15

96

or veru,' a javelin' opposed to the 'long spear' or hasta, with both which the men of the fourth class in the arrangement of Servius Tullius were armed [Liv. 1, 43].

34. For these proper names you must consult a history or Classical Dictionary. Vergil uses the plural because he is speaking in general terms, and of course there were several Scipios who were famous, but we only know of one eminent Marius. Scipiades is a patronymic form from Scipio used for convenience of versification. Caesar i.e. Augustus.

36-37. This refers either to the campaign of Octavian against Antony which was ended by the battle of Aetium B.C. 31; or to his progress through Syria in B.C. 21-20, during which he received the standards lost by Crassus, an event so often mentioned by the poets. The consideration of dates however makes it pretty certain that the former is the event referred to. Indus is put here loosely for the East generally.

38. Saturnia tellus] Italy is called 'the land of Saturnus' from the myth of Saturnus (whose name is connected with sero sat-us) coming to Latium when expelled from heaven by Jupiter (Aen. 8, 319). Another version of the myth makes Saturnus the most ancient king of Latium, who in later times was honoured as the god of agriculture and peaceful arts.

41. Ascraeum] i.e. a poem on agriculture like that of Hesiod, who lived at Ascra, in Boeotia.

XII.

[The poet, in recommending the planting of vines in spring, takes occasion to give a glowing description of the birth-season of the world, which he imagines to have been a soft and genial spring-time.]

3-4. The moisture of the sky descending upon and fertilising the earth is expressed by the myth of Jupiter [often used for the real physical sky] descending into the lap of his spouse Terra. It seems taken from Lucretius 1, 250, postremo pereunt imbres ubi eos pater aether In gremium matris terrai praecipitavit. Spenser has also imitated the phrase (F.Q. 1, 6):

"The day with cloudes was suddeine overcast,
And angry Jove an hideous storme of raine
Did pour into his leman's lap so fast.

8-9. parturit] 'is teeming.'

'abounds on all.'

superat omnibus dat.

14-16. 'Just such days I could imagine broke, and just such course they kept.'

19. ferrea] 'hard,' cp. G. 1, 63, unde homines nati durum genus. Some editions have terrea, born from the earth.' There is no reference in ferrea to the 'iron age'; Vergil calls the race of men 'hard' in reference to their creation from stones, and to the hardness of their early struggle for existence, the laborem of v. 21.

21--2. tenerae] 'young.' tanta quies, 'a season of such mildness.'

XIII.

[The poet asserts that if his genius had allowed of it the studies which would most have delighted him would have been those of the laws of the universe. But as he cannot follow those from want of natural aptitude, he finds refuge as the next best thing in the scenes and pursuits of the country.]

2.

quarum sacra fero] 'whose high-priest I am.'

4. labores] 'eclipses' a poetical equivalent of defectus. 7-8. The reason of the difference of length of the days in winter and summer.

9-10. frigidus...sanguis] By the 'chill blood round my heart,' the poet means a slowness of genius for these particular studies. The ancients imagined the heart and breast to be the seat of the intellect, the liver of love, the head of anger.

sin obstiterit ne possim] 'but if it shall have prevented my being able,' etc.

13-14. Spercheus] a river in Thessaly flowing through a rich plain into the Maliac Gulf 'The plains and Spercheus' is an hendiadys for 'the plains of the Spercheus.' Taygeta, the mountain of Laconia which extends to Taenarus (Matapan). The form Taygeta is neut. plur., though Taygetum [TavyeтOV] does not occur. The most usual form is Taygetus. bacchata

16

17

the scene of the Bacchic revels of the Spartan virgins, bacchari a depon. verb 'to celebrate the orgies of Bacchus,' has a passive participle, as is often the case. Cp. 30, 26.

Haemi] in Thrace, the scene of the exploits of Orpheus.

16-18. 'Happy he who knows the laws of nature, and has therefore ceased to fear natural phenomena and has learnt to despise the fabled terrors of Hades.' Vergil has been thought by some to refer to Lucretius by the felix qui potuit; but the reference is more general perhaps, to all such as having imbibed the Epicurean philosophy have learnt to assign phenomena to their natural causes, and to despise the fables of the popular superstition. The thoughts and expressions are from Lucretius [see Monr. on Lucr. 1, 78], more particularly the subjecit pedibus, cp. Lucr. quare religio pedibus subjecta vicissim opteritur. Tennyson thus expresses this side of the Lucretian philosophy:

'Till that hour

My golden work in which I told a truth
That stays the rolling Ixionian wheel

And numbs the Fury's ringlet-snake, and plucks
The mortal soul from out immortal hell,
Shall stand.'

19. fortunatus et ille] 'he too is blest,' perhaps felix is the stronger word. The two may differ almost as eurúxns and evdaíuwv (felix), the latter representing the philosophical summum bonum.

20. The gods of the country.

21. populi fasces] 'the fasces (i.e. consulships, etc.) which the people bestow.'

23. Dacus] a people north of the Danube, which was the north boundary of the empire. The Daci were at war with Rome from B.C. 30 for twenty years. They descend from their mountains over the Danube when frozen, as the Getae and Sauromatae did according to Ovid (T. 3, 10).

27. ferrea jura] rigorous law.' tabularia, 'record. offices.' These were usually in temples. The tabularium of the capitol is still extant. It is put here generally for 'public business to which such records belonged.

29-8. Vergil enumerates all the labours, dangers, and crimes, which men face from motives of ambition or greed.

32. ut gemma bibat] 'that he may drink from a jewelled cup.'

Sarrano ostro] 'on a bed covered with Tyrian purple.' Sarra is a name of Tyre, the Hebrew Zor.

33. Another is a miser. defosso 'buried in the earth.' The custom of burying money continued to be common at least as late as the seventeenth century in England. incubat, 'broods over.'

34. rostris] the place from which the orators spoke in the forum: so called from being close to the columna rostrata, or column adorned with the beaks of the ships taken by Duillius.

35. cuneos] the 'wedge' shaped compartments into which the seats in a theatre were divided by the descending lanes for the audience to get to their places by. It is here used for the seats generally. geminatus ́again and again renewed.'

36. fratrum] i.e. their fellow citizens and even kinsmen; a reference to the unnatural conflicts of the civil war.

37. exilio mutant] 'exchange for exile.'

39-41. With these stormy and guilty pursuits the peaceful employments of the farmer are contrasted.

'The farmer meanwhile has broken the soil with his curved ploughshare.' The perfect is used to express the action of the farmers as having gone on while these horrors were passing.

41. meritos] 'who have earned their sustenance by their labours.'

XIV.

[An animated description of the start of a chariot-race, and the eagerness of horses and drivers in the course, imitated from Hom. Il. 23, 262 sq. Chariot-races took place in the Circus

Maximus.]

1-2. campum corripuere] an imitation of Homer's diénρnoσov medíolo [Il. 23, 364]: the perfect represents the instantaneousness of the action 'have in a moment plunged o'er

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the plain.' effusi carcere, the carcer was a wooden barrier in front of the chariots, thrown down when they were to start. Lucretius (2, 263) has patefactis tempore puncto carceribus.

3. exultantia...pulsans] and throbbing fear tightens their beating hearts, Homer's πάτασσε δὲ θυμὸς ἑκάστου. haurit = 'drains,' i.e. draws the blood, and causes a feeling of pressure or tightness.

4. verbere torto] 'with twisted thong.' verber, 'the blow is put for the instrument which inflicts it, the flagellum. Cp. 26, 4.

5. proni dant lora] 'lean forward and let out the reins,' i.e. give the horses their heads. The charioteers lean forward because the thong of the reins is round their bodies, and also because it is the natural attitude in their eagerness to urge on the horses.'

6-7. The chariots being small with low wheels naturally fly off the ground continually when going fast. Cp. Il. 23, 368, ἅρματα δ' ἄλλοτε μὲν χθονὶ πίλνατο πουλυβοτείρῃ ἄλλοτε δ ̓ ἀΐξασκε μετήορα.

8-9. fulvae...tollitur] cp. Hom. vrè dè σréρVOLO KOVÍN ἵστατ ̓ ἀειρομένη ὥστε νέφος ἠὲ θύελλα.

humescunt...sequentum] The race is so close that the foam and breath from the mouth of the horse behind besprinkles the back of the driver in front, ep. Hom. πνοιῇ δὲ Εὐμήλοιο μετάφρενον εὐρέε τ ̓ ὤμω θέρμετο.

10.

tantae curae] dat. of predicate. P. § 108.

XV.

[Two bulls fight for the possession of a heifer. A scene from the wild grazing districts of Italy.]

1. Sila] a mountain district in the country of the Buttii, in the toe of Italy. Mod. Aspromonte.

2-3. illi i.e. the bulls. alternantes, 'first one striking and then the other.'