The Satires of Juvenal, Persius, Sulpicia, and Lucilius. Sulpicia

priests were all clothed in it. All who were about to celebrate her sacred rites had their heads shaved. Isis married Osiris, who was killed by his brother Typhon, and his body thrown into a well, where Isis and her son Anubis, by the assistance of dogs, found it. Osiris was thenceforth deified under the form of an ox, and called Apis: Anubis, under the form of a dog. (Hence Virg., Æn., viii., 698, "Latrator Anubis.") An ox, therefore, with particular marks (vid. Strab., xvii.; Herod., iii., 28), was kept in great state, which Osiris was supposed to animate; but when it had reached a certain age (non est fas eum certos vitæ excedere annos, Plin., viii., 46), it was drowned in a well (mersum in sacerdotum fonte enecant) with much ceremonious sorrow, and the priests, attended by an immense concourse of people, dispersed themselves over the country, wailing and lamenting, in quest of another with the prescribed marks (quæsituri luctu alium quem substituant; et donec invenerint mærent, derasis etiam capitibus. Plin., ii., 3). When they had found one, their lamentations were exchanged for songs of joy and shouts of εὑρήκαμεν (cf. viii., 29, Exclamare libet populus quod clamat Osiri invento), and the ox was led back to the shrine of his predecessor. These gloomy processions lasted some days; and generally during these (or nine days at least) women abstained from intercourse with their husbands. These rites were introduced at Rome, the chief priest personating Anubis, and wearing a dog's head. Hence derisor. Cf. xv., 8, "Oppida tota canem venerantur."

[304]

      "Her internuntial office none deny,

       Between us peccant mortals and the sky." Badham.

[305] Commagene was reduced to a province A.D. 72.

[306] Deferat.

      "Or bid, at times, the human victim bleed,

       And then inform against you for the deed." Hodgson.

[307] Conducenda.

      "By whose hired tablet and concurring spell,

       The noble Roman, Otho's terror, fell." Hodgson.

[308] Magnus civis. Cf. Suet., Otho, 4, "Spem majorem cepit ex affirmatione Seleuci Mathematici, qui cum eum olim superstitem Neroni fore spopondisset, tunc ultro inopinatus advenerat, imperaturum quoque brevi repromittens." Cf. Tac., Hist., i., 22, who says one Ptolemæus promised Otho the same when with him in Spain. Ptolemy helped to fulfill his own predictions, "Nec deerat Ptolemæus, jam et sceleris instinctor, ad quod facillimè ab ejusmodi voto transitur."

[309] Cyclada. Cf. i., 73, "Aude aliquid brevibus Gyaris et carcere dignum." x., 170, "Ut Gyaræ clausus scopulis parvaque Seripho."

[310] Tanaquil. Cf. Liv., i, 34, "perita cœlestium prodigiorum mulier."

      "To him thy Tanaquil applies, in doubt

       How long her jaundiced mother may hold out." Gifford.

[311] Pinguia sucina. The Roman women used to hold or rub amber in their hands for its scent. Mart., iii., Ep. lxv., 5, "redolent quod sucina trita." xi., Ep. viii., 6, "spirant, succina virgineâ quod regelata manu." Cf. v., Ep. xxxviii., II. (Cf. ix., 50.)

      "By whom a greasy almanac is borne,

       With often handling, like chafed amber worn." Dryden.

[312] Thrasyllus was the astrologer under whom Tiberius studied the "Chaldean art" at Rhodes (Tac., Ann., vi., 20), and accompanied his patron to Rome. (Cf. Suet., Aug., 98.) Cf. Suet., Tib., 14, 62, and Calig., 19, for a curious prediction belied by Caligula.

[313] Petosiris, another famous astrologer and physician. Plin., ii., 23; vii., 49.

[314] Fulgura. When a place was struck by lightning, a priest was sent for to purify it, a two-year-old sheep was then sacrificed, and the ground, hence called bidental, fenced in.

[315] Agger. The mound to the east of Rome, thrown up by Tarquinius Superbus. Cf. viii., 43, "ventoso conducta sub aggere texit." Hor., i., Sat. viii., 15, "Aggere in aprico spatiari."

[316] Phalas. The Circensian games were originally consecrated to Neptunus Equestris, or Consus. Hence the dolphins on the columns in the Circus Maximus. The circus was divided along the middle by the Spina, at each extremity of which stood three pillars (metæ) round which the chariots turned: along this spine were seven movable towers or obelisks, called from their oval form ova, or phalæ; one was taken down at the end of each course. There were four factions in the circus, Blue, Green (xi., 196). White, and Red, xii., 114; to which Domitian added the Golden and the Purple. Suet., Domit., 7. The egg was the badge of the Green faction (which was the general favorite), the dolphin of the Blue or sea party. For the form of these, see the Florentine gem in Milman's Horace, p. 3. Böttiger has a curious theory, that the four colors symbolize the four elements, the green being the earth. The circus was the resort of prostitutes (iii., 65) and itinerant fortune-tellers. (Hence "fallax," Hor., i., Sat., vi., 113.) Cf. Suet., Jul., 39, and Claud., 21.

[317] Mane. "The first thing seen" in the morning was a most important omen of the good or bad luck of the whole day. This is well turned by Hodgson:

      "The sooty embryo, had he sprung to light,

       Had heir'd thy will and petrified thy sight;

       Each morn with horror hadst thou turn'd away,

       Lest the dark omen should o'ercloud the day."

[318] Spurcos lacus. Infants were exposed by the Milk-pillar in the Herb-market: the low ground on which this stood, at the base of Aventine, Palatine, and Capitoline, was often flooded and covered with stagnant pools. "Hoc ubi nunc fora sunt udæ tenuere paludes," Ov., Fast., vi., 401. The "Velabri regio" of Tibull., ii., v., 33.

      "The beggars' bantlings spawn'd in open air,

       And left by some pond-side to perish there;

       From hence your Flamens, hence your Salii come,

       Your Scauri chiefs and magistrates of Rome." Gifford.

[319] Mimum. Cf. iii., 40, "Quoties voluit Fortuna jocari."

[320] Boletus. Cf. v., 147. Nero used to call mushrooms "the food of the gods" after this. Cf. Suet., Nero, 33. Tac., Ann., xii., 66, 7. Mart., i., Ep. xxi.

[321]

      "That only closed the driveling dotard's eyes,

       And sent his godhead downward to the skies." Dryden.

[322] Cæsonia.