464-497. But the sun also gives portents of coming events; lately, at the death of Caesar, its darkness was a harbinger of the civil bloodshed that was to ensue; and various prodigies have followed, all indicating the displeasure of the gods, and the calamities that have come, especially the internecine battles of Roman citizens in Greece.

464. Caecos tumultus; revolts secretly plotted. The reference seems to be especially to such local uprisings as occasionally occurred in Cisalpine Gaul and Italy.- 467. Ferrugine, with dusk or dimness. The sun was obscured on the day of Caesar's assassination, and Plutarch says that, for nearly a year afterwards, it shone with diminished light and heat. Astronomers have ascertained that an eclipse of the sun must have occurred in November of that year.-471. Cyclopum agros; the region of Mount Actna. Comp. Ae. III, 569.472, 473. Comp. Ae. III, 572, sqq. An eruption of Aetna occurred shortly before the murder of Caesar.474. Germania. The Roman legions on the Rhine saw, or imagined that they saw, armies contending in the sky, and that they heard the clash of their arms. Perhaps it was an extraordinary exhibition of the aurora borealis. -475. Motibus (sc. terrae), earthquakes; possibly suggested by the shock of avalanches, though earthquakes are said to have occurred in the Alps.476, 477. Vox ingens. A voice, louder than human, was sometimes heard in sacred groves (lucos), and was interpreted as ominous of public calamity.- 477. Modis pallentia miris, pale in wonderful ways, wonderfully pale; ghosts or shades of unearthly paleness. Comp. Ae. 1, 354. 478. Sub obscurum noctis, in the darkness of night, or in the shadowy night.480. Ebur, aera; by metonymy for ivory and bronze images of gods. Sudant. Comp. Ae. II, 174, sqq. 481. Insano vertice, in a mad, whirling torrent. 482. Fluviorum in this verse is trisyllabic, lengthening the first u, and drawing i and o into one syllable.- 484. Tristibus extis, in the inauspicious entrails; the heart, liver, and lungs.- -484 486. Apparere and resonare depend on cessaverunt. 485. Altae. Most of the cities of ancient Italy were situated on hill-tops. Comp. Ae. I, 7, and note.- -486. It was believed that the howling of wolves near a city was a sign that it would be involved in a disastrous war. The allusion here is to their actual appearance, during this period, in the Roman Forum.- 488. Cometae; perhaps meteors and comets.Paribus, equally matched; being weapons not only of the same forms, but in the hands of citizens of a common country and of the same military discipline. Ergo; not because of these things, but in accordance with them.490. Iterum join with concurrere. Philippi did not twice see the legions encounter each other, but it saw their second encounter; the first having been at Pharsalus. -491. Nec fuit indignum, nor (alas!) was it to the gods a shameful thing; it did not seem to them unmeet.- 492. Emathiam, as one of the countries of ancient Macedon, is here put for the Roman province of Macedon, which includes Thessaly and Thrace, and, therefore, Pharsalia and Philippi. Haemi is used with the same latitude as Emathiam.--493. Scilicet et, yes also; ay also; with reference to what follows.497. Grandia, etc. The notion is that the coming generations will dwindle in stature, and so be amazed at the size of these old Roman skeletons. Effossis; by the plow or the mattock of the husbandman.

-489.

498-514. Intercession to the gods in behalf of Augustus, on whose preservation depends the recovery of Rome from the consequences of her public crimes.

498. Di patrii; the ancestral gods and penates of Rome, derived from Troy: Jupiter, Vesta, Mars, etc. Indigites deified Italian heroes; such as Janus and Faunus, Aeneas, Quirinus.- -499. Tuscum. The sources of the Tiber and the greater part of its course are in Tuscany. Vesta may be said especially to guard (servare) the Tiber and the Palatine, as her principal temple was at the foot of the Palatine hill, and near the bank of the Tiber.

66

Romana Palatia; the Roman Palatium; the Palatine, which was the abode of Romulus, the cradle of Rome, and her original stronghold, and which was now the home of Augustus Caesar and the seat of the Roman empire. The plural is used, as sceptra, regna, etc., for fullness of meaning. The Palatine mount, or the part of it towards the Tiber, was the Roma Quadrata of Romulus, built on the site of the Palanteum of Evander. Comp. Ae. VIII, 53, sq. Augustus seems to have already taken possession of this whole quarter, though he had scarcely yet commenced the sumptuous public buildings that he soon afterwards projected, and which his successors enlarged and multiplied, until "Palatium or palace" became the common designation of a royal dwelling.500. Saltem. Though you have denied to Caesar the glory of redeeming our corrupted age, at least do not forbid this youthful hero to save us. Iuvenem. The emperor's age was now about twentyseven. Horace, some years later, still calls him "iuvenem." See Hor. 8. I, 2, 41.501. Sanguine nostro; shed in the civil wars.-502. Periuria. Laomedon was twice guilty of false dealing with the gods: first, when he promised a reward to Neptune and Apollo for building the walls of Troy, and withheld it after the work was done (see Ae. II, 625, V, 811); the second time, when he refused to deliver up the horses promised to Hercules as a reward for rescuing Hesione from the sea-monster. It was believed that the penalty for these offenses was visited both upon the Trojans and their Roman offspring.-503, 504. Iampridem nobis te invidet, has long been envying us thy presence; desiring to remove thee from this world to Olympus.

-504. Curare; supply the subject te. The triumphs alluded to are those that Augustus is expected to enjoy when his campaigns shall have ended. See on Ge. III, 25–33.- -505. Quippe ubi, because, or as (in a world) where, expresses the cause of queritur. Versum, confounded. 506. Aratro; dative after est.- -507. Abductis colonis; the husbandmen having been withdrawn; i. e., to recruit the armies.—509. Euphrates; put for the Parthians, who invaded the empire by crossing the Euphrates.—510. Legibus, federate bonds. The cities of Italy, particularly some of the Tuscan cities, long united with each other and with Rome as allies, have been involved in domestic hostilities connected with the civil wars.- -512. Comp. Ae. V, 145, and note.-513. Addunt in spatia; supply se; they cast themselves (dart forth) upon the course. Others understand "in spatia" as a kindred form to "in dies," and translate: Space after space. So Ladewig.

Roman charioteer passing round the Metae.

Bacchus with ivy crown, thyrsus, and crater. From a statue in Hope's collection.

BOOK SECOND.

ARBORICULTURE.

1-8 Invocation to Bacchus, both as the god of the vine and the patron of the cultivation of trees in general, whether fruit-bearing or forest trees (silvestria virgulta).

-4.

1. Cultus, sidera; supply cecini. Agriculture and, closely connected therewith, the seasons and the weather, have been my theme thus far.2, 3. Silvestria virgulta, the woodland shoots or growths, for woodland trees; perhaps with special reference to those which are cultivated as supports to the vine.- -3. Tarde. The olive is proverbial for its slow growth. Huc, hic. "Come hither to the vineyards and orchards that I have chosen for my present theme; here thine own bounties are scattered on every side." Pater a frequent appellative of Liber or Bacchus, as well as of several other deities, and without any reference to age. Lenaee. The Greek, Anvaïos, is from Anvós, a wine-press.-5. Tibi, to thee or to thy praise; i. e., by thy favor. The last syllable of gravidus is lengthened by the ictus. -8. Dereptis cothurnis. The god is invited to join the poet himself in treading out the wine, first taking off his buskins; for with such he was often represented in pictures and statues. See the above figure.

9-84. Trees and plants are produced, first, by nature (9-21); second, by artificial methods (22-34).

9. Arboribus creandis, for the rearing of trees; the dative after est, as in G. I, 3, 4. Natura; for the law, modes, or methods of nature.- -10. Nullis hominum cogentibus is equally true of all three methods of natural generation here mentioned. Nullis is used partitively with hominum.10, 11. Ipsae sponte sua, not as opposed to human culture, but to any visible action of nature; such as the accidental falling of

-16.

seed from trees (posito de semine), or growth from suckers (pullulat ab radice). Ipsae gives emphasis to sponte sua.- -12. The genesta, or broom; grows abundantly in Central and Southern Europe. It is a low shrub with yellow flowers.14. Pars takes the place of the second aliae. Posito de semine; another of Nature's methods: the planting of seeds accidentally.-15. Iovi, in honor of Jove. Comp. tibi, 5. Nemorum maxima, greatest of foresttrees; nemorum as silvarum in 26.Aesculus. Probably the evergreen oak, remarkable for its heiglit. Quercus, oaks, in general. The oak was sacred to Jupiter, and the oaks of Dodona were believed to give forth oracular responses through the sound of the winds, or of the songs of the birds heard among their branches.-17. Densissima silva. Trees that multiply themselves by suckers, if left undisturbed, speedily cover the soil with a dense young forest.-18. Parnasia. The laurel flourished on Mount Parnassus, and was sacred to the Parnassian Apollo. See illustration, p. 17.

-19. Parva se subicit, sprouts up as a sapling, from the roots that extend from the trunk.

Broom.

21. Sacrorum. Woods, like fountains, were imagined to be the abodes of deities.- -22. Alii, supply modi. Via, in her pathway. Human experience (usus) in her progress has ascertained other methods, besides those above taught by nature. Other texts, following Scaliger, read aliae quas ipse vias, etc.- -23. Hic, one; as opposed to the following hic; another class. Plantas, sprouts or suckers, taken from the mother tree, for transplanting, with a small portion of the root-fiber adhering to them.-24. The perfects as in G. 1, 49.-24, 25. Stirpes, sudes, vallos, stocks, stakes, poles, are nearly synonyms, all meaning "sets." They are branches or thick scions, cut from a tree, sharpened or cleft (quadrifidas) at the lower end, and set or buried (obruit) in a trench or hole considerably deeper than suckers, so that the larger surface of bark under ground may afford a greater number of rootlets. The willow is often treated in this manner.

-25. Acuto robore; ablat. of description.-26. Silvarum aliae, other foresttrees. See on nemorum, 15.- -26, 27. Other kinds of trees await, as the means of their propagation, the arches of the layer; that is, some of their young branches bent or arched down (pressos arcus) and partly covered with earth, still retaining their vital connection with the parent stock (viva), until they have put forth roots of their own, and can be severed from it; thus growing up as nursery plants (plantaria), not in new ground, like transplanted suckers and sets, but in their own mother soil (sua terra). For sua referring to the object, plantaria, instead of the subject, see H. 449,

2; B. 280, R. 1, 2; G. 521, R. 1, 6; M. 490, a.- -28. Putator. The gardener, vine-dresser, or any one employed in cutting scions from the extremities of the branches (summum cacumen) for the kind of reproduction mentioned here.-29. Referens; terrae is understood; "returning it to the ground, in a figurative sense; for its life is derived from the ground through the trunk and the branches.-30. Caudicibus sectis, the trunks being cut or divided into pieces. Caudex is distinguished from the "sets" mentioned in 24, 25, as it is the trunk or main stock of the tree, deprived of its roots and branches. Parts of this, whether cross-sections or longitudinal pieces, retaining some portion of the bark and of the heart-wood, if planted like sets, put forth roots and branches. The olive, which is remarkably tenacious of fife, vivax oliva (see 181), and, according to Servius, the myrtle and mulberry, were thus reproduced. Hence, in the following line, radix oleagina is referred to as the illustration of it. Of this mode of reproducing the olive, Professor George Thurber says (Appletons' "American Cyclopædia"): "The trunks of old trees present numerous swellings or nodules containing undeveloped buds, which are removed and planted like bulbs." The characteristic appearance of the trunk of an old ofive-tree is shown in the cut on page 33.-31. E sicco ligno; contrasted with the juicy suckers, branches, layers, and scions used in the four methods above described.32-34. Et saepe, etc. Grafting is the sixth and last of the artificial methods. 32. Impune, without loss; because one fruit compensates for the other. -33. Insita; supply sibi, referring to pirum, subject of ferre.—34. Prunis, on the prune-tree; ablat. of situation.

35-46. Give heed. O husbandman, to these teachings; and thou, Maecenas, favor (ades) my new theme, and sail with me on this not too adventurous voyage, keeping always near the shore.

35. Proprios-discite, learn the proper methods according to the sorts (of trees); the culture pertaining to each kind of tree.-37, 38. Ismara, Taburnum examples of places fitted naturally, some for the vine, others for the olive. Therefore, no part of the earth, mountain or valley, upland or lowland, need be unemployed (segnes). -39. See on G. I, 1-5.- 41. Volans. Comp. Ae. I, 156.- 42. Cuncta. All things possibly connected with the subject. He takes back or qualifies his rather bold words, pelago da vela patenti: "Yet I do not choose to embrace the whole of this wide-extending theme."- 43. Non is elliptical: " And I could not desire it (optem), even if," etc.- 44, 45. Ades-terrae. The poet here resumes the image of navigation from line 41: "Sail (with me) along the shore; (in my song) the land is (always) in view (in manibus terrae, within reach)." Primi litoris oram appears to mean the border of the very shore, as opposed to deep water, or the sea beyond soundings; kindred to prima terra, Ae. I, 541, but, as it were, from the opposite point of view.- 45. Non hic, etc. Here, on this plain didactic theme, I shall not detain you with poetic fancies, digressions, and a long exordium, as if on the great sea of epic song."

47-60. From wild trees (such as have been indicated in 9-21) the husbandman obtains valuable plantations by grafting and budding (inserat), or by transferring the wild sapling (mandet mutata) to a more favorable soil, or by transplanting suckers, and placing them in rows (digesta) in the open fields; but those that are started from planted seeds (seminibus iactis) come slowly to bearing, and their fruits (poma) are apt to be worthless.

47. Quae neuter, referring to trees and shrubs in general. Luminis oras, the regions of light; the air, as opposed to the darkness under ground out of which they have sprung. Comp. Ac. VI, 660.48. Laeta, thrifty; vigorous in growth, though not bearing valuable fruit.49. Solo, etc., natural