III.
Conditorem templi regem Aeriam (Aeriam: Aerias, another Greek name, as are Cinyras and Tamiram below; for declension of Greek names cf. note for Berenice, ch. 2.) vetus memoria, quidam ipsius deae nomen id perhibent. (vetus memoria, quidam … id perhibent: both memoria and quidem are subjects of perhibent, which agrees with the nearest one.) fama recentior tradit a Cinyra (Cinyra: Cinyras, a mythical king, father of Adonis) sacratum templum deamque ipsam conceptam mari huc adpulsam; sed scientiam artemque haruspicum accitam (accitam: ‘imported’) et Cilicem (Cilicem Tamiran: from Cilicia, a Roman province in southern Turkey, NW of Syria) Tamiram intulisse, atque ita pactum ut familiae utriusque posteri caerimoniis praesiderent. (ita … ut … praesiderent: ita …ut introduce the two parts of a consecutive sentence.) mox, ne honore nullo regium genus peregrinam stirpem antecelleret, (ne honore nullo regium genus peregrinam stirpem antecelleret: ‘to prevent the royal family from not having pre-eminence in every honor over a foreign race’) ipsa quam intulerant scientia hospites cessere: tantum Cinyrades sacerdos consulitur. hostiae, ut quisque vovit, (ut quisque vovit: ut is relative adverb with the sense almosrt of ‘which’: ‘such as any worshipper has vowed’) sed mares deliguntur: certissima fides haedorum fibris. (fibris: from fibrae, f. plur., also called exta, n. plur.) sanguinem arae (arae: dative with obfundere, ‘to the altar’) obfundere vetitum: precibus et igne puro altaria adolentur, nec ullis imbribus quamquam in aperto madescunt. simulacrum deae non effigie humana, continuus orbis latiore initio tenuem in ambitum metae modo exurgens, (continuus orbis latiore initio tenuem in ambitum metae modo exurgens: ‘a continuous circle, larger at the start, rising to a narrow circumference, in the manner of a turning post [for chariot races]’) set ratio in obscuro.