BESIDES the editions and authorities referred to in the preface to my first edition of the Aeneid, and in that to the present edition of the works of Vergil, I have made frequent use, in preparing the notes on the Georgics, of the well-known commentary and German translation of J. H. Voss, and have found also many concise and clear interpretations in the school edition of the Bucolics and Georgics recently published by Karl Kappes, Director of the Real Gymnasium in Karlsruhe. A metrical key has also been appended to the notes.

Ceres.

NOTES ON THE GEORGICS.

BOOK FIRST.

TILLAGE AND CROPS.

1-5. The poet announces to Maecenas, as his friend and patron, the four principal topics of the work: 1. Tillage and Crops; 2. The Cultivation of Vines and Trees; 8. The Breeding of Cattle; 4. The Management of Bees. Both Vergil and Horace owed much of their good success as poets to the warm friendship of Maecenas; and both of them repeatedly address him in their poems with honor and gratitude. See Ge. II, 41, III, 41, IV, 2; Hor. O. I, 1, 1, Sat. I, 1, 1, et al.

1. Quo sidere. As the seasons of the year were marked by the rising and setting of the constellations, sidus is put by metonymy for season or time.

2. Ulmis adiungere vitis. Comp. E. II, 70, and note.-3, 4. Habendo pecori dative of the end; M. 241, obs. 3; H. 884, 4, n. 3.; A. 235; B. 244; and comp. Ae. IV, 290; "what the (proper) management is for raising cattle."4. Apibus; supply habendis "how much experience (is required) for raising the frugal bees." The final vowel of pecori in this verse is not elided.

5-42. Invocation to the divinities that preside over husbandry, and to Augustus, who is destined, like Caesar, to have a place among the gods.

5. Hinc, from these things, or with this theme; referring to the subject of husbandry in general, embraced in the four topics above mentioned.-6. Lumina; i. e., sun and moon.-8. Chaoniam glandem; a specific example for a general idea; as in E. I, 55, and IX, 13. Nuts and wild stone-fruits embraced in the term glans were supposed to be the primitive food of man. -9. Pocula Acheloïa. On the hills near the Achelous in Aetolia king Oeneus first planted vineyards, and thus originated the vintage and the mingling (miscuit) of wine with water (pocula), or the drinking of wine; for the ancients did not drink wine unmixed.-11. Ferte pedem, draw near. The Fauns and Dryads, sylvan deities, are also invoked, since the woodlands are associated with the pasturage of flocks and herds.- -12. Munera, the gifts, or products of husbandry, whether crops, fruits, or domestic animals. Prima, at first; i. e., at the beginning of their existence. Neptune, in his contest with Minerva for the naming and the guardianship of Athens, struck the ground with his trident, and thus caused the horse to spring forth from the

Neptune. (From a Pompeiian intaglio.)

earth as his newly-created gift to the Athenians.- -14. Cultor nemorum; inhabitant or god of the woods; others, cultivator of trees. The reference is to Aristaeus, the hero of the episode in Ge. IV, 317, sqq. He was worshiped in the island of Cea or Ceos as Apollo Nóutos, the shepherd Apollo, or Apollo of the woods and pastures. Cui, for whom; or for whose shrines and altars; for white_bullocks were to be taken from the herds as offerings to Aristaeus.-16. Ipse; even Pan himself, chief of the rustic_deities. Comp. the use of ipse in 353. -17. Maenala; supply sunt.- -18. Tegeaee j equivalent to Arcadie, an epithet of the god Pan.-19. Puer refers to Triptolemus, son of Celeus king of Eleusis, and a favorite of Ceres, under whose instructions he learned the art of tillage, and became the inventor (monstrator) of the plow.-20. Ab radice, with the root; i. e., taken up "by the roots." Sylvanus was represented in sculpture and painting bearing a cypress-tree with the roots adhering to it.

24-40. And you especially (tuque adeo), Augustus, lend your aid (da facilem cursum); numbered among the gods, what heavenly abode shall be yours? what dominion shall you possess? Will you, as vice-regent of Jupiter, rule the seasons (tempestatum potentem), and protect the lands and cities of men, or will you appear (cenias) as another Neptune, patron god of the seas? Or will you dwell among the constellations of the zodiac, where even now a place is opened for you between Erigone (Virgo,

25-42]

BOOK FIRST.

5

Astraea) and Scorpio?-I know not; though, surely, you will not choose to reign among the gods of Hades (nec te Tartara sperant). The disposition of Vergil and his contemporaries to deify Augustus (see on

E. 1, 6) had been encouraged by his recent successes, especially by the overthrow of Sextus Pompeius (B. c. 36), and by the honors heaped upon him by the Roman Senate.

25. Urbis; i. c., the abodes of men. Invisere is used substantively as the first object of velis, curam being the second. Compare the use of the infinitive restin-26. Maximus orbis ; quere in E. V, 47.the wide world.". -28. Materna. Comp. Ae. V, 72. Augustus and the Julian family are descended, through Aeneas, from Venus, to whom the myrtle is sacred.-31. Tethys undis. Tethys, as the wife of Ocean, is represented as seeking to win (emat) Augustus as a son-in

AVGVSTO

DEO

law, by offering as a dower with some A bronze coin of Tarraco (Tarragona), of the time of Augustus. one of her daughters the dominion of the sea. It was a fancy of the ancients

that a deified man or hero, on entering into the family of Olympus, received some goddess as his bride. The last syllable of Tethys is lengthened here by the ictus. 32. Tardis; an appellation of the summer months on account of their long and heated days, with the accompanying weariness and languor.- -33. Locus; i. e., the space partly occupied by the Chelae, or claws, of the Scorpion, between Scorpio and Astraca, where the constellation Libra was sometimes placed, though it does not seem to have been universally admitted by astronomers until a later period. Vergil, however, recognizes it as one of the constellations in v. 208, and, perhaps, has in mind here the justice (symbolized by Libra) that, he believes, will mark the reign of Augustus.- 34, 35. Ipse-reliquit. Scorpio, of himself, or gladly, gives up to the new constellation a part of what had been more than his own just space; for he had held more than a twelfth part of the zodiac. Some understand, less correctly, I think, "more than the proper space" for the new -37. Tam dira, etc., such a dreadful, constellation of Augustus to occupy.-38. Graecia; for the such an unnatural ambition can not possess you.-39. Nec continues the force of quamvis ;" and although poets of Greece.the throne of Hades has such charms for Proserpine that she has no desire to return to the upper world; even when sought for and entreated by her 40. Da facilem cursum, grant (me) an auspicious course, mother Ceres.". 41. Ignaros viae. The long-continued foreign wars of Rome, withdrawing so many of the yeomanry from Italy, and the civil wars, followed in many instances by the expulsion of small land-owners from their farms, had greatly discouraged agriculture, and had led to the state of ignorance here alluded to. I can not but think that this depressed condition of agriculture was one motive with Vergil for devoting so many years of his life to this theme; though such a motive is repudiated by some of the critics. 42. Ingredere closely connected in sense with the following votis-vocari; "Enter upon the divine existence I have foreshadowed, and so learn even now to be called upon with prayers."

or voyage.

43-70. The poet now enters upon the first topic of his poem-that of tillage and crops: first treating of the proper method of plowing, and of the mutual adaptation of climate, soil, and product.

43. Vere novo. In Italy this is from the middle of February to the first of March. 45. Iam tum, even then; even so early. Mihi; the ethical dative.

47. Avari, like avido, in the "Inscription," introductory to the Aeneid, suggests a characteristic trait of farmers, hardly ever satisfied with their crops. 48. Bis. It was deemed by Vergil the most perfect tillage, though not usually practiced in Italy, to plow the land four times: once late in the autumn, once in the spring, once in the summer, and the fourth time again in the autumn, just before sowing. This is the usual explanation; but, perhaps, the periods adopted by Mr. C. L. Smith (see " American Journal of Philology," vol. ii, No. 8) may be more correct: first in the early spring, second in April, third in summer, fourth in the autumn, just before sowing.

49. Illius refers to seges. Ruperant. The perfect of a repeated or wonted occurrence. H. 471, 5; A. 279, c; M. 335, obs. 3. -52. Patrios, inherited; to be joined both with cultus and habitus. Both the mode of cultivation (cultus) and the present quality or character (habitus) of lands or farms (locorum) are inherited by them from their former cultivators. 57. Molles Babaei. The inhabitants of Arabia Felix exported their frankincense to Rome. They are characterized, in common with all orientals, as destitute of force, effeminate, or enervated.59. Eliadum may be rendered victorious in Elis. Mares were preferred for chariot races, and those that contended in the Olympian races at Elis are here called "Elian," though sent from some other country, as, here, from Epirus. Palmas equarum; a metonymy for victrices equas.60. Continuo, at once; in the very beginning of man's existence, as expressed by quo tempore, etc.-63. Ergo resumes the precepts in regard to tillage, interrupted at v. 50; but the digression has fur

Vetch.

nished the ground for these last directions concerning the difference of the modes of tillage as determined by the difference of soil.-66. Maturis, solstitial; of the sun in the fullness of his strength. Comp. Ae. X, 257.67, 68. Sub ipsum Arcturum, even at the rising of Arcturus, stormbreeder as he is; his rising was about the fifth of September.-68. Suspendere is used without an object acc., in the sense of "lifting the sod." Ladewig understands it as the opposite of depri mere, deep plowing.69, 70. Illic refers to the rich soil (pingue), 64, hic to the sterile (non fecunda), 67.

71-99. Treatment of the soll by letting it lie fallow (cessare) by turns, or every other year (alternis), by alternation of crops, by enriching with manure or ashes, by burning over the surface, by mellowing with the heavy-pronged hoe (rastris) and brush-harrow (vimineas cratis), and by cross-plowing (in obliquum) some time after the first plowing (procisso aequore).

71. Alternis; adverbial, sc. vicibus, by turns; or, supplying annis, every