which he was afterwards punished by Divine
Vengeance with the Loss of his own.]

[Footnote 42: The _Romans_ paid a Religious Regard to their Birth-Day,
as appears from many Passages in their Poets. At this time they used
to receive Presents from their Relations and Acquaintance. We have
here given the Sense of the Original, only varying the Customs
(_Kalendae Martii_.) _Ovid_ advises the Lover to abstain from visiting
his Mistress in the Kalends of _March_. At which time the _Matronalia_
were celebrated to _Juno Lucina_, and the Husbands used to pray to
that Goddess to protect the Chastity of their Wives. _Horace_ likewise
Lib. III. Ode 8. hints that this was not the proper Season for
Batchelors to give a Loose to their Gaieties. (_Sive erit ornatus
Circus_, &c.) A third Caution _Ovid_ gives, is not to visit on those
Days when the Wealth of the _Roman_ Conquests were exposed to the
_Circus_, in admiring which, as _Mycellus_ observes, the Girls were
too much taken up, to attend to the Desires of their Lovers. To say
the truth, some Custom seems to be alluded to here, which is not
sufficiently preserved from the Ruins of Antiquity.]

[Footnote 43: _Then the _Pleiades_ are at hand. Then the Goat is
merged in the Sea_, _viz._ in the Month of _October_ and _November_.]

[Footnote 44: The Original points at the Day in which the _Romans_
were overthrown by the _Gauls_ on the Banks of the River _Allia_. This
was the 15th of the Kalends of _August. A. U. C._ 363, and it was
marked as a black Day in their Kalendar. As this Nation is too happy
to produce any such Day, we have been obliged to give it a different
Turn in our Paraphrase.]

[Footnote 45: _Cydippe_ was a beautiful virgin of the island of
_Delos_. She was celebrating the Rites of _Diana_ when she was seen by
_Acontius_, who falling in love with her, and not daring openly to
declare his Passion, contrived to drop an Apple at her Feet, in which
were inclosed these two Lines:

_I swear to you by the mystical Rites of _Diana_,
That I will attend you as a Companion, and become your Bride._

_Cydippe_ took up the Apple and read the Lines; by repeating which
words they became her own; and she was ignorantly betrothed to her
Lover: For it was a Law, that whatever any persons said in _Diana_'s
Temple, they were obliged to perform.]

[Footnote 46: _Ariadne_ was the Daughter of _Minos_ King of _Crete_.
She fell in Love with _Theseus_, and with a Clew of Thread hel