Note 8 — Chapter I · THE KING OF THE WOOD

Juvenal, Sat. iv. 117 sq.; Persius, Sat. vi. 56, with the scholiast’s note; Martial, Epigr. ii. 19. 3, xii. 32. 10. Persius calls this part of the road the slope of Virbius. Juvenal and Martial call it the Arician slope. But the former was probably the correct name, for at Rome also there was a “slope of Virbius” on the Esquiline, near a sanctuary of Diana (Livy, i. 48. 6). The double coincidence with Aricia is probably significant, as has been acutely pointed out by Mr. A. B. Cook (Classical Review, xvi. (1902) p. 380, n. 3). We shall return to this later on. As to Virbius, we shall hear more of him presently.