NOTES TO BOOK V.

AENEAS, driven by foul winds to Sicily, holds games at the tomb of Anchises on the anniversary of his death—viz. a boat-race (ll. 104-285), a foot-race (11. 286-361), a boxing-match (11. 362–484), an archery contest (II. 485-544), and the ludus Troianus of cavalry manœuvres (II. 545-603). After an attempt of the Trojan matrons, at Juno's instigation, to burn his fleet, and so detain him from Italy, has been foiled by a miraculous shower (11. 604–699), Aeneas sets sail for Italy; Venus obtaining for him a calm passage from Neptune. On the way Palinurus is drowned; an incident which gives interest to the otherwise uneventful voyage from Sicily to Italy, by connecting it with an Italian tradition about the promontory of Palinurus.

The scene of this episode in the story of the Aeneid was suggested by a variety of the Trojan legend which made Anchises die in Sicily, and placed a Trojan colony in the island. The idea of the funeral games and much of their detail is from the games in Iliad xxiii, given by Achilles in honour of his dead friend Patroclus. The burning of the ships formed part of the Trojan legend; its scene being variously laid in Greece or Italy, or at some point on the voyage of Aeneas.

There are some reasons for supposing that this book did not form part of the original design, but was added as an after-thought. The expression Libyco cursu in vi. 338 suggests that Palinurus was lost on the voyage from Carthage to Italy, and that there was no halt at Sicily. In vi. 354 foll. Palinurus speaks of a great storm, but at the end of book v the weather is described as calm and serene. Lastly, vi. 116 is hardly consistent with v. 731 foll., the request to visit Hades appearing in the former case to have been made by Anchises while alive, while in the latter case it was made by a vision after his death.

1, 2. medium iter tenebat, 'was well on his way.' certus, 'with fixed purpose,' 'steadily.' atros Aquilone, 'darkened by the northern breeze.' A northern wind would be unfavourable for a voyage from Carthage to Italy, and the fleet of Aeneas would have to beat up against it.

4. flammis, i. e. the flames of the funeral pyre, on which Dido had killed herself, and which would naturally be used for burning her body.

5-7. latet, from the Trojans, whose departure had driven Dido to her end. duri, etc., but the thought of the bitter pains from great love

wronged, and the knowledge of what a frantic woman can dare, incline each Trojan heart to sad forebodings.' For this use of notum (pass. part. expressing an abstract notion) cp. Liv. vii. 8 diu non perlitatum tenuit dictatorem; ib. i. 53 ni degeneratum in aliis huic quoque decori offecisset; and in Greek Tò тiμwμevov tŷs móλews Thuc. ii. 63. For the thought cp. Fletcher, 'Pilgrim,' iii. 1 :

'What dares not woman when she is provoked,

Or what seems dangerous to love or fury?'

inhorruit unda

9-11. Nearly repeated from Aen. iii. 193-195. tenebris, 'darkness ruffled the crests of the waves,' a highly poetical expression, the darkness being said to cause the roughness of the water, though both were due to the storm.

13. quianam, 'wherefore,' an old word: cp. Aen. x. 6 quianam sententia vobis Versa retro? Cp. also the Greek Tí yáp;

14. deinde is out of place, belonging properly to iubet; cp. Aen. vii. 135 sic deinde effatus... implicat.

15, 16. colligere arma=contrahere vela, 'to take in sail;' cp. Lucan iii. 44 legere rudentes Et posito remis petierunt litora malo. arma, like önλa (Od. ii. 390 etc.) = the whole equipment or tackling of masts and sails; cp. Aen. vi. 353 spoliata armis navis. obliquat sinus in ventum, 'slants the canvas to the wind,' i. e. tacks; the wind being contrary.

17, 18. non si, etc., 'not if Jupiter were to promise it on his word, could I expect to reach Italy in this weather.' auctor-‘guarantee,' or 'surety;' see lexicons. hoc caelo, 'with a sky like this,' abl. of attendant circumstances: cp. Cic. Leg. 3. 16 quid hoc populo obtineri potest?

19, 20. The wind has changed and roars athwart our course, getting up from the darkening west as the air thickens into cloud.' transversa, adverbial use of neut. plur. adj.; cp. Ecl. iii. 8 transversa tuentibus; Aen. viii. 489 infanda furens. in nubem cogitur, clouds were supposed to be produced by condensed air; cp. Cic. N. P. 2. 39 concretus (aer) in nubes cogitur.

21. 'Nor have we power to struggle against them or make such effort as we should.' tantum, 'as much as necessary;' cp. Aen. ix. 806 subsistere

tantum.

24. fraterna Erycis=fratris Erycis; Eryx being also a son of Venus. 25. 'If only with clear memory I retrace the stars I observed long ago.'

26. equidem, here, as usual, in connection with 1 pers. sing., being perhaps by Romans themselves unconsciously associated with ego, though really only a strengthened form of quidem, cp. e-nim, nam; kreivos, keîvos ; -0λw, éλw. This appears from its occasional use (1) with ego, e. g. Cic. Or. ii. 6 sic ego nolim equidem; (2) with 2nd and 3rd pers., e. g. Plaut. Pers. ii. 2. 5 equidem si scis tute, Cic. Att. xiii. 26 equidem credibile

non est; (3) with other cases of 1st pers., e. g. Pers. i. 110 per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba, or 3rd pers., e. g. Ter. Eun. v. 4. 34 (955) equidem orante, ut ne id faceret, Thaide.

28, 20. velis, abl., as in tendit iter velis vii. 7. demittere, 'bring to haven;' cp. deducere, devenire, etc., where de- implies a fixed terminus ad quem.

33. gurgite, 'over the flood,' local abl.

37. in iaculis, 'with javelins;' abl. of circumstance. See on iv. 518. 38. Criniso MSS.; more commonly Crimiso. The story was that a Trojan maiden called Segesta or Egesta was sent by her father to Sicily, in order that she might not be given up to the sea-monster which Poseidon had sent to avenge Laomedon's fraud. Segesta married the river-god Crinisus, and their son was Acestes.

40. gratatur reduces, 'congratulates them on their return;' esse must be supplied, as there is no instance of gratari taking an accusative. 44. tumuli ex aggere, 'from a piled up mound.'

52-54. deprensus, ' overtaken,' 'surprised,' by the inopportune arrival of the day. suis=propriis, as Aen. vi. 142 hoc sibi pulchra suum ferri Proserpina munus Instituit.

55. ultro, 'beyond all hope.'

56. 'Not indeed, as I think, without the purpose and the will of heaven.' equidem, though in connection with reor, seems only to strengthen haud; see above 1. 26.

60. velit, 'may he deign;' so of Jupiter, i. 733.

61, 62. Troia generatus, ‘like a true son of Troy' (Con.). See on l. 37 above. bina boum capita in naves, 'two head of oxen for each ship.' adhibete, ‘invoke;' cp. Hor. Od. iv. 5. 32 alteris Te mensis adhibet deum.

64. si ... extulerit. No doubt is implied; the expression being originally connected with some superstitious fear of speaking too confidently : cp. the Greek opt. with ava modified future. Cp. also Catull. xiv. 17 si luxerit (‘come dawn'), Hor. Epp. i. 7. 10 Quod si bruma nives Albanis illinet agris.

65. retexerit, 'has uncovered,'' made visible,' cp. iv. 119.

68. incedit, 'moves proudly.'

69. crudo, of raw hide.' fidit=audet, and is therefore constr. with an infin.

71. ore favete, 'hush! one and all' (lit. ‘favour with the lips'), a formula at sacrifices, bidding people keep silence so as to avoid ill-omened words; cp. Hor. Od. iii. 1. 2 favete linguis ( guard your lips').

72. materna, the myrtle being sacred to Venus.

73. aevi maturus, 'of ripe years,' gen, of reference; cp. Catull. xii. 9 leporum disertus, Tac. Ann. xiv. 4ɔ spernendus morum.

77. mero Baccho, ‘of unmixed wine,' abl. of description or material. 79. purpureos, 'bright;' cp. Aen. vi. 884, where the same custom is

referred to. It was also common in Greece (Aesch. Pers. 618, Soph. El. 893) and has survived to modern times.

80, 81. iterum, 'once more,' i. e. after the burial a year ago. This is better than to couple iterum with salvete, and refer it to the repetition of the cry salve. salvete... cineres, 'hail, ashes rescued in vain,' referring to Aeneas' rescue of Anchises from Troy. Con. thinks it harsh to talk of his ashes having been rescued, and proposes to make recepti gen. sing.; but the expression would then be very unnatural. For animao umbraeque of a single spirit, cp. iv. 571.

82. fatalia, 'destined.'

84. adytis, 'the recesses of the grave.' The word properly denotes the sanctuary of a temple, and is here applied to the grave because of its sacred character.

87-89. Blue streaks adorned its back, the sheen of golden spots lit up its scales; as the bow in the clouds flings out a thousand varied hues to meet the sun.' With notae some verb such as pingebant must be supplied from incendebat. nubibus prob. local abl., rather than dat. of recipient ('over the clouds').

90. agmine longo, with long trailing march.' agmen denotes a moving line or train of any kind, and is elsewhere applied by Virgil to 'the sweep of oars' Aen. v. 211, 'the flow of a river,' Aen. ii. 782. 94. instaurat, 'renews;' see on iv. 64.

95. The Genius or tutelar deity of places or persons was represented under the form of a serpent (e. g. on the walls of Pompeii and in Etruscan tombs, see Dennis' 'Etruria,' i. pp. 170, 287): as also was the famulus (daipov) or 'familiar' supposed to attend demigods and heroes, the predecessor of the black cat of mediaeval witchcraft. Cp. Val. Fl. iii. 458 placidi quas protinus angues Umbrarum famuli linguis rapuere coruscis. 99. remissos, 'released from Acheron,' the spirit being supposed to attend the sacrifices in its honour.

103. viscera, 'flesh,' a common use; cp. vi. 253 imponit taurorum viscera flammis.

104, 105. serena luce, abl. of circumstance.

107. complerant, another reading is complebant. The imperf. is possibly a slight gain in sense, but is more likely to have been substituted for plup., than vice versa. complerant carries on the suggestion of excierat, by showing that at daybreak the people had already assembled for the sight.

109. circo, 'the ring' in which the contests were held, after the boat race was finished (1. 289 foll.). We may suppose that the people assembled there.

112. talenta seems the best reading, though the MSS. are rather in favour of talentum.

113. And the trumpet from a central mound proclaims the games

begun.' A slight anachronism; the trumpet being used at Roman games, but not in Homer.

114. pares, well matched,' cp. Ecl. vii. 5 cantare pares.

117. mox Italus, i. e. soon to be the founder of an Italian house. Memmius from Mnestheus, on the analogy of meminisse from μeμvñola. Of the three Roman gentes here referred to Trojan ancestry, the Memmia (plebeian) does not appear in history till 173 B. C., after which it supplied several tribuni plebis, and among them the friend and patron of Lucretius. The Sergia (patrician) had a consul B. C. 437, and in later times the notorious Catiline; while the only Cluentius known to us is Cicero's client in B. C. 66.

119. urbis opus, 'huge as a city,' a curious expression: cp. Ov. Fast. vi. 641 (of the house of Vedias Pollio, pulled down by Augustus) Urbis opus domus una fuit; spatiumque tenebat Quo brevius muris oppida multa tenent. The phrase occurs in Stat. Silv. ii. 2. 31, applied to a portico, where however it seems to mean opus urbe dignum; and in Theb. vi. 86 a funeral pile is called montis opus (unless onus be here the correct reading). versu, a 'row' or 'bank' of oars. The mention of triremes is an anachronism, since they were not invented till about 700 B. C.

125. olim, 'at times,' as Hor. Sat. i. 1. 25 ut pueris olim dant crustula blandi Doctores.

126. condunt, i. e. with clouds.

127, 128. 'In a calm 'tis still, and rises from the unruffled deep, a level spot, where basking sea-birds love to rest.' tranquillo, abl. of circumstance. Tranquillum is often used as a subst., e. g. Ter. Eun. v. 8. 8 esse in tranquillo.

134. populea, the poplar was sacred to Hercules, and was said to have been brought by him from Hades, hence perhaps its use here, since there were funeral games: but a simpler reason for its choice is the belief that Hercules was the founder of the Olympic games.

135. umeros perfusa, for the constr. see on iv. 137 above.

136-138. They take their seats and arms are strained to oars; with straining eyes they wait the signal, while throbbing excitement drains their beating hearts and high-roused thirst for glory.'

141. adductis, 'pulled home' (to the body, in rowing). versa (from verto), upturned.'

142, 143. pariter, 'side by side.' tridentibus, 'three-pronged.' The rostrum, or beak, often consisted of three huge prongs, one above the other. See Smith's Dict. of Ant., Art, Navis.

145. corripuere, 'dash on to,' lit. 'seize' or 'devour': cp. viam vorare Catull. xxxv. 7.

146, 147. 'Not so eagerly do the charioteers shake the streaming reins over the darting teams, and stretch forward to lash them.' The comparison is here between the eagerness of the charioteers and the rowers: in