June 17 | Fastorum Liber Sextus: Iunius
H C | XV Kal. | VI.717-724, the constellations Orion and Dolphin rise.
At pater Heliadum radios ubi tinxerit undis,
et cinget geminos stella serena polos,
tollet humo validos proles Hyriea lacertos:
continua Delphin nocte videndus erit. 720
scilicet hic olim Volscos Aequosque fugatos
viderat in campis, Algida terra, tuis;
unde suburbano clarus, Tuberte, triumpho
vectus es in niveis postmodo victor equis.
717 But when the father of the Heliades1 shall have dipped his rays in the billows, and heaven’s twin poles are girdled by the stars serene, the offspring of Hyrieus2 shall lift his mighty shoulders above the earth: on the next night the Dolphin will be visible. That constellation once indeed beheld the Volscians and the Aequians put to flight upon thy plains, O land of Algidus; whence thou, Tubertus,3 didst win a famous triumph over the neighbouring folks and didst later ride victorious in a car drawn by snow-white horses.
Helios, ἥλιος, “the Sun.”
Orion. See v. 493–536. Ovid is right for one star of Orion as to the day, but wrong in placing it at evening instead of morning.
In 431 B.C., A. Postumius Tubertus, dictator, defeated the Aequians and Volscians at Mount Algidus.