Latin Dictionary. The above statement in reference to -us nouns is made to relieve of responsibility on this point the editors of the series, Messrs. Collar and Tetlow, whose courtesy and whose valuable suggestions the writer gratefully acknowledges.

NEWTON, November, 1896.

EDWARD H. CUTLER.

STORY OF BOOKS I-VIII.

I..

The Aeneid opens with the events of the seventh summer after the fall of Troy. Aeneas, who, as the chosen instrument of the Fates, is to found a mighty nation in Italy, is still seeking his future home, and has just departed with his fleet from the shores of Sicily. The successful termination of his voyage seems almost assured, when Juno, who has pursued him through his seven years' wanderings with relentless hostility, and who is now roused to a fever of jealous hatred at the prospect of his final triumph, again appears, determined to thwart his plans and blast his hopes. By flattering promises she prevails upon Aeolus, king of the winds, to raise a tempest for the destruction of the Trojan fleet. The tempest is at its height and the Trojans are in imminent peril, when Neptune interposes to rebuke the winds and calm the troubled waters. At length, spent with toil, Aeneas and his followers find refuge in a sheltered harbor and effect a landing.

The shore which the Trojans have reached is the coast of Africa, where Queen Dido, driven from Tyre by the monstrous crimes of her brother, is founding the city of Carthage. At the intercession of Venus, the mother of Aeneas, Jupiter implants in the heart of Dido a kindly feeling toward the strangers who have arrived on her coast, and thus prepares the way for their hospitable reception. On the following day, the queen graciously receives Aeneas in the presence of her nobles, and soon is inspired with passionate love for him through the secret machinations of Venus. At a banquet

celebrated in his honor, she invites him to tell the story of the siege of Troy and of his seven years' wanderings.

II. To an audience hushed in breathless silence Aeneas tells his story. At the close of the ten years' siege of Troy, the Greeks, under pretence of propitiating Pallas by a votive offering, built a huge wooden horse and filled it with warriors. Beguiled by the cunning lies of a pretended deserter from the Greek force, the Trojans dragged this horse into their city. Under cover of the night, the armed men descended from the horse, the gates of the city were opened, and the whole army of the Greeks rushed in. The citizens, now buried in sleep and incapable of resistance, were ruthlessly butchered; Priam's palace was stormed and sacked, and Priam himself slain; and Aeneas, after vainly endeavoring with a devoted band of followers to stem the tide of murderous slaughter, took refuge, with his father Anchises, his son Iulus, and a crowd of fugitives, on the neighboring hills. Here, under comforting assurances from the gods of a brighter future, they made preparations for a voyage to the distant and unknown western land, Hesperia, where the Fates had decreed that their descendants should become a mighty nation.

III.. At the opening of the following summer, the Trojans, having now built and equipped their fleet, embarked for their long voyage. Having no definite knowledge of the situation of the land to which they were to direct their course, they first sailed to the coast of Thrace, but were there warned to depart by a voice from the grave of the murdered Polydorus. They therefore consulted the oracle of Apollo at Delos; but, misinterpreting the response, they next proceeded to Crete, whence they were soon driven by the outbreak of a pestilence. They were on the point of sending messengers to Delos to find how they had offended the gods, when the Penates appeared to Aeneas in a vision to inform him that Italy, not Crete, was