605, 606. spargite, 'fling me piecemeal.' pereō hominum; Virgil has only three other examples of hiatus in the second foot, viz. G. i. 4, iv. 343, 463. The licence occurs much more frequently in the third or fourth foot, at the important caesura, but is here justified by the pause in the rhythm. See Introduction on the Virgilian Hexameter, § 7.

607. genibusque volutans, 'rolling in the dust at my knees' (local abl.).

609. quae deinde, etc., 'next to reveal.' Deinde is out of place, as often: cp. i. 195 vina bonus quae deinde cadis onerarat Acestes.

614, 615. genitore Adamasto paupere, abl. abs. fortuna, sc. pauperis, 'would that his lot had continued mine!'

618. sanie, descriptive abl., rare unless with an adjective in agreement, but perhaps here justified by combination with dapibusque cruentis—'a house of blood and gory feasts.'.

621. 'Whom no eye could look on, no tongue address.' visu, dictu, abls. of respect, 'not easy in the beholding, etc.'

625. aspersa, so most MSS.; expersa is supported by Servius. But the only other certain example of exspergo is Lucr. v. 372 exspergi quo possint moenia mundi (= 'scattered abroad'). In spite, therefore, of the argument that the less usual word is more likely to have been altered, it seems better to follow the MSS.

632. immensus, 'in all his bulk.'

634-636. sortiti, 'having drawn lots for our several parts.' Homer (Od. ix. 331 sqq.) makes them draw lots for four to go with Ulysses. terebramus, cp. the description of this process in Od. ix. 382 sqq. latebat, 'lay sunken.'

037. The Argive shield was large and round, covering the whole body: the Cyclops' eye is compared to a huge round shield or glaring sun.

=

643. vulgo passim, cp. vi. 283 quam sedem somnia vulgo Vana tenere ferunt.

646, 647. cum traho, 'the while I drag (i. e. since I have been dragging) on my life.' ab rupe, with prospicio. This seems better than (with Con.) to join ab rupe with Cyclopas, = 'huge Cyclops on the cliff.'

652. fuisset, virtual oratio obliqua after addixi me, the plup. subj. standing for the fut, perf. of the oratio recta; 'with this, whatsoever it might prove, I cast in my lot.' Cp. for the construction ii. 94 et me, fors si qua tulisset, promisi ultorem.

Trunca manu,

658, 659. ingens with monstrum not lumen. 'lopped by his hand.' Quintilian viii. 4 cites another reading manum; but the staff could hardly be said to guide the hand.

663. inde, i. c. de fluctibus.

666-668, celerare, historic infin. sic merito, 'so deserving.' vertimus, the reading of most MSS., is generally abandoned by the editors for verrimus, which is a common poetical metaphor in connection with rowing;

M

whereas vertere is rather used of ploughing. But 'ploughing' the sea is a very natural metaphor, used apparently by Virgil in v. 141 (freta versa), x. 208 (marmore verso); as also by Val. Flaccus with the frequentative form versare. It seems better, therefore, to follow the MSS. and translate, 'and bending forward (proni) plough the deep with labouring oars,'

669. voois, 'the plashing' (of oars), cp. 1. 556 above.

670, 671. affectare, i. e. affectandi (roû åvrıλaßéolai). potis, sc. est = potest (Polyphemus). aequare, 'match,' i. e. in swiftness. He cannot move as fast as the waves carry the ship.

081. The oaks are the 'forest of Jove,' the cypresses 'the grove of Diana,' who was regarded as an infernal goddess by the Romans.

682, 083. quooumque rudentes excutere, 'to uncoil our sheets for any course we may.' See on 1. 267.

684-686. On the other hand the commands of Helenus bid them not to hold on their way between Scylla and Charybdis, either course being within an ace of death. They resolve to sail back again.' Even in the midst of their terror the Trojans remember Helenus' warning about Scylla and Charybdis and so put back instead of running through the straits of Pelorum. utramque viam is in apposition to cursus, and seems to denote the two passages through the straits, the one nearer to Scylla, the other to Charybdis. discrimine parvo is descriptive abl. ni = ne; the form is found in Lucret. ii. 734 nive alium, iii. 286 ni calor ac ventus . . . interemant, Catull. lxi. 152 cave ni neges; and occurs frequently in inscriptions. The passage is a difficult one, and the sudden change to the 3rd person in teneant is awkward, but on the whole the above rendering seems to be the best. Other suggestions are (1) regarding ni = nisi to render, 'warn us that either course between Scylla and Charybdis (i. e. keeping to the right or the left) is within a hair's breadth of death, if men do not hold straight on.' The general sense of the passage then remains the same. (2) To adopt Madvig's conjecture contra ac iussa, remove the colon after cursus, and translate, 'contrary to Helenus' warning, not to steer between Scylla and Charybdis . . . we resolve to sail back (towards Pelorum).' The sense then is that in spite of Helenus' warnings they resolve to sail through Pelorum, but are prevented by a north wind. Although they had not actually come from Pelorum, they had come in that direction, and so might be said to sail back to Pelorum.

...

687, 688. angusta, i. e. on the strait. Pelorum was the headland at the straits of Messina. vivo saxo, 'formed of natural rock.'

689. The river Pantagias (Пavтaxías Thuc. vi. 4) is identified with the Porcari, which flows through a deep ravine between calcareous rocks at its mouth, affording a small but secure harbour for small vessels.

690, 691. Such spots as these did Achaemenides the comrade of Ulysses' woes point out, recoasting the shores he had before wandered by.' For the pleonasm relegens retrorsus cp. G. i. 200 retro sublapsa referri. Both words are ẵmat λeyóμeva in Virgil, for which reason, and the ap

parent sympathy with Ulysses here ascribed to Aeneas, some reject the passage.

692-696. Sicanio sinu, afterwards the Great Harbour of Syracuse. Ortygia crossed nearly half its entrance, leaving 1200 yards of water between itself and Plemyrium (Пλŋμμúpiov Thuc. vii. 4) on the south side. undosum is virtually a translation of the Greek name (from #λŋμμvpís): cp. 1. 698 stagnantis Helori, 1. 703 arduus Acragas; and see on 1. 402 above. ore, local abl. Alpheum, the story is that Alpheus, the river of Elis, loved the nymph Arethusa, and that as he was pursuing her, she was changed into a stream by Diana, and flowed beneath land and sea to Ortygia, where the fountain called by her name gushes out. Alpheus pursued, and his waters were mingled with hers.

698. exsupero, 'pass by;' so superas Ecl. viii. 6.

700, 701. Camerina, MSS.; Camarina most editions, to correspond to the Gk. Kaμápiva: cp. however, camera = κάμαρα, and the general tendency in Latin to weakness and decay of vowel sounds. fatis numquam concessa moveri alludes to the oracle μὴ κίνει Καμάριναν· ἀκίνητος γὰρ ἀμείνων ; the story being that the inhabitants, in defiance of the oracle, drained a marsh round their town and so made it accessible to the enemy.

702. 'And Gela called by the name of its dangerous stream.' The river Gelas, apparently safe, was full of whirlpools; Ov. Fast. iv. 470 Et te vorticibus non adeunde Gela. Others take immanis as nom. sing. with Gela, referring it to the tyrants who ruled the place, or to its size (which however was not large). Gela, the Greek reλā; see Lachmann on Lucr. vi. 971. fluvii. With stems in '-io,' the Augustan poets as a rule contract the gen. sing. of substantives, though in adjectives it is often uncontracted— e. g. egregii altique silenti Hor. Sat. ii. 6. 58. Propertius, Ovid, Lucan, and the later poets use the full form in '-ii' (though the contracted form remained common in proper names, e. g. 'Capitoli,' 'Terenti,' ' Livi,' etc.), as also do Cicero and Caesar; Lucretius has navigii v. 1006; and it seems to have been always accepted in Greek names-e.g. 'Palladii' Aen. ix. 151, 'Sunii' Ter. Eun. iii. 3. 13. The occurrence, therefore, in this passage of a form, exceptional no doubt in Virgil's time, but normal in the next generation, is no reason either for suspecting the line (Gossrau), or emending to fluvio (Porson, regarding cognomine as adjective).

703, 704. Arduus explains Acragas (the Greek name for Agrigentum) as if from axpos; cp. 1. 693 above. magnanimum (again vi. 307, G. iv. 476) and superum are examples in Virgil of the form '-um' in gen. plur. of adjective stems in '-o.' This form is common with substantives in Virgil, e. g. deum virum divom etc. It is not a contraction for '-orum ;' but an older form = Gk. -av, found in Oscan and Umbrian, and on early coins and inscriptions; gradually superseded by '-rum.' quondam, ‘of old,' i. e. before the decay of Sicily owing to the Punic wars. The expression is of course an anachronism in the mouth of Aeneas; but the

passage is full of anachronisms, as the various Greek colonies mentioned were founded long after Trojan times.

706. dura, i. e. difficilia. caecis, i. e. latentibus.

707. illaetabilis, on account of his father's loss.

708. actis, having been surmounted,' is the reading of most MSS. The other reading is actus.

710. Legends fixed Anchises' death at various places-Mount Ida, Pallene, the Thermaic Gulf, Arcadia, or in Italy after landing with Aeneas. The authority of Virgil has established it at Drepanum (Trapani), where his tomb is still shown.

712. moneret, concessive, though warning.'

·

NOTES TO BOOK IV.

THE thread of the story, interrupted by the episode of Aeneas' narrative in Books II and III, is now resumed with the tale of Dido's fatal passion, already indicated at the close of Book I. The development of her love and its result are first described (11. 1-172): Aeneas, too, is half-won by her to stay (see 11. 332, 395, 458, etc.), but is called away by the commands of Jupiter (11. 223 sqq.) and the visions of his father's shade (11. 351 sqq.) to fulfil his mission in Italy. He prepares to start, firm against the prayers and reproaches of the unhappy queen, who at last resolves on death; the steps by which she is driven to her end being worked out in the latter part of the book, 11. 416-705, in the spirit of the arη of Greek tragedy. The struggle of individual passion against the will of Heaven is the key-note throughout the same kind of struggle as is represented, for example, in the Ajax' of Sophocles; and with the same sort of result, strange to our modern notions of right and wrong, in which the mere assertion of overwhelming power over human will, independently of any moral issues, is the end of all. The delineation of individual character is subordinate to the exhibition of the conflict of great forces: and the criticisms which modern feeling passes upon such an act as the desertion of Dido are, from the point of view of Greek or Roman epic, beside the question. From that point of view it is no drawback to the heroic presentment of Aeneas, that, like Ulysses, he deserts her who has given him all that a woman can give: his only fault is in remaining when IIeaven bids him go. Nor, though Virgil in his powerful picture of Dido's grief and despair strikes a more modern note, and arouses our sympathy for the forsaken heroine, need we suppose that such was his intention, or such the effect upon Roman readers. For them and him Dido symbolised Carthage, as Aeneas symbolised Rome : and her fate, to Roman eyes, was only right, an echo of the old cry Delenda est Carthago.

No part of the Aeneid is a better sample of Virgil's poetical power; and none exhibits more clearly his originality in the treatment of epic material. The passion of Dido is suggested by that of Medea in the 'Argonautica' (Book III) of Apollonius Rhodius: but whereas Apollonius dwells on Medea before her marriage, resigning home under the influence of enchant