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GENERAL LIBRARY
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Presented by
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THE BUCOLICS.
--

ה !
Columna. The engraving shows the Parthenon with its Doric columus.

Venatio. A hunting of wild beasts. The engraving shows a wild-boar
hunt, a sport of which the Romans were very fond.
THE BUCOLICS,
OR
81321
ECLOGUES OF VIRGIL:
WITH
NOTES BASED ON THOSE IN CONINGTON'S EDITION,
A LIFE OF VIRGIL, AND AN
ARTICLE ON ANCIENT MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
With Ellustrations from Kich's "Antiquities."
TRANSLATED INTO HEROIC VERSE.
BY
R. M. MILLINGTON, M. A.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER,
39, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1870.
878
۷۹
+M65
}
LONDON :
PRINTED BY W. H. AND L. COLLINGBIDCA,
ALDERSGATE STREET, E.C.
AE
LIFE OF VIRGIL.
PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS MARO was born at Andes, now
Piteoli, a small village near Mantua, on the 15th
of October, B.C. 70. His mother was called Maia;
his father possessed a small estate, which he
himself cultivated. The poet was educated at
Cremona, Mediolanum (now Milan), and Naples,
where he learnt Greek under a Bithynian, called
Parthenius; and he was also instructed at Rome
by Syron, an Epicurean. His education was of a
high order, as is evidenced by his writings. His
health was feeble, and he suffered much from
weak digestion and an asthmatic affection; and
the Emperor Augustus, whose patronage both
Virgil and his friend Horace, who was afflicted
with sore eyes, enjoyed, is reported to have jocu-
larly remarked that, when in their company, he
sat between sighs and tears. Virgil was not a
(
#
viii
LIFE OF VIRGIL.
Roman citizen until he was more than twenty
years of age, as the "Transpadani" did not enjoy
that privilege until B.C. 49. He wrote some of
his minor works, such as the "Ciris," "Culex,"
and "Moretum," in the retirement of his farm.
After the defeat of Brutus and Cassius at Philippi,
by Marcus Antonius and Octavianus, as Augustus.
was then called, B.C. 42, the victorious generals,
in order to redeem their promise of distributing
land to the soldiers, dispossessed the previous
occupiers, and as the soldiers were quartered in
the district of Mantua and Cremona, Virgil was
one of the sufferers. By the advice of Asinius
Pollio, a celebrated historian, founder of the first
library in Rome, and friend of Augustus, he
applied to the Emperor for restitution of his land,
and the application was successful. Virgil, like
Horace, enjoyed the patronage of Maecenas; in-
deed, Horace was introduced by Virgil to him.
The "Georgics" are his most finished production,
and were written at the suggestion of Mæcenas.
LIFE OF VIRGIL.
ix
The "Eneid" is the longest of his works, and
was not published till after his death; and, ex-
cellent as it is, probably his fame rests chiefly on
the "Georgics." He died B.C. 19, at Brundisium,
now Brindisi, nearly fifty-one years of age. His
remains were transferred to Naples, and his tomb
is on the road from Naples to Puteoli, now Poz-
zuoli. He left a considerable property and a
house on the Esquiline Hill, near the Gardens of
Mæcenas, and his heirs were his half-brother,
Valerius Proculus, Augustus, Mæcenas, Lucius
Varius, and Plotius Lucca. He was liberal, tall
in stature, dark-complexioned, rustic in appear-
ance, modest and retiring, and, considering the
age in which he lived, he was a signal instance
of purity of character; was also amiable, good-
tempered, and singularly free from envy and
meanness of mind. His prosperity was, with the
single exception of health, remarkable, as he en-
joyed not only the friendship of a haughty and
exclusive aristocracy, and the notice of the most.
X
LIFE OF VIRGIL.
accomplished men of his day, but his fame was
established while he lived and cherished after his
death with the most affectionate remembrance;
and his works became school-books, and, so to
speak, household words, before the death of Au-
gustus, and continued such for centuries after.

INTRODUCTION.,
THIS translation is intended more for the general
reader than the student, although it is probably
sufficiently close to the original to prevent its
being without use in this respect. The Author
ventures to predict that more attention will be
paid to translations from the classics than before,
especially as the want has been so well met by
such works as the late Professor Conington's and
Mr. Martin's Translations of Horace, various
Translations of Homer, and those very useful
sketches of ancient classical times in Mr. Lucas
Collins' series. With regard to the remark that
this practical age of ours cares for nothing ancient,
and that poetry to interest modern readers must
deal with modern times, it may be observed that
the demand for Mr. Tennyson's Poems of King
Arthur and his Knights, about whom we moderns
xii
INTRODUCTION.
know practically no more than we do of the Siege
of Troy, or the Death of Agamemnon, completely
falsifies the statement. The reader will find an
excellent refutation of this idea in the Introduction
to Mr. Matthew Arnold's "Tristan and Iseult."
The notes are specially drawn up with a view to
explain to the general reader whatever may seem
obscure, and they are based on those in Pro-
fessor Conington's Edition. With regard to the
propriety of the metre, the reader is referred
to Wycherley's recommendatory lines on Pope's
Pastorals, the Pastorals themselves, and to Collins'
Oriental Dialogues. Pope's view, says Professor
Conington, was a view probably not unlike Virgil's
own. There is a novel feature in this Translation,
which is the introduction of woodcuts from Rich's
"Dictionary of Antiquities." It is believed that
the insertion of these woodcuts will prove useful
to the scholar, and will be no inconsiderable
assistance to the general reader.
THE BUCOLICS.
ECLOGUE I.
ARGUMENT.
The Poet introduces two shepherds speaking alternately, one of whom
is enjoying rustic life and singing the praises of his love, and con-
templating his cattle browsing undisturbed, when he meets the
other, who has just been expelled from his farm, aud is driving
his goats before him, with nothing but exile in prospect. Virgil
alludes, under cover of the shepherd's character, to his own dis-
possession by the victorious soldiers of Antony and Octavianus, as
Augustus was then called. The scenery is, as in other Eclogues,
confused, the trees, rocks, caves, &c., belonging to Sicily, the
marshy river (probably the overflow of the Mincius, now called
the Mincio), referring to Mantua. The names Tityrus,"
'Galatea," and "Amaryllis," are borrowed from Theocritus.
CC
(+
MELIBOEUS.
RECLINING 'neath the spreading beech-tree's shade,
Thou, Tityrus, thy strains of grove and glade
Still play'st on simple oaten pipe—while I,
Alas! from country into exile fly:
Yes, leave my country's fields and boundaries
So dear; while Tityrus, in careless ease,*
* 4. Lentus
= securus.
B
2
THE BUCOLICS.
'Mid shady bowers thou the oak and beech
To breathe fair Amaryllis' name dost teach.
TITYRUS.
Dear Meliboeus, 'twas a god * for me
Who gain'd this peaceful life, and surely he
Shall as a god by me be honour'd aye,
And ofttimes at his altar† will I slay
A tender lamb from fold of mine: 'twas he
Who let my oxen roam, as thou may'st see,
And he it was, through whom, whate'er the lay
I fancy, on my shepherd's reed I play.§
MELIBOEUS.
In sooth, I feel not envy, but amaze
At this thy lucky lot, such tumult raise
These soldiers all the country through. See I,
Myself, the goats drive onwards wearily;
Nay, Tityrus, scarce can I drag along
This one; for here dense hazel bow'rs among,
* 6. Octavianus, as Angustus was then called, is alluded to.
† See Illustrations 1, 2, 3, 4, at the end of this Eclogue.
See Illustration 6, at the end of this Eclogue, for shepherd's reed.
§ 9 and 10. Errare and ludere are used as accusatives.
ECLOGUE I.
Co
3
With many a throe, the hope of all the flock
She dropp'd, and, cruel! left on naked rock.*
Ofttimes the oak, by lightning † struck, warn'd me
(Well I remember, had from folly free
My senses been) of this mishap. But tell
Me, who's this god, † whom thou dost love so well?
TITYRUS.
I fondly, Meliboeus, thought that Rome §
(As men the city call) was only some
Town like this Mantua, to which for sale
To drive our lambs we shepherds ¶ seldom fail.
For thus I knew that whelps like grown hounds
are,
Kids like their dams, thus us'd I to compare
*15. They should have been dropped on soft grass.
† 16. Non goes with laeva, not with fuisset. The striking of a per-
son or thing by lightning was regarded as an omen of evil. If the
blasting of the oak be supposed to forebode banishment, "malum
hoc" will refer to the exile of Meliboeus, not to the loss of the kids.
18. It is uncertain whether qui refers to the name or nature of
the god.
He means that he thought that Mantua differed from Rome
merely in degree, not in kind.
The preposition has the same force in depellere as in deducere,
demittere (naves).
I See Illustrations 5 and 7, at the end of this Eclogue.
1
B 2
4
THE BUCOLICS.
Great things with small. But as in osier bed
The cypress,*'mid the towns Rome rearst her head.
MELIBOEUS.
And what made thee so eager Rome to see?
:
TITYRUS.
'Twas freedom, which, though late, yet smil'd
on me
+
+
At last, despite my idleness, at last,
I say, smil'd on me when long years had past;
When grey hairs with my beard fell as I shav'd,
When Amaryllis all my soul enslav'd,
And Galatea sway'd my heart no more.
In sooth, till Galatea's reign was o'er,
No hopes of freedom, ne'er a thought had I
For private gain: though oftentimes from my
*Pliny tells us that the cypress, though not indigenous to Italy,
was common enough in Virgil's time.
† 24. Extulit:
ww
elatum gerit, with a present force.
27-35. Tityrus went to Rome to buy his freedom, which he had
neglected to provide for in earlier years, through the extravagance of
his helpmate.
ECLOGUE I.
5
*
Folds went the ox for sacrifice-my best
Cream cheeses for th' ungrateful † town were
prest!-
Yet ne'er my hands, when homewards I return'd,
Were heavy with the money they had earn'd.
MELIBOEUS.
Ay, oft I wonder'd, Amaryllis, why
Thou didst invoke the gods with many a sigh,—
For whom thou didst let each fruit still hang on
Its tree: 'twas this: thy Tityrus was gone.
The very springs and fountains, each pine-tree,
Ay, e'en these shrubs call'd, Tityrus, on thee.
TITYRUS.
What could I do? 'twas not vouchsaf'd to me
To rid me of the bands of slavery,
Nor could I find in any other place
Such mighty gods. That youthful hero's face,
* See Illustration 8, at the end of this Eclogue.
+ 34. Ingratae: the city is so called because it paid him nothing for
his trouble.
Amaryllis thought that Tityrus's hand alone was worthy to cull
the fruit.
6
THE BUCOLICS.
To honour whom, full twelve days in each year,
My altars smoke,* I, Meliboeus, here,
First saw here was it that he first thus said,
In answer to my eager pray'r for aid:
"Ye slaves, still let your oxen graze, e'en now,
"Still, as of yore, the bulls yoke to the plough.”
MELIBOEUS.
O blest old man! this strip of land to thee
Belongs for aye; yes, thine 'twill ever be,†
And amply does it satisfy thy need,
Though cover'd o'er with pool and marshy
reed ‡
Its pastures be, and all the farm with rock.
No strange food shall breed murrain in thy flock
The present, fumant, is used because the sacrifice has already
begun, and Tityrus means it to be annual.
† 46. Tua and manebunt are both predicates.
Although it seems strange to make use of such a disparaging
description of what produces such happiness and content, no doubt
(as Conington says) Virgil puts the praise of his happy lot in the
mouth of a neighbour whose distresses enable him to speak feelingly,
and then goes on to dwell on his contentment in spite of drawbacks,
forgetting that such an utterance of satisfaction would come appro-
priately from himself alone.
ECLOGUE I.
7
Of pregnant *ewes, no poisonous disease †
Caught from some neighbour's sheep on thine
shall seize.
O blest old man! for here thou may'st, close by
Lov'd streams and god-frequented§ springs, enjoy||
Cool shade! From hence, the neighb'ring
boundary,
This hedge, cropp'd as 'tis ever wont to be,
Of all its willow blossoms by the bees
Of Hybla,** will, as oft, with whisp'ring trees.
And buzzing low, lull thee to sleep: some tall
Crag 'neath, the woodmantt shall with song fill all
The air the doves, thy joy, the turtle, too,
With hoarse notes in the lofty elm shall coo.
= gravidas.
*49. Gravis graves=
=
† 50. Contagia. Probably the same sort of disease as the modern
shab or scab.
Probably the Mincio or the Po.
§ 52. Fontis fontes. They are called sacros, from the idea that a
divinity of some kind haunted every spring.
Captabis. The frequentative may mean that others besides him
enjoyed the shade.
¶ 53. As Weise says, quae semper is an elliptical relative clause for
ut semper. Ficino ab limite is merely explanatory of hinc.
** Hybla, a mountain in Sicily, with a city of the same name.
++ The frondator dressed the trees by stripping them of their leaves,
which were used for the fodder of cattle.
8
THE BUCOLICS.
TITYRUS.
The nimble stags shall browse along the sky,
The sea leave on the shore its fishes dry,
Their bounds o'erpast, the Parthians a home
Find close by Arar's* stream, the Germans
roam
From their own country to the Tigris' wave,
Ere I forget the gracious look he gave.
MELIBOEUS.
Yet some of us for Afric's arid sand
Must leave this spot; some go to Scythia's land
And Crete's swift stream, Oaxes, or those far-
Off tribes of Britain who secluded are
From all the world. Shall I in future time
Once more behold the shores of this lov'd clime?
Oh! shall I contemplate, in years to come,
The roof of this my humble turf-built† home,
*The Arar, now the Saone, is a river of Gaul.
+ See Illustrations 9 and 10, at the end of this Eclogue.
ECLOGUE I.
9
Those realms of yore mine
amaze
own, and
and with
On nothing but a few scant wheat-ears gaze ?
What! shall a godless soldier ever own
These fields so trim, just broken up and sown?
An alien † these crops of mine possess?
Ah! see to what a state of wretchedness
Has civil discord brought my countrymen!
For men like these I've sown my fields!
then,‡
And still graft, Meliboeus, the pear-tree-
Yes, still plant out the vine in rows.
But ye,
My she-goats, fare ye well, once happy flock,
No more on sides of thicket-cover'd rock
Shall I behold you hanging as ye browse
Aloft; for me no more hard fate allows
To sing my lays: no more, my goats, with me
=
Go,
* 69. Post posthac and aliquot aristas, a few ears of corn. The
soldiers were bad farmers, and therefore always ready for new civil
wars. Meliboeus feels a longing to return to his home, and reflects
that if he should do so he will probably find it poorer than now.
† 71. Barbarus. This word refers to the Gauls, Germans, and
Spaniards, who were in the service of Julius Cæsar.
Nunc is ironical. Conf. Hor. 1 Epist. 6. 17. Vitis
Vitis vites.
10
THE BUCOLICS.
To tend you, on the green* lucerne shall ye
Feed or crop shoots of bitter sallow-tree.
TITYRUS.
Yet here, in sooth, like me,† thou hadst best lie
All night on couch of green leaves stretch'd, for I
Have mellow fruit and mealy § chestnuts stored
At home, of cheese I have an ample hoard:
And see each smoking|| housetop homeward
calls, ¶
From each tall hill a broader shadow falls.
* The lucerne, even in the driest and most sultry weather, when
other vegetation dies, still holds up its stem as green and fresh as in
a genial spring.
+ Mecum is often thus used by Virgil.
279. Poteras. This may be compared with Hor. I. Ode 37,
"Tempus erat . . . . It is more urgent than the present, and
means, "You might as well stay."
§ 81. Molles, mealy, i. e., when roasted.
|| 82, 83. The smoke announces that supper is ready, and the shades
of evening are now closing in.
The Romans did not use chimneys, but allowed the smoke to
escape through the roof,




C
(1) Square and circular altars,
with cavity at the top for the fire,
and orifice at the side or bottom
for libations to flow through.

(4) Altar in a street at Pompeii, in
front of a picture of the Lares Viales,
or overseers of streets and roads.

(2) Altar in a sacred grove,
before a statue of Diana, taken
from the Arch of Trajan.
(5) Opilio, a shepherd watching
his sheep.


(3) Altar on the steps in front of the
Temple of Fortune at Pompeii.
(6) Pandean pipe (arundo)
or (avena), made of several
stalks of reed, cane, or wild
oat.


M-
(7) Agolum, a long tapering
stick, used by Roman drovers and
herdsmen. The drovers of the
Roman Campagna use a similar
stick.
(9) Tugurium, or cottier's hut, used
by the poorer rural population.

1000 1
(8) Hostia, victim offered to the
gods, with the head held upward,
and to the deities of the lower re-
gions, the dead, or to heroes, with
the head downwards.
(10) A small country house or villa,
casa, with courtyard, outbuildings, and
live stock.
J
ECLOGUE II.
ARGUMENT.
In this Eclogue, the whole of which is imaginary, a shepherd ex-
presses his love for a beautiful youth, complains of his indiffer-
ence, urges him to come and live with him in the country, and
finally upbraids himself with his infatuation. Corydon represents
a character that is a mixture of the shepherd of Theocritus and
the Cyclops. The scenery refers to Sicily. The Eleventh Idyl
of Theocritus is closely imitated in part of the Eclogue.
THE shepherd* Corydon the handsome boy
Alexis deeply lov'd, their master's† joy,
And sooth to say, it was a hopeless love:
His only solace 'mid the thickest grove
Of beeches was to ever roam-those trees
With shady tops-and there alone in these
Rough artless strains with bootless purpose he
Pour'd forth his plaint to mountain and to tree.
THE SONG OF CORYDON.
Dost thou care nought for any past'ral strain
Of mine, Alexis ?-ah! too cruel swain !
*Pastor refers to one of the farm-slaves.
† Domini, i. e., the common master of Corydon and Alexis. 1—5.
Corydon was hopelessly in love with Alexis. Line 6 in the Latin text
introduces one of his solitary love-plaints.
14
THE BUCOLICS.
Hast thou no pity? surely to my death
At last thou'lt drive me. Each green lizard 'neath
The thorny brake now lurks, now cooling shade
The herds crowd to enjoy,* in mortar brayed
Together, thyme exhaling fragrant scent,
And pungent garlict for the reapers spent
With noon's fierce heat, see Thestylis compounds.
But now beneath the noon-tide's blaze resounds
Each brake with the cicâlas, hoarse like me
Alone with piping, while I follow thee,
And all thy footprints scan with eager look.
Was it not better far for me to brook
The sullen rage, ay, and the haughty scorn
Of Amaryllis ?—better to have borne
Menalcas' love, however swarthy he,
However fair thine own fair beauty be?
* Captant and occultant. The frequentatives denote the multitudes
that are seeking shelter.
=
+ Olentis olentes, and applies equally to the garlic and various
herbs. Thestylis was making the compound called "moretum," on
which Virgil is supposed to have written a poem. It was composed
of flour, cheese, salt, oil, and various herbs, all brayed in a mortar.
Olentis refers to both the fragrance of the thyme and the stench of the
garlic.
See Illustration 1, at the end of this Eclogue.
ECLOGUE II.
15
O handsome youth, on this fair face rely
Not overmuch! Ofttimes neglected die
White privet plants: ofttimes, though dark it be,
The hyacinth is cull'd. Thou scornest me,
Alexis, nay, thou carest not to know
My nature, wealth in flocks and herds or snow-
White milk: a thousand lambs of mine roam
o'er
Sicilian hills: my new milk's ample store
Ne'er fails in summer's heat nor winter's cold.
I sing the strains Amphion* sang of old,
What time that bard of Dircef on some height
Of Attic Aracynthus' mount at night
His herds pip'd home again. Nor am I so
:
Uncomely nay, 'twas no long time ago,
That I in ocean's sleeping breezeless flood
Mine image saw, as on the beach I stood.
*Amphion was the mythical son of Antiope by Jupiter, king of
Thebes, and the husband of Niobe, renowned for the magical power
of his music, by which the stones were supposed to be collected for
the building of the walls of Thebes.
*
† 24. Dircacus Boeotius, by synecdoche. Dirce was a fountain
near Thebes. Aracynthus may have been a ridge of hills on the
frontiers of Boeotia and Attica. Acte was an old name for Attica.
16
THE BUCOLICS.
I should not fear with Daphnis' self to vie
With thee for judge: that mirrort ne'er can lie.
Ah, may'st thou dwell 'neath humble cot with me
In that dear country which seems coarse to thee,
Drive kids with green marsh-mallow wand, § the
deer
Transfix with arrow or with hunting spear!
With me in song thou shalt 'mid oak and beech
E'en rival Pan. Pan was the first to teach
Swains how with wax to join together reeds:
Pan guards the shepherd, and the sheep Pan feeds.
*Daphnis, the great bucolic hero, was beloved by a Naiad; Cory-
don appears tolerably satisfied with his claims to beauty, as Daphnis
was no mean rival, and Alexis would not be likely to judge partially
to Corydon.
† 27. Si with the indicative implies that the mirror could not lie,
Ventis, in line 26, is equivalent to for want of wind.
cum.
See Illustrations 3 and 4, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ 30. Viridi hibisco, according to one interpretation ad viridem hibis-
In Eclogue X., 71, a shepherd makes baskets of the hibiscus ;
and, as Conington observes, to do that it must possess some strength
and pliancy. Hibiscus means either a parsnip or a marsh-mallow,
neither of which, says Conington, would make a rod. But on refer-
ring to an illustration of the mallow (Gossypium tricuspidatum), it is
clear that the plant when stripped of its branches might very well
make such a rod as is required. The tenacious fibres of the inner bark
form a good description of cordage, and doubtless some portion of
the plant would make a basket. By taking this interpretation, the
unusual construction is avoided, the better authenticated mean-
ing of hibiscus taken, and there is no clashing with the passage in
Eclogue X.
ECLOGUE II.
17
:
Nay,* ne'er regret that thou hast worn away
Thy dainty lip upon the pipe: to play
Like thee Amyntas left no means untried.
Damoetas gave me erst before he died—
'Twas his last gift-a pipe,-I have it now,-
Of seven hemlock-stalks† join'd in one row,
All of unequal length; and, dying, he
Said thus: "One worthy to come after me
That pipe now finds in thee." No more he said.
Amyntas fondly grudg'd the honour paid.
Two roes, scarce six months old, I have besides,
All dappled o'er with white spots are their hides,
And in a vale, 'mid fierce wild beasts' retreats,
I found them;--twice a day the same ewe's
teats
They drain for thee I keep them. Thestylis
Has long entreated, nay, e'en now she is
* 34. The action (as Conington remarks) is rhetorically supposed to
have been done, and the actor to be looking back upon it. Hence the
perfect trivisse is used. Labellum. The diminutive is by no means
otiose here. The tenth Eclogue alludes to Amyntas in line 38.
+ See Illustration 2 at the end of the Eclogue.
The white spots are said to disappear after the roe is six months
old.
C
18
THE BUCOLICS.
Entreating* me to let her have them: she
Shall have them, since my gifts are thus by thee
Despis'd. Nay, come, fair youth, see lilies
brings
In laden baskets † each Nymph of the springs
For thee for thee the beauteous Naiad culls
The yellow violet: for thee she pulls
The poppy-heads,-narcissus with them joins
And fragrant fennel's flow'r-amid them twines
The cassia§ with od'rous plants, and round
The nosegay paints the hyacinth's dark ground
With the chrysanthemum's dull gold. With my
Own hand for thee the grey-hued quinces I
Will cull, still cloth'd in all their tender down,
And chestnuts erst my Amaryllis' own
Lov'd fruit, and plums of yellow waxen hue
I'll add the plum shall have its honour too;
* 43. Oro is used here with an infinitive like volo, peto, postulo.
+ See Illustrations 5, 6, 7, and 8, at the end of this Eclogue.
The Nymphs (as Voss says) offer flowers, being goddesses of the
springs that water them.
The cassia is an aromatic shrub very like the olive.
The hyacinths are, as it were, the ground variegated by the chrys-
anthemums.
ECLOGUE II.
19
And you, ye laurels, will I pluck, and thee,
Thou myrtle, aye the laurel's sister-tree,
Group'd thus, ye blend sweet scents. Ah! Corydon,*
Thou art in sooth a clown: Alexis on
Thy gifts would ne'er e'en deign to look,
And never would, I ween, Iollas brook
That thou should'st richer presents make than he.
But, ah! what have I been about? Ah me!
I am undone! the fierce Sirocco o'er
My blossoms I've allow'd to blow, the boar
To wallow in my limpid springs. Yet why,
Fond youth, dost thou shun me so foolishly?
In woods dwelt Dardan Paris, gods as well
As men have dwelt in woods. Let Pallast dwell
In those proud cities that she built to me
The woods must aye the dearest pleasure be.
* 56-68. Addressing himself, Corydon exclaims: "Vain hope, to
try and recommend myself by gifts, which he will care not for, and
which some richer rival will surpass! Oh! this destructive love!
Yet why should he disdain a life which even gods and demigods once
loved? I cannot help my love. 'Tis natural. See, evening comes,
and no relief." 61. The point of quoting Paris lies in his beauty,
which was great enough even to rival that of Alexis.
† Minerva only built Athens, but there is no need to be precise, and
she was the goddess of fortresses generally in remoter times.
C 2
20
THE BUCOLICS.
+
Fierce lionesses follow wolves, in turn
The wolves she-goats pursue: for green lucerne
The she-goats hunt; and thee* seeks Corydon,
Alexis:—thus his dear delight each one
Attracts. See there, the steers drag home the
plought
That swings clear of the ground, see Phoebus
now
The shadows deepens with departing rays:
Yet evening's cool my passion nought allays:
Nay, vain the hope! what bounds can love e'er
know?
What frenzy, Corydon, distraught thee so?
See on the elm-tree still half-prun'd thy vine,
Too thick the leaves grow where its tendrils
twine.
Nay, if no harder work of husbandry
* Sequitur is the ellipsis after Corydon, in line 65.
† See Illustrations 9 and 10, at the end of the Eclogue.
—cur non.
69-73. This is folly: I will return to my neglected business, and
hope to find some other love. 71. Quin cur non. Basket-work was
one of the husbandman's home occupations. An unpruned vine was a
great scandal in ancient husbandry. Usus means the need shown by
practical experience.
ECLOGUE II.
21
Thou canst perform, to weave a basket try
With limber rush or osier-twig: supply
Some need at least. What though thy plaint
may move
Alexis nought? thou'lt find another love.

(1) Messor, or reaper of grain,
with a falx messoria, or reaping-
hook, in his hand.


(2) Cicuticen, a per-
former on the Pan-pipe,
which was made of hem-
lock-stalks.
(3) Casa, a bower or rustic arbour.


(4) Casa, or cottage, such as Romulus
had on the Capitoline hill.
(8) Hortulani, nurserymen or
general gardeners, potting and
planting out flowers.
A
E
C
B
F
A
(5) Calathus, or woman's
work-basket, with balls
of wool and bobbins in it.
A similar basket was used
out of doors, for holding
flowers or fruit.


(6) Corbis, a basket of
wicker-work, used for
agricultural purposes,
like fiscella, but of coni-
cal shape.

பார்
(7) Fiscella, a small
basket made of wicker-
work or rushes, of com-
mon use in gardening or
farming.


(9) Aratrum, plough of improved con-
struction. A, A, the buris, or plough-tail,
the opposite end of which forms the pole,
temo. B, dentale, or share-beam. C, vomer,
the ploughshare. D, a truss to bind the
share-beam to the pole and plough-tail.
E, E, the earth-boards. F, stiva, the
handle which the ploughman held.
رلا
(10) Aratrum, wheeled
plough, containing all
the parts of the other,
and a coulter (culter) he-
sides, in front of the
share.
ECLOGUE III.
MENALCAS-DAMOETAS-PALAEMON.
This Eclogue, an imitation of Theocritus, is a specimen of a rustic
singing match, called technically "amoebaean singing." Menal-
cas may possibly represent Virgil. The scenery is again partly
Sicilian.
MENALCAS.
*ARE those, Damoetas, Meliboeus' sheep?
DAMOETAS.
No Aegon's: he sent them to me to keep
Not long ago.
MENALCAS.
O hapless sheep! for while
Your owner tries to win Neaera's smile,
And dreads lest she to me more favour shew,
Not twice a day, but twice an hour each ewe
* 1—31. M. Whom are you keeping sheep for? D. For Aegon.
M. Unhappy sheep: their owner is hopelessly in love, and his hireling
steals the milk. D. What right have you to taunt me ? M. Of course
not: I cut Micon's vines no doubt. D. Broke Daphnis' bow and
arrows you mean. M. Well, I saw you steal Damon's roe. D. It was
mine: I won it at a singing match. M. You? when you can't sing a
decent note. D. I'll sing against you now, and that too for a calf.
24
THE BUCOLICS.
This hireling keeper stealthily *milks dry-
Wears out the sheep, and lets the starv'd lambs
die.
DAMOETAS.
I'd have thee know that charges such as these
Must not be made 'gainst men whene'er we please.
And well indeed I know the shepherd who
With thee was seen the little chapel too—
The goats look'd on askance, but luckily
For thee, the easy Nymphs smil'd carelessly.
MENALCAS.
No doubt, when with malicious hook they spied
Me cutting trees which Micon's vines supplied
With props, and spoiling his young nursery.
DAMOETAS.
Nay, when thou Daphnis' bow and arrows by
The old beech-trees didst break with wilful spleen,
To think that Daphnis e'er to thee had been
* See Illustrations 1 and 2, at the end of the Eclogue.
+ Menalcas affects to charge himself with what Damoetas did.
See Illustration 3, at the end of the Eclogue.
ECLOGUE III.
25
Preferr'd, and had the swain* thy wrath defied,
And scatheless gone, thou surely must have died.
MENALCAS.
What would the masters do, were they but there
To see the knavish deeds § their slaves can dare?
Thee, villain, snaring Damon's roe I spied,
While loudly bark'd the hound, and when I
cried,
"Ho, Tityrus, ¶ call home thy flock," screen'd by
The sedge and reeds thou didst in ambush lie.
DAMOETAS.
What? was he not to give me back the roe,
My pipe's sweet strains had won? I'd have thee
know
* Daphnis.
† 5. Aliquá agrees with via or ratione understood.
Fures-comice pro servis. Compare the reverse change in the
meaning of English knave and villain.
§ 16. Faciant implies the presence of Aegon instead of Damoetas
and calculates the result.
18. Lycisci were mongrels between dogs and wolves.
Tityrus is Damon's shepherd.
26
THE BUCOLICS.
That roe is mine, as Damon own'd to me,
But said, "I cannot give it back to thee."
MENALCAS.
What? Damon e'er surpass'd by thee in song?
Did e'er pipe join'd with wax to thee belong?
Thou clown, our ears too often us'd to greet
Thy one poor reed's harsh grating in the street.†
DAMOETAS.
In amoebaean verse then shall we make
Some trial of our skill? See, I will stake
This heifer, and lest, as it haply may
Scarce suit thy taste, know this;-twice ev'ry day
She yields her milk, two calves her udder drain:
Say, for what stake thou'lt try to match my strain.
MENALCAS.
Aught from the flock I may not dare like thee
To stake, for stern the father who rules me
* 25. The verb is to be supplied from victus in line 21.
† See Illustrations 4, 5, 6, and 7, at the end of the Eclogue.
‡ 32—59. M. I dare not stake any of the cattle, but I have a better
stake, viz., two cups of Alcimedon's carving. D. I also have two by
the same hand, but they are nothing to the heifer. M. You shall not
put me off like this: I will agree to any terms. D. Come on, then, for
ECLOGUE III.
27
At home, stern too the stepmother, and they
Both count the flock of sheep twice ev'ry day,
And one the kids as well. Yet, for the sake
Of thy fond fancy, I'll consent to stake—
A richer guerdon thou thyself must own
The stake to be-two cups* Alcimedon,†
That king of craftsmen, out of beech-wood made:
A flexile vine outside is overlaid,
Wrought with deft graving-tool, in close embrace
The vine pale ivy's t tendrils interlace
With clust'ring yellow berries deck'd. Between, S
As though 'mid fields, two images || are seen,
Of Conon ¶ one, I cannot call to mind
The other,** he who drew up for mankind
I'm not afraid; do thou, Palaemon, only heed the strain. P. The grass
is soft to sit on, and the country lovely now. Begin, Damoetas, first.
*See Illustrations 8 and 9, at the end of the Eclogue.
† Alcimedon is not heard of elsewhere. He was probably an artist
contemporary with Virgil whom the poet wished to compliment.
‡ 39. Hederá pallente is for hederae pallentis, and qualifies corymbos.
§ 40. In medio: i. e., in the spaces enclosed by the vine and the ivy
on the cups.
See Illustrations 10, 11, and 12, at the end of the Eclogue.
¶ Conon was a famous astronomer in the time of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus.
** Alter was probably Eudoxus, whose "Phaenomena," an astronomi-
cal poem, was versified by Aratus, a Greek poet, of Soli in Cilicia.
*
28
THE BUCOLICS.
The heav'n's great round with geometric wand,*
That so the reaper aye might understand,
And so the ploughman † bending o'er his plough,
What seasons to observe. These cups I now
Am keeping stor'd with jealous care: nor wine
Nor milk from them e'er tasted lips of mine.
DAMOETAS.
For me, as well as thee, Alcimedon
Cary'd cups like thine, and flexile bear's-foot on
Their handles‡ twin'd, and in the space between
Depicted Orpheus in a woodland scene,
With trees uprooted, forests drawn along,
By magic impulse of immortal song.
I now §these cups am keeping stor'd, "nor wine
Nor milk from them e'er tasted lips of mine."
If on my heifer thou wilt turn thy gaze,
Thou'lt find no cause thy beech-wood cups to
praise.
* See Illustration 13, at the end of the Eclogue.
See Illustration 14, at the end of the Eclogue.
See Illustration 15, at the end of the Eclogue.
§ 47. The repetition is ironical.
ECLOGUE III.
29
MENALCAS.
*Thou shalt not get off thus this day from me,
I'll meet thee, wheresoe'er the ground may be.
An yonder neighbour, who's now coming here—
(See, 'tis Palaemon)—will but lend an ear,
I'll manage so, that ne'er a single swain
Shall challeng'd be to sing by thee again.
DAMOETAS.
Come on, then, if thou really know'st a strain,
I shrink not back: whoe'er be judge, I fain
Would sing still, neighbour, in thy heart's deep
core
(For 'tis no vulgar match) these verses store.
PALAEMON.
Sing, then, ye swains, since we are seated here
On the soft grass: for now, in sooth, the year
Is at its fairest: now the trees all bear
Their fruit, the fields are gay, the forests wear
* 49. Damoetas having spoken as if Menalcas wished to get off,
Menalcas retorts: "Well, sooner than you should get off, I will stake
a heifer."
30
THE BUCOLICS.
!
Their wealth of leaves. Begin, then, first thy lay,
Damoetas, next Menalcas shall essay
His rival skill. Alternate verse shall prove
Your art: alternate verse the Muses love.
DAMOETAS.
*With Jove, ye Muses, I begin: Jove fills
All nature
tills.
lovest my strains: the earth Jove
MENALCAS.
Me Phoebus loves his gifts my garden aye
Can boast, the sweet red jacinth and the bay.
DAMOETAS.
With apples Galatea, roguish maid,
Pelts me, then darts off to the willow's shade,
But ere she hides within its leafy screen,
She trusts that I her arch face shall have seen.
* 60-67. D. I then with Jove begin, who all the world pervades :
he makes the country fruitful, and the shepherd's patron is. M. My
theme's exordium is Phoebus, he who guards the poet, he for whom I
in my garden now rear bays and hyacinths. D. My mistress pelts
me first, then runs away, the charming rogue! M. My favourite
avoids me not: for e'en my dogs well know that face.
† 61. Illi mea carmina curae: i. e., because they celebrate the gifts
of the earth.
ECLOGUE III.
31
MENALCAS.
Nay, but Amyntas* courts my company,
Nor have I e'er to seek my love, my joy:
Not even Delia's† face could e'er be found
More known, or more familiar to each hound.
DAMOETAS.
My love shall have a gift, for I know where
The stock-dove built its nest high up in air.
MENALCAS.
Ten red-ripe apples, my best gift, I gave
My love to-morrow he ten more shall have.
DAMOETAS.
What words my Galatea in mine ear
Oft breathes! ye winds, to heav'n a portion bear.
*Amyntas knows the dogs as well as Delia, who may stand for
Diana. See line 75, where Amyntas is again mentioned as Menalcas'
hunting-companion.
+ See Illustrations 16 and 17, at the end of the Eclogue.
68-79. D. I have marked a wood-pigeon's nest for Galatea's
gift. M. I have sent Amyntas ten apples, and to-morrow will send
ten more. D. Oh! the words that Galatea speaks to me-words gods
might listen to. M. Amyntas, thou dost love me, leave me not then,
while thou'rt busy in the hunt. D. Send me Phyllis for my birth-
day. You can come on the next holiday. M. I send you Phyllis?
Why, she is my love, and weeps whene'er she parts from me.
32
THE BUCOLICS.
MENALCAS.
Amyntas, nought thy love, if while I stay
To watch the nets, in hunting* thou'rt away.
DAMOETAS.
Iollas, Phyllis send, 'tis my birthday ;
Come thou when for the gods a calf I slay†.
MENALCAS.
Her I love best :-in tears she cried again,
Ay and § again: "Farewell, too handsome swain.'
DAMOETAS.
|| The wolf's the bane of sheep, rain of ripe corn,
Of trees rough winds, mine Amaryllis' scorn.
* See Illustrations 18 and 19, at the end of the Eclogue.
+ Cum faciam vitula pro frugibus, "When I shall sacrifice a heifer
instead of offering corn." The birthday was a season of mirth and
love the festival of the Ambarvalia was an occasion of abstinence
from love (line 77). This Phyllis appears to be a female slave,
and mistress of Iollas, whom Damoetas rivals.
Menalcas retorts in the person of Iollas.
§ 79. Longum vale does not refer to the time of separation, but the
reluctance to part.
|| 80-91. D. Everything in nature has its bane: mine is the wrath
of Amaryllis. M. Everything in nature has its delight; Amyntas
is my joy. (In line 80, triste and dulce are equivalent to nouns.)
D. Pollio, the prince of critics, is my patron. M. Pollio is more, for
he's a poet too himself. (For Pollio, see Eclogue IV.) D. May
Pollio's admirers be like him. M. May Bavius and Maevius' admirers
be like them.
ECLOGUE III.
33
MENALCAS.
Plants,rain delights; wean'd kids, the arbute-tree,
Ewes, willow-shoots; none but Amyntas me.
DAMOETAS.
Though but swains' lays, great Pollio will read
My strains a calf for him, ye Muses, feed.
:
MENALCAS.
* A bard is Pollio: ye Muses, feed
For him yon steer that butts and paws the mead.†
DAMOETAS.
His lot be thine, who loves thee, Pollio
For him bear spice, ye brambles, honey, flow.
MENALCAS.
Let Bavius' readers, Maevius, § love thy strain,
With foxes plough,|| and he-goats' udders drain.
* 86. Nova is merely epexegetical of ipse, and serves to show that
Pollio's power is not only critical, but poetical and creative.
† 87. Arena really means the sandy soil, perhaps the sea-shore,
but the word is not important to the sense.
‡ 88. The order is-Veniat (ille eo) quo te quoque gaudet venisse.
§ Bavius and Maevius were two wretched poets contemporary with
Virgil and Horace, who both detested them.
Lucian tells us that a certain Demonax said of two foolish
D
34
THE BUCOLICS.
DAMOETAS.
*Ye swains, who cull flow'rs and wild † straw-
berries,
Flee, in the grass a cold snake hidden lies.
MENALCAS.
Beware, ye sheep for 'tis not wise to try
:
The bank the ram's fleece now is scarcely dry.
:
DAMOETAS.
Thy browsing she-goats from yon river call:-
Soon, Tityrus, this spring shall cleanse them all.
MENALCAS.
Call home your flocks, ye swains, for when the
heat
Has dried the milk, 'tis vain to press the teat.
disputants, that one was milking a he-goat, and the other catching
the milk in a sieve. The wish is that such men may have all sorts of
impossible and disagreeable business to do, instead of enjoying the
dreamland of the golden age, like Pollio.
* 91-99. D. Beware of snakes, ye strawberry-gatherers. M. Sheep,
beware of going too near the water, lest ye tumble in. D. Keep the
goats from the river: I will wash them in due time. M. Drive the
ewes beneath the shade, or they'll run dry again. In lines. 97 and
98, ovis and omnis are for oves and omnes.
+ 92. Nascentia humi: these words are probably used to show that
the strawberries grow abundantly without the aid of cultivation.
ECLOGUE III.
35
DAMOETAS.
Ah me! how lean my bull, fed on rich tares!
One love to death both herd and herdsman wears.
MENALCAS.
Some evil eye enchants, not love alone,
These tender lambs,* they are but skin and bone.
DAMOETAS.
† Where heaven's‡ space is but three ells, tell me,
And in my sight great Phoebus thou shalt be.
MENALCAS.
§ Where kings' names grow on flow'rs inscrib'd, tell
me,
And Phyllis shall belong alone to thee.
* 102. His agrees with agnis understood: neque=ne quidem.
† 100–107. D. My bull won't get fat: it is love. M. Nor will my
lambs it is the evil eye. (102. These of mine are not even so well
off as yours: they have some malady more mysterious than love.)
D. Guess my riddle, and you shall be my Apollo, god of divination.
M. Guess mine, and you shall keep Phyllis to yourself.
‡ 105. Caeli spatium, according to an old critic, meant the ground
that covered Caelius, a Mantuan, who squandered his estate and left
himself only land enough for a tomb. The omission of quam after
amplius is a relic of a time when comparison was expressed by simple
juxtaposition. The ell is 45 inches, and was originally a fathom.
§ 106. The flower meant is the hyacinth, which was supposed to be
inscribed with A A", to express the name of Ajax, or with Y, for
'Yάkiveos, the lost favourite of Apollo.
D 2
36
THE BUCOLICS.
PALAEMON.
*Between two minstrels never be it mine
To judge, when each swain's singing 's so divine.
Both ye, and all, the loss of some sweet love
Who dread, or baffled hopes deep anguish prove,
Deserve the heifer well. Your strains † now stay,
Ye swains:—the meads have drunk enough to-day.
*108-111. P. I cannot decide between swains who feel so truly
and sing so well.
111. Rivos: there is a metaphorical allusion to the streams of
bucolic verse.

{


(1) Mulctra, mulctrale, or mulc-
trum, a milk-pail, used both for
cows and goats.
(4) Bivium. A road or street branch-
ing into two forks: hence, in bivio (Virg.
Aen. ix. 238) means at the point of
divergence between two such roads or
streets.

41
muns
(2) Caprimulgus, a milker of
goats. The illustration shows a
genius engaged in milking.
(5) Trivium, тpíodos. A spot where
three streets or roads meet from oppo-
site directions. Strictly, the term is op-
posed to compitum (cross roads in the
country), and refers to the to wn, but
not always so. The Latin word trivialis,
and our trivial, acquire their secondary
meanings of vulgar or commonplace
from the word.


ពល
5
(3) Falx vinitoria, or vine-dresser's
pruning-hook.
༈ །
A place
(6) Quadrivium, τετραόδιον.
where four streets or cross roads
meet.

(7) Compitum, a place where two
or more roads meet, and referring
more to the country than trivium.
(14) Arator, a ploughman or a
ploughing ox, both of which are
shown by the engraving.
प
(8) Carchesium, a drink-
ing cup of Greek inven-
tion, with slender handles
reaching from the rim to
the bottom: used for wine
or milk.


A
(9) Scyphus, a wine-cup;
very often made of beech-
wood.


(15) Ansa, or handle to
jug or drinking vessel, as
shown in the engraving.


B
(11) Signum. The device on
(10) Signum. The sign of a
shop, indicating by an emblema-
tical representation the nature of
the business. The two men carry-
ing an amphora or wine-jar shows
that the sign is that of a wine-
shop.
a ring with two precious
stones here (anulus biĝemmis).
The large figure is one of
Mars, the small one that of a
dove with a branch.


(12) Signum.
A constellation
formed by a group of stars, ap-
parently representing certain
animals, as in the engraving of
a statue of Atlas with the heavens
on his shoulders.
(16) Nodus. Diana draped as
Virgil describes (Aen. i. 320):
nodo sinus collecta fuentes.

كلام

(13) Radius, or pointed rod or
wand, used by professors of geo-
metry, mathematics, or astro-
nomy, for describing diagrams in
sand. The engraving represents
the Muse Urania holding it.
(17) Venatrix, a huntress.
Diana is represented in the
engraving following the chase
with bow and hound.

(18) Venator, a huntsman, with his
dog and a boar at bay, wounded
in the back by one spear, and pierced
by another, which is held at close
quarters.

(19) Rete and retis, a net in a gene-
ral sense. The engraving is supposed
to show a tract of country surrounded
by nets, and the game driven into
them.
ECLOGUE IV.
Pollio.
The date of this poem is the year 714 A.U.C., when Pollio, as consul,
was busy in aiding to effect the peace at Brundisium. The hero
is a child, either then born or to be born in this auspicious year,
who, in the poet's idea, was destined to perfect the restoration.
then commencing. The most probable conjecture is that the
child was one of Pollio's sons, one of whom died in his infancy,
while the other, Caius Asinius Gallus, lived to be mentioned as a
probable successor to Augustus (Tac. Ann. i. 13), and was subse-
quently killed through the jealousy of Tiberius (ib. vi. 23). The
coincidence between Virgil's language and that of the Old Testa-
ment with regard to the expectation of a Messiah is very striking.
YE Muses of Theocritus, inspire
My lays with loftier poetic fire.
Low-growing tamarisks and orchards please
Not all alike; and since of fields and trees
I sing, ye Muses, grant me e'en a strain
That may great Pollio's* attention gain.
* 3. Consule. The consul meant is Caius Asinius Pollio, friend of
Augustus, patron of literature, founder of the first library in Rome,
and author of a history of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey,
now lost.
1-17. "My pastorals must now take higher flights. The golden
age comes back once more: a glorious child is born. Thy consulship,
great Pollio, shall usher him into the world, and shall inaugurate a
time of peace, when all the earth shall be swayed by a godlike king."
The Sibyl of Cumae was the most famous. The Sibylline books
recognized the division of time into secles of 110 years, and divided
기
​42
THE BUCOLICS.
That latest time foretold in Sibyl's pages
Has come: the mighty cycle* of the ages
Begins anew. See now to earth again
The Virgin Justice comes, now Saturn's reign
Returns: a new and better race of men
Is being sent us from the sky. Come, then,
Thou chaste Lucina, speed the infant's birth,
That babe beneath whose future sway on earth
The iron age shall end, who shall once more
The age of gold to all the world restore ;-
Oh! speed his birth: thine own Apollo now
Reigns in the tenth last secle. Yes, when thou
Art consul, Pollio, this glorious age
Shall first be usher'd in,—o'er its fix'd stage
Each mighty period roll on :—and should
Some trace of guilt that shed our kindred blood
the ages by means of metals, declared who should reign in each
several secle, and determined that the last or tenth secle should be
that of the sun, spoken of in verse 10.
*5. The reference is to the annus magnus or Platonicus, a period
variously estimated from 2,500 to 18,000 years, to be completed when
all the heavenly bodies should occupy the same places in which they
were at the beginning of the world. The meaning is, that when the
tenth or last secle is over, the cycle is to be repeated. The Virgo of
line 6 is Justice, who left the earth in the iron age.
ECLOGUE IV.
43
Still linger, 'neath thy happy rule it shall
Be done away, the land from its long thrall
Of Terror shall be freed. As gods* above
That child shall live, 'mid demigods shall move
And gods in closest union, the earth
Shall sway, to which a father'st might and worth
Gave rest and peace. For thee its choicest store,
Auspicious babe, that grateful earth shall pour
With growth spontaneous and wide, for thee,
Egyptian beans, the bright acacia-tree,
The straggling ivy, and the foxglove. Home
Unbidden, with distended teats, shall come
The she-goats, no fierce lions‡t shall they fear:
The eager ground shall cradle § thee, and bear
Its flow'rs, spontaneous token of its love.
The snake shall die, no plant, though fair, shall prove
* One of the chief privileges of the golden age was that men lived
like gods, and enjoyed familiar intercourse with gods on earth.
+ If we assume, as is probable enough, the child to be one of Pollio's
sons, patriis refers to Pollio: if not, the word cannot be explained
without solving the riddle of the Eclogue.
Because they will be under especial protection as providing milk
for thee.
§ See Illustrations 1, 2, and 3, at the end of the Eclogue.
44
THE BUCOLICS.
Destruction's* lure: o'er ev'ry field and mead
Assyria's spice shall spring. But when to read
Of demigods' well-earn'd renown-deeds done
Of old by thy great sire thou hast begun,
What valour means, and what true merit, when
Thou knowest, by degrees shall ripen then
With flexile and with yellowing corn-crops all
The plain,—the blushing grape from briars shall
Hang down, and honey, falling like the dew,
Rough oaks distil. Yet 'neath these joys, some few
Slight traces of the old false life shall lie,
Whence restless man shall be impell'd to try
The wavest in ships, with walls to gird §around
+
The towns, to plough up furrows in the ground,
Still craving more. || A second Tiphys¶ then
Shall rise, an Argo shall be built again
* Veneni is a genitive of quality.
+ Thetis, here used for the sea, was a sea-nymph, daughter of
Nereus and Doris, wife of Peleus, and mother of Achilles.
I See Illustrations 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, at the end of the Eclogue.
§ See Illustrations 9, 10, and 11, at the end of the Eclogue.
Even though the corn spontaneously sprang, yet men were eager
to get more and more, and this involving the necessity of ploughing,
prevented that perfect felicity that belonged to the true golden age.
¶ Tiphys was the helmsman of the Argo, the mythic ship that
ECLOGUE IV.
45
?
i
To bear the hero-chiefs to Colchis' land:
The old wars shall be fought once more, the band
Of Greeks with great Achilles once again
Be sent to fight on plains of Troy. But when
Thy time of life, maturer grown, brings thee
To manhood's prime: no more shall plough the
sea
The sailor in his ship of war: no, nor
The passenger, the pine shall then no more
Be fashion'd into boats for merchandise :-
In ev'ry clime spontaneous shall rise
Earth's gifts. No harrows* shall the ground then
bear,
No pruning-hook the tender vine shall tear;
Ay, e'en the sturdy ploughman shall release
His steers from galling† yoke, ne'er shall the fleece
Be taught to borrow colours not its own,
By dyer's aid, nay, in the meads alone,
bore a chosen band of heroes called the Argonauts in quest of the
golden fleece at Colchis, under the guidance of Jason. According to
the Sibylline cycle, all history was to repeat itself.
* See Illustrations 12 and 13, at the end of the Eclogue.
† See Illustrations 14, 15, and 16, at the end of the Eclogue.
46
THE BUCOLICS.
Now with the sweetly blushing purple's hue,
Anon with saffron shall the ram imbue
His own white wool; lambs shall, e'en as they feed,
Be cloth'd with scarlet's dye. "Blest ages,* speed
Ye onward," was the strain the Parcae then
Sang to their spindlest-they who tell to men
In concert fate's fix'd rede. Then enter on
Thy course of high distinctions, mighty son
Of Jove, dear child of heav'n, for soon will come
The time. See how with pond'rous vaulted dome
The whole world nods, the azure deep of air,
The earth, the ocean-tracts, see all things wear
Bright looks of joy to hail th' approaching age!
May there be left me still in life's last stage
Both time and breath inspir'd enough the praise
Of thy great deeds to sing! None with my lays.
* 46. Compare the use of the Greek ouros with this vocative
"Talia." 48-59. Let him now take his seat upon his throne; the
whole world with expectant longing waits for him, and shakes at his
approach as temples at the coming of their gods. May I live long
enough to tell of his renown: the theme would raise me of itself
above all bards, both human and divine.
+ See Illustrations 17, 18, 19, and 20, at the end of the Eclogue.
53. Quantum refers to tam longae, but is connected in sense with
maneat. The confusion is from the number of predicates.
ECLOGUE IV.
47
Could hope to vie :-not Linus,* though his sire,
E'en fair Apollo's self, should strike the lyre:-
Not Thracian Orpheus,† though Calliope
Herself should aid her son, could rival me.
Were Pan himself in song with me to vie,
With Arcady for judge,-with Arcady
For judge, Pan would himself yield me the prize.
Begin, then, with thy smile to recognize
Thy mother's face, auspicious babe; for she
A time of anxious waiting bore for thee,
Ten whole long weary months: §-begin, a child
On whom its loving parents have not smil'd,
May never hope to dwell with gods|| above,
May never hope to win a goddess' love.
* Linus was the mythic son of Apollo and Terpsichore, instructor
of Orpheus and Hercules, the latter of whom is said to have killed
him by a blow with the lyre.
+ Orpheus is the famous mythic singer of Thrace, the son of
Oeagrus and Calliope, and husband of Eurydice.
58. The Arcadians would be excellent critics, and would favour
their own god, Pan.
63. Dignata est may be taken aoristically.
========
§ 61. Longa fastidia taedia: ten months was the full period of
gestation recognized by Roman law.
See Illustrations 21 and 22, at the end of the Eclogue, for Mensa
and Triclinium.
©


(1) Cunabula, a child's cradle.

(2) Cunaria, a nurse who rocked
the infant, washed it, and wrapped
it in swaddling clothes.
(4) Velum, the sail of a ship, es-
pecially the large square sail or main-
sail, distinguished from the foresail
(dolon), the topsail (supparum), and
others. It was formed out of square
pieces of cloth sewn together, and
fixed to a yard (antenna) at the top.


(3) Vannus, a winnowing-fan made
into a cradle.
(5) Velum. In foul weather, or on
arrival in port, the yard was lowered
half-mast high, and the sail reefed
or clewed up, which operations were
expressed by the phrases, demittere
antennas, to lower the yard; velum
subducere, to clew up the sail; velum
legere, to shorten sail.


A
(6) Velum, ancient vessel, sailing in
fair weather. The yard was then
raised up to the top of the mast, the
clew lines loosened from the yard,
and the corners of the sail drawn
down to the deck, as represented in
the engraving, and expressed by such
phrases as-vela facere, to make all
sail; vela pandere, to spread the sails;
vela solvere and deducere, to unclew
the sails and let them down from
the yard.
(9) Castellum, a small fortress, in
which a body of soldiers were sta-
tioned, in the open country or on the
frontier.

(7) Ratis or ancient raft. Genii are
represented spearing fish on it with
a fuscina or trident.
(10) Aræ, or ancient fortress, as
shown in the engraving, which re-
presents the Acropolis at Athens.
(8) Ratis, a flat-bottomed boat,
pushed on by a pole, showing the
first step in naval architecture.
(11) Castellum. The reservoir of an
aqueduct, formed where a main was
required for the supply of the locality
in a town. The engraving shows a
restoration of the castellum belonging
to the Julian aqueduct, decorated
with columns and statues, and form-
ing with its waste water a noble foun-
tain, pouring its jets into an ample
basin.
E

(12) Occatio, BwλokоTiα. The pro-
cess of breaking up the clods of earth
left by the plough, called harrowing.
A hurdle (crates) was drawn over the
land, or a wooden frame set with teeth
(dentata), similar to our harrow,
often weighted by the driver standing
on it. In the engraving, one man is
sowing the seed, while the other (the
occator) covers it with his harrow.
(15) Jugum, a yoke for draught ani-
mals, attached to the end of a pole by
a thong, colum, lorum, or by a pin;
called curvum jugum, when formed
with two arcs to fit the necks of two
animals. The bands were tied round
the animals' chests.

#
(13) Raster, rastrus, or rastrum, an
implement between our fork, roke, and
hoe, with an iron head, very heavy,
and with two, three, or even four
prongs.
(14) Jugum, the thwart or cross
bench (on which the passenger sat)
(as Virg. Aen. vi. 481) of Charon's
bark.
(16) Jugum was also a yoke consisting
of a pole slightly curved in the centre
and a strap at each end, to carry bur-
dens on. It was placed across one
shoulder, so that the objects suspended
hung before and behind. The top
figure shews an Egyptian yoke with
one of the straps; the object on the
left shows the bottom of the strap on
a larger scale, the two ends of which
are joined by a small thong, which
served also to receive a hook or ad-
ditional strap if necessary. The centre
figure, supposed to be a Satyr carrying
objects for sacrifice to Bacchus, shows
the method of using the jugum.



(17) Figure with a dis-
taff (colus) in her left hand,
the drawn thread (stamen)
hanging from it, and twist-
ing the spindle (fusus)
with her right.
(18) Colus, or distaff, a
cane-stick about a yard
long, slit at the top, so as
to open and hold the wool.
The ring round is a sort of
cap to hold the wool firm.


(19) Fusus, a spindle. The
engraving shows the spindle
empty and full of thread.
(20) Subtemen, кρоên, èþúôn. The weft or
woof in weaving, i. e., the cross-thread passed
alternately under or over those of the warp
(stamen) to make a piece of cloth. The en-
graving shows an Egyptian inserting the
weft into the warp upon a frame stretched
on the ground.
E 2

(21) Triclinium, Tρikλivov. This word implies the conjunction
of three dining couches arranged together so as to form three
sides of a square, leaving a vacant space in the centre for the
dining-table, and the fourth side open for the servants to enter
and place the trays upon it. It was intended for nine persons,
three on each couch, but the number was sometimes varied. In
the engraving the couches are formed by permanent bases of
masonry, upon each of which a mattress is laid. The figures on
the left side are still reclining as at dinner; those on the right,
already replete, have turned on their backs to take a siesta (Juv.
i. 56); while the rest at the farther end of the triclinium are en-
joying their cups. The scene may represent a funeral feast
(silicernium), or a drinking party after a feast (comissatio, sym-
posium), to which extra guests also were invited.

(22) Mensa sacra, a table of gold, marble, or
silver, forming a sort of altar, and placed before
the statues of the gods with the wine, fruit, and
viands offered to them at the solemn feast called
the lectisternium.
ECLOGUE V.
Daphnis.
MENALCAS-MOPSUs.
Mopsus, a younger shepherd, is invited by Menalcas to play and sing.
Mopsus sings a funeral song on Daphnis, the great hero of bucolic
poetry. Menalcas matches the efforts of Mopsus by a correspond-
ing strain upon the deification of Daphnis. They exchange gifts,
after praising each other. The Eclogue is an imitation of three
of the Idyls of Theocritus. The scenery, as usual, is Sicilian. It
is probable that under the person of Daphnis, the dictator Cæsar
is meant, and the honours then recently decreed to Cæsar seem to
favour the idea of the deification. Virgil may mean himself by
Menalcas.
MENALCAS.
WHY, Mopsus, sit we not down here 'neath these
Elms in the shade, that grow 'mid hazel-trees,
Since here we've met, both skill'd *-thyself to
play
On light reed-pipe-and I to sing the lay?
*Boni inflare. This is a Greek construction: the infinitive may be
regarded as a noun.
Mo. Or better, in
Mo. And he might
favourite themes.
with any that my
1-18. Me. Let us play and sing in the shade.
this cave. Me. There is but one who rivals thee.
rival Phœbus' self. Me. Sing now one of thy
Mo. I have a sour that's new, and well may vie
rival has. Me. Frget thy rival; ne'er could I compare him with
thyself.
54
THE BUCOLICS.
MOPSUS.
Nay, thou art elder -fair it is, to thee,
:
Menalcas, that I gladly list, should we
Take shelter 'neath the caves or shady trees
That tremble at each Zephyr's whisp'ring breeze.
See how the wild vines of the forest have
With clusters here and there embow'r'd the cave.
MENALCAS.
None but Amyntas on our hills like thee!
MOPSUS.
* He, doubtless, soon will Phoebus' rival be.
MENALCAS.
Begin then, Mopsus, first, whate'er thy strain—
Reproach 'gainst Codrus,† Corydon's lov'd swain-
A glorious masterpiece of Alcon's ‡ art—
Or some lorn shepherd struck by Cupid's dart
With love for Phyllis-ay, sing now, thou bard,
For Tityrus thy browsing kids will guard.
* This is, of course, ironical.
+ Codrus is mentioned again in Eclogue VII., lines 22 and 26, as the
favourite of Corydon, and enemy of Thyrsis.
Alcon is probably a sculptor, mentioned by Ovid. Met. xiii. 683.
ECLOGUE V.
55
MOPSUS.
Nay, let me try these strains which lately I
To music set, and mark'd alternately
The flute and voice, and on the green beech-tree
Wrote down-then bid Amyntas vie with me.
MENALCAS.
As rose-beds, lowly Celtic reeds, or as
Green olives pliant willows far surpass,
So far inferior must ever be
Amyntas, Mopsus, in my thoughts to thee.
MOPSUS.
§Swain, say no more; the cave we now are 'neath.
THE SONG OF MOPSUS.
"The Nymphs for Daphnis struck by ruthless
death,
* Menalcas assures Mopsus that he need not fear the rivalry of
Amyntas.
† 17. The saliunca resembles the rose in odour, but it is so brittle
that it is useless for weaving garlands, for which the rose was espe-
cially used by the ancients.
The leaves of the willow and olive are of the same pale green
colour and of similar form, though the olive is much more valuable.
§ 19 14. Mo. We've reached the cave; I thus begin: "When
Daphnis died the Nymphs shed tears; his mother clasped her son's
56
THE BUCOLICS.
مدر
* Wept long: ye streams,† ye hazel-trees, knew
well
The Nymphs' deep grief; what time the mother
fell
Beside, and clasping to her heart her son,
Alas! a piteous corpse, cried out, as none
But mothers ‡ can, on cruel fate and heaven.
No, Daphnis, in those days no steers were driven
To drink, when fed, from cooling streams; no
draught
Of grateful water from the river quaff'd
cold corpse and called upon the gods reproachfully: the flocks and
herds were all unfed, the very lions roared aloud in grief: for
Daphnis tamed the tiger, founded Bacchus' rural worship, was the
glory of his friends: and now he's dead, a curse lies on the land, and
where good seed was sown, there springs the noisome weed. Let us
then raise his tomb and write his epitaph.”
* Line 21. Flebant, as Conington says, with a pause after it at the
beginning of the verse, is meant to add to the melancholy effect.
The two monosyllables in the translation are an attempt to preserve
the same effect.
+ Compare Scott :-
"Call it not vain: they do not err:
Who say that when the poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper
And celebrates his obsequies :
Who say tall cliff and cavern lone
For the departed bard make moan.'
"
•
The position of mater shows that it is meant to be emphatic.
ECLOGUE V.
57
The cattle then, or touch'd a blade of grass.
Then, Daphnis, each wild hill, each forest was
Vocal with echoes of the mournful roar
Of Afric's lions at thy death. Of yore
How to yoke Asian tigers* Daphnis show'd,
The Bacchic dance its fame to Daphnis ow'd,
By Daphnis taught, each swain for Bacchus
weaves
His spear-like supple wand† with waving leaves.
The vine's the glory of the trees it twines
Around, the grapes the glory of the vines,
Bulls of their herds, of fields rich crops of corn,
Thy friends' sole glory thou! Now fate has borne
Thee from the sorrowing earth, e'en Pales, § e'en
Apollo has fled from the woodland scene.
Oft now when in the furrows we have sown
Fine grains pick'd out for barley-seed, have
grown
* See Illustrations of Roman and Greek chariots, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6,
at the end of the Eclogue.
† See Illustrations 7, 8, 9, and 10, at the end of the Eclogue.
‡
31. Mollibus, i.e., mobilibus.
§ Pales was the tutelary deity of the shepherds and cattle.
·
58
THE BUCOLICS.
Wild oats and barren darnel :—oft now spring
For the narcissus,* gaily flowering,
And dainty violet, rough thistles,—and
Christ's thorn with spiky prickles fills the land.
With leaves and flowers strew the turf, with trees
O'erhanging shade the springs, ye swains, for these
The honours Daphnis' self claims as his own;
And raise a tomb,† and write this on the stone:—
'Here in the woods entomb'd, I, Daphnis, lie,
Known from this spot e'en to the starry sky,
Handsome the flock I, Daphnis, us'd to keep,
Yet still more handsome Daphnis than his sheep.'
MENALCAS.
Like sleep on grassy meads to wearied swains,
To me, thou prince of bards, are these thy strains,
* The suave-rubens narcissus of the "Ciris," a supposed work of
Virgil's, line 96, is probably meant. The adjective purpureus implies
brightness or richness of colour.
+ See Illustration 11, at the end of the Eclogue.
45-55. Me. Thy singing no less than thy piping delights me
wondrously thou'lt be the poet-laureate in the bucolic field of song:
yet I will in my turn attempt a song on Daphnis as a god. Mo. Ay,
prithee do for worthy is the theme, and worthy is thy genius to
treat the theme.
ECLOGUE V.
59
Ay, sweet as from some dancing rivulet
To quench one's thirst in summer's heat. And yet.
Not on the pipe alone, but e'en in song
Thou dost thy master rival. Now belong
To thee the honours Daphnis held, blest swain,
Yet these my strains, as best I may, I fain
Would sing, and thy lov'd* Daphnist deify,
Yes, Daphnis' fame I'll raise e'en to the sky,
For like thyself to Daphnis dear was I.
MOPSUS.
Nought e'er like this thy promis'd boon of song
Could give me joy. Nay, Stimicon has long
Ago to me been praising this thy strain;
A noble theme of song too is the swain.
THE SONG OF MENALCAS.
Heav'n's threshold, ne'er by him beheld before,
Deep-wond'ring, Daphnis now is crossing o'er,
* Allegorically referring to the apotheosis of Julius Cæsar.
+ See Illustrations 12 and 13, at the end of the Eclogue.
56-80. Me. Daphnis lives in heaven now; the shepherds and the
shepherds' gods rejoice: the wild beasts are at peace: the mountains
60
THE BUCOLICS.
And 'neath his feet the clouds and stars he sees,
So now then frolic glee the Nymphs, the trees,
Dryads, and swains, the country round, and Pan
Possesses:* now, no more the wolf shall plan
Destruction to the flock, now nets shall cease
To snare the stag: good Daphnis' joy is peace.
†The hills in shaggy strength exulting, cries
Of joy send upwards to the echoing skies:
((
Mute rocks and trees in song forth breaking
cry:
Daphnis, Menalcas, is our deity."
Be thou propitious, on thy swains bestow
All fortune's gifts; Daphnis, two§ altars glow,
all proclaim his deity: he with libation song and dance shall honoured
be, so long as nature's course is still unchanged, e'en as to Bacchus
and to Ceres honour's paid.
* 58. As all nature wept at his death, so it rejoices at his
deification.
† 62. For joy indifferently attributed to places and their inhabit-
ants, compare Isaiah xlii. 10, 11. 63. Intonsi⇒ incaedui. For this
restoration to a state of nature, compare the well-known passage in
1saiah xiv. 7, 8: "The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break
forth into singing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of
Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up
against us."
64. For sonare carmina, compare Hor. ii. od. 13, 20.
§ See Illustrations 1, 2, 3, and 4, at the end of Eclogue I.
ECLOGUE V.
61
Yes, two for Phoebus'* sacrifice, and see
Two, where libations pour'd shall honour thee.
For thee two cups with new milk frothing here
I'll place, two bowlst of rich oil ev'ry year,
And now when all the sacrifice is o'er,
The feast's full joy with Bacchus' gladd'ning
store-
Around the fire, if chilling winter frown,
1
Beneath the shade if summer smile-I'll crown,
And from the wine-cup § pour the fresh-press'd juice
Of Ariusian grape, || fit for gods' use.
Damoetas then shall sing to me a strain,
And Aegon, Cretan Lycta's ¶ minstrel-swain:
Alphesiboeus shall in dancing ** vie
With Satyrs and each woodland deity.
* 66. Duas (aras ut) altaria Phoebo, two whereon to offer victims to
Apollo.
† See Illustration 14, at the end of the Eclogue.
See Illustrations 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23, at the end of the
Eclogue, for the ancient manner of reclining at meals, &c., and No.
22, at the end of Eclogue IV.
§ See Illustration 15, at the end of the Eclogue.
|| 71. Ariusia, in Chios, was famous for wine.
¶ 72. Lyctius, from Lycta in Crete.
** See Illustrations 24 and 25, at the end of the Eclogue.
62
THE BUCOLICS.
These honours, Daphnis, thine shall ever be
When we* our vows pay to the Nymphs, when we
By offer'd gifts† cleanse all the country round.
As long as on the mountains shall be found
Wild boars, as long as fish swim in the seas,
As long as grasshoppers on dew and bees
On thyme shall feed, so long shall live thy name,
The honour of thy worship and thy fame.
The husbandmen each year shall thee implore,
As Bacchus or as Ceres ‡ they adore:
And by thy granting pray'd-for blessings, thou
Shalt bind the suppliant to keep his vow.
MOPSUS.
§What guerdon shall be thine for strains like these ?
Such heartfelt joy, no soughing through the trees
By means of a propitiatory offering: e. g., a sacrifice consisting
of a swine, a sheep, and a bull. The allusion is to the festival called
"Ambarvalia."
+ See Illustration 26, at the end of the Eclogue.
79. Bacchus and Ceres are mentioned as the chief patrons of the
husbandmen.
§ 81–90. Mo. What shall I give thee for a song that's sweeter
than aught nature has to show? Me. This pipe, that oft has played
strains of no common fame, I'll give to thee, ere I receive thy gift.
Mo. And I will give to thee this handsome crook, and I refused it
once to one I loved.

ECLOGUE V.
63
Of fresh'ning winds gives me-no surf-lash'd
shores'
Deep moan-no flood 'mid rocky vales that pours.
MENALCAS.
Nay, take thou first this brittle pipe. Upon
This pipe I learnt to play :-"Once Corydon
Alexis lov'd"-this pipe taught me the lay
'Say, whose the flock? Is't Meliboeus' pray?"
MOPSUS.
Nay, first I will this shepherd's crook* give thee,
Adorn'd with knotst of wood grown evenly,
And ring of brass: -which ne'er from me could gain
Antigenes, though all might love the swain.
* See Illustration 27, at the end of the Eclogue.
† Another interpretation, taking nodis atque aere to mean brazen
studs, is this: adorned with brazen studs, at equal distances arranged.

(1) Tensa or Thensa, apua be@v. A
state car drawn by animals, upon
which the statues of the gods were
transported in solemn procession to
the Circensian games.
(3) Currus volucris,
chariot with wings, at-
tributed by poets aud
artists to the gods.
in an
(2) War-chariot (äpua) used by Greeks
of the heroic ages.
(5) Currus, Roman triumphal war
chariot.

(4) Roman chariot.
(6) Pilentum, a state car-
riage used on gala days and
festivals by Roman matrons.
The figure represents the Em-
press Faustina. There are
various instances of wild ani-
mals being tamed and yoked
to carriages, but, of course, the
car was usually drawn by
horses,



(7) Top part of the
wand called thyrsus,
decorated with a fir-
cone.
(8) Top part of the
wand called thyrsus,
decorated with vine-
leaves.
(9) Top part of the
wand called thyrsus,
decorated with ivy.


(11) The Tomb of Adonis, with
pillar for a monument or in-
scription.
(10) Thyrsiger, carrying the
thyrsus, which Bacchus and his
followers bore, as shown by the
engraving, when celebrating their
rites.


MG
(12) Consecratio, or Deification.
A distinction conferred on some
Roman Emperors, performed in
the Campus Martius. A pyre of
wood was covered with a device
resembling a tabernacle of three
or four stories, each of which
lessened as it got higher, and
was ornamented with statues,
drapery, &c. In the second story,
a spendid image in wax of the
deceased was deposited, and sur-
rounded with aromatic herbs.
For completion of the ceremony,
see woodcut No 13.
(13) The whole mass was then
lighted, and an eagle let loose
from the top story, which was
supposed to bear the soul up to
heaven, as show by the engrav-
ing, representing the deification
of Titus.
1231


(16) Lectus tricliniaris, couch adapted
for three persons to recline at meals upon.
It had a railing raised slightly at that end
of it which was on the left of the person
reclining, on which he rested his left arm.
The vacant place on the right hand is
going to be occupied by the god, after the
Faun has taken off his shoes, according to
the usual custom before eating; and Icarus
rests his left arm upon the pillow which
separates his place from that of his guest.
The engraving represents the visit of
Bacchus to Icarus.
(14) Crater, a capacious
bowl that usually con-
tained wine and water,
from which the drinking
goblets were filled.
(15) Calathus, a drinking
cup, so termed because it
resembled a woman's work-
basket in shape.
(17) Lectus triclinaris. When a party consisted of more than three
persons, it was the custom to arrange three of these couches together
round a table, so that the whole formed three sides of a square, leaving
the bottom of it open for the approach of the attendants (as shown in the
diagram), which were then
respectively designated lectus
medius, summus, and imus;
the middle one being consid-
ered the most dignified, and
imus the least so. The places
also on Fach
couch had thefr
degrees of pre-
cedence, and
particular
names to dis-
tinguish them.
On the two
side couches,
I
Medius.
=
the places of the highest
rank were those next the
rail (I.), then the centre
ones (II.), and the last
(III.), but on the middle
couch the post of honour
was at the
other extrem-
ity (III.) which
was always
left for the
greatest per-
sonage, and

1
Mensa.
Summus.
thence called
consularis.
The host occupied the highest place (I.) on the lowest couch (imus),
in order to be near to his principal guest. Finally, the respective
names by which the places on each of the couches were distinguished
are as follows:-
Medius lectus,
Middle couch
Summus lectus,
Upper couch
Imus lectus,
Lower couch
1. Summus in medio.
2. Inferior in medio.
3. Imus in medio.
1. Summus in summo.
2. Medius in summo.
3. Imus in summo.
{2. Modius
1. Summus in imo.
2. Medius in imo.
3. Imus in imo.

(20) Accubo, to recline at table.
Ancients reclining, accubentes, at
their meals.
(18) Trichila or triclia, a summer-
house for dining in genial weather.
The engraving shows the dining
table, bases of masonry for the
mattresses of three tricliuiary
couches, and a fountain in front.
(21) Cubital, bπaykóνov. A cushion
for the elbow to rest on when the figure
otherwise is in a recumbent position,
such as was used for the convenience
of invalids. Hor. Sat. ii. 3, 225.


ย
100
(22) Coenaculum, an eating
room; the plural
the plural designated
the whole suits of rooms in ar
upper story.

ལྟ
S
(19) Toral and torale. A valance at-
tached in front to the lower part of a
dining-couch, between the mattress
(torus) and the floor, and distinguished
from the stragulum and the peristroma,
which were laid like a sheet over the
mattress, for the occupant to sit on, as
shown in left-hand engraving to peri-
stroma. It was usually composed of
white drapery or some washing ma-
terial, but sometimes of gold tissue
or embroidery.
A
(23) Biclinium, a sofa or couch,
adapted for two persons to re-
cline at their meals.
F2


(24) Sicinnista, a dance of
Satyrs, introduced in the Greek
Satyric drama. The female is
singing, as her open mouth sug-
gests. The modern Neapolitan
tarantella is very like it.
(25) Capripes, goat-
footed Satyr, as Pan is
often represented.


(26) Suovetaurilia, a purificatory
sacrifice of three animals, a pig,
sheep, and bull, which were led in
solemn procession round the spot re-
quiring purification, and then slain.
(27) Pedum, or shep-
herd's crook, for catch-
ing sheep or goats by
the leg.
ECLOGUE VI.
This Eclogue is addressed to Alfenus Varus, who succeeded Pollio as
governor of Cisalpine Gaul. The poet requests his patron to accept
a pastoral lay instead of an heroic poem on his exploits. The
subject is a song of partly mythological and partly cosmogonal
character, extorted by a stratagem from Silenus, the constant
attendant on Bacchus, by two shepherds.
*My Muse, the Muse of pastorals, † would deign
At first to sport in Syracusan strain,
And dwelling in the woods still felt no shame.
But when to sing kings' deeds and soldiers' fame
I thought, lo, Phoebus touch'd mine ear ‡ and thus
To me spake words of warning:-" Tityrus,
To sing a humbler and more finish'd strain
And make § sheep fat's the duty of the swain."
* 1-12. I had left the region of bucolic song for the heroic strain,
when Phoebus warned me back. A pastoral then, Varus, I will write
for thee, and leave the celebration of thy martial deeds to other pens.
†Thalia was said by some to have been the inventress of agricul-
ture, and was often represented with a sheephook as the Muse of
pastoral poetry. Syracosio is equivalent to Theocritean.
4. Vellit aurem to touch the ear was a symbolical way of re-
minding one of anything, and the established mode of summoning a
witness. Apollo, as it were, summoned Virgil to bear witness to the
nature of his poetic gift. Tityrus represents Virgil. For line 5
confer Hor. Sat. ii. 6, 14.
§ 4. Pascere pinguis, i. e. (pingues) = pascere ut pinguescant.
70
THE BUCOLICS.
So, Varus, on the simple reed I'll frame
A shepherd's lay, for thine immortal fame,
And all war's horrors in th' heroic line
A thousand bards shall tell. But 'tis not mine
To sing a strain *unsought, unwarranted.
Yet oh! if e'er these songs of mine be read
By some, caught with their charm :—then shall my
lays
Of tamarisk and forest spread thy praise:
No paget of song shall Phoebus' favour claim
Like that which bears for title Varus' name.
Begin Pierian maids. Two young swainst
spied
Silenus lying fast asleep inside
A grot:—their names Mnasylos and Chromis :—
With yesterday's carouse (such ever is
*9. Non goes with cano, not injussa.
+ See Illustrations 1, 2, 3, and 4, at the end of the Eclogue.
13-30. Two young shepherds surprise Silenus sleeping off the
effects of a carouse, and bind him with the help of a Naiad, exacting
a song which he often promised before. He sings at last to the delight
of all.
ECLOGUE VI.
71
His wont) his veins were swollen still:-close by,
Scarce off his brows, they saw the garlands* lie,
And saw him still the heavy wine-bowlt hold,
+
Hung by its well-worn § handle. As the old
God oftentimes of their expected lay
Had cheated both the swains, approaching, they
Throw round him bonds e'en of the garlands
made.
Then Aegle joins and cheers them, half afraid
At what they do-yes, Aegle in the band.
Of Naiad-nymphs herself the fairest, and
Now as Silenus, waking, opes his eyes,
Paints all his brow with blood-red mulberries.
He, smiling at their stratagem, cries: "Why
Weave ye these bonds? Unloose me, swains: that I,
A god, by you || have e'er been seen should be
Enough. Hear now your wish'd-for song: for ye
* See Illustrations 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, at the end of the Eclogue.
+ See Illustration 10, at the end of the Eclogue.
17. Pendebat manibus non emissa.
=
§ See Illustration 15, at the end of Eclogue 3.
|| 24. The order is satis est, quod visi estis potuisse, or in another
interpretation, satsi est quod potui videri.
72
THE BUCOLICS.
A song, but she shall other payment gain."
He said, and thus at once began his strain.
THE SONG OF SILENUS.
"Ay then the Fauns* and Satyrs thou might'st see,
And e'en the wild beast sport in rhythmic glee,
The sturdy oaks their tops wav'd to and fro:
Ne'er joy'd Parnassus' heights in Phoebus so,
With such rapt wonder ne'er heard Rhodope
And Ismarust their Orpheus' melody.
He sang, how gather'd into shape erst were
The first crude atoms of the earth and air,
And sea, and molten flame through vast, void space;
How Ether's fusile orb, young Nature's face "
Harmonious consistence gain'd from these
Primordial germs, how then by slow degrees
*
+
See Illustrations 11 and 12, at the end of the Eclogue.
Ismarus and Rhodope were mountains in Thrace.
31-40. The song of Silenus commences with a description of the
formation of the world from the four elements, the separation of land
and water, of sky and earth, and the production of vegetable and
animal life. 32. Semina terrarum are the primordial atoms out of
which the four elements are formed; as Conington says, the mention
of Parnassus, Rhodope, and Ismarus is an indirect way of saying that
the mountains as well as the oaks made demonstrations of joy.
ECLOGUE VI.
73
•
Land form'd, shut Nereus in his ocean, grew
To solid density, and took shapes new
And various, how earth with mute amaze
Beheld the sun rise higher* and his rays
Pour down, and how from clouds withdrawn from
earth
The rain descended, when the woods to birth
First sprang, what time wild beasts began to range
In thin bands here and there o'er mountains,
strange
To them, to which they too were strange. Het then
Sang of the stones by Pyrrha thrown, to men
* 38. I. e., before the elements of the sun and moon were disengaged
from those of the earth. Nereus was a son of Oceanus and Tethys,
and father of the Nereids.
41-60. He sings of the creation and early history of man, of
Deucalion and Pyrrha, who were supposed to have repeopled the
world after the deluge by flinging stones behind them-of the reign
of Saturn-of Prometheus, the mythic former of man from clay, who
animated him by stealing fire from heaven, for which he was chained
to a rock on Caucasus, where an eagle or vulture fed upon his entrails
until slain by Hercules :-of the beautiful youth Hylas, who accom-
panied Hercules on the Argonautic expedition, and who on drawing
water at a spring, was carried off by the Nymphs, and long sought for
in vain by Hercules, and of Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, king of Crete,
and mother of the Minotaur, whom Venus inspired with strange
passion through her deadly hate, so that she vaiuly followed her
loved bull through all the woods, and prayed the wood-nymphs to
to impede his course.
1
N
74
THE BUCOLICS.
That turn'd, of Saturn's reign, Prometheus' theft,
And birds of Caucasus: how sailors left
Close by the spring young Hylas and oft cried
On Hylas, while the shore "Hylas" replied.
He sang the story of Pasiphaë-
Had there but been no herds, how happy she-
How solace in her lov'd bull, white as snow,
She found and "Ah," he sang,
:
"what folly so
Distraught thy senses, hapless Nymph?
true,
Too
That Proetus' daughters fill'd the country through
With counterfeited lowing, yet not one
E'er sought so strange, so base a union;
Yet they oft shudder'd at the plough they thought
Yok'd fast around their necks, and oft they
sought
For cows' rough horns upon a fair smooth brow.
Ah, hapless Nymph, for o'er the mountains thou
* Collo, in line 50, is really the dative. The daughters of Proetus,
when punished by Juno for their pride with madness, fancied that
they were cows, and although their delusion equalled that of
Pasiphaë, it did not carry them to the same lengths.
ECLOGUE VI.
75
Now roamest, while his snow-white sides are laid
On jacinths soft: and 'neath the dark holm's
shade
The pale-green pasturage reclin'd he chews,
Or in the herd some favourite pursues.
Ye Nymphs, she cried, ah now, ye Nymphs of
Crete,
Close all your glades, if haply so may meet
My gaze the straying bull's footprints: for he
Charm'd with the verdant pasturage may be,
Or as he roams on with the herd some cow
May lead him to Gortyna's* stalls† e'en now."
He sings the maid who wond'ring view'd the
trees,
And golden apples of th' Hesperides,
Gortyna was a very ancient city of Crete.
+ See Illustrations 13 and 14, at the end of the Eclogue.
61-73. Next he tells of the story of Atalanta, famous for her
swiftness in the race, beaten at last through a stratagem by Hippo-
menes, who married her: he tells us too the myth of the sisters of
Phaethon, who were supposed to have found their brother's dead body
on the banks of the Eridanus, and, bewailing him there for four
months, to have been turned into alders or poplars, and their tears
into amber. Innes 61 and 62, circumdat and erigit mean, he sur-
rounds in song-he raises in song, or poetically describes the
processes.
76
THE BUCOLICS.
A
Tells how the sisters of young Phaethon
Strange mossy growth felt slowly steal upon
Them, and with bitter bark embrace them round,
That like tall alders they sprang from the ground:—
Tells how one of the Muses' sisterhood
Led Gallus, wand'ring by Permessus'* flood
Up to th' Aonian hills-how Phoebus' band
All rose in honour of the hero, and
How Linust cried :- -"Swain of the songs divine,
Around whose locks with bitter parsley twine.
Wreath'd flow'rs, this pipe of reeds shalt thou now
have,
Here, take the Muses' gift, this erst they gave
To Ascra's ancient bard; with this pipe he
Drew down from mountains oft the stout ash-tree."
* Permessus was a river rising in Mount Helicon in Boeotia.
Aonas. 65. The Muses were called Aoniae from the Aonian or Boeo-
tian hills, of which Helicon, their birthplace, was one. The incon-
gruous introduction of a supposed interview between Caius Cornelius
Gallus, a Roman poet and friend of Virgil, is intended to increase the
compliment to Varus, and finds a precedent in Ovid's story of Philemon
and Baucis.
† Linus was the mythic son of Apollo and Terpsichore, and in-
structor of Orpheus and Hercules.
Hesiod is meant, who was born at Ascra, a village near Mount
Helicon, in Boeotia.
ECLOGUE VI.
77
On this be sung the rise of Grynus'* grove,
And Phoebus shall no wood so dearly love.
Why should I mention how † Silenus told
Of Scylla, Nisus' daughter, who, the old
Myth tells, engirt, her beauteous waist around
With many a monstrous barking ocean-hound,
Sore vex'd Ulysses' ships, and deep floods o'er,
His shudd'ring crew with sea-dogs ruthless tore-
Why say how Tereus chang'd in ev'ry limb,
He sang, the grievous feast prepar'd for him
* Gallus translated or imitated the poem of Euphorion of Chalcis,
on the origin of the grove of Grynium, in Aeolia. A serpent had been
killed there by Apollo: the town was founded by Grynus, son of
Eurypylus, in consequence of an oracular response, and its grove
was the scene of the death of Chalcas when defeated by a rival
augur:
† 74. Ut narraverit must be understood from 78, and fama secuta
est considered equivalent to fama est apud posteros. 76. Dulichias,
so called from Dulichia, one of the Echinades, in the Ionian Sea.
‡ 75-86. The end of Silenus' song tells of Scylla, daughter of
Nisus, whose lower parts were changed into thcse of a sea monster,
and who was the terror of Ulysses' ships-tells too of Tereus, king of
Thrace, husband of Procne, whose sister, Philomela, he violated,
when his wife served up to him his son Itys, and presented the head
and extremities to him after his meal: when Tereus was changed into
an owl, Procne into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Itys
into a pheasant. In a word, Silenus sang of all that Phoebus used
to sing by Sparta's stream, Eurotas, to his own loved Hyacinthus,
handsome Spartan youth; nor does he cease till evening warns the
shepherds home.
78
THE BUCOLICS,
By Philomel, the fell gift set before
Him, her flight to the wilds, her flutt'ring o'er
Her home ere yet she left, ah! hapless bird?
All that Eurotas, blest in hearing, heard,
And cried :——"Oh, learn ye, learn* each line, ye
bays"
He sang, when Phoebus' self compos'd the lays:
The echoing vales bore to the sky each strain
Till evening's star in heav'n, that such songs fain
Had listen'd to for aye, forth shining, told
Each swain to count and drive his sheep to fold.
* In line 83 the e of ediscere implies the thoroughness of the learn
ing. 86. Invito implies that even Olympus himself was listening with
delight.

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(1) Pagina, a written
column, as the middle one
in the annexed specimen
of roll (volumen).


(2) Libellus. The term
was afterwards used for
any advertisement or pe-
tition, as in the engraving,
which represents Roman
citizens presenting peti-
tions to M. Aurelius: also
for legal notices and me-
morials, generally written
on a single sheet.
(3) Libellus, distinguished
from liber in being made of
a few leaves of parchment
written on, and bound some-
thing like our books.



(4) Capsa, a deep circular wooden box
or case, in which books and other things
were removed from place to place. The
right-hand one is open, showing the rolls
or volumes.

(5) Serta, a festoon or
long wreath of flowers
for decorating houses,
chiefly on festive occa-
sions. The engraving
shows a young woman
carrying such a festoon
to decorate the door of
a bridal mansion; smaller
ones were used for the
brows.
(6) The engraving shows
a victim (hostia) decorated
with the infula, or sacred
fillet, composed of flocks of
wool. The serta may be
seen hanging over the door,
according to custom.


J Z Z
(7) Vitta. A riband fastened round
the festoons (serta) which decorated
houses, altars, and temples on solemn
or festive occasions,
(8) Coronarius, one who makes or
sells garlands and wreaths of artificial
flowers. The engraving represents
genii, male and female, making such
wreaths or coronae.


(12) Calcatores. Two Fauns treading
out grapes with the naked feet.
(9) Corona. The engraving repre-
sents a personification of "Spring,'
with a corona. The serta spoken of in
line 16 of the Eclogue were very like
this corona.


(10) Cantharus, a goblet of Greek
invention, furnished with handles, and
especially sacred to Bacchus.
(11) Cella vinaria. The year's pro-
duce of wine was stored in a large
magazine, such as the above, which
shows the wine in the wood. It was
also stored in earthenware vessels.

(13) Bubsequa, a cow-boy driving his
cattle to or from pasturage.
(14) Bubile, a cow-house or stall for
oxen.
ECLOGUE VII.
MELIBOEUS-CORYDON-THYRSIS.
This Eclogue is another singing-match, between Corydon and Thyrsis,
with Daphnis as umpire. It ends in the decisive defeat of
Thyrsis. The story is told by Meliboeus, and of the rivals we
learn nothing, as he was not present until the terms of the
match had been arranged. It is partly an imitation of the Sixth
and Eighth Idyls of Theocritus, and, after his style, is probably
all imaginary. As usual, there is nothing definite in the scenery.
Arcadian shepherds sing in the neighbourhood of the Mincius,
while neither the holm-oak, pine, chestnut, nor flock of goats
seem to belong to Mantua.
*BENEATH the whisp'ring holm-oak's shade one
day,
It happen'd that the shepherd Daphnis lay,
And Corydon and Thyrsis into one
Their flocks had driv'n-the she-goats† Corydon
With milk-distended teats: the sheep Thyrsis:
Each swain is in his youthful prime: each is
1-20. M. I was just going to look after a stray he-goat, when
Daphnis asked me to come and listen to a singing-match that had
been arranged between Corydon the goatherd, and Thyrsis the
shepherd, at which he was to be umpire. I agreed at last, and
they began to sing.
† See Illustrations 1 and 2, at the end of this Eclogne.
G
82
THE BUCOLICS.
From Arcady, and so with equal* art,
Prepar'd to sing a first or second part
In amoebaean verse. While sheltering
The tender myrtles from† the frosts of spring,
From me the she-goats' leader‡ hither stray'd,
When § I spy Daphnis lying in the shade.
And
soon as e'er in front of him he sees
Me stand:-he cries: "Now haste thee, 'neath
these trees,
Dear Meliboeus, rest, if thou cans't spare
Brief space for rest, thy kids and he-goat are
Both safe and sound: thy steers across the
meads
Will hither come to drink undriv'n :—with reeds'
Soft fringes, see, the Mincius' banks are wove,
With humming sounds the oak belov'd by Jove."
What could I do? No Phyllis then had I
At home, no kind Alcippe to fold my
* 5. Pares goes with parati, in the sense of pariter.
† 6. A frigore, i. e., the cold frosts of the spring.
7. Ipse implies that the rest of the herd had also strayed.
§ 7. Atque quum.
=
ECLOGUE VII.
83
Wean'd lambs for me, and no mean match the one
That Thyrsis was to sing with Corydon.
Well, spite of all, the rival-shepherds' sport
Of greater moment than my work I thought.
In amoebaeant verse began the swains
To vie in song, for amoebaean strains
To call to mind each shepherd's Muses chose.
Now Corydon sang these, now Thyrsis those.
CORYDON.
Nymphs, dear to me, who haunt Libethra's
spring,
As sweet a shepherd's lay grant me to sing
As ye to my lov'd Codrus gave: his songs§
With Phoebus' vie: or, since such skill belongs
* 16. "Corydon cum Thyrside" is in apposition with "certamen."
The chief characteristic of amoebaean strains is that the second
of the competitors should reply to the first in the same number of
verses, on the same or a similar subject. The Muses were mytho-
logically connected with Memory, who was said to be their mother.
21-28. C. Ye Muses, grant that I may sing like Codrus, for if not,
I give the art of singing up. T. Crown me in spite of Codrus' envy,
and protect me 'gainst his evil tongue. For Codrus, see Eclogue V. 11.
Libethra, Libethrus, or Libethrum, was a fountain in Helicon with
a cavern.
§ 22. Carmina is understood from carmen with proxima.
G 2
84
THE BUCOLICS.
To few alone, here on the sacred pine
Shall silent hang this tuneful pipe* of mine.
THYRSIS.
Ye swains of Arcady, with ivy† deck
Your rising poet's locks, that so may break
With envy Codrus' heart-or grace my brow
With foxglove, if more than the gods‡ allow,
He e'er have prais'd me, so that ne'er your young
Bard may be injur'd by his evil tongue.
CORYDON.
§ Young Micon, Delia, for thee shall bring
This head of bristled boar, his offering,
And branching horns of long-lived stag. An thou
Wilt grant for aye the same success as now,
*See Illustration 6, at the end of Eclogue I.
+ See Illustrations 3 and 4, at the end of this Eclogue.
27. Extravagant praise was considered likely to excite the
anger of the gods.
§ 29-36. C. Micon presents Delia or Diana with a boar's head and
stag's horns, and promises a marble statue if his success in hunting
should continue. T. Priapus, cakes and milk alone, as I am poor,
I give to thee: now hast thou but a marble statue, but if lambing
turn out well a golden one thou shalt possess. In line 29 the verb
for gives or offers is left out. In line 32 suras is strictly the calves of
the legs, but the meaning must not be pressed.
ECLOGUE' VII.
85
A polish'd marble statue shalt thou stand,
Each leg girt round with purple buskin's* band.
THYRSIS.
A bowl of milk, and cakes like these, nought
more,
Priapus, ‡ ev'ry year must thou look for:
My orchards, though thou guardest, bear scant
fruit.
Thee have I carv'd in marble now to suit
My slender means: yet shalt thou stand in gold,
If but with lambs the ewes enrich my fold.
CORYDON.
§Oh, Galatea, daughter of the sea,
More sweet than Hybla's choicest thyme to me,
* See Illustrations 5 and 6, at the end of this Eclogue.
† See Illustration 7, at the end of this Eclogue.
33. Priapus, god of gardens, came originally from Lampsacus, a
city of Mysia, on the Hellespont. Conington justly remarks that
Thyrsis fails in making Priapus his subject instead of Diana, but the
absurdity of the change in his promises is not so evident, as the
promises are entirely conditional.
§ 37-44. C. Sweet Galatea, lovelier than all besides in nature,
come when evening falls to see thy Corydon. T. May I be hated
more than all besides in nature if I can endure to be away from thee
one moment more. Go home, my herds.
86
THE BUCOLICS.
More white than swans, than ivy pale more fair,
If thou for thine own Corydon dost care,
As soon as e'er the steers at eve go home
From pasturage, then, Galatea, come.
THYRSIS.
May I more hateful seem to thee, my love,
Than bitter crow-foot's plant, than broom more
rough,
More worthless than weed thrown to rot upon
The shore, if this day, dragging slowly on,
Seem not to me already like whole years.
For shame, cease grazing, homewards go, ye
steers.
CORYDON.
†0 mossy gushing springs: grass softer e'en
Than sleep: O verdant arbute-trees, that screen
*41. Its leaves are so acrid that they produce inflammation when
applied externally. Those who ate it had their faces distorted into
the proverbial "sardonic smile.”
† 45-52. C. My flocks shall have water, pasturage, and shade:
summer is now at its greatest heat and beauty. T. Here we sit by
our warm fireside and care not for the cold. In line 51 quantum, of
course, really means as much, but with the proviso that it be no more.
For numerum, compare Alexander's remark when told that the
ECLOGUE VII.
87
Both grass and springs with straggling branches,
keep
The sun's fierce rays from injuring the sheep:
Now parching summer comes: each bursting gem
Swells on the vine's* luxuriant shoot and stem.
THYRSIS.
Here stands a hearth:† here never-failing store.
Of torches and bright fire :-here blacken'd o'er
With constant smoke and soot the door-posts are:
Here for the chilling north wind's blasts we care
As little as from wolves their numbers guard
The sheep, or floods the river's banks regard.
CORYDON.
There junipers and prickly chestnuts see :-
Strewn round, its own fruit lies beneath each tree,
Persian army was very numerous-" A single butcher fears not
many sheep."
* See Illustration 8, at the end of this Eclogue.
+ See Illustration 9, at the end of this Eclogue.
53-60. C. Now is the fruit all ripe, all is luxuriant, yet all will
seem quite blighted if Alexis be away. T. Everything is parched :
but Phyllis, if she come, will bring fertility and most refreshing rain.
54. Quaeque for quaque must be explained by attraction. In line 53,
stant calls attention to the picture.
88
THE BUCOLICS.
Through all the woods: now nature's bright and
gay:
Yet should no longer on these mountains stay
The beautiful Alexis, all would die,
Through drought: then would'st thou see e'en
rivers dry.
THYRSIS.
Parch'd is the field: the thirsty grass dies 'neath
The poison'd atmosphere's plague-laden breath.
Now Bacchus * on the hills the vine-leaf's shade
Bestows with niggard hand: yet grove and glade,
If darling Phyllis come, shall bloom again,
And Jovet descend in fertilizing rain.
CORYDON.
Alcides loves the poplar best, the vine
Is Bacchus' dearest joy, the myrtle thine,
*See Illustrations 10, 11, and 12, at the end of the Eclogue.
†The image is the marriage of Jupiter with Juno, of Aether with
Terra. Jupiter is used of the air, Georgic I. 418.
61-70. Each deity some one tree loves: Phyllis the hazel, I, of
course, the same. T. Each spot has its own tree to grace it: Lycidas
will grace all spots alike, more than all trees. 69, 70. Thyrsis is van-
quished, and Corydon with fame immortal crowned.
ECLOGUE VII.
89
Fair Venus, thine Apollo, is thy bay.
The hazel Phyllis loves, and while she may
The hazel love, the myrtle ne'er to me
Shall seem more fair, nor Phoebus' own bay-tree.
THYRSIS.
The glory of the woods the ash, the crown
Of orchards is the pine: no trees are grown
By streams so fair as poplar-trees, none as
On hills the fir: yet, handsome Lycidas,
The woods' own ash, the orchards' pine to thee
Would yield, if thou more oft would'st visit me.
MELIBOEUS.
These are the lines from memory I tell,
And Thyrsis was outmatch'd, I mind me well,
Yes, Corydon† the prince of bards became,
Aye on our tongues was Corydon's great name.
* See Illustration 13, at the end of the Eclogue.
† 70. Corydon may refer to the Greek кopudúv, a lark, or primus,
or some such word, must be supplied to explain the repetition "Cory-
don ; or it may be taken to show that his name was ever in the
shepherds' mouths.


(1) Caprarius, or goat-herd.
(3) Corymbus. A bunch of
ivy - berries. The engraving
shows Ariadne with a crown of
ivy-berries. Such a crown was
especially used by Bacchus and
his followers.

(4) Corymbus. A way of ar-
ranging the hair, peculiar to
early female population of
Athens.


(2) Canalis, an open channel of wood
or brickwork, to serve as a drinking
trough for cattle in the meadows.
(5) Cothurnus, an ornamented
buskin, or hunting boot, es-
pecially assigned to divinities
such as Diana, for whom Delia,
in line 29, may stand.


星​过
​(6) Cothurnus, кóloрvos. A high boot
of Greek origin, worn by huntsmen and
sportsmen. It was a leather boot, en-
veloping the entire foot, was laced up in
front, and turned over with a fall down
at the top. The cothurnus was not made
right and left, but to fit either foot.
(7) Sinum, a large, round,
deep bowl for wine, milk, &c.
The engraving represents Ulys-
ses presenting a bowl of wine
to the fabled giant Polyphemus.


(8) Pergula, a long covered walk in
vineyards and gardens, over which the
vines were trained to a framework of
wood, or trellis. The modern Italians
retain the word pergola in the same
sense.
(10) Baccha. A Bacchante,
with a wreath of vine or ivy
leaves on her head, flowing
hair, a mantle of kid-skin on
the left side, and the thyrsus
in the right hand, running
like a mad woman through the
streets.


(9) The engraving shows the atrium,
or one of the principal divisions of a
Roman house, with an altar by the
impluvium or basin for rain-water.
The focus occupied a position in
private houses near to the ara.
(12) Cistophora. One
who carries the mystic
case in the rites of Ceres,
Bacchus, or the Egyptian
deities Isis and Osiris.
The wreath of ivy leaves
and berries proclaims the
figure that of a follower
of Bacchus.


(11) Oscillum, the diminutive of os,
a small mask or image, especially of
Bacchus, which the country people
hung in a vineyard, so that the mask
turned round and fronted different
directions, impelled by the wind; the
belief being that the district became
fruitful towards which the aspect of
the god was directed.
(13) Cestus. A figure
of Venus draped in the
archaic style, with a ces-
tus or girdle, on which
was embroidered a de-
scription of the passions
and the joys and pains of
love.
ECLOGUE VIII.
Pharmaceutría.
DAMON-ALPHESIBOEUS.
This poem is addressed to Pollio, and was written at the time of his
victory over the Parthini in Illyricum. It contains the songs of
two shepherds, Damon and Alphesiboeus, the one representing a
lover in despair at the faithlessness of his love, Nisa, who had
placed her affections on a less worthy swain, and finally resolving
on suicide; the other, in the character of a woman abandoned by
her lover for a time, and trying to recover his love by enchant-
ments, which ultimately succeed.
*OF Damon and Alphesiboeus' strains
I sing and e'en the heifer, when the swains
Both vied in amoebaean verse, to graze
Forgot, and wond'ring stood to hear: amaze
Struck dumb the lynxes: streams roll'd back†
again,-.
Fit theme for me songs sung by either swain.
1-16. My theme the songs of Damon and Alphesiboeus, which
charmed all who heard them, whether animate or inanimate. This
poem is for Pollio, to celebrate his coming back in triumph home.
Oh! had I hopes to celebrate him worthily! All I can offer, as it is,
are these few lines he bade me write. Day broke as Damon thus
began to sing.
† 4. Requierunt is active, a very rare use of the verb.
94
THE BUCOLICS.
O Pollio, perchance by rocky land
*
Near broad Timavus' stream, or by the strand
Of th' Adriatic coasting, speed the days.
When 'twill be mine at last to hymn thy praise.
Oh! shall I e'er through all the world make
known
Thy tragedies, for they, and they alone.
Due grace to Sophoclean † measures lend?
With thee my song begins, with thee shall end
That song. Receive the strain begun at thine
Own bidding, and let thou the ivy twine
Around thy temples with the victor's bay.‡
Scarce had night's cooling shadows fled away
From heav'n, when to the cattle's dear delight,
The tender blade of grass with dew's most
bright,
As on his polish'd staff§ of olive-tree,
Lean'd Damon, and began this melody.
*6. The Timavus was a river in Istria.
See Illustration 1, at the end of this Eclogue.
I See Illustration 2, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ See Illustration 3, at the end of this Eclogue.
ECLOGUE VIII.
95
SONG OF DAMON.
*Rise, morning-star, arise, and usher in
The fost'ring day, while I my plaint begin,
Deceiv'd alas! (for she has faithless prov'd)
In loving Nisa as a wife is lov'd.
While, though its witness nought avail'd, I cry
To heav'n in these last moments ere I die.
Begin, my pipe,† in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Arcadian Maenalus has groves that sing
The swains' love-songs: pines softly whispering:
Pan, who to wake the reed's full tones bade us,
Is aye heard piping by his Maenalus.
Begin my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Now Mopsus Nisa weds: what may not we
In years to come expect in love to see?
* 17-31. Damon. Come day, restorer of all things that be. I
mourn for Nisa's broken faith, and, as a dying man, I cry to heaven
for aid. Arcadia's the land of pastoral poetry. Pan and the swains
sing there. My Nisa is to Mopsus wed, ill-omened and unnatural
union: yes, Mopsus has a bridegroom's honours now.
† See Illustrations to Tibia in the Article on the Musical Instruments.
96
THE BUCOLICS.
Soon griffins shall with horses mate, soon deer
Come with the hounds to drink and feel no
fear.
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Fresh torches, Mopsus, haste to cut, for see,
A wife is being now brought home to thee.
Strew, husband, strew thou nuts among the
boys.
Eve's star leaves Oeta to speed on thy joys.
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
§O Nisa, wedded to a worthy mate,
So long as thou dost scorn the swains and hate
* 27. Herodotus mentions griffins as lions with eagles' heads and
wings. See Illustration 7, at the end of this Eclogue.
† 30, 31. The bridegroom is told to get ready fresh torches for his
own wedding. Nuts were thrown by the bridegroom among the boys
who carried the torches, as the bride approached. The signal for the
commencement of the ceremony is the rising of the evening-star
above the mountain-range of Oeta, between Thessaly and Macedonia.
See Illustrations 4,5, and 6, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ 33-43. A suitable match this for Nisa, who deserves such
punishment for her scorn of my rusticity and for her faithlessness to
me. 'Twas in my childhoood, Nisa, when I first saw thee, when to
our orchard thou to gather apples cam'st: that moment was my fate.
ECLOGUE VIII.
97
My pipe, my goats, long beard, and lip with hair
O'ershaded, deeming gods for men nought care.
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Just turn'd elev'n* was I, scarce tall enough
To stand, and reach the boughs to snap them off,
When in our orchard here thee first I spied,
A tiny girl (yes, I was then the guide),
When apples, gemm'd with morning dew, with thee
To help, thy mother gather'd from the tree.
Ah! when I saw thee, how I was undone !—
Oh! fell delusion! all my peace was gone!
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
† Now know I what Love is: on rough rocks he
キ
​Was born of Tmaros, or wild Rhodope:-
40. Alter=secundus, and reckoned inclusively, the year will be
the twelfth.
† 43-62. Now know I what love is: nought human, but the
savage growth of desert wastes. Let nature's order henceforth be
reversed the barren things be fruitful, and the base in honour held.
Let earth be turned to sea. I will at least find my death in the sea,
and Nisa may rejoice at my sad end.
+
Edunt parentes sunt.
Tmaros was a mountain in Epirus:
H
98
THE BUCOLICS.
Or in far-distant regions of the earth
He sprang with savage growth, no human
birth.
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
'Twas cruel Love, that taught a mother how
To stain her hands with children's blood: though
thou,
Medea, ruthless
wast-ah! who can guess
If that boy's malice, or thy ruthlessness
More blame deserve: cruel indeed was he,
Yet, ruthless mother, sad thy cruelty!
Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Now from the sheep let wolves unbidden flee,
Let golden apples deck the rough oak-tree,
Rhodope, a mountain range in Thrace: the Garamantes, a tribe in
the interior of Africa. The cruelty of Love is an old story: he made
Medea kill her children, though hard must her heart have been.
* 48, 49. Mater and matrom refer to Medea, the celebrated sor-
ceress, who assisted her lover Jason in obtaining the golden fleece.
She killed the children she had by Jason, and burned the bride,
Creusa, to death in her palace, when repudiated for her by Jason.
See the Medea of Euripides.
ECLOGUE VIII.
99
By streams on alders the narcissus blow,
And from the tamarisk rich amber flow,
Let Tityrus transform'd to Orpheus be,
Orpheus in woods-Arion* in 'mid sea :
†(Begin, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains in Arcady.)
Be earth to deep sea chang'd: farewell, ye
woods;
For I will headlong leap into the floods
Down from this dizzy height: take, Nisa, take
+
My dying gift: I die, for thy sweet sake.
Now cease, my pipe, in unison with me,
To play, as play the swains of Arcady.
Thus Damon sang: the Sanswering lay now
give,
Ye Nine, for all ne'er all success achieve.
* 57. Arion was a celebrated harpist of Methymna, in Lesbos,
rescued from drowning by a dolphin.
+ These two lines may possibly be an interpolation.
See Illustration 9, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ 63, 64. The reply of Alphesiboeus. Virgil, after delivering Damon's
song in his own person, calls on the Muses to give the answering lay,
as though one man were unequal to both tasks.

or M
H 2
100
THE BUCOLICS.
THE SONG OF ALPHESIBOEUS.
* Bring lustral water forth: these altars twine
With fillets of soft wool: burn incense‡ fine
Both plant § and bough's rich oily juices burn,
That soon my lover's dull cold heart may turn
To love's fierce frenzy through my sorcery.
Nought here is wanting but weird minstrelsy.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
||Down from the sky weird strains the moon oft drew,
'Twas by weird strains that erst Ulysses' crew
* 65-69. Alphesiboeus. Bring lustral water forth: with wool I
wreathe the altar, throw thou sacred boughs and frankincense into
the flames: I try to win my lover back by magic's power for this
there needs a magic strain. The maiden, whose lover is away at
Mantua, stands before the altar and is about to commence. She bids
her attendant, Amaryllis, bring the water out into the impluvium.
+ See Illustration 7, at the end of Eclogue VI.
See Illustration 8, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ 66. Verbenae are all sorts of herbs and boughs used for decking
sacrificial altars.
|| 70-78. How wonderful the force of magic song! It can the
snake asunder burst, bring down the moon, and charm mankind to
brutes. I twine three threads of varied hues round Daphnis' effigy,
and this I bear thrice round the altar: for there is a magic virtue in
the number three. Let them be woven in a lover's-knot.
The superstition was that odd numbers were immortal, because they
could not be divided into two equal parts, and that the even ones were
mortal.
MYOU
!
ECLOGUE VIII.
101
Circe transform'd: 'tis through the magic strain
That oft cold snakes in meadows burst in twain.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
Three threads distinct, of varied hue, round thee
Now first I twine, and thrice in effigy
Thee I these altars bear around: the god
Of magic aye delights in numbers odd.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
†Twine, Amaryllis, twine three knots each of
Chang'd hues, and say: "I twine the knots of Love."
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
See in the self-same fire this piece of clay
To hardness grows, this wax more soft: so may
* See Illustrations 10, 11, and 12, at the end of this Eclogue.
† 78-91. Amaryllis, make three knots each of a thread with a
different colour. I throw clay, wax, and bay-leaves into the fire, each
to work a corresponding influence on Daphnis. May Daphnis' longing
be like to the heifer's, who, tired with vain search for her lost mate,
sinks down upon the grass, and goes not to her stall at night.
81. The rhyme in the words durescit and liquescit is meant to
imitate the jingle used in charms.
102
THE BUCOLICS.
My Daphnis hard to other lovers be,
To me more yielding through deep love for me.
The meal for sacrifice now scatter thou,
And burn with pitch the crackling laurel-bough:
This laurel I for Daphnis burn, for he
With love for him my heart burns cruelly.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
May Daphnis such deep longing feel, as when
The heifer, spent with search through grove and
glen
For her lost mate, close by some river's edge,
Sinks down despairing on the verdant sedge,
And though night's gath'ring shadows round her
fall,
Ne'er thinks to turn her homeward to the
stall-
Such longing hopeless love may Daphnis feel,
And I care not that longing love to heal.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
4
ECLOGUE VIII.
103
*That traitor to his love these clothes with me,
Dear pledges of himself, once left: to thee
Here standing on the threshold of my home,
O earth, I give them: they bind him to come.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
These baleful † plants to me with his own hand
The far-fam'd Moeris gave:-from Pontus' land
He gather'd them, there spring abundantly
These plants: ofttimes by aid of these have I
Seen Moeris change to wolf, and rush away
To hide in forest deep, oft ghosts that lay
In tombs rous'd from their slumber have I seen:
By him e'en sown crops charm'd away have
been.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
* 92-101. These things which Daphnis left I'll bury at my door
in hopes that they will bring him back. These poison-plants I had
from the great Moeris, who could by their help transform himself,
could conjure spirits up, and charm the crops away.
† 96. Herbas atque venena is a hendiadys.
100. Alio, elsewhither, i. e., to another field.
/
104
THE BUCOLICS.
રે
Bring ashes, Amaryllis,-in the brook
That runs before thee throw them: but ne'er look
Behind. With these arts Daphnis I will ply:
He heeds not gods, nor magic minstrelsy.
Bring Daphnis home to me, my magic strain,
Bring Daphnis home from Mantua again.
*See, how the ash with fork'd and quiv'ring blaze,
Ere yet I bear it, round the altar plays.
Oh! may it bode some lucky change of fate:
'Tis something: for the dog barks at the gate.
Oh! dare I to believe it true? or is
It but a lover's idle dream of bliss?
Yes, Daphnis comes: cease now, my magic strain,
Yes, cease, for Daphnis is come back again.
* 106-110. At last a good sign shows itself: the ashes suddenly
flare up: it must be so: for e'en the dog is barking now. Can it be
Daphnis ? Yes, it is: cease now, my magic strains.
•
(1) Cothurnus. The engraving
shows a tragic actor with cothurni,
or high buskin, which had a cork
sole several inches thick to in-
crease the stature. The cothurni
are purposely left visible to show
them, but they would be generally
concealed.
(4) Pronuba, a matron who had not
been more than once married, and who
acted something like the part of our
bridesmaid. The engraving represents
a nupta (bride) and pronuba (brides-
maid) sitting on the lectus gemalis, or
marriage couch, and the bride receiv-
ing encouragement and instruction
from the bridesmaid.
(2) Corona triumphalis, crown
worn by a general during his
triumph, formed, as here, of a
wreath of laurel-leaves only.
(5) Nupta, a bride, who wore a large
yellow veil at the wedding, which en-
veloped her from head to foot.
a
(3) The engraving shows
shepherd leaning on his staff,
and gives a very good idea of the
Damon spoken of in the Eclogue.
(6) A young bride (nupta) with the
Aammeum, or long marriage veil, still
over her shoulders, exhibiting a natural
gesture of modesty or regret for the
loss of her old friends and companions.
1








(7) Gryps or gryphus. The fa-
bulous animal called griffin, with
the body and legs of a lion,
and the head and wings of an
eagle, thus combining wonderful
strength with surpassing agility.
(8) Tus or thus, frankincense. The
figure on the left is sprinkling frankin-
cense on the ara turicrema, or burning
altar: the one on the right is dropping
one by one into the portable brazier
(focus turicremus) pastilles made of
frankincense, from a deep dish, catinus.



ים
(9) Specula. A watch tower, on
which guards were stationed to keep a
look-out. The word in line 60 of the
Eclogue only means a height command-
ing an elevated coast-view.

(10) Saga, a sorceress. The engraving
exhibits the original type of our nursery
witch, viz., the Mother Shipton's hat,
the magic wand, the dog, and the
caldron.

(12) Virga. A magic wand,
such as was used by Mercury,
and Circe, with which she trans-
formed the companions of Ulysses
into swine, as shown by the wood-
cut.
(11) Quadra. The companions of
Ulysses transformed by Circe, and
seated at a quadra or square dining-
table.
ECLOGUE IX.
LYCIDAS-MOERIS.
This Eclogue is a poetical petition to Varus or Octavianus. After
obtaining a promise of protection, Virgil returned to his property,
but found his entrance resisted, and even his life threatened, by
a soldier who had taken possession, called variously Milienus
Toro, Arrius, and Claudius. He fled, and again appealed to the
higher powers for protection, which was granted. Moeris, one
of the farm-labourers, goes to Mantua to give some of the farm
produce to the then usurping owner, when Lycidas, a neighbour,
meets him, and learns the history of his and his master's troubles,
and sympathizes with him at the narrow escape from death that
Virgil had met with, some of the poet's verses being quoted to
show the extent of the loss all would have suffered had he
perished, while Virgil's successful return is mentioned as likely
to produce further poems. Varus and Caesar are both compli-
mented.
LYCIDAS.
HA! Moeris, on what† journey bent? Again
To town?
MOERIS.
Oh! Lycidas, an alien
Our fields now owns,—a woe, of which no fear
Had I, I've liv'd to see, yes, liv'd to hear
* 1-16. L. Whither bound, Moeris-to Mantua? M. We have lived
to be ousted by an intruder: I am now bearing this gift to him. L. I
thought your master had by writing verses saved his property. M. So
all the world supposed, but soldiers care not aught for poetry: we
only just escaped from death.
† 1. Ducunt is the ellipsis after pedes: literally, it is "Whither do
your feet lead you?"
108
THE BUCOLICS.
From alien lips these words :-"Ye tenants, flee
To other farms, for these belong to me."
And so, I now by force o'erpow'r'd and sad,
These kids am sending (so my master bade),
Since chance all right makes void, an offering
For him pray heav'n the gift no good may bring.
LYCIDAS.
Methought I heard that by his poetry
Menalcas had sav'd all his property
From where the hills rise upwards on the plain,
And then with gentle slope descend again,
As far as to the farm's own boundaries,-
That stream-those broken-crested old beech- trees
MOERIS.
In sooth, thou did'st hear this: for this then was
The tale in ev'ry mouth: but, Lycidas,
Dodona's* dove the swooping eagle stays
As little as Menalcas' past'ral lays
Chaonias (in line 13) refers to Dodona, which was celebrated for
its oracle, oak-groves, and doves. The Chaones lived in the north-
west of Epirus.
ECLOGUE IX.
109
Rough darts of war. Nay, from the old holm-tree
Had not the crow perch'd on the left, warn'd me,
With boding note to stop some way all strife,
I and Menalcas ne'er had 'scap'd with life.
LYCIDAS.
*Could men be found so base a part to play?
Ah! me, Menalcas, all but snatch'd away
From us thy strains' sweet solace was with thee!
Ah! who would sing the Nymphs? Who would
there be
To strew the ground with flow'rs, to screen the
spring
With green trees' shade:—who would there be to
sing
(Wert thou, Menalcas, snatch'd away) that song
I stole from thee with silent theft, not long
Since, when to that dear joy of each fond swain,
Thine Amaryllis,† thou didst go:-that strain—
* 17-25. L. Was Menalcas so near death? Who could write verses
like his, such as those where he commends his sheep to Tityrus.
†The meaning is not that each swain rivalled Lycidas, but that the
110
THE BUCOLICS.
"Feed, Tityrus, while I come home again,
(Not long the way) my sheep and goats, and
when
They all are fed, then, Tityrus, to drink
Drive all the flock, at some sweet river's brink :
But as thou drivest, Tityrus, I warn
Thee not to meet the goat-for sharp his horn."
MOERIS.
*Or these which he to Varus would repeat,
And that e'en ere the poem was complete :
"If Mantua, Cremona's hapless town
Too near, alas!t be left us, thy renown,
beauty of Amaryllis made her the general object of the shepherds'
regard. Tibi, in line 21, refers to Menalcas, who goes to visit Amaryllis,
and asks Tityrus to take care of his goats till he comes back.
Lycidas hears him singing, and catches the words and the air.
* 26–36. M. Or rather the lines he wrote to Varus about sparing
Mantua. L. As you hope for a farmer's blessings, let me have more of
such verses. I am something of a poet too, though me the shepherds
overrate.
+ Although Mantua was forty miles from Cremona, it suffered for its
proximity, as Octavius Musa, who had been appointed to fix the
boundaries, finding the territory of Cremona insufficient, assigned the
soldiers fifteen miles' length of the Mantuan district, in revenge for
an offence formerly given him by the inhabitants.
ECLOGUE IX.
111
O Varus, upwards to the starry sky
Each swan* shall bear with grateful melody."
LYCIDAS.
As thou dost hope that Corsica's† yew-trees
Spring not around the hive to harm thy bees,
As thou dost hope each grazing cow that eats
lucerne with milk may swell its
The green
teats-
If thou know'st aught, begin. The Muses gave
Me too the gift of song: yes, I too have
Sweet lays to sing: to me the shepherds give
The name of—"bard § inspir'd"—but I believe
Them not. Not yet, methinks, do I sing lays
That merit Varius'|| or Cinna's praise,
But like some loud goose with harsh cackling I
Seem but to mar the swans' sweet melody.
* Mantua was celebrated for its swans.
† Corsica was called Cyrnus by the Greeks.
See Illustration 1, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ The word vates suggests more direct inspiration, a stronger
natural gift of poetry, than poeta.
Varius was a tragic actor and writer of epic poetry. Caius
Helvius Cinna was a friend of Catullus, and a Roman poet.
112
THE BUCOLICS.
MOERIS.
Nay,* Lycidas, it is that self-same strain
That I now try to call to† mind again,
And ponder o'er in silent thought alone;
And 'tis a lay well worthy to be known.
"Come, Galatea, come, what sport can be
Found in yon waves? Here spring's rich bloom
have we,
Here round each stream the daedal earth her
stores
Of many-tinted flow'rs and plants forth pours,
Here the white poplar overhangs the grot,
And buxom vines weave bow'rst around the
spot:
Come, Galatea, haste thee here to me,
And let the shores be lash'd by the wild sea.
©
""
* 37-45. M. I am trying to recollect that very strain. Here are
some lines in which he begs Galatea to quit the sea, come on shore,
and enjoy the glories of spring. L. What do you say to that song of
his I heard you singing to yourself the other night ?
† 45. Memini si tenerem. The conditional clause is connected
et carmen ipsum
with some phrase understood, like this,
revocarem.
I See Illustration 3, at the end of Eclogue II.
•
©
ECLOGUE IX.
113
LYCIDAS.
What say'st thou to those strains of his which I
The other evening 'neath a cloudless sky,
Heard thee sing to thyself? And well I know
The tune, could I the words remember now.
MOERIS.
*Why at the old stars' risings dost thou gaze
Up, Daphnis, so? See there, its face displays
The start of Julius, through which each glad
Field with its wealth of golden corn is clad:
To that star's genial influence is due
On sunny hills the dark grape's rip'ning hue.
Graft pear-trees, Daphnis, thy posterity
Shall gather fruit that's grown upon thy tree.
All things time bears away, e'en memory:
Yes, oftentimes, I mind me well, have I
* 46–55. M. The Julian star is best of all; it tells one when to sow
and plant and graft. Memory, though once so good, now fails me;
ay, and voice as well, but still Menalcas can well gratify your wish.
† 47. The allusion is to the comet which appeared when Octavianus
was holding games in honour of Julius, the year after his death,
which comet was regarded as an indication of the dictator's deifi-
cation.
I
114
THE BUCOLICS.
In childhood's bygone days, while singing yet,
Seen the long summer suns go down and set:-
*
But now I cannot call to mind e'en one
Of all those strains, nay, voice itself is gone.
Alas! the wolves† saw Moeris first, yet still,
Though I sing not, Menalcas ever will.
LYCIDAS.
Nay, Moeris, why dost thou delay so long
By this excuse my wish to hear the song?
See, calm and still the waves for thee to sing,
Each breeze for thee has hush'd its whispering.
And 'tis but half-way to the town from here,
E'en now Bianor's § tomb || 'gins to appear:
* 53. Oblita is used passively: a use extremely rare.
54. A man meeting a wolf, and not catching its eye first, was sup-
posed to be struck dumb.
:
56-67. L. Don't put me off: all is now hushed around us, and
we're half-way to the town: we can afford to stop or if you want to
get on faster, we can sing e'en as we walk. M. Better to pay atten-
tion to our present business, and leave singing till we see Menalcas
again.
§ Bianor was the same as Ocnus, the founder of Mantua.
See Illustrations 2 and 3, at the end of this Eclogue.
ECLOGUE IX.
115
1
:
Here, Moeris, here, where from the boughs the
swains
Strip off their wealth of leaves, we'll sing our
strains :
Here lay thou down the kids, for spite of all
Thou hast to say, at Mantua we shall
Arrive, or if, ere that, the gathering
Of rain at night we dread, why, let us sing
Still as we journey on, for so the way*
Will not so weary seem, and that we may
Still singing onward journey all the road,
I will relieve thee, Moeris, of thy load. †
MOERIS.
Youth, cease thy converse, cease thy melody:
And let us some more urgent business ply:
'Twere better far for us to sing no strain
Until the bard himself come back again.
* See Illustrations 4 and 5, at the end of Eclogue.
† 65. The kids were carried in some sort of bundle (fascis). See
Illustrations 6, 7, and 8, at the end of this Eclogue.
1
I 2

1
(1) Alvearia.
(2) Mausoleum, or sepulchre of
Mausolus, king of Caria, which was
thought one of the wonders of the
world hence the term was used
for any magnificent tomb. The
woodcut shows the Mausoleum of
Hadrian.
مراد
(3) Monumentum sepulcri. The engrav-
ing shows a road, such as the Appian
road was, with the monuments of illus-
trious men by the side of it.
4.



(4) Via, a paved road for general traffic
in town or country, equivalent to our
highway. The via consisted of a carriage-
way (agger) in the centre, paved with
blocks of basaltic lava (silex), imbedded
in, first, brick and pottery mixed with
cement; neat, rubble; and last, small
stones or gravel: and of a raised foot-
way (crepido) on each side, flanked by a
series of kirb-stones (umbones), which
were sometimes interspersed at intervals
by large wedge-shaped trusses (gomphi),
which consolidated the whole frame.

(5) Gomphus, yóupos. A large wedge-
shaped pin, used by the Romans to de-
signate the large, round-headed, and
wedge-shaped stones placed at intervals
between the ordinary kirb-stones bound-
ing the foot-pavements of their roads
and streets.

(6) Fascis, a packet or bundle
of things, especially wood, as
shown by the figure carrying such
a bundle.


(7) Fasces, a number of rods
cut from the birch or elm, wat-
tled together and bound with a
thong. During the reign of the
kings and under the early repub-
lic, an axe (securis) was inserted
among the rods; afterwards, a
dictator alone was allowed to use
the fasces with an axe. They
were carried by the lictor in front
of some of the magistrates, and
malefactors were beaten with
them before execution.
I
(8) Fasces, bundles of rods with
an axe in the middle. The en-
graving shows a lictor, supposed
to be walking before a magis-
trate, with a rod (virga) in his
hand and the fasces on his left
shoulder. This shows the mean-
ing of the phrases fasces praeferre
and fasces submittere, the latter
of which means to lower the fasces
out of respect to a superior ma-
gistrate when met on the road.
•
ECLOGUE X.
He
This Eclogue is devoted entirely to the praise of Caius Cornelius
Gallus, who, like Varus, is said to have been Virgil's early
associate and fellow-student under the Epicurean, Syron.
had been appointed by the triumvirs to collect money from those
Transpadane towns the lands of which were not to be confiscated,
and that, together with his acknowledged intimacy with Pollio, is
quite enough to account for his friendship with Pollio's protégé.
He was then famous as a poet and lover, having written four
books of elegies, chiefly addressed to his mistress, Lycoris,
besides translating some of the poems of Euphorion, a tragic poet
of Chalcis, in Euboea. The identification of the shepherd and
poet is most rudely and confusedly managed. The subject is the
despairing and engrossing love of Gallus for his mistress, Lycoris,
who is represented as belonging to the pastoral company, was
then known as an author of elegies, and at the same time is por-
trayed as a soldier serving in the camp in Italy, and as a shepherd
stretched beneath an Arcadian rock, with gods of the woods con-
soling him. This poem, like others, imitates Theocritus. (See
Idyl I.) Virgil is supposed to tell the tale in song as he tends his
goats, and, on rising to go home at evening, he intimates that his
pastorals are now complete. The scenery is Arcadian.
*GRANT, Arethusa, fount dear to the swain,
Me to complete this one last past'ral strain:
A few lines must be sung in Gallus' praise,
But lines that well may the attention raise
* 1-30. In Gallus' honour my last pastoral is sung: his love I
sing here in the woods, with all my goats about me. Ah! why were
the Nymphs away, when their loved swain a-dying lay? All nature
wept for him his sheep for their lost shepherd mourned the swains
flocked round to hear his dying words, Phoebus, Silvanus, Pan: yes,
all were there, and bade him brood no more o'er blighted hopes.
.
120
THE BUCOLICS.
E'en of Lycoris: who'd refuse a song
To Gallus? So, when thou dost glide along
Beneath Sicilian floods, her waves of brine
May Doris, Nereus' wife, ne'er mix with thine.
Begin the lay: yes, now let me sing of
Lycoris, and her Gallus' anxious love,
While all about me browse my flat-nos'd she-
Goats on the tender shoots of hazel-tree.
These lays of mine I sing to no deaf ears,
Each wood, each glen repeats the verse it hears.
Ye Nymphs, say in what forest-glade, what
grove
Were ye, when all through unrequited love
Your Gallus dying lay? On Pindus'† Mount,—
Parnassus' heights-by Aganippe's ‡ fount,
* Doris, wife of Nereus, and mother of the Nereids, is here put for
the sea.
The myth represents Alpheus pursuing Arethusa, a Nymph
of Diana's train, into Sicily; but Virgil apparently contemplates them
as reconciled, and passing to and fro to visit each other, and he prays
Arethusa to assist his tale of love, if she would have the course of her
own love run smooth. The river Alpheus rises in Arcadia, loses itself
underground, and makes its reappearance at Megalopolis, a town of
Arcadia and birth-place of Polybius. Its disappearance underground
gave rise to the myth.
+ Pindus was a lofty mountain in Thessaly.
Aganippe was a fountain at the foot of Mount Helicon.
ECLOGUE X.
121
Neati
Ye linger'd not!'Neath lone cliff Gallus lay;
For him the tamarisk, for him the bay,
For him the pine-clad Maenalus, and rocks
Of cool Lycaeus wept. Round stand his flocks:-
No scorn the sheep can e'er feel for the swain;
So, bard divine, do thou feel no disdain
Of past'ral life and song; for once e'en fair
Adonis fed sheep by the rivers :—there
The shepherd came, the weary swineherd † too,
The swain Menalcas to the skin wet through,
With steeping acornst for the cattle's food
In winter-time. Round Gallus, as they stood,
All question'd thus: "Ah! what the source of thy
Deep love?" Apollo came and cried: "Oh! why
Art thou distraught so, Gallus? she whom thou
So fondly lovest, thy Lycoris, now
Through ice and snow and all the horrors of
A soldier's camp pursues another love. §
* Maenalus and Lycaeus were both mountains in Arcadia, sacred to
Pan.
+ See Illustration 1, at the end of this Eclogue.
20. Acorns were the winter food of cattle.
§ M. Antonius. See Illustration to Castra, at the end of the Eclogue.
122
THE BUCOLICS.
Silvanus came, his temples garlanded
With rustic ornament: * see, on his head
Tall lilies group'd with flow'ring fennel nod.
Pan came from Arcady, I saw the god,
Yes, I saw Pan unscath'd; † vermilion's streaks,
And dane-wort'st blood-red berries stain'd his
cheeks.
"What bounds," he cried, "will this thy grief
e'er know?
Such grief Love recks not of: when tears of woe
Love's cruelty shall sate, rills shall appease
The thirsty meadow, green lucerne cloy bees,
And leaves stripp'd of their boughs she-goats."
But he
SThus answer'd sadly-"Swains of Arcady,
* 24. The agrestis honor was the fennel-flowers and lilies, which
nodded as he walked.
†The sudden sight of Pan was supposed to produce madness, hence
called "panic." The word ipsi, in line 26, implies how important
Virgil thought the fact of having seen Pan without harm.
Also called the "dwarf elder-tree."
§ 31-43. So said they: and thus Gallus in reply: "Remember me,
Arcadians, in your songs: would that I only had been one of you,
living your life, and happy in some rustic love: for then Lycoris
might herself have stayed with me."
ECLOGUE X.
123
Though lorn my state, sweet solace this to me,
That on their hills the swains of Arcady
Shall sing my love's sad tale: the pipe's full
tones
Those swains alone can wake. Ah! then my bones
Would lightly rest, if but your pipes-your
lays—
My love's sad tale should tell in after days!
Oh! if with you it ever had been mine
To live a shepherd's life: some rip'ning vine
To dress,-some flock to tend! Then whosoe'er
Had been the dearest object of my care,—
Or Phyllis or Amyntas-(and what though
Amyntas be so dark, dark violets grow,
And dark the jacinth ?) 'neath the buxom vine
With me 'mid willows† should that love recline,
And while Amyntas made sweet melody,
A wreath of flow'rs should Phyllis cull for me.
*37 and 40. Esset and jaceret are used instead of the pluperfects,
because what Gallus speaks of might then have been going on, if he
had lived in Arcadia.
40. Vines are trained on willows at the present day in Lombardy.
124
THE BUCOLICS.
Oh! see,* Lycoris, here cool springs, soft grass,
See here a grove; my life here would I pass
With thee, and by mere lapse of time decay.
But now, 'mid hurtling darts, 'mid fierce array
Of fronting foes, a mad desire to see
Rough service in the field keeps me from thee :
While thou, far from thy fatherland, alone,
Not with thy Gallus, ah! hard-hearted one!
(Oh! could I but believe unrëal woe
So true,† so sad!)-dost gaze on Alpine snow,
And waters of the Rhine with ice fast bound.
Oh! may that snow spare thee: that ice ne'er
wound
Those tender feet with ruthless edge! Now let
Me to Theocritean music set
* 42-49. But why should I talk of Phyllis, of Amyntas ? A scene
like this might well attract Lycoris' self. Here might we well grow
old together, and sink to the grave through nought but lapse of time.
But, as it is, I foolish serve in war, while thou to wintry Alps hast
gone ah! heaven grant that ice and frost may spare thy life.
+46. Tantum must be taken as the object of credere, and as equiva-
lent to tantam rem.
‡ 50-61. I will turn my translation of Euphorion of Chalcis' poetry
into pastorals, and write my love upon the bark of trees. I will hunt
with the Nymphs or shepherds in the hope,-alas! vain hope!—of cure.
سے
ECLOGUE X.
125
Those poems which I, like Euphorion,
The bard of Chalcis, have compos'd. Upon
The tender bark of trees the story of
My love I'll cut: the story of my love
Shall grow as grow the trees: yes, I will bear
My woe 'mid forest-depth and wild-beasts' lair.
Meantime, I, mingling with the Nymphs, will
o'er
The heights of Maenalus chase the wild boar:
No cold shall check me when with net and hound
The glades of Arcady I close around:
E'en now, methinks, I roam 'mid rock and grove
Resounding with the hunter's cries,—now love
To shoot the Cretant shaft with hornèd bowt
Of Parthia mad § dream of bliss! as though
Such passion e'er a remedy could find-
As though that god the woes of human-kind
*See Illustration to Fenatio on Frontispiece.
† 59. Cydonia was an ancient town on the north coast of Crete.
See Illustrations 2 and 3, at the end of this Eclogue.
§ 62-69. Yet vain it were to try a woodland life and pastoral songs:
Love cannot by such violent changes baffled be: to yield is all that we
can do.
126
THE BUCOLICS.
I
Could e'er feel pity for! No, ne'er again.
Will Hamadryad-Nymphs-ne'er lays of swain
Delight me as of yore: ye woods, depart.
Nought I could do that god's relentless heart
Would change: not though I drank of Hebrus'
flood
In winter's keenest frost, not though I stood
Undaunted through the snows and stormy skies
Of Thrace-not e'en 'neath Cancer's star, when dies
The tall elm's bark, parch'd to the quick, should I
An Ethiopian shepherd's calling ply.
Love conquers all: let me too own Love's sway.
*And now, ye Nymphs of Sicily, this lay
Must cease, sung by your bard, as here he sate,
A basket from thin mallow-twigs to plait.
Through you this lay, ye Nymphs of Sicily,
Of highest worth in Gallus' eyes shall be,-
* 70-77. And now, ye Naiad-nymphs, my pastoral song for Gallus,
your own bard, must cease: may it be worthy of my ever-growing
love for him! A shepherd must not linger in the shade too long: his
flocks must at the fall of eve be driven home.
Mount Pierus was in Thessaly.
† See Illustration 7 at the end of Eclogue II., and 4, at the end of
this Eclogue.
ECLOGUE X.
127
In Gallus' eyes-for whom each hour that goes
My love increases still, as fast as grows
In early spring the vig'rous alder-tree.
But let us rise: ofttimes the shade will be
Injurious to swains who 'neath it sing,
To sit 'neath junipers some harm will bring:
E'en crops shade harms. My goats, your feeding
stay,
Go home: the star of eve shines forth: away.
Castra. An encampment or fortified camp. The arrangement of a
Roman camp was one of remarkable system and skill. Its general
form was square, and the entire position was surrounded by a ditch
(fossa), and an embankment (agger) on the inside of it, the top of
which was defended by a strong fencing of palisades (vallum). Each
of the four sides was furnished with a wide gate for ingress and egress;
the one farthest removed from the enemy's position, A, was styled
porta decumana; that immediately in front of it, B, porta praetoria;
the one on the right hand, c, porta principalis dextra. The whole of
the interior was divided into seven streets or gangways, of which the
broadest one, running in a direct line between the two side gates, and
immediately in front of the general's tent (praetorium), was 100 feet
wide, and called Via Principalis. In advance of this, but parallel to
it, was another street, called Via Quintana, 50 feet wide, which divided
the whole of the upper part of the camp into two equal divisions; and
these were again subdivided by five other streets of the same width,
intersecting the Via Quintana at right angles. The tents and quarters
of the troops were then arranged as follows:-1. The praetorium, or
general's tent. 2. The quaestorium, a space allotted to the quaestor,
and the commissariat stores under his charge. 3. The forum, a
sort of market-place. 4, 4. The tents of the select horse and volunteers.
Uork
128
THE BUCOLICS.
Left wing of Allies
9
2nd Legion
29
B

Via Quintana
Via Principalis
1st Legion
เค
5
2
I
3
5
6
6
33
8
8
7
7
A
5, 5. The tents of the select foot and volunteers. 6, 6. The Equites
Extraordinarii, or extraordinary cavalry furnished by the allies. 7, 7.
The Pedites Extraordinarii, or extraordinary infantry furnished by the
allies. 8, 8. Places reserved for occasional auxiliaries. 9, 9. The tents.
of the tribunes, and of the praefecti sociorum, or generals who com-
manded the allies. This completes the upper portion of the camp.
The centre of the lower portion was allotted to the two Roman
legions which constituted a consular army, flanked on each side by
the right and left wings, composed of allied troops. The name is
written over the respective position of each. The whole of the interior
was surrounded by an open space, 200 feet wide, between the agger
and the tents, which protected them from fire or missiles, and facili-
tated the movements of the troops within. The plan is drawn after
the description of Polybius, when the Roman armies were divided by
maniples or companies of 120, and sometimes 60 men.
Right wing of Allies


(1) Bubulcus, a cowherd: the old
reading was bubulci, not subulci,
(2) Arcus Scythicus.
The engraving shows
Hercules carrying off
the sacred tripod from
the temple of Apollo,
with a Scythian bow
in his hands.


(4) Fiscella, also used as a
muzzle for oxen, to prevent them
cropping the shoots of the vines
when ploughing; or for vicious
horses, to prevent their biting.
(3) Cornu, a
a bow
made of the horns of
animals, and joined
by a centre-piece.
K

*
X
THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
ARUNDO. A Pandean pipe, which was made of several
stalks of the reed or cane, of unequal length and
bore, fastened together and cemented with wax:
and hence termed arundo cerata.
ASCAULES, a bag-piper. The word is coined
from the Greek aσxaúλns. The bag-piper ought
scarcely to be reckoned among the

ἀσκαύλης.
class of professional musicians: for
the instrument they played was peculiar to
the peasantry and common people, as is clearly
to be inferred from Martial, Epigram x. 3. 8,
and also from the style and dress of the figure
here introduced.
BARBITOS and BARBI-
ΤΟΝ, βάρβιτος, βάρβιτον, and
BaрúμIтov. A stringed instru-
ment belonging to the class of
lyres. It, however, was of a
larger size, and had thicker
strings, and consequently pro-
duced louder and fuller notes than the usual
instruments of that kind. In other respects it
was played in the same manner as the various
kinds of lyres were, viz., with the fingers and
the plectrum, or quill; and it may be regarded
as an instrument that bore the same analogy to
the lyre as our violoncello does to the violin.
Pandean
Pipe


K 2
132
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
BUCINA OF BUCCINA, βυκάνη. 1. A particular
kind of horn, formed in spiral twists (Ovid, Met. i. 336),
like the shell of the fish out of which it was originally
made, as shown by the annexed engraving.
In this, its
earliest form, it was
commonly used by
swine- and neat-herds
to collect their droves

from the woods; also by the night-watch and the Accensi, to
give notice of the hours by night or by day, and in early
times to summon the Quirites to the assembly, or collect them
upon any emergency.
2. The bucina was also employed as one of the wind
instruments with which signals were made, or the word of
command given to the
soldiery, but the military
instrument was then of a
different form, having a
larger mouth made of
metal, and bent round
underneath (quae in semet-
ipsam aereo circulo fleeti-

tur), of which kind a specimen is here given from a marble
bas-relief.
CAPISTRUM, popßeiά. A broad leather band or cheek-
piece, with an opening for

the mouth, worn by pipers
like a halter, round the
head and face, in order
to compress the lips and
cheeks when blowing the
instruments, which pro-
duced a fuller, firmer, and
more even tone, as shown by the annexed illustration. It
does not appear to have been always used by pipers.
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
133
CHIRONOMIΑ, χειρονομία. The art of gesticulating
with or without the voice. The two females are engaged in
a woman's quarrel, the one on the left making some accusa-
tion against the other, as shown by the forward attitude and
index finger, the one on the left, by the backward movement
of her body, sudden cessation of her music, and arms thrown
open and upwards, ex-
pressing surprise. It is
a love-quarrel, because
the left-hand figure has
the tips of the fore-finger
and thumb of the left
hand joined, which is
the exact gesture em-
ployed by the modern
Neapolitan for love. The
surprised attitude of the
right-hand figure shows indignation and denial of the in-
sinuation, the open fingers and erect hand being the usual
Neapolitan gesture to signify a negative. The cause of the
quarrel is the sitting Faun, who has been detected making
signs incautiously to the nymph with
the tambourine, which were perceived
by his old flame, who stands behind him.
The art was much practised by the
Greeks and Romans.
CHORAULES and CHORAULA,
χοραύλης. A musician who accompanied
the Chorus of the Greek theatre, or any
other number of singers in a concert gene-
rally, upon the double pipes, as contra-
distinguished from auloedus, who played
an instrumental solo without vocal music.
The costume and instrument of these performers are shown by
the annexed figure, copied from a statue on the Appian Way.


134
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
CICUTICEN. A performer on the Pan-pipe, which was
made of hemlock-stalks. The illustration is
from a small ivory figure in the Florentine
Museum. See Virgil, Ecl. ii. 36.
CITHARA, κιθάρα, κίθαρις. A stringed in-
strument of very great antiquity, resembling in
form the human chest and neck, and so corre-
sponding with our guitar, a term which comes
to us through the Italian chitarra; the Roman e and the
Italian ch having the same sound as the Greek к. The

illustration annexed agrees so
closely with the description.
given by Isidorus of the in-
strument as to leave little
doubt that it preserves the

real form of the cithara in the strict and original sense of
the word.
CHOREA, χορεία. A choral dance, i. e., in which the
performers join hand in

hand, so as to form a
circle, and dance to the
sound of their own voices,
precisely as represented
by the illustration an-
nexed, taken from a paint-
ing in the baths of Titus
at Rome.
CITHARISTA, kila-
One who plays
PLOTS.
upon the cithara or guitar.
Homer describes the manner in which the player held this
instrument, by saying that it was placed upon the arm,
ETWλÉVIOV Kibapijwv (IIymn. Merc. 432), as shown by the
annexed woodcut, representing an Egyptian citharista. It
affords a proof that the reading iπwλévtov in the above
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
135
kymn is a wrong one.
It was sometimes suspended across
the shoulders by a balteus (see next
woodcut), and, like the lyre, was
occasionally struck with the plec-
trum instead of the fingers.
CITHARISTRIA, κιθαριστρια,
κιθαριστρις. A female player upon
the cithara or guitar. These wo-
men were fre-


quently intro-
duced, together
with dancing and singing girls, to amuse
the guests at an entertainment; and the
figure in the engraving, from a tomb
at Thebes in Egypt, is intended to repre-
sent a character of that description, as
is apparent from the attention bestowed
upon the decoration of her person, the
hair, earrings, necklace, bracelets on the arms and wrists, and
the shoes, and transparent drapery.
CONCHA, κόγχη. The conch, or Triton's shell, which
the Triton is often represented by poets

and artists as blowing
in place of a trumpet,
in which cases the shell
more closely resembles
the bucina or buccina, as
shown by the annexed
engraving, from a terra-
cotta lamp.
CANO, to sing generally, and also to
sound or play upon any musical instrument.
The illustration explains the phrase intus et
foris canere with regard to the lyre which the figure is playing.
To strike the chords merely with the plectrum held in the

136
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
right hand was foris canere; to thrum the chords merely
with the fingers of the left hand was intus canere; but when
the two were used together, so that both sides of the instru-
ment were struck at once, as in the engraving, the musician
was said to play on the inside and out, intus et foris canere.
CORNICEN, κεραταύλης οι κεραύλης. A trumpeter, i. e.,
one who blows the large circular horn
called cornu, as shown by the annexed
illustration, taken from the arch of Con-
stantine at Rome.
CORNU, σάλπιγξ στρογγύλη. A very
large trumpet, originally made of horn, but

subsequently
of

bronze, fitted with
a cross-bar, which
served the double
purpose of keep-
ing it in shape,
and of assisting the trumpeter to
hold it steady while in use, as
shown by the illustration to Cornicen above.
CROTALUM, kpóтaλov. A sort of musical instrument
especially employed in the
worship of Cybele, and fre-
quently used to form an
accompaniment for dancing.
It consisted of two split
canes, or hollow pieces of
wood or metal, joined to-
gether by a straight handle,
as in the right-hand figure
of the annexed engraving.
When played, one of these
was held in each hand, and

snapped together with the fingers, so as to produce a crisp
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
137
rattling sound like the castanet, as shown by the female
figure above.
CRUSMATA or CRUMATA, κρούσματα οι κρούματα,
castanets. In ancient
times, as well as in our
own, peculiarly charac-
teristic of the Spanish
nation, though the same
instruments were also
played by the women of
Greece and Italy, as is
shown by the annexed
illustration, taken from a fictile vase.
CYMBALUM, кúµßaλov. A cymbal, or musical instru-
ment consisting of two hollow half globes of bell-metal, with
a ring at the top,
by which they were
held between the
fingers and clashed
together with both
hands, as represented in the next
illustration. They were especially
adopted by the votaries of Cybele.
CYMBALISTRIA, κυμβαλιστρία.
A female player




organ.
on the cymbals,
as shown by a painting at Pompeii.
HARPA. A harp with a curved
back, in the form of a sickle (aprn,
falx), as in the annexed example, taken
from an Egyptian painting. It is ex-
pressly distinguished from the lyre, and
as an instrument used by foreigners.
HYDRAULUS, vdpavλos. A water-
In this instrument the action of water was made to
138
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
produce the same effect upon the bellows as is now procured by
a heavy weight. The instrument
is rudely indicated by the an-
nexed engraving, taken from a
coin of the Emperor Nero. There
is no indication of keys, and
probably the organ was played
by mechanism.
LITICEN. One who plays
the trumpet called lituus. The
liticines formed a corporation
(collegium) at Rome, and the instrument that they played,
as well as the costume which they wore, is shown by the
annexed figure, having this inscription un-
derneath-M. JULIUS VICTOR EX COLLEGIO
LITICINUM. The singular piece of drapery
over the front of the chest was sometimes
worn by Roman soldiers.
LITUUS. A brass trumpet with a long
straight stock, like the tuba, but furnished
at its farther extremity with a curved joint.
like the buccina or cornu. The engraving
represents an original, discovered in clearing
the bed of the river Witham, near Tattershall,



which it will be per-
ceived resembles pre-
cisely the instrument
held by the liticen in the illustration above. It is rather
more than four feet long, made of brass, in three joints,
like a modern flute, and has been gilt.
LYRA, λúpn. A lyre; a small and very ancient stringed
instrument, the invention of which is fabulously attributed to
Mercury, though it was undoubtedly introduced into Greece.
through Asia Minor from Egypt. The chords were open on
both sides, without any sounding board, and varied in number
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
139
from three to nine. It was sounded with both hands, one
on each side, or with a quili"
(plectrum) in one hand, and the
fingers of the other, being placed
upon the knees, if the player was
in a sitting position, or suspen-
ded by a band over the shoulder,
if erect. The form varied ac-
cording to the taste of the maker. The left-hand example
shows a tetrachord, or lyre with four strings; the right-hand
one a hexachord, or lyre with six strings.
LYRISTES, λupioтhs. One who plays upon the lyre,
which was done either by twanging the
strings with both hands, like a harp, in the
manner represented by the figure, from a
statue of Apollo, or by striking them with
a small quill (plectrum) held in one hand,
and the fingers of the other, as performed
by the figure in the illustration to CANO,
on page 135. The female player was termed
Lyristria.
NABLIA or NAULIA, väßλa, vaûλa,
and ναῦλον. A musical instrument of
Phoenician origin, and doubtless the same
as the Hebrew nevel, so often mentioned in the Psalms,
whence it came to the Greeks and
Romans. It was a stringed instrument
with ten or twelve chords, of square
form, played like a harp, and par-
ticularly for festivities and social




life.
PSALTERIUM, ψαλτήριον.
A
psaltery, or stringed instrument of mixed character be-
tween the cithara and the harpa, to both of which it bore
considerable resemblance-to the former in having a
140
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
hollow sounding belly made of wood, over which the chords
were stretched, but
which, instead of being
held downwards in the
act of playing, as in
the case of the cithara
(see page 134), was
carried upwards on the
shoulder; and to the
latter in having a bent

frame, which kept the
strings extended from its
centre, so the strings, belly, and trunk made up a figure
something like a bow, or of a triangle, if the juncture was an
angular one. The lower woodcut, from an original in the
British Museum, has its belly covered with leather strained
over it, and perforated with holes to allow the sounds to
escape.
PSALTRIA. In a general sense, a female
who plays upon any stringed instrument, as
in the annexed figure, representing the Muse
Erato; but the term is often used for women
of loose morals
who made a pro-
fession among
the Greeks of
going about to
play and sing at
banquets for the


amusement of the
guests. The same practice was
afterwards introduced at Rome.
SAMBUCA, σαμβύκη. A
stringed instrument with cords
of different lengths and substance, similar to our harp. It
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
141
was sometimes of small dimensions like the Welsh harp, and
sometimes a large and powerful instrument like our own, and
highly ornamented, as shown by the example from an Egyptian
painting, now well known as Bruce's harp, who first made it
public. Sometimes the player knelt and sat upon their hams
instead of preserving the upright position shown by the above
example.
SISTRATUS. One who carries the Egyptian rattle
(sistrum), thence, by implication, a priest
or priestess of Isis, who made use of that
instrument in their religious ceremonies,
holding it up and shaking it with the right
hand, in the manner exhibited by the an-
nexed figure.
SISTRUM, σeioтpov. A sort of rattle
used by the Egyptians in the religious cere-
monies of Isis, and in war
instead of the trumpet.
It consisted of a number
of metal rods (virgulae)
inserted into a thin oval frame of the
same material. To this a short handle
was attached, by which it was held up
and rapidly shaken, so as to make the rods
give out a sharp and rattling noise.
SYMPHONIA, συμφωνία, harmony, as
contradistinguished from melody.
2. ῥοπτρόν βυρσοπαγές. A long drum
or barrel drum, made by a hollow cylinder
of wood or copper, with a skin strained over both its ends,
and beaten by a pair of drumsticks (virgulae) on both sides
at once. It was used as a military instrument by the
Egyptians and Parthians, but not by the Greeks and Romans.
The woodcut on the left hand shows such a drum slung round
the drummer's neck by a broad belt. The right-hand cut


142
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
shows an Egyptian copper drum, and the bottom one a
wooden drumstick. The
knob at the end of the
drumstick is made to be
covered with leather,
wadded underneath, and
the shape of the handle
proves that it was to be
used as one of a pair for
striking a drum placed
in a horizontal position.

TESTUDO, xéλus, xeλúvn. In its primary meaning, a
tortoise, whence the name is given to a particular stringed
instrument, forming a variety of the lyra. (See page 138 for
LYRA.) It was, in fact, a simple lyre, improved by the ad-
dition of a sounding bottom, over which the
chords were drawn to increase the fulness of
their tone. It derived its name from the idea
that Mercury, the fabled inventor of the
instrument, observed a tortoise-shell on the
sands of Egypt, with the skin of the belly
dried up into thin strings across it, which
were found to emit different notes when tried
with the fingers. Hence the sounding board
was made to imitate the shell of a tortoise. It was sounded
by the fingers and the plectrum, as in the woodcut to CANO, on
page 135.
The poets sometimes applied the term to any
stringed instrument of the lyre kind.
TIBIA, avλós. The name given to several different wind
instruments in very common use among the ancients, made of
reed, cane, box-wood, horn, metal, and the tibia or shin-bone
of some birds and animals, whence the name originated, all,
however, belonging to a similar class, characterized by having
holes or stops for the fingers, and being sounded by a mouth-
piece inserted between the lips.

THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
143
2. Tibia obliqua, πλayíavλos. A pipe, something like our
bassoon, with a mouthpiece inserted on
the side of the tube, and when played
held in an oblique position, so that the
top part came against the right ear, as
shown by the annexed example of a
genius engaged in Bacchic festivities. It
was said to have been invented by Midas
and was attributed to the satyrs and
followers of Bacchus.
3. Tibia vasca. A similar pipe to the last, but simpler and
less powerful, used by begin-
ners, as the form of the mouth-
piece facilitated the modulation
of the sounds. The word vasca,
light or inferior, was applied to
it from the above circumstance.
The pipe is a simple reed or
cane, and is held by a figure
supposed to be Pan. The right
arm and lower part of the pipe
are restorations.
4. Tibia longa. The long


pipe which was employed in religious ceremonies, in the
temples and at the sacrifice, to emit a loud and solemn
strain during libation. The
illustration is from a bas-
relief published by Casali
(Splend. Urb. Rom. ii. 1.), representing a sacrifice, in
which four figures are introduced with the same instru-
ments, all of which are nearly as long as the performers
are high.
5. Tibia curva, čhvμos. The Phrygian pipe, especially
employed in the ceremonials of Cybele. The tube was made
of box-wood with a bent end like a horn, as shown by the
141
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
annexed example, whence it is called curva (Virg. Aen. ii.
737), or tibia adunco cornu
(Ov. Met. iii. 533). It was
also made with દી double

branch proceeding from the same stem, as in the annexed
figure, and the strain is
therefore called biforem
(Aen. ix. 518); biforem dat
tibia cantum.

6. Tibiae pares, Ceyn. A pair of pipes of equal length
and bore, both of which produced the same tone, viz., both
base or both treble, inflated also together by one musician,
-0 8-8-8
though each pipe was a sepa-
rate instrument, and not, like
the last example, branching

from a common stem. The Hecyra of Terence was accom-
panied by pipes of this description, as we learn from the
notice prefixed to the play: Modos fecit Flaccus Claudi tibiis
paribus.
7. Tibiae impares. A pair of unequal pipes, played by
a single performer, but each having a different pitch, or
producing a different sound, the one base, the other treble,
believed to result from in-
equality in the length of each
pipe and of the intervals
between the stops, as shown
by the annexed engraving. The Phormio of Terence was
accompanied by pipes of this kind, as mentioned by the notice
prefixed to the play: Modos fecit Flaccus Claudi tibiis im-
paribus.
8. Tibia dextra (avλós åvdphïos), also called tibia incen-
tiva, because it commenced the strain. That one of a pair
of pipes which was held in the right hand when playing, as
shown by the annexed figure, from a painting at Herculaneum.
I was made from the upper part of the reed or cane, and
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
145
produced deep or bass notes, whence it is termed by
Herodotus the manly pipe.
The "Eunuchius" of Ter-
ence was accompanied by a
pair of brass pipes-tibiis
duabus dextris; the Andria
by a double set of pipes,
one pair of which were
both bass, the other both
treble-tibiis paribus dextris
et sinistris. The pipe held by
the above figure in the left
hand was called tibia sinistra
or laeva (aiλós yvvaikhïos).
It was made of the lower part of the reed or cane near the
roots, and produced sharp treble notes, whence it is termed by
Herodotus the womanly pipe, also called tibia succentiva, the
second or treble pipe.
9. Tibiae Sarranae, so called because they were supposed
to have come from Sarra, the ancient name for Tyre. A pair of
pipes of equal length and bore, so that both of them were
attuned to the same pitch. The Adelphi of Terence was
accompanied by this instrument.
10. Tibiae milvinae. Pipes which
emitted a peculiarly sharp and shrill
tone, of which nothing more is
known.
TIBICEN, αὐλητής. A musician
who plays on the tibiae or pipes.
The pipers formed a collegium, or
corporation, at Rome; they were
held in high estimation, and much
employed in religious festivals and
solemnities, also at funerals and on
the stage. The illustration, from a painting at Pompeii,


L
146
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS USED BY
represents a piper at the theatre, sitting upon the raised altar
(thymele) in the orchestra, beating time with his left foot, and
draped in the long vest, as described

by Horace, A. P. 215.
TIBICINA, αυλητρίς. A fe-
male player on the pipes (tibiae),
as represented by the annexed
figure, from a painting at Hercu-
laneum. The tibicinae were gene-
rally girls who went about playing
for hire at dinner parties and festive
entertainments, and were commonly
of loose moral character.
TRIGONUM. A musical instrument of triangular form
with all its strings of the same thickness, but of unequal

lengths. It was often car-
ried on the shoulder, as
shown by the woodcut on
the left hand. It may be
that the Latins and Greeks
made use of the term trigo-
num to designate our triangle,
as that instrument was known to them, as shown by the right-
hand woodcut above.
TUBA, σάλπιγξ. A wind instrument made of bronze,
with a funnel- or bell-shaped mouth, and a straight tube like

our trumpet, giving out
very loud and inter-
rupted notes (fractos
sonitus, Virg. Georgic iv. 72). The example is from the arch
of Titus.
TUBICEN, σαλπίγκτης. A trumpeter who blows the
tuba, as exhibited by the annexed figure, from a bas-relief
on the arch of Constantine. Trumpeters were always
included in the brass band of the army, amongst the
THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.
147
musicians who performed at religious ceremonies, and at
funeral solemnities: whence the expression
ad tubicines mittere means to prepare for

death.
TYMPANISTA, τυμπανιστής. A man
who plays the tym-
panum or tambourine,
as exhibited by the
annexed figure, from
a mosaic by Diosco-
rides of Samos, dis-
covered at Pompeii,
representing a concert by four musi-
cians a boy
with the mon-
aulos, a young
female with the
tibiae pares, an older one with the cym-
bala, and the figure above with the
tympanum.
TYMPANISTRIA, τυμπανίστρια.
A female who plays the tympanum
or tambourine, as exhibited by the
annexed figure, taken from a painting
at Pompeii.
j




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