erected between the Tarentum and the banks of the Tiber, where
S. Giovanni dei Fiorentini now stands; and the other ceremonies were
performed on a wooden stage which was illuminated by lights and fires.
This temporary theatre was not provided with seats, and the report
calls it "a stage without a theatre." In the performances of the next
day and in those of June 2 and 3, which took place on the Capitol and
the Palatine, the following order was observed in the ceremonial
pageant; first came Augustus as Emperor and Pontifex Maximus, next the
Consuls, the Senate, the Quindecemviri and other colleges of priests,
then followed the Vestal Virgins, and a group of one hundred and ten
matrons (as many as there were years in the _saeculum_) selected from
among the most exemplary _matres familiae_ above twenty-five years of
age.

Twenty-seven boys and twenty-seven girls of patrician descent whose
parents were both living (_patrimi et matrimi_) were enlisted on June
3, to sing the hymn composed expressly by Horace. "Carmen composuit Q.
Horatius Flaccus," so the report says (line 149). The first stanzas of
the beautiful canticle were sung when the procession was marching from
the Temple of Apollo to that of Jupiter Capitolinus, the middle
portion on the Capitol, and the last on the way back to the Palatine.
The accompaniments were played by the orchestra and the trumpeters of
the official choir (_tibicines et fidicines qui sacris publicis praesto
sunt_). The wealth of magnificence and beauty which the Romans beheld
on the morning of June 3, 17 B. C., we can see as in a dream, but it
baffles description. Imagine the group of fifty-four young patricians
clad in snow-white tunics, crowned with flowers, and waving branches
of laurel, led by Horace down the Vicus Apollinis (the street which
led from the Summa Sacra Via to the house of Augustus on the
Palatine), and the Sacra Via, singing the praises of the immortal
gods:--

"Quibus septem placuere colles!"

During those days and nights Augustus gave evidence of a truly
remarkable strength of mind and body, never missing a ceremony, and
himself performing the sacrifices. Agrippa showed less power of
endurance than his friend and master. He appeared only in the daytime,
helping the emperor in addressing supplications to the gods, and in
immolating the victims.

ARA PACIS AUGUSTAE. Among the honors voted to Augustus by the Senate
in the year 13 B. C., on the occasion of his trium