A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

AQUILA,

an Eagle, the King of Birds: He is call'd The Bird of Jupiter, because he flies highest of all Birds, and aims, say the Poets, to hatch his young ones in his Bosom. After this the Fable adds, That there was formerly a King of the Isle of Cos, call'd Merops, whom Juno chang'd into an Eagle, when he was just ready to put him∣self to death for the Loss of his Wife. But Aglo∣osthenes relates, That Jupiter being carried away from Candia, was transported to Naxus, where, as as he was preparing to make War against the Titans, he saw an Eagle with his Thunderbolt, which he took for a good Omen, and ever after that this Bird was taken into his Protection. Some Authors tell us, That Mercury being smitten with the Love of Ve∣nus, and not being able to obtain any Favour from her; One day as the Goddess was bathing her self in the River Achelous, Jupiter caus'd an Eagle to take away one of her Sandals, which he carried to Mercury, and she to get it again satisfied the Pas∣sion of her Lover. Nevertheless Ovid and Lucian inform us, That it was Jupiter who transformed himself into an Eagle to carry of the Beautiful Gany∣mede from Mount Ida.

It was a Bird of good Omen, when it came flying on the right-side with expanded Wings.

Thus Aristander the Soothsayer foretold, That Alexander should be victorious, because he had seen an Eagle flying from his Enemies Camp into his own. Thus when Lucumon, call'd Tarquinius, came to settle at Rome, with all his Family, an Eagle presag'd to him that he should be King; for as he came near the Janicula, an Eagle came on a sudden and lit upon his Head, and having ta∣ken off his Cap, it play'd for some time with it in the Air, and then put it on his Head again; Tanaquilla his Wife, who was afterwards call'd Caia Caecilia, being a Tuscan by Nation, and ve∣ry well vers'd in Augury, interpreted this Pro∣digy in favour of her Husband, and assur'd him that he should be King; which was justi∣fied by the Event. In the Roman Armies the Eagle was the Ensign that was carried in the first Company of the Legion; it was of Silver, and was born upon the top of a Pike, with ex∣panded Wings, and sometimes it held in its Talons the Thunderboltof Jupiter, as being just ready to dart it, It was of Silver rather than Gold, says Pliny, because Silver is seen at a greater distance.

The first who carried the Eagle in their En∣signs were the Persians, according to the Testi∣mony of Xenophon. The Romans having for∣merly carried divers other Ensigns, at last fix'd upon the Eagle, in the second year of the Con∣sulship of Marius, which they made the Ensign for the Colonel's Company in each Legion, and was carried on the top of a Pike. Some say, That Constantine was the first who appointed an Eagle with two Heads, to signifie, that tho the Empire seem'd to be divided, yet it was but one Bo∣dy. But this opinion is confuted by an Eagle with two Heads, which Lipsius observ'd in the the Pillar of Trajan, and from the Custom of later times, wherein the Eagle had but one Head, as in the Seal of the Bulla Aurea, which was made in the time of Charles IV. Emperour. The Conjecture of Father Menestrier is more probable, who says, That as the Eastern Emperors, when two of them sat upon the Throne, stamp'd their Money with a Cross having a double Bar, which each of them held with one hand, as being the Sceptre of Christians; so the Romans did the Eagle in their Heraldry, and instead of doubling their Escutcheons and Eagles, they join'd them together, and represen∣ted one Eagle with two Heads, which Custom was fol∣low'd by the Emperors of the West for some time after.

The Consuls carried a Battoon of Ivory as a sign of their Dignity, on the top of which there was an Eagle, as we learn from Martial,

Da nunc & volucrem sceptro quae surgit eburno.