Sic pariter fontes torrentur, fluminaque igni.

Sed tuba tunc fonitum triftem dimittet ab alto

Orbe, gemens facinus miferum variofque labores:

Tartareumque chaos monftrabit terra dehifcens.

Et coram hic Domino reges fiften

tur ad unum.

Decidet e caclis ignifque et fulphuris amnis.

St Auguftin obferves, that in all the writings of this Sibyl, whether the was the Erythraean, as fome think, or the Cuman, according to others, there is not the leaft mention of the gods of the heathen being to be worhipped; but there are fome things, against them and their worshippers, fo that he may feem to be one of those who belong to the city of God. He then throws together, fome fcattered quotations of Lactantius from one of the Sibyls, which most evidently relate to Chrift, and concludes, with informing us, that fome place, the Erythraean Sibyl, in the time of Romulus, and others in the time of the Trojan war,

What has been faid in this note relates chiefly to the Erythraean Sibyl; but it may be obferved, that many thought there was but one Sibyl, or confounded them all together: thus the Poet ufes the Cumaean for any Sibyl, fhe who prophefied at Cumae being moft famous in Italy.

5. Magnus ab integro, &c.] He- : fiod mentions five ages of the world; 1. The Golden Age, in the days of Saturn, when men lived like the gods, in fecurity, without labour, without trouble, and not fubject to the miferies of old age. Their death was like going to fleep; they enjoyed all the conveniencies of life in tranquillity; the earth produced plenty of all fruits without tillage. 2. The Silver Age, in which men were lefs happy, being injurious to each other, and neglecting the due worfhip of the gods. 3. The Copper, or as we commonly call it, the Brazen Age, in which men difcovered copper, made themfelves armour with it, and were given to violence and war. 4. The age of demi-gods and heroes, who warred at Thebes and Troy, 5. The Iron Age, in which Hefiod lived, which was to end when the men of that time grew old and grey. Thus, by the great order of the ages beginning anew, Virgil means, that the Golden Age was then returning.

6. Jam redit et virgo.] The Emperor Conftantine, and many other pious Chriftians will have this to allude to the bleffed Virgin. But Virgil certainly meant Aftraea or Juftice, who is faid by the Poets to have been driven from earth to heaven, by the wickednefs of mankind; and therefore her returning is one fign of the restoration of the Golden Age. In the fecond Georgick, our Poet, with great propriety, reprefents her, as having made her

laff

4

IO thy own Apollo now reigns...

Extrema

per

illos

soyovia he makes Ni

μεσις to be the daughter of Night,

« fecit.”

βροτοῖσι Νύξ ολοή.

Here indeed he describes Nemefis, as the vengeance of the gods, as the word is commonly understood; but it cannot have that meaning in the former paflage, where he fpeaks of her leaving earth, becaufe of the wickednefs of men. It muft there neceffarily mean Juftice, or elfe have flipt into the text erroneously, for fome other word. Aratus fpeaking of the conftellation Virgo, makes a queftion, whether he was the daughter of Aftraeus, the father of the ftars, or of fome other, and calls her Δίκη or Juftice ; Αμφοτέροισι δὲ ποσσὶν ὑποσκέψαιο βοώτου Παρθένον, ἡ ῥ ̓ ἐν χερσὶ φέρει στάχυν ἀιγλήεντα, Ειτ' ουν Αστραίου κείνη γένος, ὅν ρά

8. Tu modo nafcenti, &c.] The Poet now invokes Lucina, and in treats her to favour the birth of the infant, of whom there were fuch great expectations at this time; and declares, that it was to be in the confulfhip of Pollio.

Nafcenti puero.] The child, that was to be born in that age, when the world fhould be at peace, as was foretold by the Oracles, was without doubt our bleffed Saviour. But the Poet, ignorant of the true fenfe of the prophecies, understands them to mean the peace, which was fettled, when he wrote this Eclogue, and applies all the bleffings, which were promised to the reign of Chrift, to a child that was then expected to come into the world. The Commentators have not determined, with any certainty, what child it was, to whom thefe promifed bleffings are afcribed by the Poet. Servius tells us, that Afinius Pollio having taken Salonae, a city of Dalmatia, and obtained a triumph, and afterwards the Confulfhip had that very year a fon, who was called Saloninus from the name of the captive city, and that this Saloninus is the child, whom Virgil here celebrates. This opinion is generally received, on the authority of Servius.

But Ruaeus, fhews plainly, that this must be a mistake. He obferves that Saloninus was not the fon, but the grandfon of Pollio, and that he could not be born about the time of writing this Eclogue, becaufe he died a young man fixty

and the great months fball begin to proceed.

years afterwards, being defigned the husband of Tiberius Caefar's grand-.. daughter, for proof of which he refers us to the third book of the Annals of Tacitus. The words of Tacitus are thefe; "Obiere eo "anno viri illuftres, Afinius Salo"ninus, M. Agrippa et Pollione "Afinio avis, fratre Drufo infignis, "Caefarique progener deftinatus." Here indeed Tacitus does not fay exprefsly, that Afinius Saloninus was a young man, but it may be fuppofed, that he was many years under fixty, when he was propofed for a husband to the Emperor's grand-daughter. Ruaeus farther obferves, that the fon of Pollio was named C. Afinius Gallus, and not Saloninus, which is certain. Befides, it may be confidered, that Tacitus calls M. Agrippa, the grandfather of Saloninus. Agrippa muft therefore have been his mother's father; and indeed Tacitus himself informs us, that Vipfania, the daughter of Agrippa was married firft to Tiberius, and afterwards to Afinius Gallus. "Ducta in ma"trimonium Vipfania M. Agrippae

filia, quae quondam Tiberii uxor "fuerat." Now Tiberius was born little above a year before the confulfhip of Pollio, that is, under Lepidus and Plancus, juft after the battle of Philippi, as we are informed by Suetonius; "Natus eft "Romae in palatio, XVI. Cal. "Decemb. M. Aemilio Lepido σε iterum, L. Munatio Planco Coff. 66

post bellum Philippense. Sic enim

in faftos actaque publica relatum "" eft." Dio tells us, that after the death of Agrippa,, who had married Julia, the daughter of Auguftus, Tiberius was compelled to part with his first wife, the daughter of Agrippa, by a former marriage, who had one child by him already, and was big with another, and to take Julia; 25 γοῦν ὁ ̓Αγρίππας . . . ἐτεθνήκει τὸν Τιβέριον καὶ ἄκων προσείλετο. καὶ προαποσπάσας καὶ ἐκείνου την γυναῖκας, καίτοι τοῦ τε Αγριππου θυγατέρα ἐξ ἄλλης τινὸς γαμετῆς δυσαν, " καὶ τέκνον τὸ μὲν ἤδη τρέφουσαν, τὸ δὲ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔχουσαν, τὴν τε Ιουλίαν οἱ εγγυήσει From thefe authorities confidered together it appears, that Saloninus could not poffibly be born till many years after his grandfather Pollio was conful. For before his For before his mother Vipfania was married to his father Afinius Gallus, fhe had been wife to Tiberius, and had two children by him; and this very Tiberius could not be above two years old in the confulfhip of Pollio. This divorce alfo is placed by Dio in the confulfhip of M. Valerius Meffala Barbatus, and P. Sulpicius Quirinius, which was twenty-eight years

after that of Pollio. Therefore fo far was this Saloninus from being born in his grandfather's confulfhip, that, according to Dio, he could not poffibly come into the world, till hear thirty years after it. Ruaeus allo obferves, that Pollio did not take Salonae, till the year after.

his cónfulfhip; fo that he could not give that name to a fon, who was born before he had obtained the victory. We may therefore conclude, with Ruaeus, that this ftory of Saloninus, who, according to Servius, died almoft as foon as born, is not to be credited. That learned Commentator feems to be of opinion, that the child, whofe nativity the Poet celebrates, is Afinius Gallus, who might perhaps be born, when his father was conful. But other learned men are of opinion, that the glories prophefied of this child, are greater, than could with decency be fuppofed to belong to a fon of Pollio; and therefore that the child intended is more probably fome near relation of Auguftus himfelf. The authors of the Journal de Trevoux fuppofe it was Drufus, the fon of Livia Drufilla, who was with child of him by her former hufband Tiberius Nero, when Auguftus married her. Thus Suetonius, "Liviam Drufillam matrimonio "Tiberii Neronis, et quidem

66

pracgnantem abduxit, dilexitque,

et probavit unice, ac perfevethe affection of Auguftus to Livia, "ranter." But Dio Caffius places and his repudiating his former wife Scribonia, who had just born him a daughter, in the confulfhip of Lu

cius Marcius Cenforinus and C.

T

Calvifius Sabinus, who were confuls the year after Pollio; T diπIγιγνομένῳ, ἐν ᾧ Λούκιος τε Μάρκιος Taïos Zativos UTάTEUGAY

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