תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Receiv'd her Isis to divine abodes,

And rank'd her dogs deform'd, with Roman gods? Mr. RowE. The bird before her is the Egyptian ibis. This figure however does not represent the living bird, but rather an idol of it, as one may guess by the pedestal it stands upon, for the Egyptians worshipped it as a god.

Quis nescit, Volusi Bithynice, qualia demens
Egyptus portenta colat? crocodilon adorat
Pars hæc, illa pavet saturam serpentibus Ibin;
Effigies sacri nitet aurea Circopitheci.

Juv. Sat. 15.

How Egypt, mad with superstition grown,
Makes gods of monsters, but too well is known:
One sect devotion to Nile's serpent pays;
Others to Ibis, that on serpents preys.
Where, Thebes, thy hundred gates lie unrepair'd,
And where maim'd Memnon's magic harp is heard,
Where these are mould'ring left, the sots combine
With pious care a monkey to enshrine.

Venerem precaris? comprecare et Simiam.
Placet sacratus aspis Esculapii?
Crocodilus, Ibis et Canes cur displicent?

Mr. TATE.

PRUDENTIUS, Pas. Romani.

We have Mauritania* on the fifth medal, leading a horse with something like a thread, for where there is a bridle in old coins you see it much more distinctly. In her other hand she holds a switch. We have the design of this medal in the following descriptions that celebrate the Moors and Numidians, inhabitants of Mauritania, for their horsemanship.

Hic passim exultant Numidæ, gens inscia freni:
Queis inter geminas per ludum mobilis aures
Quadrupedum flectit non cedens virga lupatis:
Altrix bellorum bellatorumque virorum,
Tellus-

On his hot steed, unus'd to curb or reign,
The black Numidian prances o'er the plain:
A wand betwixt his ears directs the course,
And, as a bridle, turns th' obedient horse.

* Fig. 5.

SIL. IT. lib. 1.

An Mauri fremitum raucosque repulsus
Umbonum, et nostros passuri cominus enses?
Non contra clypeis tectos, galeisque micantes
Ibitis; in solis longè fiducia telis.

Exarmatus erit, cum missile torserit, hostis.
Dextra movet jaculum, prætentat pallia lævá,
Catera nudus eques; sonipes ignarus habena:
Virga regit, non ulla fides, non agminis ordo;
Arma oneri.

CLAUD. de Bel. Gildon,

Can Moors sustain the press, in close-fought fields,
Of shorten'd fauchions, and repelling shields?
Against a host of quiv'ring spears ye go,
Nor helm nor buckler guards the naked foe;
The naked foe, who vainly trusts his art,
And flings away his armor in his dart:
His dart the right hand shakes, the left uprears
His robe, beneath his tender skin appears.
Their steeds unrein'd, obey the horseman's wand,
Nor know their legions when to march or stand:
In the war's dreadful laws untaught and rude,
A mob of men, a martial multitude.

The horse too may stand as an emblem of the warlike genius of the people.

Bello armantur equi, bellum hæc armenta minantur.

VIRG. Æn. lib. 3.

From Africa we will cross over into Spain. There are learned medalists that tell us, the rabbit*, which you see before her feet, may signify either the great multitude of these animals that are found in Spain, or perhaps the several mines that are wrought within the bowels of that country, the Latin word Cuniculus signifying either a rabbit or a mine. But these gentlemen do not consider, that it is not the word but the figure that appears on the medal. Cuniculus may stand for a rabbit or a mine, but the picture of a rabbit is not the picture of a mine. A pun can be no more engraven than it can be translated. When the word is construed into its idea, the double meaning vanishes. The figure therefore before us means a real rabbit, which is there found in vast multitudes.

* Fig. 6.

Cuniculosa Celtiberiæ fili.

CATAL. in Egnatium.

The olive branch tells us, it is a country that abounds in olives, as it is for this reason that Člaudian in his description of Spain binds an olive branch about her head.

· Glaucis tum prima Minervæ

Nexa comam foliis, fulvâque intexta micantem
Veste Tagum, tales profert Hispania voces.

CLAUD. de Laud. Stil. lib. 2:

Thus Spain, whose brows the olive wreaths infold,
And o'er her robe a Tagus streams in gold.

Martial has given us the like figure of one of the greatest rivers in Spain.

Batis olivifera crinem redimite coronâ,
Aurea qui nitidis vellera tingis aquis:

• Quem Bromius quem Pallas amat.

MART. lib. 12. ep. 99.

Fair Bætis! olives wreath thy azure locks;
In fleecy gold thou cloth'st the neighb'ring flocks:
Thy fruitful banks with rival bounty smile,
While Bacchus wine bestows, and Pallas oil.

And Prudentius of one of its eminent towns.

Tu decem sanctos revehes et octo,

Cæsar augusta studiosa Christi,
Verticem flavis oleis revincta

Pacis honore.

PRUDENT. Hymn. 4.

France*, you see, has a sheep by her, not only as a sacrifice, but to show that the riches of the country consisted chiefly in flocks and pasturage. Thus Horace mentioning the commodities of different countries,

Quanquam nec Calabræ mella ferunt apes,
Nec Lastrigoniâ Bacchus in amphora
Languescit mihi, nec pinguia Gallicis
Crescunt vellera pascuis.

hough no Calabrian bees do give
heir grateful tribute to my hive;

Fig. 7.

HOR. Od. 16. lib. 3.

No wines, by rich Campania sent,

In my ignoble casks ferment;

No flocks in Gallic plains grow fat;

Mr. CREECH.

She carries on her shoulders the sagulum that Virgil speaks of as the habit of the ancient Gauls.

Aurea cæsaries ollis, atque aurea vestis:
Virgatis lucent sagulis

VIRG. Æn. lib. 8.

The gold dissembled well their yellow hair;
And golden chains on their white necks they wear;
Gold are their vests-
Mr. DRYDEN.

She is drawn in a posture of sacrificing for the safe arrival of the emperor, as we may learn from the inscription. We find in the several medals that were struck on Adrian's progress through the empire, that, at his arrival, they offered a sacrifice to the gods for the reception of so great a blessing. Horace mentions this custom.

Tum meæ (si quid loquar audiendum)
Vocis accedet bona pars; et O sol
Pulcher, ô laudande, canam, recepto
Cæsare felix.-

Te decem tauri, totidemque vucca;
Me tener solvet vitulus·

And there, if any patient ear

My muse's feeble song will hear,

My voice shall sound through Rome:
Thee, sun, I'll sing, thee, lovely fair,

Thee, thee I'll praise, when Cæsar's come.

Ten large fair bulls, ten lusty cows,
Must die, to pay thy richer vows;
Of my small stock of kine

A calf just wean'd

HOR. Od. 2. lib. 4.

Mr. CREECH.

Italy* has a cornu-copia in her hand, to denote her fruitfulness;

—magna parens frugum Saturnia tellus. VIRG. Georg. 3. and a crown of towers on her head, to figure out the

* Fig. 8,

many towns and cities that stand upon her. Lucan has given her the like ornament, where he represents her addressing herself to Julius Cæsar.

Ingens visa duci patriæ trepidantis Imago:
Clara per obscuram vultu mæstissima noctem,
Turrigero canos effundens vertice crines,
Cæsarie lacerá, nudisque adstare lacertis,
Et gemitu permista loqui-

LUCAN. lib. 1.

Amidst the dusky horrors of the night,
A wondrous vision stood confest to sight;
Her awful head Rome's rev'rend image rear'd,
Trembling and sad the matron form appear'd;
A tow'ry crown her hoary temples bound,
And her torn tresses rudely hung around:
Her naked arms uplifted ere she spoke,

Then groaning thus the mournful silence broke. Mr. RowE. She holds a sceptre in her other hand, and sits on a globe of the heavens, to show that she is the sovereign of nations, and that all the influences of the sun and stars fall on her dominions. Claudian makes the same compliment to Rome.

Ipsa triumphatis quæ possidet æthera regnis.

CLAUD. in Prob. et Olyb. Cons.

Jupiter arce sua totum dum spectat in orbem,

Nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet. Ov. de Fast. lib. 1.

Jove finds no realm, when he the globe surveys,
But what to Rome submissive homage pays.

Orbem jam totum victor Romanus habebat,

Quà mare, quà tellus, quà sidus currit utrumque. PETRON.

Now Rome, sole empress, reigns from pole to pole,
Wherever earth extends, or oceans roll.

The picture that Claudian makes of Rome, one would think, was copied from the next medal*.

·Innuptæ ritus imitata Minervæ:

Nam
neque casariem crinali stringere cultu,
Colla nec ornatu patitur mollire retorto;
Dextrum nuda latus, niveos exerta lacertos,
Audacem retegit mammam, laxumque coercens

* Fig. 9.

« הקודםהמשך »