1st line Hastati

2nd line Principes

3rd line Triarii

The vines are to be arranged in exactly the same manner. Thus in the figure below the dots represent the vines, the thick lines the viae, and the thin the limites.

279. longa, explicuit, campo, aperto] All these words are important; it is only on open and level ground that this extended order is possible. longa: proleptic. stetit agmen, 'the line (of march) has halted,' and been drawn up into 'line of battle' (acies 281).

281. derectae] marshalled.' fluctuat depicts the 'waves' of light as the sun flashes on the 'glancing arms' (cf. aere renidenti) of the lines of troops. Homer describes the same effect by saying that the earth laughed' (Il. 20. 362 yéλaooe dè mâoa περὶ χθὼν | χαλκοῦ ὑπὸ στεροπῆς). Lucr. 2. 362, who is distinctly in Virgil's mind, has aere renidescit tellus, where renidescit is almost exactly γέλασσε.

282. necdum horrida...] 'nor yet do they confound the horrid fray.' The words bring out by contrast the point which Virgil wishes to emphasise; the vines are drawn up like an army before battle in disciplined array, while the god of war still wanders between the hosts (èv μeraixμi) uncertain when to give the signal for the fray.

284. paribus numeris viarum] 'with balanced regularity of paths.' For numeris thus used not of mere numbers' but of symmetry, proportion, harmony, cf. such phrases as omnibus numeris absolutus, omnes numeros virtutis continet (Cic. de Fam. 3. 7. 24), in numerum, extra numerum, redigere in quadrum numerumque sententias (Cic. Or. 61. 208), numerosus hortus (Col. 10. 6).

285. animum inanem] The epithet is not transferred from prospectus, as Conington takes it, but the 'empty mind' is satisfied or fed' with mere unsubstantial beauty. The vine

grower looks for substantial returns. Cf. 3. 3, where 'empty minds' are charmed by unprofitable tales from mythology.

286, 287. See sketch above. The quincunx method of planting not only allows each plant an exactly fair share of space (earth gives to all equal support '), but also allows each more room than any other method, nor (otherwise, i.e. by any other method) will the boughs be able to stretch (equally) into empty space. Assuming that each plant grows evenly in a circle, any one may test this by arranging a few pennies on the quincunx principle.

288-301. The vine may be planted in a shallow trench, the supporting forest-trees need a deeper one; the oak especially strikes its roots far down, and so braves all tempests unshaken.

288. fastigia] This word is used as (1) a gable, (2) height; then, inversely, (1) slope of a trench's sides, (2) as here, depth.

289. ausim] The subj. of modest assertion, cf. 338 n. For the form cf. faxim, iussim; Pub. Sch. Gr. § 54; Roby L. G. 291.

290. altior...] 'The tree is driven down deeper and far into the earth'; for terrae (= in terram) cf. Ecl. 8. 102 n.

291. quantum...] 'strikes with its root towards Tartarus as far as with its summit to the airs of heaven'; repeated Aen. 4.

445.

293. hiemes] 'storms.' illam emphatic.

294. multosque...] and outlives many generations, seeing many ages of men roll past while it endures'; lit. 'causes to roll past by enduring,' the tree being said to do that which it sees done. Cf. Ecl. 9. 52 cantando condere soles='watch the sun set while singing.' The simple phrase vivendo vincere is found Plaut. Epid. 2. 1. 11; Lucr. 1. 202 multaque vivendo vitalia vincere saecla; 3. 948; Virgil elaborates it after his manner.

296. tum] Conington rightly remarks that tum here does not indicate a further point of time, but a fresh point in the description; cf. Ecl. 2. 49; Aen. 1. 164.

297. ipsali.e. the tree itself, the 'central trunk' as opposed to the minor branches; cf. the use of ipse 4. 274 of a flower's disc contrasted with its petals.

298-314. Do not let your vineyard face west, and do not plant hazels in it, or take your cuttings from a top shoot or with a blunt knife. Never engraft the fertile olive on the wild for fear of fire.

299. corylum] Doubtless injurious because of its large spreading roots. flagella summa: apparently not 'shoots at

the top of the tree,' in which case summa...ex arbore plantas is pure tautology, but the young new wood at the end of each shoot, which is pruned off, but too soft and unripened for cuttings. Cf. line 28, where certain trees are referred to of which, unlike the vine, the summum cacumen if planted by the putator will grow; but these 'have no need of the root,' whereas the vine has a longing for the earth.'

301. tantus amor terrae] 'those shoots which grow nearest the earth, contract such a liking to it, that they take better to it.'-Martyn.

302-314. insere] 'engraft.' 'Do not,' says Virgil, 'engraft wild trunks of olive (i.e. with the fertile olive),' because if a fire occurs the wild olive burns freely, and consequently when this happens your trees, being burned below the graft, even when they begin to shoot again, can only produce wild olives. Some would read olea, do not engraft wild trunks (of the olive) with the olive,' but this seems no improvement.

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Very many editors say that these precepts about olives are out of place here, for the olive is only regularly dealt with line 420. They therefore explain insere intersere, 'do not plant wild-olive trunks (among your vines as supporters).' But apart from the fact that insero in this book is always graft,' while the confusion here with intersere three lines before is intolerable, these editors cannot possibly explain lines 312, 314 when this happens, (they) have no strength from the root, and though cut cannot revive and grow green again from the soil as they were before; (but) only the bitter-leaved oleaster is left.' These words plainly contrast something grafted which cannot grow again, with something not grafted which is strong from the root and can therefore grow again. Conington says valent, sc. vites; but the vines are strong from the root' and may easily shoot again.

303. Note the slow stealthy movement of the line. Then dedit 306 marks the suddenness of the roar when the fire all at once breaks out among the foliage.

306. secutus, 'running along the wood.'-Conington. 308. ruit] 'whirls.'

310. a vertice] 'from the zenith,' кат' åкρηs, coming sheer down; cf. Aen. 1. 114 ingens a vertice pontus.

311. incubuit] 'has swooped down upon the woods, and the wind rolls the conflagration in masses before it.' ferens seems to partly govern incendia as well as glomerat. Others take it

absolutely; cf. Aen. 3. 473 vento ferenti; 4. 430 ventosque ferentes, but even there naves is mentally supplied.

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312. hoc ubi] sc. accidit. caesae, i.e. when the burnt and charred wood is cut away. Cf. Job xiv. 7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.'

313. similes] i.e. they will no longer be fertile olives but wild ones.

315-353. Winter planting is bad, for then the ground should be kept closed and the frozen earth will not cling to the roots. The true time for starting a vineyard is spring or early autumn, but above all spring, when genial rains fall, birds sing, and all nature revives, when days are bright and glorious as at the beginning of the world, and when there is some brief respite from the extremes of heat and cold. After planting manure and earth up your plants; put potsherds below them to give drainage, and a tile above to keep off storms.

315. nec tibi...] i.e. let no one have such weight with you on account of his sagacity as to persuade you, etc.

316. movere] Some with fair authority read moveri; but 'let none persuade you that the earth is dug' gives no sense. The digging meant is with a view to planting.

317. semine iacto] 'when the (young) shoots are planted': the use of iacio seems borrowed from its common use in the phrase iacere fundamenta, rather than from the idea of 'scattering seed.'

318. concretam...] 'nor does it (winter) allow it (the young shoot) to fasten its frozen root to the soil.' Conington prefers to take concretam ita ut concrescat (terrae) 'so that it may grow to be a part of it': for this active use of concretus cf. Aen. 6. 746 concretam exemit labem; Claudian 6 Cons. Hon. 77 concreta radice tenacius haesit.

319. vere rubenti] 'blushing,' 'bright,' cf. 4. 306; Ecl. 9. 40 ver purpureum.

320. avis] the stork, ciconia.

con

321. prima...] i. e. when autumn is just beginning to turn chilly, but before winter has begun. aestas in 322 includes autumn, being 'summer')('winter,' cf. Oépos ) (xeμáv. tingit equis, i.e. as he drives through the signs of the Zodiac. 323. ver adeo] Ecl. 4. 11 n.

324. genitalia] 'fertilising.'

325. tum pater...] Cf. Lucr. 1. 250 postremo pereunt imbres, ubi eos pater Aether | in gremium matris Terrai praecipitavit, at nitidae surgunt fruges.... 'From the Vedas to the pervigilium Veneris,' says Munro, 'poets and philosophers love

to celebrate this union of ether and earth, ether as the father descending in showers into the lap of mother earth. The notion naturally had birth in warm climates, such as India, where the excessive rains at stated periods seem to bring the ether down in abundant rains, which at once quickened all things'; cf. Aesch. fragm. of Danaid. oußpos d' ̃áπ' evvάevтOS οὐρανοῦ πεσὼν | ἔκυσε γαῖαν.

326. et omnes... ...] and nourishes all growth mingling mightily with her mighty frame.'

330. parturit...] 'the teeming field yields increase, and beneath the warm breath of the Zephyr the plough-lands ungird their bosoms; in all things tender moisture abounds.' Throughout Virgil speaks of the fields as living beings; laxant sinus is partly literal, cf. 1. 44 Zephyro putris se gleba resolvit, partly metaphorical, cf. zonam solvere of brides.

332. novos soles] i.e. the sun of each day; for this use of the plural cf. Hor. Od. 4. 5. 7 et soles melius nitent; Catul. 5. 4 soles occidere et redire possunt; so elsewhere lunae. 'new,' i.e. to the young plants.

novos,

336. non alios] i.e. just such days as spring alone now brings were universal in the 'golden age,' when the world was young.

338. crediderim] The perf. subj. of polite assertion; cf. 99 n. ver illud erat..., 'then 'twas spring, then the great globe enjoyed spring.'

340. lucem hausere] 'drank in the light.'

341. terrea] Nearly all MSS. give ferrea, but Lactantius (A.D. 250-330) read terrea, which is now generally accepted. The idea of men being sprung from the earth (cf. auróx@oves, terrigenae) or made of earth (cf. Gen. ii. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground') was common, and Lucr. 5. 789 seq. discusses the subject at length; cf. especially 5. 925 at genus humanum multo fuit illud in arvis durius, tu decuit tellus quod dura creasset, a passage which Virgil clearly had in mind, his use of duris suggesting the same thought, viz. that men are 'hard' (i.e. strong, patient, enduring) because that is the character of the substance from which they are made. The rare word terrea would at once be corrupted to ferrea by copyists acquainted with the many legends about the age of iron.' The old commentators who read ferrea compare Hesiod's vûv yàp dǹ yévos éσtì σidńpeov (W. and D. 176); but the quotation proves that the iron race never existed at all in the early spring-time of the earth, which Virgil is describing, but are the late and decadent race among whom Hesiod lived.