generals to vow a temple to some deity in case of victory, and Virgil describes himself as fulfilling such a vow after leading the Muses in triumph home. The temple which he sets up to Caesar at Mantua by the Mincius is to be a counterpart of the temple of Zeus at Olympia by the Alpheus.

16. Caesar erit] i.e. there shall be a statue of Caesar, corresponding to the famous chryselephantine statue of Zeus by Phidias at Olympia.

17. illi] Ethic dat. and emphatic: 'in his honour.' Tyrio... the toga praetexta with a broad border of purple was worn by the presiding magistrate at the games. spectus: used strictly of one on whom every eye is turned'; cf. Hor. A. P. 228 regali conspectus in auro nuper et ostro.

con

18. ad flumina] 'beside the stream'; cf. Ecl. 6. 64. Virgil will drive a hundred chariots' as being the founder of the games and so causing them to be driven.

19. mihi] Ethic dat., 'to oblige me,' and so 'at my behest.' lucos Molorchi: i.e. the Nemean games, see Class. Dict. s. v. Molorchus.

20. crudo] i.e. made of raw untanned hide; see a description of these brutal weapons studded with lead Aen. 5. 401 seq. and the bronze of a boxer found at Rome in 1855 (Frontispiece to Lanciani's Rome).

21. tonsae olivae] Cf. Aen. 5. 556 tonsa corona; 774 caput tonsae foliis evinctus olivae. The phrase describes a wreath close clipped' and 'trim' with the larger leaves removed. The olive-wreath was worn in sacrifice, cf. Aen. 5. 774; 6. 808 quis procul ille autem ramis insignis olivae | sacra ferens? where sacra ferens corresponds to dona feram '(' will bring offerings ') here.

22. iam nunc...iuvat] By this emphatic 'now even now and the change from the future to the present iuvat the poet depicts himself as carried on into the future and already doing that which he prophesies he will hereafter do. An exactly similar use of iam nunc occurs Hor. Od. 2. 1. 17.

24. vel scaena...] lit. 'or (to see) how the background divides while the side-scenes revolve.' There were two sorts of scene,' the one ductilis which formed the background and which was removed by being drawn out from opposite sides (discedere), the other versatilis which consisted of two triangular prisms, one on each side of the stage, which revolved (cf. versis) and on the three faces (frontes) of which were presented (1) a landscape, (2) a street, and (3) an interior. Thus to

change this scene it was necessary to withdraw the background and give the side-scenes a turn.

25. The curtain drew up instead of coming down; hence the 'inwoven Britons' are said to 'raise' it, because as it rose the figures worked on it would seem to be drawing it up after them. The Britons are a stock illustration of the extent of Roman victories as dwelling at the ends of the earth (ultimos Britannos Hor. Od. 1. 35. 30).

26. in foribus] The great folding-doors of temples often had their panels ornamented with scenes executed in relief; cf. the description of the doors of Apollo's temple Aen. 6. 20-33. Gold and ivory were constantly used by the ancients in combination for all kinds of artistic work, statues, doors, beds, chairs, etc.; so Cicero (Verr. 4. 56. 126) speaking of the temple of Athene at Syracuse says valvas magnificentiores, ex auro atque ebore perfectiores, nullas unquam in ullo templo fuisse; Prop. 3. 24. 12.

27. Gangaridum] A people living near the mouth of the Ganges. They represent the Oriental forces who fought under Antony at Actium, cf. 2. 171 n. victoris arma Quirini: the victorious arms (1) of Rome, (2) of Augustus, of whom, as the second founder of Rome, Quirinus is the accepted type.

28. undantem...] billowing with war and flowing with full flood.' The Nile is supposed to sympathise with and share in the rising of Egypt under Cleopatra. So Hor. Od. 2. 9. 22 says that the subject Euphrates minores volvere vertices, and cf. Trench's lines Alma, roll thy waters proudly.' magnum fluentem: acc. of magnus fluens (=πoλùs péwv, see 1. 163 n.); Horace has dat. of a similar phrase Sat. 1. 7. 28 multo fluenti = Tо péοvτ Dem. de Cor. § 136.

29. navali...] i.e. columnae rostratae, which were ornamented with the brazen beaks (aes navale here=rostra) of conquered vessels. See illustration in Smith's Class. Dict. s. v.

columna.

30. pulsumque Niphaten] Niphates is a mountain in Armenia, and the mountain is said to be routed' because the inhabitants were. Representations of the rivers and mountains of a conquered country were regularly carried in triumphal processions, so that the phrase a conquered mountain" or river' seemed less harsh than it does to us.

31. fidentemque...] The sudden onset of the Parthian cavalry (of equal dread in flight or in pursuit,' Milton P. R. 3. 306) and the showers of arrows which they had been trained to pour into the enemy while riding away had been fatally experienced by the heavy Roman legionaries under Crassus on the sandy plains of Charrae 53 B. C., and the frequent allusions to the subject in Roman writers show how strongly it had impressed itself on their memory. Cf. 4. 314; Hor. Od. 2. 13. 17 sagittas et celerem fugam | Parthi; also Shakespeare Cymb. 1. 5. 20 'or, like the Parthian, I shall flying fight.'

The language here must be compared with Hor. Od. 2. 9. 18

nova

cantemus Augusti tropaea

Caesaris et rigidum Niphaten Medumque flumen gentibus additum victis minores volvere vertices...

The words of both poets are too precise for the vague language of prophecy, and we know that Augustus went to the East 21 B.C., and in 20 B. C. sent an expedition into Armenia under Tiberius and recovered from the Parthians the standards lost by Crassus, receiving the personal submission of Phraates. It seems clear therefore that, although the Georgics were written 37-30 B.C., yet Virgil revised them and added these lines shortly before his death 19 B.C.

32. diverso ex hoste]' from far-separated foes,' i. e. foes who lived in the far East and the far West, the two opposite 'coasts' (cf. ab utroque litore 33) of the Roman world, which comprises the countries round the Mediterranean from the coast of Spain to that of Syria and Palestine. The Roman poets regularly celebrate the victories of Augustus over the Cantabri in Spain 27-25 B. C. as the accepted counterpart of his victories in the East.

33. triumphatas] Many intransitive verbs take an active force in a secondary sense, and from triumpho triumph' triumphatus is commonly used = 'triumphed over,' 'led in triumph,' e.g. Hor. Od. 3. 3. 43 triumphatis...Medis.

34. spirantia signa] 'statues that breathe,' i.e. seem alive; cf. Aen. 6. 847 excudent alii spirantia mollius aera.

35. The gens Iulia, into which Augustus had been received as the adopted son of C. Julius Caesar, traced their legendary descent to Iulus, son of Aeneas, and so to the Trojans and Tros the grandson of Dardanus, who was son of Jupiter (hence 'a race descended from Jove') and Electra; see the genealogy in Hom. Il. 20. 215 seq.

36. Troiae...] Apollo helped to build the walls of Troy, and so is spoken of as 'founder of Troy'; cf. Hor. Od. 3. 3. 65 ter si resurgat murus aeneus | auctore Phoebo.

37. invidia infelix...] accursed Envy shall fear...,' i.e. shall be represented as fearing, as about to suffer punishment. After the victories of Augustus over his foreign foes have been depicted, there is to be added a symbolical representation of domestic discord quelled. Envy'all those who regarded the new empire with jealous and malignant eyes. In Od. 3. 4.

65-80 Horace describes the enemies of Augustus under the figure of the rebellious giants who, for warring against heaven, suffer the torments of the damned, and the similarity between that passage and this is too great to be accidental.

38. angues] Ixion seems to have been bound to his wheel with snakes.

39. inmanem] 'awful'; a vague adj. of which Virgil is especially fond when describing the mysterious terrors of the underworld; cf. Aen. 6. 418, 576, 582, 594, 598. non exsuperabile saxum: the unconquerable rock' which Sisyphus (the type of guile, Σίσυφος = σοφός reduplicated) continually endeavours to roll up a mountain, and which continually rolls back again; Homer's λᾶας ἀναιδής Il. 4. 521.

40. interea] 'meanwhile,' i.e. until he can approach the loftier task, which he hopes to accomplish so but life remain' (10). sequamur, 'let me pursue,' as the subject of my Muse, and also because he would thus be following the commands of Maecenas.

41. intactos implies (1) that the wooded glades in which the cattle roam are still 'virgin' and undefiled by the axe, (2) that rural poetry was a theme still untouched in Latin poetry; cf. Lucr. 1. 927 integros fontes. tua iussa: acc. in apposition to the sentence; 'let me pursue a rural theme—a pursuit which is thy command.'

42. en age...] A formula of exhortation and encouragement, which Virgil addresses to himself or to his 'mind,' which he has just spoken of 'up then! break through dull delays, with mighty shouts Cithaeron summons (thee)....' Cithaeron was famous for its pastures and hunting, and Virgil imaginatively describes the cries (clamor) of the hunters as a summons to him to take up his 'pursuit' or task, which is especially concerned with animals and their haunts.

44. Taygeti canes] Spartan hounds were famous, cf. 345, 405; Shakespeare Mid. Night's Dream 4. 1. 124 'My hounds are

bred out of the Spartan kind.' Epidaurus was in Argolis, which was famous for horses, cf. Hom. II. 2. 287 ȧπ' "Аруεоs iжTOßÓTOLO.

,

45. et vox...] 'and a cry redoubled by the assenting murmur of the groves echoes back.' The woods re-echo the summons addressed to the poet and so express their approval of it.

46. accingar dicere] 'I will gird myself to tell of': dicere is the prolative inf. (4. 10 n.) after accingar in the sense of 'prepare,' 'make ready.' accingar is a true middle (Ecl. 1. 54 n.): it does not describe girding up the loins for active exertion (succingar), but girding on armour for action, e.g. Aen. 2. 671 hinc ferro accingor rursus.

48. Tithoni...] 'as Caesar is distant from the early origin of Tithonus.' Tithonus, son of Laomedon, was not one of the ancestors of Caesar, so that we cannot translate 'from his first ancestor Tithonus,' but he was a Trojan and is therefore mentioned as one of Caesar's kindred whose name suggests a remote antiquity at the first dawn of history.

49-59. For breeding horses or oxen the choice of the mother is all-important. The points of a good cow are then detailed.

49. miratus] 'coveting.' palmae: strictly a wreath of wild olive (KÓTUVOS) was the reward at Olympia, but see 12 n.

51. corpora] Emphatic: it is for their 'shape' or 'frame' that he should select them. matrum: also emphatic, because it is the choice of the mother, not of the sire, which needs especial care. optima: notice that this adjective, prominently placed first, really qualifies the whole of the clauses down to aures 55. It is parallel to nec mihi displiceat 56: 'best is..., nor would one displease me.' torvae, 'grim-loooking,' 'fierce.'

52. turpe] 'ugly.' It must be remembered that the cattle are bred for ploughing (fortes ad aratra), so that strength is what is desired, and this a big ugly head indicates. Virgil copies the points he enumerates from Varro de R. R. 2. 5, who has latis frontibus (Columella latissimis frontibus).

54. tum longo...] Supply cui: tum (optima est forma bovis) cui nullus... 'further one which has no limit to its length of flank.'

55. pes etiam] Perhaps Virgil emphasises this point because he here differs from Varro, who says pedibus non latis.

56. nec mihi displiceat] Parallel to optima 51, and not contrasted with it. It merely introduces some fresh qualities of a first-rate cow, and not the description of a second-rate animal. Virgil does not mean 'the best cow is so and so, although we may be contented with another sort,' but 'the best cow has