'I would be the poet of philosophy.' Virgil is here thinking not only of Lucretius, but of the Greek philosopher poets, such as Empedocles, Xenophanes, and Aratus, and also of mythical bards like Orpheus and Musaeus, who revealed various mysteries in verse. 476. quarum sacra fero, 'whose priest I am:' cp. Hor. Od. iii. 1. 3 musarum sacerdos. 478. labores, 'toils' (i. e. cclipses), a poetical variety for defectus. The line is from Lucret. v. 751 solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras. 479, 480. tumescant, residant apparently refer, not to the tides, but to violent upheavals of the sea caused by earthquakes, such as Thucydides describes (iii. 89). 482. tardis, lingering,' i. e. the winter nights. 484. The reference is probably to Empedocles' theory that the blood about the heart (aua wepinάpdior) was the seat of the intellect. Hence coldness of blood there would denote slowness of intellect. Among the Romans generally the heart was associated with the intelligence; hence excors, 'foolish,' etc. 486-488. o ubi, etc., 'O where is Spercheus with its plains and Taygetus haunted by Bacchanal maidens of Laconia?' i. e. 'would that I were there.' bacchata, deponent verb in passive sense, as bacchatam Naxum Aen. iii. 125. 490-492. Evidently in reminiscence of passages in Lucretius, e. g. i. 79 Quare religio pedibus subiecta vicissim Opteritur, iii. 37 Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus, 1072 naturae primum studeat cognoscere causas. qui potuit obviously refers mainly to Lucretius himself, though the tone of the passage is general, and might apply to any Epicurean philosopher. 495. fasces, the rods with axes carried before Roman magistrates. populi, gen. subj., 'the honours which the people give.' 496. 'And feuds that rouse faithless brethren to strife.' fratres might perhaps allude to the rivalry of Phraates and Tiridates for the throne of Parthia; but more probably refers to the break up of families in civil war; cp. Lucr. iii. 72, 73 Crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris Et consanguineum mensas odere timentque; and 1. 510 below. 407. 'And Dacians swooping down from Hister, their ally.' The Dacians used to cross the frozen Danube into the Roman territory: hence the river is picturesquely said to be in league with them. They were at war with Rome B. C. 30. 498, 499. 'Not Rome herself and kingdoms tottering to their fall;' i. c. not the highest interests and most startling vicissitudes of politics can shake the serenity of rural life-a serenity to which the distinctions of poverty and wealth, and the emotions they cause, are unknown. In neque doluit... inopem Virgil attributes to his ideal countryman, not a selfish indifference, but the absence of any conditions to call out pity for others—all being so happy. 500-502. ipsa, 'of themselves.' volentia and sponte sua repeat and emphasise the notion of spontaneity- unasked, of their own free will.' tabularia, 'records' or 'archives.' Some trace a special allusion to freedom from taxation, or from public contracts: but iura... forum... tabularia merely indicate city life in general. 503-512. Various means, motives and consequences of greed and ambition incident to city life; of which Virgil's own time supplied abundant illustrations, which his readers could apply as they chose. 'Some ply their oars in unknown seas, rush eagerly to arms, and make their way into kings' courts. One plots ruin for a city and its hapless homes, that he may drink from jewelled cups and rest on Tyrian purple: another hoards his wealth, and broods over buried treasure. One listens at the Rostra in rapt amaze; another, open-mouthed, is carried away by the cheers of high and low that ring, aye again and again, along the benches. 'Tis joy to have dipped their hands in a brother's blood: they pass into exile from home and its delights, and seek another country beneath another sun.' 504. regum is by some restricted to its use in Ilor. Epp. i. 7, 37, etc. 'the great.' But in connection with the preceding words the favour of foreign kings, rather than of Roman nobles, seems implied. Virgil points to adventurers who sought their fortunes in other lands. 505. excidiis, ablative. 508. hic, the aspirant to eloquence. hunc, the aspirant to political eminence. 509. cuneos, the blocks of seats in the auditorium of a theatre, so called from their wedge-like shape. The people sat in these, the senators (patres) in the orchestra: but cunei is here used of the whole theatre. Popular statesmen, etc. were cheered on entering. enim here, as in Aen. viii. 84 tibi enim, tibi, maxima Iuno Mactat, is merely an affirmative particle, which use is prior to its ordinary causal meaning. Cp. also Plaut. Trin. V. 2. 10 Enim me nominat, Liv. xxiii. 45 enim iam nunc minor est res. 514. hinc anni labor, hence the year's employment.' parvosque nepotes, his little grandsons.' One MS. gives penates, his humble home,' which some prefer. But though there is no special reason why Virgil should speak of grandsons rather than sons, the expression is not inappropriate, and it is safer to keep to the MSS. 515. meritos, 'that have served him well.' 510. requies, i. e. anno. 'Nor is there any stint to the year's o'erflowing either with fruits, or the offspring of flocks, or sheaves of corn.' 519-522. baca, 'the olive,' for which Sicyon was famous. ponit, 'is dropping.' coquitur, 'ripens.' 523. pendent, etc., 'hang about his lips (for kisses).' osoula, here in its original sense as a diminutive of os. Cp. Gray's Elegy, 'And climb his knees the envied kiss to share.' = 527-529. agitat agit. 'Himself keeps holy day; and stretched upon the grass, while comrades wreathe the bowl around their altar fire, he pours a libation and calls on Bacchus.' ignis, a turf-built altar. cratera coronant, apparently suggested by Homer's κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο, though the meaning there is 'fill the bowls high with wine,' while Virgil means 'wreathe with flowers.' Cp. Aen. iii. 525 magnum cratera corona Induit. 530. iaculi... in ulmo, ‘appoints contests of shooting (at a mark) in an elm'a condensed expression. certamen ponere, like the Greek ἀγῶνα τιθέναι. 534. scilicet gives rhetorical emphasis to the words connected with it— 'Thus, surely, brave Etruria grew, thus Rome became the fairest thing on earth, and girt her seven hills with a single city's wall.' 536-538. Dictael, 'of Mount Dicte' in Crete, i. e. Jupiter, who was said to have been born there, and who succeeded to Saturn in empire. iuvencis, abl. with epulata. For the supposed impiety of slaying the ox, the fellow-labourer of man, cp. Cic. N. D. ii. 63 tanta putabatur utilitas percipi ex bubus, ut eorum visceribus vesci scelus haberetur. ruler of the golden age. aureus, as 541. spatiis (the circuits of a race-course) goes with immensum, 'boundless in its circuits.' The metaphor is from a chariot-race. 'But now I have finished my course over the boundless plain.' 542. MSS. vary between fumantia and spumantia; the former seems more appropriate. NOTES TO BOOK III. THE subject of this book is the care of the different animals which are required by the farmer. After a lengthy introduction (1-48), in which Virgil promises at some future time to write an epic poem in honour of Augustus, he proceeds to treat first of horses and cattle. The choice of cows and stallions for breeding purposes is discussed (49–122); directions are given for the treatment of sire and dam before breeding, and of the mothers when with young (123-156); the rearing of calves and foals is described (157-208); and an account of the effect of the sexual passion upon bulls and horses (209-241) lends the way to a long digression upon love (242-285), which concludes this portion of the poem. Sheep and goats (in Latin pecudes as opposed to armenta, or horses and cattle) are next treated of. The mode of tending them in winter and in summer respectively (286-338) suggests another digression, in which an African shepherd's summer and a Scythian shepherd's winter are described (339-383). Then follow directions about rearing flocks for wool or milk (384-403); a few remarks about dogs (404-413), and the necessity of killing serpents (414-439); a description of the diseases of sheep (440473); and finally a long account of a murrain among animals in Noricum (474 to end), which is appended in imitation of Lucretius' celebrated description of the Athenian plague in the sixth book of the 'De Rerum Natura.' 1-48. This introduction seems to have been written in the year 29 B. C., a year of general holiday and public honour to Augustus. Its tone of unmixed exultation corresponds to that of the introduction to G. i, and to Hor. Od. ii. 9, which is thus a companion passage. Professor Nettleship ('Ancient Lives of Vergil,' p. 59) suggests (from 11. 10, 11) that it may have been written in Greece, and if so, that it may have been written on the journey referred to by Horace in Od. i. 3, which cannot be harmonised chronologically with the only recorded visit of Virgil to Greece in 19 B. C. But on the other hand the allusion to Greece in 11. 10, 11 may be merely allegorical. See Introd. p. 7. 1, 2. Pales, a rustic Italian deity; see on Ecl. v. 35. pastor ab Amphryso, shepherd from Amphrysus,' i. e. Apollo, who, when banished from heaven, was said to have fed the flocks of Admetus, king of Thessaly, on the banks of the Amphrysus. Lycaei, ‘Arcadian,' from Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia, the abode of the rustic god Pan. 3, 4. All other themes that might have charmed our leisure thoughts with their spell are hackneyed now.' carmine, the MSS. vary between this and carmina: the ablative is perhaps preferable. 5. illaudati, ‘infamous,' by litotes, as illactabilis Aen. iii. 707, inamabilis vi. 428. Busiris was a king of Egypt who sacrificed strangers. 6. cui, dative of agent with passive participle-a poetical usage. Latonia, because Latona there gave birth to Apollo and Artemis. 7. umero eburno, the ivory shoulder substituted for that eaten by the gods, when Pelops was served up by his father at a banquet. 8. acer equis (abl. of respect), ‘a driver keen.' Pelops was said to have won his bride Hippodame in a chariot race at Olympia with her father Oenomaus. 9. virum volitare per ora, 'float on the lips of men,' a phrase expressive of undying fame, taken from Ennius' epitaph on himself, Nemo me lacrimis decoret, nec funera fletu Faxit. Cur? volito vivus per ora virum. It is repeated Aen. xii. 235 vivusque per ora feretur. Some translate 'before the faces of men:' but Virgil probably intended the words to have the same meaning as in Ennius. 10 sqq. In this allegory Virgil seems to promise an heroic poem under the image of a temple to the glory of Rome and of Augustus; representing himself as an intellectual victor returning in triumph from .a campaign in Greece with the captive Muses. In the plain of Mantua, beside his native Mincius, he will build his temple of song, and celebrate it with games and shows that will rival those of Greece. The deity enshrined within will be Augustus; the subjects of its decoration his recent triumphs, and the mythic ancestry of the Julian line. When Virgil's fame as a rural poet has been established (11. 40–45) he will then be able to pass to Caesar's triumphs. 10, 11. primus, Virgil will be the first to do for his country what the Greek poets did for Grecce. deducam, 'bring home in triumph.' Aonio vertice, i.c. from Helicon, the abode of the Muses, in Aonia, a part of Bocotia. 12. Idumaeas, a literary epithet, Idumaea being famous for its palmtrees. palmas, a palm-branch was carried by the victorious general at his triumph. 13. templum, it was of course a common practice to dedicate temples after a victory. 14. propter aquam, like the temple of Zeus by the Alpheus, at Olympia. ingens, 'wide;' the Mincio spreads into a lake near Mantua. 16. in medio, i. e. in the central shrine; see above on 1. 10. 17. At these imaginary games the poet with his purple robes is the presiding officer, corresponding to the practor with his striped toga 18. agitabo, will cause to be driven, by instituting the games. 19, 20. mihi, 'at my bidding,' ethic dative. Alpheum, the river in F |