THE BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

The following poem is supposed to have Porsena nothing seems to be borrowed from ceen produced ninety years after the lay of foreign sources. The villany of Sextus, the Horatius. Some persons mentioned in the lay suicide of his victim, the revolution, the death of Horatius make their appearance again, and of the sons of Brutus, the defence of the bridge, some appellations and epithets used in the lay Mucius burning his hand,* Clelia swimming of Horatius have been purposely repeated; for, through Tiber, seem to be all strictly Roman. in an age of ballad-poetry, it scarcely ever But when we have done with the Tuscan war, fails to happen, that certain phrases come to and enter upon the war with the Latines, we be appropriated to certain men and things, are again struck by the Greek air of the story. and are regularly applied to those men and The Battle of the Lake Regillus is in all rethings by every minstrel. Thus we find both spects a Homeric battle, except that the comin the Homeric poems and in Hesiod, Zin 'Hee- batants ride astride on their horses, instead of κλεί», περικλύτος 'Αμφιγυής, διάκτορος 'Aργειφόντης, driving chariots. The mass of fighting men is ÉTTÁTUAOS EM &n, 'Erémns évex' nüxbuco. Thus, too, in hardly mentioned. The leaders single each our own national songs, Douglas is almost other out, and engage hand to hand. The great always the doughty Douglas: England is object of the warriors on both sides is, as in merry England: all the gold is red; and all the Iliad, to obtain possession of the spoils and the ladies are gay.

bodies of the slain; and several circumstances The principal distinction between the lay of are related which forcibly remind us of the Horatius and the lay of the Lake Regillus is, great slaughter round the corpses of Sarpedon that the former is meant to be purely Roman, and Patroclus. while the latter, though national in its general But there is one circumstance which despirit, has a slight tincture of Greek learning serves especial notice. Both the war of Troy and of Greek superstition. The story of the and the war of Regillus were caused by the Tarquins, as it has come down to us, appears licentious passions of young princes, who were to have been compiled from the works of seve- therefore peculiarly bound not to be sparing of ral popular poets; and one, at least, of those their own persons in the day of battle. Now poets appears to have visited the Greek colo- the conduct of Sextus at Regillus, as described nies in Italy, if not Greece itself, and to have by Livy, so exactly resembles that of Paris, as had some acquaintance with the works of Ho- described at the beginning of the third book of mer and Herodotus. Many of the most strik- the Iliad, that it is difficult to believe the reing adventures of the house of Tarquin, till semblance accidental. Paris appears before Lucretia makes her appearance, have a Greek the Trojan ranks, defying the bravest Greek to character. The Tarquins themselves are re-encounter him: presented as Corinthian nobles of the great house of the Bacchiadæ, driven from their

Τρωσιν μεν προμάχιζεν 'Αλέξανδρος θεοειδής,

'Αργείων προκαλίζετο πάντας αρίστους, country by the tyranny of that Cypselus, the tale of whose strange escape Herodotus has re

αντίβιον μαχέσασθαι εν αινη δηϊοτήτι. lated with incomparable simplicity and liveli- Livy introduces Sextus in a similar manner: ness.* Livy and Dionysius tell us that, when“ Ferocem juvenem Tarquinium, ostentantem Tarquin the Proud was asked what was the se in prima exsulum acie.” Menelaus rushes best mode of governing a conquered city, he to meet Paris. A Roman noble, eager for replied only by beating down with his staff all vengeance, spurs his horse towards Sextus. the tallest poppies in his garden.f This is ex. Both the guilty princes are instantly terror. actly what Herodotus, in the passage to which stricken: reference has already been made, relates of the counsel given to Periander, the son of Cypse

Τον δ' ώς oύν ένόησεν 'Αλέξανδρος θεοειδής, lus. The stratagem by which the town of

εν προμάχοισι φανέντα, κατεπλήγη φίλον ήτορ, Gabii is brought under the power of the Tar

άψ δ' έτάρων είς έθνος εχάζετο κήρ αλεείνων. quins is, again, obviously copied from Herodo

“ Tarquinius,” says Livy, “retro in agmen tus. The embassy of the young Tarquins to

suorum infenso cessit hosti."

If this be a the oracle at Delphi is just such a story as fortuitous coincidence, it is one of the most exwould be told by a poet whose head was full

traordinary in literature. of the Greek mythology; and the ambiguous

In the following poem, therefore, images answer returned by Apollo is in the exact and incidents have been borrowed, not merely style of the prophecies which, according to He- without scruple, but on principle, from the in rodotus, lured Cresus to destruction. Then

comparable battle-pieces of Homer. the character of the narrative changes. From the first mention of Lucretia to the retreat of

The popular belief at Rome, from an early the celestial horsemen bear the tidings of vic period, seems to have been that the event of tory to Rome. the great day of Regillus was decided by su- Many years after the temple of the Twin pernatural agency. Castor and Pollux, it was Gods had been built in the Forum, an importsaid, had fought, armed and mounted, at the ant addition was made to the ceremonial by head of the legions of the commonwealth, and which the state annually testified its gratitude had afterwards carried the news of the victory for their protection. Quintus Fabius and Pubwith incredible speed to the city. The well in lius Decius were elected Censors at a mothe Forum at which they had alighted was point- mentous crisis. It had become absolutely ed out. Near the well rose their ancient temple. necessary that the classification of the citizens A great festival was kept to their honour on should be revised. On that classification de the Ides of Quintilis, supposed to be the anni- pended the distribution of political power. versary of the battle; and on that day sumptu- Party spirit ran high; and the republic seemed ous sacrifices were offered to them at the pub- to be in danger of falling under the dominion lic charge. One spot on the margin of Lake either of a narrow oligarchy or of an ignorant Regillus was regarded during many ages with and headstrong rabble. Under such circumsuperstitious awe. A mark, resembling in stances, the most illustrious patrician and the shape a horse's hoof, was discernible in the most illustrious plebeian of the age were involcanic rock; and this mark was believed trusted with the office of arbitrating between to have been made by one of the celestial the angry factions; and they performed their chargers.

arduous task to the satisfaction of all honest How the legend originated, cannot now be and reasonable men. ascertained: but we may easily imagine seve- One of their reforms was a remodelling of ral ways in which it might have originated: the equestrian order; and, having effected this nor is it at all necessary to suppose, with Julius reform, they determined to give to their work Frontinus, that two young men were dressed up a sanction derived from religion. In the chiby the Dictator to personate the sons of Leda. valrous societies of modern times, societies It is probable that Livy is correct when he says which have much more than may at first sight that the Roman general, in the hour of peril, appear in common with the equestrian order vowed a teinple to Castor. If so, nothing of Rome, it has been usual to invoke the special could be more natural than that the multitude protection of some Saint, and to observe his should ascribe the victory to the favour of the day with peculiar solemnity. Thus the ComTwin Gods. When such was the prevailing panions of the Garter wear the image of St. sentiment, any man who chose to declare that, George depending from their collars, and meet, in the midst of the confusion and slaughter, he on great occasions, in St. George's Chapel. had seen two godlike forms on white horses Thus, when Louis the Fourteenth instituted a scattering the Latines, would find ready cre- new order of chivalry for the rewarding of midence. We know, indeed, that, in modern litary merit, he commended it to the favour of times, a very similar story actually found cre- his own glorified ancestor and patrou, and dence ainong a people much more civilized decreed that all the members of the fraternity than the Romans of the fifth century before should meet at the royal palace on the Feast Christ. A chaplain of Cortes, writing about of St. Louis, should attend the king to chapel, thirty years after the conquest of Mexico, in should hear mass, and should subsequently an age of printing-presses, libraries, universi. hold their great annual assembly. There is a ties, scholars, logicians, jurists, and statesmen, considerable resemblance between this rule of had the face to assert that, in one engagement the Order of St. Louis and the rule which Faagainst the Indians, St. James had appeared bius and Decius made respecting the Roman on a gray horse at the head of the Castilian knights. It was ordained that a grand muster adventurers. Many of these adventurers were and inspection of the equestrian body should siving when this lie was printed. One of them, be part of the ceremonial performed, on the honest Bernal Diaz, wrote an account of the anniversary of the battle of Regillus, in honour expedition. He had the evidence of his own of Castor and Pollux, the two equestrian Gods. senses against the chaplain's legend; but he all the knights, clad in purple and crowned seems to have distrusted even the evidence of with olive, were to meet at a temple of Mars in his own senses. He says that he was in the the suburbs. Thence they were to ride in slate battle, and that he saw a gray horse with a to the Forum, where the temple of the Twins man on his back, but that the man was, to his stood. This pageant was, during several centhinkiny, Francesco de Morla, and not the ever-turies, considered as one of the most splendid blessed apostle St. James. “Nevertheless," sights of Rome. In the time of Dionysius the he adds, " it may be that the person on the gray cavalcade sometimes consisted of five thouhorse was the glorious apostle St. James, and sand horsemen, all persons of fair repute and thai I, sinner that I am, was unworthy to see easy fortune.* nim." The Romans of the age of Cincinnatus There can be no doubt that the Censors who were probably quite as credulous as the Spa- instituted this magnificent ceremony acted in nish subjects of Charles the Fifth. It is there- concert with the Pontiff's to whom, by the confore conceivable that the appearance of Castor stitution of Rome, the superintendence of the and Pollux may have become an article of faitis before the generation which had fought * See Livy, ix. 46, Val. Max., ii. 2. Aurel. Vict De at Regillus had passed away. Nor could any Viris Illustribus, 32. Dionysius, vi. 13. thing he more natural than that the poets of the in Niebuhr's posthumous volume, Die Consur des e

Nat. xv. 5. See also the singularly ingenious chapter next age should embellish this story, and make Fabius und P. Decius.

Plin. Hist

public worship belonged ; and it is probable holy Pontiff enjoining the magnificent ceremothat those high religious functionaries were, nial which, after a long interval, had at length as usual, fortunate enough to find in their been adopted. If the poem succeeded, many books or traditions some warrant for the inno- persons would commit it to memory. Parts of vation.

it would be sung to the pipe at banquets. It The following poem is supposed to have would be peculiarly interesting to the great been made for this great occasion. Songs, we Posthumian house, which numbered among know, were chanted at the religious festivals its many images that of the Dictator Aulus, the of Rome from an early period, indeed from so hero of Regillus. The orator who, in the fol. carly a period that some of the sacred verses lowing generation, pronounced the funeral were popularly ascribed to Numa, and were panegyric over the remains of Lucius Posthuutterly unintelligible in the age of Augustus. mius Megellus, thrice Consul, would borrow In the Second Punic War a great feast was largely from the lay; and thus some passages, held in honour of Juno, and a song was sung much disfigured, would probably find their in her praise. This song was extant when way into the chronicles which were afterwards Livy wrote; and, though exceedingly rugged in the hands of Dionysius and Livy. and uncouth, seemed to him not wholly desti- Antiquaries differ widely as to the situation tute of merit.* A song, as we learn from Ho- of the field of battle. The opinion of those who race, was part of the established ritual at the suppose that the armies met near Cornufelle, great Secular Jubilee. It is therefore likely between Frascati and the Monte Porzio, is, at that the Censors and Pontiffs, when they had least, plausible, and has been followed in the resolved to add a grand procession of knights poem. to the other solemnities annually performed on As to the details of the battle, it has not been the Ides of Quintilis, would call in the aid of a thought desirable to adhere minutely to the acpoet. Such a poet would naturally take for counts which have come down to us. Those his subject the battle of Regillus, the appear- accounts, indeed, differ widely from each other, ance of the Twin Gods, and the institution of and, in all probability, differ as widely from the their festival. He would find abundant mate- ancient poem from which they were originally rials in the ballads of his predecessors; and he derived. would make free use of the scanty stock of It is unnecessary to point out the obvious Greek learning which he had himself acquired. imitations of the Iliad, which have been pur. He would probably introduce some wise and i posely introduced.

THE

BATTLE OF THE LAKE REGILLUS.

A LAY SUNG AT THE FEAST OF CASTOR AND POLLUX ON THE IDES OF QUINTILIS, IN THE YEAR

OF THE CITY CCCCLI.

1.
Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note!

Ho, lictors, clear the way!
The Knights will ride, in all their pride,

Along the streets to-day.
To-day the doors and windows

Are hung with garlands all,
From Castor in the Forum,

To Mars without the wall. Each Knight is robed in purple,

With olive each is crown'd; A gallant war-horse under each

Paws haughtily the ground. While flows the Yellow River,

While stands the Sacred Hill, The proud Ides of Quintilis

Shall have such honour still. Gay are the Martian Kalends :

December's Nones are gay: (rides, But the proud Ides, when the squadron Shall be Rome's whitest day.

2. Unto the Great Twin Brethren

We keep this solemn feast. * Livy, xxvii. 37. 4 Ilor. Carmen Seculare.

Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren

Came spurring from the east.
They came o'er wild Parthenius

Tossing in waves of pine,
O’er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam,

O’er purple Apennine,
From where with flutes and dances

Their ancient mansion rings,
In lordly Lacedæmon,

The City of two kings,
To where, by Lake Regillus,

Under the Porcian height,
All in the lands of Tusculum,

Was fought the glorious fight.

3.
Now on the place of slaughter

Are cots and sheepfolds seen,
And rows of vines, and fields of wheai

And apple-orchards green.
The swine crush the big acorns

That fall from Corne's oaks :
Upon the turf by the Fair Fount

The reaper's pottage smokes.
The fisher baits his angle;

The hunter twangs his bow;