mail:
Bill Thayer |
Ἑλληνική |
Français |
Italiano |
Help |
Up |
Home |
|||
|
9 1 This city, mistress of the whole earth and sea, which the Romans now inhabit, is said to have had as its earliest occupants the barbarian Sicels, a native race. As to the condition of the place before their time, whether it was occupied by others or uninhabited, none can certainly say. But some time later the Aborigines gained possession of it, having taken it from the occupants after a long war. 2 These people had previously lived on the mountains in unwalled villages and scattered groups; but when the Pelasgians,23 with whom some other Greeks had united, assisted them in the war against their neighbours, they drove the Sicels out of this place, walled in many towns, and contrived to subjugate all the country that lies between the two rivers, the Liris and the Tiber. These rivers spring from the foot of the Apennine mountains, the range by which all Italy is divided into two parts throughout its length, and at points about eight hundred stades from one another discharge themselves into the Tyrrhenian Sea, the Tiber to the north, near the city of Ostia, and the Liris to the south, as it flows by Minturnae, both these cities being Roman colonies. 3 And these people remained in this same place of abode, both never afterwards driven out by any others; but, although they continued to be one and the same people, their name was twice changed. Till the time of the Trojan war they preserved their ancient name p31 of Aborigines; but under Latinus, their king, who reigned at the time of that war, they began to be called Latins, 4 and when Romulus founded the city named after himself sixteen generations after the taking of Troy, they took the name which they now bear. And in the course of time they contrived to raise themselves from the smallest nation to the greatest and from the most obscure to the most illustrious, not only by their humane reception of those who sought a home among them, but also by sharing the rights of citizenship with all who had been conquered by them in war after a brave resistance, by permitting all the slaves, too, who were manumitted among them to become citizens, and by disdaining no condition of men from whom the commonwealth might reap an advantage, but above everything else by their form of government, which they fashioned out of their many experiences, always extracting something useful from every occasion.
10 1 There are some who affirm that the Aborigines, from whom the Romans are originally descended, were natives of Italy, a stock which came into being spontaneously24 (I call Italy all that peninsula which is bounded by the Ionian Gulf25 and the Tyrrhenian Sea and, thirdly, by the Alps on the landward side); and these authors say that they were first called Aborigines because they were the founders of the p33 families of their descendants, or, as we should call them, genearchai or prôtogonoi.26 2 Others claim that certain vagabonds without house or home, coming together out of many places, met one another there by chance and took up their abode in the fastnesses, living by robbery and grazing their herds. And these writers change their name, also, to one more suitable to their condition, calling them Aberrigenes,27 to show that they were wanderers; indeed, according to these, the race of the Aborigines would seem to be no different from those the ancients called Leleges; for this is the name they generally gave to the homeless and mixed peoples who had no fixed abode which they could call their country.28 3 Still others have a story to the effect that they were colonists sent out by those Ligurians who are neighbours of the Umbrians. For the Ligurians inhabit not only many parts of Italy but some parts of Gaul as well, but which of these lands is their native country is not known, since nothing certain is said of them further.
11 1 But the most learned of the Roman historians, among whom is Porcius Cato, who compiled with the greatest care the "origins"29 of the Italian cities, p35 Gaius Sempronius30 and a great many others, say that they were Greeks, part of those who once dwelt in Achaia, and that they migrated many generations before the Trojan war. But they do not go on to indicate either the Greek tribe to which they belonged or the city from which they removed, or the date or the leader of the colony, or as the result of what turns of fortune they left their mother country; and although they are following a Greek legend, they have cited no Greek historian as their authority. It is uncertain, therefore, what the truth of the matter is. But if what they say is true, the Aborigines can be a colony of no other people but of those who are now called Arcadians; 2 for these were the first of all the Greeks to cross the Ionian Gulf, under the leadership of Oenotrus, the son of Lycaon, and to settle in Italy. This Oenotrus was the fifth from Aezeius and Phoroneus, who were the first kings in the Peloponnesus. For Niobê was the daughter of Phoroneus, and Pelasgus was the son of Niobê and Zeus, it is said; Lycaon was the son of Aezeius and Deïanira was the daughter of Lycaon; Deïanira and Pelasgus were the parents of another Lycaon, whose son Oenotrus was born seventeen generations before the Trojan expedition. This, then, was the time when the Greeks sent the colony into Italy. 3 Oenotrus left Greece because he was dissatisfied with his portion of his father's land; for, as Lycaon had twenty-two sons, it was necessary to divide Arcadia into as many shares. For this reason Oenotrus left the Peloponnesus, p37 prepared a fleet, and crossed the Ionian Gulf with Peucetius, one of his brothers. They were accompanied by many of their own people — for this nation is said to have been very populous in early times — and by as many other Greeks as had less land than was sufficient for them. 4 Peucetius landed his people above the Iapygian Promontory, which was the first part of Italy they made, and settled there; and from him the inhabitants of this region were called Peucetians. But Oenotrus with the greater part of the expedition came into the other sea that washes the western regions along the coast of Italy; it was then called the Ausonian Sea, from the Ausonians who dwelt beside it, but after the Tyrrhenians became masters at sea its name was changed to that which it now bears.
12 1 And finding there much land suitable for pasturage and much for tillage, but for the most part unoccupied, and even that which was inhabited not thickly populated, he cleared some of it of the barbarians and built small towns contiguous to one another on the mountains, which was the customary manner of habitation in use among the ancients. And all the land he occupied, which was very extensive, was called Oenotria, and all the people under his command Oenotrians, which was the third name they had borne. For in the reign of Aezeius they were called Aezeians, when Lycaon succeeded to the rule, Lycaonians, and after Oenotrus p39 led them into Italy they were for a while called Oenotrians. 2 What I say is supported by the testimony of Sophocles, the tragic poet, in his drama entitled Triptolemus; for he there represents Demeter as informing Triptolemus how large a tract of land he would have to travel over while sowing it with the seeds she had given him. For, after first referring to the eastern part of Italy, which reaches from the Iapygian Promontory to the Sicilian Strait, and then touching upon Sicily on the opposite side, she returns again to the western part of Italy and enumerates the most important nations that inhabit this coast, beginning with the settlement of the Oenotrians. But it is enough to quote merely the iambics in which he says:
"And after this, — first, then, upon the right, Oenotria wide-outstretched and Tyrrhene Gulf, And next the Ligurian land shall welcome thee."31 |
3 And Antiochus of Syracuse,32 a very early historian, in his account of the settlement of Italy, when enumerating the most ancient inhabitants in the order in which each of them held possession of any part of it, says that the first who are reported to have inhabited that country are the Oenotrians. His words are these: "Antiochus, the son of Xenophanes, wrote this account of Italy, which comprises all that is most credible and certain out of p41 the ancient tales; this country, which is now called Italy, was formerly possessed by the Oenotrians." Then he relates in what manner they were governed and says that in the course of time Italus came to be their king, after whom they were named Italians; that this man was succeeded by Morges, after whom they were called Morgetes, and that Sicelus, being received as a guest by Morges and setting up a kingdom for himself, divided the nation. After which he adds these words: "Thus those who had been Oenotrians became Sicels, Morgetes and Italians."
13 1 Now let me also show the origin of the Oenotrian race, offering as my witness another of the early historians, Pherecydes of Athens,33 who was a genealogist inferior to none. He thus expresses himself concerning the kings of Arcadia: "Of Pelasgus and Deïanira was born Lycaon; this man married Cyllenê, a Naiad nymph, after whom Mount Cyllenê is named." Then, having given an account of their children and of the places each of them inhabited, he mentions Oenotrus and Peucetius, in these words: "And Oenotrus, after whom are named the Oenotrians who live in Italy, and Peucetius, after whom are named the Peucetians who live on the Ionian Gulf." 2 Such, then, are the accounts given by the ancient poets and writers of legends concerning the places of abode and the origin of the Oenotrians; and on their authority p43 I assume that if the Aborigines were in reality a Greek nation, according to the opinion of Cato, Sempronius and many others, they were descendants of these Oenotrians. For I find that the Pelasgians and Cretans and the other nations that lived in Italy came thither afterwards; nor can I discover that any other expedition more ancient than this came from Greece to the western parts of Europe. 3 I am of the opinion that the Oenotrians, besides making themselves masters of many other regions in Italy, some of which they found unoccupied and others but thinly inhabited, also seized a portion of the country of the Umbrians, and that they were called Aborigines from their dwelling on the mountains34 (for it is characteristic of the Arcadians to be fond of the mountains), in the same manner as at Athens some are called Hyperakriori,35 and others Paralioi.36 4 But if any are naturally slow in giving credit to accounts of ancient matters without due examination, let them be slow also in believing the Aborigines to be Ligurians, Umbrians, or any other barbarians, and let them suspend their judgment till they have heard what remains to be told and then determine which opinion out of all is the most probable.
14 1 Of the cities first inhabited by the Aborigines few remained in my day; the greatest part of them, having been laid waste both by wars and other calamities, are abandoned. These cities were in the Reatine territory, not far from the Apennine p45 mountains, as Terentius Varro writes in his Antiquities,37 the nearest being one day's journey distant from Rome. I shall enumerate the most celebrated of them, following his account. 2 Palatium, twenty-five stades distant from Reate (a city that was still inhabited by Romans down to my time),38 near the Quintian Way.39 Tribula, about sixty stades from Reate and standing upon a low hill. Suesbula, at the same distance from Tribula, near the Ceraunian Mountains. Suna, a famous city forty stades from Suesbula; in it there is a very ancient temple of Mars. 3 Mefula, about thirty stades from Suna; its ruins and traces of its walls are pointed out. Orvinium, forty stades from Mefula, a city as famous and large as any in that region; for the foundations of its walls are still to be seen and some tombs of venerable antiquity, as well as the circuits of burying-places40 extending over lofty mounds; and p47 there is also an ancient temple of Minerva built on the summit.
4 At the distance of eighty stades from Reate, as one goes along the Curian Way41 past Mount Coretus, stood Corsula, a town but recently destroyed. There is also pointed out an island, called Issa, surrounded by a lake; the Aborigines are said to have lived on this island without any artificial fortification, relying on the marshy waters of the lake instead of walls. Near Issa is Maruvium, situated on an arm of the same lake and distant forty stades from what they call the Septem Aquae.
5 Again, as one goes from Reate by the road towards the Listine district,42 there is Batia,43 thirty stades distant; then Tiora, called Matiene, at a distance of p49 three hundred stades. In this city, they say, there was a very ancient oracle of Mars, the nature of which was similar to that of the oracle which legend says once existed at Dodona; only there a pigeon was said to prophesy, sitting on a sacred oak,44 whereas among the Aborigines a heaven-sent bird, which they call picus and the Greeks dryokolaptês,45 appearing on a pillar of wood, did the same. 6 Twenty-four stades from the afore-mentioned city46 stood Lista, the mother-city of the Aborigines, which at a still earlier time the Sabines had captured by a surprise attack, having set out against it from Amiternum by night. Those who survived the taking of the place, after being received by the Reatines, made many attempts to retake their former home, but being unable to do so, they consecrated the country to the gods, as if it were still their own, invoking curses against those who should enjoy the fruits of it.
15 1 Seventy stades from Reate stood Cutilia,47 a famous city, beside a mountain. Not far from it there is a lake, four hundred feet in diameter, filled by everflowing natural springs and, it is said, bottomless. This lake, as having something divine about p51 it, the inhabitants of the country look upon as sacred to Victory; and surrounding it with a palisade, so that no one may approach the water, they keep it inviolate; except that at certain times each year those whose sacred office it is go to the little island in the lake and perform the sacrifices required by custom. 2 This island is about fifty feet in diameter and rises not more than a foot above the water; it is not fixed, and floats about in any direction, according to as the wind gently wafts it from one place to another. An herb grows on the island like the flowering rush and also certain small shrubs, a phenomenon which to those who are unacquainted with the works of Nature seems unaccountable and a marvel second to none.48
16 1 The Aborigines are said to have settled first in these places after they had driven out the Umbrians. And making excursions from there, they warred not only upon the barbarians in general but particularly upon the Sicels, their neighbours, in order to dispossess them of their lands. First, a sacred band of young men went forth, consisting of a few who were sent out by their parents to seek a livelihood, according to a custom which I know many barbarians and Greeks have followed.49 2 For whenever the population of any of their cities increased to such a degree that the produce of their p53 lands no longer sufficed for them all, or the earth, injured by unseasonable changes of the weather, brought forth her fruits in less abundance than usual, or any other occurrence of like nature, either good or bad, introduced a necessity of lessening their numbers, they would dedicate to some god or other all the men born within a certain year, and providing them with arms, would send them out of their country. If, indeed, this was done by way of thanksgiving for populousness or for victory in war, they would first offer the usual sacrifices and then send forth their colonies under happy auspices; but if, having incurred the wrath of Heaven, they were seeking deliverance from the evils that beset them, they would perform much the same ceremony, but sorrowfully and begging forgiveness of the youths they were sending away. 3 And those who departed, feeling that henceforth they would have no share in the land of their fathers but must acquire another, looked upon any land that received them in friendship or that they conquered in war as their country. And the god to whom they had been dedicated when they were sent out seemed generally to assist them and to prosper the colonies beyond all human expectation. 4 In pursuance, therefore, of this custom some of the Aborigines also at that time, as their places were growing very populous (for they would not put any of their children to death, looking on this as one of the greatest of crimes), dedicated to some god or other the offspring of a certain year and when these children were grown to be men they sent them out of their country as colonists; and they, after leaving their own land, were p55 continually plundering the Sicels. 5 And as soon as they became masters of any places in the enemy's country the rest of the Aborigines, also, who needed lands now attacked each of them their neighbours with greater security and built various cities, some of which are inhabited to this day — Antemnae, Tellenae, Ficulea, which is near the Corniculan mountains, as they are called, and Tibur, where a quarter of the city is even to this day called the Sicel quarter;50 and of all their neighbours they harassed the Sicels most. From these quarrels there arose a general war between the nations more important than any that had occurred previously in Italy, and it went on extending over a long period of time.
17 1 Afterwards some of the Pelasgians who inhabited Thessaly, as it is now called, being obliged to leave their country, settled among the Aborigines and jointly with them made war upon the Sicels. It is possible that the Aborigines received them partly in the hope of gaining their assistance, but I believe it was chiefly on account of their kinship; 2 for the Pelasgians, too, were a Greek nation originally from the Peloponnesus. They were unfortunate in many ways but particularly in wandering much and in having no fixed abode. For they first lived in the neighbourhood of the Achaean Argos, as it is now called, being natives of the country, according to most accounts. They received their name originally from Pelasgus, their king. 3 Pelasgus was the p57 son of Zeus, it is said, and of Niobê the daughter of Phoroneus, who, as the legend goes, was the first mortal woman Zeus had knowledge of. In the sixth generation afterwards, leaving the Peloponnesus, they removed to the country which was then called Haemonia and now Thessaly. The leaders of the colony were Achaeus, Phthius and Pelasgus, the sons of Larisa and Poseidon. When they arrived in Haemonia they drove out the barbarian inhabitants and divided the country into three parts, calling them, after the names of their leaders, Phthiotis, Achaia and Pelasgiotis. After they had remained there five generations, during which they attained to the greatest prosperity while enjoying the produce of the most fertile plains in Thessaly, about the sixth generation they were driven out of it by the Curetes and Leleges, who are now called Aetolians and Locrians, and by many others who lived near Parnassus, their enemies being commanded by Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and Clymenê, the daughter of Oceanus.
18 1 And dispersing themselves in their flight, some went to Crete, others occupied some of the islands called the Cyclades, some settled in the region called Hestiaeotis near Olympus and Ossa, others crossed into Boeotia, Phocis and Euboea; and some, passing over into Asia, occupied many places on the coast along the Hellespont and many of the adjacent islands, particularly the one now called Lesbos, uniting with those who composed the first colony that was sent thither from Greece under p59 Macar, the son of Crinacus.51 2 But the greater part of them, turning inland, took refuge among the inhabitants of Dodona, their kinsmen, against whom, as a sacred people, none would make war; and there they remained for a reasonable time. But when they perceived they were growing burdensome to their hosts, since the land could not support them all, they left it in obedience to an oracle that commanded them to sail to Italy, which was then called Saturnia. 3 And having prepared a great many ships they set out to cross the Ionian Gulf, endeavouring to reach the nearest parts of Italy. But as the wind was in the south and they were unacquainted with those regions, they were carried too far out to sea and landed at one of the mouths of the Po called the Spinetic mouth. In that very place they left their ships and such of their people as were least able to bear hardships, placing a guard over the ships, to the end that, if their affairs did not prosper, they might be sure of a retreat. 4 Those who were left behind there surrounded their camp with a wall and brought in plenty of provisions in their ships; and when their affairs seemed to prosper satisfactorily, they built a city and called it by the same name as the mouth of the river.52 These people attained to a greater degree of prosperity than any others who dwelt on the Ionian Gulf; for they had the mastery at sea for a long time, and p61 out of their revenues from the sea they used to send tithes to the god at Delphi, which were among the most magnificent sent by any people. 5 But later, when the barbarians in the neighbourhood made war upon them in great numbers, they deserted the city; and these barbarians in the course of time were driven out by the Romans. So perished that part of the Pelasgians that was left at Spina.
19 1 Those, however, who had turned inland crossed the mountainous part of Italy and came to the territory of the Umbrians who were neighbours to the Aborigines. (The Umbrians inhabited a great many other part of Italy also and were an exceeding great and ancient people.) At first the Pelasgians made themselves masters of the lands where they first settled and took some of the small towns belonging to the Umbrians. But when a great army came together against them, they were terrified at the number of their enemies and betook themselves to the country of the Aborigines. 2 And these, seeing fit to treat them as enemies, made haste to assemble out of the places nearest at hand, in order to drive them out of the country. But the Pelasgians luckily chanced to be encamped at that time near Cutilia, a city of the Aborigines hard by the sacred lake, and observing the little island circling round in it and learning from the captives they had taken in the fields the name of the inhabitants, they concluded that their oracle was now fulfilled. p63 3 For this oracle, which had been delivered to them in Dodona and which Lucius Mallius,53 no obscure man, says he himself saw engraved in ancient characters upon one of the tripods standing in the precinct of Zeus, was as follows:
20 1 When, therefore, the Aborigines advanced with a numerous army, the Pelasgians approached unarmed with olive branches in their hands, and telling them of their own fortunes, begged that they would receive them in a friendly manner to dwell with them, assuring them that they would not be troublesome, since Heaven itself was guiding them into this one particular country according to the oracle, which they explained to them. 2 When the Aborigines heard this, they resolved to obey the oracle and to gain these Greeks as allies against their barbarian enemies, for they were hard pressed by their war with the Sicels. They accordingly made a treaty with the Pelasgians and assigned to them p65 some of their own lands that lay near the sacred lake; the greater part of these were marshy and are still called Velia, in accordance with the ancient form of their language. 3 For it was the custom of the ancient Greeks generally to place before those words that began with a vowel the syllable ου, written with one letter (this was like a gamma, formed by two oblique lines joined to one upright line), as ϝελένη, ϝάναξ, ϝοῖκος, ϝέαρ and many such words.56 4 Afterwards, a considerable part of the Pelasgians, as the land was not sufficient to support them all, prevailed on the Aborigines to join them in an expedition against the Umbrians, and marching forth, they suddenly fell upon and captured Croton, a rich and large city of theirs. And using this place as a stronghold and fortress against the Umbrians, since it was sufficiently fortified as a place of defence in time of war and had fertile pastures lying round it, they made themselves masters also of a great many other places and with great zeal assisted the Aborigines in the war they were still engaged in against the Sicels, till they drove them out of their country. 5 And the Pelasgians in common with the Aborigines settled many cities, some of which had been previously inhabited by the Sicels and others which they built themselves; among these are Caere, then called Agylla, and Pisae, Saturnia, p67 Alsium and some others, of which they were in the course of time dispossessed by the Tyrrhenians.
21 1 But Falerii and Fescennium were even down to my day inhabited by Romans and preserved some small remains of the Pelasgian nation, though they had earlier belonged to the Sicels. In these cities there survived for a very long time many of the ancient customs formerly in use among the Greeks, such as the fashion of their arms of war, like Argolic bucklers and spears; and whenever they sent out an army beyond their borders, either to begin a war or to resist an invasion, certain holy men, unarmed, went ahead of the rest bearing the terms of peace;57 similar, also, were the structure of their temples, the images of their gods, their purifications and sacrifices and many other things of that nature. 2 But the most conspicuous monument which shows that those people who drove out the Sicels once lived at Argos in the temple of Juno at Falerii, built in the same fashion as the one at Argos; here, too, the manner of the sacrificial ceremonies was similar, holy women served the sacred precinct, and an unmarried girl, called the canephorus or "basket-bearer," performed the initial rites of the sacrifices, and there were choruses of virgins who praised the goddess in the songs of their country. 3 These people also possessed themselves of no inconsiderable part of the Campanian plains, as they are called, which afford not only very fertile pasturage but most pleasing prospects as well, having driven the Auronissi,58 a barbarous p69 nation, out of part of them. There they built various other cities and also Larisa, encamp they named after their mother-city in the Peloponnesus. 4 Some of these cities were standing even to my day, having often changed their inhabitants. But Larisa has been long deserted and shows to the people of to‑day no other sign of its ever having been inhabited but its name,59 and even this is not generally known. It was not far from the place called Forum Popilii.60 They also occupied a great many other places, both on the coast and in the interior, which they had taken from the Sicels.
22 1 The Sicels, being warred upon by both the Pelasgians and the Aborigines, found themselves incapable of making resistance any longer, and so, taking with them their wives and children and such of their possessions as were any other gold or silver, they abandoned all their country to these foes. Then, turning their course southward through the mountains, they proceeded through all the lower part of Italy, and being driven away from every place, they at last prepared rafts at the Strait and, watching for a downward current, passed over from Italy to the adjacent island. 2 It was then occupied by the Sicanians, an Iberian nation, who, fleeing from the Ligurians, had but lately settled there and had caused the island, previously named Trinacria, from its p71 triangular shape, to be called Sicania, after themselves. There were very few inhabitants in it for so large an island, and the greater part of it was as yet unoccupied. Accordingly, when the Sicels landed there they first settled in the western parts and afterwards in several others; and from these people the island began to be called Sicily. 3 In this manner the Sicel nation left Italy, according to Hellanicus of Lesbos,61 in the third generation before the Trojan war, and in the twenty-sixth year of the priesthood of Alcyonê at Argos.62 But he says that two Italian expeditions passed over into Sicily, the first consisting of the Elymians, who had been driven out of their country by the Oenotrians, and the second, five years later, of the Ausonians, who fled from the Iapygians. As king of the latter group he names Sicelus, from whom both the people and the island got their name. 4 But according to Philistus of Syracuse63 the date of the crossing was the eightieth year before the Trojan war64 and the people who passed over from Italy were neither Ausonians nor Elymians, but Ligurians, whose p73 leader was Sicelus; this Sicelus, he says, was the son of Italus and in his reign the people were called Sicels, 5 and he adds that these Ligurians had been driven out of their country by the Umbrians and Pelasgians. Antiochus of Syracuse65 does not give the date of the crossing, but says the people who migrated were the Sicels, who had been forced to leave by the Oenotrians and Opicans, and that they chose Straton66 as leader of the colony. But Thucydides writes67 that the people who left Italy were the Sicels and those who drove them out the Opicans, and that the date was many years after the Trojan war. Such, then, are the reports given by credible authorities concerning the Sicels who changed their abode from Italy to Sicily.
23 1 The Pelasgians, after conquering a large and fertile region, taking over many towns and building others, made great and rapid progress, becoming populous, rich and in every way prosperous. Nevertheless, they did not long enjoy their prosperity, but at the moment when they seemed to all the world to be in the most flourishing condition they were visited by divine wrath, and some of them were destroyed by calamities inflicted by the hand of Heaven, others by their barbarian neighbours; but the greatest part of them were again dispersed through Greece and the country of the barbarians (concerning whom, if I attempted to give a particular account, it would make a very p75 long story), though some few of them remained in Italy through the care of the Aborigines. 2 The first cause of the desolation of their cities seemed to be a drought which laid waste the land, when neither any fruit remained on the trees till it was ripe, but dropped while still green, nor did such of the seed cornº as sent up shoots and flowered stand for the usual period till the ear was ripe, nor did sufficient grass grow for the cattle; and of the waters some were no longer fit to drink, others shrank during the summer, and others were totally dried up. 3 And like misfortunes attended the offspring both of cattle and of women.68 For they were either abortive or died at birth, some by their death destroying also those that bore them; and if any got safely past the danger of the delivery, they were either maimed or defective or, being injured by some other accident, were not fit to be reared. The rest of the people, also, particularly those in the prime of life, were afflicted with many unusual diseases and uncommon deaths. 4 But when they asked the oracle what god or divinity they had offended to be thus afflicted and by what means they might hope for relief, the god replied that, although they had obtained what they desired, they had neglected to pay what they had promised, and that the things of greatest value were still due from them. 5 For the Pelasgians in a time of general scarcity in the land had vowed to offer69 to Jupiter, Apollo and the p77 Cabeiri tithes of all their future increase; but when their prayer had been answered, they set apart and offered to the gods the promised portion of all their fruits and cattle only, as if their vow had related to them alone. This is the account related by Myrsilus of Lesbos,70 who uses almost the same words as I do now, except that he does not call the people Pelasgians, but Tyrrhenians, of which I shall give the reason a little later.71
24 1 When they heard the oracle which was brought to them, they were at a loss to guess the meaning of the message. While they were in this perplexity, one of the elders, conjecturing the sense of the saying, told them they had quite missed its meaning it they thought the gods complained of them without reason. Of material things they had indeed rendered to the gods all the first-fruits in the right and proper manner, but of human offspring, a thing of all others the most precious in the sight of the gods, the promised portion still remained due; if, however, the gods received their just share of this also, the oracle would be satisfied. 2 There were, indeed, some who thought that he spoke aright, but others felt that there was treachery behind his words. And when some one proposed to ask the god whether it was acceptable to him to receive tithes of human beings, they sent their messengers a second time, and the god ordered them so to do.72 p79 Thereupon strife arose among them concerning the manner of choosing the tithes, and those who had the government of the cities first quarrelled among themselves 3 and afterwards the rest of the people held their magistrates in suspicion. And there began to be disorderly emigrations, such as might well be expected from a people driven forth by a frenzy and madness inflicted by the hand of Heaven. Many households disappeared entirely when part of their members left; for the relations of those who departed were unwilling to be separated from their dearest friends and remain among their worst enemies. 4 These, therefore, were the first to migrate from Italy and wander about Greece and many parts of the barbarian world; but after them others had the same experience, and this continued every year. For the rulers in these cities ceased not to select the first-fruits of the youth as soon as they arrived at manhood, both because they desired to render what was due to the gods and also because they feared uprisings on the part of lurking enemies. Many, also, under specious p81 pretences were being driven away by their enemies through hatred; so that there were many emigrations and the Pelasgian nation was scattered over most of the earth.
25 1 Not only were the Pelasgians superior to many in warfare, as the result of their training in the midst of dangers while they lived among warlike nations, but they also rose to the highest proficiency in seamanship, by reason of their living with the Tyrrhenians; and Necessity, which is quite sufficient to give daring to those in want of a livelihood, was their leader and director in every dangerous enterprise, so that wherever they went they conquered without difficulty. 2 And the same people were called by the rest of the world both Tyrrhenians and Pelasgians, the former name being from the country out of which they had been driven and the latter in memory of their ancient origin. I mention this so that no one, when he hears poets or historians call the Pelasgians Tyrrhenians also, may wonder how the same people got both these names. 3 Thus, with regard to them, Thucydides has a clear account73 of the Thracian Actê and of the cities situated in it, which are inhabited by men who speak two languages. Concerning the Pelasgian nation these are his words: "There is also a Chalcidian element among them, but the largest element is Pelasgian, p83 belonging to the Tyrrhenians who once inhabited Lemnos and Athens." 4 And Sophocles makes the chorus in his drama Inachus speak the following anapaestic verses:
"O mother-city Inachus, of ocean begot, That sire of all waters, thou rulest with might O'er the Argive fields and Hera's hills And Tyrrhene Pelasgians also."74 |
5 For the name of Tyrrhenia was then known throughout Greece, and all the western part of Italy was called by that name, the several nations of which it was composed having lost their distinctive appellations. The same thing happened to many parts of Greece also, and particularly to that part of it which is now called the Peloponnesus; for it was after one of the nations that inhabited it, namely the Achaean, that the whole peninsula also, in which are comprised the Arcadian, the Ionian and many other nations, was called Achaia.
26 1 The time when the calamities of the Pelasgians began was about the second generation before the Trojan war; and they continued to occur even after that war, till the nation was reduced to very inconsiderable numbers. For, with the exception of Croton, the important city in Umbria,75 and any others that they had founded in the land of the Aborigines, all the rest of the Pelasgian towns were destroyed. But Croton long preserved its ancient form, having only recently changed p85 both its name and in heights; it is now a Roman colony, called Corthonia.76 2 After the Pelasgians left the country their cities were seized by the various peoples which happened to live nearest them in each case, but chiefly by the Tyrrhenians, who made themselves masters of the greatest part and the best of them. As regards these Tyrrhenians, some declare them to be natives of Italy, but others call them foreigners. Those who make them a native race say that their name was given them from the forts, which they were the first of the inhabitants of this country to build; for covered buildings enclosed by walls are called by the Tyrrhenian as well as by the Greeks tyrseis or "towers."77 So they will have it that they received their name from this circumstance in like manner as did the Mossynoeci78 in Asia; for these also live in high wooden palisades resembling towers, which they call mossynes.
27 1 But those who relate a legendary tale about their having come from a foreign land say that Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, gave his name to the nation, and that he was a Lydian by birth, from the district formerly called Maeonia, and migrated in ancient times. They add that he was the fifth in descent from Zeus; for they say that the son of Zeus and Gê was Manes, the first king of that country, and his son by Callirrhoê, the daughter p87 of Oceanus, was Cotys, who by Haliê, the daughter of earth-born Tyllus, had two sons, Asies and Atys, 2 from the latter of whom by Callithea, the daughter of Choraeus, came Lydus and Tyrrhenus. Lydus, they continue, remaining there, inherited his father's kingdom, and from him the country was called Lydia; but Tyrrhenus, who was the leader of the colony, conquered a large portion of Italy and gave his name to those who had taken part in the expedition. 3 Herodotus, however, says79 that Tyrrhenus and his brother were the sons of Atys, the son of Manes, and that the migration of the Maeonians to Italy was not voluntary. For they say that in the reign of Atys there was a dearth in the country of the Maeonians and that the inhabitants, inspired by love of their native land, for a time contrived a great many methods to resist this calamity, one day permitting themselves but a moderate allowance of food and the next day fasting. But, as the mischief continued, they divided the people into two groups and cast lots to determine which should go out of the country and which should stay in it; of the sons of Atys one was assigned to the one group the other to the other. 4 And when the lot fell to that part of the people which was with Lydus to remain in the country, the other group departed after receiving their share of the common possessions; and p89 landing in the western parts of Italy where the Umbrians dwelt, they remained there and built the cities that still existed even in his time.
28 1 I am aware that many other authors also have given this account of the Tyrrhenian race, some in the same terms, and others changing the character of the colony and the date. For some have said that Tyrrhenus was the son of Heracles by Omphalê, the Lydian, and that he, coming into Italy, dispossessed the Pelasgians of their cities, though not of all, but of those only that lay beyond the Tiber toward the north. Others declare that Tyrrhenus was the son of Telephus and that after the taking of Troy he came into Italy. 2 But Xanthus of Lydia,80 who was as well acquainted with ancient history as any man and who may be regarded as an authority second to none on the history of his own country, neither names Tyrrhenus in any part of his history as a ruler of the Lydians nor knows anything of the landing of a colony of Maeonians in Italy; nor does he make the least mention of Tyrrhenia as a Lydian colony, though he takes notice of several things of less importance. He says that Lydus and Torebus were the sons of Atys; that they, having divided the kingdom they had inherited from their father, both remained in Asia, and from them the nations over which they reigned received their names. His words are these: "From Lydus are sprung the Lydians, and from Torebus p91 the Torebians. There is little difference in their language and even now each nation scoffs at many words used by the other,81 even as do the Ionians and Dorians." 3 Hellanicus of Lesbos says that the Tyrrhenians, who were previously called Pelasgians, received their present name after they had settled in Italy. These are his words in the Phoronis:82 "Phrastor was the son of Pelasgus, their king, and Menippê, the daughter of Peneus; his son was Amyntor, Amyntor's son was Teutamides, and the latter's son was Nanas. In his reign the Pelasgians were driven out of their country by the Greeks, and after leaving their ships on the river Spines83 in the Ionian Gulf, they took Croton, an inland city; and proceeding from there, they colonized the country now called Tyrrhenia." 4 But the account Myrsilus gives is the reverse of that given by Hellanicus. The Tyrrhenians, he says,84 after they had left their own country, were in the course of their wanderings called Pelargoi or "Storks," from their resemblance to the birds of that name, since they swarmed in flocks both into Greece and into the barbarian p93 lands; and they built the wall round the citadel of Athens which is called the Pelargic wall.85
29 1 But in my opinion all though take the Tyrrhenians and the Pelasgians to be one and the same nation are mistaken. It is no wonder they were sometimes called by one another's names, since the same thing has happened to certain other nations also, both Greeks and barbarians, — for example, to the Trojans and Phrygians, who lived near each other (indeed, many have thought that those two nations were but one, differing in name only, not in fact). And the nations in Italy have been confused under a common name quite as often as any nations anywhere. 2 For there was a time when the Latins, the Umbrians, the Ausonians and many others were all called Tyrrhenians by the Greeks, the remoteness of the countries inhabited by these nations making their exact distinctions obscure to those who lived at a distance. And many of the historians have taken Rome itself for a Tyrrhenian city. I am persuaded, therefore, that these nations changed their name along with their place of abode, but can not believe that they both had a common origin, for this reason, among many others, that their languages are different and preserve not the least resemblance to one another. 3 "For neither the p95 Crotoniats," says Herodotus,86 "nor the Placians agree in language with any of their present neighbours, although they agree with each other; and it is clear that they preserve the fashion of speech which they brought with them into those regions." However, one may well marvel that, although the Crotoniats had a speech similar to that of the Placians, who lived near the Hellespont,87 since both were originally Pelasgians, it was not at all similar to that of the Tyrrhenians, their nearest neighbours. For if kinship is to be regarded as the reason why two nations speak the same language, the contrary must, of course, be the reason for their speaking a different one, 4 since surely it is not possible to believe that both these conditions arise from the same cause. For, although it might reasonably happen, on the one hand, that men of the same nation who have settled at a distance from one another would, as the result of associating with their neighbours, no longer preserve the same fashion of speech, yet it is not at all reasonable that men sprung from the same race and living in the same country should not in the least agree with one another in their language.
30 1 For this reason, therefore, I am persuaded that the Pelasgians are a different people from the p97 Tyrrhenians. And I do not believe, either, that the Tyrrhenians were a colony of the Lydians; for they do not use the same language as the latter, nor can it be alleged that, though they no longer speak a similar tongue, they still retain some other indications of their mother country. For they neither worship the same gods as the Lydians nor make use of similar laws or institutions, but in these very respects they differ more from the Lydians than from the Pelasgians. 2 Indeed, those probably come nearest to the truth who declare that the nation migrated from nowhere else, but was native to the country, since it is found to be a very ancient nation and to agree with no other either in its language or in its manner of living. And there is no reason why the Greeks should not have called them by this name, both from their living in towers and from the name of one of their rulers. 3 The Romans, however, give them other names: from the country they once inhabited, named Etruria, they call them Etruscans, and from their knowledge of the ceremonies relating to divine worship, in which they excel others, they now call them, rather inaccurately, Tusci,88 but formerly, with the same accuracy as the Greeks, they called them Thyoscoï.89 Their own name for themselves, however, is the same as that of one of their p99 leaders, Rasenna. 4 In another book90 I shall show what cities the Tyrrhenians founded, what forms of government they established, how great power they acquired, what memorable achievements they performed, and what fortunes attended them. 5 As for the Pelasgian nation, however, those who were not destroyed or dispersed among the various colonies (for a small number remained out of a great many) were left behind as fellow citizens of the Aborigines in these parts, where in the course of time their posterity, together with others, built the city of Rome. Such are the legends told about the Pelasgian race.
31 1 Soon after, another Greek expedition landed in this part of Italy, having migrated from Pallantium, a town of Arcadia, about the sixtieth year before the Trojan war,91 as the Romans themselves say. This colony had for its leader Evander, who is said to have been the son of Hermes and a local nymph of the Arcadians. The Greeks call her Themis and say that she was inspired, but the writers of the early history of Rome call her, in the native language, Carmenta. The nymph's name would be in Greek Thespiôdos or "prophetic singer"; for the Romans call songs carmina, and they agree that this woman, possessed by divine inspiration, foretold p101 to the people in song the things that would come to pass. 2 This expedition was not sent out by the common consent of the nation, but, a sedition having arisen among the people, the faction which was defeated left the country of their own accord. It chanced that the kingdom of the Aborigines had been inherited at that time by Faunus, a descendant of Mars, it is said, a man of prudence as well as energy, whom the Romans in their sacrifices and songs honour as one of the gods of their country. This man received the Arcadians, who were but few in number, with great friendship and gave them as much of his own land as they desired. 3 And the Arcadians, as Themis by inspiration kept advising them, chose a hill, not far from the Tiber, which is now near the middle of the city of Rome, and by this hill built a small village sufficient for the complement of the two ships in which they had come from Greece. Yet this village was ordained by fate to excel in the course of time all other cities, whether Greek or barbarian, not only in its size, but also in the majesty of its empire and in every other form of prosperity, and to be celebrated above them all as long as mortality shall endure. 4 They named the town Pallantium after their mother-city in Arcadia; now, however, the Romans call it Palatium, time having obscured the correct form, and this name has given occasion of the many to suggest absurd etymologies.
p103 32 But some writers, among them Polybius of Megalopolis, related that the town was named after Pallas, a lad who died there; they say that he was the son of Hercules and Lavinia, the daughter of Evander, and that his maternal grandfather raised a tomb to him on the hill and called the place Pallantium, after the lad. 2 But I have never seen any tomb of Pallas at Rome nor have I heard of any drink-offerings being made in his honour nor been able to discover anything else of that nature, although this family has not been left unremembered or without those honours with which divine beings are worshipped by men. For I have learned that public sacrifices are performed yearly by the Romans to Evander and to Carmenta in the same manner as to the other heroes and minor deities; and I have seen two altars that were erected, one to Carmenta under the Capitoline hill near the Porta Carmentalis, and the other to Evander by another hill, called the Aventine, not far from the Porta Trigemina; but I know of nothing of this kind that is done in honour of Pallas. 3 As for the Arcadians, when they had joined in a single settlement at the foot of the hill, they proceeded to adorn their town with all the buildings to which they had been accustomed at home and to erect temples. And first they built a temple to the Lycaean Pan by the direction of Themis (for to the Arcadians Pan is the most ancient and the most honoured of all the gods), when they had found a suitable site for the purpose. This place the Romans call the Lupercal, but we should call it Lykaion or "Lycaeum." 4 Now, it is true, since the district about p105 the sacred precinct has been united with the city, it has become difficult to make out by conjecture the ancient nature of the place. Nevertheless, at first, we are told, there was a large cave under the hill overarched by a dense wood; deep springs issued from beneath the rocks, and the glen adjoining the cliffs was shaded by thick and lofty trees.92 5 In this place they raised an altar to the god and performed their traditional sacrifice, which the Romans have continued to offer up to this day in the month of February, after the winter solstice,93 without altering anything in the rites then performed. The manner of this sacrifice will be related later. Upon the summit of the hill they set apart the precinct of Victory and instituted sacrifices to her also, lasting throughout the year, which the Romans performed even in my time.
p107 33 The Arcadians have a legend that this goddess was the daughter of Pallas, the son of Lycaon, and that she received those honours from mankind which she now enjoys at the desire of Athena, with whom she had been reared. For they say that Athena, as soon as she was born, was handed over to Pallas by Zeus and that she was reared by him till she grew up. They built also a temple to Ceres, to whom by the ministry of women they offered sacrifices without wine, according to the custom of the Greeks, none of which rites our time has changed. 2 Moreover, they assigned a precinct to the Equestrian Neptune94 and instituted the festival called by the Arcadians Hippocrateia and by the Romans Consualia,95 during which it is customary among the latter for the horses and mules to rest from work and to have their heads crowned with flowers. 3 They also consecrated many other precincts, altars and images of the gods and instituted purifications and sacrifices according to the customs of their own country, which continued to be performed down to my day in the same manner. Yet I should not be surprised if some of the ceremonies by reason of their great antiquity have been forgotten by their posterity and neglected; however, those that are still practised are sufficient proofs that they are derived from the customs formerly in use among the Arcadians, of which I shall speak more at length elsewhere.96 4 The Arcadians p109 are said also to have been the first to introduce into Italy the use of Greek letters, which had lately appeared among them, and also music performed on such instruments as lyres, trigons97 and flutes; for their predecessors had used no musical invention except shepherd's pipes. They are said also to have established laws, to have transformed men's mode of life from the prevailing bestiality to a state of civilization, and likewise to have introduced arts and professions and many other things conducive to the public good, and for these reasons to have been treated with great consideration by those who had received them. 5 This was the next Greek nation after the Pelasgians to come into Italy and to take up a common residence with the Aborigines, establishing itself in the best part of Rome.
34 1 A few years after the Arcadians another Greek expedition came into Italy under the command of Hercules, who had just returned from the conquest of Spain and of all the region that extends to the setting of the sun. It was some of his followers who, begging Hercules to dismiss them from the expedition, remained in this region and built a town on a suitable hill, which they found at a distance of about three stades from Pallantium. This is now called the Capitoline hill, but by the men of that time the Saturnian hill, or, in Greek, the hill of Cronus. 2 The greater part of those who stayed behind were Peloponnesians — people of p111 Pheneus and Epeans of Elis, who no longer had any desire to return home, since their country had been laid waste in the war against Hercules. There was also a small Trojan element mingled with these, consisting of prisoners taken from Ilium in the reign of Laomedon, at the time when Hercules conquered the city. And I am of the opinion that all the rest of the army, also, who were either wearied by their labours or irked by their wanderings, obtained their dismissal from the expedition and remained there. 3 As for the name of the hill, some think it was an ancient name, as I have said, and that consequently the Epeans were especially pleased with the hill through memory of the hill of Cronus in Elis. This is in the territory of Pisa, near the river Alpheus, and the Eleans, regarding it as sacred to Cronus, assemble together at stated times to honour it with sacrifices and other marks of reverence. 4 But Euxenus,98 an ancient poet, and some others of the Italian mythographers think that the name was given to the place by the men from Pisa themselves, from its likeness to their hill of Cronus, that the Epeans together with Hercules erected the altar to Saturn which remains to this day at the foot of the hill near the ascent that leads from the Forum to the Capitol, and that it was they who instituted the sacrifice which the Romans still performed even in my time, observing the Greek ritual. 5 But from the p113 best conjectures I have been able to make, I find that even before the arrival of Hercules in Italy this place was sacred to Saturn and was called by the people of the country the Saturnian hill, and all the rest of the peninsula which is now called Italy was consecrated to this god, being called Saturnia99 by the inhabitants, as may be found stated in some Sibylline prophecies and other oracles delivered by the gods. And in many parts of the country there are temples dedicated to this god; certain cities bear the same name by which the whole peninsula was known at that time, and many places are called by the name of the god, particularly headlands and eminences.
35 1 But in the course of time the land came to be called Italy, after a ruler named Italus. This man, according to Antiochus of Syracuse,100 was both a wise and good prince, and persuading some of his neighbours by arguments and subduing the rest by force, he made himself master of all the land which lies between the Napetine and Scylacian bays,101 which was the first land, he says, to be called Italy, after Italus. And when he had possessed himself of this district and had many subjects, he immediately coveted the neighbouring peoples and brought many cities under his rule. He says further that Italus was an Oenotrian by birth. p115 2 But Hellanicus of Lesbos102 says that when Hercules was driving Geryon's cattle to Argos and was come to Italy, a calf escaped from the herd and in its flight wandered the whole length of the coast and then, swimming across the intervening strait of the sea, came into Sicily. Hercules, following the calf, inquired of the inhabitants wherever he came if anyone had seen it anywhere, and when the people of the island, who understood but little Greek and used their own speech when indicating the animal, called it vitulus (the name by which it is still known), he, in memory of the calf, called all the country it had wandered over Vitulia.103 3 And it is no wonder that the name has been changed in the course of time to its present form, since many Greek names, too, have met with a similar fate. But whether, as Antiochus says, the country took this name from a ruler, which perhaps is more probable, or, as Hellanicus believes, from the bull, yet this at least is evident from both their accounts, that in Hercules' time, or a little earlier, it received this name. Before that it had been called Hesperia and Ausonia by the Greeks and Saturnia by the natives, as I have already stated.
36 1 There is another legend related by the inhabitants, to the effect that before the reign of Jupiter Saturn was lord in this land and that the celebrated manner of life104 in his reign, abounding p117 in the produce of every season, was enjoyed by none more than them. 2 And, indeed, if anyone, setting aside the fabulous part of this account, will examine the merit of any country from which mankind received the greatest enjoyments immediately after their birth, whether they sprang from the earth, according to the ancient tradition, or came into being in some other manner, he will find none more beneficent to them than this. For, to compare one country with another of the same extent, Italy is, in my opinion, the best country, not only of Europe, but even of all the rest of the world. 3 And yet I am not unaware that I shall not be believed by many when they reflect on Egypt, Libya, Babylonia and any other fertile countries there may be. But I, for my part, do not limit the wealth derived from the soil to one sort of produce, nor do I feel any eagerness to live where there are only rich arable lands and little or nothing else that is useful; but I account that country the best which is the most self-sufficient and generally stands least in need of imported commodities. And I am persuaded that Italy enjoys this universal fertility and diversity of advantages beyond any other land.
37 1 For Italy does not, while possessing a great deal of good arable land, lack trees, as does a grain-bearing country; nor, on the other hand, while suitable for growing all manner of trees, does it, when sown to grain, produce scanty crops, as does a timbered country; nor yet, while yielding both grain and trees in abundance, is it unsuitable for the grazing of cattle; nor can anyone say that, while it bears rich produce of crops and timber p119 and herds, it is nevertheless disagreeable for men to live in. Nay, on the contrary, it abounds in practically everything that affords either pleasure or profit. 2 To what grain-bearing country, indeed, watered, not with rivers, but with rains from heaven, do the plains of Campania yield, in which I have seen fields that produce even three crops in a year, summer's harvest following upon that of winter and autumn's upon that of summer? To what olive orchards are those of the Messapians, the Daunians, the Sabines and many others inferior? To what vineyards those of Tyrrhenia and the Alban and the Falernian districts, where the soil is wonderfully kind to vines and with the least labour produces the finest grapes in the greatest abundance? 3 And besides the land that is cultivated one will find much that is left untilled as pasturage for sheep and goats, and still more extensive and more wonderful is the land suitable for grazing horses and cattle; for not only the marsh and meadow grass, which is very plentiful, but the dewy and well-watered grass of the glades, infinite in its abundance, furnish grazing for them in summer as well as in winter and keep them always in good condition. 4 But most wonderful of all are the forests growing upon the rocky heights, in the glens and on the uncultivated hills, from which the inhabitants are abundantly supplied with fine timber suitable for the building of ships as well as for all other purposes. Nor are p121 any of these materials hard to come at or at a distance from human need, but they are easy to handle and readily available, owing to the multitude of rivers that flow through the whole peninsula and make the transportation and exchange of everything the land produces inexpensive. 5 Springs also of hot water have been discovered in many places, affording most pleasant baths and sovereign cures for chronic ailments. There are also mines of all sorts, plenty of wild beasts for hunting, and a great variety of sea fish, besides innumerable other things, some useful and others of a nature to excite wonder. But the finest thing of all is the climate, admirably tempered by the seasons, so that less than elsewhere is harm done by excessive cold or inordinate heat either to the growing fruits and grains or to the bodies of animals.
38 1 It is no wonder, therefore, that the ancients looked upon this country as sacred to Saturn, since they esteemed this god to be the giver and accomplisher of all happiness to mankind, — whether he ought to be called Cronus, as the Greeks deem fitting, or Saturn, as do the Romans, — and regarded him as embracing the whole universe, by whichever name he is called, and since they saw this country abounding in universal plenty and every charm mankind craves, and judged those places to be most agreeable both to divine and to human beings that are suited to them — for example, the mountains and woods to Pan, the meadows and p123 verdant places to the nymphs, the shores and islands to the sea-gods, and all there places to the god or genius to whom each is appropriate. 2 It is said also that the ancients sacrificed human victims to Saturn, as was done at Carthage while that city stood and as is there is done to this day among the Gauls105 and certain other western nations, and that Hercules, desiring to abolish the custom of this sacrifice, erected the altar upon the Saturnian hill and performed the initial rites of sacrifice with unblemished victims burning on a pure fire. And lest the people should feel any scruple at having neglected their traditional sacrifices, he taught them to appease the anger of the god by making effigies resembling the men they had been wont to bind hand and foot and throw into the stream of the Tiber, and dressing these in the same manner, to throw them into the river instead of the men, his purpose being that any superstitious dread remaining in the minds of all might be removed, since the semblance of the ancient rite would still be preserved. 3 This the Romans continued to do every year even down to my day a little after the vernal equinox, in the month of May,106 on what they call the Ides (the day they mean to be the middle of the month); on this day, after offering the preliminary sacrifices according to the laws, the pontifices, as the most important of the priests are called, and with p125 them the virgins who guard the perpetual fire, the praetors, and such of the other citizens as may lawfully be present at the rites, throw from the sacred bridge into the stream of the Tiber thirty effigies made in the likeness of men, which they call Argei.107 4 But concerning the sacrifices and the other rites which the Roman people perform according to the manner both of the Greeks and of their own country I shall speak in another book.108 At present, it seems requisite to give a more particular account of the arrival of Hercules in Italy and to omit nothing worthy of notice that he did there.
39 1 Of109 the stories told concerning this god some are largely legend and some are nearer the truth. The legendary account of his arrival is as follows: Hercules, being commanded by Eurystheus, among other labours, to drive Geryon's cattle from Erytheia110 to Argos, performed the task and having passed through many parts of Italy on his way home, came also to the neighbourhood of Pallantium in the country of the Aborigines; 2 and there, finding much excellent grass for his cattle, he let them graze, and being overcome with weariness, lay down and gave himself over to sleep. Thereupon a robber p127 of that region, named Cacus, chanced to come upon the cattle feeding with none to guard them and longed to possess them. But seeing Hercules lying there asleep, he imagined he could not drive them all away without being discovered and at the same time he perceived that the task was no easy one, either. So he secreted a few of them in the cave hard by, in which he lived, dragging each of them thither by the tail backwards. This might have destroyed all evidence of his theft, as the direction in which the oxen had gone would be at variance with their tracks. 3 Hercules, then, arising from sleep soon afterwards, and having counted the cattle and found some were missing, was for some time at a loss to guess where they had gone, and supposing them to have strayed from their pasture, he sought them up and down the region; then, when he failed to find them, he came to the cave, and though he was deceived by the tracks, he felt, nevertheless, that he ought to search the place. But Cacus stood before the door, and when Hercules inquired after the cattle, denied that he had seen them, and when the other desired to search his cave, would not suffer him to do so, to be called upon his neighbours for assistance, complaining of the violence offered to him by the stranger. And while Hercules was puzzled to know how he should act in the matter, he hit upon the expedient of driving the rest of the cattle to the cave. And thus, when those inside heard the lowing and perceived the smell of their companions outside, they bellowed to them in turn and thus their lowing p129 betrayed the theft. 4 Cacus, therefore, when his thievery was thus brought to light, put himself upon his defence and began to call out to his fellow herdsmen. But Hercules killed him by smiting him with his club and drove out the cattle; and when he saw that the place was well adapted to the harbouring of evil-doers, he demolished the cave, burying the robber under its ruins. Then, having purified himself in the river from the murder, he erected an altar near the place to Jupiter the Discoverer,111 which is now in Rome near the Porta Trigemina, and sacrificed a calf to the god as a thank-offering for the finding of his cattle. This sacrifice the city of Rome continued to celebrate even down to my day, observing in it all the ceremonies of the Greeks just as he instituted them.
40 1 When the Aborigines and the Arcadians who lived at Pallantium learned of the death of Cacus and saw Hercules, they thought themselves very fortunate in being rid of the former, whom they detested for his robberies, and were struck with awe at the appearance of the latter, in whom they seemed to see something divine. The poorer among them, plucking branches of laurel which grew there in great plenty, crowned both him and themselves with it; and their kings also came to invite Hercules to be their guest. But when they heard from him his name, his lineage and his achievements, they recommended both their country and themselves to his friendship. 2 And Evander, who had even before this heard Themis relate that it was ordained p131 by fate that Hercules, the son of Jupiter and Alcmena, changing his mortal nature, should become immortal by reason of his virtue, as soon as he learned who the stranger was, resolved to forestall all mankind by being the first to propitiate Hercules with divine honours, and he hastily erected an improvised altar and sacrificed upon it a calf that had not known the yoke, having first communicated the oracle to Hercules and asked him to perform the initial rites. 3 And Hercules, admiring the hospitality of these men, entertained the common people with a feast, after sacrificing some of the cattle and setting apart the tithes of the rest of his booty; and to their kings he gave a large district belonging to the Ligurians and to some others of their neighbours, the rule of which they very much desired, after he had first expelled some lawless people from it. It is furthermore reported that he asked the inhabitants, since they were the first who had regarded him as a god, to perpetuate the honours they had paid him by offering up every year a calf that had not known the yoke and performing the sacrifice with Greek rites; and that he himself taught the sacrificial rites to two of the distinguished families, in order that their offerings might always be acceptable to him. 4 Those who were then instructed in the Greek ceremony, they say, were the Potitii and the Pinarii, whose descendants continued for a long time to have the superintendence of these sacrifices, in the manner he had appointed, the Potitii presiding at the sacrifice and taking the first part of the burnt-offerings, while the Pinarii were excluded from tasting the inwards and held second rank in those ceremonies which had to be performed by both of p133 them together. It is said that this disgrace was fixed upon them for having been late in arriving; for though they had been ordered to be present early in the morning, they did not come till the entrails had been eaten. 5 To‑day, however, the superintendence of the sacrifices no longer devolves on these families, but slaves purchased with the public money perform them. For what reasons this custom was changed and how the god manifested himself concerning the change in his ministers, I shall relate when I come to that part of the history.112 6 The altar on which Hercules offered up the tithes is called by the Romans the Greatest Altar.113 It stands near the place they call the Cattle Market114 and no other is held in greater veneration by the inhabitants; for upon this altar oaths are taken and agreements made by those who wish to transact any business unalterably and the tithes of things are frequently offered there pursuant to vows. However, in its construction it is much inferior to its reputation. In many other places also in Italy precincts are dedicated to this god and altars erected to him, both in cities and along highways; and one could scarcely find any place in Italy in which the god is not honoured. Such, then, is the legendary account that has been handed down concerning him.
41 1 But the story which comes nearer to the truth and which has been adopted by many who have narrated his deeds in the form of history is as follows: Hercules, who was the greatest p135 commander of his age, marched at the head of a large force through all the country that lies on this side of the Ocean, destroying any despotisms that were grievous and oppressive to their subjects, or commonwealths that outraged and injured the neighbouring states, or organized bands of men who lived in the manner of savages and lawlessly put strangers to death, and in their room establishing lawful monarchies, well-ordered governments and humane and sociable modes of life. Furthermore, he mingled barbarians with Greeks, and inhabitants of the inland with dwellers on the sea coast, groups which hitherto had been distrustful and unsocial in their dealings with each other; he also built cities in desert places, turned the course of rivers that overflowed the fields, cut roads through inaccessible mountains, and contrived other means by which every land and sea might lie open to the use of all mankind. 2 And he came into Italy not alone nor yet bringing a herd of cattle (for neither does this country lies on the road of those returning from Spain to Argos nor would he have been deemed worthy of so great an honour merely for passing through it), but at the head of a great army, after he had already conquered Spain, in order to subjugate and rule the people in this region; and he was obliged to tarry there a considerable time both because of the absence of his fleet, due to stormy weather that p137 detained it, and because not all the nations of Italy willingly submitted to him. 3 For, besides the other barbarians, the Ligurians, a numerous and warlike people seated in the passes of the Alps, endeavoured to prevent his entrance into Italy by force of arms, and in that place so great a battle was fought by the Greeks that all their missiles gave out in the course of the fighting. This war is mentioned by Aeschylus, among the ancient poets, in his Prometheus Unbound; for there Prometheus is represented as foretelling to Hercules in detail how everything else was to befall him on his expedition against Geryon and in particular recounting to him the difficult struggle he was to have in the war with the Ligurians. The verses are these:
"And thou shalt come to Liguria's dauntless host, Where no fault shalt thou find, bold though thou art, With the fray: 'tis fated thy missiles all shall fail."115 |
42 1 After Hercules had defeated this people and gained the passes, some delivered up their cities to him of their own accord, particularly those who were any other Greek extraction or who had no considerable forces; but the greatest part of them were reduced by war and siege. 2 Among those who were conquered in battle, they say, was Cacus, who is celebrated in the Roman legend, an exceedingly barbarous chieftain reigning over a savage people, who had set himself to oppose Hercules; he was established in the fastnesses and on that account p139 was a pest to his neighbours. He, when he heard that Hercules lay encamped in the plain hard by, equipped his followers like brigands and making a sudden raid while the army lay sleeping, he surrounded and drove off as much of their booty as he found unguarded. 3 Afterwards, being besieged by the Greeks, he not only saw his forts taken by storm, but was himself slain amid his fastnesses. And when his forts had been demolished, those who had accompanied Hercules on the expedition (these were some Arcadians with Evander, and Faunus, king of the Aborigines) took over the districts round about, each group for itself. And it may be conjectured that those of the Greeks who remained there, that is, the Epeans and the Arcadians from Pheneus, as well as the Trojans, were left to guard the country. 4 For among the various measures of Hercules that bespoke the true general none was more worthy of admiration than his practice of carrying along with him for a time on his expeditions the prisoners taken from the captured cities, and then, after they had cheerfully assisted him in his wars, settling them in the conquered regions and bestowing on them the riches he had gained from others. It was because of these deeds that Hercules gained the greatest name and renown in Italy, and not because of his passage through it, which was attended by nothing worthy of veneration.
p141 43 Some say that he also left sons by two women in the region now inhabited by the Romans. One of these sons was Pallas, whom he had by the daughter of Evander, whose name, they say, was Lavinia; the other, Latinus, whose mother was a certain Hyperborean girl whom he brought with him as a hostage given to him by her father and preserved for some time untouched; but while he was on his voyage to Italy, he fell in love with her and got her with child. And when he was preparing to leave for Argos, he married her to Faunus, king of the Aborigines; for which reason Latinus is generally looked upon as the son of Faunus, not of Hercules. 2 Pallas, they say, died before he arrived at puberty; but Latinus, upon reaching man's estate, succeeded to the kingdom of the Aborigines, and when he was killed in the battle against the neighbouring Rutulians, without leaving any male issue, the kingdom devolved on Aeneas, the son of Anchises, his son-in‑law. But these things happened at other times.
44 1 After Hercules had settled everything in Italy according to his desire and his naval force had arrived in safety from Spain, he sacrificed to the gods the tithes of his booty and built a small town named after himself116 in the place where his fleet lay at anchor (it is now occupied by the Romans, and lying as it does between Neapolis and Pompeii, has at all times Etruria havens); and having gained fame and glory and received divine honours from p143 all the inhabitants of Italy, he set sail for Sicily. 2 Those who were left behind by him as a garrison to dwell in Italy and were settled around the Saturnian hill lived for some time under an independent government; but not long afterwards they adapted their manner of life, their laws and their religious ceremonies to those of the Aborigines, even as the Arcadians and, still earlier, the Pelasgians had done, and they shared in the same government with them, so that in time they came to be looked upon as of the same nation with them. But let this suffice concerning the expedition of Hercules and concerning the Peloponnesians who remained behind in Italy.
23 As will be seen a little later (chap. 17), Dionysius regarded the Pelasgians as a Greek nation.
❦
24 This clause is added, possibly by a scribe, as a definition of the well-known Greek word autochthones, here rendered "natives." The word means literally "sprung from the land itself," corresponding to the Latin indigenae. It was the proud boast of the Athenians that they were autochthones.
❦
25 "The Ionian Gulf" or simply "the Ionian" is Dionysius' usual term for the Adriatic, or more particularly perhaps for the entrance to this sea.
❦
26 "Founders of families" and "first-born" respectively.
❦
27 From the Latin aberrare ("wander").
❦
28 Strabo cites (VII.7.2) some verses of Hesiod in which the Leleges are described as λεκτοὺς ἐκ Γαίης λαούς, "peoples gathered out of earth," an etymological word-play which p33 he thinks shows that Hesiod regarded them as having been from the beginning a collection of mixed peoples. This derivation of the name from the root λεγ ("gather") is the only one the ancients have handed down.
❦
29 Cato's history seems to have consisted at first of one book, in which Rome's beginnings and the regal period were recounted, followed by two books devoted to the origin of the various Italian cities; hence the title Origines. Later he added four more books, in which an account was given of the Punic Wars and subsequent events.
❦
30 C. Sempronius Tuditanus (cos. 129). Besides his liber magistratuum he seems to have written a historical work.
❦
31 Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag.2, p262, frg. 541.
❦
32 Antiochus (latter half of fifth century) wrote a history of Sicily and a history of Italy. The former was used by Thrace, and the latter is frequently cited by Strabo. The quotation here given is fragment. 3 in Müller, Frag. Hist. Graec. I p181.
❦
33 Pherecydes (fifth century) was one of the more prominent of the early logographers and the first prose writer of Athens. His great work was a mythological history, beginning with a brief theogony, but largely devoted to the genealogies of the great families of the heroic age. The following quotations appear as frg. 85 in Müller, F. H. G. I p92.
❦
34 A hybrid etymology: ab + ὄρος (mountain).
❦
35 People of the highlands.
❦
36 People of the coast.
❦
37 This monumental work of antiquarian lore is no longer extant. Varro was a native of Reate (49 Roman miles north-east of Rome), and may well have taken a particular interest in these old sites of the Aborigines. The latest discussion of this chapter is to be found in Nissen, Italische Landeskunde, II.1, pp471‑6; Bunsen's article appeared in the Annali dell' Institutoº di Correspondenza Archeologica, VI (1834), pp129 ff. See also Smith's Dict. of Greek and Roman Geography, s.v. Aborigines.
❦
38 Bunsen emended the text so as to make the clause here included in parentheses refer to Palatium; he held that Reate was too well known to call for such an explanation.
❦
39 The Via Quintia is not elsewhere mentioned, but seems to have been the more direct of two roads leading down the valley to the north-west of Reate. The names of the towns that immediately follow are probably corruptions of Trebula and Suessula. The Ceraunian Mountains are tentatively identified by Nissen with the Monte Rotondo of to‑day.
❦
40 The word polyandrion usually means a place where many are buried together; it is contrasted, as here, with individual tombs by Aelian, Var. Hist. XII.21, and Pausanias II.29.9
❦
41 The Via Curia is thought to have been a second road leading north-west from Reate but running round the east and north sides of the chain of small lakes called by the collective name of Lacus Velinus or Palus Reatina. M'. Curius Dentatus in 272 drained the lowlands at the northern end of the valley, and he may well have constructed this road at that time. Mount Coretus is unknown. The Maruvium here named is not to be confused with the Marsian capital on the Fucine Lake. Cicero mentions the Septem Aquae in a letter to Atticus (IV.15.5).
❦
42 This reading is due to Nissen, who believes that Listina (the district of Lista) was an earlier name for the district of Amiternum. In view of the story related at the end of the chapter Lista must have been fairly close to Amiternum, which was 33 miles east of Reate. The vulgate reading with Λατίνην, "the road to Latium" or possibly "to the Latin Way," has been taken to mean a road leading south-east from Reate towards the Fucine Lake, and Bunsen's emendation λίμνην was designed to make that direction still plainer. But the site, a few miles north-west of that lake, which various scholars have selected for Lista is more than 20 miles distant from Amiternum across a mountain pass; moreover, it lies in the country of the Aequians, which is not reported to have been occupied by the Sabines at any time. Nissen's view likewise places Lista distinctly outside the Reatine territory. But it is quite possible that the distance of 300 stades assigned to Tiora is seriously in error; we might then look for Tiora and Lista a little east of Interocreum, or somewhat more than half-way from Reate to Amiternum. Nissen unjustifiably assumes that in this entire section Dionysius is counting the stade as only one-tenth of a Roman mile, instead of one-eighth of a mile, as he usually does.
❦
43 Or Vatia.
❦
44 At Dodona the god was said to dwell in the stem of an oak and to reveal his will from the branches of the tree, probably by the rustling of the leaves. In the time of Herodotus the oracles were interpreted by two or three aged women called πελείαδες or πέλειαι, both terms meaning "pigeons." According to some it was actually a pigeon that delivered the oracles.
None of this gives you the faintest clue, gentle reader, where Tiora Matiene might be; and the reason for that is that the locality has not been identified: it's one of the countless thousands of lost places of Antiquity. If you read Italian, this excellent page (in turn part of Robert Tupone's site on the village of S. Anatolia, a frazione of Borgorose in Rieti province) goes into the matter in good detail.
❦
45 Both the Greek and Latin words mean "woodpecker."
❦
46 The context certainly suggests Tiora as the city referred to; but Holstenius understood Reate, and thus brought Lista between Cutilia and Reate, where the name Monte di Lesta is found to‑day.
❦
47 Also called Cutiliae. Its approximate size is determined by the remains of Aquae Cutiliae near by, a watering-place that was especially favoured by the Flavian emperors. It lay east of Reate, on the road last mentioned, if Nissen's identification of that road is correct. He suggests that the place is mentioned last, out of its natural order, in view of the important rôle the lake was to play later (see chap. 19).
❦
48 The fullest account and explanation of this strange islet is given by Seneca (Nat. Quaest. III.25.8). The lake is still to be seen, but the islet has disappeared.
❦
49 The only recorded instance from the Greek world is that of the Chalcidians, who dedicated to Apollo one man in every ten and sent them to Delphi; these men later founded Rhegium (Strabo VI.1.6). Compare chap. 24 and note.
❦
50 This would presumably be vicus Siculus or regio Sicula in Latin; no mention of the quarter is found elsewhere.
❦
51 This is the form of the name given by Diodorus (V.81) and others; the son's name usually appears as Macareus.
❦
52 In reality it was, of course, the town Spina that gave its name to the ostium Spineticum.
❦
53 Or Manlius. Nothing is known of the man beyond what may be inferred from the present passage.
❦
54 A poetic variant of Cotylia, the Greek form of Cutilia.
❦
55 Varro's version of this story is quoted by Macrobius (I.7.28 ff.). In the last verse of the oracle he has Ἅιδῃ for Κρονίδῃ. He says the oracle was at first taken to call for human heads as an offering to Dis and the sacrifice of men to Saturn. But several generations later Hercules taught the people a more humane interpretation: to Dis they should offer little images made in the likeness of men and Saturn should be honoured with lighted candles, since φῶτα meant "light" as well as "man."
❦
56 This letter, vault, later called digamma, has actually been found in numerous early inscriptions from various parts of Greece; its value was that of the Latin v, or English w. See Kühner-Blass, Griech. Gram. I.1, § 16 f. Dionysius assumes that Velia is an early form of ἔλεια ("marshy"). In his day the Latin v was usually represented in Greek by ου, sometimes by β.
❦
❦
58 The name occurs nowhere else and is very probably a corruption of Aurunci.
❦
59 Larisa originally meant "citadel." Places with this name, of which there were several in Greece and Asia, seem to have been of Pelasgic origin.
❦
60 This Forum Popilii was in the Falernian district at the northern end of the Campanian plain, a few miles south of Teanum.
❦
61 Hellanicus (fifth century), the most prominent of the logographers, wrote histories of various Greek lands, including an Atthis for Attica and a Phoronis for Argos (cf. chap. 28.3), as well as accounts of the Trojan expedition and the Persian invasion. He also compiled some chronological lists, such as The Priestesses of Hera at Argos (cf. chap. 72.2), with the apparent purpose of devising a scientific chronology. The present quotation appears as frg. 53 in Müller, F. H. G. I p52.
❦
62 Probably in the second quarter of the thirteenth century B.C.; but it is the certain that Hellanicus is here using the generation as a definite measure of time (usually reckoned as one-third of a century). Unfortunately the date of Alcyonê's priesthood is not known.
❦
63 Philistus (first half of fourth century) stood high in the counsels of the elder Dionysius, for a time, and particularly of the younger Dionysius. He was famous for his history of Sicily, which closely imitated the style of Thucydides. Müller, F. H. G. I p185, frg. 2.
❦
64 ca. 1263 B.C.
❦
65 See p39, n2 . Müller, F. H. G. I p181, frg. 1.
❦
66 The name rests on conjecture. See critical note.
❦
❦
68 Similar calamities are mentioned, much more briefly, in Sophocles, Oed. Rex 25‑27.
❦
69 The verbs καταθύσειν (here) and ἀπέθυσαν (just below) are rendered by the ambiguous word "offer"; for, though both are compounds of θύω ("sacrifice"), they sometimes mean merely "dedicate" or "devote."
❦
70 Myrsilus (first half of third century) composed a history of Lesbos. This quotation is frg. 2 in Müller, F. H. G. IV pp456 f.
❦
71 In chaps. 25 and 29.
❦
72 In a similar story related by Strabo (V.4.12) the Sabines had vowed to dedicate all their increase of the year, and learning, as the result of a famine that later befell them, that they should have included their children, they dedicated these to Mars, and when the children had grown up, sent them out as colonists. Dionysius has already narrated (in chap. 16) a like procedure on the part of the Aborigines. This form of vow, when it involved the increase of a particular year, was called a ver sacrum, as we learn from Paulus Diaconus in his abridgment of Festus, p379. He states that it was a custom of the Italian peoples in times of dire peril to vow to sacrifice (immolaturos) all the living things that should be born to them during the following spring; but that, since it seemed to them cruel to slay innocent boys and girls, they reared these and then drove them forth, with their heads veiled, beyond the boundaries. It is not altogether clear in the case of the Pelasgians what the fate of the human tithes was, whether mere expulsion or actual sacrifice. In favour of the former view may be urged the fact of their respite until they had grown up; but the violent disturbances that accompanied the selection of the tithes would seem to point to a more cruel fate.
❦
❦
74 Nauck, T. G. F.2, p189, frg. 248.
❦
75 See chap. 20.4.
❦
76 i.e. Cortona. Compare the name Corythus used by Virgil (Aen. III.170).
❦
77 The form Tyrrhênoi is the Attic development of Tyrsênoi, the form used by most of the Greeks.
❦
78 This people lived on the shore of the Euxine, a short distance west of Trapezus. Xenophon mentions them in the Anabasis (V.4).
❦
79 I.94. But the quotation is inaccurate in two important details: Herodotus mentions only one son of Atys, Tyrrhenus, and says that Atys joined himself owing to the group destined to remain at home, but assigned his son to the other.
❦
80 Xanthus, an older contemporary of Herodotus, was the first barbarian to write the history of his country in Greek. The passage here cited is garden as frg. 1 in Müller, F. H. G. I p36.
❦
81 In other words, they simply spoke different dialects of a common language and each nation jested at the "provincialisms" of the other. This explanation obviates the numerous emendations that have been offered for the rare word σιλλοῦσιν.
❦
82 Müller, F. H. G. I p43, frg. 1.
❦
83 The Spinetic month of the Po. See chap. 18.3.
❦
84 Müller, F. H. G. IV p457 frg. 3.
❦
85 Pelargikon was the earlier form of the word, perhaps meaning "Stork's Nest"; but its close resemblance to Pelasgikon gave rise in time to the belief that the latter was the true form. The tradition that Pelasgians once dwelt in Athens and built this wall on the acropolis does not appear to be much older than the time of Herodotus. The next step was to show that even the form Pelargikon had reference to the Pelasgians.
❦
86 Since Niebuhr first championed (Röm. Gesch. I note 89, p39) the form of the name given by Dionysius as against Crestoniats (and Creston) found in Herodotus, the belief has steadily gained ground that the MSS. of Herodotus are in error. The latest editor of Herodotus, Legrand (1932), restores Κροτωνιῆται (and Κρότωνα) in the text.
❦
87 Placia lay to the east of Cyzicus, at the foot of Mt. Olympus. It disappeared at an early date.
❦
88 The prevailing view to‑day is that Tusci is for Tursci, turs being the same element that is seen in Τρσηνός. Etrusci may be simply a lengthened form of Tursci, with u and r interchanged.
❦
89 This statement is not borne out by information we have from any other source. It is merely an attempt to find a Greek etymology for Tusci. Θυοσκόοι were sacrificing priests.
❦
90 Nothing of the sort is found in the extant portions of the Antiquities. It is hardly probable that Dionysius intended to devote a separate work to the Etruscans.
❦
91 ca. 1243 B.C.
❦
92 The Lupercal was situated at the foot of the Palatine, probably at the south-west corner; it is further described in chap. 79.8, and the Lupercalia in 80.1. For a discussion of the various theories respecting the origin of the Lupercalia the reader is referred to Sir James Frazer's note on Ovid, Fasti II.267 (vol. II pp327 ff. = pp389 ff. in his L. C. L. edition). When once the adjective λυκαῖος (really "of Mt. Lycaeus," in Arcadia) was taken as the equivalent of Lupercalis and Lycaean Pan identified with the god worshipped at the Lupercalia, Λύκαιον and Λύκαια would naturally be equated with Lupercal and Lupercalia, in spite of the fact that these words as used in Greece meant the shrine and games of Zeus Lycaeus.
❦
93 With the present passage should be compared three others in the Antiquities where Dionysius, for the benefit of his Greek public, indicates the season of the year in which a Roman date fell. Just below, in chap. 38.3, he speaks of the Ideas of May as being a little after the vernal equinox; in chap. 88.3, he places the Parilia (April 21) in the beginning of spring; and in IX.25.1, he says the new consuls assumed office near the summer solstice in the month of Sextilis (probably on the Calends of August). At first sight it might be thought that he was following an early Roman calendar that was a month or a little more in advance of the seasons. But the only calendar with which he can have had any personal acquaintance at Rome was the calendar as reformed by Julius Caesar, in effect since the year 46; and in three of the four passages he is describing a festival as it was still celebrated in his own day. We are almost forced, then, to one of two conclusions, either that he was content to define the season very roughly, or else that he was using the term "solstice" loosely for the middle of winter or summer and "equinox" for a period midway between — a usage that it would be hard to parallel — and even delaying "spring" correspondingly. Yet when it came to a Greek date as far back as the fall of Troy he could write with the greatest precision (chap. 63.1).
❦
94 Poseidon Hippios of the Greeks.
❦
95 See note on II.31.2.
❦
96 Dionysius perhaps is thinking particularly of the passage in Book VII (72.14‑18), where he points out the close agreement even in details between a Roman and a Greek sacrifice. See also I.80.1 (the Lupercalia) and I.34.4; 38.2‑3; 40.3‑5.
❦
97 The trigon was a triangular harp.
❦
98 No poet of this name is known, and Sylburg was perhaps right in proposing to read Ennius. Strictly speaking, Ennius was an Italian rather than a Roman, though it may be questioned whether Dionysius would have made the distinction. In the extant fragments of Ennius there is no reference to Hercules' visit, to say nothing of the Epeans.
❦
99 Compare Virgil's use of Saturnia tellus (Georg. II.173, Aen. VIII.329) and Saturnia arva (Aen. I.569) for Italy.
❦
100 For Antiochus see p39, n2 . This quotation is frg. 4 in Müller, F. H. G. I pp181 f.
❦
101 In other words, nearly all the "toe" of Italy south of the latitude of the Lacinian promontory.
❦
102 For Hellanicus see p71, n1 . The quotation that follows is frg. 97 in Müller, F. H. G. I p58.
❦
103 Hesychius cites the Greek word ἰταλός (originally ϝιταλός) for "bull," and Timaeus, Varro and Festus state that Italia came from this root.
❦
104 In Greek ὁ ἐπὶ Κρόνου βίος was proverbial for the Golden Age; compare the Latin Saturnia regna.
❦
105 Dionysius regularly uses the word Celts for Gauls; but it seems preferable to follow the English usage in the translation.
❦
106 See p105, n2.
❦
107 According to Varro the number of these effigies, made of bulrushes, was twenty-seven, equal to the number of the chapels, also called Argei, situated in various parts of the city. The number thirty given by Dionysius would mean one for each curia; but this does not seem so probable. The sacred bridge was the pons sublicius. For a full discussion of the Argei see Sir James Frazer's note on Ovid, Fasti V.621 (vol. IV pp74 ff., condensed in his L. C. L. edition, pp425 ff.).
❦
108 In VII.72.14‑18.
❦
109 For chaps. 39‑40 cf. Liv. I.7.4‑14.
❦
110 Erytheia ("Red" Island) was perhaps originally the fabulous land of the sunset glow. Later it was usually placed somewhere near the Pillars of Hercules.
❦
111 Jupiter Inventor.
❦
112 In a portion of the work now lost.
❦
113 Ara maxima.
❦
114 Forum boarium.
❦
115 Nauck, T. G. F.2, p66, frg. 199.
❦
116 Herculaneum.
Images with borders lead to more information.
|
||||||
UP TO: |
Dionysius |
Latin & Greek Texts |
LacusCurtius |
Home |
||
A page or image on this site is in the public domain ONLY if its URL has a total of one *asterisk. If the URL has two **asterisks, the item is copyright someone else, and used by permission or fair use. If the URL has none the item is © Bill Thayer. See my copyright page for details and contact information. |
Page updated: 29 Mar 18