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752. domuisse: Tacitus, more modestly, says: potest videri ostendisse posteris, non tradidisse. — Agr. 13.

753. septemflua: there were seven principal mouths of the Nile.

755. Cinyphium, derived from Cinyps, the name of a Lybian river. – Jubam: Juba, king of Numidia, fought against Cæsar at Thapsus (B.C. 46). — Mithridateis . . . Pontum: there had been six kings of Pontus named Mithradates, the most famous of whom was Mithradates the Great. His son Pharnaces was overthrown by Cæsar (B.C. 47).

...

756. Quirini: Quirinus, an ancient god of the Romans, was identified by them with their eponymous hero, Romulus. (See selection xxix.)

757. aliquos: Cæsar celebrated five triumphs.

regularly used for triumphal processions.

758. quo praeside, i.e. in making him ruler.

762. genetrix, Venus.

- egisse, the word

763. pontifici: Cæsar held the office of pontifex maximus, the head of the state religion. The word is used here, in order to fasten upon his murder the character of sacrilege.

767. Iülo: Iulus, son of Æneas, was the alleged ancestor of the Julian gens.

768. justis curis, well-grounded fears.

769. Calydonia: Diomedes, son of Tydeus, of Calydon, had wounded Venus at the siege of Troy, when she was interfering in behalf of the Trojans. — vulneret and the following subjunctives, seeing that, etc. (§ 320, e; G. 633; H. 517): the relatives refer to the subject of ero, v. 768. 770. male defensae moenia, the unsuccessful defence of the walls, lit. walls of ill-defended Troy.

771. natum, Æneas: his wanderings, his descent into the infernal regions, and his war with Turnus (who was supported by Juno) are enumerated.

778. sacerdotis Vestae: the worship of Vesta was under the special oversight of the pontifex maximus, who resided in the Regia, adjoining her temple.

781. veterum sororum, the Fates.

783. ferunt, they declare.. arma, tubas, cornua, are subjects of praemonuisse, depending upon ferunt. All these signs are said to have preceded Cæsar's death.

789. caerulus, livid. — vultum, acc. of specification.

791. Stygius, Stygian or infernal, because a bird of ill-omen.

792. ebur, the ivory images of the gods: this was a common portent. — cantus and verba are prophetic voices and incantations, heard in the sacred groves,

794. litat, gives favorable omens.

795. caput, a projecting portion of the liver: it was a very bad sign if any portion of the viscera was cut by the slaughterer's knife.

800. praemonitus, premonitions.

deum, genitive.

801. in templum: the place of Cæsar's assassination was the Curia (senate-house) Pompeii, which was a templum, in the Roman sense, as being a place formally consecrated by auguries. This was necessary for assemblies of the Senate, or of the people; while, on the other hand, not every aedes, or abode of a god, was necessarily a templum.

803. Cytherea, an epithet of Venus, from the island Cythera.

804. condere, sc. Caesarem: in this manner Venus had saved Paris from Menelaus, and Æneas from Diomedes.

806. Diomedeos: the adjective is equivalent to a possessive genitive (§ 190; G. 362, R.1; H. 395, N. 2).

808. intres licet, granted that you enter, i.e. though you enter (§ 313, b; G. 607; H. 515, iii.).

810. rerum tabularia, the archives of fate.

812. metuunt: Fate was even above the gods.

818. deus (pred.), as a god.

819. natus suus, Augustus, his adopted son.

821. nos, i.e. the gods. —in bella, for his wars. — he will have us as his friends, i.e. on his side.

suos, sc. socios:

822. illius auspiciis: the auspices could be taken only by the commander, who had been formally vested with the imperium. — obsessae : Mutina was besieged by Antony, B.C. 43, and relieved by Octavius and others, acting then in the interests of the Senate.

823. Pharsalia: because Philippi, where Octavius and Antony defeated Brutus and Cassius (B.C. 42), might be poetically regarded as in the same country as Pharsalia in Thessaly, where Cæsar defeated Pompey. Emathia is a district of Macedonia.

825. Siculis undis: it was in the neighborhood of Messana, in Sicily, that Agrippa, the admiral of Octavius, defeated Sex. Pompeius, B.C. 36. 826. conjunx, Cleopatra, who married Antony.

827. non bene, unfortunately.

828. servitura, sc. esse, etc.; depends on minata erit. - Canopo: Canopus was a city on the western mouth of the Nile in Lower Egypt, noted for its wealth and luxury.

830. numerem, dubitative subjunctive (§ 268; G. 265; H. 484, v.). 833. jura: Octavius, as Augustus, reorganized the civil institutions of Rome.

836. prolem: Tiberius and Drusus, sons of Livia (wife of Augustus)

by a former marriage. They were adopted by their step-father, and Tiberius succeeded him as Emperor.

838. Pylios annos, i.e. the years of Nestor.

840. hanc animam, this (i.e. Cæsar's) soul.

842. aede, the temple of Divus Julius fronted on the Forum.

843. media sede senatus, in the midst of the senate house (abl. of place; § 258, f, 2; G. 388; H. 425, 2, N.2); this act of Venus followed immediately upon the murder.

845. eripuit, sc. animam.

850. nati... illo: the soul of Cæsar, now divine, and placed as a star in heaven, sees the good deeds (benefacta) of Augustus (nati), and rejoices that they are greater than his own.

852. hic, Augustus.

853. obnoxia, subject to.

854. una in parte, in this one point, i.e. his superiority to his father. 855. Agamemnonis, etc.: Agamemnon, Theseus, Achilles, and Jupiter were greater than their fathers, just as Augustus is greater than Julius Cæsar. 857. ipsos: i.e. Julius and Augustus. - aequantibus, because Julius and Augustus, like Saturn and Jupiter, were gods.

859. triformis, i.e. consisting of earth, sea, and sky.

861. Aeneae comites, the Penates, or household gods, brought by Æneas through fire and sword—from Troy, and established in Lavinium. 862. di Indigetes: these are generally reckoned as deified heroes; among them was Æneas himself. Romulus (Quirinus), again, was son of Mars, one of whose chief titles was Gradivus, "the strider."

B.C.

864. Vesta, etc. Augustus became Pontifex Maximus in the year 12 The Pontifex Maximus was obliged to live near the temple of Vesta. In order to fulfil the letter of this law, Augustus built a temple of Vesta within his palace on the Palatine Hill, thereby receiving Vesta among his household deities.

865. Phoebě: Apollo was the tutelary deity of Augustus, who built a temple to him on the Palatine.

866. Tarpeïas, the original name of the Capitoline Mount, afterwards confined to a part of the hill.

869. Augustum, adjective.

quem relates to orbe.

870. faveat, as a god. —absens, i.e. no longer on earth.

871. Jovis ira, i.e. the lightning.

872. edax (cf. ĕdo), consuming, wasting.

873. corporis, objective genitive with jus.

874. finiat, hortatory subjunctive.

875. mei, of myself.

SHORTER POEMS.

For the metre of this, and all the following extracts (elegiac), see § 363; G. 785; H. 615. The Pentameter is most conveniently scanned by dividing it into two half-verses (hemistichs), consisting each of two feet with an added half-foot.

I. FASTI.

1. The Festival of Pales.

IV. 721. Parilia, acc. (§ 239, 2, c, R.; G. 339, N.4; H. 374, 1). The form Parilia was regularly used by an interchange of 1 and r frequent among primitive nations, and also among young children.— poscor: this is the word regularly used of a person formally called upon to sing or speak.

722. Pales, an Italian goddess of pasturage (possibly of the same root as pa-scor). The word is sometimes masculine.

723. faveas canenti, be propitious to me as I sing.

725. certe: this gives the reason why he deserves her favor. — de vitulo cinerem: the ashes were preserved from the sacrifice of the Fordicidia (April 15), and used for the lustrating rites of the Parilia. They were mixed with bean-straw (beans being regarded by the ancients as having a peculiar purifying efficacy) and the curdled blood of the October horse, sacrificed October 15 (see v. 733).

726. februa: from this is derived the name of February, the month of purification, the last in the old Roman year.

727. transilui: the chief ceremonial of the Parilia was leaping through heaps of blazing hay and stubble; the herds also were driven through them. This, too, is a cleansing rite.

728. uda laurea: a bough of laurel was used to sprinkle purifying

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729. navalibus, etc.: the poet thinks of his poem as a voyage upon which his ship is starting.

730. suos, their own, i.e. favoring.

731. virginea: the suffimen (fumigation) was prepared by the Vestal Virgin, by whom the blood of the October horse had been preserved. 732. Vestae: she was the special guardian of chastity.

734. inane culmen, the hollow stalk.

736. virga, a brush-broom, usually of laurel.

738. longa corona, festoon.

739. vivo, crude.

741. mares: it is hard to see why this epithet should be applied to the olive, except from its tonic bitterness. — taedam, pitch-pine. — herbas Sabinas, juniper; the name is still preserved in the word savin.

742. crepet, crackle; this was an especially favorable sign.

745. suas, appropriate to her; no blood could be shed on her festival. - resectis: this is explained as referring to the cutting up of the food to be shared among the worshippers.

746. silvicolam: the pastures were openings in the forest, or themselves covered with a light growth of wood.

749. sacro, sc. loco. "The list of innocent sins which follows curiously illustrates both the superstitious fears and the trifling observances of a primitive pastoral life. There is, moreover, a touching simplicity throughout the whole petition, which affords a strong contrast to the frightful depravity of civilized Rome, as described in the pages of Juvenal and Martial." — Paley. As illustrated, too, we may add, in many of the

writings of Ovid himself.

750. bustis: the bustum was a mound heaped up upon the spot where the body was burned.

752. semicaper deus: the rural god Faunus was identified with the Greek Pan, who was represented with goat's legs. (See Fig. 3.)

753. opaco, shady.

754. fiscina frondis: "In countries where grass is less plentiful than with us, sheep, goats, and cattle are still fed in great measure on the foliage and succulent twigs of trees (see Virg. G. i. 226, ii. 435; Ecl. x. 30).” - Paley.

758. ungula: the worshipper seems at some time to have driven his flock into a lake, just as, in v. 755, he sheltered them during a hail-storm under a rustic temple.

759. fontana numina, etc.: "Nothing is more pleasing in ancient mythology than the fanciful doctrine which peopled all earth and sea with multitudes of fair female spirits. Every hill and dale, every grot and crystal spring, every lake and brook and river, every azure plain and coral cave of ocean, was animated and hallowed by the presence and protection of the Nymphs."

Ramsay.

761. labra Dianae, referring to the story of Acteon, who saw Diana in her bath: the goddess, as a punishment, turned him into a stag, and he was torn in pieces by his own dogs. (See Met. Book III. 138-252.)

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