poet, that he caused it to be wrought on the military ensign that the Romans call their labarum. And it is on this ensign that we find it in the present medal. Christus purpureum gemmanti, textus in auro PRUDENT. CONTRA SYMм. lib. i. A Christ was on the Imperial standard borne, By the word Christus he means without doubt the present figure, which is composed out of the two initial letters of the name. He bore the same sign in his standards, as you may see in the following medal1 and verses. Agnoscas, regina, libens mea signa necesse est: CONSTANTINUS ROMAM ALLOQUITUR. Ibid. My ensign let the queen of nations praise, Id. in APOTH. But to return to our Labarum; if you have a mind to see it in a state of Paganism you have it on a coin of Tiberius. It stands between two other ensigns, and is the mark of a Roman colony where the medal was stamped. By the way, you must observe, that wherever the Romans fixed their standards they looked on that place as their country, and thought themselves obliged to defend it with their lives. For this reason their standards were always carried before them when they went to settle themselves in a colony. This gives the meaning of a couple of verses in Silius Italicus, that make a very far-fetched compliment to Fabius. Ocyus huc Aquilas servataque signa referte, Hic patria est, murique urbis stant pectore in uno. SIL. IT. lib. vii. The following medal was stamped on Trajan's victory over the Daci,3 you see on it the figure of Trajan representing a little Victory to Rome. Between them lies the conquered province of Dacia. It may be worth while to observe the particularities in each figure. We see abundance of persons 2 Fig. 15. 3 Fig. 16. 1 Fig. 14. 772 on old coins that held a little Victory in one hand, like this of Trajan, which is always the sign of a conquest. I have sometimes fancied Virgil alludes to this custom in a verse that Turnus speaks. Non adeo has exosa manus victoria fugit. VIRG. ÆN. lib. xi. If you consent, he shall not be refused, MR. DRYDEN. The emperor's standing in a gown, and making a present of his Dacian Victory to the city of Rome, agrees very well with Claudian's character of him. -victura feretur Gloria Trajani, non tam quod, Tigride victo, Nostra triumphati fuerint provincia Parthi, Alta quod invectus stratis Capitolia Dacis: Quam patriæ quod mitis erat:- CLAUD. DE 4to CONS. HONOR. Thy glory, Trajan, shall for ever live : Not that thy arms the Tigris mourned, o'ercome, And tributary Parthia bowed to Rome, Not that the Capitol received thy train With shouts of triumph for the Daci slain: But for thy mildness to thy country shown. The city of Rome carries the wand in her hand that is the Delubrum Romæ (colitur nam sanguine et ipsa PRUDENT. CONT. SYM. lib. i. For Rome, a goddess too, can boast her shrine, As the globe under her feet betokens her dominion over all Terrarum dea, gentiumque Roma; Cui par est nihil, et nihil secundum. MART. lib. xi. Epig. 8. O Rome, thou goddess of the earth! To whom no rival e'er had birth; The heap of arms she sits on signifies the peace that the emperor had procured her. On old coins we often see an emperor, a victory, the city of Rome, or a slave, sitting on a heap of arms, which always marks out the peace that arose from such an action as gave occasion to the medal. I think we cannot doubt but Virgil copied out this circumstance from the ancient sculptors, in that inimitable description he has given us of Military Fury shut up in the temple of Janus, and loaden with chains. Claudentur belli portæ : Furor impius intus Janus himself before his fane shall wait, VIRG. EN. lib. i. He sits, and threats the world with dire alarms. MR. DRYden. We are told by the old scholiast, says Eugenius, that there was actually such a statue in the temple of Janus as that Virgil has here described, which I am almost apt to believe, since you assure us that this part of the design is so often met with on ancient medals. But have you nothing to remark on the figure of the province? Her posture, says Philander, is what we often meet with in the slaves and captives of old coins: among the poets, too, sitting on the ground is a mark of misery or captivity. Multos illa dies incomtis mœsta capillis O utinam ante tuos sedeam captiva penates. O might I sit a captive at thy gate! PROPERT. lib. i. Id. lib. iv. You have the same posture in an old coin1 that celebrates a victory of Lucius Verus over the Parthians. The captive's hands are here bound behind him, as a further instance of his slavery. Ecce manus juvenem interea post terga revinctum, Pastores magno ad regem clamore ferebant. VIRG. EN. lib. ii. A captive Greek in bands before the king. Cui dedit invitas victa noverca manus. Cùm rudis urgenti brachia victa dedi. MR. DRYDen. OV. DE FAST. PROPERT. lib. iv. We may learn from Ovid that it was sometimes the custom to place a slave with his arms bound at the foot of the trophy, as in the figure before us. Stentque super vinctos trunca trophæa viros. Ov. EP. EX PONTO, lib. iv. You see on his head the cap which the Parthians, and, indeed, most of the eastern nations, wear on medals. They had not probably the ceremony of veiling the bonnet in their salut1 Fig. 17. ations, for in medals they still have it on their heads, whether they are before emperors or generals, kneeling, sitting, or standing. Martial has distinguished them by this cap as their chief characteristic. Frustra blanditiæ venitis ad me Dicturus dominum, deumque non sum: Et turpes, humilesque supplicesque In vain mean flatteries ye try, MART. Epig. 72, lib. x. Or on the ground all prostrate fling I cannot hear, says Cynthio, without a kind of indignation, the satirical reflection that Martial has made on the memory of Domitian. It is certain so ill an emperor deserved all the reproaches that could be heaped upon him, but he could not deserve them of Martial. I must confess I am less scandalized at the flatteries the epigrammatist paid him living, than the ingratitude he showed him dead. A man may be betrayed into the one by an overstrained complaisance, or by a temper extremely sensible of favours and obligations: whereas the other can arise from nothing but a natural baseness and villany of soul. It does not always happen, says Philander, that the poet and the honest man meet together in the same person. I think we need enlarge no further on this medal, unless you have a mind to compare the trophy on it with that of Mezentius, in Virgil. Ingentem quercum decisis undique ramis He bared an ancient oak of all her boughs: VIRG. EN. lib. xi. Then on a rising ground the trunk he placed; Above his arms, fixed on the leafless wood, And to the neck was tied his unavailing sword. MR. DRYDEN. On the next medal1 that Vespasian procured the empire, after having happily finished all its wars you see the peace both at home and abroad. The woman with the olive branch in her hand is the figure of Peace. Pignora Pacis Prætendens dextrâ ramum canentis olivæ. SIL. IT. lib. iii.. With the other hand she thrusts a lighted torch under a heap of armour that lies by an altar. This alludes to a custom among the ancient Romans, of gathering up the armour that lay scattered on the field of battle, and burning it as an offering to one of their deities. It is to this custom that Virgil refers, and Silius Italicus has described at large. Qualis eram cùm primam aciem Præneste sub ipsâ Stravi, scutorumque incendi victor acervos. VIRG. ÆN. lib. viii. Such as I was beneath Præneste's walls; Then when I made the foremost foes retire, And set whole heaps of conquered shields on fire. MR. DRYDEN. Ast tibi, Bellipotens, Sacrum, constructus acervo Ingenti mons armorum consurgit ad astra: Ipse manu celsam pinum, flammâque comantem Hannibal Ausonio cremat hæc de nomine victor. To thee, the Warrior-God, aloft in air 1 Fig. 18. SIL. IT. lib. x. |