QUESTIONS. What is the character of this book? When does it open? Where was Eneas at that time? What prevented him from proceeding to Italy? Who caused the storm? At whose instigation was it raised? What damage did the fleet of Æneas sustain? Who assuaged the storm? Did he render the Trojans any other assistance? Where did Æneas then direct his course? After his arrival, how was he received? Who conducted him to Carthage, and gave him an account of the country? Having entered the city, to what place does he go first? Whom does he see there? What effect had the appearance of Dido upon him? Are there any episodes in this book? Who were the founders of Troy? And from whom derived? Of what country was he a native? Of what country was Teucer a native? After Eneas arrived in Italy, whom did mus brought up? What is the fabulous account? What is the more probable account? What was their mode of life? What did Romulus do as soon as he came to years of maturity? Where did Romulus found his city? What gave rise to the quarrel between the brothers? What other name had Romulus? From what is it derived? Who were the Amazons? From what is the name derived? Are they supposed to have been altogether a fabulous people? Who was their queen in the time of the "Trojan war? What were the several names of Italy? For what was the word used by synec.? What are the subjects of Homer's song? LIBER SECUNDUS. DIDO having desired Eneas to relate to her the sufferings of his countrymen, he proceeds to the mournful subject. He informs her that the city was taken after a siege of ten years, through the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse: that it was his determination not to survive the ruins of his country, till otherwise advised by Hector's ghost, and the appearance of his mother Venus: that he then conceived the plan of leaving his country, and seeking a settlement in another land. He then informs her of his carrying his aged father upon his shoulders, while his little son followed by his side, and his wife Creusa at some distance behind: that when he came to the place of general rendezvous, he found a great concourse of people ready to engage in any enterprise that here he misses his wife, and, frantic with despair, he resolved to rescue her, at the peril of his life. For this purpose he returned to the city; but, in the adventure, her ghost appeared to him, quieted his mind, and informed him of the land destined to him by fate. He also relates the particulars of his own adventures in that fatal night, when the powerful kingdom of Priam fell to the ground. This book may justly be considered the most interesting one of the whole Æneid; and was one of the six which the poet himself read in the presence of Augustus and Octavia. CONTICUERE omnes, intentique ora tenebant. 4. Narrando ut Danai Trojanas ut opes, et lamentabile regnum midonum 5 NOTES. 2. Taro: the couch on which he sat at supper. Orsus: began. From the verb ordior. Est is to be supplied. 3. Ut in the sense of quomodo. Opes: in the sense of potentiam. Lamentabile: in the sense of plorandum. 5. Danai: the Greeks, so called from Danaus, one of their kings. Quæque miserrima ipse: both what things (scenes) the most pitiable I myself saw, and those of which I was a principal part. 7. Myrmidonum. The Myrmidons were the troops of Achilles. Dolopum. The Dolopians were the troops of Phenix; or, as some say, of Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles. Ulyssei. Ulysses was the son of Laërtes, and Anticlea, king of the islands of Ithaca and Dulachium. He married Penelope, the daughter of Icarus, a virtuous and amiable woman, with whom he lived for a time in great happiness and domestic enjoyment. After the rape of Helen by Paris, he was summoned by the other princes of Greece, to the war that had been resolved upon against Troy. Unwilling to leave his kingdom and beloved wife, he pretended to be insane: and yoking an ox and an horse to her, he went ploughing the shore, which he sowed with salt. But he was detected He performed many daring achievements, and executed many hazardous enterprises. After the death of Achilles, he was rewarded with the arms of that hero. On his return home, he was exposed to many dangers, hardships, and misfortunes, during the space of ten years. After an absence of twenty years, he arrived in his kingdom, to the great joy of his constant wife. He is said to have been slain by Telegonus, a son of his by the sorceress Circe. During his absence, his wife had many suitors, whom she put off by telling them Temperet à lachrymis? et jam nox humida cœlo pro NOTES. that she could not comply with their wishes, until she had finished a piece of work which was then in her loom; but which she was careful not to do: for she undid in the night what she did in the day. By this device she continued faithful to her husband. The return of Ulysses to his native land, and the adventures of Telemaçius in search of his father, form the basis of the Odyssey. 9. Cadentia sidera. In the language of poetry, the stars may be said to set, when they disappear at the approach of day; and they are said to rise, when they become visible, at the approach of night. From this, we are to understand that it was near morning, when Eneas entered upon the mournful subject. Suadent: invite to sleep. 11. Laborem: struggle. Heyne says, cladem, ipsum excidium urbis. 12. Horret: shudders at, or dreads, the recollection. Refugit luctu. The verb here is in the perfect tense. As soon as his mind was turned to the mournful subject, it shrunk back, and revolted from it. This change of tense is an elegance: it marks the quickness of the impression upon his mind. The verb refugio forms the third person of the present and perfect of the indicative, refugit. The penult of the former is short, of the latter long, as in the prescnt case. Some read Luctumque refugit: declines the mournful task; which is the same sentiment. 13. Repulsi. The Greeks are here said to be repulsed by the fates, because it was decreed that Troy could not be taken till the expiration of ten years, from the commencement of the siege. Fracti: disheartened. 15. Instar montis. It hath been objected that this story of the horse has not probability enough to support it; that, besides the hardiness of the enterprise, it is not to be supposed that the Trojans would receive within their walls so enormous and suspicious an engine with so implicit credulity. But the poet, as Mons. Segrais observes, has finely contrived the matter, so as to render it not only plausible, but in a manner necessary and unavoidable. The Trojans, having heard the story of Sinon, and seeing so strong a confirmation of the truth of it in the terrible disasters that befel Laocoon and his sons, had every reason to believe the machine was an offering sacred to Minerva, and that all who offered violence to it should feel the vengeance of heaven, as Laocoon and his sons had done; and therefore they could not act otherwise than the poet supposes them to have done, consistently with their religion, and system of belief. As to the hardiness of the undertaking on the part of the Greeks, M. Segrais observes, that modern history furnishes examples of equally hardy enterprises, undertaken and executed with success. He instances the Hollanders, forty of whom ventured to conceal themselves in a vessel, seemingly laden with turf, and underwent those examinations which are usually made for contraband goods, and having landed, retook the town of Breda from the Spaniards. 16. Intexunt: they line or cover the ribs. Costas. These were the timbers that gave form and figure to the horse-the frame. Sectâ abiete: with sawn fir-with planks or boards of fir. 17 Fama: in the sense of rumor. 18. Sortiti delecta corpora: having chosen a sclect body of men, they privately shut them up, &c. Sortiti: properly, having chosen by lot. 19. Penitus: in its inmost recesses. 21. Tenedos: an island lying opposite Troy, not far from the promontory of Sigaum, and about forty stadia from the main land. 25. Nos rati sumus eos abuisse pet 30. Hic erat locus Nunc tantùm sinus, et statio malefida carinis : 24. Ductores Danaûm Huc se provecti deserto in litore condunt. prevecti Nos abiisse rati, et vento petiisse Mycenas. Ergò omnis longo solvit se Teucria luctu: Panduntur portæ : juvat ire, et Dorica castra, Desertosque videre locos, litusque relictum. Hic Dolopum manus, hìc sævus tendebat Achilles. Classibus hic locus: hic acies certare solebant. 31. Pars nostrum stu- Pars stupet innuptæ donum exitiale Minervæ, Et molem mirantur equi: primusque Thymœtes Duci intra muros hortatur, et arce locari; 34. Sive faciebat id Sive dolo, seu jam Trojæ sic fata ferebant. At Capys, et quorum melior sententia menti, Aut pelago Danaûm insidias suspectaque dona, Præcipitare jubent, subjectisve urere flammis: Aut terebrare cavas uteri et tentare latebras. Scinditur incertum studia in contraria vulgus. 40. Ibi Laocoon pri- Primus ibi ante omnes, magnâ comitante catervâ, mus ante omnes decur- Laocoon ardens summâ decurrit ab arce : dolo, seu 35. Capys, et illi quo rum menti eral melior sententia, jubent aut præcipitare rit 42. Et procul exclamat: quæ tanta insania est vobis 44. An est Ulysses sic notus vobis Et procul: O miseri, quæ tanta insania, cives? NOTES. 23. Malefida: unsafe for ships. Carinis: the keels by synec. the whole ships. 26. Omnis Teucria: all Troy: the name of the place put, by meton. for the inhabitants. See Æn. i. 1. 27. Dorica: an adj. from Doris, a country of Greece, situated between Ætolia, Phocis, and Thessaly; by synec. for Greece in general. Ruæus 29. Tendebat: pitched his camp. says, habebat tentoria. simply, the Dolopians. 30. Acies: is properly an army drawn up in order of battle: agmen, an army in order of march, from ago: exercitus, an army in order of exercise, from exerceo. But they are often used Indiscriminately. 32. Thymates. It is said he married the sister of Hecuba, the wife of Priam, by whom he had a son, born on the same day with Paris. Priam being informed by an oracle that on that day a child was born, who should be the cause of the destruction of Troy, interpreted it against the son of Thymates, and caused him to be put to death. On this account, it is supposed, that he entertained a grudge against Priam, and acted the part of a traitor to his country. He was one of Priam's counsellors. 33. Duci: the inf. pass. of ducor. Equum is understood before it. 34. Fata: destiny-fate. the sense of volebant. Ferebant: in 25 50 35 40 45 35. At Capys: but Capys, and others, to whose mind there was a better judgment, advised, &c. Capys accompanied Eneas on his voyage, and was one of his chief men. He afterwards founded Capua, in Italy, which was a long time a rival of Rome, in wealth and splendor. 37. Subjertis-ve. The common reading is subiectisque. The former is to be preferred. Valpy reads subjectis-ve. 38. Terebrare: to lay open and examine the hollow recesses of the womb. Con 39. Incertum: fickle-inconstant. traria studia: into different sentiments, or opinions. Some were in favor of the measure proposed, others were against it. 40. Ante. Ruæus interprets this by coram, in the presence of all. Davidson thinks it implies that Laocoon was the first, or principal (primus) person among those who opposed the admission of the horse into the city. Heyne thinks we are to understand that Laocoon ran before-outran the rest. Ante, signifies, before, with respect to time, place, and degree. Laocoon, some say, was the brother of Anchises; others say, he was the son of Priam, and priest of Apollo. 41. Ardens: eagcr. Ruæus says celer. 43. Avectos: in the sense of profectos. The verb esse is understood. Inspectura domos, venturaque desuper urbi; In latus, inque feri curvam compagibus alvum 50 50. Sic fatus, validis viribus contorsit ingen tem 54. Si fata Deûm non 55 fuissent adversa 55. Ille impulerat nos fœdare 57. Ecce, intereà Dardanidæ pastores magno clamore trahebant ad 60 regem juvenein revinc- 65 Namque, ut conspectu in medio turbatus, inermis NOTES. 47. Inspectura: about to overlook our houses, and to come down upon the city. It was higher than the walls and houses, and might, with propriety, be said to overlook them, and to come down upon the city -to make an attack upon it. 48. Error: guile, deceit, or trick. It properly signifies whatever is opposed to truth. 49. Et: in the sense of etram: I fear the Greeks even offering presents. There is a peculiar emphasis to be placed upon the et in this instance. 51. Feri: the horse. Ferus does not always signify a wild beast, or beast of prey: it signifies a tame or domesticated animal also. He struck that part of the horse, where the timbers or ribs arose from their horizontal to a perpendicular position. Curvam compagibus: bending out in seams or joints. Juncturis, says Ruæus. Recusso: in the sense of repercusso. 53. Gemitum. This groan probably was made by the Greeks within, who now began to be alarmed at their situation. 54. Fata: decrees, or purposes of the gods. 55. Argolicas: an adj. from Argos, a city of Greece, situated in the Peloponnesus; by synec. sometimes put for Greece in gegeral. Latebras: hiding places--recesses. Trojaque, &c. This is a happy apostrophe: had we taken his advice-had our minds not been stupid and infatuated; now, O 67. Ut Sinon constitit Troy, thou wouldst be standing, and thou, lofty citadel of Priam, wouldst be remaining! Fadare: in the sense of excindere. 59. Dardanida: the Trojans; so called from Durdanus, one of their founders. It is here used as an adj. 60. Strueret in the sense of efficeret. 61. Fidens animi: bold-daring of soul, and prepared for either event; to carry into execution his purpose, (versare dolos;) or, in case of discovery, to yield to certain death. He threw himself a stranger, and unknown, in the way of these shepherds, on purpose that they might take him, and bring him before Priam and the Trojan chiefs, the better to effect his purpose, to persuade them to admit the horse within their city. 64. Circumfusa: surrounding him—encompassing him on every side: a part. from circumfundor. Capto: in the sense of cap tivo. 65. Accipe in the sense of audi. Ab uno crimine: from one criminal person, (namely, Sinon,) learn the character of all the Greeks. This appears to be the sense in which Heyne takes the words. Valpy says: "From this instance of deceit and treachery," &c. Davidson: "From one crime, take a specimen of the whole nation." Crimen properly a crime; by meton. a criminal, or villanous person. 66. In medio conspectu: in the midst of the gazing crowd. |