55

66

to Jupiter. LU. cf. x. 65 sqq. Ut templi tetigere gradus procumbit uterque pronus humi gelidoque pavens dedit oscula (gooxUVET) saxo; Ov. M. i. 375 sq. R.

48. Auratis cornibus hostia majores dumtaxat immolabantur; Plin. xxxiii. 3. xxxiv. 4. LU. PR. σoì d' av ¿y piw Bouv ñviv, Xęvoòv négαoi giúαs Hom. Od. r 382 sqq. 425 sq. 437 sqq. Tib. IV. i. 15. V. Flacc. i. 89. iii. 431. Plat. Alcib. ii. p. 176. The magnitude of the blessing would not only require a larger victim, but one with gilded horns. R.

Junoni ante omnes cui vincla jugalia cure; Virg. Æ. iv. 59. LU. Ov. Am. III. xiii. 3 sqq. R.

49. Head' for person,' by synecdoche. PR.

50. 'To be priestesses of Ceres,' whose statue, as that of other deities, was decorated with 'fillets.' VS. None but chaste matrons were admissible to the celebration of her rites. FA. cf. xv. 140 sq. Callim. in Cer. 1 and 5. Conripuere sacram effigiem, manibusque cruentis virgineas ausi diva contingere vittas; Virg. E. ii. 167 sq. R.

51. "So strong their filial kisses smack of lust." G.

52. Previously to bringing home the bride, the doorposts of the bridegroom were adorned with wreaths of flowers and boughs of evergreens, and scaffolding was erected in front of the house and along the streets through which the new-married couple were to pass, for the accommodation of those who flocked to see the nuptial procession. The poorer classes also had their garlands and processions, on a smaller scale. G. 78 sq. M. 227 sq.

ix. 85. x. 65. xii. 84. 91. Ov. M. iv. 759. Claud. Nupt. H. et M. 208. R.

53. Do you expect that Iberina (your wife that is to be) will rest content with one husband?' FA.

54. If such a proposal were seriously made to her, she would exclaim " Eripiet quivis oculos citius mihi!" Hor. II S. v. 35. FA. Sil. iv. 758 sq. R.

Illud and hac serve only as props to the metre. JO. The lines are careless and unpoetical. G.

55. Yet Fame speaks well of a certain young lady who has spent all her life at her father's house in the country.' PR. But the less fame has to do with the female character, the better; cf. Thuc. ii. 46 fin.

56. Before I can admit her to be the paragon of virtue which you fondly fancy her, she must have seen some little of the world.'

Gabii, once a city of the Volsci, and Fidenæ, an ancient town of Latium, in point of populousness, were but one remove from her father's farm. cf. x. 100. Gabiis desertior atque Fidenis vicus; Hor. I Ep. xi. 7 sq. PR. G.

57. I grant what you say as to her correct conduct while under her father's roof.' M.

58. But she could not have been always within doors: therefore no one can answer for what may have happened.'

59. See note on 16. PR. cf. Tib. II, i. 67. quid ergo est, quare apud poetas salacissimus Jupiter desierit liberos tollere? utrum sexagenarius factus est, et illi lex Papia fibulam (cf. v 73.) imposuit ?

60

Seneca ap. Lactant. i. 16. R. These illicit amours were generally, in ancient times, laid to the account of the Gods.

60. These arcades or piazzas' were the fashionable lounge of Roman ladies, where they might see and be seen, without exposure to the weather. (Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsæ; Ov. A. A. i. 99.) There were several of these porticoes: tu modo Pompeia lentus spatiare sub umbra;—nec tibi vitetur, quæ porticus auctoris Livia nomen habet fuge liniger Memphitica templa juvencæ, &c. Ibid. 50 and 67 sqq. PR. M. R.

-nec

Sed tu præcipue curvis venare theatris; illic invenies, quod ames, quodque tenere velis; Ov. A. A. i. 89 sqq. R.

63. Before the time of Augustus, the Romans were acquainted with no intermedial amusements but mimes and farces of the lowest and most desultory kind. Buffoons from Tuscany were the performers in these pieces, which were in troduced between the acts of their tragedies and comedies, and consisted of little more than coarse and licentious ribaldry, and the most ridiculous and extravagant antics.

In this state the stage was found by Pylades and Bathyllus; the latter of whom was a native of Alexandria, and one of Mæcenas' slaves. He had seen Pylades dance in Cilicia, and spoke of him in such terms to his master, that he sent for him to Rome. Here these two men formed the plan of a new kind of spectacle, which pleased Mæcenas so much, that he gave Bathyllus his freedom, and recommended both him and his friend to Augustus. This new spectacle was a play performed by action alone; it was exhibited on a magnificent theatre raised for the purpose,

and being accompanied by a better orchestra than Rome had yet seen, it astonished and delighted the people so much, that they forsook in some measure their tragic and comic poets, for the more expressive ballets of Pylades and Bathyllus.

To say the truth, these were very extraordinary men. The art which they introduced they carried to the highest pitch of perfection, and however skilful their followers may have been, they do not appear to have added any thing to the magnificence of the scene, or the scientific movements of the first performers. We can form no adequate idea of the attachment of the Romans to these exhibitions; it degenerated into a kind of passion, and occupied their whole souls. Augustus regarded it with complacency, and either from a real love for the art, or from policy, conferred honours and immunities on its professors. By an old law, magistrates were allowed to inflict corporal punishment on mimi and players; pantomimi (such was the expressive name given to these new performers) were exempted from this law; they were besides allowed to aspire to honours from which the former were excluded. Such protection produced its natural effects; insolence in the dancers, and parties among the people. Pylades excelled in tragic and Bathyllus in comic subjects; hence arose disputes on their respective merits, which were conducted with all the warmth of a political question. Augustus flattered himself that he should re-establish tranquillity by banishing the former; but he was mistaken; the people found they had lost one great source of amusement by his absence, and their clamours occasioned his immediate recall. The death of Bathyllus, soon after this event, left Pylades without a rival. He did not bear his faculties meekly; he frequently insulted the spectators for not comprehending him, and they endeavoured in their turn to make him feel the weight of their resentment. He had a favourite pupil named Hylas; this youth they opposed to the veteran, who easily tri

It appears from this that Augustus kept the superintendence of these people in his own hands. Tiberius left them to themselves, and the consequence of his indifference was, that the theatres were frequently made a scene of contention and blood, in which numbers of all ranks perished. A variety of regulations, as we learn from Tacitus, were now made to check the evil, which they only served to exasperate; and in conclusion the emperor was obliged to shut up the theatres and banish the performers. In this state were things at the accession of Caligula. His first care was to undo every thing that had been done. Under this profligate madman, the ballets took a licentious turn, and hastened the growing degeneracy of manners. Claudius left them as he found them; but under Nero, the bloody disputes to which they constantly gave birth, reluctantly compelled that prince to banish them once more. He was too fond of the fine arts, however, to suffer so capital a branch of them to languish in neglect, and therefore speedily brought back the exiles. From this time the pantomimi seem to have flourished unmolested, until Paris, the Bathyllus of Domitian's reign, raised the jealousy of that wretched tyrant, who put him, and a young dancer who resembled him, to death, and drove the rest from Rome. They were recalled the instant the emperor was assassinated, and continued through the whole of Nerva's and some part of his successor's reign; but they were now become so vitiated by the shameful indulgence of Caligula and Nero, that, if we may believe Pliny, Trajan finally suppressed them, at the unanimous desire of the people.

The Chironomon here mentioned, was a ballet of action founded on the wellknown amour of Leda, in which some favourite dancer (probably Paris) was the principal performer. Whether he

played the Swan or the Lady cannot now be told; but in a story so wantonly framed, and in an age, where so little restraint was imposed on an actor, enough might be done in either, to interest and inflame the coldest spectator. G.

As the successors of Pylades, in the tragic ballet, were called by his name, so the successors of Bathyllus, in the comic ballet, were honoured with the name of that eminent dancer. SA. In like manner the name of Roscius has been often applied to distinguished ac

tors.

64. The exhibition of these ballets is attended with danger even to the purest minds. They would excite improper emotions even in the immaculate Vestal's breast, and will fill the head of the innocent country girl with unchaste ideas.' Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem, quam quæ sunt oculis subjecta fidelibus, et que ipsa sibi tradit spectatrix; Hor. A. P. 180 sqq.

Tuccia was a Vestal, who, when her character was impeached, cleared it by the ordeal of drawing water in a sieve. V. Max. VIII. i. 5. Plin. xxviii. 2. 8. To this story there seems an oblique allusion. cf.i. 39. xi. 161. LU. HN. R.

The modest Apulian brunette loses, for the time, all sense of decency.' LU. pudica mulier, Subina qualis, aut perusta solibus pernicis uxor Appuli; Hor. Ep. ii. 39 sq. cf. x. 298 sq. R.

'Whines.' LU. Apul. Met. ii. p. 119, 8. principio tremulis gannitibus aera pulsat, verbaque lascivos meretricum imitantia catus vibrat; Auson. Ep. cviii. 4 sqq. R.

65. Amplexu; Sil. xi. 399. R.

Subitum, Miserabile, Longum, according to J. Pollux were the technical names of certain movements: LU. (cf. Pers. i. 33 sqq. Anhelat verbisque sonat plorabile quiddam ultra nequitiam fractis; Claud. Eutr. i. 259 sqq. R.) corresponding perhaps to the terms presto, adagio, &c. in modern music.

Et is wanting before longum. The omission of the conjunction is common in Juvenal, and is sometimes awkward, as in 118. 604. viii. 27. adde et bascaudas, et mille escaria, multum cœlati; xii. 46 sq. and particularly here. R.

Discit becomes knowing,' LU. 'takes a lesson.' in theatris admonetur omnis atas, fieri posse quod factum est? exempla fiunt, quæ jam esse facinora destiterunt. adulterium discitur dum videtur; et lenocinante ad vitia publice auctoritatis malo, quæ pudica fortasse ad spectaculum accesserat, inde revertitur impudica. movet sensus, mulcet affectus, expugnat boni pectoris conscientiam fortiorem; Cyprian Ep. i. 2. Lact. i. 20. Tertull. de Spect. 17. Sen. Ep. 17. Colum. pr. PR. R.

67. When the theatrical season was over, 'the curtains were packed away.' By the curtains' we may understand all the stage property.' LU. M. According to Isidore hangings' were called aulaea (Hor. A. P. 154.) from being first used in the hall of Attalus king of Pergamus. PR. cf. Lucr. iv. 73. Virg. G. iii. 24 sq. Ov. M. iii. 111 sqq. R.

68. Even then Colebs in search of a wife' would have known where to have looked for one : et fora conveniunt (quis credere possit!) amori; flammaque in arguto sæpe reperta foro: &c. Ov. A.

A. 79 sqq.

69. From the 5th of April to the 15th of November was an interval quite long enough to exercise the patience of the ladies. G. Understand distant. LU.

'The Plebeian games' were instituted either, exactis regibus, pro libertate plebis; aut proreconciliatione plebis post secessionem in Aventinum; Ascon. in Verr. ii. Dionys. vii. fin. Plin. vii. 56. A. PR. R.

Brutus instituted the other games; quos in Palatio nostri majores ante templum, in ipso Matris Magna conspectu,

Megalensibus fieri celebrarique voluerunt 2 qui sunt more institutisque maxime casti, solemnes, religiosi: qui uni ludi ne verbo quidem appellantur Latino, ut vocabulo ipso et appetita religio externa, et Matris Magna (s μeyúans untgòs) nomine suscepta declaretur: servorum Megalesia fuerunt? Cic. Har. Resp. PR. cf. Ov. F. iv. 179 sqq. 357. Liv. xxix. 14. xxxiv. 54. R. During the above interval, only the greater scenic games were suspended. ACH. The Circensian Games in honor of Ceres were a patrician festival. cf. Ov. F. iv. 353. Gell. ii. 24. xviii. 2. H.

Tristes victims of ennui.'

70. The tragic mask' was the invention of Eschylus. Hor. A. P. 278. PR. iii. 175. R.

'The spear wreathed with vine-leaves' was one of the insignia borne by the votaries of Bacchus; to whom the drama was originally sacred. PR. Hor. A. P. 277. R.

This 'girdle' was a pair of short drawers (sgilaua), which merely went round the hips, and left the thighs bare. FA. scenicorum mos tantam habet vetere disciplina verecundiam, ut in scenam sine subligaculo prodeat nemo; Cic. Off. i. 35. PR.

a

Accius was the name of a tragic poet and annalist, who flourished about A.U. 600: but here it is probably some pantomimic actor who is meant. PR. R.

71. Urbicus is either the name or appellation of some buffoon engaged perhaps to amuse the ladies at their private theatricals during the recess. PĒ. cf. Mart. I. xxxii. 11. R.

Erodium; iii. 174 sq. PE. Suet. Tib. 45. PR. The name is perhaps derived from its immediately following the odos, which is the last part of a tragedy; Arist. Poet. VO.

The Atellan Play' (cf. note on i. 3.) had its name from Atella, a town of the Osci in Campania between Capua and Naples, now Aversa.' It resembled the Satyric Drama of the Greeks. Ju