39. Romulus was said to have received any vagabonds and to have opened an asylum for all outlaws. Comp. Florus I. I, erat in proxumo lucus: hunc asylum facit. Livy 1. 8 locum qui nunc saeptus descendentibus inter duos lucos est, asylum aperit. See also Virgil Aen. VIII. 342, Ov. Fast. 11. 140, Juv. vIII. fin.-The Lupercal was a cavern in the Palatine, connected by some of the ancients with the wolf (lupa) that suckled Romulus and Remus. Hence the robbers are styled lupercalisch, because. they lived on and about the Palatine hill. Hence the Lupercalia, one of the most ancient Roman festivals, said to have been instituted by Romulus in honour of the god Lupercus, and celebrated every year, on the 15th of February, in the Lupercal. See Dict. of Ant.—der Genoß is shortened instead of Genosse 'comrade.'

40. ordnete Väter='patres instituit,' i. e. he created a senate.-After his death, Romulus was deified and called Quirinus pater.

41. ersinnend 'meditating, inventing' refers to Numa's laws; his genius is described as 'inventive' of laws.-heimliche Nymphe denotes Egeria, who was said to have secretly bestowed her love upon Numa and to have advised him in his legislation. 'Illa Numae coniunx consiliumque fuit' is the expression used by Ovid, Fast. III. 276.

42. Ille (Numa) sacra et caerimonias omnemque cultum deorum immortalium docuit. Flor. I. 2. 2.- -We should observe the Latin pronunciation of the word Religión, which is generally sounded in German as if it were trisyllabic (Réligjón).

43. annoch is scarcely, if ever, used in prose, instead of damals noch.— triftig, comp. 'thriftily.' They provided for their latest offspring by carrying out great works.

44. gemeinsam means 'useful to the public.'

45. The quadrata saxa of the earlier Roman buildings and works are repeatedly mentioned by Vitruvius in his work de architectura. The peculiar manner of building without cement (Ritt, 'caementum') was once believed to have been derived by the Romans from the Etruscans, but is actually the primitive manner of most nations.

46. anfugen should not be mistaken for anfügen; it means eine Fuge ausfüllen und zusammen halten.

48. Bollwerk (comp. 'bulwark ') = 'fortifications.'-der Fels Capitol ='Mons Capitolinus.'

49. Since the first erection of these walls, many governments (Verfassungen) have come and gone-but these walls have remained. The plural die Gemäuer is not very common.

50. Of Ancus, the fourth king of Rome, it is related muro moenia

amplexus est. Flor. I. 4. Tarquinius Superbus, the last king, is stated to have commenced the erection of the Capitol with the spoils of the wealthy town of Suessa Pometia.

51. There is a historical inaccuracy in the arrangement of the names in this line. Die Beile des Brutus (an allusion to L. Junius Brutus, who put to death his two sons for having attempted to restore the Tarquins) ought to be mentioned before the Decii, one of whom (the father) sacrificed his life for his country's sake in 340, and the other (the son) in 295 B. C.

52. Häupter Führer (duces) who stood at the head of affairs. The stories of L. Quintius Cincinnatus, who was called from the plough to the dictatorship, in B. C. 458, and Curius Dentatus who defeated the Samnites and Pyrrhus, but preferred his small farm to wealth and power, are often dwelt upon by the Roman writers as instances of antiqua or prisca virtus.

54. ftill quietly,' i. e. without parade.

55. Even in old age the ancient Romans did not yield to ignoble rest, but kept on working to the end of their days.-Rüstiges Alter is, of course, said in the sense of rüstige alte Leute.

56. The wrinkles wrought in the honest forehead were considered the diadem of it.

57. Der Sterblichen Zeuger, warǹp ȧvôpŵv, hominum pater, is Jupiter.— Weltherr=Herr der Welt.

58. These heroes of old were the worthiest representation, and, so to speak, reflex of the Godhead, in whose image man was made.

=

59. drängte bedrängte. They were often beset with perils and dangers. 60. The reverence they had towards the gods preserved them from abject fear.

62. einfältige Pflicht 'a simple duty' on which it was unnecessary to

reason.

63. Wollust = voluptas or dový, which was considered the highest good (summum bonum) by many of the adherents of Epicurus, a celebrated Greek philosopher (born 342, died 270), though he himself did not understand down in the sense of sensual enjoyment.-flügeln means 'to reason with excessive subtlety' or 'sophistically.'

64. C. Fabricius was consul in 282 and 278, and distinguished himself in the war against Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who was the first that ever brought elephants into Italy. Pyrrhus used every effort to win over Fabricius, but the unsophisticated and sturdy mind of the Roman was proof against all his seductions.

66. Veji one of the most powerful and ancient cities of Etruria; 'the Veientes were engaged in almost unceasing hostilities with Rome for more than three centuries and a half, and we have records of fourteen distinct wars between the two peoples.' Dict. of Geogr.

67. The omission of the final e in Geschicht' is rather harsh. 69, 70. euch is dativus commodi, = zu euerem Vortheil. Carthage gathered all her treasures (hat gewuchert) merely for your use as you were destined to conquer her and carry away the rich spoils.

70. Alexander the Great is called 'a drunken god,' as he deemed himself equal to the gods after the long series of victories he had gained, while at the same time he was addicted to the very free use of wine and committed some very rash acts prompted by drunkenness (Persepolis, Clitus). The empire created by Alexander was at last to become the property of the Romans.

71. More than one instance might be quoted in which the Romans were called upon to arbitrate (Schiedsrichter sein) in the disputes between the kings of Asia and Africa, e. g. in the case of the Ptolemies, the Maccabees, the descendants of Masinissa, and those of Herod the Great.

72. Justice is represented with scales. Hence she is called ' evenhanded Justice' by Shaksp. Macb. I. 7. 10.

73. The verb obwalten is not commonly joined with the dative; it is more usual to say einer Sache walten, or eine Sache verwalten. The end of this line is apparently a reminiscence of Homeric phraseology; comp. Διὸς κατ' ἀμύμονα βουλήν.

74. 'But you employ your great prosperity so badly that it serves as a theme for laying blame upon Fortune,' who made you great, though you did not deserve your greatness.

75 sq. An evident reminiscence of Horace, Epod. 16. 2 sqq. suis et ipsa Roma viribus ruit. Quam neque finitimi valuerunt perdere Marsi, Minacis aut Etrusca Porsenae manus, Aemula nec virtus Capuae nec Spartacus acer.... Parentibusque abominatus Hannibal etc.

77. dem Eisen beben is very boldly said instead of vor dem Eisen beben. The poet seems to imitate something like qui non extimuit ferrum.

78. Basiliskennatur 'the nature of the basilisk,' whose eye is said to charm all who become subject to it. As for the sense, comp. Virgil's well-known quid non mortalia pectora cogis, Auri sacra fames.

79. Compare Horace's exhortation angustam amicê (kindly) pauperiem pati Robustus acri militia puer Condiscat. Carm. III. 2. I.

80.

es gilt means 'it is the important question,' it is absolutely neces

sary. To be 'master of oneself' means to be able to control one's passions and practise moderation and self-denial in prosperity.

81. nie zu ersättigen should be taken as if it were one word, e. g. uner. sättlich.

82. An immense price is paid down to obtain the gratification of the artificial vices (i. e. vices produced by excessive refinement). These luxuries were brought by ships from foreign lands.

83. M. Licinius Crassus, surnamed Dives, one of the Triumvirs of the year 60 B. C., was conspicuous for his wealth and insatiable love of money. -Pactolus, a river of Lydia, whose golden sands have become proverbial.

84. Stolz=der stolze Mann.—schaltende Macht, 'free sway and power.'— The watch-word of the mob of the imperial period was panem et circenses. Comp. Juv. x. 80 (populus) duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et cir

censes.

85. This is evidently in the spirit of Juvenal, who couples Scauros et Fabricios, XI. 91; comp. also Hor. Carm. I. 12.37-40. The great names remain, heroism and patriotism are gone.

86 sq. Comp. Hor. Carm. 111. 6. 46 sq. aetas parentum, peior avis, tulit Nos nequiores, mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem.

88. entnervender Strøm means the current which has set in towards a general weakening of the nation.

89. falsches Gewebe is less intelligible than ein Gewebe von Falschheit.

92. Though the honest customs of old were engraven in iron letters, yet they now begin to be effaced and disappear.-Properly it ought to be erlischt.

95. auch so, even as it actually was,' dλλà κal ŵs.-The poet means that notwithstanding all this corruption the fall of Virtue and Freedom was not unattended with grandeur.

97. An evident allusion to, or rather translation of, the well-known passage in Hor. Carm. II. I. 23 sq. cuncta terrarum subacta Praeter atrocem animum Catonis.

98. Such men as Cato taught by their example the great truth that, if it was denied to live a freeman, to die a freeman was still possible.

99. der Tugenden Schiffbruch, the general wreck of virtues, commune virtutum naufragium.

100. Stoa, i. e. the philosophic sect of the Stoics, founded by Zeno (died 260 B. C.). The Stoa Poecile, where they used to meet, was a porch at Athens adorned with the paintings of Polygnotus.

104. Formerly the greatness and majesty of Rome used to live in the souls and minds of the citizens; but in the imperial epoch the impression of greatness was attained by the outward splendour and magnificence of the cities and of the capital itself.

107.

marmorne Wunder, 'wonderful works of art sculptured in marble.' 108. A captive crowd, as it were, of life-like (athmend) statues was brought over from Greece.

IIO. anmuthiger Hauch means as much as der Hauch der Anmuth. The Greeks lent an air of peculiar grace to all their works of art.

114. Shene is a city of Upper Egypt on the E. bank of the Nile, below the First Cataract. Of the obelisks Pliny (xXXVI. 14. 64) says that they were sacred to the Sun (Solis numini sacrati).

115. The emperor Augustus had several obelisks transported to Rome, and erected there. Some of these are still in existence, notably the one which had formerly stood in the Circus and was again put up by Pope Sixtus V. in the Piazza del Popolo, a. 1589; and another which Augustus had put up as a gnomon, and which was again erected by Pope Pius VI. on Monte Citorio, a. 1789. It is probably the latter to which the poet alludes here.

117. There is no one competent to explain the hieroglyphics on this obelisk with absolute certainty.

118. weiß versteht.

119. urweltlich, 'pristine.'

120.

The obelisk is in itself a monument of the downfall of Empires, all of which it has survived, and of the nothingness (Nichts=Nichtigkeit) of mankind.

121. die rasende Willkür, 'arbitrary power run mad.'

123. allbeistimmende Knechtschaft is a servile mind which assents to everything, be it ever so disgraceful.

125. The subject of the sentence is Altäre, and the verb dampfen is somewhat unusually joined with the accus. The ordinary construction would be von etwas dampfen.-unholde Dämonen, 'destructive fiends,' are the emperors, many of whom were worshipped as gods even during their lifetime.

126. The construction of this line should be properly attended to. When murder came, it broke through the divinity that hedged in the emperor, and hurled him in a moment from glory to infamy.

127. The bloody pastimes to which the Romans were addicted are said to have whetted the dagger employed by their tyrants against themselves.