KC 5406 HARVARD 1395 P. VERGILI MARONIS THE subject of the Aeneid, as propounded in the opening lines, is the settlement of Aeneas in Italy, after years of wandering, and a short but sharp final struggle. It is however only of the events preceding the settlement that the poet really treats,-of the wanderings and the war. Accordingly, the poem divides itself into two parts, the wanderings being embraced by the first, the Italian war by the second. But the two parts naturally involve different modes of treatment, comprehending as they do periods of time widely differing in length, the one seven years, the other apparently a few days. The long period of wanderings is taken at a point not far from its conclusion; enough is told in detail to serve as a specimen of the whole, and the rest is related more summarily by the help of an obvious expedient, the hero being made to narrate his past adventures to the person whose relation to him is all the time forming one adventure more. Horace has recommended some expedient of the sort to writers of Epics generally, A. P. 146 foll. It is easy to see that the peculiar style of Homer's narrative is followed, though in no slavish spirit of imitation. The First Book of the Aeneid may be said to perform well the objects which it was no doubt intended to accomplish,-those of interesting us in the hero and introducing the story. After a brief statement of the subject, we have a view of the supernatural machinery by which it is to be worked out: and this is skilfully contrived so as to throw a light on the subsequent history of the Roman descendants of Aeneas, by the mention, even at that early time, of their great enemy, Carthage. Like Ulysses, Aeneas is shipwrecked in the voyage which was to have been his last, but, unlike Ulysses, is still accompanied by those who followed his fortunes from Troy. The re maining incidents of the First Book need not detain us much longer. As a general rule, they are, as we have said, borrowed from Homer; but we may admire the skill with which Virgil has introduced varieties of detail, as where Ulysses, listening to songs about Troy, reappears in Aeneas looking at sculptures or paintings of Trojan subjects, and the art with which a new Impression is produced by a combination of old materials, in making the friendly power that receives Aeneas unite the blandishments of Calypso with the hospitality of Alcinous, and so engrafting a tale of passion on a narrative of ordinary adventure. ARMA virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris 1.] This line is preceded in some MSS. by the following verses: "Ille ego, qui quondam gracili Carmen et egressus silvis vicina Ut quamvis avido parerent arva Gratum opus agricolis: at nunc They are absent from all the best MSS., and are objectionable on internal grounds, because they are feeble in themselves, dividing the attention between the author and the hero; and they destroy the resemblance obviously intended by Virgil between 'arma virumque' and the opening of the Odyssey, as well as that between the opening of the Aeneid and those of the later Roman Epics, which were imitated from it. Ovid, Persius, and Martial quote 'arma virumque' in a way which seems to show they regarded them as the prominent words in the passage. At the same time the lines are doubtless ancient, as Servius has a story that Tucca and Varius expunged them. 'Primus:' Antenor had previously landed in Venetia (242), but he founded no Italian empire, as Aeneas did. 2.] Fato,' a mixture of modal and instrum. abl., as in 4. 696., 6. 449, 466, &c. Here it seems to go with profugus,' though it might go with venit:' comp. 10. 67. Perhaps the force may be "profugus quidem, sed fato profugus," a glorious and heavensent fugitive. For the poetic accus. 'Italiam-Lavina litora,' without the preposition, see Madv. § 232, obs. 4. 5.] Quoque' and 'et' of course form a pleonasm, though the former appears to be connected with 'multa.' and the latter with 'bello.' Dum conderet' like "dum fugeret," G. 4. 457, where see note. Here we might render in the struggle to build his city. 6.3 "Victosque Penatis inferre," 8. 11. Unde' may be taken either as qua ex re,' or as 'a quo,' as in v. 568., 6. 766, &c. The latter seems more probable. Genus Latinum," Albani patres,' 'altae moenia Romae,' denote the three ascending stages of the empire which sprang from Aeneas, Lavinium, Alba, and Rome. Comp. 12. 823, foll., which is a good commentary on the present passage. 'Albani patres' probably means not 'our Alban ancestors,' but the senate, or rather the noble houses of Alba, of which the Julii were one. 8] Quo numine laeso," "what BOOK I. With English Notes and Arguments. ABRIDGED FROM PROFESSOR CONINGTON'S EDITION BY THE LATE REV. J. G. SHEPPARD, D.C.L. With Vocabulary by W. F. R. SHILLETO, M.A., LATE SCHOLAR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. KC 5406 HARVARD COLLEGE 1395 P. VERGILI MARONIS ENEIDOS LIBER PRIMUS. THE subject of the Aeneid, as propounded in the opening lines, is the settlement of Aeneas in Italy, after years of wandering, and a short but sharp final struggle. It is however only of the events preceding the settlement that the poet really treats,-of the wanderings and the war. Accordingly, the poem divides itself into two parts, the wanderings being embraced by the first, the Italian war by the second. But the two parts naturally involve different modes of treatment, comprehending as they do periods of time widely differing in length, the one seven years, the other apparently a few days. The long period of wanderings is taken at a point not far from its conclusion; enough is told in detail to serve as a specimen of the whole, and the rest is related more summarily by the help of an obvious expedient, the hero being made to narrate his past adventures to the person whose relation to him is all the time forming one adventure more. Horace has recommended some expedient of the sort to writers of Epics generally, A. P. 146 foll. It is easy to see that the peculiar style of Homer's narrative is followed, though in no slavish spirit of imitation. The First Book of the Aeneid may be said to perform well the objects which it was no doubt intended to accomplish,-those of interesting us in the hero and introducing the story. After a brief statement of the subject, we have a view of the supernatural machinery by which it is to be worked out: and this is skilfully contrived so as to throw a light on the subsequent history of the Roman descendants of Aeneas, by the mention, even at that early time, of their great enemy, Carthage. Like Ulysses, Aeneas is shipwrecked in the voyage which was to have been his last, but, unlike Ulysses, is still accompanied by those who followed his fortunes from Troy. The re maining incidents of the First Book need not detain us much longer. As a general rule, they are, as we have said, borrowed from Homer; but we may admire the skill with which Virgil has introduced varieties of detail, as where Ulysses, listening to songs about Troy, reappears in Aeneas looking at sculptures or paintings of Trojan subjects, and the art with which a new |