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the seventh day of the retreat, must have been the night of October 8, when the moon would be 23 days old and rising at or about midnight, October 9. And this date is strongly confirmed by the testimony of Appian, who in little more than seven days after the battle and after the escape of Mithridates speaks of his wintering already at Dioscurias among the Colchi.

ii. On the date of the Saturnalia, when Pompey was attacked by the Albani.

It does not appear that Pompey continued his pursuit of Mithridates on this occasion further than the river Phasis d ; and when he gave that up for the time he must have marched back again to the scene of the battle, in order to found the city of Nicopolis on the same locality: as he is said to have done in commemoration of the late victory d

The foundation of such a city would take up a considerable time: and, if it could scarcely have been begun before the third or fourth week in October, it might well detain Pompey until the end of November. It is agreed that he marched next to Artaxata, the capital of Tigranese. And the distance from Nicopolis to that point not being less than 335 Roman miles direct=377 by road, it could not be marched in much less than 30 days; so that if he did not set out from Nicopolis before the end of November he could not have arrived at Artaxata before the end of December.

He did not however winter at Artaxata; but continued his march beyond it to the regio 'Avaïrìs as Dio calls it f; as far as the river Cyrnus or Cyrus on the borders of Albanias: two hundred miles direct, and 225 by road, further than Artaxata. And here he must have gone into winter-quarters; and here he was still posted in winter-quarters when the Albanians, under their king Orases or Orodes h, attacked him there: and, as both Dio and Plutarch agree h, on the Cronia or Sa

Mithridatica, ci.

d Dio, xxxvi. 33. Appian, Mithridatica, cv. Strabo, xii. 3. Orosius, vi. 4. Cf. our Dissertations on the Principles, &c. iv. 238. App. xix.

e Dio, xxxvi. 34-36. Plutarch, Pompeius, xxxiii. Livy, ci. Appian, Mi

thridatica, ciii-cv. Eutropius, vi. 11.
f xxxvi. 36.
8 Ibid. 37.
h Dio, xxxvi. 37: cf. xxxvii. 4. Plu-
tarch, Pompeius, xxxiv. Appian, Mi-
thridatica, ciii. Zonaras, x. iv. 477 D.
Eutropius, vi. 11.

turnalia of the Roman calendar of the time, December 17-19 Roman; the Saturnalia at this period consisting of three days. From which facts it follows that the Roman Saturnalia at this time must have been falling in the winter.

All

Our calendar shews that such was actually the case. these events belong to one year, U. C. 688; the consular year of M. Æmilius Lepidus L. Volcatius Tullus: and in that year the stated date of the Saturnalia Prima, Dec. 17 Roman, fell on Feb. 11 B. C. 65; i. e. for such a climate as that of Albania, in the very depth of winter. We do not indeed know how long Pompey had been in winter-quarters before this attack. But if he did not arrive at Artaxata before the end of December B. C. 66, he could scarcely have transacted his business there, and afterwards marched in the winter more than two hundred miles, to the borders of Albania, much before the time thus indicated by our calendar; the end of January or the beginning of February, B. C. 65.

The time which appears to have been chosen by the Albanians for their attack is something remarkable. Our Lunar calendar shews the new moon of Sebat this year on February 11 at midnight, the date of the Saturnalia Prima; and that is confirmed by the solar eclipse of December 14 previously. The surprise of the Romans then was certainly attempted by these mountaineers on the day of the new moon, reckoned from the change or from the phasis, February 11-13, one of the three days of the Saturnalia; but whether because their calendar at this time was lunar, or because they purposely made choice of a dark night, we cannot undertake to say. It is not probable that they could have known any thing of the Roman custom of the Saturnalia; or have fixed on one of the days of that feast because they expected to find the Romans at such a time off their guard.

i Diss. v. ch. i. sect. viii. Vol. i. 450.

SECTION XII.-Irregular Calendar, Cycle vi. 24. 378 days.

U. C. 689 Varr. U. C. 688 Cap. U. C. 686 Polyb. B. C. 65.
L. Aurelius Cotta

L. Manlius Torquatus.

Kalendæ Januariæ February 24 B. C. 65. Nundinal Char. 2.

i. On the date of the conspiracy of P. Autronius Pætus and P. Cornelius Sulla, U. C. 689 B. C. 65.

A fact has been recorded of the end of the preceding and of the beginning of this consular year with which certain dates have been connected in terms; and these it may be worth our while to consider. Publius Autronius Pætus and Publius Cornelius Sulla, according to Diok, having been candidates for the consulship at the last comitia, and though elected having been set aside on the charge of ambitus or bribery, and having been superseded by Cotta and Torquatus, who had been the means of their conviction; out of revenge, in conjunction with some others, formed a conspiracy to assassinate the two consules designati on the very day when they were to enter on office, the Kalends of January U. C. 689.

This conspiracy is mentioned by Sallust1: and from his account of it it appears that one of the ringleaders in it was Cn. Piso, who while in office was afterwards killed in Spain in the administration of that province as Prætor, or on his way thither, by his own soldiers k: Cum hoc Catilina et Autronius...circiter Nonas Decembris (Lucio Tullo M. Lepido Coss.) consilio communicato parabant in Capitolio Kalendis Januariis L. Cottam et L. Torquatum consules interficere: ipsi fascibus correptis Pisonem cum exercitu ad obtinendas duas Hispanias mittere. ea re cognita, rursus in Nonas Februarii consilium cædis transtulerant quod ni Catilina maturasset pro curia signum sociis dare, eo die post conditam urbem Romam pessimum facinus patratum foret m.

k xxxvi. 27: cf. Sallust, Bellum Cat. xviii: xix. Cicero, xix. In Catilin. i. 6, 15: xxiii. Pro Murena, 38, 82: xxv. Pro P. Sulla, 24, 68. Asconius, P. 110: 111: 117 In Orat. in Toga Cand. Sue

...

tonius, Julius Cæsar, ix. 1. Livy, ci. 1 Loc. cit.

In Bell. Cat. xviii. Cf. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ix. 6.

The thing to be observed here is that in the opinion of these conspirators the Kalends of January U. C. 689 and much less the Nones of February the same year were not too early in the natural year to despatch Piso with an army to Spain. The former fell February 24, the latter March 28, B. C. 65. The character of the year too being 2 the Nones of February were Nundinal: and that might have something to do with the choice of this day in the second instance, because of the greater crowd and bustle, and consequently confusion, which it might be expected there would be at the time. This was probably the reason why they fixed the attempt at first for the day of the ingress, January 1 Roman; and probably too why, as we learn from Cicero ", Catiline once thought of executing the attempt on the day before the Kalends, the last day of the official year, the day of the Ejuratio: which was almost as great an occasion as the day of the ingress *. Or the reason why they fixed on the Nones of February at last might be simply because there was a stated sacrifice and ceremony on that day in arce, i. e. in the Capitol ; at which the consuls perhaps were bound to be present.

ii. On the date of the birth, and on the Horoscope or

Genitura, of Horace.

There is another date also on record, which belongs to this year, and is calculated to give it an additional interest in the opinion of the classical student; that of the birth of Horace.

Natus est (Horatius) sexto Idus Decembres Lucio Cotta et Lucio Torquato consulibus: decessit quinto Kalendas Decembres Cajo Marcio Censorino Cajo Asinio Gallo consulibus, post nonum et quinquagesimum annum P. The former

* Why the Nones of December were fixed upon in the first instance does not appear; unless it was because, as the 10th of December Roman was the stated date of the ingress of the Tribuni Plebis, so the Nones or the 5th was that of the official ingress of the Plebeian Ediles; cf. Cicero, In Verrem Actio i. 10, 30: though that of the ingress of the Curule Ediles was the Kalends of January: cf. i. in Verr. 12, 36: 13, 37: ii. Lib. v. 14, 36. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ix. 1.

n Orat. xix. In Catilin. i. 6, 15.

• Cf. supra, Vol. ii. 434.

P Suetonius, Vita, 15: 16. cf. Je

rome, Thesaurus Temp. ad Olymp. clxxviii. 4: cxcii. 2.

Seu Libra seu me Scorpius adspicit
Formidolosus, pars violentior

Natalis horæ, seu tyrannus

Hesperia Capricornus undæ t.

From which we might infer that he considered himself to have
been born when one of these signs, Libra, Scorpius, or Ca-
pricorn, was in the ascendant; though he did not exactly
know which, or which in particular more than either of the
other two. The scholiast construed this allusion as if it
meant that he was destined to be shortlived; and therefore
was born under Scorpio: Infestus enim fertur Scorpius

a Dio, lv. 7. 5: 8. Cf. Suetonius,
Vita, 17.

r Od. iii. xxi. I. Epod. xiii. 8. Epp. i.
xx. 27. Cf. Od. ii. iv. 22 : iii. xiv. 25:

iv. i. 4.

27.

Epod. xiii. 8: xi. 7: Epp. i. xx

t Od. ii. xvii. 17.

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