breadth, rapidity, or roaring noise, may have conferred on the river Timavus. The preceding interpretation, deduced from the actual words and grammatical construction, is abundantly confirmed by the ocular testimony of Cluverius. "Ceterum de natura septem fontium (Timavi viz.) ita tradentem supra audivimus Strabonem ; Πηγὰς ἔχει 5 πότιμε ὕδατος Πολύβιος δ' εἴρηκε πλὴν μιᾶς τὰς ἄλλας ἁλμύρα ὕδατος. Utrumque verum est diversi temporis respectu ; quippe quum omnis hic tractus inter mare et Frigidum amnem unum perpetuumque sit saxum, ['Hohle Kalkfelsen, die die schönsten und wunderbarsten Grotten bilden :" Schlözer, (who was on the spot in the year 1777,) Briefwechesel II. Theil. p. 340, Göttingen, 1778,] innumeris passim altissimisque antris perforatum, cuniculi quidam a colle saxeo, qui septem Timavi fontibus imminet, ad proximi maris vada pertingunt, per quos incrementum patitur atque decrementum Timavus ex adfluxu refluxuque ejusdem maris; ita ut lenis sine ullo majore strepitu atque mansuetus dulcibus suis aquis per complures fauces defluat amnis ubi mare subsedit ac procul recessit; quam primum vero idem mare æstu suo intumuit, tanto cum impetu prædictis cuniculis infertur fontibusque Timavi permiscetur, ut ingenti cum fragore ac veluti mugitu saxei montis per complura illa spatiosa ora prorumpat, jamque alveo Timavi contineri nequeat, sed adjacentia prata, per quæ ad ostium tendit amnis, longe lateque sæpius inundet, pelagique in speciem plane contegat..........Hinc magnum appellavit Timavum Virgilius in Eclog. VIII... Hinc item æquoreum dixit amnem Ausonius, in carmine de claris urbibus,2 " æquoreo non plenior amne Timavus."......... Tantâ copiâ quum fontibus Timavi permisceatur mare, horum omnium aquas salsedine suâ inficit, impotabilesque reddit, excepto uno quem omnium maximum apud ipsum divi Johannis delubrum erumpere dixi. Hæc quum ipse egomet 2 If it be alleged that Ausonius may possibly have used the word æquoreus in the sense of resembling the sea in copiousness, not in saltness, I beg to say that I am not aware that æquoreus has ever been used in the former sense, while, on the contrary, its use in the latter is placed beyond doubt by that passage in the Pharsalia, Lib. VIII. where Lucan, speaking of the sea water used to extinguish Pompey's funeral pyre, says, Resolutaque nondum J. H. coram probe expertus sim, audacter eos redarguere liceat, qui dulceis perpetuo permanere omnibus fontibus aquas etiam mari cum maxime æstuante, docent."-Ital. Antiq. 1. 20. V. 244. Fontem...ora.-Fontem, the spring or source; ora, the mouths which give issue to it, and through which occasionally (see preceding comment) the sea itself also bursts. These ora are (as described by Schlözer, ubi supra, from actual observation,) holes in the limestone rock which forms the substratum of this whole district of Carniola. "Da nun hier die See immer zunimmt, so findet der ganze Timavus beinahe keinen Abfluss mehr, und das Wasser fängt schon gleich bei seiner Entstehung an zu stehen, zumal in trocknen Zeiten, wo nur die untern Löcher der Felsen Wasser geben. Es sind der Löcher mehr als sieben......Einige haben eine ungeheure Tiefe, andre nicht." No word could have been better chosen than ora to express accurately, and at the same time poetically, these Löcher or holes in the rock. Claudian's Stagna Timavi" are, as I think is sufficiently shown by the adjoined numerantur (" Phrygii numerantur stagna Timavi," Paneg. de tertio consulat. Honorii), neither more nor less than Virgil's ora Timavi, and Schlözer's Löcher; holes full of water, and, according to circumstances, overflowing more or less. From the former part of Schlözer's observation, it seems not improbable that the Fons Timavi, already so much changed, and no longer (as I collect from the silence of observers since the time of Cluverius, or at least since that of Kircher,) communicating subterraneously with the sea, will, in the lapse of a few more centuries, have altogether ceased to exist. For an account of the respective positions and names of the seven ora Timavi, as they existed in the year 1689, see Valvasor; Ehre des Herzogthum's Krain, Fol. Laybach 1689, b. II. c. 66, and b. IV. c. 44. ... • V. 245. Vasto cum murmure montis pelago sonanti.Two noises are here accurately distinguished: (a) the ground murmur, or sound of the water rushing under the rocks and through their ora or apertures, (a sound exactly corresponding to, and expressed by, the self-same words as that of the winds roaring about the claustra of the Eolian hall, vers. 55,) and (b) the resounding of the waves of the flood with which the eruption of the sea through the ora had covered the cultivated fields. V. 246. Arva.-The word arva, signifying cultivated fields, (compare En. II. 209,) goes to establish the argument (Comment. En. 1. 244,) that the description is not of the permanent, but only of the occasional state of the river (or more properly the stream) Timavus, viz. of that state which would be produced by the eruption of the sea through the spring. V. 250. Cali...arcem.-Not the high place, viz. heaven, but the high place, or high part or citadel, of heaven; where, as appears from Ovid, the poets located the palace of the superior gods. Quæ pater ut summâ vidit Saturnius arce, Atria nobilium valvis celebrantur apertis. See Comment. En. 1. 225. Metam. 1. 163. V. 255. Vultu quo cælum tempestatesque serenat; see Comment. En. 1. 127.-There is a representation of Jupiter Serenus, with the inscription "Jovi Sereno sacr.," on an ancient lamp in the Passerian Museum. It is stated by Passerius (I know not how truly,) to be the only ancient representation of Jupiter Serenus in existence. See Lucerna Fictiles Musæi Passerii (3 tom. fol. Pisauri 1739) tom. I. Tab. 33. It is highly probable that the words of the text allude to some such representation of Jupiter Serenus actually existing, and well known, in the time of Virgil. V. 292. Cana Fides et Vesta, &c.-The simple meaning is, that men, ceasing from war, shall live as they did in the good old times, when they obeyed the precepts of Fides, Vesta, and Remus and Romulus. [See next note.] It is sufficiently evident from Georg. 1. 498, II. 533, that the deities here mentioned were specially associated in the Roman mythology with that primitive epoch of the national history, to which the Romans (sharing a feeling common to all civilised nations that have ever existed,) loved to look back as an epoch of peace and innocence; for this reason and no other are they specified as the gods of the returning golden age here announced by Jupiter. I am unwilling so far to derogate from the dignity of this sentiment, as to suppose, with Heyne, that it contains an allusion to the trivial circumstance of the temples of Fides, Vesta, and Remus and Romulus being seated on the Palatine hill near the palace of Augustus; nor do I think it necessary to discuss the opinion advanced by the late Mr. Seward, and preserved by Hayley, in one of the notes to his second Epistle on Epic Poetry, that the meaning is, that civil and criminal justice shall be administered in those temples, that opinion being based on the erroneous interpretation of jura dabunt, pointed out in Comm. vers. 293. The whole of this enunciation of the fates by Jupiter is one magnificent strain of adulation of Augustus. A similar adulation, although somewhat more disguised, is plainly to be read in every word of Venus's complaint to Jupiter, and in the very circumstance of the interview between the queen of love and beauty and the Pater hominumque deûmque; that interview having for its sole object the fortunes of Eneas, Augustus's ancestor, and the foundation by him of that great Roman empire, of which Augustus was now the absolute master and head. Nor is the adulation of Augustus confined to those parts of the Eneis, in which, as in the passages before us, there is reference to him by name or distinct allusion; it pervades the whole poem from beginning to end; and could not have been least pleasing to a person of so refined a taste where it is least direct, and where the praise is bestowed, not upon himself, but upon that famous goddess-born ancestor, from whom it was his greatest pride and boast that he was descended. Not that I suppose, with Warburton and Spence, either that the character of Augustus is adumbrated in that of Eneas, or that the Eneis is a political poem, having for its object to reconcile the Roman nation to the newly settled order of things; on the contrary, I agree with Heyne that there are no sufficient grounds for either of these opinions, and that they are each of them totally inconsistent with the boldness and freedom necessary to a great epic. But, nevertheless, without going so far as Warburton or Spence, I am certainly of opinion that Virgil wrote the Eneis in honour of Augustus: that he selected Encas for his hero, chiefly because, as Augustus's reputed ancestor, and the first founder of the Roman empire, his praises would redound more to the honour of, and therefore be more grateful to, Augustus, than those of any other hero with which the heroic age could have furnished him; and still further, that he not only purposely abstained from introducing topics which might have been disagreeable to the feelings, or derogatory to the reputation, of Augustus, but also seized every opportunity of giving such tendency and direction to his story, and illustrating it with such allusions as he judged would be best received by him, and shed most honour and glory upon his name. Nor let this be called mere adulation call it rather the heartfelt gratitude of the partial poet towards his munificent friend and patron, and the fulfilment and realization of his allegorical promise to build a magnificent temple to him by Mincius' side, viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam Georg. III. 13-39. V. 293. Jura dabunt.-Jura dare is, primarily, to make and impose laws, to perform the function of lawgiver, and, therefore, secondarily, to rule-Cesar dum magnus ... victor ... volentes Per populos dat jura.-Georg. IV. 560. Hospitibus nam te dare jura loquuntur,-En. 1. 731. See also En. III. 187; v. 758; VIII. 670, &c. It is surprising that Heyne, having correctly interpreted jura dabunt in the passage before us, by præerunt, should afterwards, at line 507, fall into the common error, and confound jura dare with jus dicere, the meaning of which is to expound, explain, or lay down what the law is, to perform the office of a judge, to administer justice. Ea res a Volcatio qui Romæ jus dicit, rejecta in Galliam est,-Cicer. Fam. Epist. 13, 14. Appius... quam asperrime poterat jus de creditis pecuniis dicere,—Liv. 11. 27. Ipse jus dixit assidue, et in noctem nonnumquam: si parum corpore valeret, lecticâ pro tribunali collocatâ, vel etiam domi cubans, Suet. in Aug. c. 33. I think also that Heyne confines jura dabunt within too narrow limits by subjoining imperio Romano; and that he should have used some more comprehensive term, such as hominibus, or populis, or gentibus, which would better harmonize with the wide extent of the term sæcula, and with the general spirit of the prophecy, that the peace was to be universal, to extend over the whole world. V. 293.* Diræ ferro et compagibus arctis Heyne has set his seal to the following, which is the univer |