'gjfr NOTES BUCOLICS AND GEORGICS VIRGIL; WITH EXCURSUS, TERMS OF HUSBANDRY, AND A FLORA VIRGILIANA, THOMAS KEIGHTLEY, AUTHOR OF THE MYTHOLOGY OF ANCIENT GREECE AND ITALY, ETC, *< ^/-■N. LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE. 1S46. PRINTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. PREFACE, I HAVE written this commentary on the rural poetry of Virgil, "because., however inferior in other respects, I conceive myself to possess two important advantages over the preceding commentators on these poems : I have resided in Italy, where none of them appear ever to have been, and thence am tolerably familiar with the physical features and other properties of that country ; and further, having spent the first twenty years of my life almost entirely in the country, where I witnessed all the operations of agriculture as then practised, and be- ing similarly situated at present, I may claim a practi- cal acquaintance with the various branches of rural eco- nomy and husbandry. They, on the contrary, have passed their days in schools and universities, and appear to have seen no agriculture, and hardly to know one im- plement from another. Some may think I should except Martyn ; but I do not. He knew botany, as it was then known, and nothing more : he was ignorant of agriculture and of natural history. I will however except Mr= Hoblyn, who pub- lished in 1825 a translation of the first book of the Georgics, with notes, in which he exhibited a practical acquaintance with agriculture and a competent know- ledge of natural history. a2 IV PREFACE. Beside the commentators, I have made use of The Husbandry of the Ancients of the Rev. Adam Dickson, a minister of the Church of Scotland, who certainly un- derstood Pliny and the Scriptores Rei Rusticae better than any writer I have met with, and to whom conse- quently I am under much obligation. I have also had the Saggio di Nuove Illustrazioni filologico-rustiche sulle Egloghe e Georgiche di Virgilio, of Carlo Fea, the celebrated Roman antiquary and topographer, and some modern Italian works on agriculture. Though not a professed botanist, yet not totally a stranger in that region, I have ventured to add a Flora ; for I think it is a real advantage to the reader of Vir- gil to be enabled to form a definite idea of the plants which the poet mentions. My authorities here have been, beside Martyn, the Flore de Virgile, Flore de Theocrite, and Commentaires sur la Botanique et la Matiere Medicale de Pline of Dr. A. L. A. Fee, the professor of botany at Strasbourg, from whom, on my passage through that city, I received both attention and information. The Cav. M. Tenore, director of the Botanic Garden at Naples, though not personally ac- quainted with me, very kindly presented me, through a common friend, with his Osservazioni on the two Floras of Dr. Fee. I may therefore hope that my Flora will be found tolerably correct. I have added what I denominate Terms of Hus- bandry, because it was necessary to describe the im- plements and operations of husbandry at some length, and I did not wish to make the notes disproportionate. With respect to the implements, little information can PREFACE. be derived from dictionaries, except the excellent one of Forcellini, as the compilers of them knew nothing of such matters. In the Excursus I have tried to develope two or three rather remarkable peculiarities of the Latin language, which did not appear to have been sufficiently noticed by grammarians. The Biographical Notices prefixed to the Notes seemed to me to be requisite for the perfect understanding of the Bucolics : it will be seen at once that they are only intended to be sketches, not com- plete biographies. It was my intention to have prefixed also Views of Bucolic and Didactic Poetry ; but I after- wards thought that it would be only increasing the size of the book needlessly, as few of its readers would pro- bably much care about the political bucolics of Petrarca and Boccaccio, for instance, or the pastoral drama and romance of Italy and Spain. The View of Bucolic Poetry has been referred to in the Observations on the fifth, eclogue, as I had not altered my plan when that part of the work was printed. The Notes are written in English, as it is only in a modern language that the Georgics could be fully ex- plained. There is no text, for every one may be sup- posed to possess a Virgil, and I have always found it more convenient to have the text in one and the com- mentary in another, than one at the beginning and the other at the end of the same volume, or the text and notes bearing the same proportion and relation to one another as the cornice and wall in architecture. In illustrating the meaning of particular words and phrases, the plan which I have adopted is, to quote the VI PREFACE. elder poets and the contemporaries of Virgil, and but rarely his successors. For the works of Virgil were so universally read and learned by heart, that it is always likely that Ovid or Statius, for example, only gives us a repetition of the Virgilian phrase, and not an inde- pendent instance of its employment. I could wish that the Bucolics were not read so early in schools as they generally are ; for, excepting Horace, I know no portion of the Latin poetry read at school so difficult to understand. They might be read after the Aeneis, and perhaps in conjunction with some Idylls of Theocritus. In writing a commentary one should endeavour to avoid giving too much explanation, and be careful to omit nothing requisite. On the last point I believe myself to be tolerably secure ; but I greatly fear that, not being in the habit of teaching or lecturing, I may have erred on the other side. It is however the safe side. Even in this work I have a moral object. I am not without hope that young men, from reading and under- standing the rural poetry of Virgil, and learning some- thing of the agriculture of the ancients, may have their curiosity excited about that of the present day, and thus be led to acquire a taste for rural life and husbandry ; and that afterwards, as landlords, as private gentlemen, or as professional men, they may take a lively interest in our British agriculture, and seek to promote the welfare and to elevate the character of those engaged in it. Before concluding, I will justify my mode of spelling PREFACE. VU a word which I use in this as in all my other writings. From the Greek /jlv6os I have made the word my the, in which however no one has followed me, the form gene- rally adopted being myth. Now if there is anything like a general rule in the English language it is this,, that words formed from Greek and Latin dissyllables in o? and us, whether the penultimate vowel be long or short, are monosyllables made long by a final e. Thus /3w\o? makes bole, 73-0X09, pole. I believe that a single instance to the contrary, except myth, cannot be ad- duced ; for plinth and the like are not such, the vowel in them being made short by the two consonants. I am not simple enough to expect to alter the usual prac- tice, I only want to show that analogy is on my side. In conclusion, as my work cannot possibly be ex- empt from error, and must be capable of much improve- ment, I shall feel really thankful for any communica- tions on the subject, and promise to give them all due attention. T. K. Binfield, Berks, Feb. 25, 1846. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF VIRGIL, ASINIUS POLLIO, AND CORNELIUS GALLUS. It is always a matter of regret, when in reading the works of men of genius we find ourselves destitute of the means of knowing something of their private history, their ordinary occupations, their mode of life, and their familiar conversa- tion. As a proof of this feeling, we may observe the great avidity with which any anecdote of such men is received whenever it presents itself from any unexpected quarter. In the case of modern writers this is not felt so much ; yet who would not fain know more of even Milton? and how much is it not to be deplored that we know so little of Dante, Shake- speare, Spenser and Cervantes ! But imperfect as our know- ledge is of the history of these great men, it is actually copious when compared with what we can learn of that of the an- cients. Of these, with the exception of Cicero, Horace, and Ovid (whom circumstances led to speak of themselves, their habits and feelings), we know almost nothing ; for what can be more jejune than the notices of them transmitted to us by scholiasts and grammarians ! Virgil has shared the common fate : nearly all our infor- mation respecting him is derived from a Life, purporting to be written by Donatus, a grammarian who flourished in the fourth century, and which, though it is probably founded on earlier and more authentic narratives*, presents in its actual form a farrago * Especially the work of Asconius Pedianus, Contra detractores Virgilii, In our Notes (pp. 44, 59), we inadvertently followed Servius in terming him Virgil's contemporary, for he was not born till some years after the death of the poet. a 5 X BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. of puerile fictions, many of them apparently the inventions of the marvel-loving monks of the middle ages. Their origin can often be easily traced in the history and works of the poet himself. Thus he was skilled in magic, because his mother's name was Magia ; and he was a clever horse-doctor, and was in that capacity, before he exhibited his poetic talents, em- ployed in the stables of the emperor Augustus, because he treats in the Georgics of the diseases of cattle. We will here endeavour to relate all that seems to bear the semblance of truth in Donatus' Life of this poet, and add the little that is known of the history of his friends Pollio and Gallus, as it tends to illustrate the Bucolics. P. VIRGILIUS MARO. Publius Virgilius Maro was born on the Ides (15th) of Oc- tober, 682-4<, in the first consulate of Pompeius and Crassus*. The place of his birth is said to have been Ancles, a village within three miles of Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaulf, where his father had a property in land, probably of moderate extent. The name of his mother was Maia, or rather Magia, as there was a family of this name in the adjacent district of Cremona J to which she may have belonged. Among the figments of the grammarians we may reckon the following : viz. his father was a potter or brickmaker (figidus), — Virgil we know made (Jingebat) verses, — or he was a hired servant of one Magius, who afterwards gave him his daughter in marriage ; and when * Virgilius Maro, in pago qui Andes dicilur, Mud procul a Mantua, nascitur, Pompeio et Crasso Coss. Hieronym. in Chron. Euseb. — N.B. Here and elsewhere we give the years of Rome according to the Catonian and the Varronian sera. f It was the established belief even in the time of Dante (Purg. C. xviii. st. 28), that Andes was the present Pietola; but this village is only two miles from Mantua. % Cn. Maqius, Cremona, praefectus faorum Cn. Pompeii. Caes. Bell. Civ. i. 24. P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XI his father-in-law gave him charge of his cattle and farming (i. e. made him his villicus), he increased his little property by purchasing woods and by keeping bees, — a fiction to account for the origin of the Georgics. They also tell, that his mother dreamed that she was delivered of a branch of bay, which grew at once to be a tree laden with various fruits and flowers, and that early next morning, as she was accompanying her hus- band into the country, she was seized with the pains of labour on the road, and gave birth to her celebrated son in a ditch, who, unlike other newborn babes, never uttered a cry, and displayed a countenance of the utmost placidity. The early years of the future poet were probably spent in the seclusion of his father's villa, where he may have been taught the elements of literature by some educated slave, or possibly at a school in the village*. In 694-96, when he was twelve years old, he was sent for his education to Cremona, where, as we have supposed, he may have had maternal rela- tives. He probably remained there till he assumed the virile toga, which he is said to have done in the second consulate of Pompeius and Crassus, 697-99, in his sixteenth year. lie then went to Milan, for instruction of a higher order, and thence, we are told, to Rome, or, as Donatus says, first to Naples and then to Rome. Whether at this early age he visited these two capitals or not, is a matter of the utmost uncertainty ; in all probability the grammarians sent him thither in order to place him on a level with Horace and others. At all events it seems plain, from the account of his early years, that his father could not have been in mean circumstances, or he could not have bestowed such an education on his son. Virgil is said to have been taught Greek by Partheniusf, at Naples, and to have attended the lectures of Syro, an Epicu- rean philosopher, at Rome, where his fellow-pupil was Varus, to whom he afterwards inscribed his sixth eclogue. But he must surely have been taught Greek long before he could have gone to Naples, and he might easily have learned the Epicurean system in the writings of Epicurus himself, or rather * Comp. Hor. S. i. 6, 72. f See Life of Gallus. XIX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. in the poem of Lucretius, which had lately appeared, and which exercised such influence on the rising generation of the Latin poets. It is uncertain how long Virgil may have been from home. As his constitution was delicate, it is probable that he early sought the tranquil retirement of the paternal villa, and, with- out taking much concern in the occupations of the farm, devoted himself to literature. The rural poetry of Theocritus would seem to have had a peculiar charm for his gentle and placid mind, and it is not unlikely that he may have tried to imitate, or rather have translated, parts of it. We know that at this time he composed a poem named the Culex, of which the subject was the death of a gnat, killed by a shepherd whom she had stung, to warn him against the approach of a serpent. He is also said to have written at this time epigrams, Priapeia, Dirae, the Moretum,the Copa, etc. All these poems, and with them one named Ciris, have comedown to us; and though some of them may be of the Augustan age, and are not unworthy of Virgil, we feel confident that none of them are his composition. One of the best of these is the Moretum, which, it is said, he translated from the Greek of Parthenius ; but its aspect is much more Italian than Greek, and it contains a minuteness and accuracy of description which is foreign to the genius of Virgil. To us it seems to be the work of one who was familiar with the poems of Virgil, and even with those of Horace. The same is the case with the Copa ; it is not Vir- gilian, but it contains Virgilian terms and expressions. The Culex which we have is a wretched production, evidently the work of some one who sought to replace the real, but lost, Culex of Virgil. After the Culex Virgil wrote his Bucolics, of which there can be no doubt that the first written was that which stands the second in order, — the Alexis. Those who infer from Ec. v. 52, that Virgil was personally known to the Dictator, place it in 707-9 ; those who from Ec. viii. 11, that he wrote his Bucolics at the desire of Pollio, in 709-11 or 710-12. The first hypothesis is quite inadmissible ; and with respect to the second, all that legitimately follows from that passage is, that P. VIRGILIUS MARO. Xlll at the desire of Pollio, our poet took up again the subject of unrequited love, and was perhaps required to imitate the Phar- maceutria of Theocritus. The real case would seem to be, that when in 709-11 Pollio, who was himself a man of letters and a poet, was appointed to the government of Cisal- pine Gaul, he became acquainted with the Culex, the Alexis, and perhaps some other pieces of the young poet of Mantua, and gave him his patronage and his friendship. The third eclogue was Virgil's next production. This was most probably written in 710-12, or 711-13, after he had obtained the friendship of Pollio. We should be inclined to say in the former year ; for the place in which he makes men- tion of his patron (vv. 84-89), seems to express the warmth of recent gratitude. In this poem, probably to gratify Pollio, who was of a satirical turn, he made a wanton attack on two, as we may suppose, bad versifiers, named Bavius and Maevius. Of these men we know little or nothing, but it is difficult to conceive that they could have given the young provincial any cause of enmity, for they appear to have lived at Rome, while he, like another Burns, did not at this time look for fame beyond his native province. In this very eclogue there is a passage (v. 105) which could have been understood only at Mantua. The Jifth eclogue was probably the next he wrote. In it he alludes to the second and third ; and whether, as is the general opinion, it is allegorical, and Daphnis is Julius Caesar, or the contrary, we see no reason for placing it earlier or later than 710-12. We are inclined to assign one of these years also as the date of the seventh eclogue. It contains no chronological marks, and those who place it in 714— IS, own that they have no proofs to offer. On the other hand, we may observe (sup- posing our opinion respecting the fifth to be correct) that the three preceding eclogues (notwithstanding the compliment to Pollio in the third) are purely bucolic, and that such also is the seventh, while the remaining six all relate to the poet him- self or his friends and patrons, and are therefore of a diffe- rent character. Further, the seventh was evidently written at XIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Ancles, and we shall see reason to doubt if the poet ever resided much there after he recovered his lands in 712-14. The year 711-13 was that of the division of the lands of various Italian towns among the legions of the Triumvirs. Among these devoted towns was Cremona, and it would appear that the insolent soldiery, who dictated to their masters, insisted on a portion of the adjoining district of Mantua being included in the grant. Andes, which therefore could hardly be so near to Mantua as is said, was probably in the confiscated portion; and Pollio, anxious to save the young poet's property, may have ex- erted his influence in his favour with Maecenas, the friend and adviser of Caesar, to whom the task of rewarding their joint legions had been committed by Antonius. "Virgil visited Rome, now probably for the first time, furnished with letters from Pollio. He was fortunate enough to win the favour of bothMaecenas and Caesar; and to testify his gratitude, he wrote h'xs first eclogue, either at Rome or after his return to Andes. The distribution of the lands was stopped by the breaking out of the Perusian war. When that was terminated, in 712- 14, Caesar sent Alfenus Varus to replace Pollio in the com- mand in Cisalpine Gaul, and Cornelius Gallus to levy contri- butions on the towns whose lands had been spared. It is possible that Virgil had been recommended to these men by Maecenas or Pollio ; but the rude soldiery had little regard for letters, and an officer named Arrius or Claudius, who had seized on his lands, drew his sword on him when he asserted his claim to them, and he narrowly escaped with his life. It is not perhaps necessary to suppose that he had to return to Rome on this occasion ; for as his right to the retention of his lands was clear, Varus could easily do him justice. It was probably while he was making application to Varus that he wrote his ninth eclogue. From a passage in this it would seem, that when at Rome he had made the acquaintance of the two most distinguished poets of that time, C. Helvius Cinna, the friend of Catullus and author of the Smyrna, a poem on which, though short, he had laboured for nine years ; and L. Varius, then known by his poem De Morte, Avritten on the death of Julius Caesar, and afterwards renowned by his P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XV tragedy of Thyestes. With this last he formed an intimacy which remained unbroken till the hour of his death. It was probably also in this year, and to prove his gratitude, that he wrote his sixth eclogue, which he dedicated to Varus, and in which he made honourable mention of Cornelius Gal- lus. Toward the end of this year also he composed his fourth eclogue, to celebrate the blessings that were to result to the Roman world from the peace of Brundisium. It seems not improbable that Virgil, whose health was deli- cate and who was devoted to literature, seeing that he was likely to have rude and encroaching neighbours in the soldiers that were settled about him, resolved to sell his property at Andes, and settle at Rome or in the south of Italy*. We cer- tainly never hear of his living again at Andes, and it is not likely that he would continue to hold a small estate which he would never visit, and which would therefore be entirely at the mercy of his bailiff. It would seem to have been in this year that he introduced Horace to the notice of Maecenas ; and it apparently results from this, that he was then residing at Rome. To this period we may, we think, refer what Bo- natus tells us of his having a house in that city near the gar- dens of Maecenas, whose gift to him it probably was. In the month of September, 713-15, Virgil commenced his eighth eclogue, at the desire of Pollio, who was then returning from his Illyrian campaign. This is the last mention of his earliest patron in our poet's works ; but as Pollio at this time settled for life at Rome, there is every reason to suppose that their intimacy was not interrupted. It is a disputed point in what year the journey of Maecenas to Brundisium, celebrated by Horace, took place. We incline to the opinion of those who place it in the spring of 715-17 ; and as Virgil was one of the party, which he joined at Sinuessa, he would seem to have come from Cumae or Baiae, which might indicate that even then he had fixed his abode in Cam- pania f. * He may have bought a property in Campania : see on Geor. ii. 224. f It was probably at this time that he saw the garden of the old Cory- cian near Tarentum, which he celebrates in the Georgics, iv. 125 seq. XVI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Toward the end of 714-16 Agrippa had led an army into Gaul, and in the spring of 715-17 he reached the banks of the Rhine. As Lycoris, the mistress of his friend Gallus, had deserted him and accompanied that army, Virgil wrote his tenth and last eclogue to console him for the loss of the faith- less fair one. The bucolic labours of our poet thus extend over a period of six or seven years, — a proof perhaps of the slowness with which he composed. In this year the venerable M. Terentius Varro, then in his eightieth year, as he tells us, commenced his work De Re Rustica. As he was a ready writer, he probably published it in this or early in the succeeding year, and from his established reputation it must have attracted general attention. The poem too in which Lucretius had shown the superiority of the Latin over the Grecian Muse in didactic poetry was then the object of universal admiration. It seems then to have occurred to Maecenas, as a statesman and a man of elegant mind, that a work combining the practical knowledge of the one with the poetic charms of the other might be likely to revive in some degree the taste for agriculture, which had declined so much on account of the civil commotions and the increase of luxury. To one who has present to his mind the British farmer, igno- rant or careless of science and polite literature, as it is to be regretted he so generally is, this may seem to argue great sim- plicity in the ancient statesman ; but we must recollect that in ancient Italy the tenant-farmer was rare, and that the nobles and gentry cultivated their own estates. It was these then, a most highly educated class, that Maecenas had in view, and it was on their love of literature that he hoped to operate. He proposed the task to Virgil, who undertook it, though aware of the difficulty. We have stated that it does not ap- pear that he was a practical farmer ; but he must have had at least some general knowledge of agriculture, and he had the work of Varro and those of Mago and the Greeks to furnish Horace terminates his narrative of the journey at Brundisium, but Caesar and his friends afterwards went to Tarentum to visit Antonius. See Hist, of Home, p. 471. P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XV11 him with information. He probably did not commence his poem till some time in 716-18, and he completed it in 725-27, a period of nine years, thus giving a year to about every two hundred and fifty verses, — another proof perhaps of his slow- ness. There is every reason to suppose that he composed it at Naples, where he had fixed his permanent abode on account of the delicious climate*. There is a curious circumstance connected with the Geor- gics. Servius and Donatus both positively assert, that the latter half of the fourth book was devoted to the praises of Cornelius Gallus, after whose death the poet, by command of Augustus, substituted for them the story of Aristaeus. As this last is evidently an integrant part of the poem, and it seems impossible to conceive how such a long panegyric could have accorded with a poem on agriculture, modern critics have without hesitation rejected the whole account as a baseless fable. We do not think that they are justified in acting in this off-hand manner, for notices of this kind have generally some foundation in truth. We further think that the poem did in fact originally contain the praises of Gallus, and that we can even point out the place in which they may have stood, and from which they were ejected after the death of Gallus at the desire of Augustus, or rather by the judgement of the poet himself. Exactly in the middle of that book, when about to de- scribe the mode of obtaining a new stock of bees after they had been lost, he mentions Egypt as the country in which this mode was most in use. Now in the very year in which he was writing this part of his poem, his friend Cornelius Gallus was appointed to the government of that country; and what could have been more natural for the poet than, after the description of the region about Alexandria (vv. 287— 9), to introduce a few lines in praise of his friend the new governor ? Will not the taking out of these lines, and the endeavour to substitute * In fact the whole aspect of the poem is Campanian, there being only one mention of his native province (ii. 198) ; for that in iii. 10 is of a dif- ferent character. It is for this reason that in our Notes on the Georgics we have had Campania chiefly in view. XV1U BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. something else in their stead, give an adequate solution of the difficulty with which this place of the poem is encumbered ? We of course can only give this as a hypothesis, but it seems to us by no means an improbable one. We cannot help suspecting also that during the composition of the Georgics, or in the two or three succeeding years, Virgil may have made a visit to Greece. The well-known ode of Horace (i. 3) is addressed to the ship in which Virgil had embarked, probably at Puteoli, to go, by long sea as we term it, to Athens (v. 6). The commentators unanimously refer this to 733-35, the last year of Virgil's life ; but as we think it could be proved that this book contains no ocles that had not been composed previous to 725—27, the year in which the title of Augustus was conferred on Caesar by the Senate, we feel disposed to assert that it is of an earlier voyage of his friend that Horace treats. This also, we need not say, is a mere hypothesis. Virgil seems now to have devoted himself wholly to the composition of his epic poem the iEneis. He would appear to have meditated a poem of this kind from an early period, for he gives plain hints of such a design in both the Bucolics and the Georgics*. As he probably began it in 723-25, and wrought at it till his death in 733-35, he must have produced about a thousand verses a year, in consequence no doubt of the greater facility with which narrative verse can be written than any other kind. During this period he probably resided almost exclusively at Naples ; for Ovid, who lived pretty con- stantly at Rome, and who was five-and-twenty at the time of Virgil's death, says, Virgilium vidi tantwn, which however may only mean that he had not, owing to that poet's death, the opportunity of cultivating his acquaintance. In 735 Virgil went over to Greece, with the intention, we are told, of remaining three years abroad, occupied in polish- ing his poem. At Athens however he met Augustus, on his return from the East, and he was induced to accompany him * See Ec. vi. 3 seq. ; Geor. iii. 46. He may, like Milton, have long had the design without having fixed on a subject. P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XIX back to Italy. He fell sick at Megara, his disorder increased on the voyage, and he breathed his last at Brunclisium on x. Kal. Octobr. (Sept. 22) in the fifty-second year of his age. His bones (i. e. probably his ashes) were conveyed to Naples and deposited in a sepulchre about two miles from that city on the road to Puteoli*. He is said to have composed the following epitaph, which was placed on his tomb : — Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope : cecini pascua, rura, duces. In his person Virgil was tall and large, of a brown com- plexion, and somewhat clownish in his appearance. He suf- fered much from indigestion, being constantly afflicted with pains of the head and stomach, and he often threw up blood. He was temperate in his diet, and chaste in his person. As- conius asserted that he had often heard Plotia Hieria, the widow of L. Varius, and then an old woman, say, that her husband (with the usual indelicacy of the Romans on the subject) had offered to share her embraces with Virgil, but that he refused in the most decided terms. This, we think, should suffice to confute the story of the poet's intimacy with her, and his giving her the tragedy of Thyestes which Varius afterwards published as his own. The genius of Virgil was not dramatic ; but had he attempted the drama, he would pro- bably have selected the subject of Medea or Phaedra rather than that of Thyestes. We learn from the same authority that Virgil was of a kind and amiable disposition, totally devoid of envy and malignity. His library was open to all men of letters, the to. tmv flXcjv Koiv'a of Euripides was constantly in his mouth. All the emi- nent men of the time were his friends. He was not however without opponents, among whom the poet Cornificius is par- ticularly mentioned. His first and third eclogue were paro- died : the parody of the first began thus, — Tityre si toga calcla tibi est, quo tegmine fagi ? * Consequently beyond the Grotta di Posilipo. The tomb shown now as his is over the entrance of the Grotta on the side toward Naples. XX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. the other thus, — Die mihi, Damaete, cujum pecus, anne Latinum ? Non : verum Aegonis nostri sic rura loquuntur. When he used the word hordea, Geor. i. 210, one made this verse, — Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat. Another thus completed, — Nudus ara, sere nudus — habebis frigora, febrem. Carvilius Pictor wrote an Aeneidomastix, but this of course was after the poet's death. Virgil was slow in the composition of verse: he likened himself to the bear, that licks her young into shape. Donatus tells us it was a tradition, that when writing the Georgics he used every morning to dictate a number of verses, and then work on them through the day till he had reduced them to a very few. He also says that he wrote the Aeneis first in prose, which is not unlikely ; for Racine, who resembled him in many points, is said to have done the same with his trage- dies. A further proof of the slowness and difficulty with which Virgil composed is furnished by the fact of there being such a number of imperfect verses in the Aeneis. This is peculiar to him ; for though Ovid, Lucan, Valerius Flaccus, Statius and Claudian also left unfinished poems, a single in- complete verse does not occur in any one of these remains. Virgil borrowed freely, not only from the Greeks, but from the elder Latin poets, and even his contemporaries. We are told that one day, when he was seen with an Ennius in his hand, and was asked what he was doing with it, he replied that he was gathering gold out of Ennius' dunghill, — no very generous language to that fine old poet, if the story be au- thentic. No poet however was more fortunate than Virgil in the ac- quisition of fame ; for from his own time, down almost to the present day, he has been generally placed in the very first rank of poets. Notwithstanding, we are not afraid to confess our belief that other Latin poets equalled him, and that Ovid sur- passed him in true poetic genius. But he was fortunate in having had national subjects to work on, and thus to become P. VIRGILIUS MARO. XXI at once the national poet, while in every kind of poetry that he tried he was inferior to his model. No one, we should hope, would prefer the elaborate elegance of the Bucolics to the charming simplicity, the sweetness, the grace, the redolence of rural life and manners of the pastoral Idylls of Theocritus. In the Georgics his real model is Lu- cretius, not Hesiod ; and here fortune eminently befriended him, for the most attractive and most manageable of all sub- jects for didactic poetry beyond doubt is agriculture ; while the difficulties presented by that selected by Lucretius could only be overcome by genius of a high order. Hence then the Georgics is a far more agreeable poem to read than the De Rerum Natura, while Virgil could never have struggled with the difficulty of the subject in the manner in which Lu- cretius had done. In those places where the latter has been able to give the reins to his genius, we discover a natural vigour, a sweetness, and a sense for the picturesque, which Virgil did not possess. In a word, as in the case of the Bu- colics before and the Aeneis afterwards, the model-poet is the poet of nature, the imitator the poet of art and labour. Yet in the Georgics also there is much to admire : the language, though wanting in simplicity, is uniformly elegant; the ar- rangement is good on the whole ; the system of personification which he adopted animates all nature, and diffuses life and energy throughout the poem. Its principal fault is the arti- ficial character of the style, especially the contortions caused by the too frequent employment of the figure of rhetoric named Hypallage, which however has been generally admired as making the language more exquisite, as it is termed by the critics*. The expectations raised by Virgil's promise of an epic poem on a national subject were extremely high ; and if we can take Propertius as the organ of public opinion, it was hoped that it would vie with, or even surpass, the Iliasf. Augustus was so * See Excursus V. f " Cedite Komani scriptores. cedite Graii ; Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade." — Prop. ii. 25, 65. ., \ XX11 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. anxious to see at least some part of it, that he wrote from Spain to the poet in the most pressing terms, requesting him to send him, if no more, the first sketch of it, or even a single paragraph. This however Virgil declined doing ; but some time after he read to him the second, fourth and sixth books. The emperor's sister Octavia, who was present, fainted away when the lines dedicated to the memory of her son Marcellus, toward the close of this last book, were read ; and on recover- ing, presented the poet with ten seslertia* for each of those verses. The poem, as is well known, was not completed when Virgil died. Such was his natural modesty, or so conscious was he of its imperfections, that when on his death-bed he repeatedly and earnestly called for the writing-desk which contained it, in order that he might commit it to the flames ; and when he could not induce those about him to comply with his wishes, he left express directions to that effect in his testa- ment. Augustus however forbade that part of the will to be executed, and committed the Aeneis to the poet's friends Varius and Plotius Tucca, with directions to revise and emend, but to make no additions whatever to itf . It is this emended edition of the poem which we possess at present. The Aeneis then never received the finishing hand of its author, and is therefore to be judged with lenity. Making however all due allowance, we cannot concede that, even had he brought it to the highest point of perfection which he was capable of attaining, it could claim to be placed in the first rank of epic poetry. Virgil's genius was not epic ; it wanted variety and facility, and he had little skill in the delineation of character. While all the personages in Homer and Tasso are definite and distinct, each with his peculiar mode of think, ing, speaking and acting, and even Milton in his limited sphere of character has been able to mark distinctly each of his good and evil angels, — in Virgil, with the' exception of Dido, all is sameness ; one warrior is like another, and the Pius Aeneas is * That is about £80 ; as there are twenty-five of these verses, the whole sum was about £2000. f Donatus, 14 ; Plin. N. H. vii. 30 ; Gellius, xvii. 10. P. VIRGILIUS R1AR0. XX111 as uninteresting a character as need be desired. This want of distinctiveness pervades all his poetry; hence the difficulty of understanding so many places of the Georgics. In his de- scriptions and similes there is usually something vague and hazy ; they do not present a clear, distinct picture to the mind of the artist ; while those of Homer, of Dante, of Ovid, for example, are as definite to the mental eye as if they were actually on the canvass*; and this we look upon as one of the tests of the true poet. We would then, placing such poets as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and some others in the first rank, assign Virgil a place, and not the highest one, in the second ; for Ave regard Tasso, Ariosto, Ovicl (the ancient Ariosto) and Spenser as his superiors in original native ge- nius, in the quick and ready conception of poetic forms, and in the spontaneous effusion of poetic expression f. It is surprising how little of originality there is in the Aeneis:p. At every step in it we are reminded of the Ilias or the Odyssey ; elsewhere we meet with Apollonius Rhodius ; and had the old poem of Naevius on the first Punic war come down to us, we should in all probability have found the source of much that now appears original. Thus we have every rea- son to suppose that it was after him that he brought Aeneas to Carthage and made him be acquainted with Dido ; in * See, for example, in Homer the simile, II. iv. 422 ; in Ovid that Met. iii. Ill ; in Dante that Purg. C. iii. st. 27. t Virgil nor Lucan, no nor Tasso more Than hoth. — Carew, Poems, p. 100. The late Robert Southey rated Statius hefore Virgil in original genius. We demur to this decision, for our opinion of Statius is not very high. Had he said Valerius Flaccus we might not have disagreed much with him, for this was a poet of true original genius. In his Argonautics, though treating of the same subject with Apollonius Rhodius, he never imitates him, and he has contrived to give to the voyage of Jason a degree of no- velty that is surprising. We cannot account for the neglect with which he has always been treated ; we know he is not deserving of it. J " If you take from Virgil his diction and metre, what do you leave him?" — Coleridge, Table-talJc, p. 29 ; see also p. 1S3, 1st edit. " Take from him what is in Homer, what do you leave him ? " — Johnson in Boswell, ix. 310, edit. 1835. XXIV BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. Naevius, Aeneas consults the Sibyl at Cumae, and he probably- had narrated the whole voyage of the founder of the Roman dominion which Virgil adorned from the Odyssey. Again we repeat that Virgil was fortunate in his choice of a subject ; while other poets were transplanting the mythic tales of Greece, and thus making their poems exotics in Latium, he selected the only national subject that was capable of the em- bellishments of poetry, and thus became the national poet, the Latin poet car e&xw- We have given it as oar opinion that Dido is the only cha- racter in the Aeneis that shows the hand of a master. It is a curious fact, when we consider Virgil's disposition, mode of life and character, that disappointed affection is his favourite subject, and that of which he excels in the delineation. In the Bucolics we have that of Corydon, of Damon, and of Gallus ; in the Georgics we may say that of Orpheus; and in the Aeneis, his masterpiece, that of Dido, and slightly that of Turnus. Yet Virgil could hardly have had personal expe- rience of the pangs of slighted love ; he must have derived his knowledge of them from Euripides * and other poets, and, owing to some natural aptitude of mind for the task, have succeeded in producing the fine pictures of these mental tor- ments which adorn his poems. The same was the case with the French poet Racine ; he has created the Hermione, the Roxane, the Phedre, and other characters of this nature, and yet we know that he never felt a strong attachment, was per- haps incapable of feeling it, for any woman whatever. We have thus sketched a Life of Virgil, expressing our opinions and our conjectures, well aware that some will be contested and some rejected, but still hoping that we have elucidated it in some small degree. * In page 138 we inadvertently named Apollonius Rhodius instead of Euripides. C. .ASINIUS POLLIO. C. ASINIUS POLLIO. The Asinian gens originally belonged to Teate, the chief town of the Marrucinians, one of the peoples of the Marsian con- federation*. Cn. Asinius settled at Rome where his son Caius (surnamed Pollio) was born in the year 677-79. His father being a man of property, and his own inclination leading him to literature, the young Pollio appears to have received an excellent education. In the one-and-twentieth year of his age (698-700) he made his first appearance in public life as the accuser of C. Cato for having violated the laws in his tri- bunate of the preceding year ; but the influence of Pompeius was exerted in favour of the accused, and he was of course acquitted. Pollio probably remained at Rome till the breaking out of the civil war. It was doubtless at this time that Catullus wrote the verses to Pollio's brother Asinius, in which he praises the honourable character of Pollio, and terms him leporum Disertus puer acfacetiarumf. Pollio deplored the civil com- motions about to ensue ; but finding, as he himself says J, that he must take a part, as he had great enemies on both sides, he shunned, he adds, the camp, in which he could not be secure against his enemy (probably Pompeius)", and joined that of Caesar, by whom of course his talents and his literary pursuits were duly appreciated, and who instantly took him into his confidence. Pollio was one of those with whom Caesar deliberated pre- vious to the passage of the Rubicon. He held a command in the army sent under Curio to reduce Sicily and Africa ; after whose defeat and death he took the chief command, and effected his escape from Africa, though with loss and difficulty. He was present at Pharsalia. On his return thence to Rome he was probably made one of the tribunes of the people, and was active in opposing the measures of Dolabella for an abo- lition of debts. He accompanied Caesar to Africa and Spain, * Catull. xii. 1 ; Sil. Pun. xvii. 453 ; Liv. Epit. 73. t Catull. xii. 8. J Cic. ad Fam. x. 31. b XXVI BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. and fought at Munda ; and it would appear that he was one of the fourteen praetors made by Caesar on his return to Rome. As Sex. Pompeius was soon again in arms, Caesar committed to Pollio the government of Ulterior Spain. In his campaign against Sex. Pompeius he met with a defeat ; for the country- was in favour of his opponent, and his father's veterans who were in his army burned to efface the disgrace of Munda. He would probably not have been able to maintain himself in his province, had not peace been made with Pompeius after the murder of the Dictator. During the eventful period that succeeded, Pollio remained in his province. In his extant letters to Cicero* he expresses much zeal for the republic, but pleads want of instructions and the difficulty of marching an army through the province of Lepidus without his consent as an excuse for his inaction. In September 709-1 1 , after the coalition of Caesar with Antonius and Lepidus (deeming perhaps the cause of the republic hope- less), he joined them with his three legions, and induced Ma- natius Plancus to follow his example. He was at the meeting near Bononia (not of course in the island), and the name of his father-in-law was the third on the tables of proscription, probably with his consent. He was one of those designated by the triumvirs for the consulate. The government of the country beyond the Po was now committed by Antonius to Pollio as his legate. On the break- ing out of the Perusian war, Pollio marched his troops out of his province, ostensively with the intention of supporting L. Antonius, but he remained again inactive. At the end of that war Caesar sent Alfenus Varus to supersede him in his pro- vince. Pollio kept his troops on the coast, in order to favour the landing of M. Antonius ; and he gained over to his side Domitius, who was cruising in the Adriatic. He was one of the negociators of the peace of Brundisium, after which he went to Rome and entered on the consulate, for which he had been designated in 709-11. In the following year he go- verned for Antonius, as pro-consul and legate, the province of * Cic. ad Fam. x. 31-33. C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. XXVU Illyria ; and when the Parthinians and some other tribes rose in rebellion, he subdued them and took the town of Salona by storm. He triumphed on his return to Rome, after which he retired from public life, devoting himself to literature. When Caesar asked him to accompany him to Actium, his reply was " My deserts toward Antonius are too great, his benefits to me too well known ; I will therefore keep aloof from your contest and be the booty of the victor." Pollio continued to cultivate literature to the end of his life. He founded, out of the spoils of his Illyrian war, a public library in the Atrium Libertatis, which he adorned with the busts of those most distinguished in literature. He did not however totally with- draw from public life ; he gave his attendance in the senate, and was on terms of intimacy with Augustus. He died at his villa near Tusculum in 756-58. Pollio was distinguished as an orator, a historian and a poet. In his oratory he is said to have shown both vigour and wit ; but he was bitter and sarcastic, and his action was wanting in grace. His history of the civil wars displayed candour and a love of truth and liberty, without passing the limits of discre- tion. His poetry was dramatic and of course imitated from the Greek ; it is praised by both Virgil and Horace. C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. C. Cornelius Gallus was born at Forum Julii (Frejus), in Narbonese Gaul*, in the year 686-88. He is said to have been of humble origin -j-, but this perhaps only means that his family was not noble. Of the events of his early life nothing is known. It seems probable that, like the people of the Gauls in general, he took the side of Caesar in the civil war ; for we find him on terms of great intimacy with Asinius Pollio previous to 709-11 ; in which year Pollio, writing to Cicero J, Suet. Oct. 66. f Id. ib. % Cic. ad Fam. x. 31. b2 XXV111 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. tells him, if he wishes to read a play which he mentions, to get it from his friend Cornelius Gallus. As Gallus could not have been more than one-and-twenty at that time, and Pollio probably was not much in Rome after the breaking out of the war, their intimacy, it is likely, commenced in the camp of Caesar. It is also likely that Gallus attached himself to the party of the younger Caesar, for we are told* that in 711-13, when the confiscations to reward the veterans began to be put into effect, he was assigned the task of collecting money from those towns beyond the Po of which the lands were to be spared. As Mantua was one of these, his intimacy with Virgil may have commenced on this occasion. We hear nothing more of Gallus till after the battle of Actium, when we find him in command of a division of Caesar's army, taking the town of Paraetonium in the west of Egypt, and defending it against Antonius with success. When Caesar was leaving Egypt after the death of Antonius, 722-24, he committed the government of it to Cornelius Gallus. The people of two of the Egyptian cities having risen in arms, to resist the tribute imposed on them, Gallus suppressed the revolt without diffi- culty ; but elated with prosperity, he lost sight of prudence, and gave the enemies, whom a man like him was sure not to want, an opportunity of injuring him in the mind of the sus- picious Augustus, by causing statues of himself to be erected in various parts of Egypt, and his deeds to be engraved on the Pyramids f. By a late writer! we are also told that he was charged with pillaging his province ; but for this charge there does not seem to be any foundation. In consequence of these charges he was removed from his government, and on his return to Rome Augustus forbade him his presence and prohibited him from entering his provinces §. When it be- came manifest that he had lost the favour of the prince, new accusers appeared and new charges were made against him, and the Senate decreed that he should be banished and his property be seized to the use of Augustus. Gallus, unable to * Serv. on Ec. vi. 64. f Dion. Cass. liii. 23, 24. J Ammian. Mar. xvii. 4. § Sueton. ut sup. C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. XXIX bear this misfortune, put a termination to his life (726-28) : he was in the fortieth year of his age at the time. Augustus praised the dutiful conduct of the Senate, but shed tears for Gallus, and complained that to him alone it was not permitted to be as angry as he pleased with his friend *. Gallus, like Pollio, beside being a statesman and a warrior, was an orator, a poet and a patron of learned men. His friendship for and patronage of Virgil have given him endu- ring fame. The extant work of Parthenius of Nicaea, Ilept epb)TiK<5i> Tradr)jxaT(x)v, is addressed to him, and was apparently compiled at his desire. The grammarian Q. Caecilius Epirota, the freedman of Atticus, when dismissed on account of a sus- picion of too great intimacy with the daughter of his patron, the wife of Agrippa, whom he was engaged to instruct in lite- rature, betook himself to Gallus, who retained him on terms of the greatest intimacy ; and this is stated to have been one of the heaviest charges made against Gallus by Augustus f. The poems of Gallus are said J to have consisted of translations from Euphorion and of four books of elegies, of which the sub- ject was his mistress Lycoris. This is said to have been Volum- nia, the freedwoman of a senator named Volumnius, with whom Gallus had a connexion, similar to that of Tibullus with his Delia, and Propertius with his Cynthia. She is ge- nerally supposed to be the Mima Cytheris who had been the mistress of M. Antonius, but of this there is no certainty. When in 715-17 Agrippa led an army into Gaul and crossed the Rhine §, Lycoris, with the faithlessness common to her kind, deserted Gallus and accompanied some officer in that army. Gallus, who it would appear had a command in the army which Caesar was assembling in the south of Italy, to act against Sex. Pompeius, was much affected by her perfidy; and^his friend Virgil, who, as we have reason to suppose, was then residing in Naples or its vicinity, wrote his tenth eclogue to console him. He had already introduced his praises into * Sueton. ut sup. f Sueton. De 111. Gram. 16. X Serv. on Ec. x. § Id. ib. XXX BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. his sixth eclogue, and at a later period he inserted them in his Georgics*. As a poet, Gallus is described by Quintilian as being some- what rugged (durior) ; his poems are all lost, but, according to Servius, Virgil has inserted a few of his verses in the tenth eclogue. * See Life of "Virgil, p. xvii. CONTENTS, Notes on the Bucolics. Page Eclogue I 1 Observations 13 Eclogue II 16 Observations 26 Eclogue III 29 Observations 46 Eclogue IV 49 Observations 58 Eclogue V 62 Observations 72 Eclogue VI 76 Observations 88 Eclogue VII 90 Observations 101 Eclogue VIII 102 Observations 118 Eclogue IX 119 Observations . a . . . . . 128 Eclogue X 129 Observations 138 Notes on the Georgics. Book I 139 Book II 206 Book III „ 250 Book IV 293 XXX11 CONTENTS. Excursus. p age I. The River Oaxes 327 II. Latin Participials 330 III. Latin Middle Voice, etc 332 IV. The Sibyl and the Return of the Golden Age 334 V. Peculiarities of Virgil's Style 336 VI. Corvus and Cornix 338 VII. Abstract for Concrete 340 VIII. On Geor. III. 400 340 IX. Latin Contractions 342 X. On Geor. IV. 287 346 Terms of Husbandry 348 Flora Virgiliana 374 ERRATA. Page 2, line 9, dele oaten. — 25, — 7, for ttoXios read iroXids. — 154, — 7 from bottoin,/or re read eo. — 178, — 17, for sultemen read subtemen. — 328, — 3, for TreXidSos read HqXeiaSos. — 356, — 8 from bottom,/or fodere read podere. Geor. ii. 350 seq. We fear that we have not given the true sense of this passage. The stone or tile it would appear was to be in the earth, but above the root of the plant, not about it, like the stones and shells pre- viously mentioned; see Colum. hi. 11. ADDITIONAL CORRECTIONS. Page xv. line 17, after this add or rather in the following. — xvii. — 2, for Tlh-11 read 723-25, and correct accordingly the following computation. — xix. — 4, dele the parenthesis. — xxviii. — 3, for one read two. — 28, last line but one, for as read a. — 33, — 24-27, dele who and and for We...... original read This we would explain by supposing that Damoetas may have been keeping his master's cattle, and that his friend Aegon, who was a shepherd, had requested him to mind his sheep for him a little while. — 67, — 6, for his Maevius read some one. — 128, last line, for surrounded by read and a grove or rows of. — 137. The note on v. 71 is superfluous, as the poet was only following the ordinary usage of the Latin language. — 138, — 24, for 714-16 read 715-17. — 204, — 6, after Thrace add for this sense of bis see iii. 33. — 254, — 22, dele or Britons. — 259, — 29, dele and work. — 262. In vv. 123-137, the poet is speaking only of the horse and mare. — 328, — 17, after 'Qpiojv add and Horace (Epod. 15, 7) has Orion with the first vowel in the thesis of a dactyl. — 332, — 21, for fluvius read pluvius. — 333, — 13, for perasta read peruste. — 335, — 25, after Xeyovres add Plato's contemporary Aristo- phanes has (Peace 1095) ov yap ravr elrre 2ij3iAA.a. — 383, —14, for felea read felce. — 388, — 32, for pulse read plant. NOTES THE BUCOLICS. Eclogue I. — Tityrus. Argument. A shepherd named Tityrus, while seated beneath a spread- ing beech-tree, where he is amusing himself with playing on his pipe and singing the praises of his mistress Amaryllis, is accosted by a neighbouring swain named Meliboeus, who having been turned out of his lands, is driving his flock, of goats before him, uncertain whither to direct his course. He inquires of Tityrus how he had been able to escape the general calamity, and when informed, congratulates him on his good fortune, contrasting with his felicity his own hapless condition. Evening comes on, and Tityrus invites Meliboeus to stop for the night with him in his cottage. Notes. 1-5. patulae. As we shall show hereafter, this, like most words of the same termination, is a participial. It therefore differs little from patens. Servius however makes a distinc- tion, saying that the former was used of things which spread naturally, as wares, arbor, crux; the latter, of such as opened and shut, as ostium, oculi. Statius seems not to have known this distinction, for he says (Theb. i. 588),patulo caelum ore trahentem, and (iv. 792) patulo trahit ore diem, speaking in both places of a child. — tegmine, a contraction of tegimine, or tegumine. Virgil in the employment of this word follows Lu- cretius, who uses it more than once, as sub eodem tegmine caeli, ii. 661. —fagtis, the beech-tree. For this and the names of all other plants and flowers, see the Flora at the end of this volume. — 2. Silvestrem musam, woodland or rural muse, i. e. song ; the Muse, like Ceres and Bacchus for example, being put for the thing over which she presided. — tenui arena, slen- der oaten pipe. In the picture in the celebrated Vatican MS., which is supposed to be of the fifth century, and the pictures in which are probably copied from still older ones, Tityrus is represented as playing on an instrument resembling the Cen- namella of the modern Italian peasantry, which we shall de- scribe in our Observations on the third Eclogue. It is how- ever probably the fistula, or Pandean pipes, the usual instru- ment of the ancient shepherds, that the poet means in this place. Arena is here apparently merely used as equivalent to calamus, the proper term for the reed of which the fistula was made, and which the poet uses v. 10. (Cf. vi. 8.) Ovid also (Met. ii. 677. viii. 191) uses it for the tubes of the fistula. Voss however, who takes all things in the most literal and nar- row sense, understands by arena the corn-pipe of straw, such as young children amuse themselves with, not considering the ridiculous picture which a grey-headed man blowing a corn- pipe presents. — meditaris, practise. Simidque ad cursuram meditabor me ad ludos Olympiae. Plaut. Stich. ii. 2, 33. Me- ditor is the Greek fxeXe-uw: for it is a curious fact, that though d and / are not letters of the same organ, or even of the same class, they are commutable; as Zaitpvov, lacrima; cicada, cicala (Ital.), cigale (Fr.); hedera, ellera (Ital.), lierre (Fr.). In the Sicilian dialect the Italian 11 is uniformly represented by dd. — 3. Nos, i. q. ego, in the usual Latin manner. — et. This conj. is frequently used by Virgil to connect words which are epexe- getic or explanatory of what precedes. It then answers to eren in our translation of the Bible. — k.fugimus. There is an ascending gradation here from the preceding linquimus; I not merely quit my country, I fly, as it were, from it, such is the violence used toward me. — lentus, stretched, reclined. By ECLOGUE I. 1-12. 3 a principle of the Latin language, hereafter to be explained, it is the same as lenitus, and is the part, of lenio, to relax or soften. Its primary meaning therefore is relaxed, from which those of flexible, sloiv, tough, etc. are easily deduced. — 5. reso- nate, to give back or echo, i]yjTiv. Cf. Geor. iii. 338. — Ama- ryllida, the name or praises of his mistress Amaryllis. 6-10. deus. He calls the person to whom he was indebted for his present felicity (otici) a god. There is no doubt that the person meant was Caesar Octavianus. As it was the gene- ral belief of at least the educated classes at that time at Rome, that the gods of the popular creed were merely deified men, there was little or nothing of impiety in giving to a man while living the divine honours which he was sure to obtain after his death. Cf. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 15. Tityrus means that he would worship Caesar (or probably his Genius) along with his Lars or household-gods, as it sometime after became the gene- ral custom to do. See Hor. C. iv. 5, 34 — 7- illius. Virgil here and elsewhere shortens the penult, in this word. Cf. Geor. i. 49; Aen. i. 16. etc. He takes, like other poets, the same liberty with ipsius, alius and solius. — 8. nostris. The same as meos in next verse. — inbuet, sc. sanguine. — agnus. Some offered a pig, others a lamb, others a calf to their Lar, according to their cir- cumstances or their piety. See Tibull. i. 1, 21. — 9. ipsum i. e. meipsum. — 10. ludere. This verb is not to be taken in the modern sense of the word play, as when we speak of playing the flute : it was used to express any employment that was not of a serious nature. Cf. vi. 1. 11-18. magis i. q. potius. See Lucr. ii. 385, 428, 868; Catull. Ixviii. 30. — 12. Usque adeo, to such a degree. This is a common Lucretian phrase. With respect to adeo, where ad is apparently joined with an abl. we may notice the fol- lowing observation of Priscian (De xii. vers. Aen. xii. 200) : " Solent componi ablativi cum praepositionibus quae etiam accusativo separatim solent conjungi, quapropter, quocirca, praeterea ; sic etiam interea." Adeo, antea, postea, antehac and posthac would seem to have escaped his observation. This theory is however disputed at the present day, and in fact we do not see how the ea in interea, for instance, could be b2 4 BUCOLICS. an ablative. — turbatur, there is such distraction and confusion all through the country. — ipse, I myself, a sharer in the com- mon calamity. — 13. Protenus i. q. protinus, i. e. according to the critics, porro torus, on, onwards. We however rather think that pro is taken here in the same sense as the Greek irpu, and as in projicio, progredior. — aeger, sick at heart. This adj. is used of the mind as well as the body. Cf. Aen. i. 208, 351, etc. — vix duco, I lead with difficulty, she is so weak. — 15. Sjiem gregis, the hope of my flock, i.e. the means of keep- ing it up. Cf. Geor. iii. 73. — silice in nuda, on the bare rock or stones. Possibly it means the road, as the Roman roads were paved with sitex. We cannot see, with Heyne, an allusion to the practice of putting straw or fern under the sheep in the stalls. Geor. iii. 297. In all countries sheep and goats yean in the fields, in Italy frequently on the roads as they are driven along them. — connixa. This is the only instance of the em- ployment of this word in the sense of bringing forth. Ser- vius says it is used for enixa to avoid a hiatus ; but we rather think, with La Cerda and Fea, that the poet selected it to ex- press the pain and difficulty of the goat's labour. — reliquit. This would seem to intimate that the kids were born dead, or died soon after their birth ; for kids and lambs can walk as soon as they are born, and Meliboeus would probably have carried them sooner than leave them to die of hunger. — 16. laeva, stupid, as dexter is quick, expert. The idea is taken from the hands. — 17. De caelo tactas sc.fulmine, struck with lightning. This is a common expression in Livy and other prose writers. — praedicere i. e. praedixisse. The inf. pres. for the inf. past. — quercus. The striking of the oak Pomponius I tells us indicated exile. The verse Saepe, etc. which follows here in some editions is wanting in all the good MSS. It occurs in its proper place Ec. ix. 15, and was probably written in the margin of some ancient copy by way of illustration, and was thence taken into the text, — a common practice. — 18. da, i. e. die, as accipe is i. q. audi. Cf. Aen. ii. 65. vi. 136, etc. Sed da mihi nunc ; satisne probas ? Cic. Acad. i. 3, 10. Aeneas eripuisse datur. Ovid. Fast. vi. 434. 20-26. The following roundabout narrative was probably ECLOGUE I. 12-28. 5 intended for an imitation of the mode of narration of the peasantry. — 21. huic nostrae, this town of ours. He nowhere mentions its name. — 22. depellere fetus. The usual sense of this is to ivean, and it is so understood by Servius, who is fol- lowed by Bunnann and Fea ; but La Cerda, Ruaeus, Heyne, and all the late editors render it to drive, in favour of which they quote In inferas partes depelli (succum), Plin. N. H. ii. 78, and Silicem quern montibus altis Depulerat torrens, Sil. ix. 396, neither of which appears to us to be to the purpose. They also refer to the relative situation of Virgil's farm on an eminence at Andes, and Mantua lying in the plain. But see the Observations on this eclogue. In favour of the first in- terpretation it may be observed, that young lambs and kids are never driven to market in any country. The Roman shep- herds of the present day, Fea says, carry to market in panniers on horses their young lambs, which they call abacc hi (i. e. abacti ?) ; and Columella tells us (vii. 3), that the shepherds who lived near towns sold their lambs when very young to the butchers, in order that they might have the entire profit of the milk, a valuable article in hot countries., Horace seems to speak (Ep. i. 15, 35) of lamb's flesh as a cheap and inferior kind of food, and at the present day the lamb to be bought in Rome and other Italian towns is miserably small. It is ob- jected, that if this be the sense of depellere in this place, we must, with Bunnann, change quo in v. 21 into quoi, the ancient dative. But there is no necessity for this ; for the adverb quo, whither, is, it would seem, a dative (contr. of quoi) signifying to ivhich ; and the only difference is, that it would be for in- stead of to which. Perhaps the whole difficulty arises from Virgil, who was not a practical farmer, not being always strictly correct in his use of rural terms. — 25. urbis. Here and in v. 20 we must render urbs, town, for Tityrus knew nothing of cities. — 26. cupressi. There is a violation of poetic propriety here, for the cypress is not one of the indigenous trees of Italy, and so could hardly be familiar to shepherds. 27. tanta, so great, that could take you so long a journey. 28-36. Libertas, liberty, the desire of obtaining my free- dom. Tityrus, like nearly all other farm-servants at that time BUCOLICS. in Italy, was a slave, and his master is represented as residing at Rome. Meliboeus, on the contrary, might seem to be a proprietor, unless he is to be supposed as removing his master's flock. — sera, i. e. quanquam sera. — rcspexit, looked back on. Liberty is to be conceived as preceding and looking back on him, as if inviting him to join her. — inertem, inert, making no effort to obtain his freedom. — 29. Candidior, etc. The comp. here expresses some degree of. When my beard began to turn gray. — 30. Heyne was inclined to reject this verse as un- worthy of the poet ; but it is in all the MSS. and may easily be defended when wc consider the character of the speaker. Cf. iv. 60, 62. According to Cicero (Phil. viii. ] 1) a thrifty I slave ought to make the price of his freedom in five or six years. — 31. Poslquum, etc. It was the custom of the Romans to give their slaves companions of the other sex ; their union was named contubcrnium. A similar practice prevailed in our own colonies during the existence of slavery in them. Galatea and Amaryllis were the successive contubernales of Tityrus. — luibet, has had. Our idiom differs from the Latin. — reliquit, deserted me ; perhaps died. 32. Namque, etc. Galatea being probably of a vain, extravagant temper, all Tityrus' savings and earnings went in buying her dresses and ornaments. — 33. peculi. The peculutm (from pecus) was the cattle which a Roman allowed his son or his slave to possess as his own property and to pasture on his lands. Varro, R. R. 1, 2. — 34. multa victima, many a victim, i. e. a beast in such good con- dition as to be fit for sacrificing ; for which purpose the fattest and best were selected. Multus and plurimus (especially the latter) are frequently used thus in the sing. — saeplis (from saepio), i.e. ovilibus. Saeptum was originally any inclosure, whence the Saepta or voting-place of the tribes at Rome. — 35. pinguis, rich. — ingratae. He uses this term with a jocose peevishness, as if the town, and not Galatea, were in fault. — 36. gravis aere, heavy with (i. e. full of) money. He had laid it all out in the town, buying gauds for Galatea. 37-40. I now comprehend, what I was wondering at, why Amaryllis was so sad, and why, what was unsuited to her thrifty character, she left the fruit hanging, each on its own ECLOGUE I. 28-46. 7 tree. — 39. Ipsae te, etc. The very trees and founts sympa- thised with her grief and implored your return. Voss and Wunderlich understand them as merely re-echoing her ex- clamations, as in v. 5, but this is very prosaic. — 40. arbusta, the trees, i. e. the silvas of v. 5. See Terms of Husbandry, s. v. 41-46. Quid facerem? etc. What was I to do? Even though she did thus grieve, it was only by going to Rome, where my master was residing, that I could obtain my free- dom servitio exire, sc. alibi, from v. 42. Acre alieno exire, Cic. Phil. xi. 6. Ex aerumna exire, Lucil. ap. Non — 42. prae- sentes, favourable, for those who are present can give most effectuafaTd. Cf. Geor. i. 10 ; Aen. ix. 404 ; Hor. S. ii. 3, 68. — 43. Hie, etc. Here, beside seeing my master and obtaining my freedom, I saw that young man (Caesar, now three-and- twenty), whom, as I told you (v. 7), I worship as a household god. — 44. His senos. The Lars were worshiped once in every month, on the Kalends, Nones or Ides. Cato R. R. 143. — 1 nostra i. q. mea—fumant. Because he had begun the practice and would continue it. We need not therefore, with Heyne, explain fumant by fumabunt. — 45. Hie, as in v. 43. —primus. Wagner considers primus to be equivalent here to primum, and to signify demum, tandem, but the passages which he ad- duces in proof of it (Aen. ii. 375 and vii. 118) are not suffi- ciently to the purpose. Voss says primus is i. q. princeps. When we consider the involved style which Virgil afterwards employed in the Georgics, it appears not unlikely that the meaning is : He first relieved my mind from anxiety by re- plying, etc. The words responsum and petenti are terms used of the consulting an oracle. Cf. Aen. vii. 86. They are em- ployed here of Caesar as of a deity. — 46. pueri, my lads. Puer was the appellation of a slave, no matter what his age might be. — submittite. The critics here encounter the same difficulties as in depellere, v. 21, and they give us three inter- pretations of submittite tauros: viz. 1. Yoke your oxen. 2. Give your cows the bull. 3. Breed young oxen. In favour of the first, which is that of Servius, who is followed by Ruaeus, Wagner and Forbiger, it is alleged that the object S BUCOLICS. of the poet here is to indicate the two rural occupations of pasturage and tillage, the first by pascite, the second by sub- mittite, sc.jugo. But the only instance which they give of this sense of submitto, namely, Submiitant trepidi perfida colla Getae, Rutil. Itin. i. 1 42, it will be easily seen is not to the purpose. The second occurs only, we believe, in Palla- dius (ex. gr. submittendae tauris vaccae, iv. 13), a late writer, and who possibly may have misunderstood this very place of Virgil. The third is the sense in which submitto is invariably used by Varro and Columella, and in which it is used by our poet himself, Geor. iii. 73, 159. Columella even employs it when speaking of rearing and training the young shoots of the vine. It is in this last sense that Heyne, Voss, Fea and Jahn (with whom we agree) understand it. The original sense of submitto being to put under, it was used of putting the young to suck their mothers, and thence came to signify to rear in general. — tauros i. e. vitulos. Cf. iii. 86, 87. It was probably the metre that obliged him to use this word, the ambiguity of which has given rise to all the disputes about the meaning of submittite. 47-59. Tityrus probably intended to go on and relate more of what befell him at Rome ; but Meliboeus, struck with the prospect of his happiness, interrupts him by an exclamation, and then gives vent to his feelings of admiration in a descrip- tion of Tityrus' land, and his occupations on it, This is highly natural and poetical. — senex, see v. 29. — tua. Wagner would explain this from the legal formula meum est, as Ec. ix. 4. He adds, that the emphasis should therefore be on tua, and not on manebunt. But this was not possible to a Roman, for tua here (like mea, ix. 4) is in the thesis of a dactyl. — 48. Et tibi, etc. And for your contented mind your land is quite enough, though the pasture-land is mere rock and marsh, o'er- grown with rushes. Your cattle will not, like mine, be ex- posed to disease or infection by change of pasture. — 50. graves, i. q. aegras, Cf. Geor. iii. 95 ; Aen. iv. 688. Gravi Malvae salubres corpori, Hor. Epod. 2, 57. — tentabunt, will try, i. e. afflict. A Lucretian term, v. 347. vi. 1135.—fetas. As this is the part, of an obsolete verb feo, akin to Jio, fuo and ECLOGUE I. 46-57. 9 s WLvpta prjX' ecave XLQoio. — Theoc. vi. 34 seq. ECLOGUE II. 24-34. 21 of Mercury and a nymph, for whom see Obs. on Ec. v. — 27. si nunquam, etc. i. e. if the image given by reflection from water may be relied on. 28--39. After another pause Corydon passes to another sub- ject. Elated, it would seem, with the idea of his wealth, musical skill and beauty, he now ventures to hope that Alexis will come and live with him. — Otantum, etc. O would you only, etc. Tibi is to be joined with libeat, and not, as Servius says, with sordida. — sordida rum, the rude country (i. e. the hills where he pastured his flocks), as opposed to the elegance of the town or possibly of the villa. — 29. casas. The casa or hut was formed of forked pillars which supported a sloping roof of sedge or straw ; its sides were woven with rods and daubed with clay. See Sen. Ep. 90. It differed little from the tugurium, but was perhaps of a slighter structure.— -figere cervos, shoot the deer. Cf. Geor. i. 308. Aen. v. 516. Servius notices and rejects another interpretation, namely, build the huts, the posts which supported them being named cervi, as being forked like antlers. — 30. compellere hybisco, to drive the goats to the hybiscus, on which they were to feed. The dat. is often thus used for the ace. with ad or in, as, it clamor caelo. Aen. v. 451. Cf. v. 5. viii. 101. It is thus Servius, who is generally followed, interprets it. La Cerda, Trapp and Martyn take hybisco in the abh, and suppose the shepherd to have a rod of it in his hand ; but that seems contrary to the nature of this plant. See Flora, s. v. Voss observes that com- pellere always signifies to drive to. Cf. Hor. C. i. 24, 18. — 31. canendo, in playing on the fistula, of which, he tells us in the next verse, Pan was the inventor. See the well-known mythe of Syrinx. Ov. Met. i. 689 seq. Mythology, p. 232. — 33. ovium magistros, i.q.pastores. Cf. iii. 101. Geor. ii. 529. — 34. Nee te, etc., nor should you disdain, think it beneath you. — trivisse V. 28. Uoifiawev 5' eQeXois avv e/iiv, lifxa kcu yd\' a/ieXyej', Kat Tvpbv TTa^ai, ra/xiffoj/ dpifieiav eveiaa. — Theoc. xi. 65. V. 30. TvpiaSev S' als ovtis eiriaTafiai w8e TLvKXdnrujv, Til/, 7-6 fiXov yXvKVfjLaXov, ctjxa Kijf.iavrbv aeLdwv TloWaKi vvktos diopi. — Id. xi. 38. 22 BUCOLICS. labellum. Because, as is well known, in playing the fistula or Pandean pipes the under-lip is rubbed backwards and for- wards against the reeds. Trivisse is, we think, i. q. terere, for the Latin poets seem to have tried to imitate the varieties of the Greek inf. Cf. i. 17, viii. 69. Hor. Ep. ii; 1, 71 ; A.P. 325, 326. Propert. i. 1 , 15 ; ii. 23, 78. Labellum, a dim., your tender little lip. — 35. Haec eadem, sc. carmina, which I play in imi- tation of Pan. Cf. v.23. The anteced. is contained in canendo, v. 31. — quid non faciebat, i.e. he laboured hard. Amyntas and Corydon seem to have been fellow-pupils in learning to play on the fistula from Damoetas. — 36. Est mihi, etc. I have a fistula which belonged to my master Damoetas, and which he gave me on his death-bed as being his ablest pupil, and which I will give you. CLv. 42. The avpiy^ or fistula was what we call the Pandean pipes. It was made of pipes of dif- ferent lengths, gradually diminishing. Their number was from seven to one-and-twenty. Count Stolberg says he heard at Terni, the ancient Interamna in Umbria, one of twenty-six pipes. Ovid (Met.xiii. 784), by a pleasing exaggeration, gives his Cyclops one of one hundred pipes. The ancients joined the pipes together with wax ; but wax alone, we should think, would not suffice to keep them together. — cicutis, hemlock- stalks. It is here used for calamis. — 38. secundum, sc. domi- num — 39. stultus, as thinking himself equal to Corydon. 40-44. After another pause, Corydon, having thought on what other present he could make Alexis, mentions two young roes, which he had found one day, and which he was rearing on one of his ewes. — nee tuta valle. " Commendat a difficul- tate," says Servius, as if it had been hazardous for Corydon to venture into it. It would perhaps be better to understand it as unsafe for the roes, as being, when in it, exposed to their enemy the wolf. — 41. Capreoli, the kids of the caprea or wild V. 40 seg Tpepoj Se toi evdeica ve(3pit>s, Jldaas /jLavfofopcos, icai gkv/jiv^s Tecraapas dpKTw. Theoc. xi. 40. "^H fidv toi XevKav ciSv/xaTOKOv alya QvXdava), Tdv fie /ecu d Mepuviovos 'EpiOaicls d jieXavoxpus Aire? /ecu du>c£> ol, 67ret av jxoi evSia9pv7TTy. — Id. iii. 34. eclogue ii. 34-47. 23 goat. roes. — sparsis, etc. Servius tells us, and Wunderlich says that the truth of the observation is confirmed by hunters at the present day, that young roes have white spots on their skins for the first six months, which then disappear. By etiam nunc Corydon then would intimate that they were not yet six months old. — 42. JBina die, etc. Voss understands by this that each of them consumed the milk of two ewes, but this is contrary to experience, for if their own mother could have reared two of them, one ewe might surely do the same. When we consider Virgil's practice with respect to the adj. (see on v. 26) we are inclined to think that bina refers to the two kids (ambo), or rather to the two times of feeding them, viz. morning and evening (bis). See Varro, R. R. ii. 2. — sic- cant, i. e. sugunt. Distenta siccant ubera, Hor. Epod. 2, 46. — libera. It is difficult to distinguish between uber and mamma. Gellius (xii. 1) says, Puer ubera mammarum insomnis lac- tantia quaerit, whence it might appear that uber was the nip- ple or teat, mamma the breast. But Cicero (N. D. ii. 51) says, Quae multiplices fetus procreant, ut sites, ut canes, his mam- marum data est multitudo, where mamma is the dug or teat. — 43. Thestylis. See v. 10. — abducere orat, i. e. orat ut liceat abducere. A very unusual construction. — 44. Etfaciet. And she will do so, it will come to that, though I do not wish it, in consequence of your contempt of me. — sordent, are dirty (i. e. of no value) in your eyes. Cunctane prae Campo et Tiberino ftumine sordent ? Hor. Ep. i. 1 1, 4. 45-55. He now thinks on further presents, and he repre- sents the very Nymphs themselves, struck with Alexis' beauty, as bringing him baskets full of flowers. — 46. calathis. The calathus was a round basket, of the shape of the calyx or cup of the lily. " Calathus Graecum est, nam Latine quasillum di- citur," Servius. — Candida, fair, of a dazzling white. The idea of lustre is always included in this participial. — 47. Pallentes i. q. pallidas. This word is used of yellow and green as well as white. Saxum quoque palluit auro7~Ov. Met. xi. 100. Pal" lens Cytorus (sc. buxo), Val. Flac. v. 106. Gemma e viridi pollens, Plin. xxxvii. 8. Martyn justly observes, that the paleness of the swarthy inhabitants of the South is rather a yellow than a white, and he notices the derivation of the yel- low substance ochre (u>xP a ) from <^XP 0S ' ^ Ve ma y ad d tnat the Greeks had two compound adjectives, u>xp6\evKos and h>Xp6/je\as. — sum ma papavera, the poppy-tops or flowers 48. jungit. While other Nymphs are bringing baskets full of lilies, one of them is twining a garland for him of various flowers : see next verse — 50. pingit, sets off or adorns, its yellow contrasting with the dark colour of the vaccinia. — 51. Ipse ego, etc. While the Nymphs are bringing you flowers, J will gather downy mala (see Flora v. malum) and other fruits for you. — 52. Amaryllis. See v. 14. This however would seem to be a different person of the same name. Cf. Theocr. iv. 38. — 53. Cerea, waxen, i. e. of a pale yellow colour. The a in pruna is not elided on account of the stop after it. — porno. See on i. 81. He does not mention what kind of fruit it was. It will be honoured by being selected on this occasion. — 54. proxima, placed next the bays. 56-59. He now recollects himself, and awaking from his dream of bliss cries, " You are a mere clown, Corydon, Alexis cares not for your country-presents," etc. — 57. concedat, would yield. — Iollas. " Vel ditior amatorvel ejus dominus," Servius. The critics appear to be unanimous in adopting the latter sense, but they seem not to be aware that Corydon is a slave, and therefore could never dream of putting himself in com- petition with his master. We adopt the former without he- sitation. — 58. Hen, lieu, etc. Alas, what am I about? I am destroying myself with this foolish passion. As we say in the country, I have let the south wind get at the flowers and the wild boars at the springs. The Scirocco, or south-west wind, which blow r s in Italy, is most depressing to the spirits of man, and it destroys the buds and blossoms of the plants ; the boars, by wallowing in the springs, make them foul and muddy.-^- 59. Perditus, sc. amove. 60-68. His better thoughts now leave him and he returns to his passion. He is not to be despised because he passes his days in the woods. The gods (i. e. Apollo when serving Ad- metus) and Paris have dwelt in the woods. — 61. Dardanius Paris. This son of Priam, king of Troy, was exposed when eclogue ii. 52-66. 25 a babe, and he was found and reared by herdsmen, among whom he spent his early days. He is probably mentioned here because he was chosen as judge of beauty among the goddesses Juno, Pallas and Venus. — Pallas, etc. The mention of Paris bringing this goddess to his mind, he says, " Let her frequent the towns which she founded, I will prefer the woods." Pallas- Athene was named izokibs and ttoKlov-^os, but chiefly in reference to her own city of Athens, In her mythology she is nowhere spoken of as the founder of towns and citadels. — 62. Ipsa. She herself, not I ; with a kind of contempt for them. — colat, i. q. incolat. It was a common practice of the Latin poets to use the simple in the sense of the compound verb, but never, we believe, the reverse. — nobis, me ; perhaps us, i. e. himself and Alexis. Everything, he goes on to say, has its favourite object, She likes the town, / the country, the lioness follows the wolf, the wolf the goat, and so forth. — 63. Torva leaena, the stern lioness. We should rather have ex- pected leo, but perhaps here, as in Geor. iv. 408, the metre was in fault. We may here observe, by the way, that whether the scene is in Italy or Sicily, there were no lions in either country. The poet had, however, the authority of Theocritus, i. 72. We are also not aware that the lion hunts the wolf. — 65. Alexi. For the prosody see on v. 53. 66-68. While Corydon is thus telling his woes to the woods, the fiovXvnjs, or time for unyoking the oxen from the plough in the evening, arrives. — Adspice, sc. o Corydon ! — aratra, etc. The plough, it would seem, instead of being left in the field at night, as is now the custom in Italy as well as in this country, was brought home every evening. Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves Collo frahentes languido, Hor, Epod. 2, 63. — suspensa, attached to. It suggests the idea of the lightness of the draught. The plough was not inverted, or turned over, it was merely inclined on one side, so that the point of the share should not touch the ground. Our plough- men do the same thing when moving their ploughs from one V. 63. 'A ai\ tov kvtktov, 6 Xvicos rav alya Slwkbi, 'A yepavos rwporpov eyu) S' eni tIv fien&vtificu. — Theoc. x. 30. C 26 BUCOLICS. field to another. — 67. diqjlieat, doubles, i. e. lengthens ; def. for indef. — 68. Me tamen, etc. The fervour of the sun is mi- tigated ; all nature is enjoying the cool of eve. I still am scorched as ever by the flame of love. 69-73. He bethinks him again of his folly, and calls to mind the work he has to do, and which he has left un- done. — 70. Semiputata, etc. You have left a vine only half pruned on the elm, which itself requires to have its super- fluous foliage stript off. Servius says that there was a super- stitious belief that any one who in sacrificing used wine made from unpruned vines was seized with madness. There was also a law of Numa, Diis ex imputata vite ne libanto. Voss hence regards v. 70 as a rural proverb to express madness. We cannot agree with him. — 71. Quin. It is best to take this interrogatively, in its original sense qui ne — quorum indiget usus, which my business requires, such as baskets for holding cheese, etc., which were made of twigs or rushes — 72. detexere. This is more than the simple texere. It signifies to plait out, i. e. to finish. Quae inter decern annos nequisti unam togam detexere, Titin. ap. Non. i. 3. — 73. Alium Alexim. Another as fair as Alexis. Observations. Date — As we have observed in the Life of Virgil, the exact date of this eclogue cannot be fixed with certainty. All that can be asserted is that it is anterior in date to the fifth, and probably to the third. In assigning its composition to the year 709-1 1 we shall perhaps not be far from the true date. Subject — The subject is the hopeless love of a shepherd for a handsome youth, the favourite of his master. Virgil here imitates two beautiful Idylls of Theocritus, namely, the third, V. 68 Oepfibsyap epojs avrG) [j,6 KaraiOei. — Theoc. vii. 56. V. 69 seq. '"Q KvKX(o\p, KvicXaj-ip, irq, ras Kopvdcov, rivos ai jSo'es; r} pa &i\wvca ; K. Ouk, dW A"iyioves' j36(JKev Se jioi aliTch e^oifcev. Theocr. iv. 1. V. 3. AeiXaiai yavrai, rbv (3idk6\ov liis fca/coV evpov. Id. iv. 13. 30 BUCOLICS. hour. The meaning is that he was constantly milking them, so that they had little left to give their lambs in the evening. It was usual with dishonest shepherds to milk their master's cattle secretly and to sell the milk. — 6. sums, not sicccus, from sugo, is the juice of either plants or animals. Here it is the very substance as it were of the ewes. — subducitur. The idea of secrecy and theft is probably intended to be conveyed, but such is not the usual sense of this verb. — 7. Parches, etc. If I am a thief, as you say, I am at least a man, not an effemi- nate like you. I know who was with you the other day, and in what grotto sacred to the Nymphs, though these good- natured goddesnes only laughed 8. transversa, same as transverse, adj. for adv. Cf. Aen. v. 194. also Geor. iii. 149, 500, iv. 122. Aen. vi. 288, etc. 10, 11. — If they laughed, replies Menalcas, it was when they saw me injuring Micon's vines. He is speaking ironically, for he means that it was in reality Damoetas who had done it. — malafalce, with a secret, mischievous hook: Burmann says with a blunt, rusty hook, but the former is the more simple and natural sense. — arbustum, see i. 39. As the grown vines were united to the elms and poplars, Spohn thinks that by arbustum and vites novellas it is intended to intimate that he had cut both the old and the young vines of Micon. 12-15. Or, rejoins Damoetas, when they saw you here at the old beeches, breaking Daphnis' bow and arrows ; for you were annoyed when you saw them given to him, and you had died if you had not done him some injury. The shepherds, being also hunters, had bows and arrows and hunting-spears, which they likewise required against the beasts of prey. — calamos, arrows, literally reeds, of which the arrows were made. Calami spicula Gnossi, Hor. C. i. 15, 17. — perverse, malig- nant, Liv. xxi. 33. V. 14. To KpoKvXos fioi eowne, to ttoocLXov, aviiz eOvae TaTs NujU^ats rdv alya' rv 8', w Kaice, Kai tok kraicev Bavicalvwv, Kai vvv jie ru \oia9ia yv/jLvbv eQrjKas. Theoc. v. 11. ECLOGUE III. 5-24. SI $6-20. Quid domini, etc. Wagner thus explains this diffi- cult line. What are the masters of such thievish slaves as you to do, whom I myself saw stealing from strangers ? how much more will they rob their own masters ? Voss and Spohn say that the sense is : When this thieving hireling dares to treat me in such a manner, what will not his master do in the affair of Neaera, to whom we both are suitors ? The former interpretation seems to us the more natural.— -fares. Slaves are so called in the comic poets, but never seriously. Turf, trium literarum homo (i. e.fur~), me vituperas ? Plaut, Aul. ii. 4, 46. Ubi centurio 'st Sanga et manipulus furum ? Ter. Eun. iv. 9, 6. — 17- pessime. Horace uses this word to a slave, 5. ii. 9, 22. — 1 8. Excipere insidiis. The verb excipere denotes a covert attack. Orestes Excipit incautum (Pyrrhum) patri- asque obtrimcat ad aras, Aen. iii. 332 — Lycisca. Dogs, as Pliny says (N. H. viii. 40), often bred with wolves, as they do with foxes, and hence perhaps this dog was so named. But Lycisca was probably a common name for a dog, owing, it may be, to that circumstance, or from the dog's likeness to a wolf. — 19. se proripit ille, is that fellow hurrying off. — 20. Tityre, Damon's servant.— coge, i. e. co-age drive your flock ail together.— carecta, i. e. co-rectum, a place full cf carex or sedge. 21-24. Damoetas does not deny the taking of the goat, but says that he was only seizing his own property, as he had won it in a contest on the fistula or syrinx with Damon, who did not deny that it was fairly won, but said that he could not give it to him ; lest he should thereby publicly acknowledge himself overcome, says Servius, who is followed by Heyne, Voss and Spohn. But might not his reason have been the same as that given by Menalcas, v. 32, namely, fear of his father and mother? 25-27. Cantando tu ilium, sc. vicisti, v. 21. You beat him, playing and singing ! Had you ever a syrinx, or did anything V. 25. Tap Troiav avpiyya; tv yap izoiza, StoXe 'Evfia.p-a, 'Exxdcrw avpiyya ; ri 3' ov/ceri avv Kopvowvi 'Ap/cet tol KaXd/ias aiiXbv TTOTcivvocev exovTi ; Theoc. v. 5. BUCOLICS. more than blow a corn-pipe at the cross-roads ? " And when they list their lean and flashy songs Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw," is Milton's imitation of this passage, Lycidas 123. — 26. triviis. The trivium, different from the quadrivium or cross-road (such, we believe, is not common in Italy), was the point of union of three roads, of which two branched off* from the third in the form of the letter Y ; the rpioSos of the Greeks. — indocte, untaught, who never had learned to play, answering perhaps to the Greek a/jovo-os. — 27. Stridenti, " Pro stridula" says Spohn, " non quae nunc stridet sed quae omnino; participium hoc loco vim incluit adjectivi. Nam participia ablativum non in i mittunt sed in e. Vid. Bentl. ad Horat. Od. I. 2, SI ; 25, 17." See Excursus on ii. 10. — stipula. Aristotle (quoted by Voss) describes the corn- pipe as a hollow reed with a thin skin or membrane over the opening, pretty much the same as our children make for themselves of the green wheaten or oaten straws. — miserum carmen, some wretched ill-composed tune or attempt at a tune. Spohn will have it that it is a tune good in itself, but ruined by his mode of playing it, and therefore wretched or to be pitied. But this supposes that a tune could be played on the corn-pipe. — Disperdere : " est male perdere" says Spohn ; " ut dispeream i.q. male peream, Propert. ii. 33, 10, 'cluro per- dere verba sono.' " The meaning is, that, poor and trivial as is the tune you attempt to play, you make it still worse, you quite destroy it, by your utter want of skill even on the corn- pipe. The verse, by the repetition of the letters r and s, seems intended to be imitative. 28-31. We are now approaching the real business of the . M. Xpj/ffceis uv ecndelv, xpyaCeis KaraOelvai ueOXov ; A. X.pyaca> tovt ecnSelv, xpyaooj icaraQelvai deOXov. M. 'AXXd tL 9r] KeKOVKTfievos' a Se tear' avrbv Kapirip e\i£ elXelrat djaWofieva KpoicoevTi. — Theoc. i. 25 eclogue in. 34-44. 35 among the stars, by naming a constellation after it. — quisfuit alter? The poet makes his shepherd, in the spirit of rural ignorance, unable to recollect the name of the other sage represented on his cups. As he has not told the name of this astronomer, the critics, both ancient and modern, of course suggest a variety of names : some say Hesiod, others Aratus, others Archimedes, others Anaximander. It was most probably, as Voss asserts, after Servius, Eudoxus, whose Phae- nomena, as appears from Columella (ix. 14), was much fol- lowed by the Italian farmers. — 41. Descripsit radio, marked out by his scientific rod, i. e. compiled a table. The ancient mathematicians used for their calculations a table (abacus), over which was smoothly strewn green glass-dust, which was too heavy to be stirred by the air, on which they drew their figures with a small rod (radius). — tGtum orbem, the whole circular vault of heaven. — gentibus, for the peoples. — 42. tempora, sc. anni, that is to say the seasons for reaping and ploughing, designated by the rising and setting of certain constellations. — curvus, i. q. curvatus, bent over the plough. The ploughman, says Varro (see Geopon. ii. 2), should be tall, that he may be able to press heavily on the handle of the plough and so keep the share well in the ground. Ara- tor nisi incurvus prcevaricatur, Plin. N. H. xviii. 19. The ancient plough was very light and with only one handle. — 43. JVecdum, etc. They are quite new, I have never used them, but keep them safe laid by ; they are what the Greeks would call i;eLfXJ]Xia. 44-48. As to that, replies Damoetas, / too have a pair of cups made by the same artist, which are superior to yours in design ; for, instead of simple figures like yours, they exhibit Orpheus playing on his lyre, and the trees of the forest moving to his strains. — motti acantho, the vypos aKavdos of Theocritus. The adj. denotes the nature of the plant : see Flora. — ansas : V. 43. OvSe ri ira ttoti %etAos ejibv 9lyev, dW ert iceirai " A\pavTOv. — Theoc. i. 59. V. 45. Tlavru 8' ap.5e AvKwiras. K. Obtev eyoi ttjvui iroTi^evojxai' aXKa rbv civSpa At \ys rbv cpvTOjiov fioxjrpiiffoiJies, os rds epei/cas Ti]va$ rds vrapd tiv 4vXo%t<7^eraf evrl de Mopaojv. Theoc. v. 61. ECLOGUE III. 47-60. 37 — reponas, the conditional for the imperative in the usual manner. 55-59. We may suppose that the whole party sought out a shady grassy spot, where they might sit and sing at their ease. When they were settled there, Palaemon desired them to begin, making a brief but pleasing description of the place and the season. Though the rule seems to have been that the challenged should have the first word, he desires Damoetas to begin, perhaps because he himself had been selected as judge by Menalcas. — 59. Allernis, in amcebaeic or responsive strains, which, he says, the Muses love, perhaps because, being extem- porary, they exhibit more readiness of the poetic faculty than more formal compositions. See Observations. — dicetis, for di- cite, the fat. for the imper. — amant alterna Camenae. Movo-aW & a'i aetrW ajioifiojievai 6tv\ ica\rj. Horn. II. i. 604. The Ca- menae were the Italian deities answering to the Greek Muses. See Mythology of Greece and Italy, p. 532. 60-63. After a prelude on his fistula, during which he composes the verses with which he is to commence, Damoetas praises Jupiter and makes him the patron of his song. — Jovis omnia plena. This is the philosophic doctrine of the Stoics, answering to the Jewish and Christian one of the omnipresence of the Deity. It was perhaps rather too refined a notion to be put in the mouth of a shepherd of those days ; but Virgil, as we may frequently observe, did not attend to these matters. — Ille colii terras. Cold, says Servius, is amat, as Aen. i. 15, V. 60. 'Ek Aios cipxibfieaOa, rbv oijCe —or' dvSpes ew/iev 'ApprjroV fieffral 8e Aios Tracai [lev ayviai, TLaoai 8' avQpwirwv ayopai, jtteoT;) Ce dd\ao~o~a, Kai Xi/iever Trdvry Se Aios icexpii/jLeOa Trdvrer Toy yap kciI yevos eoj.iev. Arat. Phaen. 1. 'E/c Atos apx^fi-eaOa, teal es Aia Xip/ere MoTaai. Theoc. xvii. 1. K. Tnt Mwcai /xe (piXevvn ttoXv ir\eov ?] rbv aowbv Acc(pviv' eyw S' aureus ^tpftpojs Ovo irpav ttok' eQvGa, A. Kni yap e/.i' 'QttoWuiv (J>i\eei jxeya' Kai KaXbv avraj ILpibv eyw fiocicw. to. Se Kapvea Kai 8r/ ecpepTrei. Id. v. 80. 38 BUCOLICS. Vnamposthabita coluisse Samo. Hence Damoetas infers that, as Jupiter loves the country, the songs of swains must be agree- able to him. Menalcas, after an air on his pipe, replies, If Jupiter regards your song, I too enjoy the favour of a god. Phoebus Apollo, the god of poets, loves me as well as others (cf). I always keep laurels and hyacinths, the plants that are sacred to him. — 62. sua, "i. e. propria, quae conveniunt," Spohn. Perhaps his gifts to the earth, as it was he first gave existence to these plants. For the changes of Daphne and Hyacinthus, see Mythology. — 63. lauri. The i is not elided, as there is a stop after it. — suave rubens, sweetly blushing. 64—67. Damoetas now changes his theme, and begins to sing in the character of the lover of a slightly coquetish rustic damsel. — Malo me petit, flings an apple or some such solid fruit at me. The ancients used malum as a generic term, inclusive of all fruits containing pips, as apples, pears, quinces, oranges, lemons, etc. The mala were sacred to Venus. — 65. adsalices, i. q. ad salicetum. But still she takes care that I shall see her before she hides herself, in order that I may follow and find her. But the youth to whom I am attached (meus ignis), replies Menalcas, has none of these artifices. He comes of himself to me, so that my dogs know him as well as they do Delia her- self, a maiden who has long been in the habit of visiting me. Cf. vii. 40. Perhaps however those are right who take Delia in its proper sense as an epithet of Diana. Though Tibullus calls his mistress Delia, a shepherd would hardly venture to do so. 68-70. The subject is now the presents made to the loved ones. I have decided on a gift or offering to my goddess Venus, i. e. Galatea, says Damoetas, for I have myself marked a nest of the wood-pigeons, from which I will take the young in due season. — 69. aeriae, not sky-coloured, as Servius ex- V. 64. K. B&XXei iced fiaXoiai top aliroXov a KXeaplcrra, Tas alyas irapeXevvra, tzal adv ti 7ro7r7rvXidadei. A. Kt)jU6 yap 6 Jiparidas tov "KOi\ikva Xetos V7rav7wv 'EKjxaivei' Xnrapa Se irap' av%ei>a creier' eBeipa. Theoc. v. 88. V. 68. K»)ya> (lev doHTuJ rq, irapQevoj avriica (tidaaav, 'Etc tus aptcevOaj KaOeXuv' rrjvei yap efiaSei. Id. v. 96. eclogue in. 62-75. 39 plains it, but building in lofty trees (see on i. 58.), whence he would seem to insinuate a proof of the strength of his love, which would induce him to encounter the danger of climbing so high.— palumbes : see i. 57. — congessere, sc. nidum. I, replies Menalcas, have already done all I could ; I have sent Amyntas ten golden apples which I gathered in the wood, and tomorrow I will send him ten more. — 70. Quod potui, the cri- tics think, refers to the labour he had in climbing the tree to get them ; but none of the trees bearing mala are ever very high. — aurea mala. By these Heyne and Voss understand quinces, the mala Cydonia ; Martyn, pomegranates, mala Pu- nica. These last however, as Spohn observes, are never of a golden hue. It seems much simpler, with this last critic, to suppose them to be common wild apples tinged yellow by the heat of the sun. 72-75. Damoetas now celebrates the kind language of the fair one to him, which he holds to be worthy of the ears of the gods themselves, and which he therefore wishes the winds to waft to them. So Servius justly understood the passage ; but Castelvetro, Ruaeus and others, who are followed by Heyne and Voss, see in it a reference to the falsehood of woman, and a prayer that the gods will make her perform some part of her promises. Menalcas declares himself to be less fortunate, for when they were hunting together, Amyntas left him to watch the toils they had pitched, while he himself followed the game. — 74. Quid prodest, what avails it to me that you do not re- ject me, i. e. that you love me, when I have no opportunity of conversing with you ? There is no contradiction between this and v. 66, because each set of amcebseic verses is independent of the others. — 75. servo, i. q. observo. The Xivonrrjs ?} 6 ra efiTviiTTovTa Oi]pla airoppt%os. — Id. iv. 20. 44 BUCOLICS. is grown thin in the midst of food, and ascribes it to love, from which he suffers himself. Menalcas, as a shepherd, replies, My lambs too have fallen away to nothing, and as it cannot be love, they are so young, it must be fascination of an evil eye. — His, sc. agnis. — neque is, as Voss observes, i. q. ne qui- dem. — vix ossibus kaerent, as we say ; they are mere skin and bone : their skins hang loose, hardly sticking to their bones. 103. Nescio quis oculus, i.q. aliqiris ocuhcs. There should not be a comma after quis, as in Heyne's edition. — fascinat. The ancients had a great superstition about the power of what was esteemed the evil eye, and this superstition still prevails in the East, in Greece and Italy, and elsewhere. 104-107. Damoetas concludes the contest by making a rid- dle, of which he does not however seem to require a solution. — Apollo, as being the god of soothsaying. — 105. Tres pateat caeli, etc. Servius and Philargyrius tell us that Asconius Pedianus and Cornificius both said that they had it from Virgil's own lips, that his intention in this place was to give the critics a puzzle (se crucem Jixisse), and that he meant a well-known Mantuan named Caelius, who squandered away his whole property, with the exception of as much land as would serve him for a sepulchre. As Voss remarks, this was perhaps a common joke in Mantua at the time. There is no reason whatever to suspect the genuineness of this tradition ; but both ancient and modern critics, not content with it, have devised various other solutions. Some said it was a well at Syene, over which the sun was vertical when in the tropic ; others, that it was any deep well ; others, that it was a cavern in Sicily ; while some, still more profound, said it was the Homeric shield of Achilles. One modern makes it the grotto of Posilipo near Naples, and another the opening in the roof of the Pantheon, though that temple was not built at the time. Menalcas gives as his riddle a well-known poetic fiction, the origin of flowers from the blood of princes.— regvm, sc. of Hyacinthus and Ajax, both the sons of kings, and therefore V. 102. Tijvas }iev Sr] toi tus Troprws avra XeXenrrai Tdxrrea. fii) TrpuJ/cas airit^erai, uxnrep 6 reTTit; ; — Theoc. iv. 15. ECLOGUE III. 103-111. 45 princes, as Ariadne is called a queen, regina. JEn. vi. 28. — inscripti nomina. On the hyacinthus some saw an at, the first letters of A'ius ; others a Y, the first letter of 'Yauvdos. For the form inscripti nomina, see Excursus III. — et Phyllida, etc., in the person, it would seem, of Iollas, above, vv. 76, 79. 108-111. The contest being concluded by the two riddles, Palaemon declares himself unable to decide between the two rival singers. — 109. etvitula. See vv. 29, 48. — ethic, sc. digitus poculis. A bold ellipsis ! But perhaps Menalcas had had the courage to stake some part of his flock, or possibly another heifer. — et quisquis amoves, etc. This passage has been a complete crux to the critics. Heyne rejects vv. 109, 110, as interpolations, but this is not a safe proceeding with Virgil, who is the most free from interpolation of all the Latin poets. Voss reads : At quisquis amores aut metuat didcis aut experi- etur amaros ! and renders it : But let every one shun secret love, or he will find it bitter in the end. Wagner reads : Et quisquis amores Ha u t metuet, dulcis aut experietur amaros : i. e. And every one will experience either sweet or bitter love. " Haud metuit amores," says he, " qui eos non fugit, non sper- nit." Perhaps, after all, Jahn is right in saying that Servius gives the true sense of the passage : " ' Et tu et hie digni estis vitula et quicunque similis vestri est : ' scilicet Damoetas in superioribus amoris amaritudinem conquestus est (vv. 64, 68, 72, 76). Menalcas amores sprevit, adeoque puellam amatam Damoetae cedere voluit (vv. 66, 70, 74, 7S, 106). Haec igitur respiciens Palaemon pro simplici et quisque sic, uti vos, amores canet, divisim dicit et quisquis aut amores dulces, sicut Damoetas, metuet aid, sicut Menalcas, amaros experietur." — 1 1 1 . Claudite, etc. Palaemon calls out to some workmen, whom he directs to close the sluices, as the meadows were now sufficiently ir- rigated. " Aut certe allegorice hoc dicit," says Servius. " Jam cantare desinite satiati enim audiendo sumus ; " an interpre- tation not altogether to be despised. 46 Observations. Date. — This eclogue was probably composed after the second, as the poet mentions it after that eclogue. See v. 86, S7. It was certainly composed after he had become known to Pollio. Subject. — The subject is a contest in amcebaeic song be- tween two swains, after some previous sparring. He imitates, as in the second eclogue, some of the Idylls of Theocritus, particularly the fourth and fifth. In the second eclogue Virgil gave an example of moncedic extempore verse. He here gives one of the amcebseic kind. The principle of these amcebseic contests was, that one of the parties, generally he who Mas challenged, should commence in any measure and with any number of verses he chose, and the other was bound to follow him in the same measure and with the same number of verses on the same or a similar subject. The first then, still keeping to the same measure and number of verses, either continued the same subject or changed to another, and his rival was bound to follow him; and they thus went on till they either stopped of themselves or were desired to stop by the person whom they had selected as judge. It is not easy to say whether Theocritus, or the mimogra- phers whom he followed, have given us in these compositions a transcript from nature, and that such rural contests were common among the shepherds of Sicily at that time. We be- lieve that we may assert with confidence that no such prac- tice prevails at the present day in either Greece or Italy ; but Riedesel, a German traveller quoted by Voss (on v. 58), tells us that the Sicilian shepherds still, as in the days of Theocri- tus, contend with one another in improvised song, and that the prize is a scrip or a staff. A learned Italian friend, who w T as born and spent the greater part of his life in the kingdom of Naples, and who is himself a poet of no mean order, told us, when we consulted him on the subject, that he had often heard that the shepherds in Sicily, and even in Tuscany, did thus contend in extemporary strains, but that he had never witnessed any of these contests. He once, he says, was pre- ECLOGUE III. 47 sent on the Mole at Naples, at a contest in verse between two of the popular poets. They accompanied their strains with the guitar, and gave them out for improvised, but in his opi- nion they had previously arranged them. We are also told *, on the authority of an English traveller named Cleghorn, that these extemporary poetic contests might be Avitnessed among the peasantry of the island of Minorca. We must however confess that this evidence does not quite satisfy us. If the practice was so common, we should probably have heard more about it ; and it is very remarkable that nothing of this kind occurs in the writings of Meli, the modern bucolic poet of Si- cily, who, if such contests were of frequent occurrence among the shepherds of his native isle, could hardly have failed to give a specimen of them in his eclogues and idylls. The custom of playing and singing together, as given by Theocritus and Virgil, may be illustrated by the following usage of the present day. In the cities of Rome and Naples, and other towns, may be seen, from the end of November till Christmas, persons who go about playing and singing before the images of the Virgin and Child.-]- These are peasants from the Apennines, who from motives of piety or profit make these annual descents. They always go in pairs : one plays on the zampogna or bagpipes, which resembles the Highland pipes, and is like them filled with the mouth, but does not scream, being of a graver tone ; the other plays on the cennamella, a rustic clarionet of moderate compass. They 'stop before an image in the street, or sometimes in a house, and after a pre- lude on both instruments, the player on the cennamella stops and sings a devout stanza to the Virgin, accompanied by the zampogna. He then resumes his instrument, and the two perform the prelude to the next stanza, and so on. But their verses are not extemporary ; they are all popular ones, which the singer has learned by heart. Setting aside the zampogna, * Sulzer, Allgem. Theorie der Schonen Kunste, ii. 58 ; quoted by Harles on Theocr. v. 80. _ f Miss Taylor, in her very elegant " Letters from Italy" (i. 218), no- tices this practice. 48 BUCOLICS. we have here a parallel to the manner in which the shepherds in Theocritus and Virgil play and sing. Characters. — The Lacon and Cometas of Theocritus' fifth idyll, which our poet here chiefly follows, are, as we are ex- pressly informed, both slaves. We may therefore safely as- sume such to be the condition of the Damoetas and Menalcas of Virgil. The former, like the latter, stake members of their flocks on the issue of the contest, and this seems to be in unison with the usages of the ancients. In Longus' pastoral Lamon, the reputed father of Daphnis, is only a slave, and yet Daphnis appears to have unlimited power of making presents and offering sacrifices out of the flock of goats of which he has the charge. It seems only to have been required of the goatherd (and the same was of course the case with the shep- herd), that his flock should increase at a reasonable rate. In making shepherds and goatherds lay calves for a wager, the poet we think errs against propriety. He was probably led into this error by keeping too close to his original, for we have a neatherd only in Theocritus' third, and a neatherd and shep- herd in his eighth idyll. It may be here remarked that we meet with no neatherds in the Bucolics. The simple reason perhaps is, that armentarucs, the Latin term answering to the Greek jjovkoXos, could only be used in the nominative in verse, as in Geor. iii. 344, and was besides too long and ponderous a word. Scenery. — The scene is laid in a region where there are beech-trees (v. 12), vineyards (10), marshes (20), streams - and meads (111). It is probably ideal. We must observe, that the various rural objects mentioned in the amcebaeic verses give no aid in determining the scene of the contest ; for these verses are to be regarded as the spontaneous creations of the imagination of the contending swains. It may however be supposed that they took their images from the scenery with which they were surrounded. 49 Eclogue IV.— Pollio. Argument. In this^clogue the poet assumes a higher strain and sings the return of the Golden Age, which he makes to take place in his own days. See the Observations. Notes. 1-3. Sicelides Musae, i.e. pastoral or bucolic Muses, namely those who inspired the Sicilian Theocritus, or as Voss thinks the pastoral poets who preceded him in that island. Sicelides is a Greek form from ScceX/a, the Greek name answering to the Latin Sicilia. — pernio majora, sc. carmina, somewhat greater than those I have hitherto made.— 2. Non omnes, etc. Pas- toral poetry is not to the taste of every one.— arbusta, simply trees : see on i. 40. Voss as usual would restrict this word to the trees that supported the vines.— my ricae. The Greek my- rica is the Latin tamarix, the tamarisk— 3. Si canimus, etc. if we do sing the woods (if we keep to pastoral poetry), let it be in such elevated strains as may be worthy of a consul's ear. Voss makes an over-refined distinction between the arbusta and myricae and the silvas, making the former signify the humble, the latter the elevated style of pastoral poetry. He therefore adopts the reading of sunt for sint in v. 3.— Co?isule, sc. Pollio, see v. 12. 4-7. Ultima, etc. The last age of the world (i. e. the Iron) sung in the verses of the Cumaean Sibyl has come and is drawing to its conclusion, and a new circuit of the ages of the world is about to commence. For the Sibyls and the Ages of the World see Excursus IV.-5. Magnus sae- clorum ordo, i. e. the Magnus Annus. Saeclum answers to the yeros of Hesiod ; Lucretius often uses it in this sense. —integro. The second syllable is long, as in juvat integros accedere fontes, Lucr. i. 926 ; integris opibus, Hor. S. ii. 2 50 BUCOLICS. 113. — 6. Jam redit, etc. The Golden Age is now returning, when Saturn reigned, and the Virgin Justice abode among men. — 7. Jam nova, etc. He has here perhaps in view the Platonic notion of the descent of souls from heaven to animate bodies on earth. In the Hesiodic narrative it is simply said that the gods made each successive generation. — demittiliir, like redit, in the present tense to denote the immediate future. 8-10. nascenti puero, sc. the son of Pollio. — quo, with whom or in whom, that is, at whose birth. — primum, first, be- cause, as we shall see, the renewed Golden Age was to come on gradually. — 9. gens aurea, the golden race of men, the ypvaeov yeros of Hesiod. — mundo. The Latin mundus, like our equivalent term world, sometimes signified the complex of earth, air and sky, (compare Milton, P. L. ii. 1052.) sometimes merely the earth, as here. See Hor. C. iii. 3, 53 : Ov. Trist. iv. 4, 83 ; Lucan, i. 160. — 10. Lucina. The Roman Juno Lucina, who presided over birth, was a totally distinct deity from the moon-goddess Diana, for the Italian religion does not seem to have held a connexion between the moon and birth. As the Greeks had united Artemis and Ilithyia, or rather perhaps as they were originally identical, the Latin poets gave to their Diana (i. e. Artemis) the office of Lucina. Apollo was the brother of Artemis, that is of Diana, and he was at this time held to be the same as the Sun. There is considerable difficulty about this reign of Apollo. As regnat is in the present tense, it should, like the preceding nascitur and redit, denote the immediate future, and refer to the Golden Age about to commence. But Saturn, according to Hesiod, was then to reign. Nigidius (De Diis), as quoted by Servius, says, " Quidam deos et eorum genera temporibus et aetatibus (sc.assignant), inter quos et Orpheus, primum regnum Saturni, deinde Jovis, turn Neptuni, inde Plutonis ; nonnulli etiam, ut magi, aiunt Apollinis fore regnum." Servius then adds, that the Sibyl declared the last age to be that of the Sun. He also supposes an allusion to Augustus, whose likeness to and re- gard for Apollo is known, but which last he does not appear to have shown at the time when this eclogue was written. 11-14. Decus hoc aevi, i. q. hoc decorum (praeclarum) ECLOGUE IV. 6-17. 51 aevum, sc. this Golden Age. It is wrong to suppose, with some of the ancients, that it is the puer or Augustus that is meant— inibit, sc. cursum, the future of ineo. i. q. ingredior. Burmann observes, that there is no instance of ineo taken thus absolutely, but Heyne justly refers to the participle iniens thus taken, as in ineunte anno, mense. — -12. magni menses, illustrious (as we use the word great), as belonging to the Golden Age. Voss understands by it long months, that is, the ten parts into which the Sibyl divided the Magnus Annus. A remarkable proof of how ill the ancients sometimes com- prehended their own writers is, that, as we learn from Servius? Asconius, the contemporary of Virgil, understood by these great months July and August, called after Caesar and Au- gustus, though this latter title was not known till some years later ; and at all events, as Spohn observes, Pollio did not enter on his consulate till October, and went out of office in December. — 13. Te, sc. Pollio. — sceleris nostri, sc. of the civil wars, which were regarded asascehis; Cut dabit partes scelus expiandi Jupiter ! says Horace when speaking of them, C. L 2, 29, and again (Epod. 6, 1) he cries to the Romans, Quo quo scelesti ruitis? — 14. Irrita, i. e. in-rata, abolished. — per- petua formidine, continued fear of the recurrence of similar evils. — terras, i. q. orbis terrarum. 15-17. Hie, sc. puer, v. 8., the son of Pollio. — deum vitam accipiet, i. e. he will become a partaker of the blessings of the Golden Age, when, as Hesiod expresses it, men wore Oeol c e^itiov anr]lea dv/xuv e-^oires. — divisque, etc. He here seems to allude to the opinion that the gods then mingled familiarly with men, at least with the higher class of them, the heroes. — 16. ipse videbitur, that is, he will himself be one of them. — 17. Pacatumque reget orbem. As consul or chief magistrate of the reformed and virtuous Roman republic, he will rule the civilised world, now reduced to peace. — patriis virtutibus, with the noble qualities which he had derived from his father ; a high compliment to Pollio ! We must not here omit to notice that Jahn maintains that Me refers to Caesar, and the patriis to the Dictator his adoptive father. For this employment of ille he refers to i. 7, 42, 44, and to Ovid, Her. ii. 20, and iv- d2 52 BUCOLICS. 14, but none of these passages bear him out. Critics do not seem sufficiently to recollect that at the time when this eclogue was written Caesar was not of the importance to which he after- wards attained, and that the triumvirs had engaged to restore the republic at the end of their term of five years, which was not yet expired. 18-25. The poet now proceeds to describe the gradual ad- vance of the Golden Age, according to the childhood, youth and manhood of the young Pollio. — At. This word merely denotes transition to another subject, and not opposition, as Jahn maintains in support of his interpretation of ille in the preceding paragraph. — munuscula, small gifts of flowers and such like suited to a child. — nullo cidtu in both Hesiod and Ovid; it is a character of the Golden Age that plants grow without culture. — 19. errantes passim. These words are to be taken together, as characteristic of the ivy. — 20. ridenti, joyous, fair, flowering, like the yeXctr of the Greeks. — 21. Ipsae, etc. Another mark of the Golden Age, the goats will require no keeper (perhaps, as Voss says, because the wolves were grown harmless), but will come home of themselves (ipsae) to be milked. — 22. nee magnos, etc. The meaning perhaps is, that the same would be the case with the kine, which would no longer have reason to fear the lions. We may here remind the reader that the poet, when describing these blessings, had the whole earth in his view, and not merely Italy, in which it is well known there never were any lions. — 23. Ipsa tibi blandos, etc. Flowers will spring up everywhere in such profusion, that your very cradle will be filled with them. Blandos, grateful, from their colour and smell. It would perhaps have been better if the poet had put this verse, or one of similar import, before the two preceding verses. — 24. Occidet, etc. Poisonous reptiles and plants will cease to exist. Voss reads this passage thus : Occidet et ser- pens, et fallax herba veneni, Occidet ! comparing it with the Cedes coemptis saltibus et domo, Villaque, Jlavus quam Tiberis lavit : Cedes, of Horace ; C. ii. 3, 17. It however "seems more simple to let herba govern the second occidet.— fallax, decei- ving, sc. those that were culling simples, as Nee miseros fallunt ECLOGUE IV. 17-31. 53 aconita legentes, Geor. ii. 152. — herba veneni, i. q. herba vene- nata, a Graecism. — 25. vulgo, i. e. passim. — amomum. The amomum will no longer be confined to the East, it will grow everywhere. 26-30. When the new-born child shall have arrived at a sufficient age to study the deeds of heroes, the condition of external nature will make a further step in its progress to- ward perfect bliss ; corn, wine and honey will be produced without the care of man, and in the greatest abundance. — heroum laudes, the praiseworthy deeds of the ancient heroes, the K-Aen avctpuv iipojwv of Homer, II. xxii. 520.—; -facta parentis, sc. Pollionis.—legere, to read, in Homer and the other poets, and in the historians. — 27. quae sit virtus. Thence learn what civil and military virtues are, and be able to acquire them.. — 28. Molli arista. It is doubted by the critics whether the poet takes arista in its proper sense as the beard of the wheat or for the whole ear. The latter seems to us the true sense, as he speaks of its turning yellow (Jlavescet), Molli again is by some rendered smooth, by others tender. There is another and the original sense of this word as the contraction of mo- bilis (see on Geor. ii. 389.), which would give a beautiful and very poetic image, namely that of the yellow corn waving in the gentle breeze of the perpetual spring. — 29. rubens uva, the ruddy (i. e. ripe) bunch of grapes. — Incultis sentibus, from the wild bushes, which instead of blackberries would bear grapes. — 30. roscida mella. It was the opinion of the ancients, that honey was a dew which fell from the sky on the leaves and flowers of plants, whence it was collected by the bees. Elsewhere (Geor. iv. 1.) he calls it aerii mellis caelestia dona. Honey, he says, would now be so abundant on the trees, that the oaks, as it were, would sweat it forth, and the men of the Golden Age would obtain it without the intervention of the bees or any necessity of attending to these little animals. 31-36. The blessings of the Golden Age will not, however, come all at once ; in this stage of the transition there will still be war, commerce and navigation. — veteris fraudis, of the evils which had grown up in the preceding ages ; for fraus is some- 54 BUCOLICS. times i. q. scelus. Bepubl. violanda fraudem ineapiabilem con- cipere, Cic. Tusc. i. 30. Fraudem capitalem admittcre, Id. Rab. Perd. 9. It may perhaps be taken in its original sense with a reference to the theft of Prometheus.— vestigia. There would however be only traces of them, namely, some of the arts of which they had caused the invention. — 32. Quae, sc. vestigia. — Thetin. The sea-nymph, the mother of Achilles, put in the usual manner for the sea tentare ratibus (sc. jubeant), to try (navigate) with ships, a periphrasis for navi- gare. Hatis is properly a raft, but it is used for a ship in general. — cingere, etc., fortify towns. — 33. jubeant, sc. homines. — telluri infindere sulcos, to plough the ground. Voss adopts the reading of one Roman MS. tcllurem Jindere sidco, and Wakefield that of a Vatican, sulcis. — 34. Alter erit, etc. He now, as it were, proceeds to particulars. There will be an- other Argonautic expedition, that is, voyages in search of pro- fit and full of enterprise, similar to that renowned voyage will still be undertaken. For this voyage, in which Tiphys was the pilot, see Mythology, p. 4-68 seq. — 35. erunt altera bella, etc. There will still be wars, and Achilles will be again sent to Troy. We would not reject the supposition that there is an allusion here to the Parthians, the most formidable enemies of Rome, and that the meaning is, that, as the son of Thetis was sent to the East to war against Troy, so a Roman Achilles would be sent by the restored republic to the East to over- throw the Parthian power. 37—45. When the youth shall have attained to manhood the Golden Age will come in completely. Commerce and agriculture (much more war) will cease, and all blessings will be equally diffused. — 38. vector (from veho) : " tam is qui ve- hitur quam qui vehit dicitur." Servius. Its most usual sig- nification is the former, i. e. the merchant or passenger. Etiam summi gubernatores in magnis tempestatibus a vectoribus ■admoneri solent, Cic. Phil. vii. 9. — 39. mutabit merces, because trade was originally carried on chiefly by barter. Hie mu- tat merces surgente a sole ad eum quo Vespertina tepet regio, Hor. S. i. 4, 29. — Omnis feret, etc. The reason why trade Avould cease, there would be no need of an exchange of ECLOGUE IV. 32-47. 55 productions. — 40. Non rastros, etc. Agriculture also would cease, as everything would grow spontaneously. For the ras- trum and the falx, see Terms of Husbandry,,?.?;.— 41 . Robustus, etc. The vigorous ploughman will now take the yoke off his oxen, that is, he will cease to work them. Forbiger, following two MSS., reads robustis tauris. Cf. Geor. ii. 237- He and Wagner also take tauris as a dat. instead of an abl. — 42. Nee varios, etc. The mechanical arts, especially that of the dyer, will go out of use. Wool will no longer learn to assume (jnentiri) various hues, for the fleeces on the backs of the sheep will become purple, yellow and scarlet of themselves. — suave, sweetly, i. e. beautifully, agreeably. Cf. iii. 63. This transference of terms of one sense to another is common to most languages. Dante, ex. gr. says, Dolce color a" oriental zqffiro, Purg. i. st. 5., and we ourselves talk of siueet colours and sweet, sounds. Cf. ii. 49, 55. — 44. Murice. The murex was one of those sea-snails found on the coasts of the Mediter- ranean, which in a white vein held a fluid which gave a blue or purple die to wool and other substances. Plin. ix. 26. — ■ luto, woad. — sandyx, vermilion or scarlet. Pliny (xxxv. 6.) describes the sandyx as a mineral substance. Voss tries in vain, after Servius, to show that it was a plant. Like murex and latum, it in reality only denotes the colour. They are quite mistaken who fancy the poet to mean that it was by feeding on particular plants the sheep of the Golden Age would change their hue. The ordinary laws of nature were then to be all changed. 46-47. Talia saecla, etc. This may be, ' Such happy times roll off! said the Parcae to their spindles,' as Heyne renders it, apparently taking talia saecla as a voc. ; but it seems simpler with La Cerda and others, and more in accordance with the passage of Catullus, which he had in view, to in- terpret it, " O fusi, currite per talia saecla V'—fusi, spindles, from fundo. — 47. slabili numine, in the fixed, unchangeable power. — -fatorwn, of the divine decrees. — Parcae. This name corresponds with the Greek MoTpat. See Mythology, p. 194. Its origin is unknown. There do not seem to have been in the Ita- lian religion any deities answering to the Moerae of the Greeks. 56 BUCOLICS. 48-52. He continues in the same strain to address the son of Pollio. The language is, Ave may observe, greatly inverted, o being separated from cara suboles, and aderit jam tempus introduced parenthetically. — magnos honores, the great ho- nours destined for thee. Voss says they are the offices of importance in the Roman republic, leading up to the consu- late — 49. deum suboles. It is difficult to understand why the son of Pollio should be so styled. Poraponius said that the Pollios, led by the similitude of their name to his, derived their lineage from Apollo, and possibly the poet may allude to this. Voss says it is because he would be the first of the aurea gens sent down from heaven. — deum. Wagner says that the plural was thus employed to signify some one of, as Extemos optafe duces, etc. Aen. viii. 503. — Jovis incrementum, ciorpev dveicXavffe Bavovra. — Theocr. i. 71. 66 BUCOLICS. to be expressed in this passage is, that Daphnis introduced the culture of the vine. — curru sitbjungere, etc. Tigers were always the team of this god himself, but we do not hear of their being employed in his festivals either in Greece or Italy. — Armenias, an epitheton ornans. — curru, the old dative 30. ind/tccrc, Heyne says, is for the simple ducere ; but though simples were used for compounds, the reverse, as we have already observed, was not the case. — thiasos Bacchi. A thiasus (diaaos) was a choir, or a number of persons that assembled, went in procession, and sung, danced and feasted in honour of a god — 31. Et foliis, etc. A description of the thyrsus, which was a pointless spear, or any similar piece of wood, twined with vine-leaves. 32-34. ' As the vine is the ornament of the elm-trees on which it is trained, as the bunches of grapes are of the vine, the bulls of the herds, the growing corn of the fertile fields, so you were the pride of your fellow-swains.' All images pro- perly selected from the country and country life. Cf. ii. 63. 34-39- When you were gone, the rural deities deserted the fields, and in consequence rank crops of weeds and noxious plants sprang up in them. — Ipsa Pales, etc. The poet here confounds Grecian and Roman religion, which he should not have done ; for as the Greeks had no deity answering to Pales, if the scene of the eclogue is in Sicily he should not have in- troduced this Italian goddess ; while, if it is in Italy, Apollo was not a rural deity in the creed of the Italians, to whose re- ligion he in reality did not belong. But, as we have already observed, the ancient poets did not attend to minutiae of this kind. Pales seems to have presided over all the parts of rural life, and not merely over cattle, for her image bears a pruning- hook. See Mythology, p. 538. Apollo is here Apollo Nomios, Ibid. p. 127. — 36. mandavimus, we have committed, given in charge. Perhaps this is too swelling a term for bucolic sim- plicity. — Grandia /i or dea either expresses, as Voss thinks, the large grains selected for seed, or more simply merely indi- V. 32. Ta Spvi red fiaXavoi /cocr/tos, rq, fiaXtSi /xaXa' Tg, j3ot d' a /xocxos, r<£ /3wico\<^ al jSo'es avral. — Theocr. viii. 7i ECLOGUE V. 30-42. 67 cates the size of the grains of barley, compared with those of the weeds which grew in its stead. It was an opinion of the ancients, that wheat and barley used to turn into lolium and wild-oats ; but the simple meaning of this passage is, that the corn did not and the weeds did grow. As Virgil seems to have been the first who used the plural of hqrdeum, his ene- mies Bavius and Maevius made the following verse on him: Hordea qui dixit, superest ut tritica dicat. — 37. Infelix. He terms the lolium infelix, unlucky or mischievous, accord- ing to Voss and Spohn, because it makes those who eat it stagger as if drunk or even blind, as Servius says. We how- ever agree with Heyne and Wagner in regarding infelix as equivalent to infecundus (felix answering to fecundus) ; and the sense is, that when they sowed edible and nutritive grain, the crop could not be converted to the use of man. In Aen. iii. 549. wild berries arc termed an infelix victus. Cf. also Geor. ii. 81. 239. 314. — nascuntur. When the poet repeated this line in the Georgics (i. 154), he with good taste substituted for this word dominantur, as suited to the higher character of that poem. — 38. molli viola. From the fields he passes to the garden. The viola is termed mollis, like other flowers (ii. 50. vi. 53), on account of the softness and ten- derness of its petals. — purpureo narcisso. The narcissus is so termed, we are told, on account of the purple calyx of one of its species. But perhaps purpureas is here to be taken in its ordinary sense of bright, and would thus apply to the white petals of the flower. — 39. Carduus, etc. We may observe a contrast with the flowers mentioned in v. 38. 40-44. In conclusion, he calls on the shepherds to raise a tomb to Daphnis by a spring, and to plant trees about it. There appears to be here what is called a hysteron-proteron, as the tomb should have been the first mentioned. — Spargite, etc. It was the custom to strew leaves and flowers, as in modern times in some countries flowers, on the tombs of the departed. — inducite, etc., sc. by planting trees about \i.—fonti- bus, for fonte : plur. for sing, in the usual manner. — 41. mandat, sc. per me. — 42. carmen, a poetic inscription (namely, the following) on a cippus or stone pillar, placed on the summit 68 BUCOLICS. of the mound. — i3. in silvis, 6 kv rj} vXri, qui in silvis deyebat, not " notus in silvis," as Servius understood it. — usque ad sidera, whose fame had reached the skies. See Aen. i. 379. The expression is better suited to epic than bucolic poetry. 45-52. Menalcas, enraptured with the beauty of Mopsus' song, describes its effect on him by comparing it„with two of the greatest enjoyments a southern climate affords, namely, sleep when one is weary on the soft cool grass (under the shade, of course, of trees. Geor. i. 342, ii. 470), and quenching the thirst in the heat of summer (aestus) at a running stream {aquae rivo). — 48. Nee calamis, etc. ' I praised your skill on the pipes : I now add, that not only in music but in the compo- sition and singing of verses you fully equal your master, whose successor in fame you now will be. / however will also sing something for you (of whatever sort it may be), and I will exalt the fame of your Daphnis, for he loved me too.' — 51. toUemus ad aslra. It is perhaps more simple, with Heyne, to understand this of praising Daphnis : compare v. 43. and ix. 49. Servius says it means, sing his apotheosis. 53-55. Nothing, says Mopsus, could be more agreeable to me. Besides, Daphnis was worthy of praise, and I have heard a good judge speak highly of the verses that you made on him. — 54. puer, the swain, sc. Daphnis. See i. 45. — 55. Stimi- co/t, the name of an ideal shepherd. 56-64. Menalcas having preluded, according to custom, on the pipes, commences his song of the apotheosis of Daph- nis, which, agreeably to the principle of balance and harmony, in which the ancients so much delighted, contains exactly the same number of verses as that of Mopsus, namely twenty- five. — Candidus, i. q.candens (see on ii. 10,), differs from, albus as always including the idea of brightness, in white usually, but sometimes in other colours, ex. gr. rubro ubi cocco Tincta svper lectos canderet vestis eburnos, Hor.S. ii. 6, 103. In this V.'43. Aa6vis eywv oce rfjvos, 6 rets fioas woe vojievwv, Ad(pvis 6 tojs ravpws icai Troprias wSe 7ro~iffdwv. — Theoc. i. 120. V. 45. 'Act; tl to ffTOfia roi, ical e TTOt/JLciv, to reov fieXos, ?; to Ka.Ta.xcs Tr\v a—b tus Trerpas KaraXeifieTcu vipoQev vSutp. — Theoc. i. 7. V. 85. Xii [lev Tip (Tvpiyy', 6 Se T(fi KaXou auXbv eSooKev. — Id.vi.43. V. 88. lav toi, e0a, icopiivav GwpvTTOfiai, ovveicev ecrai Hav e7r' aXaQeiy 7T67r\acrjUbvoi' e/c Aids epvos. — Id. vii. 43. ECLOGUE V. 73 Subject. — Supposing, as is probable, this to be one of Vir- gil's earliest eclogues, and written when, as the second and third show, he was thoroughly imbued with the Theocritean poetry, we might naturally expect that its subject would be of a kindred character to some of those of the Idylls of his master. Now of all the Idylls of Theocritus none seems to have made a stronger impression on our poet's mind than the first, the chief subject of which is the death of Daphnis, the celebrated Sicilian shepherd, the son of the rural deity Hermes by a Nymph, and consequently a Hero according to the ideas of the later times. What, therefore, could be more natural than that he should again take the opportunity of measuring himself with his master, and as he had sung the death of Daphnis and its cause, to make the theme of his muse the general grief for that death and the apotheosis of the hero ? The whole structure of the eclogue agrees fully with this hy- pothesis. In Theocritus one shepherd asks another to sing, and offers him a reward for so doing ; in Virgil it is the same, but slightly varied, for each sings and each gives the other a present. As usual, however, the management of the subject is less skilful than in the Greek poet. In the respective songs the expressions employed all accord with Daphnis. His death is termed a crudele f units, for he is the victim of the vengeance of Venus : the Nymphs lament him, as he is of their kindred, rov Mwtrats e icaXov fiofiftevvn ttoti Fulmen erat toto Genitor quae plu- rima caelo Dejicit. Burmann, as Forbiger here observes, has shown on Quinctilian, ix. 2. that the plural often refers to a preceding singular. It is thus that Servius, followed by most interpreters, understands the passage. Heyne and Wagner, however, suppose proxima to be taken absolutely for the adv. proxime. We think the former interpretation much to be pre- ferred. — 23. Versibus, a dat. — si non possumus omnes, if we all cannot make such verses as Codrus. — 24. Hie, etc. I will resign my art. It was customary for those who retired from the exercise of any art or profession to hang up the instru- ments belonging to it in the temple of the deity who presided over it. See Hor. Carm. iii. 26, 3. Ep. i. 1, 5. — arguta pinu. See on v. 1. The pine was sacred to Cybele, but it was also sacred to Pan. Ov. Met. i. 699. Mythology, p. 232. It is evidently the latter deity that is meant here. — 25. Thyrsis, instead of invoking some other deity, as would seem to have been the usual custom (see iii. 62), calls on his fellow-swains to crown him as the superior of Codrus. — nascentem poetam, the rising poet, he who has just begun to make verses, i. e. Thyrsis himself. Nascentem is the reading of Servius and of the Med. MS. a priore manic, and is adopted by Voss, Wagner and Forbiger. The ordinaiy reading, crescentem (which has the air of a gloss), is followed by Heyne and Jahn. — hedera : poets as being followers of Bacchus were crowned with ivy. See Hor. C. i. 1, 29. Ov. Met. v. 338. Fast. v. 79 26. Arcades: see on v. 4. — rumpantur ut ilia Codro, that Codrus may burst with envy. We have the corresponding expression, burst the sides, but we use it only of laughter. From the mention of the envy of Codrus it has been attempted to identify him with a real person ; for Dousa in his Auctorium to Cruquius's Commentary on Horace, p. 694, when speaking of the Hiar- bita, who, the poet says (Ep. i. 19, 15) burst with envy or eclogue vii. 22-33. 95 emulation of Timagenes, observes, "Nam hie Hiarbita Maurus regione fuit Cordus qui," etc. ; and hence Weichert (Poet. Lat. Reliq., p. 402) infers that Cordus was, like Bavius and Maevius, an enemy of our poet, who has here a blow at him even though he was then dead. We do not by any means adopt this opinion. — 27- ultra placitum, that is, beyond what pleases him, beyond what he really thinks I merit. Excessive praise was considered to be a kind of fascination. — bacchare : see iv. 19. This plant was held to be efficacious against witchcraft and fascination. — 28. vatifuturo, the poeta nascens of v. 25. 29-37. The rival bards now try their skill in the com- position of epigrams, or inscriptions for the statues of gods. Corydon commences with one to Diana, in the person of a young hunter named Micon, who offers to her, or hangs up in her honour, the head of a wild-boar and the antlers of a stag. — Delia, as being born with her brother Apollo in the isle of Delos. — parvus, probably on account of his youth. — 30. vivacis. The stag was considered by the ancients to be peculiarly long-lived 31. Si proprium hocfuerit. By hoc is meant his success in hunting, which was, by a common prac- tice of the ancients, understood to be implied in what pre- cedes ; proprium signifies lasting, so as to become as it were one's own property. Propria haec si dona fuissent, Aen. vi. 872. — levi de mar-more, etc. I -will have a statue of smooth or polished marble made of you, on which the buskins, which as the huntress-goddess she wore, would be coloured red. It was a common practice of the ancients to colour parts even of marble statues. — 32. evincta, to denote the tight lacing of the well-fitting buskin. — 33. Thyrsis, in reply, makes an epi- gram for a statue of Priapus, the god and keeper of gardens. — Sinam. The sinus was a large wine-bowl, so called, says Varro (L. L. v. 123), " a sinu quod majorem cavationem quam pocula habebant." Sinus or sinum is derived from sinuo, to bend, to hollow, and originally signified anything hollowed : hence we meet the sinus of the toga. — liba. The libum was a cake made of flour, cheese and eggs. Cato (R. R. 75) gives the following receipt for making it : " Bray two pounds of 96 BUCOLICS. cheese well in a mortar; when it is well brayed, add a pound of spelt-flour, or if you wish it to be lighter, only half-a- pound: mix it well with the cheese: add an egg, and mix them well together ; then make the bread : put leaves under it : bake it gently on the hot hearth under an earthen pot." Athenaeus' account of the libum is as follows (iii. p. 125): TIXcikovs e« yaXcacros irpiwv re kclI [xeXtros uv 'Poj/xaloi Xijoov KaXovai. As Irpla (pi.) was a kind of cake, it perhaps stands here for the flour and cheese in Cato's receipt. In the liba that were offered to Liber on the Iiberalia (Ov. Fast. iii. 735), there either was honey, or they were smeared with it (Id. ibid. 761). Libum (prob. i. q. libatum,) comes from the verb libo, as being used in the service of the gods. — 35. marmoreum. Thyrsis is resolved to exceed his rival, who makes his Micon only promise Diana a marble statue. His Priapus, a god who in general was made only in a coarse way out of wood, is already marble, and will be gold if he gives increase to the flock. — 36. Si fetitra, etc. If the ewes yean well, so that the lambs will, as it were, form a new flock. Priapus is here re- garded as presiding over flocks. See Mythology, p. 236. — aureus esto, i. e. eris, the imperat. for the fut., which, vice versa, is often used for the imperat. 37-4-4. Corydon now, in the character of a Sicilian herds- man, and as the lover of the sea-nymph Galatea, calls on her to come and visit him in the evening. One might have expected to meet here Polyphemus instead of Corydon (see ix. 39), but we may recollect that the Corydon of the second eclogue is a Sicilian, and that the language and sentiments of the Theocritean Polyphemus are given to him. This may have secretly operated on the poet's mind when composing these lines. — Nerine, for Nereis, a Greek form, which only occurs in this place. Galatea was one of the Nereides. — Hyblae. See on i. 55. — 38. heclera alba. Cf. iii. 39. — 39. Cum pri- mum, etc., i. e. in the evening. — 40. habet, i. q. tenet. Omnis V. 37. T Q XevKcl TaXareia, tl tov , dfivXoio irdpovros. — Id. is. 20. V. 53. M. liav-u cap, Travrd fe vofioi, iravTu 8e ydXaKros- OvOara irXrjQovaiv, icai ra via rpe, r) 'PodoVav, r) Kcivkcmtov eaxctTOCOvra. Theoc. vii. 77. ECLOGUE VIII. 42-58. Ill 52-57. He now proceeds, from reflecting on the nature and power of Love, and the way the world is thrown into confusion by him, and also remembering that he is himself about to leave it, to assert, that he does not care what changes may occur in nature. Or he rather intimates that they may be expected to take place, since so unnatural a thing as the rejection of him- self and the acceptance of Mopsus by Nisa has occurred. — 52. Ultra. This expresses, that the terror of the wolf would be such, that at the very sight, as it were, of the sheep he would take to flight. — aurea mala. See on iii. 71. — 54. Pin- guia electra. The i\\eicrpov, in Latin succinum, amber, was, according to the popular belief, a gum which exuded from the trees on the banks of the Eridanus, into which the sisters of Phaethon had been changed. See on vi. 62. The Avord pin- guis is used of any fluid that is of a thick, unctuous nature ; sudo is also an appropriate and graphic expression. Cf. iv. 30. Voss regards the use of the plural electra as one of Virgil's licences. — 55. Certent, sc. in cantu. — sit Tityrus Orpheus. A stroke of rustic satire. Tityrus is of course a shepherd, who made but indifferent music on his syrinx. He shall rival Or- pheus in the power of his melody over the beasts of the wood, or Arion in his over the fishes of the sea. The story of Arion is well known. See Herod, i. 23 ; Ovid, Fast ii. 80, seq. 58-61. Omnia ml, etc. From the thought of Arion among the porpoises in the sea, he goes on to say : ' As for me, I have no more to do with earth, and the sea, for me, may cover the whole of it.' — medium, that is, deep, as the sea is out in its V. 52. "Svv la (iev fopioire fiaroi, )£ opeojv rol GicCjTres drjdoai yapvaaivTO. Theoc. i. 132. V. 58. T Q Xvkoi, (S Owes, w av ujpca (pioXdSes apicroi, XaipeO'' 6 (3(dic6\os vfifj.iv eyw Adtyvis ovk er dv vXav, Ow er dvd. Spvfiivs, ovk aXaea. x ai ? i 'ApeOotua, Kal Trorafioi, rol %etre tcaXov Kara QvftJ3pi8os vdwp. Id. i. 115. 112 BUCOLICS. middest point. — Vivite, i. q. valete, with which it is often joined. — 59. specula, any lofty point, from which there is an exten- sive view. — aerii montis : see on i. 58. — 60. extremum hoc, etc. ' Receive, Xisa, this my death as the last present I can make you.' Munus is evidently his death, not his song, as Heyne understands it. 62-63. The poet having himself given the song of Damon, calls on the Muses to proceed with that of Alphesiboeus, which required more knowledge. This was a compliment for Pollio, if, as Voss asserts, he had given him this subject. — non omnia, etc., a proverbial expression. 64-68. A maiden in the country, whom her lover had de- serted, has recourse to magic arts in order to recover him. Like Theocritus, whom he imitates, our poet hurries at once in medias res, and introduces the enchantress, calling to her attendant to bring her the things requisite for the rites. The action takes place probably in the inner-court, the impluvium, of a house (as Aen. iv. 504) : see v. 107. Voss supposes this scene also to be laid in Thessaly. — Effer aquam, etc. The altar which she is to use stands ready ; the lustral water is to be brought out, the altar to be bound round with a fillet, and incense and herbs to be burnt on it. — molli, because the vitta was made of wool. — 65. Verbenas. "Verbenae," says Donatus (on Ter. Andr. iv. 3, 1 1), " sunt omnes herbae frondesque fes- tae ad aras coronandas, vel omnes herbae frondesque ex aliquo loco puro decerptae : verbenae autem dictae quasi herbenae." — ]>ingues, juicy, see on v. 54. — adole. The original meaning of the verb oleo seems to have been to heap up, augment. It was used for the piling of the offerings on the altar, and, as they were then burnt, it gradually, like so many other verbs, got its secondary and more usual sense. — mascula tura. The better kind of frankincense, which was white and round, was V. 59. Tdv (3airav cLttoovs es Kv/xara tt)vu> a\ev[iai, ^QTrep rws Qvvvuis o~KOTnd<7CeTai"0\-Kis 6 ypnrevs. Theoc. iii. 25. V. 61. A/?yere (3h>Ko\iKas, Mdicrai, Ire, Xjjyer' a'oioas. — Id. i. 127. V. 64. ~2re-i/ov rdv Ke\e(3av (poivaceoj olds awry. — Id. ii. 2. eclogue viir. 59-71. 113 so called, according to Dioscorides, (i. 82) and Pliny (xii. 14, 32). See the Flora, s. v. — 66. Conjugis, see on v. 18 — sanos sensus, i. e. ' That I may make him mad with love ; ' destroy the present sanity or indifference of his mind. — 67. Carmina, charms, magic strains or forms : see Aen. iv. 487 ; Hor. S. i. 8, 19. 69-72. She now enumerates some of the principal effects of charms. — deducere Litnam. This was one of the most ordinary feats of the ancient sorceresses, especially of those of Thessaly : it is not known how it was performed : Ovid, Tibullus and other poets make frequent mention of it. — 70. Circe, etc. For the change of the companions of Ulysses by Circe, see Horn. Od. x. 203 seq. — UlixL The Latin language, having no letter answering to the Greek v (which was pro- nounced like the French u or the German ii), frequently used for it, in words from the Greek, the i as the sound approach- ing nearest to it, just as we ourselves have clone at times, as in brisk, from the French brusque. In like manner the Greek ev (probably the French eu, German o) became e. Hence we might have expected that 'OSvaaevs would have become Odis- ses, but by one of those freaks of language for which we can- not account it became Ulixes ; for d and I, strange as it may seem, are commutable (see on i. 2) and x is akin to ss. The form Ulysses is not to be found in any good MS. of Virgil or Ovid: see Burmann on Ov. Her. i. 1. Ulixi is the genitive, contracted from Ulixei, according to some critics ; but Wag- ner on Aen. i. 30. shows that in Greek proper names in evs, terminating in Latin in es, as Ulixes, Achilles, the genitive is made in i and the accusative in en ; while in those which retain the evs, as Tereus, Nereus, Ilioneus, the genitive ends in ei, the accusative in ea. On the Latin forms of Greek names, see Mythology, p. 553. — 71. Frigidus, etc., 4 the cold snake is burst asunder by charms.' That this is the sense of rumpo in this place is proved by the following passages : Carmine dis- siliunt, abruptis faucibns, ungues, Ov. Am. ii. 1,25. Vipereas rumpo verbis et carmine fauces, Ov. Met. vii. 203. Jam dis- V. 68. "Ivy?, sXks tv ttjvov ef.ibv irort Supa rbv avdpa. — Theoc. ii. 17. 114 BUCOLICS. rumpetur medius.jam utMarsii colubras Disrumpit cantu,venas cum extenderit omnes, Lucil. xx. 5. Compare Hor. Ep. i. 19, 15. The other interpretation ofrumpo by Gessner and Voss is that of cheeking, controlling, depriving of power. On fri- gidus, as an epithet of the snake, see on iii. 93. 73-76. She holds an image which she has made of Daphnis in her hand as the subject of her charms. — Tertia, for tria. This employment of the distributive for the cardinal number was not unusual with the poets : see Geor. i. 231 ; Aen. v. 85. 560 ; Zumpt, § 119. — tibi circumdo, I wind round thee, i. e. the image that represents thee. — triplici, etc., three threads, each of a different colour. Servius, who is followed by Voss, says nine threads, three of each colour ; but Wunderlich doubts if the Latin language will admit of this sense : it seems how- ever to have been so understood by the author of the Ciris, v. 371. — 74. haec. This is the reading of all the MSS. save one (the Longobardic), which has hanc, agreeing with effigiem, in v. 74, and which is followed by Wakefield, Voss, Wagner, and Forbiger. Wagner is so positive that hanc is the proper word, that he says that it should be admitted on conjecture even if it were to be found in no MS., while Jahn asserts that it mars the sense of the passage. Effigiem, he says, answers to tibi in v. 73, and is merely te, and hanc effigiem is therefore hunc te. — 75. duco, I carry. Cf. Aen. x. 206. — deus, a deity in general, or perhaps Hecate in particular : see Aen. ii. 632. — numero impare. A peculiar sanctity and dignity was given to the odd numbers, because they could not be divided so as to make even parts. Three was the most sacred, as having be- ginning, middle and end. 77-79. She calls on her attendant Amaryllis, and directs her to take three threads of different colours, and tie a knot on each, saying, as she tied them, ' I tie the bonds of Venus.' This was expected by sympathy to bind the mind of the ob- ject in the chains as it were of love and desire for her who employed the charm. 'Es rpls airo vvv riXXoiaa kut dypiqj ev irvpi f3dXXw. QeffrvXi) vvv oe \af3o7cra rv rd Qpova ravQ' vTrofia^ov Ids rrjvio (pXids KaOvTreprepov. — Theoc. ii. 53. eclogue vnr. 83-101. 117 This was supposed to exercise a magic power of attraction. See Aen. iv. 495 seq. — exuvias, whatever one put off (exuit) was an exuvia, clothes, arms, etc. The word was chiefly- used of the skins of animals. — 93. debent (sc. ducere, from next verse) mihi. They ought, according to magic rules, to attract him. 95-100. Has herbas atque haec venena, a hendyadis for has kerbas venenatas. See on ii. 8. — Ponto, i. e. in Colchis, the country of Medea. — 96. Ipse. In this word, as often in our own himself, there is implied an expression of dignity or su- periority : Moeris himself, the great Moeris. — 97. His, with these, by the power of these. The three following were usual feats of magicians, and are frequently mentioned by Tibullus and the other Latin poets. The change into a wolf is what in the middle ages was called becoming a ivar-wolf, the su- perstition having probably come down from the ancients. The earliest mention of it is the Arcadian legend of the change of Lycaon. Petronius (62) describes the process of becoming a war-wolf. The story of Saul and the witch of Endor is the earliest notice of the evocation of the dead. There was a special law in the Twelve Tables against charming away other people's crops of corn. Our own unfortunate witches were accused of charming away the butter out of the churn. — 99. alio, to another place. This word is given in the diction- aries as an adverb, but improperly, for it is plainly a dative of alius. As this word, beside its ordinary gen. alius, made also one in i and ae, as aliae pecudis, Cic, aliae partis, Liv., so it also made a dat. in o and ae, of which the latter occurs in Plautus and Gellius. — messes, i. q.frumenta. " Sata in futu- ram messem." — Heyne. 101-104. All her charms hitherto employed having proved unavailing, she has recourse to one which seems to have been thought of the greatest efficacy, that of throwing ashes into a running stream with the head averted. The reason of this 101. T Hpi de <7v\\e%avpeos (a reduplication from itvp) and signi- V. 39. 'AAV CMpUev rv, ttoO' dfie, kcii e£ets ovSev eXaavov' Tdv yXavadv de 9dXaK SpvjjioTo Xewv aveicXavffe Qavovra. — Theoc. i. 71. V. 18. 'Qpcuos x'"®Bo)vls, eirel /ecu fiaXa vofievet, Kai 7rrwicas jSa'Wei, ical Oijpia iravTa Siwicei. — Id. i, 109. 132 BUCOLICS. who are in the habit of following cattle acquire a slow, loiter- ing gait. Nunc intra muros pastoris buccina lenti Cantal. Prop. iv. 10, 29. It is also said that Menalcas, in the follow- ing verse, is the swineherd, but the poet says no such thing ; he merely says that he had been gathering acorns ; and, as Varro and Columella inform us, acorns were given to oxen as well as to swine : in fact all kinds of cattle feed on acorns. We may further observe that Arcadia was famous for breed- ing swine, and this may have led the poet to mention the swineherds. Finally, the critics seem not to be aware that lubulcus is a ploughman, and not a neatherd, and that the poetic Arcadia is not a tillage country. — 20. Uvidus, dripping. The acorns do not fall till toward winter, or rather in the winter, in the south, so that the persons that gather them are not unfrequently drenched with rain. We regard as a very forced interpretation, that of making Menalcas be wet from having been engaged in steeping acorns in water for the cattle. 21-30. The rural deities Apollo Nomios, Silvanus and Pan now come to console him. — 22. cura, the. object of your care, your mistress. — 23. Perque wives, etc. See Life of Gallus. — 24. Venit ct agresti, etc. Silvanus comes with the rural honour of his head (sc. the wreath of fennel and lilies), shaking the flowery fennel and the large lilies (of which it was composed). Silvanus being an Italian, not a Grecian, rural god, should not have been in Arcadia, did the Latin poets (what they surely did not) aim at the correctness of costume, etc. of the modern German poets. See on viii. 36. As the fennel and the lily are both very tall plants (see the Flora), perhaps we are to con- ceive Silvanus as bearing them in his hands, and not on his head. Cf. Aen. v. 855; vi. 587; ix. 521. For Silvanus, see Mythology, p. 536. — 26. deus Arcadiae, the god of Arcadia, the deity principally worshiped there. — quern vidimus ipsi, etc. Voss interprets this, 'whom we ourselves (sc. I and Gallus) saw ruddy,' etc. The other interpreters seem to understand V. 19. ''B.vQov rot fiwrai, roi KOi^cves, Tro\oi r\vQov. ILdvres dvijpwrevv ri rrdOoi kcikov. rjvQ' 6 IIpi?j7ros Krj(pa, Adtyvi rdXav. tl tv rdiceai; a de re Kbjpa Ilacras dvd Kpdvas, Travr dXaea ttoggI (popetrai. — Theoc. i. 80. ECLOGUE X. 19-33. 133 it as, ' whom (i. e. whose statue) I myself have seen ruddy/ etc. Voss however refers us to passages where Horace and other poets speak of the statue of Priapus as being painted red, as also those of Bacchus and the Satyrs. He moreover notices the statue of Jupiter on the Capitol, which was painted red, and the custom of the Roman generals, when triumphing and attired as Jupiter, to have their faces tinged with minium. The only place however in which Pan is red is Silius, xiii. 332, Ac parva erumpiint rubicunda cornua fronte, where it is evi- dently the natural ruddiness of the god that is noticed. For Pan, see Mythology. — 27. ebuli, of the dwarf elder. — minio. The Latin minium, was the sulphate of mercury, the Greek KLwafiapi, our cinnabar or vermilion. It came chiefly from Spain, whose quicksilver mines of Almaden are still prolific. It was said to be a Spanish word, and to have given name to the river Minius (Minho). This however is rather dubious, as the mines were and are in Andalusia, and the river is in Gallicia. — 2S. Ecquis erit modus ? sc. tuis lacrimis et sus- piriis. Cf. Aen. iv. 98. — Amor, i. e. the god (not the passion) who aypia TcaLvlei, as the poet Moschus says, Idyll i. 11. 31-34. at. This word indicates that what the gods had said had not removed his grief. — Tamen, etc., 'nevertheless, though I have derived no consolation from what the gods have said to me, I find some in the reflection that my woes may become the subject of your songs, ye Arcadians!' For the Arcadian song and music, see on vii. 5. Servius observes that some (with whom he did not agree) joined tamen ilk. At and tamen would thus be attamen divided by tmesis, and Jahn says, " Utrum poetae placuerit, in tali verborum struc- tura, vix quisquam dicet." — 33. O mild turn, etc., according with the well-known formula Sit tibi terra levis. This arises from the difficulty which mankind in general feel in separating the idea of the soul from that of the body. Thus we ourselves say, ' Such a one would not rest in his grave if he knew so and so,' and similar expressions. According to Plato (Phaed. p. 115), Socrates jested on this notion, in his usual manner, the last day of his life ; for when Crito asked him how he would wish to be buried, "Just as you please," replied he, 134 BUCOLICS. " provided you can catch me and I don't escape you." Then giving a quiet laugh, and turning to his friends, he added, " T cannot persuade Crito that I that am now conversing with you, and arranging all parts of the discourse, am Socrates ; but he thinks that which he will presently see dead to be me," etc. Among the ancient Scandinavians (see our Popular Fic- tions, p. 278.) it was a belief that the tears of the surviving relatives fell on the breast of the deceased and caused them pain. This was a salutary superstition, as it served to check immode- rate grief. — quiescant. He uses the proes. subj. because he can only express a hope or a wish. Some MSS. read quiescunt. 35— 11. From reflecting on the pastoral life of the Arcadians, he is led to wish that he had been one of them, or even (as Voss perhaps rightly understands it) one of their slaves. Heyne (with whom Forbiger agrees) finds fault here with the poet, for making Gallus, whom he had represented in the cha- racter of a shepherd, reveal that he was not one. He excuses him by his youth, and his desire to gratify his powerful pro- tectors. But the poet stands in need of no such apology, for he had nowhere represented Gallus as a shepherd, he had only placed him lying under a rock in Arcadia. — 36. vinitor. " Aut custos aut cultor vinearum." Servius. — 38. furor, love ; like cura, ignis, Jlamma. — 39. Et nigrae, etc. See on ii. 16. — 40. Jfecum inter salices, etc. We would, with Voss and Jahn, put a comma after salices, and understand aut after it. Willows and vines are, we believe, rarely found growing together. — 41. serta, sc. flowers to form garlands. 42, 43. With the true inconsistency of a distracted lover, he passes to Lycoris, and wishes her to be the companion of his rustic state. He enumerates the rural objects that might give her pleasure, and passionately declares that he could pass his whole life with her here. — ipso aevo, by old-age itself, to denote the durability of his love. Ibat rex obsitus aevo, Aen. viii. 307 ; aevo confectus Acoetes, xi. 85. 44-49. From this dream of Arcadian bliss his mind now returns to the real state of their affairs, namely, that he is en- V. 39. Kai to lov jxeXav evri, tcai a ypanTa vo.kiv9os.~- Theoc. x. 28. eclogue x. 33-52. 135 in military service in one quarter, while she is the com- panion of one who is serving in another. Heyne adopted a reading proposed by a critic named Heumann, viz. te instead of me, the reading of all the MSS., but he has found no fol- lowers. In fact his objection to me only rests on the false supposition which we have noticed above, that Gallus was re- presented as an inhabitant, and not merely a visitor, of the Arcadian mountains. But surely there is no absurdity in sup- posing Gallus, though engaged in military service, to have made, or to be feigned to have made, an excursion into Ar- cadia. What if, at this very time, he should have been, as we term it, quartered in Greece or in the south of Italy? — Nunc, but now. — insanus amor, mad love, i. e. love that maketh mad ; the cause for the effect. — detinet, keeps me, sc. far from Lycoris. — 46. nee sit mihi credere, ' let me not believe.' By a common construction the infin. mood with the words it governs is the nom. to the verb. Thus Tibull. i. 7, 24, Tunc mihi non oculis sit timuisse meis, and Propert. i. 20, 13, Nee mihi sit duros monies elfrigida saxa Adire. — tantum, sc. nefas. Quid mens Aeneas in te committere tantum, quid Troes potuere ? Aen. i. 231. Some join tantum with the preceding procul. Servius observes on this verse, " Hi autem omnes versus Galli sunt, de ipsius translati carminibus." But he does not tell us which they are, or how many there are of them ; perhaps 44 -49 — 47- Alpinas, etc., because she had gone with the army to Gaul. — 48. sola, alone, separated from me. Like dura in the preceding verse, it qualifies Lycoris, and notfrigora. 50-54. He now declares that, as a remedy for his love, he will devote himself to poetry and music. — Ibo, et, etc., ' I will go hence and form into pastorals the verses that I have made from Euphorion.' This was a poet born at Chalcis in Euboea in the Alexandrian period. He was librarian to Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, and he made comedies, elegies, and a work in five books called Moxpoma (i. e. Attica), consisting of mythic narratives. His style was harsh and obscure. Gallus would seem to have adopted his matter, not his manner. — 51. pastoris Siculi, Theocritus. — modulabor, see on v. 14. — 52. spelaea, i. q. spekmca, the Greek crTrfiXcua.—pati, sc. 136 BUCOLICS. meos amoves. — 53. ineidere, see on v. 14. — amoves, perhaps i. q. amovcm, and it may be the name of Lycoris, or of some other fair one ; or love verses. — 51. Crescent illae, etc. " Hoc vero, si quid aliud, Virgiliana elegantia dignum," Heyne. 55-61. Amidst these more tranquil occupations I will at times take the more stirring exercise of the chase. Interea is here i. q. inter ea. — mixtis Nymphis, i. q. permixtus Nymphis. Thus Prop. ii. 25, 57, Ut regnam mixtas inter conviva puellas. — lustrabo, I will range. Voss interprets this of joining in the dances of the nymphs, and no doubt lustrare is used of dancing (Aen. vii. 391 ; x. 224) ; but the former interpreta- tion is we think to be pi'eferred. — 56. acres, spirited, fierce, dovpeovs, Ovpuicets. — 57. Parihenios. Mount Parthenius lay on the confines of Arcadia and Argolis. — 58. Jam mild, etc. In imagination he now follows the chase, with the huntress- nymphs, over rocks and through woods, sending the arrows from his bow at the Hying game. — lucos sonanles, sc. with the baying of the dogs and the shouts of the hunters. Perhaps how- ever it is only a poetic epithet of woods, which yield a sound when agitated by the wind. — 59. Pavilw, etc. Parthian and Cydonian are merely epitheta ornantia, as the Parthians and Cretans were the nations most famed for archery. Cydonia w r as one of the principal towns of Crete. — covnu, from the bow. The most ancient bows were made of the horns of goats : see II. iv. 105. — 60. tanquam, etc., 'I am planning these things as if they, or anything else, were a remedy for my love.' — 61. dcus ille, etc, ' that god (i. e. Love) would ever learn pity from the evils which he sees men suffering through his means.' 62-69. ' Now again I see no use in employing myself in poetry or in hunting ; for nothing, as I said, will change the relentless nature of that deity.' — Hamadvyades, nymphs in ge- neral. See on v. 10. — ipsa, verses themselves, from which I expected more than from anything else — 63. concedite, give way, retire, as it were, ye avail nothing. — 64. Non ilium, etc. ' No toils that I may endure, hunting or keeping cattle, even in the most adverse regions of the earth, will avail to drive the love of Lycoris from my bosom.' — 65. Nee si, etc., 'not if, as a hunter or herdsman, I endure all the rigours of a Thracian ECLOGUE X. 53-73. 137 winter.' The Hebrus is a river of Thrace, which was also called Sithonia, from the town of Sithone. — 66. aquosae. This is merely a usual epithet of hiems, which the poet uses without reflecting that it does not accord with nives. — 67. liber, the inner bark, here taken for the bark in general. — ctret, is quite dried, burnt up with the great heat in the region be- yond the equinoctial line. — 68. Aethiopum versemus ovis, ' I should keep the flocks of the Aethiopians.' Versare is the Greek 7roAe?// (whence clittoXos oIottoXos") to drive, to pasture sub sidere Cancri, i. e. under the northern tropic. — Omnia, etc. He sagely concludes : ' Since Love conquers everything, there is no use in struggling any more ; I may as well yield to him.' 70-77. The poet concludes in his own person. Forgetting, as it were, that it was the nymph Arethusa that he had in- voked in the commencement, he now addresses the Muses in general. — 71. Dum sedet. " Praesens interpositum pertinet ad cecinisse, ut Aen. x. 55-58." Wunderlich. See on vii. 6. We might have expected the imperf. of sedeo, but the neces- sities of the metre often induced the poets to take liberties with the tenses of verbs, and the numbers of both verbs and nouns, which prose writers could not allow themselves, and which critics employ useless ingenuity in explaining and de- fending. In the same way the poets of modern Italy and the Spanish peninsula frequently employ the imperf. instead of the perf. tense of verbs, for the sake of rime, as is proved by these inaccuracies occurring only at the end of lines. To the same cause (the necessities of the verse) may be ascribed the mixtures of past and present tenses by our own poets.— -fiscel- lam. The Jiscella was a basket of rushes, or as here of hi- biscus, used for making cheese. Colum. vii. 8, 3. — Jiibisco. See ii. 30. It is called gracilis, slender, as the rods of it which he was using were such.- — 72. maxima, of very great value in the eyes of. — 73. cvjus amor, etc., ' for whom my love in- V. 65. E'irjs 8' 'HSwvwv fiev Iv a/peci ^ei'ftan fiecao^y "Efipov Trap Trorafiov re-pajxfievos eyyvQev apKTW, 'Ev Se Oepei Tvvjxa.Toiai Trap' AiQioTceaoi vo/zewois, Uerpainrb B\ef.wu>v, '66ev ovk en NetXos oparos. — Theoc.vii.lll. 138 BUCOLICS. creases hourly, as the green alder grows in the early spring.' — 74. se subjicit, grows up, throws itself up from beneath, from the ground. Cf. Geor. iv. 385 ; Aen. xii. 288. — 75. Sur- gamus, the first pers. plur. of the imper. though he speaks only of one person ; for there is no first pers. sing. But perhaps he means himself and the Muses. — solet esse, etc. He probably had in view these lines of Lucretius vi. 783 : Arboribus pri- nt///// certis gravis umbra tributa Usque adeo capitis faciant ut saepe dolores. — cantantibus. If the shade was injurious in general, it must have been so to singers: the poet only therefore gives a particular instance of a general effect. — 76. Juniperi. He would seem to intimate that there was some- thing particularly noxious in the shade of the juniper, and at the same time, that he was sitting under or near one of these trees. Marty n however says that the smell of the juniper is considered to be rather wholesome. — nocent umbrae. We be- lieve there is no other reason for the use of the plural here than the one assigned above. Every farmer knows how in- jurious trees are to corn, and what a pest the close hedge- rows of elm are in this country. — Ite domum, etc. See vii. 44. — venit Hesperus, the evening star is appearing, the sun is setting. Observations. Date. — The date of this last of our author's bucolic poems is probably 714-16. See Life of Gallus. Sid/ject. — The subject is the love of the poet's friend Gal- lus for a mistress who had deserted him. See Life of Gallus. In order to give his composition a greater degree of poetic ornament, and to be able to imitate some passages of his fa- vourite first idyll of Theocritus, he adopted the bucolic form, and laid the scene in Arcadia. It is one of his best eclogues, for it is on a subject in the description of which he excels, having studied it carefully, perhaps in Apollonius Rhodius. Characters and Scenery — On these points we have here no remarks to make. NOTES ON THE GEORGICS, BOOK I. Argument. X roposition, 1-5. Invocation, 6-42. Ploughing, 43-70. Fallowing, rotation, etc. 71-99. Irrigating, 100-117. Di- gression on the Golden and succeeding Age, 118-146. Ene- mies of the corn, 147-159. Implements, 160-175. Thresh- ing-floor, 176-186. Signs of a good or bad harvest, 187-192. Preparing the seed, 193-203. Proper times for sowing dif- ferent kinds of grain, 204-230. Description of the celestial sphere, the zones, etc. 231-256- Work to be done on rainy- days and holidays, 257-275 ; on certain days of the month, 276-286 ; at night, by day, in summer, in winter, 287-310. Description of a summer-storm, 311-334. Remedies against it, worship of Ceres, 335-350. Signs of an approaching storm, 351-392. Signs of fine weather, 393-423. Signs in the moon, 424-437- Signs in the sun, 438-463. Prodigies that followed the death of Julius Caesar, 464-488. Civil war, 489-i97. Prayer for Caesar Octavianus, 498-514. Notes. 1-5. Quid faciat, etc. In these opening lines the poet briefly gives the subject of the four books of his poem, namely tillage, planting, grazing, and the keeping of bees. The gradation, as has been observed, is very natural and cor- 140 GEORGICS. rect, from grasses and leguminous plants to trees, thence to animals, and terminating with those social insects which ap- proach nearest to man in their instinct. — -faciat, may make. The potential is the best suited to a didactic work, as the pre- cepts are somewhat hypothetic. — laetas segeles, joyous (i. e. fruitful) cornfield s. Laetas segetes etiam rustici diciint, Cic. De Or. iii. 38; agcr crassus et laetus, Cato R. R. 6; and per- haps (as laetamen is manure) the original sense of this adj. may have been fruitful, abundant. For seges, see Terms of Husbandry, s. v — quo sidere, at what time, at the rising or setting of what constellation. As we shall see, the rural la- bours of the ancients were regulated by the times of the rising and setting of the Pleiades and other constellations. — terram vcrtere, sc. aratro : see Hor. S. i. 1 , 28 ; or with the bidens, Coll.iv.5. It is the plough that is intended here. — 2. Maecenas. The celebrated C. Cilnius Maecenas, at whose desire he wrote the poem : see Life of Virgil, and Hist, of Roman Empire, p.17. — ulmis, etc. See on Ec. iii. 10. — S.cidtus, attention, care. It is merely a variation of the expression, being nearly equi- valent to the preceding cura. Quae quidem (oves) neque ali neque sustentari neque ullum fructum edere ex se sine cultu hominum et curatione potuissent, Cic. de N. D. ii. 63. — habendo pccori, for keeping small cattle : not as Heyne ex- plains it, " pecoris quod quis possidet s. alit." Habendo is the dat. of the gerund : see Zumpt, § 664. For pecori, see Terms of Husbandry, s.v. — 4-. experientia, experience, sc. of the bee- master, habendis being understood with a pibns. It is little more than another variation of the cura of v. 3. Cf. iv. 316. — parcis. Some MSS. read parvis, one paucis, joining it with the following words. With Servius and Voss we regard par- cis as an adjective qualifying apibus, and signifying thrifty, frugal. Pliny (xi. 19, 21) says of bees, Caetero perparcae et quae alioqui prodigas atque edaces non secus ac pigras atque ignavas proturbent. Wagner however (with whom Forbiger as usual agrees,) says that parens is not here (j)eic6/j.evos, sparing, but a-drws, scanty, few (see iii. 403) ; and that it expresses the difficulty of keeping up, and still more of in- creasing, the stocks of bees ; a difficulty of which, even in BOOK I. 1-9. 141 this country, we are not aware. He adds, that it would not be appropriate, in a brief argument of this kind, to use an epithet taken from the nature of the insect. Hoblyn (refer- ring to iii. 239) applies parcis to the bee-masters in the sense of protecting, — 5. Mine, i. e. ex his, korum partem, rw afioQev (Od. i. 10), a form indicating modesty. Cf. ii. 444 ; iii. 308 ; Hor. S. i. 4, 6 ; Ov. Fast. v. 509. 5-24. Having proposed the argument of his ]Doem, he now proceeds to invoke the deities who presided over the subjects of his work. — 5. Vos, o clarissima, etc., sc. Sol and L una. — 6. labentem, gliding, to denote the noiseless pace of time. — 7. Liber et alma Ceres. These two deities are invoked together, because they were joint givers of increase to the earth, and had a common temple at Rome. See Mythology, p. 517. It is a very erroneous notion of some critics, that they are the lumina of the preceding verse, and are therefore Sun and Moon ; for if in some mysteries the Grecian Bacchus (with whom Liber I was identified) was regarded as the Sun, we are yet to learn that Demeter, or the Roman Ceres, was anywhere held to be the Moon. It was, we believe, her daughter Persephone that I was united with Bacchus in this manner. At all events, as Voss sensibly observes, Virgil would hardly commence a poem intended to be popular with a dogma of the Mysteries, which could be known to very few of his readers. Varro, in the opening of his prose work (and perhaps Virgil was following him), invokes, after Jupiter and Tellus, Sol and Luna, and then Ceres and Liber. For the absence of the copula be- tween annum and Liber, see on v. 498. Cf. ii. 6 ; iv. 243, 546. — alma. See on Ec. viii. 17- — vestro, etc., i. e. 'by your gifts (i. e. the knowledge of tillage and of the culture of the vine, of which you were the inventors,) men exchanged mast and acorns for corn, as their food, and water for wine and water, as their drink.' — si, causal, i. q. cum or quod. — 8. Chaoniam glan- dem, Chaonian mast, such as grew in the woods of Epirus : see on Ec. ix. 13. For glans, see the Flora, s. v. — pingui arista, large rich grains of corn. Thus Ps. lxxxi. 17, we meet with " the fat of wheat." Arista, the awn or beard, is put for the grain or the ear. — 9. Pocida Acheloia, their cups of water. 142 GEORGICS. Aclieloiis, the river flowing between Aetolia and Acarnania in Greece, is frequently used by the poets for water in gene- ral, for which practice we have seen no just cause assigned. — id-is, sc. vino, the producer for the produced. Donee eras mixtus nullis, Acheloe, racemis, Ov. Fast. v. 343, is a similar mode of expression. — praesentia numina. See on Ec. i. 42. — 10. Fauui, etc. The Italian Fauns are here joined with the Grecian Dryads in the usual manner. For Faunus, see Mytho- logy, p. 537. One- MS. for Fauni in v. 1 1 reads Satyri, and Heyne was inclined to approve of it, considering the repeti- tion to be somewhat frigid : but it is in reality quite the con- trary ; for, as Wagner justly observes, it makes the passage more vivid. — 11. Fertepedem, sc. hue, come hither. Abite Illuc itnde malum pedem tulistis, Catull. xiv. 21 ; pedem intro non feres, Plant. Men. iv. 3, 18. Our nautical phrase, bear-a-hand, i. e. come help, is analogous. — 12. Munera vestra. Here vestra refers to all the deities whom he had named. The gifts of the Fauns and Wood-nymphs seem to be the trees and their fruits. 12. Tuque, etc. He now proceeds to the deities presiding over the subjects of his two last books. The assigning the production of the horse to Neptune has no reference, as has been erroneously supposed, to his contest with Minerva for the naming of Athens. It rather refers to the legend of his producing the first horse, Scyphio s, by a stroke of his trident in Thessaly. See Mythology, p. 86. — prima tellus i. q. tellus primum. " Prima tellus est ea quae antea equum nondum viderat et turn primum protulit," Jahn. See on Ec. i. 45. — 13. Fudit, poured forth, teemed, as Milton expresses it, Par. Lost, vii. 454. Tempore quo primum tellus animalia fudit, Lucr. v. 915, which verse Virgil had probably in view. — 14. cultor nemorum, dweller of the woods. Aristaeus, the son of Apollo and the nymph Cyrene, the inventor of the art of keeping bees. See iv. 315 ; Mythology, p. 329. — eui, through whom, through whose. — pinguia dumeta. Dumetum (durnus, briar, bramble) is a thicket, and the epithet pinguia refers to the luxuriant herbage that grew among the bushes. Thus we have ping ues horti, iv. 118. In like manner tondent, shear, book i. 9-24. 14-3 (i. e. browse, crop) refers also to the grass. — Ceae, of the isle of Cea or Ceos, one of the Cyclades in the Aegean sea, where Aristaeus was greatly honoured. — 15. Ter centum, a def. for an indef. number. — 16. Ipse, thou thyself, as being of greater importance than Aristaeus. See on Ec.v. 72. Pan was the great god of Arcadia, in which were the mountains Lycaeus and Maenalus and the town of Tegea, from which he is here named. For Maenala, see on Ec. x. 55. — 17. tua si tibi, etc., if (see on v.7) thou care for thy Maenalus, i. e. its pastures and the sheep that graze them. — 18. oleaeque, etc. From Arcadia he passes to Attica, whose patron goddess gave mankind the olive, and whence Triptolemus spread the art of tillage. — 1 9. unci, crooked. The reason of this epithet may be seen in the Terms of Hus- bandry, s, v. aratrum. — puer. In the legend he is represented as quite a youth. See Mythology, p. 176. — 20. Et teneram, etc. The Italian god Silvanus, the guardian of cattle and bounda- \ ries, was usually represented bearing a young cypress plant. See Mythology, p. 536, and Plate XII. — ab radice, i. e. radi- citus, plucked up with the root, root and all. Forbiger would connect ab radice with teneram, and understand it all tender, root and all. We prefer the former more obvious interpreta- tion : see Ec. i. 54. — 21. Digue, deaeque omnes, etc. Under this head he groups the host of deities that, according to the Roman religion, presided over the country and the operations of agriculture, such as Occator Sarritor, Collina Seia, etc. See Mythology, p. 540. — novas fruges, the new (i.e. young) plants. As it is only some kinds of trees that he says (ii. 10) grow without seed, it must be them that he means here. — 22. non ullo semine, without any seed, spontaneous : see ii. 10 seq. Midcebant zephyri natos sine semine flares, Ov. Met. i. 108. — 23. largum imbrem, copious showers of rain on the corn-fields. 24-42. " Post decs agrestes, ex notissima Romanorum adu- latione, Caesarem invocat tanquam deum mox futurum." Heyne. He should have observed that this is the very first instance of that species of adulation. On this deification of Caesar, see on Ec. i. 6. — 24. deorum concilia. Concilium (from con-calo, to call together, Festus) is i. q. coetus, congregatio. .HK 144 GEORGICS. Cicero uses the expression concilium deornm or caelestium The poet supposes an assembly or deliberative society of each class of deities. He employs the plural for the singular with the usual poetic licence. — 25. urbisne invisere,to inspect, to have the care of. We may observe that velis governs both invisere and curam. Forbiger refers to Ec. v. 46, 47 ; vi. 74 ; Aen. i. 124; vii. 421. — 26. maximus orbis, sc. terrarum, the entire earth. In a usual sense of the superlative (see on Ec. vii. 49) maximus is i. q. permagnus. — 27. tempestatum potenlcm, the ruler of the weather, the author of the changes of the atmo- sphere ; not merely of the winds or seasons, which however are included. I t_may be here observed that tempestas was orig inally i. q. temp us. See Varro, L. L. vii. 51 ; Sail. Cat. 17. It then came to signify a portion of time, as a year, etc., Sail. Cat. 57; Jug. 101 ; Liv. i. 5 : in Horace postera tempestas (S. i. 5. 96) seems to be the next day. It was next the weather or state of the atmosphere : Cum temjJestas adridet, Lucr. ii. 32 ; liqui- dissima caeli temjjestas, Id. iv. 1 70. It finally signified storm, tempest, mala or advcrsa being understood as in the parallel case of valetudo. There should be a comma dSteY frugum, for auctorem and potentem are both to be regarded as substantives. — 28. cingeiis, sc. orbis, a fine image, representing the whole human race as uniting to crown Caesar with a myrtle-wreath in acknowledgment of his descent from the goddess to whom the myrtle was sacred. — maierna. The Julian gens claimed a descent from Venus. — 29. An deus, etc. If you will not be a terrestrial deity, but prefer to rule over the sea, Tethys will give you one of the Ocean-Nymphs, her daughters, in marriage, and transfer to you her whole dominion. — venias, i. e.futurus sis, you will be. Venio sometimes occurs in the sense of sum, as Aen. v. 344 ; hence it is that the modern Italians use their verb venire for essere. — 30. Numina, i. q. numen, like concilia, v. 25. — sola, i. e. praecipue, quasi sola. — ultima Thule. The Zetland islands. Tac. Agric. 10. It was probably, like Hes- peria, Eridanus, and so many others, originally an indefinite name, which was finally restricted to these islands. — 31. emat, purchase. In the heroic times the wooer purchased his wife in some measure by giving large presents to herself and her book i. 25-41. 145 family. Among the Greeks of later times and the Romans, J {/*■{/& I the wife brought a dower. — Anne, etc., ' Or if, scorning alike land and sea, you will be a celestial deity, you may become one of the signs of the zodiac' It was an old opinion thatjhe souls of men became stars : see Aristoph. Pax, 832. — tardis, slow, i. e. the summer-months, when the days are longest, and therefore the course of the sun apparently slowest. This is clear from the position which he assigns him. — Qua locus, etc. In Virgil's time the space between the sign of Virgo (named Erigone, from the daughter of Icarus), or Astraea, and that of the folloiving Scorpion, now occupied by Libra, was vacant, or only occupied by the chelas or claws of this last. As Astraea j was Dike or Justice, there is a delicate flattery of Caesar in! assigning him that position. — Chelas, i. e. xqXhs, by which the Greeks expressed cloven feet as well as claws. — ardens, bright. —justa plus parte, i. e. 'more than you have a strict right to' ; in token of reverence for the new deity. — 36. nam te nee, ' for let not Tartarus expect you as its ruler, let not such a dire love of sway possess your mind.' — nee, i. q. non. — Tartara. This was originally the prison of the Titans beneath the earth, but it gradually was confounded with Erebus, the abode of departed men, and then became that portion of it in which the wicked were punished. See Mythology, pp. 39, 91. We may observe that Virgil uses it here in a large sense as synony- mous with Erebus. — sperent. Some MSS-, which are followed by Wagner and Forbiger, read sperant. — dira cupido. Lu- cretius has dira libido (iv. 1040) and dira cuppidine (iv. 1084). — miretur, admire, i. e. celebrate, extol. — repetita, recalled, asked to leave it: see Aen. vii. 241. Filium istinc tuum te melius est repetere, Plaut. True. iv. 3, 72. — sequi curat, cares to follow, i. e. will not follow. We use our verb care exactly in this sense. — Proserpina. The rape of this goddess by Pluto is a well-known legend: see Mythology, p„ 171. — Dafacilem cursum, 'give an easy or prosperous course'; a metaphor taken from navigation. — audacibus, etc., ' favour my daring enterprise,' namely, that of being the first to write a poem on agriculture in the Latin language: see ii. 175. — 41. Ignaros viae. He calls the husbandmen so, either in a general way as all H 146 GEORGICS. those to whom precepts are given are supposed to have been previously ignorant of them ; or, as the commentators say, be- cause, on account of the civil wars, the proscriptions and the confiscations of the lands, the rural population had been di- minished and agriculture neglected. — mecum. This is to be taken with miseratus, not with ignaros. — Ingredere, proceed, advance. Cf. Aen. viii. 513 — assuesce, sc te. 43-49. The poet commences his precepts with the spring- ploughing of the land. — Vere novo, in the beginning of the •spring (ea£os vkov la rapeiq ioj Od. xix. 519), that is, in the month of February. The Roman spring began between the nones and ides of this month, when the west-wind Favonius or Zephyrus began to blow, and it ended toward the middle of May. Columella xi. 2. — canis, hoary, i. e. covered with snow. — loquitur, flows. — Zephgro, to the west-wind, under its in- fluence : a dat. case. — putris ffhba, the mellow, crumbly, friable soil. This is probably not to be understood of lea or fresh land, but of land which had been cultivated the pre- ceding year : see ii. 202. Such land, after having been ex- posed to the frosts of the winter, becomes friable in the spring. — jam tarn, then, emphatic ; now then, immediately, without any delay. Cf. ii. 405 ; Aen. vii. 643 ; viii. 349; x. 533 — mihi : see on Ec. viii. 6. — Depresso aratro, pressed down, sc. by the ploughman pressing with his whole might on the stiva or handle. — taumcs. As in Ec. i. 46. he uses tauros for vitulos, so here and all through this book he employs taurus for bos OYJuvencus. The ancients never ploughed with bulls. — sulco, by the furrow, not in the furrow. — splendescere. Old Cato in his address to his son (ap. Servium) said, Vir bonus est, mi Jili, colendi peritus, cujus ferramenta splendent, i. e. who keeps the plough constantly going. — 47. seges, corn-field. Ec. ix.48. — avari, i. e. avidi (Cf. Proem, to Aen. v. 3), eager, desirous. The poet of course could only have meant it in a good sense. — bis quae solem, etc., i. e. ' which has been fallowed.' The poet, from his ignorance of practical agriculture, seems to have expressed himself somewhat ambiguously here; for Pliny (xviii. 49), referring to this place, says, Quarto seri sulco (i. e. aratione) Virgilius existimatur voluisse. The usual course of book i. 41-52. 147 fallowing among the ancients, as with ourselves, was to plough the ground deep in the spring, give it a cross ploughing in the summer, and a third ploughing in the autumn, with which they sometimes sowed it, or like us gave it an additional seecl- ploughing. The crop of wheat, which is the grain sown on fallows, had therefore to pay the expenses of two years ; and consequently the land might he said to feel two summers and two winters, and this was probably all that the poet meant. We however learn from Mr. Simond (Travels in Italy and Sicily, p. 476), that at the present clay in some places (he is speaking of Sciacca on the south coast of Sicily) a much longer time elapses between the crops. " When the land," says he, " is manured, which is rarely the case, it yields corn every year, otherwise once in three years : thus, first year corn (fromento) ; second year fallow, and the weeds mowed for hay ; third, ploughing several times, and sowing for the fourth year." He adds (which illustrates v. 73 seq.), " some farmers alternate with beans." It is, we think, a just remark of Wagner, that vv. 47-49 are among those which the poet inserted in his poem after it was finished, for they are quite parenthetic. — Illiiis, sc. segetis. — ruperunt horrea, burst the granaries. The perfect tense is used, like the Greek aorist, to express the frequency of an action. This is correct and philosophic ; for when a thing has happened once or more times, it may reasonably be inferred that it will happen again. 50-56. Ac prius, etc. This follows the subject of v. 46. The common reading is at, but this was evidently an emenda- tion of those who did not perceive the close connexion with that verse. ' Before,' says he, 'we commence tilling land with which we have not been previously acquainted, we should learn its nature.' — -ferro scindimus, we plough. — aequor. This word, which is chiefly and perhaps was originally used of the sea, is also employed to express plains. Aegyptii et Babylonii in camporum patentium aequoribus habitantes, Cic. Div. i. 42. It is here vised for campus or ager. — ventos et caeli, etc., the prevailing winds and the climate or nature of the air, whether dry or moist, etc. — 52. ac patrios, etc., and the original (inhe- rited as it were) nature of the soil, and mode of cultivating it. h2 148 GEORGICS. There is a hysteron-proteron in cultus and habitus, occasioned no doubt by the strain of the metre. Wagner says that pa- trios properly belongs to locorum. — Et quid, etc. Having ascertained all these points, the next is to see what plants are best suited to the soil. Some soils, for example, are adapted to corn, others to vines ; some to trees and natural grass grow- ing among them : see v. 15. — 53. recuset. The poet animates everything, even the land — veniunt, i. e. proveniunL—Arborei fetus., the growth of trees. Fetus is used of anything, animal or vegetable, that grows. — injussa, i. e. sponte. — virescunt. This verb is governed of both fetus and gramma. Wagner and Forbiger put a semicolon after alibi; incorrectly, we think. 56-63. Nonne vides. He adopted this expression, which makes the verse more animated, from Lucretius, who fre- quently uses it, as ii. 196, 207. — Tmolos, a mountain of Lydia, at the foot of which the city of Sardis lay. Virgil is the earliest extant writer who says that it produced saffron, and he may have confounded it with Mount Corycus in Cilicia, which was famous for that plant ; for, as we have before ob- served, we must not look for great geographical accuracy in the ancient poets. As to the testimony of Columella (iii. 8), Solinus (53), and Martianus Capella (6), it is not of so much weight, as they probably only followed Virgil. — croceos odores, i. q. crocam odorum. — India mittit ebur, India exports, sends us ivory. This country has been always remarkable for its elephants. — molles Sabaei. The Sabaeans were a people of Arabia Felix, whence the fragrant gum named thus or fran- kincense came; the Sheba of Scripture. They are called molles, soft or effeminate, for the Greeks and Romans con- sidered all the Orientals to be so, ascribing this effect to the extreme heat of the climate. — sua, which is peculiar to them, only is produced in their country. — Chalybes, a people to the north of Armenia on the coast of the Euxine. Their country was famed for its iron-mines. It was probably from their name that the Greeks formed their yaXv^i, steel, though it may have been the reverse. — nudi, because the men employed in forges and iron-works throw off" their upper garments, which is all that is meant by nudus : see v. 299 ; Aen. viii. 425. book i. 53-66. 149 — Pontus, the country on the south coast of the Euxine. — virosa castorea, the strong-smelling castoreum. This is a fluid secreted by a gland near the testicles of the castor (raorwp) or beaver: see Plin. viii. 30, 47 ; xxxii. 3, 13. The Pontic was considered the best, the Spanish of an inferior quality : Strabo iii. p. 163. It is remarkable that in the time of Virgil the beaver was an inhabitant of Spain and Asia Minor ; in the middle ages it Avas still in Germany (Dante, Inf. C. xvii. v. 22), while at the present day it is not to be met with in Europe. — Eliadum, etc. Epirus sends the mares that win the plates at the Olympic games. Epirus, as abounding in fine pastures, was celebrated for its breed of horses. Hence the Greeks called evnrwos, einrwXos. Mares, it is well-known, are fleeter than horses, though they have not the same strength. — Palma, the palm-branch the token of victory, thence the victory itself, and finally, as here, the victor : tertia palma Diores, Aen. v. 339. The construction in the text is a cu- rious hypallage; the natural one would be, Epiros equas, palmas Eliadum, sc. certaminum. See Excursus V. — 60. Con- tinuo, directly, immediately from. It is to be taken with tem- pore in the next line. — 7ias leges, etc. Aeternas is to be under- stood with leges, and liaec with foedera. See on Ec. iii. 33. 8 These laws and conditions,' sc. that each country should have its peculiar products, — quo tempore, etc. The well-known legend of the restoration of the human race by Deucalion and Pyrrha flinging stones behind their backs : see Ov. Met. i. 253 • Mythology, p. 298 — durum genus. Cf. Lucr. v. 923. 63-70. Ergo age, etc. He returns from the preceding di- gression, and resumes the subject of ploughing from v. 46. A strong soil, he says, should get a deep ploughing with stout oxen early in the year, and be left exposed to the hot suns of summer, that it might be dried and pulverised. — glebas jacentes, the sods that were turned up (not turned over) and lay exposed. — 66. Pulverulenta aestas, the dusty summer, i. e. the summer that pulverises. — coquat. The verb coquo is to cook, to dress, to make or prepare with fire. It is used of meat, of bread, of bricks or lime. To bake seems to express it best in this place, for bread is baked by the action of the fire expel- 150 GEORGICS. ling the moisture from it, as that of the sun does from the land, which however it does not harden. — maturis solibus, with mature, ripe suns, that have attained their full strength, i. e. those of midsummer. — 67. At si, etc., ' but if the land is not of this strong loamy description, you should not till it in this manner : in that case you should only give it a light plough- ing just in the beginning of September/ — -fecunda, i. q. pin- giris, v. 64. — sub ipsum Arcturum. This star, the brightest in the sign of Bootes or Arctophylax, rises, according to Colu- mella (xi. 2), on the nones (5th) of September. — teuui sus- pendere sulco, to raise it with a light furrow, i. e. to give it a shallow ploughing; the ploughman, as it were, instead of pressing down his plough (v. 45), keeping it up, suspending it. Lucretius (iii. 197) uses suspensa in the sense of light. — Illic, etc. The former mode is in order that the weeds may be destroyed ; the latter, lest all the moisture should be drawn out of the ground. — herbae, grass, weeds, anything else beside the corn. Cf. ii. 251. — arenam, i.e. terrain, solum: see on v. 105. 71-83. Having described the novalis, or fallow system of culture, he now passes to the restibilis or rotation system, with dunging and top-dressing. — 71. Alternis, sc. vicibus or annis, — idem, you, the same farmer, will practise the two modes of culture, cultivating some of your land on the one, some on the other system. — tonsas novales, the reaped fields. Reaping is called shearing in Scotland and the north of England. — ces- sare, etc. It can hardly be meant that the land was to be let lie idle an entire year, for in that case there would only be one crop in three years. What he means is that, after the corn had been cut in the summer, the land was to be let to lie and get a scurf of weeds on it till the following spring, when they were to be ploughed in. This is expressed by segnem situ durescere campum ; the segnem denoting the rest, the situ the scurf, and the durescere the hardening, the forming of an in- cipient sward. This plain meaning of duresco is, we think, more in accordance with nature than that of acquiring vigour by rest. — Aut, etc. Or else on the rotation system, of which the following is an example. On the land where you have book i. 67-79. 151 sowed a crop of leguminous plants in the spring, you may sow a crop of corn in the following autumn. — mutato sidere, i. e. in another part of the year ; as Voss rightly understood it, not of the next year, like Jahn and Forbiger. Heyne, by sidus, understood the sun, but it seems more simple to take it as a sign or constellation which is said to be changed when one comes in place of another ; Arcturus, for example, in that of the Pleiades. — farra. We may take this, with Servius and Forbiger, for bread-corn in general. — legumen. Pliny (xvii. 9 ; xviii. 21) understands by this the bean (faba), but it probably includes the pea. He terms it laetum, luxuriant, abundant, as is indicated by the quantity of its pods (siliquae), which when ripe shake and rattle with every passing breeze. — quassante. This exactly answers to our shaking. — tenuis viciae. The tare or vetch is called slight because its halm is so slender and its seed so small, compared with those of the bean or pea. — tristis- que lupini, the bitter lupine. For this sense of tristis, see ii. 126. Ennius has triste sinapi ; Ovid (Ex P. iii. 1, 23) tristia absinthia. The que here is equivalent to ve : see Excursus V. —fragiles calamos, etc. The halm of leguminous plants, as every one knows, is very brittle as compared with straw, and their seeds rattle in the pods. — silvam. He uses this term, with a poet's licence, to denote the density and vigour of the crop. — Urit enim, etc. Those are the crops I would recom- mend you to sow previous to bread-corn, and not, as some do, flax, oats, or poppies, for these exhaust the land too much. The primary sense of uro is to burn, but it is used to express any effect analogous to burning ; thus f Vigor urit, calceus urit, because they produce a sore similar to a burn. It is employed here because these plants take the substance out of the land, as fire does out of what it lays hold of. — avenae, sc. seges. — Lethaeo, etc. Poppies, from their narcotic quality, are poeti- cally said to be sprinkled with sleep, which is further called Lethaean, from Lethe (AijOri), the River of Oblivion. In the use of the term perfusa there may be an allusion to the Roman custom of eating poppy-seeds sprinkled on cakes. — 79. Sed tamen, etc., ' but still you may sow these injurious crops alter- nately with your corn-crops, provided you use manure.' — 152 GEORGICS. alternis, sc. victims*— -facilis labor, sc. campi, from v. 77, the land will easily bear it. " Labor tribuitur agro, quemadmo- dum defatigari, refoveri, recreari, ilia dicitur." Heyne. Cf. v. 150. — arida, as being exhausted by the flax, etc. — Effetos, effete, exhausted. — cinerem. The cineres of ancient as of mo- dern Italy, we must recollect were wood-ashes. They were usually sprinkled, as a top-dressing, on the growing corn. — Sic quoque, etc. Thus the land may be said to rest in this way also ; under a rotation of crops as well as by fallowing, the manure supplying the place of the latter — Nee nulla, etc. This is an extremely perplexing verse. The only sense in which the verb inaro is used by Cato, Varro, Columella and Pliny, is that of ploughing in ; for we may observe that these writers never employ the verbs compounded with in, as inocco, infodio, insero, etc. in a negative sense ; in or on is always a part of their signification. On the other hand, Horace (Epod. 16, 43) has tellus inarata, uncultivated land, and Ovid (Met. i. 109) uses the same phrase in the same sense. Statius also, a great imitator of our poet, has (Th. x. 512) inarata diu Pangaea. We are further to observe, that it is not the land itself that is ploughed in, but the dung or whatever else is on it. In one place in Pliny (xviii. 14) inaro seems to be i. q. aro ; but though he says solum inarari, he means the remain- ing halms and roots of the lupines which had been fed off. We therefore think that Virgil uses inaro in the name sense as Horace and Ovid. The verse is to be taken in connexion with the preceding one as a further proof of the advantage of manuring, and means, ' nor will there be the disadvantage of letting the land lie idle in fallow.' 84-93. Another mode of manuring land was to set fire to the long stubble that had been left on it when the corn was cut. — steriles agros, the lands from which the corn had been carried, and Avhich therefore have nothing but the stubble on them. — Atque, etc. The critics observe that this line is com- posed of dactyls, to express the rapidity of the flames, as v. 65 is of spondees for an opposite reason — Sive, etc. The various ways in which this process was supposed to act on the soil : it either gave it a new vigour, and supplied it with manure book i. 79-97. 153 (the true one), or it took away its ill qualities, and drove off the superabundant moisture ; or it loosened it ; or it hardened it. — inutilis humor, the pernicious moisture ; as usual by the figure litotes. — caeca spiramenta, the secret pores. Caecus is frequently used for occultus: see Aen. ii. 453 ; Lucr. iii. 317 ; Hor. C. ii. 13, 16. — venas, i. q. vias and spiramenta in the preceding lines. — Ne tenues, etc. When the soil is thus some- what condensed by the action of the fire, it suffers less from the effects of heavy rains, of hot suns, or of frost. Tenues, thin, is an epithet taken from the nature of rain. It may seem not suitable in this place, but the poets vised their epithets without any very anxious discrimination. — rapidi solis. See on Ec. ii. 10. — adurat. See on v. 77. 94-99. Being about to quit the subject of ploughing, he adds a few words respecting the pulverising of the land under the fallowing system. — rastris, etc. Our way, after breaking a field, is to give it a good tearing up with a heavy harrow with iron teeth, drawn by two or more horses. The ancients, who were unacquainted with the harrow, and who did not employ horses in their agriculture, used to break the clods by manual labour with an implement called a rastrum or a sarcic- lum (see Terms of Husbandry, s. v.) ; and then, to pulverise it, the men drew over it bush-harrows, nearly the same as we use, though of course lighter, as ours are drawn by horses. According to Holdsworth, this mode of tillage prevailed in Italy in the last century, and in some places it does so still. — glebas inertes, the inactive clods, namely those which had been turned up in the proscission, or breaking, and which of course were now lying unproductive. — vimineas crates, bush-harrows, as being made of bushes twisted together. See Terms of Hus- bandry. — Flava Ceres. The Savd-q Arjfj.r]Tr]p of Homer. — ne- quicquam spectat. A litotes as usual, meaning that she regards him with great favour, and gives him an abundant crop. — 97. Et qui. The qui here (it may not be needless to observe) is not different from the qui of v. 94, for it must be the same farmer who breaks the land and who cross-ploughs it. The process of Avhich he now speaks is that of cross-ploughing, or cutting the land at right angles to the first ploughing. — proscisso H 5 154 GEORGICS. aequore, in the broken field. The Romans used the verb proscindo, where we employ break. — quae suscitat (instead of susciiavit), which he has thrown up, sc. with the plough in the proscission. — terga. The tergum is the gleba, the sod which the plough raises in its progress : see Terms of Husbandry, v. aratio. — in obliquum, across, at right angles. — Exercet, tills by ploughing or otherwise. Cf. i. 220; Aen. vii. 798; x. 142. Paterna rura bubus exercet suis, Hor. Epod. 2, 3. — imperat, acts like a master, makes his land obey him. 100-117. Having completed his precepts respecting the previous tillage of the land, and supposing the corn to be sown, he goes on to tell what is further to be done, and be- gins with the kind of weather that the husbandman should pray for. This, he says, should be moderate rains in summer and a winter dry on the whole. He here gives the substance of an old agricultural verse, said by Macrobius (v. 20) to be contained in a book of old poems far more ancient than any of the works of the Latin poets; it runs thus: Hiberno pulvere, verno luto, grandia farra, Camille, metes. — Humida solstitla, a dripping summer: plur. for sing. When solstitium is used alone, it always denotes the summer-solstice ; that of winter is called bruma. Solstitium is used for aestas, like carina for navis, etc. : see on Ec. vii. 47. Even in these northern regions the farmer wishes for a " dripping May ;" and, what corre- sponds to the other part of the precept, we have a proverb, " A peck of March dust is worth a king's ransom." — ?iullo, etc., there is no kind of culture under which the rich corn- countries will yield such crops as under this genial influence of the skies. — sejactat, evyeTai — Mysia, a most fertile region of Asia Minor on the Hellespont, at the foot of the range of •which Mount Gargarus was the most conspicuous point. — 104. Quiddicem, sc.de re, meaning 'I commend'. — jacto qui, etc., who, as soon as he has sown his seed, goes over his field and breaks all the remaining clods. — cominus, immediately, without any delay. — Insequitur, pursues, follows. The image which seems to have been in the poet's mind was that of the Honian soldier throwing his pilum, and then pursuing and cutting down the flying foes. — ruit, throws down, levels. The book i. 97-111. 155 verb is here transitive. Cf. Aen. i. 35 ; xi. 211. — male pinguis arenae, of the too abundant clay. Male, when joined with an adjective, often denotes excess, with injury arising from it. Thus, Hor. C. i. 7, 25, male dispar ; S. i. 3, 31, male laxus; S. i. 4, 66, male raucus. Arena is used for any kind of earthy matter : cf. iv. 291. Some interpret male pinguis, non pinguis, sterilis ; for male expresses deficiency as well as excess, as in male sanus and male parvus, Hor. S. i. 3, 46. — Deinde, etc. Next(that is, if there should come no rain,) he irrigates his corn- fields artificially. — satis inducit, etc., leads the stream (whose waters follow as he opens the trench) on his fields. We cannot conceive what induced Forbiger to take satis as an adverb. — Et cum, etc. It would seem that he wished to indicate two modes of irrigating ; the one, for fields in the level country, where, by means of a dam, the water of a stream is brought in over them ; the other, for fields on a declivity, where the water is brought down on them from the springs near the summit. It may be, that his imitation of Homer caused him to make some confusion. — aestuat, 'is quite in a heat', as if it were an animated being. — supercilio, etc., from the brow of the hilly path (sc. of the water), i. e. from the brow of the hill whence the water runs. " Tramites sunt convalles, quae de lateribus utrinque perviae limitant montes, quae solent etiam saltus nuncupari." Servius. We have never met frames in this sense. — Elicit, entices. " In aliquibus provinciis Elices appellantur sulci ampliores ad siccandos agros ducti." Ser- vius. — scatebris, with water. Scatebra is properly the gush- ing or bubbling of water : it is therefore a very appropriate term in this place. — 11 1 . Quid, sc. dicam de eo. Another prac- tice, to let the cattle in to eat down the corn which is growing V. 108. 'Qs S' ot dvqp oxerrjybs ano Kprjvrjs peXavvSpov "Ajj, tpVTct Kai ktjttovs vcaros poov r)yef,iovevei Xepvi paiceWav ex^v, dfxdprjs 8' eS, e^juara (3d\\u)V Tov [iev re irpopeovro9, vtto iprifoces Ixizanai 'OxXevprai' ro Se r Siiza Karei(56fievov Kekapv'Cei X on the green stalk ; as in Capitolio, in Livy, is on (not in) the Capitol. — 316. Saepe ego, etc. But these showers and storms of spring and autumn are nothing to what often occurs in the midst of summer itself, when reaping has commenced. — et fragili, etc., ' and was reaping his barley,' of which the straw is so brittle. For stringere, see on v. 305. — Omnia ventorum, etc., the winds rush into conflict from all quarters of the book i. 309-322. 183 heavens. In these cases the wind veers about so suddenly, that it seems as if it were blowing from several points at once. Omnia, as usual, belongs to ventorum. — 319. gravidam, heavy, as being ripe ; so gravida femina. — expulsam eruerent, i. q. ex- pellerent erutam, by a figure of which the poet makes frequent use. Wagner says that if "gravidam segetem sublimem expul- sam cui horridiora videbuntur, is, si meminerit rem horri- dam et asperam h. 1. describi, artem potius poetae laudabit quam nitorem desiderabit." But all this criticism falls away, Avhen we observe that it is only in gravidam that the final m is pronounced by any one who reads Latin verse correctly. — ita turbine nigro, etc. In this place hiems is the storm, in general, turbo the whirlwind, which formed part of it ; and the epithet niger, which belongs to the whole as indicating the gloom and darkness which attends it, is in the usual manner joined with turbo. Wagner says that ita is the Greek elra, turn. Of this use of it Forbiger gives the following examples : Dico, ilium adolescentem, cum.,.sibi non pepercisset, aliquot dies aegrotasse, et ita esse mortuum, Cic. Cluent. 60. XJbi prima impedimenta nostri exerciius visa sunt, ita...subito omnibus copiis provolaverunt, Caes. B. G. ii. 19. — cidmum stipidasque. We cannot see any difference between these words ; they both denote the barley-straw, and the metre is the probable cause of their being both employed. 322-334. But it is not merely wind that the husbandman has to dread in summer. There often come storms of rain and thunder also at that season.- — agmen aquarum. He had per- haps in his mind the idea of an army on its march, which clouds charged with rain naturally suggest, as they come march- ing, as it were, up the sky. Caelo is a dat— -foedam tempes- V. 322. 'Qs 5' vtt6 XaiXayn iraaa KeXaivt) /3e/3pi0e x9ojv "Hjitar" OTTwpivy, ore XafiporaTov %eei vSu>p Zeis Tuiv dt- re Travres fiev TroTafioi ttXtjOovvi peovres, HoXXas Se icXitvs tot' aTTOTfii)yovai x a P^pai, 'Es S' uXa Ttop(pvper]v [leyaXa aTeva^ovai peovtrai 'E£ 6pi(ov 67r£ Kap' jxtvvQei 5e re spy' avOptjJTrojv. Horn. II. xvi. 384. 184 GEORGICS. tatem, a state of the atmosphere foul (with dark rain). — 323. glomerant, roll together, as clouds do previous to a storm. — Collectcc ex alto nubes. By ex alto we would, with Voss, under- stand/row/ the deep, i.e. the sea ; for the clouds which bear rain always ascend from the horizon. If, with Heyne, we take ex alto to be i. q. ex caelo, we can only say that the poet was not a very accurate observer of nature ruit, etc., the sky comes down, i. e. the rain descends in torrents: see on v. 313. The aether is the higher region of the sky. — bourn labores, epyu fioujv, Hes. "Epy. 46, the ploughed lands.—; fossae, the ditches of the corn-fields. — cava fiumina. During the summer months in Italy there is very little water in the beds of most of the rivers, so that their channels may justly be called hollow, for they resemble a road running between two high banks. — 327. Cum sonitu. As everyone knows, who has witnessed the sudden rise of a stream from a heavy fall of rain.— -fretis spirantibus. We must here take freta to be the inlets of the sea, where it rushes into the land. By spiro the poet understands (Cf. Aen.x. 291) the foaming and boiling-up of the water when driven against the land or the rocks. It differs little from ferveo, with which he here joins it ; only it is more figurative, being taken from the hard breathing of a man when using great force. — 328. Ipse Pater, Jupiter himself: see v. 121. — media, etc. Amid the night (i. e. the gloom) of those dark, heavy masses of clouds. — corusca. This adjective may be joined either with fulmina or with dextra. We agree with the critics, who con- nect it with the former. — molitur, plies. There is always an idea of effort, of difficulty to be overcome, implied in this verb. — quo motu, with which commotion of the atmosphere. Of this construction, in which a substantive, the idea of which is included in the antecedent, is joined with the relative, For- biger gives the following instances from Sallust : Statilius et Gabinius opportuna loca urbis incenderent, quo tumultu fad- lior aditus ad Consider/! fieret, Cat. 43. Per idem tempus ad- versum Gallos male pugnatum ; quo metu Italia omnis con- tremuerat, Jug. 114. — 329. maxuma terra, yala ireXwpT], Hes. Theog. 173. — tremit, etc. With the present are joined aorists in the usual manner. — humilis pavor. From the effect, that book I. 323-338. 185 makes humble. — 332. Aut Athon, etc. Naming particular mountains, to make the description more picturesque. Athos is a mountain of Thrace, which advances into the iEgeean sea ; Rhodope, a range in the same country ; the Ceraunian moun- tains are in Epirus near the Adriatic. All the MSS. read Athon ; the common reading is Atlio. — Dejicit, casts down, i. e. a rock or fragment of them. — ingeminant, redouble, increase. — Nunc nemora, etc. The construction seems to be to this effect. The south winds (or rather the winds in general), which are at- tended by heavy rain, lash the woods and shores with furious gusts. We meet venti .plangunt in Lucretius vi. 114. There is no authority for understanding, with Martyn and Heyne, plangunt as plangorem edunt, resonant. 335-350. The modes in which injuries of this kind may be averted, namely an accurate observation of the state of the weather and the motion of the planets, and a strict attention to the worship of the rural deities. — menses et sidera, a hendyadis for mensium sidera, i. e. sidera regentia menses, i. e. the signs of the zodiac, through which the sun passes, thus forming the months of the year. This means, ' Attend to the calendars,' which indicate the kind of weather to be expected in each month. — serva, i. q. observa. — Frigida, etc., ' Attend also to the motion of the planets,' to which great efficacy was ascribed in Virgil's time, and almost down to our own days. He names, by way of example, two of the planets, that nearest to the sun, and that most remote from him. Saturn, on account of his distance and his consequent paleness, was regarded as cold and malignant. — sese receptet, betake himself to, or return to ; as he always pursues the same course in the sky. — ignis Cylle- nius, Mercury. Cyllene in Arcadia was the birthplace of this god. — erret. Mercury, from his proximity to the sun, appears, as seen from, the earth, to be peculiarly erratic in his course. — 338. atqne, and in particular. — annua sacra refer, ' celebrate the festival of the Ambarvalia in honour of great Ceres :' (he also calls Pales magna, iii. 1). This festival was annua, as it returned every year ; he therefore says refer, not fer. — operatus, i.e. operans. Operari is i. q. sacrum facere : see on Ec. iii. 77. — sub casum, i. e. statim post casum. The praep. sub applied 186 GEORGICS. in this way to time, denotes immediately before or after. Cf. iii. 402 ; Aen. v. 394-. The phrase is however not to be taken too strictly here, as what follows shows. This festival, in effect, did not take place till the end of April. — 341. mollissima, mellow. The wine of course was that of the preceding year, which had grown mellow in the winter. — Turn somni, etc. This is another case of hendyadis; the meaning is, that it is then pleasant to sleep under the dense shades of the trees in the mountains. — 343. Cuncta, etc. This is a description of the manner of celebrating the Ambarvalia.— -favos, i. q. mella. This mixture of milk, honey and wine was probably poured on the flame of the altarv— -fdix hostia, i. e. a pure and proper victim, one ac- ceptable to the gods ; here probably a lamb, a calf, or a suck- ing-pig. It was led three times round the fields previous to being sacrificed — chorus etsocii, i. e. chorus sociorum. — vocent in tecta, pray her to come to their villa, and thus evince her favour by her presence. Cf. Hor. C. i. 30, 3. — Neque ante, etc. The critics all regard this as a description of another festival previous to harvest, noticed by Cato (134), in which a young pig was offered to Ceres, and incense and wine to Janus, Ju- piter and Juno. We are however inclined to regard it simply as a continuation of the account of the Ambarvalia, the poet merely saying, 'let no one cut his corn without having (i. e. till he has, antequani) celebrated that festival.' — motus incom- positos, rude, awkward country-dancing : see Hor. C. iii. 6, 21 ; Liv. vii. 2, 4. 351-355. Signs of the weather. In what follows, Virgil, as the reader will see, is under great obligation to Aratus; perhaps also to Theophrastus, who has left a work on this subject. — haec, sc. the things that follow, heat, rain and wind. — Aestusque. See on Ec. iv. 51. — agentis, bringing with them : see on Ec. viii. 17. — menstrua, that marks out the months, or that performs her course in a month. — caderent, fall, i. e. cease to blow. — austri, winds in general, one being placed for all.- — quid, sc. signum the critics say; we however think that he means the various tokens of an approaching storm, which he proceeds to enumerate, such as the flights of birds, etc., which men learned by experience, saepe videntes.—propius stabulis, book i. 341-361. 187 in order that they might be able to drive them in quickly when the storm came on. 356-369. Continuo, avrka, immediately.— -freta ponti, the surface of the sea : see on Ec. i. 61 ; it here means, the part more distant from the land. — aridus fragor, a dry crashing, produced by the breaking of dry withered boughs by the wind. Homer has avov avaev, II. xiii. 441, and Kapj TreXayos, ry S' etc Atos vcup. — Id. ib. 201. 190 GEORGICS. scend and keep quiet. Theophrastus also says, that if they keep on the wing it denotes fair weather, as they never do so unless they see that it will be fair. — 375. aut bucula, etc. 'or the heifer, looking up to the sky, snuffs in the air.' Bucula (jnetri gr.~) is i.q. bos. Et boves caelum olfactantes, Plin. xviii. 35. — Aut arguta, etc. ' or the twittering swallow flies about the pools.' The swallow is always observed to fly low before rain, because the flies and other insects, on which she feeds, keep at that time near the surface of the ground and the water. — 378. Et veteran, etc. 'and the frogs in the mud sing their old tune.' Voss observes, that by using the verb cecinere, (pro- nounced by the Romans kekinere) the poet wished to imitate the note of the frog, ftpeKeitexeti coat, mJ, as Aristophanes gives it. In veterem querelam most critics see an allusion to the change of the Lycian clowns into frogs by Latona; and Ovid, who relates that transformation (Met. vi. 316, seq.), says (376), Quamvis sunt sub aqua sub aqua maledicere tentant. Servius sees an allusion to iEsop's fable of the frogs wanting a king. Vetus seems here to us to be just like our old, what is repeated in the same unvarying manner, as we speak of a person's old story, old tune, etc. The original sense of queror V. 375. OuS' v\pov yepaviov /.taicpal ffrt%es avra Ke\ev9ct Teivovrai' trrpocpdSes Se 7ra\ijU7reres airoveovrai. Arat. Diosem. 299. Kai /36es ?;C?j toi Trdpos vSaros evvioio, Ovpavbv eiaaviSovTes, an aiOepos &>] eivdXiat upviOes "Aw\t](7-ov k\v£ovto.i eviejj,evai vvarecraii'. Arat. Diosem. 210. 'Aff/^J ev Xeipwvi, Kaverpiov dptyi peeOpa. — Horn. II. ii. 461. V. 386. "H ~ov Krti \ciKepvt,a Trap' yiovi TrpovyovGtj Heiparos apxofievov ^epacp vTriicvipe Kopwvrj' "Rrrov icai TTOTapoio eficnbciTO p&XP l ^ap aicpovs "Qpovs e/c KecpaXfjs' r] kcu pdXa 7rdaa KoXvpfiqi, "H 770XX7) a-pefperai Trap' vdojp Trayka Kpu)'£ovcra. Arat. Diosem. 217. book i. 382-393. 193 periclis, Aen.ii. 751. — 386. nunc currere, etc. Now running to meet the waves. It is evidently of the sea-fowl he is speaking in this place. — incassum. All to no purpose, as it were ; for they are no sooner out of the water than they are in it again. — 388. Turn comix improba, the pertinacious raven : see on v. 1 1 9. — plena voce, with deep, hoarse voice. She calls the rain, as it were, to come. — Et sicca, etc., ' and slowly paces alone by herself along the dry beach,' in expectation, as it were, of the food which the storm will bring in to her. Kcu ai Kopuivai S£ ve/JLOVTUi (sc. Trepl Tijv SaXarrar) aTrrofievat twv eKTwrTovrcov %u>)i' (TiTovy-eva ciayiverai, i. e. serpents, scorpions, etc. See Bochart, Hieroz. i. 4. Silius Italicus (xvii. 449) describes a serpent as ferventi pastus arena. — alios agros. It appears to us, that by tophus and creta the poet meant to describe two different kinds of soil which agreed in harbouring serpents, and which differed in toto from the gravelly soil which yielded food to the bees. 217-225. The best kind of land, equally adapted to all pur- poses. — nebulamfumosque, the light mist which the heat of the atmosphere draws up from lands which contain moisture ; it is, we are told, particularly to be observed in the district of book ii. 212-226. 225 which the poet is about to speak. — 218. Et bibit, etc. ' it draws the moisture from the atmosphere at one time, and sends it back to it at another.' — vult. There is a personification as usual. — Quaeque sno, etc. ' and which, ever green, clothes itself with its own grass,' i. e. which is always covered with natural grass, an undoubted sign of a good soil. With Voss, Bothe, Wagner and Forbiger, we adopt the emendation of Faber, who, for the reading of the MSS. viridi, gave viridis, as more Virgilian, supposing the s to have been dropt by a copyist on account of the following se. This emendation is confirmed by one MS. The common reading is viridi semper ; but the Medicean and the other good MSS. read semper viridi. Semper viridis is like the semper jiorens of Lucretius (i. 125), and the semper ndus of Horace (C. iii. 29, 6), and may be regarded as a com- pound, like our evergreen. — salsa. The ancients ascribed the rusting of the ploughshare and other implements to the saline quality of the soil, and we know that salt greatly aids the oxidation of iron. — intexet, will weave into, will, as it were, embroider the elms with vines. — oleo, in o\\.—facilem pecori, adapted for cattle, yielding them abundance of food, i.e. good grazing-land. He then adds, that it is good tillage-land ; and he had just said that it was adapted to vines and olives. — 224. Talem, etc. He now tells where this valuable land may be found, namely south of the Vulturnus in Campania. — Vesevo. He uses the form Vesevus for Vesuvius, in imitation of Lucre- tius (vi. 74<7). The great eruption of Vesuvius, the first on record, and which destroyed Herculaneum and Pompeii, did not take place till more than a century after the writing of the Georgics, and the country about it was then one of the most charming in Italy. — Ora, the country. Gellius tells us (vii. 20) that the poet wrote originally Nola, but when the people of that town refused to let him turn the water on some land which he possessed in that neighbourhood, to punish them he changed Nola into ora.— 225. Clanius. This stream runs through Cam- pania and enters the sea at Linternum, where the great Scipio ended his days : it passes by the town of Acerrae, which it often injured by its inundations. The river is put for the people, as in i. 509 — vacuis, thinly peopled. Cicmae vacuae, Juv. iii. 2. L 5 226 GEORGICS. 226-237. Modes of ascertaining the nature of the soil. Whether dense or rare. — quamque, sc. terram ; from v. 203. — supra morem, i.q. supra modum, extremely. — Altera ....Lyaeo : a parenthesis. — 230. Ante locum, etc. 'you will mark out a spot with your eye.' — puteum, a hole, properly a well. — pedi- bus, etc. 'you will trample it down.' — arenas, the clay: see on i. 105. — Si deerunt, ' if the clay does not fill it up.' Deerunt : see on Ec. vii. 7. — uber, the land ; the idea of fertility being included : see on v. 185. — negabunt, sc. arenae personified. — scrobibus, i.e. scrobe (the puteus of v. 231), plur. for sing. — terya, i. c.porcas : see Terms of Husbandry. — proscinde, break, give it the first ploughing. 238-247. Bitter, salt land. — perhibetur, is called : see i. 247. — Frugibus....servat. We agree with Wakefield and Jahn in commencing the parenthesis atfrugibus, instead of at ea. — arando, by being ploughed (passive). — sua nomina, their own names, qualities ; i. e. they degenerate. — specimen, Zeiyfxa, proof, as in Lucretius iv. 209. — tu. The pers. pron. here gives force and calls the attention, as in Horace (S. i. 4, 85), Hunc tu JRomane caveto: cf. iii. 73, 163; iv. 45. — spisso vimine qualos, ' baskets with close rods,' i. e. closely-woven baskets. — colosque, and strainers, which were also of wicker-work. In this place probably que is i. q. ve, and the plur. is used for the sing. ; for one basket or one strainer would be quite enough. — • fumosis, etc. Baskets, etc., when not in use, were hung up in the kitchen of the farm-house. — 243. Hue. We might, as there is no verb of motion, have expected hie, but portentur is un- derstood : see on Ec. ii. 45. — ager ille malus, i. e. some of the clay of that land which is suspected to be bad. — dulces, etc., spring-water. — Ad plenum, Heyne says, is " plene, ut colum plenum sit." We rather think, with Forbiger, that it is " usque ad plenum, i. e. affatim, copiose," our to the full, perfectly. Cf. Hor. C. i. 17, 15. Ad plenum, fuerint eruditi, Veget. iii. 9. Scientiam ad plenum adeptus, Eutrop. viii. 10. — cal- centur, be trampled ; more probably be kneaded, as it might be done with the hands. — eluctabitur, will struggle out ; a very expressive term ! — Scilicet, forthwith. — At, etc. It is best in this verse to place the comma after faciei. — manifestus, etc. book ii. 226-259. 227 ' The manifest bitterness will, by the sensation, twist the writhing facesof those that taste it.' Manifestos is here perhaps i.q.mani- festatus : see on iii. 434. Heyne thought that the adj. tristis pro- perly belonged to sensu ; but Wagner justly observes, " Saepe in actione objectis adjunguntur epitheta quae iis tantisper dum actio durat conveniunt. Ita expedies Aen. iv. 102; vii. 343; et infra, v. 352." — amaror, a term adopted from Lucretius, in whom alone (iv. 225) this word occurs, and who was remark- ably fond of nouns ending in or. — 219. jactata, worked, like paste, putty, etc.— fatiscit, cracks, opens : see i. 1 80. — lentescit, it sticks. The idea of flexibility is included in all the deriva- tives of lenio : see on Ec. i. 5. — habendo, in handling, when being handled; passive. — 251. Uumida, etc. The commen- tators do not appear to have understood this rightly, for they look upon the second part of the verse as being little more than a repetition of the first. The meaning of the poet seems to be this: 'Moist land produces rank grass and weeds; by that sign you may know it; and if you proceed to cultivate it, you will to your cost find it to be too productive.' To this he subjoins a wish : ' Ah, may that over- fertile land never be mine (sc. to till), nor, as mine, exhibit its excessive power of pro- duction by sending the corn up too luxuriantly.' In i. 112 he gives the remedy, He should have added here, that this land should be reserved for meadow and pasture. — aristis. He uses this term of corn in all its stages of growth. — tacitam. He puts this in the ace, instead of the nom., probably from the neces- sity of the metre. — Promptum est, it is easy. — 256. Etquis cut color, ' and in general what the colour of any soil is.' — scelera- turn, cursed, pernicious. Thus there was in Rome the Vicus Sceleratus and the Campus Sceleratus. The word is not to be found in any extant author anterior to or contemporary with Virgil.— pandunt vestigia, 'give traces of it,' i.e. are signs of it. 259-272. The preparation of the ground for a vineyard, and the rearing of the plants. — His animadversis. Having given due attention to all that has been said about the choice of soil, and selected the site of your vineyard, you are thus to proceed. — Excoquere, to bake, i. e. to let lie exposed to the sun and weather. There is a hysteron-proteron here, for the 228 GEORGICS. trenching, which he mentions next, must precede. — 260. mag- nos. Martyn and Heyne would prefer to read magnis, as it would appear to be rather large trenches than large hills that were meant ; but Wagner says, " Bene magnos. Quam late pateat mons, totum scrobibus concidendum praecipit poeta, nee parcendum labori." It may however be one of those cases in which the adj. agrees with one noun in construction and with another in sense. — Ante. Heyne here also would in preference read atque, without any necessity : see v. 6. — supinatas, turned up (literally, laid on their backs) by the spades. — aquiloni, the north wind, used for wind in general, or for cold, in opposition to the heat of the sun intimated in excoquere, v. 260. — laetum, joyous, probably with reference to the effects of wine. — curant, i. q. proa/rant, provide for, i. e. effect: see Lucr. iv. 820. — labefacta, loosened, literally made to move or separate.— -ju- gera, i. e. solum, terrain. — 265. At si quos, etc., ' but those who are very particular.' — locum similem, a piece of ground in which the soil is similar to that of the future vineyard. — prima seges, the plants, cuttings, or seedlings. — quo, i. e. a quo. — digesta feratur. This is one of those strange constructions which are so frequent in the ancient poets ; it is in fact a hysteron-pro- teron, for it is i. q. feratur ut degeratur. — semina, the plants. — matron, their mother, i. e. the earth that gave them nutriment. — Quin etiam, etc. They even go so far as to mark on the bark of the plant the position in which it stood with respect to the cardinal points ; putting a mark, for instance, on the side facing the north or south, in order that they may give it the same position when transplanted : see Colum. v. 20. — axi, to the north pole. Cf. iii. 351 ; Lucr. vi. 720. — Adeo, etc. : a general maxim. — in teneris consuescere, ' to accustom while they are yet young.' 273-287. Planting the vineyard. — Collibus, etc. ' First as- certain, from the nature of your land, whether you had better make your vineyard on the hills or on the level ground.' — Si pinguis, etc. ' If you fix on the latter, plant your vines thick.' — densa, i. q. dense. — in denso ubere, ' in thickly-planted land.' For uber, see v. 234. — non segnior, not more sluggish, i. e. is not less prolific, i. e. is more prolific than if planted otherwise. book ii. 260-284. 229 — Sin tumults, etc. ' But if you plant on ground sloping with hills,' i. e. on the sloping soil of hills. — Indulge ordinibus, ' in- dulge your rows, give them greater liberty,' i. e. plant at greater intervals. — nee serins. This place has greatly per- plexed the commentators, and perhaps needlessly : its mean- ing appears to be as follows : Fearing that, from the precept indulge ordinibus, he might be supposed to recommend negli- gence and irregularity in laying out the vineyard, he adds nee seciics, nevertheless, no less here than in the plain, all the in- tervals between the rows (viae) must meet the alleys that cross them at right angles — in unguem, i. q. ad unguem, exactly, as in Horace (S. i. 5, 32) ad unguem f actus homo. The me- taphor, Servius says, is taken from the practice of sculptors, who tried the joinings in their works by passing their nail over them. — secto limite, i. e. semita. The vineyard was divided into horti, or plots, each containing about one hundred vines, by semitae, or alleys: Col. iv. 18. — 279. Ut saepe, etc. He illustrates the mode of planting the vineyard by the battle array of the Roman legion, which was what was termed in quincunx, or like the five of playing-cards : see Hist, of Rome, p. 172. Hence the critics infer that he directs the vineyard to be planted in this manner, which was reckoned the best (see Varro, i. 7; Plin. xvii. 11); but this does not by any means necessarily result from the text; and Martyn thinks that it is in equal rows that he directs the vines to be planted. — ingenti bello (dat.), for a great battle, or in a great war. We prefer the former. Ennius said (iv. 1.5), bellum Aequis de ma- nibus nox intempesta diremit ; and Lucretius (ii. 40), legiones per loca campi Fervere cum videas belli simulacra denies, which last passage he had probably in view. In both, bellum is i. q. proelium. — Explicuit, has unfolded ; as we say, using the French term, has deployed. — agmen, the line of march, as op- posed to acies, the line of battle.— -jluctuat, waves, the gleam of the arms, now striking the eye of the spectator, now vanishing. — 284. Omnia sint, i.e. Sic omnia sint. There should not be a full stop at the end off. 283. — Omnia viarum, i. q. omnes viae. — paribus numeris, with equal spaces. — animum inanem, an empty mind, that looks only to the gratification of the eye. — 230 GEORGICS. pascere, feed, gratify. Oculos quipascere possunt, Lucr. ii. 419. — in vacuum. Heyne says " in aerem ;" but it rather is "in vacuum locum," into a space that is not already occupied by the branches of other vines. 288-297- The depths at which different trees should be planted. — -fastigia, depth. This word, like alius, is used of depth as well as height: see Varro, R. R. i. 14, 2; 20, 5. — ml tenui, even to a shallow hole. The least depth at which the vine was planted was a foot and a half. — terrae, i. q. in terra : see Aen. v. 48 ; xi. 204. — arbos, a tree. Heyne says, " arbores quibus vites jungantur ;" but surely the Aesculus was not one of these trees. — quae quantum, etc. : a poetic exag- geration. — multos nepotes, many generations of men. — multa virum saecula. This is a mere variation of the preceding words. — volvens, rolling away, i. e. seeing roll away : " Homo per aliquod tempus vivens, annos menses dies secum agere rapere volvere videtur. Ilia imago h. 1. ad arbores translata est." Wunderlich. Multaque vivendo vitalia volvere saecla, Lucr. i. 203. — dtirando, by (or in) lasting. — ipsa, as opposed to the arms and boughs. 298-314. Miscellaneous precepts on planting. — Neve tibi, etc. 'Let not your vineyard have a western aspect.' The aspect of the vineyard was a matter of dispute. Columella very sensibly advises to be guided by circumstances, as no one aspect was universally the best. — corulum. Pliny says (xvii. 24) that the vine grows sick and melancholy if the hazel is near it. This may be one of the absurd notions with which this author abounds ; or the hazel may, by the number and ex- tent of its roots, really do in j ury. — neve Jlagella, etc. ' Nor, when you are going to set cuttings of the vine or other trees, take the upper ones.' — aut summa, etc. This seems to be merely a repetition of the preceding precept, at least if arbor is the vine. But Wagner maintains that arbor is a fruit-tree in general, and that the precept that had been given with respect to the vine is now extended to the other trees. Martyn, and perhaps with reason, says that by summa jlagella is meant the upper part of the shoot, which gardeners advise not to use, and summa arbore, from the top of the tree. The difficulty book ii. 288-315. 231 lies in the word pete, which seems inappropriate. — Tantus amor terrae. The plants are so fond of the earth, that those are best which are nearest to it. — neu ferro, etc. ' Nor prune with a blunt knife.' This precept is still attended to by gar- deners. — 302. Neve oleae, etc. He passes now to the olive- grounds, and directs that grafts should not be made on wild olives, as they were so apt to take fire. — pastoribus, plur. for sing. : it is here used in a general sense, and means a person employed in the olive-ground. — Robora, the solid wood of the olive. — 306. caelo, i.q. ad caelum, v. 309. — nemus, i.e. olivetum. — ruit, drives. — tempestas, i. q. verities, v. 311. — a vertice, from the north. Cf. i. 24-2; Aen. i. 114. — silvis, i. q. nemus, v. 308. — glomerat, rolls, whirls. — Hoc ubi, sc. accidit. — non a stirpe valent, they have nc strength or power in the trunk to produce olives ; because it is burned below the graft. — caesaegue, etc., ' nor, if they are cut down, will they become again productive.' Que, i. q. ve : see on v. 87. — atque ima, etc., ' or good suckers grow ,up.' — 3 14-. Infelix. etc. ' The unfruitful oleaster alone remains ;' and therefore says the poet, tacitly, you should graft on the cultivated olive, and not on the wild one. We must here inform the reader, that in understanding the whole of this passage (302-314) of an olive-ground, Ave have followed Wagner ; the critics in general understanding it of a vineyard. There is, we believe, no proof that vines and olives were ever planted together ; for Colum. iii. 11. is not such, and vv, 312- 314?. quite contradict that supposition. On the other hand, we know from Pliny (xvii. 18) and Palladius (v. 2) that the olive used to be grafted on the oleaster ; and the latter directs, in order to obviate the clanger of which Virgil here speaks, that the graft should be made so as to be under the clay when the tree was earthed up. Finally, it is only the first two verses of this paragraph that properly relate to the vineyard. 315-322. Time of planting. — Nee tibi, etc. 'Let no one, how skilful soever he may appear to be.' — Tellurem movere, to stir the ground, i. e. to dig it, in order to put in the young plants. — Borea spirante. From what follows, it appears that he means the winter, in which season the north is the prevalent wind. — seminejacto, when the plant is set. In v. 268 we have 232 GEORGICS. already seen semen used for surculum ; and here we have also jacio for sero. The poet, as abundant instances show, employs the terms of agriculture in the most arbitrary manner. — 318. Concretam radicem, the frozen root : see i. 236. — adfigere sc. se, adhere to, catch hold on, so as to draw nutriment from it. — 319. Optima satio, the best time of planting. — mbente, glow- ing, sc. with flowers and blossoms ; or perhaps with the light of the sun, as in i. 234. — Candida avis, the stork, ciconia, a bird of passage and that feeds on serpents : see Juv. xiv. 74. — Prima, etc., toward the end of autumn, as the cold of winter is commencing. Columella (iii. 14) says that the autumnal planting of vines is from the middle of October till December. — rapidus Sol. See on Ec. ii. 10. — kiemem, i. e. the winter- signs of the ecliptic, in this place Capricorn. — -jam, etc., sum- mer is past. One might have expected the ace, but the metre forbade it. In a general way the poet divides the year into aestcis and kiems. 323-345. The praises of the Spring. — adeo. See on Ec. i. 12. — nemorum silvis. By the former of these words he may mean plantations of trees, as vineyards, etc. ; by the latter, the natural woods. — tument, opyGm, swell, as the breasts of fe- males when come to maturity. — genitalia, productive, fecun- dating. — Turn pater, etc. The union of heaven and earth in the spring, which produces vegetation, and which the Greeks expressed by the mythic marriage of Zeus and Hera: see My- thology, p. 1 02. — 328. Avia, the remote or lonely. — certis, fixed, as only occurring at this time of the year : it is however only true of horses, of which he uses the term armenta, iii. 129. — Parturit, etc. See Ec. iii. 56. — tepentibus auris : a dat. — supe- rat, abounds, teems, overflows. — humor, the nutritive juices. — novos soles, new suns, i. e. new to them, which were only now coming into existence. — germina, the shoots, the new wood, sc. of the vine. — explicat, unfolds : see v. 280. 336. Non alios, etc. From what the spring is at present, viz. the season of new life and production, he is led to infer that it was in this season the world was created, or that the series of the seasons in the beginning commenced with spring. He had here in view Lucr. v. 815. — tenorem, tenor, condition. book ii. 318-350. 233 Cf. Aen. x. 340. It is a Lucretian term : see v. 509. — 33S. Mud, sc. tempus. — magnus orbis, sc. terrarum. — ver agebat, like agere festum. Septem egerat auctumnos, Ov. Met. iii. 327. — hibernis parcebant flatibus, refrained from wintry (i.e. cold and wet) blasts. — Ei/ri. The east wind was regarded as very- pernicious, and Horace (Epod. 16, 54) says of the Isles of the Blest, Jjt neque largis Aquosus Eurus arva radat hnbribus. Probably however Enri here is the winds in general. — lucem hausere, drank light ; for light was, poetically at least, viewed as a fluid (see Ec. vi. 33), of which Lucretius (iv. 203) uses the terms caelum rigare. — Terrea progenies, the earth-sprung race. The ordinary reading isferrea, iron, hardy; but terrea is the correction in the Medicean MS.: it is the reading of one MS. and of Philargyrius and Lactantius (ii. 10), and has been received by Voss, Jahn, Wagner and Forbiger. — daris arvis, as opposed to beds, the ordinary birthplace of mankind. — sidera. The stars were regarded by many as animated beings. Cf. Aen. i. 608. — Nee res, etc. ' Nor in fact could tender, new-formed beings (sc. plants and animals) ever come to be able to endure the present vicissitude of seasons.' — liunc laborem, this hard- ship, that men now experience from the extremes of heat and cold. — Inter. In logical correctness it should be ante — exci- peret, would receive, as the nurse does, the new-born babe. Throughout all this digression the idea of female parturition was present to the poet's mind. 346-353. Further directions about planting. — Quod super- est. A usual form of transition with Lucretius. — qiiaecunque, etc., ' whenever you are planting out.' — premes : because the plants were pressed down in the loose clay in which they were set; or rather it was pressed about them. — virgulta, i.e. sur- culi, fiagella, etc. — Sparge, etc., ' mind to dung them well, and to put plenty of clay about them.' — out lapidem, etc. It would seem necessary to suppose a connecting particle here ; for the poet surely cannot mean the stones to be a substitute for dung and clay. — lapidem bibulum, pieces of sandstone that will imbibe the water. — squalentes conchas, rugged sea-shells, as those of the muscle, oyster, etc. — Halilus, air. — animos tollent, will take courage, i. e. will thrive. — 2>50.jamquc reperti, 234 GEORGICS. * there are some.' An aorist as usual. — 351. saxo, with a large stone ; not however laid flat, but set at an angle on the ground close to the plant. — atque, i. q. aut. — ingentis, etc., with a heavy- piece of tile, or perhaps with an earthen pot laid over the plant. — hoc, Hoc, this, i. e. either the stone or the tile ; they both apply to the one object. — munimen, i. q. munimen- tum. Virgil is the earliest extant writer in whom this word occurs. Ovid adopted it from him, Met. iv. 773 ; xiii. 212. — ad, against. — Hoc, sc. munimen. — hiulca, gaping, proleptically : see on i. 320. — siti, with thirst. We Mould join this with hiulca, not with Jindit. — canis, i. e. Sirius. Arentes cum Jindit Sirius agros, Tibul. i. 7, 21. 354—361. Digging about and propping the young vines. — diducere, to loosen, literally to draw asunder. This is the read- ing of the Roman and four other MSS., and is adopted by Voss, Jalm, Wagner and Forbiger. The Medicean and the others read deducere — ad capita, about or next to the plants. Circum capita addito stercus ; circum capita sarito, Cat. II. R. 33. — duros, etc., to work, up the ground with the bidens : see Terms of Husbandly, s.v. — exercere solum,. See on i. 99 — levis cala- mos, etc., as supports for the vines. — rasae hastilia virgae, straight, peeled rods, like the shaft of a spear. — summasque, etc., and at length to climb the stages on the elms. See Terms of Husbandry, v. Arbustum. 362-370. Pruning. — Ac dum prima, etc. He recommends not to use the pruning-knife with the young vines, but to take away the superfluous shoots with the hand. Cato (33) gives the same precept, but Columella (iv. 11) says that experience had proved it to be incorrect. — ad auras. See on Ec. v. 61. — laxis habenis, a figure taken from horses. Cf. Aen. i. 63 ; v.662; vi. 1. Arboribusque datum est variis exindeper auras Crescendi magnum immissis certamen habenis, Lucr. v. 784. — per purum, i. q. per aerem, as v. 287, in vacuum. — Ipsa, sc. vitis, for this was in his mind all along. — acie. This is the read- ing of the best MSS. : others have acies. — amplexae, sc. vites. — validis stirpibus, with strong well-grown stems. — HJxierint, they have grown up, have gone out of their tender age : see v. 81. — turn stringe comas, etc., ' then prune away without fear ; book ii. 351-380. 235 take away leaves and branches.' For stringe, see on i. 317. — Exerce imperia: see i. 99.— fluentes, straggling. 371-379. Fencing the vineyard. — Texendae, etc. 'The hedges must be frequently repaired,' i. e. they must be kept close and unbroken. — tenendum, i. e. abstinendum, or arcen- dum. — Praecipue, etc., ' especially in the spring, while the leaves are tender.' — imprudens laborum, unacquainted with hardship. Cf. v. 343. Imprudens harum rerum, Ter. Eun. i. 2, 56 ; imprudentes legis, Cic. Inv. ii. 31, 95. — indignas, such as it does not deserve, i.e. rough, severe. Cf. Ec. x. 10. — uri. The urus is described by Caesar (B. G. vi. 28) as a native of the Hercynian forest in Germany. It was, he says, almost as large as an elephant, but of the shape and colour of a bull ; of great strength, velocity and fierceness. It does not appear that it was to be found anywhere else ; and its name may be, as is said, a corruption of the German Urochs (i. e. Great -ox). Its name too may have become so familiar at Rome at that time, that Virgil might venture, as he has done, to use it for the wild oxen or buffaloes of Italy, which is the only sense in which it can be taken here. In iii. 552 he seems to use it in its proper sense. — caprae. This is the reading of the Medi- cean, Roman, and other good MSS., and is adopted by Wag- ner and Forbiger. The common reading is capreae, roes, which is supported by the following line of Horace (S. ii. 4,43), Vinea submittit capreas non semper edules. But, as Wagner observes, it would be strange if the poet were to omit the most pernicious animal of all, and afterwards introduce it in an in- cidental kind of way. The reading capreae seems to owe its origin to an idea that a wild animal should be joined with uri. — sequaces, following, persecuting (Cf. iv. 230), from the rest- less nature of the goat, that goes up and down selecting the green leaves and shoots. — Illudunt, waste, destroy: see i. 181. incumbens scopulis, lying on the rocks, and therefore heating them thoroughly. Vineyards were often planted on rocky hills. — nocuere, sc. vitibus. — venenum, the saliva of cattle, espe- cially of the goat, was thought to be poisonous to plants: see v. 196. 380-396. A digression on the festivals of Bacchus in Greece 236 GEORGICS. and in Italy. — 380. Non aliam, etc. 'It was for tin's and no other offence that the Athenians used to sacrifice the goat to Bac- chus, to which the drama is indebted for its origin.' The verbs caeditur and ineunt are to be understood in a past sense, in order to accord with those that follow. — veteres ludi, the old dramas, the first rude attempts at the drama.— proscenia. The proscenium was the stage, the part before the scena. — ingeniis, for men of talent; as in Horace (Ep. ii. 2, 81), Ingenium sibi quod vacuus desuwpsit Athenas. See Excursus VII. The common reading is ingentes.—pagos, etc., in the villages and at the crossroads round the country. — Thesidae, the people of Attica. This word, naming the people from their prince, is peculiar to Virgil : he formed it probably in imitation of the Aeneadae, (i. 1) and Romulidae (iv. 687) of Lucretius. — Praemia posuere, offered rewards. The festival was the rural Dionysia (rd kcit aypovs), and the reward was a buck-goat (rpciyot), whence tragedy is said to have derived its name : see Hor. A. P. 275. seg. — unctos saluere, etc. The ""AaKuikiacrfibs, or play of hopping on inflated goatskin bags which were smeared with oil : the numerous falls of course excited the merriment of the spectators. Saluere is the reading of the best MSS. : others have saliere.- — 385. Ansonii. Properly the Italians, but used here for the people of Latium, who were supposed to be indebted in part for their origin to the Trojan companions of Aeneas. — Versibus incomptis, with rude unpolished verses. These were extemporaneous, and were probably originally in the Saturn ian measure. The po- pular extempore verse in our poet's time would seem to have been the trochaic tetram. catal.: see Suetonius, Jul. 49, 51, 80; Galba, 6; Veil. Pat. ii. 67 ; Schol. Juv. v. 3.— Ora, etc., ' they put on them frightful masks made of cork.' — Et te Bac- che, etc., ' they sing hymns to Bacchus,' or rather to Liber, the proper Italian deity. — Oscilla. These were small images of the god that were, as here described, hung from the trees, and as they were moved by the air, and so turned their faces in different directions, they were held to indicate the favour- able regards of the deity on the plants in that direction — mollia, i. e. mobilia, from which it is contracted. It is a Lu- book ii. S80-S99. 237 cretian word : see iv. 977 ; v. 1063 ; Hor. Sat. i. 9, 25. Virgil uses it again, Aen. viii. 666. — pimi. This tree was probably- selected because its branches are all at the top, so that nothing would impede the free motion of the oscillum. — 390. Com- plentur, etc. As the vineyards are mentioned in the preceding verse, we may suppose that by the vales and woods he means the cornels and other fruits and berries that grew wild in them. — voiles cavae : cf. v. 186. Pindar (Isth. iii. 19) has KoiXa va-nrq., and Livy (xxviii. 2) ibi in cava valle, atque ob id occulta, considcre militem jubet. The cava vallis would seem to an- swer to our restricted sense of the word glen, as opposed to the wide, spreading vale. — -profundi, deep, spreading far into the mountains. — Et quocunque, etc. : see on v. 389. — hones- turn, handsome. Cf. Aen. x. 1 33. Honestus is the Greek kuXos, and is used of the mind as well as of the person. — 393. suum honorem, his due praises. — patriis, that have been handed down to us from our forefathers. — lances, dishes or plates on which the offerings to the god were presented : see on v. 194. — liba, cakes smeared with honey : see on Ec. vii. 63. These were used at the festival of the Liberalia: see Ov. F. iii. 761, and the passage from Varro in our note there on v. 726. — ductus cornu. This was the way in which the goat was usually led to the altar. — exta, the joints. Such parts of the carcass as were not consumed on the altar were feasted on by the worshipers. The adj. pinguia shows that it is not of the heart, liver, etc. that he is speaking. Exta is here probably, as Aen. vi. 254, i. q. viscera, that is, says Servius, " quicquid inter ossa et cutem est." — colurnis, hazel ; this tree being, like the goat, hostile to the vine : see v. 299. From corulus was formed the adj. corulinus, contracted to corulnus, and then, for the sake of euphony, by metathesis made colurnus. 398-419. Incessant labour about, and attention to, the vines. — Me labor, that toil. Ille is emphatic, to call the attention of the reader. — Cui numquam exhausti satis est, i. q. qui numquam satis exhauritur. In thus using the part, for a subst., he followed the example of Lucretius. — namque, i. e. nempe. — 399. Terque, etc., several times. — scindendum, is to be broken, loosened, stirred up, sc. with the bidentes. — gieba, etc. ' When that has 238 GEORGICS. been done, you must break the clods with the other side of the bidens.' — WO. Aeternum, evermore, without ceasing. See Aen. vi. 400, 617 ; Hor. Ep. i. 10, 41. — levandum, etc. ' the leaves must be stripped off all the vines,' the pampinatio. — ne- mus : see v. 308. — redit labor actus in orbem. Heyne says the construction is, "Labor qui actus erat redit in orbem." It would however seem to be a metaphor taken from the races of the Circus, in which the chariots were driven round and round. — Atque in se, etc., ' and the year rolls itself on itself along its own traces.' Probably an allusion to its Greek name. Varius, the poet's contemporary, also spoke of the year as sua se vol- ventis in vestigia. — 103. jam olim, i. q.jam turn, t\405. Olim is used of the future as well as of the past. Cf. Aen. v. 125; Hor. S. ii. 3, 60. — Frigidus, etc. This verse, Servius says, was taken from Varro Atacinus. — silvis, from the woods in general. — Itonorem, the leaves, which are the ornament or honour of the trees. — acer rusticus, the active diligent farmer. — curvo Saturni dente, the pruning-hook, the emblem of Saturn. — re- lictam vitem, the vine abandoned, as it were, of its fruit and foliage, and left deserted. — Persequitur. He, as it were, takes advantage of its desolate condition, and persecutes \t.—fingit- que putando, forms it, brings it into proper condition by pruning. Perhaps it is a metaphor from breaking horses, of which he says (Aen. vi. SO), Jingitque premendo. 408. Primus humum, etc. ' Be the first to dig and prune your vineyard, but be the last to gather your grapes ; for the more thoroughly ripe they are the better will be your wine.' — Sarmenta, the branches that were cut off in pruning. — vallos, the stakes or poles that supported the vines. They were taken up and put under covert at the end of the vintage, like our hop-poles and pea-stakes. — metito, literally reap ; an instance of the interchange of the terms of husbandry in this poem. Elsewhere (iv. 231) he uses messis of honey. — Bis vitibus, etc. The vines require to have the leaves stript off them twice a year, in spring and autumn. — Bis segetem, etc. The vineyard must also be weeded twice a-year. — segetem, i. e. vineam. — sentibus, with their thorns, i. e. their noxious growth. — uterque labor, sc. of pampination and of weeding. — Laudato, etc. Ergo book ii. 400-424. 239 is understood. ' You may therefore praise large farms, but take my advice and cultivate a moderate-sized one, which you may expect to be able to manage well.' — 413. Nee non, etc. A further labour of the vine-dresser is to cut ruscus in the woods, and reeds on the sides of rivers, and willows in the osiery for tying his vines, etc. — incidti, because it requires little or no culture. — cura, viz. that of cutting and preparing the rods. — arbusta, i. e. vineae. — 417. Jam canit, etc. The vine-dresser has tied up and pruned all his vines, singing, as was usual, at his work. — effectos extremus. This is the reading of the Med. and Rom. MSS. and others, adopted by Wagner, Jahn and For- biger. Others read effetos extremus or effetus extremus, etc. All the editions, from that of Aldus down (those of Heyne and Voss included), have extremos effetus ; but, as Wagner very justly observes, effetus cannot properly be applied to the vine-dresser, who has merely finished his labour, but is by no means exhausted by it. He is termed extremus, as having come to the end of the vines ; or, as in so many instances al- ready noticed, this adj. properly belongs to antes, which are termed effectos as being finished. — antes, plots. Ad is under- stood. — Sollicitanda, etc. Still his labour and anxiety are not at an end ; the soil must be stirred up with the plough or the bidens, and hail and rain are to be dreaded. — pulvis movendus. The surface of the soil, when dug or ploughed, is to be pulve- rised by breaking the clods : or pulvis may be merely i. q. tellus Juppiter, i. e. Jup. Pluvius, the god being put for the sky or weather over which he presides, as in Hor. C. i. 22, 19. Nebulae malusque Juppiter urget. 420—125. Culture of the olive. — non idla cidtura. That is in comparison with the vines, for they require some culture. — Cum semel, etc. When they have once struck root. — auras tulerunt, have stood the weather : see v. 332 seq. — satis, to the plants. Cf. v. 267 and v. 436. Some however, among whom is Jahn, take satis as an adv. — dente unco, i. e. with the bidens. — 424. humorem, the requisite moisture. — vomere, sc. recluditur. Servius (who is followed by Wagner) takes cum as a preposi- V. 412. Nij' oXiyrjv aiveiv, [leydky d' evi (popria QeoQai. — Hes.'Epy. 643. 240 GEORGICS. tion in this place, adding that it is superfluous, as in this line of Ennius, Effundit voces proprio cumpectore sancto. — k2^.fruges, fruit, i. q.fructus. Columella (ix. 1) has fruges robumei for acorns. The same writer, when treating of the culture of the olive, says (v. 9, 15), Nam veteris proverbii meminisse convenit : eum qui aret olivetum rogare fructum ; qui stercoret exorare ; qui caedat (i. e. putet) cogere. — Hoc, i. e. propter hoc ; a Lu- cretian formula ; or perhaps hoc in modo. — Paci, to the god- dess Peace. The olive, it is well known, was the symbol of peace: see Aen. vii. 154- ; xi. 101. — nutritor. The imperat. of nutrior, anciently used for nutrio : see Prise, viii. 5, 26. 426-4-53. The culture of other kinds of trees. — Poma, i. q. pomi (see v. 34), fruit-trees, apples, pears, cherries, etc. — quoque, i. e. like the olive. — ut prinwm, etc., as soon as they get strength. Cf. v. 422. — nituntur, shoot up, struggle up. — 429. interea, i. e. while we are cultivating the vine, olive, etc. — -fetu, i. e. with wildings. — aviaria, the haunts of birds, i. e. the thickets. An aviarium was properly a part of the farm- buildings, in which thrushes and other birds were shut up and fattened. The present is the only instance of its employment in any other sense. — Sanguineis baccis: see Ec. x. 27. — Ton- dentur, are browsed by the goats, i. e. afford them food. — taedas, firewood of fir. — Pascuntur, etc. With which we keep up fires at night, by whose light we can' work. — Et dubitant, etc. When such is the utility of these trees, will any one hesi- tate about planting them and bestowing on them the little care they may require ? It is remarkable that this verse is wanting in the Med. MS. — 434. Quid majora sequar? The fut. sequar can hardly refer to what has preceded ; a critic therefore pro- posed to read sequor in opposition to all the MSS. But Wag- ner says the reference is in reality to v. 437. For the force of et in that verse, see Aen. v. 109 seq. ; 839 seq. ; ix. 176 seq. — Mae, even they, emphatic. — umbras, sc. in the heat of sum- mer. — satis, for the corn-fields, plantations of vines, etc — melli, i. e. apibus. — Cytorum, a mountain of Paphlagonia near Amastris, famous for its box- wood. Cytore buxifer, Catull. iv. 13. He applies the part, undans, waving, which properly be- longs to the trees, to the hill on which they grew. — Naryciae BOOK II. 424-454. 241 picis. Naryx or Narycum was a town in Opuntian Locris, in Greece. The poet uses Narycian for Locrian in general ; for a Locrian colony settled in the south of Italy (see Aen. iii. £99) ; and it is of the pix Bruttia,often mentioned by ancient writers, that he is speaking.- 138. arva, i. q. tractus, terras. — rastris, a dak— obnoxia, under obligation to : see on i. 396. — 440. Ipsae, etc. ' For example, those very barren woods on the summit of Caucasus.' — sferiles, i.e. comparatively so, with respect to fruit- trees. — Euri, winds in general. — : fericnt, carry away, sc. the branches they have broken off.— aliae, sc. silvae in v. 440. — fetus, products, i. e. different kinds of timber. — dant utile, etc. ' They furnish, for example, pines, a timber useful in ship- building, and cedars and cypresses that are used in the con- struction of houses.'— 144. Hinc, from these woods, i. e. from other trees that grow in them, ash for example. — radios, spokes. — trivere, because they are partly rounded. This verb and the following posuere are aorists. — tympana, drums, i. e. wheels made solid or all in one piece. They are still used in some remote parts of Ireland. — pandas, curved. It is probably the ship-builders, and not the agricolae, that is to be understood with jjosuere, — 446. Viminibus, in withes, for tying up vines. He now quits the woods of Caucasus.— -frondibus, in leaves, for foddering cattle. — hastilibus, in shafts of spears : see iii. 23 ; vii. 817. — bona bello, good for war, i. e. for making spears, darts, etc. See Aen. ix. 698. — Ituraeos. Ituraea was the re- gion beyond the Jordan : the Arabs who dwelt in it were, like the Orientals, in general held to be famous archers. The adj. is here an epithet, ornans. — Nee tiliae, etc. The lime and the box are both good woods for the use of the turner. Nee ...non, i. e. necnon.—ferro acuto, i. e. torno. — *nrentem, the rushing, foaming. — missa, i. e. immissa, launched. — Pado, on the Po, i. e. on any river. — Corticibus, etc. The commentators say that two kinds of beehives are meant here, that of bark, Var. R. R. iii. 16, and that ex arbore cava, Id. ib. Perhaps the poet only means that the bees settle of themselves in the holes of decaying trees. 454—457. These are the advantages of the timber-trees, and what has the vine about the culture of which we are so solici- M 242 GEORGICS. tous to compare with them ? On the contrary it has given oc- casion to crime. — 4:55. Bacchus, i.e. vinum.- -Me f mentis, etc. As an example he cites the battle of the Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage of Pirithoiis, caused by the excess in wine of the former. — Rhoetumque, etc. : particularly the following. — cratere. The crater was the large vessel in which, at an enter- tainment, the wine stood mixed with the requisite quantity of water, and whence it was drawn in the pocida and handed to the guests. The modern punch-bowl and glasses answer to the ancient crater and pocida. 458-474. The remainder of this book is devoted to the praises of a country life. The poet seems to have wrought it con amore, and in the whole of his works there is nothing su- perior to it in poetic beauty. Compare the second Epode of Horace. — -fortunatos nimium, i. e. fortunatissimos. Nimivs is frequently i. q. permagnus, and nimium i.q. valde. Homo nimia pttlchritudine, Plaut. Mil. iv. 2, 8. Lacteus hie nimio fulgens candore notatur, Cic. Arat. v. 249. Qui nimia levitate cadunt, Lucr. iii. 338. Hue nimium felix aeterno nomine Lesbos, Lucan, viii. 139. — ipsa, avri), av-o^avoa, volcns. — discordibus armis. An allusion to the civil wars. — humo, from its soil, its surface.— -facikm, easy to be procured, to be had without much labour.— -justissima, most just, as returning with abundant in- terest whatever has been committed to her ; or, i.q. aeqtrissima, most kind. — 461. Si non, etc. ' If they have not the pomp and pride of wealth, clients crowding in the morning to salute them, and rich furniture,' etc. — -foribus, through the doors. In ancient as in modern Italy, the doors, as well as gates, were double, or what is called folding. — Mane salutantum. The clients repaired at break of day to the house of their patron to pay him their respects. Prima salutantes atque altera con- tinet horcc, Mart. iv. 8, 1. In Virgil's time it would seem to have been still earlier ; for Q. Cicero, writing to his brother (De Pet, Con. 15), speaks of it as being multa node, i. e. to- ward the end of night; and Catiline's associates, constituere ea nocte paulo post cum armatis hominibus, sicuti salutatum, in- troire ad Ciceronem, and murder him, Sail. Cat. 28. — vomit. Hence the entrances into theatres and amphitheatres were book ii. 455-474-. 243 called vomitoria, as pouring in and out the crowds of spectators. — 462. totis aedihus, into the whole house. Aedes is the same as domas in the preceding verse, according to the usual prac- tice of Latin poetry. — varios, i. q. variatos, variegated. — in- hiant, gape at, i. e. admire. — pastes, apparently L q. fores. It was usual to adorn the leaves of the doors, as well as the couches and other furniture, with tortoiseshell, ivory, etc. Et svffixa manu foribus testudinis Indae Terga sedent, Lu- can, x. 120. — Illusas auro vestis. Vestis is here the couch- covers : see Lucr. ii. 35 ; Hor. S. ii. 6, 102 ; Ov. M. viii. 657. They had figures worked into them with gold-thread, i. e. were embroidered with gold : they were usually red or purple : see Aen. i. 700. — Ephyre'ia aera, vessels made of the metal called Corinthian brass, which were of great value. Ephyra was the ancient name of Corinth. — 465. Assyria, i. q. Syrio, i. e. Oriental. — veneno, dye, i. e. the Phoenician or purple dye. Venenum . . . . eo nomine omne continetur quod adhibitum ejus naturam, cui adhibitum est, mutat, Caius Dig. L. 16, 236. It is of dress that the poet is now speaking. — casia, cassia, the fragrant bark, like cinnamon : see the Flora — liquidi, clear, as so often. — usus olivi, i. e. oleum quo utuntur. Cf. iii. 135 ; Hor. C. iii. 1, 42. — 467. secura, i. e. sine cura. In old Latin se was i. q. sine. — nescia fallere (a Grascism), that knows not to (i. e. will not) deceive or disappoint of the advantages which it promises, like that of the people of wealth and power who were exposed to proscriptions and other dangers. — latis fundis. Not the latifundia, but estates having variety of surface, con- taining spreading hills, caverns, etc. — vivi lacus, ponds consist- ing of running perennial water. — -frigida Tempe, cool valleys. Te/jurea or Tefnn) (a Tefivu)?) signified a valley in general, and was not peculiar to the celebrated one in Thessaly : see Ovid. Fast. iv. 477 ; A. A. i. 15 ; Stat. Th. i. 485.— 471. lustra fera- rum, the haunts of game, i.e. hunting is there. — patiens operum, etc., able to bear work and living moderately ; opposed to the town population. — Sacra deum, etc. The sacred rites of the gods are there performed with more devotion, and parents are held in greater respect. — 474. extremaper illos. 'Justice, when quitting the earth, in the brazen age of the world, abandoned m 2 244 GEOUGICS. the country the last ;' i. e. there remain in the country some vestiges of primeval innocence and virtue. 475-489. He gives the preference to a life devoted to lite- rature and philosophy ; but if he cannot attain to that, he will adopt a rural life before any other. — dulces ante omnia. We agree with the critics who take these words together, and as equivalent to dulcissimae. Thus Ec. iii. 61, Nobis placent ante omnia silvae. Compare the expressions optime rerum, dulcis- sime renon. Aratus (Phaen. 16) has /xovaat yueiAi'x'C". — sacra fero, ' whose sacred emblems I bear.' The allusion is to the rites of Bacchus, as appears from the passage of Lucretius which he had in view. It is to that author's poem, and not to those of Empedocles and other ancient philosophers, that he alludes in the following verses, and which he fain would emu- late. — caeli vias et sidera, i. e. vias siderum in caelo. — Defcctus solis, the changes in the appearance of the sun. He may have had in his mind its appearance after the death of Caesar : see i. 457- — Lunae labores, the eclipses of the moon. He varies the phrase from Lucretius, as it is the eclipse, not the change from old to new, that he wishes to express. Labor is toil or suffering: see i. 150. — Unde tremor terris, the causes of earth- quakes. — qua vi, etc., those of the flow and ebb of the tide. He of course means the tides of the ocean, as they are hardly perceptible in the Mediterranean. — Obicibus ruptis. As if they were restrained or held down by some material barriers. For the metre, see on i. 482. — Quid tantum, etc. Why the days are so short and the nights so long in winter. — 483. Sin, has ne possim, etc. ' But if the cold blood about my heart pre- vents me from attaining this knowledge of nature.' It was the opinion of some of the ancient philosophers that the blood about the heart was the seat of thought, and as that was warm or the reverse the mental powers were vigorous or obtuse. V.475 sed acri Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor, Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem Musarum. — Lucr. i. 921. V. 478. Solis item quoque defectus lunaeque latebras. Pluribus e causis fieri tibi posse putandum 'st. — Id. ib. v. 750. book ii. 475-494. 245 Alfia yap avdpunrots irepiKapdiov ecri %'6r\pa. Empedocles in Et. Mag. v. ulfjia.. Lucretius makes the heart the abode of the animus. — 485. rigui amnes, the rivers that flow through or water.- — in vallibus. This should be connected with placeant. — inglorius, without attaining to fame or honour by philosophy, or arms, or eloquence. Cf. iv. 94 ; Aen. ix. 548 ; x. 52 ; xi. 793 ; xii. 397. — O tibi, etc., sc. qui me sistat, from the following verses. We agree with Heyne and Voss in following Ascen- sius in this mode of supplying the ellipse : it is certainly the more Virgilian. Jahn and Forbiger follow Ruaeus in under- standing sunt. Qui sistat is opt., not interrogative. — campi Spercheosque, the plains of Spercheos, a river of Thessaly. — Taygeta, sc. juga, oprj. — bacchata (passive), on which they celebrated the rites of Bacchus, a temple to whom, only to be approached by women, stood at the foot of that mountain. Paus. iii. 20. Lucretius however (v. 822) uses bacchor simply for to range. — O qui me, etc., i. e. O ubi est qui, etc. — prote- gat, cover me over. It is more than the simple tegat. 490-502. Felix, etc. The philosopher is happy in the pos- session of knowledge, but so also is the dweller of the country in his exemption from ambition and all its cares and dangers. — metus oninis, etc. The great object of the ancient philoso- phers, especially the Epicureans, was to overcome the dread of death and the terrors of a future state. Here particularly the poet has his eye on several places of Lucretius. — strepitum, the din, the noise that was made about the abode of the dead ; not the roaring of the waves of the river Acheron. — Acherontis avari, the insatiable Acheron ; like avarum mare, Hor. C iii. 29, 61. Acheron is here i.q. Erebus. See Mythology, p. 552. — ille qui novit, etc., i. e. agricola. — 494. Pana, etc., namely V. 491. Quare Relligio pedibus subjecta vicissim Obteritur. — Lucr. i. 79. Diffugiunt animi terrores, moenia mundi Discedunt. — Id. iii. 16. At contra nusquam apparent Acherusia templa. — Id. i. 25. Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus Funditus, humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo. — Id. i. 37. 24-6 GEORGICS. Pan, etc. See on i. 138. — 4*95. poptdi fasces, the consulate at Rome. — purpura regum, the purple robes of kings, in Parthia and the countries not subject to Rome.- -Flexit, i. e. flectit, i. q. movet. Aen. vii. 252. All the verbs from v. 490 are aorists. — et, i. q. ant- -injidos agitans, etc. The allusion is said to be to the contest for the Parthian throne between Phraates and Tiridates (see Hor. C. i. 26, 3 seq. ; Justin, xlii. 5); but these were not brothers. It is therefore probably merely a general one to the contests between brothers and cousins for the thrones of the East, which continue down to our own days. — Aut conjurato, etc. The part, properly be- longs to Dacus. The Dacians dwelt in the mountains of Transylvania beyond the Danube or Hister ; hence probably they are said to descend. At this time they were beginning to make incursions into some of the frontier Roman provinces. — Nee res Itomanae, etc. Nor does he concern himself about the public affairs of Rome, or those of kingdoms destined to fall by her arms or by those of each other. This is pure Epi- curean philosophy ; but we must recollect that it is of the agricola in general, and not of the Italian in particular, that he is speaking. — perituraque. Here the que is probably i. q. ve. — 499. Aut doluit miserans, etc. Because, living in the country, where all is abundance, there is no distress to cause him pain ; and having enough, and not witnessing any great display of wealth, he feels no em/. — habenti, i. e. diviti, a frequent meaning of habere.— ferrea jura, iron laws, on account of their rigour. — Insanum forum. On account of the violent contests both in public and private affairs of which it was so often the scene. — tabularia, i. q. tabularium. The Tabularium was the place in which the archives of the state were kept. As the contracts with the Publicans, or farmers of the revenue, were among these, the critics think the meaning of this place is that the agricola does not farm taxes. 503-512. The pursuits of ambition and avarice. — 503. Sol- licitant... regum. Voss and Heyne, as it would appear, under- stood here three modes of obtaining wealth, viz. trade, war, and the favour of the great ; Wagner thinks the whole refers to one subject, namely foreign war, as opposed to civil war, book n. 495-508. 247 v. 505. This latter is perhaps the better mode of interpreta- tion, ut gemma bibant, etc. being understood from v. 506 after regum. — 503. caeca, dark, dangerous, as being full of shoals and sunken rocks. — ruunt in ferritin, rush to battle. — pene- trant, etc., storm cities and plunder the palaces which they contain ; or merely enter palaces as courtiers. — aulas et limina is a hendyadis. — petit excidiis, attacks in order to destroy, like petere bello. — urbem, sc. Romanam, Rome. — miseros Penates, the houses of his unhappy fellow- citizens ; or perhaps the Pe- nates or guardian gods of Rome. — Ut gemma, etc. The reason why men engage in foreign and civil wars is that they may acquire wealth, so as to possess costly drinking-cups made of single gems, such as onyx, or set with others of greater value, as was the custom at Rome, and have purple couch-covers ; see v. 464. — Sarrano, Tyrian ; from Sarra, a name of Tyre (formed like it from the Phoenician name Tsor), as Poenus Sarra oriundus in Ennius. — Condit opes, etc. Another, in- stead of spending his wealth in luxury, stores it up and broods over it. Cf. Aen. vi. 610. — 508. Hie stapet, etc. Another is lost in admiration of popular eloquence, as poured forth by a Cicero or other great orator from the Rostra in the Forum, and longs to acquire the same powei". — hunc plausus hiantenu Another, hearing the repeated shouting and clapping of hands of people of all ranks in the theatre at the presence of a Pom- peius, a Cicero, a Maecenas (Hor. C. ii. 17, 25), is ambitious of the same applause. Cf. Lucan, i. 133. — cuneos. In the ancient theatres and amphitheatres, as the part where the spectators sat was an arc of a circle, the rows of seats also formed arcs, which increased in compass as they receded from the front. Passages for the spectators to enter and reach their seats ran from back to front, intersecting the rows, and thus dividing them into separate portions, which, as they were broad above and narrow below, were named cunei or wedges. Each spectator's tessera designated the cuneus and row in which he was to sit. The amphitheatre at Verona and the theatre at Pompeii exhibit the cunei clearly. — enim, i. q. sane, utique, Erj. Cf. Aen. ii. 100; viii. 84. See on iii. 70. This power of enim appears very plainly in enimvero and sed enim. Voss and Jahn 248 GEORGICS. agree with those who make a parenthesis of geminatus cnim. — 509. p>utrumque.... gaudent perfusi, etc. His mind reverting to the evils of civil commotions, he represents the victors as re- joicing, though, as was so often the case, sprinkled with the blood of their own near relations. Fratres, we must recollect, included cousins. Gaudent perfusi is a G racism : cf. Aen. ii. 377 ; x. 426, 500 ; xii. 6, 702. — Exsilioque, etc. Others, i. e. the van- quished (que, i. q. aut), quit their country and seek foreign lands : exsilio, the place of exile. — Atque alio, etc. Horace says (C. ii. 16, 18), Quid terras alio calentes sole mutamus? — 513. Agricola, etc. The opposite advantages of the country. — anni labor, the toil of the year, i. e. the produce of that toil. — meritos, deserving of their support, as having merited it by ploughing. — Nee requies. There is no cessation of production. — exuberet, abounds. This verb seems to be only another form of exsupero, exupero, and not to be derived from uber. — met' gife. " Manipulos spicarum mergites dicimus." Servius. The word only occurs in this place in this sense. The mergis seems to have been a heap of corn collected with the mergae or pitchforks. — oneret sidcos, i. e. when growing or when cut. — atque horrea vineat, i. e. when carried: see i. 49. — 519. Venit hiems ; teritur, etc., i. e. cum venit, etc. In the winter the olives, for which Sicyon was famous, were pressed. Trapetus, trapetum, pi. trapetes (jpaTrr)Ti)s a rpcnreu), calco), the olive- press. — Glande sues laeti. The construction is sues laeti glande. Laeti is here perhaps sleek, fattened. — Et varios, etc. Autumn too yields its produce. He goes back, we may see, to another season. — ponit, i. q. deponit, lays down, yields. — et alte, etc. The grapes ripen on the rocky hills. — 523. oscula, i. e. ora or labra: Aen. i. 256. — Casta pudiciiiam, etc., i. e. pudica est miclier. — ubera, etc., ' they let down their milky udders,' i. e. their udders are large and full. — agitat, freq. of ago. — Ignis, i. e. ara. — cratera coronant. It was the custom V. 510. Sanguine civili rem conflant, divitiasque Conduplicant avidi, caedem caedi accumulantes. Crudeles gaudent in tristi funere fratris, Et consanguineum mensas odere timentque. — Lucr. iii. 70. book ii. 509-541. 249 to bind the craters with wreaths of flowers : see Aen. i. 726 ; iii. 525.- pecoris magistris, the herdsmen : see Ec. ii. 33. — certamina, i. e. dd\a, the prizes of the contest : see Aen. v. 66. Wagner however thinks that certamen ponere can only signify cert, instituere, ayiSva Trporidevai ; but this will ill accord with in idmo, unless we suppose that they were to cast their darts at a mark on the elm. — nudant, sc. pecoris magistri. The common reading is nudat. — agresti palaestrae, for the rustic ring, as we may say. 532-540. This was the mode of life in the good old times of Italy. — -fortis Etruria crevit, Etruria grew powerful. In the early days of Rome the Tuscans were powerful both by sea and land. — Scilicet, sane, h). We would, with Forbiger, join this word with what precedes, and place a comma after it. — reritm pidcherrima, greatest and most illustrious of states, Xpfjpa kciXXlotov. The word res is inclusive of persons singly or collectively, as well as of things ; thus pulcherrime rerum is said of a man : Ov. Met. viii. 89 ; Her. iv. 125. Pidcher m the sense of flourishing occurs in Florus ii. 19, pidcherrimus popidus, and iv. 1, pidcherrimum imperium. — Septem arces, the seven hills. — una muro, that of Servius Tullius. — Ante etiam, etc. This also was the life of the men of the golden age. — Dictaei regis, of Jupiter, who was said to have been reared in a cavern of Mount Dicte in Crete. — Impia. This word is to be taken rather in the sense of unkind, ungrateful, than of impious ; for there does not appear to be any impiety in eating animal food, while to slaughter the labouring ox, the companion of the husbandman's toil, was regarded as an un- feeling, cruel act. — Aureus, as ruling over the golden race of men. — classica, sc. signa, the charge, which was given with trumpets and horns. — enses, i. e. the iron from which they were to be formed. 541, 542. It is time to conclude this book. The metaphor is taken from travelling. — spatiis, in stages : see i. 512. — V. 537. Ol TTpwroi KctKoepyov exctXicevsavTO fid\aipav BlvoSirjv, 7rpoJTOi Se (3owv eTrdaavr' dpoTijpcuv. Arat. Phaen. 131. M 5 250 GEORGICS. aequor, a plain : see i. 50.—fumantia. Some good MSS. read spumantia ; but that will not agree with colla. BOOK III. Argument. Invocation, 1, 2. Novelty of the subject and triumph of the poet, 3-39. Call to Maecenas, 40-4*8. Choice of cows and breeding, 49-71. Choice of a stallion, 72-94. Subject continued, 95-122. Care of the sire, 123-137. Care Of the mothers, 138-156. Care of the calves, 157-178. Care of foals, 179-203. Effects of desire in bulls, 204-241. In other animals, 242-285. Care of sheep and goats, 286-294. In the winter, 295-321. In the summer, 322-338. The African herdsman, 339-348. The Scythian winter, 349-383. Of wool; choice of a ram, 384-393. Of milk, .394-403. Of dogs, 404-413. Warnings against serpents, 414-439. Dis- eases of sheep and their remedies, 440-463. Directions to avert contagion, 464- 177. Description of a pestilence among cattle, 478 to end. Notes. 1-9. The present book being devoted to the subject of cattle, he commences with the mention of the principal deities presiding over them. — magna Pales : see on i. 339. For Pales, see Mythology, p. 538. — pastor ab Amphryso, sc. Apollo Nomios, who fed the flocks of Admetus on the banks of the Amphrysus in Thessaly. Ab Amphryso, 'AfxfpvatjOev. Pas- tores a Pergamide, Varro, R. R. ii. 2. — silvae, etc. The haunts of Pan are here put for that deity himself. — Cetera, etc., all other subjects of poetry have been repeated even to satiety. — vacuas mentes, unoccupied, idle minds. — carmine. Many BOOK III. 1-10. 251 MSS. read carmina, and it is by no means certain which is the true reading. — 4. vulgata, made common, known to all. — Quis aut Eurysthea, etc. Who, for example, is ignorant of the whole history of Hercules, with his hard task-master Eu- rystheus, the Egyptian tyrant Busiris, who offered strangers in sacrifice, and the youth Hylas whom the water-nymphs carried off? — illaudati, i. q. detestandi, by litotes, a figure common with our poet. " Illaudatus est quasi illaudabilis, qui neque mentione aut memoria ulla dignus neque unquam nominandus est." Gell. ii. 6. Neither Gellius nor the critic to whom he was replying appears to have seen the full force of words of this kind. — Qui, sc. a quo poeta. — Latonia Delos, i. e. the wanderings of Latona and the birth of Apollo and Diana in the isle of Delos have also been the theme of poets. See the Hymns of Callimachus. — Hippodame, etc. Poets also have celebrated the adventures of Pelops with his ivory shoulder, and his winning Hippodame, the daughter of Oeno- maus, in the chariot-race. We may here observe, that it must have been the Greek poets that he had in view, for none of these subjects seem to have been treated of by any Roman poet of that time. — acer equis, leivbs 'nrweveiv. Ace?- is i. q. strenuus, and is used poetically with an abl. case. — 8. Ten- tanda via est, etc., ' I must try some other way, by which I, like the poets I have alluded to, may rise into the air and fly aloft in the view of men.' Poets and poems were often thus compared to birds, especially to swans : see Theognis 237 seq. ; Hor. C. ii. 20. — victor, i. e. having accomplished what I pro- posed : see Lucr. i. 76. — virum volitare per ora. " Ornatius quam ferri per ora, in ore omnium esse." Heyne. We prefer the interpretation given above, as more poetic and more in accordance with what precedes. The expression is used in a similar way Aen. xii. 535, to which we may add the following instances. Incedunt per ora vestra magnifici, Sail. Jug. 31 ; nitidus qua quisque per ora Cederet, Hor. S. ii. 1, 64. 10-25. He will be the first poet that Mantua has produced, and when he returns to dwell there he will raise a temple in honour of Caesar, and celebrate games like those of Greece. This is all expressed with the exaggeration permitted to poetry, 252 GEORGICS. and has its origin in the practice of the victors at the Olympic and other games raising in their native towns chapels or altars to their patron deities in commemoration of their success. — 11. rediens. We must recollect that he wrote this poem at Naples. — Aonio vertice, i. e. from Helicon, as in Lucretius ; but perhaps with a reference to Hesiod. — deducam, I will lead down, sc. from their sacred hill. — Idumaeas palmas. Palms were the ornaments and emblem of victory ; Idumaeas, i. e. Edomite or Judaean, an epith. orn., Judaea being celebrated for its palm-trees. — tcmphun pouam, I will raise a temple ; like the Greek rldrifu. — Propter aquam. A Lucretian form : see Ec. viii. 87. — tardis ingens, etc. The idea in tardis properly belongs to errat. On the Mincius, see on Ec. vii. 12. — 16. In medio, sc. templi. — Caesar, i. e. statua Caesaris. — Illi (dat.), to or for him, in his honour. — victor: see v. 9. — Tyrio con- spectus in ostro, seen clad in purple, as the director of the games, like the praetor at Rome. — agitabo currus, 1 will drive, i. e. 1 Mill cause to be driven, by giving the games. — Centum. This is probably a def. for an indef. The critics give the following examples of this employment of centum. Aen. i. 4-17 ; iv. 199 ; Catull. lxiv. 390 ; Tibull. i. 7, 49; Hor. C. iii. 8, 13. — adflumina, along the banks of the river, sc. the Mincius. — Cuncia mihi, etc. His games would be so magnificent that they would attract to them all the athletes, etc. of Greece. — Alpheiun, Olympia in Elis, on the banks of the Alpheus. — lucos Molorchi, Nemea, where the shepherd Molorchus en- tertained Hercules when he was going to attack the Nemeaean lion. — crvdo caestu. The caestus, or boxing-glove, was made of raw hide and iron. — 21. tonsae olivae. We frankly confess that we do not know what is meant by this expression, which occurs again Aen. v. 556 and 774. Servius says that tonsae is " minutis foliis compositae ;" and Wagner supposes that, in making the garland, the larger leaves were plucked away and only the smaller ones left, lest it should shade the forehead too V. 10. Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam Per gentes Italas homiuum quae clara clueret. — Lucr. i. 118. book in. 11-27. 253 much. Perhaps the olive was termed tonsa on account of the trim, stiff form of its leaves, as opposed to those of the vine, the other great object of culture. — 22. Donaferam, I will offer sacrifices: see Aen. v. 101. — Jam nunc juvat, it delights me even now, sc. in imagination. — sollemnis pompas, the solemn or regular processions. — Vel scena, etc., he will also give dra- matic entertainments. In the ancient theatres the proscenium or stage was very narrow, as the number of actors that ap- peared at the same time seldom exceeded four. The scena was the back of it, and was of wood, of a triangular form having three fronts. It revolved on a pivot, so that any one of the fronts could be made to form the scena of the piece that was represented. Hence the poet says, ' the scene de- parts (i. e. is changed), its fronts (or sides) being turned.' — Purpurea intexti, etc. The aulaeum, or curtain which hung before the proscenium in the Roman theatre, instead of rising, as with us, descended when the piece was to begin, and rose when it was concluded. There were various figures woven into it, and, as it v/ould seem, after the invasion of Britain by Julius Caesar, the wild-looking tattooed Britons were often thus represented. As they rose gradually with the curtain, they might be said to raise it. Ovid (Met. iii. Ill) thus illus- trates the rising of the warriors when Cadmus had sown the serpent's teeth : Sic, ubi tolluntur festis aulaea t.heatris, Sur- gere signa solent ; primumque ostendere vultum, Cetera paul- latim, placidoque educta tenore Tota patent, imoque pedes in margine ponunt. — 26. In foribus, etc. He returns to the temple, to describe its ornaments, particularly the sculpture in gold and ivory on its doors : see on ii. 463. — pugnam Gan~ garidum, the battle with the Indians who dwelt on the banks of the Ganges. The imagination of the Romans had long been occupied with the idea of the conquest of the East, for which Julius Caesar had been making preparations when he perished. Our poet, in flattery of the younger Caesar, here supposes that he will achieve that conquest, and penetrate fur- ther than the great Alexander, reaching even the banks of the Ganges. — 27. Quirini, i. e. Caesaris. He gives him this title as being a second deified founder of Rome. — hie, on the other 254 GEORGICS*. valve of the door. — 28. undantem hello, etc. The conquest of Egypt. The Nile is put for the country and its population, and is described as swelling and increasing its waves for war (bello, dat). — magnum fiuentem, -ko\v peovra. — navali surgen- tis, etc., a rostrated column, in commemoration of a naval victory. — Addam, etc. There will also be there cities con- quered in Asia, and victories gained over the Armenians (in- dicated by their mountain Niphates) and the Parthians — Fidentem fuga, etc. Alluding to the well-known practice of the Parthian cavalry to fly, and as they went at full speed to shower arrows on their pursuers. " How quick they wheel'd, and flying behind them shot Sharp sleet of arrowy showers." Milton, P. R. iii. 323. — Et duo, etc. In the spirit of prophecy he sees the extreme West, as well as the extreme East, subdued by Caesar. — rapta manu, seized by dint of fighting. He uses the verb rapio to denote the speed with which Caesar would conquer. — tropaea, victories ; the sign being used for the thing signified — Bisque triumpliatas. This does not mean that each people was twice triumphed over, but that he triumphed twice, once for each. — utroque ab litore, from either shore, sc. of the Ocean, i. e. the Indians on the east, the Cantabrians or Britons on the west shore of the circum- ambient Ocean. The interpreters however, in their anxiety to reduce all to historic accuracy, say both the shores of the Mediterranean and of the Ocean, referring one to Dalmatia or Egypt, the other to Cantabria. — 34. Stabunt, etc. He will place in the porticoes of this temple statues of Parian marble of the Trojan ancestors of the deified prince to whom it is dedicated. — spirantia signa, statues that are so well executed that they seem to breathe and live. — Assaraci proles, etc. As- saracus, son of Tros king of Troy, was grandfather of Anchises, the father of Aeneas, from whom the Julian gens at Rome claimed to be descended. — demissae ab Jove, sent clown (i. e. derived) from Jove, who was the father of Dardanus, the founder of the royal line of Troy. — Trojae Cyntliius auctor. Apollo (called Cynthius from Mount Cynthus in Delos) had, in conjunction with Neptune, built the walls of Troy. The poet introduces him here because he was regarded as his book in. 28-46. 255 tutelar god by Caesar, who was even reported to be his son. Suet. Aug. 94 ; Cf. Aen. viii. 704. — 37. Invidia, etc. Another part of the ornaments of this temple (probably, as Voss thinks, a painting) would be the figure of Envy consigned to Tartarus, and witnessing there, and shuddering at, the torments of the various mythic criminals. — severum, awful, dreadful; like tris- tis, saevus. Lucretius (v. 36) has pelageque severa and severa silentia noctis (iv. 462), and noctis signa severa (v. 1189). The original meaning of severits would seem to be grave, solemn. — Cocyti, the river of lamentation ; from awicveiv : see Horn. Od. x. 514 ; Hes. Th. 740, 807 metuet, will dread, i. e. will tremble to behold. — tortosque Ixionis anguis, etc. Ixion, for attempting the chastity of Juno, was hurled to Erebus, and there fixed on an ever-revolving wheel; but Virgil, in this place, is our only authority for his being bound on it with snakes. — non exsuperabile saxum, sc. Sisyphi, which he was not able to get to the top of the hill, up which he rolled it. See Horn. Od. xi. 592. 40-48. ' Such will be my future occupation ; meantime I will continue my poem, and sing of cattle.' — silvas saltusque, the woods and the lawns which they contain. — Intactos, un- touched, hitherto unsung by any Greek or Latin poet. — haud mollia. i. e. dura, difficilia. Cf. Aen. ix. 805. — Te sine, etc., ' All my power and inspiration comes from your advice and encouragement.' — En age, etc. ' Come along, fling away all delay; the dogs are baying, the horses neighing, and the woods re-echoing with the joyous clamour.' We agree with those who take these words to be addressed by the poet to himself. The critics say, that by Cithaeron is meant cattle, herds of which pastured on that mountain, by Taygetus the dogs, and by Epidaurus the horses. We doubt, with Heyne, if ingenti cla- more could be used of oxen. — Epidaurus. Strabo alone, we believe, beside our poet, mentions the horses of Epidaurus: he classes them (viii. c. 8) with those of Argos and Arcadia. — 46. Mox, etc. ' I now sing of cattle, but I soon will venture to celebrate and transmit to posterity the warlike deeds of Caesar. — accingar, I will gird myself up, as the ancients did when about to engage in any action that required great ex- 256 GEORGICS. ertion.' — dicere, i. q. ut dicam. — IS . Tithoni, etc. Tithonus, who Avas the son of Laomedon, was not in the direct line from which the Julii derived themselves : his name is therefore used here probably only for the sake of variety. — prima ab origine, from the early or remote origin or birth. Cf. iv. 286. Lucretius has (v. 549) prima... ab origine mundi. 49-59. Choice of a cow for breeding : see Varro, R. R. ii. 5. — Seuquis, etc. General direction with respect to the breed- ing of horses and oxen, to attend chiefly to the qualities of the mother. This rule is still observed. — Olympiacae. Admiring the prizes at the Olympic games, i. e. being fond of chariot- races. — pascit, feeds, i. e. breeds. The praes. is here for the fut. — ad aratra, sc. trahenda. — optima, etc. He begins with the oxen. — torvae, stern-looking. — cui turpe capxrt, who has an ugly head, namely having a broad forehead, compressed cheeks, wide nostrils, etc. — plurima cervix, a great deal of neck, i. e. having it both long and thick. — Et crurum terms, etc., and dewlaps hanging down from the chin to the legs ; i. e. the dew- laps, or skin that hangs down from the neck of a cow should be both long and deep. — 54. Turn longo, etc., ' there should be no limit to the length of her sides ;' for the greater length a cow has, the more room she will have for her calf to grow in. — omnia magna, etc. ' every part about her in fact should be large, even the foot.' — camuris, crooked, curved. " Peregrinum verbum est, id est, in se redeuntibus," Macrob. vi.4. — 56. Ma- cidis et albo. A hendyadis ; with white spots : for working oxen the ancients preferred dark colours. The poet means therefore, ' though I know the entirely dark to be the best, I should not however object to those that have some spots of white.' — Autjuga, etc. Neither is it a bad sign if she at times refuses to go quietly under the yoke, and buts now and then with her horns ; for it shows spirit, which she will probably transmit to her offspring. — quaeque ardua tola, etc., ' which is tali and long in all dimensions, even to the tail, which should sweep the ground.' 60-71. The age for breeding: in both bulls and cows it extends from the age of four to that of ten years. This is far better than the practice in some parts of England of breeding book in. 48-80. 257 from yearling heifers, as it completely checks their growth : two years is a usual and far better age. — 60. Lucinam, i. e. partum. The goddess, as usual, is put for what she presides over.— Cetera, sc. aetas, i. e. before four and after ten years. — 63. Interea, in the intervening six years. — superat, abounds, is exuberant in. — pecuaria, i. q.pecora: see Pers. hi. 9. JPe- cuarium is usually the place where the pecora are. — primus, " i. e. quamprimum," says Heyne ; but it rather means, ' be the first to.' Cf. ii. 408. — Atque aliam, etc., ' keep up your stock by breeding.' — Optuma, etc. He is led here by his subject (as in i. 199) to make a general reflection on the flight of time carrying away the clays of youth, which, by the generc^ consent of mankind, are our best and happiest. — labor. See i. 150. — Semper erunt, etc. He returns to the subject of breed- ing, by observing that in a man's stock there will always be some that he does not like, and for which he would wish to substitute others.— juarum corpora, i. q. quas. — Semper enim refice, ' always then replace them.' Enim is the Greek yap, which frequently has the sense of then, as afere yap avrov, Soph. Phil. 1054. — amissa, sc. corpora ?t subolem, etc., 'add select calves to your stock.' 72-94. On the breeding of horses. Here however it is the sire, not the dam, that he describes, led probably by his poetic feeling, as he thus has an ampler field for description. In reality the choice of the dam is as necessary in horses as in any other animals. — pecori equino, i. e. equis. — quos in spent, etc. (iis understood,), i. e. those which you have resolved to breed up as stallions in order to keep up your stock. — a tene- ris, sc. annis. — Continuo, i. q. statim, from the very first. — mollia, i.e. mobilia, lithe: see ii. 389. — reponit, puts down again and again as he speeds along. — Primus et ire viam, etc. He shows courage ; he leads the others, along roads, through rivers, over bridges. These were of course wooden bridges, which are often in a dangerous state. — vanos, idle, in which there is no real terror. — 80. Argutum caput, a small, thin, well-proportioned head, the breve caput of Horace, S. i. 2, 89. Palladius, probably borrowing the word from Virgil, has (iv. 13, 2) aures breves et argutas, and (ib. 8) musculosa et 258 GEORGICS. arguta coipora, speaking of horses. Argutus is the part, of arguo, to make clear, and it is chiefly used of sound, answer- ing to the Greek Xtyu's. — brevis alvus, i. e. venter sicbstrictus, round in the body. — obesa terga, the haunches or loins fleshy. — 81. Luxuriat, etc., ' let his spirited breast abound in muscles,' i. e. let his chest be broad and full. He uses the term animo- sus, as he presupposes such to be the character of the horse he is describing. — Honesti, sc. cqui, the handsome horses : see ii. 392. — Spadices, chestnut and bay. This colour, called also by the Greeks (poirtKov, says Gellius (ii. 26), " exuberantiam splendoremque siguificat ruboris ; quales sunt fructus palmae arboris (i. e. dates), non admodum sole incocti, uncle spadicis et phoenicei nomen est. Spadica enim Dorici vocant avulsam a palma termitem cum fructu." In like manner the Italian baio (whence Bajardo, Rinaldo's horse, in the romances) and our bay come from fiaiov, /icus a palm-branch. — glauci, grey, particularly the blue-grey. — albis et gilvo, the white and dun. The latter colour is known to be bad, but the former is not so, and was not considered so by the ancients. The horses of Rhesus were (II. x. 437) XevKorepoi ^wvos, deieiv 2' dvefioimv ofxoToi; so also those of Turnus (Aen. xii. 84); and see Hor. S. i. 7. 8. The critics try to make an idle distinction between albus and candidus as applied to a horse ; making the former i. q. pallidas, the latter i. q. nitens, as if there could be any kind of white but one in a horse, except the case of an old grey horse, which the poet could never have meant. The best explanation is, that it is of the stallion the poet is speak- ing, for whom white is not a good colour. — 83. Turn si qua, etc. A further proof of the spirit of the horse, that if he hears the sound of arms in the distance, he becomes eager and impatient to join in the fray. This applies only to the trained war-horse, not to the young colt, as above. — micat auribus, he pricks up his ears, and lets them fall back again repeatedly. Mico is to move quickly and frequently ; hence to glitter, as the gleam goes and comes. The prose form here would be micant aures. — tremit artus. a Greek accusative for trement artus. — Collectum ignem. When a horse is in this state of ex- citement, his nostrils dilate and show the red of the interior, book in. 81-95. 259 and the breath is expelled with violence, as if there was an internal fire.— -fremens. This is the reading of the best MSS., and is the word in the passage of Lucretius that he had in view. The other reading, premens, seems however to be as old as the time of Seneca, who gives it when quoting this passage, Ep. 95. — 86. densa juba. A thick mane denotes a thick crest. — et dextro, etc. This is more an indication of beauty than anything else, as it has nothing to do with the goodness of a horse. — At duplex, etc. This means, that the muscles should rise at each side of the spine, so as to form a double ridge. — cavatque tellurem, etc. The hoof must be strong and solid, and make an impression on the ground indicative of the strength and fieetness of the horse. — 89. Talis, etc. Such was Cyllarus, the horse of Pollux, of Amy- clae in Laconia (it is Castor whom Homer and the Greek poets celebrate for horsemanship), and the steeds given by Greek poets to Mars, and those of Achilles described by Homer. — currus. See i. 514. — Talis et ipse, etc. The Greek legend of the birth of the Centaur Chiron says that he was the offspring of the nymph Phillyra and of Kronos, who, on the approach of his wife Rhea, turned the nymph into a mare, and himself into a horse. See Mythology, p. 69. — pernix, swift, from per-nito, to make a great effort. — Pelion. Because the north of Thessaly, where Mount Pelion lay, was the scene of this adventure. 95-102. The stallion, when affected by disease or old-age, is no longer to be employed. — abde dorno. There are two in- terpretations of this passage, viz. keep him at home, away from the mares, and employ him at various kinds of work ; or, send him from home, from your farm, i. e. sell him. The verb ab-do literally means to give or put away, and hence its usual signification is to hide or conceal. Horace (Ep. i. 1, 5) says of the retired gladiator Veianius, latet abditus agro, which is very like the present passage : indeed, he would seem to have had it in his mind, for he subjoins (v. 8) Solve senescen- tem mature sanus equum. Elsewhere he says of Caesar (C. iii. 4, 38) Fessas cohortes abdidit oppidis. Suetonius (Tib. 12) says of Tiberius, when at Rhodes, that he Avas mediterraneis 260 GEORGICS. terris abdilus. The only instance of abdo in the sense of giving away is the following of Nemesian (Cyneg. 141), where, speaking of new-born puppies, he says, Sin vero Jiaec cura est melior ne forte necetur, Abdaturve domo, catulosque probare voluntas. Voss however contends that here also the phrase signifies keep at home, instead of breeding for the chace. With this we cannot agree. Nemesian may have misunder- stood our poet in this place, or, as the later writers so fre- quently did, he may have given to the compound a meaning deduced from its elements, though contrary to usage: we there- fore prefer the former interpretation. — 96. nee turpi ignosce senectae. This passage also has perplexed the critics, ancient as well as modern (for Servius notices the two ways of under- standing it) ; as nee may be joined either with turpi or with ignosce : the latter is, we think, to be preferred. Voss rightly explains it : 'Do not, out of compassion and regard for him, leave him with the mares when he is become past use through age.' Turpis is here probably merely an epithet of old-age, from which all beauty has departed. — ad proelia, sc. Veneris. — 99. Ut quondam, etc. ' His vigour is, like that of the flame of stubble when set on fire, devoid of all force and permanence.' — alias artes, other qualities. — prolem parentum. Parit autem, si est generosa proles, frequenter duos, Colum. vii. 6, 7 ; hence it is plain that proles is equivalent to our breed, strain. Wag- ner therefore by proles parentum understands what we would call the horse's pedigree, the breed of his sire and dam, a sense in which Servius seems also to have taken it. Voss and Jahn think it means the foals he has previously got; but this does not accord with the plural parentum, nor perhaps with the cus- toms of the ancients, who usually bred all their own cattle. — 102. Et quis, etc. It was also to be observed how they were affected by victory, or the reverse, in the chariot-race. It is well known that hunters and racers take great interest in the chace and the course. 103-112. A description of a chariot-race. — Nonne vides. V. 103. Oi o' lifia iravres etp' 'imroiiv [lavriyas cieipav, YierrXrjyov 9' ifidcnv, 6fi6ic\i](rdv r eireeaaiv, book in. 96-115. 261 See i. 56. — praecipiti certamine, in the headlong contest. — effusi carcere. See i. 512. — exultantia, bounding, palpitating. — pavor, anxiety. The primary idea of fear is included, as anxiety is caused by fear of defeat. — verbere, i. q. jiagello. — proni dant lora, ' bending forward give their horses the reins.' — vi, ii. This should be taken with volat. — Jamque humiles, etc., ' the chariots bounding, as it were, along the ground.' — -sublime, adj. for adv. Cf. Ec. ix. 29; Aen. x. 664*; Lucr. vi. 97. — humescunt, sc. aurigae. — Tantus amor, etc., sc. in the breast of the horses : see v. 102. 113-122. The invention of horsemanship — Erichthonius, one of the mythic kings of Attica: he was said to have had serpents for feet, and therefore to have first used chariots. See Mythology, pp. 378, 394. — insistere. Because the ancient charioteers drove standing. — victor, sc. in the chariot-race. — 115. Frena, etc. The Lapiths, who frequented the Pelethronian wood on Mount Pelion (Strabo vii. p. 299), are here said to have been the first who rode on single horses. This art is by modern mythologists ascribed to their rivals the Centaurs, but it would have been absurd in the eyes of poets, who viewed these last as half horses themselves, to have supposed them mounted on horses. It was the circumstance of Thessaly having always been renowned for its cavalry that led the Greeks to ascribe the invention of horsemanship to a portion of its mythic inhabitants. See Mythology, p. 316. — gyros, yvpovs, rings. The ancients, like ourselves, rung their horses when breaking them, with this difference, that they mounted the horse and rode him round and round, while we put him at the end of a cord, which a man holds in the centre of the ring, and make him trot round and round. — equitem* There is 'Eaav/xeviijs' ol S' wkci dieTrprjacrov 7re8ioio, NoV^i veuiv, raxeios' virb Se ffrepvoiai kovLtj "larar deipopev^, ware vetyos ije OveWa- Xalrat S' eppwovro pera ttvoujs avepoio' "Appa-ra S' aWore pev xQovl 7ri\varo 7rov\o(3oTeipy, "AWore v' di^amce peri)opa' rot 5' eXarrjpes "E(jra ev Sifpoitri' iraracrcre 8e Ovpbs eicdarov Ni/ajs lepevwv. Horn. II. xxiii. 362. some difficulty here ; for according to Gellius (xviii. 5), and Macrobius (vi. 9), and Philargyrius on this place, Ennius used eques for equus in the following verse of his Annals, Denique vi magna quadrupes eques atque elefanti Projiciunt sese. Horace also has (Epod. 16, 12) Eques sonante verbera- bit ungula. The only objection to this interpretation is, that sub armis may not seem to accord with a horse: see however v. 347. — gressus glomerare superbos, to canter, to go along doubling his forelegs under him, as may be seen in the Lon- don parks. — 118. Aequus uterque labor, etc. By uterque some (among whom is Voss) understand riding and driving ; others, with more reason, these two as one, and breeding for a stallion, which Heyne says the order of ideas in v. 95 inquires — aeque, etc. For both uses they look to the youth and consequent spirit and vigour of the horse, and care not what his pedigree or former exploits may have been, for if he is aged they reject him. — Epirum fortisque Mycenas. Epirus and Argolis were both famous for horses. Mycenae (one of its chief towns) is put for the latter. — Neptuni, etc. Though he may be descended from Ai'ion, the offspring of Neptune and Ceres (see Mytho- logy, p. 178) ; it can hardly be the first horse mentioned i. 12, as all horses were alike descended from him. In this verse ipsa, in our poet's usual manner, refers rather to Neptuni. The meaning is, ' though he be descended from the steed to whom Neptune himself gave origin.' 123-137- Preparation of the horse and mare for breeding. He would seem also to include the bull and cow. — instant, sc. magistri, v. 118. — sub tempus, sc. admittendi. — denso pingui, with solid fat, i. e. flesh ; " non laxo quod quibusdam potioni- bus per fraudem agasones facere consueverunt." Servius. Pinguis, like our adj. fat, is used as a subst. Pinguedo and pinguetudo, Servius says, are not Latin. — pecori, the stud or herd. — maritum. See Ec. vii. 7. — Florentis. This is the read- ing of all the good MSS. and of Gellius (i. 22) : others have pubentis, as in Aen. iv. 514. Florentis is not merely in flower ; it means in their best and most nutritious state.— fluvios, i. q. aquam fiuvatilem. — -superesse, i. e. be sufficient for. — patrum, i. q.patris.—jejunia, the fasting, i.e. the want of feeding, whence book m. 118-146. 263 want of vigour 129. Ipsa armenta, i.e. ipsas equas et vaccas. Armenia (i. e. armentam) is the pecus of v. 125. — volentes, on purpose. — concubitus primos. Our poet frequently, instead of the adv.primum, uses the adj. primus joined with a subst. Cf. Ec. i. 41. Such seems to be the case here. — nota voluptas, the well-known sense of pleasure or instinct. Notas Virginum poenas, Hor. C. iii. 11, 25. This is, we think, the most natural sense ; others understand, known from previous experience. — 132. cursu quatiunt, shake them by galloping, i. e. gallop them hard. This only applies to the mares. — sole fatig ant, tire them in the sun. Perhaps he means this of the cows, and directs that they should be put under the threshing-machines; for mares are given the horse in spring, long before the corn is cut and threshed. We would not however vouch for the ac- curacy of the poet's information. — Cum graviter, etc. When the corn is threshed and winnowed — 135. Hoc faciunt, etc. He gives the physical reason of this practice in a figurative form : experience still proves the practice to be a good one. 138-156. Care of the mothers after conception. — Rursus, again, on the other hand : it is merely a word of transition. — exactis mensibus, when some months are past, when they are heavy in foal or calf. — Mas, sc. vaccas. — gravibus, etc., ' pull the yokes for the loaded wains.' — Non saltu, etc. He now passes to the mares. Saltu superare viam is, says Servius, " quod solet fieri cum pascunt pedibus impeditis." This can hardly be the meaning ; it is rather, i they bound off the road along which they were going.' The following et and que seem to be disjunctive. — rapaces, i. q. rapidos.—14?3. vacuis, quiet, tranquil, where there are only themselves ; or, as Ser- vius renders it, " apertis." — pascunt, sc. magistri. Most MSS., but not the best, read pascant. See Ec. i. 54. — plena Jlumina. That they might get sufficient water without any difficulty. — muscus ubi, sc. sit. As moss does not usually grow on the banks of streams, he perhaps means to indicate here the mus- cosi fontes (Ec. vii. 45) and the streams from them. These were often in the neighbourhood of caverns. — tegant, may shelter them. — saxea umbra, i. e. the shade of a rock.— procu- let, lies, extends itself. — 146. Est lucos, etc. A caution about 264 GEORGICS. ?he time of feeding cattle, on account of the gadfly — Silari. The Silarus is a river of Lucania, which empties itself into the gulf of Paestum. Mount Alburnus lies to the south of it. Plurimus. See on Ec. vii. 49. — volitans, i. q. volans. It is here a subst. Cf. iv. 16 — cui, a monosyllable here. — oestrum. The Greeks called dlarpos the insect which the Latins named asi- lus. This is all that the poet can mean. Vertere vocantes is i. q. versum vocant- -acerba, i. e. acerbe, shrilly. Lucretius also uses this adj. as an adv., acerba tuens, v. 34: see also Aen. ix. 794. — -furit, rebellows, the furor of the oxen being transferred to the sky. — sicci Tanagri. The Tanager, which runs to the east of Mount Alburnus, is a feeder of the Silarus. The smaller streams of Italy are nearly dry in the heats of summer. — 152. Hoc monstro, with this portent, this noxious animal. — Inachiae juvencae, i. e. of Io, the daughter of Ina- chus, whom Jupiter turned into a heifer, and Juno sent a gadfly to torment her. See Mythology, p. 406. — pestem, tor- ment or destruction. — meditata, may be i. q. meditans, as the verb is deponent ; but it may be taken here in the past ; having meditated or designed.- -Hunc guogue Arcebis, ' you shall keep him also from your cattle.' Arcebis, for arce, a fut. for an imperat., as in most languages. — nam mediis, etc. ' it is in the middle of the day that he is most virulent.' — pecori. For the hiatus here, see on Ec. iii. 6.— trmenta, i. q. the pre- ceding peciis. — Sole recens orto, etc. ' In order to avoid him, pasture your kine early in the morning or late in the evening.' — lucentibus astris. Here the stars are said to lead on the night ; elsewhere they are made to follow her. 157-178. Rearing of calves. — Post partum, etc. When the cows have calved, the care of them ceases, and is transferred to the calves Continuo, etc. The first thing to be done is to brand them : see i, 263. — notas et nomina gentis inurunt. We confess we do not clearly understand these words. Notas 149. Oi v' 6Nocte caeca, in the dense darkness of night. — serns, i. e. sero. — Porta caeli, the gate of heaven, i. e. heaven. As the thunder and lightning were regarded by the poets as the weapons of Ju- piter, whose abode was the heaven, they represented them as issuing out of the gate of his palace. — reclamant, rebellow. — miseri parentes, i. e. the idea of his parents ; for we are not to suppose that they were standing on the Hellespont while he was swimming across. — Nee, etc. Nor the idea of Hero. — super, after him, in consequence of his death. — crudeli funere, by a bitter untimely death. This is a favourite phrase with our 'poet : see Ec. v. 20 ; Aen. iv. 308, and elsewhere. — 264. lynces Bacclii variae, the spotted lynxes which were fabled to draw the car of Bacchus. — quid, sc. faciunt. — 266. Scilicet. This word is best rendered here by our emphatic but. — ante omnis, sc. furores. — mentem, i. e. hanc mentem, this disposition. — quo tempore Glauci, etc. Glaucus, the son of Sisyphus, who dwelt at Potniae in Boeotia, kept his mares from the book in. 252-278. 273 horses in order that they might be in proper condition for run- ning. Venus, to punish him, rilled them with such fury that they tore him to pieces. Hygin. 250. — 268. mails, with their jaws, i. e. with their teeth. — quadrigae, i. e. equae. — trans Gargara, etc. It is, as we have often observed, the practice of our poet first to state a thing generally, and then to give particular instances : here however he reverses the practice. Gargara is a part of the range of Mount Ida in Asia Minor : see on i. 103. The Ascanius is a river issuing from the lake of that name in Bithynia. — 271. Continuoque, and they then, after they have thus run themselves out of wind. The poet gives now a strange opinion of the ancients, that mares were occasionally impregnated by the wind. Homer appears to allude to it, II. xvi. 150; xs. 222. Aristotle (H. A. vi. 18) says it used to happen in Crete, Varro (R. R. i. 19) in Spain, and Columella, who was a native of that country, speaks of it (vi. 27) as an undoubted fact. So general was the belief in it, that Lactantius (iv. 12) employs it as an illustration of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary. — 276. depressas convallis. The three spondees terminating the verse seem to contradict the rule of the sound being an echo to the sense. — non, Eure, tuos, etc. The neque would appear to be con- junctive, with the idea of negation continued from the non. The sense is, ' not to thy rising and that of the sun.' — In Bo- rean, etc., but to the north or the south. — Caurum. Flabit ab occasit'l solstitiali et occidentali latere septentrionis, a Graecis dictus Argestes, Plin. xviii. 34, 77. " Caurum pro Corum, sicut saurex pro sorex, caidis pro colts." Servius. The form with the diphthong is however probably the elder, for Claudius is older than Clodius. — pluvio frigore, i. q. frigida pluvia. — 278. Hie demum, here in fine, i. e. at this time, when the mare is horsing. Hie is the reading of the best MSS. ; others have hinc. — hippomanes, horse-rage ; the pale yellow fluid which passes from a mare at that season (Cf. Tibul. ii. 4>, 58), of which the smell (aura, v. 251) incites the horse. — vero nomine. Because the bit of flesh which was said to be on the forehead of the new-born foal, and which the mare was supposed to swallow, was called by the same name (see Aen. iv. 515), and n5 274? GEORGICS. also a plant in Arcadia : Theocr. ii. 48. With respect to the former Hippomanes, Pliny, who detailed truth and falsehood with equal faith, says (viii. 42) that it grows on the foal's forehead, is of the size of a dried fig (caricd) and of a black colour, and that if the mare does not swallow it immediately she will not let the foal suck her. Aristotle (H. A. viii. 24) says this is merely an old-wives' tale : he mentions however the ntoXiov, or bit of livid flesh which we call the Foal's Bit, and which he says the mare ejects before the foal. — Miscue- runt, sc. cum eo. 284-294. A transition to the subject of sheep and goats. — circwnvectamur, I go round and inspect. This verb would seem to be used properly of a proprietor riding round and inspecting his grounds and stock. Non ego circum Me Sa- tumiano vectari rum caballo...narro, Hor. S. i. 6, 58. — armen- tis, for large cattle. — Superat, i. q. superest : see on Ec. ix. 27. — curae, sc. pastoris. — agitare, to manage. He uses the fre- quentative to express the variety of the shepherd's cares. — Hie labor, sc. est. Cf. Aen. vi. 129.— -fortes, stout; an ordinary epithet of husbandmen. — Nee sum, etc. ' nor does the difficulty of the task which I have undertaken escape me.' — ea, these matters. There is no antecedent to this pronoun, but it may be considered as included in v. 287. — verbis vineere, to over- come them (i. e. the difficulties which they present) by words or language. — magnum, great, i. e. difficult. — hunc honorem, this honour, i. e. the grace and splendour of poetry. — 291. de- serta. He seems to use this word merely as a variation of the Lucretian avia. — qua nulla, etc. As being the first, at least V. 286. Nunc age, quod superest cognosce, et clarius audi. Nee me anion fallit, quam sint obscura, sed acri Percussit thyrso laudis spes magna meum cor, Et simul incussit suavem mi in pectus amorem Musarum, quo nunc instinctus, mente vigente Avia Pieridum peragro loca, nullius ante Trita solo ; juvat integros accedere fontes Atque haurire ; juvatque novos decerpere flores. Insignemque meo capiti petere inde coronam, Unde prius nulli velarint tempora Musae. — Lucr. i. 920. book in. 284-305. 275 Latin, poet who wrote on the subject of agriculture. — Casta- liam, i. e. ad Castaliam, the fount on Helicon. — molli clivo, on the gentle declivity : see Ec. ix. S.—devertitur (verb, reflect.), turns aside, out of the beaten track. — Nunc, etc. He incites himself, calling on the goddess of shepherds to aid : see ii. 4. 295-321. The treatment of sheep and goats during the winter. — Incipiens edico. As he has said magno ore sonan- dum, he now adopts the language of authority, and issues his edict like the prsetor at Rome. Cf. Hor. Ep. i. 19, 10. — molli- bus, soft, i. e. warm. — carpere ovis, that the sheep should feed, i. e. be fed. — dum mox frondosa, etc. until the warm weather, which brings leaves and grass, comes back. The general divi- sion of the year into aestas and hiems has been noticed. Mox seems to denote that they will not have to remain long in the sheds. The cold weather, we must recollect, does not begin in Italy till toward the end of December. — Stemere, i. e. te sternere, to bed them well with straw and (or) fern. — glacies, i. e. gelu. The adj. frigida is idle and superfluous. — scabi- em, the scab, which was caused by the wet and cold, v. 441. — podagras, i. e. clavos, a disease of the feet. HoSaypa, though usually restricted to gout, signifies any disease of the feet; for a sheep could not have the gout, properly speaking. — 300. hinc digressns, going hence ; quitting the sheepcotes and going to those of the goats, as if he was inspecting his farm : see Cato, R. R. %—jabeo, I desire or direct. — Arbuta, branches and leaves of the arbutus. — -Jluvios recentes, i.e. "aquam statim haustam," Servius, fresh water : see v. 126. — Et stabula, etc., and let their cotes face the south, that they may have the sun and be protected against the cold northern blasts. — cum fri* gidus olim, etc. ' This, I say, is to be done especially in the month of February, when the sun is in Aquarius and the rains prevail.' — extremo anno. The Roman year anciently began in March, whence January and February were vulgarly regarded as the end of the year, as they really are with respect to the seasons. — 305. Hae, sc. capellae. — leviore, sc. quam oves. — usus erit, sc. earum, they are not less useful. — quamvis, etc., ' although the sheep's wool takes a rich purple die, and therefore fetches a large price.' — magno, sc pretio. — mute?itur t 276 GEORGICS. sc. pernintentur, vendantur. Lactens porcus aere mutandus est, Colum. vii. 9. — 308. Densior hinc soboles. The advantages of the goats. In the first place they more frequently bear twins. — hinc, i. q. ab his. — largi copia lactis. The adj. properly belongs to copia — Quam magis....(tam) magis, etc. 'The more the milkpail foams when the udder has been exhausted, the more the joyous streams will flow from the pressed teats ;' i. e. the supply of milk will be constant, they will always yield the same quantity. — Nee minus interea, etc. Besides the long beards and hair of the buck-goats are used for cloaks, bed- clothes and other coverings for soldiers and sailors. — tondent, sc.pastores. — Cinyphii. Epith. orn. The Cinyps was a river of Libya in the district of Tripolis: goats abounded on its banks. — 315. Pascuntur, etc. Further, they are kept with little expense, for they browse in the woods and on the hills, and they come home of themselves. Pascuntur silvas. The object is put in the accus. as in the Greek: see iv. 181. — Lycaei. A particular for a general term: see on Ec. x. 15. — rubos : see Ec. iii. 89. — dumos : see Ec. i. 77. — suos, sc. par- vos. — et gravido, etc., i. e. they also bring home plenty of milk. — Ergo, etc. 'As then they are so very profitable, you should not grudge the little care that they may occasionally require.' — Quo minor, etc. By so much as they have in general less need than sheep, for instance, of the herdsman's care. — cvrae mortalis, of the care of men. — illis egestas, i. e. egent.—virgea pabula, i. e. arbuta, v. 300. — nee tota, etc., and give them as much hay as they may require during the winter. 322-338. Treatment of sheep and goats in the summer. — aestas, the warm weather. That it is the spring that is meant is plain from the mention of the west-winds. — utrumque gre- gem, i. e. the sheep and goats. — mittel. This is the original reading of the Med. and of the 1VISS. used by Ursinus ; all the rest have mittes. In this last case aderit must be under- stood after aestas. — Luciferi, etc., at dawn, before sunrise. — Carpamus, i. e. carpere faciamus greges. Some understand it Carpamus viam ad rura ; but, as Wagner observes, in this case the subst. should be expressed after carpere. — canent, sc. rore. There is no tautology in the next line, for the whole book in. 308-339. 277 passage is i. q. gramina canent rore qui est, etc — 327. Inde, then. — quarta hora, i. e. about nine or ten o'clock, according to our mode of reckoning. The Romans divided the space between sunrise and sunset into twelve civil hours. In April therefore the fourth hour answered to our ten, later to nine, and so on. — sitim collegerit, will have caused the flocks to thirst. — querulae: see on i. 378. — rumpent, burst them, as it were: see i. 49. Et assiduo ruplae lectore columnae, Juv. i. 13. — arbusta, the trees in general: see Ec. i. 39. Pliny (xi. 27, 32) says the cicadae are nee in campis nee in frigidis aid umbrosis nemoribus, where by campis he must mean the open country without trees, for we have often heard them in the trees in Lombardy.— -jubeto, desire them, as if they had sense and reason, or rather perhaps their keepers. — Currentem ilignis canalibus. These words should be joined, for it was the custom in Italy (as in the East, see Gen. xxx. 38) for the shepherds to draw the water and pour it out into wooden or stone troughs for their flocks. — 331. Aestibus mediis, in the noontide heat. — exquirere. Wither jubeto is to be understood, as we think is the case, or this infin. and the following dare are to be taken in the Greek manner as imperatives, a thing of which we believe there is no other example in the Latin language; for the apparent infinitives in Aen. ii. 707; iii- 405, are imperatives of reflected verbs. This might induce us to regard with some complacency Wakefield's correction of jic- bebo for jubeto, v. 329. — antiquo robore, with antique, old timber : see Flora sacra umbra, with a sacred shade. — accubet, like procubet, v. 145. There the verb is used of the shade, here of the wood. — tenuis aquas : see i. 92. — dare: see on v. 330. — vesper, evening ; not the evening-star : see v. 324. — roscida luna. The moon was regarded as the origin of dew: see Mythology, p. 61 — alcyonen: see i. 398. — acalanthida. Supposed to be the same as the Acanthis or Carduelis, the goldfinch. The birds, we may observe, are put for their song. 339-348. A description of the mode of life of the African herdsman. — raris habitata, etc. Heyne explains this passage thus : " dixit pro tectis mapalium raris, sparsis passim per 278 GEORGICS. agros, non in vicis collectis." Perhaps there is no necessity for supposing the poet to have expressed himself in so artificial a manner : he may have only meant to intimate that the ma- palia were (as they are) tents, -whose covering is thin as com- pared with that of houses. The mapalia were, according to Cato (ap. Fest. s. v.), quasi cohortes rotundae, and he terms them casae. Sallust (Jug. IS) says, aedificia Numidarum agrestium, quae mapalia Mi vocant, oblonga, incurvis lateribus iecta, quasi navium carinae sunt. It is however quite appa- rent that it is of the moveable mapalia or tents that Virgil is speaking ; and at the present day, as Mr. Drummond Hay in- forms us (Western Barbary, p. 25), " the form of the tents is somewhat similar to that of a boat with its keel upwards." Mapalia is the same as magalia, Aen. i. 421 ; iv. 259, though the quantity of the first syllable is different. They are pro- bably derived from the Hebrew or Phoenician magur, which seems properly to signify a tent. Shaw (Trav. in Barb. i. 220) says that at the present day the mapalium is called Beit-esh- Shar, 'house-of-skins.' — 341 . ex ordine, i. e. day after day. — in, into, i. e. advancing further and further every day. — hospitiis, fixed abodes, where they might be entertained. — Armentarius, herdsman, properly neatherd, fiovicoXos. — agit. Et fert is un- derstood. Pliny says (v. 3) that they put their tents on carts. — Larem, the househcld-god ; here perhaps it stands for the household stuff and utensils. — Amyclaeum. — Cressam: epith. orn : see v. 89. Cressam is i. q. Cressiam, Cretensem. Cressa corona, Ov. A. A. i. 758. — 346. patriis armis, his national arms, i. e. such as the Roman soldiers always used. — injusto, i. q. iniquo, very great, excessive: see i. 164. The Roman soldier had to carry sixty pounds weight beside his arms, and march at the rate of four miles an hour. Veget. i. 1 9 ; see also Cic. Tusc. ii. 16. — Ante exspectatum, sc. est, before it is ex- pected by the enemy. — in agmine, in line of battle, properly in acie. — positis castris. " Nam cum agmen hosti se ostendet, a tergo vallum fit." Heyne. We do not think this is the meaning of the poet : he simply wishes to say that he arrives, encamps and stands in array quicker than was expected. 349-383. A description of the northern winter. — At non, book in. 339-363. 279 sc. ita fit, this is not the kind of life that is led. — Turbidus et torquens. " Eo ipso quod arenas flaventes torquet." Heyne. " Ordo est : Et turbidus torquens." Wagner. But perhaps here, as in so many other places, turbidus is active : see on Ee. ii. 10. Virgil often omits the conj. : cf. ii. 6. — 351. redit, bends itself, winds. The poet cannot, as Heyne thinks, have used it for the simple it. — medium axem, the middle of the pole, the very pole : see ii. 271. — Rhodope, This range, which is pro- perly in Thrace, is, with poetic licence and perhaps ignorance of geography, made to extend to the remotest north. — 352. clausa tenent armenta, i. e. during the winter season. — neque ullae. Nam is understood. — informis, here i. q. deformis. — adsurgit, sc. nix, from niveis aggeribas in the preceding verse; or rather, as Wagner says, gelu (which may be any case) : " Alterum verbum finitum per copulam adjectum pro parti- cipio positum est (vid. ad Ec. vi. 20 ; viii. 97 ; Geor. ii. 56, 207, etc.), ut sensus sit : Terra jacet informis gelu assurgente in altitudinem septem ulnarum." — Semper kiems, it is always winter, i. e. there do not occur those mild bright days that interrupt the rigour of winter in Italy. — Cauri, north-west winds (v. 278) ; here for north winds in general. — 357. pal- lentes, i. q. pallidas. — Nee cum, etc., neither when he rises nor when he sets, i. e. in no part of his course. For the horses and chariot and course of the Sun, see Mythology, p. 53. — rubro aequore, the deep reddened by the rays of the setting sun.' — crustae, i. e. glacies.—ferralos orbes, wheels shod with iron. — patidis, wide, open. Wakefield would join it with pup- pibns instead of plaustris, but a good ear will easily perceive that the caesura of the verse is after prius. — hospita, hospita- ble, the entertainer of ; animating as usual. — 363. Aera, brazen vessels. They burst, as our leaden pipes do, in consequence of the expansion of the fluid in them when it is congealed. — humida, fluid, i. e. whose natural state is fluidity. — vertere, sc. se.— lacunae, lakes or pools : see i. 117. Wunderlich says it is i. q. lagenae, and that it is explanatory of the preceding verse ; but this, as Jahn says, is refuted by the adj. totae. The line however is out of place, and, if we had any authority for it, we should be inclined to read it immediately after v. 362. — Stiria (from creTpos?), icicle. — 367- non secius, i.e. the snow in the density and constancy of its fall vies with the intensity of the frost. — Inter 'emit pecudes, etc., sc. those that are not housed before the snow begins to fall. — pruinis, i. q. nive, with snow- drifts. — Corpora bourn, i. e. boves ; a usual circumlocution. Cf. Aen. i. 193; ii. 18; ix. 272. — mole nova, in the new- formed drift. — 372. formidine. The formido, filjptvdos, was a cord with red feathers fastened along it which the hunters stretched in open places in the woods : the deer, when roused and driven toward it, terrified by the motion of the feathers, turned aside and thus rushed into the nets (casses) that were stretched to receive them. Cum maximos ferarum greges tinea pennis distincta contineat et in insidias agat; ab ipso effectu dicta formido, Sen. de Ira, ii. 12. We still use the formido in our gardens to scare away the birds. Formidine may however be here simply, ' by the terror.' — montem, i. e. molem, v. 370. — 376. Ipsi, the people of the North them- selves. — in defossis specubus, etc. This underground mode of life is ascribed to the Germans by Tacitus (Germ. 16), to the Sarmatians by Mela (ii. 1), and Xenophon (Anab. iv. 5) ac- curately describes it as he witnessed it in Armenia. — robora, oaks. — noetem ducunt, they draw out (i. e. spend) the night. Cf. Aen. iv. 560. — ludo : see Ec. i. 10. — pocida vitea, viny cups, i. e. wine. — Fermento, i. e. cerevisia, beer. Potui humor ex hordeo aut frumento in quandam similitudinem vini cor- ruptus. Tac. Germ. 23. See also Plin. xiv. 22 ; xxii. 25. — sorbis. The fruit of the servicertree is acidulous : the liquor made from it must have been a kind of cyder, for Palladius says (ii. 1 5, 4), Item ex sorbis maturis, sicut ex piris, vinum fieri traditur et acetum. — Septem Trioni : a tmesis. The Ursa Major was named by the Romans Septemtrio or Septem Trio- nis, i. e. Seven Oxen. See Varro, L. L. vii. 74. — effrena, un- bridled, i. e. wild, savage. — Euro. He probably means that most piercing wind the north-east. — setis, with the hairs, i. e. with skins with the hair left on them. 3S4-393. The breeding of sheep for the sake of their wool. — lanitium, i. q. lana. — aspera silva, etc.: see i. 153.—fuge pabula laeta. Sheep fed on short grass have always finer wool book in. 367-398. 281 than those fed on rich pastures : thus the South-down wool bears the highest price of any English wool. — Ilium, sc. arie- tem. The subst. is placed in the parenthetic member of the sentence. — Nigra, etc. This is an opinion held by all the ancient writers on the subject. — Nascentum : see on Ec. iv. 8. — circumspice, look out for. — 391 . Munere, etc. This legend, Macrobius tells us (v. 22), was borrowed by our poet from Nicander. Munus is used here for attraction, display, or ex- hibition ; as the shows given to the Roman people were called munera. — si credere, etc., if the tale may be credited. — asper- nata, sc. es. 394-403. At cui lactis, etc. Those who wish to have milk and cheese take care to give their sheep and goats plenty of lotus-grass and cytisus in their cotes, and salt what they give them in order to increase their milk and flavour \t.~-frequentis, i. e. in abundance. — salsas, salted, i. e. mixed with salt ; not naturally salt. Aristotle (Hist. An. viii. 10) strongly recom- mends the giving salt to sheep, and for the same reasons as our poet. So also do Columella (vii. 3) and Palladius (xii. 13). They say that in summer the salt should be put in wooden troughs, that the sheep might lick it as they returned from pasture.— -Jluvios, water ; the particular for the general. — — ubera tendunt, stretch their udders, i. e. give more milk. — Et salis, etc., give a sweet flavour of the salt to their milk. This effect is doubtful. We may observe that in these islands (owing to the moisture of the climate and the succulence of the herbage) sheep never drink unless when diseased : the only exception, we believe, is the South-downs. — 398. Multi, etc. Those who wish to reserve the milk for sale take mea- sures to prevent the young ones from sucking their mothers. —jam excretos, as soon as they are separated, Conf. v. 187. Excretus comes from excerno, and not from excresco, from which Servius seems to derive it, explaining excretos by vali- diores, which however will accord equally well with the other derivation. Columella (viii. 4) has furfures modice a farina excreti. He also (ib. 8) uses excreta tritici for what we call tailings or small corn, i. e. what is separated in the Avinnowing. Lactantius is the earliest writer who uses excretus as the part. 282 GEORGICS. ofexcresco. — -prohibent, keep them away altogether. — 399. Pri- maque, etc. In this place, as elsewhere, que is i. q. aut : the meaning is : If the shepherd does not or cannot separate the young ones totally from their dams, he prevents them from sucking by putting on them muzzles with short iron spikes in them, which prick the mother when the young one goes to suck her, and makes her drive him away. — Quod surgente, etc. Then when they have all the milk to dispose of, they press at night what they milked in the forenoon, and what they milk in the evening they press before daylight and carry to town, or else salt the cheese they make of it and lay it up for winter. For the full examination of this difficult passage, see. Excur- sus VIII. — exportans. The reading of all the MSS., of Pris- cian (xiv. 50), of Servius (on Ec. iii. 5, and Geor. i. 67), and of the Scholiast on Horace (C. i. 25 ; S. i. 7, 33), is exportant, which is adopted by Jahn and Forbiger. The present reading is the emendation of Scaliger on Catull. lxii. : see the Excur- sus. — parco, i. e. modico, with a small quantity of: see Colum. vii. 8. — contingunt, touch, season ; from tango, not from tingo. Quae contacta sale modico sunt, Celsus de Med. ii. 24. 404-413. On dogs. — Nee tibi cura, etc. By a usual litotes : 'take good care of your dogs.' — Velocis Spartae catulos, i. e. the swift Spartan dogs that were used for the chase : see v. 345. — acrem Molossum. The Molossian dogs were chiefly valued as sheep- and watch-dogs : see Aristot. Hist. An. ix. 1 ; Hor. Ep. vi. 5 ; S. ii. 6, 1 14. — sero pingui. The serum is the whey that runs out when the cheese is pressed. Colum. vii. 8. It is the Greek 6p6s (Od. xviL 225) or oppbs, which Dioscorides says (i. 80) is very nutritive for dogs : hence perhaps Virgil terms it pinguis. Barley-meal, however, was usually mixed with it for them. — Aut impacatos, etc. The meaning is: These dogs will drive off, or at least give notice of the ap- proach of, those who, like the restless, unsubdued tribes of Spain (we may add the Highlanders and Borderers of Scot- land in former days), used to drive off cattle in the open day. The critics say that Hiberos (sic in Med.) is here used as a general term for robber (as Suisse for a porter, Savoyard for a chimney-sweep in France) ; but perhaps our poet, who, as it book in. 399-423. 283 appears from the following verse, did not confine his observa- tions to Italy, and who appears to have read Varro (see Varr. i. 16), may have extended his view to Spain. There was, we believe, no wholesale robbery of this kind carried on in Italy at that time. — a tergo, from behind. He had probably the Lusitanians, of whom Varro expressly speaks, in his mind ; as their country lay behind, i. e. to the west of, the civilised part of Spain. — 409. onagros. The onager or wild ass was never found in Europe : it was not to be seen nearer than Asia Minor and the north of Africa. Varro ii. 6 ; Plin. viii. 44, 66. — volutabris, their lairs or wallowing-places in the woods. — agens, driving ; as in the ballad of Chevy Chase, " To drive the deer with hound and horn." Cf. Aen. i. 191 ; iv. 70. — premes ad retia : see v. 371. 414-439. Directions for banishing and destroying serpents. — Disce, etc., ' burn cedar-wood and galbanum (see Flora) in your cattle-sheds.' — agitare, to drive away. — gravis, i. q. gra- volentes. Cf. Hor. Ep. xii. 5. — chelydros: see ii. 214 — immo- tis praesepibus, sheds and stalls that have not been cleaned out. — mala tactu, dangerous to touch ; tactu for tactni. Omnia item bona sensibus et mala tactu, Lucr. ii. 408. — caelum, the light of day. Aen, vi. 896. — exterrita, frightened, i. e. dread- ing the heat: see v. 434. — 418. Aut tecto, etc. The construc- tion is, Aut coluber, pestis acerba bourn, adsuetus succedere tecto et umbrae que adspergere virus pecori, fovit humum. — tecto et umbrae, i. q. umbrae tecti ; a hendyadis. — coluber. This is supposed to be the Coluber Natrix, a harmless kind of snake, but which was accused of sucking the cows. — Fovit humum, keeps close to the ground. Cf. iv. 43; Aen. ix. 57. — Tollen- tem, etc. "While he is raising himself in a threatening posture and swelling his neck with hissings. — Dejice, knock him down ; an account of tollentem in the preceding verse.— -jam- quefuga, etc. When he sees the shepherd preparing to attack him, he takes to flight and gets into some hole or crack in the ground as fast as he can. — alte, deep in the ground. — 423. Cum medii nexus, etc., ' while his middle rings and his tail relax themselves, and his last bend draws its slow orbs along:' a very accurate description of the manner in which a snake, 2S4 OEORGICS. when pursued, gets into the ground. — 425. tile mains, tiiat dangerous. The serpent here meant is the Chersydrus dry- iftus or dryina, a species of the hydra or water-snake. — Squamea, etc., i. e. his back is scaly and his belly has large spots on it. V. 4-26 is repeated, slightly altered, Aen. ii. 474. — rumpuniur (mid. voice), break themselves (i.e. burst) from. — atram ingluviem, his dark (or direful) maw. Columella (viii. 5) uses ingluvies for the crop of a fowl. — Improbus : see i. 119. — 432. dehiscunt, gape or crack. — siccam, sc. solum. — asper, i. q. asperatus. See Excursus IX. — exterritus, as in v. 417, appalled, beside himself. — sub divo, in the open air. It is literally ' under the god,' sc. Jupiter, who was regarded as the sky or air, as in this verse of Ennius : Aspice hoc sublime can- dens quern invocant omnes Jovem. — dorso nemoris. As dorsum is properly used of mountains, of which it signifies sometimes the ridge, sometimes the side (Liv. i. 3), Heyne thinks that it is a wood on the side of a mountain that is here meant, as in Horace (S. ii. 6, 91), praerupti nemoris... dor so. Burmann supposes it to signify a bank or eminence in a wood ; but for this he is unable to give any authority. — positis exuviis, having cast his slough or old skin ; a thing the snakes do every spring, and thus, as it were, renew their youth. Hence he uses the terms novus and nitidus juventa. — volvitur, he rolls himself : mid. voice. — aut catulos, etc. Wagner says this is one of the places in which our poet may be caught napping ; for snakes take no care of their young, merely depositing their eggs in dunghills or such like places in the autumn, where they are hatched by the heat of the dung, and the young ones come forth in the spring. Virgil, he thinks, transferred to serpents the habits of quadrupeds, which, it is well known, are most fierce when they have young. Perhaps the poet may be de- fended to a certain extent in the following manner. Aristotle (Hist. An. viii. 17) says expressly that the serpents cast the slough twice in each year, viz. in the spring (i. e. when the young ones, catidi, come forth) and in the autumn (i. e. when they deposit their eggs) ; and the poet may have designed to express these two seasons. If so however he erred in saying catidos relinquens, for the snake knows nothing about its young book in. 425-448. 285 ones. At any rate we will not vouch for Virgil's knowledge of natural history. — 438. catulos. This is used abusively, for its proper signification is whelps. — Arduus, raised. — Unguis micat, etc., litt. ' darts from his mouth with his triple tongue,' i. e. darts his triple tongue from his mouth. The reading ora given by Heyne and Voss is to be found in no MS., and in reality does not make sense. The ancients imagined the tongue of the snake (which is very long, and which it darts out with great rapidity) to be cleft into three. Tresque vibrant linguae, tri- plici stant ordine dentes, says Ovid (Met. iii. 34), who was a much more accurate observer of nature than our poet. It is to be observed that vv. 437, 439 occur again, Aen. ii. 473, 475. — trisulcis, i. e. trisulcatis, cleft in three. 440-463. The diseases of sheep. — Turpis scabies, the foul scab. — tentat, attacks : see Ec. i. 49. — Altius ad vivum, down to the quick, i. e. has penetrated through the wool and reached the skin. — et, i.q. vel — vel cum tonsis, etc., or if they have been shorn without having been previously washed. — et, i.q. vel, as in v. 4'L2. — hirsuti, in Med. et Rom. hirsutis, which, it is plain from Columella (vii. 5), cannot be the true reading. Wagaer says the error was caused by the s in the beginning of the fol- lowing word : see i. 125. — 445. Dulcibus idcirco, etc. As a remedy against the former evil, shepherds plunge and wash their flocks carefully in running water before they shear them ; see i. 272. — udisque aries, etc. This is probably added to show that it was in running, not stagnant water, that he would have the sheep to be washed. — secundo amni, i. e. with or down the stream. — 448. Aut tonsum, etc. or else they rub them all over, after they have been shorn, with the following composition, namely amurca, litharge of silver, native sulphur, tar, wax, squills, hellebore and bitumen. Like nearly all the receipts to be met with in ancient writers, and those among ignorant people with ourselves, it contains a number of needless ingredients. Varro (ii. 11) merely recommends a mixture of wine and oil, to which some, he says, used to add white wax and hogs'-lard. — spumas argenti. The oxide or scum that forms on the surface of silver, or of lead containing silver, when in fusion : see Plin. xxxiii. 6. — sulfura viva, virgin or native sulphur, as it is found in Sicily and the Lipari isles. This is the reading of the Medi- cean, the Roman and other good MSS. ; the common read- ing is vivaque sulfura, making the verse hypermetric. — 450. Idaeas, epith. ornans : it is the liquid pitch or tar of course that is meant : see Plin. xxxiv. 7- — pingues unguine, rich in unction, i. e. soft and yielding. Wax can only be rendered so by the addition of oil. — gravis, i. e. gravolentes : see v. 415. — 4:52. praesens : see Ec. i. 42. — -fortuna, i. e. remedium, in which of course there is always somewhat of chance. — laborum, of the disease. — potuit, is able, i. e. has the skill ; an aorist. — te- gendo, by being covered or concealed : see ii. 239. — Abnegat, utterly refuses, oat of indolence or despair. — aut meliora, etc., or merely sits calling on the gods for aid ; the fable of the countryman and Hercules. — omina, signs, as a proof of the divine favour. This is the reading of the best MSS. ; others have omnia. — 457. dolor, the disease. — depascitur. The verb depascor governs the ace, though pascor does not : see Aen. ii. 215. — incensos aestus, the inflamed (i. e. the violent) heat. The phrase is similar to nascentem ortum, i. 441. — el inter, etc., and to bleed (i.e. by bleeding) in the foot: this is the usual place for bleeding a sheep, as, on account of the wool, the neck cannot be got at. The sheep is also bled in the face or ear. — Bisaltae quo more solent, as the Bisaltae are used to do to their horses. He does not mean that they bleed their horses in the foot, but simply that they bleed them. The Bisaltae dwelt in Thrace, about the river Strymon. This practice is nowhere else ascribed to the Thracians. — Gelonus. The Geloni were Scythians, who dwelt on the Borysthenus. —fugit. He uses this word because they were horsemen, and therefore moved from place to place with rapidity. — in Rho- dopen : see v. 351. — atque. The Med. has aut, which is cer- tainly the sense of the particle in this place. — deserta Getarum, i. e. the countiy between the Danube and the Dniester, part of the present Moldavia. Wagner says, that the poet means that the Bisaltae went to Rhodope, the Gelonian to the country of the Getae. But there is no need for this refinement, for the negligence and uncertainty of the ancient poets in matters of geography is well-known. We have just seen our poet book in. 450-475. 287 ascribe to the Thracians a practice that was peculiar to the Sarmatians. Plin.xviii. 10. — Et lac, etc., 'and drinks milk (i.e. mare's milk) thickened with horse's blood.' This is another mistake of the poet. Pliny (ut snp.~) says that the Sarmatians used to live sometimes on equine milk or blood thickened with millet-meal: he adds, probably induced by this very passage, that the blood was taken from the horse's legs ! 464-477. Signs of, and remedy for, disease in sheep. Lan- guor and sickness were to be inferred when one of the sheep was observed to get frequently into the shade, to crop lazily and negligently the tops of the grass, to loiter behind when the flock was in motion, to lie down when grazing in the middle of the field, and to linger behind when the rest of the sheep were going home at night. — Continuo culpam, etc., < check the disease at once with steel,' i. e. kill the diseased animal. — incautum vulgus. This is either, the throng (i. e. flock) which takes no care of itself; or rather, the throng which is neglected, of which the shepherd takes no proper care, as is indicated by his leaving the diseased one among them. Repente incautos agros invasit, Sail. H. inc. 122. Vul- gus. Volgum turbamque animantum, Lucr. ii. 919. ' Not so frequent does the whirlwind, bringing rain with it, rush down on the sea, as', etc. ; i. e. the diseases of sheep are as numerous and violent as the whirlwinds that agitate the main. — aestiva, summer-camps ; a military term, applied to the flocks of sheep as they were moved to distant pastures in the summer, as is still the practice in Italy and Spain.— Spem, i.e. the lambs : see Ec. i. 15. — cunctamque, etc. This is merely exegetic of what pre- cedes. — Turn sciat, etc. He who has any doubt of this, may convince himself of the truth of it by viewing the present con- dition of a district in which the cattle were attacked by an epidemic. — aerias, lofty : see Ec. viii. 59. — Nurica castella. Noricurn was on the northern declivity of the Alps, the pre- sent Salzburg, Styria and Carinthia. The word castella seems appropriate, as Livy (xxi. 33) describes the Alpine peoples who opposed Hannibal as issuing from their castella or forts. Cf. Aen. v. 440. — 475. Iapydis Timavi. The Timavus (see Ec. viii. 6) was so named from the lapydes, an Illyrian people who 2S8 GEORGICS. dwelt near it. The scene of this pestilence was therefore the whole country to the east of the Alps, and the calamity was probably well-known to all the people of Lombardy. — -post ta?ito, sc. tempore. See Ec. i. 29. — regna. See Ec. i. 70. 478-497. The remainder of the book is devoted to the de- scription of the epidemic, and its effects on the various animals. First, its general effects morbo caeli, an infected state of the atmosphere. — miseranda tempestas, a dreadful season. — toto aestu, with the whole heat of autumn, i. e. with a most sultry autumn. — incanduit, glowed. — Corrupit locus. The greater part of the water in pools and ponds being drawn off by the heat, the remainder became putrid. — infecit pabula tabo. The juices of the grass and other plants being extracted by the heat, and they being thus deprived of their nutritious power, the effect was the same as if the blood in the animal body was corrupted and converted into tabum ; hence he uses the latter word. — via mortis, the mode or course of death. — simplex, one, the same : see ii. 73 ; or perhaps, simple, without change, which seems to accord best with what follows. — ignea sitis, fiery fever-heat. He names it sitis from its usual effect. — acta, driven through or into. — adduxerat, had contracted, compressed, or reduced in bulk.— -fluidus liquor, the tabus or corrupted blood. — minutatim, reduced to small particles, or gradually. — morbo collapsa, wasted down by the disease. — in se trahebat, made part of itself : they became fluid, and a part of the tabus. — 4<86. in honore dewn medio, in the midst of a sacri- fice. This is the usual sense of this phrase : Aen. i. 636 ; iii. 118. — Lanea dum nivea, etc. The infula appears to have been a broad woollen band, that was put round the head of the victim ; the vitta would seem to have been a narrower band, which fastened the infula on. — inter cunctantis, among the de- laying, i. e. while they delayed, sc. to kill him. — ante, before it dropped down dead. — hide, thence, from it : see on i. 5 nee impositis, etc., 'the altars neither burn when the fibres are placed on them.' This Heyne calls " exquisitius dictum," for, ' the fibres did not burn on the altars.' We must confess that we wish the poet both here and elsewhere had expressed himself naturally.— -fibris. The Jibra was the lobe of the book in. 478-509. 289 liver or the lung. — Nee responsa potest, etc. The exta were in so diseased a state, that the parts by which they used to di- vine were either wanting or quite altered. — Ac vix, etc. There was hardly any blood in him, and what there was was mere gore. — -jejuna, thin. Such is the effect of fasting : hence he uses the term jejunus. Cf. ii. 212. Corpora succo jejuna, Lucr. ii. 844. 494-514. Hinc, hence, from this disease. — vulgo, com- monly, everywhere. — blandis, fawning. — Tussis anhela, etc. The disease of swine called the angina, vayyr], fipayyos. See Aristot. Hist. An. viii. 21. — obesis, as the swine is usually fat. — infelix studiorum, whom his pursuits (i. e. his racing, etc.) avail not now. Cf. i. 277 ; Aen. iv. 529. Heyne would join stu- diorum with herbae, and have both governed of immemor ; but this is harsh. — Victor, sc. in the race. — avertitur fontes, turns away from the water, airoc-phhe-ai to vSiop. It is therefore a Grsecism. Forbiger says he knows no other instance of this verb used as a deponent ; but surely it is here rather a reflected verb or the middle voice : see on Ec. iii. 106 Crebra, i. e. crebro. — incertus sudor, i. e. that breaks out irregularly — ibi- dem, there, i. e. about the ears. He adds that it is cold, and cold ears, it is well known, are a symptom of disease in horses. — aretpellis, the skin is dry and hot : another well-known sym- ptom, as is also the following, viz. his being hidebound. — 503. ante exitium, before their death. He seems to mean (and it is not always that his meaning can be discovered with cer- tainty), that these are the first symptoms that appear in a horse that has a deadly attack of this distemper. Sin in the following verse would therefore appear to mean but when. — crudescere, to increase in virulence, litt. to grow more raw. — attractus ab alto Spiritus, deep heavings. — gemitu gravis, heavy with groaning, denoting greater pain — imaque longo, etc., they stretch their flanks with prolonged heavy panting. He terms the flanks ima, either on account of their distance from the head, or to indicate the force of the panting, which sends them in so far. — aspera lingua. The tongue is rough and thick on account of the inflammation. — 509. Profuit, etc. It was found of advantage to drench them with wine. — morientibus, o 290 GEORGICS. for those that seemed likely to die ; i. e. against their dying. — Mox erat, etc. ; but this very thing soon proved to be inju- rious, as it was found to increase the fever, and they even, just before they died, tore their own limbs with their teeth. — 513. Dii milium, sc. dent. — errorem, i. e.furorem : see Ec. viii. 41. — Ji/ulis, i. e. ntidutis, naked, exposed by drawing back the lips. 515-536. The effect of the pestilence on oxen.— fumans, sc. sudore: see ii. 54-2. — abjungens, sc. ajugo, airo£ev£as, having unyoked. The Latin poets, as their language had no part, an- swering to that of the aorist in Greek, ventured sometimes to use the praes. part, in a past sense.— -fraterna morte, at the death of his brother, i. c. comrade. The ancients usually ploughed with a single pair of oxen. — relinquit. This is the reading of all the best MSS. Voss and Heyne follow those that read reliquit, regarding it as cxquisitius. — 521. Movere cuiimam, attract them, sc. the oxen in general, who were af- fected by the disease ; not merely, as some suppose, the juven- cus of v. 518. — Purior electro, brighter, clearer than electrum. The critics say that it is the metal electrum, composed of four parts gold and one part silver (Plin. xxxiii. 4°) that is meant. But surely it may be amber ; as clear as amber is a common phrase of our own when commending liquors. — at, on the contrary. — ima : see v. 506. — Solvuntur, etc. All signs of weakness and disease. — Quid labor, etc. It was of this and the following five lines that Scaliger said (Poet. v. 1 ] ) that he would rather be the author of them than have Croesus or Cyrus at his command. They are no doubt beautiful, but not of such very extraordinary merit ; and we confess that we pre- fer to them Lucretius' description of the cow seeking her calf, ii. 355, seq. — epulae repostae, luxurious banquets. This is, as all agree, the general meaning of the passage-; but critics differ as to the exact sense. Heyne will have repostae to be i. q.positae t but though the simple is used frequently for the compound, the converse, as we have before remarked, is not the case. Voss and Wakefield say that it is dainties sought for far and near, and then carefully laid up in pantries and storerooms. Wagner, comparing the use of reponere with that ofinstaurare in our ooet, supposes the reference to be to the sacrificial book nr. 513-541. 291 banquets, which were noted for their luxury. Plaut. Men. i. 1, 25 ; Hor. C. ii. 14, 28 ; Mart. xii. 48, 12. Gessner (v. repos- tus, in Thesaur. L. L.) says, " Puto inprimis significari binas eodem die epulas, bis in die saturum fieri, quod in Siculis Dio- nysii coenis dispHcebat Platoni : Cic. Tusc. v. 35, 100." — Pocula, i. e. potio. — exercita cursu, exercised with running ; in opposition to standing water. — 532. Quaesitas, sought for, i. e. not to be had. — ad sacra, for the sacred rites. We think that Servius, and those who follow him, are right in sup- posing that there is an allusion here to the sacred rites of Juno at Argos, which Herodotus has rendered memorable by the story of Cleobis and Biton (i. 31). Indeed it is so un- likely that the people of Noricum should have worshiped the Argive goddess in the Argive mode, that one might suspect the poet of transferring to them the Grecian custom, were it not that the car of the German goddess Hertha (Earth, same as the Argive Hera,) was drawn by kine. Tac. Germ. 40. Strabo (v. p. 215) however says that there was a grove (ciXo-os) of the Argive Hera in the Venetian territory. — uris. See ii. 374. — Imparibus, that were not matches ; per- haps it is, unfit for the office. — donaria, i. e. templum ; as the place where the dona, i. e. sacrifices, etc. were offered. — Ergo, etc. Having thus no draft-cattle, they were obliged to give up the use of the plough and cultivate their corn with the spade, hoe, etc. He uses rastra for implements in general. — rimantur, dig : see on i. 384. — ipsis unguibus, with their own hands ; unguis for manus. The ancients usually sowed under the plough; hence he says infodiunt. — Contenta cervice, with a strained neck. Contentus in this sense is a favourite term with Lucretius. 537-547. The wild animals, the fish and the serpents also suffered from it. — insidias, i. e. locum aut opportunitatem insi- diis. Cf. Aen. ix. 59. — gregibus obamhulat, i. e. goes up to the field-pens, in which the sheep are kept at night. — Cura, sc. of his own disease. — timidi damae, etc. They lose all terror in their indifference to life. — 541. et, even. Cf. v. 473.- — nataniiim, fish. Like volantes, bees, iv. 16 ; birds, Aen. vi. 190, 239 ; ba- lantes, sheep, i. 272. Lucretius has (ii. 342) natantes squam- o2 migerum pecudes ; but Virgil first used natantes alone. Ari- stotle (Hist. An. viii. 19), whom Pliny follows (ix.49), asserts that fish are never affected by an epidemic. In this, and what he says of the serpents, the poet therefore states, for the sake of effect, what is not correct. — 543. Proluit. Wagner says that here one might rather expect p>rojicit, or some such verb. But this is not the view of the poet ; he supposes the fish thrown like the bodies of drowned sailors up on the beach, where they are washed by each succeeding wave. — insolitae, unused to do so. Cur prudentissimas feminas in tantum virorum conventum in- solitas invitasque prodire cogis? Cic. Verr. iii. 37- Heyne is wrong in explaining it insolito more. — phocae, the seals. — 544. fruslra, because the pestilential air penetrates into it. — attoniti, like exterriti, is applied to the serpents to express the high de- gree of uneasiness which they feel. — non aequus, i. e. perni- cious : see ii. 225. — et Mae. Et seems here used in a causative sense as nam. 548 to the end. — Praeterea, etc. ' It is of no avail to change their food.' — Quaesitae artes, the remedies sought. We how- ever rather think it is, the masters of art or skilful persons (i. e. doctors) to whom recourse was had ; the act for the agent: see on ii. 382. — nocent, hurt rather than serve, i. e. are of no use. — Phillyrides, etc. He uses Chiron and Me- lampus in order to express that the most skilful doctors, even though equal to these two mythic surgeons, could effect nothing. Chiron was the son of Saturn and the nymph Phil- lyra : Melampus was the son of Amythaon : see Mythology, p. 436. — Saevit, etc. ' Tisiphone sent out into the light of day rages, and drives Disease and Death before her ; and rising every day more and more, raises higher her craving head.' A noble poetic expression of the increasing ravages of the pes- tilence. — colles supini, the sloping hill. — 558. Donee, etc. The only remedy was to bury them as fast as possible, that the effluvia from their bodies might not increase the venom of the atmosphere. — neque erat, etc. That was to be done because their skins and their flesh Avere equally useless. — viscera, their flesh. The viscera, according to Servius, are all that is beneath the skin. — undis abolere, to wash, or rather boil in water, and book in. 543-566. 293 thus take out the venom. — vincere Jlamma, roast. It is thus that Servius explains the passage. Heyne says that it means the quantity was too great to be consumed either by water or by fire, and therefore they were buried. The former explana- tion is, we think, greatly to be preferred. — telas, i. e. if they did shear them and manufacture the wool. — invisos amictus, i. e. garments made of that infected wool. — papulae, pimples, pustules. — moranti, to him delaying ; though it did not imme- diately attack him. — sacer ignis. It is not known exactly what disease this was ; it resembled the erysipelas, from which how- ever Celsus (v. 28, 4) distinguishes it. Voss thinks it might have been St. Antony's fire. BOOK IV. Argument. Proposition, 1-7. Situation for the hives, 8-32. Hives, 33-50. Swarming, 51-66. Battles of the bees, 67-87. Dif- ferent kinds of bees, 88-102. Mode of keeping them from wandering, 103-115. Digression on gardens, 116-148. Man- ners and customs of the bees, 149-218. Opinion respecting their nature, 219-227- Mode of taking the honey, 228-250. Diseases of the bees and their cure, 251-280. Mode of ob- taining new stocks when they have died off, 281-314. Story of Aristaeus, and of Orpheus and Eurydice, 315-558. Con- clusion of the poem, 559 to the end. Notes. 1-7. Protenus, forthwith, in continuation : see on Ec. i. 13. — aerii, etc. It was the general belief of the ancients that honey was a dew that fell from the sky, and that the bees merely collected it. MeXi Ee tu ttItztov eic rov aepos says Ari- stotle (H. A. v. 22); and as a proof of it he adds, that bee- 294< GEORGICS. masters often find their hives filled in one or two days ; and that in the autumn, if the honey is taken out of the hives, they are not replenished, though there is plenty of flowers. It is therefore not from them, which only yield wax, that they extract it. It falls chiefly, he says, at the rising of the con- stellations (never before that of the Pleiades), and when there is a rainbow. Pliny (xi. 12) says it is then found on the leaves of the trees, and that if one goes out early in the morn- ing he will find his hair and clothes covered with it. He doubts whether it be the sweat of the sky, or a certain spittle of the stars, or the juice of the air which is purging itself. In Arabia and the neighbouring regions, after a kind of mist in the months of July and August, a sweet substance is found on the leaves of the palm and other frees ; and in this country the leaves of the lime and other trees are often covered with a similar substance, which is known to be produced by aphides and other insects. It was this probably that led the ancients to their erroneous theory of the origin of honey. 4. ordine, in due order. Most MSS. read ex ordine. — 5. po- pulos, the peoples, i. e. the different communities, hives or stocks into which the gens or race is divided. Cf. Aen. x. 202. — 7. Numina laeva, propitious deities, according to Servius, who is followed by the commentators in general ; while Gel- lius (v. 12) and Burmann understand by it adverse deities. In favour of the former it is said that, as the Romans in taking auguries faced the south, the east was on the left, and signs from that quarter were regarded as the favourable ones ; and our poet uses laevum in this sense, Aen. ii. 693; ix. 630. See also Plin. ii. 52, 55 ; Ovid. Fast. iv. 833 ; Liv. i. 1,8; Phaedr. iii. 18. As the Greeks looked to the north, the east was on their right, which therefore was their lucky side. The critics however seem not to have observed, that in all the passages to which they refer for laevus in the sense of favourable, it is always thunder, etc. that is meant. We are therefore inclined to think, that as Virgil elsewhere uses laeva in a bad sense (see Ec. i. 16), and sinistra in like manner (Ec. ix. 15), he does the same here, and that Gellius understood the pas- sage rightly. The verb sinunt would be more properly used book iv. 1-18. 295 of adverse than of favouring deities. — auditque, etc., if they do not prevent, and if Apollo aids. Vocatns audio is a usual form of expression respecting a deity. Cf. Hor. C. ii. 18, 40; iii. 22, 3. It is probably Apollo Nomios that he means. It may be here observed, that the poet seems to have derived his account of the bees from Aristotle (H. A. ix. 40) and Varro iii. 16. 8-32. Choice of a situation for the hive ; what is to be avoided, 8-17; what is to be sought for, 18-32. It is to be sheltered from winds, and placed where no cattle can come near it, also out of the way of lizards and some kinds of birds. 10. haedi petulci i. e. playful kids. Lucretius (ii. 368) has agni petidci. — 11. insidtent, bound on. As sheep are not apt to do so, he probably by oves means lambs, and que is dis- junctive as usual. — campo, in the field. — 13. picti squalentia, etc., the rough back of the speckled lizard, i. e. the stellio, v. 243. In a similar sense he uses picti of birds, iii. 243 ; Aen. iv. 525. — 14. Pinguibus a stabulis, from the rich hives. — me- ropes. The Merops apiaster L., or Bee-eater, a bird of pas- sage in the south of Europe, which makes its nest as deep as four ells underground. Voss describes it as being of the size of a starling, but formed like a stork, blue and red on the head, green and red on the neck and shoulders, golden-yellow on the throat, blue-green ending in yellow from the breast downwards, and the long tail-feathers blue and brown. — 15. Et, especially. — Procne, the swallow : see on Ec. vi. 78. — signata. We do not agree with Voss in taking this as a Mid. voice. — 16. Omnia nam, etc. Like a plundering army they spread their ravages far and near. — volantes, the (flying) bees. Cf. i. 272; iii. 147- — 17- nidis, i. q. pullis. In the sacred poetry of the Hebrews the nest was also used for the nestlings or the young birds which it contained : see Deut. xxxii. 11. 18. At, etc. What should be there. Et in these two verses is evidently disjunctive; see v. 25. — stagna virentia musco, pools with green moss growing around them. — tenuis rivus, a shallow rivulet. Varro (iii. 16) says it should not be more than two or three inches deep. The same applies to the preceding stagna, of which Heyne must have had an erroneous concep- 296 GEORGICS. tion when he spoke of rocks covered with moss rising out of them. — 20. vestibidum, the vestibule or outer part of the hive, which is of course included, as the shade of a tree could not cover the one without the other. — 22. Vere suo, in their own spring, i. e. in that part of the spring in which they swarm. — ludet, sports. This refers to the incessant flying backwards and forwards of the bees previous to the rising of the swarm. — 23. Vidua ripa, sc. of the pool or stream. — decedere calori, retire from the heat. Cf. iii. 467- — 24. Obviaque, etc., ' or the tree which is at hand (obvia) detain them in its leafy bower.' The figure seems to be taken from the practice of the Romans of receiving their friends when on a journey at their country- seats. It is an object with bee-masters to get the swarm to settle as soon as possible. — 25. In medium, i. e. in it. — seu stabit iners, whether it stand inert, i. e. be a pool, v. 18. — seu profluet, or run, v. 19. — 26. Transversas, etc., May willows across the stream, and put large stones into the pool.' — 27. Pontibus, bridges, i. e. resting-places. — aesfivum, warm. — 29. Sparserit, sc .imbre, " nam spargere pro irrigare, irrorare usurpatur." Wunderlich. It may however be simply scat- tered, and, being fatigued, they might not be able to cross the water if they had not these halting-places. — Neptuno, in the water. — Eurus, simply the wind. — 30. Haec circum, etc. ' About these (founts, ponds or streams, v. 18,) let grow casia, serpyllum, and plenty of strong-smelling thymbra, and let vio- let-plantations imbibe the water.' — 31. graviter spirantis. Gra- vis here is used in a more agreeable sense than in iii. 41 5, 451. — 32. irriguum, i. e. irrigatum: see Cato, 151. — -fontem, i. e. aquam. 33-50. Directions about the hives. — corticibus suta cavalis, put together (i. e. formed) of hollow cork-wood, the cortex suberis, Colum. ix. 6. — 34. Seu lento, etc., or, if they are woven, of flexible twigs. Virgil only mentions these two kinds of hives ; but Columella (1. c.) notices also those made of the fenda, which, he says, are next best to those of cork- wood ; those of a hollowed piece of timber or of boards ; those of potters' ware, which he looks on as by far the worst ; and finally, those made of cow-dung or bricks. The ancients do book iv. 20-45. 297 not seem to have known the straw-hive — alvearia. The e is elided in this word, otherwise it could not be admitted into a dactylic verse : see ii. 453. — 35. Angustos habeant aditus, etc. The reason which he gives here for making the en- trances narrow would almost lead one to think that he mis- understood his authorities. The true reason of making the entrance narrow was, as Columella tells us (ix. 7), — though out of respect to the poet he glances at the reason given by him, — to keep out lizards, beetles, moths, etc., while hives of cork are commended, because they exclude the heat in summer and the cold in winter; and those of earthenware condemned for the opposite reason. — 37. neque Mae, etc- It is for this reason that the bees themselves are so careful to stop up every chink and cranny in the walls of their hives. ■ — 39. Spiramenta : see i. 90.— -fuco etjloribus, i. q. fnco flo- rium, with the pollen of the flowers. — oras, the entrance of the hive 40. gluten. This is the propolis, a substance col- lected from the vines and poplars: Plin. xi. 7. — 41. visco: see i. 139. — pice Idae: see iii. 460. — 42. Saepe etiam, etc. So anxious are the bees to have protection against the ex- tremes of heat and cold, that they are known of themselves to make their combs in holes in the ground, in rocks, and in decaying trees. — effossis latehris, in places in the ground hol- lowed out by nature or by the hand of man, not, as Servius seems to think, by the bees themselves. He adds, " if the re- port be true," because he probably knew this only on the au- thority of Aristotle, who (v. 22) relates it of the bees at Themiscyra, on the Thermodon in Asia 43. fovere larem, cherish their household-god, i. e. keep at home. Some MSS. (the Med. included) read fodere. We shall find the poet throughout applying to the bees the customs and ideas of me n. — 44. Pumicibus. By the pumcx here is meant any kind of rock, ex. gr. sand- or lime-stone, that had holes or fissures in it. — antro, the hollow or cavity. — 45. Tu tamen, etc. ' You then, beemaster, do not leave the bees to do all for themselves, but plaster the outside of their hives, if they are not quite close, with smooth mud, and spread leaves over them.' Simi- lar to this last precept is our practice of putting a thatch of o5 ^yb GEORGICS. straw over the hives. Wagner says he should have expected densas instead of raras, but the poet knew that leaves do not lie close together when spread on anything. — tectis, the hives. — 47. taxum. See on Ec. ix. 30. — neve rubentis, etc. This pre- cept, of not burning crabs near hives, is also given by Colu- mella (ix. 5), following our poet. The ancients used to burn crabs as a remedy against sundry diseases of trees. The di- rection here is, not to do so in the neighbourhood of the hives. He says rubentis, reddening, because, as is well known, crabs turn red under the influence of heat. — 48. cdtae neu crede, etc. ' Do not place your hives near a marsh, or in any place where there is a smell of mud, or where there is an echo.' — 50. vocis imago, or imago simply, is the proper Latin ex- pression for the Greek v\w, our echo: see Hor. C. i. 12, 3; 20, 6 ; Val. Flac. iii. 596 ; Sil. Ital. xiv. 365. 51-66. The swarming of the bees. — Quod superest : see on ii. 34-6. — 52. aestiva luce, the light of summer. The division of the year into summer and winter is usual to Virgil. — re- chisit, v. — Quippe, etc. V. 387- ITwXetrat ns Sevpo yepajv uXlos vijfieprrjs, 'AQavaros Upwreiis Aiyvirnos, oare Oakaaatjs Tldcrrjs (3ev6ea dlde Uotreidddjvos inrodpojs, — Od, iv. 385. sook iv. 379-415. 317 ' Neptune has thought fit to give him this power.' — et, even ; exegetic of what precedes. — 395. turpis, ugly, unsightly. — 397. eventus secundet, i. e. det eventus secundos 400. Tende. This verb would seem properly to belong only to the first subst. and injice to be understood with the second. — circum haec, aiKplrav-u, against these. — medios aestus, the noontide heat. — 403. In secreta, sc. loca. He represents the god, like men in the south, as taking his siesta or afternoon-sleep. — illudent. sc. te. — species, appearances. — 408. leaena. In Homer it is more correctly Xewv. It was probably the constraint of the verse that made the poet here, and in the preceding line, employ the feminine. In giving a mane to the lioness, he shows his ignorance of natural history. — Aut acrem, etc. ' he will turn himself into fire and water.'- — 410. Excidet, he will fall out of; i. e. he will appear so ; for he will still be in them. Abibit is to be understood in a similar manner. — 412. contende, straiten, draw tight. — incepto, etc. In plain language, 'when sleep began to cover his eyes.' Somnus tegeret qitiete ocellos, Catull. 1. 10. 415—424. liquidum ambrosiae odore?n, the smell of liquid ambrosia; the adj., as usual, being joined to the wrong subst. This ambrosia is not the solid substance which was the food of the gods, but rather ambrosial oil, similar to that with which Juno anoints herself in Homer, II. xiv. 171 : see My- V. 393. "Os ySr] tu r hbvra, ra r eaabfieva, Trpo t eovra. II. i. 70. V. 396. To'vy' el ttojs ai) Svvaio Xoxrjaa^vos XeXa(3ea8ai, "Os Kev toi e'tTryaiv bdbv Kal fierpa KeXev9ov, "Noarov 9' ojs ctti -kovtov eXevaeat ixOvbevra. — Od. iv. 388. V. 405. Kcti tot' 67reir' ifiTv fieXeru) Kapros re j3itj re, AvQi ex eiv jue/mwra Kal eaavjievov irep aXv^ai. Uavra Se yiyvo'/zevos Treipr/aeTai, baa' errl yaiav '~EpTrera yivovTai, Kal vSojp, Kal BeairiSaes Ttvp' 'YjJ.els 5' aare/xtyews exefiev, fiaXXbv re irieZ,eiv. 'AW' ore Kev dr] a avrbs aveiprjTai eireeoGi, ToZos ewv, olov ks KarevvrjOevTa ISyaQe, Kat ro're Si) axeaOai re /3£?js, Xvaai re yepovTa, Od. iv. 415. V. 415. 'Afi(3poalr]v into plva eKaaTip 0f;/ce (pepovaa 'HSv jxaXa irveiovaav. — Od. iv. 445. 318 GEORGICS. thology, p. 550. — 416. perduxit, anointed. The simple ex- pression would have been, quern (or rather quam) perduxit toto corpori. — compositis, set in order, arranged. — aura, i. q. odor, v. 415. — habilis, active, aphis ad habendum. Adjec- tives in -ilis usually denote aptitude, fitness for the act ex- pressed by the verb from which they are derived, ex. gr. agilis, ductilis, facilis, Jissilis, Jfcxilis, fragilis, etc. — 419. Exesi, sc. Jluctibus. — quo, where, i. e. in the cove, at the end of which is the cavern. Cf. Aen. i. 159, seq. Here also he expresses him- self with his usual ambiguity, for the natural anteced. of quo is specus. — 420. in sinus reductos. It is very difficult to de- termine the exact meaning of these words here and in Aen. i. 161. Reductus is, drawn or brought back; reducta vallis (in Aen. vi. 703; viii. 609; and Hor. C. i. 17, 17) is a retired valley ; and this is the only figurative employment of reductus. Heyne understands sinus of the recesses of the cavern, and then the sense is plain enough ; but in the passage of the Aeneis he understands it of the waves. We own we cannot make a definite sense of it, and we are inclined to think that the image of the waves striking against a rock or islet out in the sea, and thus dividing themselves, which he might have seen in the bay of Baiae, and which he afterwards described in the Aeneis, may have been in his mind. Reductos sinus would then signify curved billows, the waves forming seg- ments of a circle, the upper part of the curve coming first to the shore. — 121. Deprensis, sc. in tempestate. Cf. Aen. v. 52. In patenti Prensus Aegaeo, Hor. C. ii. 16, 1 objice, i. e. ob- jectu. He lay behind a rock, to be out of the light. — 424. procul, at a little distance. Cf. Ec.vi. 16. — nebulis, "h. e. in nebula ex aequore surgere solita." Heyne. We rather think it was a miraculous nebula, like that by which Venus rendered Aeneas invisible (Aen. i. 412), and that he had the same pas- sage of the Odyssey (vii. 15, 41) before him in both places. — obscura, i. e. obscurata. 425-452. Jam rapidus, etc. It was now midsummer, when V. 425. T B/xos 8' r/ekios fievov ovpavbv afupifleprjKei, Tfjfios up' e£ aXbs elcri yepwv liXios vqfxeprrjs, book iv. 416-448. 319 the Dogstar is in the nocturnal sky, and the heat which he brings scorches the thirsty Indians, the people most exposed to it : see on v. 293. Rapidus : see Ec. ii. 1 0. — 426. caelo, etc., and it was noon, the hottest time of the day. — medium orbem, the middle of his path, of the portion of the celestial circle which he traverses in the day. — 427. Hauserat, L q. exhauserat, had exhausted, i. e. had accomplished. Cf. ii. 398 ; Aen. iv. 383 ; ix. 356. Qaam incredibiles hausit calamitates. Cic. Tusc. i. 35. Exhauri mea mandata, Id. ad Att. v. 13. — siccis, i. e. siccatis.—faucibus, i. e. ostiis, or alveis. — coquebant, were ma- king boil up. — 432. diversae, scattered, here and there. — phocae, the seals. — Ipse, sc. Proteus. — acuunt, whet the ap- petites of. — 4-39. clamore magno. He keeps close to Homer here ; but silence would seem to have been the surer way. — Occupat. To denote the celerity with which he did it. Cf. Aen. vi. 424, 635. — miracula rerum, Lq. miras res. — 445. Nam quis, i. q. quisnam, ' who then,' rts yap. — neque est. A Grsecism, ovk eort, i. e. ov Svrarov 'ion. Cf. Aen. vi. 595. Quod versu dicere non est, Hor. S. i. 5, 87. — 44S. velle, sc. fcdlere. — oracula, a TLvoiy vtto 'Cecpvpoio, peXaivy "Qs etyar', avrap eyu) piv dpeij36pevos ■KpoaeeiiroV OlaOa yepov tL pe ravra TTaparpoTreujv epeeiveis ; Od. iv. 453. response, i. e. a remedy. — lapsis rebus, my calamity, the loss of my bees. — vi multa, strongly, with great effort. — Ardentis, etc, 'he twisted his flaming, green eyes.' — -frendens, gnashing his teeth.— -fatis, for the fates, i. e. to announce the cause and remedy of Aristaeus' misfortunes. 453-498. He now relates the celebrated tale of the descent of Orpheus to Erebus, in order to bring back his wife Eury- dice. Virgil is the only extant author who ascribes her death to Aristaeus. — 453. Non te nullius, etc. ' Your misfortune is not a mere casualty, it results from the anger of a deity,' sc. the Nymphs. — exercent, harass, torment. Cf.i. 99; ii. 356; Aen. iv. 623 ; v. 779, etc. — Magna has, etc., ' you suffer for a great offence.' Cf.i. 502; Aen. xi. 841. — Hand qua quam ob meritum, not deservedly made wretched ; for Orpheus had done nothing to merit such misery. — ni fata resistant, ' which you will con- tinue to suffer unless fate (v. 452) stand in the way,' i. e. point out a mode of expiation. — rapta, sc. a morte : see v. 504 ; or rapta a te, i. e. in intention. — &5! '. per jliunina, along the banks of the river. — moritura, fated to die: see iii. 501. — puella. See on Ec. vi. 47. — Servantem, watching, guarding as it were. — 460. aequalis, companion, i. e. who were young like herself. — supremos, i. q. summos, the tops of; taken from Lucretius, i. 275. — -Jierunt, sc. mortem ejus. — ffliodopeiae, etc. Rhodope and Pangaeus are mountains of Thrace, which he calls the land of Rhesus, who had ruled in it. The Getae, who dwelt beyond the Danube (see on iii. 462) are, with the usual dis- regard to geographic accuracy, placed here in Thrace. — Ac- tias Orithyia. The Athenian princess Orithyia, whom the wind-god Boreas carried off to Thrace : see Mythology, p. 383. 464. Ipse, sc. Orpheus. — cava testudine, i. e. lyra ; which Mercury is said to have first formed out of the shell of a tor- toise. — Te, sc. Eurydice. While fully acknowledging the pa- thos of the repetition of te in this place, and the poetic beauty of the subsequent narrative, we cannot help thinking that it is too highly wrought for what we are to suppose to be an extem- poraneous narration. Were it told in the person of the poet himself it would be liable to little objection, for in that case time and labour are presupposed. — 467. Taenarias, etc. A book iv. 453-483. 321 cavern on Mount Taenaron in Laconia was supposed to yield a passage down to Erebus. — Ditis, of Dis, Orcus or Pluto, the god of the underworld. Orcus, in the classics, is always a person, never a place : see Mythology, p. 55 L — caligantem, sc. se, shrowding itself. — ; formidine, gloom; effect for cause. — Manis, the ghosts or shades of the departed — 470. Nesciaque, etc. ; a periphrasis of the d/j.el\ixos 'Aicrjs of Homer. Corda is i. q. cor, and que is even. — 472. ibant, sc. ad eum. — que, even. — agit, sc. eas. — imber, i. q. hiems, "^eifiuv, a storm. — 475. Matres, etc. These three verses are repeated, Aen. vi. 306-8, where they are much more in place. — corpora he- roum, i. e. heroes : Cf. iii. 369.— circum, sc. est. The region where they are now is flowed round by the river of Cocytus, filled with black mud and unsightly reeds. He calls it a palus, on account of its sluggishness and its spreading itself widely. — inamabilis, hateful, by a usual euphemism. Cf. iii. 5. — interfusa. This seems to mean 'flowing about'; but it is impossible to get a clear idea from this description, which is repeated, Aen. vi. 479. — 481. Quin ipsae, etc. Not merely the dead, who might be supposed to retain a recollection of what used to delight them on earth, but the house and inner Tar- tarus of Death (i. e. the dwellers of them), were entranced by the strains of Orpheus. — intima Tartara. Tartarus, where the wicked were tormented, is described in the Aeneis (vi. 577) as lying much lower than the rest of Erebus. — Leti. We might have expected Orci or Ditis. This gives some coun- tenance to our opinion, that the Latin Orcus was Death : see Additions to Mythology, p. xii.* — 483. Eumenides, sc.stupu- ere. — inhians, sc. in Orpheum, gaping with wonder and de- light. — vento, i. e. a vento. It was no longer whirled round by V. 472. "Ev6a re vaiovai ipvxal, e'iccoXa Kct{i6vTwv. — Od. xxiv. 14. Simulacraque luce carentum. — Lucr. iv. 39. V. 475. al o dyepovro tyvxai vtt e£ 'Epifievs vexviov KaraTeOveiwTwv, ~Nv(i([>ai r ', ijWeoi re, 7ro\urXj/rot re yepovres, TLapdeviKai t draXai, veoTvevBea Ovfiov exovacu. Od. xi. 36. P5 322 GEORGICS. the wind, which had itself been hushed to repose by the strains of Orpheus. — Ixioniirola orbis, the wheel of the lxionian orb; another of our poet's usual contortions of language, for the simple Ixion's wheel. Coinp. Hor. C. iii. 11, 15 seq. 485. Jamque, etc. He supposes the story to be so familiar to the reader, that he never tells why Orpheus had descended to Erebus, and we now only learn it from his success. — 489. Manes. Here used for the rulers of Erebus, Pluto and Pro- serpine. — luce sub ipsa, on the very verge of light. — 491. victus animi, his mind being overcome, sc. with longing. This use of the gen. where we might expect an abl. absol. or a Greek ace. is not unfrequent. Cf. truncus pedum, v. 310., amens animi, Aen. iv. 203. — tyranni, of the monarch : it is used here in its original Greek sense, as it also is Aen. vii. 266. — 493. terque fragor, etc. Probably the signal of return to Eu- rydice. Virgil perhaps had in view the signal given to Oedipus in Sophocles, Oed. Col. 1606. — 496. natantia, swimming. We use this word in the same sense. — non tua, sc. Eurydice or uxor. — 500. diversa, i. e. in diversam partem. — jjraeterea, any longer, ever again. — portitor Orci, Orcus' ferryman, i. e. Charon. — passus, sc. est ilium, or perhaps Mam. — 506. Ilia quidem, etc. This verse has so little apparent connexion with what precedes, that Heyne, Wagner, and others have doubted of its genuineness. Voss and Jahn think that an opposition is intended between her in this, and him in the following verse ; but to this Wagner justly replies, that in such case it would be hunc and not ilium in v. 507. To this we may add, that the space of seven months does not well accord with this view. The interpretation of Forbiger seems to be the most simple, supposing it to be a reply to Quidfaceret, etc. ' What could he do?' etc., ' Nothing, for she was,' etc. Quidem is there- fore i. q. nempe ; still the verse is useless, and were better away. — 507. ex ordine, Kade'trjs, running, uninterrupted. A Lucretian phrase, ex. gr. i. 499. v. 419. — deserti, deserted, i.e. lonely. — haec, these events which I have just related. — 509. evolvisse, to have unrolled or unfolded, i. e. gone over, sc. in his songs. — tigris. There are no tigers in Thrace, but that was nothing to an ancient poet. Our own Shakespeare has a book iv. 485-531. 323 lioness in the forest of Ardennes in France. — agentem, i. q. du- centem. Cf. Ec. viii. 17. Aen. v. 833. — 513. Observans, doicevtras, having marked or discovered : an aorist part. — noctem, i. e. per noctem, the whole night \ong.-~Integrat, i. q. iterat, repeats. — 517. Solus, i. e. caelebs, sine uxore; or perhaps simply alone. — Hyperboreas, etc. All these names of places far to the north of Thrace are only mentioned by way of ornament, and to increase our idea of the grief of Orpheus. — Tanaim, the Don in Sarmatia or southern Russia. — -Rhipaeis. An imaginary mountain-range in the extreme north : see i. 240. — 520. spretae, despised, rejected, or deeming themselves to be so.— quo munere. This is a very obscure expression, and it has of course perplexed the commentators : perhaps the best interpretation is to take, with Heyne, munus as equivalent to officium, and expressing the pious duty of Orpheus to the memory of his wife. If there were sufficient authority for the reading spreto, it would remove all the difficulty, as munere would then refer to v. 516. — Ciconum matres, the Thracian women. Cf. r.475; Aen. ii. 489, etc que, even, that is to s&y. —juvenem, i. e. membra juvenis. — marmorea, i. e. white as marble: a Lucretian term. — Oeagrius, Thracian ; from king Oeagrus, the father of Orpheus. 528-530. jaciu, with a bound or plunge. — se dedit, gave, (i.e. flung) himself. Cf. Aen. ix. 56, SlQ.sub vertice, in an eddy or small whirlpool. It appears awkwardly expressed, but it means that the water whirled round and round in the spot where Proteus had plunged into it.' — At non Cyrene, but Cyrene did not do so, i. e. she did not abandon her son. 531-547. Proteus having told the cause of the loss of the V. 511. — 'Qs S' ore HavSapeov Kovp?], ^XwpTjis arjcuv, JLaXov deiSycnv, eapos veov \rjra\jikvoio, AevSpeuiv ev Trercikoiai KaOeZo/xevr] TrvKivolaiv, "Rre Ba/xa rpwrrujaa %eei Tro\vr'iX ea l\oi>. — Horn. Od. xix. 518. KXcdov dk Xiyews, dSivwrepov ij r oluvol, $>rjvai, i] aiyvTTiol ya/ii/zwi/w^es, dial re reuva 'Ayporai e^eiXovro, Trapos Trereeiva yeveaOai. — Id. ib. xvi. 216. 324? GEORGICS. bees, Cyrene supplies the mode of recovering them. — clioros agitabat, used to dance. — 535. Tende, hold forth, i. e. offer ; from the mode of presenting gifts.— pacem, i. e. veniam, fa- vour, forgiveness.— facilis, easy, placable. Cf. Ec. iii. 9. — Napaeas, the nymphs of the vcurr] or saltus. He names them Dryades, v. 460. — ordine, in due order.— 538. eximios, litt. selected (from eximo), especially for sacrifice.-- praestanti cor- pore, of superior beauty. He often uses this expression : see Aen. i. 75 ; vii. 783, etc. — Lycaei. A mountain of Arcadia, of which country he makes Aristaeus an inhabitant. We are to suppose from this, that he had come to Thessaly to consult his mother, and that he now returns home ; but (v. 317) Thessaly would seem to be his abode. The poets however had such a love for introducing proper names, that they were careless of accuracy. — intacta cervice, i. e. that had never been yoked. — ad, at or before. — 545. Lethaea, Lethaean, causing oblivion. — Placatam, etc. Heyne, Jacobs, and Wagner are inclined to regard this verse as spurious, but it is found in all the MSS. Jahn explains it, " Praeterea Eurydicen vitula caesa placabis." 548-558. Hand mora, sc. Jit. — excitat,i. e. erigit. Elapide excitari (sepulchrum) Cic. Legg. ii. 27. — 554. monstrum, a prodigy, a wonder. — effervere, to boil up, to burst forth from. Cf. i. 471. Verrnesque effervere, Lucr. ii. 927. — 557. nubes, sc. apium. — uvam, fiorpvlov ; the cluster, resembling a bunch of grapes, which the bees form when they settle in a swarm. 559 to the end. The graceful and elegant conclusion of the poem, the first example of such a thing, we believe, in anti- quity. Heyne was however for this very reason disposed to regard it as being the work, not of Virgil, but of some gram- marian. Brunck and Schrader, he says, were of the same opi- nion, and Bryant rejected the four last verses. This conclu- sion however (unlike the four verses prefixed to the Aeneis) is to be found in all the MSS., and in all the ancient annota- tors ; the verses are every way worthy of Virgil, and, as Weichert very well observes, the use of the gen. oti, instead of otii, in v. 564, proves them to have been written before the later years of Augustus. — 559. super cultu, i. q. de cidtu. Cf. Aen. book iv. 535-566. 325 i. 750; iii. 348 ; vii. 344 ; x. 839.— Ccesar, etc. : see Life of Virgil. — 562. viam adfectat, treads the path. Hi gladiatorio animo ad me affectant viam, Ter. Phor. v. 8, 71. Qui ad dominas affectant viam, Ter. Heaut. ii. 3, 59. Quod iter affectat videtis, Cic. Rose. Amer. 49. — Olympo, i. q. ad Olym- pum. Cf. ii. 306 ; Ec. ii. 30. — Parthenope, Naples, so named from a Siren of that name, whose tomb was there. — florentem, flourishing, enjoying, being happy in ; taken from plants which flourish in a genial soil. — studiis, in the occupation : see on Ec. ii. 5. — ignobilis, without honour, as compared with the fame and honour acquired by military and legislative acts., such as Caesar was engaged in at the time. EXCURSUS, EXCURSUS I. THE RIVER OAXER. Pars Scythiam et rapidum cretae veniemus Oaxem. — Ec. i. 65. The note on rapidum cretae in this verse in Servius is as follows : "Hoc est lutulentum, quod rapit cretam. Cretani terrain albam dixit ; nam Oaxis fluvius est Mesopotamiae qui velocitate sua rapiens albam terram lutulentus efficitur. Vel Oaxis fluvius Scythiae ; in Creta insula non est : sed aqua cretei coloris est. Oaxem, Phili- sthenes ait Apollinis et Anchilenae filium ; hunc Oaxem in Creta oppidum condidisse, quod suo nomine nominavit ut Varro ait : Quos magno Anchiale partus adducta dolore, Et geminis capiens tellurem Oeaxida palmis Scindere dicta." This was evidently the prevalent mode of interpreting this passage in antiquity ; we might say the only one, were it not that the asser- tion in Creta insula non est might seem to point at one similar to that now prevalent. As to the latter part of the note, and the ex- tract from Varro Atacinus, whose translation of the Argonautics it is taken from, we may safely regard it as nothing more than a dis- play of the annotator's learning, for it proves nothing one way or the other. Vibius Sequester says that in the isle of Crete there was a stream named Oaxes : his only authority however was, in Heyne's opinion, this verse of Virgil. Politian held Cretae in this verse to be a proper name, and he has been followed so generally by the commentators, that it looks like presumption in any one now to maintain the old interpretation. It has however been done by Salmasius, Duker, Voss, Fea, and a few other critics, with whom we cordially agree. The Mesopotamia of Servius in this place is not that between the Euphrates and the Tigris, but Sogdiana, the Mawer-en-naher of 328 EXCURSUS 1. the Orientals, the region between the Oxus and the Jaxartes, to the north of Bactria, so named from its lying between rivers like the former. Of the Oxus Polybius says (x. 48, 4), cpeperm 8ia TreXid8os X&pas, noWcp ko.\ doXepcp pevpari. We will observe by the way that Virgil seems to have been a reader of Polybius ; see on Ec.vii. 4. Arrian (De Exp. Alex.iii. 29) says among other things of the Oxus, /3a#o? 8e ol>8e Trpos \6yov tov evpeos tiXXa ttoXv Be tl ftadvrepos 8r]s; and Curtius Cvii. 10), Hie quia limum veldt turbidus semper. We may here observe, that the Latin word creta denoted any kind of marly substance. The name of this river in Polybius is "0£os, in Arrian and Strabo 7 Q.£os. The change by Virgil into Oaxes presents a difficulty ; but in Callimachus (who is followed by Ca- tullus) we have 'Qapiav for 'Qpicov with the penult, short. Wagner no doubt objects that though a may be inserted after w, it cannot after o. We know not on what grounds he makes this assertion, but surely it was no greater licence in Virgil to shorten the w than in Callimachus to shorten the long L of 'Slpiav. The change of termination is also a difficulty, but possibly Virgil wrote Oaxum, and the copyists changed it on account of the analogy with Jaxar- tes, Araxes, Hydaspes, Euphrates, and so many rivers of the East; or the poet himself might have made the change for the same rea- son. But Wagner further says, " rapidus sollemne est fluviorum epitheton celeritatem indicans, sed ejusmodi epitheta non facile ad alium sensum detorta videas. Denique docendum erat rapidus idem significare quod rapax, et adjunctum sibi habere genitivum." In all probability it was this wrong conception of the original meaning of rapidus that caused the current interpretation of this place of Virgil. It is thought to be the same as its derivatives rapido It., rapide Fr., rapid. We will endeavour to show that this is by no means the case ; but we will previously ask a question or two of the critics, namely, Can you give a single instance from a classic author of such a construction as Oaxes Cretae ? Could any- one in writing Latin say Tiberis Italiae, Rkodanus Galliae, Albis Ger- maniae} Must not amnis or fluvius always be added ? In the following Excursus we will show that adjectives in -idus and -ax are properly participials of the present tense, and govern a genitive case. Rapidus (from rapio) would therefore appear to be nearly equivalent to rapiens and rapax, and to signify carrying away, and hence consuming. Thus we find our poet unites it with Sol, Sirius, ignis, and aestus, and it is only in this sense that we can understand it in Aen. i. 59- Lucretius speaks of the rapidi leones (iv. 714), and of the rapidi canes that begirt Scylla (v. 893) ; Ovid THE RIVER OAXES. Sl\d has rapidis rogis (Tr. i. 7, 20) ; and many other instances might be given. That rapidus is i. q. rapax might be thus inferred. Ennius says (ii. 46), Europam Libyamque rapax ubi dividit unda; which verse Lucretius thus imitates (i. 721), Angustoque fretu rapidum mare dividit undis. This poet also, having said (i. 15) Et rapidos tranant amnes, has only three lines after fluviosque rapaces, evi- dently for the sake of varying the phrase. Ovid applies the term apax to the Ionian sea (Fast. iv. 567) and to the river Ladon (i'b. v. 89), and Lucan (iv. 21) to the Cinga. "We certainly cannot give any instance of rapidus governing a genitive except that in the text, but we may notice the rapax virtutis of Seneca (Ep. 97, 35). We have timidus deorum (Ov. Met. v. 100) and timidus lucis (Sen. B.V. 21), gravidus metalli (Ov. Met. x. 531), and gravidus mellis (Sil. ii. 220), etc. We therefore see no difficulty in assuming that Virgil, following analogy, ventured on such an expression as rapidus cretae. Jahn argues as follows : " Sed neque Araxes neque Oxus illo tem- pore (anno 712) ad imperium Romanum pertinebant, atque Itali fugitivi exsulesque, quamvis ad extremos imperii fines perfugerent, tamen intra fines imperii remanserunt. Apparet autem poetam ex- treraas imperii partes nominare voluisse, unde Libyae (parti occi- dental!) opponit Scythiam (quam Orientis terram Romani in Ponto attingebant), atque Cretam insulam meridionalem Britanniae, insulae septentrionali. Fuit vero Creta versus meridiem extrema tellus, cum Aegyptus nondum in formam provinciae redacta esset. Bri- tannia autem, quamquam inter bella civilia a Romanis relicta esset, tamen a quo tempore Julius Caesar earn invaserat et expugnasse credebatur, pro imperii parte haberi coepta est." To this we only reply, that the poet does not say that the exiles were to remain within the bounds of the empire, for he very plainly intimates the contrary ; that we nowhere find Libya placed to the west and Scythia to the east of the Roman empire ; and that Ho- race, in odes written after this eclogue (i. 21, 15; 35, 30; iii. 5, 30), speaks of the Britons with the Persians as a people yet to be con- quered. 330 EXCURSUS II. EXCURSUS II. LATIN PARTICIPIALS. Tliestylis et rapido fessis messoribus aestu, etc. — Ec. ii. 10. In the preceding Excursus we ventured to assert that rapidus, in- stead of being an adjective and signifying swift, was properly a pre- sent participial of rapio, and therefore nearly identical with rapiens. The proofs will be seen in that Excursus : here we will endeavour to extend the principle, and show that this is the real nature of all the supposed adjectives in- idus, and that they are actives, and not passives, like the greater part of the words derived from them in modern languages. The first we will select is aridus, which is usually understood passively and equivalent to our arid, dry. Our proof will be the fact that the part, arens is frequently employed in the sense of aridus where we should have expected that word ; ex. gr.— Scatebrisque arentia temperat arva, Geor. i. 110; Pergama et arentem Xanthi cognomine riv urn, Aen. iii. 350; Arentem in silvam, Aen. xii. 522; Arentesque rosas, Geor. iv. 268 ; Arentes arenas, Hor. C. iii. 4, 31 ; Arenti ramo, Ov. M. vii. 276; Arenti avena, Tibull. ii. 1, 53. That areo is active would appear from its being joined with sitis, Ov. Her. iv. 174; Tibul. i. 4, 36. We therefore think that in arens and aridus the ancients had in view the effect of, or sensation caused by, the object to which they united them. In like manner we shall find that candidus (unlike alius) was, re- garded as producing an effect or sensation, as candens so frequently takes its place. Candentis vaccae, Aen. iv, 61 ; candentem tau- rum, ib. 236; candenti elephanto, ib. vi. 896. Candens lacteus humor, Lucr. i. 259; candenti marmore, ib. ii. 766. Candentes humeros, Hor. C. i. 2,31. Candentia Mia, Ov. Met. xii. 411. We believe however that we may assert that the idea of gleaming, emit- ting splendour, is always included in candidus. Calidus is, giving out heat ; for we meet with calentem favillam, Hor. C. ii. 6, 22. We may notice the Spanish agua caliente, hot water. Timidus is i. q. timens in the following places. Quidnamst quod sic video timidum et properantem Getam ? Ter. Adelph. iii. 2, 7. Nam- que modo me intro ut corripui timidus, Ter. Hec. iii. 3, 5. Codrus pro patria non timidus mori, Hor. C. iii. 19, 2. Quid referam LATIN PARTICIPIALS. 331 timidae pro te pia vota puellae, Ov. Amor. ii. 6, 43. We also meet timens governing a gen. like timidus in Lucr. vi. 1237. Pattens often takes the place of pallidus, as Pallenti hedera, Ec. iii. 39- Pallentes violas, Ec. ii. 47. Pallenti olivae,\. 16. See also Ec. vi. 55. Geor. i. 478; iii. 357; iv. 124. Aen. iv. 26, 243. vi. 275, 480. In Aen. i. 354 we have ora modis attollens pallida miris; and in x. 822, ora modis Anchisiades pallentia miris. Liquidus is i. q. liquens. Vina liquentia fundit, Aen. v. 776; Liquentes humorum guttas, Lucr. ii. 991. Liquentibus stagnis, Catull. xxxi. 2. Here we may see why liquidus is joined with aether, a'er, lumen, aestas, ignis, nubes, vox, etc. Humidus,i.q.humens. Humentem umbram, Aen. iii. 589. Hu- menti tellure, Ov. Met. i. 604. Humentes oculos, Id. xi. 464. Humente capillo, Id. ib. 691. Madidus, i. q. madens. Madidas a tempestate cohortes, Juv. vii. 164. Lina madentia, Ov. Met. xiii. 931. Tumidus, i. q. tumens. Tumidoque inflatus carbasus austro, Aen. iii. 357- Crescentem tumidis infla sermonibus utrem, Hor. S. ii. 5, 9S. Perque pedes trajectus lora tumentes, Aen. ii. 273. Fluctu sus- pensa tumenti, vii. 810. Thybris ea fluvium, quant longa est, node tumentem, Leniit. viii. 86. Lividus, i. q. livens. Liventis plumbi, Aen. vii. 687. Nigro liventia succo, Ov. Met. xiii. 817- Squalidus, i. q. squalens. Squalentes conchas, Geor. ii. 348. Tunicam squalentem auro, Aen. x. 314. Turbidus, i. q. turbans. Seu turbidus imber Proluit, Aen. xii. 685. Incendi turbidus ardor, Lucr. vi. 673. Animal turbida sit vis, Id. ib. 693. Turbida rapacior procella, Catull. xxv. 4. Vacant enim rrddos, id est morbum, quicunque est motus in animo turbidus, Cic. Tusc. iii. 10. From the following list it will appear that the far greater part of these participials in -idus are derived from neuter verbs of the 2nd conj. So few indeed are those derived from verbs of the others, that we might be led to suspect that they are in reality derived from verbs of the 2nd conj. which had gone out of use : — From the 1st conj. come fumidus, gelidus, labidus, turbidus. 3rd conj . fluidus, rabidus, rapidus, vividus. 4th conj . cupidus, sapidus. From the second come the following : acidus, albidus, algidus, avidus, calidus, callidus, candidus, fervidus, fiaccidus, flavidus, flori- dus,foetidus,fr acidus, herbidus, horridus, humidus, languidus, liquidus, lividus, lucidus, madidus, marcidus, morbidus, nitidus, olidus, pallidus, pavidus, putidus, putridus, rancidus, rigidus, roridus, rubidus, sor- 332 EXCURSUS III. didus, splendidus, squaUdus, stolidus, stupidus, sucidus, labidus, tepi- dus, iimidus, torpidus, torridus, irepidus, tiimidus, turgidus, uvidus, validus, vanidus. To these are to be added the following, which have no verbs, and the list we believe will be complete : gravidus, hispidus, lepidus, lint' pidus, luridus, paedidus, ravidus, roscidus, solidus, vapidus, viscidus. Adjectives in vlus are, we think, in like manner active participles : such are bibulus, credulus, garrulus, gemulus, patulus, pendulus, gue- rillas, sedulus, stridulus, tremulus, vagulus. In some cases these are merely the same as the pras. part., in others they give intensity to its meaning. Thus pendulus is i. q. pendens. Pendulum collum, Hor. C. iii. 27, 58 ; pevdula palearea, Ov. Met. vii. 117 ; putator pendulus arbustis, Colum. x. 229. — Tremulus, i. q. tremens. Tre- mulus parens, Catull. lxi. 51 ; tremulis sub pondere ramis, Sil. Pun. vii. 671. In Aen. xii. 267 we have stridula cornus, and shortly after (v. 319) stridens sagitta. It is the same with adjectives in -bundus. Few, for example, could distinguish between moriens and moribundus. So also with those in -ax. In pugnacemque tenet, Ov. Met. iv. 358, we might substitute the part, without any change of the sense. There are also adjectives in -ius (as conscius, nescius, noxius, fluvius, mucins) and in -uus (assiduus, congruus, nocuus, caeduus) which are rather of the nature of participles ; to which we may add anhelus, festinus, coruscus, personus, sibilus, caducus, nubilus, etc. EXCURSUS III. LATIN MIDDLE VOICE, etc. Die quibus in terris inscripti nomina regum Nascantur flores. — £c. iii. 106. That very eminent critic Heindorf, in his note on fractus membra in Horace (S. i. 1, 5), says, "A structure borrowed from the Greeks, with whom the perf. pass, is so often the perf. med., with a reflected, or at least a transitive, meaning. We should therefore cease at length from supplying to this accusative in Latin a totally un-Latin se- cundum, in Greek a Kara, which is for the most part quite as un-Greek." This assertion is no doubt true to some extent, for there are many instances in both languages of a passive verb being thus em- ployed ; but still we think there are many cases where the /caret and LATIN MIDDLE VOICE, ETC. 333 the secundum, or something of the kind, must be understood. We will confine our observations to the Latin. Though fractus membra, when speaking of a man, may be ren- dered having worn out his limbs, inscripti nomina, when used of flowers, can hardly be having inscribed the names. So also in the following instances we think the verbs can only be understood passively : — Turn vero ancipiti mentem formidine pressus Obstupui, Aen. ii. 47. Tristi turbatus pectora bello, viii. 29. Magnoque animum labef actus amore, iv. 395. Quis innexa pedem malo pendebat ab alto, v. 511. Perfusus sanie vittas atroque veneno, ii. 221. Maculisque trementes Interfusa genas, iv. 644. Percussa nova mentem formidine mater, Geor. iv. 357. Lacte mero mentes per- cussa novellas, Lucr. i. 262. Iberibns perusta funibus latus, Hor. Epod. 4, 3. We could easily extend this list were we to have recourse to Ovid and later poets. The Latin language, as is well known, has no middle voice, and its legitimate mode of making a reflected verb is to add se to a trans- itive. The poets however (and Virgil was the first to do so to any extent) gradually began to use passive as middle voices, particularly in verbs expressing to dress, to adorn, and such like. Nor was there anything very strained in this, for the middle is really a passive restricted to a particular agent. Thus rvivro^ai (pass.) is J am beaten (by any one), rvirrofiai (midd.) I am beaten (by myself). In Plautus (Ampb. i. 1, 155) we meet with cingitur, he is girding himself up. The same poet in his Pseudolus (v. 1, 38-40) uses vertor in the sense of turning oneself round. Lucretius uses accingor (ii. 1042), vertor (v. 1198), versor (ii. 112; vi. 199), volvor (vi. 978), sinnor (vi. 354), erumpor (vi. 582). In the early writings of Horace there is no instance of a middle voice ; and in his later ones the only decided one is moveor, to dance (Ep. ii. 2, 125 ; A. P. 232), to which we may perhaps add revertor (Ep. i. 15, 24) and induor (ib. 17, 20). The following list will show the claim of Virgil to the fame of introducing a middle voice into the Latin language. It will be ob- served that it was in the Aeneis he did it almost exclusively : — Feror (Ec. viii. 60. Aen. ii. 511 ; iv. 545 ; vii. 673), volvor (Geor. iii.438. Aen. ix. 414 ; xi. 889), cingor (Geor. iii. 46. Aen. ii. 511, 520 ; iv. 493 ; vi. 188), exerceor (Geor. iv. 157; Aen. vii. 163), vertor (i. 158 ; vii. 784), induor (vii. 640), reddor (vi. 545), tollor (vii. 408), agor (xii. 336), tegor (ii. 227), aperior (iii. 275), condor (ii. 401; vii. 802), stemor (ii. 722 ; iii. 509), velor (iii. 405, 545 ; v. 134), impleor (i. 215), lustror (iii. 279), armor, moveor (vii. 429) , fundor (ii. 383). 334* EXCURSUS IV. Virgil also uses the following passives as deponents : to which observation we may add, that he and other poets also use the past part, of deponents at times in a passive sense, as in Ec. ix. 53. Scindor (Aen. iv. 590 ; ix. 478), percutior (iv. 589 ; vii. 503 ; xi. 877), induor (ii. 275),fundor (iv. 509 ; x. 838), circumdor (ii. 219 ; iv. 137 ; xii. 416), lanior (xii. 606),Jigor (vi. 156), demittor (i. 56l), mutor (i. 658), premor (iv. 659), jungor (x. 157), exseror (x. 649), subnitor (iv. 217), saturor (v. 608), solvor (iii. 65 ; xi. 35). There is another class of expressions which will hardly come under any of these heads ; that, namely, in which the part. pass, and the ace. case take the place of the abl. absolute. It is to this class that the verse at the head of this article seems properly to be- long. Such also are the following : picti scuta Labici, i. e. L.pictis souths, Aen. vii. 796; Pictus acu chlamydem, ix. 582; Delphinum caudas utero commissa luporum, iii. 428. The Laevo suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto of Horace (S. i. 6, 74 ; Ep. i. 1, 56), which is plainly an imitation of the Greek (as in 6 ttjv mjpav (^rjpTrjfxevos, Luc. Vit. Auc. 7), comes under the head of passives used as deponents. EXCURSUS IV. THE SIBYL AND THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. Ultima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas. — Ec. iv. 4. The first question which arises here is what is the Cumaeum carmen ? Probus (on this place) says it is the poem of Hesiod, whose father came to Ascra from Cyme in Aeolis, and who, in his account of the successive Ages, appears to intimate that after the Iron Age, the last and worst, there would be a return to a better state of things. This opinion, which was adopted by Fabricius and Graevius, has also been embraced by Goettling (on Hes. "Epy. 109), but it does not seem to be tenable ; for, setting aside the circumstance that Hesiod is nowhere called a Cumaean, Virgil could hardly say of the age, in which Hesiod said that he himself was living, jam venit. The other hypothesis is that of Servius, according to which the Cumaeum car- men is the prophetic verses of the Cumaean Sibyl. This is the hy- pothesis generally adopted, and it does not seem possible to find THE SIBYL AND THE RETURN OF THE GOLDEN AGE. 335 any better, though it is not free from difficulty. In the first place we have only the testimony of Servius himself (for he does not quote any authority) that there were such Sibylline verses : then it may be asked in what collection were they ? for, according to Varro (ap. Serv. Aen. vi. 36), the original oracles preserved at Rome were those of the Erythraean Sibyl (it is the Cumaean in Lactantius) ; and Nie- buhr (i. 496) asserts that these were not prophetic, that they only gave directions what was to be done in particular cases. Were they then in the new collection made in the time of Sulla ? or in those nu- merous ones that were in common circulation after that time ? Pos- sibly, as some ill-judging Cbristians did afterwards (see p. 60), so the Jews or their proselytes might have forged Sibylline verses prophetic of the coming of the Messiah and of the blessings of his reign. Still it is difficult to believe that these verses could have obtained sufficient credit to be used in the public and solemn manner in which they are employed by Virgil. The question of who or what the Sibyls were seems involved in impenetrable obscurity. The first mention of the Sibyl occurs in the fragments of the philosopher Heraclitus, who says (Frag. p. 332), 2t/3tAAa iv iroXXols Kal tovto eCppdcrOrj 'E£ 'idSos X^PV 9 v£ eiv o"o(f)6v 'iraAi'Saio-f, evidently meaning Pythagoras. Plato also (Phaedr. p. 244) men- tions the Sibyl : bis words are, Kai eav Se \eyap.ev ^ifivKkav re pda>crav, jj.rjKvvoifJi.ev civ 8rp\a Travri Xeyovres. We may observe that Plato, like Heraclitus, uses the name without an ar- ticle, which seems to prove that Sibylla, like Musaeus, Bacis, and other similar names, was the proper name of a real or supposed individual. Little stress, we think, can be laid on the ordinary de- rivation from crios (debs Dor.) and j3ov\r). Varro (ap. Lact. i. 6) and the Scholiast on Plato enumerate ten Sibyls : the Persian, Libyan, Delphic, Cumaean or Cimmerian (in Italy), Erythraean, Samian, Cuman (in Aeolis), Hellespontic, Phry- gian and Tiburtian. Of these one-half, we may observe, belong to the colonies of Asia Minor, and it is probable that this was the sup- posed abode of the one original Sibyl. The Persian and Libyan (if there was such a one, for the reference of Varro to the Lamia of Euripides seems dubious) are later fictions ; and the Albunea of Tibur, though perhaps similar to the Sibyl, was an independent personage. The resemblance to the Pythia may have given origin to a Delphic Sibyl; and if it was to the Cuman or Erythraean 336 EXCURSUS V. Sibyl that the verses preserved at Rome were ascribed, the simi- larity of name may have led to the creation of a Cumaean Sibyl. This must however have taken place before the sixth century of Rome; forNaevius, according to Varro (utsup.), in his poem on the Punic War, made Aeneas consult her ; in which, as is well known, he was imitated by Virgil. EXCURSUS V. PECULIARITIES OF VIRGIL'S STYLE. Eliadum palmas Epiros equarum ? — Geor. i. 59. In the Life of Virgil we have observed that in the Georgics he adopted some peculiarities of style. We do not mean to say that these were entire novelties ; but though they may be found in pre- ceding Greek or Latin poets, they are so much more numerous in the Georgics, that they give a peculiar character to that poem. The first which we will notice is that of which the examples are most numerous, namely, — the use of que for ve, atque for aut, etc., i. e. the copulative for the disjunctive. This practice, which is unknown to modern languages, prevailed more or less in the Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin. In the first, though Gesenius asserts the contrary, the copulative, ve, is frequently disjunctive, at least must be so rendered in transla- tion ; for though ingenuity may succeed in some cases in making it out to be still copulative, in others such efforts are fruitless. Such for example is, Either (ve) he is talking, or (ve) he is pursuing, or (ve) he is in a journey, 1 Kings, xviii. 27. In Homer we have observed the two following instances : — tJtol 6 /xee 7rpa>Trjo-i Kal vo-Tarlrjo-c (3o€aaLv alev SfMoarixdei, 6 8e r iv pecrarjo-iv opovaas pow e'Set.— II. xv. 634. Trptv y or av evheKarn re dvcobeadTr] re yevnrai. — Od. ii. 374. The most usual way in which the copulative thus became dis- junctive was when it was mixed up, as we may term it, with disjunc- tives. Examples of this may be seen in Apoll. Rh. iii. 1240-4. Catull. xi. 5-8. Hor. C. iii. 1, 42-44 ; 4, 53-56. Epod. 16, 3-8. In the following verses of Lucretius the copulative may be re- garded as disjunctive: Et veluti manns atque oculus, naresve seor- sum, Secreta ab nobis, nequeunt sentire neque esse, iii. 550. Aut PECULIARITIES OF VIRGIL'S STYLE. 337 subiti perimunt imbres gelidaeque pruinae, Flabraque ventorum vio- lent*) turbine vexant, v. 217. So also in Catullus : Quare quicquid habes boni malique Die nobis, vi. 15. See also Hor. C. iii. 1, 20, 23, 30. Bentley, though, as it would appear, he did not recognise this principle in the Latin language, saw so clearly that in some cases que was disjunctive, that he would without hesitation substitute ve for it : see his notes on Hor. Carm. iii. 1, 43 ; Epod. 16, 6 ; Lucan, i. 252; ii. 199. The following are the places in which, in our opinion, Virgil uses the copulative disjunctively : Buc. i. 66. Geor. i. 75, 120, 173, 371, 442, 485; ii. 84, 87, 102, 121, 137, 139, 242, 276, 312, 351, 421, 436, 450, 464, 496, 498, 502, 511 ; iii. 121, 122, 141, 142, 175, 213, 253, 254, 278, 399, 405, 407, 466 ; iv. 10, 18, 19, 24, 124, 210, 244, 268, 270, 407, 408. Aen. ii. 37 ; v. 595 ; vii. 675 ; viii. 88 ; x. 320. In some of these places the copulative may be rendered by and, but we believe that in all of them or will best give the sense of the poet. We may observe that this use of the copulative is almost peculiar to the Georgics. In the Georgics also the copulative is sometimes omitted before the last member of the sentence, as in i. 102 ; ii. 6. We also find an instance in Ec. iv. 45. But the most remarkable feature perhaps of Virgil's poetry is his frequent use of the figure called Hypallage, by which words are put in a construction contrary to their natural sense : as in Si tantum notas odor attidit auras, Geor. iii. 251 ; Dare classibus Austros, Aen. iii. 61. How any one can, like Heyne, admire such slights of lan- guage is, we confess, a matter of wonder to us. Lucretius and Horace both use this figure occasionally, but with much more moderation than Virgil, merely joining an adjective with a substantive, to which in strictness it does not belong. Thus the former has impia rationis elementa, i. 82 ; anhela sitis de corpore nostro abluitur, iv. 876 ; e salso momine ponti, vi. 474 ; nigra virum percocto secla colore, vi. 1108. The latter has Regina dementes ruinas parabat. C. i. 37, 7 ; Nee purpurarum sidere clarior Delenit usus, iii. 1, 42 ; iratos regum apices, 21, 19 ; to which we may perhaps add Premant Calena falce vitem, i. 31, 9. The hypallage occurs in the following places in Virgil : Ec. x. 55. Geor. i. 59, 211, 258, 266, 296, 318, 360; ii. 101, 251, 260, 497 ; iii. 490 ; iv. 119, 238, 335, 415. Aen. i. 361 ; ii. 387, 508 ; iii. 61, 362 ; iv. 385, 506 ; v. 458, 480, 589 ; viii. 73, 542, 654 ; ix. 455 ; x. 660; xi. 18, 212; xii. 187, 219, 621, 739, 859. Q 338 EXCURSUS VI. Virgil also made frequent use of the figure named Catachresis. In the Georgics he continually employs arena instead of terra, and jiuvius, fons, ros and imber for aqua. EXCURSUS VI. CORVUS AND CORN1X. E pastu deeedens agmine magno Corvorum increpuit densis exercitus alis. — Geor. i. 381. Ornithologists will, we believe, allow that we are right in render- ing corvus, here and in v. 410, by rook, and comix (v. 308) by raven or crow. Yet, strange as it may seem, it is only ourselves and Hoblyn that thus employ these terms. Martyn, Voss, and all the other commentators and translators of the Georgics, make corvus raven and comix crow. In all dictionaries it is the same ; so also in all the languages derived from the Latin. Corvo It., cuervo Sp., corbeau Fr., is raven ; cornacchia It., corneja Sp., corneille Fr., is rook or crow. We trust that we shall be able to prove that this is all incorrect. The Latin corvus is the Greek nopag, our crow, including under that name the rook (Cfrugilegush.), the carrion-crow (C. coro- na L.), the Royston crow (C. comix L.), and, as we shall have some reason to suppose, the jackdaw (C monedula L.). The Latin cor- nix is the Greek Kopavt], which, if it is not, as perhaps is the case, to be restricted to the raven (C corax L.), at least includes him; otherwise he will be without a name in the Greek and Latin languages. Corvus, the rook, occurs in these places in Virgil, and in the cor- responding places in Aratus ; for it is only the rooks that fly in troops and have their nests all in the same place in the trees. The daws no doubt do the former, but not the latter. Virgil, however, may have included in his corvi both the Kopanes and the koXoioi of Aratus. When Persius (S. iii. 61) says An passim sequeris corvo s testaque lutoque Securus quo pes ferat atque ex tempore vivis ? it is plain to every one that it must be the rooks he means, as it is these birds that children thus pursue. In all other places of the classics corvus is, Ave believe, the carrion- CORVUS AND CORNLX. 339 crow. Thus when Horace (Ep. i, 16, 46) says, Nonpasces in cruce corvos, it can be only this crow he means, for the rook is not car- nivorous. It is also probably this crow of which he speaks else- where (C. hi. 27, 11. S. i. 8, 38 ; ii. 5, 56). In the Bat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas of Juvenal (ii. 63) it is probably the crows that are meant ; though it may be the rooks, and the sense of the passage be : ' the rooks are let to feed on the corn, while the pigeons are driven away.' In the Atque idea postquam ad Cimbros stragemque volabant Qui nunquam attigerant majora cadavera corvi of the same poet (viii. 252) they are beyond doubt the carrion-crows. In all the places in Aristotle and iElian where the n6pa% is mentioned it seems to be this crow. To this also belong the ordinary expres- sions es Kopanas, array , j3aXX' is Kopanas, meaning, to leave the body unburied. Pliny (x. 43) tells a story of a corvus thus : — " Tiberio Principe ex fetu supra Castorum aedem genito pullus (sc. corvinus) in oppo- sitam sutrinam devolavit, etiam religione commendatus ofhcinae domino. Is mature sermoni assuefactus, omnibus matutinis evo- lans in Rostra, forum versus, Tiberium, dein Germanicum et Drusum Caesares nominatim, mox transeuntem populum Rom. salutabat, postea ad tabernam remeans, plurium annorum assiduo officio mi- nis." Now this wonderful corvus, we have no doubt, was a mone- dula, or jackdaw, $pv of the crow-kind there are only the claw, the raven, and the magpie, that can be taught to speak, and these two last never build in towns or on houses. We come now to the comix or Kopavrj, and we confess that we cannot show as satisfactorily that it is, as that the corvus is not, the raven. In fact nearly all the places in which it is mentioned will apply as well to the carrion-crow. We can, however, offer some proofs. Thus Aristotle constantly distinguishes between the Kopoa- vq and the Kopa^, though he. makes them both carnivorous. Of the former he says, napcpayov yap io-riv (H. A. viii. 3 : see on Geor. i. 389) ; and of the latter he tells us (ix. 31) that when the Medes were slain in Pharsalus, the Kopaices flocked thither in such numbers that Attica and the Peloponnese were quite deserted by them. If then the Kopdovq is not the Royston crow, it must be the raven. What iElian tells (De N. A. iii. 9) of the conjugal fidelity of the Kop&vai, also ap- plies best to the ravens. Pliny further tells us that the comix breaks the shells of walnuts by letting them fall from a height on stones or tiles ; but as modern naturalists tell the same thing of the carrion- Q2 340 EXCURSUS VII-VIII. crow in the matter of shell-fish, we can make no use of this case. We therefore cannot venture to assert that the comix is the raven and the raven alone. EXCURSUS VII. ABSTRACT FOR CONCRETE. Praemiaque ingeniis pagos et compita circum Thesidae posuere. — Geor. ii. 382. This we believe to be an instance of a practice in which the Latin language indulged more than any other, — that of using abstract for concrete nouns, or acts for agents. The Greek, it is true, did the same, but only, we believe, in the higher poetry ; while the Latin used these terms in the prose of history and the language of common life. The Euphuism of England, and the Prccieux of France, in the 17th century, seem to have been derived from this principle of the Latin language. Drakenborch (on Liv. iii. 15, and on Sil. viii. 33 ; xv. 74S ; xvi. 504) has given some instances of this practice, as also has Zumpt (§ 675), and the following list may not prove unaccept- able to scholars : — Servitium and opera, for servus and operarius, are of common occur- rence. So also is auxilia. Plautus and Terence use scelus and salus frequently, and the latter career (Ph. ii. 3, 26). Sallust uses flagitia and facinora (Cat. 14) ; Livy, mors (ii. 7 ; Cf. Cic. Mil. 32); Taci- tus, crimina (Ann. i. 55), amicitia (ii. 77) ; Seneca, custodia (Ep. s. 6) ; Ovid, helium (Met. xii. 25 ; Cf. Flor. ii. 2, 17 ; Plin. Pan. 12), dam- num, (ib. 16), furtum (Fast. iii. 846), cura (Her. i. 104); Juvenal, vitia (ii. 34), potestas (ix. 100; x. 100), officia(x. 45), spectacula (viii. 205), honor (i. 1 10, 1 17) ; Catullus, stupor (xvii. 21); Propertius, amor (ii. 19, 57), conjugium (iii. 11, 20) ; Horace, artes (Ep. ii. 1, 13), in- genium {ib. 2, 81), culpas (C. iii. 11, 29). EXCURSUS VIII. Quod surgente die, etc. — Geor. iii. 400. Fea has, we think, in a very simple and elegant manner removed the difficulty from this passage, by merely a change of punctuation. He reads it thus : — ON GEOR. III. 400. 341 " Quod surgente die mulsere, horisque diurnis Nocte premunt ; quod jam tenebris et sole cadente Sub lucem : exportans calathis adit oppida pastor ; Aut parco sale contingunt hiemique reponunt." He understands premunt with sub lucem, thus giving an equal space of time to the morning and to the evening milking before coagula- tion. The shepherd then either puts into baskets the new cheese, and carries it to the towns for sale, or it gets an additional quantity of salt and is laid up for the winter. This, he says, is what the shepherds in the neighbourhood of Rome actually do at the present day. He adds, that of this new-made cheese there are two kinds ; the one properly called cheese {formaggio), the other ricotta, as being made from what remains in the pan (caldaja) after the formaggio has been made, and is procured by reheating, whence comes its name. Fea further thinks that by pressi copia lactis (Ec. i. 81), is meant a ricotta rather than cheese, as it is what the shepherds of the present day would be likely to give on such an occasion. Or, he says, it may mean the various products of milk, as cheese, ri- cotta, giuncata (junkets or curds), for the Italians at the present day say copia di latti, uso di latti, latticing, for milk and its products. — See Terms of Husbandry, v. Caseus. Instead of exportans, in v. 402, Fea would read et portans ; but though he shows that et and ex are sometimes confounded in the MSS., we see no necessity for the alteration. It is somewhat strange that Fea seems not to have been aware that the reading of all the MSS. is export ant, and that exportans is the emendation of Scaliger. This emendation has, however, been adopted by every editor but Jahn and Forbiger ; and if the above explanation of the passage is correct, there can be no doubt of its being the word that Virgil wrote. Wagner shows very satisfactorily how exportant might have arisen from the preceding mulsere and premunt and the following contingunt. In conclusion, it is to be observed that, though Fea alone has offered proof of this interpretation, .it was seen long ago by Wadel (see Burmarm in loc.) that mulsere and premunt might be understood with sub lucem. We ourselves have no doubt whatever of this being the true interpretation of the passage. 342 EXCURSUS IX. EXCURSUS IX. LATIN CONTRACTIONS. Saevit agris asperque siti atque exterritus aestn. — Geor. iii. 435. In our Tales and Popular Fictions, when tracing the origin of the Italian word Fata, a fairy, we said that it was mia donna fata, i. e.fatata ; fato being the contraction offatato, the part, offatare ; for the Italian language frequently thus contracts the past part, of verbs in -are: as, adorno, from adomato; guasto, from guastato ; col- mo, from colmato, etc. We there (p. 341) expressed an opinion that the Italian might have derived this singular practice of eliding an accented syllable from its Latin mother, and we gave a list of Latin words which pre- sented this appearance. We afterwards met with the following passage in Priscian (vi. 15, 79). " Nee minim in nominibus hoc fieri cum etiam ipsa participia inveniuntur quando per syncopam prolata, ut potus pro potatus, cretus pro creatus, dictus pro dictatus, saucius pro sauciatus, truncus pro truncatus, lassus pro lassatus." Elsewhere he says, " a lacera- tus, lacerus vel lacer." On further reflection it appeared to us that this syncope was not confined to particips. of the 1 st conj.,butwas a general principle of the language ; and that the vowels e, i, o were elided in the same manner as a, though not to the same extent. We will here give examples of the elision of these vowels when accented. E. — VirguUtum makes virgultum; salicetum, salictum ; filicetum, Jillctum; fruticetum,frutectum; caricetum (obs.), carectum. To these we may perhaps venture to add arbastum, from arboretum (see Gell. xvii. 2), r being changed into s for the sake of euphony. Priscian (ix. 10) says : "Adultus pro adoletus prolatum est." I. — Audii, petit, etc., from audivi, petivi, etc. ; traxe, dixe, etc., from traxisse, dixisse, etc. ; amasse, etc., from amavisse, etc. To these may be added the case where the syncope is not of the ac- cented, but its effect is to throw the accent back from that syllable. This, as Forbiger has observed (on Lucr. i. 71), takes place in the contraction of the third pers. sing, of the perf. of the first conj., as in irritat for irritavit, Lucr. i. 71 ; peritat, iii. 710; conturbat, v. 443 ; disturbat, vi. 587 : and in Virgil, vocat, Ec. v. 23 ; creat, Geor. i. 279- This principle appears to us to be more simple than that of supposing a pras. used for a perf. In the following places sanctus is evidently the same as sancitus, LATIN CONTRACTIONS. 343 and therefore may justly be regarded as a contraction of it. Le- gem tulit diligentius sanctam, Liv. x. 9. In his rebus multa videmus ita sancta esse legibus, Cic. Verr. ii. 1, 42. Quaeque ita composita sanctaque essent, Cic. Legg. ii. 5. Lege sanctum est, Cic. ib. 24. Hence we may infer that vinctus and amictus are i. q. vincitus and amicitus. We find lentus used by Virgil as a part. (Ec. i. 4 ; Aen. xi. 829) ; it therefore is probably lenitus contracted. So also aper- ius, opertus, expertus, were originally aperitus, etc. Quaestor is evidently quaesitor. Ficulnus and hornus must have been at first ficulinus and horinus, and possibly infemus, supernus, and alternus, were infer inus, etc. O. — Under this letter we have divfim, virum, etc., for divorum, virorum, etc. See Priscian, vii. 6. We will commence our view of those which we regard as con- tracted participles of verbs in -are, by giving a few instances of the use of them with undoubted participles. "Atque hie Priamiden laniatum corpore toto Deiphobum videt, et lacerum crudeliter ora, Ora manusque ambas, populataque tempora raptis Auribus, et truncas inhonesto vulnere nares." — Aen. vi. 494. " exsectum jam matre perempta Et tibi, Phoebe, sacrum," — Ib. x. 315. " Orba pedum partim, manuum viduata vicissim." — Lucr.v. 838. " Exanimis pueris super exanimata parentum Corpora."— Id. vi. 1255. (Cf. v. 12/2.) " Statque latus praefixa veru, stat saucia pectus." — Tibull. 1.7,55- "Vulnere tardus equi, fessusqae senilibus annis." — Ov. Met. xiii. 65. " Congressum, profugum, captum, vox nuntiat una." — Claud. Bell. Gild. 12. " Funeraque orba rogis, neglectaque membra relinquunt. Tunc inhonora cohors laceris insignibus aegris Secernunt acies." — Stat. Th. x. 7- " Namque orbam nato simul etprivatam viro." — Phaedr. iii. 10,45. " Ut es homo f actus ad persuadendum concinnus, perfectus, poli- tus e schola." — Cic. Pis. 25. " Scriba damnatus, ordo totus alienus." — Id. Mur. 20. We will now examine some words, and endeavour to show that they are real participles, and conclude with a list of the words of this kind which we have met with. 344- EXCURSUS IX. Orbus. — Puerique parentibus orbi, Aen. xi. 216. Forumque Li- tibus orbum, Hor. C. iv. 2, 43. Viduus. — Viduus pharetra Risit Apollo, Hor. C. i. 10, 11, (Porphyr. in he). Maritus. — Pollueritque novo sacra marita toro, Prop. iii. 19, 16. Haecne marita fides, Id. iv. 3, 11. Partus. — Part a mecesunt Veneri munera, Ec. iii. 68. Regia conjux parta tibi, Aen. ii. 783. Nam mihiparta quies, vii. 598. Amicitias comparare, quibus partis confirmatur animus, Cic. Fin. i. 20. Cruentus. — Arma cruenta cerebro, Aen. ix. 753. Cf. tela cruentat, x. 731. Virgil frequently thus uses cruentus. Cruentus sanguine fraterno, Hor. S. ii. 5, 15. Aptus. — Quibus e sumus uniter apti, Lucr. iii. 851. Crescebant uteri terrae radicibus apti, Id. v. S06. Ipsis e torquibus aptos Jungs pares, Geor. iii. 168. Pilaque feminea turpiter apta mam, Prop. iv. 6, 22 ; (" apta hie velit aptata ; ut saepe alias apud optimos scrip- tores." Broukhuis, in he). We also think that this is the simplest mode of understanding the caelum stellis fulgentibus aptum, which Virgil has adopted from Ennius. Decorus. — Ductores auro volitant ostroque decor i, Aen. xii. 126. Merita decorus fronde, Hor. C. iv. 2, 35. Vastus. — Haecego vast a dabo, Aen. ix. 323. Vastam urbemfuga et caedibus, Sail. Hist. i. 15. Vast a Italia rapinis, fuga, caedibus, Id. ib.inc. 139. Concinnus. — Concinnus amicis Postulat ut videatur, Hor. S. i. 3, 50. At sermo lingua concinnus utraque Suavior, Id. ib. 10, 23 ; Cf. Ep. i. 17, 29 ; IS, 6. Reditus ad rem aptus et concinnus, Cic. Or. iii. 53. Uncus. — Uncae manus, Aen. iii. 217. Et supera calamos unco percurrere labro, Lucr. v. 1406. Mutilus. — Sic mutilus minitaris, Hor. S. i. 5, 60. Litteras truncas atque mutilas reddebat, Gell. xvii. 9. Honestus. — Honestus Fascibu-s et sellis, Hor. S. i. 6, 96. Neque eo tutiaut magis honesti sunt, Sail. Jug. 3. Qui eum (Jwnorem) sen- tentiis, qui suffragiis adeptus est, is mihi et honestus et honoratus videtur, Cic. Brut. 81. Profugus. — Fato profugus, Aen. i. 2. Quos Mi bello profugos egere superbo, viii. 118. Quamque potes profugo, nam potes, offer opem, Ov. Ex P. ii. 9, 6 . Alloquio profugi credis inesse metum? Id. ib. iii. 6, 40. Qui saepe regni ejus potitus dein profugus, Tac. Ann. xiii. 6. Funestus. — Mortuum ejusfilium esse, funestaque familia dedicare LATIN CONTRACTIONS. 345 eum templum non posse, Liv. ii. 8. Jam funesta domus est nee an- nantiatum malum, Sen. de Vit. Beat. 28. Funestus reddidit agros, Lucr. vi. 1136. Opacus. — Cujus umbra opaca sedeserat, Liv. iii. 25. Draken. inloc. Siccus. — Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis, Ov. Met. xv. 268. Post haec carbasiis humorem tollere velis Atque in marmorea ponere sicca (ossa) domo, Tibull. iii. 2, 21. Ut ferrum Marte cru- entum Siccum pace f eras, Claud. Pr. Cons. Stil. ii. 15. Alienus. — Jam primum ilium alieno animo a nobis esse,Ter. Adelph. iii. 2. 40. Alienus est ab nostra familia, Id. ib. 28. Sed, ut fit, post- quam hunc alienum ab sese videt, Id. Hec. 1, 2,83. Nulla sit ut placeas alienae cura puellae, Ov. Rem. Am. 681. Burmann in loc. Nudus. — Nudum remigio latus, Hor. C. i. 14, 4. Nudus agris, nudus nummis, insane, paternis, Id. S. ii. 3, 184. Cf. Ep. i. 3, 20. Liber, i. e. liberus. — Colonos Romanos expulit liberamque earn urbem Volscis tradidit, Liv. ii. 39. Turn libera fatis, Aen. x. 154. Luxus. — Luxum si quod est hac cautione sanum fiet, Cat. 160. Luxo pede, Sail. H. inc. 163. Satur, i.e. saturus. — Quam satur ac plenus possis discedere re- rum, Lucr. iii. 973. Qui non editis saturi fite fabulis, Plaut. Poen. Prol. 8. Libet et Tyrio saturas ostro Rumpere vestes, Sen. Thyest. 955. We do not mean to assert that all these words are always contracted participles, for there may be merely a coincidence of form. Thus from alienus may come a verb alienor, whose contr. part, is alienus. The same may be the case with siccus, uncus, etc. We will add the following, which may also be contracted terms, and many of which we have no doubt are such : — Sectus, frictus, nectus, cremus, mulctus, jutus, lautas, lotus, laxus, lassus, assns, quassus, pulsus, probus, obstipus, delirus, soporus, odo- rus, cavus, curvus, sacer, macer, asper, aegrotus, spissus, mutuus, vacuus, salvus, sanus, reciprocus, socius, privus, putus, opinus, mani- festus, infestus, crispus, perjurus, obscurus, tardus, properus, molestus, humectus, densus, firmus, etc. Lucrum is probably lucratum, donum donatum, segmen secamen, sector secator, lictor ligator, libertus liberatus ; carptim, tractim, exul- tim, are carpatim, etc. Singultim, in Horace (S. i. 6, 56), is evidently singulation, and is rightly explained by the scholiasts : cum intervallo, interruptis verbis. In the following places virago appears to be i. q. virgo. Corpore Tartarino prognata pallida virago (Minerva), Ennius, i. 24. Ego Q 5 346 EXCURSUS X. emero matri tuae ancillam riraginem aliquam, Plaut. Merc. ii. 3, 77. Juturna virago, Aen. xii. 468 (Ueynein loc). Ades en comiti diva virago (Diana), Sen. Hip. 54. Riguus and irriguus are everywhere, one place excepted, passive, and so may be the past part, of an obsolete verb riguo, i. q. rigo. In that one place (Geor. ii. 485) there may possibly be a hypallage, or the poet may have written riguis. EXCURSUS X. Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi, etc. — Geor. iv. 287- There is no passage in Virgil which has given critics more trouble than this, on account of vv. 291-293, which, though they occur in all the MSS., are arranged in three different manners. The reading of most MSS. is " Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat arena Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora Usque coloratis amnis devexus ab Indis." The Med. and five others have these verses in this order : Et di- versa ruens — Et viridem Aegyptum — Usque coloratis. The Rom. and one other read, Et diversa ruens — Usque coloratis — Et viridem Aegyptum. This, which gives the best sense, is the reading followed by Voss, Jahn, and Forbiger. Let us now examine the whole passage. Virgil, having {vv. 287- 289) given an accurate description of the country about the Canobic branch of the Nile, on the west side of Egypt, adds (v. 290) Quaque pharetratae vicinia Persidis urguet, where, from the repetition of the qua from v. 287, one might be led to expect the mention of another country in which the same practice was to be found. Then follow the three perplexing verses, in which the poet seems to speak of the Nile again, and to restrict the whole description to Egypt. The critics who maintain the genuineness of these lines say, that by Persis is meant all that part of Asia which was beyond the bounds of the Roman empire to the east or to the south. In this, says Jahn (referring to Geor. ii. 120 seq. and 171), Arabia was certainly included ; and, as the Roman Syria was not at that time contermi- nous to Egypt, the poet could hardly say that eastern Egypt was conterminous to any other country than Persis. This, to our apprehension, is very inconclusive reasoning. There is not the shadow of a proof that the Romans ever gave such exten- ON GEOR. IV. 287. 347 sion to the term Persis ; for surely the places of our poet referred to are no proof of it. Further, when it is said that the river flows down coloratis ab Indis, we are required to believe on the mere word of the critics that these Indians are the Aethiopians ; for most assuredly Geor. ii. 116, which is the only place referred to, does not prove it. Jacob Bryant was of opinion that it was the Ganges that the poet meant, as he elsewhere (Aen. ix. 30) notices the seven mouths of that river ; but India was not sufficiently known to the Romans at that time perhaps to allow of this interpretation, though we know of no river but it or the Indus that by Virgil or any one else could be said to flow from the country of the Indians. Heyne was of opinion that vv, 291, 292 were written by Virgil himself in the margin of his copy, when he had not made up his mind as to which he would insert in the text ; or one or other of them might have been put there from some good poet by a gram- marian. Wagner extends this to vv. 291-293, and thinks they might have been written in the margin by Virgil himself, or copied there by some critic from some lost poem of Virgil's. He holds that it is Syria that is meant in v. 290 ; Persis being the Parthian empire, which was divided from the Roman by the Euphrates. To this in- terpretation, which alone makes sense of the passage, we make no objection. We will only observe, that the want of an object or go- verned case to the verb urguet might lead us to doubt of the genuine- ness of v. 290 also ; and to suspect that the whole four lines indicate an attempt on the part of the poet, or of some one else, to enlarge or to add to the beautiful and picturesque description contained in vv. 287-289. For a hypothesis on this subject see Life of Virgil. 348 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. Ablaqueatio, yvpacris {v. ablaqueo, yvp6a>). An operation per- formed on the vines and olives. It consisted in digging round the tree and exposing all its roots, of which those that grew in the depth of a foot and a half from the surface were to be cut away, in order that the remainder might acquire greater vigour. This was to be done in the beginning of October, and the hole thus made was to be left open till some time in December, according to the weather, when it was to be filled up, dung being sometimes put about the roots. Colum. iv. 8. Amurca, dpopyq, morchia It. A fluid contained in the olive along with the oil, which must be carefully separated from it. The amurca is a watery fluid of a dark colour and of greater specific gravity than the oil. The uses made of it were, to mix with the clay for forming the area, and with the plaister for the walls and floors of granaries, as it was held to banish insects and vermin, for which reason chests containing clothes were rubbed with it. It served also to oil leather and iron, and it was used in some diseases of trees and cattle. Plin. xv. 18. Antes, pi. This word seems to signify properly a square or parallelogram. Columella (x. 376) uses it of the beds in a garden, and Cato (ap. Serv.) of the troops of horse on the wings of infantry on their march, in Virgil it seems to signify the horti of the vine- yards : see on Geor. ii. 278. Aratio, aporos (v. aro, dpoco), ploughing, tilling land in general. The following was the Roman mode of tillage. As they almost always fallowed, the land, after the corn had been cut and carried, which took place in the summer, was let to lie idle in general till the following February, but in some cases only till about the middle of January. They then broke it, or gave it a first ploughing (proscissio) , and so it was let to lie till midsummer, when they gave it a cross- ploughing {iteratio), i. e. one at right angles to the former. The verb expressing this process is offringo. In the beginning of Sep- tember it got a third ploughing (tertiatio), of course at right angles with the cross-ploughing. After this ploughing, if it required it, it got a harrowing (pccatio) with rakes or hurdles. Plin. xviii. 20. The seed was then sown under the plough, or the ground was ploughed into ridges (liras), and the seed sown on it and then har- rowed in : see Sementis. Sometimes the land got only the two first TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 349 ploughings, and was sown with the third. Varr. i. 29 ; Plin. ut sup. When the corn was growing, it was hoed and weeded : see Sarritio, Rimcatio. The Roman plough having neither coulter nor mouldboard, the mode of ploughing differed materially from ours. Instead of making a furrow and then another at some feet distant, and ploughing the intermediate space alternately to one side and the other, the ancient ploughman went and returned in the same track. The length of this was not to exceed 120 feet (that of the actus or half-juger);; and as he went up it he inclined his plough to the right, so that the share formed an angle with the soil, and cutting it obliquely turned up the sod. As he returned he came down the same furrow, but this time he held the plough straight, so that the share took up the earth which in going up it had left in the left-hand side of the furrow. Colum. ii. 4. Lazy ploughmen sometimes neglected to do this, thus leaving what was called a scamnum or balk, that is a ridge or strip of untilled land. In order to detect this, the farmer was directed to run a pole into the ploughed land in various places, as the scamnum would be detected by its resistance. A consequence of this mode of ploughing was that the furrows did not appear ; hence Pliny (xviii. 19) gives it as the test of land being well-tilled, that one should not be able to tell which way the plough had gone. The number of ploughings which land got in general was, as we have seen, three or four ; but Pliny (ut sup.) says that strong rich land was the better for getting five, and adds that in Tuscany the strong land required nine, — a thing quite contrary to the practice in that country at the present day. On the other hand, the light poor soils got only one tilling some time between midsummer and the autumnal equinox (Geor. i. 67; Plin. ib. 19), and the seed-ploughing at the usual time. The usual mode of ploughing was with a pair of oxen yoked abreast by means of the jugum, by which they drew : see Jugum. Pliny (ib. 18) speaks of eight oxen being yoked to one plough as a thing not uncommon in Italy. In that case they must have drawn by means of whipple-trees, traces and collars, things of which we find no mention in the rural writers. It does not appear whether the ploughman had reins or not. Columella (ii. 2) says he should urge on his cattle with the voice rather than by blows ; he strongly condemns the use of the goad (stimulus), as it tended to make the oxen vicious, but says that the whip (flagellum) might be used oc- casionally. It is to be here observed that the ancient ploughman was not far from his cattle ; for the stiva was upright in the burls, 350 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. of which there could hardly be more than two or three feet before it ; while of the eight-foot pole, five feet must have been between the oxen, so that the distance between them and the ploughman could not have been more than five or six feet. At the end of the furrow the ploughman was to stop his oxen and let them rest awhile, raising the yoke from off their necks, to let them cool, and to pre- vent their being chafed. Mules and asses were sometimes used for ploughing, but never horses. The ploughman carried a paddle (ralla) for cleaning the lower part of his plough, and when working in vineyards or olive-grounds a small axe (securicula, Plin.) or mat- tock (dolabra, Colum.), to cut away the upper roots of the trees from before his plough. Arator, dporrjp, 6 apovv, i. q. bubuleus, which see. This term was also used in opposition to pastor, and equivalent to agricola, for the tillage-farmer. Colum. vi. praef. Aratrum, tiporpov, the plough. It is remarkable that the rural writers have left us no description of this most important implement. Varro, in another work (De L. L. v. 135), has given us the names of the different parts of which it was composed, as also has Virgil (Geor. i. 169 seq), and Hesiod ("Ep-y. 427) has left us a slight sketch of the ancient Grecian plough. The parts of the plough which they mention are the burls, temo, stiva, manicula, dentate, and vomis, which belonged to all ploughs, and the awes, which were put on in sow- ing-time : see each of these terms. In the absence of descriptions, we must have recourse to ancient medals and to the ploughs still in use in the south of Europe. Voss has given us figures of no less than fourteen Italian and Sici- lian and one Provencal plough, Martyn of one used in Lombardy, and Loudon of one from the south of France and another from Va- lencia in Spain. On viewing these ploughs, we may observe, that, excepting in Martyn's Lombard plough, there is no coulter, and, with two exceptions, there is only one handle. Their general structure is the buris or beam, which is usually curved, with its convex side uppermost ; to the upper end of it is fastened by means of a pin or cord the temo or pole which goes between the oxen, having at its end the jugum or yoke to which they are attached ; the temo forms an angle with the ground, instead of running horizontally. The other end of the buris turns down to the ground, and has fastened to it horizontally the dentate, a part of the dentate going on each side of it. The dentate runs to a point ; in the ruder ploughs it is without any covering, in others it is plated with iron, in others it is fitted with a moveable share. The stiva or handle is generally mor- TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 351 ticed into the bm°is either vertically or at a small angle ; in some cases it and the buris are all one" piece, and the temo is morticed into or fastened to it. At the upper end of the stiva is a short cross-bar (manicula) by means of which the ploughman directs his plough. Simond (Travels in Italy, &c, p. 4-77) thus describes the plough which he saw at Sciarra on the south coast of Sicily (and it exactly resembles that which Voss gives from Palagonia in the central part of that island) : — " It consists of a shaft eleven feet in length, to which the oxen are fastened by means of an awkward collar, while the other end is morticed obliquely into another piece of timber five feet long ; one end sharp, scratching the ground, and the other end held by the ploughman, who, on account of the shortness of it, bends almost double while at work. The end in the ground is often, but not always, shod with iron ; it has neither coulter nor mouldboard. This instrument scarcely penetrates deeper than a hog with his snout, and is not kept straight without great difficulty." From what precedes we think that a tolerably clear idea may be formed of the plough which Virgil describes. That of Hesiod is evidently of the same kind : — (pepeiv 8e yvrjv, St av evprjs, els oIkov, kclt opos 8i£rjp.evos fj kclt apovpav, ■nplvivov' os yap ftovcrlv dpovv oxvpararos ecrnv, evr av 'Adrjvairjs 8paos, iv e\vp.aTi Tirj^as, yopxpoio-iv ire\ao~as TTpoo-aprjperai Ifjro^orj'l. — -Epya, 427. or' av aitpov e^erX?/? X«pi \a[3uiv opnrjKa j3oav iirl vara lurjai ev8pvov eknovraiv p.eadj3co. — lb. 467- Here the yvrjs is the buris, the Tkvaa the dentale, the la-rojioevs the temo, the exerKrj the stiva of Virgil's plough. The three remaining terms are more difficult to explain : the 0/3707! might be a part of the exerkr] (probably therefore the manicula), and so Goettling would seem to understand it,: as he joins it with anpov ; while others take it to be the goad. We think the former is right, and that im vara iKTjai means that he reaches to the oxen, with the whip or goad un- derstood. The evbpvov would seem to be the same with the 1 was the yoke, though some render it the thong that fastened the yoke to the pole. The following lines of an Italian poet of the last century will show 352 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. how little the mode of ploughing had altered from the time of Virgil and Columella: — " II robusto aratore Stava al arso terreno Col vomere tagliente aprendo il seno ; Acceso in volto, di sudor bagnato, Col crine scompigliato, Curvo le spalle, il cigolante aratro Con una man prernea, Che col chino ginocchio accompagnava ; E coll' altra stringea Pungolo acuto, e colla rozza voce E coi colpi frequenti Affrettava de' bovi i passi lenti." Pignotti, Favole, fav. 18. Arbustum, i. e. arboretum (see p. 342), a place full of trees, a wood. Cato, 7- Lucretius continually uses the plural arbusta for arbores, and Virgil, except in two places (Ec. iii. 10 ; Geor. ii. 416), follows his example. In the rural writers, however, arbustum is a plantation of trees in regular rows, in order that vines might be trained on them, and is opposed to the vinea in which they were trained on espaliers or in other modes. The trees used to form the arbustum were the elm, the poplar, the ash, the fig, the olive, etc. They were planted in rows, forty feet asunder, if the land between them was to be tilled for corn (as was usually done), otherwise twenty feet ; the distance between the trees in the row was to be twenty feet. The trees, as they grew, were to be pruned, so that the first seven or eight feet of their stem might be free from branches. Above that height the branches on each side were to be formed into tabulata or stories, three feet asunder, and not in the same plane, on which the vines might be trained. The vine was to be planted a foot and a half from the tree. Colum. v. 7 ; Id. De Arb. 16 ; Plin. xvii. 23. Area, aX ras dpdWas, o icrri to. dpdypara toiv dTaxvcov, i8eo-povV d/xaAXoSerjjpes 8e, ol ras dpdXXas rSiv dpay- fidrcov 8ecrpovvTes. Novalis ager, or Novale. By this we find two kinds of land indicated. The one was unbroken grass-land. Cum agricola quam maxime subacto et puro solo gaudeat, pastor novali graminosoque, Colum. vi. praef. Tale fere est in novalibus caesa veterisilva,Plin. xvii. 5. The other, land that was tilled and let to rest alternately. Qui intermittitur, a novando novalis, Varr. L. L. v. 39- Novale est quod altemis annis seritur, Plin. xviii. 19. Nubilarium. This was a shed or building erected close to the area. Its use was for protecting the corn, previous to its being threshed, from the weather (Colum. ii. 21); or, if during the threshing rain or storm came on, to receive the threshed or unthreshed corn. Varr. i. 13 ; Colum. i. 6 ; Pall. i. 36. Occatio, (u.occo) covering in (Pall.vi.4) or breaking. The occatio of the Romans was nearly equivalent to our harrowing, but it was done by hand, either wifh the hurdle or the rake. Pliny (xviii. 20) says that after the cross-ploughing, the land, if it required it, should get an occation with the hurdle or rake ; though Columella (ii. 4) says that the Romans of the old time held that land to be badly tilled that required it. An occation after the seed was sown was given in a particular case : see Sementis. The proper meaning of occo seems to be to pulverise or break up ; hence Varro (i. 21) says it is i. q. occido ; but Cicero (De Sen. 1 5) , regarding it as covering in, makes it i. q. occaeco. Olea, or Oliva, iXala, the olive-tree. Oletum, or Olivetum, iXaid>v, an olive- ground. The ancients cultivated the olive in the following manner. They dug well to the depth of three feet the place intended for the seminarium or nursery ; they then took clean healthy branches of their olive-trees, about as thick as could 362 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. "be grasped in the hand, and sawed them into truncheons or lengths, (taleas, truncos) of about eighteen inches each, taking care not to injure the bark, and paring the ends smooth and marking them in order that the lower end might be put into the ground. This end was then daubed with a mixture of dung and wood-ashes, and the pieces were set at a depth of four fingers, i. e. three inches, in the ground. During the first two years the land was kept constantly hoed, but the plants were not touched ; in the third year all the tranches but two were cut off; in the fourth year the weaker of these two was removed ; in the fifth year they were transplanted into the future olive-ground, and set in holes which had been dug the year before. The rows in which they were set were to run east and west, that the healthy west-wind might have free access to them. If the land was rich and was intended for tillage, they were to be sixty feet asunder, and the spaces between the plants forty feet. If the land was poor and unfit for corn, the rows were only twenty or five-and-twenty feet apart. Grains of barley were spread under the plants in the holes, and gravel mixed with clay and a little dung was put about them. The ground was to be ploughed at least twice a year, and the soil about the plants to be stirred with the bidcns. After the autumnal equinox they were to be ablaqueated like the vines. Every third 3^ear they were to be dunged, and after some years (generally the eighth) to be pruned; for there was an old saying, to wit, eum qui aret olivetum rogare fructum ; qui stercoret exorare; qui caedat cogere. It was also necessary to keep the trees clean and free from moss, and to dress them occasionally with amurca and urine; Colum. v. 9. Pall. hi. 18. Columella enumerates ten different kinds of olives, of which three are mentioned by Virgil, Geor. ii. 86. Oleum, tkaiov, oil. The ancients made their oil in the following manner. The olives were to be gathered if possible with the hand, and with the bare hand in preference to with gloves. Those that could not be come at with the hand were to be beaten down, but ■with reeds rather than with poles, as being less likely to injure the tree : the beaters were to avoid striking the fruit. The time of gathering the olives was when they began to turn black ; usually about the beginning of December. They were to be put into the press as soon as possible ; meanwhile they were to be laid up in sepa- rate compartments of a repository in a kind of baskets, so that some portion of the amurca might disengage itself and run off. The olives were to be put in new baskets (fiscinis), and so to be put into the press and pressed gently. What ran off was to be received in a round pan (labrum), whence it was to be transferred to earthen vessels. TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 363 The olives were then to be pressed a second time, and with more force, and what ran off to be received in a second set of vessels ; and then a third time, and the fluid received in other vessels. Great care was to be taken that the vessels and everything connected with the operation should have been well-washed and scoured, and should be perfectly clean. It was also of great importance not to break the stones {nuclei) of the olives, as this would give the oil a bad taste. Columella directs that there should be thirty vessels in each set for the transference of the oil from one to the other, in order to free it from the amurca. If in consequence of the cold the oil did not readily separate from the amurca, they added salt or nitron, which combiried with and precipitated the latter without affecting the oil. The vessels in which the oil, when perfectly purified, was kept were to be either of glass or of potter's ware, varnished with wax or gum that the oil might not exude. Opilio (quasi Ovilio ; in the poets upilio, with the u long for the sake of the metre), ttoi/x?)!/, shephei'd. Under the term pastor were included the opilio and the caprarius. Pala. This implement appears to have been a spade and shovel combined, for it was strong like the former for digging, and broad like the latter for throwing up the earth. Its head was of course iron: Colum. x. 45. Cato (c. 11) mentions palas ligneas. These were probably wooden shovels, like those used in our mills and granaries, and employed in winnowing the corn ; for Tertullian (De Prae- script. 3) renders the tttvov of the Gospel (Mat. iii. 12) by pala. Palea (whence paglia It., paille Fr.), chaff. This term was in- clusive, not merely of the integument of the grain, but also of the short straw that was cut with the ear. Pampinatio, fi\ao-To\oyLa, the clearing away of the young shoots (pampini) and leaves of the vines in the summer-time. Pastinatio (v. pastino), the act of digging the land with a spade, etc., especially land destined for the formation of a vineyard. Pastinum, a dibble. It was of iron and forked, and chiefly used for setting the malleoli of vines. Pastor, noi^u, vo/j.evs, shepherd. The pastor of the Romans was the person who had charge of the sheep and goats belonging to the farm. As the word signifies feeder, Varro (iii. 6) has pastor pavonum and (iii. 7) P- columbarius. Pastor was also used like our word grazier, as opposed tothe arator or tillage-farmer. Varr. ii. 1 ; Colum. vi. praef. Pecus, -oris, andPECtrs, -udis. It is not easy to distinguish between these words ; but the former seems rather, like our word cattle, to r2 364 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. include a number of the same kind, — the latter, like our least, to signify the individual ; but this distinction is little attended to by- ancient writers. Pecus is most frequently used of small cattle, sheep, goats and swine, and armentum of large cattle, oxen, horses and asses. Plaustrum, or Plostrum, a^ai^a, cart or wagon. It was drawn by a yoke or pair of oxen, mules or asses : Cato 62. It must have been four-wheeled, as the cattle were always yoked abreast. Its wheels, as would appear from Virgil (Geor. ii. 444), were solid, not spoked. Porca, or Lira, a ridge or drill. Quod est inter duos sulcos, elata terra, dicitur porca, Varr. i. 29. For the breadth of the porca, see Sementis. Pratum (quasi paratum, Varr. i. 7), Xei/iiiv, meadow. The pratum was more usually laid-down land, than land with natural grass. Colum. ii. 17- Propagatio, propagation by layers (propagines). This was used in a great variety of trees and shrubs (Cato 51, 133), but chiefly in the vine. Columella (De Arb. 7) directs it to be done in the follow- ing manner. A hole four feet every way was to be dug close to the parent plant, in order that no roots of any other might interfere with the layer. A shoot was then to be bent down into this hole ; in the part of it that was to be covered with earth four buds were left to throw out roots, and all those on the part between this and the parent were taken off. The end of the shoot, with two or at most three buds, was left above-ground. In the third year it was separated from the parent plant. Another method was to lay an entire vine. For this purpose it was requisite to dig carefully all round the root of the vine, so as to loosen without injuring it. A trench was then to be dug of the length of the vine, in which it was laid down, and smaller cuts made at each side to receive its branches. The whole was then covered with clay, the ends of the branches being, we may suppose, left overground. Cato mentions another ordinary mode of propagation, namely passing a shoot up through a basket or a pot, whose bottom was perforated (like our flowerpots), and then filling the vessel with clay and leaving it on the tree. After two years the shoot having struck in the pot, it might be separated from the parent by cutting it below the pot and be planted out. Propago, a layer. Rastellum, dim. of Rastrum. This answered more nearly to our rake. Varro (i. 49) desires what hay remained on the meadow to be gathered rastellis and added to the mow. On the other hand, Suetonius (Ner. 19), when describing how Nero commenced the TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 365 canal across the Isthmus of Corinth, says, Primus rastello humum effodit, et corbulae congestum humeris extulit. But the rastrum and the rastellum are frequently confounded. Rastrum, a rake. The Roman rastrum seems to have been an implement of somewhat similar nature with the bidens, for its teeth were of iron and it was used in turning up the soil, if the language of poets may be relied on ; see Virgil, Mx\. vii. 725 ; ix. 608. Seneca (De Ira ii. 25) says, Cum vidisset fodientem et altius rastrum alle- vantem. Cato speaks of rastra with four teeth, and that was pro- bably the usual number. It must have been heavy, or Virgil could not have said (Geor. i. 164) iniquo pondere rastri. There were also wooden rakes, for Columella (ii. 11) directs such to be used for covering lucerne. Restibilis ager, land that was sown every year. Ager restibi- lis qui restituitur et reseritur quotquot annis, Varr. L. L.v. 39. Runcatio, /3oraftcrju.oy, Troaa-jxos (v. runco, (3oTavi£co, rrod^co), weeding, extirpating weeds, briars, etc. This was done in some cases with the hand, in others with the hoe or other implements, ac- cording to circumstances. Rutrum, GKcmavr), dim. Rutellum. This implement seems to come nearer to our shovel than any other that we find mentioned by the ancients. It was used for mixing mortar (Vitruv. vii. 3), and for stirring various kinds of mixtures and composts. Cato, 37, 128 ; Plin. xxxvi. 23. It was also used for digging, and probably, like the pala, answered for both spade and shovel. Varro's deriva- tion of it from ruo seems probable. Sarculum, aKciXls, ficLKeWa, a hoe. There can be little doubt as to this implement, as everything said about it corresponds with our hoe. We make it synonymous with the Greek /jAiceXKa (i. e. jMa^jceXKa, from iceXka>), because Hesiod ("Epy. 469 seq.) describes it as used for occating or covering in the seed after the plough : — 6 oe rvrdos oiricrdev 8 [xcbos e^av fiaKeXrjv rrovov opviBeaai rideirj, (Tivepua KaraKpinrraiv. Homer (II. xxi. 259) has a peasant opening a channel for water to his garden with the /jLaKeXka, in which case we should use a spade, but the ancients used their large hoe for this purpose. The dUeXXa has evidently the same relation to it that the bidens has to the sarculum. This last implement is called in Italian zappa when large, zappetta when small. 366 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. Sarritio, o-Kcikeia, aKaXevcris, k.t.X. (v. sarrio, cr/caWa), hoeing, in order to remove weeds and put earth up to plants. Scamnum, a balk or part of the earth left untouched in plough- ing : see Aratio. Scrobs, a hole, dug to receive vines or other plants when they were to be put out. Seges, corn-land or corn-field, also the growing corn. I. Seges dicitur quod aratutn satum est, Varr. i. 29. Stramenta relinquunt in segete, Id. i. 50. Segetes agricolae subigunt aratris multo ante quam serant, Cic. ap. Nonium. Virg. Geor. i. 47 ; ii. 267 ; iv. 129. 2. Si in articulum seges ire coeperit runcare ne herbae vincant, Colum. ii. 12. Quae seges grandissima atque optima fluent, seorsim in aream secerni oportet spicas, ut semen optimum habeat, Varr. i. 52. See on Ec. ix. 48. Seges may come from seco. Sementis, (rrropos, sowing. It differs from satio, which is the general term, inclusive of planting. The Romans sowed their corn in the following manner : — The land having been ploughed two or three times, and laid quite level, and the lumps, if any, broken with the crates or the rastrum, the seed was sown over it with the hand, out of a basket, just as we do. The aures, or mould-boards, were then put to the plough, and the ploughman opened the first furrow. At the end of it he put the plough again into the ground, but at such a distance as that one of the oxen might walk in the furrow already made, while the other was on the sown land. By this means what we may term a two-sod ridge was formed between the two furrows, containing all the seed sown on the land occupied by itself and by one half of each furrow. The process was continued till the whole field had been ridged and all the corn covered. This is called sowing under the plough ; and at the present day it is con- sidered one of the best modes of sowing corn. The Romans chiefly used it in their moist lands, while if the land was dry they preferred sowing in the furrow. In this mode they ridged the land first in the manner just described, and then sowed the seed, which of course fell into the furrows, or on the sides of the ridges. The clay from the tops of the ridges was then brought down on it with rakes, or by drawing hurdles across them. The corn therefore grew in the furrow, and had the advantage of all the moisture caused by rain or irrigation. It is plainly of this mode of covering the seed that Virgil speaks, Geor. i. 104. Mr. Dickson, who alone seems to have understood this passage rightly, observes (i. 518), that Colu- mella (ii. 4) uses cumulus for the crown or top of the ridge. TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 367 Seminarium, a nursery, a place where young plants were reared. Stiva, i^erXr], the plough-tail or handle. The stiva was usually morticed into the buris, but it sometimes formed one piece with it. It had a cross-piece named manicula, by which the ploughman held and directed the plough. Varr. L. L. v. 135 : see Aratrum. The plough with the stiva, or single handle, may still be seen in this country, namely in Norfolk and Huntingdonshire. Stolo, a sucker, or shoot growing up from the roots of a tree. The extirpation of the stolones was a point of good husbandry. The first of the family of the Stolones, in the Licinian gens, was said to have derived his cognomen from his diligence in this respect. Varr. i. 2. Sulcus, aiikat-, oKkos, a furrow. Qua aratrum vomere lacunam striamfacit sulcus vacatur, Varr. i. 29. Virgil and the rural writers use sulcus for a trench ; Pliny (xix. 4) also for the alleys in a gar- den. Sulcus aquarius, in Columella (ii. 8), is a water-cut. Sulcus is also used for aratio. Semina quae quarto sulco seruntur, Colum. ii. 13. Spissius solum quinto sulco seri melius est, in Tuscisvero nono r Plin. xviii. 20. Surculus (dim. of surus), a shoot, a sucker. It was chiefly used of the shoots that were taken for grafting. Talea, a truncheon, i. e. a branch, of which the two ends were cut off and it then was planted out. The olive, myrtle, willow and mulberry were thus propagated. Plin. xvii. 17 ; Colum. iv. 31. Temo, pv/xos, the pole. The temo was a part of the plough, as well as of a cart or carriage. The yoke was fastened to the end of it, and by means of it the oxen drew. According to Virgil the temo of a plough was to be eight feet long ; and Hesiod C'Epy. 435) says it should be of elm or bay. See Aratrum. Traha, or Trahea, an implement for threshing out corn. It seems to have differed but little from the tribulum. Tribulum, to. rpiftoXa, a threshing-sledge. Fit e tabula lapidi- bus autferro asperata, quo imposito auriga aut ponder e grandi trahi- tur jumentis junctis ut discutiat e spica grana, Varr. i. 52. This writer then mentions another kind made ex assibus dentatis cum or- biculis, quod vocant plostellum poenicum. One of these was perhaps the traha. The tribulum {trebbio, It., trillo, Sp.) is still used in the East, in Spain, and in the south of Italy. See Tritura. Tritura, dXorjcns (v. tero, aXotaw), threshing. The ancients had different methods of threshing their grain. We must previously observe that they did not, like us, bring the straw also to the 368 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. threshing-floor, hut only the ears, or the ears and a small portion of the straw : see Messis. One mode was to put their mares or oxen in on the area, and driving them round and round over the ears of corn that were spread on it, thus by their trampling separate the grain from the hull. When they had not a sufficient number of cattle for this purpose, they yoked some of those they had to the implements named tribula and trahae, and thus threshed the corn by driving round and round. In some cases they beat out the corn baculis or fustibus (Colum. ii. 21) ; but whether these were the same as our flails, or were only sticks, we cannot determine. In the two former modes we should suppose that the corn must have been greatly bruised ;~for even the iron-shod shoes of our peasantry do so to some extent. The threshing was performed in the heat of the day ; see on Geor. i. 298. Truncus, i. q. Talea : see Colum. De Arb. 17. Vanga. This word signifies a spade in the language of modern, and therefore probably of ancient, Italy. Palladius alone mentions it (i.43). Vannus (whence our fan, and perhaps winnow), XiKfios, Xlkvov, an implement used in winnowing corn. Servius (Geor. i. 166) calls it cribrum areale, and Apuleius says (Met. 11), Vannos onustas aromatis et hujusmodi suppliciis certatim congerunt : it therefore was plainly some kind of sieve or basket. If there has been no wind for several days, says Columella (ii. 21), vannis expurgentur (frumenta) ne post nimiam ventorum segnitiem vasta tempestas irritum faciat totius anni laborem. This could only have been done when there was no wind, by agitating the corn in a sieve or basket, in which the chaff would collect on the surface, whence it might be removed by the hand. Columella also says (ib.), Ipsae autem spicae melius fustibus tun- duntur, vannisque expurgantur, which shows that in ordinary cases it was only when there was no straw mixed with the corn that the vannus was used. Vellera serum, Geor. ii. 121. It is generally believed that by this is meant the silk which was brought from the remote East to Rome, and which the ancients in their ignorance supposed to be a vegetable production, as is very plainly expressed in this verse of Virgil. Pliny also says (vi. 17), " Seres lanicio silvarum nobiles, perfusam aqua depectentes frondium canitiem ; unde geminus feminis nostris labor, redordiendi fila rursumque texendi ; " by which last words he is thought to mean, that when the thick silken cloths of the East were brought to Europe, the threads which composed them were untwisted and the silk woven over again into thinner webs. TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. 3bb» Solinus, who always follows Pliny, says (ch. 53), " Qui aquarum aspergine inundatis frondibus vellera arborum adminiculo depectant liquoris, et lanuginis teneram subtilitatem humore domant ad obse- quium." Ammianus Marcellinus, speaking of the Seres, says (xxiii. 6), " et abunde silvae sublucidae ; a quibus arborum fetus, aquarum asperginibus crebris, velut quaedam vellera molientes, ex lanugine et liquore mistam subtilitatem tenerrimam pectunt, nentesque subte- mina conficiunt Sericum." At the present day some dip the cocoons, as they are called, of the silk-worm into warm water, in order to wind off the silk with greater ease. The Seres would seem to have been the Chinese (at least to have included them), for Mela (i. 2) describes their country as lying in the extreme East between Scythia and India, consequently on the eastern part of the Ocean, where they are also placed by Dionysius. The mildness of manners and aversion to strangers, which these writers ascribe to the Seres, also accord with the Chinese. From what precedes it might appear that the ancients had no idea of the real nature of silk, but such is not the case ; for Pausanias (vi. 26) says that the threads (/xt'roi) of which the Seres made garments were formed by a little animal (£a>v peraftaXovTOs rod aKcoXrjKOs Kaprrrj, eTreira jSopftvXios, eK Se tovtov veKvb'aXos' iv e£ 8e /Libert peTafiaXXei ravras ras popT7] 8e Xe- yerai vcprjvai eu Ka Uapcpikr] nXarew dvydrrjp. This account is full of difficulty ; for the caterpillar (Kciprrr]) comes from an egg laid by a moth ; its first change is into a chrysalis (xpvo-akls, veKvdaXos), from which another moth (^X'7) proceeds. Dalechamp therefore proposed to make (BopftvXtos and veKvdaXos change places, but that is contrary to the MSS. Again, when our author elsewhere uses fiopfivKLoi (v. 24), they are a kind of wasp or hornet, while here they would seem to be the silkworms' webs. At all events it is plain that the women of Cos obtained some kind of silk from insects. r5 370 TERMS OF HUSBANDRY. Pliny, when following this place of Aristotle (xi. 22), goes on thus after necydulus : " Ex hoc in sex mensibus bombyx. Telas araneonim modo texunt ad vestem luxumque feminarum, quae bombycina ap- pellatur. Prima eas redordiri rursusque texere invenit Ceo (f. Coo), mulier Pamphila Latoi filia;" for the greater part of which he had little authority in his original. In his following chapter he proceeds thus : " Bombycas et in Co insula nasci tradunt, cupressi, tere- binthi, fraxini, quercus florem irabribus decussum terrae halitu ani- mante. Fieri autem primo papiliones parvos nudosque, mox frigorum impatientia villis inhorrescere et adversum hiemem tunicas sibi in- staurare densas, pedum asperitate radentes foliorum lanuginem vel- lere. Hanc ab his cogi unguium carminatione, mox trahi inter ramos, tenuari ceu pectine. Postea apprehensam corpori involvi nido volubili. Turn ab homine tolli fictilibusque vasis tepore et furfurum esca nutriri, atque ita subnasci sui generis plumas [i. e. alas], quibus vestitos ad alia pensa dimitti. Quae vero coepta sunt lanificia humore lentescere, mox in fila tenuari junceo fuso." From all that precedes (though the accounts are full of errors) it seems plain, as we said above, that the ancients were not ignorant of silk being an animal substance. It was probably a better kind of silk- worm (the kind now reared), and the knowledge of the mulberry- leaves being its proper food, that the monks brought from China in the time of Justinian. Ventilabrum, tttvov, a winnowing-shovel. Tertullian, as we have seen (above p. 363), rendered tttvov by pala; and Columella, when di- recting how to winnow a heap of beans, says (ii. x.) paullatirn ex eo ventilabris per longius spatium jactetur. The veniilabrum was therefore some kind of shovel, and that the tttvov was the same will thus appear. Theocritus says (vii. 155) ay em crapa Avdis iyav TTa^aLfiL jxiya tttvov, on which the scholiast observes, oTav 8e \iku.wv- rai rjy6s. Ischio I. ; CMne esculus F. ; Wintereiche G. A kind of Oak. This is the current synonomy of the Aescylus of Pliny ; but as this is one of the smallest species of the oak, and as Pliny regards it as being rather rare in Italy, while Virgil (Geor. ii. 15) terms it maxima, and elsewhere (lb. 291) speaks of it as one of the very largest of trees, and Horace (C. i. 22, 14) speaks of woods composed of it in Daunia, it becomes a matter of doubt if the Aesculus of the poets was not different from that of the naturalist. Tenore expresses himself on the subject in the following terms : — " Being for many years occupied with the species of Oaks of our Flora, I have had occasion to convince myself that in reality the Aesculus of Virgil and of Horace does not at all correspond with the Q. Aesculus of Linnaeus, and that it is therefore a very different plant from the Aesculus of Pliny, to which we refer the Phagus of Theophrastus and the other Greek writers. The existence of the true Q. Aesculus is still problematic for the Flora of the regions which we inhabit, while the Virgilian Aesculus grows most abundantly in our woods and is easily distinguished from all the other oaks by its colossal bulk and by the character of its very broad leaves, so well expressed by the phrase quae maxima frondet. This tree is beyond doubt the variety latifolia of the Q. robur of Linnaeus, to which are referred the Q. latifolia of Pliny, the Q. platyphyllos Ideorum et Maurorum of Theophrastus, and the Q. platyphyllos mas of Dalechamp. The acorns of this tree are sweet and good to eat, whence it is that our FLORA VIRGILIANA. 377 peasantry eat them roasted like the chestnuts, and on this account call the tree that produces them querela castagnara. It appears then to me that reducing to certainty what has been hinted doubtingly by M. Fe'e, at the same time the double sense of the Aesculus of the ancients is recognised and the text of the divine Mantuan illustrated. M. Fee notices in the same place with surprise the strange idea of those who have deemed that the Aesculus of Virgil might be referred to the chestnut ; but if we reflect on the uniformity of the uses made of the fruits of these two trees, and even of the vulgar name of the former, that notion will perhaps appear less strange." Alga. Bpvov dakao-ariov ; Aliga, Alga I.; Algue F. ; Meergras G. Seaweed, Seawrack. Under the name of alga the ancients in- cluded all the various kinds of marine plants that the sea throws up on the shore. It is only of late years that these have been classified Allium. (A. sativum L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) SfcogoSoi/; Aglio I. Ail F. ; Knoblauch G. Garlic. Alnus. (A. glutinosa L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) KkriBprj, fcXrjdpos Alno I. ; Aune F. ; Erie G. The Alder. This tree is common it grows best in moist situations, as on the banks of streams. Amaracus. (Origanum Majoranoid.es L. ; Labiatae N. O.) 'A/^ici paKos, ~2aixy\rvxov. This plant, as Fee informs us, does not grow na turally in either Italy or Greece. It is supposed, he says, to be < native of Barbary. It is akin to the Major ana I. ; Marjolaire F. Marjoram of our gardens. Amellus. (Aster Amellus h.; CorymbiferaeN.Q.) 'Ao-T^p'ArnKo?, Bovj3a>viov. This Aster, which is so accurately described by our poet, is found in no part of Italy but the north. It grows also in the vicinity of Athens. Amomum. All we know of this plant is that it grew in the East, and that it yielded a fragrant spice. It occurs also in the com- pounds Cinnamomum and Car damomum. Fee thinks it is the Amomum racemosum L. of the moderns. Anethus. (A. graveolensL. ; OmbelliferaeN. 0.)"Avt]8ov; Aneto I. ; Aneth a odeur forte F. Dille G. Dill . This aromatic plant, which is akin to the fennel, is cultivated in our gardens : it is not indigenous in this country. Apium. (A. petroselinumh. ; Ombelliferae N . O .) ~2i\ivov ; Apio I. ; Persil F. ; Petersilie G. Parsley. By Virgil this plant is termed amarum (Ec. vi. 68) and viride (Geor. iv. 121), and he says (ibid) that it grows on the banks of streams. Horace (C. i. 36, 16) calls it vivax and udus (C. ii. 7, 23), and speaks of it as forming garlands for drinkers with the myrtle and the ivy. These all accord 378 FLORA VIRGILIANA. with our cultivated or garden parsley. F£e, in his notes on Pliny, inclines to think that this is the opium of these poets : he however does not deny that, as Martyn and others hold, it was the 'EXetocre- Xivov of Theophrastus, Ache F. ; our Smallage, of which celery is a variety. Arbutus. {A. unedo L. ; Ericaceae N. O.) Kopapos ; Corbezzolo I. ; Arbousier, Fraisier en arbre F. ; Erdbeerbaum G. Arbutus, or Strawberry-tree. Virgil terms it viridis (Ec. vii. 46) and horrida (Geor. ii. 69) . It is indigenous at the Lakes of Killarney and other places in Ireland, and is common in pleasure-grounds. Arundo. — 1. (A. phragmites L. ; Gramineae N. O.) KdXapos (ppayp'irqs ; Catinal.; Roseau a balais F. ; Rohr, Binse G. Reed, Rush. — 2. {A. donax L. ; Gramineae N .0 .) Aovag; Cannal.; Roseau a quenouilles; Rohr G. Cane. Virgil names the former tenera (Ec. vii. 12 ; Geor. iii. 16) , fluvialis (Geor. ii. 414), and glauca (Aen. x. 205). It is apparently of the latter kind that he speaks, Ec. vi. 8. This last was used for making pipes and the shafts of arrows. Tenore mentions a third kind to be found in Italy, the A. Rhenana ; Canna del Reno, so named because it grows on the Reno, which flows near Bologna. Avena. — 1. {A. sativa L. ; Gramineae N. O.) Bp£>pos ; Avena, Vena I. ; Avoine F. ; Haber G. Oat. — 2. {A. fatua L. ; Gramineae N.O.) AlyiXayyjf ; Avena, Venal.; Avoine-tres-elcvee, Fromental F. ; Wilde Haber, Flughaber G. Wild Oat. The former, our cultivated oat, is mentioned Geor. i. 77 ; the other, our wild oat, Ec. v. 37 ; Geor. i. 154. In both places it is termed sterilis. Baccar. BaKKapis. This plant, which Virgil mentions along with the ivy (Ec. iv. 19), and gives, when bound round the head, as a protection against the evil tongue (vii. 27), has hitherto perplexed naturalists. Dioscorides describes it as fragrant, and used for gar- lands, with rough leaves. Its stem, he says, is angular, about a cubit long and somewhat rough ; its flowers, purple shaded with white, and fragrant ; its roots, like those of the black hellebore, re- sembling in smell the cinnamomum. Fee maintains that it is the Digitalis purpurea L. (Solaneae N. O.) ; Digitale pourpree F; the l Foxglove, one of our indigenous plants. Sprengel held it to be the 1 Valeriana Celtica L. ; but to this Fee objects that that plant is rare, lives only among rocks, and could hardly have attracted the atten- tion of the ancients. On the other hand, Tenore objects to Fee that the Digitalis is not to be found at all in the south of Italy, and in the north only on Monte Baldo at its very extremity. He holds the Baccar of the ancients to be the Asarum {A. Europaeum L. ; FLORA VIRGILIANA. 379 Aristolochieae N. O.) "Aaapov; Asaro I.; Asaret F. Asarabacca. This plant, he says, is common on the shaded sides of the hills in Italy ; its leaves are somewhat similar to those of the ivy, and it creeps like that plant. Its stem however is short, and hence it accords not with the description in Dioscorides. The question therefore is still undecided. Balsamum. (Amyris apobalsamum L. ; Terebinthaceae N. O.) Bako-afiov ; Balsamo I. ; Baurne F. ; Balsam G. Balm of Gilead. This gum is produced by two shrubs which grow in Arabia. Ac- cording to Bruce these shrubs are so common along the south coast of the strait of Babelmandeb, that the inhabitants use no other wood for firing. Theophrastus (H. P. ix. 6) asserts that the Balsam grew nowhere wild, and was only to be found in two gardens in the Aulon, or Vale of Syria, i. e. the Ghor, or valley of the Jordan. Diodorus (ii. 48) says the same. Dioscorides (i. 18) says it grew in Judaea and in Egypt; Strabo (xvi. 2, 4) in the vale of Jericho and on the coast of the Sabaean country. Pliny (xii. 25) confines it to Judaea, whither, Josephus says (B. J. viii. 6) it was brought by the queen of Sheba. Buxcs. (jB. sempervirens L. ; Euplwrbiaccae N. O.) Hvtjos ; Bosso I. ; Bids F. ; Buxbaum G. The Box-tree. It is indigenous in the south of England, particularly on Box-hill, near Dorking in Surrey. Caltha. The name of this flower does not occur in Greek, un- less it be the x<&£as which Dioscorides (iv. 54) gives as a synonyme of xpucra^e/xoi; or (3ovcj)$a\fiov. "Virgil (Ec. ii. 50) terms it luteola ; and Columella has (x. 97) flaventia lurnina calthae, and (v. 307) he styles xtfiammeola. Pliny (xxi. 6) would seem to place it among the violets, and he says it has a strong smell. Ovid (Ex Pont. ii. 4, 28) mentions among other impossible things Calthaque Paestanas vincit odore rosas, whence also it appears that its smell was strong and disagreeable. The general opinion is that it is the Fiorrancio I. ; Souci F. ; Ringelblume G; Marigold. Carduus. Cardo I. ; Chardon F. ; Distel G. Thistle. The car- duus of Virgil is supposed by Martyn to be the C. solstitialis or St. Barnaby's thistle, which according to Ray grows abundantly in the cornfields in Italy. Carex. Virgil (Geor. hi. 231) terms the carex acuta, and he speaks (Ec. iii. 20) of places overgrown with it. Catullus (xix. 2) mentions it as growing near marshes, and used with bulrushes for thatching cottages. Palladius (i. 22) speaks of it or broom as a thatch. Columella (xi. 2) directs it and the fern to be extirpated in 380 FLORA VIIiGILIANA. the month of August. According to Martyn, Anguillara says that in the neighbourhood of Padua and Vicenza a kind of rush is called carese. The carex is therefore probably our sedge, or hard rush, of which there are about sixty varieties in this country. Casia. — 1. (Daphne Gnidium L. ; Thymaleae N. O.) Kveapov, Xa- pe\aia,Qvpe\ala; Gar on pohre demontagneF.; Zetland G. Spurge- flax or Mountain Widow-wail. — 2. (Laurus- Cassia L. ; Laurineae N. O.) Kaaia ; Cassia I. ; Laurier casia lignea F. ; Mutter ziemt G. ; Cassia lignea. The first of these is a plant that grows common in the south of Europe. It is aromatic, hence its name cneoron (a uvea, pungo), and its leaves are shaped like those of the olive ; hence its other Greek names. The second (Geor. ii. 466) is our well-known Eastern aromatic of the name ; it is the bark of a tree that grows to the height of about twenty-five feet. Castaxea. (Feigns Castanca L. ; Amcntaceae N. O.) Aibs BaXavos Evfio'iKrj ; Castagno I. ; Chdtaignier F. ; Kastanienbaum G. The Chestnut. Cedrus. (Pinus Cedrus L. ; Coniferae N. O.) KeSpor ; Cedro I. ; Ccdre F. ; Ceder G. The Cedar. Beside the cedar of Lebanon, with which they were acquainted, the ancients seem to have given this name to several of the coniferous plants, especially the junipers. Cextaurea. (Centaurea L. ; Cynaracephalae N. O.) Kevravpts, KevravpLov; Centauria I.; Centauree F. ; TausendgiddenJcraut G. ; The Centaury or Knapweed. A well-known variety of this plant is the Bluebottle, that grows so commonly in our fields. Its name is derived from the Centaur Chiron, who healed with it the wound he had received from the arrow of Hercules. Cerasus. (Cerasush.; Rosaceae N. O.) Kepaaos ; Ciliegio I.; Cerisier F. ; Kirschbaum G. The Cherry. This tree was first brought to Italy from Cerasuntum in Pontus, by Lucullus. Theophrastus however knew it by its name Cerasus. Cerixthe. This plant is usually supposed to be the C. Major L. ; Grand Melinet F. Honeywort. But Tenore asserts that it does not grow at least in the south of Italy. He therefore thinks it is the C. aspera or C. maculosa, the first of which is common in the meadows, the second on the hills of southern Italy. He however rather supposes that the Cerinthe of Virgil, who calls it ignobile gra- men, is the Satureia Tliymbra or S. capitata, both of which are indi- genous in Italy, are aromatic, and like the former have those white spots like wax on their leaves which gave origin to the Greek name Krjpivdov. Colocasia. (Arum Colo casia L. ; Aro'ideaeN. 0.) "Apov Kvpwvai- FLORA VIRGILIANA. 381 kov ; Colocasia I. ; Colocase F. ; Aegyptische Bohne G. The Egyp- j tian Bean, called by the Arabs Kulkas. This plant is cultivated in marshy land in Egypt : it has a long stalk, and bears fruit of the form of beans in cells on its summit : it has very large leaves, and its roots, which are tuberous, are used for food. It was introduced from Egypt into Italy. Cornus. (C mash. ; Caprifoliaceae N. O.) Kpaveia; Cornioh I. ; Cornouiller F. ; Kornelbaum G. The Cornel or Dog- wood. This plant, with its dark-purple fruit shaped like olives, and like them with a large stone, may be seen in our hedges and woods. It is said to have derived its name (a cornu) from the hardness of its wood. Corulus. (C. Avellana L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) Kapva dao-aia rj 7rovTiKi] ; Nocciuolo I. ; Cuudrier, Noisetier F. ; Hasel G. The Hazel. Crocus. (C.sativusL.; IrideaeN.O.)KpoKos; Croco;ZafferanoI.; Safran F. ; So/ran G. The Crocus. Several varieties of this plant grow wild and in the gardens in England. It is the stigmata of that named the Saffron Crocus that are the saffron of the shops. Cucumis. (C. sativus L. ; Cucurbitaceae N. O.) 2ikvos rj 2lkvs rj/jLepos; Cetriuolo I. ; Concombre F. ; GurJce G. The Cucumber. Tenore thinks that it is not this, the common cucumber, that Virgil means (Geor. iv. 122) when he describes it as tortus and says that crescit in ventrem ; but rather what is now called in Italy Cocomero serpentina, which is twice the length of the common cucumber, has a crooked neck, a swollen belly, and tastes like the melon. Its original country, he says, was Egypt. Cupressus. (C. semper-virensh.; ConiferaeN. O.) Kvnapio-o-os ; Cipressol.; Cypres F.; CypresseG. The Cypress. This well-known tree is not indigenous in Italy : it was brought into that country, as Pliny informs us, from Crete, where it grew abundantly on Mount Ida. It has been diffused from Italy over the rest of Europe, and is now common in our shrubberies. Cytisus. By this name botanists are disposed to understand two different plants of the natural order Leguminosae : — 1. C. Labur- num L. ; Aubours, Faux-ebenier F. The Laburnum. — 2. Medicago arborea L. ; Luzerne arborescente F. The reason of this distinc- tion is that Theophrastus and Pliny say that the wood of the Cytisus is black, while all the ancients say that its leaves and flowers yielded a most grateful food to cattle, goats, and bees. Now, though the first of these plants grows abundantly in Italy, it is observed that the bees do not settle on its flowers, and it is not found at all in Greece. The second grows in both Greece and Italy ; the bees are very fond of it, and cows and goats eat its leaves with avidity. 382 FLORA VIRGILIANA. There can therefore be little doubt that this Arborescent Lucerne is the Cytisusjiorens of Virgil. A physician of Candia, named Onorio Belli Vicentini, was the first who fixed on this plant for Virgil's cytisus, and his opinion has been generally adopted. Dictamnum. {Origanum Dictamnus L. ; Labiatae N. O.) AiKrapov KprjTiKov. This celebrated labiate plant, akin to our Marjoram, grew abundantly in Crete, but was not peculiar to that island. Virgil derived his account of the goats using it when wounded probably from Theophrastus. Euexum. It is probable that by this name (Heb. and probably Phcen. Habni, i. e. stone-wood, from its hardness) the ancients un- derstood various woods of the genus Diospyros which grow in the East, and whose wood is hard and black. Ebuluji. (Sambucus Ebidus L. ; Caprifoliaceae N. O.) 'Akttj ; Ebulo, Ebbiol.; Hieble, YebleF.; Attich G. The Dwarf-elder, Wall-wort, or Dane-wort. This plant, which very much resembles the common Elder, grows to the height of about three feet. It bears clusters of black juicy berries, and is to be found in woods, hedges, and churchyards. Martyn says that it was fabled to have sprung from the blood of the Danes when they were massacred by the English. Elleborus. (E. orientalis L.; Ranunculaceae N. O.) 'EXhefiopos fieXas ; Elieboro I. ; Ellebore F. ; Niesewurz G. The Hellebore. The ancients had another kind called in Latin Veratrum, but it is of the former that Virgil speaks. Ervum. (E. Ei-villa L. ; Leyuminosae N. O.) "Opoftos ; Vegyiolo I. ; Ers F. ; Erve G. A species, of Tare ; probably the Hairy Tare that grows in our fields and hedges. Faba. (F. vulgaris Moench. ; Leyuminosae N. O.) ~K.vap.os ; Fava I. ; Five de Marais F. ; Bohne G. The Horse-bean. The bean is not indigenous in this country. Fagus. {Fagus L. ; AmentaceaeN. 0.) ~0£va ; Faggio I. ; Httre F. ; Buchbaum G. The Beech. We must be careful not to confound the fagus of the Latins with the cpyyos of the Greeks. The latter was an oak, while that the former was the beech is clear from the fol- lowing words of Pliny : Fagi glans, nucleis similis, triangula cute in- cluditur. Far. (Triticum dicoccum Schub.; Gramineae'N. O.) Zeia, Zea ; Farro I.; E'peautre a deux rangees F. ; Diinlcel G. Spelt. The far, also called ador, was the principal food of the Romans in the early times of the Republic, and hence it continued to be used in sacrifices, etc. They chiefly ate it in porridge, as the modern Italians do the FLORA V1RGILIANA. 383 maize or Indian corn. Far contains less nutritious matter than 1 wheat, but it will grow on an inferior soil. The glume adheres to the seed like that of barley. Faselus. (Faseolus vulgaris L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) $>acrrfkos ; Fagghiolo I. ; Haricot F. ; Schminl-bohne G. The Kidney-bean. Pliny tells us that the Romans ate them just as we do. Ferula; (F. communis L. ; Ombelliferae N. O.) ~Napdr]£;; Ferula I. ; Ferule F. ; Ferulstaude G. Fennel-giant. This is a large species of our common fennel (Finocchio I. ; Fenouil F. ; Fenchel G.). It grows to the height of about six feet. It is common in Apulia, where the shepherds make walking-staffs of it, which of course are i extremely light. The Roman schoolmasters used it for correcting | their boys. Juv. i. 15 ; Mart. x. 62, 10 ; xiv. 80. Filix. (PolypodiimL.; FilicesN.O.) LTregis; Feleal.; FougereF.; FarnJcraut G. Fern. The ancients understood by filix all the dif- ferent kinds of fern. Fraga. Fragole I. ; Fraises F. ; Erdbeeren G. Strawberries. I The singular of this word does not occur, neither does the name of the plant. It is the Fragaria L., Rosaceae N. O. This fruit is un- mentioned by the Greeks, and we know not how they named it. The modern Greeks call it cppayovXi. Fraxintjs. {Fraxinus L.^~Jasmineae N. O.) MeXi'a ; Frassino I. ; Frdne F. ; Eschenbaum G. The Ash. Galbanum. (Bubon Galbanum L. ; Ombelliferae'N.O.) Ta\/3di>r]. : It goes by its Latin name in the modern languages. This word has been formed from Helbenah, its Hebrew name. This gum (for gal- banum is the gum, not the plant) is of a strong, disagreeable odour. Genesta. {Genesta juncea L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) "2^aprov ; Ginestral. ; Genet d' Espagne F '. ; Genster G. Spanish Broom. This plant, with its pretty yellow blossoms, so loved by the Fees", is com- mon in this country. In the south of Europe they make cordage I and weave baskets of it. Glans. BaXavos. By these words the ancients understood not merely the acorns of the various species of the oak, but also the j beech-mast, etc. Hedera velEDERA. (H. Helix L.; CaprifoliaceaeTSi.O.)Kio- KaKovtri, /xaXa^jj? earlv dyplas eibos ; he proceeds to say that its leaves are downy and round like those of the cyclamen, its flower like a rose, and the height of its stalk three feet. Palladius says, Althaeae, hoc est Ibisci, folia et radices. On the other hand Pliny says expressly that the Hibiscus is like a parsnip. Virgil says that the goats are driven to it to feed on it, or else driven with a rod of it (Ec. ii. 30), and that baskets are made of it (x. 71). Now neither the mallow nor the parsnip is adapted for this last purpose, and we know not that goats were ever put to feed on marsh-mallows, or that a mallow-stalk would answer for driving them. We could almost suspect that Virgil's hibiscus was some species of willow. At all events we are willing, with Mar- 1 tyn, to confess our ignorance of it. Hokdeum. (II. sativum L.; GramineaeN. O.) Kpidrj ; Orzol.; Orge F. ; Gerste G. Barley. Hyacinthus. (Lilium Martagon L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) 'Yaxivdos; Giacinto ? I. ; Lis Martagon F. ; Turhische Bund G. Martagon, or Turk's-cap Lily. This flower, which accords with the description of the hyacinthus given by Dioscorides (iv. 63), and which is easily known by its petals being turned back, is held by Martyn and Fee to be the hyacinthus of the poets. Salmasius and Sprengel main- tained that it was the Blue Iris or Corn-flag ; Glaieul F. ; Schwert lilie G. (Gladiolus communis L. ; Irideae N. O.). Tenore thinks it probable that Virgil applied the term hyacinthus to both ; to the latter when he terms it suave rub ens (Ec. iii. 64), to the former when (Geor. iv. 183) he styles the hyacinths ferrugineos, or dark-blue ; for the Martagon, he says, being always of a brown colour could not be termed rubens, while there is a Gladiolus, named by Sibthorp G. byzantinus, which grows abundantly in the fields of the Levant and Italy, and which both in the colour of the petals and in the spots on them, which form the at at of the poets, agrees with their description. There is, we know, little stress to be laid on the colours named by the ancient poets ; but Ovid, who, as we have often ob- served, was a more accurate observer than Virgil, when speaking of the transformation of Hyacinthus, says (Met. x. 211), Tyrioque ni- tentior ostro Flos oritur formamque capit quam Mia, si non Purpu- reus color huic, argenteus esset in illis. Hence we think it may be safely inferred that the hyacinthus was shaped like a lily and was of a reddish hue, which is true of the Martagon. Virgil probably used the term ferrugineus in an improper sense, as perhaps he has done also Aen. ix. 582 ; xi. 772. FLORA VIRGILIANA. 385 Ilex. (Quercus Ilexh. ; Jmentaceae'N.O.). TLpivos; Elce, Lec- tio I. ; Yeuse, Chene vert F. ; Stecheiche, Steineiche G. The Ever- green-oak. This tree, which is not a native of this country, is very- abundant in the south of Europe : it resembles the oak in nothing but in its bearing acorns (to which indeed the Greeks gave a different name, cikvXos) ; its dark-green leaves (whence Horace calls it niger) are lanceolate. Intuba. — 1. {Cichorium Intybus L. ; CompositaeN. O.) Ki^oypiov, ILiKpls, Sepis dypla; Cicoreal.; Chicoree F. ; Cichorie, Wegewart G. The Succory. — 2. (C. Endivia L.) 2epis K^wevrr] ; Endivia I. ; Chi- coree-endive F. ; Endivie G. The Endive. It is of the former, the wild plant, that Virgil speaks, Geor. i. 120 ; it grows commonly in our fields. He means the second or cultivated kind, Geor. iv. 120. Juncus. (J. acutus L. ; Junceae N. O.) ^xolvos ; Giunco I. ; Jonc F. ; Binse G. Rush. The various kinds oTrushes. Juniperus. (J", communis L. ; Coniferae N. O.) "Apjcevdos ; Gi~ nepro I. ; Genevrier F. ; Wacholder G. The Juniper. Labrusca. (Vitis vinifera L. ; Sarmentaceae N. O.) "ApneXos aypia ; Lambrusca, Vite salvatica I. ; Labrusque, Vigne sauvage F. ; Klaretterube G. The Wild Vine. The flowers of this plant, named | olvdvdrj, were gathered and dried, and used to season honey and oil and wine. Lana Aethiopum. Geor. ii. 120. (1. Gossypium arboreum, 2. ,, G. herbaceum L. ; Malvaceae N. O.) Aevdpov epiotpopov. The Ara- bic name is Kotn, whence all the names in modern languages are derived. It is also probably the Shesh of the Bible. This plant, of which, as we may see, there are two principal kinds, was known to the ancients as growing abundantly in Egypt and in India. The Greeks named the cotton-wool ftvo-o-os (in Hebrew it is butz), and the cloth made from it orivbcov. Theophr. H. P. iv. 9- The wool is contained in a capsule of the size of an apple. The cotton-plant is now cultivated in Greece, Malta, and Sicily, and to a prodigious ex- tent in the southern states of the North American Union, where it has been introduced by the European colonists. Lappa. {Galium Aparine L. ; Rubiaceae N. O.) "hirapivr) ;\ Gratteron, Galier-gratteron F. ; Klebehraut G. Cleavers, Clivers,' Goose-grass. In some places (particularly in Ireland) it is called Robin-run-the-hedge. Laurus. (L. nobilis L. ; Laurineae N. O.) Adcpvrj ; Alloro I. ; Laurier F. ; Lorbeer G. The Bay. We must be careful not to con- found this plant, whose leaves have such an agreeable odour, with s 386 FLORA VIRGILIANA. the various laurels of our gardens, which are inodorous, and were not brought into Europe till modern times. Legumen. "Oa-KpLov ; Legume, Civaja I. ; Legume F. ; Hiilsen- frucht G . Pulse. The ancients so named all the plants which bore their fruit in pods, as the bean, pea, vetch, lupine, etc. : they even included barley. Lens. {Ervum Lens L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) t£; Palma I. ; Palmier- dottier F. ; Palme G. The Palm or Date-tree. This tree grows abundantly in the East and on the north coast of Africa, and also in Spain and Italy. Its fruit, now well-known in our J grocers' shops, was called by the Greeks MktvXos, or finger, from its form, whence our word date. Papaver. (P. somniferum L. ; Papaveraceae N. O.) Mtjkwv ; Papavero I. ; Pavot F. ; Mohn G. The Poppy, both the cultivated and the wild. Of the former the ancients had two kinds, named from the colour of their seeds, white and black. They used to eat / the seeds roasted, as is done still in some places, for the seeds do not partake of the narcotic nature of their capsule. Picea. Ultvs} From the description which Pliny gives of this tree (xvi. JO), it appears to have been like, if not the same with, the fir, which is used so much by us in joiners' work. Pinus. (P. Pinea L. ; Coniferi N. O.) Iley/ci] rlpepos; Pino I.; Pin pinier F. ; Pinjole G. The Pine. This very handsome tree, which the ancients were fond of cultivating in their gardens, grows to a great height, and throws out all its branches from the top. The kernels of its cones are eaten. Pirus. (P.malusL.; RosaceaeN.O.)"A7riov; Perol. ; PoirierF.; BirnbaumG. The Pear. Fee enumerates thirty-eight kinds of pears mentioned by Columella, Pliny, and others. FLORA VIRGILIAKA. 391 Platanus. (P. orientalis L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) UXdravos ; Platano I. ; Platane F. ; Platane G. The Plane-tree. This mag- nificent tree is a native of the East, but it grows well in our planta- tions. The ancients remarked the resemblance between the form of its leaf and that of the Peloponnese, and it is not by any means fanciful. Pomum Medicum. (Citrus Medica L. ; Aurantiae N. O.) Cedro I. ; Citronnier F. ; Zitrone G. The Citron. There can be little I doubt that this is the fruit which Virgil calls Pomum Medicum. Populus. (P. alba and P. nigra L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) 'Ap- peals and A'lyeipos ; Pioppo I.; Peuplier F. ; Pappel G. The Poplar. Both the white and black poplar (so named from the colour of their bark and leaves) are indigenous in this country. Prunus. (P. domestica L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) KoKKvprjXos; Prugno, Susino I. ; Prunier F. ; Pflaumenbaum G. The Plum. Pliny reckons eleven kinds of plum. One of the best known was the @pafiv\ov, or Prunum damascenum, or Damascus plum. Quercus. (Quercus L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) Apvs ; Querela I. ; Chene F. ; Eiche G. The Oak. The Latin quercus, like the Greek Spvs, was a genus including various species, as the aesculus, the cerrus, the robur, etc. This last is supposed to be the Q. sessilifiora, or Sessile-fruited oak, which is indigenous in this country, and which Fee says is called in some parts of France rouvre. We have heard the ilex called in Italy quercia, and the common oak rovere. Rosa. (Rosa L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) 'P68ov ; Rosa I. ; Rose F. ; Rose G. The Rose. The ancients had several kinds of roses, which they used for garlands, etc. The R. centifolia was then, as now, the most fragrant and most esteemed. On the twice-blowing roses \ of Paestum (Geor. iv. 119), which Fee asserts must belong to the \ R. Eglanteria, Tenore observes, " In the various rambles which I have made in all the country around Paestum, I have never chanced to meet with the R. Eglanteria, or any other biferous rose. Instead of these I have always got the R. arvensis and the R. saepium, with neither of w T hich accords the epithet given by the poet. I therefore think that, as Virgil was treating of extensive plantations of roses, he on this occasion speaks rather of cultivated roses, among which is to be found the species bifera, quite common, at the present day, in our gardens." Rosmarinus. (R. officinalis L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Aifiavcoris ; Rosmarino I. ; Romarin F. ; Rosmarin G. The Rosemary. It was j so named from its growing on the sea-shore. Rubus. (R. fruticosus L. ; Rosaceae N. O.) Bdros ; Rogo, Rovo 392 FLORA VIRGILIANA. I. ; Ronce F. ; Brnmbeerstrauch G. The Bramble, Briar, or Black- berry-bush. Under this term various kinds are included. The fruit was called in Latin morion, blackberry. Ruscus. (R. aculeatus L. ; Asparageae N. O.) Mvppivr) dypia; Brusca, Spruneggio, Pungitopol.; Brusc, Housson,Petit-houx,Houx- fragon F. ; Brusch, Mausdorn G. The Butcher's-broom. This plant is indigenous in England. Saliunca. (J'alcriaua Celtics, L.; Valerianeae N. O.) Napdos k€\tlktj. This plant, a species of Valerian, -which our writers call French spikenard, is described by Dioscorides and Pliny as growing in various parts of the Alps and their vicinity. It is a low plant with a fragrant smell, but it is too brittle to allow of its being formed into garlands as the ancients did with the rose ; hence Virgil speaks of it as inferior to that flower. Dioscorides says that the vdp8os ksXtiki), the plant which he describes, was called in the Ligurian Alps dXiovyyia, and the people of the Tyrol are said to call it at the present clay Seliunk. Salix. (Salix L. ; Amentaceae N . O .) 'Irea ; Salcio, Sake I. ; Saule F. ; JFcide G. The Willow, or Sallow. The species of this plant are very numerous, not less than sixty-four being indigenous in this country. Sardoa herba. (Ranunculus Sardous Crantz; Ranunculaceae N. O.) Barpdxiov ^i/coofieo-repoi/. This plant, celebrated for its bitter- ness and its contractile force on the visages of those that chew it, is found not only in Sardinia (whence it is named), but in Italy and France, where, according to Fe'e, it grows in the fields or by the roadsides, and especially near marshes. As Dioscorides compares its leaves to those of the celery, it is probably the Celery-leaved Crowfoot, one of our indigenous plants, and which is of so acrid a nature that the beggars use it to produce artificial sores. Scilla. (S. maritima L. ; Liliaceae N. O.) SkiaAo, • S^ivos ; Squilla I. ; Settle maritime F. ; Meerziviebel G. The Squill, or Sea- leek. This bulbous plant, which grows in sandy tracts by the sea- shore, is indigenous in these countries. It is very abundant on both sides of the bay of Dublin, and on the coast of Wales. A syrup is made from it well-known in medicine. Serpyllum. (Thymus Serpyllum'L. ; Labiatae N. O.) "'EjmykXos ; Sermollino, Serpollo I. ; Serpolet F. ; Quendel G. Wild Thyme. This fragrant plant grows common in this country. Bees are fond of it, and when sheep feed on it it is said to give a fine flavour to the mutton. Siler. Botanists and commentators are quite at variance with FLORA V1RGILIANA. 393 each other about this plant. All that we know of it is that it grew in moist places, that its seeds were used in medicine, and that the rustics bore staves made of it as a protection against serpents, which fled from it. Plin. xvi. 18 ; xxiv. 10. Virgil (Geor. ii. 12) gives it the epithet mollis. Martyn and Fee think it likely that it is the osier. Sorbus. (S. domestica L. ; Rosaceae N. 0.)*Oa, ova; Sorbo I. ; So7-Mer F. ; Sperberbaum G. Service-tree. The fruit of this tree resembles a brown-red pear, and it tastes like a medlar. Taeda. Pliny enumerates the taeda among the pines; but as Fee observes, it is probably an error, the proper sense of the word being torch, for the making of which the pine wood was em- ployed. Taxus. (T. baccata L. ; Coniferae N. O.) 2/uXos; Tasso I. ; Jf F. ; Eibenbaum G. The Yew. Terebinthus. (Pistacia Terebinthus L. ; Terebinthaceae N. O.) Tepfjiivdos ; Terebinto I . ; Terebinthe F. ; Terpentinbaum G. Tere- binth, or Turpentine-tree. This tree, whose wood is of a darkl colour (Aen. x. 136), grew in Epirus and Macedonia, but did not i there attain to the size it did in Syria. Plin. xiii. 6. It is the Hebrew Elah, usually rendered oak, as Gen. xxxv. 4 ; Judges vi. 11. Thus. Ai(3avos. It is not known exactly what tree produced this, gum, but it appears that it was of the terebinthine, and not of the '•■ coniferous family. The best thus comes from India, and its name is said to be turuzca in Sanscrit. Thymbra. (Satureia thymbra L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Qvufipa ; Sarriette Fr. ; Saturei G. Savory. The thymbra, though a kind of Satureia, was different from it, for Columella has (x. 233) Et sa- tureia thymi referens thymbraeque saporem. It may be that the thymbra is the wild, the Satureia the cultivated plant. The savory, though cultivated in our gardens, is not one of our indigenous plants. Thymus. (Thymus vulgaris L. ; Labiatae N. O.) Qvfios ; Timo I.; TJiym F. ; Thymian G. Thyme. Fee thinks that under the term thymus the ancients included several of the labiate plants, among others the common thyme. Bauhin, who is followed by Martyn and Sprengel, maintained that the thymus as described by Diosco- rides was not our common thyme, but a labiate which he names T. capitatus, on account of its flowers growing in a head or tuft, and which is common in the south of Europe, especially in Attica. Martyn adds that it is known among us by the name of the tree Tliyme of the ancients. 394- FLORA VIRGILIANA. Triticum. (T. Jiibernnm, L. Gramineae N. O.) Ilvgos ; Grawo I. ; Froment F. ; PFiaze G. Wheat. To judge by medals, etc., as Martyn observes, the ancients knew only the bearded varieties of wheat. Vaccinium. There are two opinions respecting this plant, some regarding it as a shrub, others as a flower. The former, among whom is Fee, say it is the V. Myrtillus L. ; Faciei Fr. ; the WJior- i rjeberry. Their chief argument seems to be the resemblance be- tween vaccinium and vaciet, and the supposition that, ligustrura being the privet, Virgil must naturally (Ec. i. 30) have opposed one shrub to another. But as it appears to be the berries of the one and the flower of the other that they regard as opposed, there thence arises as great a difficulty on their side ; besides, in Ec. x. 39, the vaccinium is mentioned with the viola as being similar in colour. The verse just referred to is in effect the translation of a verse of Theocritus, in which the vclkiv&os is joined with the IV, and vacci- viiini may, without any violation of the rules of etymology, be de- rived from vdiavdos. Moreover, Dioscorides describes the vaccinium as having a bulbous root, and being full of purple flowers. We therefore incline to those who hold the last opinion. We must at the same time observe, that according to Pliny the vaccinium was | used in dying, and that, as Fee tells us, the whortleberries are still ■ used for that purpose in Sweden. Vellera Serum. See page 368. Verbena. By this word the ancients understood in general any I herbs or plants that were used for sacred purposes. It was used therefore of the olive, the bay, the myrtle, etc. Pliny (xxv. 9) men- tions a particular plant named Verbenaca (Verbena officinalis L. ; Pyrenactae~S. O.) 'lepa fioravr], HepuTTepeeov ; Verbena I.; Verveine F. Vervain. It grew, he says, in moist places, and its leaves were shaped" like those of the oak. Viburnum. (V. Lantana L. ; Cajmfoliaceae N. O.) Greek name unknown ; Viburno I. ; Viorne F. ; Schlingbaum, JVegeschlinge, Mehlbaum G. Wayfaring-tree, Mealy Guelder-rose. This shrub, with mealy branches and numerous white flowers, is found occa- sionally hi our woods and hedges. Tenore says that the Viburnum of Virgil is not the V. Lantana, but the V. Tinus, which is called by the Italians at the present day Lentaggine, as the Viburnum was named by the ancients Lent ago. Vicia. (V. sativa L. ; Leguminosae N. O.) 'AxfeaKrj; Veccial.; Vesce F. ; Wicke G. The Vetch. There are two kinds of it indi- genous in this country. FLORA VIRGILIANA. 395 Viola. (V.odorataL.; Tiolareae N. O.) "lov ; Viola, Violetta,!.- Violeite F. ; Veilchen G. The Violet, including the various kinds of pansy. This also is one of our indigenous flowers : it grows wild in the woods and fields in most countries ; it abounds in the neighbourhood of Rome. Virgil mentions (Ec. ii. 38) a flower which he calls viola pattens, and Pliny a viola alba. They are pro- ' bably the same. Some make it the Snowflake (Leucoiiim vernum), others the Wallflower (Cheiranthus Cheiri), others the Primrose {Primula), others the Snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis), but none ac- cords with Pliny's description. Matthioli says there is a white species of violet which grows abundantly in Italy in low moist situations, and this may be Virgil's flower. Tenore informs us that on the hills and the coast of Sicily grows the Leucoium autumnale, which flowers in the end of the summer, and whose white blossoms greatly resemble the Buca-neve or Snowdrop. Viscum. {V. album L. ; LorantheaelS.Q.) 'l^ia , tf 6s- ; Vischio, Viscol.; GuiF.; Vogelleim G. Birdlime. This parasitic plant •j grows on a great variety of trees, such as limes, elms, ashes, hazels, quinces, apples, pears, plums, etc. : it grows also on the oak, but very rarely, and it is said that this is the reason why this kind was so much prized by the Druids. From its berries, which are of a yellow or golden colour, the birdlime is made. Vitis. {V. vinifera L. ; Sarmentaceae N. O.) "AprreXos ; Vite I. ; Vigne F. ; Weinrebe G. The Vine. This plant and its delicious fruit are too well known to require any description : it is indige- nous in Europe, but only to the south of the great chain of moun- tains which divides it from west to east. It may be of use here to notice the ancient names of the different parts of the vine and its fruit. From the root rose the stock, truncus, o-reXexos ; from the stock the branches or arms, brachia ; on which came the buds, gemmae or oculi, ocp&aXpoi ; from these grew the shoots, which while young and tender were called pampini, /SAao-rai ; when they began to bear they were named palmites and palmae, and when they were getting dry and hard sarmenta. The Greeks had but the one name Kk.rjp.aTa for the palm'iles~aiid the sarmenta, and the Latins (even the rustic writers) use them and pampinus without much dis- crimination. The vine had also tendrils, capreoli, eXiK.es, by which it clung to its supports. The bunch of grapes, uva, o-ra(pv\rj, (36- rpvs, hung by its stalk, pediculus, from the palmes ; the minor bunches of which it consisted were named racemi {fiorpves ? the j Greeks seem to make no difference between fiorpvs and o-Ta(pvXrj), FLORA VIRGILIANA. and their stalks scopi, scopiones. On the scopus grew the single grapes, acini -a, gratia, payts, kokkoi : — "Tempus ut extentis tumeatfacit uva racemis Vixque mernm capiant gratia quod intus habent." Ovid. Tr. iv. 6, 9. The acinus held in its skin, folliculus, the juice and the stones J vinacef-ae and -a, yiyapra. The stalks, skins and stones, after being trodden and pressed, were also named vinacei -ae -a, yiyapra, and also crrepcpvXa by the Greeks. Ulmus. (U. campestrix L. ; Amentaceae N. O.) ILrekea; Olm,o I.; Orme, Ormeau F. ; Ulmbqum G. The Elm. This tree is indigenous in all parts of Europe, Ulva. (Festuca flaitans L. ; Graminaceae N. O.) Ti^^. Fee thinks that this plant, which he says is called L'Herbe a la Manne, which grows in marshes, and whose heads when boiled in milk re- semble sago and are a good aliment, is the ulva paluslris of Virgil, Geor. iii. 175. Tenore says it abounds in the kingdom of Naples. Fee further thinks that the ordinary ulva of Ovid and the other poets is some kind of scirpus, probably the S. lacustris L. PRIOTED BY RICHARD AND JOHN E. TAYLOR, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET. Nbss