550. Eximios. This epithet is properly applied to cattle selected for sacrifice. Comp. Liv. i. 7: Ibi tum primum, bove eximiá captá de grege, sacrum Herculi...factum. 554, 555. Wakefield would punctuate these verses thus: Hic vero (subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum!) Adspiciunt liquefacta boum, &c. 554. Monstrum (i. e. rem monstrosam, miram), “a prodigy." 556. See note on Geo. i. 456. The infinitives stridere...effervere, &c., are employed in apposition to the substantive monstrum. Comp. Æn. iii, 240 sq. Invadunt socii, et NOVA PRÆLIA tentant, 551. Uvam demittere ramis; i. e. Boтpudòv adhærere arbori. Hom. Il. ii. 89.-HEYNE. Comp. also Æn. vii. 64-67. Comp. 559-566. THE EPILOGUE: The Poet mentions the Time when, and the Place where, he concluded the Composition of the Georgics. These verses have been condemned as spurious by many critics, for different reasons. Heyne considers them to have been added by some ancient grammarian, affirming that it was a poetarum more alienum to append such epilogues to their poems, while, on the contrary, it is well known that such was a very common custom of the grammarians. He also objects to the construction canebam SUPER arboribus; but admits that the verses cannot be censured as inelegant. Brunck, on the other hand, rejects the epilogue as being insulsus, et poematis ipsiusque Virgilii gravitate indignus; and Schrader, chiefly because of the construction Hæc... CANEBAM... Cæsar dum...FULMINAT. Voss and Wagner, however, have established the authenticity of these verses by incontestable arguments: 1. They are found in every MS. that has been consulted, and are acknowledged by the ancient grammarians Fronto, Servius, and Philargyrius. II. Such clausula are not, as Heyne affirms, a poetarum more aliena. Comp. Ecl. x. 70 sqq.; and Geo. ii. 541 sq. III. The construction canere SUPER (for de) aliquá re, to which Heyne objects, is justified by Æn. i. 750, x. 839. IV. The construction to which Schrader objects, viz., hæc CANEBAM...dum FULMINAT, is justified by Ecl. vii. 6: dum DEFENDO...caper DEERRAVERAT. Comp. also Liv. xxi. 7; dum ea Romani parant consultantque, jam Saguntum summa vi oppugnabatur. 559. Hæc; i. e. the Georgics. Vid. Quæst. Virg. xviii. § i. a'. Pecorum. Bees, the subject of the fourth book, are comprised in this term. Comp. ver. 168.-FORB. 560-5 2. The time referred to in these verses is the year U.C. 724. See note on Geo, ii. 170-172. Voss considers this epilogue to have been added by the poet in the year U.C. 734, and that it is to the operations and movements of Augustus during that year that allusion is made here. 561. Fulminat...bello. Comp. En. vi. 842. Victorque volentes per populos dat jura. See note on Geo. ii. 172. Per populos dat jura; i. e. leges imponit populis. 562. Olympo, for ad Olympum, ad astra. 563. Vergilium. This Wagner has proved to be the ancient and correct orthography. See his Orth. Virg. p. 479. 564. Parthenope; i. e. Neapolis (hod. Naples). The ancient name of this city was Parthenope, and it was so called, because the Siren of |