Nomentum, Bola, with Pometia, found;
And raife Colatian tow'rs on rocky ground.
Mr. Dryden.

Ipfe loci cuftos, cujus facrata vorago,
Famofufque lacus nomen memorabile fervat,
Innumeros aris fonitus, et verbere crudo
Ut fenfit mugire forum, movet horrida fanɛlo
Ora fitu, meritâque caput venerabile quercu.

Statius Sylv. Lib. 1.

The Guardian of that Lake, which boafts to claim
A fure memorial from the Curtian name;
Rous'd by th' artificers, whofe mingled found
From the loud Forum pierc'd the fhades profoun!,
The hoary vifion rofe confefs'd in view,
And fhook the Civic wreath that bound his brow.

The two horns that you fee on the next Medal are emblems of

Plenty.

-apparetque beata pleno
Copia Cornu.

FIG. 8.

Hor. Carm. Sæç.

Your Medallifts tell us that two horns on a Coin fignify an extraordinary Plenty. But I fee no foundation for this conjecture. Why fhould they not as well have stamped two Thunder-bolts, two Caduceus's or two Ships, to represent an extraordinary force, a lafting peace, or an unbounded happiness. I rather think that the double Cornucopia relates to the double tradition of its original: Some representing it as the horn of Achelous broken off by Hercules, and others as the horn of the Goat that to Jupiter.

D 4

gave

fuck

-rigidum

-rigidum fera dextera cornu:

Dum tenet, infregit ;. truncâque à fronte revellit.
Naiades hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum,
Sacrârunt; divesque meo bona Copia cornu eft.
Dixerat: et Nymphe ritu fuccin&ta Diana
Una miniftrarum, fufis utrinque capillis,
Inceffit, totumque tulit prædivite cornu
Autumnum, et menfas felicia pama fecundas.

De Acheloi Cornu. Ov. Met. Lib. 9,

Nor yet his fury cool'd; 'twixt rage and scorn, From my maim'd front he bore the stubborn horn: This, heap'd with flowers and fruits, the Naiads bear,

Sacred to Plenty and the bounteous year.

He fpoke; when lo a beauteous Nymph appears, Girt like Diana's train, with flowing hairs; The horn fhe brings, in which all Autumn's

ftor'd:

And ruddy apples for the second board.

Mr. Gay.

Lac dabat illa Deo : fed fregit in arbore cornu :
Truncaque dimidia parte decoris erat.

Sufulit boc Nymphe ; cinctumque recentibus herbis,
Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit.
lile, ubi res coli tenuit, filioque paterno
Sedit, et invicto nil fave majus erat,.
Sidera mutricem, nutricis fertile cornu
Fecit ; quod domina nuwe quoque nomen habet.
De Cornu Amalthem. On de Faft. Lib. 5.

The God fhe fuckled of old Rhea born;
And, in the pious office broke her horn,
As playful in a rifted Oak fhe toft

Her heedless head, and half its honours loft.

Fair Amalthea took it off the ground,
With apples fill'd it and with garlands bound,
Which to the fmiling infant fhe convey'd.
He, when the fceptre of the Gods he fway'd,
When bold he feiz'd his father's vacant throne,
And reign'd the tyrant of the fkies alone,
Bid his rough nurfe the ftarry Heavens adorn,
And grateful in the Zodiac fix'd her Horn..

Betwixt the double Cornu-copia you see Mercury's

rod.

Cyllenes cxlique decus, facunde minifter,
Aurea cui torto virga dracone viret.

Mart. Lib. 7. Epig. 74.

Defcend, Cyllene's tutelary God,

With ferpents twining round thy golden rod.

Li ftands on old Coins as an emblem. of peace by reafon of its ftupifying quality that has gained it: the title of Virga fomnifera. It has wings, for another quality that Virgil, mentions in his defcription of it..

-hac fretus ventos et nubilia tranat.

Virg.

Thus, armid, the God begins his airy, race,
And drives the racking clouds along the liquid
space.
Mr. Dryden..

The two heads over the two Garnu-copiæ are of the Emperor's children, who are fometimes called among the Poets the pledges of Peace, as they took away the occafions of war in cutting off all difputes to the fucceffion..

-tu mihi primum

Tot ratorum memoranda parens-
Utero toties enixa gravi

Pignora pacis.

Sen. Octav. Act. 5.

Thee, firft kind author of my joys,
Thou source of many fmiling boys,
Nobly contented to beftow

A pledge of peace in every throe.

This Medal therefore compliments the Emperor on his two children, whom it reprefents as public bleffings that promise Peace and Plenty to the Empire.

The two hands that join. one FIG. 7. another are Emblems of Fidelity.

Inde Fides dextræque data— Ov. Met. Lib. 14.

See now the promis'd faith, the vaunted name,
The pious man, who rushing thro' the flame,
Preferv'd his Gods-
Mr. Dryden

By this Infcription we may fee that they reprefent in this place the Fidelity or Loyalty of the public towards their Emperor. The Cadu ccus rifing between the hands fignifies the Peacethat arifes from fuch an union with their Prince,

as

as the fpike of Corn on each fide shadows out the Plenty that is the fruit of fuch a peace.

Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres.

Ov. de Faft. Lib. 1.

FIG. 8.

The giving of a hand, in the reverfe of Claudius, is a token of good-will. For when, after the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was in no fmall apprehenfion for his own life, he was, contrary to his expectation, well received among the Pratorian guards, and afterwards declared their Emperor. His reception is here recorded on a Medal, in which one of the Enfigns prefents him his hand, in the fame fenfe as Anchifes gives it in the following verses.

Ipfe pater dextram Anchifes haud multa morat is Dat juveni, atque anim im prxfenti munere firmat. Virg. Æn. Lib.

3.

The old weather-beaten foldier that carries in his hand the Roman Eagle, is the fame kind of officer that you meet with in Juvenal's fourteenth

Satire..

Dirue Maurorum aitegias, caftella Brigantum,
Ut locupletem Aquilam tibi fexagefimus annus
Afferat-
Juv. Sat. 14.

I remember in one of the Poets the Signifer is defcribed with a Lion's fkin over his head and fhoulders, like this we fee in the Medal, but at present I cannot recollect the paffage. Virgil

has