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It was applied with peculiar propriety to the Praetor whose edicts were called the Jus honorarium . The Dies comitiales on which cum populo licebat agi , i. e. laws might be proposed, &c. Septis the wooden palings, within which the people were assembled in the Campus Martius, to pass laws. The Nundinae. Every ninth day the country people came into Rome to attend the market.
A sixth, which the poet approves, from Agonia , an old name for cattle. A ram was the victim offered on this day by the Rex Sacrorum. Two trifling etymoligies. The victima , he intimates, was offered after a victory; the hostia , in time of peace, when there was no enemy, hostibus amotis . Krebs reads a motis : almost all the MSS. a domitis .
As the study of astronomy elevates the mind above the terrestrial abode of men, so it raises, or should raise it, above all mean and groveling pursuits and ideas. They have brought the distant stars to our eyes. Gierig, following one MS. for nostris , reads terris , a reading which Burmann approved, though he did not adopt it. Alluding to the Alodïes, Otus and Ephialtes, Hom. Od. xi. 304-316.
Clario Deo . There was a celebrated oracle of the Clarian Apollo, near Colophon, in Asia Minor, which Germanicus himself once consulted. Tac. Annal. xii. 22. Germanicus had pleaded causes publicly with success, Suet. Cal. 4. Dion. 56. 26. He had written Greek comedies, Suet, ut sup . He also made a version of Aratus which is still extant, Totus annus , i. e. the whole poem on the year.
Virg. Hor. Carm. The cosmic setting of Cancer, on the morning of the 3rd January, the third before the Nones. See Introd. §. 1. The cosmic rising of Lyra, which was usually attended with rain. On the 9th January was celebrated the festival of Jannus, named the Agonia or Agonalia, the origin of which name the poet now proceeds to discuss.
The first editions, and two MSS. read transieris . Two other MSS. read transierit , which I should incline to prefer, and make haec refer to dies or to lux , v. 637. Heinsius would read Nox , or Lux ubi transierit . On the 10th Kal. Feb. Lyra sets heliacally. Oriens , scil. Sol. The poet is mistaken here; according to Colunnella, he sets on the 27th of January. Sat.
Antiquum , which is unquestionably the right reading, is that of only three MSS. The others read antiquam or antiquus , or antiqui or antiquo . Populi , etc. merely a designation of Furius, and has nothing to do with the occasion of the vow, Ante , olim. On the occasion of the Licinian rogations.
Memoria prodita est, neminem umquam ex his nationibus, quae cum Sertorio faciebant, cum multis proeliis superatus esset, ab eo descivisse, quamquam id genus hominum esset mobilissimum. Sertorius pretended that divine revelations were made to him through a white doe. This doe once ran away, but was soon found again. The use which Sertorius made of this incident.
Aesop in his fables gives good advice in a pleasant way, and hence men attend to him. An instance of this is his fable of the lark, which has been put into verse by Ennius.
Heinsius and Burmann, following some of the best MSS. read officii ... In tibi devoto munere , which gives a good sense. Lenz, Mitscherlich and Krebs, prefer the present reading. See Introd. § 4. Vobis , your family, i.e. the Claudii, or rather the Julii, into which he had been adopted. Pater , Tiberius; avus , Augustus, who had adopted Tiberius.