The Polyhistor of Gaius Julius Solinus

[Header:] OF C. JULIUS SOLINUS

Aborigines. The Aborigines are people so called because they arrived, wandering, into the field which is now [the land] of the Roman people; their first king was Saturn, after whom, in the third place, reigned Faunus, under whom Evander came into Italy from the Arcadian city of Pallanteum. Others think the Aborigines were so called by a Greek name, because they inhabited the mountains. There are some who also think the Palatine was so named from "bleating" [balando], because cattle grazing there were accustomed to bleat: or from "wandering" [palando], because cattle were accustomed to wander there. Others think differently, as this author also writes. And since the Palatine Hill, on account of the flowing Tiber, provided an inconvenient habitation, as this Solinus writes, just as the map of the city below shows the bridge which leads across to the Palatine, I do not know why that hill is found in the description of Rome to have a location almost further removed from the bank of the Tiber: unless perhaps there were two hills so named.

p Rhea Sylvia. p ¶ Rhea Sylvia.) Rhea the Vestal, named Silvia from King Silvius, and called by another name Ilia from the city of Ilium from whence she traced her origin, whose son Romulus, having observed the augury on the rocks of the wooded Palatine, saw twelve birds, and his brother Remus saw six birds on the summit of the Aventine Hill, and from this augury they took the judgment for the city.

[It was] adopted. But although these things harmonize in this way, it is manifest that the glory of the Roman name is owed to that prosperous augury, especially since the calculation of years makes the hinge of the truth. For, as Varro, a most diligent author, affirms, Romulus founded Rome, born of Mars and Rhea Silvia, or, as some say, [of] Mars and Ilia. And it was first called "Square Rome" [Roma quadrata] because it was set at an equilibrium. It begins from the forest which is in the area of Apollo, and has its limit at the brow of the stairs of Cacus, where the hut of Faustulus was. There Romulus resided, who, having taken the auspices, laid the foundations of the walls, eighteen years old, on the eleventh day before the Kalends of May, in the hour after the second [and] before the third: just as Lucius Taruntius, the most noble of mathematicians, divulged, with Jupiter in Pisces, Saturn, Venus, Mars, [and] Mercury positioned in Scorpio, the Sun in Taurus, [and] the Moon in Libra. And it was subsequently observed that no sacrificial victim should be slaughtered during the Parilia, so that that day might be pure from blood: the significance of which [rule] he wished to treat regarding the birth of Ilia. The same Romulus reigned for 37 years. He celebrated his first triumph over the Caeninenses, and [over] Acron their king

q Jupiter in Pisces. q ¶ Jupiter in Pisces.) That this passage of Solinus is false is sufficiently indicated by the fact that it can by no means happen that, with the Sun in Taurus, Mercury or Venus could be in Scorpio. The reason is that, by the authority of Pliny, book 2, chapter 17, the star of Venus never departs further than 47 degrees, and Mercury never further than 20 degrees, from the Sun. Granting, therefore, that they were in Scorpio, it would follow that they could be in opposition to the Sun: which words of Pliny and the authority of astronomers abundantly confirm can by no means happen. As for the disposition of the Planets, Jupiter, placed in Pisces, his own house, gave to that place the highest authority in spiritual matters and a peculiar diligence in sacred rites and ceremonies. See more in the commentaries of Vadianus on Pomponius Mela, book 2.

Parilia. r ¶ That no victim [be slaughtered] at the Parilia.) According to Solinus, the Parilia festivals are called so from the birth [partus] of Ilia, as if [it were] the "birth of Ilia." But the elders held it as an institution that when they paid their annual gift to the Genius on [their] birthday, they should keep their hands from slaughter and blood, lest on the day they received the light themselves, they should take it from others.

s ¶ Caeninenses. s ¶ Caeninenses.) Peoples so called from the Italian city of Caenina. Furthermore, Jupiter was called Feretrius because he was believed to bring [ferre] peace: for whom Romulus built the first temple at Rome. Romulus, therefore, after he had inhabited the Palatine and the nearby Caelian Hill and had yielded his life near the swamp of Caprea, was succeeded by Tatius, who had at first captured the Capitoline Hill, in which later the temple to Juno Moneta was built. They say this [goddess] was called Moneta from "advising" [monendo].

Jupiter, why called Feretrius.

Olympiad. An Olympiad is a space of five years, which by the Romans is called a "lustrum": and here, instead of 27, one must read 13th Olympiad. For they say that six Olympiads preceded the founding of the city, and from the founding of the city or from the beginning of the reign, 21 years flowed up to the war which Romulus had with the Sabine peoples living around the Tiber, which lasted for three years: and then Tatius held the leadership with Romulus for five years, which years joined together make 29. Numa, the second king, succeeded Tatius, and he was buried after he had reigned 33 years across the Tiber under the Janiculum Hill. After him, the third king, Tullus Hostilius, was created, who (as Livy is the author) added the Caelian Hill to the city, where he also began to dwell after leaving the Velia. His successor, Ancus Martius, the fourth king, added the Aventine and Janiculum hills to the city, and he lived on the Sacred Way, which is so called because the sacred treaty was struck between Romulus and Tatius upon it. This Ancus, when he had left Tarquinius Priscus, previously called Lucumo, as guardian of his sons, Lucumo, forgetting the king's sons, seized the kingdom of the Romans beyond what was just and right. Furthermore, the Mugonia gate is the same as the Trigonia, or triangular [gate], so called from the mooing [mugitu] of cattle which entered through it for sale: or, as it pleases others, from a certain Mugius, who was in charge of guarding it. After Tarquinius Priscus, Servius Tullius attained the kingdom, who lived on the Exquiliae, on which hill there were two peaks, Olbius and Pullius: for he himself joined the hills Exquilium, Viminalem, and Quirinalem to the city, and built a temple of Diana on the Aventine. He was killed by his son-in-law Tarquinius Superbus beyond all law, and the parricide succeeded him in the empire, surnamed "Superbus" [the Proud] on account of his corrupted morals: and after he had reigned for many years, he was cast out of the kingdom because of the defilement brought upon Lucretia by his son and other acts of tyranny. For "Fagutalem"