"tum reliquit, Chaldaeis in prae"dictione, et in notatione cujufque vitae ex natali die, minime effe credendum.” Thus Eudoxus may poffibly be the perfon intended; though it is much to be doubted, because we do not hear, that he ever wrote concerning agriculture. Hefiod feems to have a much better claim to the honour of being nto engraven on our cup. He was born at Afcra in Boeotia, and is thought by fome to have been older than Homer; others make him his con- * temporary and others place him after the age of that great Poet. But, if we may believe himself, he was at leaft contemporary with Homer; for he has told us, that he lived in the age fucceeding the hea roes, who warred at Troy, and at the fame time meafures an age by the life of man. His poem concerning the times and feafons for agriculture is fufficiently known; and Pliny tells us, that he was the firft who wrote on that fubject; "Hefiodus, qui princeps omnium "de agricultura praecepit." Qur Poet alfo himfelf profefles to write in imitation of this author;

Hefiod, Anaximander, and Archimedes, the latter of whom he prefers, thinking it moft probable, that the artift would join thofe on the fame cup, whom he knew to have been joined in friendship, and to have excelled in the fame ftudies. Ruaeus mentions Aratus, Heliod, and Archimedes, but thinks it more probable, that the Poet means the latter, who was the difciple, or at leaft the friend of Cenon. If by Ptolemy, Servius means the famous mathematician of Alexandria, he is guilty of a grofs error; for he lived long after Virgil's death, in the time of Antoninus. Eudoxus, the Cnidian, was a famous aftronomer, geometrician, phyfician, and legiflator. He was taught geometry by Archytas, and phyfick by Philiftion of Sicily. He is faid allo to have been one of Plato's auditors, and to have travelled into Egypt, where he ftudied a year and four months. He wrote feveral celebrated pieces in aftronomy, geometry, and other fciences, was very famous among the Greeks, compiled a body of laws for his own country, and died about the year of Rome 401. Suidas fays he wrote of aftronomy in verfe. Cicero, in his fecond book de Divinatione, fays he was an auditor of Plato, and the prince of aftronomers; Ad Chaldaeorum monftra veniamus: de quibus Eudoxus, Platonis audi«tor, in aftrologia, judicio doctif fimorum hominum, facile princeps, fic opinatur, id quod fcrip

"Afcraeumque cano Romana per

"oppida carmen."

Anaximander, according to Diogenes Laërtius, was a philofopher of Miletus, and flourished under Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos. He was the firft inventor of the fundial, and geographical maps, and conftructed

We may obferve from what has been faid concerning this moft justly celebrated mathematician, and from the whole tenor of his writings, that his genius led him almost entirely to mechanicks. I do not remember the leaft hint in any author, of his having applied, his knowledge in aftronomy to agriculture. Therefore I cannot think his being the friend or difciple of Conon, is a fufficient reafon to fuppofe him to be the perfon intended. It feems more probable, that thofe are in the right, who affign the place to Aratus. He was born at Soli or Solae, a city in Cilicia, and flou rifhed in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and An tigonus Gonatas king of Macedon. king He was purfuing his ftudies at A thens, when Antigonus fent for him. He was prefent at the marriage of that monarch, with Phila

.

the daughter of Antipater, was much efteemed by them, and lived at their court till the time of his death. His Φαινομένα, a poem, which is ftill extant, has been famous through all ages. We may conclude, that it was of great authority among the Greeks, from St Paul's quoting part of a verfe from this poem, in his oration to the Athenians;

του γὰρ καὶ γένος ἐσμεν.

J 1.

For we are alfo his offspring.' Cicero indeed feems to fay, in his first book de Oratore, that Aratus was ignorant in astronomy; but at the fame time he allows, that he treated of that fubject excellently in verfe; Si conftat inter doctos,

દ

hominem ignarum aftrologia, or natiffimis atque optimis verfibus, "Aratum de caelo ftellifque dixiffe." Nay he himself tranflated Aratus into Latin yerfe. He was tranflated alfo into Latin by Germanicus Caefar, and Avienus, and the number of his Scholiafts and Commentators is very great. Even Virgil himfelf has tranflated feveral lines from this Greek Poet, and inferted them in his Georgicks, as may be feen in the notes on that part of our author's works. Now, as Aratus has defcribed the feveral conftellations in his poem, with the prognofticks of the weather, he anfwers exactly to the character, which the shepherd gives of the philofopher, whofe name

he

Idem Alcimedon duo pocula fecit.] Here Damoetas preferves his equality: he offers two cups, as well as Menalcas; and they are both made by the hand of the fame famous workman.

45. Et molli circum, &c.] Thus alfo Theocritus,

Παντα δ' ἀμφὶ δέπας περιπέπλαται ὑγρός ἄκανθος.