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exactly, in every particular, does this fountain answer to the celebrated Fons, that my faith in its identity is firm and steadfast. (2)

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Licenza bears no traces of antiquity. No town could have existed here in Horace's time, or his villicus would have found at hand the delights he sighed after,-fornix et uncta popina, taberna, et meretrix tibicina. It is pretty evident that Varia was the nearest town to the farm. Licenza is but a corruption of Digentia-a name which is thus singularly preserved, as the vulgar appellation of the river is "Rio Vecchio," not Licenza, as Eustace asserts. The town is small, containing less than one thousand inhabitants, of whom my host is one of the chief. En la casa de ciegos el tuerto es Rey-in the house of the blind, the one-eyed man is king"says the Spanish proverb. The accommodation he affords is the best to be had in the place, but it is so indifferenteven mundæ parvo sub lare cœnæ is here of questionable application that I do not wonder most Horatian pilgrims make but a day's excursion from Tivoli to these localities. very few, of the travellers who visit the Eternal City, extend their wanderings as far as this; and of those few, the greater part are English. In fact, it is commonly believed by the peasantry, that Horace was our countryman, for they cannot

Few,

(2) I have allowed Mr. Dennis to plead his own cause in favour of the Sabine Bandusia. My own opinion is, however, unshaken, as to the evidence in favour of the neighbourhood of Venusia for the Bandusian fountain.-EDITOR.

conceive of any other source of interest in one so long dead, and unsainted, than that of co-patriotism or consanguinity.

I have not omitted to make an excursion to Rocca Giovane, which is about four miles from Licenza. It stands on a precipitous, jagged rock of limestone, which juts out most boldly and picturesquely into the valley. The village does not occupy the site of the ancient temple-fanum Vacunawhich seems to have stood about a mile distant, towards the head of Lucretilis. Here some large masses of brick and stone, apparently part of a vaulted roof, stuccoed, are shown as the remains of the temple. Hard by is an ancient conduit which still conveys water towards the ruins from the higher part of the mountain. Vacuna was a goddess of the Sabines, supposed to be identical with Victory, and that there was an ancient shrine to that deity in this neighbourhood, is proved by the following inscription, which I copied from a tablet preserved at Rocca Giovane, and said by the villagers to have been found among these ruins :

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P

POTEST

ONTIFEX. MAXIMVS. TRIB.

ATIS. CENSOR. AEDEM. VICTORIAE.

VETUST ATE. DILAPSAM. SVA. IMPENSA.

RESTITVIT.

Fragments of granite columns, and a small bas-relief, representing a female with a stag by her side, are also pointed out as having been found on the same site. It is most probable, then, that the ruins in question, are those of the

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Fanum," which, though restored by Vespasian, is now more

putre than ever.

Most commentators explain, Hæc tibi dictabam post fanum, &c. as meaning that the poet dictated that epistle from this very site. Doering, I remember, suggests that in his wanderings around his villa, Horace may have strolled up to this temple, and casting himself on the turf behind it, may have dictated the said epistle to his slave. It seems to me, however, quite unnecessary to suppose that he wrote from this spot; I would rather interpret it as signifying that he wrote from his own farm, which was actually behind the temple, as regards its position relatively to Rome, where Fuscus Aristius, to whom the epistle is addressed, was evidently staying

"Urbis amatorem Fuscum salvere jubemus

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PERSONE HORATIANE.

ELIUS.-See "Lamia."

ÆSOPUS CLAUDIUS, or CLODIUS.—(Probably a freedman of the Claudian family.) Epist. II. i. 82. The great, the solemn (gravis) or impressive tragic actor. Quintilian decribes the delivery of Roscius as more rapid (citatior); that of Æsopus, as more grave or solemn (gravior). Instit. Orat. xi. 3. 111. His consummate art was the effect of profound study; he attended public trials when great orators, such as Hortensius, pleaded, to catch the expression of the feelings and passions of mankind (Val Max. viii. 10. 2). Cicero speaks of the expression of his countenance and gesture: "In te sæpe vidi; et *** in Æsopo, familiari tuo tantum ardorem vultuum atque mo tuum, ut eum vis quædam abstraxisse a sensu mentis videretur" (De Divin. 1. 37). Yet it is difficult to reconcile this with a passage in Fronto de Eloquentia. Esopus is there said to have gazed intently for some time on his mask, in order to catch the expression of its character. To understand the position, character, and influence of a great actor like Esopus, the passage in Cicero's Oratio pro Sextio, must be read. This perfect artist always, Cicero asserts, chose the noblest parts both as an actor

and as a citizen. (The translation expresses but ill, “ inehercule semper partium in republicâ, tanquam in scenâ, optimarum.") In the character of the Banished Telamon (in a tragedy of Accius), Esopus pleaded the cause of the exiled Cicero more powerfully than could any orator with the most consummate eloquence. By marked emphasis he applied passage after passage to Cicero, till the vast audience was kindled with indignation, or melted into tears. The climax of all, was the line,

"Exsulare sinitis, sivistis pelli, pulsum patimini."

On another occasion he boldly substituted the name of Tullius for that of Brutus,-" Tullius qui libertatem civibus stabiliverat." At the dedication of Pompey's Theatre, u. c. 699, the voice of Esopus failed, probably from age. Cicero ad Fam. vii. 1. The time of his death is unknown. Horace could hardly have seen him act, as he did not come to Rome before u. c. 701.

ESOPI FILIUS, CLODIUS.—Sat. 11. iii. 239. The heir of the vast fortunes made by the great actor. He had anticipated the gorgeous prodigality of Cleopatra. His huge pearl, which he melted in vinegar and drank, though worth about £8072 3s. 4d., was not of the enormous value of the famous unique gem of Cleopatra. The latter, which was estimated at the sum, at least, of centies H. S. (£80,729 3s. 4d.), she actually did swallow, and was prevented from swallowing a second, to make up her wager of supping at the price of a whole taxation, six times that sum-sex centies. But the son of the player had laid no wager, and did it for the whim of knowing how pearls would taste; and not content with this, treated all his guests with the same kind of draught.-Plin. Hist. Nat., 1x. 35. Macrob. Sat. 11. xiii.

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