[574] Cic. _Brutus_, 55 "longe plurimum ingenio valuisse." [575] _De Orat._ iii. 33. 134. [576] See _Dict. of Classical Biography_, _s.v._ "Coruncanius." [577] _Nat. deor._ ii. 165. Coruncanius is mentioned as one of those whom the gods love, if indeed they take an interest in human affairs. [578] See above, p. 100 foll.; and _Roman Festivals_, p. 3. [579] Our knowledge of this _tabula_ chiefly depends on a passage in the Danielian scholiast on Virg. _Aen._ i. 373: "ita enim annales conficiebantur. Tabulam dealbatam quotannis pontifex maximus habuit, in qua praescriptis consulum nominibus et aliorum magistratum, digna memoratu notare consueverat domi militiaeque terra marique gesta per singulos dies. Cuius diligentiae annuos commentarios in octoginta libros veteres retulerunt, eosque a pontificibus maximis, a quibus fiebant, annales maximos appellarunt." The explanation of the name is no doubt wrong; but all the rest of this passage can be relied on; cp. Cic. _de Orat._ ii. 12. 52; Dion. Hal. i. 73, 74; Gell. ii. 28. 6; Cic. _Legg._ i. 2. 6. For the idea of the almanac, see Cichorius in Pauly-Wissowa, _Real-Encycl._, _s.v._ "annales maximi." [580] _Proponebat tabulam domi_, Cic. _de Orat._ ii. 12. 52. This must refer to the official residence of the Pont. Max.; see above, p. 271. [581] These attempted solutions of an insoluble problem may be found in brief in Schanz, _Gesch. der roem. Lit._ i. 37. Perhaps the boldest is that of Cantorelli, that the annales were constructed not out of the tabula but out of the commentarii; but this is in conflict with the passage in the scholiast on Virgil. To me the difficulty does not seem overwhelming; events occurring "domi militiaeque, terra marique," may have filled considerable space, and yet have been meagre in the eyes of the rhetoricians of the last century B.C. [582] Schanz, _op. cit._ p. 35. [583] The great authority of the Pont. Max. is well shown in the story of Tremellius the praetor, who in the middle of the second century B.C. was fined (by a tribune?) "quod cum M. Aemilio pontifice maximo iniuriose contenderat, sacrorumque quam magistratuum ius potentius fuit." Livy, _Epit._ 47. [584] _De aedibus sacris populi Romani_, p. 10 foll. [585] Aust, _op. cit._ p. 14 foll. See also _R.F._ p. 340 foll. [586] For Vacuna, Wissowa, _R.K._ pp. 44 and 128. She was later, but probably without good reason, identified with Victoria. The conjecture that she was a hearth deity rests on the lines of Ovid, _Fasti_, vi. 305, which I have before referred to in another context: ante focos olim scamnis considere longis mos erat et mensae credere adesse deos. nunc quoque cum fiunt antiquae sacra Vacunae, ante Vacunales stantque sedentque focos.