The Secular Poem
of
Horace.
TO APOLLO AND DIANA.
Phœbus, and thou Diana, sovereign of the woods, ye illustrious ornaments of the heavens, oh ever worthy of adoration, and ever adored, bestow what we pray for at this sacred season: at which the Sibylline verses have given directions, that select virgins and chaste youths should sing a hymn to the deities, to whom the seven hills [of Rome] are acceptable. O genial sun,[1] who in your splendid car draw forth and obscure the day, and who arise another and the same, may it never be in your power to behold anything more glorious than the city of Rome! O Ilithyia, of lenient power to produce the timely birth, protect the matrons [in labor]; whether you choose the title of Lucina, or Genitalis. O goddess multiply our offspring; and prosper the decrees of the senate in relation to the joining of women in wedlock, and the matrimonial law[2] about to teem with a new race; that
- ↑ Alme Sol. It was a superstitious custom of the heathen in their hymns, to give the gods all their different names, for fear of omitting any that might be more agreeable. In this piece, the boys call the son of Latone, Phœbe, alme Sol, Apollo, Augur, decoras arcu, acceptus novem Camœnis; and the girls call the sister of this god, Ilithya, Lucina, Genitalis, siderum regina, Diana, and Luna. Fran.
- ↑ Lege maritâ. In the year 736, Augustus made a law de maritandis ordinibus, in which he proposed rewards to those who would marry, and punishments or fines for those who continued in celibacy. In 762, he made another law, by the consuls Marcus Papius Mutilus, and Quintus Poppeus Secundus. The first called the Julian, the second, the Papian law. They were intended to restore to Rome the number of her citizens which had been greatly lessened during the civil wars; yet Augustus only revived those ancient ordinances which expressly commanded the censors
