Note 42 — BOOK I

The Romans paid a Religious Regard to their Birth-Day, as appears from many Passages in their Poets. At this time they used to receive Presents from their Relations and Acquaintance. We have here given the Sense of the Original, only varying the Customs (Kalendae Martii.) Ovid advises the Lover to abstain from visiting his Mistress in the Kalends of March. At which time the Matronalia were celebrated to Juno Lucina, and the Husbands used to pray to that Goddess to protect the Chastity of their Wives. Horace likewise Lib. III. Ode 8. hints that this was not the proper Season for Batchelors to give a Loose to their Gaieties. (Sive erit ornatus Circus, &c.) A third Caution Ovid gives, is not to visit on those Days when the Wealth of the Roman Conquests were exposed to the Circus, in admiring which, as Mycellus observes, the Girls were too much taken up, to attend to the Desires of their Lovers. To say the truth, some Custom seems to be alluded to here, which is not sufficiently preserved from the Ruins of Antiquity.