. Discovery. Science. 212 DISCOVERY The New Evidence In 1915 Mr. G. E. K. Braunholtz, in the course of a long study of the inscriptions of North Italy, and especiall}' of the names of places and persons, pointed out that at a place called Calvisano there was an inscription (whose lettering suggests that it was cut in, or soon after, the Augustan period) set up by a member of the Vergilian family ; and that at another village, only seven miles off, there was another inscrip- tion set up by one Publius Magius, that is, by a member of the family of Vergil's mother, or at all events of a family wi
. Discovery. Science. 212 DISCOVERY The New Evidence In 1915 Mr. G. E. K. Braunholtz, in the course of a long study of the inscriptions of North Italy, and especiall}' of the names of places and persons, pointed out that at a place called Calvisano there was an inscription (whose lettering suggests that it was cut in, or soon after, the Augustan period) set up by a member of the Vergilian family ; and that at another village, only seven miles off, there was another inscrip- tion set up by one Publius Magius, that is, by a member of the family of Vergil's mother, or at all events of a family with the same name. The lettering of this since he was never married ; she might have been a sister, though his biographers, in their meagre records, mention no such relative ; there is nothing, at all events, to prevent our supposing that she was a niece or cousin who lived near enough to the temple of the MatroncB (mother-goddesses) at Calvisano for that to be the most natural place in which she could offer a vow for the health of another ladv (probably her daughter) as the inscription tells us slie did.' Calvisano and Carpenedolo The question now before us is clearly this : Does the scenery of Calvisano suit Vergil's description of. Fig. 4.—roadside stream, south of c.^rpexedolo. inscription also belongs to precisely the same period (say from 50 to 100). He further pointed out that Calvisano, where the first inscription (on an altar dedicated by a lady called Vergilia) was found, was exactly at the distance from Mantua, namely thirty Roman miles, which, as we know from Probus, Vergil's birthplace, Andes, was. Now these coincidences (of names, time, and place) seem too remarkable to be due to accident : and they certainly indicate the neighbourhood of Calvisano, which lies on the road from Mantua to Brescia, as a neighbourhood in which it is at least possible that members of Vergil's family once lived. Of course the Vergilia mentioned in the inscription could not be
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