predecessors issue being pretermitted He held the reins of goverment 44. years and was as deserving a Prince as any although omitted here by our Author who treats of things not Historically but Poetically and after a grosser manner § 83 The seventh and last of the Kings was Tarquinius Superbus Sonne to Tarquinius Priscus and Sonne-in-law to Servius Tullius who bestowed his Daughter Tullia on him A woman of a violent unquiet and ambitious spirit who incited her Husband L. Tarquinius a man of the like temper with her self to murder the King her own Father and by force to invest himself in the regal power which he as boldly as wickedly effected but administring that government as impotently as he had obtained it wickedly as also for the rape of Lucretia by his Son Sextus He with his whole family was expelled Rome which from that time of a Monarchy became a free State Tarquin tyrannized 25. years so that Rome from Romulus to him was governed by Kings 244. years as Livie computes it And this was the infancy of the Roman State under the regal power and indeed as an Infant it being no more then able to crawl had made but a small advance in order to that greatness which it afterward atchieved For that people which in process of time when it arrived to its virile estate or manhood did bound its Empire with the rising and setting Sun and carried its victorious Eagles from the Northern to the Southern world had not in 250. years gained above fifteen miles in circuit from their Cities walls nor after so many battels conquests and triumphs extended their Territories further then a nimble Footman could run in two hours As if it were in States as it is in nature wherein we see that those things which are designed for strength and duration do soberly and by degrees arrive to perfection but that those which are soon in their wane and decadence do suddenly and as it were per saltum attain to their increment and consistence How often have we seen the power of a State terminate in one man and the glory of a Nation breath out its last when he expired so circumscribed a thing is greatness and so transitory is that gaudy pomp which the world admires but to return § 84 Lucius Junius the sonne of Marcus Junius and Tarquinia Sister to Superbus was the first who brought the sirname of Brutus into the Junian Family For he seeing by the sad examples of his own Father and Brother lately murdered by the jealous Tyrant that to deserve highly was the highest treason and that vertue was the most compendious way to ruine and destruction counterâ—eited himself a fool wherein he acted his part so to the life that he purchased to himself and his Descendants the contemptible but secure nickname of Brutus or the Brute And in all appearance he continued such till a fair opportunity incouraged him to lay aside the fool coat and to appear in the more becomming dress of a man of wisdome and courage For he was the first who having rescued the oppressed people from the impotent rule of the Tarquins changed the form of government from a Monarchy to a State from Regal to Consular and was the first who together with his Collegue Collatinus was invested in this new Magistracy which was annual and to be administred by two on purpose to defeat and disappoint those advantages which a single and continued power might take upon the people who instrusted them They were called Consules à consulendo Reipublicae from the care they took of the common good as Cicero will have it or as Varro quòd consulere populum Senatum deberent because they ought to advise with the Senate and the People in all affairs and designs This office as annual and in the person of two differed only from the Kingly government otherwise they had the same ensigns and marks of soveraignty which the Kings had for they had their twelve Lictors carrying the Fasces or bundle of rods before them with the Secures or Axes as before the late Kings wherefore Virgil calls them here fasces receptos viz. à regibus the Fasces or soveraign power wrested out of the hands of the Kings But to proceed and I hope that the Reader will not think that I doe impertinently seek matter of discourse if I inlarge something upon this Story he shall find many particulars coincident with passages of our own times and agreeing with the sinister policies of our modern Innovators Brutus therefore the principal vindicator of the peoples liberty knowing that there was as much virtue required in maintaining what he had got as in the primarie acquisition endeavours by all means possible to confirm and knit the as-yet-feeble joynts of his infant Republick and to this end in the first place he causeth the people to ingage themselves by oath against the government of a single person jure-jurando populum adegit neminem Romae passuros regnare Livie Secondly he was very industrious in ruining and disâ—abling the royal party which indeed by reason of Tarquins demerits were but few and those either green-headed Courtiers or such of the Nobility quâ—rum in regno libido solutior fuerat whose looseness under a Kingly government were lesse remarkable all the friends I say of the ejected King were suddenly suppressed amongst the rest Collatinus the Husband of the ravished Lucretia and Brutus his Coadjutor in the regifuge and now Companion with him in office was by his means because of Tarquins Family both turned out of his place and banished his Country nay to strike the greater terrour into others who should attempt the restitution of the Tarquins he did not only pronounce sentence upon his own sonnes Titus and Tiberius with others of the Nobility neerly allied to him who were convinced to have held correspondence with the Common enemy but appeared an unmoved and irrelenting overseer and exactor of their punishment qui spectator erat amovendus eum ipsum exactorem supplicii fortuna dedit Livie Thirdly he caused all the estate both real and personal of the ejected Family to be dissipated and divided amongst the people knowing full well that those who had swallowed such fair morsels would be very hardly perswaded to regorge them Bona regia diripienda plebi sunt data ut contactâ regiâ praedâ spem in perpetuum cum his pacis amitteret On the other side the Tarquins were not idle but finding by the disappointment of the late plot that it was in vain to hope to compass any thing by the assistance of disarmed suppressed and discouraged friends at home they as in their case any would doe implore forain aid and flie first to the Veientes and Tarquinienses a people of Etruria and implacable enemies to the Roman name These arme in the quarrel of the exiled Princes and in this battel fell their great Brutus but most remarkably Aruns the sonne of Tarquin who commanded the enemies
Senèctus Impatiensque sui Morbus Livorque secundis Anxius scisso moerens velamina Luctus Et Timor coeco praeceps Audacia vultu Et Luxus populator opum cui semper adhaerens Infaelix humili gressu comitatur Egestas Foedaque Avaritiae complexae viscera Matris Insomnes longo veniunt examine curae Hells numberlesse plagues meet all the accurst Ofspring of night dire Warre by Discord nurst Imperious Hunger Age on Death confining Self-wearied Sickness Envy still repining At others good Sorrow with garments torn Fear hoodwink'd Rashnesse violently born Riot wealths bane which wretched Beggery Creeping along doth still accompany Last a long train of wakefull Cares which hung On their foul Mother Avarice doth throng Neither doe those of Seneca in Herc. furent seem to flow from a lesse judicious or poeticall strain Horrent opacâ fronde nigrantes comae Taxo imminente quam tenet segnis Sopor Famesque moesta tabido rictu jacens Pudorque serus conscios vultus tegit Metus Pavorque Funus frendens Dolor Alterque Luctus sequitur Morbus tremens Et cincta ferro Bella in extremo abdita Iners Senectus adjuvat baculo gradum Rough with dark leaves a Yews black head doth nod Over the lake of lazie Sleep th' abode Sad Hunger here with thin jawes yawning lies And Shame too late shrouding its conscious eyes Fear Dread and Death and groaning Pain succeeds Sicknesse with Mourning clad in Sable weeds Then armed Warre and lastly was espi'd Limping Old-age whose steps a staffe did guide Nor les us disdain to hear Silius Ital. his Muse l. 13. Quarta cohors omni stabulante per avia monstro Excubat manes permisto murmure terret Luctus edax Maciesque malis comes addita Morbis Et Moeror pastus fletu et sine sanguine Pallor Curaeque Insidiaeque atque hinc queribunda Senectus Hinc angens utraque manu sua guttura Livor Et deforme Malum sceleri proclivis Egéstas Errorque infido gressu Discordia gaudens Permiscere fretum coelo A fourth troop with its Monsters quarters there Self-gnawing Sorrow with its plaints doth-skare The Ghosts there Leannesse joyn'd with Sickness and Grief fed with tears with bloodless Palenesse stand There Cares Ambushments with repining Age And Envy which on its own throat doth rage Want a deformed Curse and prone to ill With Error reeling Discord which doth fill All things with dire Confusion § 35 Having described what Monsters-lodged without the Court the Poet now bringing Aeneas within the same relates what strange apparitions presented themselves there And first he sayes that there was an old shady and vast Elm the habitation of vain and ridiculous dreams Seneca and Silius will have it a Yew-tree The Poets in generall feigned sleep to reside aloft in a tree that from thence it might descend upon Mortals Hence Val. Flaccus dulces excussit ab arbore somnos And Homer Il. 14. makes somnus climb a tree that from thence he might shed sleep into the eyes of Jupiter In particular it was feigned to be an Elm or Yew-tree because the green thereof being not fresh and lively but sad and drawing upon a black from the very colour seemed to invite to sleep Whence Ovid in his excellent description of the Palace of Sleep Metam lib. 11. At medio torus est Ebeno sublimis in antro Plumeus Uniculor Pullo velamine tectus Quo cubat ipse Deus membris languore solutis c. Amid the Eben Cave a downy Bed High mounted slands with Sable cov'ring spred Here lay the lazie God dissolv'd in rest c. § 36 Nor doth the Poet give this tree a dark and uniform colour for the reason above alledged but also expanded and large branches and a farre-spreading shade all which conduce to sleep the sonne of Night and Erebus and brother of Death and therefore aptly placed in Hell and father of Dreams which are those Images of things which are formed in our sleep by the various discursion of the spirits in the brain which follows concoction when the blood is least troubled and the phantasie uninterrupted by ascending vapours Of these according to Ovid there are three sorts all brothers and sonnes of sleep the first called Morpheus which signifies form the second by the Gods called Icelos which is similitude by Mortals Phobêtor or a causer of fear in regard of the terrours arising from fearfull dreams and the third Phantasus or imagination all which express the nature and originall of dreams which also are diverse according to the meat we eat place where we live the time the business and discourse of the precedent day and lastly the variety of every ones temperament and complexion Coel. Rodiginus l. 9. c. 10. gives a more mysticall and abstruse interpretation of this place out of the Platonick Philosophy to whom we shall referre thee as also to Macrobius in somn Scipionis l. 1. c. 3. Centaurs were monsters in their upper part resembling a man and in their lower a horse hence the Poet alluding to their equine nature sayes most properly Centauri in foribus stabulant that Centaurs were stalled or stabled at the gates They are said to have been begotten by Ixion on the cloud which was presented to him by Jupiter instead of Juno whom he sought to adulterate They are fam'd for nothing more then their drunken Counter-skuffle with the Lapithae at Perithous his Wedding excellently described by the ingenious Ovid Met. l. 12. fab 3. This fiction hath an allusion to this history The Centaurs were a mountainous people of Thessalie subject to Ixion whose regal City was called Nephele which signifies a cloud and because all Kings are or ought to be fathers of their people Ixion from hence was said to have begotten them on a cloud These because hardy and stout as Mountainers generally are the King by propounding fair rewards invited to destroy the wild Bulls which infested part of his Country whence they take their name of Centaurs from the Greek words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to gore with a javeling and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Bull. They were the first who ever backed horses who being seen by the Borderers as they watered their horses at the river Peneus were supposed by them amazed at so uncouth a sight to have been really such as we have represented them and truly an exquisite horseman ought to place himself in such a posture on horseback as if Centaur-like he were one piece with the horse he bestrides They were indeed a cruell libidinous people and injurious to strangers and therefore the Poets invested their beastly minds with such monstrous bodies imposing also such names upon them as did correspond with their wild and salvage natures § 37 There were two Scylla's one the Daughter of Nisus King of the Megarenses who betrayed her Father and native soyl to his implacable enemy Minos King of Crete See Ovid. Met. lib. 8. fab 1. the other
crimes proportion § 60 When these Judges had examined and sentenced the guilty then they delivered them to the Furies the hellish Executioners to be tormented which as the Judges were so were they in number three Tisiphone Alecto and Megaera three Sisters the Daughters of Erebus and the Night or of Pluto and Proserpine the Devil and his Dam known to the Latines by the names of Furiae because of the terrours and distractions wherewith they afflicted the Guilty and Dirae quasi Dei irae because such distractions arise from the just anger of God upon offenders or because they are Executioners of Gods wrath To the Greeks by those of Erynnyes quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the same reason the Latines call them Furiae and Eumenides per antiphrasin or by the contrary for Dysmenides quasi minime mites from their hostile and implacable severity Servius and Eustath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek signifies benevolent â—nd gentle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the contrary They were said to be lean tall to have hollow and blood-shotten eyes tresses of Serpents instead of hair and a girdle of the same incompassing their wastes a torch in one hand and a whip in the other as you may read in the Poets to pursue whose descriptions of this kind would be infinite but the end and drift of them all was to depaint and set forth horror and ugliness in its genuine colours in the person of the Furies thereby to deterre men from committing such crimes as should render them obnoxious to the evil treatment of such merciless and dreadfull tormentors But what indeed are these Furies what their torches snakes and whips but the girds and prickings of an evil conscience but the inward accusations of a guilty mind and those throws and pangs which accompany evil commissions nec vulnera membris Vlla ferunt mens est quae diros sentiat ictus Now would upon their bodies could be found It was the mind that felt the direfull wound Ovid. Met. l. 4. speaking of Athamas And why are they said to be three but to signifie those three praedominant affections viz. anger lust and covetousness which precipitate men and carry them on to such unlawfull undertakings as doe certainly beget the persecutions and torments of a bad conscience Tres furiae significant tres animi adfectus qui homines in omnia facinora praecipites agunt quarum ira ultionem cupiditas opes libido voluptates desiderat Cicer. They are said to be Virgins because no ways to be corrupted from taking due revenge upon the malefactor an evil conscience can by no artifice be so quieted and allayed but that it will still rise up against and check the evil-doer it will still confront him accuse him and condemn him But to proceed after these Furies had terrified with their snakes and torn the bodies of the Damned with their whips then they were as you may gather out of our Author here tumbled headlong into the abysse of Hell called Tartarus where they were for ever vexed with most exquisite torments Thus Rhadamanthus Claudian in Rufin l. 2. passeth this terrible sentence upon that monster of men Rufinus which though a Fiction I cannot read without an inward dread and apprêhension Tollite de mediis animarum dedecus umbris Adspexisse sat est oculis jam parcite nostris Et Ditis purgate domos agitate flagellis Trans Styga trans Erebum vacuo mandate Barathro Infra Titanum tenebras infraque recessus Tartarëos nostrumque Chaos quo Ditis opaci Fundamenta jacent praeceps ubi mersus anhelet Dum rotat astra Polus feriant dum litora venti From ' midst the Ghost remove of souls that slain One sight 's enough our eyes no more prophane Purge Dis his house with whips drive him away Beyond Styx beyond Erebus convey Him to the unfathom'd Gulf which lies beneath The Titans dungeon and the dreadfull depth Of Tart'rus and our Chaos where are layd Black Hels foundations be he there convey'd Where headlong tumbled he may panting lie Whilst winds strike shores and starres adorn the skie § 61 According to our division we now come to the persons tormented in Hell who they were and for what offences which the Poet first pursues in these following particulars and then concludes in divers generals The first of these were the Titans the sonnes of Titan and the Earth the common Parent of all monstrous and obscure productions and therefore such are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earth-born these were said to have warred against Jupiter pretending right from their Father Titan elder Brother to Saturn Jupiters Father to the celestiall Kingdome but failing in their rebellious attempt they were cast into the bottomless pit of Hell there to suffer never-ending torments § 62 The next were the Aloïdes Othus and Ephialte twins the putative sonnes of Aloëus and Iphimedia but indeed of her and Neptune who were said to grow every moneth nine inches so that in nine years they became nine ells long and nine cubits broad these relying on their vast proportions casting the Mountain Ossa upon Olympus and then Pelion upon them both endeavour'd to scale the heavens and to force Jupiter out of his native Kingdome but being slain by Apollo they were precipitated into this place also Both these are emblems of rebellion which being hatched by wiser heads is set on foot by the Titans the sonnes of the earth that is the common rout and which like the Aloïdes increasing to a great strength in a short time if not suppressed heaps Pelion upon Ossa that is subverts the fundamentals of government which though moddel'd and put together with the greatest policy and prudence that may be and as firmly rooted as a moutain is often-times shaken removed and overthrown by the convulsions and earthquakes of popular sedition But mark its reward it seldome is successefull but carries its punishment with it not only in this world where it usually expires upon a gibbet but as the blackest of transgressions is punished as by these examples is clear in the other with the worst of punishments viz. eternal damnation These Fables were invented to keep Subjects in their due obedience The third was Salmôneus sonne of Aeolus according to Servius and King of Elis who not content with regall Majesty and honour impiously aspired to divine and that he might imitate Jupiter he caused a brazen bridge to be built over which he drove his Chariot to counterfeit thunder and darted fire-brands and torches in imitation of lightning causing those to be killed at whom he flung his imaginary thunderbolt but himself was at last slain by Jupiter as you see thrust into Hell as in the former examples rebellious Subjects are reproved so in this ambitious proud and tyrannicall Princes are reprehended The fourth was Tityus the sonne of Jupiter by Elâta Daughter of Orchomerus or as Virgil sayes of the Omni-parent Earth so large that when extended
therefore called by him animae carcer the prison of the soul reflecting haply upon that of Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the body is the souls grave or sepulchre For as those who are shut up in a dark prison have all objects intercepted from their eyes so the soul incarcerated in the body is utterly blinded nor can auras respicere have the free prospect of the air whereof it is compounded The Poet here occurres to a tacite objection the soul it is true loseth of its original purity by conjunction with the body but when freed from thence it may recover its pristine state of purity and perfection no it retains still after its separation much of that pollution which it contracted whilst it was immers'd in the body And hence he layes the foundation of his imaginary Purgatory which as necessarily previous to that Transmigration we have already discoursed of he makes of three sorts either by ventilation by air purgation by fire or rinsing by water all according to the doctrine of Plato purging as Physicians doe by contraries for fire which is hot and dry air which is hot and moist water which is cold and moist are the most proper purgatives for earthy contagions i. e. for those stains the soul hath contracted from the commerce with the body which is earthy Earth being both the coldest of the 4. elements and in that most contrary to Fire which is the hottest and the driest and in that most opposite to Water which is the moistest in both to Air which is both hot and moist this is St. Austins conceit l. 21. de Civit. Dei c. 13. we will not say that the Roman Cathâ—lick hath no better authority for his Purgatory then that of a Roman Poet. This we may safely affirm that it was an opinion received amongst the Heathens many centuries before it was introduced into the Church of Rome with this only difference they held that after death the souls went into Purgatory and from thence ascended not into eternall bliss but into this world where they were reinvested with new bodies these that after their purgatory they ascended into heaâ—â—n they both allow of a Purgatory and a subsequent resurrection and differ only in the terminus adquem the place to which that resurrection tends § 75 There is no one passage in this book more obscure then this in the literal construction you shall find more sound of words then soundness of sense for what can you understand by leaving the etherial sense pure and a fire of simple breath or air for so it runs if verbally translated We have therefore paraphrased upon this place as we have done elsewhere where the sense required it therefore by sensus aethereus we are to understand the Soul a heavenly or aethereal Being and therefore said by Virgil a little above to be coelestis originis as here to be aethereus sensus and to be ignis aër simplex for he sayes here auraï i. e. aurae simplicis ignem for auram simplicem ignem according to the opinion of those who held the soul to be compounded of air and fire therefore the sense of Igneus est ollis vigor coelestis orgio Seminibus is here expressed in other words whilst he sayes purumque reliquit Aetherum sensum atque auraï simplicis ignem which I think according to the sense both of the Author and the Context may not unaptly be paraphrased in these words Leaving of spots that heavenly Being clear Of Fire a compound and unmixed Air. But to summe up our precedent discourse and to shew the connexion thereof you must know that there is a certain soul or spirit which actuateth and presideth over this Universe and from whence all things derive their birth and original amongst the rest men whose souls we have and doe still speak according to the principles of Virgil and the Gentiles are compounded of fire and air as their bodies are of water and earth whence they resembling their principles are active and pure these drossie and dull they from the long commerce with the body contract stains from thence which adhere to them even after their separation Hence they are to be purged in the other world after which when purified they are brought by Mercury to the River Lethe the River of Forgetfulness and having drunk thereof they then return into this world and are received into other bodies We have insisted much upon the exposition of the Author in these precedent Paragraphs Interpreters have laboured much herein as upon a place knotty and obscure though full of much learning and abstruse speculations if we have either in our Translation or notes conferred any thing to the explication of the Author and the Readers satisfaction we shall think our pains in the one and our collections in the other not altogether misemployed § 76 We come now to the primarie scope and design of the Poet and which indeed as the end is was primus in intentione though ultimus in executione Virgil composed this Poem on purpose to celebrate the Family of Augustus and to consecrate the names of some of the most deserving and illustrious Houses of Rome to following Ages And to this only tends Aeneas his descent into Hell with all the precedent descriptions We shall here exhibit a Summary of the Roman History from the Alban Kings to Augustus his time following the series and method of our Author who presents them not according to the order of time wherein they were born or lived but as he fancies them to stand before Anchises the person here speaking § 77 The first therefore who appeared and was to ascend was Sylvius Aeneas his Sonne by Lavinia Latinus his Daughter and half-half-Brother to Ascanius sirnamed Iülus Aeneas his Sonne by Creüsa he is here called an Alban name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of excellence because from him all the Alban Kings were denominated Sylvii Aeneas his posthume sonne because born after his Fathers death and Sylvius because born in the Woods The Story is briefly this Lavinia being left with child by Aeneas fled for fear of her sonne in law Ascanius to Tyrrhus the Master of her Father Latinus his flocks but was delivered by the way of a son in the woods whom from thence she called Sylvius i. e. Du Bois or Wood and from him the succeeding Alban Kings were styled Sylvii but being freed from her ill-grounded jealousie she was at last brought back to Ascanius who looking upon her as the dear Relict of his honored Father did not only receive her with all demonstrations of love but leaving Lavinium built by Aeneas and so called from Lavinia his beloved Consort to her he founded Alba or the white City so called from the white Sow the Trojans found at their first landing and Longa from its figure it being extended in length See Aur. Victor de orig gent. Rom. And this became the royal residence of the Alban Kings
parts of India Nay he preferres the victories of Augustus to those either of Hercules or Bacchus The 12. labours of the first are so well known that we need not insist long upon these which are here mentioned The Hinde called CerenÃtis feigned to be brazen hoof'd was slain by him neer to the Town of Parrhasia he also took a terrible Boar called the Boar of Erymanthus a Mountain of Arcadia alive and brought it to Eurystheus who by Juno's command was his Tax-master and imposed all those hazardous labours upon that invincible Heroe Of the Beast of Lerna i. e. the Hydra we have descoursed at large Paragraph 39. From Augustus after a desultorious manner he returns to the successors of Romulus in whom the royal line of Aeneas did determine The first of these was aged and hoary-headed Numa whom Anchises seems not to know because a stranger and none of his posterity born at â—â—ures a small Dorp or Village of the Sabines on the very day the foundation of Rome was laid The character the Poet gives him and the rest is agreeable to the testimony of History For Numa Pompilius a person fam'd for his justice and religion was by the general vote of the people though a stranger chosen King who when placed in the regal Throne having made peace with all his neighbours applied himself solely to the reforming of the Lawes Manners and Discipline both Civil and Religious introducing all Rites and Ceremonies into their Church whence he is here said to be ramis insignis Olivae and sacra ferens the first denoting his studious love of peace of which the Olive is an embleme the second his great care of Religion and the worship of the Gods whereby as Florus observes populum ferocem eó redegit ut quod vi injuriâ occupaverat imperium religione justitiâ gubernâret He taught them to govern by religion and justice that Empire which they had atchieved by injury and force Hence the very names of these two precedent Kings seem to speak their natures and to have designed them as it were for this different manner of proceeding in the management of affairs for Romulus comes from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. strength and hardiness and Numa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from his inventing and ordaining of laws for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Law is written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Dores from whence Numa comes and hence his character is truly given us by Livie Numa regno potitus urbem novam conditam vi armis a Romulo scilicet jure eam legibusque ac moribus de integro condere parat Numa founded that City by wholsome laws which Romulus had founded by force and arms He reigned 43 years § 81 Tullus Hostilius the third from Romulus succeeded to Numa Grandson to Hostus Hostilius who died fighting against the Sabines under the Tower of Rome He was chosen for his great valour and known conduct He subdued the Albans razed their City and transplanted the Inhabitants to Rome In the direption and sack of this forlorn Town this is chiefly to be noted that when they had equalled all the edifices whether private or publick with the ground the triumphing enemy out of an awe and reverence to religion spared the Temples of the Gods Templis tamen Deûm ita enim edictum ab rege fuit temperatum est Livie a reproach to the impious and intemperate zeal of this worst of ages wherein the Temples of the true God have born the greatest marks of the irreligious furie not of foreign enemies as here but of the once-children of the same Mother and professors of the same faith This King was the restorer of their military discipline as here characterised and inlarger of the City by taking in the Mount Caelius He reigned according to Livies Compute 32. years § 82 Ancus Martius Grandson to Numa Pompilius by his Daughter the fourth from Romulus was elected after Tullus He is described here as haughty and popular because born of royall blood He was of a disposition and temper much like to that of his Grandsire Numa as to his justice regard of religion and government in peace though in time of warre he equalled any of his Predecessors whence Livie sayes of him Medium erat in Anco ingenium Numae Romuli memor In Ancus there was a mixture of Numa and Romulus the one appeared in his reviving the laws of Numa concerning religious Rites and Ceremonies in walling the City in building a bridge over Tiber in planting a Colony at Ostia a Town situated upon the mouth of Tiber which became a famous Mart in after ages The other in his warres with the Latines Fidenâtes Vejentes Sabines and Volscians He sat upon the Throne 24 years § 83 The fifth from Romulus was Lucius Tarquinius sirnamed Priscus or the elder in regard of L. Tarquinius Superbus his sonne or as Florus writes him his Grandson He though not only not a Roman but also not so much as an Italian was named King propter industriam elegantiam for his industrie and handsome deportment He as Livie tells the story was the sonne of Damarâtus a rich Merchant of Corinth who forced out of his own Country came with his family into Italy and planted himself at Tarquinii a Town of Etruria or Tuscanie He had two sonnes Aruns and Lucumo Lucumo after the death both of his Father and Brother came to Rome where for his wealth prudence he was elected into the Senatorian order by Ancus Martius and instead of Lucumo called Lucius and Tarquinius from Tarquinii the Town of his birth And after Ancus his death notwithstanding the left two sons was thought worthy to be his Successor He conquering the rebelling Sabines Latines and the twelve Tuscan Nations was the first who triumphed in Rome From these last he borrowed and introduced all the ornaments and ensigns of Soveraignty with all the habits and fashions which were afterwards used by the Roman people He reigned thirty eight years and was treacherously murdered by two Villains suborned by the two Sonnes of Ancus Martius As you may read the story at large in Livie l. 1. he left two sonnes Aruns and Lucius called afterward Superbus But neither of these succeeded immediately to their Father but Servius Tullius a Slave by birth as born of Ocrisia a Lady taken in the Corniculan warre Ocrisia as being of the best quality of the Captivâ—s was presented to Tanaquil Wife to Tarquinius and being left with child by her Husband was delivered of a boy which from the servile condition of his Mother was called Servius and from his Father Tullius He from a hopefull and towardly child became a deserving and gallant man insomuch that K. Tarquin thought him worthy of his Daughter and the people of Rome of the Crown For he married the one and after the death of the murdered Tarquin was elected to the other his
he devov'd himself also and charging into the thickest of the now-prevailing enemy restored the lost victory to his own party See Livie l. 10. The form and manner of a military Devotion as we may collect out of Livie was this The General of the wavering and declining Army plucking off his Paludamentum or Souldiers Coat put on his Praetexta or purple-guarded Robe such as he used to wear in the City then covering his head and holding his erected hands which were hidden under his Robe out at his chin and standing upon his lance he repeated these solemn words after the Pontifex or High-priest Janus Jupiter Father Mars Quirinus Bellona ye Lares Novensiles and Indigetes ye Gods who praeside over us and the enemy ye Gods infernal I pray ye I worship ye I ask and require ye to give successe to the Roman forces and army and to pursue the enemies of the Roman people with terrour fear and death As I have solemnly pronounced these words so I devove bequeath and give my self with the legions and auxiliaries of the enemy to the infernal Gods and Mother Tellus for the State Army Legions and Auxiliares of the people of Rome These words pronounced he girded his Robe with a Cinctus Gabinus such a girdle as the Gabii used and mounting his horse with his sword drawn rushed into the thickest of the enemy By this means by the Devils imposture succeeding and made effectuall they imagined that they bore away with them all the evil fortune which was like to betide their own party into the enemies army and translated that disanimation and fear which was ready to invade themselves unto the conquering side and that they being by the repeating these solemn words devoted or accursed for devotus and execratus are the same carried a curse along with them wheresoever they either went or fell But this was not often put in practise these two only occurre in the Roman History In the Greek we read of Codrus King of Athens who did the same But to proceed Decius the Grandson did not as some affirm devove himself as his predecessors did but being Consul with P. Sulpicius Savenius ann urb 474. was slain fighting for his Country in the warre against King Pyrrhus of these three thus Cic. l. 1. quaest Tusc Si Mors timeretur non cum Latinis pater Decius dècertans cum Etruscis filius cum Pyrrho Nepos sese hostium telis objecissent were death a thing to be feared Decius the Father fighting with the Latines the Son with the Tuscans and the Grandson with Pyrrhus had not run upon the enemies weapons But the glory of this illustrious Family lasted not long but expired with these three after whom we read not of any of the Decii famous either in peace or warre or who bore any office of note in the Common-wealth they were but a plebeian Family and preferred to those honours and dignities for their virtue and valour We will add those verses of Juvenal concerning these Decii as an Epitaph to be inscribed on their Tomb who in his eighth Satyr gives them this luculent Elogie Plebeiae Deciorum animae plebeia fuerunt Nomina pro totis legionibus hi tamen pro Omnibus auxiliis atque omni pube Latinâ Sufficiunt Diis infernis Terraeque parenti Pluris enim Decii quà m qui servantur ab illis To the infernal Gods and Mother Earth The Decii though of a plebeian birth For all our Legions our Auxiliaries And youth were deem'd a worthy sacrifice For the Heroick Decii then whate're By them was sav'd of greater value were § 86 Drusus was a cognomen of the Family of the Livii which according to Ant. Augustinus de fam Rom. were distinguished into the Dentri Salinatores Libones Aemiliani Claudiani and Drusi The first of the Drusi was C. Livius Drusus who according to Suetonius in vit Tiber. took the sirname of Drusus from Drausus a General of the enemy by him slain transmitting the same to his posterity His great Grandson M. Livius Drusus being Tribune of the people with C. Gracchus discharged himself so wisely and faithfully in the Senates-behalf that he got himself the honorable title of Patrónus Senatus Sueton. in Tib. and Plutarch in Gracch Tiberius Caesar was by the Mothers side ingrafted into this Family for Livia Drusilla was Daughter to Livius Drusus who took part with Brutus and Cassius and after their defeat following them in their example as well as in their Cause slew himself Him Patereulus calls virum fortissimum nobilissimum a right noble and valiant person Lastly of this branch of the Livii was that hopefull young Prince Drusus Nero younger Brother to Tiberius and Father to the excellent Germanicus for whose sake as being Son to Livia Drusilla Augusta and so intirely beloved by his Father-in-law Augustus it is credible that the Poet who took all occasions to honour that Family hath inserted the name of the Drusi in this illustrious Catalogue I doe much wonder that Servius with the rest of Virgils Interpreters should imagine that under the name of Drusus the Poet understands here that Claudius Nero who being Consul with M. Livius Salinator an urb 546. defeated Asdrubal the brother of Annibal when the Nero's were not of the Livian Family as were the Drusi but of the Claudian nor till Tib. Nero Father to the Emperour Tiberius did by marrying Livia match into that Family did any of the Nero's assume the name of Drusus whereof Drusus the Father of Germanicus was the first § 87 The Manlian Family not onely as a patrician but as a sourse and seminarie of deserving Patriots was one of the most eminent of Rome and which from the expulsion of the Kings flourished in high repute till Caesar and Pompey's time These were branched into the Vulsones Capitolini the Imperiossi and the Torquati Ant. August The first of the Torquati then whom no one of that Family was more famous was Titus Manlius the Son of Lucius sirnamed Imperiossus so called from his haughty and imperious nature which appearing in all his proceedings was yet more eminent in the unnaturall usage of this Titus his Son whom for no other reason then for that he appeared to him to be lesse vigorous than what became the Manlian name he in a manner cast off and bred up in the Country amongst his Hinds and Plow-men For which his unbeseeming deportment M. Pomponius Tribune of the people had prepared a publick Indictment and Accusation before the people against him The young Manlius understanding the intention of the Tribune goes privily arm'd only with a knife to the City finds out Pomponius takes him aside and there draws his knife threatning immediately to dispatch him unless he would swear to let fall his accusation against his Father which for fear he swore to doe This undeserved piety of the Sonne procured an absolute remission of the intended prosecution to the Father and immortall honour to
would hold another Court he answered three dayes hence I will keep Court in the Castle of Badia which he having taken the Town within the time beyond all expectation performed The like confidence of himself he shewed when having taken some Spies or Scouts of Annibals a little before the fatal battel of Nadagara he did not truss them up as they both deserved and expected but commanded an Officer to carry them through the whole Camp and to shew them whatsoever could be seen which done he sent them away with rewards and bid them tell their General in what posture the Romans lay incamped This his bravery and confidence did so abate the spirits of Annibal that he endeavoured by a personal conference to procure peace but in vain See Liv. l. 30. Val. Max. l. 3. c. 7. This great Captain left two wholesome cautions to military men the one was that no General ought to say Non putaram I thought not of it because in warre where an error once committed can no way be rectified all things ought to be well weighed and considered of before hand The second was that the enemy ought not to be ingaged unless a visible advantage invite or an invincible necessity compel us thereunto for to let slip a fair opportunity is madnesse and not to fight when there is no other way to escape is a dangerous piece of cowardize Val. Max. l. 7. c. 2. yet notwithstanding the unquestionable merit of this worthy Patriot his own Country of which he had deserved so highly proved ingratefull to him the usuall practise of sordid Common-wealths and through the uncessant vexations of the Tribunes forced him to goe into voluntary exile and to retire to a Country-house of his near Linternum a poor sea-Town in Campania betwixt Baiae and Cumae called now according to Leander Torre de la Patria where free from all publick employment he spent his time in harmless Country-sports and Husbandry himself according to the custome of the Ancients often tilling the ground The words he used when he left Rome are recorded by Seneca epist 86. Nihil inquit volo derogare legibus nihil institutis aequum inter omnes cives jus sit c. I will derogate nothing from the Laws and Customes of my Country Let there be amongst fellow-Citizens equal priviledges Thou mayst my native soil make use without me of what I have done for thee As I was cause of thy liberty so I will be an argument I retire if I am grown greater then is consistent with thine interest At Linternum he died the 54. of his age according to Plutarch where also a monument was raised for him on which he by his last will had commanded this Inscription to be ingraven Ingrata patria ne ossa mea quidem habebis Thou shalt not my ungratefull Country have so much as my bones Neer Cajêta there was found a marble Sepulcher and in it a brasse Urn around which was written these verses which are supposed by Plutarch to be Scipio's Epitaph and this the place of his sepulture Devicto Annibale captâ Carthagine aucto Imperio hoc cineres marmore lector habes Cui non Europa non obstitit Africa quondam Respiceres hominem quam brevis urna premit By Annibals and Carthage conquest he Who Rome inlarg'd under this stone doth lie Whom Africa nor Europe could oppose A little urn loe doth the man inclose He took to wife Aemilia Daughter to L. Paulus Aemilius who was Consul with C. Terentius Varro and was slain valiantly fighting at the battel of Cannae She was Sister to that Aemilius who overthrew K. Perseus and in him subverted the Macedonian Monarchy He had two Daughters the one married to Scipio Nasîca his Brothers Sonne the other to Tib. Gracchus He had also two Sonnes but one of them only survived him viz. P. Scipio heir to nothing of his Fathers but his estate and name Val. Max. l. 3. c. 5. The only thing commendable he ever did was when he was childless himself the adopting of a worthy person to his sonne viz. L. Aemilius Paulus his Mothers Nephew who quitting the Name and Family of his Father was after his adoption according to the custome of those times and the laws of adoption called after the name of his adoptive Father P. Cornelius Scipio and Aemilianus to shew the Family of his natural Father from whence he came And this is the other thunderbolt of warre here celebrated by Virgil. He was the natural Sonne of L. Aemilius Paulus a person of very great eminency in his time and of an ancient Patrician Family He gave first proof of his valour when he served under his Father at the battel wherein K. Perseus was defeated where he with some other young Noble-men followed the chace so long that he returned not till mid-night into the Camp to his sorrowing Father who gave him for lost but receiv'd with great joy when he saw him honorably defiled with dust and blood After this he served in Spain as a Colonel under Lucullus the Grandfather of him who subdued Mithridates where in a single combat he slew a Barbarian of a vast and Gigantick proportion who defied the Roman Army There is a mistake in Florus l. 2. c. 17. who sayes that Scipio wonne then the Spolia opima but this could not be because they and no other are called Spolia opima which the General of one Army takes from the slain General of the other At the siege of Intercatia he was the first who scaled the walls for which he was rewarded with a mural Crown To be short he behaved himself upon all occasions so valiantly that no person gained so much honour as himself in these warres which being pretty well over he passed into Africa with M. Manilius under whom he served as a Colonel where his deportment was also so gallant that Cato the Censor a man by nature a detractor said in open Senate reliques qui in Africâ militarent umbras militare Scipionem vigêre that the other Commanders who served in Africa went to work like shadows but that Scipio was the only vigorous man amongst them insomuch that when he sued to be made Aedile the first step to publick employment he was created Consul and that before he could legally be admitted to that charge by reason of his minority for he was then but 36 years old whereas none by law could be chosen Consul before the age of 43. His Collegue was C. Livius Drusus Africa was by the general consent of the people conferred upon Scipio a fatal name to Carthage which he took and raz'd according to Cornelius Nepos in six moneths and from thence was sirnamed Africanus Minor or Inferior to difference him from his Grandâ—re Africanus Major or Superior Dr. Simpson in his Chronologie layes the first foundation of Carthage an Mund. 2772. fifty years before the destruction of Troy Zorus and Carchêdâ—n two Tyrians being the first builders and planters of this
Quintus died before his Father who adopted into the place of his deceased Sonne the eldest Sonne of Aemilius Paulus and Brother to Scipio Aemilianus who from thence was called Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus He was Consul with L. Hostilius Mancinus An. V. C. 608. His Son was Q. Fabius Maximus Consul with L. Opimius Nepos An. V. C. 632. he was sirnamed Allobrogicus from the conquest of the Allobroges a people of France supposed to have been the same with those whom the Moderns call the Savoyards To be short this Family of the Fabii continued in high repute from the foundation of Rome till Augustus his time where we find Q. Fabius Paulus Consul with Q. Aelius Tubero An. V. C. 742. § 98 And now we come to the Family of the two Marcelli in the brief recital of whose story we shall wind up our historical speculations and in them these our annotations upon the sixth book of Virgils Aeneis which if they seem to be drawn too much out in length it must not be ascribed to any natural affectation of prolixity or industrious inserting of such discourses as might have been better omitted then insisted upon but to the great variety of learning of all sorts wherewith this Poem is richly adorned which sufficiently testifies the vast reading and knowledge of the Author and which hath necessarily led us to consult with divers good writers and whilest we have endeavoured to illustrate this excellent piece discovered to us the whole body of humane literature whereof these annotations may serve as a Summarie or generall view and will I hope according to the latitude and extent of this kind of learning both prodesse and delectare be both delightfull and profitable to the Reader But to proceed the Claudian Family descended originally from the Sabines was of two sorts the one was of the Patricians the other of the Plebeians The first were distinguished into the Regillenses the Pulchri the Centhones and the Nerones The Marcelli so called from their Martial inclinations Marcellus being a diminutive derived from Mars were indeed Plebeians but men of great worth and esteem in their time There were nine of this name who arrived to the highest preferments Rome could advance any Citizen to The first of this Family who was honored with the Consular dignity was M. Marcellus who was Consul with C. Valerius Flaccus An. V. C. 422. The third from him was this famous Marcellus who was the first who overthrew Annibal after the battel of Cannae he from his incessant desire of fighting and engaging the enemy was called the sword of Rome as Fabius Maximus with whom he was Contemporary from the defensive posture whereon he still used to lie the Shield or Buckler He was five times Consul first before the second Punick warre with Cn. Scipio Calvus An. V. C. 532. when the Galli Insubres those Gauls which inhabited about Millan in Lumbardie assisted by the Gessatae which were Gauls also but living about the River Rhodanus on the other side the Alps made warre upon the Romans and had then laid siege to Clastidium a Garrison belonging to the Romans Marcellus leaving his Collegue with the greatest part of the Army before Asserrae a Town of the Gauls marched with an inconsiderable party to raise the siege before Clastidium which the Gauls having intelligence of drew off with 1000 horse and foot to meet the Consul and being certified of the paucity of his forces in their thoughts anticipated an easie victory Marcellus marched in the head of his men and Bridomârus or Virdomârus the Gaulick General in the head of his also whom the Roman espying and by his richly-gilt armour conceiving to be Commander in chief setting spurs to his horse furiously charged and piercing with his spear slew in the view of the two armies and so disarming him was the third after Romulus who wonne the Spolia opima which we have rendred royal spoils they were called opima either ab opibus from the richness of them as Varro conjectures or ab opere because it was a work or deed extraordinary to winne them according to Plutarch or for that Opimum was all one with Amplum Livie defines them to be spolia quae Dux Duci detraxit Liv. l. 4. those spoils or armes which one General hath taken from another whom he hath slain with his own hand The Roman history makes mention but of three who ever wan these spoils viz. Romulus who slew Acron King of the Caeninenses Liv. l. 1. Plut. in Romul Flor. l. 1. c. 1. and Aul. Cornelius Cossus of whom § 91. who slew Lars Tolumnius and lastly this Marcellus who also slew Britomârus King of the Gauls for that is a manifest error in Florus l. 2. c. 17. as we have noted § 93. where he makes Scipio Aemilianus to win the spolia opima by killing a Spaniard who challenged him for neither of these Duellists were Commanders in chief Scipio was then but a Colonel of foot under Lucullus and what the Barbarian was it is not concluded either by Livie Val. Max. or Aur. Victor who all make mention of this duel only Florus who is singular herein sayes that he was a King Val. Maximus c. de Fortitudine more consonantly to truth reckons not Scipio amongst those three who wonne the spolia opima but amongst those famous Romans who being challenged slew the challenger and these were T. Manlius Torquatus of whom § 86. M. Valerius Corvinus and this Scipio Aemilianus The spoils thus wonne were carried in triumph by the Victor the manner you may read in Livie l. 1. and in Plut. in the life of Marcellus and dedicated to Jupiter Feretrius so called from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to carry or à feriendo hoste from smiting of the enemy or rather from feretrum by which they signifie the Bier or engine upon which they carried the spoils these as a perpetual monument they hung up in Jupiter Feretrius his Temple built by Romulus repair'd and beautified by Augustus Liv. l. 4. Numa to this Law of Romulus who ordained that the spolia opima should be consecrated to Jupiter added that in case any one wonne them thrice which was never known that then the first should be offered to Jupiter the second to Mars and the third to Romulus Hence we may easily gather the sense of this verse which hath so much puzled Interpreters Tertiáque arma patri suspendet capta Quirino Mr. Ogylby renders it thus Shall thrice to Romulus dedicate their arms i. e. the spolia opima against both the Law of Romulus who ordained that the spoils should be dedicated to Jupiter only and against the testimony of history for Marcellus himself did dedicate the spoils to Jupiter and not to Romulus as you may read in his life Neither is this the only mistake in Mr. Ogylby for he sayes that Marcellus shall not only dedicate these arms to Romulus but that he shall dedicate them thrice
was Consul with Pub. Cornelius Scipio Father to Scipio the Great an urb 535. at the first breaking out of the second Punick warre he lost and was slain at the fatal battel of Trebia The two Sonnes of these viz. Tib. Sempronius Longus and Pub. Cornelius Scipio Africanus were Collegues together an urb 559. As for the Gracchi to which Family we must principally confine our discourse the first we meet with of that name who was of Consular digâ—ity was Tib. Sempron Gracchus who was Consul with Publ. Valerius Falco an urb 515. The next was Tib. Sempronius Gracchus haply his Son who was twice Consul first with Quint. Fabius Maximus Verrucossus in the fourth year of the second Punick warre secondly with Quint Fabius Maximus the Sonne of Vâ—rrucossus two years after Tib. Sempronius Gracchus this mans Sonne was Consul with C. Claudius Pulcher an urb 376. Sardinia fell by lot to be his Province wherein he did great service his Consulship expired he remained there as Proconsul in which command he quite reduced that Province to its due obedience See Livie l. 41. He was the second time Consul with M. Juventius Thalva an urb 590. He triumphed twice and was honoured with the Censorship together with C. Claudius Pulcher his Collegue in his first Consulship He was indeed as Paterculus sayes of him vir eminentissimus clarissimus a right eminent and famous person But he did by nothing more ennoble the Sempronian name then by ingrafting it upon a fair stock of the Cornelian Family for he married Cornelia the Daughter of Pub. Scipio that Scipio who subdued Annibal a Lady of most transcendent worth by whom he had a numerous progenie viz. twelve children but three of them only survived Tiberius and Caius his sonnes who made their names as famous by their misdeeds as misfortunes as their Predecessors had done by their noble atchievements and successfull undertakings and Sempronia their Sister who married Scipio Aemilianus the Grandson by adoption to Scipio Africanus and by consequence her own Cousen german the best accomplished Gentleman Rome ever bred of whom more anon Of this Family also was Madam Sempronia who was so deeply concerned in Catilines conspiracie See her character in Salust Tiberius the elder Brother was a man of great parts of an undaunted courage a fluent tongue and a comely personage qualifications of a dangerous consequence if the person so qualified happen to deviate from what is right He was first Quaestor or Treasurer to C. Mancinus in the Numantine War and after his return to Rome was made Tribune of the people in which office whether out of an innate hatred to the Nobility or out of a turbulent and seditious spirit of his own I cannot say he caused a dangerous sedition and made such a schism or rent betwixt the Patricians and the Plebeians as could not without a Civil Warte have been pieced and cemented again had not a sudden and violent death intercepted him And here we may observe with Florus l. 3. c. 13. how that the Tribunician power which was at first intended for the Commons bulwark against the incroachments of the Nobility did its self by degrees degenerate into the greatest exorbitancie and tyranny that could be whilst under that specious and plausible pretence of asserting the peoples liberty those popular Magistrates did drive on their own sinister and ambitious designes and filling all things with faction and sedition disappoint the end for which they were at the first ordained that is did destroy the peoples liberty which they over-eagerly pretended to patronize and slacken the very nerves and sinews of all civil polity by their contentious bandings against the Senate But to proceed Tib. Gracchus partly to despite the Nobility but principally to shake the frame and to subvert the fundamentals of the present power that he might upon the ruines thereof raise the superstructure of his own greatness made it his business to cajole and flatter the people which by virtue of his office he did either by reviving old antiquated Laws or enacting new all which tended to the diminution and weakning of the Patricians either in their private fortunes or in their power and publick employments which pleased the Common people who naturally hate their Betters and fool'd them into a belief that every one of them should come to share the estates and dignities of the ruin'd Nobility little imagining that they were to be used but as brute instruments necessary tools which were to be cast aside when the work was done Wherefore resolved to prosecute the Nobility and haply secretly intending if things hapned right to change the form of government he first preferred the Laws called Agrariae by which he deprived them of their estates and those called Judiciariae by which he clipped the wings of their power By the first it was formerly enacted That all lands belonging to the Commonwealth which were called the publick lands and were the accessions of some new Conquest should at easie rates be rented out to the poorer sort these as Lives were laps'd or as Leases determined the Patricians got into their hands the Commons being by degrees utterly devested of their ancient posseâ—â—ions This caused gâ—eat discontents and many offers were made in vain by some Tribunes to reform this abuse and to reduce things to their original wont and manner but none proceeded so farre herein as Tib. Gracchus who caused the Law to pass and so it was enacted by the Commons That the publick Lands should be taken from the wealthier and reinvested as formerly in the poor Plebeians And this had the face and shew of equity but it was but a face and shew for Gracchus did it not so much to doe right to the people as to spite the Nobility and to prepare the way for some further and more dangerous designe After this had passed he preferred his Judiciary Laws whereby he took the power of Judicature from the Senate to whom it only belonged and transferred it to the Equites or Gentlemen the intermediate degree betwixt the Patricians and the Plebeians therein sâ—ill flattering the people who looked upon themselves as honoured and much strengthened herein the power of Judicature being by falling a degree lower come a step nearer to themselves But whilst Graechus was triumphing in his successes in the Capitol where he held his popular conventions the Senators who were reduced to that extremity that they must suffer the seditious Tribune either to ruine them and with them the Commonwealth or make a vigorous attempt to reskue both from imiment danger led by Scipio Nasîca Grandson to that Nasîca who was called vir optimus the best of men and seconded by a good strong party of friends repairing to the Capitol set upon Gracchus and dissipating his party slew him and by his death put a stop to those desperate innovations which he under colourable pretences had in design But they did but put a stop to them for his
i. e. shall thrice winne the Spolia opima But where does he read that Marcellus wonne them thrice they were never won during all the victories and triumphs of the long-liv'd Roman Empire but thrice and that by three severall persons after the long interposition of a long interval of time therefore these words of the Poet are to be thus expounded suspendet he shall hang up not dedicate tertia arma capta the third spoils taken from the enemy patri Quirino to Romulus i. e. near the arms of Romulus in the same Temple where Romulus hung up his We have therefore here as we have done elsewhere in case of the like obscurity paraphrastically rendred this verse choosing rather by multiplying of words to give the true sense of the Author then by being to precise and thrifty therein to lose a jot of his meaning or to deviate from the Customes Lawes or History of those times with all which we agree whilest we make Virgil speak thus Father Quirinus he also to thine The third spoils taken from the Foe shall joyn But to return to Marcellus who having done great services for his Country against the Carthaginians as well in Sicilia as in Italy was in his fift Consulship together with his Collegue Q. Crispinus unhappily slain by Annibal in an ambuscade The last of this honorable Catalogue is one of the same name and Family also viz. M. Marcellus the sonne of Caius who was the sonne of M. Marcellus the sixt of this name and Consul with L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus An. V. C. 704. by his wife Octavia Augustus his Sister the fifth in descent from the great Marcellus above mentioned and the ninth from the first of that name who was Consul with Valerius Flaccus An. V. C. 422. a Prince of high hopes and great virtues and well deserving those honorable Elogies given him here by our Author with whom you may compare the character which Seneca in his book de Consolatione ad Marciam c. 2. and Vel. Paterc l. 2. give of him by all which he appears to have been a most accomplished person Augustus designing him for his Successor married him to his Daughter Julia by his first Wife Scribonia but alas he was taken away by an untimely fate dying about the 18. year of his age not without the suspicion of poyson administred to him by Livia Augustus his Wife to make way for her sons to the Empire But his Mother Octavia conceived such insuperable grief for his death that she never ceased to mourn for him so long as she lived It is recorded by Donatus in the life of Virgil that Octavia who was present at the recitation of this book by the Author fell into a trance when he came to these words Tu Marcellus eris and that for every verse she gave him ten Sesterces which according to Budaeus his computation l. 3. de Asse speaking there of the summe given to Virgil by Octavia came to about 5000. French Crowns The great Gassendus in his Treatise de Abaco Sestertiorum pretends to a more exact reduction of the Roman § 99 account to the French reckoning 10 Sesterces for 21 verses viz. from Quis pater ille virum c. to Heu miserande puer c. to amounr to 19541 Livres 13 Solz and 4. Deniers which allowing every Livre valuable at 00 01s 08 d. of our money comes to about 1627 l. 16. s. 01d 0b q. sterling Budaeus his compute falls somewhat short of this for 5000 French Crowns at 00 06s 00 per Crown amounts to just 1500.l sterling The greatest of these was not too great a gratuity for such excellent verses I covet not Virgils reward but his happiness in writing that the English Reader might judge whether Octavia was more munificent or the Poet deserving Since these last sheets were sent to the Press it hath pleased the al-governing Providence to make a sad Interlude amidst our pomps and triumphs by taking away that as highly-meriting as highly-born Prince the illustrious Duke of Glocester The precedent discourse leading us so naturally to it we could not but subjoyn these fâ—llowing verses and cast in our Mice not of sorrow for in that we share as deeply as any but of expressing the same wherein we shall easily give place even to the meanest If we imitate not Virgil in the elegancy of his numbers we will do it in the number of his verses That now I could a Pythagorean be Now were thy soul transfused into me Thy great soul Maro all its faculti's Mine by a happy Metempsychosis 5 That in such numbers as thou didst of yore Thy dead Marcellus best of Bards deplore I our brave Glocester might bewail and teach Our English Muse Virgilian pitch to reach We have a Theme as high an argument 10 As full as thine and can we not lament As learnedly as thou didst can't our Muse As well-accented Threnodies infuse As thine and in words as refined tell Both Rome and thee that we can parallel 15 Your Prince and lâ—sse that in our Glocester we In all things dare with your Marcellus vie No we nor yet thy self 'tis boldly said Thy native wit though all Parnassus aid To such a height our words or sense can raise As can our loss express or his due praise 21 Our Gloc'ster's dead which all our joyes allayes Virgil borrows the conceipt of the two gates or out-lets of Dreams out of Homer Odyss 19. There are two gates of sleep sayes he the one of Horn from whence reall dreams such as are made good and seconded in the event doe proceed the other of Ivory out of which issue such as are false and never come to pass and out of this gate Aeneas was let by Anchises obscurely hinting hereby that this whole discourse of Aeneas his descent into Hell with this ample description thereof are even as true as those dreams which proceed out of the ivory gate See Macrâ—b in Somn. Scip. l. 1. c. 3. The reason of which conceit is thus given by Interpreters The Horn gate represents the eye or organ of sight in relation to that tunicle they call Cornea and by a Synechdoche is taken for the whole eye the Ivory the teeth one of the nine instruments of speech which in regard of their whiteness are like to Ivory and are by the same figure taken for the speech in general therefore as what the sight really presents to us is alwayes true and as what we receive from hear-say and report is often-times false so those dreams which issue out of the Horn gate prove true and those which come out of the Ivory one deceitfull and by consequence this whole discourse is to be looked upon as a meer fiction deception and a fallacious dream Finis Annotationum in sextum Aeneidos librum Jucundi acti labores Certain Pieces Relating to the PUBLICK Penned by the AVTHOR Iliaci Cineres flamma extrema meorum Testor in occasu vestro me tela