Ipfe loci cuftos, cujus facrata vorago,
Famofufque lacus nomen memorabile fervat,
Innumeros aris fonitus, et verbere crudo
Ut fenfit mugire forum, movet horrida fancto
Ora fitu, meritaque caput venerabile quercu.

Statius Sylv. Lib. 1.

The Guardian of that Lake, which boafts to claim
A fure memorial from the Curtian name;
Rous'd by th' artificers, whofe mingled found
From the loud Forum pierc'd the fhades profound,
The hoary vifion rose confefs'd in view,

And fhook the Civic wreath that bound his brow.

The two horns that you fee on the next Medal are emblems of Plenty.

apparetque beata pleno Copia Cornu.

FIG. 8.

Hor. Carm. Sæc.

Your Medallifts tell us that two horns on a Coin fignify an extraordinary Plenty. But I fee no foundation for this conjecture. Why fhould they not as well have ftamped two Thunder-bolts, two Caduceus's, or two Ships, to represent an extraordinary force, a lafting peace, or an unbounded happiness. I rather think that the double Cornucopia relates to the double tradition of its original: Some reprefenting it as the horn of Achelous broken off by Hercules, and others as the horn of the Goat that gave fuck to Jupiter.

-rigidum fera dextera cornu

Dum tenet, infregit; truncâque à fronte revellit.

Naiades hoc, pomis et odoro flore repletum,
Sacrarunt; divefque meo bona Copia cornu eft.
Dixerat: et Nymphe ritu fuccincta Diana
Una miniftrarum, fufis utrinque capillis,
Inceffit, totumque tulit prædivite cornu
Autumnum, et menfas felicia poma fecundas.

De Acheloi Cornu. Ov. Met. Lib. 9.

Nor yet his fury cool'd; 'twixt rage and scorn, From my maim'd front he bore the ftubborn horn: This, heap'd with flowers and fruits, the Naiads bear, Sacred to Plenty and the bounteous year.

He fpöke; when lo a beauteous Nymph appears, Girt like Diana's train, with flowing hairs; The horn fhe brings, in which all Autumn's ftor'd: And ruddy apples for the fecond board. Mr. Gay.

Lac dabat illa Deo: fed fregit in arbore cornu:
Truncaque dimidia parte decoris erat.

Suftulit hoc Nymphe; cinctumque recentibus her

bis,

Et plenum pomis ad Jovis ora tulit.
Ille, ubi res coeli tenuit, folioque paterno
Sedit, et invicto nil fove majus erat,
Sidera nutricem, nutricis fertile cornu

Fecit; quod domina nunc quoque nomen habet.
De Cornu Amalthea. Ov.de Faft. Lib. 5.

The God fhe fuckled of old Rhea born;
And in the pious office broke her horn,
As playful in a rifted Oak she toft

Her heedle's head, and half its honours loft.
Fair Amalthea took it off the ground,

With apples fill'd it and with garlands bound,

Which to the fmiling infant fhe convey'd.
He, when the fceptre of the Gods he sway'd,
When bold he feized his father's vacant throne,
And reign'd the tyrant of the skies alone,
Bid his rough nurfe the ftarry Heavens adorn,
And grateful in the Zodiac fix'd her Horn.

Betwixt the double Cornucopia you fee Mercury's rod.

Cyllenes coelique decus, facunde minifter,
Aurea cui torto virga dracone viret.

Mart. Lib. 7. Epig. 74.

Defcend, Cyllene's tutelary God,

With ferpents twining round thy golden rod.

It ftands on old Coins as an emblem of peace by reafon of its ftupifying quality that has gained it the title of Virga fomnifera. It has wings, for another quality that Virgil mentions in his description of it.

·hac fretus ventos et nubila tranat. Virg.

Thus arm'd, the God begins his airy race,
And drives the racking clouds along the liquid
space.
Mr. Dryden.

The two heads over the two Cornucopia are of the Emperor's children, who are fometimes called among the Poets the pledges of Peace, as they took away the occafions of war in cutting off all dif putes to the fucceffion.

tu mihi primum.

2

Tot natorum memoranda parens

D 5

Utero

Utero toties enixa gravi
Pignora pacis.

Sen. Octav. Act. 5.

Thee first kind author of my joys,
Thou fource of many fmiling boys,
Nobly contented to beftow

A pledge of peace in every throe.

This Medal therefore compliments the Emperor on his two children, whom it reprefents as public bleffings that promife Peace and Plenty to the Empire.

FIG. 7. are Emblems of Fidelity.
The two hands that join one another

See now the promis'd faith, the vaunted name,
The pious man, who rufhing thro' the flame,
Prefery'd his Gods
Mr. Dryden.

By the Infcription we may fee that they reprefent in this place the Fidelity or Loyalty of the public towards their Emperor. The Caduceus rifing between the hands. fignifies, the Peace that arifes from fuch an union with their Prince, as the fpike of Corn on each fide fhadows out the Plenty that is the fruit of fuch a peace.

Pax Cererem nutrit, pacis alumna Ceres.

Ov. de Faft. Lib. 1.

FIG. 8.

The giving of a hand, in the reverse of Claudius, is a token of good-will. For when, after the death of his nephew Caligula, Claudius was in no fmall apprehenfion for his own life, he was, contrary to his expectation, well received among the Prætorian guards, and afterwards declared their Emperor. His reception is here recorded on a Medal, in which one of the Enfigns prefents him his hand, in the fame fenfe as Anchifes gives it in the following verses.

Ipfe pater dextram Anchifes haud multa moratus Dat juveni, atque animum præfenti munere firmat. Virg. Æn. Lib. 3.

The old weather-beaten foldier that carries in his hand the Roman Eagle, is the fame kind of officer that you meet with in Juvenal's fourteenth Satire.

Dirue Maurorum attegias, caftella Brigantum,
Ut locupletem Aquilam tibi fexagefimus annus
Afferat
Juv. Sat. 14.

I remember in one of the Poets the Signifer is defcribed with a Lion's skin over his head and shoulders, like this we fee in the Medal, but at present I cannot recollect the paffage. Virgil has given us a noble description of a warrior making his appearance under a Lion's skin.

tegmen torquens immane Leonis Terribili impexum fetâ, cum dentibus albis

Indutus