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Probably no individual subject in the whole field of the topography of ancient Italy has attracted the attention of scholars to a greater degree than the quest for Horace's Sabine farm. The appeal which any contribution to the discussion of this question is sure to make to the historical and the literary student alike, and the special interest which the recent excavations at the probable site of the villa have aroused, encourage me to publish a monument, hitherto, I believe, unnoticed, which appears to deserve serious consideration in this connexion. This monument (fig. 14) is a bas-relief of a good quality of limestone, height 1 ft. 10¾ ins. (0·58 m.), width I ft. (0·30 m.), built into the wall of the palace of the Marchese di Roccagiovine at the town of that name, not far from the well-known inscription (fig. 15) commemorating the restoration by Vespasian of a temple of Victoria. The relief represents a female figure, clad in chiton and himation, facing to front; the head is much worn; the right hand clasps the forelegs of a deer; the left hand is badly damaged, so that its action is no longer intelligible.
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- Copyright © A. W. Van Buren1916. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
References
page 202 note 1 ‘On pourrait former toute une bibliothéque avec les livres écrits sur la villa’ (Jullian, in Mélanges des Ecoles françaises, 3 (1883), p. 82;Google Scholar the chief authorities, however, are:
De Sanctis, Domenico, Dissertazione sopra la Villa di Orazio Flacco, 2nd ed.Roma, 1768Google Scholar (first edition, Rome, 1761, which I have not seen).
de Chaupy, Capmartin, Découverte de la maison de campagne d'Horace, 3 vols, Rome, 1767–1769Google Scholar.
Boissier, Gaston, Nouvelles promenades archéologiques, Paris, 1886, pp. 1–62Google Scholar.
N. Fritsch, in Neue Jahrbücher, 151 (1895), pp. 57–78Google Scholar.
Sellin, Das Sabinische Landgut des Horaz, Programm, Schwerin i. M. 1896.
See the fuller bibliography in Mau, and von Mercklin, , Katalog der Bibliothek des k. d. archāol. lnst. in Rom, 2nd ed. i, I (Rome, 1913), p. 577;Google Scholar to which I may add a quaint little volume, The Sabine Farm, a Poem: into which is interwoven a Series of Translations, chiefly descriptive of the Villa and Life of Horace, occasioned by an excursion from Rome to Licenza, by Bradstreet, Robert, London, printed for J. Mawman, in the Poultry, 1810;Google Scholar and the sympathetic essay by Merrifield, Webster, A Visit to Horace's Sabine Farm, in Classical Journal, 8 (1912–1913), pp. 25–36Google Scholar.
page 202 note 2 cf. Bollettino d'Arte, v (1911), p. 324Google Scholar; Bollettino dell' Associazione Archeologica Romana, i (1911), pp. 169, 239Google Scholar; Cronaca delle belle Arti, iii (1916), pp. 11 fGoogle Scholar.
page 202 note 3 C.I.L. xiv, 3485. As I am not aware that photographs of this inscription are in circulation, I publish one which, together with that of the relief, I owe to the kindness of Dr. Eugene S. McCartney of the American Academy in Rome: the material is Italian marble; dimensions 4 ft. 11¾ ins. × 1 ft. 10¾ ins. (1·51 m. × 0·58 m.).
page 204 note 1 Religion und Kultus der Römer, 2nd ed. p. 49, n. 5. The most important sources are the scholia the passage in Horace above cited, namely, Porphyrio (ed. Holder, 1894) : ‘Vacuna in Sabinis dea, quae sub incerta specie est formata. Hanc quidam Bellonam, alii Minervam, alii Dianam <putant>.’ Pseudo-Acro (ed. Keller, 1904): ‘Vacunam alii Cererem, alii deam vacationis dicunt, Victoriam, qua favente curis vacamus. Vacunam apud Sabinos plurimum cultam quidam Minervam, Dianam putaverunt; nonnulli etiam Venerem esse dixerunt; sed Varro primo rerum divinarum Victoriam ait, quod ea maxime hii gaudent, qui sapientiae vacent.’
The other sources are:
Ovid. Fast. 6, 307 f:
‘nunc quoque, cum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacunae, ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos.’
Dion. Hal. i, 15, 1 (the description of a lake near Reate, sacred to Nike, i.e. Vacuna). Plin. H.N. iii, 109: ‘iuxta Vacunae nemora et Reate.’ Ausonius, Epist. iv, 101 : ‘Totam trado tibi imul Vacunam’ (i.q. Victoriam). C.I.L. ix, 4751 (votive inscription in Vallis Canera); 4752 (similar); C.I.L. ix, 4636 (similar, from Vallis Velini superior); and inscription at Posta in the same valley, Not. d. Scavi, 1906, 465 ff. (Persichetti; cf. his discussion also in Röm. Mitth. 24 (1909), p. 244)Google Scholar.
In addition to Wissowa, loc. cit. compare the fuller but less recent treatment in Preller-Jordan, Röm. Mythologie, 3rd ed. i, 1881, pp. 408–410Google Scholar.
page 204 note 2 Annotations in Cluv. p. 672, 1. 38; p. 676, 1. 43.
page 204 note 3 Wissowa, I.e.; Dessau, in C.I.L. xiv, I.e. Persichetti, however, in Not. Scav. 1906, p. 466Google Scholar, accepts the combination.
page 204 note 4 We know from earlier writers (cf. C.I.L. xiv, I.c.) that the inscription has been at Roccagiovine since the sixteenth century; the conjecture of Fr. Belli, in Bull, dell' Inst. 1856, pp. 151–154, to the effect that these various fragments were brought from a site some distance away and across the stream Licenza, is rightly rejected by Dessau, C.I.L. xiv, I.c.