the Athenians and the Persians. Demosthenes (in Nearam) also mentions this picture. Harpocration has wrongly accused the Orator of being mistaken about this. Διαμαρτάνει Δημοσθένης, ἐν Ίω καλα Νεαίρας, λεγων, πλαζαιτας γεγράφθαι ἐν τῇ ποικίλη του· ἐδεὶς γὰρ Τέτο pnxev. Besides the ample description given of this painting by Pausanias; it is likewise mentioned by Æschines contra Ctesiphontem : and, indeed, by several others. It is difficult to say precisely, what was the form of the bracca. The Persian bracca most probably resembled the loose trowsers now worn in Turkey. Strabo gives the name of avažupis to this part of the dress. This word is ill rendered by subligaculum. The Gallic bracca is described to have been vestis fluxa, intonsaque, ac varii coloris. It may be here observed, that the dress of the Gauls was exactly similar to that worn at present by some of the Highlanders of Scotland. The tartan plaid answers to the sagulum virgatum, and the trowsers to the bracca. The kilt was not taken from the military dress of the Romans, as some have imagined, but from that of the Celts, as indeed the name seems to indicate. What Strabo has said about the garb of the Celts confirms me in this opinion. Ver. 56. Et tibi quæ Samios diduxit litera ramos, Pythagoras, the philosopher of Samos, employed the letter r as a symbol, whose two branches (as our author calls them) denoted the opposite ways of virtue and of vice. Casaubon rightly reads diduxit and not deduxit. This Craterus was a famous physician. See Horace, L. ii. Sat. 3. Cicero. Epist. Porph. de Abstinentia ab Animalibus. Ver. 66. Discite ô miseri, &c. From this verse, down to verse 72, are contained some admirable lessons of morality. To some readers it will perhaps appear, that the four following lines in my translation are not authorized by the text: Consider God as boundless matter's soul, But those, whom the sapiens braccatis inlita Medis porticus instructed in philosophy, would have recognized in these lines their own doctrines. Ver. 79. Esse quod Arcesilas, &c. According to Laertius, Arcesilas was the founder of the middle Academy. I do not recollect, that Cicero 1 any where mentions the school of Arcesilas under that name. On the contrary, when he speaks of the new academicians, he seems always to include Arcesilas. Nevertheless, as the opinions of Carneades did certainly differ in some respects from those of Arcesilas, it may be right to abide by the distinction of Diogenes. Arcesilas then was the founder of the middle Academy, and Carneades of the new. Ver. 80. Obstipo capite, &c. Accurate hic irrisor gestum exprimit hominis meditantis. Casaubon. This expression is borrowed from Horace. Stes capite obstipo. Figentes lumine terram, hypallage, for figentes lumina in terram. Ver. 83. -gigni De nihilo nihilum, in nihilum nil posse reverti. This dogma seems to have been pretty generally received among the ancients. Even the philosophic Theists did not contend, that God had created matter; they only insisted, that he had given it form, organization, and life. Ver. 92. -Surrentina rogavit. Item Surrentina in vineis tantum nascentia, convalescentibus maxime probata propter tenuitatem salubritatemque. Plin. L. xiv. Ver. 103. Hinc tuba candela. Gutherius pretends, that there was a triple Nania, or dirge, among the ancients in honour of the dead. De prima (inquit) quæ in exequiarum comitata, nihil repeto, quæ ἐπικηδιον καὶ θρηνωδία ; secunda canebatur ad rogum, tertia ad tumulum. The funeral procession was accompanied by trumpets, and sometimes by flutes. at hic si plaustra ducenta Concurrantque foro tria funera, magna sonabit Cornua quod vincatque tubas. HOR. In cœlo clamorque virum clangorque tubarum. VIRG. Nec mea tunc longa spatietur imagine pompa, Nec tuba sit fati vana querela mei. Cantabat mæstis tibia funeribus Sic maste cecinere tubæ. PROPERT. OVID. PROPERT. It appears from Servius, that the tibia accompanied the funerals of young persons, and the tube those of people advanced in age. Servius in V. En. This is confirmed by Lactantius. Jubet religio, ut majoribus mortuis tuba, minoribus tibia caneretur. Also by Statius, Cum signum luctus cornu grave mugit adunco Lege Phrygum mæsta. At the funeral of Claudius, there was such a noise of instruments, says Seneca, ut etiam Claudius audire posset. It was the custom among the Romans to bury their dead at night; and the funeral was attended by persons bearing torches. But perhaps by the word candela, Persius alludes to the lamps which were usually placed in sepulchres. Of these lamps there are many absurd reports. It is pretended, that they were frequently found still burning at the expiration of many centuries. Licetus has even written a great deal to prove, that there was a species of fire, which can preserve itself without consuming the combustible matter which supports it. Let us hear what evidence is brought in favour of the existence of this extraordinary species of fire. Scardeoneus argues strenuously for it: Nam (says he) circiter anno M. D. circa Ateste Municipium Patavinum, dum foderetur à rusticis terra solito altius, reperta est urna fictilis, et in ea altera urnula, in qua erat lucerna, adhuc ardens inter duas ampullas, quarum altera erat aurea, altera vero argentea, purissimo quodam liquore plenas. Cujus virtute, lucerna illa per tot annos arsisse creditur, et nisi retecta fuisset, perpetuo arsura. It was the urn of Olybius Maximus, in which this lamp was found, and upon which we read, among others, the following words: Abite hinc pessimi fures Vos quid vultis cum vestris oculis emissitiis? Abite hinc vestro cum Mercurio petasato caduceato que. |