Note 79 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

An inscription in the public museum at Naples mentions a flamen Virbialis (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, x., No. 1493). Another inscription mentions a similar priesthood at Aricia, but the inscription is forged (Orelli, Inscript. Latin. No. 1457; compare H. Dessau on Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, xiv., No. 2213). The same title flamen Virbialis has sometimes been wrongly read in an inscription of Gratianopolis, in Narbonensian Gaul (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, xii., No. 2238; Orelli, Inscript. Latin. Nos. 2212, 4022). For the worship of Virbius we have also the testimony of Servius, on Virgil, Aen. vii. 776: “Nam et Virbius inter deos colitur.”