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yag rus Aiovías pav ETO, διὰ τοῦτο καὶ τὴν Σκριβωνίαν τεκοῦσαν δι θυγάτριον ἀπεπεμψατο αυθημερόν. According to the fame accurate author, it was in the following year, when Appius Claudius Pulcher, and C. Norbanus Flaccus were Confuls, that Auguftus married Livia, who was then fix months gone with child, by Tiberius Nero; Ἐπὶ δ ̓ Αππίου τε Κλαυδίου και Γαΐου Νωρβανου ὑπάτων. . . . . Ταῦτά τε οὖν τότε ἐγένετο, καὶ ὁ Καῖσαρ τήν Λιουίαν ἔγημεν· ἦν δὲ θυγάτηρ μὲν Λι ουΐον Δρόυσου, ὃς ἔν τε τοῖς ἐκτεθεῖσιν ἐν τῷ λευκώματι ἐγεγόνει, καὶ ἑαυτὸν μετα τήν ἐν Μακεδονίᾳ ἦταν κατεχρήσατο γυνὴ δὲ τοῦ Νέρωνος, μεθ' ου συνδιέφυγεν, ὥσπερ ἔιρηται' κ ἐκύει γε ἐξ αὐτοῦ μῆνα ἕκτον. She was delivered of Claudius Drufus Nero, whom Auguftus returned to his proper father; Συνοικοῦσα δὲ ἡ γυνὴ τῷ Καίσαρι, τίκτει Κλαύδιον Δρούσου Νέρωνα καὶ αὐτὸν ὁ Καίσαρ ἀνείλετο, καὶ τῷ πατρὶ ἔπεμψεν.

It

is true indeed, that Drufus was intended to fucceed Auguftus, but not till after the death of Marcellus, and we find, that when Auguftus married Livia he was fo far from looking upon the child as his own, that he fent him away to his father Tiberius. Befides the time of his birth will by no means agree with the time of writing this Eclogue, which was when Pollio was Conful, whereas Drufus was born under

they fhall be fruftrated, and deliver the world from perpetual fear.

Claudius and Norbanus, so that his mother could not even be with child of him during the confulfhip of C Afinius Pollio. It is with much greater probability, that Catrou has aflerted Marcellus, the fon of Octavia to be the child in question. "In the year of Rome, fays he,

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714, when Afinius Pollio and "Domitius Calvinus were Con"fuls, the people of Rome com"pelled the Triumvirs. Octavian "and Anthony to make a durable peace between them. It was hoped, that thereby an end would "be put to the war with Sextus "Pompey, who had made himself "mafter of Sicily, and by the in"terruption of commerce, had "caufed a famine in Rome. To "make this peace the more firm, "they would have Anthony, whofe

wife Fulvia was then dead, marry "Octavian Caefar's fifter Octavia, "who had lately lost her husband "Marcellus, and was then big "with a child, of which fhe was "delivered, after her marriage

with Anthony. This child re"tained the name of his own fa"ther Marcellus, and as long as "he lived, was the delight of his "uncle Octavian, and the hope of "the Roman people. It is he that

is the fubject of this Eclogue. "Virgil addreffes it to Pollio, who

was at that time Conful, and "thereby makes a compliment to Caefar, Anthony, Octavia, and "Pollio, all at once. The Mar

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cellus,

gods,

cellus whofe birth is here celebrated, is the fame whofe death "is lamented by Virgil in the fixth "Aeneid. The Poet borrows what "was predicted by the Cumaean "Sibyl, concerning Jefus Chrift; "and applies it to this child." This learned Jefuit is fo confident of the truth of his affertion, that he has made no fcruple to alter the ufual title of this Eclogue, and to call it Marcellus. Indeed the fitnefs of Marcellus, to be the fubject of our Eclogue, and the authority of one fo throughly verfed in the Roman Hiftory as Catrou, would make one fubfcribe almoft implicitly to this fyftem. But before we give our entire affent to it, it may not be amifs to confider the weight of his arguments. :I. "Dio relates, that "Octavia, the mother of Mar"cellus, was married to Anthony, "in the confulfhip of Pollio, and "adds, that at the time of this "marriage, she was big with child "by Marcellus, her former huf

band, who was lately dead." Dio does fay exprefsly, that Octavia, the fifter of Auguftus, was at that time married to Anthony, being then big with child; Tv 'OnTαουΐαν τήν τοῦ Καίσαρος ἀδελφήν ἐπειδὼν ὁ ἀνὴρ αυτὴς ἐτετλευτήκει, καὶ κύουσαν προμνηστευσάμενοι. 2. “ Ser

fignification of this line of Pro"pertius. How can it be made sout, that fteterat vigefimus annus 66 means that Marcellus had reached "his twentieth year? On the con

بجا

• force

"force of the word fteterat, and "this expreffion agrees with a per"C fon, who is almoft nineteen. "However, if Propertius did mean, "that Marcellus was twenty, it is ·66 being very exact for a Poet, not "to mistake one fingle year." As for the word fteterat, Catrou certainly ftrains it to a fignification, that cannot be admitted. The word is not fo obfcure, as he would have us believe. Sto applied to time, fignifies the appointed time, decreed by fate for our death. In this fenfe it is plainly used by Virgil, in the tenth Aeneid;

and be himself fhall be seen by them,

jection Catrou gives the following anfwer; "Marcellus was near nine"teen as well as Tiberius. Au

guftus had a mind to have both thefe offices in his own family. "He gives the fuperior office to his "nephew, who had just married "his daughter Julia, in preference "to the fon of his wife. What "reafon is there to be furprized at "this. For my part, I take the opinion of F. Labbe to be fo far preferable to that of F. Salien, "that I fhould embrace it, even " though I was not interested as I 66 am, to establish Marcellus the "hero of this Eclogue." This

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"reparabile tempus

Omnibus eft vitae."

Therefore the words of Propertius evidently mean, that Marcellus died in his twentieth year; fo that I do not fee any other way of getting rid of this difficulty, than by fuppofing, that Propertius, as a Poet, did not think himself obliged to be exact to a year or two. Catrou mentions another objection against his fyftem. "Marcellus was Aedile, the year in which he died, and at that "time Tiberius was only Quaeftor. "But, according to Paterculus, "Tiberius was then nineteen : "therefore Marcellus muft at least "have been twenty, because he "had a place fuperior to that of "Tiberius, Otherwife Auguftus

must have preferred the younger "before the elder." To this ob

objection: only the learned father has ftrained the point a little too far, in making Marcellus and Tiberius to be of the fame age; for Tiberius muft have been two years older, than the hero of this Eclogue. Thus far I have confidered the arguments, which Catrou uses in fupport of his fyftem, and the objections brought against it, with the utmost impartiality. I fhall now beg leave to examine a circumftance or two, which perhaps may give fome light into this difficulty. Dio tells us, that when Auguftus was Conful the tenth time, together with C. Norbanus, that is, in the year of Rome 730, there was a décree of the Senate made, that Marcellus fhould then have a feat in the fenate, and leave to fue for the Confulfhip ten years before the lawful age; and that Tiberius fhould

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have leave to fue for any office five years before the ufual time; whereupon the former was immediately made Aedile, and the latter Quae·ftor; To Te Mapnéλaw BouλEÚεw Tε ἐν τοῖς ἐστρατηγηκόσι, καὶ τὴν ὑπατεί. · αν δέκα θα το έτεσιν ἤπερ ενενόμιστο, αἰτῆσαι καὶ τῷ Τιβερίω, πέντε πρὸ ἑκάστης ἀρχῆς ἕτεσι τὸ αυτὸ τοῦτο ποιῆσαι εδόθη· καὶ παραχρῆμα γε δυτος μὲν, ταμίας, ἐκεῖνος δὲ, ἀγορανόμος, ἀπεδείχθησαν. But though Dio feems to fay, that by this decree, Marcellus had liberty to fue for the Confulfhip only, before the ufual time, we must certainly understand, that it extended to other offices; elfe it could have had no effect in procuring the Aedilefhip. It is not certainly agreed by the Criticks, what, was the legal age for obtaining thefe offices. Lipfius fays a Quaeftor was to be twenty-five, and an Aedile twenty-feven or twenty-eight. The learned Dr Middleton, in, his Treatife on the Roman Senate takes the Quaeftorian age, which was the fame with the Senatorian, to have been thirty years compleat. We have seen already, that Tiberius was born Nov. 16, 712. Therefore he could be no more than eighteen years compleat, when he was chofen Quaeftor. But he was allowed to fue for that office five years before the legal time; therefore he was to have leave to do that at eighteen which others might do at twenty-three, This falls

fhort of the loweft Quaeftorian age that has been fuppofed, by two years, To reconcile this difficulty, we must have recourfe to another paffage in Dio, where Maccaenas advifes Auguftus to alter the laws τo as to reduce it to that which is relating to the age of magiftrates, aligned by Lipfius; for he would have the Senatorian age to be twentyfive, and the Praetorian thirty; Ἐς δὲ τὸ συνέδριον πεντεκαιεικασιέτεις

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ταμιεύσαντές τε, καὶ ἀγορανο μήσαντες, ἤ δημαρχήσαντες, στρατη γείτωσαν, τριακοντοῦται γενόμενοι. It appears by this, that there was a confultation about that time concerning the alteration of these laws, and we may conclude that twentythree was then fettled to be the Quaeftorian age; for otherwife Tiberius could not have been made Quaeftor in 730. Now if Marcellus was born about the latter end of 714, the year of Pollie's Con fulfhip, he was fixteen in 730. He

was enabled to fue for an office ten years before the ufual time, which made him equal to twenty-fix, three years more than Tiberius, which difference we find to have been be tween the Aediles and Quaestors. Thus it seems highly probable, that Auguftus had firft fettled the age of a Quaeftor to be twenty-three, and that of an Aedile to be twenty-fix, about the year of Rome 725, for it gave the advice above-mentioned, was in that year that Maecenas and that afterwards, in the year

730, being willing to advance his nephew and fon-in-law to thofe dignities, he procured the decree to be made, that Marcellus who was then fixteen, might fue for the Aedileship ten years before the usual time, and that Tiberius, who was then eighteen, might do it five years before the ufual time, which enabled them to enjoy the respective offices, to which he intended to promote them. This appears to me to be a strong confirmation of Catrou's fyftem, as it makes it highly probable, that Marcellus was born about the latter end of the year of Rome 714, and confequently, that he was the Hero of the Eclogue now under confideration. 10. Cafta fave Lucina.] Lucina. is the goddefs prefiding over childbirth. Some will have her to be the fame with Juno, because the women in labour used to call upon, Juno Lucina for help. But Cicero, in his fecond book de Natura Deorum, tells us exprefsly, that she is the Moon, whom the Greeks call Lucina and Diana, and the Romans Juno Lucina. He adds, that the prefides over child-birth, because the time of pregnancy is counted by the revolutions of the Moon; and mentions a jeft of Timaeus, who having related in his Hiftory, that the temple of the Ephefian Diana was burnt, on the fame night that Alexander was born, added, that it was no wonder, when Diana chofe to be from home, to attend

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But to thee, O child, fhall; the earth pour forth her first. gifts, without culture,

the labour of Olympias; "Luna a lucendo nominata fit: eadem "eft enim Lucina. Itaque ut "apud Graecos Dianam, eamque "Luciferam, fic apud noftros Ju"nonem Lucinam in pariendo in