Page:The works of Horace - Christopher Smart.djvu/154

136 the stated revolution of a hundred and ten years Undenos decies per annos. There were among the Latins two opinions concerning the duration of an age. Before the time of Augustus it reckoned exactly a hundred years, and the Sibylline Oracle, which then subsisted, marked precisely the same number. The fifth secular games gave occasion to a new opinion. Augustus, persuaded that it was of great consequence to the state not to omit the celebration of this festival, gave order to the Sibylline priests to consult at what time of the current age it ought to be celebrated. They perceiving that it had been neglected in 705, under Julius Cæsar, were anxious to find some way of covering their fault, that they might not be thought answerable for all the calamities of the civil war. Three things made their imposture easy. They were the sole depositaries of the Sibylline books; the world was not in general agreed upon the year by which the games should be regulated; and it was divided even upon the date of those in which they had formerly been celebrated. The priests did not fail to take advantage of this diversity of sentiments to flatter Augustus, by persuading him that this secular year regularly fell upon 737. To this purpose they published commentaries upon the Sibylline books, in which they proved by the very words of the Sibyl (though with some alteration from their ancient reading), that an age ought to contain a hundred and ten years, and not a hundred only. The authority of these priests being infinitely respected by a superstitious people, instantly put this falsehood into the place of truth, without any person daring to contradict it, since it was forbidden, upon pain of death, to communicate the books of the Sibyls. The Prince, charmed to see that the gods had reserved to his time the celebration of so great a festival, immediately supported the imposture by his edicts to authorize the discovery of the priests. Whether in flattery or credulity, the poet gave himself to the public opinion; and indeed he must, with a very bad grace, have followed the ancient system in a poem composed by order of Augustus, and sung in the presence of that prince, and of the priests in the name of the whole empire. may bring back the hymns and the games, three times by bright daylight restored to in crowds, and as often in the welcome night. And you, ye fatal sisters, infallible in having predicted what is established, and what the settled order of things preserves, add propitious fates to those already past. Let the earth, fertile in fruits and flocks, present Ceres with a sheafy crown: may both salubrious rains and Jove’s air cherish the young blood! Apollo, mild and gentle with your sheathed arrows, hear the suppliant youths: O moon, thou horned queen of stars, hear the virgins. If Rome be your