That herbs for cattle daily I renew, And food for man, and frankincense for you? So much for the designing part of the medal; as for the thought of it, the antiquaries are divided upon it. For my part I cannot doubt but it was made as a compliment to Commodus on his skill in the chariot-race. It is supposed that the same occasion furnished Lucan with the same thought in his address to Nero. Seu te flammigeros Phœbi conscendere currus, Luc. lib. i., Ad Neronem. Or if thou choose the empire of the day, And make the sun's unwilling steeds obey; While earth rejoices in thy gentler beam. MR. ROWE. This is so natural an allusion, that we find the course of the sun described in the poets by metaphors borrowed from the Circus. Quum suspensus eat Phoebus, currumque reflectat MANIL. lib. i. OV. MET. lib. ii. Idem. Et sol ex æquo metâ distabat utrâque. However it be, we are sure in general it is a comparing of Commodus to the sun, which is a simile of as long standing as poetry, I had almost said, as the sun itself. I believe, says Cynthio, there is scarce a great man he ever shone upon that has not been compared to him. I look on similes as a part of his productions. I do not know whether he raises fruits or flowers in greater number. Horace has turned this comparison into ridicule seventeen hundred years ago. -laudat Brutum, laudatque cohortem, Solem Asia Brutum appellat- HOR. Sat. 7, lib. i MR. CREECH. You have now shown us persons under the disguise of stars, moons, and suns. I suppose we have at last done with the celestial bodies. The next figure1 you see, says Philander, had once a place in the heavens, if you will believe ecclesiastical story. It is the sign that is said to have appeared to Constantine before the battle with Maxentius. We are told by a Christian 1 Fig. 13. poet, that he caused it to be wrought on the military ensign that the Romans call their labarum. And it is on this ensign that we find it in the present medal. Christus purpureum gemmanti, textus in auro PRUDENT. CONTRA SYMM. lib. i. A Christ was on the Imperial standard borne, By the word Christus he means without doubt the present figure, which is composed out of the two initial letters of the name. He bore the same sign in his standards, as you may see in the following medal1 and verses. Agnoscas, regina, libens mea signa necesse est: CONSTANTINUS ROMAM ALLOQUITUR. Ibid. My ensign let the queen of nations praise, Id. in APOTH. But to return to our Labarum;2 if you have a mind to· see it in a state of Paganism you have it on a coin of Tiberius. It stands between two other ensigns, and is the mark of a Roman colony where the medal was stamped. By the way, you must observe, that wherever the Romans fixed their standards they looked on that place as their country, and thought themselves obliged to defend it with their lives. For this reason their standards were always carried before them when they went to settle themselves in a colony. This gives the meaning of a couple of verses in Silius Italicus, that make a very far-fetched compliment to Fabius. Ocyus huc Aquilas servataque signa referte, Hic patria est, murique urbis stant pectore in uno. SIL. IT. lib. vii. The following medal was stamped on Trajan's victory over the Daci,3 you see on it the figure of Trajan representing a little Victory to Rome. Between them lies the conquered province of Dacia. It may be worth while to observe the particularities in each figure. We see abundance of persons 2 Fig. 15. Fig. 14. 3 Fig. 16. on old coins that held a little Victory in one hand, like this of Trajan, which is always the sign of a conquest. I have sometimes fancied Virgil alludes to this custom in a verse that Turnus speaks. Non adeo has exosa manus victoria fugit. VIRG. ÆN. lib. xi. If you consent, he shall not be refused, MR. DRYDen. The emperor's standing in a gown, and making a present of his Dacian Victory to the city of Rome, agrees very well with Claudian's character of him. -victura feretur Gloria Trajani, non tam quod, Tigride victo, Alta quod invectus stratis Capitolia Dacis: Quam patriæ quod mitis erat:- CLAUD. DE 4to CONS. HONOR. Thy glory, Trajan, shall for ever live : Not that thy arms the Tigris mourned, o'ercome, And tributary Parthia bowed to Rome, Not that the Capitol received thy train With shouts of triumph for the Daci slain : But for thy mildness to thy country shown. The city of Rome carries the wand in her hand that is the symbol of her divinity. Delubrum Romæ (colitur nam sanguine et ipsa PRUDENT. CONT. SYM. lib. i. For Rome, a goddess too, can boast her shrine, As the globe under her feet betokens her dominion over all the nations of the earth. Terrarum dea, gentiumque Roma; Cui par est nihil, et nihil secundum. MART. lib. xii. Epig. 8. O Rome, thou goddess of the earth! To whom no rival e'er had birth; Nor second e'er shall rise. The heap of arms she sits on signifies the peace that the emperor had procured her. On old coins we often see an emperor, a victory, the city of Rome, or a slave, sitting on a heap of arms, which always marks out the peace that arose from such an action as gave occasion to the medal. I think we cannot doubt but Virgil copied out this circumstance from the ancient sculptors, in that inimitable description he has given us of Military Fury shut up in the temple of Janus, and loaden with chains. |