Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

GRA'ITIUSattained its fro:i\. Tlie life that was imperilled hywarfare against wild beasts, where most it neededhelp, thou, Diana, didst deign to shield with aids ofthy discovery, and to free the world from harm sogreat. Under thy name the goddesses joined tothem a hundred comrades : " all the nymphs of thegroves, all the Naiads dripping from the springs,and Latium's satyrs and the Faun-god came in support; Pan, too, the youth of the Arcadian mount,and the Idaean Mother, Cybele, who tames thelions, and Silvanus rejoicing in the wilding bough.I by these guardians ordained—and not withoutsong—to defend our human lot against a thousandbeasts, with song too will furnish weapons and pursuethe arts of the chase.The beginning of hunting equipment consists innets and the ropes of the snare.'^ First of all, expertsprescribe that the rope along the edge of thenet be twined, at the start, of thin thread and then'^fourfold strands be drawn tight to form the twist ;" Herter, Rhein. Mus., 78 (1929), p. 366, takes centum withdivae.* With lines 24-60, 75-94, on hunting-nets, cf. Xen. Cyn. ii.3-8 ; Arrian, Cyn. 1 ; Pollux, Onomast. V. 26-32; Oppian, Cyn.1. 150-51 ; Xemes. Cyn. 299 sqq. The Latin rete {d.KTuov) meansnet in general, or specifically a large "haj^"; plaga {^voZiov)means a net placed in the known run or track of the gamecassis [iipKiis) means a funnel-shaped net resembling, accordingto Pollux, a KeKpvcpaXos {reikuluui)—Avhich may be appliedeither to a network cap for the hair or to the bag-shapedreticule, pouch or belly of a hunting-net."^Li tabus, the rope along the edge of the net, correspondsto the Tovo? in Xen. Cyn. x. 2, Pollux V. 27. Grattius useslimhi, the plural, for the fila linea out of which the litnhus ismade {Limbns yrandis et capitalis linea ilia est cvi minoreslitnhi quadrangulo sinuamine circurnstringuntur, Barth).153