the Gods. And as by this means Covenants and Friendships were ufually contracted, (and hence the Greeks made ufe of the word, Zóvdas, for Leagues, because they used Libations in contracting Leagues) hence it is eafy thus to interpret this paffage of the Prophet:

It will be worth while to fee how this matter ftood in the Gentile world.

Virgil, who as I faid before, nicely obferved the Jus Pontificium, has fully defcribed the manner how Æneas and Evander entered into League together, and revived their Old Friendship; and how the Latins invited the Trojans to the anniverfary Sacrifice which Evander and his People were then about to celebrate.

Sacra hæc, quando buc veniftis Amici, Annua, quæ differre nefas, celebrate fa

ventes

Nobifcum, et jam nunc Sociorum affuefcite

menfis.

Æn. viii. 1. 172.

They were invited to join with them in the Sacred Rites, and partake of the Tables

Tables of them who profeffed themselves their Friends and Allies. As foon as this Invitation was made and accepted, the Poet tells us that Evander commanded the Flefb of the Sacrifices, and the Wine to be brought back, and fet again upon the Table For the Latins had been frighted from what they were doing, by feeing the Trojan Fleet coming upon their Coasts.

Pocula

Dapes jubet, et fublata reponi

It is a Sacri"the proper

He does not mean by Dapes, good eatables, or Dainties, as that word ufually fignifies; but those Eatables which had been offered to the Gods. ficial Term, and fignifies * "and peculiar Meat at the Feast or Banquet of the Gods; Jove's Supper", as Servius explains it. What these Dapes were, the Poet tells us in the immediate following Lines,

Vifcera tofta ferunt taurorum, onerantque caniftris

Dona laborata Cereris, Bacchumque mi niftrant.

Dapes, Epulæ Deorum proprie, ut Jovis cœna,

Servius, in Loc.

F 2

"They

"They brought the roafted or broiled Flesh of the Bullocks, and gave them "Bread and Wine." For, Vifcera does not here fignify * Entrails, or the Inwards of the Bullock, but the Flesh of it, all that lies under the Skin; for All That was called the Vifcera. Accordingly we find,

Vefcitur Eneas, fimul et Trojana Juventus Perpetui tergo bovis, et luftralibus Extis.

Eneas and the Trojans eat of the Sacrifice of the Latins, and thus a League was made betwixt the Two people. Æneas, being a Foreigner, could not have been permitted to partake of these Sacred Rites, which Evander was now celebrating; for it was not lawful to admit + "Strangers to partake" of them, unless they were Friends. When therefore in the prefent cafe, old Friendships were revived, and Æneas was received as an Ally and Friend, then the God, of whose

* Vifcera non tantum Inteftina dicimus, fed quicquid fub Corio eft. Ut, In Albano Latinis Vifceratio dabatur, id eft, Caro. Servius. En. 1. i. 1. 215.

+ Extraneos ad facra non licebat adhibere. Servius. An, viii. 1. 172.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice he partook, was looked upon as a Common God, equally a Friend to both Parties. And therefore Evander fays,

Pocula porgite dextris

Communemque vocate Deum, et date Vina

volentes.

1. 274.

He does not mean by this, "Invoke "the God that is common to all"; as Mars was the common God of Battle, or Hercules was common to all for deftroying Monsters: But invoke the fame particular God that I do, who is now common to us Both, to your People and to my People, fince we are now Friends engaged to Him, and He to us, by eating at his Table of his Sacrifices.

This will help us to explain an Observation which is made by Gellius * “That "Roman

* In veteribus Scriptis, neque Mulieres Romanæ per Herculem, dejurant, neque Viri per Caftorem. Sed cur illæ non juraverint Herculem non obfcurum eft; Nam Herculaneo Sacrificio abftinent. -Nunquam igitur fcriptum invenire eft apud idoneos quidem Scriptores, aut Mehercle foeminam dicere, aut Mecaflor Virum. Edepol autem, quod Jusjurandum eft per Pollucem et Viro et Fœminæ commune eft. Gellius Noc. Att. 1. xi. c. 6.

"Roman Women never fwore by Hercules. "The Reason, fays he, why the Women

never fwore by Hercules is plain enough, "They abstained from all Sacrifice offered "to Hercules." Hercules, it feems, when he drove Geryon's Bullocks through Italy, was very thirsty, and asked a Woman for fome Water. She answered him, that fhe could not give him any, because it was a feftival of the Goddefs of Women, and it was not allowed that any Man fhould taste of what was prepared on that occafion. Hercules thereupon detested the presence of Women, and order'd Potitius and Pinarius never to suffer any women to be present at his Sacrifices. Thus Macrobius tells the Story, Sat, 1. i.

This Obfervation of Gellius, "that you can never find "in Good Writers a Man fwearing by Caftor, or a Woman "fwearing by Hercules", is certainly without foundation. In Plautus alone there are inftances of Women ufing the word, Hercle, which is the fame as Mehercle, and of Men faying Mecaftor. Crocotium in the Stichus fays to the Parafite Gelafimus, Imo Hercle, ut abs te mutuum nobis dares. A&t. i. Sc. 3. l. 100. In the Ciftellaria, Gymnafium, Says, Equidem Hercle addam operam fedulo. A&t. i. Sc. 1' And the Parafite in the Afinaria Says, Mecaftor dignus eft. Act. v. Sc. 3 1. 46.