at Rome, called Salvacio Romæ, which were the gods of the provinces conquered by the Romans. Every one of these statues held in its hand a bell, framed by magic; and when any province was meditating a revolt, the statue or idol of that country struck his bell."—Warton.
The following ingenious hypothesis may explain the cause of the necromancy so universally attributed to Virgil during the dark ages.
"Maium illum, avum Virgilii, exemplaria vitæ omnia Magum vocant. At cùm ejus filia, Virgilii mater, juxta omnes Maia dicta sit: omninò Maiæ pater fuit Maius, non Magus: indeque ortum existimo, ut Virgilius magicis artibus imbutus fuisse creditus sit ab Elinando monacho aliisque sequioris seculi scriptoribus: quod et Eclogâ septimâ magica quædam sacra descripsisset, et peritus esset multarum artium, et præcipuè avum habuisse Magum diceretur."—Hist. P. Virg. Mar. a Car. Ruæo.[1]
"Broke her Jesses."
Jesses are the leather straps with which a hawk was confined. It is not, however, in the Latin.
- ↑ Rough translation of citation from Ruaeus's Life of Virgil: Maius, Virgil's grandfather, is called Magus [literally magician] in all the biographies, but since his daughter, Virgil's mother, is nearly always called Maia, her father was certainly Maius, not Magus. I consider this to be the origin of the belief by the monk Hélinand and other writers of his time that Virgil had been instructed in the magic arts: that he described certain magic rites in his seventh Eclogue, that he was an expert in numerous skills, and above all that he was reputed to have a grandfather named Magus. (Wikisource contributor note)
- ↑ Inaccurate notation.
