corpore sed eximiis viribus Tritannum gladiatoris ludo.' After all it is by no means clear that 'vescus' is a compound of 've' and 'esca,' which is commonly taken for granted. Bentley has a dissertation on the subject we have been discussing, in his note to Hor. S. 1. 2, 129.

17. Coloni. We find in Varro an example of 'vegrandis' in this sense: we are told that lambs, under certain circumstances, 'fiunt vegrandes atque imbecillae' R. R. 2. 2, 13.

26.

ANNA PERENNA.

FAS. III. 523.

THE festival of 'Anna Perenna,' who, it is manifest from the name, was the goddess of the ever-circling year, was celebrated on the Ides of March, chiefly, it would appear, by the lower orders, who assembled near the junction of the Anio with the Tiber, and devoted this day to merriment and junketing. Ovid, after giving a most lively picture of the jovial indulgences of the crowd, endeavours to connect Anna Perenna with Anna the sister of Dido, and tells a long story how she wandered to Italy, after the death of the unhappy queen, and was hospitably received by Aeneas; but having excited the jealous fury of Lavinia, she was apprised of her danger in a dream, and fleeing from the palace by night, was drowned in the Numicius. Several other vague suppositions, with regard to the name and nature of this deity, are afterwards detailed. The poet, however, was certainly aware of the truth, for he states that one of the arguments to prove that the Roman year originally commenced in March, rested upon the fact of the festival of Anna Perenna being celebrated in that month. Fast, 3. 146

'Nec mihi parva fides, annos hinc isse priores

Anna quod hoc coepta est mense Perenna coli.' As a commentary on which take the words of Macrobius, S. 1. 12

'Eodem quoque mense et publice et privatim ad Annam Perennam sacrificatum itur: ut annare perennare commode liceat.'

1. Geniale, 'merry,' 'jovial.' See Biog. Dict. art. 'Genius.' 2. Advena Tibri. The Tiber is called a stranger, because it was considered an Etrurian river. Thus Virg. G. 1. 498

'Di patrii Indigetes, et Romule, Vestaque mater,
Quae Tuscum Tiberim et Romana palatia servas,'

and again Aen. 2. 781

'Et terram Hesperiam venies, ubi Lydius, arva
Inter opima virum, leni fluit agmine Tibris,'

to which add Hor. Od. 3. 7, 27

'Nec quisquam citus aeque 4. Cum pare quisque sua,

=

Tusco denatat alveo.'

each with his mate.'

6. Frondea...casa. Such leafy huts were called 'umbrae,' as we learn from Festus,

'Vmbrae vocabantur Neptunalibus casae frondeae pro tabernaculis.'

9, 10. They pray that their years may equal the number of 'cyathi' which they quaff, and they fail not to empty them, ad numerum,' i. e. up to the number of years desired; they fail not to drink off as many 'cyathi' as they desire to live years.

The cyathus was not, as it is often called, 'a drinkingcup,' but a small vessel containing about one-third of a gill, used for measuring out the wine into the 'poculum,' 'crater,' calix,' or whatever the goblet might be called, in which it was mixed with water, and out of which the draught was drained.

6

Hence, when we consider that the ancient wines were much weaker than those which we are in the habit of drinking, and were, moreover, usually diluted, there is nothing very extravagant in the exclamation of Horace, Od. 3. 8, 13

'Sume, Maecenas, cyathos amici = Sospitis centum’........ Compare also Od. 3. 19, 9

'Da Lunae propere novae, = Da Noctis mediae, da, puer, auguris

Muraenae tribus aut novem = Miscentur cyathis pocula

commodis.

Qui Musas amat impares=Ternos ter cyathos adtonitus petet

Vates'.

It was common, when drinking the health of a friend, to pour into the poculum a cyathus of wine for every letter in his name. Martial, 11. 37, 7, thus proposes the health of Caius Julius Proculus,

'Quincunces, et sex cyathos, bessemque bibamus,

Caius ut fiat, Iulius, et Proculus ;'

i. e. let us drink five, and six, and eight cyathi, to make up the letters in the name of Caius Julius Proculus. Ch. id. 8. 51, 21 seqq.

II. Nestor, the aged counsellor of the Grecian host, had lived throughout three generations of men. Odyss. 3. 245

Τρὶς γὰρ δή μίν φασιν ἀνάξασθαι γένε ̓ ἀνδρῶν,

whence he was termed 'trisaeclisenex' by Laevius (or Naevius,) and in Horace Od. 2. 9, 13, we read

'At non ter aevo functus amabilem = Ploravit omnes Antilochum senex

Annos.'

12. Sibylla 2. The word Eißvλλa is usually considered 3 as a compound of ouós, a dialectic form of eòs (or, perhaps, Διός,) and βουλή, and will thus signify one who declares the counsel of the gods.' Some authors 4 consider this appellation as common to all inspired women; an opinion at variance with the fact, that those who have written upon the subject usually speak of the number of Sibyls as definite 5; and Pausanias 6 specifies certain prophetesses who did not receive any such title. The most important passage in the works of the ancients now extant, with regard to Sibyls, is a quotation from Varro, given by the Latin Father Lactantius, in the first book of his Divine Institutions. According to the statement of the most learned of the Romans there were ten Sibyls, viz.,

1 See Aul. Gell. 19. 7.

2 The principal authorities for the remarks which follow, are Varro ap. Lactant. 1. 6, Pausan. 10. 12, Aelian. V. H. 12. 35, Servius on Virg. Ae. 3. 444, 445; 6. 36, 72, 321. Suidas, as above, and Salmasius, Ex. Pliny p. 52.

3 Salmasius objects to this derivation, but it is more reasonable than the one proposed by himself.

4 e. g. Varro and Serv. Virg. Ae. 3. 445.

5 Thus Varro says that there were ten; Pausanias and Aelian recognise four; others assign different numbers.

6

IO. 12.

1. Persica. 2. Libyssa. 3. Delphica. 4. Cumaea (of Cumae in Italy). 5. Erythraea, who is said to have prophesied to the Greeks that Troy would fall, and that Homer would write falsehoods. 6. Samia. 7. Cumana', by name Amalthea, whom others call Herophile or Demophile, who brought the books to Tarquinius. 8. Hellespontica, born in the Trojan territory, in the village of Marpessus 2, near the town of Gergithium, who is said to have lived in the times of Solon and Cyrus. 9. Phrygia, who prophesied at Ancyra. 10. Tiburs, by name Albunea, worshipped at Tibur, as a goddess, on the banks of the Anio, in whose stream her image is said to have been found grasping a book.-So Varro.-Besides these, we hear of a Hebrew, a Chaldaean, a Babylonian, an Egyptian, a Sardian Sibyl, and some others.

This long catalogue may, however, be considerably curtailed. In the first place, it seems certain that the Cumaea, the Cumana, the Erythraea, and the Hellespontica, were one and the same. Aristotle (in admirandis) speaks of a subterranean cavern shown at Cumae, in Italy, the abode of the prophetic Sibyl, who lived to a great age, being a native of Erythrae. Servius 3 tells how Apollo promised to the Erythraean Sibyl that she should live as many years as there were grains in a handful of sand, provided that she quitted Erythrae and never again beheld her native soil. But she forgot to ask for an extension of the period of youth, and when, on retiring to Cumae, she became worn out and decrepit, and yet could not die, her former fellow-citizens sent to her in pity a letter sealed with the chalk of Erythrae : so soon as she looked on this she expired. The same legend is partially narrated by Ovid. Met. 14. 130 seqq.

........

'iam mihi saecula septem

Acta vides superest numeros ut pulveris aequem
Ter centum messes, ter centum musta videre.'

The identity of the Erythraea and the Cumaea is thus established, and that of the Cumaea (Italian) and Cumana (Aeolian) needs almost no proof, for, with the exception of Varro, they are distinguished from each other by scarcely any ancient authority. Cumae, in Italy, was said to have been partly colonized from Cyme (Kúμŋ), in Aeolis, and the adjectives Cumaea' and 'Cumana' are used by the poets indifferently, while Erythrae being on the borders of Aeolis,

1 That is, of Cyme (Kúμn) in Aeolis. 2 Others read Mermessus.' 3 Virg. Ae. 6. 321.

But,

the confusion of epithets becomes easily explained. according to the accounts preserved by Pausanias, the Erythraea was the same with the Samia and the Delphica, and manifestly with the Hellespontica also; and, in all probability, with the Phrygia, and the Sardiana of Aelian.

Again, Suidas informs us that the Chaldaean Sibyl was by some called the Hebrew, and by others the Persian, while Pausanias affirms that the Hebrew Sibyl was by some called the Babylonian, and by others the Egyptian. According to these views, the list of Varro will be thus reduced.

(1.) Persica; otherwise Hebraea-Chaldaea-BabyloniaEgyptia:

(2.) Cumaea;

otherwise Cumana-Erythraea—Samia— Delphica-Hellespontica—(and probably, Phrygia—

Sardiana).

(3.) Libyssa. (4.) Tiburs.

Nay, the process might be pushed still further, for Justin Martyr assures us that the Cumaean and Babylonian Sibyls were the same; and Lactantius, that the Erythraean declared, in the preface to her oracles, that she was born at Babylon; hence, we might conclude that (1) and (2) were identical, and we should thus have one Sibyl for Asia, one for Africa, and one for Europe.

It was generally believed among the Romans, that the Cumaean Sibyl was the authoress of their prophetic books', and Varro supposes that she in person offered them to King Tarquin 2. If the conclusion at which we arrived above is correct, this will not involve any contradiction to the statement, which he appears to have made elsewhere 3, that they were composed by the Erythraean. That they were supposed to be in some way derived from Erythrae, seems certain from the circumstance already mentioned, that the ambassadors, sent forth after their destruction for the purpose of recovering what had been lost, were specially enjoined to visit Erythrae.

The names of these ladies are involved in almost hopeless confusion. The most outstanding is Herophile, which, according to Pausanias, was the appellation of the oldest of

1 Serv. Virg. Ae. 6. 36.

2 Varro, in Lactantius, expressly affirms that the Cumana brought the books to Tarquin.

3 Servius twice (Ae. 6. 36, & 72) states that Varro attributed them to the Erythraea.