[21] “It appears from one of the Emperor Julian's Epistles to Libanius (Epist. Mut. Graecan.) that the offering of a ‘nitens taurus’ to Jupiter was regal: ἔθυσα τῷ Διῒ βασιλικῶς ταῦρον λευκόν: with which comp. αὐτὰρ ὁ βοῦν ἱέρευσεν ἄναξ ἀνδρῶν Ἀγαμέμνων Πίονα, πενταέτηρον, ὑπερμενέϊ Κρονίωνι (Il. 2. 402).” Henry. On the other hand, Macrobius (Sat. 3. 10) says that it was not allowed by the Roman ritual to sacrifice a bull to Jupiter, and that Virg. doubtless intended the informality to mark the inauspiciousness of the undertaking,—a conceivable but searcely likely notion.
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John Conington. P. Vergili Maronis opera. P. Vergili Maronis Opera. The works of Virgil, with a Commentary by John Conington, M.A. Late Corpus Professor of Latin in the University of Oxford. London. Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane. 1876.
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