be so great as that of the Hebdomadal, which was coæval with the origin of men themselves; but it was greater than that of any other cycle, of the same or of a similar kind, of human institution, and intended for the perpetual measurement of time by the simplest and most invariable of its elements, the cycle of day and night: and in Italy in particular it was incomparably older than any thing else, characteristic of that country, which could now be mentioned. And to complete the parallel between these two things, the Nundinal cycle itself, (as we hope to shew in due time,) was derived from the Hebdomadal. The first Nundinal cycle was grafted upon the Hebdomadal; and the seventh day of the Hebdomadal cycle for the time being supplied the first day of the first Nundinal cycle. The Nundinal cycle itself therefore was after all the Hebdomadal, in another form and under another denomination; it was virtually the same as the Hebdomadal, and only accidentally different from it, perpetually. For the purpose of our own argument, and for the sake of that review of the course and succession of this cycle, which we are proposing to institute in order to the verification of the scheme of our Roman calendar, at every period of its history; nothing is essential and indispensable a priori except the simple existence of this cycle among the Romans in particular from the epoch of the Foundation downwards: and the simple fact of its regular observance among them. It is satisfactory therefore to know that there is nothing in ancient Roman history which may be more confidently taken for granted than each of these facts. The antiquity of the Nundinal cycle in Italy in general was much greater than the foundation of Rome; nor was this cycle first contrived for the use of the Romans. Nor was it ever any thing different among the Romans from what it was among their neighbours. Nor is there the least reason to suppose that having once been brought into use and established either among the rest of the Italians in general, or among the Romans in particular, it was ever interrupted; or ever diverted from its natural course; or ever subjected to any new law; or ever either intentionally or unintentionally mistaken and miscalculated. We may rely on the uniformity and regularity of the decursus of this cycle among the Romans with the same absolute certainty as on that of the Hebdomadal among the Jews or Christians. Under these circumstances, we are abundantly justified in attaching the greatest importance to the testimony of this cycle in particular, in confirmation of our Roman calendar for every period over which it extends; and for that of the irregular calendar even more than for that of the regular. To the statement therefore of this proof of the truth of both perpetually, we shall now proceed. SECTION II.-On the proper measure of the Orbis Nundinalis, or Nundinal cycle of the Romans. i. Testimonies, which make it a cycle of nine days. The first thing necessary is to determine the legitimate measure of the Orbis Nundinalis or Nundinal Cycle itself; that is the exact number of days between two Nundinal days in succession. The length of the Hebdomadal cycle, as every one knows, is seven days; that is, the number of days between a given day in one week and the same day in the next, if the former excluded and the latter is included, is seven days; if both are excluded, is six days. What there was in the Nundinal cycle, analogous to this fact in the Hebdomadal, has still to be ascertained; and must be collected from testimony only. If we look merely at the etymon, or probable grammatical derivation, of the word Nundinæ in the Latin language, we must conclude that the measure of the Orbis Nundinalis was in some sense or other nine days; for Nundina, with the ellipsis of Dies, or at least of Feriæ, is no doubt per syncopen from Novendinæ : the existence of which some time or other is attested by the term Novendiales, with the same ellipsis of dies or feriæ, derived from it. And a denomination so derived would seem to imply that these Dies Novendinæ or Feriæ Novendina were of every nine days' occurrence. Accordingly testimony is extant which makes the Orbis Nundinalis apparently a cycle of nine days. i. Est quoque quo populum jus est includere septis, Ovid, Fasti, i. 53. The first of these descriptions of days is the comitial. ii. Verum hic non domini, quis enim contractior illo ? Vix unquam urbani comitatus more macelli 1. iii. ̓Αλλὰ τοῖς αὐτοῖς τόν τε πολεμικὸν τόν τε γεωργικὸν ἔταξε βίον· εἰ μὲν εἰρήνην ἄγοιεν, ἐπὶ τοῖς κατ ̓ ἀγρὸν ἔργοις ἐθίζων ἅπαντας μένειν πλὴν εἴ ποτε δεηθεῖεν ἀγορᾶς τότε δ ̓ εἰς ἄστυ συνιόντας ἀγοράζειν· ἐννάτην ὁρίζων ἡμέραν ταῖς ἀγοραῖς m. iv. Nundinarum etiam conventus manifestum est propterea usurpatos ut nonis tantummodo diebus urbanæ res agerentur, reliquis administrarentur rusticæ ". ν. Μαρτυρεῖ δὲ τούτῳ τὸ τὰς ἀγομένας δι ̓ ἐννέα ἡμερῶν ἐπ ̓ ἀγορὰν συνόδους νουνδίνας δὲ καλουμένας ἱερὰς τοῦ Κρόνου νομίζεσθαι πράσεως γὰρ καὶ ὠνῆς περιουσία καρπῶν ἀρχὴν παρέσχενο —Σοὶ δὲ Μάρκιε προαγορεύομεν εἰς τρίτην ἀγορὰν παρεῖναι — Ἐν δὲ τῷ μεταξὺ χρόνῳ τῆς τρίτης ἀγορᾶς· ἀγορὰς δὲ ποιοῦσι Ρωμαιοι δι' ἡμέρας ἐννάτης, νουνδίνας καλοῦντες 4. S vi. Καὶ ἡ ἀγορὰ ἡ διὰ τῶν ἐννέα ἡμερῶν ἀεὶ ἀγομένης—Τὴν ἀγορὰν τὴν διὰ τῶν ἐννέα ἡμερῶν ἀγομένην —Τὴν ἀγορὰν τὴν διὰ τῶν ἐννέα ἡμερῶν ἀγομένην. vii. Est etiam Nundina Romanorum dea, a nono die nascentium nuncupata qui lustricus dicitur. est autem dies lustricus quo infantes lustrantur et nomen accipiunt. sed is maribus nonus octavus est feminis ". ii. Testimony which makes it a cycle of eight days. On the other hand testimony also is extant which makes the Orbis Nundinalis a cycle of eight days. i. Αἱ δ ̓ ἀγοραὶ Ῥωμαίοις ἐγίνοντο ὡς καὶ μέχρι τῶν καθ ̓ ἡμᾶς χρόνων δι' ἡμέρας ἐννάτης . . . . τὰς δὲ μεταξὺ τῶν ἀγορῶν ἑπτὰ ἡμέρας αὐτουργοί τ ̓ ὄντες οἱ πολλοὶ καὶ πένητες ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς διέτριβον. ii. Viri magni majores nostri non sine caussa præponebant rusticos Romanos urbanis . . . itaque annum ita diviserunt ut 1 Virgil, Moretum, 80. m Dionysius Hal. ii. 28. De Romulo. n Columella, De Re Rustica, i. Præfatio, §. 18. • Plutarch, Quæstiones Romanæ, xlii. p Ibid. Coriolanus, xviii. q Ibid. xix. r Dio Cassius, xl. 47. • Ibid. xlviii. 33. t Ibid. lx. 24. u Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 16. 282, 283. Cf. Festus, x. 209. 7. Lustrici. Plutarch, Quaestiones Romanæ, cii. * Dionysius Hal. vii. 58. nonis modo diebus urbanas res usurparent reliquis vii ut rura colerent *. iii. Rutilius scribit Romanos instituisse nundinas ut octo quidem diebus in agris rustici opus facerent, nono autem die intermisso rure ad mercatum legesque accipiendas Romam venirent y. iv. Nundinalem cocum Plautus dixit in Aulularia: Cocus nundinalis ille est. in nonum diem solet ire coctum. cocum qui novendialis alias adpellatur manifesto significat; quem dixit nundinalem, quod in nonum diem coqueretz. SECTION III.-On the reconciliation of these Testimonies to each other. Among these latter testimonies, it is observable that both that of Varro and that of Dionysius agree in representing the interval between any two Nundinal days, exclusive of each, as seven days. The latter too in particular shews that even this representation of the absolute length of the interval in question was not inconsistent with the idiomatic mode of speaking about it, which implied that the nundine were held every ninth day; for in the very same testimony he speaks of the Nundinæ as held Δι' ἡμέρας ἐννάτης, and yet of the interval between any two nundinal days notwithstanding as being only seven days. The former class of testimonies then, which spoke of the Nundinal cycle in general as one of nine days, cannot be irreconcilable to the latter which represents it as one of eight days. Nothing is necessary for this reconciliation except to suppose that in one of these instances, according to a very common idiom among the Romans, the two extreme limits or terms of the cycle were both taken into the account; in the other, the first was omitted, the last only was included. For, if the Nundinal cycle was truly a cycle of eight days, just in the same sense in which the Hebdomadal is one of seven days, (that is, if every eighth day was Nundinal according to the former, as every seventh is sabbatic according to the latter,) then from one Nundinal day to another, both being included, Varro, De Re Rustica, ii. Præfatio. y Macrobius, Saturnalia, i. 16. 282. Festus, xii. 290. 1. Nundinalem : cf. Fragmenta, p. 11. Plautus meant a cook who was hired for one Nundinal cycle at a time; as we should say, for a week at a time. the interval would be nine days; the first being excluded but the second included, it would be eight days: neither of them being included, it would be seven days. And on this principle the cycle itself might be represented as one of nine days, or as one of eight days, or as one of seven days, indifferently. But its just description would be that of a cycle of eight days; as that of the Hebdomadal is that of a cycle of seven days. The Nundinal day could not be excluded from its proper cycle, any more than the sabbatic day from the Hebdomadal; and as every seventh day in order from a certain beginning was sabbatic perpetually according to the one, so every eighth day in order from a certain beginning also was Nundinal perpetually according to the other *. * The term of seven days is of frequent occurrence in Cato De Re Rustica; as prescribed for various purposes: Amurca impleto dies vii1— Hæc dies vii facito 2-Hoc per dies vii dato 3. There was none which could have been more familiar, where the Nundinal cycle was in use; as among the rustic population. Pliny observes 4, Somnos fieri lepore sumto in cibis Cato arbitratur. vulgus et gratiam corpori (fieri) in viiii dies (aliter vii) frivolo quidem joco (lepore quasi lepore, Leporem fieri e lepore sumto) cui tamen aliqua debeat subesse caussa in tanta persuasione. These nine days were no doubt the term of one Nundinal cycle. The sumtuary laws of the Romans allowed some indulgence more than usual, on the Nundinal days. Sed legis Liciniæ summa, observes Macrobius 3, ut Kalendis Nonis Nundinis Romanis cuique in dies singulos triginta dumtaxat asses edundi caussa consumere liceret. Athenæus refers to one of these, the Lex Fannia, as follows 7: 'Ekéλeve d' ó vóμos тpiwv μèv „deiονας τῶν ἔξω τῆς οἰκίας μὴ ὑποδέχεσθαι· κατὰ ἀγορὰν δὲ τῶν πέντε. τοῦτο δὲ τρὶς τοῦ μηνὸς ἐγένετο. The αγορά here means the Nundinal day. There might be four Nundina in any Roman month, if the first day was Nundinal. But Athenæus in this instance must have reckoned four Nundinæ 32 days; a greater number than could be contained in any Roman month. Consequently he must have reckoned one cycle at 8 days. = The Novemdiales epulæ of the Romans too were no doubt founded originally on the Nundinal cycle; since they consisted of a term of nine days, beginning on the first and ending on the ninth. Donatus in Phormionem observes; In nuptiis septimus dies instaurationem voti habet, ut in funere nonus; quo parentalia concluduntur. Dio commonly calls this day the évvárn; and the Greeks had their évvárŋ at funerals too: though he means it in these cases of the Novemdial supper of the Romans, tò 1 Cap. Ixix. p. 72. l. 1. 2 xc. 81. 2. 3 clvii. § 13. P. 120. 4 H. N. xxviii. 79. 5 Saturnalia, ii. 13.372. 6 Cf. vol. i. p. 58 note. 7 vi. 108. 8 Cf. xl. 49. B. C. 52. De Clodio. Cf. also Lydus, De Mens., iv. 21. p. 63. |