Clusium, on the site of the modern Chiusi. A city of Tuscany, near the western shore of Italy. 2. The Nine Gods of the Etruscans were Juno, Minerva, and Tinia, Vulcan, Mars, and Saturn, Hercules, Lummanus, and Vedius. - BREWER. 4. The Tarquins, long kings at Rome, had been expelled for their tyranny. 14. Etruscan. The inhabitants of ancient Etruria, whose boundaries were nearly the same as those of modern Tuscany, were called Etrurians or Etruscans. 26. Volaterræ. A powerful city of Etruria, built on a lofty hill about eighteen thousand feet above the level of the sea, and possessing extensive territory; hence Macaulay's epithet "lordly." 30. Populonia. A seaport city of Etruria, under the dominion of Volaterræ. 32. The island of Sardinia is distant about one hundred and thirty miles from the coast of Tuscany. 34. Pisæ, or Pisa. A city of Etruria. The site of the modern Pisa, in which scarcely a trace of the ancient city is to be found, is on the river Serchio, near the Mediterranean coast. 36. Massilia. An ancient Gallic city (on the site of the present Marseilles) and long an ally of Rome. 38. Clanis, now Chiano (compare the change of name with that of Clusium to Chiusi). A river of Etruria. 40. Cortona, city. Of the same name and site as the modern 43. Auser. Now the Serchio. See note on line 34. 45. Ciminian hill. A range of mountains in Etruria, now Monte Cimino. 46. Clitumnus. A tributary of the river Tiber (now Clitumno) in Umbria, east of Tuscany. 49. Volsinian mere. Rome. Now Lake Bolsena, in the province of 58. Arretium. A city of Etruria, now Arezzo, at the foot of the Apennines. 60. Umbro. A river of Etruria, now the Ombrone. 61. In allusion to the washing of the sheep before shearing. 62. Luna. An Etruscan town, now Luni. 63-64. In allusion to the treading out of the juice of the grapes in the wine-press. 72. The early writing of the Greeks, learned from the Phonicians, or some other Semitic source, was at first from right to left, then from right to left and back again, or “plough-wise,” and finally from left to right. 80. Nursia. A city of the Sabines, now Norcia, in the province of Umbria. 86. Sutrium. An Etruscan city, the modern Sutri. 96. Tusculum was a lofty fortified town about ten miles southeast of the city of Rome, near the present Frascati. Mamilius had married the daughter of Tarquin the Proud. 97. Latian. Latium, the country of the Latians, or Latins. Though its boundaries varied at different times, it included in general the western part of Italy between Etruria and Campania. 122. The Tarpeian rock. A part of the Capitoline Hill in Rome was so called from the legend that Tarpeia, daughter of Spurius Tarpeius, tempted by the golden bracelets of the Sabines, agreed to open a gate of the fortress for them, and that, having entered, they cast their shields upon her and crushed her to death. 133. Crustumerium. A Sabine town. 134. Ostia. The harbor of Rome, sixteen miles from that city, and at the mouth of the Tiber. 136. Janiculum. "Ancus Marcius built a fortress on the Janiculus, a hill on the other side of the Tiber, as a protection against the Etruscans, and connected it with the city by means of the Pons Sublicius." - SMITH'S Classical Dictionary. This Sublician bridge is supposed to be that of the present story. 185. Lucumo was one of the two sons of the first Tarquin. It is here a family designation. 192. Thrasymene. A lake in Etruria, near Clusium, now called Perugia. 199. Sextus. One of the Tarquins, who violated the honor of Lucretia, the wife of his kinsman, Collatinus. She summoned her husband and father, told them the story of her wrongs, and then plunged a knife into her heart. This crime of Sextus caused the downfall and banishment of the Tarquins. See page 33, lines 209228. 242, 246. Ramnian and Titian appear to be family or clan designations. 253 ff. These lines give the point of view of the supposed balladist. See Macaulay's preface above. 267. The Tribunes were the officers elected from the common people to preserve their rights against the encroachments of the nobles. 268. The Fathers were the Patres, or Patricii, those of noble rank. 277. The Commons were the plebs, or common people, as distinguished from the nobles, or patricians. 301. Tifernum was a town of Umbria, near the source of the Tiber. 304. Ilva (now Elba). A small island off the coast of Italy, near Populonia (see note on line 30). It was famous for its iron mines. 309. Nequinum. A town in Umbria, on the bank of the river Nar (line 310). Its name was later changed to Narnia, and is now Narni. 319. Falerii. An Etruscan town near Mount Soracte. 321. Urgo. Also known as Gorgon, and now as Gorgona, an island north of Ilva or Elba. See note, line 304. 323. Volsinium. An ancient Etruscan city (now Bolsena), on the Volsinian lake. N 326. Cosa. An Etruscan city, near the coast, now Ansedonia. 337. Campania. A province of Italy, southeast of Latium, and bordering on the coast. 360. In allusion to the story that Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were suckled by a wolf. 384. Alvernus. See note on Lavernia or Alvernia, p. 216. 488. Palatinus. The first of the "seven hills of Rome." 545. One form of the legend has it, that he received as much land as he could encircle with the plough in a day. Cf. the story in Virgil, Book I. 550. Comitium. The place of public legislative assembly; the Forum. 572. Algidus. A wooded range of mountains in Latium. PREFACE TO THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS THE following poem is supposed to have been produced about ninety years after the lay of Horatius. Some persons mentioned in the lay of Horatius make their appearance again, and some appellations and epithets used in the lay of Horatius have been purposely repeated: for, in an age of ballad-poetry, it scarcely ever fails to happen, that certain phrases come to be appropriated to certain men and things, and are regularly applied to those men and things by every minstrel. Thus we find both things in the Homeric poems and in Hesiod, βίη Ηρακληείη' περικλυτος Αμφιγυήεις, διάκτορος ̓Αργειφόντης, ἑπτάπυλος Θήβη, Ελένης ἕνεκ' ήυκόμοιο. Thus, too, in our own national songs, Douglas is almost always the doughty Douglas: England is merry England: all the gold is red; and all the ladies are gay. The principal distinction between the lay of Horatius and the lay of the Lake Regillus is that the former is meant to be purely Roman, while the latter, though national in its general spirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning and of Greek superstition. The story of the Tarquins, as it has come down to us, appears to have been compiled from the works of several popular poets; and one, at least, of those poets appears to have visited the Greek colonies in Italy, if not Greece itself, and to have had some acquaintance with the works of Homer and Herodotus. Many of the most striking adventures of the house of Tarquin, before Lucretia makes her appearance, have a Greek character. The Tarquins themselves are represented as Corinthian nobles of the great house of the Bacchiadæ, driven from their country by the tyranny of that Cypselus, the tale of whose strange escape Herodotus has related with incomparable simplicity and liveliness. Livy and Dionysius tell us that when Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the best mode of governing a conquered city, he replied only by beating down with his staff all the tallest poppies in his garden. This is exactly what Herodotus, in the passage to which reference has already been made, relates of the counsel given to Periander, the son of Cypselus. The stratagem by which the town of Gabii is brought under the power of the Tarquins is, again, obviously copied from Herodotus. The embassy of the young Tarquins to the oracle at Delphi is just such a story as would be told by a poet whose head was full of the Greek mythology: and the ambiguous answer returned by Apollo is in the exact style of the prophecies which, according to Herodotus, lured Croesus to destruction. Then the character of the narrative changes. From the first mention of Lucretia to the retreat of Porsena nothing seems to be borrowed from foreign sources. villany of Sextus, the suicide of his victim, the revolution, the death of the sons of Brutus, the defence of the bridge, Mucius burning his hand, Cloelia swimming through the Tiber, seem to be all strictly Roman. But when we have done with the Tuscan war, and enter upon the war with the Latines, we are again struck by the Greek air of the story. The Battle of the Lake Regillus is in all respects a Homeric battle, except that the combatants ride The |
