Gents Mag 1759 p.408
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Gentleman's Magazine 1759 p.408
in the year 1574 (sic), a stone was dug up in an island of that river, inscribed Semoni Sanco Deo Fideo, &c. from whence it is evident, in the opinion of most, that those fathers misread and misinterpreted this stone, it being the individual stone and inscription which they had beheld. See Hevercamp ad Tertull. Apolog. c. xiii. the annotators on Ovid's Fasti, Lib. vi. 213. seq. in Burman's edition, and Dr Thirlby, in his edition of Justin Martyr. I do not remember, at present, to have found any mention of the Trebian family at Rome, but Atta is a legitimate Roman name, as appears from these lines of Horace. Recta nec ne crocum floresque perambulet Attae Fabula, si dubitem, clament periisse pudorem Cuncti pene patres. Hor. 2. Epist i. 79.This was Titus Quinctius Atta, a comic poet. The word Atta, which was a cognomen also in the Sempronian family, (7) and, as appears from this inscription, in the Trebian, signifies, according to Pompeius Festus, in voce, a lame person. Amongst the authors that mention the god Sangus, are Paulus and Festus, in the word Sanqualis avis, which they interpret Ossifraga, or the osprey, testifying that this bird was under the protection of Sangus. On one side of the altar in question there is the figure of a bird, which doubtless was intended for the Sanqualis Avis. Mr Rauthmell fluctuates stragely about it: first, he does not know what to make of it; then he says, (8) it appears to him to be the portraiture of an owl; and afterwards, that it certainly has, in his opinion, the resemblance of an owl. An owl it is, unquestionably, in his type, and the owl, and not the osprey, was the Sanqualis, or Sanqualiss Avis, in the opinion of the mason that cut this stone; for it must be remembered, that authors are not well agreed as to the Sanqualis Avis. See Pliny, lib. x. c. 7. However, that our mason, who intended to exhibit the Sanqualis Avis, was mistaken in giving us the owl for it, I make no manner of doubt. Yours, &c. P. GEMSEGE, |
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