My heart, inflam'd by jealous heats,
With numberless resentments beats;
From my pale cheek the colour flies,
And all the man within me dies.

It was probably this particular in the Roman habit that gave Virgil the thought in the following verse, where Romulus, among other reproaches that he makes the Trojans for their softness and effeminacy, upbraids them with the make of their Tunicas that had sleeves to them, and did not leave the arms naked and exposed to the weather like that of the Romans.

Et tunica manicas, et habent ridimicula mitræ.

Virgil lets us know in another place, that the Italians preserved their old language and habits, notwithstanding the Trojans became their masters, and that the Trojans themselves quitted the dress of their own country for that of Italy. This he tells us was the effect of a prayer that Juno made to Jupiter.

Illud te nulla fati quod lege tenetur,

Pro Latio obtestor, pro majestate tuorum :
Cum jam connubiis pacem felicibus (esto ;)
Component, cum jam leges et fadera jungent ;
Ne vetus indigenas nomen mutare Latinos,
Neu Troas fieri jubeas, Teucrosque vocari;
Aut vocem mutare viros, aut vertere vestes.
Sit Latium, sint Albani per sæcula reges :
Sit Romana potens Italâ virtute propago:

Occidit, occideritque sinas cum nomine Troja. Æn. lib. 12.
This let me beg (and this no fates withstand)

Both for myself, and for your father's land,

That when the nuptial bed shall bind the peace,
(Which I, since you ordain, consent to bless)
The laws of either nation be the same;
But let the Latins still retain their name :

Speak the same language which they spoke before,
Wear the same habits which their grandsiręs wore.

Call them not Trojans: perish the renown
And name of Troy, with that detested town.
Latium be Latium still: let Alba reign,
And Rome's immortal majesty remain.

Mr. DRYDEN.

By the way, I have often admired at Virgil for representing his Juno with such an impotent kind of revenge as what is the subject of this speech. You may be sure, says Eugenius, that Virgil knew very well this was a trifling kind of request for the queen of the gods to make, as we may find by Jupiter's way of accepting it.

Olli subridens hominum rerumque repertor :
Et germana Jovis, Saturnique altera proles:
Irarum tantos volvis sub pectore fluctus?
Verum age, et inceptum frustra submitte furorem.
Do, quod vis; et me victusque volensque remitto.
Sermonem Ausonii patrium moresque tenebunt.
Utque est, nomen erit: commixti corpore tantùm
Subsident Teucri: morem ritusque sacrorum
Adjiciam, faciamque omnes uno ore Latinos, &c.
Æn. lib. 12.

Then thus the founder of mankind replies,
(Unruffled was his front, serene his eyes,)
Can Saturn's issue, and heav'n's other heir,
Such endless anger in her bosom bear?
Be mistress, and your full desires obtain ;
But quench the choler you foment in vain.
From ancient blood th' Ausonian people sprung,
Shall keep their name, their habit, and their tongue.
The Trojans to their customs shall be ty'd,

I will myself their common rites provide ;
The natives shall command, the foreigners subside:
All shall be Latium; Troy without a name :
And her lost sons forget from whence they came.

Mr. DRYDEN.

I am apt to think Virgil had a further view in this request of Juno than what his commentators have discovered in it. He knew very well that his Eneid was founded on a very doubtful story, and

D

that Æneas's coming into Italy was not universally received among the Romans themselves. He knew too that a main objection to this story was the great difference of customs, language, and habits among the Romans and Trojans. To obviate therefore so strong an objection, he makes this difference to arise from the forecast and pre-determination of the gods themselves. But pray what is the name of the lady in the next medal? Methinks she is very particular in her quoiffure.

It is the emblem of Fruitfulness,* says Philander, and was designed as a compliment to Julia, the wife of Septimius Severus, who had the same number of children as you see on this coin. Her head is crowned with towers in allusion to Cybele the mother of the gods, and for the same reason that Virgil compares the city of Rome to her.

Felix prole virúm, qualis Berecynthia mater
Invehitur curru Phrygias turrita per urbes,
Lata Deùm partu-

VIRG. En. lib. 6.

High as the mother of the gods in place,

And proud, like her, of an immortal race.
Then when in pomp she makes a Phrygian round,
With golden turrets on her temples crown'd.

Mr. DRYDEN.

The vine, issuing out of the urn, speaks the same sense as that in the Psalmist. "Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine on the walls of thy house." The four stars overhead, and the same number on the globe, represent the four children. There is a medallion of Romulus and Remus sucking the wolf, with a star over each of their heads, as we find the Latin poets speaking of the children of princes under the same metaphor.

* Fig. 9.

Utque tui faciunt sidus juvenile nepotes,
Per tua perque sui facta parentis eant.

OVID. de Trist. lib. 2. el. 1.

-Tu quoque extinctus jaces,

Deflende nobis semper, infelix puer,

Modo sidus orbis, columen angustæ domûs,

Britannice

Thou too dear youth, to ashes turn'd,
Britannicus for ever mourn'd!

Thou star that wont this orb to grace!
Thou pillar of the Julian race!

SEN. Octav. act. 1.

-Maneas hominum contentus habenis,
Undarum terræque potens, et sidera dones.

STAT. THEB. lib. 1.

-Stay, great Cæsar, and vouchsafe to reign
O'er the wide earth, and o'er the wat'ry main;
Resign to Jove his empire of the skies,

And people heav'n with Roman deities.

Mr. POPE.

I need not mention Homer's comparing Astyanax to the morning star, nor Virgil's imitation of him in his description of Ascanius.

The next medal was stamped on the marriage of Nero and Octavia ;* you see the sun over the head of Nero, and the moon over that of Octavia. They face one another according to the situation of these two planets in the heavens.

-Phabeis obvia flammis

Demet nocti luna timores.

SEN. Thyest. act. 4.

And to show that Octavia derived her whole lustre

from the friendly aspect of her husband.

Sicut luna suo tunc tantùm deficit orbe,

Quum Phabum adversis currentem non videt astris..

Because the moon then only feels decay,
When opposite unto her brother's ray.

* Fig. 10.

MAN. lib. 4.

Mr. CREECH.

But if we consider the history of this medal, we shall find more fancy in it than the medallists have yet discovered. Nero and Octavia were not only husband and wife, but brother and sister, Claudius being the father of both. We have this relation between them marked out in the tragedy of Octavia, where it speaks of her marriage with Nero.

Fratris thalamos sortita tenet
Maxima Juno: soror Augusti
Sociata toris, cur à patriâ
Pellitur Aulâ ?.

To Jove his sister consort wed,
Uncensur'd shares her brother's bed:
Shall Cæsar's wife and sister wait,
An exile at her husband's gate?

Implebit aulam stirpe cœlesti tuam
Generata divo, Claudia gentis decus,
Sortita fratris, more Junonis, toros.

SEN. Oct. act. 1.

Thy sister, bright with every blooming grace,

Ibid. act. 2.

Will mount thy bed t' enlarge the Claudian race:
And proudly teeming with fraternal love,

Shall reign a Juno with the Roman Jove.

They are therefore very prettily represented by the sun and moon, who, as they are the most glorious parts of the universe, are, in a poetical genealogy, brother and sister. Virgil gives us a sight of them in the same position that they regard each other on this medal.

Nec Fratris radiis obnoxia surgere Luna.

VIRG. Georg. 1.

The flattery on the next medal* is in the same

thought as that of Lucretius.

Ipse Epicurus obît decurso lumine vitæ ;

Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omneis

Præstinxit, stellas exortus uti ætherius sol.