Mordet gemma sinum.- Lumine, quem totâ variarat Mulciber arte; CLAUD. in Prob. et Olyb. Cons. No costly fillets knot her hair behind, Nor female trinkets round her neck are twin'd. The next figure is Achaia*. I am sorry, says Cynthio, to find you running farther off us. I was in hopes you would have shown us our own nation, when you were so near us as France. I have here, says Philander, one of Augustus's Britanniast. You see she is not drawn like other countries, in a soft peaceful posture, but is adorned with emblems that mark out the military genius of her inhabitants. This is, I think, the only commendable quality that the old poets have touched upon in the description of our country. I had once made a collection of all the passages in the Latin poets, that give any account of us, but I find them so very malicious, that it would look like a libel on the nation to repeat them to you. We seldom meet with our forefathers, but they are coupled with some epithet or another to blacken them. Barbarous, cruel, and inhospitable, are the best terms they can afford us, which it would be a kind of injustice to publish, since their posterity are become so polite, good-natured, and kind to strangers. To mention, therefore, those parts only that relate to the present medal. She sits on a globe that stands in water, to denote that she is + Fig. 11. *Fig. 10. mistress of a new world, separate from that which the Romans had before conquered, by the interposition of the sea. I think we cannot doubt of this interpretation, if we consider how she has been represented by the ancient poets. Et penitus toto divisos orhe Britannos. The rest among the Britons be confin'd; VIRG. Ecl. 1. A race of men from all the world disjoin'd. Mr. DRYDEN. Adspice, confundit populos impervia tellus: VET. Poet. apud Scalig. Catul. The feet of Britannia are washed by the waves, in the same poet. -Cujus vestigia verrit Carulus, oceanique æstum mentitur, amictus. Id. de Laud. Stil. lib. 2. She bears a Roman ensign in one of her hands, to confess herself a conquered province. -Victricia Cæsar Signa Caledonios transvexit ad usque Britannos. SIDON. APOL But to return to Achaia*, whom we left upon her knees before the Emperor Adrian. She has a pot before her with a sprig of parsley rising out of it. I will not here trouble you with a dull story of Hercules's eating a sallad of parsley for his refreshment, after his encounter with the Nemean lion. It is certain, there were in Achaia the Nemean games, and that a garland of parsley was the victor's reward. You have an account of these games in Ausonius. * Fig. 10. Quattuor antiquos celebravit Achaia Ludos, Aus. de Lustral. Agon. Greece, in four games thy martial youth were train'd; Archemori Nemeaa colunt funebria Theba. Id. de Locis Agon. -Alcides Numea sacravit honorem. De Auct. Agon. Id. One reason why they chose parsley for a garland, was doubtless because it always preserves its verdure, as Horace opposes it to the short-lived lily. Neu vivax apium, nec breve lilium. Let fading lilies and the rose Their beauty and their smell disclose; Lib. 1. od. 36. Mr. CREECH. Juvenal mentions the crown that was made of it, and which here surrounds the head of Achaia. ·Graiæque apium meruisse coronæ. Juv. Sat. 8. And winning at a wake their parsley crown. Mr. STEPNEY. She presents herself to the emperor in the same posture that the Germans and English still salute the imperial and royal family. Jus imperiumque Phraates Cæsaris accepit genibus minor. HOR. Epist. 12. lib. 1. The haughty Parthian now to Cæsar kneels. Mr. CREECH. Ille qui donat diadema fronti Quem genu nixa tremuere gentes. Non, ut inflexo genu, Regnantem adores, petimus. SENEC. Thyest. act. 3. Idem. Te linguis variæ gentes, missique rogatum CLAUD. ad Honorium., Thy infant virtue various climes admir'd, And various tongues to sound thy praise conspir'd: Sicily appears before Adrian in the same posture*. She has a bundle of corn in her hand, and a garland of it on her head, as she abounds in wheat, and was consecrated to Ceres. Utraque frugiferis est insula nobilis arvis: De Sicilia et Sardinia. Luc. lib. 2. Sardinia too, renown'd for yellow fields, Terra tribus scopulis vastum procurrit in æquor To Ceres dear, the fruitful land is fam'd Mr. RowE. Ov. de Fast. lib. 4 For three tall capes, and thence Trinacria nam'd: The fairest champain of the fairest isle. We find Judea on several coins of Vespasian and Titus, in a posture that denotes sorrow and captivity †. The first figure of her is drawn to life in a picture that Seneca has given us of the Trojan matrons bewailing their captivity. Hecuba ad Trojanarum chorum. SEN. Troas act. 1. From your divested shoulders slide Your garments down on either side. Now, Sorrow, all thy pow'rs disclose. SIR EDW. SHERBURN. -Apertæ pectora matres Significant luctum Ov. Met. lib. 13. Who bar'd their breasts, and gave their hair to flow: The head is veiled in both figures, as another expres sion of grief. -Ipsa tristi vestis obtentu caput SEN. Herc. fur, act. 2. Sic ubi fata, caput ferali obducit amictu, Lu. lib. 9. de Cornelia. So said the matron; and about her head Mr. Rows. I need not mention her sitting on the ground, because. we have already spoken of the aptness of such a posture to represent an extreme affliction. I fancy, says Eugenius, the Romans might have an eye on the customs of the Jewish nation, as well as of those of their country, in the several marks of sorrow they have set |