with a trumpet in his mouth. Virgil describes him in the same manner on one of Æneas's ships. It was probably a common figure on their ancient vessels, for we meet with it too in Silius Italicus.

Hunc vehit immanis Triton, et cærula concha

Exterrens freta: cui laterum tenus hispida nanti
Frons hominem præfert, in pristim desinit alvus;
Spumea semifero sub pectore murmurat unda. VIRG.Æn. lib.10.

The Triton bears him, he, whose trumpet's sound
Old Ocean's waves from shore to shore rebound.
A hairy man above the waist he shows,
A porpoise tail down from his belly grows,
The billows murmur, which his breast oppose.

Ducitur et Libya puppis signata figuram
Et Triton captivus.-

LORD LAUDERDALE.

SIL. IT. lib. 14:

I am apt to think, says Eugenius, from certain passages of the poets, that several ships made choice of some god or other for their guardians, as among the Roman catholics every vessel is recommended to the patronage of some particular saint. To give you an instance of two or three.

Est mihi sitque precor flava tutela Minervæ
Navis

Numen erat celsæ puppis vicina Dione.

OV. DE TR. lib. 1. el. 10.

Hammon numen erat Libycæ gentile carinæ,
Cornigerâque sedens spectabat cærula fronte.

SIL. IT. lib. 14.

The poop great Ammon, Libya's god, display'd,
Whose horned front the nether flood survey'd.

Ibid.

The figure of the deity was very large, as I have seen it on other medals, as well as this you have shown us, and stood on one end of the vessel that it patronised. This may give us an image of a very beautiful circumstance that we meet with in a couple of wrecks described by Silius Italicus and Persius.

-Subito cum pondere victus

Insiliente mari submergitur alveus undis.
Scutu virúm cristaque, et inerti spicula ferro

Tutelæque deum fluitant.

Sunk by a weight so dreadful down she goes,

And o'er her head the broken billows close,

SIL. IT. lib. 14.

Bright shields and crests float round the whirling floods,
And useless spears confus'd with tutelary gods.

·Trabe ruptâ Bruttia saxa

Prendit amicus inops, remque omnem surdaque vota
Condidit; Tonio jacet ipse in littore, et und
Ingentes de puppe deï, jumque obvia mergis
Costa rasis lacera.-

PERS. Sat. 6.

My friend is shipwreck'd on the Brutian strand,
His riches in th' Ionian main are lost;
And he himself stands shiv'ring on the coast:
Where, destitute of help, forlorn and bare,
He wearies the deaf gods with fruitless pray'r.
Their images, the relics of the wreck,
Torn from their naked poop, are tided back
By the wild waves; and rudely thrown ashore,
Lie impotent, nor can themselves restore.
The vessel sticks, and shows her open'd side,
And on her shatter'd mast the mews in triumph ride.
Mr. DRYDEN.

You will think, perhaps, I carry my conjectures too far, if I tell you that I fancy they are these kind of gods that Horace mentions in his allegorical vessel, which was so broken and shattered to pieces; for I am apt to think that integra relates to the gods as well as the lintea.

·Non tibi sunt integra lintea,
Non dii, quos iterum pressa voces malo.

Thy stern is gone, thy gods are lost,
And thou hast none to hear thy cry,

HOR. Od. 14. lib. 1,

When thou on dang'rous shelves art tost,
When billows rage, and winds are high.

Mr. CREECH.

Since we are engaged so far in the Roman shipping, şays Philander, I'll here show you a medal* that has on

Fig. 2.

its reverse a rostrum with three teeth to it; whence Silius's trifidum rostrum and Virgil's rotrisque tridentibus, which, in some editions is stridentibus, the editor choosing rather to make a false quantity than to insert a word that he did not know the meaning of Flaccus gives us a rostrum of the same make.

-Volat immissis cava pinus habenis
Infinditque salum, et spumas vomit ære tridenti.

VAL. FLAC. Arg. lib. 1.

A ship-carpenter of old Rome, says Cynthio, could not have talked more judiciously. I am afraid, if we let you alone, you will find out every plank and rope about the vessel, among the Latin poets. Let us now, if you please, go to the next medal.

The next, says Philander, is a pair of scales*, which we meet with on several old coins. They are commonly interpreted as an emblem of the emperor's justice. But why may not we suppose that they allude sometimes to the Balance in the heavens, which was the reigning constellation of Rome and Italy? Whether it be so or no, they are capable, methinks, of receiving a nobler interpretation than what is commonly put on them, if we suppose the thought of the reverse to be the same as that in Manilius.

Hesperiam sua Libra tenet, quâ condita Roma
Et propriis frænat pendentem nutibus orbem,
Orbis et Imperium retinet, discrimina rerum
Lancibus, et positas gentes tollitque premitque :
Qua genitus cum fratre Remus hanc condidit urbem.

MANIL. lib. 4.

The Scales rule Italy, where Rome commands,
And spreads its empire wide to foreign lands:
They hang upon her nod, their fates are weigh'd
By her, and laws are sent to be obey'd:
And as her pow'rful favour turns the poise,
How low some nations sink and others rise!
Thus guide the Scales, and then to fix our doom,
They gave us Cæsart, founder of our Rome.

Mr. CREECH.

The thunderbolt is a reverse of Augustus*. We see it used by the greatest poet of the same age to express a terrible and irresistible force in battle, which is probably the meaning of it on this medal, for, in another place, the same poet applies the same metaphor to Augustus's person.

I have sometimes wondered, says Eugenius, why the Latin poets so frequently give the epithets of trifidum and trisulcum to the thunderbolt. I am now persuaded they took it from the sculptors and painters that lived before them, and had generally given it three forks, as in the present figure. Virgil insists on the number three in its description, and seems to hint at the wings we see on it. He has worked up such a noise and terror in the composition of his thunderbolt as cannot be expressed by a pencil or graving tool.

Tres imbris torti radios, tres nubis aquosa
Addiderant, rutili tres ignis, et Alitis Austri.
Fulgores nunc terrificos sonitumque metumque
Mescebant operi, flammisque sequacibus irus. VIRG. Æn. lib.8.

Three rays of writhen rain, of fire three more,
Of winged southern winds, and cloudy store
As many parts, the dreadful mixture frame,
And fears are added, and avenging flame.

Mr. DRYDEN.

Our next reverse is an oaken garland †, which we find on abundance of imperial coins. I shall not here multiply quotations to show that the garland of oak

was the reward of such as had saved the life of a citizen, but will you give a passage out of Claudian, where the compliment to Stilico is the same that we have here on the medal. coins gave the thought to the poet.

I question not but the old

Mos erat in veterum castris, ut tempora quercu
Velaret, validis qui fuso viribus hoste
Casurum potuit morti subducere civem.
Ad tibi quæ poterit pro tantis civica reddi
Manibus? aut quantæ pensabunt facta corona?

CLAUD. de Laud. Stil. lib. 3.

Of old, when in the war's tumultuous strife
A Roman sav'd a brother Roman's life,

And foil'd the threat'ning foe, our sires decreed
An oaken garland for the victor's meed.

Thou who hast sav'd whole crowds, whole towns set free,
What groves, what woods, shall furnish crowns for thee?

Ac

It is not to be supposed that the emperor had actually covered a Roman in battle. It is enough that he had driven out a tyrant, gained a victory, or restored justice; for, in any of these, or the like cases, he may very well be said to have saved the life of a citizen, and by consequence entitled to the reward of it. cordingly, we find Virgil distributing his oaken garlands to those that had enlarged or strengthened the dominions of Rome; as we may learn from Statius, that the statue of Curtius, who had sacrificed himself for the good of the people, had the head surrounded with the same kind of ornament.

Atque umbrata gerunt civili tempora quercu.

Hi tibi Nomentum, et Gabios, urbemque Fidenam,
Hi Collatinas imponent montibus arces.

VIRG. Æn. lib. 6.

But they, who crown'd with oaken wreaths appear
Shall Gabian walls and strong Fidena rear:
Nomentum, Bola, with Pometia, found;
And raise Colatian tow'rs on rocky ground.

Ipse loci custos, cujus sacrata vorago,
Famosusque lacus nomen memorabile servat,
Innumeros æris sonitus, et verbere crudo

Mr. DRYDEN.