Sit Romana potens Italà virtute propago: EN. lib. 12. This let me beg (and this no fates withstand) But let the Latins still retain their name: Speak the same language which they spoke before, And Rome's immortal majesty remain. MR. DRYDEN. By the way, I have often admired at Virgil for representing his Juno with such an impotent kind of revenge as what is the subject of this speech. You may be sure, says Eugenius, that Virgil knew very well this was a trifling kind of request for the queen of the gods to make, as we may find by Jupiter's way of accepting it. Olli subridens hominum rerumque repertor: Then thus the founder of mankind replies, Shall keep their name, their habit, and their tongue. The Trojans to their customs shall be ty'd, And her lost sons forget from whence they came. MR. DRYDEN. I am apt to think Virgil had a further view in this request of Juno than what his commentators have discovered in it. He knew very well that his Eneid was founded on a very doubtful story, and that Eneas's coming into Italy was not universally received among the Romans themselves. He knew, too, that a main objection to this story was the great difference of customs, language, and habits, among the Romans and Trojans. To obviate, therefore, so strong an objection, he makes this difference to arise from the forecast and pre-determination of the gods themselves. But pray what is the name of the lady in the next medal? Methinks she is very particular in her quoiffure. It is the emblem of Fruitfulness," says Philander, and was designed as a compliment to Julia the wife of Septimius Severus, who had the same number of children as you see on this coin. Her head is crowned with towers in allusion to Cybele the mother of the gods, and for the same reason that Virgil compares the city of Rome to her. Felix prole virum, qualis Berecynthia mater High as the mother of the gods in place, VIRG. EN. lib. 6. And proud, like her, of an immortal race. MR. DRYDEN. The vine issuing out of the urn, speaks the same sense as that in the Psalmist." Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine on the walls of thy house." The four stars overhead, and the same number on the globe, represent the four children. There is a medallion of Romulus and Remus sucking the wolf, with a star over each of their heads, as we find the Latin poets speaking of the children of princes under the same metaphor. Utque tui faciunt sidus juvenile nepotes, Per tua perque sui facta parentis eant. Stay, great Cæsar, and vouchsafe to reign And people heav'n with Roman deities. MR. POPE. I need not mention Homer's comparing Astyanax to the morning. star, nor Virgil's imitation of him in his description of Ascanius. The next medal was stampt on the marriage of Nero and Octavia; you see the sun over the head of Nero, and the moon over that of Octavia. They face one another according to the situation of these two planets in the heavens. b -Phoebeis obvia flammis Demet nocti luna timores. SEN. THYEST. act. 4. And to shew that Octavia derived her whole lustre from the friendly aspect of her husband. Fig. 10. Sicut luna suo tunc tantum deficit orbe, Quum Phoebum adversis currentem non videt astris. MAN. lib. 4. Because the moon then only feels decay, MR. CREECH. But if we consider the history of this medal, we shall find more fancy in it than the medalists have yet discovered. Nero and Octavia were not only husband and wife, but brother and sister, Claudius being the father of both. We have this relation between them marked out in the tragedy of Octavia, where it speaks of her marriage with Nero. Will mount thy bed t' enlarge the Claudian race: Shall reign a Juno with the Roman Jove. They are, therefore, very prettily represented by the sun and moon, who as they are the most glorious parts of the universe, are in poetical genealogy brother and sister. Virgil gives us a sight of them in the same position that they regard each other on this medal. Nec Fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna. VIRG. GEORG. 1. The flattery on the next medal is in the same thought as that of Lucretius. Ipse Epicurus obit decurso lumine vita; Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omneis Nay, Epicurus' race of life is run; That man of wit, who other men outshone, As far as meaner stars the mid-day sun. MR. CREECH. The emperor appears as the rising sun, and holds a globe in his hand, to figure out the earth that is enlightened and actuated by his beauty. Sol qui terrarum flammis opera omnia lustras. VIRG. ubi primos crastinus ortus Extulerit Titan, radiisque retexerit orbem. IDEM. When next the sun his rising light displays, And gilds the world below with purple rays. MR. DRYDEN. On his head you see the rays that seem to grow out of it. Claudian, in the description of his infant Titan, descants on this glory about his head, but has run his description into most wretched fustian. Invalidum portat Titana lacerto, Nondum luce gravem, nec pubescentibus altè CLAUD. DE RAPT. PROS, lib. 2. An infant Titan held she in her arms; Yet sufferably bright, the eye might bear The ungrown glories of his beamy hair. Mild was the babe, and from his cries there came A gentle breathing and a harmless flame. b The sun rises on a medal of Commodus, as Ovid describes him in the story of Phaeton. |