תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Mordet gemma sinum.-
Clypeus Titana lacessit

Lumine, quem totâ variarat Mulciber arte;
Hic, patrius Mavortis amor, fœtusque notuntur
Romulei, post amnis inest, et bellua nutrix.

CLAUD. in Prob. et Olyb. Cons.

No costly fillets knot her hair behind,

Nor female trinkets round her neck are twin'd.
Bold on the right her naked arm she shows,
And half her bosom's unpolluted snows;
Whilst on the left is buckled o'er her breast,
In diamond clasps, the military vest.
The sun was dazzled as her shield she rear'd,
Where, varied o'er by Mulciber, appear'd
The loves of Mars her sire, fair Ilia's joys,
The wolf, the Tiber, and the infant boys.

The next figure is Achaia*.

I am sorry, says Cynthio, to find you running farther off us. I was in hopes you would have shown us our own nation, when you were so near us as France. I have here, says Philander, one of Augustus's Britanniast. You see she is not drawn like other countries, in a soft peaceful posture, but is adorned with emblems that mark out the military genius of her inhabitants. This is, I think, the only commendable quality that the old poets have touched upon in the description of our country. I had once made a collection of all the passages in the Latin poets, that give any account of us, but I find them so very malicious, that it would look like a libel on the nation to repeat them to you. We seldom meet with our forefathers, but they are coupled with some epithet or another to blacken them. Barbarous, cruel, and inhospitable, are the best terms they can afford us, which it would be a kind of injustice to publish, since their posterity are become so polite, good-natured, and kind to strangers. To mention, therefore, those parts only that relate to the present medal. She sits on a globe that stands in water, to denote that she is + Fig. 11.

*Fig. 10.

mistress of a new world, separate from that which the Romans had before conquered, by the interposition of the sea. I think we cannot doubt of this interpretation, if we consider how she has been represented by the ancient poets.

Et penitus toto divisos orhe Britannos.

The rest among the Britons be confin'd;

VIRG. Ecl. 1.

A race of men from all the world disjoin'd. Mr. DRYDEN.

Adspice, confundit populos impervia tellus:
Conjunctum est, quod adhuc orbis, et orbis erat.

VET. Poet. apud Scalig. Catul.

[blocks in formation]

The feet of Britannia are washed by the waves, in the

same poet.

-Cujus vestigia verrit

Carulus, oceanique æstum mentitur, amictus.

Id. de Laud. Stil. lib. 2.

She bears a Roman ensign in one of her hands, to confess herself a conquered province.

-Victricia Cæsar

Signa Caledonios transvexit ad usque Britannos. SIDON. APOL But to return to Achaia*, whom we left upon her knees before the Emperor Adrian. She has a pot before her with a sprig of parsley rising out of it. I will not here trouble you with a dull story of Hercules's eating a sallad of parsley for his refreshment, after his encounter with the Nemean lion. It is certain, there were in Achaia the Nemean games, and that a garland of parsley was the victor's reward. You have an account of these games in Ausonius. * Fig. 10.

Quattuor antiquos celebravit Achaia Ludos,
Calicolûm duo sunt, et duo festa hominum.
Sacra Jovis, Phabique, Palæmonis, Archemorique:
Serta quibus pinus, malus, oliva, upium.

Aus. de Lustral. Agon.

Greece, in four games thy martial youth were train'd;
For heroes two, and two for gods ordain'd:
Jove bade the olive round his victor wave;
Phoebus to his an apple garland gave:
The pine, Palæmon; nor with less renown,
Archemorus conferr'd the parsley crown.

Archemori Nemeaa colunt funebria Theba. Id. de Locis Agon.

-Alcides Numea sacravit honorem. De Auct. Agon. Id.

One reason why they chose parsley for a garland, was doubtless because it always preserves its verdure, as Horace opposes it to the short-lived lily.

Neu vivax apium, nec breve lilium.

Let fading lilies and the rose

Their beauty and their smell disclose;
Let long-liv'd parsley grace the feast,
And gently cool the heated guest.

Lib. 1. od. 36.

Mr. CREECH.

Juvenal mentions the crown that was made of it, and which here surrounds the head of Achaia.

·Graiæque apium meruisse coronæ.

Juv. Sat. 8.

And winning at a wake their parsley crown. Mr. STEPNEY.

She presents herself to the emperor in the same posture that the Germans and English still salute the imperial and royal family.

Jus imperiumque Phraates

Cæsaris accepit genibus minor.

HOR. Epist. 12. lib. 1.

The haughty Parthian now to Cæsar kneels. Mr. CREECH.

Ille qui donat diadema fronti

Quem

genu nixa tremuere gentes.

Non, ut inflexo genu,

Regnantem adores, petimus.

SENEC. Thyest. act. 3.

Idem.

Te linguis variæ gentes, missique rogatum
Fadera Persarum proceres cum patre sedentem,
Hac quondam vidére domo; positâque tiará
Submisere genu.-

CLAUD. ad Honorium.,

Thy infant virtue various climes admir'd,

And various tongues to sound thy praise conspir'd:
Thee next the sovereign seat, the Persians view'd,
When in this regal dome for peace they su'd:
Each turban low, in sign of worship, wav'd;
And every knee confess'd the boon they crav'd.

Sicily appears before Adrian in the same posture*. She has a bundle of corn in her hand, and a garland of it on her head, as she abounds in wheat, and was consecrated to Ceres.

Utraque frugiferis est insula nobilis arvis:
Nec plus Hesperiam longinquis messibus ullæ,
Nec Romana magis complerunt horrea terræ.

De Sicilia et Sardinia. Luc. lib. 2.

Sardinia too, renown'd for yellow fields,
With Sicily her bounteous tribute yields;
No lands a glebe of richer tillage boast,
Nor waft more plenty to the Roman coast.

Terra tribus scopulis vastum procurrit in æquor
Trinacris, à positu nomen adepta loci,
Grata domus Cereri; multas ibi possidet urbes :
In quibus est culto fertilis Henna solo.

To Ceres dear, the fruitful land is fam'd

Mr. RowE.

Ov. de Fast. lib. 4

For three tall capes, and thence Trinacria nam'd:
There Henna well rewards the tiller's toil,

The fairest champain of the fairest isle.

We find Judea on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity †. The first figure of her is drawn to life in a picture that Seneca has given us of the Trojan matrons bewailing their captivity.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Hecuba ad Trojanarum chorum. SEN. Troas act. 1.

[blocks in formation]

From your divested shoulders slide

Your garments down on either side.
Now bared bosoms call for blows,

Now, Sorrow, all thy pow'rs disclose. SIR EDW. SHERBURN.

-Apertæ pectora matres

Significant luctum

Ov. Met. lib. 13.

Who bar'd their breasts, and gave their hair to flow:
The signs of grief, and mark of public woe.

The head is veiled in both figures, as another expres

sion of grief.

-Ipsa tristi vestis obtentu caput
Velata, juxta præsides astat Deos.

SEN. Herc. fur, act. 2.

Sic ubi fata, caput ferali obducit amictu,
Decrevitque pati tenebras, puppisque cavernis
Delituit: sævumque arctè complexa dolorem
Perfruitur lacrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum.

Lu. lib. 9. de Cornelia.

So said the matron; and about her head
Her veil she draws, her mournful eyes to shade:
Resolv'd to shroud in thickest shades her woe,
She seeks the ship's deep darksome hold below:
There lonely left, at leisure to complain,
She hugs her sorows, and enjoys her pain;
Still with fresh tears the living grief would feed,
And fondly loves it, in her husband's stead.

Mr. Rows.

I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because. we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy, says Eugenius, the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as of those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set

« הקודםהמשך »