Penelope. He was worshipped chiefly in
Arcadia, and represented with the horns and feet of a goat. The Nymphs,
as well as the Graces, were represented naked.
[346] The name of the island having a double meaning, and signifying
also a goat.
[347] "Quasi pueros primae teneritudinis, quos 'pisciculos' vocabat,
institueret, ut natanti sibi inter femina versarentur, ac luderent:
lingua morsuque sensim appetentes; atque etiam quasi infantes firmiores,
necdum tamen lacte depulsos, inguini ceu papillae admoveret: pronior sane
ad id genus libidinis, et natura et aetate."
[348] "Foeminarum capitibus solitus illudere."
[349] "Obscoenitate oris hirsuto atque olido."
[350] "Hircum vetulum capreis naturam ligurire"
[351] The Temple of Vesta, like that dedicated to the same goddess at
Tivoli, is round. There was probably one on the same site, and in the
same circular form, erected by Numa Pompilius; the present edifice is far
too elegant for that age, but there is no record of its erection, but it
is known to have been repaired by Vespasian or Domitian after being
injured by Nero's fire. Its situation, near the Tiber, exposed it to
floods, from which we find it suffered, from Horace's lines--
"Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis
Littore Etrusco violenter undis,
Ire dejectum monumenta Regis,
Templaque Vestae."--Ode, lib. i. 2. 15.
This beautiful temple is still in good preservation. It is surrounded by
twenty columns of white marble, and the wall of the cell, or interior
(which is very small, its diameter being only the length of one of the
columns), is also built of blocks of the same material, so nicely joined,
that it seems to be formed of one solid mass.
[352] Antlia; a machine for drawing up water in a series of connected
buckets, which was worked by the feet, nisu pedum.
[353] The elder Livia was banished to this island by Augustus. See
c. lxv. of his life.
[354] An island in the Archipelago.
[355] This Theodore is noticed by Quintilian, Instit. iii. 1. Gadara
was in Syria.
[356] It mattered not that the head substituted was Tiberius's own.
[357] The verses were probably anonymous.
[358] Oderint dum probent: Caligula used a similar expression; Oderint
dum metuant.
[359] A.U.C. 778. Tacit. Annal. iv. The historian's name was A.
Cremutius Cordo. Dio has preserved the passage, xlvii. p. 619. Brutus
had already called Cassius "The last of the Romans," i
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