cundus, propitious. Comp. v. 832: ferunt sua flamina classem. Thiel refers this, and parallel expressions in the ablative, to Z. § 472, the ablativus modi. Comp. iii. 17, iv. 103, iv. 340; also Hor. O. 3, 6, 1: Troja renascens lugubri alite; 1, 15, 5; mala avi; Cic. in Catil. 1, 13: hisce ominibus-iisdem auspiciis.- -401. Conduntur; for se condunt. Comp. 24.—Alvo. See on 51.402. Nihil fas (est); for non licet. Fas is what accords with the decrees of the gods. For nihil, as an emphatic non, see Gr. § 277, R. 2, (b); Z. § 677.-Quenquam. Gr. § 207, R. 31; Z. § 709, 17. Translate the passage: It is not right that any one should be confident, when the gods are opposed. Divis is in the ablat. abs., and not governed by fidere, which is used here absolutely, or without a case following. The sentiment is intended to introduce the incident which immediately follows, and which turns the tide of success against the Trojans.403. Passis crinibus. Cassandra was a prophetess, inspired with the divine frenzy; hence the dishevelled hair, as in the description of the prophetess at Cumae, vi. 48: non comtae mansere comae.- -Priameia; daughter of Priam; from the Greek form Пpiaμhios. Gr. § 283, exc. 6, (3).- 404. A templo Minervae ; she had filed to the shrine of Minerva for refuge.Adytis; from the inner sanctuary. This was the occasion of the outrage referred to in i. 41, which provoked the wrath of Minerva against Ajax Oileüs.- -407. Speciem; spectacle.Coroebus. See 341 sqq.- -Furiata mente; ablat. absol.—408. Periturus. Gr. § 274, R. 6; Z. § 639.- -409. Densis armis; ablat. of manner, as in 383. Iis, or hostibus, in the dat., is understood after incurrimus.- -410. Delubri culmine. A party of Trojans was hurling down missiles from the top of the temple of Minerva.-411. Obruimur; for the quantity of the last syllable here, see on pavor, 369.412. Armorum facie, etc.; on account of the appearance of our arms, and the mistake arising from our Grecian crests; so facies is used in v. 768.————413. Ereptae virginis; at the rescue of the virgin; a causal genitive, like jubarum, 212; Gr. § 211, R. 1. For the use of the participle see Gr. § 274, R. 5; Z. § 637.— -414. Acerrimus. Ajax was exasperated by the loss of Cassandra, whom he had seized as his peculiar captive.—415. Dolopum. See on 7.—————416. Adversi; opposed to each other.- -Quondam; as in 367.-Turbine rupto; a whirlwind having burst; not an ablative of manner.- -417. Comp. i. 85, 86. -418. Equis; limiting laetus. Comp. tegmine, i. 275. The winds are sometimes described as riding on horses; as Eurip. Phoen. 2, 18: Zépupos innevoas; Hor. O. 4, 4, 44: Eurus per Siculas equitat undas.- -419. Spu meus Nereus; the foaming Nereus. Nereus (dissyllable) was an ancient sea-god, son of Pontus, to whom the trident and the dominion of the sea are sometimes attributed, as here.- -Imo fundo. Comp. i. 84 and 125. -120. Si quos; for quoscumque.- -Per umbram. Comp. 397.--421. Insidiis; by our stratagems. See 387.-Urbe. Gr. § 254, R. 2, b. 122. Primi; the foremost; those who now came near enough to examine us more closely.--Mentita; used here passively; we may translate it, counterfeit, or assumed. Gr. § 162, 17; Z. § 632. Mentitos is also understood with clipeos. Agnoscunt; they recognize; they perceive that our arms and shields are theirs, though worn by enemies. -423. Ora sono discordia signant; they point out (to each other) our speech, differing (from theirs) in sound. Ora is put for speech, or dialect; sono refers to pronunciation, or accent, in which alone Virgil supposes the language of the Trojans to have differed from that of the Greeks. -424. Ilicet; instantly, thereupon; so in poets of the golden age. Thiel takes signare here as equivalent to declarare, indicare.-425. Penelei; scanned Pē-ně-lě-1, (Iŋvéλews;) Gr. § 86. Peneleus here is an imaginary personage.- -Dextra. Comp. i. 98. -Armipotentis. See on delubri, 410.-Ad aram; near the altar; the great altar stood at the foot of the steps in front of the Пpóvaos, not within the temple itself. -426. Unas; emphatic, as in i. 15.-427. Aequi. Gr. § 213, R. 1, (2); Z. § 438.—428. Dis aliter visum; it seemed otherwise to the gods; he deserved to live, but the gods willed it differently. The good and evil are alike subject to accident and death. Comp. below, 430.—429. Sociis; by their friends on the summit of the temple, who are ignorant of their real character. See 410.—Panthu. See 318, 320.—430. Infula ; the fillet of the priest is put by metonymy for the sacred office itself. 431. Flamma meorum (civium). Aeneas speaks as if burning Troy were a great funeral pile, in which his slain countrymen had been consumed.432. Vestro may be referred both to Troy, implied in Iliaci, and to meorum. -433. Vices Danaum; perils from, attacks made by, the Greeks.Vitavisse; the subject, me, is omitted, as not unfrequently, where the pronoun is easily suggested by the foregoing words. Comp. iii. 184, 201, 603, iv. 493, vi. 457.- -Fata fuissent contains the notion of decreeing, commanding; hence the following subjunctive with ut. Gr. § 273, 2; Z. § 620.434. Manu; by my hand; by my bold deeds. Translate the passage: if the fates had decreed that I should fall, I deserved (death) by my prowess.435. Iphitus et Pelias mecum; supply divelluntur; are separated from the rest with me. -436. Quorum; a partitive genitive, after a proper name used partitively. Comp. i. 71. A substantive sometimes supplies the place of a partitive. Ramshorn, § 105, c; Madvig, § 284, obs. 2.- -Aevo gravior; somewhat enfeebled by age; the comparative according to Gr. § 122, R. 3; Z. § 104, 1, n.- -Vulnere Ulixi; the wound of, that is, given by, Ulysses. Gr. § 211, R. 2, (a). For this form of the genitive, see on i. 30.- -437. Clamore; by the shouting; Aeneas is now attracted by the noise of battle to the palace of Priam, on the Acropolis. 438-558. On reaching the Acropolis, Aeneas finds the great body of the Greeks, led on by Pyrrhus, making a furious assault on the front of the palace of Priam. He effects an entrance by a private postern gate, and, ascending to the roof and battlements, aids the defenders in hurling down missiles, and masses of the building ma'e. rial, on the assailants. From the battlements he sees the Greeks under Pyrrhus finally burst through the principal gate, and rush into the interior of the palace. IIo sees Pyrrhus slay Polites, a son of Priam, at the feet of his father, and Priam himself after a feeble resistance, slain by Pyrrhus near the family altar. 438. Ceu, in the sense of as if, is followed by the subjunctive; Gr. § 263, 2, (1); as if the other battles were nowhere raging; i. e. as if all the fighting were concentrated here.-Bella-proelia; a poetic use of the word.440. Sic is explanatory of the foregoing words, and qualifies indomitum, ruentes, and obsessum; so furious, rushing so, and so closely beset.Martem; conflict; as in 335. For the participle after cernimus, see Gr. § 274, 3, (c); Z. § 636. The Greeks are making an attack on the front of the palace in two divisions; one party is attempting, by means of scalingladders, to reach the roofs of the buildings, (442-444;) another, headed by Pyrrhus, is storming the palace gate, under cover of their shields, which they join together above their heads, by lapping one shield over another, like the tiles or shingles of a roof; thus forming a testudo, under the shelter of which they are safe from the missiles hurled down upon them by the defenders. The Trojans are vigorously defending the palace, partly in the vestibule and court within the gate, partly on the walls and roofs.-441. Acta testudine; a testudo having been advanced. Agere is more properly said of heavy military engines, moved upon rollers; but here, as in ix. 505, of the testudo formed by shields, the soldiers who form it advancing in a compact body to the point of attack.-Limen; the gate.-442. Haerent; the ladders terminate at the upper end in hooks.- -Parietibus; the ablative; on the walls; the sides of the palace, not moenia, city walls. On the pronunciation of the word here, paryetibus, see note on abiete, 16.Sub; up to. For its position, see Gr. § 279, 10, (f).-443. Nitantur; they climb; referring to the assailants.Gradibus; on the steps (of the ladders.)Ad tela; against the missiles; i. e. of the Trojans on the walls. Join sinistris with objiciunt; they present their shields with their left hands. -telis; with such weapons as these.- -446. Ultima; the end of things; when they see that things have come to the last extremity.-447. Extrema in morte; in the last deadly struggle. Thiel quotes from Horace, Catullus, and Propertius, similar expressions, denoting the last moments, the verge of death; as, supremo fine, morte suprema, extremo rogo.449. Alii. These are Trojans in the vestibule and court of the palace, standing in dense ranks, with drawn swords, ready to maintain the entrance against the Greeks, if the door (fores) shall be forced.-451. Instaurati animi; our spirits were rekindled; referring both to himself and to his two companions. The infinitives here are poetic for the gerund with ad.-453. Limen erat, etc. This passage serves to explain how Aeneas and his comrades made their way into the palace by a back entrance, while the host of Greeks was swarming round the front walls and the principal entrance. Limen, fores, and postes, all refer to this private entrance in the rear, (relicti a tergo,) secret, or unknown to strangers. Within this back gate were corridors, affording an easy communication (pervius usus) of the various buildings or parts of the palace with each other, (inter se.)- -456. Saepius; frequently; like the comparative in 436.- -Se ferre; to go. Incomitata. In a more public place the custom of the Trojans and Greeks would have required the matron to be attended by a female servant.- -457. Soceros; Priam and Hecuba; so patres, below, 579.-Astyanaeta. Gr. § 86. Astyanax, or Scamandrius, the son of Hector and Andromache, was of about the same age as Ascanius, and in the sack of Troy was captured by the Greeks and hurled from the battlements of the city, that the prophecy might not be fulfilled which said that he should restore the kingdom.- -Evado; I make my way; by the private passage just described.- -458. Ad summi fastigia culminis; literally, to the pinnacles of the top of the roof. Comp. 302.- -459. Comp. 447.- -460. Turrim; acc. after aggressi, having assailed; see on I, 312. Suca a watch-tower in Troy, but not on Priam's palace, is several times mentioned in the Iliad; as, Il. iii. 13 sq.; xxi. 526 sq.- -In praccipite; on - the verge (of the roof.)—460, 461. Summis eductam tectis; reared from the top of the roof; i. e. from the palace roof.—463, 464. Qua summa labantes tabulata, etc.; where the highest stories afforded yielding joints. Does "the highest story" here signify that of the tower, or the summit of the palace itself? Dr. Henry understands it to be the latter, and it is difficult to conceive why the Trojans should loosen the highest story of the tower. Their object was to tear the tower from the roof of the palace, (altis sedibus, summis tectis,) and Virgil probably means that the joinings at that point were separated. The summa tabulata, or highest flooring of the palace, was the base of the tower, and if the tower was of wood, it could be easily thrown down in one mass, when loosened and separated from the summit of the palace.—464, 465. Altis sedibus; from its lofty foundations; from the terrace, or top of the palace walls.- -466. Agmina. See on super, i. 680.-468. Interea refers to the time occupied in tearing up the tower, and in the replacing of the Greeks destroyed by its fall.—469. Vestibulum; the entrance of the palace.- -Pyrrhus. See on Neoptolemus, 263.- -470. Exsultat; springs to and fro; the word is substituted for pugnat, to indicate the swift movements of the warrior, as he strove to beat down the palace gate.- -Luce ahena; with the gleaming of brass; lit. with bronze light. The shield, helmet, corselet, and greaves were of burnished metal.- -471. Qualis ubi; such as the snake when, etc. Comp. iv. 143, I, 592; talis, qualis est coluber, ubi, etc.— -In' lucem; throws his sleek coils into the light of day; sub terra is contrasted with in lucem.- -Tamidum; he is supposed to be swollen by eating venomous herbs.- -473. Positis exuviis; his old covering being laid aside. Ponere is often used for deponere. -475. Arduus ad solem; rising erect towards the sun; contrasted with frigida bruma. The description of the snake is copied from G. iii. 426, 437, 439.476. Ingens. Comp. i. 99.- -Periphas. The name, but not the person, is borrowed from the Iliad, v. 843.-477. Automedon, (Gr. § 299, 2, ex. 2;) often mentioned in the Iliad as the charioteer of Achilles. After the death of his commander, he followed the fortunes of Neoptolemus, or Pyrrhus.- -Seyria pubes; the Scyrian band; followers of Pyrrhus, from the island of Scyros, (now Skyro,) one of the Cyclades, which was ruled over by Lycomedes, the grandfather of Pyrrhus.478. Succedunt tecto; advance to the palace. They hurl firebrands up to the battlements to prevent the Trojans from casting down missiles on Pyrrhus and the other assailants.- -479. Ipse; Pyrrhus. Prove the quantity of the final a in correpta and dura.- -480. Limina; for the whole door.Perrumpit, vellit; he strives to break through and tear away. The present nere denotes the continuance of the act, or the attempt to break, and wrench, not the completion of the act.- -Postes; for fores. The door or gate. By postes is meant strictly the upright timbers which formed the axes of the double doors.Cardine means here the holes in the lintel and threshold, in which the pivots at the top and bottom of the door turned.-481. |