diutius vehi perseveravi, invitante ipso littore, quod inter Cumas et Servilii Vatiae villam curvatur; et hinc mari, illine lacu, velut angustum iter, cluditur. Erat enim a recenti tempestate maris spissum. Fluctus autem illud, ut scis, frequens et concitatus, exaequat; longior tranquillitas solvit, quum arenis, quae humore alligantur, succus abcessit." Also Plin. H. N. 36. 25: "Solo festucato inicitur rudus aut testaceum pavimentum, dein spisse calcatis carbonibus inducitur." Columel. 12. 54: "In cistam vimineam, quae neque spisse, solide tamen et crassis viminibus contexta sit" (the osiers of which the basket was composed not interwoven "spisse," i. e., thickly, so as closely to fit into each other, but openly, or so as to leave interstices). TERTIA PALMA DIORES (vs. 339).-Compare Manil. 1. 787 : "tertia palma Marcellus." CERTA MANENT (vs. 349).—The εμπεda kelтαι of Homer, Il. 9.334: αλλα δ' αριστήεσσι διδου γερα, και βασιλευσι· τοισι μεν εμπεδα κειται, εμευ δ' απο μουνου Αχαιων είλετ'. PUERI (vs. 349).-The proposition of Nauck (Jahn's suppl. vol. 14, p. 556) to join PUERI with PALMAM and understand it to mean Euryalus is inadmissible, first on account of the great injury inflicted by such structure on the cadence of the verse; secondly, because for Aeneas to call Euryalus "puer" here, where he is contending as a man among men, had been as inappropriate as it was appropriate for Virgil so to denominate him, verse 296, where it was the object of the poet to place vividly before his readers the young man's youth and innocence; thirdly, because the vocative seems to be demanded by the preceding VESTRA and NOBIS; and fourthly, because the vocative PUERI has especial grace, addressed by Aeneas to the whole party so much his juniors and inferiors, and contrasting as it does with PATER-his own descriptive adjunct. QUAE MUNERA NISO DIGNA DABIS (vv. 354-5).-"NISO is probably to be constructed with DABIS rather than with DIGNA," Conington. I should say certainly. DIGNA (vs. 355).—Dignus is here taken in its secondary sense, viz., valuable, worthy of being received. Compare Tacit. Germ. 18: "accipere se, quae liberis inviolata ac digna reddat." The Greek aftos and the English worthy both have the same secondary meaning. PRIMAM MERUI QUI LAUDE CORONAM, NI ME QUAE SALIUM FORTUNA INIMICA TULISSET (vv. 355–6).—“ ME a primo praemio abstulisset, abduxisset," Heyne. "Ni inimice a Fortuna acceptus essem," Forbiger, Wagner (Praest.). The two interpretations are equally incorrect. Ferre is never "auferre," and if it were sometimes, or could be, the picture of Fortune carrying off not only Nisus, but Salius too, from the prize had been downright ridiculous. Neither is ferre ever " accipere," and even if it sometimes were, the picture of Fortune giving a bad reception to Euryalus and Salius had been little less absurd than that of Fortune carrying them off from the prize. Ferre is here, as so often elsewhere, to take, get hold of, lay hands on; and Fortune is said to take Euryalus and Salius in the same sense in which the Fata or his Fata are said to take Daphnis, Ecl. 5. 34: "postquam te fata tulerunt, ipsa Pales agros atque ipse reliquit Apollo;" and in which Time is said to take, or lay hands on, everything, Ibid. 9. 51: "Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque." It is the Greek use of pepw and agew transferred to the Latin equivalent fero. Compare Apoll. 4. 1485 : σε δ' ουλομεναι κηρες έλοντο. Also Hom. I. 2. 302 : ους μη κηρες εβαν θανατοιο φερουσαι, where the meaning is indeed carried off, or away from, but where this meaning of carried off, or away from, lies not in pɛpovσal, but in eẞav pepovoai, went taking, or went carrying. There being no went in our text there is no off or away from, only the taking or carrying. That this taking or carrying is to be understood in malam partem not being shown with sufficient clearness by the very indefinite and general term TULISSET, INIMICA is added to remove all ambiguity. Examples of this use of ferre are abundant, as 2. 554: "hic exitus illum sorte tulit." 2.598: quos omnes undique Graiae circum errant acies; et, ni mea cura resistat, 4. 679: "idem ambas ferro dolor, atque eadem hora tulisset." 10. 59: "gurgite mersum unda feret." Liv. 4. 33: "obtruncantur in ripis ; alios in aquam compulsos gurgites ferunt." FACIEM OSTENTABAT ET UDO TURPIA MEMBRA FIMO (vv. 357-8). "TURPIA FIMO probably belongs to FACIEM as well as to MEMBRA," Conington. The meaning is not his face and limbs besmeared, but FACIEM, his plight, his condition, his appearance; and this "facies," this plight, this condition, this appearance, is explained to be UDO TURPIA MEMBRA FIMO, as if Virgil had said: speciem ridiculam OSTENTABAT, viz., UDO TURPIA MEMBRA FIMO. This is almost invariably, if not invariably, the sense of Virgil's facies. Compare 7. 448 (where see Rem.): "tantaque se facies aperit." 6. 575 (where see Rem.): "facies quae limina servet." 6. 560: "quae scelerum facies?" 8. 193: "hic spelunca fuit, vasto submota recessu, Geory. 2. 131: "ipsa ingens arbos, faciemque simillima lauro." OSTENTABAT.-More than ostendit: made a great display of. OLLI (vs. 358).—Not the object of RISIT, i. e., not the thing smiled at, which is always put in the accusative (see Rem. on 4. 128), but the dative of acquisition so called,' the person to whom the smile is directed. Aeneas did not smile at Nisus, but directed to Nisus his smile, viz., his smile at the "casus." Compare 4. 105: "Olli . . . sic contra est ingressa Venus," where "olli" stands in precisely the same relation to "ingressa est" as OLLI in our text to RISIT. NUNC, SI CUI VIRTUS ANIMUSQUE IN PECTORE PRAESENS, ADSIT, &c. (vv. 363-4).—Exactly as Telemachus in the Odyssey, pledging himself to Ulysses that the suitors should not fall upon him while he was engaged in the boxing match with Irus (18. 61): Ξειν, ει σ' οτρύνει κραδίη και θυμός αγήνωρ τούτον αλέξασθαι, &c. EFFERT ORA, SE TOLLIT (vv. 368-9).-Theme and variation. The form of theme and variation is used in order the more easily to introduce both VASTIS VIRIBUS and MAGNO VIRUM MURMURE, accidents of so widely different nature as not to be easily attachable to a single verb. See Rem. on "progeniem," &c., 1. 23–26; and on 1. 550. VICTOREM BUTEN IMMANI CORPORE QUI SE, &c. (vs. 372).— Not IMMANI CORPORE QUI SE ... FEREBAT, but BUTEN IMMANI CORPORE, exactly as 3. 427: "immani corpore pistrix;" 8. 335: "immani corpore Thybris;" 5. 401: "immani pondere caestus." VENIENS AMYCI DE GENTE (vs. 373).—I. e., ortus AMYCI DE GENTE. So Ciris, 407: "Pandionia si qui de gente venitis." TALIS PRIMA DARES CAPUT ALTUM IN PRAELIA TOLLIT (vs. 375)." Proprie dicendum erat DARES primus," Wagner (Virg. Br. En.). No; as "primo somno," 1. 474 (where see Rem.) is the beginning of sleep, so here PRIMA PRAELIA is the beginning of the fight; the comparison not being of Dares to other pugilists who were to follow (for there were no others to follow), but of the beginning of the fight to the sequel, as if Virgil had said : rises, to begin the fight. See also Rem. on "primi pedis,” 5. 566. QUAERITUR HUIC ALIUS (vs. 378).—ALIUS, another, i.e., another to match Dares; as if Virgil had said QUAERITUR HUIC par. Compare Hor. Epod. 15. 13 (to Neaera, of himself) : QUAE FINIS STANDI? (vs. 384).-Compare Sil. 12. 68 (Hannibal to his soldiers before Cumae): "pro di! quis terminus,' inquit, 6 ante urbes standi Graias?'"' 387-421. HIC-AMICTUM HIC GRAVIS ENTELLUM DICTIS CASTIGAT ACESTES (vs. 387).-Not DICTIS CASTIGAT, but GRAVIS DICTIS, as Stat. Theb. 1. 283 (of Jupiter, replying to Juno): "at non ille gravis dictis, quanquam aspera motus reddidit haec." Compare verse 274, "gravis ictu," and Rem.; also Val. Flacc. 5. 161: " arduus et laevo gravior pede;" and Claud. Rapt. Pros. 2.49: "invalidum dextro portat Titana lacerto nondum luce gravem, nec pubescentibus alte For DICTIS CASTIGAT compare Hom. Od. 8. 158 : vεIKETE &' αντην. UBI NUNC NOBIS DEUS ILLE, MAGISTER NEQUICQUAM MEMORATUS, ERYX ?—"UBI NUNC est illa gloria, quod magistro usus es Eryce, quem olim NOBIS iactabas ?" Wagner. No; NOBIS is the ethic dative (as "vobis," verse 646), and MAGISTER NEQUICQUAM MEMORATUS lies out of the direct train of thought, is explanatory of ILLE, and thrown in parenthetically between it and ERYX. UBI NUNC Nobis deus ille ErYX? sciz. ILLE ERYX NEQUICQUAM MEMORATUS MAGISTER. Both the sense and the structure are rendered perfectly plain by two commas, one placed after ILLE, the other after MEMORATUS. NOBIS DEUS ILLE ERYX.-Similarly, Cicero, ad Att. 4. 16: "Deus ille noster, Plato." NON LAUDIS AMOR, NEC GLORIA CESSIT PULSA METU (vv. 394-5).-Not PULSA METU, but CESSIT METU; as verse 676: "ast illae diversa metu per littora passim diffugiunt," where the structure is "diffugiunt metu." |