God, who was
regarded as one of the tutelary Deities of the traders. Horace
alludes to his temple which was in the Vicus Tuscus, or Etrurian
Street, which led to the Circus Maximus. According to some authors,
he was an ancient king of Etruria, who paid great attention to his
gardens, and, after his death, was considered to have the tutelage
of them.

FABLES XII. AND XIII. [XIV.698-851]

Vertumnus relates to Pomona how Anaxarete was changed into a rock
after her disdain of his advances had forced her lover Iphis to hang
himself. After the death of Amulius and Numitor, Romulus builds
Rome, and becomes the first king of it. Tatius declares war against
him, and is favoured by Juno, while Venus protects the Romans.
Romulus and Hersilia are added to the number of the Deities, under
the names of Quirinus and Ora.

Iphis, born of an humble family, had beheld the noble Anaxarete, sprung
from the race of the ancient Teucer;[56] he had seen her, and had felt
the flame in all his bones; and struggling a long time, when he could
not subdue his passion by reason, he came suppliantly to her doors. And
now having confessed to her nurse his unfortunate passion, he besought
her, by the hopes {she reposed} in her nursling, not to be hard-hearted
to him; and at another time, complimenting each of the numerous
servants, he besought their kind interest with an anxious voice. He
often gave his words to be borne on the flattering tablets; sometimes he
fastened garlands, wet with the dew of his tears, upon the door-posts,
and laid his tender side upon the hard threshold, and uttered reproaches
against the obdurate bolt.

She, more deaf than the sea, swelling when {the Constellation of} the
Kids is setting, and harder than the iron which the Norican fire[57]
refines, and than the rock which in its native state is yet held fast by
the firm roots, despises, and laughs at him; and to her cruel deeds, in
her pride, she adds boastful words, and deprives her lover of even hope.
Iphis, unable to endure this prolonged pain, endured his torments no
{longer}; and before her doors he spoke these words as his last: "Thou
art the conquerer, Anaxarete; and no more annoyances wilt thou have to
bear from me. Prepare the joyous triumph, invoke the God Paean, and crown
thyself with the shining laurel. For thou art the conqueror, and of my
own will I die; do thou, {woman} of iron, rejoice. At least, thou wilt
be obliged to commend