nativity; upon each anniversary of which he raised altars to this tutelary deity, crowned them with flowers, and burned incense upon them. The joyful day was also celebrated by his servants being freed from labour, and by plentiful libations of wine being poured forth to the health of the master, and in honour of his Genius. cras genium mero Curabis, et porco bimestri, Cum famulis operum solutis. venit natalis ad aras, HOR. Quisquis ades lingua vir mulierque fare; Cui decorent sanctas mollia serta comas. Illius puro distillent tempora nardo, TIBUL. L. ii. El. 2. It was also the custom to send presents upon the natal day in ancient times: Sicci terga suis, rara pendentia crate, Moris erat quondam festis servare diebus, Accedente nova, si quam dabat hostia, carne. JUV. Sat. xi. Laurentius (in his learned treatise de variis Sacris Gen tilium) is mistaken, when he says, Natale sacrum Genio factum sine victima sed cum thure et mero. The reader of these notes will remember, how Juvenal commences his twelfth satire : Natali, Corvine, die mihi dulcior hæc lux, Ver. 14. Nerio jam tertia ducitur uxor. In the way in which I have rendered ducitur, I have followed the opinion of Casaubon, and of Stephanus. Some of the old copies erroneously have it conditur. Ver. 15. Tiberino in gurgite mergis Mane caput bis, terque Servius informs us that there were three modes of purification among the ancients, aut tada sulphure et igne, aut aqua, aut aere. It, however, appears from abundance of testimonies, that other lustrations were in use. Lustrations by water were frequent among the ancients. Even in the lesser mysteries of Eleusis the symbolical purification of the soul, by ablutions of the body, was not dispensed with. Ταύα μὴν δὴ συνέθεντο παρα τον Ιλισσον, * τον καθαρμον τελᾶσι τοις ελατίοσι μυςηρίοις. It also appears from Hesychius, that of two streams which flowed by Eleusis, one, which ran to the sea, was consecrated to Ceres, and another, which ran towards the city, was consecrated to Proserpine: 09, adds he, τοῖς λε]ροῖς ἁγνιζεσθαι τες θιασες. Ver. 26. An, quia non fibris orium, Ergennaque jubente, Triste jaces lucis, evitandumque bidental. Appellat (Persius) bidental ipsum fulguritum, poetica licentia: nam vulgo ita vocabant locum cui religio propter talem casum accesserat, qui in medio extincti cadaver habebat: quid in eo bidentibus sacrificarent, inquit Festus: ergo ut Lucilius carcerem appellavit hominem dignum carcere, vel qui sæpius carcerem habitaverat: sic Persius bidental hominem cui mortuo bidental est factum loco consecrato, et circumsepto, atque altari adjecto. Casaubon. Ergenna was probably some ancient soothsayer, whose name stands here for the general appellation of augur. It was part of the duty of the priests among the ancients, to decide where dead bodies should be interred; and it was likewise their office to expiate by lustration and sacrifice those places, which had been struck with lightning. Persius does not inform us, if any mark served to warn strangers not to approach the tomb of the person killed by the thunderbolt. Seneca indeed mentions, that the ancient Romans built altars upon those spots which had thus been made the scenes of the vengeance of heaven. But after all, it may be asked, if there was any sign upon the altar, which showed that it was a place which might not be approached? was there any thing in the form of the tomb, or in the sculpture of the altar, which indicated that the traveller must turn aside? The place of interment being a grove, was not remarkable or extraordinary. Among the ancients a learned writer has mentioned it to have been very common to bury the dead in groves: quia ibi Lares viales, animæ heroum et piorum habitare dicuntur. The custom of erecting monuments to the memory of the dead seems indeed to have been of the earliest antiquity. The Jews distinguished the repository of their dead by a monument, which they called . Kimchi observes, that it was formed either of one stone, or of many piled together— .ציון ציון מאכן אחת אן מאכנים מקובצים. According to R. Maimonides tsiun was the same with nephash. "They do not," says the Talmud, "make nephashoth for the just; their words preserve their memory." אין עושין נפשות לצדיקים דבריהם הם זכדוגם. Ver. 30. pulmone et lactibus unctis. The satire conveyed in these words is strong. Is it by offering sacrifices, (the poet asks) that you gain the favour of heaven? And then, what sacrifices? the lungs and entrails of animals, which you cannot eat yourselves, you lay upon the altars of the gods. Juvenal imitates, and improves the irony of this passage: Ut tamen et poscas aliquid, voveasque sacellis, Ver. 31. Sat. x. aut metuens divum matertera, &c. It may be conjectured, that there were females, whose business it was to perform that lustration, to which the poet alludes. In this case, the prophetess taking the child from its mother, was termed matertera, i. e. mater altera. Ver. 32. · frontemque, atque uda labella Infami digito, et lustralibus ante salivis. Dryden translates this, "Then in the spawl her middle finger dips, By virtue of her nasty excrement." This would indeed have been a very nasty sort of lustration. That, to which Persius alludes, was dirty enough of all conscience. The spittle was mixed with dust, and then rubbed upon the forehead. The middle finger (which among the ancients expressed a great deal according to the position in which it was held) was employed to administer this charm. Thus Petronius; Mox turbatum sputo pulverem anus, medio sustulit digito, |