s very properly suggests 'columbis,' 'doves;'
for 'colubris,' 'snakes.' We are told by Pliny the Elder, that
Campania was famed for its doves.]

[Footnote 77: _Minturnae._--Ver. 716. This was a town of Latium;
the marshes in its neighbourhood produced pestilential
exhalations.]

[Footnote 78: _She for whom._--Ver. 716. This was Caieta, who,
being buried there by her foster-child AEneas, gave her name to the
spot.]

[Footnote 79: _Abode of Antiphates._--Ver. 717. Formiae.]

[Footnote 80: _Trachas._--Ver. 717. This place was also called
'Anxur.' Its present name is Terracina. Livy mentions it as lying
in the marshes.]

[Footnote 81: _Antium._--Ver. 718. This was the capital of the
ancient Volscians.]

[Footnote 82: _Castrum._--Ver. 727. This was 'Castrum Inui,' or
'the tents of Pan;' an old town of the Rutulians.]

EXPLANATION.

The story here narrated by Ovid is derived from the Roman history,
to which we will shortly refer for an explanation.

Under the consulate of Quintus Fabius Gurges, and Decimus Junius
Brutus Scaeva, Rome was ravaged by a frightful pestilence. The
resources of physic having been exhausted, the Sibylline books were
consulted to ascertain by what expedient the calamity might be put
an end to, and they found that the plague would not cease till they
had brought AEsculapius from Epidaurus to Rome. Being then engaged in
war, they postponed their application to the Epidaurians for a year,
at the end of which time they despatched an embassy to Epidaurus;
on which a serpent was delivered to them, which the priests of the
Deity assured them was the God himself. Taking it on board their
ship, the delegates set sail. When near Antium, they were obliged to
put in there by stress of weather, and the serpent, escaping from
the ship, remained three days on shore; after which it came on board
of its own accord, and they continued their voyage. On arriving at
the Island of the Tiber the serpent escaped, and concealed itself
amid the reeds; and as they, in their credulity, fancied that the
God had chosen the place for his habitation, they built a temple
there in his honour. From this period, which was about the year of
Rome 462, the worship of AEsculapius was introduced in the city, and
to him recourse was had in cases of disease, and especially in times
of pestilence.

FABLE VIII. [XV.745-