præ

aliis genesi juxta Mathesim: idcirco dicunt physici qui
sub Scorpio nascitur cito moritur. But this was evidently
a precarious inference from his own words at least; which do
not more necessarily imply that he was born under Scorpio
than under Libra or under Capricorn. Besides which a Ge-
nitura or Horoscope which extended from Libra to Capricorn
must have included Sagittarius also; to which no allusion,
for some reason or other, occurs in the preceding pas-

sage.

In fact it is scarcely conceivable that a particular horo-

scope, which in the proper astrological sense of the term u

was always connected with some one degree of some one sign,

and with some one instant of time, (that of the rising above

the horizon of that one degree of that one sign,) could be

supposed to extend in any sense over three or four signs in

succession, each of them requiring two hours at least to rise,

except on one hypothesis; viz. that of a protracted birth or par-

turition, which might have begun when the first of those

signs was in the ascendant but was over only when the last

was so. Such cases of a difficult and tedious delivery are

liable to occur; and that of Horace's mother, it appears to

us, must have been one of the number.

We may assume that the latitude and meridian of Horace's

birthplace were those of the ancient Venusia; a colony

planted between U. C. 459 and U. C. 463v, B. C. 295 and

B. C. 291.

Lucanus an Appulus anceps:

Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus w.

And the latitude of the ancient Venusia according to D'An-
ville was 41° N. Assuming then also that Horace was actu
ally born at Venusia, on February 14, B. C. 64, we have
calculated the time of sunrise for that latitude and that day;
and found it Feb. 14, about 7 h. 8 m. 56 s. A. M. apparent time,
exclusive of refraction: and the sun's true place at that time
for the same meridian was about 323° 22′ 19′′-i. e. the 24°
of Aquarius; which according to the received division of the
sphere in 8vis Partibus would probably be reckoned the 2o of

u Cf. our Fasti Catholici, iii. 453:
458 note.

v Vell. Pat. i. 14.
Sermon. ii. i. 34.

Pisces.

And if we may also assume that each of these signs
would take up in rising as below *, we should have the

We may conjecture consequently that the labour of
Horace's mother began Feb. 13-between 20 h. 4 m. 14 s.
from midnight and 22 h. 37 m. 24 s. from midnight, while
Libra was in the ascendant; and was protracted until Feb. 14
5 h. 40 m. 1 s. from midnight—when Capricorn was still in
the ascendant; and that the most critical period of the
labour was from Feb. 13, at 22 h. 37 m. 24 s., when Scorpio
began to be in the ascendant, to Feb. 14, at 1h. 12m. 12s. when
Sagittarius began to be so; so that he was truly born at last in
Capricorn, but might be said to have begun to be born in
Libra, and was at one time expected to have been born in
Scorpio, when the labour of the parturition was probably the
greatest which would explain why he should describe that
sign in particular as the

Natalis horæ.

Pars violentior

SECTION XIII. On the administration of the Irregular Ca-
lendar through the sixth Cycle in general.

With regard to the administration of the calendar through
this cycle in general something has been already said. The
Pontifex Maximus all this time was the same individual, Q.

The above calculations were made by Mr. Adams, and for the latitude

of Rome.

- Supra, 297.

Metellus, and he seems to have adhered, as closely as circumstances would permit, to one rule; that of having common and intercalary years alternately. The number of intercalary years in the whole of this cycle was only three more than that of common.

Besides however the case already noticed of four intercalary years in succession, B. C. 81-78; we have two in succession, B. C. 72 and B. C. 71. The former of these would be so according to rule; but why the latter was intercalary does not appear, unless it was made so in order to dispense with that of the next year, and so far to curtail its length. We collected from Cicero's testimony y that this year B. C. 70 de facto was common. We know too that it was the year of the first consulate of Pompey; in which he availed himself of the power and influence entailed by the office of consul to restore the Potestas Tribunicia; which had been either taken away by Sulla B. C. 80 or reduced merely to a name : and that was no doubt a step which did not please the party of the Optimates; and if there was any reason to expect it beforehand, it might have been a sufficient inducement with the Pontifical college for abridging the length of the year. But after all, as U. C. 683 B. C. 71, was the last year of the war with Spartacus; it might have been purposely lengthened by a special intercalation, to give more time to Crassus, and to the rest associated with him in the command on that occasion.

Lastly there are some dates of triumphs, still on record, which fall within the limits of this cycle a. None of them offends against the rule of the Nundinal Incidence.

Diss. vi. ch. i. sect. vi. Vol. i. 520. Cf. Livy, lxxxix. xcvii. Velleius Pat. ii. 30. Plutarch, Pompeius, xxi. xxii. Appian, B. C. i. 100. 121. Sallust, Bell. Cat. 39. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, v. 1. Cicero, Actio i. in Verr.

15, 16. ii. Lib. v. 63, 163. 68, 175: De Legibus, iii. 9, 22. Asconius, P. 5, 6. In Orat. De Divin. : 40, In iii Contra Verrem.

a Vol. ii. 90, 91.

DISSERTATION XVIII.

On the Verification of the Irregular Roman Calendar.

Cycle vii.

CHAPTER I.

SECTION I.-Importance of this Cycle.

THE seventh cycle of the Irregular Calendar is the most important which we have to consider; indeed almost the most important period of the whole Roman calendar: because it immediately precedes the Julian correction. The nineteenth year of this cycle was the year of the correction, the year of confusion as it has been called; and the first year of the Æra Juliana properly so called, B. C. 45 itself, may be reckoned the 20th year of the viith cycle of the Irregular Calendar previously in use.

For this reason, there is no part of this period of the irregular administration of the calendar in general, which it is more essential to our proper purpose that we should verify and confirm with the utmost exactness. We shall therefore make a point of demonstrating if possible the truth of our Fasti Romani for almost every year of this cycle; especially as we draw nearer to the time of the Julian correction. And it is a fortunate, or (to speak more becomingly) it is a Providential, coincidence that the materials or data requisite for this proof are supplied to our hand in abundance. In no period of contemporary Roman history are so many dates extant as in this; so much so that the difficulty and embarrass

ment under which we feel ourselves placed, when preparing to treat of this part of our subject, is not to discover proofs but to select them.

Under these circumstances, it is far from improbable, that as we proceed with our task we shall find ourselves obliged to omit and pass over almost as much matter of this kind as we shall be seen to adduce; and we wish the reader to understand beforehand that if the principles and arrangements of the Irregular Period, adopted and proposed in our calendar, in his opinion have been satisfactorily established up to the beginning of this last portion of the whole; there is nothing to fear for the remainder of its details through this. The truth of our calendar for this last cycle in particular would be a certain fact, (placed out of question by proofs of its own, entirely independent of any thing of the same kind which precedes it,) though nothing had been demonstrated and nothing had even been known of any part of the same period before it.

SECTION II.-Irregular Calendar, Cycle vii. 2. 378 days.

U. C. 691 Varr. 690 Cap. 688 Polyb. B. C. 63.

M. Tullius Cicero

C. Antonius.

Kalendæ Januariæ Feb. 26 B. C. 63. Nundinal Char. 5.

i. On the Genitura or Horoscope of Augustus. Year of the birth of Augustus.

The truth of our calendar for this year was illustrated in part i. By the date of the lunar eclipse at the Feriæ Latinæ of the year, May 3; and ii. By the date of the opposition of Jupiter, at the beginning of the year, April 176. But neither of these proofs went any further than the demonstration of the general accuracy of our calendar for that particular year. There is still one proof, capable of being adduced, which will illustrate and verify its details; and to the explanation of this we shall now proceed.

This proof is derived from the Genitura or Horoscope of the emperor Augustus. The first thing necessary is to ascer

b Supra, p. 14 sqq.