Link to an image of this page [A6v p12]
Non vulganda consilia.
Keep counsels secret.
Limine quod caeco obscura & caligine monstrum[1]
Gnosiacis clausit Daedalus in latebris:
Depictum Romana phalanx in praelia gestat,
Semiviroque nitent signa superba[2] bove,
Nosque monent, debere ducum secreta[3] latere
Consilia, auctori cognita techna nocet.
The monster that Daedalus imprisoned in its Cretan lair, with hidden entrance and obscuring darkness, the Roman phalanx carries painted into battle; the proud standards flash with the half-man bull. These remind us that the secret plans of leaders must stay hid. A ruse once known brings harm to its author.
1. ‘The monster that Daedalus imprisoned’, i.e. the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull monster kept in the famous Labyrinth at Knossos, which Daedalus, the Athenian master-craftsman, constructed for King Minos.
2. According to Pliny, Natural History 10.5.16, before the second consulship of Marius (104 BC) Roman standards bore variously eagles, wolves, minotaurs, horses and boars. Marius made the eagle universal.
3. Cf. Festus, De verborum significatu (135 Lindsay): the Minotaur appears among the military standards, because the plans of leaders should be no less concealed than was the Minotaur’s lair, the Labyrinth.
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- chest, bust (+ nude human being) [31A222(+89)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- arm held downwards (+ indicating, pointing at) [31A2515(+931)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- index finger forwards, pointing, indicating [31A25552] Search | Browse Iconclass
- monsters ~ domestic animals [31A4521] Search | Browse Iconclass
- beard [31A534] Search | Browse Iconclass
- banner, standard (as symbol of the state, etc.) (+ nation; national) [44A31(+2)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (military) flags and standards [45D1] Search | Browse Iconclass
- walking (horse in motion) (+ variant) [46C13181(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- inscription [49L8] Search | Browse Iconclass
- names of cities and villages (with NAME) [61E(ROME)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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- governmental and representative bodies [44B20:53B2(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Secret [52DD11] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Taciturnity; 'Secretezza', 'Secretezza overo Taciturnitৠ(Ripa) (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52DD3(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- Counsel; 'Consiglio' (Ripa) [52E3] Search | Browse Iconclass
- geographical names of countries, regions, mountains, rivers, etc. (names of cities and villages excepted) (with NAME) [61D(CRETE)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) Daedalus [95A(DAEDALUS)] Search | Browse Iconclass
- (story of) the Minotaur (+ variant) [95A(MINOTAUR)7(+0)] Search | Browse Iconclass
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