556. propiusque...] and fear comes closer in the danger,' or because of the danger.' The imminence of the danger makes their ordinary fear for their sons come closer home, just as it makes the image of Mars loom larger.' When the orders to march are given, mothers begin to realise what anxiety is and what war means.

Conington renders and fear treads more closely on the heel of danger,' and so Wagner 'die Gefahr tritt die Furcht näher heran; la peur s'approche du péril,' adding in explanation of such a strange phrase 'nempe remotiora pericula metuimus, instantia timemus; ergo metus a periculo abest longius, timor propius.' But this distinction between metus and timor is more than doubtful, cf. Sil. It. 1. 32 iam propius metuens; 772 sed propior metus armati ductoris ab ira, where it cannot be maintained.

559. haeret] Cf. 124 n. inexpletus lacrimans, 'weeping still unsatisfied.' Virgil is fond of thus joining an adj. with a present part. where an adverb would be strictly correct; cf. 3. 70 lenis crepitans softly whispering'; G. 2. 377 gravis incumbens. The reading here is, however, very doubtful, and inexpletum lacrimans or inexpletus lacrimis have good authority. 560. So the aged Nestor, Hom. Il. 11. 670

εἴθ ̓ ὡς ἡβώοιμι βίη τέ μοι ἔμπεδος εἴη,

ὡς ὁπότ ̓ Ηλείοισι καὶ ἡμῖν νεῖκος ἐτύχθη...

561. Praeneste] Usually neuter, but here and Juv. 3. 190 feminine.

562. scutorumque...] Servius says that this practice was introduced by Tarquinius Priscus who, after conquering the Sabines, so burned their shields in honour of Vulcan. Cf. Livy 8. 30, where, however, the act is commented on as exceptional; 23. 46 spolia hostium Marcellus, Vulcano votum, cremavit.

563. Erulum] It is disputed whether he had merely three lives, or three bodies each of which (as in the case of Geryon Aesch. Ag. 869) had a separate life which had to be destroyed. The second view is correct, for, though we can imagine Erulus coming to life again, we cannot imagine him coming to life with a new set of armour,' as Sidgwick makes him do, and as he must do if he has only one body, since Evander 'thrice strips him of arms.'

564. Feronia] 7. 800 n. 565. movenda] 'to be wielded,' i.e. by him.

568. divellerer] After referat 560 the regular sequence would be divellar, but, the wish being hopeless, the sentence naturally slides into the other form of the conditional, in which

he treats it as something already ordered otherwise,' Sidgwick. usquam, and at the end of the next line umquam : perhaps the repetition suggests passionate emphasis.

569. finitimo] Joined by most editors with huic capiti as a sort of periphrasis for 'me his neighbour'; but though the use of caput for a person is common (cf. 11. 399 Dardanio capiti), and huic capiti insultans 'heaping insults on my head' insulting me' is perfectly simple, yet the phrase finitimo capiti is without parallel. It would seem better to supply mihi after finitimo, and take huic c. ins. as a sort of parenthetic exclamation'nor to his neighbour's hurt had Mezentius ever, heaping outrage on my head, given to death... Some join the word with ferro. One MS. gives finitimos, which might conceivably be in apposition to funera.

571. urbem] Clearly Pallanteum, though we know nothing of any attack on it by Mezentius. Others explain of Agylla, and say that Evander's remonstrances with Mezentius against his cruelty towards his subjects were disregarded.

576. 'If I live still to see him, still to meet him (again), I pray for life.' in unum: 7. 562 n.

578. infandum] 'some chance unspeakable,' that my tongue dare not name. So Servius, patris est nolle memorare quod formidat.'

579. crudelem abrumpere vitam] 'to break off life's agony'; to snap the thread of life (cf. 10. 815) which has become hateful. The phrase recurs 9. 497, and cf. 4. 631 invisam abrumpere lucem.

580. While anxious love can still doubt, while the prospect of the future is still not sure.' The line is hard to render because curae both 'affection' and 'anxiety,' while spes can be either 'hope' for good or 'expectation' of evil.

581. sera] i.e. as the child of his age.

584. fundebat...] Imperfect: he was still 'pouring forth such words in that last parting' when he swooned.

585-607. The Trojans and Arcadians with Pallas in their midst, bright and beautiful as the morning star, ride towards Caere and halt for the night in a sacred grove of Silvanus, from the hills near which they could see the camp of Tarchon.

585. iamque adeo] and now indeed'; adeo emphasizes iamque and so marks the paragraph which it introduces as important. Cf. 11. 487 and 314 n.

587-591. ipse...resolvit] The description of Pallas, as he sets out in his youth and beauty, is admirable and should be compared with the famous lines 11. 67-71 which describe him as he is brought home dead.

588. pictis] Cf. 12. 281 n.

conspectus: used strictly of one 'on whom every eye is turned'; cf. G. 3. 17 Tyrio conspectus in ostro; Hor. A. P. 228.

589. From Il. 5. 5 where the blaze from Diomede's helmet is ἀστέρ ̓ ὀπωρίνῳ (i.e. Sirius) έναλίγκιον, ὅς τε μάλιστα | λαμπρὸν παμφαίνῃσι λελουμένος Ωκεανοῖο, and Il. 22. 318 where Achilles is like ἕσπερος, ὃς κάλλιστος ἐν οὐρανῷ ἵσταται ἀστήρ. The idea is further elaborated by Milton Lycidas 168

'So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed,

And yet anon repairs his drooping head,

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky.'

Lucifer: wopópos, the morning-star, i.e. the planet Venus, which when it appeared in the evening was called Hesperus, "Εσπερος.

591. resolvit] 'dissolves,' or 'melts.'

593. A fine pictorial line.

594. qua...] Lit. 'where the goal of their journey is shortest'' by shortest path towards their goal.'

596. A line which is perhaps more famous than it deserves for its almost exaggerated accommodation of sound to sense. quadrupedante sonitu: probably not='with the sound of the steeds,' but 'with the sound of their gallop,' the adj. suggesting, as Henry urges, the movement of a horse which 'lifts his four feet all at once,' which is the ordinary idea of a gallop. Cf. 11. 612 where quadrupedantum may be meant to suggest that the horses are at a gallop; Sil. It. 12. 563 levis frenis...fertur quadrupedante invectus equo; Fronto Ep. ad M. Caes. 2. 1 quadrupedo currere 'to gallop.' putrem,

'crumbling.'

597. Caeritis] An eccentric gen. of Caere; in 10. 183 we have Caerete domo.

599. cavi] because the hills leave a hollow in their midst and so 'encircle the grove with their dark pine-clad sides.' abiete: dactyl; cf. 11. 667 n. Notice too the sing. used collectively.

600. Pelasgos] Cf. 478 n. whom Virgil here connects with Class, Dict.

For this mysterious people,
Latium as well as Greece, see

601. diemque] 'and a festival'; a day set apart in his honour.

602. aliquando] 'once.'

603. tuta] with locis, 'in a well-defended spot.' How the position was 'well-defended' or 'secure' does not appear.

604. celso de colle] i.e. from the top of one of the hills mentioned 598, which they cross before descending to the grove.

605. et latis...] An explanatory clause; the host could be seen as its tents lay pitched upon the broad plain.' For tendebat cf. 2. 29 hic saevus tendebat Achilles, 'pitched his tent.'

606. huc] i.e. into the grove; his reaching the camp of Tarchon is first mentioned 10. 148.

608-625. Venus brings the armour wrought by Vulcan to Aeneas, who cannot gaze on it enough.

608. inter...nimbos] She comes amid clouds,' which are imagined as conveying her to the spot, cf. 528 n. There is also a contrast suggested between her brilliant beauty (cf. candida) and their darkness.

610. et gelido] Much better than egelido read by one MS. and Servius, who explains it nimium gelido, though in Catullus 44. 1 iam ver egelidos refert tepores it is certainly= 'cool.' The stream has been called gelidus in 597, and to call it egelidus so soon afterwards seems impossible. secretum, 'apart,' withdrawn from his comrades; cf. 670.

611. seque obtulit ultro] 'suddenly appearing,' or 'presenting herself unexpectedly.' The main thought is 'she thus addressed him,' and these words are an explanatory addition, but as her appearance' must precede her 'address' in point of time grammarians call this a case of ὕστερον πρότερον : cf. 85 n.

613. ne...dubites] 'so that thou mayest not hesitate.' 617. ille...] Cf. Hom. Il. 19. 18 of Achilles receiving his armour from Thetis :

τέρπετο δ' ἐν χείρεσσιν ἔχων θεοῦ ἀγλαὰ δῶρα.
αὐτὰρ ἐπεὶ φρεσὶν ᾖσι τετάρπετο δαίδαλα λεύσσων.

618. expleri] Cf. 265.

620. flammasque vomentem] An exaggeration of Homer's δαῖέ οἱ ἐκ κόρυθός τε καὶ ἀσπίδος ἀκάματον πῦρ. Cf. the Chimaera on the helmet of Turnus 7. 785-788, and the 'flame' which 'pours' from the helmet and shield of Aeneas 10. 270.

622. sanguineam, ingentem] 'blood-red, huge.' The asyndeton adds weight to the sense of terror which the adjectives convey. The same motive influences the use of sanguineam instead of some such adj. as rutilus 'ruddy'; cf. 529 where the arms 'gleam red' (rutilare). qualis refers both to sanguineam and ingentem; both in colour and size it is like 'a darkling cloud what time it is fired by the sun's rays.'

624. recocto] 'oft-refined (in the furnace)'; cf. Hes. Sc. Η. 208 πανέφθου κασσίτεροιο.

625. textum] 'fabric.' Cf. 449 where impediunt interlace' is similarly used of the 'welding' together of the shield.

626-731. A description of the subjects represented on the shield-Romulus and Remus suckled by the she-wolf; the rape of the Sabine women, and the war and alliance which followed; the punishment of Mettus Fuffetius; the defeat of Porsenna; the defence of the Capitol against the Gauls by Manlius; the sacred rites of Rome; Catiline in hell and Cato in Elysium; then the sea, and, in the central place, Caesar driving Cleopatra in flight at Actium (675-713), and afterwards returning in triumph to Rome and receiving the homage of the conquered nations on the threshold of the temple of Phoebus.

The passage is an imitation of the description of the shield of Achilles in Hom. Il. 18. 483-608, and that of Hercules in Hesiod Sc. H. 140-317.

627. haud...] 'not unlearned in prophecy or unacquainted with the time to come.' The power to read the future does not belong to the gods generally but only to some of them, e.g. Apollo, and that not absolutely but only so far as Jupiter may choose to reveal it (cf. 3. 251). Hence Vulcan has to seek his knowledge from the vates, a term which may describe either a god or the semi-divine or human agent whom he employs as his mouthpiece.

630. fecerat...procubuisse] but just above res Italas... fecerat. So too 635 Romam...addiderat and then the inf. consurgere bellum; 710 fecerat...ferri (inf.) and then Nilum. This special use of the inf. in a manner exactly equivalent to an accusative is fairly frequent after facio='present,' 'portray,' either, as here, in a work of art or in literary composition. Cf. Ov. Met. 6. 107 fecit et Asterien aquila luctante teneri; Cic. N. D. 1. 8. 19 Plato construi a deo mundum facit; and elsewhere. Addiderat (637) takes the same construction because it is fecerat etiam.

VOL. II

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