Suspensae ad ventos; aliis sub gurgite vasto Infectum eluitur scelus, aut exuritur igni ; Quisque suos patimur Manis; exinde per amplum Mittimur Elysium, et pauci laeta arva tenemus;

Donec longa dies, perfecto temporis orbe,
Concretam exemit labem, purumque relinquit
Aetherium sensum atque aurai simplicis ignem.

reward of a good life, not a place of temporary sojourn previous to a return to earth: there is nothing in vv. 741, 742, as compared with vv. 745-747, to show that the degree of purification contemplated in the latter is intended to be higher than that in the former: the mille anni' of v. 748 are plainly parallel to the 'longa dies' of v. 745; and it can hardly be meant that the more highly purified spirits return to earth without a draught of Lethe. A general view of the context seems to require, as Heyne and some of the early editors, and more lately Henry, have seen, that the souls which are purified and sent back to earth should be distinguished from the select few who are purified and established in Elysium, and this the change of person decidedly favours. The words

-

pauci - tenemus' then, if not the previous clause, will refer to the latter, the whole of the following lines to the former, who, as being far the larger number, are spoken of as if they were the whole body. But this sense, though required by the context and favoured by the language, does not suit the order of the passage. Heyne and his contemporaries wished to get rid of the difficulty by transposing the two lines before us, which is Ribbeck's remedy; Henry thinks they are no more than an ordinary Virgilian parenthesis. The first suggestion appears to me as much too violent as the second is too lenient. The supposition of a confusion of the order introduced by the transcribers is at all times hazardous (see on G. 4. 203 -205), and is exposed to unusual suspicion here, as the lines would still look awkward if placed, where alone they could be placed, after v. 747, so that Heyne inclines to treat them as altogether spurious; while on the other hand, if Virg. intended no more than an ordinary parenthesis, it must be admitted that his sentence is exceedingly ill-constructed. I think then that every thing points to the supposition, which at one time occurred to Heyne himself, that we have here one of the passages in the Aeneid (the case of the Georgics is different: see on G. 4. 203-205) which Virg. left unfinished. His whole conception of a metempsychosis seems, as I have said in the prefatory remarks to this book, to be really inconsistent with the general picture which he gives of the world of

745

spirits, and so he naturally found a diffi culty in harmonizing the two in Anchises' narrative. Had the Aeneid been a finished poem, the obstacle would doubtless have been surmounted so far as the mechanical structure of the present passage is concerned, but we should have felt it nevertheless in reading the Sixth Book. A doubt still remains whether 'mittimur' refers to the whole body of the departed, as 'patimur' evidently does, or to the few spoken of in the next clause. In the one case the meaning will be that the whole multitude is sent through Elysium, the greater part to drink the Lethe water and then return to life, the few to remain in Elysium: in the other, that the few are distributed among the spacious plains, a use of 'per' for which see on 1. 680. On the whole the former view seems to agree best with the language of these two lines, while any objection which may be raised to it from the language of vv. 748 foll., where Lethe seems to be introduced for the first time, is obviated by the consideration mentioned above, that the present passage as left by Virg. is not meant to cohere with the context. Pauci tenemus' like "pauci-adnavimus" 1.538.

745.] "Longa dies" 5. 783. The expression seems to be Virg.'s own, but Lucr. 1. 557 has "longa diei infinita aetas." Perfecto temporis orbe' is explained by v. 748.

746.] Rom. has 'tabem," "nec hoc male," says Heyne: but 'labem 'is clearly better. Relinquit' (fragm. Vat., Med.) is restored by Wagn. after Jahn for 'reliquit' (Pal., Rom., Gud.).

747.] Aetherium-ignem,' the "partem divinae mentis et haustus aetherios " of G. 4.220. 'Sensus' is here the sentient power. It is a very favourite word with Lucr., but almost the only passage in him which illustrates the present is 5. 144, where he denies that natural objects are "divino praedita sensu." An English reader may remember the disembodied Arvalan in Southey's Curse of Kehama, "all naked feeling and raw life." 'Aurai simplicis ignem:' comp. vv. 204, 733 above and v. 762 below, and see on 1. 546, G. 4. 220. Med., Rom., and Pal. have aurae :'aurai' is found however in one of Ribbeck's cursives and (from a correction) in Gud. and

Has omnis, ubi mille rotam volvere per annos,
Lethaeum ad fluvium deus evocat agmine magno,
Scilicet inmemores supera ut convexa revisant
Rursus et incipiant in corpora velle reverti.

Dixerat Anchises, natumque unaque Sibyllam
Conventus trahit in medios turbamque sonantem,
Et tumulum capit, unde omnis longo ordine posset
Adversos legere, et venientum discere voltus.
Nunc age, Dardaniam prolem quae deinde sequatur

another, possibly also in fragm. Vat. as
corrected, and is acknowledged by Serv.
on 7. 464 as one of the four instances in
which Virg. has used this form of the
genitive, the others being 7 1. c., 3. 354,
and 9. 26, in the first and third of which
there is also variety in the MSS. 'Purum'
is doubtless meant to go with both 'sen-
sum' and ignem,' but simplicis' is
thrown in that we may not feel the want
of it in the latter clause.

748.] Rotam volvere' seems merely to express the completion of a period, as Serv. explains it, remarking, "est autem sermo Ennianus." Comp. the use of "volvens" G. 2. 295, and see on 1. 9. Whether the revolution is one of the whole period, or, as 'per' might seem to show, of each successive year, it would perhaps be a refinement to inquire. The mention of a thousand years is probably suggested by the mythe in Plato Rep. 10 p. 615, where those who have done wrong in life are punished through ten periods of a hundred years each, a hundred years being the estimated length of a life-time on earth, so that each criminal receives tenfold punishment, after which they are allowed to choose new lives, and each is made to drink of the river of Indifference (see on v. 715), as a preliminary to his new existence. Comp. also Plato Phaedr. p. 249, where the period is similarly given. In Pind. fr. 98 (Bergk ed. 1), quoted by Plato Meno p. 81, the return to earth takes place in the ninth year.

749.] Comp. vv. 714, 715. Deus' generally, like ó cós or d daluar, not, as Serv. says some take it, specially of Mercury. Evocat' from their place of discipline. 'Agmine magno" G. 1. 381. Here it expresses the manner in which the spirits flock to the call, so that it qualifies not so much 'evocat' or 'has omnis' as a verbal notion supplied in thought. Serv. has a curious fancy that agmine'='inpetu' (see on 5. 211), which might be supported,

VOL. II.

750

755

were it worth while, by some points in the description of Plato Rep. 1. c.

دو

750.] "Supera convexa v. 241 above. Med. originally had super,' which Ribbeck adopts, as in vv. 241, 787., 7. 562.

751.] Anchises answers Aeneas' question vv. 719 foll., how those who had been set free from the body could wish to return to it. Perhaps it is best with the later editors to place no stop after 'rursus,' leaving it to be taken with both verbs, revisant' and 'reverti.' Gossrau has colleeted many instances where it is used with compounds of re,' such as 'rursum redire" Ter. Adelph. 1. 1. 46., 4. 2. 40. Comp. v. 449 above. So máλiv αὖθις, αὖθις αὖ.

66

752-755.] They mount an eminence, which commands a view of those spirits destined to future life.'

753.] "Turbamque sonantem" 12. 248. See on v. 709 above.

754.] "Tumulum capit" 12. 562. 'Posset' is restored by Wagn. from Med., Pal., Rom., and others for possit,' which has the support of fragm. Vat. and Gud. Either might stand in point of grammar (Madv. § 382, obs. 3), nor can much be made of the external evidence, as the words are constantly confounded in MSS. (Madv. Emendationes Livianae, p. 302, Munro pref. to Lucretius, p. vi). The MSS. of Nonius s. v. 'legere' have 'possent.'

755.] Neither Forc. nor Freund quotes any other instance of this use of 'legere,' which however differs from that of reading only as the object of the latter is more restricted. Our word to scan' appears to express it exactly. Perlegere has occurred in a similar sense above v. 34.

756-787.] Anchises shows Aeneas the long train of Alban kings, his future descendants, ending in Romulus, the founder of Rome.'

756.] Deinde,' proceeding from the present point of time, as in v. 890 below. L 1

Gloria, qui maneant Itala de gente nepotes,
Inlustris animas nostrumque in nomen ituras,
Expediam dictis, et te tua fata docebo.
Ille, vides, pura iuvenis qui nititur hasta,
Proxuma sorte tenet lucis loca, primus ad auras
Aetherias Italo commixtus sanguine surget,
Silvius, Albanum nomen, tua postuma proles,
Quem tibi longaevo serum Lavinia coniunx

'Sequatur' means little more than at-
tends on;' but the word is doubtless
chosen to suggest a notion of futurity.
757.] 'Manere' of destiny, as in v. 84
above, 3. 505 &c. Itala de gente,' of
the Italian family to be born from La-
vinia.

760

commixtus sanguine,' Italian blood mingling in his veins with our own. So Evander speaks of Pallas as "mixtus matre Sabella " 8. 510, his own race being regarded as the normal element. Some of Pierius' MSS. have "mixtus de sanguine."

763.] Albanum nomen' seems to indicate that the name afterwards became a common one at Alba, as Livy 1. 3, quoted by Forb., says "mansit Silvius postea omnibus cognomen qui Albae regnaverunt."

758.] We might have expected' animae -iturae,' but Virg. has preferred to give a new object to expediam,' doubtless for the sake of variety. Nostrum in nomen ituras,' apparently a metaphor from taking physical possession of a territory or inhe-Postumus' means no more than latest: ritance. Forb. comp. the phrases in nomen adsciscere,' 'adsumere,' of adoption into a family. Nomen' seemingly not of the royal family of Troy, but of the Trojan nation generally (comp. nomen Latinum "), as the Roman worthies are mentioned afterwards indiscriminately, without reference to descent from Aeneas: but it is not easy to say in a context like this, where Anchises speaks of himself and his son as the founders of a nation. With the line comp. generally v. 680 above.

759.]Expediam dictis' 3. 379.

760.] Vides' parenthetical, like spas. 'Pura hasta :" "id est, sine ferro: nam hoc fuit praemium apud maiores eius qui tunc primum vicisset in proelio: sicut ait Varro in libris de gente pop. Rom." Serv., who apparently means that it was given to young men on their first military success, a sense sufficiently appropriate here. From Prop. 5. 3. 68, Suet. Claud. 28, it seems to have been bestowed on the occa. sion of the celebration of a triumph. Others explain it as bloodless:' and Donatus makes it the emblem of peace.

761.] Comp. v. 434 above. Tenet' of virtual rather than actual possession, 'lucis loca' being a place in the upper world. Heins. wished to read 'luci.' Sorte: the custom of drawing lots for places (comp. 5. 132) is transferred to the shades, as in such passages as Hor. 2 Od. 3. 25 foll.

762.] Aetherias:' see on 1. 546. Italo

it came however to be applied to children born after the father's death (Plaut. Aul. 2. 1. 40, Varro L. L. 9. 38),-or born after the father's last will (Gaius Inst. 1. 147, Ulpian Dig. 26. 2, referred to by Freund s. v.: see Dict. A. "Heres," Roman). Here it evidently has its ori ginal meaning, as Caesellius Vindex ap. Gell. 2. 16 long ago remarked, though Serv. and in later times even Henry and Sir G. Lewis give it the sense of posthumous,' contrary to the plain meaning of the next line. Virg. seems to have intended to translate the Homeric τnλuye TOS, as the commentators remark. The word appears to be restricted to children, till we come to writers like Apuleius and Tertullian, who use it as convertible with

postremus.' In the legendary accounts Silvius seems actually to have been called Silvius Postumus: see Lewis, Credibility, vol. 1, pp. 357 foll.

764.] The story, as told by Serv. here and on 1. 270 and others (Lewis, p. 356), is that Lavinia was left pregnant at Aeneas' death, when, fearing Ascanius, she took refuge in the woods and there brought forth Silvius; after which an arrangement, variously related, was made, by which Lavinium was left to Lavinia, and Ascanius founded Alba. In the latter kingdom Silvius eventually succeeded Ascanius, either in default of heirs, or because the actual heir, named Iulus, was too young.

Educet silvis regem regumque parentem,
Unde genus Longa nostrum dominabitur Alba.
Proxumus ille Procas, Troianae gloria gentis,
Et Capys, et Numitor, et qui te nomine reddet