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73. nefas, 'horror!' dramatic.

74. ornatum...cremari. This accusative (and those in the next line), with the passive verb, is a favourite construction of the Augustan poets. It consists in an elastic use of the passive, retaining the objective accusative as though the verb were still active.

It is probably an imitation from Greek: some of the cases resembling the proper passive (ἐπιτέτραμμαι τὴν ἀρχήν) and some the middle (προβέβλημαι τὴν ἀσπίδα), between which Vergil would doubtless not distinguish.

Some of the cases closely resemble and run into the proper accusative of reference, like sacra comam, 60: the line is not easy to draw: others again must be explained as above. (The two instances here might be acc. reference, but the other explanation is preferable in view of Vergil's habitual usage with passive participles.) Compare

os impressa toro, IV. 659; defixus lumina, VI. 156: and line 503; subiuncta leones, X. 157; per pedes traiectus lora, II. 272;

fusus barbam, x. 838; suspensi loculos lacerto, Hor. S. 1. 6. 74; and in English 'he is well taken care of', 'he has never been done justice to'. In ordinary Latin the ablative would be used (accensis comis, &c.).

Translate: 'O sight of horror, in her long hair she caught the flame, and all her tiring blazed with crackling fire'.

75. The que is irregular, as there is only one; but the place is supplied by repeated accensa: cf. X. 313, perque aerea suta, per tunicam, XI. 171, Tyrrhenique duces, Tyrrhenum exercitus.

76. fumida lumine fulvo involvi, rather artificial but forcible phrase. Transl. 'wrapped in smoke and lurid glow'.

78. ferri, 'it seemed', lit. 'it was rumoured or talked of', historic inf., 15.

[visu like dictu, 64, the so-called supine, really abl. of a verbal subst., 'wondrous in the sight or telling, 'wondrous to see '.]

80. ipsam, observe the strong antithesis emphasised by the heavy spondee alone at the beginning.

portendere,' it boded': subject changed, but easily understood from the sense.

82. fatidici genitoris, 'his prophetic sire'. Old local tradition (which Vergil is fond of preserving) assigned this sanctity to several places as being ancient oracles. Thus there were oracles of Fortuna at Antium and Praeneste, by lots drawn: a similar one at Caere in old Tuscan times. The oracle here was by dreams. In Greece they were much more numerous; one of the most famous being the cave of Trophonius in Boeotia.

83. Albunea, a sibyl of this name had a shrine at Tibur or Tivoli on the edge of the Apennines, N. E. of Rome. Horace, Od. 1. 7. 12, speaks of domus Albuneae resonantis (the last word referring to the position of the temple over the splendid cascade of Tivoli, cf. fonte sonat), and this has been generally identified with the Albunea in the

text.

But Tibur was thirty miles off the mephitim seems to refer to sulphur springs, which are not found at Tibur: and altogether we shall

be probably right in following Mr Burn ('Rome and the Campagna', 399, n.) who thinks Vergil refers to a shrine near some sulphur springs at Laurentum: such as the spring of Altieri near Anna Perenna, a couple of miles from Laurentum.

One would gather from the passage that there was a hill (alta) wooded (nemorum) with a gushing spring (sacro fonte sonat) of sulphureous water (mephitim) in the heart of the wood (opaca). The whole sacred spot was called Albunea.

nemorum quae maxima, a slight stretch of grammar (in respect of the genders), but quite easy, 'which mightiest of the groves,' Albunea being the name of the forest too.

85. Oenotria, one of the poetic names of Italy: originally the south part of Lucania and Bruttium, where the Oenotri settled. In Aen. 1. 532 Vergil speaks as though the Oenotri had once been all over Italy: but there is no reason to think this historical.

88. incubuit, he uses the proper term for consulting such oracles. Plautus (Curc. II. 2. 16) has the phrase incubare Iovi for 'consulting Iuppiter by dreams'.

89. modis volitantia miris, shapes ‘flitting in wondrous wise'; an expression impressive from its stately old-fashionedness; it is borrowed from Lucretius (1. 123), a poet whose genius and depth and rugged force produced a great effect on Vergil. Notice how well it suits the passage, giving a weird mysterious effect. No one knows better than Vergil how to borrow.

91. Acheronta, a river of Hades or the lower world, here put for the powers that dwell there; so in the famous line below, 312 'Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo'.

Avernis (in Avernus,' abl. of place), one of the volcanic lakes near Cumae in Campania was so called: its water gave out sulphureous vapours and its banks were clothed with thick wood. It was supposed to have a mysterious connection with the lower world, for which it is here used.

92. et tum, 'then too': the last five lines describing the usual practice. 94. tergo stratisque velleribus, 'hide (unusual word) and spread fleeces', two aspects of the same thing (called hendiadys).

96. conubiis, either the u is long, and the word is 3-syll., the first i being treated as a consonant; so ariete and pariete are treated by Vergil as dactyls: or, as Munro (on Lucr. III. 774) shews strong reason for believing, the u is short. The case is best taken as dat., 'join to a Latin wedlock', i.e. husband, abstract for concrete, as often.

98. generi, plur. for sing., the idea being expressed generally. So X. 79, soceros legere et gremiis abducere pactas. Here it is used, as the individual is not mentioned.

sanguine by their noble blood'.

99. ferant, 'to raise', the final use, 'destined to.' The destiny might be equally well expressed by the future, as it is in videbunt, 101. Such variety is truly Vergilian.

100. utrumque Oceanum. Oceanus is the fabled water which the ancients supposed to flow round the earth: the idea is as early as Homer. Utrumque is east and west, of course.

101. vertique regique, move obedient': the words suggest the might of the future empire: the very earth as it turns is their slave.

103. premit ore, 'hide in silence': the tale is conceived as shut in his mouth, so that the mouth, naturally the instrument of utterance, is here used for the opposite.

105. Laomedontia. Laomedon was the mythical king of Troy, for whom Poseidon built the city while Apollo watched the flocks, the gods being forced to serve for hire. Laomedon cheated them of their hire (Laomedon deos destituit mercede pacta, Hor. III. 3. 21). So the adj. means 'Trojan' simply.

''to':

106. ab, 'to tie from', the ancients often said, where we say ' (so in Greek verbs, to hang' to fasten', take gen.)

[107-147. They sit beneath a tree, and eat the cakes, on which their meal is set: 'See', says Iulus, 'we eat our tables!'

That was

the omen which first relieved them of anxiety: 'for so it had been prophesied', says Aeneas by my sire Anchises, that where we were forced to eat our tables, there should be our home'. So he sacrifices to all the gods, Iuppiter sends a favourable thunder-omen, and they renew the feast with joy.]

109. adorea liba, 'cakes of meal': adoreus (from ador, 'corn' 'spelt') an ancient word, with religious associations. liba is also often used of sacrificial cakes, so that the words dignify the simple meal.

ΓΙΟ. subiciunt epulis: i. e. they put the cakes on the ground and the rest of the food (epulis) over them.

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Iuppiter ille, great Iuppiter', 'Iuppiter above', the demonstrative suggesting the power and presence of the god. For somewhat similar vivid use of the demonstrative see XII. 5 saucius ille gravi volnere leo, XI. 493 equus...aut ille in pastus tendit.

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monebat, prompted'.

III. Cereale solum...augent, pile the wheaten floor', but Cereale suggesting the sanctity of the god-given corn [Ceres being the goddess who invented corn], and augent a word used of laying offerings on altar, dignify the passage.

114. violare: he only means 'break', but the word suggests a sanctity about the 'fateful cake'. The 'fate' was told III. 245, sqq. The Trojans landed on the islands where lived the Harpies, monsters who defiled their feasts; when they turned upon them with the sword, the Harpies fled, but one (Celaeno) prophesied their coming to Italy, where hunger should drive them to eat their tables'. The prophecy is here fulfilled to the ear though not to the sense.

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115. patulis quadris, the broad loaves': the dough was pressed out and stamped into squares (quadrae).

116. Iulus, Aeneas' son, also called Ascanius. The Iulia gens boasted him their ancestor. The chance word which happily points the omen is fitly put into the child's mouth.

118. prima...primam, used in rather different shades of meaning, 'that word first ended our troubles' [i.e. not till then did we see the end...] and at the first from the speaker's mouth his father caught it up [i.e. at once...]: we might take both to mean 'at once', but this would hardly suit prima tulit finem.

AEN. VII.

119. pressit, 'checked': i.e. interrupted; which helps the meaning of primam.

121. fidi Penates, 'true gods of my hearth'.

In Aen. III. 147, when the Trojans in their flight stop at Crete, and wish to stay there, Aeneas has a vision of the Penates (or household gods) who bid him leave those shores and go forth to Italy, where they promise his house their protection, and empire.

122. namque, late in sentence, like ‘non hoc mihi namque negares', VIII. 614 so sed enim: 'impius ex quo Tydides sed enim scelerumque inventor Ulixes', II. 163.

123. Anchises, (the father of Aeneas rescued from Troy, who died in Sicily on the way): it was a Harpy, not Anchises, who gave this prophecy in III. 245, as we have seen. An oversight, probably due to want of revision.

125. accisis dapibus, 'when food grows scant'.

127. manu, Vergil constantly inserts this word in any action where the hand is concerned. It certainly occurs oftener than it would in English, though in no particular case can we say it is out of place. moliri aggere. molior (moles) is a favourite word of Vergil, to describe any act done with effort: of journeying (molitur iter) Aen. VI. 477: driving (habenas) XII. 327: hewing (m. bipennem) G. IV. 331, &c.; here it is building or fortifying.

The instrum. abl. aggere is a Vergilian inversion or variation of phrase (to build laboriously with a rampart' literally): you would expect the simpler aggerem. Translate 'entrenches with a rampart'. 128. illa, 'that foretold'. So hunc illum, 255.

129. exitiis, powerful word, 'our deadly woes', [another reading exiliis less supported and less forcible],

132.

' and leave the harbour divers ways'.

134. mensis, 'on the board' [Vergil's local abl.]. The 'mensae' strictly speaking had been eaten : but of course he means 'renew the banquet'.

136. genium; all living things, and even places, were supposed to have representative spirits, as it were abstract essences of the life or the place, which were divine, and were worshipped on great occasions. Several Roman phrases arose from this curious belief: lectus genialis was the bridal bed, as the genius was the life spirit and so presided over birth. So indulgere genio, meant to enjoy oneself.

The Genius of a place was supposed often to appear in the form of a serpent: so when Aeneas sees the snake at Eryx in Sicily (v. 95) he is 'incertus geniumne loci...esse putet'.

139. Idaeus. There were two 'Ida' mountains connected with Jove: the Ida in Crete, where he was tended by nymphs, and the Ida in the Troad. Vergil uses both. This is probably the latter, because of Phrygiam. The Phrygian mother' (of the gods) was Cybele, a deity imported from Asia, with wild ritual, and many Phrygian myths attached to her name. See VI. 786.

ex ordine, in order': [as ex is used in ex animo, ex sententia, ex lege, i. e. 'in accordance with'].

140. caeloque Ereboque, abl. of place. Erebos [epep- 'cover'] 'the

darkness', i. e. the lower world. His father Anchises was dead, and so was below: his mother was the goddess Venus.

141. clarus, 'loud', epithet transferred, as often in poets.

A 'thunder from clear sky' was always a great sign: it is sent to Odysseus (Od. XX. 112): greets the death of Caesar (G. I. 487). 142-3. Is only a stately description of lightning.

radiis...et auro, 'beams of light and gold', hendiadys, see 15. manu, 127.

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145. quo...condant, final, on which to build'.

debita, destined', as 120, where, however, it is nearer its original meaning.

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146. certatim, [adv. with old accus. suffix, like passim, raptim, statim] properly vying with each other''struggling'; so 'eagerly'. omine magno, 'at the great omen' (the abl. of the cause or circumstance determining the action, not with laeti only as Con.).

147. vina coronant, bind flowers on the cups', a beautiful festal custom ('cratera corona induit', more fully, III 525). Vergil no doubt also had in his head the Homeric κρητῆρας ἐπεστέψαντο ποτοῖο, which however only means 'filled', not 'crowned",

[148-194. Next day Aeneas sends an embassy for peace to Latinus. They find the youth exercising on the plain, and are admitted to the palace. There were statues of Italus, Sabinus,_ Saturnus, Ianus, and heroes and Picus the prophetic ancestor, Latinus addresses them :-].

150. Numici, probably the Rio Torto which flows into the sea passing a mile or so from Lavinium; it is often mentioned in Latin poets; and Livy (I. 2) says 'Aeneas was laid there.' (Burn, Rome and Campagna, 352.) In 242 he calls it 'the sacred pools of the spring

Numicius'.

153. oratores, prop. 'pleaders', old state word for 'ambassadors'. regis Latinus: the maenia are Laurentum.

154. velatos, covered'; probably 'wreathed' with olive boughs [Pallas Athena had the olive as her special tree]. The ordinary way of wearing the olive (as a sign of peaceful mission) was holding it in the hand, wreathed with wool, ('vitta comptos praetendere ramos', VIII. 128); and hence velatos might mean 'shaded'.

155. Teucris, poetic name for Trojans, from Teucer, according to one story first king of Troy.

157. humili (opposite of altus) 'shallow',

158. molitur, 127.

159. pinnis, the pinnae (prop. 'feathers' same as pennae) were properly the battlements (made of twined boughs, Caes. B. G. v. 40) put on the top of the palisade.

160. Observe the extra syllable at the end, elided before ardua. So caelumque Aspicit, X. 781.

164. acres, 'strong': the word means 'eager, vigorous', and is properly applied to living things, to which the springing bow is compared: a touch of the personifying instinct.

lenta 'tough': the elastic wooden shaft.

165. cursuque ictuque lacessunt, 'provoke each other with race

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