NOTES TO

VIRGIL'S AENEID.

THE “Ae-nē ́-id" derives its name from its hero, Ae-në'-as, a Trojan prince, the son of Anchises and Venus. Its subject is his "adventures, while sailing from Troy, after the destruction of that city, in search of a settlement,― his final landing in Italy,—and his triumphant struggle with his enemies and his rival, Turnus, in that country, leaving him free to marry Lavinia, the daughter of Latīnus, king of the Latins, and to found Lavinium, the mother city of Rome." As a "valiant warrior and pious worshipper of the gods," Aeneas represents Virgil's ideal of the Roman people. Indirectly, the object of the poem is to gratify the pride of the Romans, to quicken their patriotism, to heighten their regard for religion, and to exalt their monarch, Augustus.

"The grand religious idea which breathes throughout the Aeneid," says Merivale, "is the persuasion that the Romans are the sons and successors of the Trojans, the chosen race of heaven, of divine lineage and royal pretensions, whose destinies have engaged all the care of Olympus from the beginning, till they reach at last their consummation in the blissful regeneration of the empire. It maintains the existence of Providence as the bond of the Roman commonwealth. 'Yes! there are gods,' it proclaims, and the glories of Rome demonstrate it.'" The first six books describe the adventures and wanderings of Aeneas before reaching his destined home in Italy, the last six his wars with Turnus and his allies.

THE INSCRIPTION.

These four lines, of doubtful authorship, form no part of the poem; they may have been prefixed, however, simply as an epigram, to some copies of the first book circulated by Virgil among his friends. Supply sum with modulatus, and cano at the end of the fourth line.

139

BOOK I.

ARGUMENT.

AFTER stating the subject of the poem generally (1-7), invoking the Muse (8-11, and accounting for the resentment of Juno to the Trojan race (12-33), Virgil, plunging at once into the middle of the action, (like Homer, Milton, and other great epic poets,) introduces his hero, in the seventh year of his wanderings after the destruction of Troy, just starting from Sicily and making for the Italian mainland. A tempest is sent forth against him by Aeolus, at the instigation of Juno, and drives his shattered ships on the coast of Africa (34-123). Neptune interferes to calm the storm (124-156). Aeneas lands, slays seven stags of immense size, gives one to each of the seven ships now remaining to him, and exhorts his fellow-exiles to patience and hope (157-207). The banquet of the ships' crews follows (208-222). Venus pleads the cause of her son, Aeneas, and of the Trojans, before Jupiter, and lays all the blame of their misfortunes on Juno. The king of the gods being moved by the appeal, discloses the decrees of the Fates, and consoles his daughter by the assurance of future prosperity and unbounded empire to the Trojans in their descendants, the Roman people (223-296). Mercury is sent down to render Dido friendly to Aeneas (297-304). Satisfied with the declaration of Jupiter, Venus descends to earth, and, in the guise of a huntress, presents herself to Aeneas, announces that the ships which he had supposed lost were safe in port, and shows the city of Carthage in progress of building by the Phoenician Dido (305-409). Aeneas, under cover of a cloud, enters Carthage in company with his faithful attendant, Achates (410-420). Description of rising Carthage (421-436). Aeneas visits the temple of Juno, and sees depicted on its walls the battles and heroes of the Trojan war (437-493). Dido visits the temple (494-508). A deputation from the twelve missing ships of the Trojans waits on Dido, to complain of the outrages of her people, and bewails the loss of Aeneas (509-560). Dido consoles them, offers them either a temporary sojourn or a lasting home, and promises to search for Aeneas (561-578). Instantly Aeneas and Achates become

visible. Aeneas thanks Dido for her generosity (579-612). Dido bids him welcome, sends food to the crews at the ships, and orders a splendid banquet in the palace (614-642). Aeneas sends for his son, Ascanius (643-656). Venus, substituting Cupid for Ascanius, inflames Queen Dido with a passionate love for her guest (657-722). The banquet in Dido's palace. The time passes in song and talk, till Dido begs Aeneas to tell the whole story of the fall of Troy and his seven years of wandering (699-756).

1-3. Arma-litora. I sing of arms and the man, who first, from the coasts of Troy, by fute an exile, came to Italy and the Lavinian shores.— Italiam and litora, terminal accusatives after a verb of motion, the preposition in (which would be inserted in the best prose except before names of towns) being omitted by poetical usage. H. 379, 4; A. & G. 258, b; G. 342, 1; B. 948. - Fato. H. 414; A. & S. 247; B. 873; A. 248.- Profugus. H. 363; A. & S. 204; B. 622; A. 184.- Lavinia, pronounced La-vin-ya. (H. 669, II. 3; A. & S. 306, (3); B. 1519, 3.) The epithet" Lavinian" is applied by anticipation to the shores where the city Lavinium was afterwards built by Aeneas.

3. Ille, the one; in apposition with qui. — Jactatus and passus are participles agreeing with ille. -Terris et alto, on land and on the deep; the preposition in is omitted before these ablatives of place, by a frequent poetical license similar to that in the omission of the preposition before the accusatives in the second and third lines. Terris is purposely plural, (lit., lands,) Aeneas, while seeking a settlement, having been driven about from country to country.

4. Superum, of the gods above. - Memorem, ever mindful, and therefore relentless. Well rendered by Conington in his translation of saevae memorem Junonis iram, "fell Juno's unforgetting hate."

5, 6. Dum conderet urbem inferretque deos Latio, while he was striving to found a city and bring (his) gods into Latium. The idea of striving to found, striving to bring, is implied in the subjunctive after dum. H. 522, II.; A. & S. 263, 4, (1); B. 1238; A. 328; G. 574. W. says "the subjunctive here expresses wish and inclination." S. gives conderet a potential force: "till he was able to found." Others tr. "until he founded"; others, till he should found; (the purpose of the Fates.) 6. Latio, dat., where in prose in with the acc. would be used. H. 379, 5; A. & S. 225, IV., Rem. 2; B. 837; A. 225, b. Genus unde Latinum, whence arose the Latin race. It was the tradition that Aeneas united the Aborigines, whom he found in Italy, with the Trojans, under the name "Latins"; that his son Ascanius founded Alba; and that from his descendants arose the principal founders of Rome.

8. Musa, i. e. Cal-li'-o-pe, daughter of Mne-mós-y-ne (or Memory) and Jupiter.- Quo numine laeso, what divine purpose of hers being thwarted: (qua voluntate Junonis neglecta. W.) (The answer is contained in lines 12-22.) - Numine. H. 430, 431; A. & S. 257; B. 965, 966; A. 255. Others translate, for what slight of her divine majesty, some making quo abl. of cause, after laeso, others making it agree with the compound expression numine laeso, and the whole equivalent to quam ob laesionem numinis sui.

9. Quidye dolens, or wherefore vexed (lit., or why grieving). Her grievances are stated in lines 26-28. Quid is acc. of specification, or adverbial accusative. - Deum, gen. plural. - Regina deûm, Juno. Tot volvere casus, to pass through so many vicissitudes. — Volvere, lit., "to turn," "to roll," is here used metaphorically, in the same way as we speak of "the wheel of Fortune " A. 331, a; G. 546, Rem. 1.

10. Pietate. H. 414; A. & S. 247; B. 873; A. 245. "Pietas means natural affection, more particularly that from a child to a parent, and is thus applied to the veneration and grateful worship we pay to God.” B. "Pietas' includes the performance of all duties to gods, parents, kinsmen, friends, and country." C.-Tr. here piety. - Adire. A. 228, a. 11. Impulerit. Subj. in a dependent clause introduced by the interrogatives quo and quid. H. 524, 525; A. & S. 265; A. 334.-Tantaene, sc. sunt.-Ne. H. 346, II. 1 ; A. & S. 198, 11, (c); B. 1104; A. 210, a. - Animis. H. 387; A. & S. 226; B. 821; A. 231.- Irae. The plural is emphatic. "Nouns denoting an affection of the mind are frequently found in the plural, expressing a greater intensity, or a greater frequency and variety of the feeling expressed. So odia, gandia, etc."

12. Fuit. H. 471, 1; A. 279, a; G. 228, 1; B. 1095.-Tenuere governs eam understood, referring to urbs. Where is Tyre? Where Carthage? 13. Contra, opposite. For the position of the preposition, see H. 602, II.; A. 263, n.; G. 414, 3. —Longe, at a great distance, far away. 14. Opum. H. 399; A. & S. 213; B. 777, e, 766; A. 218, a, c; G. 373, 6. Studiis. H. 429; A. & S. 250, 1; B. 889; A. 253; G. 398. 15. Terris. H. 417; A. & S. 256. 2; B. 895; A. 247.-Quam unam, which one, i. e., which in an especial degree, which pre-eminently. 16. The student will notice, on scanning this line, that the final a in posthabita is long, which is a sign of the ablative case, (posthabita Samo being in the abl. absolute,) and that the ō in Samo is not elided: (H. 669; A. 359, e:) the hiatus between Samo and hic being excused by the cæsural pause and the break in the sense, and by the facts that the ō is in arsis, and is a Greek termination. - Posthabita Samo. Samos being less esteemed. In the island of Samos, in the Aegean sea, Juno was nurtured, and there she was married to Jupiter; there, too,

was her oldest and most noble temple. - Coluisse, lit., to have inhabited, the gods being "supposed to dwell particularly in those places which they took under their especial protection:" translate, to have cherished. H. 549, 4; A. & S. 271, Rem. 2; B. 1145; G. 528.

16, 18. Hic, adverb. - Hoc refers to Carthage, but takes the gender of the following substantive. H. 445, 4; A. & G. 195, d.-Hoc regnum gentibus esse, that this may be the capital of the nations, instead of Rome. -Gentibus. H. 390, 2; A. & S. 227, R. 4; B. 851; A. 235, a. Si qua, sc. via, if in any way. From the metre it is seen that qua is long, therefore abl.-Sinant, H. 503, III., 504; A. & S. 261, 2, and Rem. 2, at the end; B. 1271; A. 336; G. 554. - Jam tum, even then; even in that early age, long before Carthage became the actual rival of Rome." C. Tenditque fovetque, she both strives and fondly cherishes the purpose.

19. Sed enim audierat, (supply after sed "metuebat tum Carthagini,") but she feared for Carthage, for she had heard, etc.: enim, like the Greek yap, often implying an ellipsis. --Duci, pres. inf. pass., with "The progeniem as its subject acc., and depending upon audierat. pres. infin. denotes the event as existing in the designs of fate." C. 20. Verteret, would overturn. The subjunctive denotes probability or future destiny. - Tyrias arces. Why was the citadel of Carthage called Tyrian? (See line 12.) - 21. Hinc, from this source. 21. Populum venturum (esse) and Parcas volvere (22), both acc.

- Late regem

=

with infin. depending upon audierat. late regnantem. So Horace, "late tyrannus,” Od. 3, 17, 9.— Bello. H. 414, 2; A. & S. 247, 1; B. 873; A. 245. Translate, in war.

22. Excidio Libyae, both dat. H. 390; A. & S. 227. By Libya is meant the whole of northern Africa. The Scipios, who were said to be of Trojan descent, destroyed Carthage (lines 19, 20); to the Roman people is ascribed the subjugation of the whole of Libya, Numidia, Mauretania, and Egypt (lines 21, 22). — B. 848; A. 233; G. 350. 23. Veteris, the old, i. e. the former. — Saturnia, the daughter of Saturn, Juno. The subject of arcebat in line 31.

24. Prima, the foremost, she before all.-Quod, the relative pronoun, in prose would be placed before prima.—Ad, at.-Argis. Argos, the capital of Argolis, in the eastern part of the Peloponnesus, where Juno was worshipped with especial honor. - Pro. A. 236, R.; G. 344, 1. 26. Mente, in omitted, by the customary poetical usage. Repostum, contracted for repositum, from repono. H. 703. 2; A. & S. 322, 4. 27. Judicium Paridis. The decision in which Paris gave the golden apple, the prize of beauty, to Venus, over Juno and Minerva. -Spretaeque injuria formae, and the affront of her slighted beauty, — the insult which consisted in the slight to her beauty. Formae is explana