"Divos & eos, qui cœlestes semper habiti, colunto, " & ollos, quÕS ENDO COLO MERITA VOCAVERINT, "HERCULEM, Liberum, Esculapium, Castorem, "Pollucem, Quirinum"-Thus copied by Virgil, in the beginning of Evander's speech to Æneas, Rex Evandrus ait: Non hæc solemnia nobis, ORUM Imposuit. Savis, hospes Trojane, periclis Servati facimus, MERITOSQUE novamus HONORES-A lesson of great importance to the pagan Lawgiver. This Vana superstitio ignara veterum deorum was, as we have shewn, a matter he took much care to rectify in the Mysteries; not by destroying that species of idolatry, the worship of dead men, which was indeed his own invention, but by shewing why they paid that worship; namely, for benefits done to the whole race of mankind, by those deified Heroes. Quare agite, o juvenes! tantarum in munere laudum, &c. The conclusion of Evander's speech, 46 COMMUNEMQUE VOCATE DEUM, & date vina volentes, alludes to that other institute of Cicero, in the same book Of Laws. SEPARATIM nemo habessit Deos: neve Novos, neve advenas, nisi publice adscitos, PRIVATIM Colunto." Of which he gives the reason in his comment, (( suosque Deos, aut Novos aut Alienigenas coli, confusionem habet religionum, & "ignotas ceremonias.” Nor Nor should we omit to observe a further beauty in this episode; and, in imitation, still, of Cicero; who, in his book Of Laws, hath taken the best of the Roman Institutes, for the foundation of his system: For the worship of HERCULES, as introduced by Evander, and administered by the POTITII on the altar called the ARA MAXIMA, was, as Dion. Hal. and Livy tell us, the oldest establishment in Rome; and continued for many ages in high veneration. To this the following lines allude, Hanc ARAM luco statuit, quæ MAXIMA semper, &c. ---Jamque sacerdotes, primusque POTITIUS, ibant. But Virgil was so learned in all that concerned the Roman ritual, that it was a common saying, (as we collect from Macrobius) Virgilius noster Pontifex maximus videtur: And that writer not apprehending the reason of so exact an attention to sacred things, being ignorant of the nature of the poem, says, MIRANDUM est hujus poetæ et circa nostra et circa externa sacra doctrinam *. 2. In the ninth book we have the fine episode of Nisus and Euryalus; which presents us with many new graces, when considered (which it ought to be) as a representation of one of the most famous and singular of the Grecian Institutions. CRETE, that ancient and celebrated School of legislation, had a civil custom, which the Spartans first, and afterwards all the principal cities of Greece †, borrowed from them, for every man of distinguished valour or wisdom to adopt a favourite youth, for whose education he was answerable, * Saturn. 1. iii. c. 6. See note [U] at the end of this Book. and and whose manners he had the care of forming Hence Nisus is said to be ACERRIMUS ARMIS, Hyrtacides; And Euryalus, COMES Euryalus, quo PULCHRIOR alter Non fuit Æneadum, Trojana neque induit arma; Ora PUER prima signans INTONSA JUVENTA. The LOVERS (as they were called) and their YOUTHS always served and fought together; so Virgil of these: His amor unus erat, pariterque in bella ruebant, The Lovers used to make presents to their favourite youths. So Nisus tells his friend: Si, TIBI, quæ POSCO promittunt (nanı mihi facti The states of Greece, where this Institution prevailed, reaped so many advantages from it, that they gave it the greatest encouragement by their laws: so that Cicero, in his book Of a republic, observed, "oppro"brio fuisse adolescentibus si amatores non haberent?" Virgil has been equally intent to recommend it by all the charms of poetry and eloquence. The amiable character, the affecting circumstance, the tenderness of distress, are all inimitably painted. The youth so educated, were found to be the best bulwark of their country, and most formidable to the enemies of civil liberty. On which account, the Tyrants, wherever they prevailed, used all their arts to suppress suppress an Institution so opposite to private interest and ambition. The annals of ancient Greece afford many examples of the bravery of these Bands, who cheerfully attempted the most hazardous adventures *. So that Virgil did but follow the custom of the best policied States (which it was much for his honour to do) when he put these two friends on one of the most daring actions of the whole war; as old Aletes understood it: Dî patrii, quorum semper sub numine Troja est, Plutarch, speaking of the Thebans, in the Life of Pelopidas, says, that "Gorgias first enrolled the saCRED BAND, Consisting of three hundred chosen men; and that this corps was said to be composed "of LOVERS and their FRIENDS. It is reported, says "he, that it continued unconquered till the battle of "Charonea; and when, after that action, Philip was "surveying the dead, and came to the very spot where "these three hundred fell, who had charged in close 66: order so fatally on the Macedonian lances, and ob"served how they lay heaped upon one another, he was amazed, and being told, that this was the band "of Lovers and their Friends, he burst into tears, and 66 said, Accursed be they who can suspect that these men either did or suffered any thing dishonest. But certainly (continues my author) this institution of "Lovers did not arise in Thebes, as the poets feigned, "from the PASSION of Laius, but from the WISDOM * See note [X] at the end of this Book. " of « of Legislators *.” Such was the Friendship our poet would here represent, where he says, Nisus AMORE PIO pueri— and where he makes Ascanius call Euryalus, VENERANDE puer The one dies in defence of the other; revenges his death; and then falls with him, like the Lovers in the SACRED BAND: moriens animam abstulit hosti. Tum super exanimem sese projecit AMICUM And here let it be observed, that, as this episode is given for a picture of this Institution in it's purity; so, in the Enemies' quarter, he hath given another drawing of it, in it's degeneracy and corruption: for the SACRED BAND, like the MYSTERIES, underwent the common fate of time and malice. - Tu quoque flaventem prima lanugine malas Dum sequeris Clytium infelix, nova gaudia, Cydon, * Τὸν δ ̓ ἱερὸν λόχον, ως φασιν, συνάξιο Γοργίδας πρῶτος, ἐξ ἀνδρῶν ἐπιλέκιων τριακοσίων,—ἔνιοι δὲ φασιν ἐξ ἐξατῶν καὶ ἐρωμένων γενέσθαι τὸ σύτημα τύτο λέγεται δὲ διαμεῖναι μέχρι τῆς ἐν Χαιρωνεία μάχης ἀντληλον· ὡς δὲ μετὰ τὴν μάχην ἐφορῶν τὰς νεκρὸς ὁ Φίλιππο. ἔτη κατὰ σῦτο τὸ χωρίον, ἐν ᾧ συνελύ[χανε κεῖσθαι τὰς τριακοσίες ἐναντίας ἀπηνη κότας ταῖς σαρίσσαις ἅπαντας ἐν τοῖς Γενοῖς ὅπλοις, καὶ μεν' ἀλλήλων αναμιγνυμένες, θαυμάσανα, καὶ πυθόμενον ὡς ὁ τῶν ἐραςῶν καὶ τῶν ἐρωμένων οὗτος εἴη λόγω δακρύσαι, καὶ εἰπεῖν, ̓Απόλοιπο κακῶς οἱ τέτες τι ποιεῖν ἢ πάσχειν αἰσχρὸν ὑπονοῦνες. Ολως δὲ τῆς περὶ τὰς ἐραςὰς συνηθείας, εχ - ὥσπερ οἱ ποιηταὶ λέγεσι, Θηβαίοις τὸ Λαΐς πάθῶν ἀρχὴν παρέσχεν, ἀλλ ̓ οἱ ΝΟΜΟΘΕΤΑΙ. Tom. I. p. 287. B. et E. Francof. Edit. fol. 1599. (Vol. II. p. 218, 219. ed. Brian.) Dardania |