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ing that reference is made to night birds flying about by day; and this
interpretation is approved by Forbiger, who compares Ovid. Met. xv.
791, Tristia mille locis Stygius dedit omina BUBO; and Lucan. i. 558:
.dirasque DIEM FŒDASSE volucres
Accepimus.

But compare Æn. xii. 864, where, in allusion to the owl, we read:
Quæ quondam in bustis aut culminibus desertis

NOCTE sedens serum canit IMPORTUNA per umbras.

In which passage, according to Forbiger's own interpretation, importuna is to be understood de funesto et male ominato bubonis cantu.

471. Quoties, &c., "How often have we seen the surging Etna boil forth from its riven furnaces, upon the fields of the Cyclops, and roll globes of flames and molten rocks!" Wagner writes quotiens, as also totiens, which is the more ancient orthography. Effervere. See note on ver. 456. Cyclopum. Homer makes the Cyclopes to have dwelt on the western coast of Sicily. A later age, however, placed them, as the ministers of Vulcan, in the caverns of Etna, or else in the Eolian Isles.

472. Fornacibus. This term was used because Vulcan and the Cyclops were, posterior to Homer, supposed to have had their forges in Etna. It would appear that there were frequent eruptions of Mount Etna during the year in which Cæsar was assassinated. Servius thus quotes Livy: Tanta flamma ante mortem Cæsaris ex Etná monte defluxit, ut non tantum vicinæ urbes, sed etiam Rhegina civitas afflaretur.

473. Liquefacta saxa; i. e. the lava, which, when ejected from the crater, is in a liquid or melted state, but soon becomes as hard as

stone.

474. Armorum sonitum, &c. The Roman garrisons stationed in Germany, on the bank of the Rhine, were said to have heard the clashing of arms and braying of trumpets in the air, and to have fancied that they saw troops of cavalry and infantry fighting there. Comp. Ovid. Met. xv. 783.

476. Vox, scil. of the gods threatening to abandon the earth altogether.-FORB. Exaudita, scil. est.

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477. Ingens. See Quæst. Virg. xiii. Modis pallentia miris, wondrously pale," borrowed from Lucr. i. 124. The prosaic form of expression is mirum in modum; but poets are fond of the plural, as Ter. Ad. ii. i. 12, indignis modis. Comp. En. i. 354, ora modis attollens pallida miris.

478. Visa, scil. sunt, were seen." Sub obscurum noctis, for sub obscura nocte.-FORB. It rather means "at nightfall," "when the darkness of the night was coming on." Comp. En. i. 662, sub noctem cura recursat. Pecudesque locuta, scil. sunt. By pecudes are here Comp. Tibull. ii. 5, 78:

meant oxen.

Et simulacra deûm lacrimas fudisse tepentes,

Fataque vocales præmonuisse boves."

479. Infandum, å3¿ýτov, “horrible !" "unnatural!" Sistunt, scil. se; i. e. consistunt, "stand still.

480. Illacrimat templis. As in Hor. Sat. i. 4, 32, DEperdere summá isperdere DE summâ; and in Sat. ii. 2, 77, DEsurgere cœnâ=surgere

DE cœnâ; so some contend that INlacrimat templis is=lacrimat IN templis; i. e. that templis is the ablative governed by the in prefixed to the verb. Wunderlich and Forbiger more correctly consider that templis is governed by in understood. Comp. supra, ver. 134, sulcis (i. e. IN sulcis) frumenti quæreret herbam. Ebur and era denote statues made of ivory and bronze.

482. Fluviorum, to be scanned as fluvjorum. The Eridanus, otherwise called Padus, hod. the Po, is called rex fluviorum, because it is the largest of the Italian rivers, and receives so many tributaries in its course. See note on Geo. iv. 372. The name Eridanus occurs frequently in Latin poetry, but not so in prose.

484. Tristibus extis, "in the inauspicious entrails;" lit. "in the sorrowful entrails." The inauspicious and threatening appearance of the exta made the beholders sad, and therefore, by the common transfer of epithet, the exta themselves are termed sad. See note ou ver. 80. The exta were the heart, lungs, and especially the liver. By fibræ are meant, according to Servius, certain veins, which, when they appeared in the viscera, were accounted an evil omen. But Anthon observes, "The extremity of any one of the exta, more particularly of the liver, was called fibra, which is also the primitive meaning of the term. Thus Varro (Ling. Lat. v.) remarks, Antiqui “fibrum” dicebant EXTREMUM, a quo in sagis "fimbriæ," et in jecore EXTREMUM fibra," "fiber," dictum.

66

485. Et altæ...resonare...urbes, scil. non cessârunt.—WAGN. Appian says that at this time wolves were occasionally seen in the Roman forum.

487. Non alias, "never before." The occurrence of thunder and lightning, while the sky was clear and unclouded, was always regarded as a prodigy by the ancients. Comp. Hor. Od. i. 34, 5 sqq.

488. Nec diri toties arsere cometa. Virgil is thought to allude to some fiery meteors which may have appeared about this time. It can hardly be supposed that reference is made to the famous comet that was seen A.U.C. 711, after Caesar's death, and which was believed by the vulgar to represent his soul transferred to the skies. Comp. Ecl. ix. 46.

489-492. These four verses contain an allusion to the celebrated battles of Pharsalia and Philippi, which were fought in the years B.C. 48 and 42. Pharsalia is an extensive plain surrounding Pharsālus, a town of Phthiōtis, in Thessaly; and in this plain, in the first civil war, Cneius Pompey was defeated by Julius Cæsar. Philippi was a town on the froutiers of Macedonia and Thrace; and here, in the second civil war, the republican forces, under Brutus and Cassius, were overthrown with great slaughter by the army of Antony and Octavius. What Virgil intends to convey is, that the carnage and horrors of the second civil war, which were foreboded by the prodigies already mentioned, were nothing but a visible judgment of the gods upon the perpetrators and abettors of Cæsar's assassination.

489, 490. The most approved mode of construing this passage is as follows: Ergo Philippi videre Romanas acies concurrere iterum inter se paribus armis; i. e. Philippi witnessed the second engagement of the Roman armies, as Pharsalia did the first. This mode of connection was first suggested by Ruæus, and afterwards adopted by Heyne, Wagner, and Forbiger. It must be observed, however, that from the imitations of this passage by other ancient poets, it would appear that they understood it as if iterum were to be connected with videre, which is in fact

the connection pointed out by the collocation. Comp. Ovid. Met. xv. 823:

Pharsalia sentiet illum,

Emathiâque ITERUM MADEFACTI cæde PHILIPPI.

And Lucan. vii. 853 :

Ante nova venient acies, scelerique secundo
Præstabis NONDUM SICCOS hoc sanguine campos.

And Petron. de Bell. Civ. 110:

Cerno equidem GEMINA jam STRATOS MORTE Philippos.

If, then, iterum is to be connected with videre and not concurrere, we must conclude, either that Virgil, by a poetic violation of historic truth, represents the battles of Pharsalia and Philippi as having been fought in the same locality; or that, by a poetic licence, he employs the word Philippi here (as he does Emathia in ver. 492, where see note) to designate not a particular locality but the whole country of Macedon, Thrace, and Thessaly, so as to include the scenes of both battles. Some think the poet alludes to the two distinct battles fought at Philippi, the first ending with the suicide of Cassius, and the second, with that of Brutus; the interval between these two engagements having been twenty days.

489. Ergo, "therefore;" i. e. as was plainly foreshown by the prodigies previously mentioned. Inter se concurrere, "to engage with one another." Paribus armis, “with equal arms;" because Romans fought with Romans.

491. Nec fuit indignum superis nec diis iniquum visum est; i. e. diis placuit.-HEYNE. Voss and Forbiger interpret, nor did it seem to the gods an unmerited punishment;" indignum, scil. nostro scelere; i. e. unworthy of (unmerited by) our impiety.

491, 492. Bis sanguine nostro Emathiam, &c., "That Emathia and the broad plains of Hamus should twice be fertilized with our blood." Strictly speaking, EMATHIA (the ancient name of Paonia) denoted only a certain district of Macedonia, and included neither Pharsalia nor Philippi; and, on the other hand, the "broad plains of Hamus" mean THRACE, which included only Philippi. How, then, can EMATHIA and THRACE be said to have been TWICE fertilized with Roman blood? In the first place, the term EMATHIA was very frequently employed by the Latin poets in so extended a sense as to comprehend all Macedonia and Thessaly; and, in the second place, the Latin poets were in the habit of confounding the terms Macedonia, Thessalia, and Thracia, as if these three provinces were one and the same region: thus Lucan, who, in Lib. i. 680, has latos Hæmi sub rupe Philippos, mentions in Lib. ix. 271, Emathios Philippos, and in Lib. x. 449, Hæmum Thessalicum, and in Lib. vii. 847, he speaks of the Emathia arva as in Thessaly. Virgil, therefore, may have considered all that part of Greece which was the theatre of the civil wars, and which comprehended Macedon, Thessaly, and Thrace, as ONE COUNTRY.

493. Scilicet et tempus veniet, cum, čσтαι dýrоν кal, öтav, “doubtless, too, the time shall come, when," &c. See note on ver. 282. Sewell translates this passage admirably:

"Sooth, too, the time will come, when in those regions
The swain, when he hath stirred with beaked plough
The ground, shall come on javelins honey-combed
With scabrous rust, or with his ponderous harrow
Shall strike on helms now empty, and shall marvel
At giant bones in sepulchres exhumed!"

494. Molitus, for moliens; see note on ver. 206. Terram moliri, i. e. vertere; see note on ver. 329.

Ye deified

497. Grandia...mirabitur ossa. It was the general opinion of the ancients that mankind had a tendency to degenerate, not only morally and intellectually, but also in stature and physical power; for evidences of this belief, comp. Hom. Il. i. 260-266, 271, 272, v. 302–304, xii. 445—449 ; Hesiod. "Epy. 129 sqq.; Hor. Od. iii. 6, 45-49; Æn. xii. 899 sq. 498. Di patrii, Indigetes, "Ye Gods of my fatherland! heroes of my country!" Two distinct orders of deities are here invoked, the dii patrii, deoì πaтpoi, and the dii Indigetes, Deol yxúprol; the former class including those deities, chiefly the Lares and Penates, whose worship was not introduced from foreign nations; the latter, those Italian and Roman heroes who were deified after their death, such as Janus, Picus, Faunus, Æneas, Romulus, &c. Et Romule, Vestaque mater. After invoking the two classes of deities in general terms, the poet specifies one of each, viz., Romulus, who was one of the dii Indigetes, and Vesta, one of the dii patrii.

499. Tuscum Tiberim. The Tiber rises from the Apennines in Etruria or Tuscia. Romana Palatia. On the Palatine hill, Evander had built his acropolis; Romulus his palace; and there Augustus also fixed his residence.

500. Hunc SALTEM...juvenem, "this youth at least," as Julius Cæsar had not been permitted to do so. Such is the force of saltem. Octavianus Cæsar was born in the consulship of M. Tull. Cicero and C. Antony, A.U.C. 691; he was therefore in the twenty-seventh year of his age, when Virgil was writing this book; i. e. in a.u.c. 718. Everso succurrere sæclo. This idea would have been expressed in prose by rebus perditis succurrere.

502. Laomedonteæ...perjuria Troja. Laomedon, king of Troy, engaged Neptune and Apollo to build a wall round his city, but when the undertaking was completed, he defrauded them of the stipulated reward. Comp. Hom. Il. vii. 452, 453; and Il. xxi. 441-457. Shortly afterwards he also defrauded Hercules of the reward he promised him for liberating Hesione. Comp. Hom. Il. v. 638-642, 648-651. To these acts of dishonesty allusion is here made. Heyne preferred taking Laomedonteæ simply as an epithet of Troy, understanding perjuria Troja to denote all the perjuries and evil deeds of the Trojans generally. It was the common belief of the ancients that posterity were often made to atone for the crimes of their ancestors. Comp. Hor. Od. iii. 6, 1—4.

503. Regia cæli, "the court of heaven," poet. for calicola, ordeorum cœtus.

The

504. Hominum...curare triumphos; i. e. inter homines vivere. poet seems to represent that the enjoyment of triumphs, on the part of Octavian, would be the necessary consequence of his condescending to dwell amongst mortals. As yet, however, he had enjoyed no triumph, properly so called; for, after his conquest of Sextus Pompey, an ovation only was decreed him by the senate.

505 sq. Translate as follows::-"Because among them right and wrong are confounded,— -so many wars are arising throughout the world,—so numerous are the aspects of guilt,-no adequate honour is paid to the plough,—the fields lie-squalid-and-neglected (squalent, the husbandmen having been drafted away (to the wars),—and the curved sickles are forged into the rigid sword."

505. Quippe ubi, for quippe apud quos, scil. homines; "because, among them." Adverbs of place are frequently thus used instead of pronouns. Comp. Sall. Cat. v., Huic ab adolescentiâ bella intestina, cades, rapina, discordia civilis, grata fuere; IBIque juventutem suam exercuit. Fas versum atque nefas, scil. est. In strictness, the construction is, ubi fas in nefas, atque nefas in fas versum est. Tot bella per orbem. scil. sunt. Heyne considers that here, as well as in vss. 509511, allusion is made to the events of the year U.c. 717, when the minds of the people were disturbed by many alarming prodigies. Hostilities, too, had recommenced between Octavianus Cæsar and Sextus Pompey; Antony was marching against the Parthians; and Agrippa was engaged against the Gauls and Germans. Forbiger, however-who thinks it unlikely that Virgil, who was occupied seven years in the composition of the Georgics, could have commenced and finished the first book in one year, i. e. in A.U.c. 717-considers that the allusion is principally to the year U.c. 718, when the aspect of affairs was such as to justify the utmost alarm: Sextus Pompey having been subdued, and the disturbances in Etruria (see note on ver. 510) quelled, Octavianus Caesar was preparing to lead an army against the Salassi, Taurisci, Liburni, and Iapydes, when, the triumvirate having been dissolved in consequence of the withdrawal of Lepidus, new jealousies sprang up between Cæsar and Antony, and everything seemed to forebode the commencement of another civil war.

507. Arva squalent; i. e. situ deformata jacent, as being deserted and uncultivated. The poet is not forgetful of the object for which the Georgics were composed.

508. Falces conflantur in ensem. By the change of number the poet beautifully reminds us of the rapacity of war, and the profligacy with which men squander the gifts of nature, to the injury of their fellowmen; the materials of many sickles are wasted on a single sword.BUTT. Conflare properly denotes the smelting of metals here, "forging on the anvil."

509. Euphrates; i. e. nationes ad Euphratem habitantes. Comp. Geo. ii. 225, 497. The allusion here is to the Parthians and other Asiatic nations, against whom Antony was waging war. Hinc...illinc, "on the one side" (of the Roman empire)...." on the other." Germania, i. e. Germani. Comp. Ecl. i. 63, iv 58. The allusion here is to the Germans and Gauls, who rebelled against the Romans, A.U.C. 716, but were reduced to subjection by Agrippa. See note on ver. 505.

510. Vicina...urbes arma ferunt. The allusion here is to some serious commotions which broke out in Etruria and which were quelled by Octavianus Cæsar in the year U.c. 718. Comp. Dio. Cass. xlix. 34; Appian. iii. 16.

512-514. A comparison drawn from chariot races in the Circus. The poet compares the mad licentiousness of the world, when released from the restraint of laws upon the death of Julius Cæsar, to the eagerness and fury of horses, when they first find themselves at liberty, as soon as the barrier is removed.-WALKER.

512. Carceribus, "from the barriers." Carcer, from kápкapov, means

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