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280, is only 36, yet the Romans, though highly indignant, did not
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Computations Which have been made, it appears that, by means os i it may bo ascortainod that tho Etruscans had determinod tho exactiongili os tho tropical Or solar year, With a greater degree of accuracythan is to bo found in tho Julian computation. Lilio the Etruscans, tho Romans employed sor civit purpOses a lunar year, Which they had probably borroWed also froin that peoplo. This year, Whicli, os course, like eVery year of the kinii, must have consisted of tWolvo monilis, seli stiori of the solar year by the space of ΙΙ days and 6 hours, and tho mode adopted for bringing them into
other year, during periods of 22 years, theso intercalated monilis consisting alternatoly of 22 and 23 da s. This monili Was namedΜorcedonius. In the Iast biennium of tho period no intorculationtook placo. As svo years made a lustre, so sive of these periods madoa socie, Whicli thus consisted of ΙΙ0 years or 22 lustres, and was thela est measure Os time among the Romans. 'The care os intercalating lay With the pontifim, and they Iengthenodand sh tened the year at their pleasure, in order to serve Or injure the consuls and sarmers of the revenue, according as they Were hostileor Diendly t Ward them. In consequence of this, Julius Caesar found the year 67 days in advanco of the true time, When he undertook toeorreet it by the aid of soreigii scienco. From his time the civilyear of the Romans Wra a Solar, not a lunar one, i and tho Ju-Itan year continuod in use illi the Gregorian reformation of tho
Wo thus sos that tho civit year of the Romans alWays consistod ostWolve monilis, and that a year Os ten montiis Was in use along Witti
o tho Cambridgo Philological Museum, Νο. V. p. 474.
' Certus undenus decie8 per annos orbis ut Oantus reseratque ludos.
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it in the oarly centuries of the state, whioli sorved to correet ii, and which Was used in matters of importanee.
ci Vil year of tho Romans, and evidonee remained to provo that thecommenoement of the year had, in former times, been regulated by the Vernat equinox, instead of the winter solstice, it seemed to solio , of course, that the original year os Romulus had consistod os but tonmonilis. The inconvenience of this modo os dividing timo must have been thought to have appeared very early, since me find the introduction of the lunar year of tWolvo monilis ascribed to Numa, Who issaid to havo added tWo monilis to the Romulian year, Whicli, it Would thus appear, Was regarded as having been a year os ten lunar monilis. This placing of the lunar tWelve-month year in the mythic age Os Rome, I may observe, tends to confirm the opinion os iis having boon in use froin the origin of the city. The ancient Israelites lia 1 two hinds os year, a religious und a civilono, Whicli commenoed ut disserent seasons. Their monilis also Origi-DHly, We are told, proceeiled numeri catly, but afterWards got propernames. As the monili Abib is montioned by Damo in tho book of Deuteronomy, I hagard a conjecturo, that tho civit and religious yearshad coexisted froni tho time os Mosos, and that tho monilis of the former had had proper names, whilo those of the lalter proceodednumerically. Is there any great improbability in supposing the sameto havo been the case at Rome Θ The religious year of ten monilis,us being least used, may have proceoded With numerical appellations Dom iis first monili to December, While tho monilis Of the civit yearhad caeli thoir peculiar appollation derived froin the name Os a deity, or os a sestivat. It is remarkable that the first fix monilis of the
On tho subjecta troated os in this section, seo Νiobulir on the Secular Cycle, in his History os Rome, and Scaligor de Emendatione Temporum.' That this is by no means improbabie is evident from me circumstanee, that thona me os the intercalary monili, Μorcedonius, is to bu f Ound in no Latin writcr. ItWould be unknown to us, is Plutarch had nos chanced to meriti0n it.
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INTRODUCTION. XXIto the approaching Νones, and was donominatod the foui th binore the nes; the day astor the Nonos Was the eighth binore the Ides; tho lay after the Ides, the nineleonin binore the Kalends os Februa . The technical phrassology of tho Roman Calendar ran thus. The
Another mode of expression, Was to uso a proposition, and nn accuSative case. Thus, sor tertio Nonas thoy Would say ante diem tertium Non , Which was Writton a. d. III. Non. This form is very much empl0yed by Livy and Cicoro. It was even used objectiVely, and governed of the propositions in and M. We thus meet in ante tertiu- Nonas, and eae ante diem Nonas, in these authors. Another preposition thus employed is ad, W0 meet ad pridie Nonas. As the Romans rookoned inclusively, We must be curesul in uSSigning any particular day to iis place in tho monili, according to thomodem mode Of rechoning. We must, thorosoro, alWays diministi tho
or indu, Was an old krni r in. It may stili be suen in the fragments os Ennius and in Lucretius.
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whloli tho couris did not sit; thu dies intercisi Wore thoso days,on only a part of whicli justice might be administered. Thus, Wo aretoid that somo holida ys were nefasti, during tho timo of tho Ulling of the victim, but fasti, inter coem et porrecta sexta), again nos ti Whiletho victim Was being consumed on the altar. Manutius, by merely counting up the number of tho dies fusti in tho Julian Calendar, found that thuy Were exactly 38 in number. This strongly confirms What has been said above, respecting the division os the cyclic year into 38 Weelis, and is One among numerous inStanees of the pertinacity With whicli tho Romans rota ined old forins and
os othor days, under disserent appollations, had boon addod to thom Iong besore. The making the market days fusti Was, We are told, 'tho act of the consul Hortensius.
Tho Roman patriolans derived froni their Tuscan instruetors, thopraetice, common to Sacerdotes castes, Os maintaining poWer bykoeping the peopte in ignorance os matters Whicli, though simple in
the things, whicli such bodies are most destrous os enueloping in mystery and confining the knowledge of to themsolvos, is tho Calendar, by Whicli religiolis rites and legat procoedings ure regulate i. Accordingly, sor a long time, the Roman people had no means Mslearning With certainty What days Were fasti and What n0t, but byapplying to the pontiis, in Whose house the tablos of the fusti Wero Lept, or by the proclamation Which he used to mahe of the festiva lawhich wero Ahortly to take placo. As We liave Seen above, the knowlodgo of tho longili of the ensuing monili could only bo obtainodin tho fame manner. This, and the pOWer of intercalating, gave ahight y injurious degree os poWer to the pontiffs. Accordingly, nothing could excoed the indignation of tho sonato when, in the year 440, Flavius, the cierk or secretata os App. Claudius,as a most offectual mode os gaining the popular savour, Socrotly mado tablos of tho Calendar aud set thoni up Out the Forum.' Honce- sortii tho dies fusti and nefasti, the stativo sestivias, the anniVersaries
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INTRODUCTION. xxiii os tho dodieations Os tomples, olo. Wore known in QVery Ono. Thoclays os remarhable actions, such as the successes and reversos of thournis of the republic, Were also noted. Copies sor tho uso of tho public and individuals Woro multiplied ; the municipia and othortoWns os Italy, as the fragments Whicli haVe been discovored shomsollowsed tho Oxample os Rome, and the colonies, in this as in everything else, presented tho mollier- ity in litue. The custom Wastransmitted to modern Europe, and, in the Calendar part of our OWn Almana ks, We may see a copy of those Fasti, Whicli oncosormed a portion of the mysterious tremures of the patricians osancient Rome.
These W0ro tho Fasti Sacri or Kalendaros, but tho Word Fasti Wasapplied to another hi nil os register, named tho Fasti Historici or
Consulares, Whicli containsed the names of the magistrates of oachyear, e8pecialty the consuis, and the olitos evenis of the year Wore soldown in thom, so that thoy sorinod a kind of annuis of tho state. When Wo read of the nume of any consul, as Was the case With L. and Μ. Antonius, being ora sed froin the Fasti by a senatusconsult, it is always these Fasti that are meant.
His Horoic Epistises h ad no modul in Grecian litoraturo; his Art os Love, tho most persect of his Wortis, Was equalty his oWn, thoughdidactio poeita had been cultivated in Greece; his Μetamorphostis bore perhaps a resemblance to a tost poem os Nicander Or Callimachus; but unloss a Work of this last poet, presently to be notiosed, was of thosamo kind with it, Grecian literature contained nothing resemblingliis Fasti. To a post liho Ovid, os various poWers and great command orlangvago, seW subjecis could haVe appeared to possess mors capabilities,' lo usu a hackneyed but expressive term Hs had hero
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bo decidod, and, much as I delight in the poetry of Virgil, I regarithim as inserior in genius to Ovid. Virgil deponds On others, heslways imitates; Ovid borroWs rarely, in composition he is alWays best When most independ iit. I do not think that Ovid had any modol sor his Fasti; tho ideamight havo been suggested to him, res it is thought, by this verse of
Sacra, diesque canam et cognomina prisca locorum,
With Whioli ho concludos a posem, in Whicli ho kigiis himself to bo fhoWing to a stranger the principat monuments of Romo. Callimachus, toO,had writton a poem Whicli, like ali the postry of tho Alexandrian period, Was Well known at Rome and was quoted by Varro, Μartiat, Servius and othors. Iis titio Was Αιτια, and, froin iis naine and the soW fragments and soanty accounts of it Whicli rema in, it appears that itfroatod of the causes of mattors relating to tho gods and ancient heroes of Groeco. From an opigram in the Anthology, wo lsearn that heseigned that he was transported in a dream to Μt. Holicon, and there received his information Dom the Muses. The epigram ends thus :
It is uncorta in Whethor the poem Was in heroic Or elegiae moasuro.
Hoc, momini, quondam fieri non posse loquebar, Et m0 Battiades judice sulsus erui.
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Τho disserenuo, hoWover, botween this poem and the Fasti, musthave been considerabie. A Greeli poet, named Butas, according to
from Which he quotos these two verses relating to tho Luperci, and in explanation of their custom of striking those Whom they met-
'Eμποδιους τυπτοντας οπως ποτε φασγαν' εχοντες
This might appear to havo boon the modet os Ovid's posm, but itis unknown when Butas lived, and he may as Weli have Writton asteras bosore tho Latin poet. on the wholo, I think ovid's claim to originality in this poeni cannot justly be contestod. Even though he may have taken tho idea osit from othors his mode os troating the subject is his oWn. Whon ovid first conosivod tho idea of Wri ting a poem on the Roman Fasti, it is notlikely that he was very Woli furnished Withthe requisite knowledgo. Any one, Who is familiar With tho intornat history of literaturo, knows hoW common it is sor a Writer, especialty a poet, to select a subject of Whicli ho is sussiciently ignorant, and thonto go in search os materiais. Such appears to me to have been thocasse With ovid, and tho errors into Whicli ho salis prove that thougha diligent enquirer, as I think he Was, he never arriVed at accuracy in history or science; With Grecian mythology he Was intimately ac- quainted, and here he is superior to Virgil, Whose knoModgo of tho history and institutions os ancient Italy much excoeiled his. Tho Annals of Ennius, tho historical Works of Fabius Pictor and his successors doWn to Liu, contained the history of Rome, and these Works, it is evident, Ouid had studiod ; sor tho institutions and
their origins his clites fourco must have been the writings of L. Cincius Alimentus, tho contemporary of Fabius Pictor, the most audiolous investigator Os antiquities that Rome evor produced. Thouartous Fasti, such as those of his contemporary Verrius Flaccus, os Whicli fragments have been discovered and published, contributodmuch information, and Various passages of the poem intimato that personat inquiry and orat communication aided in augmenting his stores os antiquarian lore. His astronomical knowledge Was probablyderived Dom the ordinary Calendars, and as they Were not strictly
correet, and the poet, in ali probability, did not apply himself with
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Euxine, took placo A. U. C. 762, in the fifty-second year of the poei'sage. In the long exculpatory epistio to Augustus, Whicli sortiis thesecond book of his Tristia, he montions tho Fasti as a Work actuallyWritten, and dodicatsed to that prince, but interrupted by his exile. The poem isseis contains many pasSages Which Were evidently ad-dressed to him. On tho ollior haud, it is actualty dodicatsed in Germanicus, the adoptivo son Os Tiberius, and L. I. v. 285, he mentionsilio triumph of that prinos ovor the Catti, Cherusci and Angovarii, Whicli, according to Tacitus Ania. II. 4Ι.), took place in the year 770, which was the yoar of tho poei's dea th. It wOuid, theres ore, Seem tofollow at onco that this is tho triae dato of the publication of the poem, Were it not that Tacitus II. 26.) telis iis that the triumph hadbeen deorsed by the sonate in the year 768, so that the poei's Wor Is may be prolepticia. The other, hoWever, is by sar the most naturaland probabie intorpretation of his Words. It is confirmed by a passage L. II. 55. et seq.) in Which he praisos Tiborius as the bulliterand restorer of the temples of the gods, and in this very year 770, asWe learn froni Tacitus, the semperor repatred and dedicated the templo of Libor, Libera and Ceres, that os Flora and that os danus. Wo
In the opisile to Augustus, above alluded to, Ovid says,
Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemquo libellos;
Cumque suo finem mense volumen habet. Idque tuo nuper scriptum Sub nomine, Caesar, Et tibi sacratum sors mea rupit OPUS.
Honoo it has bocome tho prevalent opinion that ho Wroto tu olvo books, of whicli tho hals has peristaed. This appears certainly tofolloW plainly onough si 0m the Woriis of the poet, but tho silonce of the ancients respecting the last Six books is strong on the Dogative fido, sor os ali tho quotations Which We meet os this Work, particularly in Lactantius, thoro is not a single ono that is not to bo found in thobooks Which We possess. I, thorosoro, agre0 With Μasson, in his liso os the poci, -that tho mea ning os thoso vorsos is, that he had collected his