1.

Pyrrhi de caede] 'from the slaughter which Pyrrhus

was dealing.' Subjective gen. L.P. § 127.

33 3. porticibus longis] 'down the long colonnades.' Vergil speaks of Priam's palace as of the great houses of his day, in which colonnades (porticus), covered walks or cloisters, were a conspicuous feature, either round the atrium, peristyle, or garden. atria the atrium was properly the first court of a house entered from the vestibulum, and in which was the impluvium. But it is here used for any court.

=

4. infesto vulnere] 'in act to strike.' Vulnus, 'the wound,' put for the spear which inflicts it, as in 14, 4, verbere = flagello; cp. also 37, 200. infesto 'in a hostile position.' 7. concidit] he fell down heavily,' as a man struck with his death-wound. For the force of the word see on 17, 2. 8. hic] 'hereupon.'

10. at] begins abrupt exclamations [at tibi Colchorum... memini...regina vacavi, Ov. Epist. 7, 1], imprecations, and strong asseverations.

13-14. me cernere...fecisti] 'has caused me to see,' would generally in prose be fecisti ut cernerem or creverim, though Cicero has such a phrase as res oratores videri facit. coram 'before my very eyes.' patrios vultus 'a father's

eyes.'

15-16. satum] sc. esse 'from whence you falsely boast that you are sprung.' talis 'so cruel.'

17. erubuit] (erubesco) 'respected,' used as a transitive verb in its metaphorical sense. fidem supplicis 'faith to be kept towards a suppliant.' sepulcro 'for burial.' The mission of Priam to Achilles to beg the body of Hector is described in Iliad 24, 486 sq.

19-20. sine ictu] 'without inflicting a wound.' imbelle 'useless for purposes of war. rauco 'ringing' from the blow, as metal would when not pierced but struck. umbone is the leather covering of the shield into which the spear stuck, without penetrating the metal under it. umbo [akin to bupanos, umbilicus], is properly the central boss of the shield.

22. referes...ibis] futures used in sarcastic command. 24. Neoptolemum] another name of Pyrrhus.

25.

of fear.

trementem] seems to refer to the quaking of age, not ad ipsa altaria 'to the very altar,' i.e. the altar of the household gods within the palace.

28.

its case.

capulo tenus] 'to the hilt,' tenus regularly follows

29-30. haec] 'such was the end of Priam's chequered 34 fortunes.' prolapsa 'fallen into ruin.'

31-32. tot...Asiae] 'that ruler of Asia formerly exalted with all those peoples and territories that were his.' Asia, which in Vergil's mouth meant what we call Asia Minor, is used for that part of it comprised in the dominions of Troy. Thus in Aen. 11, 208, devictam Asiam means Agamemnon, the conqueror of Troy.

32. litore] The murder of Priam has just been said to have taken place in the palace, but litore is a reference to another legend of Priam's body having been exposed on the promontory of Sigeum. I have sometimes thought that Vergil had in his mind the scene of Pompey's murder on the shore near Alexandria, when his body was left neglected on the beach, to be burned by his freedman. ingens Priam had been a great warrior, and Vergil credits him with heroic size.

XXVII.

Of them

[There were various Sibyls, or inspired women. the most famous was the Cumaean, for whom see on 3, v. 1. Her dwelling-place at Cumae is a cave, as also that of the Sibyl of Tibur. Aeneas visits her cave to consult her, as afterwards her books were consulted by the Romans in times of difficulty. Helenus is speaking to Aeneas.]

1. Cumaean] see 2, 1.

2-3. lacus et Averna] 'lake Avernus,' hendiadys for lacus Avernus. Averna properly adj. sc. loca or stagna. 'haunted.' insanam inspired.'

divinos

4. notas et nomina] 'written words' for notas nominum.

6. digerit in numerum] 'arranges in due order.'

9. impulit] 'has caught them.' turbavit ianua the

I

35

door is said to do what it allows the wind to do by being opened.

11-12. situs] 'their relative position.' iungere 'restore the connection of.' inconsulti 'without the answer they sought,' 'uninstructed,' cp. the phrase iuris consultus instructed in the law,' i.e. a lawyer.

one

13. dispendia morae] 'loss of time.' tanti, 'of so much importance;' gen. of price, L.P. § 128 a.

14-15. cursus] 'the voyage you have before you.' secundos (proleptic) 'so as to forward your course'; this seems better than merely to say that the epithet of winds is applied to the sails (sinus).

15. quin] the construction is ne sint dispendia tanti quin adeas, [L.P. Append. 2, p. 167] 'Don't let loss of time be of count enough in your eyes to prevent your approaching.'

16. canat...resolvat] depend on poscas. The construction is poscas [ut] canat...resolvat, and begging her to prophesy...to open her lips,' cp. 32, 40. L.P. Append. 2, p. 161.

vocem

atque ora resolvat 'to unlock her voice and her lips,' i.e. 'to open her mouth and speak.'

20-21. venerata] 'in answer to your prayer,' or 'if you rightly beseech her.' haec so much and no more.'

liceat for this subj. see L. P. Append. 2, 166.

22. factis] by your achievements.' exalt to the skies,' i.e. make famous.

XXVIII.

quae...

fer ad aethera

[Mount Aetna, and the mythological account of its eruptions as caused by the giant Enceladus, who was buried beneath it.]

1. ab accessu ventorum immotus] 'sheltered from the wind.' ab accessu is not an instrumental ablative, it is rather to be explained in regard to the approach of the winds' on the analogy of ab omni parte in every respect'; and of the construction of tutus and the like, as in Ov. Ep. 12, 154, tuta nec a digitis ora fuere meis. The harbour is somewhere on the east coast of Sicily.

2.

ruinis] 'avalanches' of lava, debris, etc. ruina (ruo) is a downfall.

4-5. candente] 'white-hot,' sidera lambit "shoots tongues of fire to heaven.'

7-8. sub auras] 'skywards.' glomerat 'whirls' [from glomus, a ball of wool].

9. semiustum] 'scorched,' not killed. Enceladus one of the giants who tried to scale heaven.

The

11. ruptis caminis] 'as from riven furnaces.' mountain is supposed to be fired by the burning Enceladus, and then to throw out smoke as from a furnace. The furnaces are rupti because of the flames bursting from them. Henry (quoted by Con.) says: "The image is the more correct because eruptions in a volcano are apt not to follow the track of former eruptions but to make new openings for themselves through the solid sides of the mountain.'

12. mutet] The subjunctive is used in subordinate clauses of Oblique Oration, the main verbs being in infinitive urgeri exspirare, L. P. p. 156, 3.

13. ἄκραι].

14.

Trinacria] the three-cornered land, i.e. Sicily [7peîs..... subtexere, 'to veil,' lit. 'to weave under.'

monstra]' portents.' immania supernatural and so 'terrifying' [in.. mânus

=

good].

16. aethra siderea] 'starry sheen' [atopa = bright, clear 36 air]. For no constellations were burning, nor was the sky aglow with sheen of stars.'

18. nox intempesta] 'the dead stillness of night,' cp. G. 1, 247, intempesta silet nox semper. intempesta, [in...tempus] means the time of night in which no change can be observed, 'the dead of night.' nimbo 'in sombre mist.'

XXIX.

[A description of Fame or Rumour; an impersonification of that mysterious influence by which an evil report unaccountably spreads, as though by instinct, far and wide, and which the Greeks called φήμη.]

1. extemplo] 'at once.' [The word is contracted from extempulo (Plaut.), tempulum is a dimin. of templum a dividedoff space,' hence = punctus sc. temporis.]

3. mobilitate] 'by its ceaseless motion' [mobilitas, mobilis sc. movibilis is from the root which appears in moveo.] primo,

'at first,' adverb, not adj. agreeing with metu.

7. Coeo Enceladoque] see 28, 9.

8. pedibus celerem] 'swift of foot'; abl. of respect, L.P. § 116. pernicibus alis 'with fleet wings'; abl. of quality, L.P. § 115.

9-11. Under every feather of her body there are a pair of eyes and ears, a mouth and tongue. subrigit pricks up,' i.e. to listen.

12. caeli medio terraeque] between heaven and earth.'

14. culmine tecti] 'the ridge of a roof,' i.e. of a private house, while turribus altis are the towers of the town wall. Vergil therefore means that fame like some evil bird perches on public and private buildings alike, i.e. she interferes in public and private life.

XXX.

[Aeneas, who has been staying long with Dido in her new town of Carthage, at last urged by the call of the gods to fulfil his destiny by settling in Italy, leaves the harbour of Carthage before daybreak, and without the knowledge of Dido. She only knows that he has gone by seeing his fleet full sail standing out to sea. Her love is thus despised, the sacrifice of her good name neglected, and the faithless lover gone beyond recall. In her agony and fury she prays that the Carthaginians may nurse an undying hate for the descendants of the treacherous Trojans. Vergil of course means in this to make Dido unconsciously the prophet of the long feud between Rome and Carthage, only ended by the destruction of the latter.]

37 2. Tithoni] whom Aurora loved and gifted with eternal life. croceum] Cp. Tennyson's 'bed of daffodil sky.'

4. aequatis velis] It is not easy to see what Vergil exactly means by 'level sails'; perhaps he is indicating the