Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/236

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PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY.
[Book III.

Telesini[1], the Trebulani, surnamed Balinienses[2], the Trebani[3], the Tusculani[4], the Verulani[5], the Veliterni[6], the Ulubrenses[7], the Urbinates[8], and, last and greater than all, Rome herself, whose other name[9] the hallowed mysteries of the sacred rites forbid us to mention without being guilty of the greatest impiety. After it had been long kept buried in secresy with the strictest fidelity and in respectful and salutary silence, Valerius Soranus dared to divulge it, but soon did he pay the penalty[10] of his rashness.

It will not perhaps be altogether foreign to the purpose, if I here make mention of one peculiar institution of our forefathers which bears especial reference to the inculcation of silence on religious matters. The goddess Angerona[11], to whom sacrifice is offered on the twelfth day before the calends of January [21st December], is represented in her statue as having her mouth bound with a sealed fillet.

Romulus left the city of Rome, if we are to believe those

  1. The people of Telesia, a town of Samnium seven leagues from Capua, now called Telese.
  2. Trebula was distinguished probably by this surname from a town of that name in Samnium. There seem to have been two places of the name in the Sabine territory, but it is not known which is here meant. The ruins of one of them are supposed to be those not far from Maddaloni.
  3. The people of Treba, now Trevi, a town of Latium.
  4. The people of Tusculum, an ancient town of Latium, the ruins of which are to be seen on a hill about two miles distant from the modern Frascati. Cicero's favourite residence was his Tusculan villa, and Cato the censor was a native of this place.
  5. The people of Verulæ, a town of the Hernici, in Latium, now Veroli.
  6. The people of Velitræ, an ancient town of the Volsci, now Velletri. It was the birth-place of the emperor Augustus.
  7. The people of Ulubræ, a small town of Latium, near the Pomptine Marshes; its site is unknown.
  8. The people of Urbinum; there were two places of that name in Umbria, now called Urbeno and Urbania.
  9. The name probably by which the city was called in the mystical language of the priesthood. It has been said that this mysterious name of Rome was Valentia; if so, it appears to be only a translation of her name Græcized — Ῥώμη, "strength." This subject will be found again mentioned in B. xxvii. c. 4.
  10. Solinus says that he was put to death as a punishment for his rashness. M. Sichel has suggested that this mysterious name was no other than Angerona.
  11. It is not known whether this mystical divinity was the goddess of anguish and fear, or of silence, or whether she was the guardian deity of