referring to the entire time during which the Georgics were written, or only to their completion, is not clear. Mr. Keightley remarks that the whole aspect of the poem is Campanian: others have maintained as decidedly that it is Mantuan. The language in G. 2. 197 would suit Mantua better, as I have there observed, while Spohn argues that southern Italy can hardly have been sufficiently tranquil to induce Virgil to fix his residence there before 718. It would be easy to suggest that the ' poem was written partly at Mantua, partly, if not principally, at Naples: but perhaps we have not data enough even for so unambitious a hypothesis.

P. VERGILI MARONIS

GEORGICON

LIBER PRIMUS.

THE subject of the First Book is the tillage of the ground with a view to crops, chiefly corn. The mention of the uncertainty of the weather at different times of the year leads the poet to give a list of the signs of a storm and of fair weather, which he abridges from the Diosemeia of Aratus. From this he passes to the signs of the political storm which had broken over Rome, and shows that external nature had been no less eloquent there, while he prays that Octavianus Caesar may yet be spared to save society.

The various events mentioned in the concluding lines are generally considered to point to the earlier part of the period of seven years during which Virgil is supposed to have been composing the Georgics, or to the time immediately preceding that period. Mr. Merivale, on the other hand, believes the passage to have been written early in 722, during the general expectation of war between Octavianus and Antonius. His explanation of the poet's supposed position deserves quoting, both for the ingenuity of the conception and for the rhetorical ability with which it is enforced. "The prevailing sentiment of gloomy yet vague foreboding found expression in the voice of a youthful enthusiast. Cherished by Maecenas, and honoured with the smiles of Octavius himself, Virgil beheld in the sway of the chief of the Romans the fairest augury of legitimate and peaceful government. With strains of thrilling eloquence not less musical than those with which Lucretius had soared into the airy realms of imagination, he descended to the subject of the hour, and gave words to the thoughts with which every bosom was heaving. He invoked the native gods of Italy, with Romulus and Vesta, guardians of Tuscan Tiber and Roman Palatine, to permit the youthful hero to save a sinking world. He reminded his countrymen of the guilt of their fathers' fathers, which had effaced the landmarks of right, and filled the world with wars and a thousand forms of crime. He mourned the decay of husbandry, the dishonour of the plough, the desolation of the fields: he sighed over the clank of the armourer's forge, and the training of the rustic conscript. It was not the border skirmishes with the Germans or the Parthians that could excite such a phrenzy of alarm: it was the hate of neighbour against neighbour, the impending conflict of a world in arms. The foes of Rome were indeed raging against her, but her deadliest enemy was of her own household. Virgil pointed to the Rhine and the Euphrates, but his eye was fixed upon the Nile." (Hist. vol. iii. pp. 303, 4.) In a note, after quoting vv. 509-511, he adds: "In the year 717 there was actual warfare on the Rhine and the Euphrates, but at that time there was apparent harmony between the triumvirs, and the prospect at least of universal pacification. On the other hand, in the year 722, there was no appre

hension of hostilities on the eastern or the northern frontier, but there was a general foreboding of civil war." So far as the poem itself is concerned, it is of course open to us to fix on any date between the two points of time assigned respectively to its commencement and its completion. Nor do the general probabilities of the case help us much. When Virgil wrote the Fourth Eclogue the recollections of the Perusian war were buried by the peace of Brundisium: but the conduct of Antonius may well have revived them again long before the final struggle for empire between the two rivals. Virgil owed nothing to Antonius, and so might pass him over in silence-he does no more at a time when the triumvir was not yet the public enemy.

QUID faciat laetas segetes, quo sidere terram
Vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adiungere vitis
Conveniat, quae cura boum, qui cultus habendo
Sit pecori, apibus quanta experientia parcis,

1-5.] Agriculture, the cultivation of vines, the care of cattle, and that of bees, are to be my subjects:' a more or less precise enumeration of the matters actually treated of in the Georgics, though the subjects of Books 1 and 2 are rather indicated poetically than fully described.

1.] This division of the subjects of Book 1 seems to be taken, as Serv. remarks, from the title of Hesiod's poem, "Epya κal 'Huépai. So 2. 1, "Hactenus arvorum cultus et sidera caeli." Laetae segetes' seems to have been a common expression, used even by country people, as we find from Cic. de Or. 3. 38, "gemmare vites, luxuriem esse in herbis, laetas segetes etiam rustici dicunt," where it is instanced as a metaphor. Laetamen' is a technical term among agricultural writers for manure. Keightley thinks that the physical sense of 'lactus' was the primary one, and that it was thence transferred to the mind; but Cicero's view seems more natural. It is not easy to determine whether 'segetes' refers to the land or the corn. Columella (2. 15) has "segetes laetas excitare," which points rather to the latter: but a few lines above he uses "segetem" unmistakeably of the field where the corn is to be sown. 'Laetas' would apply equally to both, as may be seen from vv. 101, 102. "Quo sidere' like "quo signo," v. 354. Addison (Essay on the Georgics prefixed to Dryden's translation) says that " Virgil, to deviate from the common form of words, would not make use of 'tempore,' but 'sidere:"" but the stars enter prominently into Virg.'s plan, constituting in fact the shepherd's calendar (vv. 204 foll.).

2.] Vertere terram' as in v. 147, where 'ferro' is added. "Vertentes vomere glaebas," Lucr. 1. 211. Vertere' is used

without an ablative by Col. 3. 13, in conjunction with 'subigere.' Maecenas, Dict. Biog., the person to whom the poem is inscribed, as the Works and Days are to Perses, the poem of Lucr. to Memmius

3.] Cura-cultus.' So cultus' and 'curatio' occur in a similar connexion Cic. N. D. 2. 63, quoted by Heyne. Ha bendo pecori,' as we should say, for breed ing cattle: nearly equivalent to "ad ha bendum pecus," a use of the dative with the gerundive sufficiently common, espe cially in official designations, e. g. “trium viri agris dividendis." See Madv. § 241 obs. 3, § 415 obss.

Habendis

4.] Pecori, apibus' was restored by Heins. for pecori, atque apibus,' which i found in Rom. alone of Ribbeck's MSS., and there from a late correction. Experientia, of the bee-keeper, not of the bees, whos habits are only described incidentally. S 4. 315, 316, “Quis Deus hanc, Musae, qui nobis extudit artem? Unde nova ingressu hominum experientia cepit ?" then will have to be supplied from ‘ha bendo.' Parcis' is an ornamental epithet indicating the bee as it is in itself, not a an object of its keeper's care. Perhap we may say that it has an appropriatenes here, as showing that the nature of th bees themselves is a subordinate part of th subject of Book 4. See pp. 146, 147 Wagn. and Forb. think it refers to the difficulty of keeping up and increasing the stock of bees; but though this would agree well with 'habendo,' the use of par cus' would be extremely harsh, and no supported by 3. 403 (where the epithet i poetically transferred from the sparer to the thing spared), not to mention that the fac itself is disputed by Keightley.

“

Hinc canere incipiam. Vos, o clarissima mundi
Lumina, labentem caelo quae ducitis annum,
Liber et alma Ceres, vestro si munere tellus
Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista,
Poculaque inventis Acheloia miscuit uvis;

5.] Hinc incipiam' seems to mean I will take up the song from this point of time,' 'I will begin now.' So Varro, R. R. 2. 1, proceeds to his subject with the words "incipiam hinc." Not unlike is "hinc refert," E. 6. 41, 'next he sings.' Voss's interpretation of 'hine' as "horum partem," "ex his," like Tv àμóbev, Hom. Od. 1. 10, as if to show the modesty of the poet, is far less simple and obvious. Pal. originally had 'hic.' 'Incipiam' is rather I will undertake' than 'I will begin,' as is rightly remarked by Henry on A. 2. 13. Keightley comp. Lucr. 1. 55, "Disserere incipiam." The whole exordium may be translated, What makes a corn-field smile, what star suits best for turning up the soil and marrying the vine to the elm, what care oxen need, what is the method of breeding cattle, and what weight of man's experience preserves the frugal commonwealth of bees such is the song I now essay.'

5-42.] I invoke the sun and moon, the powers that give corn and wine, the woodgods and nymphs, the gods of horses, herds, and flocks, the patrons of the olive, the plough, and the forest-trees-in short, every rural power, and especially Caesar, our future deity, who has yet his province to choose. May he, in pity to the husbandmen, begin his reign at once, and accept their homage and mine.'

6.] It is a question whether the sun and moon are meant to be identified with or distinguished from Bacchus and Ceres. The asyndeton looks rather in favour of the former view, which has the authority of Macrobius (Sat. 1. 18). It is no argument against it that Varro, in invoking the gods at the beginning of his treatise De Re Rustica, discriminates the two pairs of deities from each other, as his enumeration in other respects is sufficiently unlike Virg.'s: nor will the objection that Virg. is not likely to have introduced a mystical doctrine into a poem on a practical subject weigh much with those who appreciate the character of the poet. A more serious difficulty is started by Keightley, who observes that though the sun may have been identified with Bacchus, as Macrob. shows from other instances, it is not established that the moon and Ceres were ever

5

considered the same. But if the first part of the identification is made out, the coincidence with Virg.'s language seems too striking to be accidental, and thus the remaining hypothesis becomes probable, even in default of direct evidence in its favour. Besides Proserpine, as Keightley admits, was occasionally classed in this manner with Bacchus, and was in fact worshipped under the name of Libera (Cic. Verr. 2. 4. 48): and we know that the functions of Ceres and those of her daughter were not always separated. On 'Lumina' there is a curious note of Serv.: "Numina fuit, sed emendavit ipse, quia postea ait, Et vos agrestum praesentia numina Fauni." Wakefield adopts 'numina,' while Wagn. supposes Serv.'s remark to refer to v. 7, where numine' is the second reading of Med. for munere.' 'Caelo,' along the sky. The general sense of the line is parallel to Lucr. 5. 1436 foll., cited by Heyne, "At vigiles mundi magnum [et] versatile templum Sol et luna suo lustrantes lumine circum Perdocuere homines annorum tempora verti, Et certa ratione geri rem atque ordine certo."

7.] Liber' and 'Ceres' were worshipped together at Rome. Keightley, Myth. p. 460. 'Si' used as frequently in adjurations. The worshipper affects to make the existence of the attributes of the gods dependent on the granting of his prayer.

8.] Chaoniam,' a literary epithet: see on E. 1. 54. So "Dodona" of the oak, v. 149.

9.] Pocula,' perhaps of the draught rather than of the cup, as in E. 8. 28, though it might well bear its usual sense. Acheloia' agrees with Chaoniam,' as if the poet had meant to represent Epirus and Aetolia as the cradle of the human race. Achelous was said to be the oldest of all rivers, whence the name was frequently put for water in general (Eur. And. 166, Bacch. 625: see Macrob. Sat. 5. 18). Hyginus (fab. 274) and Serv. have stories connecting the discovery of wine with the neighbourhood of the Achelous. Hermann has a dissertation "De Musis fluvialibus Epicharmi et Eumeli" (reprinted in vol. 2 of his Opuscula), where he rejects this explanation, and contends that river-water got the name

Et vos, agrestum pracsentia numina, Fauni,
Ferte simul Faunique pedem Dryadesque puellae :
Munera vestra cano. Tuque o, cui prima frementem
Fudit equum magno tellus percussa tridenti,
Neptune; et cultor nemorum, cui pinguia Ceae
Ter centum nivei tondent dumeta iuvenci;
Ipse, nemus linquens patrium saltusque Lycaei,
Pan, ovium custos, tua si tibi Maenala curae,

Achelous from the muse Achelois, the pa- by Cerda), which perhaps Virg. had in his troness of rivers.