2. Cato advises, that "before you lay up in your Repositories" the things he mentions, you are to offer Wine and Frankincenfe to Janus, Jupiter, and JUNO. But in the courfe of the Directions given, there is not one word said of Juno, nor any orders given How to adThe word, Junoni, therefore fhould be ftruck out; fince no Oblation was here to be made unto Her. dress her. 3. Cakes and Wine were offered to Janus and to Jupiter: and a Drink Offering of Wine was annexed to the Sacrifice made to Ceres. This was all founded on the Original Intention and Nature of Sacrifice, which was to engage in FriendShip by eating and drinking as it were at the Tables of, or with, the Gods. 4. The Porker here offered unto Ceres was to be of the Female kind; the Emblem of Plenty or of Encrease: And it was This Animal rather than a Sheep or Cow, because it brings forth fo often in a year, and fo many more than other Animals. It was called Porca præcidanea, because it was to be facrificed, præ cædere, before the Corn was cut down. The Term, præcidanea, præcidanea, is applied to other Sacrifices, and in different Senfes. When to a Lamb, *"it fignified the Lamb killed before "others." On the fame ground, when a Victim was called + Succidanea, it was * Præcidanea Agna vocabatur quæ ante alias cædebatur: Feftus. Dacier obferves, that præcidaneæ et fuccidaneæ Hoftiæ non a præcidendo et fuccidendo dictæ funt, fed a præcedendo et fuccedendo. But this is contrary to the formation of the word. If præcidanea or fuccidanea were derived from præcedendo, or fuccedendo, it would be præcedanea and fuccedanea, with an e, not with an i. When the word præcidaneæ is applied to Ferix, the meaning is, Feftivals appointed when the præcidanea Hoftia was to be flain. The word therefore is form'd not from cedendo, but from coedendo, from whence cecidi, and thence the i long comes. + Succidanea Hoftia dicebatur, quæ fecundo loco cædebatur. Sic appellata eft a fuccedendo [1. fuccidendo]. Feftus. When Plautus fays, Men' piacularem oportet fieri ob Stultitiam tuam. He fays a much stronger thing than if he had used any other Expreffion. Subdere Succidaneum, is to bring a Second Victim to be flain, if the fir did not prove profperous. A. Gellius jufly obferves, that Victims were called Succidaneæ quafi fuccœdaneæ, quoniam fi primis Hoftiis litatum non erat, aliæ poft eafdem ducta Hoftiæ cædebantur, quæ quafi priorbus jam coefis, luendi piaculi gratia, fubdebantur, et fuccidebantur; ob id fuccidaneæ nominatæ, Gellius. 1. iv. c. 6. " what "what was killed in the Second place", not because it fucceeded the firft Victim. But for the further use of this Form, fee Feftus, and Gellius, 1. iv. c. 6. 5. Janus had a certain fort of Cakes, called Strues, offered to him; Jano ftruem commoveto, Move, or wave the Strues to Janus. They were piled up, and made *«not much unlike a Man's fingers when "they are clofe joined together." They were not flat, but long and roundish, and like our present long Biscuits. This fashioned Cakes were to be prefented to Janus, with a form of Prayer for his Affiftance, Protection, and Kindness to all the Family. The words imply, or feem to do fo, a Sort of waving, or moving the Cakes, in a manner not unlike to that fort of Action which was practifed among the Jews, and This laft .תְנוֹצָה or תְרוּמָה by them called ceremony feems to have been in Acknowledgment of the presence of God every where; The Wave Offering being moved Strues genera liborum funt, digitorum conjun&torum non diffimilia, qui fuperjecta panicula in tranfverfum continentur. Feftus. about 1 about every way to all the four Corners of the Earth. The Former, or the Therumah, was an Elevation of the Sacrifice upwards, in acknowledgment of God who dwells on high. The Romans in like manner by the Expreffion, commovendo Struem, seem to mean an Acknowledgment of the prefence of Janus, to whom they did admovere or obmovere, (for these two words fignify the fame thing) prefent and offer the Cakes, intreating him to be ready and kind to him who made the Sacrifice, and to all his Family. 6. The Cake that was prepared, and given to Jupiter was moved or waved in like manner; and for the fame reafon as was the Cake to Janus, in acknowledgment of his prefence and power. 7. Befides the Cakes, which were a Species of Bread, prepared in a particular and more delicate manner, Wine was offered not only to Janus and Jupiter, but likewife to Ceres. Wherever there was a Sacrifice, and either Flesh or Cakes were given, there was always fome potable offered: And fometimes there feems to be nothing elfe but Wine given to the Deity. One One cannot but obferve that Strobilus in Plautus promises to the Goddess, Fides, nothing elfe but a pitcher of Wine. Si repperero, O Fides Mulfi congialem plenam faciam tibi fideliam. Aulul. Act. iv. Sc. 2. The great end in all Sacrifices being to be in a State of Friendship with the God or Goddess they had occafion to addrefs, They promifed, or They offered, what might fhew or make them Friends. In the prefent Sacrifice to Janus and Jupiter, the Wine was offered to them in the fame Form of Wods,-Macte vino inferio efto. The Bread had been offered first to each God feparately and apart; and a Prayer that the God would be propitious to the Offerer and his Family, had been made. When the Wine was brought and offered, (which was not done once only, but was again and again poured out during the Solemn facred Action,) a Prayer was likewife offered, that the God whom they addreffed would accept the Wine, and be propitious. It is very hard |