Plutarch's Romane Questions · Plutarch
XII. CONCLUSION.
After writing a hundred pages as though one knew something, it is a relief to confess one's ignorance. So I shall do myself the pleasure of concluding with a list of Romane Questions which are too hard for me. Why _they kept the temple of the goddesse Horta open alwaies_ I own to me is a mystery yet. I cannot even conjecture _what is the reason that Quintus Metellus forbad to observe auspices after the moneth Sextilis_, nor why _they thought Aruspices ought to have their lanterns and lampes alwaies open_, nor why _obsserve they the vultures most of any other fowles in taking of presages_. White, as a mourning colour, which is prescribed in _R. Q._ 26, may be paralleled in the customs of Gambreion, in Asia Minor, and in Argos, but the explanation is beyond me. The origin of the proverb _Sardi venales_, and of the interesting custom associated with it (_R. Q._ 53), can scarcely be said to be explained either by Festus (p. 322) or by Cicero (VII. _Fam._, 24). Nor do I know why boys were named on the ninth, whereas girls were named on the eighth day of birth. And _why_ did the Romans of old time invariably, when they went out to supper, take with them _their young sonnes_, _even when they were but in their very infancie and childhood_? _A Treatise fit for them who are conversant in the reading_ of Romane histories and antiquities, giving a light _to many places otherwise obscure and hard_ to be understood.
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