Chap. 21.] 
CAPRiriCATIOiSr. 
311 ^ 
passed spontaneously from its original looality"^^ to tlie Comi- 
tium in the Forum. And not without some direful presage is 
it that that tree has withered away, though, thanks to the 
care of the priesthood, it has heen since replaced. 
There was another fig-tree also, before the temple of Sa- 
turn,*^^ which was removed on the occasion of a sacrifice made 
by the Yestal Virgins, it being found that its roots were gra- 
dually undermining the statue of the god Silvanus. Another 
one, accidentally planted there, flourished in the middle of the 
Eorum,*^^ upon the very spot, too, in which, when from a dire- 
ful presage it had been foreboded that the growing empire 
was about to sink to its very foundations, Curtius, at the price 
of an inestimable treasure ^ — in other words, by the sacrifice of 
such unbounded virtue and piety — redeemed his country by a 
glorious death. Ey a like accident, too, a vine and an olive- 
tree have sprung up in the same spot,"^^ which have ever since 
been carefully tended by the populace for the agreeable shade 
which they afi'ord. The altar that once stood there was after- 
wards removed by order of the deified Julius Caesar, upon the 
occasion of the last spectacle of gladiatorial combats "^"^ which 
he gave in the Forum. 
CHAP. 21. CAPEIFICATION. 
The fig, the only one among all the pomes, hastens to maturity 
by the aid of a remarkable provision of l^ature. (19.) The 
wild-fig,''® known by the name of caprificus," never ripens 
itself, though it is able to impart to the others the principle 
of which it is thus destitute ; for we occasionally find JSTature 
making a transfer of what are primary causes, and being gene- 
rated from decay. To effect this purpose the wild fig-tree 
On the banks of the Tiber, below the Palatine Mount. The whole 
of this passage is in a most corrupt state, and it is difficult to extract a 
meaning from it. 
By slips from the old tree, as Tacitus seems to say—" in novos foetus 
revivisceret." 
''^ At the foot of the Capitoline Hill. 
Probably near where the Curtius Lacus had stood in the early days of 
Rome. The story of Metius Curtius, who leaped into the yawning gulph 
in the Forum, in order to save his country, is known to every classical 
reader. 
The Forum. gee B. xix. c. 6. 
'8 Tlie Ficus Carica of Linnseus. It does bear fruit, though small, and 
disagreeable to the taste. 
