be thrust into Tartarus. We are also told that Prometheus was to return to the light: the person who was to rescue him from his sufferings, was Hercules: therefore Hercules would have to descend into Tartarus: now Tartarus was placed below Hades : therefore Hercules would have to pass through Hades on his way to Tartarus: here then is an explanation of the passage, which I have undertaken to illustrate. Pauw says at ἀμφὶ: “ Pro adverbio, ἀμφὶ κνεφαῖα, circumcirca tenebrosa ad sis hoc etiam pendet." Dr. Butler rightly adds: "At istâ constructione nihil impeditius:" there is a similar pleopasm in v. 679. ὁ δ ̓ ἔς τε Πυθώ, καπὶ Δωδώνην πυκνές See Mr. Blomfield's Note on v. 140. 1 shall make no apology to the curious reader for introducing to his notice the Chinese Argus, and the Chinese Atlas: we may learn from these extracts that the Grecians have stolen their Atlas, and perhaps their Argus, from the East; and the extract from the Essay of Capt. Wilford informs us that the Grecians have stolen their Prometheus from the same quarter. Montanus, in his Atlas Chinesis, translated by Ogilby (Vol. 2. and 3. p. 41.) says: "The Chinese have many Demi-Gods, or terrestrial Deities, which ascend every year to heaven, there to intercede and gain indulgence for the sins committed by mankind all the year past.” (p. 44.) "The one and 51st [of these] Goumatzintzing, signifies Pastor gregis, the shepherd of the people, and a servant of God: he had (if you will believe the Chinese) five eyes, two in the right places, and two above them, and the 5th in the middle of his forehead, like the cinque upon a dye; two of these were always awake, or open, whilst the other three were shut, for which they implore him as their watch in heaven: the 52d, Soumanoaom, had four eyes, two in his neck, and two in his forehead: when those two in his forehead closing slept, the other two kept open watchful; wherefore he being general, was never defeated; whom for his never-sleeping care and conduct they worship as a God:" Again in p. 47. "The 66th, Naon, was an assistant to the God Tegoe before mentioned: he is represented with a ball on his foot; for (as they fable) when Tegoe groweth weary with carrying so great a burthen as the world, then this Naon helps him to support it with his foot, wherefore they place this Naon in heaven, and worship him, because when displeased, he should not let the world fall by taking away his foot." That indefatigable orientalist, Captain Wilford, in the 8th Vol. of the Asiatic Researches p. 258, 9. says: "My Essays on the chronology of the Hindus and Mount Caucasus, are almost entirely free from the forgeries, which I have stated, because my chief Pandit had little to do with them: I recollect only three instances, in which he interfered; and in them the legends, as usual, disfigured by him: they are legends respecting Prometheus and the Eagle; with some particulars relating to Bámíyan, and the Lipari Islands: Garuda's den is well known, to this day, to pilgrims, and the Hindus of these parts: the place is called Shibr, in Major Rennel's Maps, for Shabar; and it is not far from Bamiyan: there Garuda used to devour all the Shabaras, who passed by; and in the Puránás, all savage tribes are thus called: amongst others were some servants of Maha-deva, whom he devoured; this drew upon him the resentment of that irascible deity, whose servants are called Promathas: hence, probably, the ground work of the fable of Prometheus and the Eagle: all the rest is an improvement from what the Pandit gathered out of our conversation upon ancient mythology." Before I conclude this Article, I must request the attention of the reader to a few oversights in my Remarks upon the Prometheus Desmotes in the last No. In p. 280. I have said that Dr. Russel, if I am not mistaken, in his account of a Maronite Wedding, mentions bathing as an indispensable ceremony before marriage; but, as he is silent on this subject, I have, probably, seen it in some other book of Eastern travels: in p. 281. I have said that ¿gy is in v. 386. used for disposition, but there can be no doubt that it there means anger: in p. 283. the note on the word Arimaspi ought to have been expunged, as Eustathius is citing Herodotus: in p. 276. for xew Plóvy read w płóvæ. In p 278. as a learned friend has observed, the absence of περι σοφιστής [περ] ὢν, militates against my view of the passage. E. H. BARKER. Trin. Coll. Camb. July 1811. ESSAY ON THE STANDARD "LABARUM." SIR, TO THE EDITOR OF THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL. PERMIT me to request the admission into the Classical Journal of a short article, in which an attempt is made to decypher the several abstruse elements of the term, Labarum. Some few lines upon the same topic were formerly communicated, with the utmost brevity, to the "Gentleman's Magazine." I persuaded myself, that in so valuable a Magazine, the pen of some correspondent, more able than myself, would have been excited to discuss, at least, my proposed method of solving an ænigma, which had hitherto employed, but eluded, the talents, the knowledge, and the researches of many celebrated etymologists. But how vain was this persuasion! In fact, some hypercritical correspondent in a subsequent Number, assumed a most laconic style of authority; he proceeded, not to examine with the unbiassed fairness of judicial equity, either the point in question, or the proposed means of elucidating it, but to pass sentence. of condemnation at once, with unusual severity, against my humble effort, which was declared to have all the demerits of the fanciful Hardouin. Candor is inseparable from that learning, of which the professed object is truth. You, Sir, and your correspondents, therefore, may be disposed to receive, not unfavorably, the present more enlarged Essay on the same important theme. In consideration of my object, you, and they, will pardon my defects; my undertaking, consequently, will have the advantage of impartial disquisition; it will be amended and improved; it will not be rejected. It appears, that in the days of Tertullian, the name of this mystic standard, the Labarum, was perfectly unknown. That zealous ecclesiastical writer could not have failed, if it had been known, to have celebrated its Christian monogram. Baronius says, "Quod ad Labari antiquitatem pertinet, facilius erit in vetustis imperatorum victoriarum monumentis sculpta oculis spectare Labaro signa similia, quàm ejus nomen apud veteres scriptores Ethnicos legere. Ceterùm vexillorum appellatione illud expressisse, eademque Cantabra etiam nuncupâsse ex iisdem, quos citavimus, Tertulliano et Minutio, manifestum redditur.” In all the coins before Constantine, the vexillum, cantabrum, or signum, is engraved. In the Constantinian coins, on the contrary, two soldiers are represented as supporters of the Labarum. The vexillum, or cantabrum, was the public, or national, standard of the army; the signum, of each legion, and each cohort, respectively. The signum at first was extremely simple: in the Poetical Calendar of Ovid— "Pertica suspensos portabat longa manîplos ;" and was the signum, which, by degrees, became a Hasta, adorned, like the vexillum, with the busts, or heads, of various Dei, and Semi-dei, of distinguished characters, and afterwards of the Emperors. The vexillum, or cantabrum, bore the figures of different animals; sometimes of the eagle, sometimes of the wolf, of the minotaur, of the boar, &c. Marius, in his second Consulate, was the first who confined the vexillum to the figure of the eagle. His example was invariably followed in all the successive ages of the Roman Empire, antecedently to the age of Constantine. Hence the national vexillum received universally, from that time, the appellation of Aquila, and the standard bearer, that of Aquilifer. But not only to the reign of Constantine are we obliged, by the undeniable veracity of historical dates, to confine the introduction of the Labarum; the same authority still further restrains that introduction to the second civil war of Constantine with Licinius.' Here permit me to remind you, Sir, and your learned readers, that the prerogative of inviolable sacredness was attached to the Roman signa and vexilla. Artabanus, the Parthian Sovereign, for example, is said (Suetonius, in his Caligula) to have 'It would be an unjustifiable oversight not to take notice of the surprising inaccuracy, into which Panvinius has most strangely fallen, in his " Imperium Romanum." He flatly asserts, that the national standard was called Labarum after the time of Adrian. worshipped the Roman aquilas, and signa, and Cæsarum Imagines. Not to multiply useless quotations for a well-known fact, there is, in the Annals of Tacitus, a most affecting instance, where the murderous rage of the seditious soldiery was directed against the life of Plancus. He, we are told, "Signa et Aquilam amplexus, religione sese tutabatur. Ac ni aquilifer Calpurnius vim extremam arcuisset (rarum etiam inter hostes!) legatus populi Romani Romanis in castris sanguine suo altaria Deúm commaculavisset." To the military standard the validity and the sanction of the military oath, which indeed had the name of "sacramentum," was referred. 1 Besides the divine honors which the aquila thus enjoyed, it was advanced also to the pre-eminence of temporal dignity. The loss of a signum might be esteemed a dishonor to the legion, or cohort; the loss of the aquila was esteemed a national calamity. The aquila was not only stationed in the Prætorium at Rome, but it was regarded there as the emblem of Roman greatness, as the palladium of the Roman empire, as the safeguard of Roman existence, and the pledge of Roman prosperity. Its situation was always in the principia of the prætorium, and in the principia of every camp. Even the rank of the aquilifer, in truth, was infinitely superior to that of the signiferi. This officer possessed the most considerable immunities and emoluments, with other peculiar advantages and distinctions. The Roman state, and the Roman aquila, may be deemed nearly synonimous terms. For what was the motto of the aquila? It was no less than the "Senate and People of Rome." Constantine affixed the new denomination of Labarum to his new imperial national standard. Upon tolerably sure foundations, I think, we may adopt the hypothesis, that the import of this new denomination was momentous enough to suit the high dignity of him, who imposed that denomination, and of the standard which received it. The Romans were remarkably addicted to the use of " notæ," or literal abbreviations, instead of words. Manilius has well expressed the nature and the use of "note" in these lines From the time of Augustus, the sacred busts, or heads, were probably those of the deified Emperors, not of the other Gods. Vol. IV. No. VII. P |