18. The greatness of the subject, and our duty to those on their defence also,1143    Lit., “and the duty of defence itself.” demand that we should in like manner hunt up the other forms of baseness, whether those which the histories of antiquity record, or those contained in the sacred mysteries named initia,1144    i.e., secret rites, to which only the initiated were admitted. and not divulged1145    Lit., “which you deliver”—traditis; so Elmenh., LB., and later edd., for the unintelligible ms.tradidisse, retained in both Roman edd. openly to all, but to the silence of a few; but your innumerable sacred rites, and the loathsomeness of them all,1146    Lit., “deformity affixed to all.” will not allow us to go through them all bodily: nay, more, to tell the truth, we turn aside ourselves from some purposely and intentionally, lest, in striving to unfold all things, we should be defiled by contamination in the very exposition. Let us pass by Fauna1147    ms. fetam f. Cf. i. 36, n. 2, p. 422, supra. Fatua, therefore, who is called Bona Dea, whom Sextus Clodius, in his sixth book in Greek on the gods, declares to have been scourged to death with rods of myrtle, because she drank a whole jar of wine without her husband’s knowledge; and this is a proof, that when women show her divine honour a jar of wine is placed there, but covered from sight, and that it is not lawful to bring in twigs of myrtle, as Butas1148    So Heraldus, from Plutarch, Rom., 21, where Butas is said to have written on this subject (αἰτίαι) in elegiacs, for the ms. Putas. mentions in his Causalia. But let us pass by with similar neglect1149    Lit., “in like manner and with dissimulation.” the dii conserentes, whom Flaccus and others relate to have buried themselves, changed in humani penis similitudinem in the cinders under a pot of exta.1150    i.e., heart, lungs, and liver, probably of a sacrifice. And when Tanaquil, skilled in the arts of Etruria,1151    i.e., “divination, augury,” etc. disturbed these, the gods erected themselves, and became rigid. She then commanded a captive woman from Corniculum to learn and understand what was the meaning of this: Ocrisia, a woman of the greatest wisdom divos inseruisse genitali, explicuisse motus certos. Then the holy and burning deities poured forth the power of Lucilius,1152    Vis Lucilii, i.e., semen. [He retails Pliny xxxvi. 27.] and thus Servius king of Rome was born.

XVIII. Postulat quidem magnitudo materiae, atque ipsius defensionis officium, ut similiter caeteras turpitudinum 1115B species persequamur: vel quas produnt 1116A antiquitatis historiae, vel mysteria illa continent sancta, quibus initiis nomen est, et quae non omnibus vulgo, sed paucorum taciturnitatibus traditis: sed sacrorum innumeri ritus, atque affixa deformitas singulis, corporaliter prohibet universa nos exequi: quinimmo, ut verum exprimamus, a quibusdam nos ipsi consilio, et ratione deflectimus: ne dum explicare contendimus cuncta, expositionis ipsius contaminationibus polluamur. Faunam igitur Fatuam, Bona quae dicitur Dea, transeamus: quam myrteis caesam virgis, quod marito nesciente seriam meri ebiberit plenam, Sextus Clodius indicat Sexto de diis Graeco: signumque monstrari, quod cum ei divinam rem mulieres faciunt, vini amphora constituatur obtecta: nec myrteas fas sit inferre verbenas: sicut suis scribit in causalibus Butas. Sed et deos conserenteis pari 1116B more ac dissimulatione taceamus, quos cum caeteris 1117A scribit Flaccus in humani penis similitudinem versos obruisse se cineri, qui sub ollula fuerat factus extorum: quem cum Tanaquil dimoveret Etruriae disciplinarum perita, surrexisse se deos, et nervis obduruisse divinis. Corniculanae inde imperavisse captivae, ut intelligeret, et agnosceret, qui sibi res vellent: 1118A Ocrisiam prudentissimam foeminam divinos inseruisse genitali: explicuisse motus certos. Tunc sancta, et ferventia numina vim vomuisse Lucilii, ac regem Servium natum esse Romanum.