Saxa petunt; piget incepti lucisque, suosque
Mutatae adgnoscunt, excussaque pectore Iuno est.
Sed non idcirco flammae atque incendia viris
Indomitas posuere; udo sub robore vivit
Stuppa vomens tardum fumum, lentusque carinas
Est vapor, et toto descendit corpore pestis,
Nec vires heroum infusaque flumina prosunt.
Tum pius Aeneas humeris abscindere vestem,
Auxilioque vocare deos, et tendere palmas:
Iuppiter omnipotens, si nondum exosus ad unum
Troianos, si quid pietas antiqua labores
Respicit humanos, da flammam evadere classi

sicubi sunt saxa concava.' Comp. 1. 157, quae proxuma litora, cursu Contendunt petere." "Concava saxa "G. 4. 49.

678.] Piget lucis' probably means that they hate the light rather than that they hate life, though perhaps the two are not to be sharply separated.

679.] See on v. 671. With 'excussaque

pectore Iuno est comp. 6. 79, " magnum si pectore possit Excussisse deum," Pers. 5. 187"Incussere deos inflantis corpora."

680.] Ribbeck reads 'flamma' from Pal., where, as in Med., the original reading was 'flammam.' Viris indomitas posuere' like "ponuntque ferocia Poeni corda" 1. 302.

681.] The timber is moistened, but the tow which was between the planks keeps smouldering. Tow seems to have been used to close up the interstices. Forc. quotes from Varro ap. Gell. 17.3, "Liburni plerasque navis loris suebant, Graeci magis cannabo et stuppa." Vivit' is transferred from the flames to the thing ignited.

682.] "Tardum,' quod densior est aqua vicina," Gossrau. So 'lentus.'

683.] Est 4. 66. Vapor' of heat is very common in Lucr. Here we are meant to think of heat and smoke both, as distinguished from bright flame. Toto' &c.: the plague (pestis' as in v. 699., 9. 540, here accommodated to corpore') sinks into the vitals and pervades the whole frame of the vessels.

684.] Heroum,' Aeneas and his friends, who would be stronger than ordinary men. Vires heroum infusaque flumina' form a sort of hendiadys, as the strength of these heroes would chiefly be shown in flinging large quantities of water. Flumina' might mean river-water, like "fontibus " 2. 686, or it might simply denote the pour

680

685

686.] Auxilio vocare' seems i. q.
care in auxilium." "Auxilio subire,"
"venire," &c. occur several times in Virg.,
so that he may have intended a sort of
condensed expression for "vocare ut auxilio
sint." We have had "vocantem auxilia"
above v. 221, and "auxilium vocat" oc-
curs 7. 504.

687.] For instances of ad unum' with or without omnes see Forc. Unus.' Ribbeck prints 'exosu 's' see on 1. 237.

688.] Pietas:' see 2. 536 note, 4. 382. Antiqua' is an appeal to what Jupiter has been to him and others in times past. So exactly Psalm lxxxix. 48, "Lord, where are thy old loving-kindnesses which thou swarest unto David in thy truth?" rà ἐλέη σου τὰ ἀρχαῖα LXX. Comp. also Isaiah li. 9, "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old."

689.] The construction is da classi, evadere flammam.' Classis' and 'classem' are found in some MSS., but Virg. doubtless wished to consult perspicuity by the

St

Nunc, Pater, et tenuis Teucrum res eripe leto.
Vel tu, quod superest, infesto fulmine morti,
Si mereor, demitte, tuaque hic obrue dextra.
Vix haec ediderat, cum effusis imbribus atra
Tempestas sine more furit, tonitruque tremescunt
Ardua terrarum et campi; ruit aethere toto
Turbidus imber aqua densisque nigerrimus austris;
Inplenturque super puppes; semiusta madescunt

construction he adopted, as he has consulted variety by the order.

690.] Leto' is here used of things because the things really involve persons. So in Livy 22. 53 (comp. by Gossrau), "si sciens fallo, tum me, Iuppiter O. M., domum familiam remque meam pessumo leto afficias."

691.] Quod superest' seems at the first sight to be most naturally taken which is the only thing left for thy cruelty to do or for us to suffer'-a sense with which Wagn. well comp. 12. 643, "Exscindine domos, id rebus defuit unum, Perpetiar?" But I believe Jahn is right in following a suggestion disapproved by Heyne, "quod superest e rebus Teucrorum," as the parallel passage v. 796 below goes far to show. The antithesis may seem to require 'either restore us wholly or ruin us wholly,' not either give us partial safety or ruin us wholly but Aeneas' thoughts flow too fast to conform to balanced rhetoric. He first says 'rescue our wretched fortunes from death: it is but little to ask, and yet, if it be not granted, we are extinguished at once and for ever: then as he looks at the ships burning one by one, he says, We are well nigh crushed already: tread us wholly into dust.' 'Mereor is in favour, it must be admitted, of supplying me' as the object of demitte:' but there is nothing harsh in making Aeneas identify himself with the Trojans, of whom he is the head, and resting their safety on his deserts. On the other hand, an objection might perhaps be raised with justice to Aeneas separating himself from the rest, as he does according to the common interpretation, and calling for his own destruction as the one thing wanted to crown the national misery. On the whole then I think 'quod superest includes both generally the fortunes of Troy, the 'tenuis Teucrum res,' and specially the vessels still unconsumed, which is the main meaning in v. 796. Morti:' note on G. 3. 480. 692.] Med., Pal. &c. have dimitte.'

690

695

'Dextra' as hurling the lightning.
reference may be to an earthquake.

The

693.] Edere' of speaking v. 799 below: with ore 7. 194. Effusis imbribus' G. 2. 352., 4. 312. It may be questioned whether the words here are to be taken closely with atra' or not. Strictly speak. ing of course the discharge of the rain would diminish the blackness of the sky : but Virg. may mean to describe the first moments of a storm, when rain and blackness are seen together, and the supposition of a close connexion is favoured both by the order and by G. 1. 323, though there the 'imbres' are called 'atri' while still in the clouds.

694.] Sine more' 7. 377., 8. 635. It seems as nearly as possible: ="sine lege," 'mos' being a custom which may operate as a restraining rule. Comp. the use of the word in 6. 852., 7. 204., 8. 316, and see on G. 4. 5.

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695.] "Ardua montis occurs 8. 221., 11. 513. For campi' Pal., Med. a m. pr. and a few others read 'campis,' connecting it with what follows. The common reading however is clearly preferable.

696.] Turbidus imber" 12. 686. It seems to mean not so much driven by the wind (Forb.), though the wind may have been one of the causes of the blackness, as turbid or murky. Turbidus aqua' is used loosely, meaning no more than turbida aqua, the water not being the cause of the turbidness, as the mud is in "turbidus caeno 6. 296, any more than in 11. 876, I caligine turbidus atra Pulvis," it is

the blackness that makes the dust turbid. 'Densis austris' like "aquilo densus" G. 3. 196, perhaps with a further reference to the thickness of the clouds and the driving force of the shower. Comp. G. 1. 333, "ingeminant austri et densissimus imber." "Nigerrimus auster" G. 3. 279.

697.] Super' doubtless 'desuper' (see Forc.), not, as Wagn. in his small edition explains it, are filled to overflowing,' a circumstance which would be trivial here.

Robora; restinctus donec vapor omnis, et omnes,
Quattuor amissis, servatae a peste carinae.

At pater Aeneas, casu concussus acerbo,
Nunc huc ingentis, nunc illuc pectore curas
Mutabat versans, Siculisne resideret arvis,
Oblitus fatorum, Italasne capesseret oras.
Tum senior Nautes, unum Tritonia Pallas
Quem docuit multaque insignem reddidit arte-
Haec responsa dabat, vel quae portenderet ira
Magna deum, vel quae fatorum posceret ordo-

698.] Vapor' v. 683 note. 699.] Peste' v. 683 note.

700-718.] Aeneas doubts whether after all he ought not to settle in Sicily. Nautes advises him not to give up Italy, but to leave behind him in Sicily all whose hearts are not in the enterprise, and let them have a city of their own there.'

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700.] Casu concussus iniquo" 6. 475. 701.] "Ingentis curas 1. 208. 702. For mutabat' two MSS. give 'motabat,' which would be more consistent with Inunc huc, hunc illuc.' But Virg. has chosen to combine the two notions of changing cares, i.e. entertaining one anxious thought after another, and moving cares, anxious thoughts, to one quarter or the other, so as to give 'mutare' the sense of changing the place of a thing, or as we say, shifting it, much as he talks 3. 581 of "mutet latus," where some copies have "motet." For a somewhat similar confusion see on 4. 285, 286. Thus motabat,' like 'nutabat,' Peerlkamp's conj., would only make the passage less Virgilian. 'Versans 4. 286, 630, here taken closely with mutabat,' the clauses that follow depending on both words.

703.] Fatorum,' oraculorum," Serv. This is perhaps the neater explanation; but the ordinary sense of fatorum' would stand very well. We must remember that Latin poets did not distinguish the meanings of words in their own minds as sharply as modern critics are obliged to do in their lexicons. "Italiam capessere" 4. 346.

704.] This Nautes was said to have been the priest of Pallas, and to have carried the Palladium away from Troy into Italy, whence it passed to his descendants, the family of the Nautii at Rome. See Dionys. I. 6. 69. Serv. refers to Varro's treatise De Familiis Troianis' (see on v. 117). aus' in the sense of singled out from

.

700

705

the rest is generally found in Virg. combined with some other words which denote the relative character of the pre-eminence. Comp. 1. 15., 2. 426., 12. 143.

706, 707.] Ruhkopf is, I think, right in regarding, as Gossrau and Henry have done, these lines as parenthetical, to explain the nature of the power given by Pallas to Nautes. The tense of dabat' and the clauses vel quae' &c. are so plainly general that it would be far less tolerable to force them into any other sense than to submit to the harshness of an anacoluthon in Isque' v. 708, taking up the sentence unfinished in vv. 704, 705. Henry well expands the meaning: "Pallas was in the habit of answering him as to both of the great classes into which all future events were divisible, not only as to those fixed and immutable events which were decreed by the fates, that class of events to which for instance Aeneas' arrival in Italy and establishment of a great empire there belonged, but as to those, if I may so say, uncertain and precarious events which were produced by the special intervention of offended deities, that class of events of which the storm in the First Book and all Aeneas' subsequent misfortunes afford examples." For this division of events he (after Gossrau) comp. Claudian, De Bello Getico v. 171 (speaking of the irruption of the barbarians into Thrace), "seu fata vocabant, Seu gravis ira deum, seriem meditata ruinis." There is still however an unexplained difficulty about the expression. The sense would seem to require that we should supply some antecedent for 'quae' from the sentence itself, 'responsa dabat (de iis), vel quae' &c., cr regard 'quae' as acc. pl. of 'quis.' But I believe Virg. meant quae to be connected with 'responsa,' speaking of the responses as portended by the wrath of

AENEID. LIB. V.

Isque his Aenean solatus vocibus infit:

Nate dea, quo fata trahunt retrahuntque, sequamur;
Quidquid erit, superanda omnis fortuna ferendo est. 710
Est tibi Dardanius divinae stirpis Acestes:

Hunc cape consiliis socium et coniunge volentem;
Huic trade, amissis superant qui navibus, et quos
Pertaesum magni incepti rerumque tuarum est;
Longaevosque senes ac fessas aequore matres,
Et quidquid tecum invalidum metuensque pericli est,
Delige, et his habeant terris sine moenia fessi;
Urbem appellabunt permisso nomine Acestam.

heaven or demanded by the order of fate, to show how completely the responses represented and were identified with the events. The events or responses are said to be portended by the wrath of the gods, whereas we should rather expect to hear that the wrath of the gods was itself portended by supernatural appearances: but though portendere' seems generally to bear the latter meaning, the substantive 'portentum' is quite in accordance with the former. Responsum dare' occurs elsewhere, as in E. 1. 45, of a god giving forth a response to those who consulted him, but there can be no reason why it should not be used also of suggesting a response to another which he is to give forth. Ribbeck reads 'hac' after Dietsch, from one of his cursives. 'Ordo' of the fates 3. 376. 'Poscere' of the fates 4. 614., 7. 272., 8. 12, 477.

708.] Solatus:' see on G. 1. 293. Infit' probably with his vocibus,' like "talibus infit" 10. 860. Döderlein (Syn. 3. 160) remarks that Livy is the only prose writer who uses the word, and that only in the early and, so to say, poetical part of his history.

709.] This and the next line have been cited on v. 22 above as parallel. If there is any special significance in trahunt retrahuntque,' it would seem to be 'Whether the fates draw us towards Italy, as they have hitherto done, or apparently repel us from it, as by this late visitation, let us follow them in either case-in the one by prosecuting our voyage, in the other by leaving behind us those who have shown themselves unfit for the enterprise, or whose means of transport have been destroyed.'

710.] The sentiment is general, not, as Wagn. thinks, confined to the special oc

715

711.] Acestes, like you, is a Trojan, and, like you, of divine lineage.' Comp. v. 38 above, where both sides of his descent are given.

712.] For consiliis' some MSS. have consilii,' but the dat. is more poetical, without raising the question about this form of the genitive. With coniunge' Forb. comp. "socium summis adiungere rebus 9. 199. 'Volentem :'- Nautes guarantees Acestes' readiness to act.

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713.] Superant'"supersunt." The meaning is, those whom the loss of the ships has rendered superfluous, i.e. the crews of the four burnt vessels.

714.] Those who have begun to tire of the vastness of the enterprise and of following your fortunes.'

715.] "Longaevosque senes:' ita dixit Tibull. 1. 8. 50 veteres senes.' Neque tamen ea est abundantia verborum." Gossrau, rightly, if he means that in both passages the idea of old age is intended to be specially dwelt on and enforced. "Fessas aequore matres' v. 615 above.

716.] The neuter is used, perhaps rather slightingly, as in 1. 601.

718.] Permisso,' not, as Serv. thinks, by Acestes, but, as explained by Cerda (who however himself reads 'promisso' from Rom. (?) and others), by Aeneas as a compliment to Acestes. Thus the line

Talibus incensus dictis senioris amici,
Tum vero in curas animo diducitur omnis.
Et Nox atra polum bigis subvecta tenebat:
Visa dehinc caelo facies delapsa parentis
Anchisae subito talis effundere voces:
Nate, mihi vita quondam, dum vita manebat,
Care magis, nate, Iliacis exercite fatis,
Inperio Iovis huc venio, qui classibus ignem
Depulit, et caelo tandem miseratus ab alto est.

will be equivalent to "Permitte ut appel-
lent urbem Acestam." The city is the
same as Segesta or Egesta, the name of
Acestes being otherwise given as Egestus:
see on v. 38 above.