[71] This is the view of A. Schwegler (Römische Geschichte, i. 548 note), O. Gilbert (Geschichte und Topographie der Stadt Rom im Altertum, i. 111), and G. Wissowa (in W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon der griech. und röm. Mythologie, s.v. “Egeria”).
[72] O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 151. “The old bath” is mentioned in an inscription found on the spot (Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, xiv., No. 4190).
[73] Notizie degli Scavi, 1885, pp. 159 sq., 192, 254; id. 1888, p. 193; Bulletino dell’ Inst. di Corrisp. Archeologica, 1885, pp. 153, 154 sq.; O. Rossbach, op. cit. p. 160; Archaeologia: or Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Antiquity, l. (1887), Pt. I. pp. 61 sq., 64; G. H. Wallis, Illustrated Catalogue, pp. 2, 4, 22. Amongst these models may be specially noted the torso of a woman clad in a long robe, with her breast cut open so as to expose the bowels. It may be the offering of a woman who suffered from some internal malady.
[74] For an example of the custom in modern times see J. J. Blunt, Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily (London, 1823), p. 135. The custom is still widespread among the Catholic population of Southern Germany. See R. Andree, Votive und Weihegaben des Katholischen Volks in Süddeutschland (Brunswick, 1904), pp. 94 sqq., 112 sqq., 123 sqq.
[75] R. Lanciani, in Athenaeum, October 10, 1885, p. 477.
[76] Xenophon, Cyneget. i. 2 and 11; Euripides, Hippolytus, 10–19. 1092 sq.
[77] Euripides, Hippolytus, 20 sqq.; Apollodorus, Epitoma, i. 18 sq., ed. R. Wagner; Hyginus, Fabulae, 47; Ovid, Metam. xv. 497 sqq.
[78] Virgil, Aen. vii. 761 sqq., with the commentary of Servius; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 263 sqq., vi. 735 sqq.; id., Metam. xv. 497 sqq.; Scholiast on Persius, Sat. vi. 56, p. 347 sq., ed. O. Jahn; Lactantius, Divin. Inst. i. 17; Pausanias, ii. 27. 4; Apollodorus, iii. 10. 3; Scholiast on Pindar, Pyth. iii. 96. It was perhaps in his character of a serpent that Aesculapius was said to have brought the dead Hippolytus to life. See my note on Pausanias, ii. 10. 3.
[79] 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.”
[80] Virgil, Aen. vii. 779 sq.; Ovid, Fasti, iii. 265 sq.