Precationes

THE PRAYER OF THE CONSUL-DESIGNATE ON THE DAY BEFORE THE CALENDS OF JANUARY, THE FASCES HAVING BEEN TAKEN UP. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! About to look upon the Latin curule chair of the consul Ausonius, have you now anything, after the Augustan majesty, that you might marvel at? That Rome, and the house of Quirinus, and the gleaming purple-bordered toga of the senate, mark this their season, with this crowning point, in the eternal annals. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! Year, begun under good auspices, grant in a wholesome spring the sunny breaths of the winds; grant dewy solstices in Cancer, and a cold Boreas in the September hours; let a subtle cold bite in the autumn frosts, and let the summer, thinned by moderate delays, give over; let the South Wind moisten the sowing, let the winter be snowy, while the Martian father of the ancient year is renewed. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! Let a new grace of flowers breathe in fragrant May; let July both ripen the crops and temper the sea with the east winds; let Sirius not augment the burning Lion with his fire; let varied Pomona diversify the fruit-tree flavours; let autumn soften what summer has ripened, and let the genial winter enjoy the dowry won for itself; let the world keep peace, nor let the troubled stars reign. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! Let no star offend your household gods, Gradivus (Mars), that is not favourable to you: not Cynthia (the Moon), not the swift Arcadian (Mercury), neighbour to the lands; nor you, Saturn, last in your outermost circuit: far removed from Pyroeis (Mars), you shall hasten your tranquil journey. Do you go near at hand, star of health-bringing Jove and Cytherean Vesper (Venus): never let the Cyllenian (Mercury), kindly to guests, be absent. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! The enemy subdued — where Francia, mingled with the Suebi, vies for obedience, that it may serve in the Latin arms; where the roving Sarmatian had joined the Huns' bands to himself; and where the Getae assailed the Hister with their Alan allies (this victory announces to me on swift wings): now Augustus comes, to adorn our honours, gracing with his office those whom he had wished to share. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! Stretch out golden joys, O Sun, to the coming Janus: to the fasces of Ausonius the Caesar shall succeed for the year, about to wear the fifth purple-bordered robe of the Romulean honour. Lo, where my purple heaps itself up (hear this, Nemesis, with gentle ears): after me the Augustan consul deigns to rise, and seems to confer on himself more than on me, who bade our fasces go before. Janus, come; new Year, come; renewed, come, O Sun! Do you grant that the tropic yield to the sun, and again that the sun give it its back, that the twofold change be varied from the tropic constellation, and the alteration hasten four times from the three signs. Drive on the summer days, and let the promised year of Caesar speed the lingering winter into nights. If I shall behold him, then thrice and four times blessed, then I shall be twice consul, then I shall touch heaven with my head.

LIKEWISE, A PRAYER ON THE CALENDS OF JANUARY. Year, begun under good auspices, you behold the happy beginnings of the consul Ausonius: bring forth your glittering head, eternal Sun, and, more brilliant than usual with your kindly light, put forth the purple radiance of the eastern day. Year, father of the seasons which, in the month of two-faced Janus, you roll into wintry December with its icy end: kindly, come, and add a new Janus to the old festal one. Drive the months that are to follow through the twice six gates; pass over the solemn ways, and, varying through the seasons the twice six courses for the world with their equal signs, carry through your headlong course in eternal revolution. So, snatched along by the downward-sloping pole, that Phoebus may bear the opposite turns, a part of the days being kept, and, new, renew his light by the wintry stroke, while thrice ten times the monthly horns of the moon return: you shall wheel its risings and settings with a rolling hand, confining the lawful course of Phoebus through the signs.