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. Our calendar shews that such was actually the case. All 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. 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 k 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. * 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: III: 117 In Orat. in Toga Cand. Sue ... tonius, Julius Cæsar, ix. 1. Livy, ci. 1 Loc. cit. m 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 Ciceron, 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 Ædiles; cf. Cicero, In Verrem Actio i. 10, 30: though that of the ingress of the Curule Ædiles was the Kalends of January: cf. i. in Verr. 12, 36: 13, 37: ii. Lib. v. 14, 36. Suetonius, Julius Cæsar, ix. I. 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. of these years was U. C. 689, the latter was U. C. 746. In the former vi Idus Decembres December 8 Roman answered to February 14 B. C. 64: in the latter v Kalendas Decem- bres, November 27 Roman, answered to November 28 B. C. 8: so that in Roman time Horace was 56 years, eleven months, nineteen days old at his death; in Julian, (which only would represent his real age at the time,) he was 56 years, nine months, fourteen days old at his death. It is manifest therefore that Suetonius' statement of his age at the time, (59 years or even 60,) is in error; and could be true in any sense only, if we read in his text at pre- sent Post septimum et quinquagesimum annum. year was also that of the death of his friend and patron Mæcenas ; and probably somewhat earlier in the year: so that, as he himself declares he neither could nor would survive him, he actually did not do so except a very short The year thus assigned to his birth is confirmed by his own testimony; and that he was born in December appears also from his own testimonys. But with respect to the day in that month it rests entirely on the authority of Suetonius. In one of his Odes however there is an allusion to his Horo- Seu Libra seu me Scorpius adspicit Natalis horæ, seu tyrannus Hesperia Capricornus undæ t. From which we might infer that he considered himself to have a Dio, lv. 7. 5: 8. Cf. Suetonius, r Od. iii. xxi. 1. Epod. xiii. 8. Epp. i. iv. i. 4. 27. Epod. xiii. 8: xi. 7: Epp. i. xx t Od. ii. xvii. 17. præ aliis genesi juxta Mathesim: idcirco dicunt physici qui 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 Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus w. And the latitude of the ancient Venusia according to D'An- u Cf. our Fasti Catholici, iii. 453: v Vell. Pat. i. 14. |