MASTER NEGA TIVE NO. 91-80249-20 MICROFILMED 1991 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES/NEW YORK as part of the Foundations of Western Civilization Preservation Project Funded by the NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES Reproductions may not be made without permission from Columbia University Library k / ^X"*^**^! I ■l*.^"' COPYRIGHT STATEMENT The copyright law of the United States - Title 1 7, United States Code - concerns the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted material ... Columbia University Library reserves the right to refuse to accept a copy order if, in its judgement, fulfillment of the order would involve violation of the copyright law. . i AUTHOR: NUTTING, H. C. TITLE: TWO VERGILIAN NOTES PLACE: S.L DA TE : [1 922] COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES PRESERVATION DEPARTMENT Master Negative ff BIBLIOGRAPHIC MICROFORM TARHFT Original Material as Filmed - Existing Bibliographic Record Restrictions on Use: 8KS/PR0D Books FUL/BIB NYCG91-B75803 Record 1 of - Record added today I0:NYCG91-B75803 CC:9668 BLT:am CP:nyu PC:r MMO: 040 100 245 260 300 LOG QD RTYP:a ST:p OOF:? CSC:? L:eng INT:? GPC:? PD:1991/1922 REP--? POL: DM: FRN MOD BIO CPI RR 10 10 1 OR: NNCJicNNC Nutting, H: C. Two Vergilian notes}:h[microf orml. C1922J. 165-171 p. ORIG 08-21-91 ? ? MS SNR FIC FSI COL Acquisitions NYC6-PT EL: A0:08-21-91 ATC: U0:08-21-91 ? CON:??? ? ILC:???? MEI:? II:? EML: GEN: BSE: TECHNICAL MICROFORM DATA FILM SIZE:___'^S'_/«t_/^ IMAGE PLACEMENT: lA ?_^£2 HLMEDBY: RESEARCH PLTPLICATIONS. INC WQQDDRIDGE. CT REDUCTION RATIO: Z^. ^ %^. ^v, c Association for Information and Image Management 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 1100 Silver Spring. Maryland 20910 301/587-8202 Centimeter mi 12 3 4 5 6 7 8 llllllllllMMlllllllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 9 10 11 12 iiiluuliiiuuuiuui^^ l ' l ii | i i| ii 'i 'i | ii|ii| ' i|i|ii |H"l' il'i 13 14 15 mm iiliiiiliiiiliiiiliiii Inches r I I I I 1 I M " " VTJ 1.0 I.I 1.25 2.5 ■^ v-^ 2.2 ■ 6.3 2.0 U u Wteu 1.8 1.4 1.6 MflNUFfiCTURED TO fillM STflNDfiROS BY APPLIED IMPGE. INC. .i" V [Reprinted from The Classical Journal, Vol. XVIII, December, 1922, No. 3] TWO VERGILIAN NOTES By H. C. Nutting The University of California I. Aeneid, ii. 124 ff. Et tnihi iam multi crudele canebant Artificis scelus et taciti ventura videhant. Bis quinos silet ille dies tectusque recusal Prodere vcx:e sua quemquam aut opponere morti. Vix tandem, magnis Ithaci clamoribus actus, Composito rumpit vocem et me destinat arae. In thii> passage, the word taciti (125) had been a storm centre ever since we have a record of the commentary upon it. Follow- ing the lead of Servius, most of the commentators have held that multi (124) and taciti (125) refer to two different groups of people, — thus avoiding an apparent clash in predicating canebant and taciti of the same group. To quote the words of Servius : '' 'multi' bis intellegendum; id est multi videbant taciti, multi etiam dicebant, ne sit contrarium 'canebant taciti'" This is a not impossible interpretation, though even those who adopt it admit freely that Vergil has not expressed himself very well, if this really is his meaning. A second difficulty lies in the fact thatit would run counter' to the style of the passage as a whole to have a change of subject in a sentence constructed as this is. Everywhere in the neighborhood, periods abound in which the second clause carries on the subject of the first, adding items so closely related that in some cases tautology might well be charged. For example, in the citation above. Bis quinos silet ille dies is carried on by tectusque recusat prodere voce sua ; and again, within that second clause itself, prodere voce sua is carried on by aut opponere morti. Cf. also 77 ff. : Cuncta .... f atebor . . . neque . . . negabo. 165 166 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL 94 ff : Nee tacui demens et me . . . . promisi ultorem. 106: Prosequitur pavitans et ficto pectore fatur. ' 130 ff. : Adsensere omnes et . . . . tulere. 134 : Eripui .... leto me et vincula rupi. 145 : His lacrimis vitam damus et miserescimus ultro. Even when the grammatical subject changes, the thought carries on in the same way ; e. g. 309 ff. : Tum vero manifesta fides Danaumque patescunt Insidiae. Under the stress of this "swing" in the composition, we advance with certain step through a period Hke the following (259 ff.) : Illos patefactus ad auras Reddit equus, laetique cavo se robore promunt Thessandrus Sthenelusque duces et dims Ulixes. Just as in this last cited passage the style of the whole context inclines us instinctively to interpret laetique as carrying on Illos (and not as introducing a new subject of discourse), so, in the passage which is the basis of this note, et taciti^s most naturally felt as appending a second detail regarding the same subject. Though they do. not state their reasons, it probably is on some such ground as this that both Conington and Page reject the Servian interpretation, and undertake to discover a means of reconciling canebant and taciti as applied to one subject. Page tries to find a way out through canebant, which, he says, may here refer merely to prophetic foreboding and not to speech. Hence he renders "And against me already many were divining the schemfer's cruel crime, and silently foreseeing the future." Conington trains his guns on taciti, with the remark : " 'taciti' is not strictly consistent with 'canebant' ; but Vergil probably means that the forebodings were privately whispered, not openly ex- pressed, for fear of Ulysses." It must be confessed that both of these interpretations leave much to be desired. Conington's note, however, offers a useful suggestion, namely, that while the whole sentence refers to the attitude of the same group of people (mwW), its first clause re- TIVO VERGILIAN NOTES 167 fleets their relation to Sinon, and the other their relation to Ulysses. This helps in the interpretation of taciti; but I very much question whether Vergil meant to suggest that the remarks to Sinon were whispered. Rather, I fancy that our difficulty here is due, in part at least, to the unnatural limitations which we are inclined to put upon the meaning of words because most of us have learned Latin in an artificial way. At one stage in the process it was helpful, no doubt, to 'distinguish synonyms'; but if this process leaves the impression that these "distinctions" are as the laws of the Medes and Persians, the procedure is not without its disad- vantages. It is all very well to learn 'that vetus refers to the old that still exists, while antiquus is used of the old that has passed away'; but the student will not find that the rule sheds much light on Horace, Epod. 2.23 : Libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice. And while accido and contingo often allow of clear distinction, this can hardly be said of the following cases : Tac. Dial. 23 : Porro ne in corpore quidem valitudinem medici probant, quae animi anxietate contingit. Cic. De Leg. ii. 42: quo quid accidere potuit homini praecla- rius ?^ So we have a rule in regard to taceo and sileo, whereby the former is said to be confined to cases where speech merely is re- frained from, the other being more general in its scope. It is interesting that both these verbs are found in the passage now under discussion. Of Calchas it is said : Bis quinos silet ille dies tectusque recusat prodere voce sua quemquam aut opponere morti. On the face of it, silet here is used in the narrower sense of refraining from speech (note voce sua) ; and if there were otherwise room for doubt it might be observed that his change of policy at the end of the specified period is designated by rumpit vocem ('he broke into speech'). / 1 Cf. Caesar, B. G. ivJ22; satis opportune accidisse. 168 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL Conversely, there is no reason why we should not expect taceo at times to show a wider meaning; cf. Hor. Car. iii. 29. 23ff. : Caretque Ripa vagis taciturna ventis." It is suggested therefore, that in the Virgilian passage taciti means not simply that many who warned Sinon of the fate in store for him failed to register a spoken protest with Ulysses ; they abstained from any effort in behalf of the threatened man, though they saw what was impending; as Sinon himself is made to say bitterly a little later (130 flF.) : • quae sibi quisque timebat, Unius in miseri exitium conversa tulere. On this basis, taciti would mean something like 'non-interfering' or 'impassive' : "And even then many were predicting to me the villany of the cruel schemer, and impassive were watching my oncoming doom." Another passage in the same book in which tacitus seems to require a similar interpretation is found in 254 flf^ Et iam Argiva phalanx instructis navibus ibat A Tenedo, tacitae per amica silentia lunae Litora nota petens. Here we have a closely parallel situation. The Trojans are sleeping, all unconcious of danger, and the moon is blamed for not intervening. The adjective amica shows that luna is per- sonified; but does tacitae indicate that she shows her partiality by refusing to break into speech? This seems very unlikely. Rather we think of iii. 147 ff., where the bright light of the moon rouses Aeneas to a half-wakeful state in which he receives the message of the Penates. So here, had she been so disposed, the moon perhaps might have shot a beam into the eyes of some slumbering guard that would have roused him to a sense of the impending danger; but she refrained. Hence apparently we should render: 'through the friendly silence of the impassive moon'. * Cf. Verg. Aen. iv. 525; Cum facet omnis ager. TWO VBRGILIAN NOTES 169 II. Aenkid ii. 309 ff. Tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt Insidiae. Of the general bearing of this sentence there can be no doubt ; but the exact meaning of Mes is by no means clear. Beginning with Servius, the general consensus has been that it signifies 'proof or 'ground for belief ; and a very apt parallel is cited from Livy vi. 13. 7, where, through such verbal force, the word is made to govern indirect discourse*. With this in- terpretation, the question arises: Proof of what? Conington and Page agree in thinking that the reference is to the warning uttered by Hector in the vision from which Aeneas has just been aroused. With less plausibility others have referred it to the Laocoon incident or to the prophecies of Cassandra. It is a matter of surprise that Servius' own preference has been given so little consideration. His note reads : "Manifesta Mes; — non somnii, ut quidam volunt, sed fraudis Graecorum; nam et hoc sequituf 'Danaumque patescunt insidiae'," It is noteworthy that he has caught the 'swing' of the compo- sition in this long passage. He feels that he is dealing with the type of sentence described in the previous note, wherein the first clause carries on into the second, even to the extent of tautology. Hence his impulse here is to interpret the first clause in the light of the second. This is an attractive line of interpretation ; and I suggest that it would be even better, if we assign to iides, not the meaning 'proof, but rather the sense seen in the familiar Punica fides i e 'perfidy'*. In further support of this view, it should be noted that the episode of Sinon throughout is a tale of bad 'faith', interspersed with protestations of good 'faith' and appeals to the 'faith' of the » On this basis, one school edition has the following legitimate note • "fides • freely, 'truth' ; strictly, 'proof'." Others define fides directly as 'truth,' which would make the word a synonym for res] and, while that results in good sense, no parallel is forthcoming for such a use of fides, * Cf . Heitkamp ad loc. 170 THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL TWO V ERG I LI AN NOTES 171 Trojans ; — the key-note of the whole narrative at this point is fides. Observe the following : 60: hoc ipsum ut strueret Troiamque aperiret Achivis. 62 : seu versare dolos. 65 ff. : Accipe nunc Danaum insidias et crimine ab uno Disce omnes. 77 ff. : *Cuncta equidem tibi, rex, f uerit quodcumque, f atebor Vera/ inquit. 79 ff. Nee si miserum Fortuna Sinonem Finxit, vanum etiam mendacemque improba finget. 106 : Ignari scelerum tantorum artisque Pelasgae. 107 : Prosequitur pavitans et ficto pectore f atur. 141 ff. : Quod te per superos et conscia numina veri, Per si qua est quae restat adhuc mortalibus usquam Intemerata fides, oro, 152: Ille, dolis instructus et arte Pelasga. 160 : Tu modo promissis maneas servataque serves, Troia, fidem, si vera f eram, si magna rependam. 195 ff. : Talibus insidiis periurique arte Sinonis Credita res, captique dolis lacrimisque4:oactis, Quos 252 : Myrmidonumque dolos. 264 : doli fabricator Epeos. When finally, as Aeneas stands upon the roof, the true in- wardness of the situation dawns upon him, what more natural climax than Tum vero manifesta fides, Danaumque patescunt Insidiae? In thus understanding fides, attention may be called to the fact that Aeneas has twice above used the expression ars Pelasga (106 and 152), which certainly is analogous to Punica fides. Another point worth noticing is the fact that this part of Aeneas' narrative is virtually an oration. To him, to speak of Troy's fall means to open old wounds; he has not reached the point, where, in retrospect, past troubles loom up 'Like mountain-summits overpast In purple distance fair.* His words glow with hatred of the treacherous Greek; indeed we might not go so very far astray, if we were to refer to some soldier fresh from the battlefield for an adequate translation of such a phrase as multos Danaum dimittimus Oreo (398). And when we come to one of the high points, such as 241 flF. (O pa- triae o divtim domus Ilium et incluta bello moenia Dardanidum!), somehow we lose sight of the guest reclining on a simiptuous couch toying with a wine-cup, and entertaining attentive strangers with a story ; rather, we hear the impassioned voice of a Roman orator of Tacitean impressiveness. Hence there may be a touch of bitterness in the use of the word fides in the passage now under discussion. If so, a close*parallel would be found in the words of Nero as he lay dying by his own hand. According to Suetonius,*^ a centurion, under orders to take the emperor alive, burst into the room, and, seeing the flow of blood, made a pretence of a friendly attempt to staunch it. But the dying man was not deceived, saying bitterly with his last breath: "Too late", and "Here's 'loyalty' for you" {"Sero", et ''Haec est fides"). » Nero, 49. 4. » ^k • . » % • » » * • .v: » • • • • • « •• • t * * • • «' ■ • • * • • • • • • « .» • » • • • • • • ».••<• •• • • «•••• •• •• •* » t»j»» «• » ••• '»• .•« «• • •••• t*>* •. • t 4 « • • * « * i •. 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