which was done by the Asiatics at Pergamus, and Year by the Bithynians at Nicomedia.

He spent the summer in Greece, and thence returned into Italy; and when he entered the city, sacrifices were offered by several; and particularly by the Consul Valerius Potitus, who succeeded Apuleius in that office, in the name of the Senate and people of Rome, which had never been done for any one before. Honours were now distributed among those Generals, who had served under Cæsar and Agrippa was now rewarded with a present of a green flag, as a testimony of his naval victory. Cæsar himself obtained the honour of three triumphs: the first day he triumphed over the Pannonians, Dalmatians, Japydians, and their neighbours, with some people of Gaul and Germany: the second for the naval victory at Actium: and the third for the reduction of Egypt. This threefold triumph of Cæsar is particularly described, in the eighth Eneid:

At Cæsar, triplici invectus Romana triumpho
Moenia, Diis Italis votum immortale sacrabat,
Maxima ter centum totam delubra per urbem.
Lætitia ludisque viæ plausuque fremebant:
Omnibus in templis matrum chorus, omnibus, aræ:
Ante aras terram cæsi stravere juvenci.
Ipse sedens niveo candentis limine Phœbi:
Dona recognoscit populorum, aptatque superbis
Postibus: incedunt victæ longo ordine gentes,
Quam variæ linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis.

of Rome

725.

© Ver. 714, &c.

Year

of

Rome 725.

Hic Nomadum genus, et discinctos Mulciber Afros,
Hic Lelegas, Carasque sagittiferosque Gelonos.
Pinxerat. Euphrates ibat jam mollior undis,
Extremique hominum Morini, Rhenusque Bicornis,
Indomitique Dahæ, et pontem indignatus Araxes.

Cæsar, having obtained this plenitude of power
and glory, and reduced all the enemies of Rome,
and his own also, to obedience, entertained thoughts
of re
resigning the administration". He consulted
about this important affair with his two great fa-
vourites, Agrippa and Mæcenas: of whom the for-
mer advised him to lay down his power, and the
latter strenuously insisted on his not parting with it.
Cæsar, being doubtful which advice he should fol-
low, asked the opinion of Virgil, according to
Donatus, and was determined, by the Poet's ad-
vice, not to lay down his command. Ruæus, not

" omnibus ferme, inquit, remp. aucupantibus molesta ipsa Ty"rannis fuit, et civibus: quia ne

cesse erat propter odia subdi"torum, aut eorum injustitiam, "magna suspicione magnoque "timore vivere. Sed si cives

justum aliquem scirent, quem "amarent plurimum, civitati id "utile esset, si in eo uno omnis potestas foret. Quare si justi

e Posteaquam Augustus summa rerum omnium potitus est, venit in mentem, an conduceret Tyrannidem omittere, et omnem potestatem annuis consulibus, et senatui remp. reddere: in qua re diversæ sententiæ consultos habuit, Mæcenatem et Agrippam. Agrippa enim utile sibi fore, etiamsi honestum non esset, relinquere Tyrannidem, lon-tiam, quod modo facis, omniga oratione contendit: quod Mæcenas dehortari magnopere conabatur. Quare Augusti animus et hinc ferebatur et illinc': erant enim diversæ sententiæ, variis rationibus firmatæ. Rogavit igitur Maronem, an conferat privato homini, se in sua republ. tyrannum facere. Tum ille,

"bus in futurum nulla hominum "facta compositione distribues; "dominari te, et tibi conducet "et orbi. Benevolentiam enim "omnium habes, ut Deum te "et adorent, et credant." Ejus sententiam secutus Cæsar principatum tenuit.

of

725.

without reason, questions the truth of this story, Year so far as it relates to Virgil: because, if he had been Rome consulted, the historians would not have kept a profound silence concerning an affair of such importance. Dio, who relates at full length the speeches both of Agrippa and Mæcenas on this occasion, says only, that Cæsar preferred the advice of Mæcenas: but however Cæsar might possibly ask the opinion of Virgil in private, though he was not admitted to the council board.

In the following year, Cæsar being Consul a sixth 726. time, and taking the great Agrippa for his colleague, finished his review of the people, and performed the solemnities used on such occasions, and instituted games in memory of his victory at Actium. These ceremonies are mentioned by Virgil, in the third Æneid, under the person of Æneas:

Lustramurque Jovi, votisque incendimus aras:
Actiaque Iliacis celebramus littora ludis
Exercent patrias oleo labente palæstras
Nudati socii.

It is highly probable, that the third Æneid was written soon after these sacrifices were offered, and these games instituted, as Ruæus has well observed, in his note on this passage. The lustration to Jupiter, and the sacrifices, were at this time performed by Cæsar: they strove naked, and were bathed with oil in the gymnastic exercises; and the Iliacal or Trojan games contained particularly that

'Ver. 279, &c.

of

Year sport, which the Romans derived from Troy, and Rome called Troja. In this game the noble youths exercised on horseback, as the reader will find it beautifully described at large, in the fifth Æneid.

726.

727.

In this year the most learned Varro, who had preceded our Poet, in writing concerning Husbandry, died at about ninety years of age b.

The next is remarkable for a debate which happened in the Senate, concerning an additional name to be given to Cæsar. He himself would gladly have assumed the name of Romulus: but when he found that the people would suspect, that if he took that name, he intended to make himself king, he consented to have the name Augustus, or the august, in which word all that is most honourable and sacred is contained, bestowed on him by the Senate and people. Virgil seems to allude to this inclination of Cæsar to take the name of Romulus, in his third Georgick, when he calls Cæsar Quirinus, one of the names of Romulus. That passage therefore must have been added after the time commonly assigned for the publication of the Georgicks. We may observe also that it could not be before this time that Virgil wrote, in the sixth Æneid',

Hic vir, hic est, tibi quem promitti sæpius audis,
AUGUSTUS CÆSAR, Divum genus: aurea condet
Sæcula qui rursus Latio, regnata per arva

Saturno quondam: super et Garamantas et Indos
Proferet imperium: jacet extra sidera tellus,
Extra anni solisque vias, ubi cælifer Atlas
Axem humero torquet stellis ardentibus aptum.
Hujus in adventu jam nunc et Caspia regna
Responsis horrent divum: et Motica tellus,
Et septem gemini turbant trepida ostia Nili.

Year

of

Rome

727.

In the following year, Cornelius Gallus, whom 728. Virgil had so much celebrated in his Eclogues, fell into disgrace". We have seen already, that Augustus had constituted him Governor of Egypt. He had been raised to this honour from a low condition; and seems to have been intoxicated with the great fortune to which he was advanced. He uttered in his cups several disrespectful speeches with regard to Augustus; and had the vanity to cause statues of himself to be erected in most parts of Egypt, and to inscribe his own actions on the pyramids. Being accused of these and other crimes, he was condemned to banishment and confiscation of goods; which sentence so affected him, that he slew himself". Donatus relates, that Virgil was so fond of this Gallus, that the fourth Georgick, from the middle to the end, was filled with his praises; and that he afterwards changed this part into the story of Aristæus, at the command of Augustus. But Ruæus justly questions the truth of this story. He observes, that the story of Aristaus