Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume VI/Arnobius/Adversus Gentes/Book VI/Chapter VII

by Arnobius

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^[1] Vulcentanus? Who is there, I say, who does not know that from beneath^[2] 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,^[3] and Fabius will declare to you whose son Aulus^[4] was, of what race and nation, how^[5] 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^[6] 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,^[7] 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;^[8] 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^[9] Capitolium rather than from the name of Jupiter.

Footnotes

1. 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.
2. Lit., “the seats of.”
3. Ursinus suggested Valerius Antias, mentioned in the first chapter of the fifth book, a conjecture adopted by Hild.
4. The ms., LB., Hild., and Oehler read Aulus, and, acc. to Oehler, all other edd. Tolus. Orelli, however, reads Olus, as above.
5. 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.
6. The ms. and both Roman edd. read unintelligibly patientiæ, corrected paternæ in Hild. and Oehler, patriæ in the rest.
7. Lit., “the perpetuity of the omen sealed might stand.”
8. Lit., “through the times given to itself.”
9. The ms. reads s-oli,—changed into Toli by the first four edd., Elm., and Oberthür. The others omit s.