NOTES ON THE SECULAR HYMN.

1. THE festival of the Secular Games, together with the name itself, Ludi Saeculares, was peculiar to the period of the Empire. The real object of its introduction and first celebration was to do honor to Augustus and to his government, the first ten years of which had just passed away. It seemed a fitting occasion, by means of a series of public games, at once to acknowledge and to secure the supreme power of Augustus, and to hand down his name to posterity, as the restorer of the state from strife and anarchy to harmony and established order. The Quindecemviri, in order to give greater éclat to the proposed games, sought to identify them with the existing Ludi Tarentini, which had been celebrated but three times during the period of the Republic. They declared that these games had been celebrated once in every century or saeculum; and having consulted the Sybilline books, of which they had charge, they formally announced that the time had now arrived for another celebration.

2. But the Secular Games differed essentially from the Tarentine. The latter were in every instance celebrated for the specific purpose of averting from the state some pressing calamity, and the services were in honor of Dis and Proserpina; but, in the celebration of the former, the infernal deities held but a subordinate place, while their object, as we have seen above, was a purely political one.

3. On the above-mentioned announcement of the Quindecemviri, the jurist Ateius Capito was appointed to make the requisite arrangements, and Horace was directed to prepare an Ode. First of all, heralds were sent round to invite the people to a spectacle which they had never seen before, and would never see again. Next, in anticipation of the ceremonies, the Quindecemviri distributed among the free-born citizens, on the Palatine and the Capitoline, torches, sulphur, and bitumen; and in these places, as well as in the temple of Diana on the Aventine, were alse distributed wheat, barley, and beans, as offerings to the Parcae.

The festival was solemnized in summer, and lasted three days and three nights. Games were held in a place in the Campus Martius called Tarentum, and sacrifices were offered to the following deities: Jupiter and Juno, Apollo, Latona, and Diana, the Parcae, to Carmenta, Ceres, and to Dis and Proserpina.

At the second hour of the night, the ceremonies were opened by the emperor, who, by the river-side, sacrificed three lambs to the Parcae, upon three altars erected for the purpose. In the Tarentum a stage was erected, and on it was sung by a choir a festive hymn. On this first day the people went to the Capitol to offer sacrifices, and then returned to the Tarentum, to do honor to Apollo and Diana by singing choruses.

On the second day, the most honored matrons of the city went to the Capitol, and sang hymns; and the Quindecemviri sacrificed to the great divinities.

On the third day, Greek and Latin choruses were sung in the temple of Apollo on the

NOTES ON THE SECULAR HYMN.

437

Palatine, by three times nine boys and maidens. During these three days, feasts and games were going on throughout the city.

The above account has been prepared from Hartung's description of the Tarentine Games, in Rel. d. Romer, vol. 2, 92, seqq., a translation of which may also be found in the Dictionary of Antiquities.

I add from the Dictionary of Antiquities the following statement of the several celebrations of the Secular Games: "The first celebration of the Ludi Saeculares took place in the reign of Augustus, in the summer of the year 17 B. C. The second took place in the reign of Claudius, A. D. 47; the third in the reign of Domitian, A. D. 88; and the last in the reign of Philippus, A. D. 248."

The following scheme, proposed by Steiner, and adopted by Orelli and Dillenburger, represents the manner in which the Secular Hymn was probably sung by the two choirs of boys and of maidens:

5. Sybillini-versus. It was understood to be in obedience to the authority of the Sybilline books, that Augustus celebrated the Secular Games. 6. Lectas-castos. It was required that the boys and the maidens of the chorus should be of senatorial families, and the children of parents who were both alive, and had been married by the ceremony of the confarreatio, the most ancient and solemn of the Roman marriage forms. -10. Promis. Drawest out; i. e. from the darkness of night. Celas. Hidest; in darkness. Aliusque et idem. Different and yet the same; that is, as Osborne remarks, different in semblance, and yet in reality the same. 14. Ilithyia; Eixeiðvía, from ẻλcúdw, an appellation of Diana. As if to do more honor to the goddess, he adds two appellations, Lucina from lux, an appellation of Juno also, and Genitalis from genitum (gigno).— -20. Lege. The allusion is to the Lex Julia de maritandis ordinabus, which was passed B. c. 18; its object was to encourage and regulate marriages. See note, O. iv., 5, 22, and Dict. Antiqq. under the word. -23. Ter. See note, Epist. ii., 1, 36. 24. Frequentes. Numerously attended. Translate the word, according to the Latin order, last in the stanza. 26. Semel. Once for all. Stabilis rerum terminus. "The sure event of circumstances." Osborne. -Quod depends upon cecinisse, which is equivalent to in canendo. 31. Fetus. Here the fruits of the earth; as in Virg. Georg. 1, 55, Arborei fetus; also ib. 2, 390; and Cic. Or. 2, 30.- 33. Condito. Compare the poet's language in the last stanza but one of Tenth Ode of Book Second. 39. Jussa pars. In apposition with turmae. Virgil represents the voyage of Aeneas to Italy, and the settlement of the Trojans there, as done in obedience to the command of Apollo; in Aen. 3, 94;

4,345, 41. Sine fraude. Without injury-47. Remque prolemque. Wealth and (numerous) offspring. The second que is elided before the vowel in et in the next verse.- -49. Quaeque—impetret. This is the true reading. Quaeque is governed by veneratur, which is equivalent to venerando precatur. - -51. Bellante, etc. The same sentiment in the celebrated line of Virgil, Aen. 6, 853:

"Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos."

-54. Medus. Here means the Parthian, as so often in Horace. 55. Responsa. Compare the poet's words, O. iv., 15, 22. 60. Copia. See note, O. i., 17, 16. - -65. Arces; here in the sense of colles; and the Palatine hill is thus referred because, as already mentioned in the introduction, hymns were sung in the temple of Apollo, on the Palatine.

- 69. Aventinum. On the Aventine was a temple of Diana. The Algidus is also mentioned in O. i., 21, 6, as a favorite haunt of Diana. 73. Haec-sentire. Haec; i. e. quae precati sumus. Give heed to these prayers of ours.

NOTES ON THE SATIRES.

WE are indebted to the Romans both for the word Satire, and the species of composition which it designates. We find, however, that in the progress of Roman literature, both these underwent important changes. The word Satura, which properly means the same as farrago, a mixture of various things, was applied, at a very early period, to a kind of composition, which treated discursively of various subjects, partly in prose, and partly in poetry, and, in the poetical parts, in verses of different measures. From a passage in Livy,* which is the principal authority on this point, it would also appear that this early Satura was a rude kind of drama, partly extemporaneous and partly written, which developed no regular plot, and in its broad burlesque resembled the +Fescennine verses of the ancient people of Italy. The satires of Ennius and Pacuvius, though perhaps not dramatic, were, at least in their mixed and irregular character, examples of the ancient Satura.

In later times, after the regular drama had been introduced by Livius Andronicus, there arose the Satira or Satire, which, though not intended for the stage, yet in its aim to represent life, and in its adoption of something of the form of dialogue, shared some of the characteristics of the older Satura. Lucilius is mentioned by Quintilian as the first who gained distinction in this kind of writing, and he may be justly pronounced its inventor. He wrote in hexameter verse; and took the material of his satire from the whole range of human life, its illustrations of good and evil, of virtue and of vice, of wisdom and of folly.

It is this kind of Satire, which, both in its form and its subjectmatter, these writings of Horace illustrate. His Satires are sketches of life and manners, of the life and manners of the Romans, in the reign of Augustus. His own words in several passages help us to indicate the

* B. vii., 2.

† See Dict. Antiqq. under Fescennina.

particular style of satire in which he chose to write. In the First Satire of the First Book, he pleasantly inquires:

In a word, it is the playful style of Satire, that which employs all the gentle arts of humor and raillery, in which Horace wrote, and in which he excelled. His satirical writings present a striking contrast to those of Juvenal, the master of grave, severe satire; and the contrast between these two satirists is easily explained by the difference of their personal character and of the times in which they lived. Horace was a man of genial temper and easy habit, a wise and well-bred man of the world; and living in a time when there yet lingered something of honor and virtue in the luxurious life of Rome, he could make merry with the follies and even the vices of men. But Juvenal was a man of uncommon gravity and earnestness of character, and lived in a later and utterly corrupt age; and he came forth among his countrymen like an inspired prophet, arrayed in awful dignity, and scourged their wickedness with unrelenting severity.

We find imitations of Horace's style of satirizing in various modern writers especially in Pope and Swift in English, and Boileau in French literature. Some of these imitations will be alluded to in the notes that follow.

BOOK I.

SATIRE I.

The poet illustrates the discontent of men with their own lot, and finds its cause in the passion of avarice.

The train of thought seems to be as follows:

Introduction (1-27): no one is content with his own lot, but every one envies another's; and yet no one is willing to change his lot, if the opportunity be offered him.-With the implication that this discontent springs from avarice, the various pleas of an avaricious man for hoarding up wealth are stated and replied to (28-91).-These pleas being untenable, the miser ought to put an end to the mere amassing of wealth, and wisely use what he has gained. And yet he need not turn spendthrift, for there is a due medium in all things (92-107). Conclusion (108-end): it is thus true, that no miser is content with his lot; thus in the haste of all to be richer than their neighbor, but few lead a happy life.