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Lactantius
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Introductory Notice To Lactantius.
[80] Virg., Æneid, vii. 774.
Chap. XVIII.—on the consecration of gods, on account of the benefits which they conferred upon men.
[81] Virtus in its first meaning denotes valour, the property of a man (vir); then it is used to signify moral excellence.
[82] Lit., than himself.
[83] Ab his sordibus.
[84] Exorsus est. The word properly denotes to begin a web, to lay the warp; hence the use of “ordiri” In the following clause.
Chap. XX.—of the gods peculiar to the Romans, and their sacred rites.
[85] Lupa. [See vol. iii. cap. 10, p. 138, this series.]
[86] Lupanar.
[87] Mens. [Tayler Lewis, Plato, etc., p. 219.]
[88] Or, lights. The oracle is ambiguous, since the word φωσ signifies a man, and also light. [i.e., φὼς = man, and φω̑ς = light.]
[89] v. 629.
[90] Jace. Others read “jaci.”
[91] v. 621.
[92] So the priests of Baal cut themselves, 1 Kings xviii. 28.
[93] Panibus, loaves made in the shape of crowns.
[94] [See this page, note 6, infra.]
[95] The moon.
[96] εὐφημια. It was supposed that words of ill omen, if uttered during the offering of a sacrifice, would render the gods unpropitious: the priest therefore, at the commencement of a sacrifice, called upon the people to abstain from ill-omened words: εὐφημει̑τε, “favete linguis.”
[97] Βούζυγον.
[98] Aratus was the author of two Greek astronomical poems, the Φαινόμενα and the Διοσημε̑ια Virgil, in his Georgics, has borrowed largely from the latter. Germanicus Cæsar, the grandson of Augustus, as stated in the text, translated the Φαινόμενα.
[99] αιγιοχος; “scutum habens.”
[100] Ancile, the sacred shield, carried by the Salii, or priests of Mars, in the processions at the festival of that deity.
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