Page images
PDF
EPUB

Connixi incurrunt hastis, primique ruinam

620

Dant sonitu ingenti, perfractaque quadrupedantum
Pectora pectoribus rumpunt. Excussus Aconteus 615
Fulminis in morem, aut tormento ponderis acti,
Præcipitat longè, et vitam dispergit in auras.
Extemplò turbatæ acies; versique Latini
Rejiciunt parmas, et equos ad monia vertunt.
Troës agunt; princeps turmas inducit Asylas.
Jamque propinquabant portis: rursùsque Latini
Clamorem tollunt, et mollia colla reflectunt:
Hi fugiunt, penitùsque datis referuntur habenis.
Qualis ubi alterno procurrens gurgite pontus
Nunc ruit ad terras, scopulosque superjacit undam
Spumeus, extremamque sinu perfundit arenam :
Nunc rapidus retrò, atque æstu revoluta resorbens
Saxa, fugit, litusque vado labente relinquit.
Bis Tusci Rutulos egêre ad monia versos:
Bis rejecti armis respectant terga tegentes.

Tertia sed postquam congressi in prælia, totas
Implicuêre inter se acies, legitque virum vir.

NOTES.

darts, that they intercepted the rays of the

sun.

613. Ruinam: onset-charge. Impetum, RVS Ruæus.

614. Perfracta: dashed-broken. Quadrupedantum: in the sense of equorum.

615. Rumpunt pectora: they almost rive the breasts of their horses, dashed against each other-they rush their horses breast to breast against each other, with such impetuosity, that they almost split, or rived them. Heyne says, perfringunt.

616. In morem fulminis: Aconteus, thrown from his horse with the velocity of lightning, or of a weight thrown by an engine. This is an extravagant hyperbole. Præcipitat: in the sense of præcipitatur: is thrown, at a distance.

619. Rejiciunt parmas: they turned their shields behind them. This was to secure them against the missive weapons of the Trojans in their retreat. This manner of fleeing, and then facing about, was according to the rules of fighting with the cavalry, as practised by the Romans.

620. Agunt: in the sense of instant vel sequuntur.

622. Mollia: obedient-submissive to the

reins.

623. Penitùs: fully-wholly. Ruæus says, omninò. It is to be connected with datis. The Trojans retreat (are carried back) at full speed-as fast as their horses can carry them.

624. Procurrens alterno: rolling forward in alternate surges. Pontus: in the sense of fluctus, says Heyne. Ruæus says mare. But then he takes the poet here to have reference to the ebb and flow of the tide.

625

630

618. Acies Latinorum turbatæ sunt

622. Mollia colla equo

rum

623. Hi, nempe, Trojani fugiunt invicem 624. Qualis ubi pontus procurrens alterno gurgite

630. Rutuli bis rejecti respectant Tuscos

This, also, is the sense given to the passage by Davidson. Heyne and Valpy refer it to the moving of a wave, or surge, against the shore.

626. Sinu perfundit: and washes the margin (or edge) of the shore with its curling waves. Servius explains sinu, by curvatione et flexu, the curling and winding of the waves. It signifies the expanded skirts, or volumes of water, into which the flowing sea stretches itself further and further on the shore, and overspreads the beach like a garment.

627. Atque resorbens: and sucking in the rocks, rolled back with its tide, retreats backward. Rapidus: in the sense of celer vel præceps.

628. Vado: in the sense of fluctu vel undâ. The surge, or wave, declining, or going back, leaves the shore, until another surge succeeds. The retreat of the water from the shore is frequently so rapid, that it carries along with it stones and other substances that lie on the shore. To this the poet here alludes. But Heyne takes saxa revoluta astu, &c. to imply, that the waves passed over, or through the rock, in approaching and retreating from the shore: per quæ fluctus vel unda revolvitur, says he.

630. Respectant: they see the enemy covering their backs with their shields. The plain meaning is, that the Latins put the Tuscans to flight in turn: they see them covering their backs with their shields.

631. Tertia prælia: the third assaultthe third time they engaged.

632. Implicuêre: in the sense of miscu erunt. They engaged in close fight.

633. Gemitus mori- Tum verò et gemitus morientûm; et sanguine in alto

eutûm audiuntur

Armaque, corporaque, et permisti cæde virorum
Semianimes volvuntur equi: pugna aspera surgit.
Orsilochus Remuli, quando ipsum horrebat adire,
Hastam intorsit equo, ferrumque sub aure reliquit.

638. Jactat crura alta, Quo sonipes ictu furit arduus, altaque jactat,
Vulneris impatiens, arrecto pectore crura.
Catillus Iolam,

pectore
640. Ille Remulus ex- Volvitur ille excussus bumi.
cussus equo
641. Catillus dejicit
Iolam, Herminiumque
ingentem

Ingentemque animis, ingentem corpore et armis
Dejicit Herminium: nudo cui vertice fulva
Cæsaries, nudique humeri: nec vulnera terrent :

642. Cui erat fulva Tantus in arma patet. Latos huic hasta per armos
cæsaries in nudo ver- Acta tremit, duplicatque virum transfixa dolore.
tice, humerique erant

649. Amazon, nempe Camilla pharetrata exsultat, exserta quoad

Funditur ater ubique cruor: dant funera ferro
Certantes: pulchramque petunt per vulnera mortem.
At medias inter cædes exsultat Amazon,
Unum exserta latus pugnæ, pharetrata Camilla.
Et nunc lenta manu spargens hastilia denset,
Nunc validam dextrâ rapit indefessa bipennem.
Aureus ex humero sonat arcus, et arma Dianæ.
Illa etiam, si quando in tergum pulsa recessit,
Spicula converso fugientia dirigit arcu.

655. At circum eam, At circùm lectæ comites, Larinaque virgo,
Tullaque, et æratam quatiens Tarpeia securim,

sunt lectæ

635

640

645

650

655

NOTES.

636. Horrebat adire: he feared to attack Turnebus approves. him.

Timeret, says Ruæus.

638. Jactat crura: The meaning is, that his horse reared upon his hind feet, throwing his fore feet, and beating the air with them. In doing this, he threw his rider.

:

642. Dejicit in the sense of prosternit. Cui: in the sense of cujus. So huic: for hujus, 644. infra. Vertice: in the sense of capite. His yellow hair waved upon his naked head.

644. Patet tantus: so great he stands opposed to arms. This is the sense given to the words by Davidson; who observes, that Servius, and most commentators after him, understand the words to mean: that he stood so large a mark exposed to the darts of the enemy. But this is so far from being a reason for his not being afraid, that it is a strong reason why he should be. In, may be taken in the sense of contrà.

645. Acta: in the sense of immissa; agreeing with hasta. Transfixa: passing through his shoulders, doubles the man with the pain of the wound. The pain inflicted by the spear was so great, that he was no longer able to maintain an erect posture. Rumus says, incurvat hominem.

The reading above is that of Heyne, founded upon the Roman, Medicean, and other MSS. of antiquity, and generally acopied by modern editors. Some read miicatque viri transfixa dolorem. This

Others read dupli

catque, virum transfixa, dolorem.
647. Certantes: a part. of the verb certo,
taken as a sub. The combatants-the
contending armies.

649. Exserta unum latus pugnæ: her right side was naked, and disengaged for action, (pugnæ,) but her left was incumbered with her bow, and half-moon shield. Such a shield the Amazons wore. Or, pugna may signify the attacks of the enemy. Then the sense will be: that she had one side (to wit, the right,) exposed to the enemy, while the other was covered with her shield; which prepares the reader for the circumstance mentioned afterwards, of her receiving her mortal wound in this part of her body. Camilla is here called an Amazon, because she was armed like one of them.

650. Spargens: this expresses, as well as denset, the rapidity with which she repeated her throws. She scattered her javelins thick on every side. Spargit densè, says Heyne.

652. Arma: in the sense of sagittæ.

653. In tergum: backward: in the sense of retrò.

654. Spicula: the winged arrows from her inverted bow. She turned her bow over her shoulder, and in that position discharged her winged arrow upon the enemy. In this manner the Parthians conducted

Italides quas ipsa decus sibi dia Camilla
2 Delegit, pacisque bonas bellique ministras.
Quales Threïciæ, cùm flumina Thermodontis
Pulsant, et pictis bellantur Amazones armis;
Seu circum Hippolyten; seu cùm se Martia curru
Penthesilea refert; magnoque ululante tumultu
Fœminea exsultant lunatis agmina peltis.

[blocks in formation]

664. O aspera virgo

665

Quem telo primum, quem postremum, aspera virgo, Dejicis? aut quot humi morientia corpora fundis? Eumenium Clytio primùm patre; cujus apertum Adversi longâ transverberat abjete pectus. Sanguinis ille vomens rivos cadit, atque cruentam Mandit humum, moriensque suo se in vulnere versat. Tum Lirin Pagasumque supèr: quorum alter, habenas Suffosso revolutus equo dum colligit; alter Dum subit, ac dextram labenti tendit inermem, Præcipites pariterque ruunt. His addit Amastrum Hippotaden sequiturque incumbens eminùs hastâ Tereaque, Harpalycumque, et Demophoonta, Chromim

que :

Quotque emissa manu contorsit spicula virgo;
Tot Phrygii cecidêre viri. Procul Ornytus armis
Ignotis, et equo venator Iapyge fertur :
Cui pellis latos humeros erepta juvenco
Pugnatori operit; caput ingens oris hiatus,
Et malæ texêre lupi cum dentibus albis ;

NOTES.

their retreat; which the poet here has in his view.

657. Italides: Italian nymphs. 658. Bonas: skilful-expert. 659. Flumina: the river, put by meton. for the banks of the river. They beat the banks so as to make the river resound. Thermodontis: gen. of Thermodon, a river of Thrace, the country said to have been inhabited by the Amazons.

660. Pictis armis: with party-colored, or variegated arms. Bellantur: in the sense of pugnant.

661. Hippolyten. Hippolyte was a famous queen of the Amazons. It is said she was vanquished by Hercules. Penthesilea was also queen of that female race. She came to the assistance of Priam during the Trojan war, and was slain by Achilles, or his son Parrhus. See En. i. 491.

662. Magnoque ululante: with a loud yelling noise.

663. Lunatis peltis: with their crescent shields-shields in the form of a half moon, 664. Aspera: in the sense of bellicosa. 665. Fundis: in the sense of sternis. 667. Abjete: for abiete: the fir tree-any thing made of the wood of that tree-a spear or javelin of that wood. Adversi: an adj. agreeing with cujus: right against opposite to-in front of.

666. Primùm interficit Eumenium natum

671

670. Tum interficit Lirin, Pagasumque supèr. Illi ruunt præcipites pariterque; quorum alter

675

678. Venator Ornytus fertur in ignotis

680

670. Supèr in the sense of prætereà: beside-in addition to those before mentioned. 671. Revolutus: falling backward from his wounded horse, while, &c.

672. Labenti: to him falling-to his falling friend.

673. Pariter: at the same time-both at once fall to the ground. Ruunt: in the sense of cadunt.

674. Incumbens: in the sense of petens vel instans. The simple meaning of the expression is: she killed these men as they stood at a distance from her, with her javelins, thrown at them. Virgil had an admirable talent for varying his style and expression.

678 Ignotis armis: arms that were strange and unusual to him. Iapyge, for Iapygio: an adj. from Iapyx, the son of Dedalus, who first settled in Apulia: Apulian.Fertur: rides along-moves on.

679. Cui in the sense of cujus. Juvenco: in the sense of tauro. This was some wild bull, killed by the hunter, in whose hide he had dressed himself. Pugnatori: put in apposition with juvenco. Heyne says, syl vestri-cum quo pugnaverat.

680. Ingens hiatus: lit. the large opening of the mouth, and the jaws of a wolf with His head white teeth, covered his head. was covered with the skin taken from the

vertice

Agrestisque manus armat sparus. ipse catervis

685

683. Suprà alios toto Vertitur in mediis, et toto vertice suprà est. Hunc illa exceptum ; neque enim labor, agmine verso ; Trajicit, et super hæc inimico pectore fatur: enim neque erat labor Sylvis te, Tyrrhene, feras agitare putâsti? ei; ejus agmine Advenit qui vestra dies muliebribus armis

684. Camilla illa trajicit hunc exceptum ;

tem

cit

685. Super eum jaren- Verba redarguerit. Nomen tamen haud leve patrum Manibus hoc referes, telo cecidisse Camillæ.

687. Dies advenit, qui

692. Quà colla

sedentis equo

Protinùs Orsilochum et Buten, duo maxima Teucrûm Corpora: sed Buten adversum cuspide fixit

691

690. Protinùs interfi

694. Illa fugiens

ejus Loricam galeamque inter, quà colla sedentis
Lucent, et lævo dependet parma lacerto ;
Orsilochum fugiens, magnumque agitata per orbem,
Eludit gyro interior, sequiturque sequentem.

695

Tum validam perque arma viro perque ossa securim,
Altior insurgens, oranti et multa precanti

Congeminat: vulnus calido rigat ora cerebro.

Incidit huic, subitoque aspectu territus hæsit.

700. Bellator

filius Apenninicolæ bellator filius Auni,

Auni Apenninicole, Haud Ligurum extremus, dum fallere fata sinebant.
haud extremus Ligu-
rum, dum fata sinebant Isque, ubi se nullo jam cursu evadere pugnâ
eum fallere, incidit huic, Posse, neque instantem reginam avertere, cernit ;
Consilio versare dolos ingressus et astu,

territusque

705. Quid est tam Incipit hæc quid tam egregium, si fœmina forti egregium, si tu bellatrix Fidis equo ? dimitte fugam, et te cominùs æquo fœmina fidis Mecum crede solo, pugnæque accinge pedestri: Jam nosces, ventosa ferat cui gloria fraudem.

707. Accinge te

[blocks in formation]

head of a wolf, while his shoulders were covered with the hide of a wild bull. The former the hero wore for a helmet, the latter for a corslet.

682. Sparus a kind of rustic weapon. 683. Vertitur: in the sense of incedit vel movet.

684. Exceptum in the sense of interceptum. Verso: routed-thrown into disorder. 688. Redarguerit: shall confute thy words. He had, perhaps, boasted of his valor.

Nomen: honor-renown.

691. Adversum: opposite-right against her. Pierius found aversum in some of the best manuscripts; but the sense is in favor of adversum : the wound which he received was in the throat, inter loricam, galeamque, which could not have happened, if his back had been turned towards her. Heyne reads

aversum.

694. Fugiens: the sense of this passage appears to be this: the queen, fleeing from Orsilochus, was pursued by him in a large circuit. Here she lost him in the crowd, (eludit,) that is, he lost sight of her, which was the object she had in view. Then turning about in a circle smaller, and on the inner side, (gyro interior,) she came in be hind him, who was supposing he was all the time in pursuit of her, and so became

the pursuer in turn. Coming up with him, rising high to give her blows more effect, she drove her sturdy axe through, &c.

696. Viro: in the sense of viri.

698. Congeminat: Ruæus says impingit. 699. Incidit huic: met her by chance. Hasit: stood amazed at the sudden and unexpected sight.

701. Ligurum gen. of Ligures. These were a people of Italy, whose country was bounded on the north by the Apennines, and extended to the Tuscan sea on the south. Cato mentions them as notorious for their tricks and deception. To this trait of character the poet here alludes, in the words fallere. &c. Pugnâ: Heyne reads pugnæ.

703. Instantem: pressing upon him.

704. Ingressus: attempting to effect (put in practice) his tricks and deception, by stratagem and cunning, he says (incipit, these things. Ruæus says, incipiens.

705. Forti: in the sense of celeri. 706. Dimitte fugam: dismiss your flightyour horse, which enables you to flee. quo solo: on the lovel ground-equal terms with me.

708. Ventosa gloria: vain-empty boasting. Ventosa is used here with peculiar propriety-- mere empty vaunting-light as

Dixit. At illa furens, acrique accensa dolore,
Tradit equum comiti, paribusque resistit in armis,
Ense pedes nudo, purâque interrita parmâ.
At juvenis, vicisse dolo ratus, avolat ipse,
Haud mora, conversisque fugax aufertur habenis,
Quadrupedemque citum ferratâ calce fatigat.
Vane Ligur, frustràque animis elate superbis,
Nequicquam patrias tentâsti lubricus artes:
Nec fraus te incolumem fallaci perferet Auno.
Hæc fatur virgo, et pernicibus ignea plantis
Transit equum cursu: frænisque adversa prehensis
Congreditur, pœnasque inimico à sanguine sumit.
Quàm facilè accipiter saxo sacer ales ab alto
Consequitur pennis sublimem in nube columbam,
Comprênsamque tenet, pedibusque eviscerat uncis:
Tum cruor, et vulsæ labuntur ab æthere plumæ.

710

715

720

730

At non hæc nullis hominum sator atque Deorum 725 Observans oculis, summo sedet altus Olympo. Tyrrhenum genitor Tarchontem in prælia sæva Suscitat, et stimulis haud mollibus incitat iras. Ergò inter cædes cedentiaque agmina Tarchon Fertur equo, variisque instigat vocibus alas, Nomine quemque vocans; reficitque in prælia pulsos: Quis metus, ô nunquam dolituri, ô inertes Tyrrheni, quæ tanta animis ignavia venit? Fœmina palantes agit, atque hæc agmina vertit? Quò ferrum? quidve hæc gerimus tela irrita dextris ?

semper

NOTES.

the wind. Fraudem: this is the common reading. It is the reading of the Roman MS., and for which Servius contends. Heyne reads laudem, but expresses a doubt upon it. Fraudem is to be taken in the sense of damnum detrimentum vel pœnam, which sometimes is the meaning of the word. If laudem be read, it may be taken in its usual acceptation.

709. Acri dolore: with keen resentment. 711. Resistit: this is the reading of Heyne. Ruæus and Davidson read assistit. The sense is the same with either. Purâ parmâ: with her shield which had no impress upon t. The same as alba parma. Lib. ix. 548. Pedes: a footman-on foot.

713. Conversis habenis: his reins being turned. Here habenis is plainly put for the head of his horse. He turned his horse, and left her at full speed.

714. Ferrata calce: with his iron heel with his spurs. Fatigat: in the sense of impellit.

715. Ligus: gen. Liguris: deceitful Ligurian.

716. Lubricus: slippery-turning every way to answer his purposes of deception.

717. Perferet: in the sense of reducet. 718. Ignea transit: burning with ire, she with swift foot passes his horse in his course.

712. Ratus se vicisse

eam dolo

721. Tam facilè quàm accipiter, ales sacer Marti volans ab alto saxo

725. At Jupiter, sator

727. Tum ille, genitor

731. Quemque homi

nem

733. O Tyrrheni, nunquam dolituri, O semper inertes

735. Quò nos gerimus ferrum

This action of Camilla would have been incredible, if we had not been previously prepared for something of the kind. See Lib. vii. 808. where her swiftness is described. Ignea: Valpy says, swift, or quick as lightning. Ruæus says, ardens.

719. Adversa: opposite-right against him, in front.

723. Pedibus: by this we are to understand the talons, or claws of the hawk, which are crooked, or bending: hence the propriety of uncis. Eviscerat: in the sense of dilaniat.

725. Non nullis oculis: with some atten tion-regard. It implies, that he was attentively regarding the scenes that were passing upon the field of battle.

730. Alas: the light troops. See 604, supra.

731. Reficit pulsos: he rallies and brings back the flying troops to the fight. Ruæus says, revocat.

732. Dolituri nunquam: never to feel re sentment: a part. of the verb doleo.

735. Quò ferrum: for what intent-to what purpose do we bear the sword? Irrita: useless-unavailing in our hands.

Tarchon is very severe upon the Tuscans, calling them stupid, and patient of insults and injuries. He alludes, perhaps, to the

« PreviousContinue »