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the fertile earth and the sea enjoy undisturbed peace. Be thou, O Quirinus, propitious to thy senators, and to thy people, and by thy nod of approbation unlock the white temples.46 A favourable day is dawning, be ye propitious both in your language and in your feelings; now on the auspicious day must auspicious language be used. Let our ears be relieved from strife, and forthwith let maddening discords be far away; and thou envious tongue, postpone thy occupation. Do you perceive how the sky is gleaming with the perfume-bearing fires, and how the Cilician ear49 is crackling 50 on the kindled hearths? The flame with its brightness irradiates the gold of the temples, and diffuses its tremulous beam throughout the highest part of the building. With unpolluted garments they go to the Tarpeian Tiberius and Germanicus. He may perhaps allude to the victory of Germanicus over the Catti, Cherusci and other German tribes, A. U. C. 770.

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45 O Quirinus.]-Ver. 69. The reading is 'Quirini;' but I have adopted Gierig's suggestion, 'Quirine.' The poet is addressing Janus, one of whose names was Quirinus, and would not ask him to be propitious to his own people.' Romulus also was called Quirinus, but it does not seem likely that allusion is here made to him.

46 White temples.]-Ver. 70. Either white, as being built of marble, or whitened in appearance by the new white clothes of the worshippers. The temple of Janus only remained open during war; but the poet must not be understood as wishing it to be opened for that reason; but only that the gates of all the temples being open for sacrifice, the gate of that too might be opened for such a purpose. The Roman doors were fastened with a chain, at the end of which the 'sera,' or bolt, was fixed. When the door was shut the bolt was fastened in the door-post; when open it was drawn back.

47 In your language.]—Ver. 71. Favete linguis,' be propitious in your language,' was an usual injunction at sacrifices, as a word of ill omen spoken during their celebration on the calends of January, was considered to have an influence on the whole year.

48 Perfume-bearing fires.]—Ver. 75. Frankincense, cinnamon, saffron, and cassia, used to be thrown on the altars during the time of sacrifice. 49 The Cilician ear.]-Ver. 76. 'Spica Cilissa' means the filaments of saffron from Mount Corycus, in Cilicia.

50 Is crackling.]-Ver. 76. When the saffron was good, according to Pliny the Elder, it crackled while burning. Probably from this, as from the crackling of laurel (which was frequently burnt for the purpose), omens were derived

51 They go.]-Ver 79. On the calends of January the new consuls, accompanied by the senate and the people, went in procession to the Capitolium, to solicit the protection of Jupiter for the state.

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heights,52 and the people itself harmonizes by the colour of its dress with the festival. And now the new fasces 53 precede, the new purple glistens, and the much distinguished chair of ivory is sensible of new weights. The steers unacquainted with toil, which the Faliscan herbage has fed on its own fields, offer their necks to the blow. Jupiter, when he looks from his height over the whole earth, has nothing which he can behold but that which is under Roman sway. Hail! joyous day, and ever return more happy, worthy to be honoured by a people all-powerful throughout the world. But, O Janus, thou of the double form, what kind of deity shall I pronounce thee to be? for Greece has no divinity corresponding to thee.57 Do thou, at the same time, declare the reason why thou alone of all the inhabitants of heaven lookest

52 The Tarpeian heights.]—Ver. 79. The capitolian hill, on which the Capitol, or temple of Jupiter, was erected, was originally called 'Saturnius,' in honour of Saturn. It was afterwards called 'Tarpeius,' from the vestal virgin Tarpeia, whose fate is narrated below, line 261, and was the quarter allotted to the Sabines after they were incorporated with the people. The 'arx,' properly speaking, was the highest of the Roman hills, and the inferior part of the declivity was the 'Capitolium,' or 'mons Tarpeius.' The latter name was more especially applied to a steep rock on one side, whence criminals were thrown.

53 The new fasces.']—Ver. 81. The 'fasces' were a bundle of rods tied together, with an axe inserted in the middle. They were borne by the lictors, as the insignia of the consular dignity.

54 The new purple.]-Ver. 81. The 'prætexta,' or consular robe.

55 Chair of ivory.]-Ver. 82. The 'sella curulis,' was a seat inlaid with ivory, and at first used only by the kings, but afterwards by the consuls, prætors, censors, and the higher ædiles, when employed in their official capacity. These officers were from this circumstance named 'curule.' The name of the chair was perhaps derived from its being carried on the 'currus,' or 'chariot,' to be at hand when required by the officer in his official capacity, either in the senate-house, or at the tribunal of justice. It was borrowed from the Tuscans, and was in the form of the letter X, for the convenience of folding up.

56 Offer.]-Ver. 83. As though of their own accord; for if the victim struggled, it was not considered to be an appropriate offering to the god. The Falisci were a people of Etruria: the fertility of the soil rendered their pastures greatly esteemed, and victims for sacrifice were sought from their fields. Their country was also famous for a stream which imparted extreme whiteness to the oxen that drank of it.

Janus was probably
If so, we must only

57 No divinity corresponding to thee.]-Ver. 90. the same deity as 'Dianus,' who represented the sun. understand by this, that the Greeks had no god corresponding to him in form and attributes.

upon 58 that which is behind thee, and that which is before thee at the same time. While I was revolving these things in my mind, my tablets being taken in hand, the house seemed to be brighter than it was before. Then the divine Janus, wondrous with his double form, suddenly presented his two-fold features to my eyes. I was struck with amazement, and felt my hair stiffen with terror, and my breast was frozen with a sudden chill. He, holding in his right hand a staff, and in his left a key," uttered these accents to me from the mouth of his front face, "Having laid aside thy terror, thou poet, labouring at the history of the days, learn what thou dost ask, and in thy mind understand my words. The ancients (for I am a being of the olden time) called me Chaos behold, of how remote a period I shall sing the transactions. This air, full of light, and the other three elementary bodies which remain, fire, the waters, and the earth, were one confused heap. When once this mass was broken up by the discord of its component parts, and, dissolving, passed away into new abodes, flame soared on high, the nearer place received the air, and the earth and sea settled in a middle position. Then I, who had been but a 58 Thou lookest upon, &c.]-Ver. 92, 93. Gower translates these lines 'Rehearse the reason why thou hast such odds, Of looking both ways more than all the gods.'

59 My tablets.]-Ver. 93. of wood, usually of an oblong

The 'tabulæ,' or 'tabellæ,' were thin pieces shape, covered over with wax, upon which the ancients wrote with the stylus,' or 'pen' of steel.

60 In his left a key.]-Ver. 99. The staff and key were the usual badges of office of the janitores,' or porters, among the Romans. Massey thus renders these lines

In his right hand a long battoon I see,

And in his left he grasps a pond'rous key.'

61 Called me Chaos.]-Ver. 103. The name Chaos is derived either from xáw, to gape,' or xów, 'to pour.' By it was signified that confused heap of matter which the ancients in general believed to have existed from all eternity. Ovid, Metam. book i. ver. 6, 7, says,

6 Unus erat toto naturæ vultus in orbe

Quem dixere Chaos: rudis indigestaque moles.'

'There was but one aspect of nature throughout the whole world, which they called chaos: an unwrought and crude mass.' This, in their idea, the supreme power reduced to the state of order and harmony which prevails in the visible world.

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mass and bulk without form, passed into a shape and limbs befitting a god. And even now, in me that part which is before, and that which is behind, appears to be the same, a slight mark of my former shapeless figure. Hear, too, what is another cause of the form thus inquired after by thee, that thou mayest at the same time learn this and my office. Whatever thou beholdest around thee, the sky, the sea, the air, the earth, all these have been shut up and are opened by my hand. In my power alone is the guardianship of the vast universe, and the prerogative of turning the hinge is entirely my own. When it has been my pleasure to send forth Peace from her tranquil habitation, then at liberty she treads her paths unobstructed by the restraints of war. The whole world would be thrown into confusion in deadly bloodshed, did not my rigid bolts confine imprisoned warfare. Together with the gentle seasons" I preside over the portals of Heaven; through my agency Jupiter himself doth pass65 and repass. Thence am I called Janus, to whom, when the priest lays on the altar the offering cake

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62 The air.]-Ver. 117. Nubila' generally means 'clouds,' 'mist,' 'cloudy sky.' Here, however, it means the 'air,' or 'æther.'

63 To send forth Peace.]-Ver. 121. He here personifies Peace and War, and represents them as committed to the custody of Janus. Some have supposed that the story of Janus is the corruption of a tradition that an Italian chief named Janus constructed doors and locks for the protection of the person and of property, and that from him doors received the name of 'januæ.'

64 The gentle seasons.]—Ver. 125. The seasons,' or 'hours,' are mentioned by Hesiod, Theog. 903, as three goddesses, the daughters of Jupiter or Zeus, and Themis. He calls them Eunomia (good order), Diké (justice), and Eiréne (peace), and represents them as watching over the affairs of men. They appear to have been originally considered as the presidents of the three seasons, into which the ancient Greeks divided the year. The day being similarly divided, they were regarded as presiding over its parts also; and, when it was afterwards divided into hours, these also were placed under their charge, and named from them. They presided over law, peace, and justice, and were the guardians of order and harmony among mankind.

65 Jupiter himself doth pass.]-Ver. 126. It has been suggested, and with some probability, that allusion is here made to the etymology of his name, as Cicero derives the name 'Janus, or 'Eanus,' from Eundo,' the act of going or passing.-De Nat. Deor. Book 2.

66 Thence am I called Janus.]-Ver. 127. Either from the root mentioned in the last note, or from 'janua,' a 'door' or 'gate.'

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of bread corn 67 and the spelt mixed with salt,-(thou wilt smile at my epithets,) for I, the same deity, am at one time called Patulcius, 6s and at another time Clusius,69 by the lips of the sacrificer. In good truth, that rude antiquity wished by the changes of my name to express my different duties. My power has now been related. Next learn the reason of my shape, although thou already perceivest it, in some degree, at least, from what I have already said. Every gate has two fronts, one on either side, of which the one looks out upon the people, but the other looks inward upon the household shrine;70 and as the gate-keeper among you mortals, sitting near the threshold of the front of the building, sees both the goings out and the comings in, so do I, the door-keeper of the vestibule of heaven, at the same time look forth upon the regions of the east and the west." Thou seeest the faces of Hecate" turned in three directions, that

67 Cake of bread corn.]-Ver. 127, 128. Libum Cereale.' Literally, the cake pertaining to Ceres.' Ceres was the goddess of corn and husbandry, the daughter of Saturn and Ops, and the sister of Jupiter. She was especially worshipped in Sicily, and at Eleusis, in Attica, where the Eleusianian mysteries were celebrated. The libum,' or cake, here mentioned, was of a peculiar kind, offered exclusively to Janus, and thence called Janual.' The spelt, mixed with salt, was coarsely ground, and then strewed over the victim.

68 Patulcius.]-Ver. 129. From the verb 'pateo, patere,' 'to lie

open.'

69 At another time Clusius.]-Ver. 130. From the verb claudo, claudere, clausus,' to shut.'

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70 The household shrine.]-Ver. 136. Literally the lar,' or, (the plural being denoted by the singular), the lares.' It may either mean literally the spot in the house where the 'lar,' or household god,' stood; or, figuratively, the family,' as opposed to the populus,' the people, outside. These little idols were kept near the hearth, and in the lararium' (here probably referred to,) which was a recess formed for that purpose, and in which prayers were offered up by the Romans on rising in the morning. 71 East and the west.]-Ver. 140. Eoas partes Hesperiasque.' Literally the parts pertaining to the eastern star and the western star.'

72 The faces of Hecate.]-Ver. 141. This goddess, who was the patroness of magic, is sometimes confounded with Diana. She was invoked as potent to avert evil, and was regarded as a beneficent deity. Her triple statues were set up before houses and in places where three ways met; hence the name Trivia,' one of her titles. This office was conferred on her by reason of a tradition, that when an infant she was exposed by her mother at such a spot. According to Hesiod, in his Theogony, she was the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe.