202 
pliky's fatueal histoet. 
[Book III. 
Telesini\ the Trebulani, surnained Balinienses^, tlie Tre- 
bani^, the Tusculani^, the Yerulani^, the Yeliterni^, the 
Ulubrenses^, the Urbinates^, and, last and greater than 
all, Eome herself, whose other name^ the hallowed mysteries 
of the sacred rites forbid us to mention without being guilty 
of the greatest impiety. After it had been long kept buried 
in secresy with the strictest fidelity and in respectful and 
salutary silence, Valerius Soranus dared to divulge it, but 
soon did he pay the penalty of his rashness. 
It will not perhaps be altogether foreign to the purpose, 
if I here make mention of one peculiar institution ol our 
forefathers which bears especial reference to the inculcation 
of silence on religious matters. The goddess Angerona^^, 
to whom sacrifice is ofiered on the twelfth day before the 
calends of January [21st December], is represented in her 
statue as having her mouth boimd with a sealed fillet. 
Eomulus left the city of Eome, if we are to believe those 
^ The people of Telesia, a town of Samnium seven leagues from Capua, 
now called Telese. 
2 Trebula was distinguished probably by this surname from a town 
of that name in Samnium. Theie seem to have been two places of the 
name in the Sabine territory, but it is not known which is here meant. The 
ruins of one of them are supposed to be those not far from Maddaloni. • 
3 The people of Treba, now Trevi, a town of Latium. 
^ The people of Tusculum, an ancient town of Latium, the ruins of 
which are to be seen on a hill about two miles distant from the modern 
Frascati. Cicero's favourite residence was his Tusculan villa, and Cato 
the censor was a native of this place. 
^ The people of Verulse, a town of the Hernici, in Latium, now Yeroh. 
^ The people of Yehtrse, an ancient town of the Yolsci, now Yelletri. 
It was the birth-place of the emperor Augustus. 
7 The people of Ulubrse, a small town of Latium, near the Pomptine 
Marshes ; its site is unknown. 
3 The people of Urbinum ; there were two places of that name in 
Umbria, now called Urbeno and Urbania. 
^ The name probably by which the city was called in the mystical 
language of the priesthood. It has been said that this mysterious name 
of Rome was Yalentia ; if so, it appears to be only a translation of her 
name Grrsecized — 'Pw/xt;, " strength." This subject will be found again 
mentioned in B. xxviii. c. 4. 
^0 Solinus says that he was put to death as a punishment for his rash- 
ness. M. Sichel has suggested that this mysterious name was no other 
than Angerona. 
11 It is not known whether this mystical divinity was the goddess of 
anguish and fear, or of silence, or whether she was the guardian deity of 
