of the emperor, as we may learn from the inscription. We find in the several medals that were struck on Adrian's progress through the empire, that, at his arrival, they offered a sacrifice to the gods for the reception of so great a blessing. Horace mentions this custom. Tum meæ (si quid loquar audiendum) Pulcher, ô laudande, canam, recepto Te decem tauri, totidemque vaccæ; And there, if any patient ear My muse's feeble song will hear, HOR. Od. 2, lib. iv. My voice shall sound through Rome: Thee, sun, I 'll sing, thee, lovely fair, Ten large fair bulls, ten lusty cows, Must die, to pay thy richer vows; Of my small stock of kine A calf just weaned MR. CREECH. Italy1 has a cornu-copiæ in her hand, to denote her fruit fulness; -magna parens frugum Saturnia tellus. VIRG. GEORG. iii. figure out the many Lucan has given her and a crown of towers on her head, to Ingens visa duci patriæ trepidantis Imago: LUCAN. lib. i. Amidst the dusky horrors of the night, Then groaning thus the mournful silence broke. MR. Rowe. She holds a sceptre in her other hand, and sits on a globe of the heavens, to show that she is the sovereign of nations, and that all the influences of the sun and stars fall on her dominions. Claudian makes the same compliment to Rome. Fig. 8. Ipsa triumphatis quæ possidet æthera regnis. CLAUD. IN PROB. et OLYB. CONS. Jupiter arce suâ totum dum spectat in orbem, Nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet. OV. DE FAST. lib. i. PETRON. The picture that Claudian makes of Rome, one would think, was copied from the next medal.1 -innuptæ ritus imitata Minervæ : Nam neque cæsariem crinali stringere cultu, Clypeus Titana lucessit CLAUD. IN PROB. et OLYB. CONS. No costly fillets knot her hair behind, Nor female trinkets round her neck are twined. Bold on the right her naked arm she shows, The next figure is Achaia.2 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 Britannias.3 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 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 orbe Britannos. VIRG. Ecl. 1. The rest among the Britons be confined; MR. DRYDEN. Conjunctum est, quod adhuc orbis, et orbis erat. VET. POET. APUD SCALIG. CATUL. At nunc oceanus geminos interluit orbes. Id. DE BRITANNIA ET OPPOSITO CONTINENTE. -nostro diducta Britannia mundo. CLAUD. Nec stetit oceano, remisque ingressa profundum, The feet of Britannia are washed by the waves, in the same poet. -cujus vestigia verrit Cœrulus, oceanique æstum mentitur, amictus. Id. DE LAUD. STIL. lib. ii. 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,1 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' eating a salad of parsley for his refreshment, after his encounter with the Nemean lion. It is certain, there were in Achaia the Neamean 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 Achaïa Ludos, Cœlicolûm duo sunt, et duo festa hominum. Serta quibus pinus, malus, oliva, apium. AUS. DE LUSTRAL. AGON. Greece, in four games thy martial youth were trained; Archemori Nemeæa colunt funebria Thebæ. Id. DE LOCIS AGON. 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 Lib. i. Od. 36. And gently cool the heated guest. 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. i. The haughty Parthian now to Cæsar kneels. Ille qui donat diadema fronti MR. CREECH. Quem genu nixæ tremuere gentes. SENEC. THYEST. act. iii. Te linguis variæ gentes, missique rogatum Fœdera Persarum proceres cum patre sedentem, Hac quondam vidêre domo; positâque tiarâ Submisere genu. CLAUD. AD HONORIUM. Thy infant virtue various climes admired, And various tongues to sound thy praise conspired: Thee next the sovereign seat, the Persians viewed, When in this regal dome for peace they sued: Each turban low, in sign of worship, waved, And every knee confessed the boon they craved. |