come of it for if he be dead let his Carcase be taken away that your House may not be polluted and if he be still alive he must be a holy Man Jethro made answer Daughter You have spoke well Can you still remember what his Name was Yes Father said she his Name was Moses the Son of Amram Jethro at the same time commanded the Pit to be opened and called me twice Moses Moses I answered him and presently he took me out kissed and told me Blessed be God who hath preserved thee for Seven Years in this Pit I bear him witness this Day that he has Power to kill and Power to make alive I will testifie aloud and every-where that thou art a right good Man that thou shalt one Day lay Egypt waste that thou art the Person who shall drown the Egyptians in the Sea and by thy means Pharaoh and his Army shall run the same Fate And at the same time he gave me Money and Sephora his Daughter to Wife Abarbinel a Jewish Doctor whose Works are highly esteemed by that People commenting upon the 2d Chapter of Exodus explains that History in this manner After Moses had been entertained by Jethro and that he came to know him to be a Man of much Understanding and deep Knowledge he was desirous to enter into a nearer and more particular Alliance with him because of the great Wisdom he had observed in his Conversation and gave his Consent he should live with him And this is that which Moses says in Exodus And Moses consented to live with Jethro not for the Love he bore to Sephora whom he married but because of Jetbro's Wisdom It is says he the Opinion of our Doctors since they say in the Commentary that the Rod of God was planted in the Garden and that no Man could pull it from thence but Moses and that for the said Reason he took Sephora to Wife for by it they meant the Tree of Life which was in the midst of the Garden that is the Wisdom of Moses upon the Account of which he was honoured with the Gift of Prophecy Jetbro gave also to Moses his Daughter Sephora to Wife by reason of his wondrous Wisdom Moses lead the People of God into the Wilderness and talked divers times with God He died upon Mount Nebo from whence God had shewed him the Land of Promise he being then 120 Years old The Pagans made him to be their Bacchus as you may see under that Word Numerinus says Plato and Pythagoras had drawn their Doctrine out of his Books and that the first of them was the Moses of Athens He is ancienter than all the Greek Writers and even than their Mercurius Trismegistus Tatian who was one of those Ancients that Apologized for the Christian Religion against the Persecutions of the first Centuries tell us That Moses was before the Heroes and even the Gods themselves of the Greeks and that the Grecians wrote nothing good but what they took from our Scriptures and that their Defign by partly corrupting them was no other than that themselves might be entituled Authors Theodoretus says Moses was ancienter by a Thousand Years than Orpheus and that he was like the Ocean or Head-spring of Theology from whence they took their Origin as so many Streams and whereunto the most ancient Philosophers had Recourse The Learned are agreed that the Two ancientest Writers of the World whose Writings are transmitted unto us are Moses and Homer and that Moses lived several Ages before the other Moses wrote much in Verse and in the Book of Numbers he has set down a Canaanitish Poet's Song of Victory MULCIBER one of the Names given to Vulcan being derived from Mulceo because the Fire softens and qualifies all Things MUNDUS PATENS The open World a Solemnity performed in a little Temple or Chappel that was of a round Form like the World and dedicated to Dis and the Infernal Gods it was opened but thrice a Year viz. on the Day after the Vulcanalia the 4th of October and the 7th of the Ides of November during which Days the Romans believed Hell was open wherefore they never offered Battle on those Days lifted no Soldiers never put out to Sea nor married according to Varro as Macrobius witnesses L. Saturn C. 16. Mundus cùm patet Deorum tristium atque Inferûm quasi janua patet proptereà non modò pralium committ◠verum etiam delectum rei militaris cansâ habere ac militem proficisci navem solvere uxorem ducere religiosum est MURTIA a Surname of Venus taken from the Myrtle-Tree which was consecrated to her She was formerly called Myrtea and corruptly Murtia Festus says there was a Temple built for the Goddess Murtia upon Mount Aventine as to a Goddess of Idleness who made People idle and lazy MUS a Rat Mouse the Phrygians held Rats in great Veneration according to Clemens Alexandrinus Polemo relates says he that the Trojans gave Religious Adoration to Rats which they called Smintheus because they once gnawed to pieces the Bow-strings of their Enemies and this was the Reason why they gave to Apollo the Epithet of Smyntheus And Straho speaking of the
that it was Noon and that it was the ninth Hour or three a Clock after Noon Accensus inc amabat horam esse tertiam meridiem nonam For three a Clock among the Romans was the ninth hour as nine a Clock was the third hour because they did not begin to reckon the first Hour of the day till â—â—x a clock in the Morning so that the third hour was nine a Clock according to us and their ninth hour of the day was our three a Clock in the Afternoon ACCENSI in the Roman Armies according to the opinion of Festus were the supernumerary Souldiers who serv'd to fill the places of those who died or were disabled to fight by any Wound they had received Accensi dicebantur quia in locum mortuorium militum subito subrogantur ita dicti quia ad censum adjiciebantur Asconius Pedianus assigns them a Station in the Roman Militia like that of our Serjeants Corporals or Trumpeters Accensus nomen est ordinis in militia ut nunc dicitur Princeps aut Commentariensis aut Cornicularius Titus Livius informs us that Troops were made of these Accensi that they were plac'd at the Rear of the Army because no great matter was expected either from their Experience or their Courage Tertium vexillum ducebat minimae fiduciae manum ACCENTUS an Accent signifies a certain Mark which is set over Syllables to make them be pronounced with a stronger or weaker Voice The Greeks were more curious Observers of the Accents than the Mederus Cardinal Perron says that the Hebrews call'd the Accents Gustus which is as much as to say the Sawce of Pronunciation There are three sorts of Accents the Acute ´ the Grave ` and the Circumflex The Jews have Accents of Grammar Rhetorick and Musick The Accent of Musick is an Inflexion or Modification of the Voice or Word to express the Passions or Affections either naturally or artificially Mr. Christian Hennin a Hollander wrote a Dissertation to shew that the Greek Tongue ought not to be pronounced according to the Accents wherein he says that they were invented only to make some Distinction of Words that Books were formerly written without any such Distinction as if they were only one Word that no Accents are to be seen in Manuscripts which are above 800 years old that none are found in the Pandects of Florence which were written about the time of Justinian that they were not commonly used till about the tenth Century or in the time of Barbarism and then they were taken to be the Rule of Pronunciation that there is no use of Accents in most Nations neither in Chaldaea nor Syria nor among the Solavonians Moscovites or Bulgarians nor was among the antient Danes Germans or Dutch and that they were unknown to all Antiquity He believes that they were an Invention of the Arabians which was perfected by Alchalit about the Death of Mahomet He adds that the Massoretes of Tiberias about the middle of the sixth Century adopted this Invention and introduced it into the Bible with the Vowels in the time of Justinian and that he who perfected the Accents was Rabbi Juda Ben David Ching a Native of Fez in the eleventh Century and that they were first used among the Greeks only in favour of Strangers and to facilitate the Pronunciation of Verse ACCEPTILATIO a Term of the Roman Law Acceptilation A Discharge which is given without receiving of Money a Declaration which is made in favour of the Debtor that no more shall be demanded of him that the Debt is satisfied and forgiven and he is acquitted of it The manner of doing this was by a certain Form of Words used by both Parties Quod ego promisi facisne or habesne acceptum said the Debtor Do you acknowledg that you have received that which I promis'd you Are you satisfied do you acquit me of it the Creditor answered habeo or facio I confess I have received it I discharge you of it But this was anciently used only in Obligations contracted by word of mouth ACCEPTUM a Receipt Tabula accepti expensi a Book of Receipts and Disbursements Ratio accepti an Accompt of Receipts ACCEPTO ferre in the Law to hold for received to write Received upon the Book Accepto acceptum ferre accepto acceptum facere to confess that 't is received Expensum ferre to write down what is disbursed to keep an Accompt of what is laid out and expended ACCIA or ATTIA Accia the Mother of Caius Octavius Caesar surnamed Augustus Suetonius relates in the Life of this Prince that Accia his Mother having gone one night with other Roman Dames to solemnize a Feast of Apollo in his Temple she fell asleep there and thought in her sleep that she saw a Serpent creep under her which soon after disappear'd when she awoke having a mind to wash and purifie her self she perceiv'd upon her Belly the Track of a Serpent which could never be obliterated and upon the account of this Mark she was obliged for ever after to forbear the publick Baths She became afterwards big with Child and was brought to bed at the end of ten Months of Caesar Augustus making the World believe that she had conceived by Apollo Augustus also gloried in it that he was his Son and Torrentius mentions a Silver Medal of this Emperour upon the Reverse whereof was seen the Figure of Apollo holding a Harp in his hand with these words Caesar Divi Filius Caesar the Son of the God Apollo ACCIPIO being spoken of a Law to receive approve and hold fit as Rogationem accipere to accept a Law proposed Accipio Omen I take or hold this for a good Omen ACCIPITER any Bird of Prey in general as an Hawk c. Ovid informs us that an Hawk was a Bird of ill Omen because it was very carnivorous Odimus accipitrem quia semper vivit in armis But the same Bird was a good Omen in Marriage according to Pliny because it never eats the Hearts of other Birds which gives us to understand that no Differences in a married state between Husband and Wife ought to go so far as the Heart and Care was also taken in the Sacrifices for Marriages that the Gall of the Animals which were slain should be taken out ACCIUS a Latin Poet who wrote Tragedies in a very harsh style according to Cicero He was of an illustrious Family being descended of two Consuls Macrinus and Soranus Decius Brutus held him in great esteem took great pleasure in adorning the Temples with this Poets Verses and erected a Statue to him in the Temple of the Muses Suet. c. 4. ACCIUS Navius one of the most celebrated Augurs who liv'd in the time of Tarquinius Priscus He opposed the Design which that King had of adding new Centuries of the Roman People to those which were already established by Romulus representing to him that he ought first to consult the Will of the Gods by the Flight of Birds Tarquin
God of him Homer makes Aeneas appear very glorious among the great Heroes of his Iliads and says That the Trojans reverenc'd him as a God The younger Philostratus in his Heroicks equals him with Hector for his size and Mien but says that he surpass'd him in Virtue and good Sense and that the Trojans call'd Hector their Arm and Aeneas their Head 'T is agreed among all these Authors that Aeneas came into Italy under the Reign of Latinus the Son of Faunus but the difficulty is to know what Year he came of which Titus Livius and many others say nothing Dionysius Halicarnassaus thinks that it was in the Forty Fifth Olympaid Cassiodorus in the Twenty Fifth and Vigenere in the Twentieth insomuch that 't is difficult to determin in a matter so much contested yet there is some reason to believe that Aeneas landed in Italy in the Thirty Fourth Year of the Reign of Latinus AENEAS Secundus or Latinus Sylvius as Sextus Victor calls him or Silius and Posthumius as Messala calls him was the posthumous Son of Aeneas and Lavinia The Name of Silvius was given him because he was brought up in the Woods whither his Mother retired for fear of Ascanius her Son-in-Law He had a great Contest with Julus his Nephew the Son of Ascanius but the Aborigines favour'd in his Person the Blood of their antient Kings and advanc'd him to the Throne and pacifi'd Julus by promoting him to the chief Honours and Employments of the State The Caesars glory in their descent from him Silvius reign'd 29 Years AENEAS Tertius Silvius reign'd 31 Years AEOLUS the Son of Jupiter and Acesta or Sergesta the Daughter of Hippotas a Trajan who is thought to have liv'd at the time of the Trajan War He commanded the little Isles call'd Aeolionae and was by the Poets made King of the Winds Virgil speaks of him as such Aeneid Lib. 1. v. 6. Hic vasto rex Aeolus antro Luctantes ventos tempestotesque soner as Imperio premit ac vinclis carere frenat But the Worship of the Winds was more antient than the Reign of Aealus The Persians and Scythians ador'd them according to Strabo and Lucian and yet they never heard a word of the King of these little â—sles All the Eastern Idolaters gave Honour to the Winds before ever the Fable of Aeolus was forg'd 'T is probable that the Sicilians and Italians took occasion from the nature of these Isles to make them the Dominion of the Winds because they frequently saw storms of Smoke Wind and Fire issued out of them Diodorus Sicedus and Varro suppos'd that the Poets attributed the Government of the Winds to Aeolus because he perfectly understood the Nature of them and was the first that invented Sails for Ships Velorum usum docuit nauticae rai studiosus 〈◊〉 ignis quoque prodigiis diligenter observatis qui â—anti ingruituri essent indigenis certo praedixit Unde ventorum praeses disponsater à fabula declaratus est Servius said that there are Nine Isles in the Sicilian-Sea whereof Varro tells us Aeolus was King And from hence came the Fiction That the Winds were under his Government because he foretold Storms that should happen by observing the Vapors and Smoke which proceeded from these Isles and ehiefly from that which takes its Name from Vulcan But this learned Grammarian after he has related this Fable confesses it was founded upon Reason Pliny says That the Isle Strongyle was one of these burning and smoking Isles that the Inhabitants by its Smoke foretold the Winds Three Days before and that upon this account it was feign'd that Aeolus was Lord of the Winds Btrabo remarks out of Polybius concerning the Isle of Lippara which is the greatest of the Seven Aeolian Isles that before the South-Wind blew it was cover'd with so thick a Cloud that it hindred the near Neighbours of the sight of Sicily but before the North-Wind blew that then this great Isle vomited up clear Flame and made an exceeding great noise and roaring upon which account the King of these Isles was called the King of the Winds AEOLIAE INSULAE the Aeolian or Vulcanian Isles near the Promontory of Pelorus in Sicily where Aeolus reigns They are Seven of which the most considerable is that of Lipara from whence proceed Winds and storms of Fire and Flames together with terrible Earthquakes which occasioned the Poets to say That it was the Habitation of the Winds and the Forge of Vulcans who with his Cyclops were the Smiths of the Gods AEQUIMELIUM a great place in Rome before the Temple of the Goddess Tellus at one end of the Street call'd Execrable This place was so call'd from Saptimus Melius a Roman Knight who had a House there which was raz'd to the ground by the Sentence of the Dictator L. Quintius Cincinnatus because he aim'd at usurping the Sovereign Power by bestowing Largesses on the People L. Minutius Commissary General of the Provisions discovering the secret Intrigues of Melius gave notice of 'em to the Senate who judg'd it an Affair of so great consequence that immediately they created a Dictator call'd Cincinnatus The next day after Melius was cited to answer the Accusation but he refus'd to appear and endeavour'd to make his escape but was pursu'd and kill'd by Serviâ—ius The Dictator order'd that his House should be raz'd to the ground and that no person for the future should build-upon the place where it stood And to perpetuate the memory of this Perfidiousness of Melius and of his Punishment the place was call'd ever after Aequimelium quasi ab aquata domo Malii pro domo sua Cicero in his Oration relates the Story thus Melii regnuâ—â— appetentis domus est complanata quid aliud aquum accidisse Meliâ— P. R. judicaret Nomine ipso Aequtmelil stultitiae pirna comprobata est Titus Livius relates the Story at large Book IV. Dec. 1. AER See it after Aerarius AERA a Number stampt upon Money to signifie the current Value of it according to Lutilius it signifies also the same with Epoch i. e. A certain Time from whence to compute or begin the new Year or some particular way of reckoning Time and Years And in this last sense the word is thought to be corrupted and to come from the custom of the Spaniards who reckon'd their Years by the Reign of Augustus who for shortness sake they commonly set down thus A. E. R. A. to signifie Annus erat regni Augusti The Transcriber not understanding this sufficiently in process of time made of these Letters the word Aera in the first sense the word comes from Aes and Aera in the Plural Number from whence was made the Aera of the Feminine Gender either because in their Accompts to every particular Sum they prefix'd the Word Aera as we do now Item or because the Number of Years was mark'd down in Tables with little Brass Nails AERA MILITUM in Suetonius the Soldiers Pay because
Praefectus aerarii the Treasurer and out of this Treasury was taken whatever was necessary for the publick Buildings for Games and Shows for the Maintenance of their Armies by Sea and Land and for the Reception of Ambassadors from foreign Nations This first Custom of gathering Taxes by the Quaestors did not last always for a new way was introduc'd of Letting out all the publick Revenues in each Province to private Men who farm'd them commonly for five years at a certain Sum payable every four Months for which they gave good and sufficient Security Nevertheless the Governors and Quaestors of Provinces were not changed they still gave Authority to these Farmers had the Oversight of them in levying the Taxes and determin'd all Differences that arose about them they took care also that the Farmers should pay the full Value of their Leases notwithstanding any Deficiencies that might happen which they run the risque of Of these Farmers Companies were made whereof some were Farmers for one kind of Tribute and others for another some were Farmers of the twentieth the tenth the eighth some of the hundredth part and of the other Taxes before-mention'd and were therefore call'd Octavarii Decimarii Vigesimarii c. Those who farm'd the Gathering of the Tribute were call'd Manicipes Redemptores vectigalium and Publicani this last Name which at first was honourable according to the testimony of Cicero in his Oration for Manlius became afterwards very odious for their Harshness and Injustice in exacting upon the People insomuch that Nero was fully resolv'd to abolish them and had done it if he had not been hindred by the Remonstrances of the Senate but he oblig'd them to set up Writing-Tables in their Places of meeting to specifie what Tribute was to be paid for each thing This way of Farming the Publick Revenues lasted a long while under the Emperours and from hence it comes to pass that in the law-Law-Books and chiefly in Pandects there is a Title De Publicanis or Of Men of Business But after the Seat of the Empire was translated to Constantinople this Method of collecting the Tribute was wholly chang'd for that which follows viz. Every year towards the End of Summer those who had the supreme Administration of Affairs under the Prince drew up a general Accompt of all that was to be impos'd and levy'd upon the People and after they had shared this among the Praefectures or Provinces and stated the particular Sum which each Province was to pay they sent Commissions which they call'd Delegationes to the four Lieutenant-Generals of the Empire who were called Praefecti Praetorio among whom it was divided but they had under them many Provinces and each Province had its own peculiar Governour These Lieutenant-Generals having received that Accompt which belonged to their share of the Empire sent particular Commissions to each Governour of a Province and he sent them to the Municipal Magistrates in each City call'd Decuriones who in each City made a kind of Corporation or Municipal Senate and took care of the Affairs of that City These Magistrates whom we may after a sort compare to our Mayors Sheriffs Aldermen Common-councilmen and Judges of the City were bound upon receiving the Tax which was to be imposed to name some Persons of their Corporation who were to lay it equally upon each particular Person upon which account they were call'd Peraequatores or Discussores and after this was done the Publick Notary or Town-Clerk enter'd down every Man's Name in a Roll and the particular Sum he was to pay which was afterward's publish'd that every one might know what he was rated at and what he must pay to the Collectors who were call'd Susceptores The Sums of Money which were rais'd by these Taxes were first employ'd to pay off those who bore any Office in the Province and the Remainder was sent to Rome to be kept in the publick Treasury which was under the Care of a Treasurer who in the times of the first Emperours was call'd Praefectus Aerarii and after Constantine's time Comes sacrarum largitionum or else it was put into the Prince's Privy-Purse and intrusted in his hands who took care of it and was call'd Comes Rei Privatae The Treasurer sent into the Provinces one of his Officers who was to press the sending of the Money and a month after another Officer who was call'd Compulsor and both of these were maintain'd at the Expence of the Governour These were the ordinary ways that were us'd in the Roman Empire for leavying the Taxes which were laid upon Persons and Lands into conquer'd Provinces But as for the Customs upom Goods imported or exported these were collected by those that farm'd them at the Sea Ports or the Gates by which they enter'd into or went out of a City according to the Tax which was laid on them AERARIUS he who was liable to be tax'd from whence comes the Phrase Aerarium fieri to be made subject to Taxes to want the Right of voting in his Tribe to be depriv'd of the Privileges and Immunities of a City and forc'd to be oblig'd to contribute to the publick Expences Ex aerariis aliquem eximere to restore one to his Rights and the Privileges of a Citizen to exempt one from Taxes AER the Air which by the Antients was taken for a Diety Anaximenes the Milesian and Diogenes Apolloniates affirm'd the Air to be their God but Cicero and St. Austin confute them by very strong Arguments This Holy Doctor informs us that these two Philosophers did no otherwise attribute Divinity to the Air but as they believ'd it was fill'd with an Infinite Intelligence and an infinite number of particular Spirits who made their abode in it and so their Opinion is co-incident with that Idea of the Platonists who thought that God was the Soul of the World and that all the Parts of the World were full of Spirits and living Substances The Assyrians and Africans gave the Air the Name of Juno or Venus Urania and Virgo as we learn from Julius Firmicus de Err. Prof. Rel. The Egyptians gave the Air the Name and Worship of Minerva as Eusebius testifies Aera verò aiunt ab iis Minervam vocari But Diodorus Sieulus has better unveil'd the Mystery of this Doctrine speaking of the Egyptians he says Aeri porrò Athenae seu Minervae nomen quadam voics interpretatione tribuisse Jovisque filiam hanc virginem putari eo quòd Aer naturâ corruptioni non obnoxius sit summum mundi locum obtineat Unde etiam fabula è Jovis vertice illam enatam Vocari autem tritogeniam quòd ter in anno naturam mutet vere aestate hieme glaucam dici non quòd glaucos id est caesios habet oculos insulsum enim hoc esset sed quòd Aer glauco sit colore To the Air was given the Name of Athena or Minerva who was thought to be the Daughter of Jupiter and a Virgin
their opinions about the Occasion of this Feast Varro will have it so call'd from a Ceremony used in all Sacrifices where the Priest being ready to offer Sacrifice asks the Sacrificer Agon ' which was used then for Agamne Shall I strike Festus derives this Word either from Agonia which signifies a Sacrifice which they led to the Altar ab agendo from whence these sorts of Ministers were call'd Agones or from the God Agonius the God of Action or from Agones which signifie Mountains and so the Agonalia were Sacrifices which were offer'd upon a Mountain Indeed the Mount Quirinalis was called Agonus and the Colline-Gate which led thither Porta Agonensis which the same Festus will have so call'd from the Games which were celebrated without that Gate in Honour of Apollo near the Temple of Venus Erycina where the Cirque of Flaminius was overflow'd by the Tiber. But it is more probable that this Feast was called Agonalia from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Sports and Combats which were us'd in Greece in imitation of those which Hercules appointed at Elis first and consecrated to Jupiter as these Verses of Ovid shew Lib. I. Fastorum v. 359. Fas etiam fieri selitis aetate priorum Nomina de Ludis Graeca tulisse diem Et prius antiquus dicebat Agonia sermo Veraque judicio est ultima causa meo There are Two Feasts celebrated at Rome of the same Name one upon April 21. which falls on the day of the Palilia on which the Building of Rome is commemorated and the other on December 11. according to Festus AGONES the Salii of whom Varro speaks in his Fifth Book of the Latin Tongue See Salii AGONES CAPITOLINI Games which were celebrated every Five Years in the Capitol instituted by the Emperor Domitian in his Consulship and that of Corn. Dolabella Sergius All sorts of Exercises both of Body and Mind were represented there as at the Olympick-Games as Players on Instruments Poets Jack-Puddings and Mimics which strove every one in his own Profession who should gain the Prize The Poet Statius recited his Thebais there which was not well lik'd as he complains in several places of his Silvae This serves to explain a place in Juvenal not well understood Sed cum fregit subsellia versu Esurit intactam Paridi nisi vendat Agaven Sat. VII v. 86. But his Thebais not having the Success he expected and he having procured no Patron by it dyed of Hunger and after being to subsist himself by selling the Tragedy of Agave the Mother of Pentheus which was never acted by Paris the Stage-Player Some Commentators explain this place of Juvenal otherwise and think the Poet meant the contrary that his Work was well receiv'd and universally applauded Altho this Explication be allowable enough yet 't is evidently contrary to the Complaints which Statius makes in several places of his Poems unless we think it better to say that Statius complains that after he had receiv'd Applause for his Thebais he was nevertheless ill requited for it afterwards In these Exercises the chief Conqueror receiv'd a Laurel Crown adorn'd with Ribbands but the others receiv'd a plain One without any Ornament as we may see by these Verses of Ausonius Et quae jamdudum tibi palma Poetica pollet Lemnisco ornata est quo mea palma caret Poets thus crowned were call'd Laureati These Sports were so much esteem'd by Domitian that he changed the Account of Years and instead of reckoning by Lustra which is the space of five years they counted by Agonalia and Agones Capitolini from their Institution to the time of Censorinus AGRARIA LEX the Agrarian Law was made for the dividing Lands got by Conquest which the Tribuni Plebis would have to be shared among the People by Poll. Spurius Cassius Vicellinus being Consul first propounded this Agrarian Law Anno U. C. 267 which was the cause of a very great Quarrel betwixt the Senate and the People but it was rejected the first time There are two Agragrian Laws mentioned in the Digests one made by Julius Caesar and the other by the Emperour Nerva but they had respect only to the Bounds of Lands and had no relation to that we now speak of Cassius perceiving the strong Opposition which some made that this Agrarian Law might not be received proposed to distribute among the People the Money which arose from the Sale of the Corn brought from Sicily but the People refused it After this first Attempt a peace was settled in Rome for some years but in the Consulship of Caeso Fabius and Aemilius Mamercus Licinius Stolo Tribune of the People proposed the Agrarian Law a second time in the year 269 from the Building of Rome This second Attempt had no better Success than the former tho it was pass'd over calmly enough Nevertheless the Consul Caeso seeing the People fond of this Law and that the Senate was positive it ought not to be received contriv'd a way to satisfie both Parties as he thought by proposing that only the Lands of the Vejentes conquer'd under his Consulship should be divided among the People but this met withno better Success than the other The Tribunes of the People being angry at the Opposition of the Senate drew up many Accusations against the Patricians and Noblemen before the People and caused many of them to be fined and banish'd which so much provok'd the Cousuls that they caused Genutius the Tribune to be stab'd this Assassination raised a great Tumult in Rome and stir'd up the People to revenge till the Consul Sempronius was condemned to pay a large Fine Lastly In the year 320 from the Building of Rome Mutius Scaevola put Tiberius Gracchus the Tribune of the People in mind to have the Agrarian Law established against the Will of the Senate Nobles and Rich Commons Octavius his Partner being rich was not of the same mind and opposed the Law Gracchus seeing that accused him before the People of Prevarication and Unfaithfulness in his Office and caused him to be depos'd with Disgrace This Obstacle being remov'd the Agrarian Law passed and Commissioners were appointed to divide the Lands AGRIPPA several Persons among the Antients bore this Name which was usually given to such as came into the World with Difficulty or which were born with their Feet forward as Aulus Gellius affirms The most eminent of this Name were AGRIPPA SYLVIUS the twelfth King of the Latins the Son of Tyberinus Sylvius whom he succeeded he reigned thirty or forty years and Aremulus succeeded him in the year of the World 3281. AGRIPPA MENENIUS surnamed Lanatus he was chosen General of the Romans against the Sabins whom he conquer'd and obtain'd the lesser Triumph called Ovation he was endow'd with admirable Eloquence which made him undertake with Success to reconcile the Senate and the People of Rome to this end he went to the Aventine Mount where he pathetically represented
is also call'd the Coptick Year is four whole months and three days before the Kalends of January which is the first day of the Roman Year The Persians count their Years as the Aegyptians do ever since Cambyses became Master of Aegypt For having ransack'd the Sepulchre of Simandius he found a Circle of 365 Cubits round every Cubit representing a day of the year which was graven and mark'd by the rising and setting of the fix'd Stars which made them fix their year to 365 days without mentioning the hours Quintus Curtius tells us that the Persians adore the Sun and have an holy Fire kindled by its Rays to be carry'd before their King who is follow'd by 365 young Lords cloath'd with yellow Robes to represent the 365 days of the Year The Arabians Saracens and Turks at this day reckon their Year by the Course of the Moon making it to consist of twelve Moons whereof some have thirty and some twenty nine days alternatively one after the other which make all together but 354 days so that the Duration of time being less than the Solar Year by about eleven days it follows that their Month Muharran which they count for their first place in the whole Course of the Solar Year which it precedes 11 days every year and more than a month in 3 years so that in less than thirty four years it runs through all the season of the Solar Year and returns to the Point from which it first began And since the exact time of the 12 Moons besides the 354 whole days is about 8 hours and 48 minutes which make 11 days in 30 years they are forc'd to add 11 days extraordinary in 30 years which they do by means of a Cycle of 30 years invented by the Arabians in which there are 19 years with 354 days only and 11 intercalary or Embolismical which have every one 355 days and these are they wherein the number of hours and minutes which are Surplus to the whole days in every year is found to be more than half a day such as 2 5 7 10 13 16 18 21 24 26 and 29 by which means they fill up all the Inequalities that can happen The Greeks consider the Motions of the Sun and Moon in their Year and as they suppos'd in antient times that the Moons Course was exactly 30 days they made their Year to consist of 12 Moons and by consequence of 360 days but quickly perceiving their error they took out 6 days to bring it to the Lunar Year of 354 days which being less than the Solar Year by 11 days they found it convenient for reconciling the Inequalities in the Motions of these two Luminaries to insert at the end of every second year an intercalary month of 22 days which they call'd upon that account 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est a Month added or inserted They understood afterwards that the 6 hours they had omitted which yet are a part of the time of the Solar Year above the 365 days and make one whole day in four years were the cause that their Year anticipated the true Solar Year one day at the end of four years which oblig'd them to change their Intercalation and put it off to the fourth year and then leaving only 354 days to the 3 first under the name of the Common Year they reckon'd 399 days to the fourth by the addition or intercalation of one month and an half consisting of 40 days arising from the 11 days by which every Solar Year exceeds the Lunar being four times counted and the day which arises from the adding of the six hours in four years And to render the Intercalation more remarkable they made a noble Consecration of it by instituting the Olympick Games in the time of Iphitas at which all Greece met together every fourth year and hence came the Computation of time by Olympiads every one of which consisted of four years and are so famous in History Nevertheless they found at last that this space of four years did not rectifie all the Irregularities that happen'd in the Courses of the Sun and Moon which oblig'd them to double 'em and make a Revolution of 8 years and because they were not hereby yet fully satisfy'd they introduc'd another of 11 years Notwithstanding this the Athenians did not receive such satisfaction as they hop'd for by this last Period of 11 years but they had still remain'd in a perpetual Confusion had not one of their Citizens nam'd Meto an Astronomer of very profound Judgment at last discover'd that all these different Changes which happen'd betwixt the two Motions of the Sun and Moon would be accommodated by a Period made up of the two former of 8 and 11 years i. e. in the space of 19 years after which those Stars return again to the same place where they were at first This Period of XIX Years of Meto was ordinarily call'd The Enneadecas eterais and was receiv'd with so great Applause among the Athenians that they would have it written in large Characters of Gold and set up in a publick Place which gave it the Name of the Golden Number and the use of it became common not only in Greece but also among the Jews who made use of it to regulate their years afterwards among the Romans and lastly among the Christians The Athenians began their Year at the New-Moon after the Summer Solstice in the Month call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. between the months of June and July All the Magistrates says Pluto must meet in the same Temple the day before the Kalends of the Summer Solstice when the New-year begins Some made their Year to consist only of three Months others of four as we read in Macrobius his first Book of his Saturnalia Chap. 12. The Carians and Acharnanians made their Year to consist of six months and Justin tells us That they reckon'd but fifteen days to their Month. The Romans had three sorts of Years 1. That of Romulus which contain'd but ten months beginning with March whence it comes that December is call'd the last Month. 2. Of Numa which corrected the gross Mistake of Romulus and added two months to the year viz. January and February making it to consist of 355 days only which makes 12 Lunar months 3. Of Julius Caesar who discovering a further Error in the Calculation viz. That there were ten days more than Numa reckon'd made a Year of 365 compleat days and reserving the six hours to the end of four years made a whole day of 'em which he inserted before the 6th of the Calends of March so that in that year they counted the 6th of the Calends twice Bis sexto Calendas whence came the word Bissextile and the year had 366 days and was call'd Bissextile And this way of computation has continued to our time and from its Author is named the Julian Year Now the 10 days which Caesar added to the year were thus distributed to
or Branches which met together in the Canal of the Aqua Julia one part of this Water was convey'd to the Country and the other to the City which was kept in fourteen Conservatories and distributed into the several Quarters of the City The fifth was that of Aqua Julia which M. Agrippa erected in the time of Augustus and to which in honour of it he gave his Name This Water was collected from many Sources into one great Water-house about six miles from Rome its Course extended to fifteen thousand paces and an half it pass'd through the Porta Esquilina and the Trophies of Marius and emptied it self into seventeen Cisterns for the Accommodation of the several Quarters of the City The sixth was that of Aqua Virginis so called because a young Maid first discover'd its Spring-head to the Souldiers when they were searching for Water as Frontinus tells us in his First Book of Aquaeducts This was also the work of Agrippa which he finished in one Year and about thirteen years after he had built the former It s Canal began about eight miles from Rome in the Territory of Tusculum near the Bridge Salaro and its Course extended to fourteen thousand one hundred and five paces It passed through the Campus Martius and emptied it self into many Cisterns for the convenience of the several Quarters of the City This Water to this day is still called Aqua Virginis and is the only ancient Aquaeduct that remains Pope Nicolas V. repair'd it The seventh Aquaeduct was that of a Lake called Alsietina four thousand paces distant from Rome and six miles to the right-hand from the Via Appia This was the Work of Augustus and from his Name it was called Via Augusta It served only to fill the Circas with Water for the Naumachiae or Sea-fights and for watering Gardens The eighth was begun by the Emperour Caligula but Death prevented his finishing it Claudius his Successor thought the Design was too brave to leave it imperfect Pliny never speaks of this Work but with great Admiration It convey'd the Water of two fine Springs call'd Caeruleus and Curtius which were in the Country of the Latins thirty eight thousand paces distant from Rome holding its Course for the space of forty six thousand paces in length through many Arches which terminate at last in the Porta Nevia and rise as high as Mount Aventine This Water was called Claudia from Claudius and was very good to drink The ninth was also begun by Caligula and finish'd by Claudius in the same year with the former It derives its Water from a place further off than any of the rest viz. at the distance of sixty two thousand paces from the City from a muddy River call'd Tiverone or Anio from which another Aquaeduct was formerly made and this latter is nam'd Anio Novus Claudius thought fit for purifying his thick and muddy Waters to make at the distance of four thousand paces from their first Rising a Pool or Pond wherein the Mud might settle to the bottom which was call'd Piscina Limaria but notwitstanding all this Precaution when the Rains fell the Water came to Rome very thick These two Works were worthy of a great Prince as well for the Height and Magnificence as for the excessive Expences that were laid out upon them which were found to amount according to the Computation of Vigenere to thirteen millions eight hundred seventy five thousand Crowns Vicit antecedentes Aquarum ductus neoâ—ssimum impendium oper iâ— inchoati à Caesare peracti à Claudio quippe à lapide quadragesimo ad eam excelsitatem ut in omnes Urbis montes levarentur c. These are the nine Aquaeducts which Frontinus treats of that had 13594 pipes which he calls Quinarios and were one inch in diameter and 3 in circumference The first Aquaeduct of the Aqua Appia had 694 pipes The Anio Vitus or the Teverone had 1981 That of the Aqua Martia had 1741 The Tepula had 445 The Julia 755 The Aqua Virgo 2504 The Alsietina 592 The Cloudia and Anio Novus 4882. Of all these Pipes there were only 10350 which convey'd Water for the City the rest were for the benefit of the Countrey There are also other Aquaeducts made at Rome since Frontinus's Time Pope Pius IV. built one in the Year 1563. which brought Water at eight miles distance from Rome between Tivoli and Praeneste 't is thought to be the ancient Alsietina Sixtus Quintus built an Aquaeduct of the Aqua Felix in the year of Grace 1581 as may appear by an Inscription engraven upon an Arch near the Gate of St. Laurence Sixtus V. Pont. Max. Ductum Aquae Felicis Rivo pass subterraneo Mil. XIII Substructione arcuata VII Suo Sumptu extruxit Anno Domini M. D. LXXXI Pontificatus I. Let us now see how the Partition and Distribution of these Waters was made into the several Quarters and private Houses There were in all Parts of the City Conservatories or Water houses which were called Dividicula or Castella into which the Waters emptied themselves and from which they were convey'd on both sides by Pipes Agrippa alone during his Edileship made an hundred and thirty of these Water-houses adorned with Statues and Pillars of Marble There were Over-seers appointed to whom the Care of them was committed who were called Castellani who distributed the Water by divers Conduits into several places of the City and even to private Houses and hindred any private Person from misapplying the Water to his own Use without Leave first had which was granted upon conditon of a certain Duty to be paid which was more or less according to the Quantity of Water any one had a mind to have Marlianus informs us That Agrippa was the first who invented this Partition of the Waters by Inches and Ounces as well for the Use of the Publick as of Private Persons The Revenue of these Waters according to the Computation of Vigenere amounted yearly to six millions two hundred and fifty thousand Crowns The Water which was not good to drink as that of Teverone emitted it self into Lakes and serv'd the Beasts to drink and to wash withal it was us'd also for Baths for dying and tanning of Hides for milling of Cloth and for representing the Naumachiae or Naval Fights in the Campus Martius And after they had serv'd for these several uses they were all gather'd together in the Cloacae or common Gutters and from thence emptied themselves into the Tiber. Nero after the Burning of Rome says Tacitus hinder'd private Persons from applying the publick Water to their own use as they had been accustomed to do made Conservatories which might serve for quenching Fires and appointed some Persons to look after them The Censors and after them the Aediles Curuli took care of the Aquaeducts and the Waters of Rome But under the Emperours Overseers were appointed who had under them many subordinate Officers who distributed them for use of the Publick and Private
a meek Prince a Wise Prudent Sober Liberal and great Captain He was sickly through his Application to Study AURELIA PORTA the Aurelian Gate above the Janiculus so called from one Aurelius a Person who had been Consul 'T is called at present St. Panecace Gate AURELIANUS an Hungarian some assign Dacia or Mysia for his Country a Man of an obscure Birth He was raised to the Throne by the Legions after he had passed through all the Offices of the Army with Honour which was the Reason that the Senate and People received him with great Applause He subdued the Scythians and Marcomanni after which Victory he exercised great Cruelties at Rome upon all Sorts of People Nevertheless he did one Act of Clemency when he took the City of Tyana in Cappadocia He met with so great Oppositions that he swore in his Wrath he would not leave so much as a Dog alive He got into the City by the Treachery of One of the Inhabitants and when the Souldiers began to plunder and put all the Citizens to the Sword according to his Resolution he told them that he would allow them to kill all the Dogs He made War with Zenobia who kept the Eastern Empire after her Husband Odenatus The Queen knew all the Oriental Languages perfectly and spoke the Greek and Latin in their Purity Trebellius Pollio says she was the fairest and most valiant of all Women she made the whole East to tremble beat the Leiutenants of the Emperor Gallienus and maintained a stout War against the Romans in which the Emperor Aurelian conquered herand carried her Captive to Rome Several blamed him for this Action but he wrote a Letter to the Senate and the People of Rome to excuse himself and in it gives such a Commendation of this unfortunate Princess as if she were one of the most formidable Enemies that the Empire ever had After this famous Victory Aurelian built a Temple for the Sun at Rome and enriched it with the Spoils of the Palmyrians and the Images of the Sun and Belus which he brought from Palmyra as Herodian assures us He wasslain between Byzantium and Heraclea as he went to the War against the Persians by the most valiant Men of his Army who believ'd this a false Slander of his Secretary named Menestheus that he sought their Lives in the 6th or 7th year of his Reign AURIGARII AURIGAE AURIGATORES Coach-men who in the publick Plays of the Cirque disputed with the Competitors with whom they contended in driving the Chariots for the Prizes which were proposed They made up certain Colleges or Societies which are distinguished by Colours of which we read the 4 Principal in Geuters Inscriptions viz. Russatam the Red Prasinam the Green Venetam the Blew and Albatam the White The Ancients thought that the 4 Seasons of the Year were represented by them in which Nature takes a new Habit or as we now speak every Troop representing one of the Seasons by its colour the Green the Spring the Red the Summer the Blew the Autumn and the White the Winter because it is covered with Snow and Ice AURORA the Mother of Memnon The Poets have feigned her to be the Day-break which gives notice of the rising of the Sun above our Hemesphere as Orpheus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 She was the Daughter of Hyperion and Thia as Hesiod tells us in his Theogonia and according to others of Titan and the Earth Some give her the Epithet of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Torch bearer because of the Light she imparts to the Earth as also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clear shining because of her Brightness The Poets represent her drawn in a Chariot having her Fingers dropping with Dew The Fable is that having one Day at the rising of the Sun cast her Eye upon Tithonus the Brother of Laomedox a young Prince of singular Beauty she fell in Love with him and carried him into Aethiopia where she had Memnon by him AURUM Gold a yellow Metal the most shining ductile heavy and precious of all Metals It is taken out of the Mines in 3 Forms 1. Of Grains of which some are round others bâ—oâ—d and long 2. In a kind of Stone 3. In Dust or Sand. The most famous Country for finding of Gold is Caribana in Peru and Vallivia in Chili Pliny says that Gold was brought into the indies by flying Aunts but he was misinformed The Poets have feigned Autmn to be the Son of the Sun as being its best Production Pindar says that Gold is a bright Fire that shines in the Night Homer compares it to the Graces for there is nothing so agreeable and welcome as Gold which Jupiter himself makes use of to gain the Favour of his Mistresses as he did to Danae by changing himself into a shower of Gold Gold was very scarce at Rome at first but it became more common afterwards Appian tells us that â—ulius Caesar brought from the Gauls to Rome 200 Markes of Gold in 2822 Crowns by the Victories which he had gained there and this Gold was called Aurum Coronarium The Gold which the Consul Cepio took out of the Temple of Jupiter at Tholouse amounting to 900â—0 â—0 of Gold but it proved unlucky to him being defeated by the imbri whence came the Proverb AURUM THOLOSANUM to signifie a fatal Thing which brings Ill-luck AUSPICIUM it was a kind of Augury amongst the Ancients when they considered the Fright and Chirping of Birds to know whether any Undertaking which they were about would prove Happy or Unfor tunate Pliny attributes the Invention of Auspicium to Tiresias the Thiban who studied the Flight of Birds ab avium aspectu and of Augurâ— to Caras ab avium garritu from their Chirping and Chattering Clemens Alexandrinus will have the Phrygians to be the first who observed the Flight of Birds which they called Praepetes as those were call'd Oscines who observed their Chirping and manner of Eating In this Sense we must understand this Verse of Horace lib. III. Od. 27. Oscinem corvum prece suscitabo Solis ab ortu The Three most considerable Birds were the Raven the Crow and the Owl as also the Eagle Vultur and Kite Romulus instituted Auspicia at Rome AUSPEX he that took the Auspicium by the flight of Birds see AUGUR AUTUMNUS Autumn the 3d. Season of the Year when they gather the Grapes and Fruits Heyrod in his Theogonia makes the Seasons the Daughters of Jupiter and Taemis and counts but three as Orpheus does in which Phidias follows him having carved but 3 Statues of these Goddesses The Aegyptians owned by three Spring Summer and Autumn allowing each 4 Months and representing them by a Rose an Ear of Corn and an Apple or Grape Nonnus about the end of the Eleventh Book of his Dionysiacks reckons 4 Seasons in the Year as does Philosâ—â—atuâ— Winter Spring Summer Autumn The Seasons sayâ— hâ— have Eyes of this Colour of dryed Roses the Daughters of the inconstant
us make our selves spoken of before we are separated one from another But the Lord came down to see the City and Tower which the Children of Men had built and said let us go down and confound their Language that they may not understand one another and from hence it was called Confusion This City thus named Confusion is Babylon and profane History much celebrates it by which it seems that the Giant Nimrod was the Founder of it This the Scripture had intimated before saying That Babylon was the Chief of his Kingdom although it was not come to that Point of Grandure which the Impiety and Pride of Men had determined to bring it Bodinus and Sabellicus confound it very unfitly with Susa and others with Bagdat or Bagdat or Bagadet in our times for the one was situate on the Banks of Euphrates and the other stands on the side of Tygris some Ruins of it are to be seen at this Day Forty Miles distant from this latter as the Authors who have seen it testify Josephus will have it that this Work was undertaken that they might have a Retreat from an other Flood if it should happen but that 's only the Imagination of this Author Some make Semiramis the Foundress of this City but she only increased and beautisied it having encompassed it with a Brick-wall cemented together with Slime after she had built several beautiful Aedifices with very pleasant Gardens in which she set on work more than 300000 Men for several Years BABYLONICI Babylonians a very voluptuous People who worshipped the Fire They washed their Bodies after their Death and wrapping them up in Cerecloth covered them over with Honey Ninus one of their Kings being slain in the Battel which he lost with Zoroastres King of the Bactrians was buried in a Tomb and Old Belus caused himself to be put after his Death into a glass Urn full of Oyl which he ordered to be inclosed in a Magnificent Monument BACCHANALIA Bacchanals celebrated in Honour of the God Bacchas and which were called Liberales or Orgiae or Dionysiaca The Orgiae Bacchanals Liberales and Dionysiaca are usually taken for the same but there was a difference between those Pagan Ceremonies for the Feasts of Liber or Libera were celebrated in Honour of Liber or Bacchus every Year on March the 17th when the Young Men between 16 and 17 Years Old put off their Garment bordered with Purple called Praetexta to take the Toga virilis from the Hands of the Praetor with a Surname which made them capable of going to the War and of the Offices of the Common-wealth But the Bacchanals were kept every Month and the Dionysiaca or Orgiae every Three Years which gave them the name of Trieterica Macrobius in the first Book of his Saturnalia Chapter 18. Having proved by good Reasons that Bacchus and Apollo are but one thing adds that the Bacchanals were celebrated every two Years upon Mount Parnassus dedicated to Apollo and the Muses where the Satyrs assisted Authors refer the Institution of the Feast of Bacchus to the Athenians which passed at first for very honest Plays and Metriments among the Pagans They carried a Barrel of Wine wound about with Vine-Branches loaded with Grapes They drew an Hee-Goat by the Horns to sacrifice him with a Basket full of Figs and Grapes having their Heads crowned with Vine Branches and the Bacchae which were the Priests of that God held in their Hands Staves twisted with Ivy dancing and wantonly playing in the Streets and crying Evobé that is to say an happy Life But these Feasts were in length of time changed into a licentious use of all Sorts of Debaucheries Varro tells us that in certain Places of Italy these Feasts of Liber or Bacchus were celebrated with such Liberty that they worshipped in Honour of him the Privy Members of a Man and that not in secret to preserve themselves from Disgrace but in publick to glory in their Wickedness for they placed them honourably upon a Chariot which they drove through the City after they had first carried it through the Country But at Lavinium there was a whole Month spent in the Feasts of Liber only during which time the greatest Filthinesses were acted till the Chariot had crossed the publick Place and was come to the House where it was appointed that the thing it carried should be put after which the most honest Matrons of the City was obliged to go and crown that infamous Depositum before the whole Multitude The Romans were not more moderate in these abominable Practices It was a certain Greek of a base Birth a Priest and Diviner skilful in the hidden Mysteries of these Sacrifices as Livy says who first settled this Feast in Tuscany and from thence it came to Rome A Company of married Women only met in the Night to celebrate those Mysteries of the God at first but a Woman named Paucula of Padua a Stage-Player by Profession admitted Girls and Boys of all Ages and conditions to them who in the darkness of the Night defiled themselves with all Sorts of Abominations and Lewdnesses but at last the Disorder and Looseness of these Feasts grew so high that the Consuls Spurius Posthumius Albinus and Quintus Martius Philippus made secret Enquiry into the Superstition of these Bacchanals which they performed in the Night with such abominable Lascivousness and utterly abolished them having found Seven Thousand Persons of that infamous Society Nevertheless part of those Superstitious Ceremonies were again established according to the Humour of those Times and an old Woman went about crowned with Ivy having a Company of other roaring Women to attend her who imitated her in her Gate and lascivious Postures who all cried out with a loud Voice Evohe She carried a Cake made with Honey of which she gave a Piece to every one she met The Athenians also celebrated a Feast to Bacchus during which the young Maids carried gilt Baskets full of Fruit and this Feast was called CANEPHORIA and the Maids CANEPHORAE from the two Greek Words which signify to carry a Basket The rerinthians put a Serpent into this Basket for the Celebration of their Mysterios dedicated to the Worship of Bacchus This is what Catullus would have us to understand by this Verse Pars obsâ—ura cavis celebrabant Orgia Cistis They had a Cover that they might preserve the Mysteries of Bacchus and hide them from the Eyes of those that were not initiated whom they treated as Profans BACCHAE Priestesses of Bacchus Menades Bassarides or Thyades the Ministers of the God Bacchus who celebrate his Orgiae or Mysteries The Bacchae which accompanyed the Troops of Bacchus took their Name from the Hebrew Word Baca which signifies to lament and howl for Lamentations Cryings and Howlings were very common in the Mysteries of Bacchus They were also called Thyades from the Hebrew word Thaha that is to say to cry and run up and down They are also named Mamallonides from the Hebrew
upon material Beings as the Heaven Stars Earth Sea Woods Rivers and other things of the like Nature which the first Men through Ignorance believed to be the sole Causes of all the Good or Evil that happens in the World But as Opinion can find no stop when once the Bounds of Nature are passed over the religious Respect which they entertained for these Beings extended itself with more Reason to the Persons themselves who had invented this Worship and had perswaded others to it This Adoration increased more and more in following Ages through the Respect which Antiquity begets and great Preeminence it gives to all things and because Men have always had an Inclination to think the Gods like themselves for this Reason which Cicero gives which is that there is nothing that appears so excellent to Man as Man himself they came by Degrees not only to deify the Inventers of these Worships but also to confound them with the Deities which they had found out Hence it came to pass that the same God was worshipped in several Places of the World under different Names as all the Mythologists confess because they bore the Name of those eminent Persons who had each of them settled their Worship in those Countries Wherefore 't is probable that 't was Fauna who first began the Worship of Terra or the Earth at least in Italy since she was after confounded with that Deity there She was called Bona Dâ—a or the Good Goddess by way of Excellency and that for the best Reason in the World because there is no being that does Men more good If the Sex of this Queen were not enough to make us think this Deity rather to be a Female than a Male since they are often not distinguished yet that which bears Fruits as the Earth doth hath so much greater likeness to a Woman than a Man that we need search no farther for a Reason and this is the manifest cause why Women were only to perform her Service and Men totally excluded This Non-admission might also proceed from this Story That this devout Queen was so chast that no Man but her own Husband ever saw her nor knew her proper name for she was called Fauna in after Ages for no other Reason but because her Husband's name was Faunus In Respect therefore to her signal Chastity it was that all Men are forbidden to be present at her Worship the High-Priest himself in whose House it was performed and who was the Chief-Minister in all others not excepted for he was obliged to depart out of his House before they began and carry along with him all the Men which were there of what Quality soever they were All Pictures also which represented any Male were covered the vestal Virgins were summoned to it Of all Plants with which the House was to be adorned only the Myrtle was forbidden because it was consecrated to Venus and her Service began just at Night Velari pictura jubetur Quaecunque alterius Sexus imitata figuram est Juv. BOOTES Charles's Wain a Constellation in the Heavens called by the Greeks Arctophilax which signifies the Keeper of the Bear because he drives a Chariot drawn by Fourteen Stars after the manner of an Ox-head BOREAS the North Wind called also Aquilo it blows between the Oriental and the North Solstice The Poets feign him to be the Son of Astreus and falling in Love with Orythia stole her that he might have the Enjoyment of her Philostratus makes Boreas the King of the Winds who sent his Two Children Zethes that is to say a strong Blast and Calais i. e. a gentle Gale in the Expedition to Colchos But Apollonius Rhodius gives us a more particular Account of this Fable The Children of Boreas says he were also in the Expedition at Colchos He begat them of the Nymph Orythia whom he stole from Athens These Two Persons had gilded Scales which covered their Shoulders and Wings on their Feet with a long Purple Head of Hair They drove the Harpies which much molested Phineus King of Thrace into the Island Strophades but were warned by Iris to desist from the Pursuit that they might not hurt Jupiter's Dogs as the Harpies were Pausanias tells us that the People of Megalopolis in Greece gave as great Honour to the Wind Boreas as to any God whatsoever because he had assisted them with a great Force against the Attempt made upon them by the Lacedemonians They dedicated says the same Author in his Eighth Book Page 513 an Altar to the Wind Boreas and the Citizens offer'd a Sacrifice to him every Year Boreae ara dicata est cui anniversarium Megalopolitani sacrum faciunt c. When Homer says that the North Wind was transformed into a Stone-Horse and covered several fine Mares of which he begat Twelve Colts so swift and light that they could run upon the tops of standing Corn without breaking it and upon the Waves of the Sea without making any Impression upon them 't was because he really believed that they were Mares that would conceive by the Influences of the Wind. Virgil relates that as a true Story of the West Wind which Homer speaks of Boreas as a Fable BOS an Ox a Beast which the Ancients offered in Sacrifice to several of their Deities as Jupiter the Chief of their Gods and such an Ox according to Homer ought to be Five Years old Yet Plutarch assures us that Solon forbad by his Laws that Oxen should be sacrificed but Aelian explains it of Oxen used in plowing Oxen were also sacrificed to Cybele the Mother of the Gods and those Sacrifices were for that reason called Tauropolia to return Thanks to that Goddess of the Earth for teaching Men the Art of taming those Creatures and using them in tilling the Ground The Greeks also offered black Bulls to Neptune to denote the raging of the Sea when it is moved The Superstition of the Ancients proceeded so far as to offer Hecatombs or Sacrifices of an Hundred Oxen to Jupiter Strabo teaches us that these Hecatombs came from the Lacedemonians who every Year offered a Sacrifice of an Hundred Oxen in the name of an Hundred Cities which were under their Command and Government But these Expences appearing too great to some Persons they reduced these Sacrifices to Twenty five Oxen and supposed through a Childish Distinction that because these Oxen had each of them Four Feet it was sufficient to make an Hecatomb that there was the number of an Hundred found in those parts One of the Ancients finding himself in great Danger upon the Sea through a Tempest promised to offer an Hecatomb if he escaped but being not able to discharge his Vow by reason of his Poverty he contrived to make an Hundred small Oxen of Dough and to offer them to the Gods that had delivered him Some attribute this false Hecatomb to Pythagoras for Diogenes Laertins tells us that the Philosopher having found out a new Demonstration in his Trigonometry offered
me so much and torment your selves for me who am happier than you Is it because the Darkness wherein I am frights you or because you think I am smothered with the Weight of my Tomb But a Dead Man has nothing to fear since now he is past all Apprehensions of Death and my burnt or putrified Eyes have no need to see the Light Besides were I miserable what good could all your Complaints do or the smitings of your Breasts to the Tunes of Instruments and this crowned Tomb these Tears and Lamentation of Women Do you think this Wine which you pour out runs down to Hell or is good to drink in another World as for the Beasts which you but in Sacrifice one part of them rises in Smoke and the rest is consumed into Ashes whic are very indifferent Food This sort of mourning for the Dead was much alike at Rome and Greece But their Burials differ according to the Diversity of Nations for the one burn or bury them and the other embalm them I have been present at the Feasts in Aegypt where they set them at the end of their Table and sometimes a Man or Woman is forced to deliver up the Body of his Father or Mother to conform to that Custom As for Monuments Columns Pyramids and Inscriptions nothing is more useless there are some that celebrate Plays in Memory of the Dead and make Funeral Orations at their Burials as if they would give them a Certificate or Testimonial of their Life and Manners After all this some treat the Company where the Friends comfort you and desire you to eat How long say they will you lament the dead You can't recall them to Life again by all your Tears Will you kill your selves with Despai◠for your Friends and leave your Children Orphans You ought at least to eat because by this means you may mourn the longer Thus far Lucian When the Body is laid upon the Pile of Wood to be burnt some Person opens his Eyes as it were to make him look up to Heaven and having called him several Times with a loud Voice his next Relation sets Fire to the Pile of Wood with a Torch turning his Back upon it to shew that he does that Service for the Dead with Regret Pliny is of Opinion that burning of the Bodies of the Dead was not ancient at Rome We do not says he find that any of the Cornelian Family were burnt till Sylla but Pliny seems to contradict himself when he writes that King Numa forbad to pour Wine upon the Fires which were kindled for the burning of the Dead and Plutarch assures us that Numa did strictly forbid that his Body should be burnt after his Death but he ordered Two Tombs of Stone to be built in one of which his Body should be laid and in the other those holy Books which be had written about Religion and the Worship of the Gods which is Proof that burning of Bodies was very ancient and that it was at least used in his Time The Laws of the XII Tables which were made Three Hundred Years after the building of Rome which forbad the Burial or burning of Bodies within the City does not at all favour the first Opinion of Pliny for nothing else can be concluded but that there were Two ways of disposing of dead Bodies in use burying or burning and both were forbidden within the City to avoid Infection and secure it from the danger of Fires which might happen by that means Cicero teaches us that the Custom of burying Bodies was introduced at Athens by Cecrops and that they buried them with their Faces to the West whereas at Megara they turned their Faces to the East The Custom of burying Bodies lasted a very long time throughout all Greece and that of burning them came from the Gymnosophists of India who had used it long before The Aegyptians embalm the Bodies of the Dead to preserve them from Corruption The Aethopians had diverse ways sometimes they cast them into the Currents of Brooks and Rivers sometimes they burnt them or put them in Earthern Vessels according to the Testimony of Herodotus and Strabo The Indians eat them that by this curious Secret they might give them a second Life by converting them into their own Substance Those People whom Herodotus calls the Macrobies or Long-lived dry the Bodies then paint their Faces with white and so restore them to their Natural Colour and Complexion Then they wrapt them up in a Pillar of Glass in which having kept the Body a whole Year they set it up in some place near the City where all might see it Diodorus Siculas relates that there were certain People who after they had burnt the Bodies put their Ashes and Bones into Statues of Gold Silver and Earth covering them over with Glass The Garamantes bury their dead on the Shore in the Sand that they may be washed by the Sea When the Body of the dead is consumed by the Fire and all present have taken their last farewell Vale aternum nos eo ordine quo Natura vlouerit sequemur the nearest Relations gather up the Ashes and Bones which they sprinkle with holy Water and then put them into Urns of different Matter to set them in their Tombs pouring out Tears upon them which being catched in small Vessels called Lacrymatoriae they are likewise reposited with the Urn in the Tomb. It is very uncertain how they could gather the Ashes and keep them mingling with those of the Wood and other things which were burnt with the Bodies Pliny mentions a sort of Linnen which grows in the Indies called by the Greeks Asbestos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be burnt of which is made a Cloath that will not burn although it be cast into the Fire In this the Body being wrapped up the Ashes of it may easily be kept together without mixing with those of the Wood but this is not probable since the same Pliny tells us that this Cloth was very rare and was preserved for the Kings of the Country only Perhaps they made use of another Cloath made of the Stone Amiantus which Pliny says they had the Art of spinning at that Time and Plutarch assures us that in his Age there was a Quarry of that Stone in the Isle of Negropont and the like is found in the Isle of Cyprus Tines and elsewhere They might have also some other Invention as to set the Body upon the Fire in a Coffin of Brass or Iron from whence it was easy to gather the Ashes and Bones that were not consumed CADMUS the Son of Agenor King of Phoenicia who was sent by his Father to find out Europa which Jupiter had taken away but not hearing of her after several long and dangerous Voyages he went to consult the Oracle of Delphi who ordered him to build a City in the Place whither an Ox should lead him And preparing in the first place to sacrifice to the Gods he sent
says Delatus est a clementissimis Principibus ordinarius consulatus he was made Consul the first of January Constantine the Great restored the antient custom and ordered that the Consulship should be for a whole year making yet some titular Consuls as Julius Caesar had done according to Suetonius Cassiodorus relates a formular made use of by the Emperors in conferring the dignity of a Consul which may be seen lib. 6. Ep. 21. A Catalogue of the Roman Consuls And an Abridgment of all the memorable deeds that were transacted during their respective Consulate THe Romans having driven away Terquinius Superbus resolved never to suffer any more the Government of Kings and established a kind of Government mixt of Aristocracy and Democracy the people chose every year two Soveraign Magistrates called Consuls because they bestowed their Counsels and care upon their Country Their authority was equal and had no other limits but the time They were cloathed with purple like Kings and had Serjeants as well as they or Mace-bearers carrying bundles of Rods with an Ax bound up in the midst of them owning no Superiours but the Gods and the Laws The Senate was the Council of the Consuls and judged of all sorts of affairs but there was appeal from them to the people They had also other Judges and inferiour Magistrates of whom we shall speak in the sequel of this Book This change happened in the year of the creation of the world 3545. of the foundation of Rome 244. and before the birth of our Saviour 509. The first Consuls were the Authors of the publick liberty viz. LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS and LUCIUS TARQUINIUS COLLATINUS This last was not only forced to quit his Consulship but also to go out of Rome because his name was the same with that of the banished Tarquinius and PUBLIUS VALERIUS was chosen Consul in his room to make an end of the year Brutus having called the people together and caused them to take an Oath that they should never submit themselves to the Royal Authority afterwards he increased the Senate with three hundred new Senators and was killed at the head of the Horse fighting against Aruns Tarquinius his Son The Ladies mourned a whole year for him because they lookt upon him as the Revenger of violated chastity in the person of Lucretia Valerius chose for his colleague in the room of Brutus either Titus Lucretius as Livy says or Spurius Lucretius Tricipitinus Father to Lucretia Anno Mundi 3547. Romae 246. M. HORATIUS PULVILLUS P. VALERIUS Horatius dedicated the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus which Tarquinius had built he signalized his courage at the Siege that Porsenna King of Tuscany had laid before Rome who having seized upon Janiculum Castle attacked the Sublician Bridge which had a communication with the Town and had almost got possession of it but Horatius alone made head against the Enemies at the entry of the Bridge whilst his own men were cutting it down behind him and then threw himself down into the Tiber and got safe into the Town having received no wounds in the very midst of the Darts his Enemies flung at him A. M. 3548. R. 247. M. VALER VOLUSIUS PUBLIUS POSTHUMIUS TUBERTUS The Calendars of the Capitol record two Consuls after these viz. Spur. Largius Flavus or Ruus and T. Herennius Aquilinus and instead of Marcus the Roman Calendars record T. Valerius Cassiodorus P. Valerius Plutarch agrees with Livy and adds the Sirname of Tubertus to that of Posthumius which Livy doth not mention These two Consuls got two great Victories over the Sabines for which they obtain'd the Honour of publiek Triumph A. M. 3550. R. 249. Publius Valerius Publicola Titus Lucretius Plutarch records this Consulship as the fourth of Valerius and Dionysius Halicarnasseus puts M. Horatius in the room of Iucretius During this Consulship Appius Clausus a Sabine who was afterwards named Claudius came to shelter himself at Rome with those of his Party to the number of five thousand He was received in the Senate where he took a place as Senator and the freedom of Citizens was bestowed upon the other Men that came along with him with two Acres of Ground to each of them upon the Banks of Anio A. M. 3551. R. 250. MENENIUS AGRIPPA LANATUS PUBLIUS POSTHUMIUS TUBERTUS Valerius Publicola died in the beginning of the following Year crowned with Glory and Blessings the Roman Ladies mourned for him as they did for the death of Brutus The Sabines made an Irruption into the Roman Territories Posthumius the Consul made head against them but they forc'd him to retire to a disadvantageous place where they besieg'd him yet Agrippa's Colleague got him off and vanquish'd the Sabines The great Triumph was decreed to Agrippa and the lesser called Ovatio to Posthamius A. M. 3552. R. 251. VIRGINIUS OPITER TRICOSTUS SPUR CASSIUS VICELLINUS These Consuls defeated the Aruntians and cut off the Head of all their Generals after they had led them in Triumph The Lands of the Aruntians were destributed to the People to punish them for the plunder they had committed in the Roman Country A. M. 3553. R. 252. POSTHUMIUS CAMINUS ARUNCUS T. LAERTIUS Cassiodorus reckons two Years less but this supputation agrees with Eutropius Upon the rumour that Manilius Tarquiniu's Son-in-law was making a powerful League against the Romans to restore Tarquinius the Senate re-united the authority of the Consuls in the person of one Magistrate whom they created and called him Dictator He had power of life and death over the Romans and had four and twenty Lictors walking before him The first that was honour'd with this Office was T. Largius A. M. 3554. R. 253. SERVIUS SULPITIUS M. TULLUS or TULLIUS LONGUS There was nothing considerable done this year during which all things were quiet A. M. 3555. R. 254. T. AEBUTIUS HELLUA C. or L. or P. VETURIUS GEMINUS The Consuls besieged Fidenas and proclaimed war against the Latins who had sided with all the Enemies of Rome A. M. 3556. R. 255. CLELIUS SICULUS T. or LAERTIUS FLAVUS The Latins having made a Confederacy with the people called Volcae the Romans made Aulus Posthumius Dictator to resist them The Armies did encounter near Lake Regillus where there was a bloody and obstinate Fight and it was reported that Castor and Pollux had fought for the Ro-mans under the shape of two young Horsemen and that they had themselves brought to Rome the news of the Victory obtained by the Romans The Senate ordered the honour of Triumph to the Dictator A. M. 3557. R. 256. AULUS SEMPRONIUS ATTRATINUS M. MINUTIUS AUGURINUS They dedicated the Temple of Saturn and instituted the Feasts called Saturnalia for the 17th day of December Tarquinius and Manilius engaged seventeen Commonalties of the Latins against Rome A. M. 3558. R. 257. AULUS POSTHUMIUS ALBUS REGILLENSIS T. VIRGINIUS TRICOSTUS A War was proclaimed against the Volcae A. M. 3559. R. 258. APPIUS CLAUDIUS SABICUS M. or P. SERVILIUS PRISNUS This Year was
portended good and evil joy and sorrow Of these last some were called Consiliaria which happened while they were advising about some affair others Auctoritativa which happened when the business was done to give their approbation to it and countenance it Others were called Monitoria which gave warning of what should be avoided Pestifera which threatned some evil or danger Deprecanea which carried with them an appearance of danger and yet were without danger Familiaria which prognosticated the evil that was to befal some Family Publica out of which they drew predictions for thirty years and Privata by which they foretold things to come only for ten years FUNAMBULI Dancers on the Ropes The Art of the Dancers on the Ropes is very ancient Terent makes mention of them in the Prologue to Hecyra Capitolinus in the life of Marcus Aurelius says that the Emperors Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus dress'd in magnificent Habits were Spectators of the Games ordered for their Triumphs and that among other marks of Marcus Aurelius's kindness he had that regard for the Dancers on the Ropes to order that Quilts should be laid along under the Rope because of a little Boy who dancing on the Rope fell down and from hence comes says he that to this present time viz. to the time of Dioclesian there were Nets spread under the Rope These Games were represented while Marcus Aurelius was Emperor in the 18th year of his Tribuneship the 164th year of our Lord. Suetonius in the life of Galba relates a wonderful thing which shews that not only Men but also Animals were capable of being instructed in the Art of dancing on the Ropes The 19th year of Tiberius's Empire whic his the 32d year of our Lord Galba being Praetor ordered the Games and Feasts called Floralia to be kept wherein he gave new shews to the people viz. Elephants walking on the Rope Afterwards in the Reign of the Emperor Nero in the great Games instituted for the Eternity of the Empire as Suctonius relates a great many persons of both Sexes shewed their Skill by several sorts of Games and among others a Roman of the Sequestrian Order sitting on an Elephant run per catadromum i. e. on a stretched Rope as Casaubon interprets it Pliny in the 8th Book c. 2. says that Germanicus gave publick Games of Gladiators wherein Elephants performed many Feasts of Activity throwing Swords in the Air and fighting like Gladiators and danced in Armour and walked on the Rope and in the following Chapter Pliny speaking of the docility of these Creatures 'T is a strange thing says he that there are some so skilful as to ascend a long stretched Rope and what is more incredible to descend again backward with less trouble than they went up And if we take it from the first ages of our Lord Petronius Juvenal and Quintilian speak of dancers on the Ropes Petronius gave this description of them Stupea suppositis tenduntur vincula lignis Quae super acrius praetendit crura viator Brachia distendens gressum per inane gubernat Before the coming of our Lord Horace in the 2d Book of his first Epistle makes an allusion to the Dancers on the Ropes Messala who lived 260 years before the coming of Christ is the first man who has rendred the word Schoenobates by that of Funambulus in Latin as Acron relates in his Notes upon Herace It must be granted that 't is very difficult to determine precisely the time that men danced first on the Ropes yet 't is to be supposed that this art came into practice a while after the Games of the Stage and Comedy which was invented in the diversions of the Vintage by occasion of the Leather-bottles upon which they leapt and danced Saliere per utres Shews of Dancers on the Ropes were never accounted among the publick Games and this Trade was rather looked upon as the skill and diversion of private men than any thing else belonging to the Stage for we never read that they received any publick reward like Players of Comedies nor had any rule in their Art And yet there were some presents made to them but these Presents were made out of the liberality of the people and not out of the publick rewards set for them like those that were settled for Players Lipsius places Shews of Dancers on the Ropes in the rank of private diversions for tho they danced in the Chorus's of publick Games notwithstanding their Dances were not an essential part of these Games till the Emperor Carinus's time The Cyzicenians had a singular skill in dancing on the Ropes as says an anonymous writer of Geography who lived in the time of Canstans and Constantius whose Manuscript is kept in the French Kings Library This Manuscript informs us that the Cyzicenians and their neighbours had so great a skill in leaping and dancing even on the Ropes that they exceeded in that art all other Nations and accounted themselves to be the first Inventers and Masters thereof The Greeks had Dancers on the Ropes from the first institution of Scenic Plays which were invented about the time of Icarius the Son of Erigonus or of Dimysius sirnamed Liber Pater and first introduced into Athens by Theseus The Dancers on the Ropes appeared first at Rome during the Consulate of Sulpitius Peticus and L. Stelon the first Introducers of Plays in Rome acted for Licinius the first time in the Isle of the River Tiber and then represented on the Stage by the orders of the two Censors Messala and Cassius The Greeks called the Dancers on the Ropes by these several Names Schoenobates Acrobates Orebates and Neurobates as we read in the first Book of Bullenger de Theatra who tells us that there were four kinds of them In the first rank he places those who vaulted round about the Ropes like a Wheel about its Axle-tree and hung themselves by the Feet or the Neck Nicephorus Gregoras says that he saw in his time at Constantinople some of these Dancers tumbling about a Rope The second kind of these Dancers were those who let themselves slide downward along a Rope lying upon their Breasts holding their Arms and Legs stretched out Of these the Manilius Nicetas and Vopiscus speak in the life of Carinus saying Neurobatem qui velut in ventis cothurnatus ferretur exhibuit In the third order of these Dancers mentioned by the same Manilius were ranked those who run on a Rope being stretcht horizantally slanting The fourth kind were those who did not only walk on a bent Rope but also leapt and played many such tricks as a Dancer might do on firm ground at the sound of a Flute and of these speaks Symposius when he relates the Dances of the Funambuli FUNDA A Sling an Instrument of Ropes to fling Stones with a greater violence In former ages they tied Slings to the Balista The Inhabitants of the Baleares Islands were formerly excellent men at Slinging Vegetius ascribes to them the
Ludios were called Histriones by the Tuscans HOMERUS Homer Velleius Paterculus reports that Homer was the wittiest Man that ever was born and that he deserved the Name of Poet by excellency that as he never had imitated any one that was before him so after him none had been able to match him and in fine that he and Archilochus were the only Men who had begun a great work and had carried it to its perfection Homer has left us two incomparable Works one of the Trojan War intituled Iliads and the other of the long and dangerous Voyages of Ulysses under the Title of Odysses each of them divided into four and twenty Books Alexander the Great order'd them to be laid up in a Case inlaid with precious Stones he got amongst the Spoils of Darius King of Persia Yet 't is uncertain where Homer was born and many Cities of Greece ascribe to themselves the honour of his birth Lucian speaks thus on this account 'T is neither known what Homer was nor what he did nor his Country nor his extraction nor the time wherein he lived otherwise there would not be so much dispute as there is on this subject nor would the people doubt whether Colophon was his Country or Chio or Smyrna or Cumae or Thebes or a hundred other Cities nor whether his Father is Maeonis the River of Lydia or some Man of that Name and his Mother Menalepis or some Nymph of the Dryades and whether he lived in or since the time of the Hero's For 't is neither known whether he is more ancient than Hesiod under the name of Melesigena or whether poor or blind as is the common rumour The same Lucian in the description of the Island of the Blessed says again When I had been two or three days in that Country I accosted Homer and desired him to tell me where he was born because it was one of the greatest Questions amongst the Grammarians he told me they had so perplex'd him upon that subject that he himself knew nothing of the matter but that he believed he was of Babylon and there call'd Tigranes as Homer amongst the Greeks being deliver'd to them for an Hostage I then ask'd him whether he made those Verses which are disallowed and damn'd as none of his He told me he did which made me laugh at the impertinence of those that will needs deny them I also enquir'd why he had begun his Poem with anger and he said it was done without design and that he did not write his Odysses before his Illiads as several held As for his pretended blindness I did not speak to him on it because I plainly saw the contrary Tatian one of the most ancient Apologists of the Christian Religion reports that Homer was before all Poets Philosophers and Greek Historians and is the most ancient of profane Writers However he affirms that Moses is more ancient than Homer himself Tertullian has observ'd that the Pagans did not deny that the Books of Moses were extant many ages before the States and Cities of Greece before their Temples and Gods and also before the beginning of Greek Letters In fine he says that Moses liv'd five hundred years before Homer's time and the other Prophets who came a long while after Moses were yet more ancient than all the Wise men Law-givers and Philosophers of Greece And by consequence the Holy Scripture is without comparison much older than Homer and as the Poesy of Homer who liv'd so many ages before all the Philosophers Historians and Greek Writers was a pattern to them so in the like manner Homer has follow'd the truths of the holy Scripture as they were then spread abroad in the World Aelian assures us that Ptolomeus Philopator King of Egypt having built a Temple to Homer he set up therein his Figure upon a Throne with the representation of all the Cities that pretended to the honour of his birth and that Galaton drew the picture of Homer with a Torrent coming out of his Mouth at which all Poets were drawing water We learn from Plutarch that Alexander had always the Illiads of Homer under his Pillow with his Dagger and laid it up in a little Casket of an extraordinary value that was found amongst the Spoils of Darius Horace has written in one of his Epistles an Encomium on the Illiads and Odysses of Homer and declares at first that neither Chrysippus nor Crantor who excell'd amongst the Stoicks and Academick Philosophers and had set down the most perfect rules of Morals had never so well conceiv'd nor so happily explain'd the nature and the laws of honest and profitable virtue and vice as Homer himself had done in his Illiads Trojani belli scriptorem c. Horace gives reason for what he did saying that the Illiads represented wonderful well the passions and the fatal consequences of the foolish conduct of many Kings and Nations Cur ita crediderim nisi quid te detinet audi In the City of Troy Antenor pretended that Helena should be restor'd and Paris oppos'd him and sacrificed his own Country to his brutish passion In the Grecian Army Achilles and Agamemnon fell out one follows the passion of his Love and the other the transports of his Anger Nestor endeavours to bring them to an Agreement but to no purpose On the contrary the Odysses represents in the person of Ulysses a perfect model of Wisdom and Virtue when after he had took revenge of the unchastness of Paris upon the City of Troy he runs for a long while so many dangers at Sea overcomes Storms and Adversities and resists the Inchantments of Mermaids and Circe viz. Voluptuousness which stupifies those who give themselves over to it On the other side the Noblemen of Ithaca who pretended to marry Penelope shew us the effeminate life and the fatal end of voluptuous Men for at last they washed with their own blood the wrong they had done to Ulysses during his absence and the infamous debaucheries they had committed in his Palace Of all the great Men of Antiquity none had so great honours perform'd to them as Homer For besides the Statues erected to him and Medals stampt with his Effigies they erected also Temples and Altars to his honour where they offer'd him Sacrifices And a Sect of Christians call'd Carpocratians ador'd and burnt Frankincense to Homer's Image in the like manner as they did to the Images of our Lord and St Paul as St Austin and St John Damascen and the Book ascrib'd to the Emperor Charles the Great tells us We have still many ancient Monuments of the divine honours that were perform'd to this great Poet and amongst others a very ancient Marble which was found in the Territory of Terrentium M. Cuper tells us that Archelaus of Priene who made that work as it appears by the Inscription thereof endeavoured to express thereby the Apotheosis of Homer He is represented by this figure setting on the top of Mount Olympus holding a
Evening-star The beginning of the night was called Crepusculum after that they lighted the Lamps and that time was called Prima fax Prima lumina when they went to bed Concubitum or Concubia nox the time of the first sleep Nox intempestia or silentium The middle of the night was called Media nox then Gallicinium the Cocks crowing then Conticinium when the Cock had done crowing After that came Diluculum the dawning of the day and at last Aurora and Solis ortus HORATIUS Horace There were many of this name HORACE called COCLES or one ey'd A Roman Captain who sustain'd the efforts of the Enemy attempting by force of Arms to restore King Tarquinius into Rome till the Sublician Bridge was broke and then cast himself into the Tiber and thus escap'd the Enemies fury The Consul Publicola erected him a Statue in the Temple of Vulcan HORACE Sirnamed Flaccus Native of Venusian a Town in Apulia a Lyrick Poet and intimate Friend of Maecenas a great Lover of Learned Men. He has left us four Books of admirable Odes wherefore the Romans have no occasion to envy the Greeks Pindar besides a Book of Epods two Satyrs and several Epistles with a learned Treatise of the Art of Poetry which have made him famous to posterity He died the 57th year of his age and 746 after the foundation of Rome There were also three Brothers of that name who fought for the Roman Liberty with three Brothers call'd Curiatii of the City of Alba the Inhabitants whereof pretended to the Soveraign Power Two of the Horace's lost their Lives in the fight but the third who remain'd alive himself kill'd the three Guriatii and thus the Inhabitants of Alba became Subjects to the Romans Horace came victorious to Rome and was receiv'd with the Acclamations of the people but he blasted his Victory by the death of his Sister who was to marry one of the Curiatii not being able to bear the reproachful words of an angry Maid for the death of her Lover HORMUS A kind of Dance of Girls and Boys where the Boy leads the Dance with Masculine and Warlike Postures and the Girl followed him with soft and modest steps to represent an Harmony of two Vertues Power and Temperance HOROLOGIUM A Clock an Engine that moves of it self or has the principle of its motion in it self used to measure Time and shew the hours of the day and night At first the Romans had no certain Rule for the time of their Employments they measur'd it only by the Course of the Sun Pliny reports that in the Laws of the twelve Tables that were collected in the Year 301 there was nothing mention'd concerning time but only the rising and the setting of the Sun and Noon Papyrius Cursor set up a Sun-Dial at the Temple of Quirinus but it did not prove right Thirty years afterwards the Consul M. Valerius Messola as Varro relates after the taking of Catana in Sicily in the Year 477 during the first Punick War brought from thence to Rome a Dial which he fasten'd to a Pillar near the Rostra but the Lines thereof not being drawn according to the degrees of the latitude of the pole it did not prove exact yet they made use of it during the space of eleven years when Martius Philippus Censor with L. Paulus set up another more true The Greeks were also a long time without either Clocks or Sun-Dials Anaximenes Milisius Anaximander's Scholar was the first Inventer of Sun-Dials amongst the Greeks Pliny says that Thales shew'd the use thereof to the Lacedemonians The Greeks called them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Romans Solaria But how exact so ever these Dials were yet in the night or in cloudy weather they were of no use Wherefore Scipio Nasica the Colleague of Lanatus to prevent this inconveniency found out the Clepsydra or Water-Clock 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to steal Water because it pass'd so insensibly that it seem'd to steal upon the sight Pierius in the sixth Book of his Hieroglyphicks says that the invention of the Clepsydra was found in the Town of Achanta beyond the River Nile where three hundred and sixty Priests were every day pouring water out of the Nile into a Vessel out of which they let the water drop by little and little to measure the hours of the day And tho' the word Horologium commonly signifies Clocks that go by Weights and have Wheels and a Ballance with a Bell yet those that are made with Wheels and fit to carry about called Watches and those called Sciotherick Dials or Sun-Dials which shews the hour by the shadow of a Needle elevated upon different surfaces falling upon lines dispos'd in order by Gnonomicks may be called also by the name of Horologia as well as the Clepsydra's and Clocks with Wheels and Bells Vitâ—uvius speaks of many kinds of Sun-Dials The Hemicyclus or the half Circle is a Dial hewn into a square and cut to incline like the Equinox Berosus a Chaldean was the inventer thereof The Hemisphere Dial was found out by Aristarchus Samius The Dials call'd Scaphia were hewn in a round Figure having an elevated Needle in the middle The Discus of Aristarchus was an horizontal Dial the sides whereof were somewhat rais'd to prevent the inconveniency found in the Dials that had their Needle upright and perpendicularly elevated upon the Horizon for their sides thus rais'd up keep the shadow from extending it self too far off The Spider invented by Eudoxus is the same as the Anaphoric Horologium Some say that Apollonius has found out the Plinthus or Dial-post which was set in the Circus Flaminius Scopas Syracusanus made the Dial called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used for places mentioned in History Parmenion was the inventor of the universal Dial fit for all Climats Theodosius and Andreas Patrocles invented the Pelecynon which is a Dial made in the figure of a Hatchet where the opposite lines that shew the Constellations and the Months are close towards the middle and stretched towards the sides which make the form of a Hatchet with two edges Dionysidorus found the Cone Apollonius the Quiver which are vertical Dials opposite to the East and West and being broad and obliquely set represent a Quiver There were yet many other kinds of Sun-Dials invented as the Gonarcus Engonatus Antiboreus These are not mentioned neither in Greek nor Latin Authors The Gonarcus and Engonatus seem deriv'd from the Greek and signifie Dials made upon several surfaces some whereof being horizontal others vertical and some others oblique make many Angles wherefore these angular Dials are called by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Angle or Knee The Antiboreus is an Equinoxial Dial turn'd towards the North. An Hour-Glass us'd to measure time by the running of sand is made with two small Glasses join'd together by the ends one of them is full of very small sand which runs through a little hole of a thin plate of Brass
was most valuable in their Doctrine He divided his Philosophy into Three Parts viz. Moral which consisted principally in Action Physicks that related to Speculation and Logick which served to distinguish Truth from Falshood Of all the Philosophers his Doctrine comes nearest of any to Christianity It will surprize you when you read that Plato had Sentiments of God so conformable to the Truth of our Religion from whence some have thought that in his Travels to Egypt he was a Hearer of the Prophet Jeremy or that he had read the Books of the Prophets And I my self says St. Augustine have followed this Opinion in some of my Works but afterwards I came to understand by Cronology that Plato was not born till about 100 Years after the Prophecies of Jeremy and that the Greek Version of the Septuagint was not done by Ptolomy King of Egypt's Order till near 60 Years after Plato's Death insomuch that he could neither see Jeremy who was dead so long before nor read the Scriptures which were not yet translated into the Greek Tongue unless you will have it said that he took care to be instructed therein as he did in the Egyptian Books not by getting them translated but by conversing with the Jews viva voce What favours this Conjecture is that the Book of Genesis begins thus In the Beginning God created Heaven and Earth but the Earth was without Form and void and Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters And Plato in his Timeus where he speaks of the Creation of the World says That God did first join the Fire and Earth together It 's clear that by Fire he meant Heaven But what fully perswades me continues the same St. Augustine That Plato had some Knowledge of our Books is that Moses asking the Angel the Name of him who commanded him to go and deliver the Hebrews he received this Answer I am that I am thou shalt tell the Children of Israel I am hath sent me to you But this is that which Plato firmly establishes in his Works and I do not know it is to be found in any Book older than Plato except the holy Scriptures His Writings are almost all divided into Dialogues in which he introduces his Master Socrates He died of the Morbus Pedicularis and was burried in the Academy of Athens where he had taught Philosophy PLAUTUS a Comick Poet admired by all the Ancients for the Eloquence of his Stile he bore the Name of M. Accius with that of Plautus because of his splay Feet as Sextus Pompeius says He was born in a little Town of Vmbria called Sarcinas He was much in Esteem at Rome for the Stage at the same time that Publius Scipio and Marcus Cato were in great Reputation for their Politeness his Comedies are full of Jests and witty Railleries for which Cicero commends him and Varro assures us that if the Muses would have spoke Latin they had spoke like Plautus and Aulus Gellius in his Noctes Atticae calls him the Father and Prince of the Latin Eloquence He imitated the Greek Authors in his Comedies and amongst others Diphilus Epicharmus and Menander Horace says he made Money of his Comedies and when he had got a good deal he with that turn'd Merchant but proving unsuccessful that Way he was necessitated to turn a Mill and grind Corn to serve a Bakehouse He died during the Consulship of Publius Claudius and Lucius Portius while Cato was Censor in the 119 Olympaid and the Year of Rome 565. PLEIADES they were the Seven Daughters of Atlas and the Nymph Pleione who finding themselves pursued by Orion that would have ravished them they prayed to the Gods to preserve them from his Insults which they did by changing them into Stars and placing them in Heaven 'T is a Constellation formed of Seven Stars which are near together towards the 18th Degree of Taurus They are rainy and stormy Stars and very frightful to Mariners they call them in Latin Vergiliae à vere because they rise about the Vernal Equinox and set in Autumn PLEIONE the Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and Atlas his Wife by whom he had Seven Daughters called Pleiades PLINIUS Pliny the Elder born at Verona was a Minister of State under the Emperor Vespatian he had a very great Knowledge of natural Things of which he wrote extraordinary Books but wherein divers Matters are to be met with that are false which he had by hear-say and took from the Relation of others he was suffocated by the Flames of Mount Vesuvius as he approached too near it to observe that Wonder PLINY the Younger his Nephew wrote a Book of Epistles a Treatise about illustrious Men and a Panegyrick dedicated to Trajan PLUTARCHUS Plutarch of Cheronea flourished under the Emperor Trajan and gain'd great Reputation by his Books The Lives of illustrious Men both among the Greeks and Romans which he compares with one another are the best of his Works and deserve Commendation above the rest Tho' he is every where agreeably instructive and shews he had a general Knowledge in all Things PLUTUS the God of Riches Aristophanes in a Comedy thus cailed says that this God having at first a good Eye-sight stuck to no Body but to the Just But Jupiter taking his Sight from him Riches afterwards fell indifferently to the Share of the Good and Bad They formed a Design for the recovering of Plutus his Sight but Penia which is Poverty opposed it and made it appear that Poverty was the Mistress of Arts Sciences and Vertues which would be in Danger of being lost if all Men were rich They gave her no Credit or seemed not to believe her so that Plutus recovered his Sight in Aeseulapius his Temple and from thence forward the Temples and Altars of other Gods and those of Jupiter himself were abandoned every Body sacrificing to no other than to God Plutus Lucian in Timon or Misanthropos brings Jupiter and Plutus talking together thus Jup. I am amazed to find you angry because you are left at Liberty seeing you formerly complain'd of Usurers who shut you up under Lock and Key without letting you as much as see the Light and made you endure a Thousand Torments You said that 't was it which made you pale and disfigured and was the Cause that you did endeavour to make your Escape You also blamed the Covetous who died for Love of you and in the mean time durst not enjoy you like the Dog in the Fable who being tied to the Rock could not himself eat Hay and would not suffer the Horse to do it You said that they were jealous and debarred themselves of all Recreations without considering that what they loved would one Day be the Prey of a Thief or some unworthy Heir Are not you ashamed thus to swerve from your old Maxims Plutus If you will hear me you shall find I have Reason for what I do For
there pronounced Oracles Pliny L. 34. C. 5. speaks of Three Statues of the Sibylls at Rome near the Rostra one erected by Pacuvius Taurus the Aedile of the People and the other Two by Messala whom Solinus calls Sibyllae Cumeae Delphicae and Erithâ—e Elian L. 12. Hist makes them to be Four viz. Those of Erithrea Samos Egypt and Sardis some have increased their Number even to Ten as Varro does in his Six Books concerning Divine Things dedicated to Julius Caesar the Pontifex Maximus The Persian Sibyll of whom Nicanor speaks was born according to Suidas at Noa a City near the Red-Sea which they would have to be same as the Chaldaean and Hebrew Sibyll properly called Sambetha who foretold divers Things concerning the Messias his Birth Life Circumstances of his Death and second Coming The Libyan Sibyll of whom Euripides the Poet speaks in his Prologue to Lamia who was the Daughter of Jupiter and Lamia Neptune's Daughter as Pausanias writes in his Phocica The Grecians says he make her to be the Daughter of Jupiter and Lamia Neptune's Daughter the first of Womankind that delivered Oracles and was called Sibylla by the Lybians She spent a great part of her Life in the Isle of Samos at Claros a City of the Colophonians at Delos and Delphi she died in Troas The Sibyll of Delphi of whom Crysippus makes mention in his Book of Divination Diodorus L. 4. C. 6. calls her Daphne the Daughter of Tiresias whom the Argians after the Destruction of Thebes sent to Delphi where she delivered Oracles being inspired by Apollo and sate upon the Tripod Virgil L. 6. Aen. speaks of her where he introduces Aeneas entring into the Sibyll's Cave and praying to unfold unto him the Will of the Gods viva voce and not as she sometimes did upon the Leaves of Trees which the Wind carried thither and promising withal to build a magnificent Temple for Apollo and to recommend his Oracles to his Posterity Sibylla Cumaea which was born at Cuma in Iona. Lactantius says 't was she that carried the Nine Books to Tarquinius Priscus Sibylla Erytbraea Apollodorus will have her to be his Fellow-Citizen and that when the Grecians went to the Siege of Troy she prophesied to them that they should take it Eusebius places her above 450 Years after the Siege of Troy in the Reign of Romulus Strabo speaks of several Sibylls of the same Name one before and another after the Time of Alexander whose Name was Athenaïs Lactantius makes Babylon to be the Place of her Nativity and calls her Erythraea because she was born in the Country of the Erythreans in a Place called Bata where the City Erythraea was afterwards built There are some Authors who make Sardis to be the Place of her Birth others Sicily some again Rhodes Lybia and Samos She composed Odes and Oracles and invented a kind of a Triangular Lyre she is the most Famous of all the Sibylls The Senate sent to Erythraea for the Verses and they were laid up in the Capitol The Sibyll of Samos of which mention is made in the Samian Annals her Name was Pitho The Cumaean Sibyll or she of Cuma in Italy of whom Virgil speaks Huic ubi delatus Cumaeam accesseris urbem And again in Eclogue 4. Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas And Ovid de Fastis Cumaam veteres consuluistis anum The Sibyll of Hellespont born at Troy that lived in Solon and Cyrus his Time The Phrygian Sibyll that prophesied at Ancyra The Sibylla Tiburtina or of Tibur a Country Five or Six Leagues from Rome upon the River Anio These are the Names of the Ten Sibylls spoken of by Varro besides which there were also the Sibyll of Collophon whose Name was Lampusia the Daughter of the Prophet Colchas also she of Th-ssaly called Mantha the Daughter of Tiresias of Thebes and Cassandra King Priamus his Daughter SIBYLLINILIBRI the Sibylls Books wherein the Predictions of the Sibylls were written these Books were had in so great Authority among the Romans that they did nothing of moment either in Peace or War without first consulting of them They committed them to the Custody of two Persons of the Patrician Order who were called Duumviri sacrorum who had leave to consult them by an Order of the Senate Tarquin who was the first that instituted this Sacerdotal Office threw one of the Keepers of these Books whose Name was M. Attilius into the Sea sowed up in a Leathern-Bag because he had given a Copy of them to Petronius Sabinus and this sort of Punishment was afterwards appointed for Parricides This Priesthood was exercised by Two Persons only till the Year 384 when they were increased to the Number of Ten half of them Patricians and the other half Plebeians and Sylla made them Fifteen and at last they amounted to Sixty but still retained the Name of Quindecim-viri These Books of the Sibylls were preserved entire above 450 Years till the War with the Marsi in a Vault of the Capitol shut up in a Stone-Trough They were burnt with the Capitol in the Year 670. The Senate Seven Years after sent Deputies to all the Cities of Asia and Italy to collect and transcribe the Verses of the Sibylls that might be yet in being Tacitus also relates that Augustus finding the Verses and Predictions of these Sibylls passed through the Hands of several Persons ordered an exact Search to be made for them at Samos Erythraea Troy in Affrica and throughout the Colonies of Italy and to put them into the Hands of the respective Governours that so by the Advice of the Quindecim-viri they might retain those that were Genuine and reject the rest and this is also witnessed by Suetonius SIGILLARIA Feasts celebrated after the Saturnalia wherein they offered little Statues of Gold Silver and other Mettals to Saturn instead of Men which before were sacrificed to him Hercules changed this cruel Custom by giving a favourable Interpretation to the Oracle SIGNA Roman Ensigns whereof there were different sorts on some of them the Image of the Emperor was represented and they that carried them were called Imaginiferi others had an Hand stretched out as a Symbol of Concord and these Ensign-bearers were called Signiferi some had a Silver-Eagle which made those that carried them be called Aquiliferi Eagle-bearers others had a Dragon with a Silver-head and the rest of his Body of Taffety which was blown by the Wind as if he were a real Dragon and these Dragon-bearers were named Draconarii lastly the Emperor's Ensign was called Labarum which they carried out when he went into the Field It was of a Purple Colour beset with Gold Fringe and adorned with precious Stones All these Ensigns were sustained by a Halfpike sharp at the And that it might the more easily be fixed in the Groand Those who carried the Labarum were called Labariferi SIGNUM RUGNAE the Signal of Battle it was a Coat of Arms of a Purple Colour set upon the General
Superstition of the Heathens Nebuchodonozor told Daniel the Dream he had had and he gave him the Interpretation thereof that he should be dethroned and be for Seven Years sent to dwell among the Beasts of the Field There were a vast many People who made it their Business to interpret Dreams especially in Great Mens Courts Virgil represents unto us how the Oracle of Faunus was consulted by all the People of Italy and the Answers were given them by Dreams for the Priests after they had offered Sacrifice spent the Night lying upon the Skins of the Victims and there received those Prophetick Visions in a Dream .... Et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti Pellibus incubuit stratis somnosque petivit Multa modis simulachr a videt volitantia miris Et varias audit voces fruiturque Deorum Colloquio ...... It was the Custom of the Ancients to sleep upon Skins and the Latin Word dormire comes from thence being derived from the Creek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pellis And when they sought for Prophetick Dreams they affected to sleep upon the Skins of Victims Lucan makes Julia Pompey's first Wife foretell him in a Dream all the Evils of the Civil War wherein he should be engaged Pompey despised this Dream but it came to him thro' the Horn-gate the Effect followed and the Dream came to pass but some time after when Pompey dream'd that is on the Day before the fatal Battle of Pharsalia that he was admired and applauded in his Amphitheater at Rome it was a Dream that came to him thro' the Ivory-Gate and had nothing but a false Light in it Juvenal speaks of the base Practices or shameful Trade drove by some Jews who for Money sold such Dreams as were desired of them Qualiacumque voles Judaei somnia vendunt Macrobius gives the Reason of the Difference of these Two Gate by which Dreams come to us The Horn-Gate was very small but transparent the Ivory was not so And so they are the true Dreams when the Soul being disengaged from the Body pierces and penetrates thro' that Vail which hides the Sight of Truth from it and Dreams have nothing that is real in them when this Vail is not transparent the Soul then continues involved with the Obscurity of Matter SORTES Lots Lot is the Effect of Hazzard and as it were the Decision or Oracle of Fortune but Lots were the Instruments made use of in order to know what this Decision would be Lots were very often a kind of Dice on which certain Characters were graven or some Words for the Explication of which they had recourse to Tables made for that Purpose The Use of Lots was various in some Temples they threw themselves in others they took them out of a Box which gave occasion to this Form of Speech among the Grecians The Lot is fallen Sacrifices and many other Ceremonies always preceded this Dice-playing The Priests in all appearance knew how to manage the Dice but if they had no mind to be at that Pains they had no more to do than to let them go for they were always Masters of the Explication given The Lacedamonians went one Day to consult the Lots of Dodona concerning some War they were engaged in For besides the speaking Oak-Trees Doves Basons and the Oracle there were Lots at Dodona After all the other Ceremonies that were performed with much Veneration and Respect there went a Monkey belonging to the King of the Molossi into the Temple and threw down the Lots and Urn The Priestess in a Fright told the Lacedamonians that they must not think of overcoming but only of saving themselves And all Authors assure us the Lacedaemonians never received a more fatal Presage The most Famous of all Lots were those of Preneste and Antium two small Cities in Italy Fortune was at Praeneste and the Fortunes at Antium The Fortunes moved of themselves as Macrobius says and their different Motions either served for an Answer or intimated whether they could consult the Lots or no. Cicero L. 2. de Divin says they consulted the Lots of Praeneste with the Consent of Fortune and this gave occasion to believe that this Fortune also knew how to move its Head or give some other Sign of its Will In the East Arrows were their Lots and still the Turks and Arabs make use of them in the same manner Ezekiel says that Nebuchadnezzar mixed his Arrows against Ammon and Jerusalem and that his Arrow went forth against Jerusalem That was the prety Way they had of resolving on which of those two Nations they should make War In Greece and Italy they often drew the Lots from some famous Poet as from Homer and Euripides and that which presented it self first to view at the opening of the Book was the Decree of Heaven History furnishes us with a thousand Examples of this kind We also find that about 200 Years after Virgil's Death they valued his Verses so much as to believe them to be prophetical and to use them instead of the ancient Lots of Praeneste For Alexander Severus who was yet but a private Man and at a time when the Emperor Heliogabalus had a Kindness for him received for Answer in the Temple of Praeneste that Passage out of Virgil that signifies thus much If thou canst surmount the contrary Destinies thou shalt be Marcellus Lots continued even to the Time of Christianity they took them out of the Scriptures whereas the Pagans did it from their Poets St. Augustine Epist 119. ad Januarium does not seem to disapprove of this Custom unless practised in secular Affairs Gregory of Tours does himself inform us that it was his own Practise he spent many Days in Fasting and Prayer then went to St. Martin's Tomb where he opened what Book of Scripture he had a Mind to and took the first Passage he saw for God's Answer but if the said Passage was nothing to the Purpose he opened another Book of Scripture Others took the first Thing they heard sung as they entred the Church for a Divine Lot The Emperor Heraclius being sollicitous about the Place he should Winter-quarter with his Army was resolved by this kind of Lot He caused the Army to be purified for Three Days then he opened the Book of the Gospels and found his Winter-Quarters assigned him in Albania SOTERIA a Sacrifice for Health being the Games and Solemnities made by the People for the Health and Preservation of the Emperor especially when he recovered of any sickness SPHINX a fabulous Monster feigned by the Poets to have been begotten by Typhon to have a Woman's Face the Wings of a Bird Claws of a Lion and the rest of his Body like a Dog He ravaged the Country very much about Mount Sphingio and could never be destroy'd till Oedipus had explained the Riddle proposed by him from which they have since been wont to say concerning Riddles hard to be resolved that it was Sphinx his Riddle and wanted an Oedipus Diodorus
worth two of the Greeks so that twenty Grecian Talents amounted only to ten of the Hebrews it s the same thing in respect to the Drachma's and Greek Minae for two Greek Drachma's go to make one Hebrew and two Grecian Minae the same TANTALUS King of Phrygia and Jupiter's Son who treating the Gods with a Supper drest his own Son Pelops for them in order to try whether they could perceive it or no there were none of them deceived but the Goddess Ceres who eat some of the Shoulder the Gods conceived such a Horror at this Cruelty that they condemned Tantalus to be tormented with Hunger and Thirst in the midst of Waters and plenty of all sorts of Fruits in Hell where all of them vanished as soon as ever he put forth his Hand to reach them Lucian in his Dialogue of the Dead makes him speak to Menippus in this manner Menippus Tantalus why do you weep and what Torment do you endure in this Lake where you dwell Tantalus Menippus I die with Thirst Men. Are you so lazy that you cannot stoop to drink or as much as take up some Water in the Hollow of your Hand Tant The Water disappears when I draw near it and when I fancy I have taken some in my Hand it presently glides away Men. That is strange But what occasion have you to drink since you have now no Body left you for that which was capable of Hunger and Thirst was buried in Lydia and the Soul hath no need of drinking and eating Tant 'T is my Punishment Menippus that my Soul should undergo the same Change as my Body Men. I believe it since you say it but tell me what is it you fear Are you afraid to die of Thirst as if there were another Death after this Tant No but that is part of my Punishment to be thirsty and yet have no need to be so Men. Tantalus you rave and if you have any need to drink 't is of Hellebore to cure you of an Evil contrary to the Madness of feeling Thirst and not Water Tant I do not refuse to drink provided any be given me Men. Tantalus be satisfied you are not the only one of the Dead that does not drink for all of them who ever they be having no Bodies cannot drink but all of them are not so extreamly thirsty as you are so as not to be able to quench it TARPEIA the Daughter of Tarpeius As she was one Day upon the Walls of the Capitol and beheld the Sabines going by she was much taken with the rich Bracelets which those People wore on their Left Arms and this made her treat with Tatius King of the Sabines about delivering the Capitol up to him upon Condition they gave her their Bracelets Tarpeia gave up the Capitol but the Sabines crushed her to Death with the Weight of their Shields Some Authors impute the Surrendring of the said Place to Spurius Tarpeius who was Governour and affirm that Romulus caused him to be thrown down headlong over that famous Work which since bore his Name and was called the Tarpeian Rock TARQUINIUS PRISCUS before was called Lucumon who withall his Family came and settled at Rome and as he drew near the Janiculum an Eagle fell upon him and took away his Cap with which he play'd for some time in the Air and then put it upon his Head again Tanaquilla his â—ife who was a Tuscan by Descent and well skilled in the Art of Augury gave her Husband a favourable Interpretation of this Prodigy and assured him he should be King which came to pass accordingly for he succeeded Ancus Martius He defeated the Sabines and Tuscans the last of which submitted to him and as a Mark of their first Homage made him a Present of a Gold Crown and a Scepter at the Top of which there was an Eagle in Relievo an Ivory Throne a Purple Vest wrought with Gold and embrordered with Figures of various Colours and 12 Lictors acknowledging him for their King and rightful Lord of the Twelve Divisions of the Tuscans When he had consulted the Augur Acctus Naevius in order to know of him whether what he thought of might be put in Execution and the Augur having assured him of the fulfilling of it â—ook a Razor and cut a Stone with it in two He died when he was Eighty Years of Age by a Blow given him on the Head with an Ax by the Heirs of Ancus Martius TARQUINIUS LUCIUS Tarquinius surnamed Superbus the Son of Tarquinius Priseus and King of Rome As the Foundations of the Capitol were a digging up by his Order they found a Man's Head there newly cut off This Accident was taken for a Prodigy that prognosticated the City of Rome should one Day be the Mistress of the World another Prodigy also happened which was a strange Woman who came to Tarquin and presented him with Nine Volumes which she offered to sell him for a very great Sum of Money Tarquin refusing them at that extravagant Price the Woman burnt three of them in his Presence and asked him if he would take the six that remained at the same Price she had asked for the Nine Tarquin looked upon this Proposal to be ridiculous but the Woman again burnt three of the six Volumes and then applying her self to the King asked him still the same Price for the three that were left which she had done for the Nine Tarquin having consulted the Pontiffs thereupon paid her the whole Sum. Those Books were found to be full of Predictions in Verse which were thought to have been composed by Sibylla Cumaea and were so much esteemed at Rome that they created two Magistrates whose Business alone it was to keep these Books and to consult them as occasion required They were called Duumviri They had no recourse to these Books but when the Affairs of the Commonwealth were very urgent and that in order to find out a Way to expiate the Prodigies and avert publick Calamities Tarquin was expelled Rome after he had reigned 25 Years and they set up a popular Government in the Year of the World 3545. of the Julian Period 4205 509 before Christ's Nativity after the Building of Rome 244 Years in the 67 Olympiad TARTARA by this Name Hell was called by the Ancients and Homer names it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 TAUROPOLIUM or TAUROPOLION Sacrifices of Bulls which were offered to Cybele the Mother of the Gods to render Thanks to the Goddess of the Earth for her teaching Men the Art to tame those Animals and fit them for Labour They also sacrificed black Bulls to Neptune to denote the Fury of the Sea Strabo L. 14. Of his History of the World says There stood a Temple of Diana in the Isle of Icaria named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Livy L. 4. Dec. 5. calls this Temple Tauropolum and the Sacrifices offered therein to Diana Tauropolia In the mean time Dionysius in his Book de situ orbis says
what is said concerning Nestor that he lived Three some believe an Age was Thirty Years others with more Reason take it to be an Hundred Ovid was of this Opinion when he made Nestor say Vixi annos bis centum nuneteria vivitur atas The same Poet in another place seigned that Sybilla Cumaea was 700 Years old when Aeneas came to consult her and that she was to live 300 Years longer Nam jam mihi secula septem Acta vides superest numeros ut pulveris aquem Tercentum messes tercentum musta videre It was a Request she had made and obtained that she should live as many Years as she held Grains of Sand in her Hand We do not know from whence Ovid had this Fable but he allows her above 1000 Years to live In the Argonauticon attributed to Orpheus we have an Account given of a People called Macrobii that comes near unto that of our Age of Innocence and Terrestrial Paradice The Length of their Lives from which they derive their Names is no less than 1000 Years Omnique exparte beatos Macrobios facilem qui vitam in longa trabentes Secula millenos implent feliciter annos Horace attributes the shortening of Men's Lives only to Prometheus his stealing Fire from Heaven and the Vengeance of God that has poured an Infinity of Evil upon us Post ignem athereâ domo Subductum macies nova febrium Terris incubuit cohors Semotique priùs tarda necessitas Lethi corripuit gradum Silius Italicus tells us of an ancient King of Spain called Arganthonius who lived 300 Years Herodotus speaks of the Aethiopians of Africa who were called Macrobii and says they commonly lived 120 Years and 't was believed the Length of their Lives proceeded from the Water they drank which was lighter than Wood it self Lucian gives the Title of Macrobii that is of Long livers to one of his Dialogues He does not only make an Enumeration of particular Persons but also of Nations famous for their being long-lived he says it was reported that some People in the Country of Seres that is China lived 300 Years Diodorus Siculus relates the Account given by the Egyptians of their Gods or rather Kings some of whom had reigned 300 Years and others 112 but 't is believed their Years were lunar and no more than a Month Others are of Opinion that they confounded their History with Astronomy and attributed to their Kings the Names of the Stars and the Length of their Revolutions and so that they are rather Astronomical Computations which they have made than the Dynasties and historical Successions of their Kings Eusebius relates a Passage out of Josephus which shews that prophane Authors have in their Writings acknowledged and bore Testimony to the Truth of the Length of Mens Lives in the first Ages Josephus says that the first Men were permitted to live thus so extraordinarily long not only upon the Account of their Piety but out of a Necessity that the Earth should be peopled in a short time and Arts invented especially Astronomy which required the Observations of several Ages to make it perfect These Two Reasons discover the Falsity of their Opinion who thought that the Years which made up the first Mens long Lives consisted of no more than One Month or at the most Three but the most convincing Proof of any is that the Year of the Deluge is so well circumstanciated in the Book of Genesis that the 12 Months and 365 Days are there exprest Neither would Moses in Five or Six Chapters successively have given such different Significations to this Term Year St. Augustine has very vigorously pushed on this Argument concerning the Year of the Deluge Lactantius tells us that Varro was so confident that Men in ancient Days lived even to be a Tousand Years old that in order to facilitate the Understanding of a Truth that was so universally received he instanced in the lunar Years that consisted of one Month only in which time the Moon ran thro' the Twelve Signs of the the Zodiac VITELLIUS a Roman Emperor that succeeded Otho Johannes Baptista Porta in his Treatise of Physiognomy observes he had an Owl's Face His thick short Neck reddish Complexion and a great Belly as Suetonius describes him threatned him with an Apoplexy if a violent Death had not shortened his Life as well as his continual Debaucheries Of the most sumptuous Feasts where with he was treated that which his Brother Lucius made for him is taken Notice of where there were 2000 Fishes and 7000 Fowls served to the Table He made one Feast wherein he was not so profuse but more dainty and wherein one Course consisted of the Livers of a sort of rare Fishes called Seari Pheasants and Peacocks Brains the Tongues of Phoenicopteri which are very rare Birds and the Rows of Lamprey's All these Dainties were brought from the Carpatbian Sea Straights of Gibraltar and other remote Parts of the World In short his whole Reign was but one continued Debauch and Profuseness which made Vibius Crispus say who had the good Fortune to fall sick at that Time and so to avoid those Excesses that had it no been for his Illness he must infallibly have burst Vitellius was slain by the Soldiers who advanced Vespasian to the Throne and after he had been dragged through the Streets of Rome with a Rope about his Neck and his Body run through in several Parts he was with his Brother and Son thrown into the Tiber having reigned but Eight Months VITRUM Glass The Invention of Glass is very ancient and 't is long ago since they have made very fine Things of it nevertheless the Art of making Glass for Windows did not come in use till a long time after and the same may be looked upon as an Invention of latter Ages Indeed Marcus Scaurus in Pompey's Time made part of the Scene of that stately Theater which was built at Rome for the People's Diversion of Glass but in the mean time they had then no Glass Windows to their Houses and if any great Men and of the richest sort had a mind to have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in their Houses and to which the Light might come they closed up the Passage with Transparent Stones such as Agates Alabaster and Marble finely polished but when they came afterwards to know the Use of Glass for that Purpose they used it instead of these sorts of Stones ULYSSES Prince of Ithaca and the Son of Laertes and Anticlea he had Penelope to Wife whom he loved so entirely that to the end he might not leave her and not be obliged to go to the Trojan War he pretended himself mad and tied his Plough the wrong way to Two Animals of a different Kind with which he ploughed but Palamedes making a Shew as if he went about to kill his Son or rather laying him in the Furrow that so the Coulter of the Plough might kill him as 't was drawn along Vlysses that knew the Danger
stopt and in so doing discovered he was not really what he pretended to be He was a very wise and cunning Prince and performed a great many brave Actions both in point of Valour and Prudence at the Siege of Troy After the taking of the City he embarked in order to return home but he wandered up and down a long time through Neptune's Hatred to him that he might be revenged on him for the Death of his Son Polyphemus Homer in the ninth Book of his Odysses makes him begin the Story of his Voyages and Misfortunes saying that Jupiter at his leaving of Troy cast him upon the Country of the Cicones which he pillaged but those People getting together slew several of his Men. He went afterwards to the Country of the Lotophagi who gave him a very kind Reception but after some of his People had eaten of the Herb called Lotos which was the Food of the Natives they wholly lost the Remembrance of and Love they had for their Country insomuch that they were oblig'd to carry them away by Force and tie them fast till they went aboard From thence he went to the Isle of Cyclops where Polyphemus in Contempt of Jupiter and other Gods who were the Protectors of Hospitality devoúred two of his Companions but Vlysses was revenged on him by putting out his only Eye with a Firebrand after he had made him drunk He landed at the Isle of Aeolus King of the Winds who presented him with a Zephyrus put up in an He-goat's Skin His Companions thinking it to be some hid Gold opened the Skin while Vlysses was asleep and the Wind drove him back to the Island from whence he came Aeolus would not receive him a second time and this made him sail away and land in the Country of the Lestrigons where near unto a Fountain they found the Daughters of King Antiphates who were come thither to draw Water the Cruelty of that King and People having forced them to flee away hastily Lastly After they had lost Eleven of their Ships they arrived at an Island where Circe was Queen who was the Daughter of the Sun and a cunning Sorceress She presently changed his Companions whom he had sent to view the Country into Swine Mercury prevented him from runing the same Danger and gave him the Herb called Moly as a sure Preservative against Circe's Enchantments and told him at the same time that when Circe struck him with her Rod he should draw his Sword and threaten to kill her till such time as she made an Offer of her Friendship and Bed unto him and swear by the great Oath of the Gods to do him no manner of hurt Vlysses punctually followed Mercury's Advice and Circe restored his Companions to him in their former Shape She foretold him his Descent into Hell and order'd what Sacrifice he should first offer to Pluto Proserpina and the Prophet Tiresias Circe also foretold him the Accidents he ought to avoid as the Sirens and the Rocks Scylla and Carybdis which he had much ado to escape by being tied to the Mast of his Ship and stopping his Ears Scylla swallowed six of his Companions He landed in Sicily which with her Flocks was consecrated to the Sun but while he was asleep his Companions killed some of those Oxen This Sacriledge was revenged with a dreadful Tempest which drove Vlysses and his Company to the Isle of Ogygia where the Nymph Calipso received and entertained him seven Years and promised to make him immortal if he would consent to tarry with her But Jupiter deputed Mercury to go and command Calypso to let Vlysses depart who having been detained only by force went on board Neptune rose a great Storm and dash'd his Ship to pieces but Ino the Goddess of the Sea saved him from Shipwrack gave him a Scarf which could keep him from being drowned and Minerva sent a favourable Wind which carried him to the Country of the Phaeaces to Alcinoüs who sent him home to Ithaca When he was come to his Palace in the Habit of a poor Traveller he was known by his Dogs but the Great Men of Ithaca who eat Vlysses his Bread and courted his Wife having conspired the Death of his Son Telemachus used Vlysses very scornfully Penelope entertained him without knowing him then commanded his Feet to be washed and that he should be put to Bed Old Euryclea in washing his Feet found he was Vlysses by the Scar of a Wound which he had received in Hunting a wild Boar but he would not allow her to discover him Penelope having promised to marry that Person who could bend Vlysses his Bow all the Great Men endeavoured to do it in vain but Vlysses himself did it they being unworthy of it He afterwards made himself known to his Son and the Shepherd Eumaeus and by Minerva's Help killed all his Wife's Suitors with Arrows beginning with Antinoüs UMBILICUS the Middle of a Thing The Navel is the Middle of a Man Ad umbilicum ducere opus in Horace signifies to finish a Thing for the Romans writing their Works upon Parchment or the Barks of Trees long-ways they rolled them up when all was writ and closed them with little Studs or Bosses made of Horn or Ivory in the Form of a Navel to keep them tight VOLUMEN the winding and folding of a Serpent it was likewise a Volume or Book for the ancient Romans before Paper was invented wrote at first upon Table-Books covered over with Wax and when they had put the finishing Stroak to their Works they neatly laid them long-ways upon Parchments or Barks of Trees and afterwards rolled them up from whence Evolvere librum signifies to read a Book because the Volume must be unrolled to read it VOLUPIA the Goddess of Pleasure to whom the Romans built a Temple and represented her like a young handsome Woman prettaly drest and treading upon Vertue VOTA Vows made by the Romans every Year after the Calends of January for the Eternity of their Empire and Health of the Emperor and Citizens and this was called Nuncupare vota We find by the Emperors Moneys that there were Vows called Quinquennalia Decennalia Vicennalia Tricennalia and Quadricennalia The Magistrates ordered these Vows to be graven upon Brass Plates and Marble which denoted the Number of Years they pray'd for as 5 10 20 30 and 40 Years We find these Words on Maxentius and Decentius's Money Votis Quinquennalibus multis Decennalibus By the Medals of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius we find Vows made for twenty Years Vota suscepta Vicennalia which are thus inscribed VOT XXX MULTIS XXXX When these Vows were accomplished they erected Altars kindled Fires and offered Sacrifices and feasted in the Streets and publick Places URANIA which signifies as much as Caelestial was one of the Nine Muses she presided over Astronomy URNA an Urn was a Vase made of different Matter and made use of to draw out of it the Names of those who were
Idols of Laban which Rachel stole and the Golden Calf made by the Children of Israel in the Wilderness As to prophane Authors who have written hereof some will have it that a Potter of Sicyone whose Name was Dubitadus was the first Sculptor and that his Daughter first began Portraiture by drawing her Lover's Picture upon the Shadow which the Light of a Lamp marked upon a Wall Others maintain that this Art had its Origin in the Isle of Samos where Ideocus and Theodorus who were the Inventors of it made some Pieces long before any mention was made of Dibutadus that Demaratus the Father of Tarquinius Priscus was he that brought it into Italy upon his retiring thither for having brought Eucirapus and Eutigrammus who were excellent Artists in this kind along with him they communicated the same more especially to the Tuscans who applied themselves to it and went on with it to Perfection that Tarquin caused one Taurianus afterwards to come thither who was one of the most famous of them to make an Earthen Statue of Jupiter and Four Horses of the same Matter to be placed in the Frontispiece of that God's Temple It s also thought the same Sculptor made a Figure of Hercules which was for a long time to be seen at Rome and named upon account of the Matter whereof it was made Hercules of baked Earth There were several Sculptors in those Times both in Greece and Italy who wrought in Earth There is mention made of Calcostenes an Athenian who made his Name and House famous upon account of the many Earthen Figures wherewith he adorned it of Demophiles and Gorsanus who were also Painters and beautified the Temple of the Goddess Ceres with Pictures and Earthen Images and so the Representations of all the Heathen Gods were at first no otherwise than in Earth and Wood and 't was not so much because of the Brittleness of the Matter and the little Value thereof as from the Luxury and Riches of People that they proceeded to make of Marble and the most precious Mettals In the mean time how rich soever the Matter was which Sculptors used they never laid Earth aside which they always used to make their Models of and whether they went about to make them Statues of Marble or cast them in Mettal they never undertook these laborious Works before they had first made a Model of Earth of them and this without doubt gave Praxiteles occasion to say that the Art of making Earthen Figures was the Mother that as it were brought forth the Art of making Marble and Brass Figures which began not to appear in its Perfection till about 300 Years after the Building of Rome Phidias of Athens who lived at that time excelled all those that went before him either in working in Marble Ivory or Mettals but quickly after there came up a great Number of excellent Artists who advanced Sculpture to the highest Pitch it arrived to For in Sicyone appear'd Polycletus whose Figures were admired by all the World and a Model for all those that studied the Art Afterwards Myron came on who was inimitable in all he did Lysippus whose Name will live as long as Alexander's and who alone had the Reputation to cast that Prince his Statue in Brass Praxiteles and Scopas who made admirable Figures and the Horses which are still to be seen at Rome before the Pope's Palace at Monte-Cavallo This Scopas had Briaxis Timotheus and Leochares for Competitors who wrought at the famous Tomb of Mausolus King of Caria Fisodorus Canachus Daedalus Buthireus Myro's Disciple Nyceratus Euphranor Theodorus Xenocrates Phyromachus and Stratonicus Antigonus who wrote a Treatise concerning his Art Those excellent Persons who made the Laocoon viz. Agesander Polydorus and Athenodorus are all Three worthy of immortal Praise for such curious Workmanship and an infinite Number more the Names of some of whom have been transmitted to Posterity and others have perish'd with their Works For tho' there were so great a Number of Statues in Asia Greece and Italy and that in Rome alone there were more as was reported than there were living Persons yet at this Day there are but very few remaining especially of any value In the Time that Marcus Scaurus was Edile as he was obliged by his Place to provide for what was requisite towards the publick Rojoycings he adorned the stately Theater which he erected with 3000 brazen Statues and tho' L. Mummius and Lucullus brought away a great Number out of Asia and Greece yet there were still above 3000 remaining in Rhodes as many at Athens and more at Delphi but what is most strange is the Bigness of the Figures which those ancient Artists had the Courage to undertake Amongst those which Lucullus caused to be transported to Rome there was a Statue of Apollo 30 Cubits high the Collossus of Rhodes made by Cares of Lyndos the Disciple of Lycippus far exceeded it Nero's Statue made by Xenodcrus after that of Mercury was also of an extraordinary size as being 110 Feet high In the mean time 't is to be observed that Sculpture after Phidias his Time continued not in any great Perfection but for about 150 Years and that then it began insensibly to decline not but that after the said time there were still some fine Pieces of Workmanship both in Greece and Italy tho' not performed with so great a Fancy and exquisite Beauty Besides the Greek Statues are more esteemed for the Excellency of the Work There is a special Difference between them and those of the Romans in that the greatest part of the first are almost always naked like those who wrestle or perform some other bodily Exercise wherein the Youth of those Times placed all their Glory whereas the others are clad or armed particularly have the Toga on which was the greatest Mark of Honour among the Romans SECESPITA was the Knife wherewith they killed the Victims appointed for Sacrifices SECULUM an Age. This Word which is often used comprehends the Space of 100 Years compleat according to Festus Servius observes that an Age is also taken for the Space of 30 Years sometimes for 110 and sometimes for 1000 The Ancients divided Time into Four Ages which they called the Golden Age that is attributed to Saturn's Reign the Silver Age to that of Jupiter and the Brazen and Iron Ages under which they comprehend that of the present Time SECULARES LUDI Secular Games were formerly one of the most solemn Feasts kept at Rome Several ancient Authors have writ concerning it but their Works being lost we should have remained ignorant of the chief Ceremonies thereof if Zozimus who lived towards the End of the fourth Century had not taken Care to give us an abridged Account thereof in the second Book of his History and what he says thereupon we find confirmed and explained by some Medals of those Secular Plays still in being especially by those of Domitian The Original therefore of the said Plays take as
follows The City of Rome being afflicted with a great Plague the very same Year wherein they expelled the Tarquins Valerius Publicola who was then Consul in order to appease the Wrath of the Gods ordered them to celebrate this Solemnity the Ceremonies whereof were found in the Oracles of the Sibylls which they kept with great Care 't was the Year after the Foundation of Rome 245. according to the Calculation of Varro which is the best and most followed that is 509 Years before our Saviour's Nativity These Plays were called Secular because they were obliged to renew them from Age to Age that is every 100 Years according to the most received Opinion or every 110 Years as the 15 Officers called Quindecim-viri pretended in Augustus his Time who at Rome were to look after the Ceremonies of Religion and by the said Excuse found a Way to clear themselves before that Emperor who accused them for not having celebrated the said Plays at the Time appointed as you may see in Father Tassin the Jesuite's Treatise concerning the Secular Plays Augustus having celebrated them under the Consulship of Furnius and Silanus in the Year of Rome 737. the Emperor Claudius would renew them Anno 800. because it was the Beginning of a Century But Domitian without any Respect to Claudius conformed himself to what Augustus had done and celebrated them 103 Years after that Prince had done them that is in the Year of Rome 840. Some time before it was published over all the Empire according to ancient Custom That every one might come and see those Plays which he never had seen nor never should again They opened those Games thus Towards the Beginning of Harvest the Emperor as sovereign Pontiff haranged the People in the Capitol and exhorted them to prepare themselves for so solemn a Feast by purifying both their Bodies and Minds The like Exhortations were made at the great Feasts and particularly at the Mysteries of Ceres Eleusina whose Ceremonies were very like those of the Secular Plays as Herodian observes The Emperor being seated on a Tribunal before a Temple which was that of Jupiter Capitolinus gave some Perfumes to be distributed to the People and these Perfumes consisted of Sulphur and Bitumen the Quindecim-viri received them of the Emperor and afterwards distributed them among the People adding thereunto a little Piece of Fir-wood called Taeda they-lighted it at one End and threw some of the said Perfume upon it the Smoak whereof every one caused to go round him in order to purifie himself They also gave of the same to Children who were at Years of Understanding The Days whereon these Plays were to be celebrated being come they began with a Procession whereat the Priests of all the Colleges assisted the Senate and all the Magistrates were present the People being clad in White crowned with Flowers and every one having a Lawrel in his Hand As they went along the Streets they sung some Verses made on Purpose for this Feast and as they went into the Temples and Cross-ways worshipped the Statues of the Gods which were exposed to view upon Beds of State and these were called Lectisternia Deorum They met in the Temples on the Three following Nights to watch there and put up their Prayers and Sacrifices and this was called Pervigilium and to the end that nothing that was undecent might be committed in these publick Assemblies the Youth of both Sexes assisted hereat under the Inspection of their Parents or some Person at Years of Discretion of their Family who might be responsible for their Behaviour as Augustus had ordered it and because this Feast was chiefly instituted to appease the Gods of Darkness that is Pluto Proserpina Ceres the Destinies and Lucina there were no other than black Victims offered to them and that in the Night Time which was then illuminated by the Fires made in the Streets and an infinite Number of Lamps lighted upon that Occasion They then sacrificed a black Bull to Pluto and a black Cow to Proserpina On the Morrow during Day-light they offered the like Victims but such as were white to Jupiter and Juno And this we learn from a Medal of Domitian where the said Emperor powers a Cup of Wine upon the Ashes of the Altar Here you have Two Musitians also one playing upon the Harp and the other upon Two Flutes a Man upon his Knees holding a Bull to which he that was to sacrifice him whom they called the Victimary seemed to give a Blow on the Head with an Ax. At these Sacrifices they brought the Victims washed and drest with Garlands of Howers to the Altar then Orders were given that all prophane Persons should withdraw and others be silent and attentive to what was done After this the Pontiff who was the Emperor himself put a little Flower mixed with Salt upon the Victim's Head and then poured a little Wine on which he gave to the Assistants to taste Then the Sacrificer presently gave the Victim a great Blow on the Head with his Ax and his Throat being cut at the same Time by the other Officers they presented his Blood to the grand Pontiff who immediately powred it upon the Fire of the Altar This being done they narrowly observed the Entrails of the Animal from the different Disposition and Colour of which the Aruspices drew good or bad Omens wherein the Romans were so circumspect and had so much Faith that Julius Caesar himself as Macrobius says at least writ Sixteen Books upon that Subject They afterwards burnt the same Entrails when they had taken Three Turns round the Altar offering this Sacrifice to the God or Goddess for whom the same was designed and this they never did but they invoked all the other Gods at the same Time as if they could do nothing but altogether they usually reserved the Victim for the Feast which was made after the People were dismissed with these Words Iicet that is you may withdraw These Sacrifices being over they assisted at the publick Plays which were more particularly consecrated to Apollo and Diana and went to the Theater where Comedies were acted and to the Circus where they were entertained with Foot Horse and Chariot Races The Athletes also signalized themselves at Wrestling and other Exercises In the Amphitheater they saw the Combats of the Gladiators and wild Beasts fight the last of which were brought thither on purpose from all Parts They resumed their Prayers and Sacrifices the second Night which they addrest to the Destinies and to whom they sacrificed a Sheep and a Goat both black Next Day such Women as were free and no Slaves went to the Capitol and other Temples where they made their Prayers to Jupiter and the other Gods before mentioned There they sung Hymns to intreat them to prosper the Empire and People of Rome they also prayed for what related to their own particular Occasions and among other things for Ease in Child-bearing The rest of the Day was