7. But why
do
I
speak
of these trifles? What man is there who is ignorant
that in the Capitol of the imperial people is the sepulchre of
Tolus
4608
Vulcentanus? Who is there, I say, who does not know that from
beneath
4609
its foundations
there was rolled a man’s head, buried for no very long time
before, either by itself without the other parts
of the
body
,—for some relate this,—or with all its
members? Now, if you require this to be made clear by the
testimonies of authors, Sammonicus, Granius, Valerianus,
4610
and Fabius will
declare to you whose son Aulus
4611
was, of what race and nation,
how
4612
he was bereft
of life and light by the slave of his brother, of what crime he was
guilty against his fellow-citizens, that he was denied burial in his
father
4613
land.
You will learn also—although they pretend to be unwilling to make
this public—what was done with his head when cut off, or in what
place it was shut up, and the whole affair carefully concealed, in
order that the omen which the gods had attested might stand without
interruption,
4614
unalterable,
and sure. Now, while it was proper that this
story
should
be suppressed, and concealed, and forgotten in the lapse of time, the
composition of the name published it, and, by a testimony which could
not be got rid of, caused it to remain
in men’s minds
,
together with its causes, so long as it endured itself;
4615
and the state
which is
greatest
of all
, and worships all deities, did
not blush in giving a name to the temple, to name it from the head of
Olus
4616
Capitolium
rather than from the name of Jupiter.
4608
So the
ms.
, first four edd., and
Oberthür, reading
Toli
, corrected
Oli
in the others, from Servius (
ad. Æn.
, viii.
345). Arnobius himself gives the form
Aulus
, i.e.,
Olus
, immediately below, so that it is probably
correct.
4609
Lit., “the seats of.”
4610
Ursinus suggested
Valerius Antias
, mentioned in the first
chapter of the fifth book, a conjecture adopted by Hild.
4611
The
ms.
, LB., Hild., and Oehler
read Aulus, and, acc. to Oehler, all other edd.
Tolus
. Orelli, however, reads
Olus
, as above.
4612
The
ms.
and both Roman edd. read
germani servuli vita
without meaning, corrected as above by
Gelenius, Canterus, Elm., and Oberthür,
ut a g. servulo
,
and
ut a g. servulis
—“by the slaves,” in the
others, except Oehler who reads as above,
g. servulo ut.
4613
The
ms.
and both Roman edd. read
unintelligibly
patientiæ
, corrected
paternæ
in Hild. and Oehler,
patriæ
in the
rest.
4614
Lit., “the perpetuity of the omen sealed might stand.”
4615
Lit., “through the times given to itself.”
4616
The
ms.
reads
s-oli
,—changed into
Toli
by the first four edd.,
Elm., and Oberthür. The others omit
s
.