41 



*' ufi idiomate, ut ex tacito conftat, unde ex eadem gente videntur ori- 

 "' undi. Hcec autem fi praepofuerimus, quce facillhna et certijjima funt, 

 " feliciter admodum de Unguis harum gentium fumus judicari. Videlicet 

 " colligimus hinc primo linguam Scytharum, Celtorum, Gothorura, Ge- 

 " tarum, Maflagetarum, Cimbrorum, Teutonum, Germanorum, Belgicam 

 •' veterem (omnes hae gentes uno idiomata ante fuerunt ufe, licet pro'- 

 " nunciandi ratio aliquo modo per fucceflum temporis fuerit variata) 

 " ex orientalibus linguis omnino derivandam effe," &c. &c. (L/i. i. 

 Cap. 3.) 



But I have faid, that the Elamites with their language carried their 

 poetry into Scythia. This both analogy and reafon tell us : We know 

 too that in the time of Augiaftus, the Scythse had their poetry, what- 

 ever it was ; for Ovid tells us us, the Getse were pleafed with the verfes 

 he had compofed in their language, whofe barbarifm, as he calls it, 

 however it might fuit their own modes of verfification, but ill accorded 

 with the ftrufture of the Latin. 



" Ah ! pudet, et Getico fcripC fermone libellum, 

 " StriSaque funt noftris barbara verba modis. 



" Et placui, (gratare raihi !) coepique Poets 

 " Inter inhumanos nomen habere Getas." 



(De Pont.,^. Ep. 13. J 



It is not improbable therefore, that the rklme, (which we have beheld fo 

 interwoven in the oriental poetry, that their bards felt difficulty to avoid it, 

 but which we have alfo beheld offenfive to the Latin,) might have been 

 a principal objeftion with our exiled poet, who found its recurrence in 

 the Getic, formed as that language was of the ancient Perfic, an ob- 

 ftacle perpetually in his way.* Nothing certain, I confefs, can be de- 

 duced from it, except that the Getic language did not accord with the 

 Vol. IX. F Latin 



* The firft line of the quotation from Ovid ftrongly impTies, that the poet had com- 

 pofed Latin verfe with the Getic rhime ; and the fecond as ftrongly that he had alfo 

 adapted the Getic words to the Roman quantities ; this comment, I apprehend, has never 

 before been offered. 



