The month of March is represented as a man with long hair, clothed in skins; he holds a goat by the neck with his left hand, while with his right he points to a swallow perched on a rod; on the ground to his right is a bucket or pail, from which streams are issuing; on his left a basket-shaped vessel. The lines from Ausonius are as follows:
Cinctum pelle lupæ promtum set cognoscere mensem,
Mars illi nomen, Mars dedit exuvias.
Tempus ver hædus petulans, et garrula hirundo
Indicat, et sinus lactis, et herba virens.
On comparing this with panel No. 3 on the plan, we find the swallow, two little cups, and the pail, probably intended to hold milk, and a fresh bough for the herba virens. The swallow was a well-known type of spring; thus, on a Greek vase[1] are represented two youths and a man conversing: one says, ΙΔΟ ΧΕΛΙΔΟΝ; the man answers, ΝΕ ΤΟΝ ΗΕΡΑΚΑΕΑ; the other observes, ΗΑΥΤΕΙ; and the man says, ΕΑΡ ΗΕΔΕ.
The month of April is represented in the MS. by a middle-aged man, possibly a priest of Cybele, dancing before a statuette of Venus, which is under an arch of foliage and placed on a bracket. He is clothed in a short dress, ornamented with large metal plates, and holds castanets[2] of great length. Under his feet is a pandean pipe, and before him a large candle burning in an elaborate candelabrum. The lines below are—
Contectam myrto Venerem veneratur Aprilis,
Lumen turis habet quo nitet alma Ceres,
Cereus a dextra flammas diffundet odoras,
Balsama nee desunt, queis redolet Paphie.
In the mosaic we have the dancing figure with metal plates on the dress, and holding castanets, and the statuette of Venus under a bower of myrtle; the other adjuncts are wanting : but there can be little doubt that the month of April was intended to be represented. The feast of Venus took place on the Kalends of that month, and the Cerealia on the vii. Ides. The figure may probably have been intended for one of the Gaditanian women, to whose skill in dancing and voluptuous movements there are frequent allusions in the Latin poets. They are especially mentioned as using castanets, and were probably liierodulac of the great temple at Gades.
