www. And cried, O Mars! to thee devote I yield The blaze of glory gilds the distant plains. As for the heap of arms, and mountain of arms, that the poet mentions, you may see them on two coins of Marcus Aurelius. De Sarmatis and De Germanis allude, perhaps, to the form of words that might be used at the setting fire to them-Ausonio de nomine. Those who will not allow of the interpretation I have put on these two last medals, may think it an objection that there is no torch or fire near them to signify any such allusion. But they may consider that on several imperial coins we meet with the figure of a funeral pile, without anything to denote the burning of it, though indeed there is on some of them a flambeau sticking out on each side, to let us know it was to be consumed to ashes. You have been so intent on the burning of the arms, says Cynthio, that you have forgotten the pillar on your 18th medal. You may find the history of it, says Philander, in Ovid de Fastis. It was from this pillar that the spear was tossed at the opening of a war, for which reason the little figure on the top of it holds a spear in its hand, and Peace turns her back upon it. Prospicit à templo summum brevis area circum: Est ibi non parvæ parva columna notæ : Hinc solet hasta manu, belli prænuncia, mitti; OV. DE FAST. lib. vi. Where the high fane the ample cirque commands, From hence, when Rome the distant kings defies, The different interpretations that have been made on the the water scarce reaches up to the knees; and though it is the figure of a man standing on firm ground, his attendants, and the good office he is employed upon, resemble those the poets often attribute to Neptune. Homer tells us, that the whales leaped up at their god's approach, as we see in the medal. The two small figures that stand naked among the waves, are sea-deities of an inferior rank, who are supposed to assist their sovereign in the succour he gives the distressed vessel. Cymothoë, simul et Triton adnixus acuto Detrudunt naves scopulo; levat ipse tridenti, Et vastas aperit syrtes, et temperat æquor. VIRG. ÆN. lib. i. Of beauteous nymphs, the daughters of the main, Clear from the rocks the vessels with their hands; The god himself with ready trident stands, And opes the deep, and spreads the moving sands. MR. DRYDEN. Jam placidis ratis extat aquis, quam gurgite ab imo Et Thetis, et magnis Nereus socer erigit ulnis. VAL. FLAC. lib. i. The interpreters of this medal have mistaken these two figures for the representation of two persons that are drowning. But as they are both naked, and drawn in a posture rather of triumphing over the waves than of sinking under them, so we see abundance of water deities on other medals represented after the same manner. Ite Deæ virides, liquidosque advertite vultus, STATIUS DE BALNEO ETRUSCI, lib. i. Haste, haste, ye Naiads! with attractive art After having thus far cleared our way to the medal, I take the thought of the reverse to be this. The stranded vessel is the commonwealth of Rome, that, by the tyranny of Domitian, and the insolence of the Prætorian guards, under Nerva, was quite run aground and in danger of perishing. Some of those embarked in it endeavour at her recovery, but it is Trajan that, by the adoption of Nerva, stems the tide to her relief, and like another Neptune shoves her off the quicksands. Your device, says Eugenius, hangs very well together; but is not it liable to the same exceptions that you made us last night to such explications as have nothing but the writer's imagination to support them? To show you, says Philander, that the construction I put on this medal is conformable to the fancies of the old Romans, you may observe, that Horace represents at length the commonwealth of Rome under the figure of a ship, in the allegory that you meet with in the fourteenth ode of his first book. O Navis, referent in mare te novi Fluctus. And shall the raging waves again Bear thee back into the main ? MR. CREECH. Nor was anything more usual than to represent a god in the shape and dress of an emperor. Apelleæ cuperent te scribere ceræ, Lumina, contempto mallet Rhodos aspera Phœbo. STATIUS DE EQUO DOMITIANI, Syl. i. Now had Apelles lived, he'd sue to grace For the thought in general, you have just the same metaphorical compliment to Theodosius in Claudian, as the medal here makes to Trajan. Nulla relicta foret Romani nominis' umbra, Pondera, turbatamque ratem, certâque levasset CLAUDIAN DE 4to CONS. HONORII. Had not thy sire deferred the impending fate, I shall only add, that this medal was stamped in honour of Trajan, when he was only Cæsar, as appears by the face of it. Sari Traiano. The next is a reverse of Marcus Aurelius. We have on it a Minerva mounted on a monster, that Ausonius describes in the following verses. Illa etiam Thalamos per trina ænigmata quærens Qui bipes, et quadrupes foret, et tripes omnia solus; While in mysterious speech she thus began: He needs a third; a third the night supplies ?" I The monster, says Cynthio, is a sphinx, but for her meaning on this medal, I am not Edipus enough to unriddle it. must confess, says Philander, the poets fail me in this particular. There is, however, a passage in Pausanias that I will repeat to you, though it is in prose, since I know nobody else that has explained the medal by it. The Athenians, says he, drew a sphinx on the armour of Pallas, by reason of the strength and sagacity of this animal. The sphinx, therefore, signifies the same as Minerva herself, who was the goddess of arms as well as wisdom, and describes the emperor as one of the poets expresses it, Studiis florentem utriusque Minervæ. Whom both Minervas boast t' adopt their own. The Romans joined both devices together, to make the emblem the more significant, as indeed they could not too much extol the learning and military virtues of this excellent emperor, who was the best philosopher and the greatest general of his age. We will close up this series of medals with one that was stamped under Tiberius to the memory of Augustus.2 Over his head you see the star that his father Julius Cæsar was supposed to have been changed into. Ecce Dionæi processit Cæsaris astrum. VIRG. ECL. ix. 1 Fig. 22. -Julius Cæsar's light appears As, in fair nights and smiling skies, HOR. The beauteous moon amidst the meaner stars. MR. CREECH. Vix ea fatus erat, mediâ cum sede senatus Constitit alma Venus, nulli cernenda, suique Passa recentem animam, cœlestibus intulit astris. OV. MET. lib. xv. This spoke, the goddess to the senate flew ; Where, her fair form concealed from mortal view, Her Cæsar's heavenly part she made her care, Nor left the recent soul to waste to air; But bore it upwards to its native skies: Glowing with new-born fires she saw it rise; Forth springing from her bosom up it flew, And kindling, as it soared, a comet grew; Above the lunar sphere it took its flight, And shot behind it a long trail of light. Virgil draws the same figure of Augustus on Æneas's shield as we see on this medal. The commentators tell us, that the star was engraven on Augustus's helmet, but we may be sure Virgil means such a figure of the emperor as he used to be represented by in the Roman sculpture, and such a one as we may suppose this to be that we have before us. MR. WELSTed. Hinc Augustus agens Italos in prælia Cæsar, VIRG. EN. lib. viii. Young Cæsar on the stern in armour bright, MR. DRYDEN. The thunderbolt that lies by him is a mark of his apotheosis, that makes him, as it were, a companion of Jupiter. Thus the poets of his own age that defied him living: Divisum Imperium cum Jove Cæsar habet. Hic socium summo cum Jove numen habet. VIRG. Ov. -regit Augustus socio per signa Tonante. MANIL. lib. i. |
