VER. 756-759. ** Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quae deinde "Gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes, Illustres animas, nostrumque in nomen ituras, "Expediam dictis, et te tua fata docebo." sequatur *See Dr. Trapp's note on this place, to which may be added what I have observed, Georg. III. ver. 27. VER. 830-835. "Aggeribus socer Alpinis, atque arce ** Monoeci 66 66 Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo: * Aggeribus, very properly; the Alpes being always looked upon as the ramparts of Italy. So Tully, in Orat. in L. Pisonem, calls them Alpium vallum; and Philippicâ 5ta, Alpium murum. Ejus furorem ne Alpium quidem muro "prohibere possemus." 66 **See Lucan's description, lib. I. ver. 405. Lucan does not explain where Caesar passed the Alpes when he went from Gaul to the Rubicon; he only says in short, lib. I. ver. 183, "Jam gelidas Caesar cursu superaverat Alpes." But it is pretty evident from other places in Lucan, that the passes of the Maritimae Alpes, that is, the passes between Provence and Italy, were known to J. Caesar; for when he marched from Italy into Spain, after Pompey's retirement from Brundusium, he passed the Alpes, and came directly to Marseilles. "Agmine nubiferam rapto superevolat Alpem: "Non Graiâ levitate fidem," etc. Lucan. lib. III. 299. A very noble trophy was raised to Augustus at Torbia near Monaco; of which see an account in Théatre des Etats du Duc de Savoye, vol. II. The ruins of this trophy are still seen on a hill about three miles above Monaco, and are very considerable; appearing, as one sees them at a little distance from sea, like the Torre Magne at Nismes. Caesar himself tells us in his Commentaries, at the end of the first book of the Civil War, that after his conquest of Petreius and Afranius, he sent his army into Italy by the river Var: Ex Hispaniâ ad Varum flumen est iter factum," De Bell. Civ. lib. I. From whence the road goes through the territory of the Prince of Monaco. *We are informed by History, that, before the Civil War actually broke out, Caesar offered, by his friends at Rome, and by letters to the Senate, to lay down his command, upon condition that Pompey was obliged to do the same. See Appian, de Bell. Civ. lib. II. from p. 735 to 740. edit. Tollii. See likewise Plutarch's Lives of Caesar and Pompey. N. B. Appian tells us, that when Caesar had passed the Rubicon after his proposals were rejected; "Senatus nec opinatâ impressione Caesaris territus, ut imparatus, sibi metuebat, non admissa"rum Caesaris conditionum aequissimarum tum demum poeni"tens, postquam timor à contentione eos ad recta consilia tra"duxerat." p. 740. VER. 841, 842. Quis te, magne Cato, tacitum; aut te, Cosse, relinquat? "Quis Gracchi genus? aut geminos, duo † fulmina belli, Scipiadas?". ઃઃ There is perhaps no one word in the whole Roman language, whose signification is more distinctly determined by their antient writers themselves, than that of the word Fulmen. One could give several absolute definitions of it, in their own words.Si in nube luctetur flatus aut vapor, toni"trua edi; si erumpat ardens, fulmina; si longiore tractu ni"tatur, fulgetra." Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. II. c. xliii. 66 "Quum autem se in nubem induerint, ejusque tenuissimam quamque partem coeperint dividere ac disrumpere, idque "crebriùs facere et vehementiùs, tum et fulgores et tonitrua "existere si autem nubium conflictu ardor expressus se emiserit, id esse fulmen." Cicero, de Divin. lib. II. § 64. 66 : 66 Igneus ille "Vortex, quod patrio vocitamus nomine fulmen." Lucretius, VI. ver. 297. When we are taught (as we generally are) to translate the word Fulmen by the word Thunder, we use a word that is apt to give an idea of noise, without any idea of the light, for a Latin word which gave an idea of light, without any idea of the noise. This mistake is very apt to make people lose the beauty of several passages in the old Roman writers; as, for instance, where Cicero speaks of the "fulmina verborum," or Virgil calls the two Scipios the "duo fulmina belli." The meaning of Virgil in this expression is opened to us, more at large, in a simile of Lucan's; which, by the way, is one of the best, perhaps, in the whole Pharsalia. It is where he is giving us the character of Julius Caesar, toward the opening of that poem. "Acer, et indomitus, quô spes quôque ira vocasset "Ferre manum; et nunquam temerando parcere ferro; "Successus urgere suos, instare favori "Numinis, impellens quicquid sibi summa petenti "Obstaret; gaudensque viam fecisse ruinâ. "Qualiter expressum ventis per nubila fulmen "Aetheris impulsi sonitu mundique fragore "Emicuit, rupitque diem; populosque paventes "Terruit, obliquâ praestinguens lumina flammâ : "In sua templa furit; nullaque exire vetante "Materiâ, magnamque cadens magnamque revertens "Dat stragem latè, sparsosque recolligit ignes." Lib. I. ver. 157. Where Mr. Pope makes use of the same image to point out the particular character of the late Earl of Peterborough ; "He, whose lightning pierc'd th' Iberian lines;" how much of the beauty and justice of it would have been lost, had he used the word thunder, instead of the word he has used? VER. 847-853. "+ Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera, "Credo equidem; vivos ducent de marmore vultus ; "Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: The Romans did not stick at owning, that the Greeks exceeded them in all the polite arts, and in every branch of literature. This passage is a remarkable proof of it; and one might load several pages with others from their writers both in verse and prose.-The Roman arts were the arts of war and government. "Ego Romanis artibus, virtute, opere, armis, vincam," says Camillus to the Schoolmaster of Falisci: Liv. lib. V. § xxvii. Ut virtutis a nostris, sic doctrinae sunt ab illis exempla repetenda:" Cic. de Orat. lib. III. § cxxxvi. 66 VER. 872-874. Quantos ille virûm magnam Mavortis ad urbem Part of the sepulchre, in which the ashes of Marcellus were deposited (and which was built by Augustus, for Julius Caesar, himself, and the rest of his family), is still remaining. It stands in the Campus Martius, near the banks of the Tyber; and when one sees it, puts one strongly in mind of these verses of Virgil, where he speaks of the funeral of that prince. It is what they now call the Mausoleum Augusti. *"Tumulum recentem;" the Mausoleum lately built by Augustus for his family. Suetonius says; " Id opus inter Fla"miniam viam ripamque Tyberis sexto suo consulatu extruxe"rat." Marcellus died in the 11th Consulship of Augustus; and was probably the first of the family, who took possession of this noble Mausoleum; as appears by the following epigram, quoted by Nardini: "Condidit Agrippam, quo te, Marcelle, sepulcro, This occasioned the epithet Recentem. of this Mausoleum by Strabo. VER. 893-896. See the description "Sunt geminae Somni portae: quarum altera fertur "Cornea, quâ veris facilis datur exitus umbris: 66 Altera, candenti perfecta nitens elephanto; "Sed falsa ad caelum mittunt insomnia Manes." * Statius mentions the gates of hell at the end of his Epicedion ad Patrem: "Inde tamen venias melior, quà porta malignum "Cornea vincit ebur; Somnique in imagine monstra, Quae solitus." Sylv. lib. V. iii. 288. |