Natural Hi/lory of the Ancients. 1 5 3 



hounds (" jEneid," vii. 483^.) ; but a ftill more 

 pathetic image the companion of the love-fick 

 Dido to a ftricken hind claims precedence: 

 " The flame of love devours her unrefifting heart, 

 and the filent wound lives and glows beneath her 

 breaft. Unhappy Dido is confumed by its fires, 

 and wanders demented through the whole city, as 

 a hind fmitten by the arrow which from afar, as 

 me incautioufly roamed the Cretan groves, a 

 fhepherd has transfixed while mooting, and unwit- 

 tingly left his winged fteel rankling in the wound. 

 She, in flight, nifties through the Didaean woods 

 and lawns in vain ; the deadly arrow clings to her 

 fide " (" ^Eneid," iv. 66). 



Hunting chiefly went on in the wintry months 

 with the Romans, as it does with us. " Then," 

 fays Virgil, " is the time to lay fnares for cranes, 

 and fet nets for ftags, and purfue the long-eared 

 hares ; then, too, mould a man whirl round his 

 head the thongs of the Balearic fling and flay the 

 hinds, when the fnow lies deep, when the rivers 

 fweep along mafles of ice " (" Georg.," i. 307). 

 And fo the love-fick Gallus fings : " Meanwhile, 

 together with the Nymphs, I will wander over 

 Mamalus or chafe fierce boars ; no cold fhall 

 prevent my furrounding the Parthenian groves 

 with my hounds. I feem to be hurrying through 

 rocks and refounding thickets, my delight to 

 wing Cretan fhafts from a bow tipped with Par- 

 thian horn as if thefe things could avail againft 

 my madnefs!" ("Eclogues," x. 56). The Romans 

 of later days pofleffed at their villas vivaria or 



