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 \
 
 Pitt Press Series 
 
 P. VERGILI MARONIS GEORGICON 
 LIBRI III. IV.
 
 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 C. F. CLAY, Managkr 
 
 LONDON : Fetter Lane, E.G. 4 
 
 NEW YORK.: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 ROMBAY, CALCUTTA, MADRAS: MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO : J. M. DENT AND SONS, Ltd. 
 
 TOKYO: THE MARUZEN-K.ABUSH1K.I-KAISHA 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 p. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 GEORGICON 
 
 LIBRI III. IV. 
 
 EDITED WITH ENGLISH NOTES 
 BY 
 
 A. SIDGWICK, M.A. 
 
 ' ' ' ' 1 . , 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 
 
 1918 
 
 70805
 
 First Eiition 1886 
 Reprinted \%()0, 1895, iS^y, 1908, 1918 
 
 ••••• ••■ 
 
 .! • • • . « 
 
 ::♦.-.• ••
 
 
 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 This Edition, being prepared for the use of those Students 
 who are not far advanced in Latin, does not aim at doing more 
 than supplying in a small compass such help to the thorough 
 knowledge of this book as it is probable would be most useful 
 to them. It is not intended to supply the place of a dictionary: 
 for all students possess one, and derive much benefit from its 
 careful use, both in becoming acquainted with the history of 
 meanings of words, and also in the exercise of that judgment 
 which is required to select the right meaning. On the other 
 hand historical and mythical allusions are explained in the 
 notes, as many students might find it difficult to make them out 
 otherwise. Great care also has been taken to notice all the 
 grammatical usages which might offer any difficulty, and to 
 classify them clearly, and to enable the learner, by means of an 
 Index, to compare similar usages and distinguish those that are 
 different. Attention has been given, too, to Vergil's licences 
 and peculiarities of expression, which help him so much in 
 producing rhetorical and poetical effects. Further, in several 
 of the harder passages and phrases, an attempt has been made 
 to help the student in translation : for while few ancient writers 
 are so difficult as Vergil to translate at all adequately, it is at 
 the same time of the utmost importance, both to the literary 
 appreciation of his poetry, and tiie advantage to be derived 
 from reading it, that great pains should be given to translation 
 and a high standard aimed at.
 
 6 PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 With the text there has not been much to do. Such 
 differences as there are in the different copies, and they are 
 not very many (apart from obvious and easily corrected errors), 
 are mostly unimportant ; where the reading is really difficult to 
 decide I have given reasons for the one preferred. 
 
 The following books have been used in the preparation of 
 this little edition ; to whose help my acknowledgements are 
 due ; — 
 
 Conington's Georgics, last ed. 
 
 Ribbcck's Vergil, 1859. 
 
 Heyne's Vergil, 1821. 
 
 Forbiger's Vergil, 1852. 
 
 W^agner's smaller edition, 1861. 
 
 Kennedy's School Vergil, 1876. 
 „ Text, Pitt Press, 1876. 
 
 Papillon's Vergil, Oxford, 1882. 
 
 Ladewig's Bucolics and Georgics, 1883. 
 For the matter of the Introduction and some of the notes 
 I owe much to Conington's Preface, to Prof Sellar's most 
 interesting work on Vergil, to Cruttwell's Latin Literature, and 
 Simcox's Latin Literature, and Munro's Lucretius. 
 
 I have used, and occasionally quoted, two translations of 
 these books: one by Lee and Lonsdale, a useful and careful prose 
 translation ; and one by my friend Mr James Rhoades of 
 Sherborne, in blank verse. The latter seems to me to be one 
 of the best translations 1 know of a poet, being at once a 
 very faithful and scholarly rendering, skilful and felicitous in 
 expression, and of high poetic merit. 
 
 The following abbreviations are used in the notes : 
 C. Conington. L. Ladewig, 
 
 \V. "Wagner, P. Papillon, 
 
 F. Forbigcr, K. Kennedy, 
 
 Rib. Ribbeck, H. licyne, 
 
 (LL) Lee and Lonsdale's translation, (R) Rhoades' translation.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 For the sake of clearness it has been thought better to 
 divide what little there is to say by way of introduction into the 
 following heads : — 
 
 1. The form of the poem. 
 
 2. Vergil and Lucretius. 
 
 3. List of Passages imitated from Lucretius. 
 
 4. The later Georgics and Homer. 
 
 5. Principal Homeric parallels. 
 
 6. The sources of the Georgics. 
 
 7. Subject and purpose of the poem. 
 
 8. The execution of the poem. 
 
 9. Outline of Vergil's hfe. 
 
 At the end is a full index to the notes, (i) General and 
 Grammatical, (2) of Style, (3) of Proper names, to enal)le the 
 book 10 be used for purposes of ready relerence. 
 
 I. The form of the poem. 
 
 The Georgics belong to the class of what are called didactic 
 poems, that is to say poems whose original or ostensible object 
 is to give instruction. The earliest didactic poem was the 
 Works and Days of the Greek poet Hesiod, whose date is 
 uncertain, but who is generally assumed to have lived about 
 the eighth century B. C, 
 
 The poem contains a great variety of precepts for the 
 conduct of life— about right behaviour, justice, industry, the 
 choice of a wife, the rearing of children, and above all, agriculture,
 
 8 INTR OD UCTION. 
 
 commerce, and navigation, with a sort of calendar appended 
 giving the best days and times to do things. The whole is 
 written in a homely style, and tliough it gives a vivid picture of 
 early Greek rustic life and temper and manners can hardly be 
 said to aim at poetic treatment. 
 
 Besides Ilesiod we have another primitive but totally 
 different style of didactic poetry in the Greek philosophic 
 poets, of whom the most famous were Xenophanes and 
 Parmenides of Elca, about the sixth century B.C., and 
 Empedocles of Agrigentum, about the fifth century. These 
 writers, like Hesiod, were not aiming primarily at poetic 
 expression, though what remains of their works contains 
 imaginative and impressive passages : their main object was 
 to expound their doctrines. And as Hesiod would doubtless 
 have written his precepts in prose, had there been such a 
 thing as prose literature in his day: so too the philosophic 
 poets used the hexameter verse not from any artistic motive, or 
 to adorn their thoughts, but simply because the prose treatise 
 was not so natural a mode of expression to them as the familiar 
 epic metre. 
 
 But the didactic form once established, it lent itself naturally 
 in later ages to imitation. Just as there were literary epics, 
 imitating the form of Homer, but telling the story for a purpose, 
 (the Aeneid, the Inferno, the Paradise Lost) so the primitive 
 didactic poem of Hesiod or the philosophers gave rise to 
 the literary didactic poem, which has appeared in all ages 
 of literary revival. Thus for example the artificial literature 
 which the Alexandrian scholars produced contained many 
 didactic poems, such as the astronomical works Phaenomena 
 and Diosemeia of Aratus, (which were mere metrical renderings 
 of scientific knowledge derived from others) or the works on 
 poisons, venomous beasts, and birds by Nicander. These two 
 writers lived towards the beginning of the third, and middle of 
 the second centuries B. C respectively; and to them we might 
 add the scientific poet Eratosthenes, about the middle of 
 the third century, from whom Vergil borrowed some of his 
 asironomical ideas. Similarly in our own so-called Augiih>lan
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 age, the literary revival of Queen Anne's reign, there sprang up 
 a crop of didactic poems ; of which the best and most famous 
 was Pope's Essay on Man. The aim of all these was rather 
 to achieve finish of form and brilliance of execution than to 
 communicate or expound anything serious. 
 
 In the golden age of Rome there were three didactic poems 
 written, all of them extremely famous, namely Lucretius' De 
 rem in tiatura, Vergil's Georgics, and Horace's Art of Poetry. 
 The last was written after Vergil's death, and need not concern 
 us here : it is moreover in a class apart. The criticism which 
 forms its subject-matter is most seriously and carefully thought 
 out : the form belongs more to what we call vers de socidtS, 
 full of point, vigour, vivacity and variety, but not addressed 
 like serious poetry to the feelings or the imagination. On the 
 other hand Lucretius' great poem amid its arid stretches of 
 philosophic argument has oases of the most sublime and 
 imaginative poetry. It counts for so much among the de- 
 termining conditions of the Georgics that a special word will 
 be said about the relations between the two poets below. 
 
 It is at any rate clear enough that there are such wide 
 divergences between the different species of didactic poems, 
 that the name 'didactic' tells us very little about the character 
 of a work. The Georgics differ from the Works and Days 
 in being a real work of art, aiming all through at beauty : while 
 Vergil, if he was not quite as much in earnest as Hesiod in the 
 precepts he gave, at any rate was deeply interested in rustic 
 life. On the oilier hand, as compared with Lucretius, while 
 he follows him in aiming at genuine poetry, and in formulating 
 serious precepts, he addresses himself much more to the general 
 reader, and not (as Lucretius did) to the student. He takes 
 pains by selection of details, by episodes (such as the signs of 
 Caesar's death, i. 466; the praise of Italy, ii. 136; the chariot 
 race, iii. 104 ; the plague, iii. 478; and above all the tale of Or- 
 pheus and Eurydice, iv.), and by rich adornment of every kind, to 
 make tiic poem attractive to those who arc not specially interested 
 in a.-riculturc. lie differs again from the Alexandrians in every 
 way, since neither their precepts nor their art was first liand :
 
 lo INTRODUCTION. 
 
 they wrote borrowed facts in an imitated style. And he difTcrs 
 lastly from our i)\vn Au;^aistan didactics, inasmuch as their 
 interest was almost entirely in the style, the subject-matter 
 being quite secondary and usually chosen because it lent itself 
 to epij^ram and finished exposition. In one word, when we 
 call the Georgics 'a didactic poem' we must bear in mind that 
 it belongs, for all its imitation of Hesiod and Lucretius, to 
 a unique species. 
 
 2. Vergil ajid Lucretius. 
 
 'The influence' says Prof Sellar (Vergil, p. 199) 'direct and 
 'indirect exercised by Lucretius on the thought, the composition 
 'and the style of the Georgics was perhaps stronger than that 
 * ever exercised before or since, by one great poet on the work 
 'of another '. 
 
 Without going fully into a large question, we may note some 
 of the principal causes and points of this influence. 
 
 (i) Lucretius was the first great poet of Rome : the first 
 who had used the Greek Hexameter metre with real success, so 
 as to bring out its power, its dignity and its beauty in the Latin 
 language ; the first writer of genius, combining high imagi- 
 nation, poetic sensibility, deep and serious thought, originality 
 and insight ; and his poem appeared when Vergil was about 16, 
 exactly at the time when it was most certain to impress and 
 inspire a gifted boy, with equal imagination and even more 
 poetic power. 
 
 (2) Vergil's temperament as revealed in his poetry was 
 that of a born lover of nature, delicate and imaginative and 
 with exquisite sensibility to beauty, naturally religious and 
 retired and meditative, and like many of the most highly gifted, 
 with an 'undertone' of melancholy. Lucretius' poem — dealing 
 with the productiveness of nature, the vastness of the universe, 
 the hard struggle of life, the constant pressure and imminence 
 of suffering and decay, the mystery of the order of things, the 
 dark destiny of man— could not fail to leave a lasting and 
 profound impression on him.
 
 TjYTR on UCTION. 1 1 
 
 Thus both in the style and in the thought there was every- 
 thing to make Lucretius' poem produce an immense effect on 
 the younger poet. It is impossible to follow out this effect into 
 detail ; but a few points may be noticed. 
 
 {a) In the diction, the influence is found everywhere 
 in the Georgics. The passages where Vergil directly imitates I 
 have collected at the end of this section : there are no doubt 
 many more where a subtle or unconscious memory of Lucretius 
 has determined the choice of a word or the turn of a phrase. 
 
 {b) In the metre Vergil no doubt made a gi-eat advance 
 on all his predecessors : but it was Lucretius' poem which 
 shewed him the way, which lifted him to a point whence that 
 advance was possible. And the list of imitated passages will 
 shew that the rhythm of Lucretius, with its dignity and beauty, 
 still inspired some of the best of Vergil's verses. 
 
 {c) In the thoughts^ though Vergil was not a philosopher 
 and though he by no means either accepted all Lucretius' beliefs 
 or shared all the feelings which resulted from them, still the 
 Georgics shew many deep traces, chiefly in the earlier boolcs. 
 
 In the famous passage (ii. 475) 'Me vero primum dulces 
 ante omnia Musae &c.'the poet plainly declares that the highest 
 honour and delight is to expound in poetry all the secret lore 
 of nature : and that the task he had set himself, to describe the 
 country life, was, though a happy one, still second to the other. 
 Again besides his general reverence for his master's study and 
 doctrine, we have special traces of the influence : in his feeling 
 of the presence of Nature as a great and universal productive 
 power (ii. 9, 20, 47), and of the force exercised by Love over all 
 the animals as well as over Man (iii. 242 — 284); in the sense of 
 a constant need for struggle on the part of man (i. 155,200), and 
 the number of counter-influences that thwart his labours (i. 1 18) ; 
 in the recognition that there was once a golden age when 
 things were easier and earth was richer — an age which is past 
 (i. 127); even in some special doctrines like the 'hidden pores 
 ol earth' (i. 90), or the materialist explanation of the birds' 
 weather-signs (i. 41 5)' and generally in his poetic ascription
 
 12 
 
 INTKOD UCTION. 
 
 to inanimate things of feelings and tendencies drawn from 
 man's nature. 
 
 There can be no doubt that in the magnificent passage at 
 the end of the second book 'Fehx qui potuit rerum cognosccre 
 causas &c.' Vergil intended to pay a direct tribute to Lucretius, 
 by suggesting that the latter's work was the highest aim and 
 achievement of the poet's art : a tribute which was all the 
 greater as he did not name him, seeing that no other identifi- 
 cation was possible. 
 
 3. List 0/ passages imitated from Lucretius. 
 
 Georg. iii. LUCR. 
 
 10 i. 117 qui primus amaeno detulit ex Helicone 
 
 perenni fronde coronam. 
 149 V. 33 asper acerba tuens. 
 
 289 i. 922 [the subject is hard: but I have a deep 
 
 love of Muses : I wish to approach 
 the spring and pluck a chaplet, whence 
 none have crowned themselves be- 
 fore.] 
 
 360 vi. 626 mollisque luti concrescere crustas. 
 
 361 vi. 551 ferratos xoX.2iX\xm. orbes. 
 
 478 vi. 1138-1286 [Vergil imitates Lucretius' powerful 
 
 description of the plague at 
 Athens.] 
 520 ii. 361 [the soft willows and dewy grass and 
 
 brimming streams cannot delight her.] 
 Ceorg. iv. 
 223 i. 163 artnenta?ii(\uc7i\\iicpecttdes,getms omne 
 
 ferariun. 
 472 iv. 35 siviulacraque luce carentum. 
 
 499 iii. 455 ceu /t^f/i i/s ift ahas aeris auras. 
 
 515 ii. 146 Wquidis /oca vocihus opp/e fit. 
 
 And the following phrases : — 
 
 miseris mortalibus (iii. 66), nonne vides (iii. 103), quod 
 superest (iv. 51), genus omne animantum (iii. 556). 
 
 jfrom Ribbeck]
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 4, The later Georgics and Hotner. 
 
 We have seen that the form of the Georgics, as originally 
 conceived, and described by Vergil himself, was an imitation of 
 Hesiod ; and that the spirit was largely that of Lucretius. The 
 poetic influence of Lucretius is however decidedly less in the 
 two last books than in the two first ; in spite of the fact that the 
 powerful description of the plague with which the third Georgic 
 closes is modelled on the elder poet's episode on the pestilence 
 of Athens at the end of the sixth book de reruin natura. Though 
 to the end Vergil's debt to Lucretius remains very deep, the 
 influence of the latter is in these books beginning to be over- 
 shadowed by that of a still greater poet (or poets), which in the 
 Aouid becomes primary. Nothing is more notable than the 
 great increase in these later Georgics of the reminiscences of 
 Homer, The poet who began the Georgics with the ambition of 
 * Singing the song of Ascra through the towns of Rome,' ends with 
 a long episode imitated, and even largely translated, from the 
 Odyssey. 
 
 In the section on the execution of the Georgics below (§ 8) 
 enough is said about the attitude of Vergil and the Augustans 
 towards Greek literature; and nothing is more natural than that 
 the two greatest of all Greek poems, in spite of all differences of 
 age, manner, subject, and diction, should begin to shew the 
 place they occupied in Vergil's mind. It will be sufficient here 
 to remark that it is chiefly in the episodes, similes, and other 
 touches inserted to adorn and vary the ostensible subject of the 
 Georgics, that these memories of Homer (naturally) occur. 
 Subjoined is a list of the principal Homeric parallels, from 
 Ribbeck and the commentators. 
 
 5. Principal Homeric parallels. 
 Geori^. iii. HOMER. 
 106-1 1 1 //. 23. 360 &c. [the chariot race] 'and they lifted 
 
 their whips and smote... and swift 
 they sped over the plain... and now 
 the cars ran low on the rich earth, 
 and now they soared into the air... 
 the dust arose beneath them.'
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Georg iii. Homer. 
 
 172 //. 5. 83S 'the beechen axle groaned with the 
 
 wcitjht.' 
 223 //. 15. 193 'and earth... and high Olympus.' 
 
 237 //. 4. 422 [ranks move like a storm at sea aris- 
 
 ing-] 
 357 Od. II. 15 *nor does the bright sun ever behold 
 
 them with his rays, neither when he 
 rises to the starry heaven, nor when 
 he sinks from heaven back to earth.' 
 Georg. iv. 
 
 261-263 //. 14. 394 ' neither does the wave of the sea roar 
 
 so loud. ..nor so great is the noise of 
 burning fire, ...nor does the wind so 
 murmur in the high oaks...' 
 
 320 //. I. 351 'and many a prayer to his mother he 
 
 prayed with outstretched arms.' 
 
 333 //. 18. 35 'and his mother heard him, sitting in 
 
 the depths of the sea... and the 
 nymphs gathered around her &c....' 
 
 361 Od. II. 243 'and the dark wave stood round him 
 
 like a mountain bent in a curve...' 
 
 387 sqq. Od. 4. 380 sqq. [the story of Proteus.] 
 
 475 Od. 11.38 'brides and youths and wayworn 
 
 elders, and tender maidens with 
 hearts new to sorrow, and many 
 slain with bronze spears, warriors 
 with bloody armour...' 
 
 512 0^.16.216 'birds. ..whose young the rustics have 
 
 taken from the nest, ere ihey were 
 fledged...' 
 
 514 Od. 19. 520 'the nightingale. ..who oft changing 
 
 pours out her rich song,bewailing her 
 child...' 
 528 Od. 4. 570 ' So speaking he dived beneath the 
 
 billowy sea.'
 
 INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 6. The sources of the Georgics. 
 
 We have discussed briefly the influences of previous writers 
 
 on Vergil in thought and style. It remains to enumerate the 
 
 main sources from which he drew his knowledge ; and these 
 
 may be conveniently divided into prose sources and poetical 
 
 sources, which had best be given as follows in chronological 
 
 order. 
 
 a. Prose : i. Greek. 
 
 (i) Xenophon (about 444 — 357 B.C.) in his Oecono7nics 
 (ch. 16 — 19) gives a short discussion on the nature of soils, 
 ploughing, fallows, harrowing, sowing, preparing grain, and 
 culture of trees. These hints concern only Georgics i and 
 2. In the same writer's treatise on ' Horses' there are one or 
 two remarks which directly or indirectly may be the source of 
 passages in Georgic 3. 
 
 (2) Aristotle (384 — 321 B.C.) in his History of Animals 
 is evidently the authority directly for some of Vergil's state- 
 ments about the generation of animals : especially about boars 
 (G. iii. 255), the strange superstition of marcs being vento 
 gravidae and flying north and south (iii. 275), the hippommies 
 (280) and the importance of the colour of the ram's tongue 
 (388). Also some superstitions about bees (iv. 194, 200, 219). 
 
 (3) Theophrastus (about 380—287 B.C.) wrote a work 
 
 on I'.otany which is still extant, and which Vergil uses in the 
 
 second book. 
 
 ii. Latin. 
 
 (4) M. Porcius Cato the Censor (234—139 B.C.) is the 
 author of a still extant treatise on agriculture {de AV Riistica\ 
 written in a curiously curt and unreadable style. In the later 
 Georgics Cato's authority is chiefly traceable in the remarks on 
 sheep and goats (iii. 387 sqq.) and the treatment of the scabies 
 (440 sqq.). 
 
 (5) M. Terentius Varro of Rtafe in B.C. 37 publislicd 
 at the age of 80 an itilcresting work in llirce Ijooks with the
 
 1 6 INTR OD UCTJON. 
 
 saoie title as Cato's, de Re Rustica. This, for all the Gcorgic;- 
 and especially for the third and fourth books, is far the most iin 
 portant source of Vergil's knowledge, as will appear from the brief 
 analysis given below ■ and as it was published just before Vergil' 
 began to write his Georgics, it may very likely have had some 
 influence, with Maecenas or the poet or both, in determining 
 the choice of subject. Varro was looked up to as a great 
 student and litterateur, and is said to have written several 
 hundred books. 
 
 In the third Georgic, the precepts on the following points 
 are all found in, and many obviously borrowed from, Varro's 
 second book :— The choice of cows and horses for breeding — 
 the feeding of brood animals — their treatment — the food and 
 training of the young, both cattle and horses — the housing and 
 feeding of sheep and goats — the use of goatskin — the raising 
 of wool — dairy-farming — and (very briefly) the rearing of 
 dogs. 
 
 In the fourth Georgic, the following points for the bee-farmet 
 are from Varro : — the origin of bees — their domestic economy — 
 their respect for their queen ('king') — the treatment of drones — 
 their noises — the cultivation of flowers for bees — the best site 
 for hives — the attractions for bees — the material of hives- 
 fumigation — the need for killing one queen when there are two 
 — the various kinds of queens and workers — the signs of disease 
 — swarming, and how to direct it — the three products, wax, bee- 
 bread, honey — stones and logs in the water near hives — tht 
 signs of swarming — the use of 'tinkling' and 'dust-throwing'— 
 the rules for taking comb — the cutting off of empty comb — the 
 battles of bees. 
 
 This, it will be seen, covers nearly the whole ground of whai 
 is really didactic in these books. 
 
 b. Poetical sources. 
 
 (6) From Hesiod is borrowed, in the first Georgic, th( 
 passage about lucky and unlucky days, the instruction to 'sov 
 and plough stripped,' and various phrases. In the third Georgi(
 
 INTRO D UCTION. 1 7 
 
 the only reminiscence of Hesiod is a short passage about dogs 
 (404 sqq.). The second and fourth Georgia owe nothing. 
 
 (7) The astronomical passage in the first Georgic (i. 233) 
 is in substance from a scientific poem in Greek hy Eratosthenes^ 
 mathematician and librarian at Alexandria in 3rd century B.c 
 
 (8) The Alexandrian poet Aratiis (3rd century B.C.) 
 wrote on Astronomy in Greek {Phaenomena) and weather-signs 
 {Dwsemeia), which supplied Vergil with hints for the passage 
 (i. 351 — 463) about signs of storms and fair weather, drawn from 
 the behaviour of birds and beasts and the appearance of the sun 
 and moon. The works are extant, written in a stiff and frigid 
 style. 
 
 (9) Nicander of Colophon, physician and poet about the 
 middle of the 2nd century B.C., wrote a poem in Greek on 
 'poisonous animals' {Theriaca). The whole passage in Georgic 
 iii. (414 — 439) where Vergil treats of snakes, is based on Ni- 
 cander. 
 
 The same writer also wrote Georgics, and a poem on Bee- 
 keeping (MfXto-o-oupyi/ca) which only survive in fragments. Both 
 of these Vergil doubtless knew and probably used ; and the 
 latter may have supplied many points for the fourth Georgic. 
 
 7. Subject and purpose of the poem. 
 
 Vergil himself describes his subject in the opening lines as 
 being the tilling of the land, the growing of vines, the breeding 
 of cattle, and bee-keeping. These four headings closely corre- 
 spond to the matter of the four books. The Georgics then, 
 (as the name imports), are a Manual for Farmers in verse : and 
 this ostensible purpose was so far attained that the poem was 
 referred to afterwards (e.g. by Columella the son of a Spanish 
 farmer, about A.D. i — 70, who wrote a comprehensive treatise 
 on agriculture) as a standard work on the subject ; and it is 
 plain that Vergil was really interested in the practical details of 
 agriculture, and spoke with knowledge not only derived from 
 books but also from personal experience of country life. 
 
 But it docs not need saying that his purpose went much 
 
 G. III. IV. 3
 
 1 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 further than this. Maecenas (see note on iii. 41) himself is said 
 to have suggested to the poet the subject, and Maecenas' interest 
 in it would naturally be twofold. As a patron of literature he 
 desired the production of a great work of art : and as minister 
 of Augustus he was anxious to carry out the emperor's sincere 
 and wide reaching desire of restoring a national spirit, the old 
 feeling of Italian unity and patriotism. 
 
 That the young poet should become the Hesiod of Rome as 
 he had already become (in the Eclogues) the Theocritus : that 
 he should again delight his readers with his melodious and 
 imaginative verse, with his richly stored knowledge of the 
 beauties of Greek literature skilfully worked in, imitated, sug- 
 gested, in his finished and pregnant style : that he should bring 
 to bear his deep love for the country, his practical knowledge, 
 his poetic observation of nature, upon such a work : — 
 
 And again, that he should do something — if not to convert 
 men from politics and plots, from luxury and vice — at any rate 
 to turn their thoughts to purer sources of pleasure ; to remind 
 them of the ancient love of Romans for the land, of the old 
 farmer-heroes who went from the plough to command an army ; 
 to sing the praise of Italy in memorable verse, to give a new 
 stimulus, of a sincere and profound character, to the reviving 
 patriotism ; and thus to promote the hopefulness and gratitude 
 and salutary enthusiasm with which men were beginning to hail 
 the Augustan era ; — 
 
 If such were the hopes that prompted Maecenas when he 
 urged Vergil to write the Georgics, they were not unreasonable 
 in view of the times, and in view of what the poet had already 
 done : and certainly as far as poetical achievement went they 
 were more than fulfilled. 
 
 8. The executio7i of the poem ^ 
 
 Many critics are of opinion that in the Aeneid Vergil had 
 set himself an impossible task, while in the Georgics he had a 
 
 ' For some points in this section I am indebted 10 Mr [. II. Skrine's 
 preface to his edition of Georgic 11. : a preface written willi taste and 
 insight, and with many happy illustrations.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 subject exactly suited to his gifts. Without entering on such 
 sweeping judgments — which, in the case of rare works of genius 
 are generally misleading and superficial — we may at least agree 
 that the Georgics is a most striking and beautiful poem on 
 what appears at first sight a rather unpromising subject. It is 
 worth while to try and understand, in however rough and 
 general a way, what are the qualities of workmanship that have 
 made the 'manual for farmers' into a poem that has given 
 delight to all readers for 1900 years. 
 
 The result is due partly to the art and partly to the spirit 
 of the poet. Of course these two things are closely con- 
 nected, and it is not possible really to distinguish completely 
 between them : but we may be allowed to consider some aspects 
 of each separately, and it will perhaps tend to clearness to 
 do so. 
 
 In considering the art of the Georgics the first thing we 
 have to remember is that the Augustan literature owes its in- 
 spiration mainly to Greek. Horace's aim is to be the Roman 
 Alcaeus and Sappho : Ovid devotes himself to naturalising in 
 Italy the Greek Elegiac metre : Propertius makes Callimachus 
 his model : and Vergil announces himself in the Georgics as 
 'singing the song of Ascra (Hesiod's birthplace) through the 
 Roman towns.' But it is not merely that the general form of 
 the poem is suggested by Greek ; nor that the subject and metre 
 are borrowed from Hesiod ; far more important is the taste 
 of literary association with which the workmanship abounds. 
 Both the poet and those for whom he wrote were possessed with 
 the greatness and beauty of Greek literature ; and the poem at 
 every turn is intended to remind them of it. Sometimes this is 
 done with a mere epithet; the 'Chaonian' acorn, the 'Lethean' 
 poppy, the 'Acheloian' cups of water, the 'Paphian' myrtle, 
 'Amyclaean' clogs, 'Cretan' quiver, the 'Idaean' pitch, 'Cecro- 
 pian' bees. More often a passing allusion or phrase touches 
 some part of the rich and picturesque Greek mythology : 'The 
 wagons of the Elcusinian mother' (reminding us of the tales of 
 Demeter, the mysteries of Kleusis, the Aliienian processions to 
 the temple of Artemis &c.); The 'prizes of wit which the sonj 
 
 2 — 2
 
 20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Theseus ordained' (reminding us of the worship of Dionysus 
 and all llie glories of the Athenian stage). 'Till the Atlantidcs 
 be hidden' (the story of the Pleiads); 'The Olympian palm,' 
 (reminding us of the great gathering of Greece at Elis for the 
 five-year festival): the power of love on man to make him 'swim 
 the dark straits at midnight' (referring to the beautiful tale of 
 Hero and Leander) ; and similar reference in other places to 
 Ariadne, Alcyone, Scylla, Hylas, Chiron, Parnasus, &c. Or 
 again common things are beautified with a more direct literary 
 reference : if the poet mentions waierbirds^ they 'sport round 
 Caysuian pools, in the Asian meads' : an orchard reminds him 
 of the 'groves of Alcinous' ; the lightning strikes 'Athos or 
 Rhodope or the Ceraunian rocks'; the wrecked sailor vows 'to 
 Glaucus and Panopea and Melicerta son of Ino'; the gadjly 
 suggests the tale of Juno's jealousy ; the horse reminds him ot 
 Epidaurus, Elis, the Homeric tale of the horses of Achilles and 
 Pollux, Erechtheus the inventor of cars, and the Lapithae of the 
 saddle; white wool is 'such a gift as that wherewith Pan 
 beguiled Luna' ; and last but not least a mysterious disease 
 among bees gives occasion for the bodily transference into 
 Vergil's poetry of the charming sea-fairy-tale of Proteus from 
 the Odyssey. 
 
 Again quite apart from the rich literary associations, Vergil 
 has notably the power of picturesque suggestiveness ; often all 
 the more effective that the suggestion is given in a word. To 
 take examples from the earlier books : — He is speaking of spices, 
 and we see molles Sabaei, 'unwarlike Arabs'; of iron, and we 
 see 7iudi chalybes 'the stripped forgers': the pine tree is 
 'doomed to witness the perils of the sea': the rich harvest is 
 'drawn home by tired heifers': the evening and morning sky 
 suggest a crop of pictures, 'the timeless night,' the 'Bears fear- 
 ing to be dipped in Ocean,' the ' Dawn's panting steeds,' ' the 
 turning poles,' &c. So in books iii. and iv. : when he has to say 
 'summer' he says 'when the floor groans with heavy blows upon 
 the grain, and empty chaff is tossed to the rising Zephyr' : the 
 heat of noon is ' when sorrowing crickets crack the bushes with 
 their song': the evening is the time when 'the dewy moon
 
 INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 frcslioir; the ghidcs, the shores echo to the kingfisher, the brakes 
 to the warbler.' Indeed the whole poem is alive with such 
 pictures. 
 
 Another common note of Vergil's poetic' art is connected with 
 his deep love of nature, namely the touches of personification 
 which abound in the poem. Of course the tendency is by no 
 means peculiar to Vergil, but is found in all poetry : in other 
 poets however it is often frigid, or artificial, or overloaded, 
 whereas the particular merit of Vergil is that his touch is so 
 light and graceful in these personifications. Thus in the earlier 
 books the frozen land is ' hard with Boreas' breath ' : the seeds 
 are 'due to the furrows': the South wind 'broods,' the moon's 
 'virgin face flushes,' the Sun 'none can call false': the apples 
 * feel their strength,' the poor vine is * ashamed of her clusters,' 
 the graft shoots 'know not their mother,' the buds 'are taught,' 
 the tree 'wonders at her new leaves,' the vines in the winter 
 ' put by the pruning hook,' the ' stealthy fire escapes to the 
 upper leaves and reigns a conqueror,' the 'beasts are sent into 
 the forests and stars into the sky^ So in books iii. and iv., 
 rivers are 'rapacious,' the myrtles 'love the shore,' winter 'reins 
 in the streams with frost,' the narcissus 'weeps,' the river Po 
 has 'bull's head with gilded horns,' and the mountains are 
 ' widowed of their snow.' 
 
 Further, in the third and fourth books, where the subjects 
 (breeding and bee-keeping) might seem a little too dry or narrow 
 for sustained poetic interest, he begins more largely to use 
 other attractions, the episodes and the similes. Thus we have in 
 the third book, the episodes of the horse race (with a Homeric 
 memory) ; the battle between the bulls, written with a singularly 
 delicate and even pathetic sympathy ; and the fine passage on 
 the power of love over all creation. The great episode at the end 
 of book iii., the account of the unknown plague (imitated from 
 Lucretius) is a fine example of Vergil's power in describing dark 
 and even horrible things, which is perhaps hardly to modern 
 taste, though the unpleasantness is more than redeemed by the 
 force. But nothing in all the (icorgics, and few things in any 
 poetry, can be put above the beautiful episode at the end of
 
 22 JNTR OD UCTION. 
 
 book iv. containing the story of Orpheus and Euryclice. Alien 
 as this is from the subject of the Georgics' and strained and 
 even crude as is the attempt to make it relevant, for music and 
 patjios and pure poetic beauty it remains unsurpassed. 
 
 Again in the similes, which are in themselves mostly simple 
 and obvious, the poet has opportunity of raising direct memories 
 of Homer, which he always delighted to do : and the passages 
 are (with one striking exception iii. 97) beautiful or effective 
 pictures which must help to relieve and adorn the less interest- 
 ing parts of the agricultural doctrine. 
 
 These are some of the most prominent points of Vergil's 
 art, and most easily capable of being illustrated. But of course 
 the real effect of the poem depends more on points which 
 escape analysis : on the fitness of his diction, the vividness 
 of the pictures, the melody, the imaginativeness, the variety, 
 the delicacy, the impressiveness, the grace, of his phrases and 
 lines. Towards the appreciation of these things, some aid 
 may be found in the notes and index to these books : but in 
 the main it must be left to each reader's ear and taste and 
 sensibility. 
 
 A few words should however be said, secondly, about the 
 spirit of the Georgics, which has even more to do with their 
 permanent effect than the style. The most obvious point is 
 the poet's love for the country. Vergil has been called ' the 
 Rustic'* of Genius,' and one of his strongest and deepest 
 feelings was a love for country life; not merely its scenery but 
 all its sights and sounds; the sky, the woods, the rivers, lakes 
 and hills, the fields, the trees and flowers, the animals down to 
 the very insects, the heavenly bodies, the storms and winds and 
 
 ' There is an old story of dubious autliority, though accepted by most 
 commentators, that the Georgics originally ended with a panegyric on 
 C. Cornelius Gallus, a great friend of the poet's, who had helped 
 Augustus in subjugating Egypt : but that when Gallus fell under the 
 Emperor's displeasure for too great independence and arrogance in his 
 administration of Egypt, Vergil changed the end of the fourth Georgic, 
 and introduced the episode of Aristaeus. 
 
 * Mr \ . Myers in his striking essay on Vergil, p. 126.
 
 TNTR on UCTIOi\^. 5 j 
 
 calms, the chani^cs of the day and seasons, the varied and 
 healthy labour, the simple and honest and hardy men and 
 women who lived and died amongst these things. This pro- 
 found feeling finds vent in the beautiful eulogy on rustic life 
 in the second book 
 
 At secura quies et nescia fallerc vita, &c. (ii. 467), 
 
 in the splendid and passionate outburst 
 
 ...o ubi campi 
 Spercheosque et virginibus bacchata Lacaenis, &c. 
 
 (ii. 486). 
 
 and is closely bound up with Vergil's deep home-love for the 
 Mantuan country and his ideal patriotism for the * Saturnia 
 tellus' which inspire the glowing panegyric on Italy in the 
 beginning of the same book (ii. 136 — 176). But it appears no 
 less in numerous little touches all through the poem. It is 
 shewn for instance in his special choice of the words felix and 
 Inetus for plants and trees, the opening phrase quid facial 
 laetas segetes striking the keynote : in his loving description of 
 beautiful sights, such as the incomparable lines on the flowering 
 walnut 
 
 Contemplator item cum se nux plurima silvis 
 induet in florem et ramos curvabit olentcs : 
 
 or the soft retreat of the pregnant cows 
 
 saltibus in vacuis pascunt et plena secundum 
 flumina, muscus ubi et viridissima gramine ripa, 
 speluncacque tcgant et saxca procubet umbra 
 
 in sympathetic descriptions of animals — the horse which loves 
 soothing words and the pat upon his neck (iii. 185), the sorrow- 
 ing humiliation of the defeated bull (iii. 225), the power of love 
 on all the animals (iii. 242), the beautiful bird notes (iii. 338), 
 and all through book iv. in his treatment of the work, the feel- 
 ings, the troubles, the delights of the bees ; in little touches of 
 accurate painting, such as the willow {glauca canentia fronde)^ 
 the bean {siliqtia quassanie), and the signs of storm and tine
 
 24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 weallicr in the first book, or the horse's elastic step {iiiellia crura 
 riponunt), the Hzard {picti sqitalcniia terga lacerti), the cucumber 
 or gourd {torlusque per herbnui cresceret itt ventrem ct/ctiniis), 
 in the third and fourth ; in the lovely passage about the birth of 
 spring (ii. 325) when all things bear and ' Heaven descends in 
 fruitful rain into the bosom of his glad bride'; in the vivid paint- 
 ing of shepherd life in Africa and in the cold north (iii. 350) ; 
 and in passing phrases like divini gloria niris, tantus amor 
 terrat., flumina afnem silvasqiie, and at liquidi fontes et stagjia 
 virentia musco. 
 
 Still more important, perhaps, and quite as deep-lying is the 
 poet's feeling of the beauty and dignity 0/ labour. The sadness 
 of human life is likewise a constant feeling of Vergil's, but it is 
 more apparent in his later work, the Aeneid; in the Georgics 
 labour is represented rather as a bountiful provision of the 
 gods, a sound and permanent source of happiness. Thus 
 although in the golden age all was ease and abundance (i. 128), 
 yet the need which gave rise to labour was in the end beneficial : 
 ' The /a/'/^(?r himself willed it' (121); he would not have 'sloth 
 and torpor' (124); the change produced various inventions 
 (135) and all the arts of life (145). Though the farmer's toil is 
 never ending {redit labor actus in orbem), still his life is 
 supremely happy, * o fortunati nimium. ..ngricolae.' The dignity 
 of this toil is suggested by the constant use of words meaning 
 conquest; imperat arvis, subactis scrobibus, cogere, domare, Sec. 
 In the same spirit we have a con amore description of the busy 
 variety of life on wet days (i. 260) ; of the wife singing at her 
 loom (i. 290); of the poet's visit to the garden of the old man of 
 Corycus (iv. 132) whose happiness 'matched the wealth of 
 kings'; in the same spirit again is the playful energy of the 
 simile which depicts the farmer like the soldier /!«r//;/i,'- his seed, 
 grappling the land, laying low the heaps (i. 104), and most 
 notable of all, the passage at the end of book ii. where he 
 contrasts the delight of the ceaseless labour of the husbandman 
 witli the vain or disastrous energies of the courtier, the soldier, 
 the merchant, the orator, the statesman or the conqueror (ii, 
 501 sqq.).
 
 INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 Another point (quite as significant, though less noticeable at 
 first sight) which shews the poet's delight in his subject is the 
 constant emergence in the Georgics of what we may call a 
 spirit of playfulness. Vergil's delicate and ' finely touched 
 spirit' inclined rather to pathos and to seriousness, and in the 
 whole Aeneid we have hardly the least sparkle of humour, 
 (though in the Iliad there is no lack of it and in the Odyssey 
 it abounds) : but in this poem his love of the country life, and 
 its objects and details, not unfrequently finds expression in a 
 certain gaiety of thought or phrase which conveys to the reader 
 a sense of his pleasure in the scenes he describes. Sometimes 
 it is the playfulness of exaggeration: the 'rustling forest' of 
 the lupine, the comparison (mentioned above) of the farmer's 
 energy to a battle, the 'homes and garner' of the mouse, the 
 weevil ' sacking' the cornbin, the ant's 'needy old age': some- 
 times an amusing picture or turn of phrase, as the 'tiresome' 
 goose {tinprobus), the sceleratujii frigus, the raven who ' stalks 
 solitary on the scorched sand,' the tufa and chalk which ' claim 
 that no other soil breeds snakes so well.' This playfulness is 
 found also in the third book, as when he speaks of there being 
 *no limit' to a good cow's length, of the horse's 'grief at losing 
 and 'pride' at winning a race, of 'exhorting' the young calves 
 while ' their mind is pliant ' [dicm faciles animt), or of the 
 defeated bull who recovers his spirit and ' breaks camp ' (signa 
 movef) against the foe. But far most remarkably of all is this 
 playfulness shewn in the fourth book, when treating of the bees. 
 He describes in a sustained vein of humorous solemnity their 
 whole system, social, industrial, military, and political. Thus 
 the common bees are 'the youth' or the 'quirites': the queens 
 arc 'kings,' 'high souled leaders,' who 'reign,' and are revered 
 with more than Oriental loyalty: the hive is their 'city,' their 
 'country,' their 'penates': when the bees get a wetting, it is 
 'Eurus plunges them in Neptune': when they do their allotted 
 tasks they 'obey the mighty laws' or act up to the 'sure tn-aty 
 bond': when they go out to drink 'they draw water under thv' 
 city walls': the drones 'do not share the public burdens' 
 {itnmunes) and must be slain : ihcy have a ' long line of
 
 26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ancestry' and tlic 'fortune of their house stands sure'; and 
 when they fight 'they make ready their arms,' 'challenj^c the 
 foe,' 'rouse the courage of the common men' {volgi), blow the 
 'martial trump,' 'form close about {stipaiit) the king,' and 'tear 
 the standards from the camp.' And lastly we are told: '■these 
 fiery passions and fierce combats the sprinkling of a Utile dust 
 controls and stilish 
 
 But besides the poet's love for the country, and his strong 
 conviction of the happiness and dignity of labour, there are in 
 the Georgics two other feelings closely blended together which 
 furnish perhaps as much inspiration to this poem as the others. 
 These are (i) the patriotic fueling : the love of Italy as a land 
 of great heroes, and a glorious history, now after a centuiy of 
 discord united under a strong and wise ruler, and with a new 
 era of peace and greatness opening upon it : and (2) the moral 
 feeling ; that the country life of the past, with its simplicity, 
 its healthy labour, its home affections and purity, its hardiness, 
 and its freedom from pettiness of spirit and degrading luxury 
 and noxious cares, was the true school of that manliness, energy 
 and worth, which had made Rome great. 
 
 As to the first, the patriotic feeling, there can be no doubt 
 that Vergil was deeply imbued with it ; it is the inspiration 
 more than any other single sentiment of the whole Aeneid, and 
 particularly of the grand catalogue of Rome's worthies which 
 is the climax of the sixth book. If Italy was tnagna parens 
 frngtim (ii. 173) she was no less magna virum ; and the 'Decii, 
 Mani, and great Camilli, and Scipios hardy in war' (169) are 
 no less present to the poet's mind in writing the Georgics than 
 when later he is marshalling in one grand vision the procession 
 of heroes which makes the history of Rome. This is the spirit 
 which animates the majestic vision of triumph at the opening of 
 the third Georgic (22 — 32), where the poet's enthusiasm is made 
 all the more noticeable by the very difficulty (see notes) of 
 fitting his large phrases to the facts. The strength of this 
 feeling too must excuse, if anything can excuse, the turgid 
 though stately flattery of Augustus with which the Georgics open. 
 It seems incongruous to us that a serious poet should be guilty
 
 INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 of such flattery : that he should gravely speak of 'Tethys 
 buying Augustus to be her daughter's husband with the dowry 
 of all her waves,' or the 'Scorpion drawing back his claws' 
 to make room for the emperor as a 1 3th Zodiac-sign ; but we 
 must in fairness remember, not only the usual conventions of 
 courts and court-poetry, but the real enthusiasm for the new 
 era which the poets, as well as everyone else at the time, 
 undoubtedly felt. 'The good time was come': and we who 
 know how largely their hopes were disappointed, must make 
 allowance for the exaggeration which was natural when such 
 hopes were nearly universal. 
 
 As to the second, the moral feeling, it was both in the main 
 true and sound, and it was peculiarly natural to a poet of 
 Vergil's sensitive and meditative spirit, brought up in the 
 country, and plunged into the tumult, not merely of town life, 
 but court life in the capital. The splendours, the luxuries, the 
 pleasures of his new life did not attract him : they only made 
 him value more highly the beauty, the spiritual rest, the healthy 
 energies of the country. It was the latter, he felt, which pro- 
 duced the 'brave race of men, the Marsians and the Sabines' : it 
 was in the country that there grew up 'the youth enduring of 
 toil and inured to scanty fare' : it was there that 'gods were 
 worshipped and age held in honour': and there 'Justice as slie 
 left the earth set her last footsteps.' The genuineness of Vergil's 
 feeling is strikingly discerned if we compare him with his most 
 gifted contemporary, Horace. There is an unmistakeable ring of 
 satire' in Vergil's description of the busy and dazzling town life : 
 the crowds of callers, the marble pillars, the robes mocked with 
 gold, the statues from Corinth, the wool stained with Assyrian 
 poison, the clear olive-oil drugged with casia : his spirit longed 
 for what was simpler and purer. Horace too denounces wealth : 
 
 * In book iii. 526 there is a significant and characteristic touch of tlie 
 same spirit. lie describes the dying ox, and says 'Of what avail now 
 are his toll and service ? what, that he has turned the heavy earth with 
 the (ilough ? And yet they never knew the baneful Mnssic wine or feasts 
 twice replenished \ on leaves and simple grass they fare, and liear springs 
 are their cups, <tc.
 
 28 INTR on UCTTON. 
 
 he too speaks of the simplicity 'of Romuhis and the unshorn 
 Cato,' praises the 'manly race of rustic warriors taught to turn 
 the sod with Sabine spades,' compares the modern Romans 
 unfavourably with 'Scythians of the plain and Getae' who live 
 virtuously. But these moral sayings of the younger poet do 
 not ring so true. They come few and far between amid in- 
 vitations to dinner, eulogies on choice vintages, warnings to 
 seize the passing hour for life is short, gloating memories of 
 past enjoyments, and countless odes to Chloe, Lyce, Neaera, 
 Lydia, Glycera, and the rest of them. To Horace the country 
 meant his Sabine estate, or summer retreat on the bay of 
 Naples, a place of enjoyment : to Vergil it was a natural home, 
 the abode of beauty and pure delight, and of healthy toil, and 
 virtue. 
 
 9. Outline of VergiVs life. 
 
 P. Vergilius Maro was born 15 Oct., B.C 70, near Mantua, 
 a town on the Mincio in North Italy, then called Cisalpine 
 Gaul. He had not good health, and after being educated at 
 Cremona and Mediolanum {Milan), and studying Greek and 
 philosophy elsewhere, he came back to live (probably) on his 
 father's farm, until about B.C. 42. In that year Octavianus, 
 afterwards the emperor Augustus, had defeated at Philippi 
 Brutus and Cassius, the murderers of JuHus Caesar ; and gave 
 lands to his victorious soldiers in various part of Italy, 
 amongst other assignments being Vergil's farm. The poet's 
 first acquaintance with Augustus was due to this event ; for he 
 applied to him at Rome for the restitution of his property, and 
 was successful. He became the friend of the rich art-patron 
 Maecenas, the poet Horace, and the brilliant circle of literary 
 men who were collected at the court of Augustus. The works 
 of Vergil are not voluminous. The Eclogues are Idylls in imi- 
 tation of the Greek poet Theocritus, and were written sometime 
 before he was 33. The Georgics, an agricultural poem in four 
 books, of which the form was more or less suggested by 
 Hesiod, he wrote in the next few years, finishing them sometime
 
 INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 about his 40th year. The Aeneid, his great work, he appears 
 to have begun about B.C. 27, when he was 43 years of age, at 
 the wish of Augustus. A few years later, finding his health 
 failing, he tried travelling ; and in the spring of 19 he was at 
 Athens. The summer he spent with Augustus abroad, but died 
 a few days after reaching Brundusium on his return. The day 
 of his death was Sept. 22, and he was not quite 51. He was 
 buried at Naples, where his tomb is still shewn, though the 
 authenticity of it is at least doubtful. 
 
 His character seems to have been most simple, pure, and 
 loveable ; and his poetic fame was well established even before 
 his death.
 
 p. VERGILI MARONIS. 
 
 GEORGICON 
 
 LIBER TERTIUS. 
 
 Te quoque, magna Pales, et te memorande canemus 
 
 Pastor ab Amphryso, vos, silvae amnesque LycaeL 
 
 Cetera, quae vacuas tenuissent carmine mente~s, 
 
 Omnia iam volgata : quis aut Eurysthea durum, 
 
 Aut inlaudati nescit Busiridis aras? 5 
 
 Cui non dictus Hylas puer, et Latonia Delos, 
 
 Hippodameque, umero<jue Pelops insignis eburno, 
 
 Acer equis ? temptanda via est, qua me quoque possim 
 
 Tollere humo victorque virum volitare per ora. 
 
 Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, 10 
 
 Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musas ; 
 
 Primus Idumaeas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas 
 
 Et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam 
 
 Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi flcxibus errat 
 
 Mincius et tenera jjraetexit harundine ripas. 15 
 
 In medio mihi Caesar erit tcmplumque tenebit 
 
 Illi victor ego et Tyrio conspectus in ostro 
 
 Centum quadriiugos agitabo ad flumina currus. 
 
 Cuncta mihi Alpheum linquens lucosque Molorchi 
 
 Cursibus et crudo dccernet Graccia cacstu. ' 20 
 
 Ipse caput tonsae foliis ornatus olivae 
 
 Dona feram. Iam nunc sollemnes ducere potnpas 
 
 Ad delubra iuvat caesosquc videre iuvcncos; 
 
 Vel scaena ut vcrsis disccdat lVonlil)Us, ul(|ue 
 
 Purpurea intexti tollant aulaea IJritanni. 25
 
 32 F. VERGILI MARONIS _ 
 
 In foribus pugnam ex auro solidoque elephanto 
 Gangaridum faciam victorisque arma Quirini, 
 Atque hie undantem bello raagnumque fluentem 
 Nilum, ac navali surgentes aere columnas. 
 Addam urbes Asiae domitas pulsumque Niphaten 30 
 
 Fidentemque fuga Parthiim versisque sagittis, 
 Et duo rapta manu diverso ex hoste tropaea 
 Bisque triumphatas utroque ab litore gentes. 
 Stabunt et Parii lapides, spirantia signa, 
 Assaraci proles demissaeque ab love geiUis 35 
 
 Nomina, Trosque parens et Troiae Cynthius auctor. 
 Invidia infelix Furias amnemque severum 
 Cocyti metuet tortosque Ixionis angues 
 Immanemque rotam et non exsuperabile saxum. ' 
 Interea Dryadum silvas saltusque sequamu^ ^ 40 
 
 Intactos, tua, Maecenas, baud mollia iussa, 
 Te sine nil altum mens incohat; en age segnes * 
 Rumpe moras ; voCat ingenti clamore Cithaeron 
 Taygetique canes doniitrixque Epidaurus equorum 
 E)t vox adsensu nemoriim ingeminata remugit. 45 
 
 Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas 
 Caesaris, et nomen fama tot ferre per annos, 
 -Tithoni prima quot abest ab origine Caesar. 
 " Sen quis Olympiacae miratus praemia palmae 
 Pascit equos, seu quis fortes ad aratra iuvencos, 50 
 
 Corpora praecipue matrum legat. Optuma torvae 
 Forma bovis, cui turpe caput, cui plurima cervix, 
 Et crurum tenus a mento palearia pendent; 
 Turn longo nuUus lateri modus; omnia magna, 
 Pes ctiam ; et camuris hirtae sub cornibus aures. 55 
 
 Nee mihi displiceat maculis insignis et albo, 
 Aut iuga detractans interdumque aspera cornu 
 Et faciem tauro propior, quaeque ardua tota, 
 Et gradiens ima verrit vestigia cauda. 
 Aetas Lucinam iustosque pati hymenaeos 60 
 
 Desinit ante decern, post quattuor incipit annos; 
 Cetera nee feturae habilis nee fortis aratris. 
 Interea, superat gregibus dum laeta iuventas, 
 Solve mares ; mitte in Venerem pecuaria primus, 
 Atque aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem. 65
 
 GEORGICON LIB. III., 33 
 
 'ima quaeque dies miseris mortalibus aevi 
 iia fiigit ; subeunt morbi tristjsque senectus 
 .. labor, et durae rapit inclementia mortis. 
 Semper erunt, quarum mutari corpora malis : 
 Semper enim refice ac, ne post amissa requiras, 70 
 
 Anteveni, et subolem armento sortire quotannis. 
 Nee non et pecori est idem delectus equino. 
 Tu modo, quos in spem statues submittere gentis, 
 Praecipuum iam inde a teneris impende laborem. 
 Continuo pecoris generosi puUus in arvis 75 
 
 Altius ingreditur et mollia crura reponit; 
 Prirnus et ire viam et fluvios temptare minantes 
 Audet, et ignoto sese committere ponti, 
 Nee vanos horret strepitus. Illi ardua cervix 
 Argutumque caput, brevis alvos obesaque terga, 80 
 
 Luxuriatque toris animosum pectus. Honesti 
 Spadices glaueique, color deterrimus albis 
 Et gilvo. Tum, si qua sonum procul arma dedere, 
 St^re loco neseit, micat auribus et tremit artus, 
 CoUectumque Tremens volvit sub naribus ignem. 85 
 
 Densa tuba, et dextro iactata reeumbit in armo; 
 At duplex agitur per lumbos spina, cavatque 
 Tellurem et solido graviter sonat ungula eornu. 
 Talis Amyclaei domitus Poilucis habenis 
 Cyllarus et, quorum Grai meminere poctae, 90 
 
 Martis eciui biiuges et niagni currus Achilli. 
 Talis et ipse iubam eervice effudit equina 
 Coniugis adventu jjcrnix Saturnus, et altum 
 Pelion hinnitu fugiens implevit acuto. 94 
 
 Hunc quoque, ubi aut moibo gravis aut iam segnior annis 
 Deficit, abde dome nee turpi ignosce senectae. 
 Frigidus in Venerem senior, fiustraque laborem 
 Ingra'tum trahit, et, si quando ad proelia ventum est, 
 Ut quondam in stipulis magnus sine viribus ignis, 
 Incassum furit. Ergo animos aevomqiie notabis 100 
 
 Praecipuc; hinc alias artes prolemque parentum 
 Et quis cuirjue dolor viclo, quae gloria palmae. 
 Nonne vides, cum praecipiti certamine campum 
 Corripuere, ruuntque cffusi carcere currus, 
 Cum bpcs arrcclac iuvcnum, exuUanlia(|uc haurit 105 
 
 C. III. IV. ,
 
 34 P- VER GILI MA R ON/S 
 
 Corda pavor pulsans? illi instant verbere torto 
 
 Et proni dant lora, volat vi fervidus axis ; 
 
 lamqiie huniiles, iamque elati sublime videntur ^ 
 
 Aera per vacuum ferri atque adsurgere in auras; 
 
 Nee mora nee retjuies; at fulvae nimbus liarcnac iio 
 
 ToUitur, umescunt spumis flatuque sequentum : 
 
 Tantus amor laudum, tantae est victoria cuiae. 
 
 Primus Erichthonius currus et quattuor ausus 
 
 lungcre equos, rapidusque rotis insistere victor. 
 
 Frena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere 1 1 5 
 
 Impositi dorso atque equitem docueie sub armis 
 
 Insultare solo et gressus glomcrare superbos. 
 
 Aequus uterque labor, aeque iuvenemque magistri 
 
 Exquirunt calidumque nuimis et cursibus acrem, 
 
 Quamvis saepe fuga versos ille egerit hostes 120 
 
 Et patriam Epiruni referat fortesque Mycenas 
 
 Neptunique ipsa deducat origine gentem. 
 
 His animadversis instant sub tempus et omnes 
 Impendunt curas denso distendere pingui, ' 
 
 Quem legere ducem et pecori dixere maritum : 125 
 
 Florentesque secant herbas fluviosque ministrant 
 Farraque, ne blando nequeat superesse labori 
 Invalidique patrum referant ieiunia nati. 
 Ipsa auteni macie tenuant armenta volentes, 
 Atque, ubi concubitus primos iam nota voluptas 130 
 
 Sollicitat, frondesque negant et fontibus arcent. 
 Saepe etiam cursu quatiunt et sole fatigant, 
 Cum graviter tunsis gemit area frugibus, et cum 
 Surgentem ad Zephyrum paleae iactantur inanes. 
 Hoc faciunt, nimio ne luxu obtunsior usus 135 
 
 Sit genitali arvo et sulcos oblimet inertes, 
 Sed rapiat siticns Venerem interiusque recondat. 
 
 Rursus cura patrum cadere et succedere matrum 
 Incipit. Exactis gravidae cum mensibus errant, 
 Non illas gravibus quisquam iuga ducere plaustris, 1(40 
 Non saltu superare viam sit passus et acri 
 Carpere prata fuga fluviosque innare rapaces. 
 Saltibus in vacuis pascunt et plena secundum 
 Mumina, muscus ubi, et viridissinia graniine ripa, 
 Speluncaeque tegant^et saxea procubet umbra, 145
 
 GEORGICON LIB. III. 35 
 
 Est lucos Silari circa ilicibusque virentem 
 
 Plurimus Alburnum volitans, cui nomen asilo 
 
 Romanuiii est, oestrum Grai vcrtere vocantes, 
 
 Asper, acerba sonans, quo tota exterrita silvis 
 
 Diffugiunt armenta ; furii mugitibus aether 150 
 
 Concussus silvaeque et sicci ripa Tanagri. 
 
 Hoc c|Uondam nvenstro horribiles exercuit iras 
 
 Inacliiae luno pestem meditata iuvencae. 
 
 Himc quoque, nam mediis fervoribus acrior instat, 
 
 Arcebis gravido pecori,' , armentaque pasces 155 
 
 Sole recens orto aut noctem ducentibus astris. 
 
 Post partum cura in vitulos traducitur oinnis, 
 Continuoque notas et nomina gentis inurunt, 
 Et quos aut pecori malint submittere habendo 
 Aut aris servare sacros aut scindeie terram 160 
 
 Et campum horrentem . fractis invei tero glaebis. 
 Cetera pascuntur virides armenta per herbas. 
 Tu quos ad studium atque usum formabis agrestem, 
 lam vitulos bortare viamque insiste domandi, 
 Dum faciles animi iyvenum, dum mobilis aetas. 165 
 
 Ac primum laxos tenui de vimine circlos 
 Cervici subnecte ; dehinc, ubi libera colla 
 Servitio adsuerint, ipsis e torquibus aptos 
 lunge pares et coge gradum conferre iuvencos ; 
 Atque illis iam saepe rotae ducantur inanes 170 
 
 Per terram et sunmio vestigia pulvere signent ; 
 Post valido nitens sub pondere faginus axis 
 Instrepat et iunctos temo trahat aereus orbes. 
 Interea pubi indomitae non gramina tantum 
 Nee vescas salicum frondes ulvanviuc palustrem, 175 
 
 Sed frumenta manu carpes sata ; n^c tibi fetac 
 More patrum nivea ini])lebunt mulctraria vaccae, 
 Sed tola in dulces consunicnt ubera natos. 
 
 Sin ad bclla magis siudium turmasque feroccs, 
 Aut Alphea rotis praelabi flumina Pisae 180 
 
 Et lovis in luco currus agitare volantes : 
 Primus equi labor est, animos atque arma vidcre 
 Bellantum lituosque pati tractuquc gementem 
 Ferre rotam et stabulo frenos audire sonantcs ; 
 Turn magis atque magis Mandis gaudere magislri 1.^5 
 
 o — 
 
 3—3
 
 36 P. VERGILJ AIARONIS 
 
 Laudibus et nlausae sonitum cervicis amare. 
 
 Atque haec iam primo depulsus ah ubere matris 
 
 Gaudeat, inque vicem det nioUibus ora capistris 
 
 Invalidus etiamque tremens, etiam inscius aevi. 
 
 At tribus exactis ubi quarta accesserit aestas, 190 
 
 Carpere mox gyrum incipiat gradibusque sonare 
 
 Compositis sinuetque alterna voluniina crurum, 
 
 Sitque laboranti similis ; turn cursibus auras, 
 
 Turn vocet, ac per aperta volans ceu liber habenis 
 
 Aequora vix summa vestigia ponat harena; 195 
 
 Qualis Hyperboreis Aqiiilo cum densus ab oris 
 
 Incubuit, Scythiaeque hiemes atque arida differt 
 
 Nubila : turn segetes altae campique natantes 
 
 Lenibus horrescunt flabris, summaeque sonorem 
 
 Dant silvae, longique urguent ad litora fluctus ; 200 
 
 Ille volat simul arva fuga, simul aequora verrens. 
 
 Hinc vel ad Elei metas et maxima campi 
 
 Sudabit spatia et spumas aget ore cruentas, 
 
 Belgica vel molli melius feret esseda coUo. 
 
 Tum demum crassa magnum farragine corpus 205 
 
 Crescere iam domitis sinito : namque ante domandum 
 
 Ingentes toUent animos prensique negabunt 
 
 Verbera lenta pati et duris parere lupatis. 
 
 Sed non ulla magis vires industria firmat, 
 Quam Venerem et caeci stimulos avertere amoris, 210 
 Sive bourn sive est cui gratior usus equorum. 
 Atque ideo tauros procul atque in sola relegant 
 Pascua post montem oppositum et trans flumina lata, 
 Aut intus clausos satura ad praesepia servant. 
 Carpit enim vires paulatim uritque videndo 215 
 
 Femina, ncc nemorum patitur mcminisse nee herbae 
 (Dulcibus ilia quidem inlecebris), et saepe superbos 
 Cornibus inter sc subigit decernere amantes. 
 Pascitur in magna Sila formosa iuvenca : 
 Illi alternantes multa vi proelia miscent 2'2o 
 
 Volneribus crebris ; lavit ater corpora sanguis, 
 Versaque in obnixos urguentur cornua vasto 
 Cum gemitu ; reboant silvacque et longus Olympus. 
 Nee mos bellantes una stabulare, sed alter 
 Victus abit longeque ignotis exsulat oris, 225
 
 GEORGICON XI£. III. 37 
 
 Multa gemens igiiominiam plagasque superbi 
 
 Victoris, turn, quos amisit inultiis, amores ; 
 
 Et stabula aspectans regnis excessit avitis. 
 
 Ergo omni cura vires exercet et inter 
 
 Dura iacet pernox instrato saxa cubili 230 
 
 Frondibus liirsutis et carice pastus acuta, 
 
 Et temptat sese, atque irasci in cornua discit 
 
 Arboris obnixus trunco, ventosque lacessit 
 
 Ictibus, et sparsa ad pugnam proludit harena. 
 
 Post ubi coUectum robur viresque refectae, 235 
 
 Signa movet, praecepsqtie oblitum fertur in hostem ; 
 
 Fluctus uti, medio coepit cum albescere ponto, 
 
 Longius ex altoque sinum trahit, utque volutus 
 
 Ad terras immane sonat per saxa, neque ipso 
 
 Monte minor procumbit, at ima exaestuat unda 240 
 
 Vorticibus nigramque alte subiectat harenam. 
 
 Omne adeo genus in terris hominumque ferarumque, 
 Et genus aequoreum, pecudes pictaeque volucres, 
 In furias ignemque ruunt : amor oninil)us idem. 
 Tempore non alio catulorum oblita leaena 245 
 
 Saevior erravit campis, nee funera volgo 
 Tarn multa informes ursi stragemque dedere 
 Per silvas ; tum saevus aper, tum pessima tigris ; 
 Heu male tum Libyae solis eriatur in agris. 
 Nonne vides, ut tota tremor pertemptet equorum 250 
 
 Corpora, si tantum notas odor atiulit auras ? 
 Ac neque eos iara frena virum neque verbera saeva, 
 Non scopuli rupesque cavae atcjue obiecta retardant 
 Flumina correptosque unda torquentia montes. 
 Ipse* ruit dentesque Sabellicus exacuit sus, 255 
 
 Et pede prosubigit terram, fricat arbore costas, 
 Atque hinc atque illinc umeros ad volnera durat. 
 Quid iuvcnis, magnum cui versat in ossibus ignem 
 Durus amor? nempe abruptis turbaia proccllis 
 Nocte natat caeca serus freta ; qucm super ingens 260 
 Porta tonat caeli et scopulis inlisa reclamant 
 Aequora ; nee miseri possunt revocare parentcs 
 Nee moritura super cjudeli funere virgo. 
 Quid lynces Bacchi variae et genus acre luporum 
 Atque canum ? quid, (juae inbelles dant proclia cervi ? 265 
 
 70805
 
 38 P. VERGIL! MARONIS 
 
 Scilicet ant6 onines furor est insignis equarum ; 
 
 \'X mentem Venus ipsa dedit, tiuo tcin[)ore (ilauci 
 
 Poliiiades malis nicinbra absuiiipscre quadrigae. 
 
 Illas ducit amor trans Gargara transque sonantem 
 
 Ascaniuni ; superant monies el flumina tranant. 270 
 
 Continuoque avidis ubi subdita flamma medullis, 
 
 (Vere magis, quia vere calor redit ossibus) illae 
 
 Ore omnes versae in Zephyrum stant rupibus altis, 
 
 Exceptantijue leves auras et sacpe sine uUis 
 
 Coniugiis vento gravidae (mirabile dictu) 275 
 
 Saxa per et scopulos et depressas coiiyalles 
 
 Diffugiunt, non, Eure, tuos, neque solis ad ortus, 
 
 In Korean Caurumque, aut unde nigerrimus Auster 
 
 Nascitur et pluvio contristat frigore caelum. ^ 
 
 Hie demum, hippomanes vero quod nomine dicunt 280 
 
 Pastores, lentum destillat ab inguine virus, 
 
 Hippomanes, quod saepe malae legere novercae 
 
 Miscueruntque herbas et non innoxia verba. 
 
 Sed fugit interea, fugit inreparabile tempus, 
 Singula dum capti circumvectamur amore. 285 
 
 Hoc satis armentis : superat pars altera curae, 
 Lanigeros agitare greges hiitasque capellas. 
 Hie labor, hinc laudem fortes sperate coloni. 
 Nee sum animi dubius, verbis ea vincere magnum 
 Quam sit, et angustis hunc addere rebus honorem ; 290 
 Sed me Parnasi deserta per ardua dulcis 
 Raptat amor ; iuvat ire iugis, qua nulla priorum 
 Castaliam molli devertitur orbita clivo. 
 Nunc, veneranda Pales, magno nunc ore sonandum. 
 
 Incipiens stabulis edico in mollibus herbam 295 
 
 Carpere oves, dum mox frondosa reducitur aestas, 
 Et multa duram stipula felicumque maniplis 
 Sternere subter liumum, glacies ne frigida laedat 
 Molle pecus, scabiemque ferat turpesque podagras. 
 Post hinc digressus iubeo frondentia capris 300 
 
 Arbuta sufificere et fluvios praebere recentes, 
 Et stabula a ventis hiberno opponere soli 
 Ad medium conversa diem, cum frigidus olira 
 lam cadit extremoque inrorat Aquarius anno. 
 Hae quoque non cura nobis leviorc tuendae, gO£
 
 GEORGICON LIB. III. %<) 
 
 Nee minor usus erit, quamvis Milcsia niai^no 
 Vellera nuitentur Tyrios incocta rubores : - 
 Densior hinc suboles, hinc largi copia lactis ; 
 Quam magis exhausto spumaverit iibere mulctra, 
 Laeta magis pressis manabunt flumina mammis. 310 
 
 Nee minus interea barbas ineanaque menta 
 Cinyphii tondent hirei saetasque eomantes 
 Usum in castrorum et miseris velamma nautis. 
 Paseuntur vero silvas et summa Lycaei 
 Horrentesque rubos et amantes* af3ua dumos : 315 
 
 Atque ipsae memores redeunt in tecta suosque 
 Ducunt, et gravido superant vix ubere limen. 
 Ergo omni studio glaeiem ventosque nivales. 
 Quo minor est illis curae mortalis egestas, 
 Avertes victumque feres et virgea laetus . 320 
 
 Pabula, nee tota claudes faenilia bruma. 
 At vero Zephyris cum laeta vocantibus aestas 
 In saltus utrumque gregem atque in paseua mittet, 
 Luciferi primo cum sidere frigida rura 
 Carpamus, dum mane novum, dum gramina canent, 325 
 Et ros in tenera pecori gratissimus herba. 
 Inde ubi quarta sitim caeli collegerit hora 
 Et cantu querulae rumpent arbusta eieadae, 
 Ad puteos aut alta greges ad stagna iubebo 
 Currentem ilignis potare canalibus undam ; 330 
 
 Aestibus at mediis umbrosam exquirere vallem, 
 Sicubi magna lovis antiquo robore quercus 
 Ingentes tendat ramos, aut sicubi nigrum 
 Ilieibus crebris sacra nemus accubet umbra ; 
 Turn tenues dare rursus aquas et pascere rursus 3'?5 
 
 Solis ad occasum, cum frigidus aera vesper 
 lemperat et saltus rcficit iam roscida luna 
 Litoraque aleyonem resonant, acalanthida dumi. 
 Quid tibi paslores IJbyae, quid pasciia versu 
 Prosequar et raris habitata mapalia tectis ? 340 
 
 Saepe diem noctemquc et totum ex ordinc mensem 
 Pascitur itcjuc pecus longa in^deserta sine ullis 
 Hospitiis : tantum campi iacet. omnia secum 
 Aruu'iitarius Alcr agit, tectuuKjue larcuKjue 
 Aimacjue Amyclaeumcjue canem Crcssaiiiquc pliarctram ; 
 
 /
 
 40 P, VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 Non sccus ac patriis acer Romanus in aimis 346 
 
 Iniusto sub fasce viani cum carpit, et hosti 
 
 Ante expectatum positis stat in agniine castris. 
 
 At non, qua Scythiae gentes Maeotiaque unda, 
 
 I'urbidus et torquens flaventes Hister harenas, 350 
 
 Qiiaque redit medium Rhodope porrecta sub axein. ' 
 
 Illic clausa tenent stabulis armenta, neque ullae 
 
 Aut herbae campo apparent aut arbore frondes ; 
 
 Sed iacet aggeribus niveis informis et alto 
 
 Terra gelu late septemque adsurgit in ulnas. 355 
 
 Semper hiemps, semper spirantes fiigora Cauri. 
 
 Turn Sol pallentes haud umquam discutit umbras, 
 
 Nee cum invectus equis altum petit aelhera, nee cum 
 
 Praecipitem Oceani rubro lavit aequore currum. 
 
 Concrescunt subitae current! in flumine crustae 360 
 
 Undaque iam tergo ferrates sustinet orbes, 
 
 Puppibus ilia prius, patulis nunc hospita plaustris ; 
 
 Aeraque dissiliunt ultro, vestesque rigescunt 
 
 Indutae, caeduntque securibus umida vina, 
 
 Et totae solidam in glaciem vcrtere lacunae, 365 
 
 Sliriaque inpexis induruit horrida barbis. 
 
 Interea toto non setius aere ninguit : 
 
 Intereunt pecudes, stant circumfusa pruinis 
 
 Corpora magna boum, confertoque agmine cervi 
 
 Torpent mole nova et summis vix cornibus extant. 373 
 
 Hos non immissis canilnis, non cassibus ullis 
 
 Puniceaeve agitant pavidos formidine pennae, 
 
 Sed frustra oppositum trudcntes pectore montem 
 
 Comminus obtruncant ferro, graviterque rudentes 
 
 Caedunt, et magno laeti clamore reportant. 375 
 
 Ipsi in defossis specubus secura sub alta 
 
 Otia agunt terra, congestaque robora totasque 
 
 Advolvere focis ulmos ignique dedere. 
 
 Hie noctem ludo ducunt, et pocula laeti 
 
 Fermento atque acidis imitantur vitea sorbis. 3S0 
 
 Talis Hyperboreo septem subiecta trioni 
 
 Gens effrena virum Rhipaeo tunditur Euro 
 
 Et pecudum fulvis velatur corpora saetis. 
 
 Si tibi lanitium curae, primum aspera silva 
 I^ppaeque tribolique absint; fuge pabula laeta; 385
 
 > GEORGICON LIB. III. 41 
 
 Continuoque greges villis lege mollibus albos. 
 
 Ilium autem, quamvis aries sit candidus ipse, 
 
 Nigra subest udo tantum cui lingua palato, 
 
 Reice, ne niaculis infuscet vellera pullis 
 
 Nascentum, plenoque alium circumspice campo. 390 
 
 Munere sic niveo lanae, si credere dignum est, 
 
 Pan deus Arcadiae captam te, Luna, fefellit 
 
 In nemora alta vocans ; nee tu aspernata vocantem. 
 
 At cui lactis amor, cytisum lotosque frequentes 
 Ipse manu salsasque ferat praesepibus herbas. 395 
 
 Hinc et amant fluvios magis, et magis ubera tendunt 
 Et salis occultum referunt in lacte saporem. 
 Multi iam excretos prohibent a matribus haedos 
 Primaque ferratis praefigunt ora capistris. 
 Quod surgente die mulsere horisque diurnis, 400 
 
 Nocte premunt ; quod iam tenebris et sole cadente, 
 Sub lucem ; exportans calathis adit oppida pastor, • 
 Aut parco sale contingunt hiemique reponunt. 
 
 Nee tibi cura canum fuerit postrema, sed una 
 Velocis Spartae catulos acremque Molossum 405 
 
 Pasce sero pingui. Nuniquam custodibus illis 
 Nocturnum stabulis furem incursusque luporum 
 Aut inpacatos a tergo horrebis Hiberos. 
 Saepe etiam cursu timidos agitabis onagros, 
 Et canibus leporem, canibus venaijere dammas; 410 
 
 Saepe volutabris pulsos silvestribus apros 
 Latratu turbabis agens montesque per altos 
 Ingentem clamore premes ad retia cervum. 
 
 Disce et odoratam stabulis accendere cedrum 
 Galbaneoque agitare graves nidore chelydros. 415 
 
 Saepe sub inmotis praesepibus aut m;ila tartu 
 Vipera delituit caelumcjue exterrita fugit, 
 Aut tecto adsuetus coluber succedere et umbrae 
 (Pestis acerba boum) pecorique aspergere virus, 
 Fovit humum. Cape saxa manu, cape robora, pastor, 420 
 Tollentemque minas et sibila colla tumentem 
 Deice, lamcjue fuga timidum caput abdidit alte. 
 Cum medii nexus extremaeque agmina caudae 
 Solvontur, tardosque trahit sinus ultimus orbes. 
 Est etiam ille malus Calabris in saltibus anguis, 425
 
 4-' P. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 Siiuamea convolvens siiblato pectore terga 
 
 Alque notis longam niaculosus grandibus alvorn, 
 
 Qui, dum anines iilli lumpuntiir fontibus ct dura 
 
 Vcre niadcnt udo terrae ac pliivialibus auslris, 
 
 Stagna colit, ripisiiue habitans hie piscibus atram 430 
 
 hiiprobus ingluviem ranisque loquacibus explet; 
 
 Postquam exusta palus, terraeque ardore dchiscunt, 
 
 l''>xsilit in siccum et flammantia luniina tonjuens 
 
 Saevit agris, asperque siti atque exterritus aestu. 
 
 Ne niilii turn molles sub divo carpere somnos 435 
 
 Neu dorso nemoris libeat iacuisse per herbas, 
 
 Cum positis novus exuviis nitidusque iuventa 
 
 Volvitur aut catulos tectis aut ova relinquens 
 
 Aiduus ad solem et Unguis inicat ore trisulcis. 
 
 Morborum ([uoque te causas et signa docebo. 440 
 
 Turpis oves temptat scabies, ubi frigidus iniber 
 Altius ad vivom persedit et horrida cano 
 Bruma gelu, vel cum tonsis inlotus adhaesit 
 Sudor et hirsuti secuerunt corpora vepres. 
 Dulcibus idcirco fluviis pecus omne magistri 445 
 
 Perfundunt, udisque aries in gurgite villis 
 Mersatur niissusque secundo defluit amni; 
 Aut tonsum tristi contingunt corpus amurca 
 Et spumas misgent argenti vivaque sulfura 
 Idaeasque pices et pingues unguine cet'as 450 
 
 Scillamque elleborosque graves nigrumque bitumen. 
 Non tamen uUa magis praesens fortuna laborum est, 
 Quam si quis ferro potuit rcscindere summum 
 Ulceris os : alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, 
 Dum medicas adhibere manus ad volnera pastor 455 
 Abnegat et meliora dcos sedet omnia poscens. 
 Quin etiam, ima dolor balantum lapsus ad ossa 
 Cum furit atque artus depascitur arida febris, 
 Profuit incensos aestus avertere et inter 
 Ima ferire pedis salientem sanguine venam, 460' 
 
 Bisaltae quo more solent acerque Gelonus ; 
 Cum fugit in Rhodopen atque in deserta Getarum 
 Kt lac concretuin cum sanguine potat equino. 
 Quam procul aut niolli succedere saepiijs umbrae 
 Videris, aut summas carpenlem ignavius herbas 465
 
 GEORGICON LIB. HI. 
 
 43 
 
 Extremamque sequi ant medio procumbere canipo 
 
 Pascentem et serae solam deccdere nocti ; 
 
 Continuo culpam ferro compesce, priusquain 
 
 Dira per incautum serpant contagia volgus. 
 
 Non tarn creber agens hiemem rait aequore turbo, 470 
 
 Quam multae pecuduni pestes. Nee singula niorbi 
 
 Corpora corripiunt, sed tota aestiva repente, 
 
 Spemque gregemque siniul cunctamque ab Origine gentem. 
 
 Turn sciat, aerias Alpes et Nor^ca si quis 
 
 Castella in tumulis et lapydis arva Ti mav i f^ -•-- '^^475 
 
 Nunc quoque post tanto videat desertaque regna 
 
 Pastorum et longe saltus lateque vacantes. 
 
 Hie quondam morbo caeli miseranda coorta est 
 Tempestas, totoque autumni incan(iuit aestu, 
 Et genus omne neci pecudum dedit, omne ferarum, 483 
 Corrupitque lacus, infecit pabula tabo. 
 Nee via mortis erat simplex, sed ubi ignea venis 
 Omnibus acta sitis miseros adduxerat artus, 
 Rursus abundabat fluidus liquor omniaque in se 
 Ossa minutatim morbo conlapsa trahebat. 
 Saepe in honore deum medio stans hostia ad aram, 
 Lanea dum nivea circumdatur infula vitta, 
 
 \ Inter cuTictarrtes cecidit moribunda ministros. 
 Aut si quam ferro mactaverat ante sacerdos, 
 Inde neque impositis ardent altaria fibris 
 Nee responsa potest consultus reddere vales 
 Ac vix suppositi linguntur sanguine cultri 
 Suinmaque ieiuna sanie infuscatur harena. 
 Hinc lactis vituli volgo moriuntur in herbis 
 Et dulces animas plena ad praesepia rcddunt ; 
 Hinc canibus blandis rabies venit, et quatit acgros 
 Tussis anlicla sues ac faiicibus angit obesis. 
 Labilur infelix sludiorum atque immemor herbae 
 Victor equus fontesque avertitur et pede terram 
 Crebra fcrit ; demissae aurcs, inccrtus ibidem 
 S^mjor et ille quidem morituris frigidus, aret 
 Pellis et ad tactum tractanti dura resistit. 
 Haec ante cxitium primis dant signa diebus ; 
 Sin in processu coepit crudcscere morbus, 
 
 ^ Turn vcro ardcntcs oculi alciuc attractus ab alto 505 
 
 485 
 
 490 
 
 495 
 
 500
 
 44 P' VERGTLI MARONTS 
 
 Spiritus, intcrdum gemitu gravis, imaque longo 
 
 Ilia singultu tendunl, it naribus ater 
 
 Sanguis et obsessas fauces picmit aspere lingua. 
 
 Profuit inserto latices infundeie cornu 
 
 Lenaeos ; ea visa salus morientibus una ; 510 
 
 Mox erat hoc ipsum exitio, furiisque lefecti 
 
 Ardebant ipsique suos iam morte sub aegra 
 
 (Di uieliora piis erroremque hostibus ilium !) 
 
 Discissos nudis laniabant dentibus artus. 
 
 Ecce autem duio fumans sub voinere taurus 515 
 
 Concidit et mixtum spumis vomit ore cruorem 
 
 Extremosque ciet gemitus. It tristis arator 
 
 Maerentem abiungens fraterna morte iuvencum, 
 
 Atque opere in medio defixa relinquit aratra. 
 
 Non umbrae altorum nemorum, non moUia possunt 520 
 
 I'rata movcre animum, non qui per saxa volutus 
 
 Purior electro campum petit amnis ; at ima 
 
 Solvontur latera atque oculos stupor urguet inertes, 
 
 Ad terramque fluit devexo pondere cervix. 
 
 Quid labor aut benefacta iuvant? quid vomere terras 525 
 
 Invertisse graves? atqui non Massica Bacchi 
 
 Munera, non illis epulae nocuere repostae : 
 
 Frondibus et victu pascuntur simplicis herbae, 
 
 Pocula sunt fontes liquidi atque exercita cursu 
 
 Flumina, nee somnos abrumpit cura salul>res. 530 
 
 Tempore non alio dicunt regionibus illis 
 
 Quaesitas ad sacra boves lunonis et uris 
 
 Imparibus ductos alta ad donaria currus. 
 
 Ergo aegre rastris terram rimantur et ipsis 
 
 Unguibus infodiunt fruges montesque per altos 535 
 
 Contenta cervice trahunt stridentia plaustra. 
 
 Non lupus insidias explorat ovilia circum 
 
 Nee gregibus nocturnus obambulat ; acrior ilium 
 
 Cura domat ; timidi dammae cervique fugaces 
 
 Nunc interque canes et circum tecta vagantur. 540 
 
 lam maris immensi prolem et genus omne natantum 
 
 Litore in exiremo, ecu naufraga corpora, ductus 
 
 Proluit ; insolitae fugiunt in flumina phocae. 
 
 Interit et curvis frustra defensa latebris 
 
 Vipera et attoniti squamis adstantibus hydri. 545
 
 GEORGICON LIB. III. 45 
 
 Ipsis est aer avibus non aequus, et illae 
 
 Praecipites alta vitam sub nube relinquonL 
 
 Praeterea iam nee mutari pabula refert 
 
 Quaesitaeque nocent artes ; cessere magistri, 
 
 Phillyrides Chiron Amythaoniusque Melampus. 550 
 
 Saevit et in lucem Stygiis emissa tenebris 
 
 Pallida Tisiphone Morbos agit ante Metumque, 
 
 Inque dies avidum surgens caput altius effert. 
 
 Balatu pecorum et crebris mugitibus amnes 
 
 Arentesque sonant ripae collesque supini. 555 
 
 lamque catervatim dat stragem atque aggerat ipsis 
 
 In stabulis turpi dilapsa cadavera tabo, 
 
 Donee humo tegere ac foveis abscondere discunt. 
 
 Nam neque erat coriis usus nee viscera quis(}uam 
 
 Aut undis abolere potest aut vincere flamma; 560 
 
 Ne tondere quidem morbo inluvieque peresa 
 
 Vellera nee telas possunt attingere putres; 
 
 Verum etiam invisos .si quis temptarat aniictus, 
 
 Ardentes papulae atque immundus olentia sudor 
 
 Membra sequebatur, nee longo deinde moranti 565 
 
 Tempore contaetos artus saccr ignis edebat.
 
 r. VERGILT MA RON IS 
 
 GEORGICON 
 
 LIBER OUARTUS. 
 
 Protiniis aerii inellis caelestia dona 
 
 Exsequar. Hanc etiani, Maecenas, aspice partem. 
 
 Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum, 
 
 Magnanimosque duces totiusque ordine gentis 
 
 Mores et studia at populos et proelia dicam. 5 
 
 In tenui labor; at tenuis non gloria, si quem 
 
 Nuniina laeva sinunt auditque vocatus Ai)ollo. 
 
 Principio sedes apibus staiioque petenda, 
 Quo neque sit ventis aditus (nam pabula venti 
 Ferre domum prohibent) neque oves haedique petulci 10 
 Floribus insultent, aut errans bucula campo 
 Decutiat rorem et surgentes atterat herbas. 
 Absint et picti squalentia terga lacerti 
 Pinguibus a stabulis, nieropesque, aliaequc volucres, 
 Et manibus Procne pectus signata cruentis; 15 
 
 Omnia nam late vastant ipsascjue volantes 
 Ore ferunt dulcem nidis inmitibus escam. 
 At liquidi fontes et stagna virentia musco 
 Adsint et tenuis fugiens per gramina rivos, 
 Palmarjue vestibulum aut ingens oleaster inumbret, 20 
 Ut, cum prima sui ducent examina reges 
 Vere sue, ludetque favis emissa iuventus, 
 Vicina invitet decedere ripa calori 
 Obviaque hospitiis leneat frondentibus arbos. 
 In medium, seu stabit iners seu prolluet umor, 25
 
 GEO RG I CON LIB. IV. 47 
 
 Transversas salices et giandia coiiice saxa, 
 
 Pontibus ut crebris possint consistere et alas 
 
 Pandere* ad aestivom solem, si forte morantes 
 
 Sparserit aut praeceps Neptuno inmerserit Eurus. 
 
 Haec circum casiae virides et olentia late 30 
 
 Serpulla et graviter spirantis copia thymbrae 
 
 Floreat, inriguumque bibant violaria fontcni. 
 
 Ipsa autcm, sen corticibus tibi suta cavatis ^ 
 
 Seu lenlo fuerint alvaria vimine texta, 
 
 Angustos liabeant aditus : nam frigore mella 35 
 
 Cogit hiemps, eadeinque calor liquefacta remittit. 
 
 Utraque vis apibus pariter metuenda; neque illae 
 
 Nequiquam in tectis certatim tenuia cera 
 
 Spiramenta linunt fucoque et floribus oras 
 
 Explent, collectumque haec ipsa ad numera gluten 40 
 
 Et visco et Phrygiae servant pice lentius Idae. 
 
 Saepe etiam effossis, si vera est fania, latebris 
 
 Sub terra fovere larem, i)enitusque repertae 
 
 Pumicibusque cavis exesaeque arboris antro. 
 
 Tu tamen et levi rimosa cubilia limo 45 
 
 Ungiie fovens circum et raras supeiinice frondes. 
 
 Ncu propius tectis taxum sine, neve rubentes 
 
 Ure foco cancros, altae neu crede j^aludi, 
 
 Aut ubi odor caeni gravis aut ubi concava pulsu 
 
 Saxa sonant vocisque oftensa resultat imago. 50 
 
 Quod superest, ubi pulsam hiemem sol aureus egit 
 Sub terras caelumque aestiva luce reclusit, 
 Illae continuo saltus silvasque peragrant 
 Purpureosquc metunt llores et flumina libant 
 Summa leves. Hinc nescio qua dulcedine laetae 55 
 
 Progenieni nidosque fovcnt, hinc arte recenies 
 Excuduiu ceras et niella tenacia lingunt. 
 Hinc ubi iani emissum caveis ad sidcra caeli 
 Nare per aestatcm licjuidain suspexeris agmen 
 Obscu;anique trahi vento miral^ere nubem, 60 
 
 Contcmplator : a(|uas dulccs et frondea semper 
 Tecta petunt. Hue tu iussos asperge sapores, 
 Trita melisphylla ct cerinthac ignobile gramcn, 
 Tinnitiisque f:ie et Matris (juate cyinbala circum: 
 Ipsac confident mcilicuiis scdibus, ipsae 65
 
 48 P. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 Intima more suo sese in cunabula condent. 
 
 Sin autein ad pugnam exierint — nam saepe duobus 
 Regibus incessit magno discordia motu ; 
 Continuoque animos volgi et trepidantia bello 
 Corda licet longe praesciscere ; namque morantes 70 
 
 Martius ille aeris rauci canor increpat et vox 
 Auditur fractos sonitus imitata tubarum ; 
 Tum trepidae inter se coeunt pinnisque coruscant 
 Spiculaque exacuunt rostris aptantque lacertos, 
 Et circa reges ipsa ad praetoria densae 75 
 
 Miscentur magnisque vocant clamoribus hostem. 
 Ergo ubi vcr nactae sudum camposque patentes, 
 Erumpunt portis : concurritur, aethere in alto 
 Fit sonitus, magnum mixtae glomerantur in orbem 
 Praecipitesque cadunt ; non densior aere grando, 80 
 
 Nee de concussa tantum pluit ilice glandis. 
 Ipsi per medias acies insignibus alis 
 Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant, 
 Usque adeo obnixi non cedere, dum gravis aut hos 
 Aut hos versa fuga victor dare terga subegit. 85 
 
 Hi motus animorum atque haec certamina tanta 
 Pulveris exigui iactu compressa quiescunt. 
 
 Verum ubi ductores acie revocaveris ambo, 
 Deterior qui visus, eum, ne prodigus obsit, 
 Dede neci; melior vacua sine regnet in aula. 90 
 
 Alter,, erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens ; 
 Nam duo sunt genera : hie melior, insignis et ore 
 Et rutilis clarus squamis ; ille horridus alter 
 Desidia, latamque trahens inglorius alvom. 
 Ut binae regum facies, ita corpora plebis. 95 
 
 Namque aliae turpes horrent, ceu pulvere ah alto 
 Cum venit et sicco terram spuit ore viator 
 Aridus ; elucent aliae et fulgore coruscant, 
 Ardentes auro et paribus lita corpora guttis. 
 Haec potior suboles, hinc caeli tempore certo 100 
 
 Dulcia mella premes, nee tantum dulcia, quantum 
 Et liquida et durum Bacchi domitura saporem. 
 
 At cum incerta volant caeloque examina ludunt 
 Contemnuntque favos et frigida tecta relinquont, 
 Instabiles animos ludo prohibebis inani. 105
 
 GEORGICON LIB. JV. 
 
 49 
 
 <rec magnus prohibere labor : tu regibus alas 
 Eripe ; non illis qiiisquam cunctantibiis altum 
 Ire iter aut castris audebit vellere signa. 
 Invitent .croceis halantes floribus horti 
 Et custos furum atque avium cum falce saligna no 
 
 Hellespontiaci servet tutela Priapi. 
 Ipse thymum pinosque ferens de montibus altis 
 Tecta serat late circum, cui talia curae; 
 Ipse labore manum duro terat, ipse feraces 
 Figat humo plantas et amicos inriget imbres. 115 
 
 Atque equidem, extreme ni iam sub fine laborum 
 Vela traham et terris festinem advertere proram, 
 Forsitan et, pingues hortos quae cura colendi 
 Ornaret, canerem, biferique rosaria Paesti, 
 Quoque niodo potis gauderent intiba rivis 120 
 
 Et virides apio ripae, tortusque per herbam 
 Cresceret in ventrem cucumis ; nee sera comantem 
 Narcissum aut flexi tacuissem vimen acanthi 
 Pallentesque hederas et amantes litora myrtos. 
 Namque sub Oebaliae memini me turribus altis, 125 
 
 Qua niger umectat flavcntia culta Galaesus, 
 Corycium vidisse senem, cui pauca relicti 
 lugera runs erant, nee fertilis ilia iuvencis 
 Nee pccori opportuna seges nee commoda Bacclio, 
 Hie rarum tamen in dumis okis albaque circum 130 
 
 Lilia verbenasque premens vescumque papaver, 
 Regum aequabat opes animis, seraque revcrtens 
 Nocte domum dapibus mensas onerabat inemptis. 
 Primus vere rosam atque autumno carpere poma, 
 Et cum tristis hiemps etiamnum frigore saxa 135 
 
 Rumperet et glacie cursus frenaret aquarum, 
 lUe comam mollis iam tondel)at hyacinthi 
 Aestatem increpitans seram zephyrosciue morantes. 
 Ergo apibus fetis idem atque examine multo 
 Primus abundare et spumantia cogere pressis 140 
 
 Mella favis ; illi tiliae atque uberrima pinus, 
 Qiiotque in flore novo pomis se fertilis arbos 
 Indiieral, totidem autumno niatura tenebat. 
 Ille etiam seras in versum dislulit uimos 
 Kduramrjue pirum et spinos iam pruna ferentes 145 
 
 G. 111. IV. 4
 
 50 P. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 lamque minislniniem plaiaiuim potantibus umbras. 
 Vcimn hacc ipse equidem spatiis exclusus iniquis 
 riactereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo. 
 
 Nunc age, naturas apibus quas luppiter ipse 
 Addidit, expediam, pro qua mercede canoros 150 
 
 Curetum sonitus crepitantiaque aera secutae 
 Dictaeo caeli regem pavere sub antro. 
 Solae communes natos, consortia tecta 
 Urbis habent, magnisque agitant sub legibus aevom, 
 Et patriam solae et certos novere penates ; 155 
 
 Venturaeque biemis memores aestate laborem 
 Experiuntur et in medium quaesita reponunt, 
 Namque aliae victu invigilant et foedere pacto 
 Exercentur agris ; pars intra saepta domorum 
 Narcissi lacrimam et lentum de cortice gluten 160 
 
 Prima favis ponunt fundamina, deinde tenaces 
 Suspendunt ceras ; aliae spem gentis adultos 
 Educunt fetus ; aliae purissima mella 
 Stipant, et liquido distendunt nectare cellas. 
 Sunt, quibus ad portascecidit custodia sorti, 165 
 
 Inque vicem speculantur aquas et nubila caeli 
 Aut onera accipiunt venientum aut agmine facto 
 Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent. 
 Fervet opus, redolentque thymo fragrantia mella; 
 Ac veluti lentis Cyclopes fulmina massis 170 
 
 Cum properant, alii taurinis follibus auras 
 Accipiunt redduntque, alii stridentia tingunt 
 Aera lacu ; gemit inpositis incudibus Aetna ; 
 lUi inter sese magna vi bracchia tollunt 
 In numerum, versantque tenaci forcipe ferrum : 175 
 
 Non aliter, si parva licet componere magnis, 
 Cecropias innatus apes amor urguet habendi, 
 Munere quamque suo. Grandaevis oppida curae 
 Et munire favos et daedala fingere tecta. 
 At fessae multa referunt se node minores, 180 
 
 Crura thymo plenae ; pascuntur et arbuta passim 
 Et glaucas salices casiamque crocumque rubentcm 
 \'A pinguem tiliam et ferrugineos hyacinthos. 
 Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus unus : 
 Mane ruunt portis; nusquam mora; rursus easdem 185
 
 GEORGICON LIB. IV. 51 
 
 Vesper ubi e pastu tandem decedere campis 
 
 Admonuit, turn tecta petunt, turn corpora curant; 
 
 Fit sonitus mussantque oras et limina circum. 
 
 Post, ubi iam thalamis se composuere, siletur 
 
 In noctem fessosque sopor suus occupat artus. 190 
 
 Nee vero a stabulis pluvia impendente recedunt 
 
 Longius, aut credunt caelo adventantibus euris ; 
 
 Sed circum tutae sub moenibus urbis aquantur, 
 
 Excursusque breves temptant, et saepe lapillos, 
 
 Ut cymbae instabiles fluctu iactante saburram, 195 
 
 ToUunt, his sese per inania nubila librant. 
 
 Ilium adeo placuisse apibus mirabere morem, 
 
 Quod neque concubitu indulgent nee corpora segnes 
 
 In Venerem solvunt aut fetus nixibus edunt ; 
 
 Verum ipsae e foliis natos, e suavibus herbis 200 
 
 Ore legunt, ipsae regem parvosque Quirites 
 
 Sufficiunt, aulasque et cerea regna refigunt. 
 
 Saepe etiam duris errando in cotibus alas 
 
 Attrivere ultroque animam sub fasce dedere : 
 
 Tantus amor florum et generandi gloria mellis. 205 
 
 Ergo ipsas quamvis angusti terminus aevi 
 
 Excipiat (neque enim plus septima ducitur aestas) 
 
 At genus immortale manet multosque per annos 
 
 Stat fortuna domus et avi numerantur avorum. 
 
 Praeterea regem non sic Aegyptos et ingens 210 
 
 Lydia nee populi Parthorum aut Medus Hydaspes 
 
 Oljservant. Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est; 
 
 Amisso rupere fidem constructaque inella 
 
 Diripuere ipsae et crates solvere favorum. 
 
 Ille operum custos, ilium admirantur et omnes 215 
 
 Circumstant fremitu denso stipantque frequcntes, 
 
 Et saepe attoliunt umeris et corpora bello 
 
 Obiectant, pulchramque petunt per volnera mortem. 
 
 His (juidam signis atqiie hacc exemjjla secuti 
 Esse apibus partem divinac mentis et hauslus 220 
 
 Aetherios dixere ; deum namque ire per omnes 
 'I'errasque tractusque maris caelumque profundum ; 
 Hinc pecudes, armenta, viros, genus omne feraruiii, 
 Qnemque sibi tenuus nascentem arcessere vitas ; 
 Scilicet hue reddi deinde ac resoluta referri 225
 
 52 p. VERGTLI MARONIS 
 
 Omnia, ncc morti esse locum, sed viva volare 
 Sideris in numerum atque alto siicfcdere caelo. 
 
 Si e^uando sedeni angustam servataque mella 
 Thesauris relines, prius haustu si)arsus a(niariim 
 Ora fove fumosque manu praetende sequaces. 230 
 
 Bis gravidos cogunt fetus, duo tempora niessis, 
 Taygete simul os terris ostendit honestum 
 Plias, et Oceani spretos pede reppulit amnes, 
 Aut eadem sidus fugiens ubi Piscis aquosi 
 Tristior hibernas caelo descendit in undas. 235 
 
 Illis ira modum supra est, laesaeque venenum 
 Morsibus inspirant, et spicula caeca lelinquont 
 Adfixae venis, animasque in volnere ponunt 
 Sin duram metues hiemem parcesque future 
 Contusosque animos et res miserabere fractas : 240 
 
 At suffire thymo cerasque recidere inanes 
 Quis dubitet? nam saepe favos ignotus adedit 
 Stelio, et lucifugis congesta cubilia blattis, 
 Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus; 
 Aut asper crabro inparibus se inmiscuit armis, 245 
 
 Aut dirum tiniae genus, aut invisa Minervae 
 Laxos in foribus suspendit aranea casses. 
 Quo magis exhaustae fuerint, hoc acrius omnes 
 Incumbent generis lapsi sarcire ruinas, 
 Complebuntque foros et floribus horrea texent. 250 
 
 Si vero, quoniam casus apibus quoque nostros 
 Vita tulit, tristi languebunt corpora morbo — 
 Quod iam non dubiis poteris cognoscere signis : 
 Continuo est aegris alius color; horrida voltum 
 Deformat macies; tum corpora luce carentura 255 
 
 Exportant tectis et tristia funera ducunt ; 
 Aut illae pedibus conexae ad limina pendent, 
 Aut intus clausis cunctantur in aedibus, omnes 
 Ignavaeque fame et contracto frigore pigrae; 
 Tum sonus auditur gravior tractimque susurrant, 260 
 
 Frigidus ut quondam silvis inmurmurat Auster, 
 Ut mare soUicitum stridit refluentibus undis, 
 Aestuat ut clausis rapidus fornacibus ignis : — 
 Hie iam galbaneos suadebo incendere odores 
 Mcllaque harundineis inferre canalibus, ultro 265
 
 GEORGICON LIB. TV. 53 
 
 Hortantem et fessas ad pabula nota vocantem. 
 
 Proderit et tunsum gallae admiscere saporem 
 
 Arentesque rosas, aut igni pinguia multo 
 
 Defruta, vel psithia passes, de vite racemes, 
 
 Cecropiumque thymuin et grave olentia centaurea. 270 
 
 Est etiam flos in pratis, cui nomen amello 
 
 Fecere agricolae, facilis quaerentibus herba ; 
 
 Namque uno ingentem toUit de caespite silvam, 
 
 Aureus ipse, sed in foliis, quae plurima circum 
 
 Funduntur, violae sublucet purpura nigrae ; 275 
 
 Saepe deum nexis ornatae torquibus arae ; 
 
 Asper in ore sapor; tonsis in vallibus ilium 
 
 Pastores et curva legunt prope flumina Mellae. 
 
 Huius odorato radices incoque Baccho 
 
 Pabulaque in foribus plenis adpone canistris. 280 
 
 Sed si quern proles subito defecerit omnis 
 Nee, genus unde novae stirpis revocetur, habebit, . 
 Tempus et Arcadii memoranda inventa magistri 
 Pandere, quoque modo caesis iam saepe iuvencis 
 Insincerus apes tulerit cruor. Altius omnem 285 
 
 Expediam prima repetens ab origine faniaui. 
 Nam qua Pellaei gens fortunata Canopi 
 Accolit effuso stagnantem flumine Nilum 
 Et circum pictis vehitur sua rura phaselis ; 
 Quaque pliaretratae vicinia Persidis urguet, 290 
 
 Et diversa ruens septem discurrit in ora 
 Usque coloratisamnis devexus ab Indis, 
 Et viridem Aegyptum nigra fecundat harcna : 
 Omnis in hac certam regio iacit arte salutem. 
 Exiguus i)rimum atcjue ipsos contractus in usus 295 
 
 Eligitur locus ; hunc angustique imbrice tecti 
 Parietibusque premunt artis ct quattuor addunt, 
 Quattuor a ventis obli(|ua luce fenestras. 
 'I'um vitulus bima curvans iam cornua fronte 
 Quaeritur; huic gcminae narcs et spiritus oris 300 
 
 Multa reluctanti obstruitur, plagis(|ue pcrem[)to 
 Tunsa per intcgram solvontur viscera pcllcm. 
 Sic positum in clauso linquont et ramea costis 
 Subiciunt fragmenta, thymnm casi.isc|ue rcccntcs. 
 Hoc geritur Zcphyris primum inpellcntibus undas, 305
 
 54 r. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 Ante novis rubeant quam prata coloribus, ante 
 
 Garrula quam tignis nidum suspendat hirundo. 
 
 Interea teneris tepefacius in ossibus umor 
 
 Aestuat, et visenda modis animalia miris, 
 
 Trunca pedum primo, mox et stiidentia pinnis, 310 
 
 Miscentur, tenuemque magis magis aera carpunt, 
 
 Donee, ut aestivis eflfusus nubibus imber, 
 
 Erupere, aut ut nervo puisante sagittae, 
 
 Prima leves ineunt si quando proelia Parthi. 
 
 Quis deus banc, Musae, quis nobis extudit artem ? "315 
 Un Je nova ingressus hominum experientia ccpit ? 
 Pastor Aristaeus fugiens Peneia Tempe 
 Aniissis, ut fama, apibus morboque fameque 
 Tristis ad extremi sacrum caput adstitit amnis 
 Multa querens atque hac adfatus voce parentem : 320 
 ' Mater, Gyrene mater, quae gurgitis huiiis 
 *Ima tenes, quid me praeclara stirpe deorum — 
 
 * Si modo, quem perhibes, pater est Thymbraeus Apollo — 
 ' Invisum fatis genuisti ? aut quo tibi nostri 
 
 'Pulsus amor? quid me caelum sperare iubebas? 325 
 
 * En etiam hunc ipsum vitae mortalis honorem, 
 
 ' Quem mihi vix frugum et pecudum custodia sellers 
 'Omnia temptanti extuderat, te matre relinquo. 
 'Quin age et ipsa manu felices erue silvas, 
 
 * Eer stabulis inimicum ignem atque interfice messes, 330 
 ' Ure sata et duram in vites molire bipennem, 
 
 'Tanta meae si te ceperunt taedia laudis.' 
 
 At mater sonitum thalamo sub fluminis alti 
 Sensit. Eam circum Milcsia vellera Nymphae 
 Carpebaat hyali saturo fucata colore, ^ 335 
 
 Drymoque Xanthoque Ligeaque Phyllodoceque, 
 Caesariem effusae nitidam per Candida coUa, 
 [Nesaee Spioque Thaliaque Cymodoceque,] 
 Cydippeque et flava Lycorias, altera virgo, 
 Altera turn primos Lucinae experta labores, 340 
 
 Clioque et Beroe soror, Oceanitides ambae, 
 Ambae auro pictis incinctae pellibus ambae, 
 Atque Ephyre atque Opis et Asia Deiopea 
 Et tandem posiiis velox Arethusa sagittis. 
 Inter quas curam Clymenc narrabat inanem 345
 
 GEORG/CO^ LIB. IV. 55 
 
 Volcani, Martisque dolos et dulcia furta, 
 
 Aque Chao densos divom numerabat amoies. 
 
 Carmine quo captae dum fusls mollia pensa 
 
 Devolvont, iterum maternas impulit aures 
 
 Luctus Aristaei, vitreisque sedilibus omnes 350 
 
 Obstipuere ; sed ante alias Arethusa sorores 
 
 Piospiciens summa flavom caput extulit unda, 
 
 Yx procul : o gemitu non frustra exterrita tan to, 
 
 ' Cyrene soror, ipse tibi, tua maxuma cura, 
 
 'Tristis Aristaeus Penei genitoris ad undara 355 
 
 'Stat lacrimans et te crudelem nomine dicit.' 
 
 Huic percussa nova mentem formidine mater, 
 
 ' Due, age, due ad nos ; fas illi limina divom 
 
 'Tangere' ait. Simul alta iubet discedere late 
 
 Fluraina, qua iuvenis gressus inferret. At ilium 360 
 
 Curvata in montis faciem circumstetit unda, 
 
 Accepitque sinu vasto misitque sub amnem. 
 
 lamque domum mirans genetricis et umida regna 
 
 Speluncisque lacus clausos lucosque sonantes 
 
 Ibat, et ingenti motu stupefactus aquarum 365 
 
 Omnia sub magna labentia flumina terra 
 
 Spectabat diversa locis, Phasimque Lycumque 
 
 Et caput, unde altus primum se erumpit Enipeus 
 
 Saxosuscjue sonans Hyj^anis Mysusque Caicus, 
 
 Unde pater Tiberinus, et unde Aniena fliienta, 370 
 
 Et gemina auratus taurine cornua voltu 
 
 Eridanus, quo non alius per pinguia culta 
 
 In mare purpureum violentior cffluit amnis. 
 
 Postquam est in tlialami pendentia pumice tccta 
 
 Perventum et nati fletus cognovit inanes 375 
 
 Cyrene, manibus liquidos dant ordine fontes 
 
 Germanae tonsisque fcrunt mantelia villis ; 
 
 Pars epulis onerant mensas et plena reponunt 
 
 Pocula, Panchaeis adolescunt ignibus arae, 
 
 Et mater ' cape Maeonii carchcsia Bacchi : 380 
 
 'Oceano libemus' ait. Simul ipsa precatur 
 
 Oceanum(|iie patrem rcrum Nymphasque sorores, 
 
 Cenuim (|uae silvas, centum (juae (lumina servant. 
 
 Tor Iiqui(lo ardcntem perfudit nectare Vestam, 
 
 Tcr flarnma ad summum tccli subiccta reluxit. 385
 
 56 P. VERGILI MARONIS 
 
 Omine quo firmnns animum sic incipit ipsa: 
 
 ' Est in Carpathio Neptuni gurgite vates, 
 
 ' Caeruleus Proteus, magnum qui piscibus aequor 
 
 ' Kt iuncto bipedum curiu metitur equorum. 
 
 'I lie nunc Ematliiae poitus patriamque revisit 390 
 
 'Pallenen; hunc et Nymphae veneramur et ipse 
 
 ' Grandaevus Nereus ; novit nanique omnia vates, 
 
 * Quae sint, quae fuerint, quae mox ventura trahantur ; 
 'Quippe ita Neptuno visum est, immania cuius 
 'Armenta et turpes pascit sub gurgite phocas. 395 
 ' Hie tibi, nate, prius vinclis capiendus, ut omnem 
 
 ' Expediat morbi causam eventusque secundet. 
 
 ' Nam sine vi non ulla dabit praecepta, neque ilium 
 
 ' Orundo flectes ; vim duram et vincula capto 
 
 * Tende ; doli circum haec demum frangentur inanes. 400 
 'Ipsa ego te, medios cum sol accenderit aestus, 
 
 ' Cum sitiunt herbae et pecori iam gratior umbra est, 
 ' In secreta senis ducam, quo fessus ab undis 
 'Se recipit, facile ut somno adgrediare iacentem. 
 'Verum ubi correptum nianibus vinclisque tencbis, 405 
 'Tum variae eludent species atque ora ferarum. 
 'Fiet enim subito sus horridus atraque tigris 
 ' Squamosusque draco et fulva cervice leaena, 
 *Aut acrem flammae sonitum dabit atque ita vinclis 
 'Excidet, aut in aquas tenues dilapsus abibit. 410 
 
 'Sed qnanto ille magis formas se vertet in omnes, 
 ' Tarn tu, nate, magis contende tenacia vincla, 
 'Donee talis erit niutato corpore, qualem 
 
 * Videris, inceplo tegeret cum lumina somno.' 
 
 Haec ait et liquidum ambrosiae diffundit odorem, 415 
 
 Quo toium nati corpus perduxit ; at illi 
 
 Dulcis compositis spiravit crinibus aura, 
 
 Atque habilis membris venit vigor. Est specus ingens 
 
 Exesi latere in montis, quo plurima vento 
 
 Cogitur inque sinus scindit sese unda reductos, 420 
 
 Deprensis olim statio tutissima nautis ; 
 
 Intus se vasti Proteus tegit obice saxi. 
 
 Hie iuvenem in latebris avcrsum a lumine Nympha 
 
 Collocat, ipsa procul nebulis obscura resistit. 
 
 lam rapidus torrens sitientes Sirius Indos 425
 
 GEORGTCON LIB. IV. 57 
 
 Ardebat caclo et medium sol igneus orbem 
 Hauserat ; arebant herbae, et cava flumina siccis 
 Faucibus ad limum radii tepefacta coquebant : 
 Cum Proteus consueta petens e fluctibus antra 
 Ibat ; eum vasti circum gens umida ponti 430 
 
 Exultans rorem late dispergit amarum ; 
 Sternunt se somno diversae in litore phocae : 
 Ipse, velut stabuli custos in montibus dim, 
 Vesper ubi e pastu vitulos ad tecta reducit 
 Auditisque lupos acuunt balatibus agni, 435 
 
 Considit scopulo medius, numerumque recenset. 
 Cuius Aristaeo quoniam est oblata facultas, 
 Vix defessa senem passus componere membra 
 Cum clamore niit magno manicisque iacentem 
 Occupat. Ille suae contra non immemor artis 440 
 
 Omnia transformat sese in miracula rerum, 
 Ignemque horribilemque feram fluviumque liquentem. 
 Verum ubi nulla fugam reperit fallacia, victus 
 In sese redit atque hominis tandem ore locutus : 
 * Nam quis te, iuvenum confidentissime, nostras 445 
 
 ' lussit adire domos? quidve hinc petis?' inquit. At ille: 
 *Scis, Proteu ; scis ipse; neque est te fallere quicquam ; 
 *Sed tu desine velle Deiim praecepta secuti 
 ' Venimus, hinc lassis quaesitum oracula rebus.' 
 Tanium effatus. Ad haec vates vi denique multa 450 
 Ardentes oculos intorsit lumine glauco, 
 Et graviter frend£ns^ sic fatis jira resolvit : 
 ' Non te nullius exercent numinis irae ; 
 ' Magna luis commissa : tibi has misenibilis Oiphcus 
 'Haudquaquam ob meritum poenas, ni fata resistant, 455 
 'Suscitat, et rapta graviter pro coniuge saevit. 
 ' Ilia quidem, dum te fugeret per flumina praeceps, 
 ' Immanem ante pedes hydrurn moritura puella 
 'Scrvantem ripas aha non vidit in hcrba. 
 'At ciiorus aequalis Dryadum clamore supremos 460 
 
 ' Implerunt montes ; (Icrunt Rhodopeiac arces 
 'Alta(|uc I'ang.ica et Khcsi M.ivortia tellus 
 'At(iuc Getae alfjuc llehrus ct Actias Orithyia. 
 ' Ipse cava solans aegrum testudinc amorem 
 *Te, diilcis coniunx, te solo in litore sccuin, 465
 
 5S P. VERGILT MARONIS 
 
 Te veniente die, te decedente canebat. 
 
 Tacnarias etiam fauces, alta ostia Ditis, 
 
 Et caligantem nigra formidine lucuni 
 
 Ingrcssus manesque adiit regemque tremendum 
 
 Nesciaque humanis precibus mansuesccre corda. 470 
 
 At cantu commotae Erebi de sedibus imis 
 
 Umbrae ibant tcnues simulacraque luce carentum, ' 
 
 Quam multa in foliis avium se milia condunt, 
 
 Vesper ubi aut hibernus agit de montibus imber, 
 
 Matres atque viri dcfunctaque corpora vita 475 
 
 Magnanimum heroum,, pueri innuptaeque puellac, 
 
 Impositique rogis iuvenes ante ora parentum ; 
 
 Quos circum limus niger et deformis har'undo 
 
 Cocyti tardaquc palus inamabilis unda 
 
 Alligat et noviens Styx interfusa coercet. 480 
 
 Quin ipsae stupuere domus atque intima Let! 
 
 Tartara caeruleosque implexae crinibus angues 
 
 Eumenides, tenuitque inhians tria Cerberus ora 
 
 Atque Ixionii vento rota constitit orbis. 
 
 lamque pedem referens casus cvaserat omncs 485 
 
 Redditaque Eurydice superas veniebat ad auras 
 
 Pone sequens, — namque banc dederat Proserpina legem — 
 
 Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem, 
 
 Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes : 
 
 Restitit, Eurydicenque suam iam luce sub ipsa 490 
 
 Immemor heu ! victusque aninii respexit. Ibi omnis 
 
 Efifusus labor, atque immitis rupta tyranni 
 
 Foedera, terque fragor stagnis auditus Avernis. 
 
 Ilia quis et vie inquit miseram et te perdidit^ Orphen, 
 
 Quis tanttis furor 1 en item in critdelia retro 495 
 
 Fata vacant conditque fiata?itia lumina somnus. 
 
 lamque vale: feror ingenti circumdata nocte ' 
 
 Invalidasque tibi tendens, heu nan tua, pahnasl 
 
 Dixit et ex oculis subito, ceu fumus in auras 
 
 Commixtus tenues, fugit diversa, neque ilium 500 
 
 Prensantem nequiquam umbras et multa volentem 
 
 Dicere praeterea vidit, nee portitor Orci 
 
 Amplius obicctam passus transire paludem. 
 
 Quid faceret? quo se rapta bis coniuge ferret? 
 
 Quo fletu manes, quae numina voce moveret? 505
 
 GEORGICON LIB. IV. 
 
 59 
 
 * Ilia quidem Stygia nabat iam frigida cumba. 
 'Septem ilium totos perhibent ex ordine menses 
 ' Rupe sub aeria deserti ad Strymonis undam 
 
 ' Flevisse et gelidis haec evolvisse sub antris 
 
 * Mulcentem tigris et agentem carmine quercus; 510 
 
 * Qualis populea maerens philomela sub umbra 
 ' Amissos queritur fetus, quos durus arator 
 
 ' Observans nido implumes detraxit ; at ilia 
 
 ' Flet noctem ramoque sedans miserabile carmen 
 
 'Integral et maestis late loca questibus implet. 515 
 
 * Nulla Venus, non ulli animum flexere hymenaei. 
 'Solus Hyperboreas glacies Tanaimque nivalem 
 
 ' Arvaque Rhipaeis numquam viduata pruinis 
 
 * Lustrabat raptam Eurydicen atque inrita Ditis 
 
 ' Dona querens ; spretae Ciconum quo munere matres 520 
 
 ' Inter sacra deum nocturnique orgia Bacchi 
 
 ' Discerptum latos iuvenem sparsere per agros. 
 
 'Tum quoque marmorea caput a cervice rcvolsum 
 
 'Gurgite cum medio portans Oeagrius Hebrus 
 
 ' Volveret, Eurydicen vox ipsa et frigida lingua 525 
 
 ^A miseram Eurydicen I anima fugiente vocabat, 
 
 ' Eurydicen toto referebant flumine ripae.' 
 
 Haec Proteus, et se iactu dedit aequor in altum 
 
 Quaque dedit, spumantem undam sub vertice torsit. 
 
 At non Gyrene; namque ultro adfata timentem : 530 
 ' Nate, licet tristes animo deponere curas. 
 'Haec omnis morbi causa, hinc miserabile Nymphae, 
 ' Gum quibus ilia choros lucis agitabat in altis, 
 'Exitium misere apibus. Tu munera supplex 
 'Tende petens pacem et faciles venerare Napaeas ; 535 
 ' Namque dabunt veniam votis irasque remittent. 
 'Sed modus orandi qui sit, prius ordine dicam. 
 ' Quattuor eximios praestanti corpore tauros, 
 'Qui tibi nunc viridis depascimt sumnia Lycaci, 
 ' Delige, et intacta totidcui cervice iuvcncas. 540 
 
 ' Quattuor his aras alta ad dehibra dearum 
 ' Conslitue, ct sacrum iugulis demitle cruorern 
 ' Gorporaque ipsa bourn frondoso descre luco. 
 ' Post, ubi nona suos Aurora ostenderit ortus, 
 'Inferias Orphci Lcthaca papavcra miltes 545
 
 6o P. VERGIIJ MAKONIS GEORG. LIB. IV. 
 
 ' Et nigram magtabis oveni lucunique revisens 
 
 * Placatani Eurydicen vitula venerabere caesa.' 
 
 Haud mora ; continuo matris praecopta facessit ; 
 
 Ad delubra vcnit, monstratas excitat aras, 
 
 Quattuor eximios praestanti corpora tauros 550 
 
 Ducit et intacta totidem cervice iuvencas. 
 
 Post, ubi nona suos Aurora induxerat ortus, 
 
 Inforias Orphei mittit lucumque revisit. 
 
 Hie vero subitum ac dictu mirabile monstrum 
 
 Aspiciunt, liquefacta bourn per viscera toto 555 
 
 Stridere apes utero et ruptis elTervere costis 
 
 Immensasque trahi nubes iaraque arbore summa 
 
 Confluere et leniis uvam demittere ramis. 
 
 Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam 
 Et super arboribus, Caesar dum magnus ad altum 560 
 Fuhiiinat Euphraten bello victorque volentes 
 Per populos dat iura viamque adtectat Olympo. 
 Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat 
 Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti, 
 Carmina qui lusi pastoriun audaxque iuventa, 565 
 
 Tityre, te palulae ceciiii sub tcgmine fagi. "
 
 NOTES. 
 
 [i — 4S. Invocation: Pales, Apollo, Lycaeus. The tales of old 
 are hackneyed : I must try a new theme. I shall build a temple to my 
 own land. I see Caesar the deity of it : games with all Greece contend- 
 ing : processions and sacrifices : carved on the doors the victories and 
 triumphs of Caesar : statues of his great ancestors : envy quelled. Now 
 to the woods and glades, Maecenas; Githaeron, home of cattle, and 
 Epidaurus of horses, and Sparta of dogs, summon me : hereafter of 
 the name and fame of Caesar.] 
 
 1. Pales, rural deity of shepherds and flocks, whose festival 
 (Paliiia) was kept 21st April, and was regarded as the natal day of the 
 city. Ovid Fast. iv. 721 gives a long and lively account of it: the 
 offerings, the peculiar purifications and celebrations, and the prayer 
 addressed to her. She made the flocks and herds fertile in milk, wool 
 and young. 
 
 Other writers make Pales masculine : but in V. and Ovid the name 
 is fern. 
 
 1. Aviphrysus was a small river in Thessaly (flowing N. into 
 Pagasaean gulf), where Apollo fed the flocks of King Admetus. 
 According to a common account, this service was a punishment for 
 having killed the Cyclops. 
 
 Apollo is therefore the 'Shepherd from Amphrysus'. In Theoc. 
 XXV. 21 we have the name vo/xios 'pastoral' definitely attached to Apollo 
 as a title. 
 
 all depends on pastor, a sjjecial use of the preposition with names. 
 Cf. Prop. VI. 6. 37 scrvator ab Alba Auguste, which Lad. quotes. 
 The ordinary syntax is that preps, should depend on verbs, participles, 
 or adjectives. 
 
 Lycaei, the rustic god Pan, named from Mt Lycaeus in Arcadia the 
 original place of his worship and home. 
 
 3. i.e. the old hero tales ('whiclnnight have charmed us with song') 
 are too well known. 
 
 4. Eurysthea (note Greek ace. of Greek names) was the task- 
 master of llerakles (Hercules) for whom the latter performed his 
 celebrated twelve labours. 
 
 5. Busiris, a savage king of I'gypt who sacrificed all strangers, till 
 Herakk's came: he was seized like the rest, but broke his bonds and 
 blew the king.
 
 62 VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 inlaudnti, 'unblessed', a playfully ironic epithet for the cruel bar- 
 baiian. 
 
 f). 'Who has not sung of Ilylas?' V. is thinking of the beauliful 
 poem of 'Iheocrilus, who tolls how llylas, a lovely Argive boy, beloved 
 of llerakles, went with him in the Argo when they sailed after the 
 Golden Fleece. They landed in Proponlis, and 1 lylas went to the spring 
 to fetch water: but the nymphs all loved him when they saw him, and 
 drew him down, and he \\as never seen again. 
 
 cui, dat. of agent aftei' j^aiticipie, a Greek constr. adopted by 
 Augustan poets, haljitae 6>V7?V oracula G. II. i6: a/Z^iiMJ- depasta Ed. i. 
 55: /;'(!'/ relictum A. Vi. 509: cuique repertum VII. 507. See 170. 
 
 Dclos, the sacred island, where Latona (Leto) gave birth to Apollo 
 and Artemis. 
 
 7. Pelops, son of Lydian king Tantalus, who served him up to the 
 gods at a feast. Demeter distracted about her lost dauglUer ate a piece 
 of the shoulder: the rest of the gods discovered the horrid fraud, and 
 restored Felops, filling up the missing shoulder with ivory (eburno 
 ume7'o). Pelops became a skilful charioteer (acer equis) and entered with 
 other suitors for the chariot race at Pisa in Elis, of which the prize was 
 Hippodanie (usually Hippodameia) daugliter of the king. He won by 
 bribing the driver to take out the linchpin of Oenomaus' chariot, the 
 king having outstrijiped and slain the other wooers. Pindar tells us 
 that Poseidon gave I'elops winged horses. 
 
 9. virum volitare per ora, 'float upon the lips of men', a bold 
 imaginative phrase for fame, adopted from Ennius' epitaph, 
 nemo me lacrumis decoret nee funera fletu 
 faxit : cur ? volito vivti' per ora virum. 
 
 So again A. xil. 235 vivusque per ora feretur. [C. takes it 'flit before 
 the face' : but V. is clearly quoting Ennius who is speaking o{ faine.\ 
 
 11. Aonio was the name of a part of Boeotia, where were Mt 
 Helicon and the spring Aganippe, the haunt of the Muses. So Lucr. i. 
 115 says of Ennius 'primus amoeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde 
 coronam'. 
 
 In what follows the poet promises in a fine allegorical vision here- 
 after to write a poem in honour of Augustus. He returns in triumph 
 from Helicon, bringing home his palms, to found by his native stream a 
 temple to Caesar (10 — 16). There in purple clad, he will celebrate 
 games — chariot and foot-race and boxing (17 — 20). With olive crown 
 he will offer sacrifice, and institute stage plays (21 — 25). Carved on 
 the doors shall be exploits of Caesar :. battles in India, Egypt, Asia — 
 l-last and West (26 — 32). There shall be statues of his Trojan ances- 
 tors; and Envy cowed and dreading infernal torture (33 — 39). 
 
 12. hiurnaeas palmas, 'palms of Idumaea' {S. of Judaea, where are 
 forests of palms); a well-known badge of victory, carried by the general 
 in the triumph. 
 
 Alantua was Vergil's birthplace, on the Mincio (15) in N. Italy. 
 
 13. 'The temjjle by the river' is .suggested by the great marble 
 temple of Zeus at Olympia. 
 
 17. The ])oet is figuratively the prominent personage at the festival, 
 dressed in purple like the praetor in his striped toga at his own games.
 
 NOTES. 63 
 
 19. Greece shall leave Alpketis (the river of Elis, where Olympian 
 games were held) and the groves of Molorchus, i.e. Neniea, a valley 
 S. of Corinth, where Herakles was entertained by a peasant 
 Molorchus when he came to slay the Nemean lion: and where games 
 were held every two years. 
 
 mihi, 'for me' eth. dat. i.e. 'at my word'. The poet creates it all. 
 
 20. crudus, properly 'hard' (stem CRU- whence crttsta, criidelis, 
 cryslallus, cruor ' clotted blood ') which is probably the meaning both here 
 and A. v. 69. Others take it 'raw' (the secondary sense) i.e. untan- 
 ned hide: but as the caestus was a hide-thong weighted with lead, 
 'hard' seems more likely. 
 
 1 1 . The sacrificer was decked with an olive wreath of clipped or 
 trimmed leaves {tonsae). 
 
 22 — 3. iam nunc, 'even now' and iuvat ''tis sweet': he is as it 
 were carried away by the vision of the triumph to be, and realises it as 
 present. 
 
 poiiipa, Greek word (from iri/iirw 'to send' or 'escort') in its proper 
 sense 'procession'. 
 
 24. ul depends on videre : 'or to see how the scene &c.' 
 
 versis discedat frontibuSy 'parts and shifts its faces' : sometimes the 
 scene was changed by titming round (vcrsis) the panel on a pivot, some- 
 times by parting the back (discedcU). These devices were probably 
 rarely resorted to, according to the Greek original Custom of having the 
 scene of the play commonly unaltered. 
 
 25. 'Inwoven Britains raise the purple curtains', an almost playful 
 artificiality of expression, describing the slow rise of the curtain (which 
 was drawn up, not down, to hide the stage) with savage figuves 
 embroidered on it, as if \.he figures raised it. 
 
 Britanni a.\c simply remote barbarians. 
 
 26. Similarly there are carvings on the doors of Phoebus' temple 
 (VI. 20) and on Dido's temple to luppiler is wrought the story of Troy 
 {VI. 456). 
 
 26 — 33. In these lines the poet depicts the subjection by Augustus 
 of divers nations and countries, viz. (i) India [Cangaridae], (2) Egypt 
 {Nilum), (3) Asia, (4) Armenia {Niphaten), (5) Parthia and (6), more 
 generally and vaguely, the East andV^^iX (utroque ab litore...divcrso ex 
 JiOite), i.e. Europe and Asia. 
 
 The historical facts of Augustus' successes are briefly these, in 
 chmnological order: 
 in 42 B.C. lie defeated at Philippi the party of Brutus and Cassias, 
 
 the murderers of lulius Caesar. 
 „ 40 ,, he was successful in a rather unimportant war in lltUy. 
 „ 36 ,, his generals defeated Sextus Pompeius in .Sicily. 
 „ 35-34 ,1 he carried on war against Daltnalia ending in comjjlete 
 
 subjugation. 
 ,, 31 ,, came the great victory at Aitiuin, over Antony (whocoin- 
 mandol the forces of the Iia>-t) and CIc(j|jalra with the 
 (Icet of I'.gypt. In the same year he marched through .Syria 
 and part of Asia Minor and settled the alTairs of the East, 
 receiving the subnii sion ol various Oriental tribes.
 
 64 VERGIL. GEORG. II J. 
 
 in 30 B.C. he marched through Egyi>t, the expedition ending in 
 the complete surrender and the suicide of Antony and 
 Cleopatra. 
 „ 29 ,, he triumphed at Rome, celelirating only the victories of 
 
 Dal mat i a, Actium, and Egypt. 
 The question here is whether Vergil means these lines to be a 
 reference to accomplished facts, and wrote them about the time of the 
 triumph {29 B.C.): or whether they were written earlier. 
 
 If we take them as written in 29, the poetic exaggeration is excessive, 
 (i) Augustus had no fight with Indians at all, (3) he never 'subdued' 
 Asia or (4) 'beat back' Niphates or (5) the Parthian: while (6) the 
 'double triumph over Europe and Asia' is at once exaggerated and 
 inaccurate as describing a triumph to celebrate the victories of Dalmatia, 
 Actium, and Egypt. 
 
 It is much more easy to believe that the passage was written while 
 Augustus was settling the empire in 31 B.C.: just at a time when the 
 triumphant pacification of the East, succeeding the series of victories 
 nearer home (Philippi, Italy, Sicily, Ualmatia, Acliuui), would justify 
 any exultation ; when the poet's vision of triumph was still partly fore- 
 cast, and the enthusiasm was in its first fever. It will then harmonise 
 well with IV. 561, on which see notes. 
 
 27. Gangaridae, an Indian tribe at the mouth of the Ganges. 
 Qtiiriniis, the sacred name of Romulus, when dead and deified: the 
 
 triumphs of Augustus and his army are imaginatively depicted as 'the 
 arms of conquering Quirinus'. 
 
 28. ntagnutn, adj. 'high', 'full'. 
 
 29. ' Pillars towering with bronze of ships' refers to the Roman 
 custom of commemorating naval victories by columns with prows of 
 ships projecting on each side, called rostratae coliivinae. 
 
 Such a pillar to commemorate Actium was made by Augustus 
 probably of the bronze from the triremes themselves : so that acre is abl. 
 of material. 
 
 30. Niphaten, a mountain in Armenia: pulstim means 'routed', 
 'defeated', a natural personification of a place. [There is no reason to 
 suppose, with C, that V. mistakes Niphates for a river,] 
 
 31. vcrsis, 'backward-fired': the 'Parthian arrows', discharged 
 while llie foe were flying, were famous. 
 
 33. utroque ab litore, Europe and Asia. 
 
 34. The marble of the Aegaean isle of Paros was always the choice 
 material of Greek sculpture. 
 
 35. Assaraciis. son of Tros (36), mythical ancestor of Aeneas, and 
 so of the Iitlia gens. The identification of the lulii with the des- 
 cendants of lulus son of Aeneas was afterwards worked out in the 
 Aeneid. 
 
 36. Apollo, called Cynthlus from Mt Cynthus in Delos where he 
 was bom, had been hired by King Laomedon to build (with the aid of 
 Neptune) the walls oi Troy. 
 
 37 — 39. The temple is to have a painting or bas-relief representing 
 S|>ite driven by the Furies to punishment below, and affrighted at the 
 sight of Cocytus, the torture of Ixion, and Sisyphus rolling his stone.
 
 NOTES. 65 
 
 This is a highly poetic and imaginative rendering of Augustus 
 crushing discontent and conspiracy at home, as ?6 — 34 gives his triumph 
 over his open foes. 
 
 The Furies are connected with Cocytus again A. vi. 374 amnemque 
 severmn Eumeniduin. Corytus 'Wailing', a river of Tartarus. 
 
 38. Ixion for offering violence to luno was punished by luppiter 
 in Hades, being bound to a wheel that revolved for ever. 
 
 Vergil alone mentions 'snakes' as part of the horror: tortos suggests 
 (as Servius explains) that the snakes were used for cords to bind his 
 hands and feet to the wheel. 
 
 39. ■ immanem, 'cruel'. 
 
 saxum refers to the punishment of Sisyphus, the brigand-king of 
 Corinth, who in Hades had to roll a stone for ever up hill, which was 
 always falling back upon him. This stone is here boldly and expres- 
 sively called 'unconquerable', iion exsttperabiU. 
 
 These two were stock instances of sinners tortured below (Ov. 
 Met. IV. 459, X. 43 &c.), which explains the omission of Sisyphus' name : 
 so A. VI. 616 'saxum ingens vol vent alii radiisve rotarum district! 
 pendent'. 
 
 40. Dryadum, 'the wood nymphs' of the Greek mythology. 
 sequamur, 'track', 'seek', a favourite use of V. sequere Italiam vends 
 
 A. IV. ■i,^\, sequi tabulata fer ulmos G. 11. 361. 
 
 41. intactos, 'wild': but the epithet suggests Vergil's love for the 
 country as something 'undefiled' by man. 
 
 Maecenas had urged V. to write the Georgics : see Introduction. 
 
 42. incohal. This and not inchoat is the true classical spelling. 
 
 en age, &'C. C. takes this as an address to x\/aece?ias 'to plunge 
 with him into the subject'. It is simpler to take it (with W. L.) as an 
 exclamation addressed to himself. 
 
 43. He is going to treat of animals : and he expresses this 
 imaginatively by saying he is summoned to Cithaeron (mountain on 
 the border of Boeotia, — the land full of cattle, and the mount of wild 
 leasts), to Taygetus (mountain of Lac(mia famous for dogs), and 
 Epidaurus (in Argolis, the land famed for horses). 
 
 46. 'To sing the wars lA Caesar' V, here sets before him as 
 an aim hereafter to be fulfilled, see ir. The idea was carried out 
 in a very different shape, in the Aeneid, when the military glory of 
 Augustus hail fallen into the background. 
 
 dicere. The iiifin. prolate is used by V. with many more verbs 
 llian by prose writers : in fact with any verb iniiilying order, wish, 
 eagerness, intention, refusal, &c. Thus V. has inf. with hortor, 
 impello, adi^redior, insto, parco, ardeo, snadeo, tetido, ahrogo, Jiigio, oro, 
 monstro, fugio, &c. 
 
 48. 7'ithonus, son of Laomedon and brother of Priam, a Trujan 
 prince : but there is an inaccuracy in mentioning him, as he was 
 descended from Ilus son of Tros, and was theref(jre not ancestor of 
 Aeneas and the lulii, who came (35) from Assaracus son of Tros. The 
 fact is that Vergil treats all the Trojan i)riiices generally as ancestors. 
 
 [49 — -fi. For horses or cattle-breeiling the mothers should be 
 chosen with care : the points of a good cow : the proper ages, from 
 
 G. III. IV. 5
 
 66 VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 4 to lo. Always breed early, while they are young : disease, age, 
 'leath are always at hand, and you will always have failures among 
 your brood.] 
 
 49. Olyvtpiacae. Olympia in Elis, the scene of the famous 
 Olympian games, 19. 
 
 51. praecipue, 'first': let it be his chief care. 
 
 The dam should be grivi {torvits) with ugly or unwieldy {tttrpe) 
 head, and a burly (pliu-ima) neck. The more slim and elegant 
 head and neck would be the sign of a less strong breed. 
 
 53. palt-aria, 'dewlap', teiius, usually with abl. for gen. See 
 Am. X. 207 latenim teniis. 
 
 The details are selected from Varro's description of a good 
 breed of cattle (11. v.) as follows : — He says they should be 'well 
 made, sound of limb, rather /oti!^, big, black-horned, broad-browed, 
 eyes large and black, ears shaggy, jaws liglit shut, blunt-nosed, not 
 humped but the back gently sloped, nostrils wide, dark lips, neck 
 thick and long, de-wlap (palearia) drooping loiv, big body, stout ribs, 
 broad shoulders, and long /ail reachim; to its heels, Sic' 
 
 54. nullus modus, ^ no limit^ : half playful exaggeration. 
 
 55. pes etiam, 'even the foot'. He says 'even' because in this point 
 alone he differs from Varro anil is following some other authority. 
 
 catnuiis, 'curving in'. 
 
 58. He says tola, 'the whole body', because he has been speaking 
 0*" details. 
 
 59. vestigia, no need to take it as \}nQ feet (as C. is inclined to do): 
 for in walking the tail would sweep {verrit) not the feet but iht footsteps. 
 
 60. The infin. after subs, aetas is a rather rare const, perhaps 
 imitated from Greek where it is common : somewhat similar are modus 
 imponere G. II. 73: tempus humo tegere G. I. 213: nullam esse 
 rationem amittere Cic. Caec. 5 : numquid modi est eum quaerere 
 Plant. Men. 233. 
 
 Lucina ('bringing to light'), surname of Diana as the goddess who 
 presides over childbirth. 
 
 Note the Greek rhythm and hiatus, with the Greek word hymenaeos, 
 as often: so A'eptuno Aegaeo A. III. 74: Parrhasio Euandro xi. 
 
 3'- 
 
 iustos, 'regular', 'proper': a not uncommon use of the word. 
 
 62. habilis, 'fit'. 
 
 64. solve, 'loose' them to mate with the cows: being kept apart 
 and confined of course till the proper time. 
 
 pecuaria, 'herds'. 
 
 66 — 68. The connection of thought is : you must lose no time 
 with your young cows in breeding (iiiventas, primus, suffice): disease 
 and decay are the rule in this world. The touch of sadness is 
 characteristic. 
 
 70. ne post amissa requiras anteveui, 'lest you should regret your 
 losses afterward, forestall them', i.e. breed largely knowing you will 
 have failures: repair your flock yearly with promising young cattle, 
 to take the place of the failures. 
 
 [72 — 94. Points of a good horse: his action, spirit, shape, colour,
 
 NOTES. 67 
 
 habits, hair, spine, hoof — hke the horses of Pollux, Mars, Achilles, 
 or even like that into which Saturnus changed.] 
 
 73. ift spent (where we say 'in' instead of 'into'), like in niimerutn, 
 'in time', in orbcm, 'going the round', in versum^ 'in line'. See note 
 IV. 175. 
 
 submtilere, 'to rear'. 
 
 The word 'submitto' is used of rearing (as a regular farmer's 
 term), especially for breeding purposes, here expressed by in spem 
 gentis, 'in hope of progeny', submittite tauros Eel. I. 46: pecori 
 submittere habendo infra 1 59. 
 
 74. iam inde, emphatic with a teneris : 'from their earliest youth*. 
 
 75. gencrosi, 'high-bred'. 
 
 76. t/wllia, 'elastic': the phrase (according to Servius) is quoted 
 from Ennius who uses it of cranes, 'mollia crura reponunt': it is the 
 opposite of 'stiff'. 
 
 80. argiitw (properly 'clear', from argiio, stem arg-, seen in 
 d/yyoj, argentiitn, argil/a, &c., where originally it means 'white'), a 
 word applied to various things: — 'shrill', 'keen', 'quick', of sounds, 
 movements, even of smells. These are the ordinary uses : but here 
 it is exceptional, and seems to mean 'with sharp lines', 'slender': 
 'clean cut' (R.). 
 
 82. spadices, 'bay', said by Gellius (Latin student and antiquarian 
 of 2nd cent. A. D.) to be derived from Greek dialectic word for 'palm', 
 the colour being that of a date. 
 
 glaueus (applied to the willow, G. II. 13, sedge, A. vi. 416, and 
 by Lucr. and V. to watei), 'grey'. 
 
 83. gilvus (same stem as yellow, yolk, gold), probably what we 
 call 'chestnut', rather inaccurately. 
 
 84. micat, of quick movement: so micare digitis of the^rapid 
 varied movement of the hands in the old game of mora. It describes 
 the rapid changing movement of the ears when the horse is agitated. 
 
 85. collectittn ignem, 'the gathered fire', a picturesque exaggerated 
 way of describing the excited snorts and pants of the startled beast. 
 
 87. 'The double spine' seems to mean simply that the depression 
 in the middle of the vertebrae is visible, owing to the horse not being 
 loo coarsely made. Varro (11. 7. 5) says 'a double spine if possible, 
 or at any rate not protruding'. Xen. {Re Eqtiestr. i. 12) says 'the 
 double spine is softer to sit upon and pleasanter to look at'. 
 
 89 — 94. After describing the high-bred horse, he compares it to 
 the famous horses of song and story. 
 
 89. Castor and Pollux, twin demigod?, born of Leda in Ainyclae 
 in Laconia, famous as tamers of horses, had been presented with two 
 divine horses, Xanthus and Cyllarus, by Nejitune. Such is one version 
 of the story. At Rome the equites regarded these twins as their 
 special patrons, and the procession on horseback on 15 July ('the 
 proud Ides when the squadron rides') was a festival three centuries old. 
 
 91. The horses of Arcs (Mars) and Achilles are mentioned in the 
 Iliad {x\. 119: XVI. 148). 
 
 Achilli, irregular gen. from nom. Achilles. So Ulixi, A- II. 7. 
 
 93. The story was that Saturn fell in love with the Occanid 
 
 5 — '
 
 68 VERGIL. GEORG. HI. 
 
 nymph Philyra, but being surprised by his wife Ops fled away in the 
 form of a horse. See 550. 
 
 94. Pelion, a mountain on the east coast of Thessaly, south of 
 Ossx 
 
 The Greek form of Greek names is very common in Latin poets, 
 e.g. Tytiiiarida, Laocooiila, Ilectora, Ilionea, Dido, all Greek ace. 
 in Vergil. 
 
 [95 — 122. Old horses bad for breeding and racing too. Description 
 in vivid detail of a horse-race. Erechtheus inventor of driving : the 
 Lapithae of riding.] 
 
 96. abde doino, most simply 'keep hid at home': don't let him out 
 to breed among the mares. 
 
 nee turpi ii^itosce senedae it is best to take also simply ; ' favour 
 not his inglorious age': don't allow him to breed when he is old and 
 broken down. [Servius' way of taking it, so that nee only negatives 
 turpi, 'his not inglorious age', is harsh and avtilicial.] 
 
 97—100. General sense: the old horse is unfit for breeding; and 
 unfit for racing too. [Others take si quando ad proelia, &c. also of 
 breeding (proelia metaphorical): but this would be mere repetition, 
 and he goes on to speak at length of racing.] 
 
 100. i.e. first look to his spirit and youth. 
 
 101. artes, 'qualities', 'powers'. 
 
 prolemque parentum, 'his ancestors': it is best to take prolem a 
 collective noun, 'the stock', not an abstract, 'the breed', though cither 
 is possible. 
 
 102. i.e. count up among his ancestors those which have failed 
 to win and those which have won races. The horse's 'grief at being 
 beaten and the 'pride' of victory is a touch of the half playful ex- 
 aggeration we have so much of in the Georgics. .See Introduction, p. 25. 
 
 103. campum corripere. rapio and corripio are common in such 
 expressions: it is a bold and vivid way of saying 'speed over', 'scour' 
 the plain. [For the Lucretian nonne vides see 250, and Introd. p. 12.] 
 
 105. exiiltantieujue haitrit eorda pavor pulsans, a violent and 
 strained though forcible phrase, to suit the violent excitement it 
 describes: 'the beat of fear pulls at their bounding hearts'. 
 
 haurit is literally 'drains', 'sucks'. 
 
 The same phrase is used again to describe the violent excitement 
 .of the racing oarsmen awaiting the signal (v. 138), where also 102 — 3 
 b used again. 
 
 10^). verbere for the 'lash': abstract for concrete. So infixum 
 vohius for the '.sword', A. iv. 68y. 
 
 108 — no. The idea is from Homer, //. xxiii. 368, where in 
 describing a chariot-race he says 'And at times the cars ran on the rich 
 earth, and at times bounded into the air'. 
 
 1 1 3. Ericluhonius (or shortened Erechtheus), ancient mythical 
 king of Athens, supposed to be inventor of the four-horse chariot. 
 
 115. The Lapithae, a Tlicssalian mythical tribe, in the Pelethronian 
 forest on Pelion, were supposed to be tiic inventors oi riding. 
 
 gyros, ' riding in a ring . 
 
 dcdere, 'gave', i.e. 'invented'.
 
 NOTES. 6g 
 
 117. 'To gather his proud steps ', a vivid and forcible phrase of the 
 high action of a spirited horse. 
 
 It is rather a harsh strain of language to make the rider do this, 
 as Vergil does. 
 
 1 18. uterque, of car-drawing and riding. 
 
 119. exqtiirunt, 'seek', not (as at first sight seems easier) to draw 
 or ride, but to breed for drawing or riding. The subsequent context 
 is all about the breeder, and this interpretation alone makes the sense 
 consistent and consecutive. 
 
 120. ille, the old horse, past service now, however noble his 
 origin and great his triumphs. 
 
 III. Epirus, famed for horses, G. I. 59 palnias Epiros equa)uni: 
 and Mycenae, the capital of 'Argos the horse- feeder', as Homer calls it. 
 
 122. A^eptunus (or Poseidon) was especially the god of horses: 
 liippios was one of his surnames: and the Athenians spoke of him 
 as having endowed their land with its fine horses (Soph. O. C. 712). 
 
 [123 — 137. Feed up the male, and keep the mares on scanty diet 
 and hard exercise.] 
 
 124. pingui used as subst. 'flesh': we have similar collocations 
 in deserta per ardua 291, plurirnus volitatts 147. 
 
 126. Jlorentes, in its literal sense 'flowery'. 
 
 127. superesse, 'to be strong enough': rather strained usage. 
 
 128. ietttnia, 'gauntness'. 
 
 129. ipsa armenla, i.e. the mares; which have to be exercised 
 and kept on short diet, to make tliem more likely to be fertile. 
 
 133 — 4. i.e. at the threshing time, in the summer. This seems 
 rather late for breeding. 
 
 135 — 7. 'This they do, that the fertile soil be not blunted by 
 surfeit, nor the furrows choked and clogged, but may take eagerly the 
 seed, and store it deep within '. 
 
 The fertility of the animals is given under the common metaphor 
 of a field. 
 
 [138 — 156. When the cows are in calf, spare them work, give 
 them quiet and the best grass. And that pest the gadfly of Lucania — 
 which luno sent against Ino — you must keep ofl" your pregnant cows, 
 feeding them in the cool of morning or evening.] 
 
 138. cadere, 'to cease', 'to sink'. 
 
 141. sit passus, 'would sufler', potential: a gentle way of saying 
 "must not'; so non quisquam ruoneat G. i. 457. 
 
 142. fluvias iniiare rapaces, 'swim into the whirling streams' in 
 order to drink. They must be spared all violent exertion — drawing, 
 leaping, running, swimming. 
 
 145. prociibel, 'falls afar'. The subjunctives are the final use 
 after the relalive ubi. 
 
 146. Silarus, a river between Campania and Lucania, flowing 
 by the north end of the mountain Alburnus into the gulf of I'aestuui : 
 the N.E. face of Alburnus is drained by the V'anager, which flows into 
 tl»e Silarus. 
 
 147. volilans, 'a fly'. 
 
 aiilo...oe>triim. 'the gad-fly', or large horse-fly.
 
 70 VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 148. To say tli.it the Greeks have 'changed' the name to oestrum 
 is a loose use of language, when he only means that 'oestius' is the 
 Greek name for the gadlly. Seneca (quoted by L.) writes (Ep. vi. 6. 
 •2) that this was an example of a Greek word ousting a native Roman. 
 In fact he treats asilits as an obsolete word. L. infers that it had 
 become so since Vergil's day. But V. was fond of old words and local 
 words, and this may be one. 
 
 149. silvis, 'through the woods', poetic use of local abl. without prep. 
 acerba adverbial use of ace. (internal ace.) particularly used by poets 
 with verbs of bodily action : iona tucns, dulct ridens, miserabile 
 insultans, acerba fretnens, immane fremens, serum canit, &c. 
 
 152. monstro, 'scourge' (R.). 
 
 The reference is to the story of lo, daughter of Inachus, of which 
 Ovid's version is as follows [Met. I. 588) : luppiter loved lo, but fearing 
 the jealousy of luno, changed her into a heifer. luno begged for the 
 heifer as a gift, and handed her over to Argus (a hundred-eyed monster) 
 to watch. luppiter sent Mercury to kill Argus, and then luno pursued 
 the heifer lo with a gadfly. 
 
 155. pecori, armenta,... h'ldXns, usually as here after a pause : G. II. 
 144 tenent oleae, armetitaqite : A. I. 16 Samo : hie illius arma : ib. 405 
 et vera incessu patuit dea. llle ubi matrem, &c. 
 
 [157 — 178. The calves must be branded, and divided into breeding, 
 working, sacrificial cattle. The working cattle train from the first : to 
 bear the collar, to run together, to drag weights, first light, then heavy. 
 The proper food for the calves: don't use all the milk.] 
 
 158. gentis, ' the st( ck ' : all careful farmers who breed must brand 
 the young so as to see which turn out best. 
 
 159. quos malint is indirect quest, depending on the sense oi the 
 preceding line: 'They breed them. ..[to mark] which ihey prefer to 
 rear &c. ' 
 
 submit to, 73. 
 
 pecori habendo, ' for breeding '. 
 
 In these two lines he is thinking of the males : the breeding hulls, 
 the victims, and the draught o.xen. The rest (cetera) would be the 
 heifers and the young oxen to be killed for meat : and these are to be 
 sent undistinguished into the pasture. 
 
 163 — 5. The point of these lines is the half playful solemnity with 
 which V. uses words rather more serious and elevated than would 
 naturally be used of bullocks : studium ('service'), hortare, faciles aitimi 
 iuvenum all illustrate this. 
 
 164. iam vitulos together : ' when but calves*. 
 
 166. circlos contracted (like pocla, pericla, &c.) from circulus: only 
 found here. 
 
 168. ipsis e torquibus aptos iunge pares, ' yoke them in pairs, fastened 
 by the collars themselves': i.e. don't have a real yoke, or tie their horns 
 together, but (after each is accustomed to his own collar) tie the collars 
 together, and train them to run evenly. 
 
 1^0. illis, dat. of agent (in imitation of the Greek use with perf. 
 pass, and aorist) commonest after participle, regnata Lycurgo (A. III. 
 14), mihi iuncta manits (VIII. 169), quaesitum matri (ix. 565): but
 
 NOTES. 7T 
 
 also after present pass., tnalis habitantur moenia Grais A. ui. 39S. 
 See 6. 
 
 rotae inanes, 'unladen wheels': it might be an empty cart (C.) or 
 more simply the mere framework (two axles joined by a beam), such as 
 are used for carrying logs. 
 
 171. summo pulvere, 'in the surface-dust': the weight being so 
 light. 
 
 172. He is thinking of //. V. 838 iii-ya. 5' l^paxe (priyivos a|w«' 
 ^pidoavviQ, ' the beechen axle groaned with the weight '. 
 
 1 73. Umo aerens, ' bronze-plated pole ' to increase the weight. 
 
 175. vescas, 'slender': Ovid {Fast. in. 446) tells us that it was a 
 rustic word, used to mean 'small'. So Plin. N. H. vii. 8r corpore 
 vesco sed eximiis viribus. V. uses it again IV. 131 for poppy seed. 
 
 1 76. frumenta sala, ' the young corn ' : perhaps as Servius says, the 
 mixture of spelt, barley, vetch, and pulse known 3i?, farrago, 205. 
 
 [179 — 208. Rules for the war-horse and race-horse. Accustom 
 them to the noise (of arms, trumpets, &c.), train them to harness, to 
 their paces, till they fly like the ever-swifter north wind. When well 
 trained, feed them well : not before.] 
 
 1 79. studium, ' your desire ' : used in this line with ad bella, in the 
 next by a more natural constr. with infin. 
 
 180. The Olympian games (already referred to 19, 49) were by the 
 river Alpheiis in Elis, near an olive grove sacred to hippitery and not 
 far from the site of an old city Pisa. 
 
 182. aminos atquearma: V. is fond of such combinations of abstract 
 and concrete : sedem et secreta, Jerroque et arte, teli nee volneris auctor, 
 &c. 
 
 183. tractuque genientem ferre retain, ' to bear the rumbling of the 
 dragged wheel ' : tractu abl. after gem. 
 
 189. invalidwi et. Syllable lung in arsis, as often in V. 
 inscius aevi is most simply taken (with C.) 'ignorant of life': 
 i.e. simply 'inexperienced'. 
 
 192. fow/oji'/jj, ' regular '. 
 
 iiniutque...crurum, 'and ply with winding curves his thighs in 
 turn ', elal)orate but expressive plirase. 
 
 193. laboranti, the 'seeming elTort' is due to the strong but repressed 
 movement of the trained horse. 
 
 cursibus auras vocet, ' challenge the breezes with his speed ', 
 
 194. The rhythm expresses the bounding gallop when the pressure 
 is removed. 
 
 196. Hyperborei are the fabulous Homeric people who live 
 ' beyond the north wind '. Here it is a poetic term for ' North '. So 
 381. IV. 517. 
 
 densHS generally taken to mean ' strong ', ' with force concentrated ': 
 but it is probably a poetic rendering of the look of a storm from the 
 north, with close packed clouds : hence the north wind is himself 
 called ' thick '. 
 
 197. differt, 'spreads': not 'scatters', 'disperses', as some lake 
 it, because that would not make sense with .Scythiae hi ernes : for the 
 poet must mean that the 'Scythian storms' are brought, not dispersed,
 
 72 VERGIL. GEORG. II L 
 
 liy the north wind. In Luci. i. ^-|l ingentesque ruit naves et nithila 
 differ/, the use is amhiguous. 
 
 ariiia, ' rainless '. 
 
 198. 'The floating (ielils ', or 'watery plains', is Lucretian for the 
 •sea'. 
 
 201. The simile describes the storm-signs in order : first the clouds 
 overcast the sky from the north: then 'light gusts' over the corn and 
 the sea : then the tree-tops rustle and ' long breakers ' come in : last 
 comes Aiptilo and yuve/>s land and sea. 
 
 202. hinc, 'afterward', 'soon': the previous description (up to 
 the simile) having dealt with his training : now, the training over, the 
 horse will be good for race or war — which he expresses in his usual 
 ornate way. 
 
 Elei. See 19 
 
 203 agd, 'force , 'pour'. 
 
 204. molli, ' docile '. 
 
 esseduvi, the Celtic war-chariot, used by Gauls and Britons : it is a 
 Celtic word. Belgae were Gauls of the north. 
 
 205. crassa farrat^ine, ' rich mash ', farrago being a compound of 
 various kinds of fodder, mostly poorer sorts of grain. 
 
 2c6 — 7. i.e. if you give them mash before taming. 
 
 208. The lupatum freniiin (or Itipatmn merely) was a curb jagged like 
 a wolf's jaw. Ovid and Martial also use the word as a substantive : 
 Horace Od. I. viii. 6 has ' lupatis temperet ora frenis'. 
 
 [209 — 241. Keep both cattle and horses from the female. Descrip- 
 tion of a fight for a cow, between two bulls. The defeated one goes 
 away alone, and practises to renew the battle.] 
 
 209. iiiduslria, ' care ', on the part of the heifer. 
 
 2(4. satura, 'abundant', 'plentiful': i.e. where there is plenty of 
 fodder. 
 
 216 — 7. It is better to read these lines without stop, so that the 
 whole sense is : — 
 
 ' The female with the sight of her inflames him and wastes his 
 strength, nor suffers him to remember woods nor pasture, — and sweet 
 indeed are her charms — and often &c.' 
 
 This use of the pronoun, grammatically superfluous, is common in 
 Vergil for emphasis : particularly in this concessive sense with quidem, 
 or (amen: e.g. A. V. 186 scopulofpie propinquat, nee tota tamen ille 
 j)rior : IX. 796 nee tendere contra {ille quidein iioc cupiens) potis est... 
 1. 3 I-avinaque veiiil lilora, nuiltum ?7/tf...iactatus... 
 
 Otherwise, if we put a stop at herbae (with C.and others), ?/, 'even', 
 comes in awkwardly, and the whole sentence is much less natural. 
 
 219. Sila, a large wooded range in S. of Italy reaching to the straits 
 of Messina. The MSS. here give silva, a natural corruption : but 
 .Si-rvius (juotes the reading Sila, and the jiassage in A. Xil. 715 — 722, 
 which is clearly imitated and elaborated from this, makes Sila highly 
 probable if not certain. 
 , 222. Note the weighty sound, mass thrusting against mass. 
 
 223. longus Olymptis. Vergil is imitating Homer /[zo(fp6j"OXu|t7ros : 
 but Homer meant the 'high mount', while Vergil's phrase is poetic for
 
 NOTES. 73 
 
 the 'far-stretching heavens'. Olympus even in the Odyssey had ceased 
 to be the earthly mountain : and was regularly used by after-poets for 
 Juaven. 
 
 124. bellanies in prose would bedat. or gen. : but in poetry the use 
 of ace. inf. is looser. 
 
 228. Note the charactenstic touch of pity and pathos in stabula 
 aspecians. 
 
 230. All the best MSS. have feniix, which R. F. L. retain : but 
 elsewhere /^«/jr means 'nimble', 'swift': and so Vergil himself uses 
 '\\., pemicibiis cdis A. IV. 180 : per^ticibus ignea plantis XI. 718 : and in 
 this book 93. The attempt to give it a new meaning ' persistent ' (per- 
 niti) is neither suitable to the sense, the usage, or even the derivation. 
 On the other hand the early correction /e:rw<7j: (adopted by H. F. \V. C. 
 K. &c.) gives the sense required. 
 
 instrato, neg. adj. ' un-spread ', i.e. 'bare': the only instance of this 
 use. 
 
 232. irasci in cornua discit (lit. 'learns to rage into his horns'), a 
 bold and powerful phrase translated from Eur. Bacch. 743 ko.% Ktpa.% 
 dv/xov/jievoi : it describes the lowerings and thrustings of the head, the 
 well-known first signs of anger in a bull, 'and learns to threaten with 
 angry horn, leaning against a tree, and vexes the winds with thrusts, 
 and pawing up the sand prepares for battle '. 
 
 236. stgna move/, military metaphor, half playful : ' breaks camp' (R.). 
 
 238. sinum, 'the fold', a beautiful word for the long curving wave. 
 
 The unusual rhythm of these lines with the late pauses and light 
 caesuras expresses the suspense and breaking of the wave. 
 
 24 1 . alte suhiectal, ' tosses on high '. 
 
 [242 — 283. Great is the power of love on all. The lioness : the 
 bear, the boar, the tiger, nothing will stop a horse. What of man? 
 He fears nor nighi nor sea nor storm. Leander will seek Hero. So 
 the lynx, the wolf, the dog, the stag. More excited than all are the 
 mares : tale of their being impregnated by the wind : and the superstition 
 of the hippomaties.\ 
 
 242. Notice the -que superfluous and elided before next line: Vergil 
 often has some reason for this metrical peculiarity in the sense: e.g. G. 
 I. 295 decotjiiit umorein suggests boiling over: A. I v. 629 pugncnt ipsi- 
 que it<'poteS(/ue, of unending feud : G. III. 377 congest aipie robora tolas- 
 qiie...ubiios, of the huge firewood. 
 
 145. non alio, 'no other ' than the time of pairing. 
 247. inforinfs, ' shaiieiess ', 'unwieldy'. 
 
 249. male erratur, i.e. 'tis ill to wander': pass, impers. of motion- 
 verbs, a common Lat. idiom. 
 
 250. noiitie vides. See Introduction, p. 12. 
 
 251. Coii:-,truction after Vergil's manner (much developed later) is 
 artificialised : 'odor' the scent (of the marcs) is half personified, and 
 brings ' tile well-known whiffs ' (aurae). 
 
 254. Common poetic exaggeration : 'seizing and whirling moun- 
 tains in their tide'. .So Ihoneus hurls ittgenti fragmine mantis A. IX. 
 569: the Trojan war is the 'clash of Europe and Asia' (vii. 224): 
 Alicclo tlie jury has 'a thousand names', VII. 337, &c.
 
 74 VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 ■255. Sabdliats, i.e. the boar from Sabine Apennines. 
 
 256. prosubigit, ' ploughs up in front '. 
 
 757. A/wf fl/r/«^ ;///«(-, 'on either side': durat, ' hardens ', evidently 
 by rubbing. It was an old superstition (found as early as Aristotle 
 Hist. An. VI. 17) that the boar dcHberately hardened his skin for battle 
 by riibbins,' against trees and daubing himself in the mud. Pliny repeats 
 the statement. 
 
 25S. quid, in climax, often without the verb. 
 
 259. abruptis, 'bursten': choicer word for pres. part, 'bursting', 
 so rupto turbine A. II. 46 : XII. 451 abrupto sidere. 
 
 The whole description {a fine example of the emphatic grand style) 
 refers to the well-kpown tale of Leander who swam every night across 
 the Hellespont to visit the maiden Hero whom he loved: till one night 
 he was drowned. 
 
 263. super, prep. ' on his cruel pyre ', is the simplest way of taking 
 it : in A. IV. 308 7iec morilura tenet crudeli fiincre Dido we have a very 
 similar line differently constructed, as often happens in V. 
 
 264. The lynx is sacred to Bacchus as being one of the wild beasts 
 that drew his car on his Indian triumph-journey : tigers and panthers 
 are also spoken of. 
 
 267. tnentem dedit, 'inspired'. 
 
 The story was that Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, kept racing mares at 
 Potniae in Boeotia, which were not allowed to breed. Venus wroth 
 with him, as having been slighted, made the mares go mad and devour 
 him. 
 
 269. Gargara, highest peak of the famous range of Ida. 
 
 270. Ascanittm, a stream that carries the water of a lake in Bithynia 
 into the Propontis. 
 
 275. The ancients believed that mares could be made pregnant by 
 the wind : the most scientific of the ancients, Aristotle, says, f/ist. An. 
 VI. 18: — 'They are said to be filled with the wind. ..and when this 
 happens they run away from the rest of the herd... neither to the East 
 nor West, but to the North or South '. 
 
 27y — 8. Eurus, 'Ea.st wind', Boreas, 'N. wind', Caurus {ox Corns 
 A. V. 126), 'N. W. wind', Auster (scorcher), 'S. wind'. 
 
 Note Borean, Greek form : so Heclora, Naxon, Anchisen, Sidona, 
 
 &c. 
 
 280. ' Then it is, that what the shepherds truly call hippomanes, a 
 foul issue, drips slowly from their groin '. 
 
 The emphasis of this line (in deinuni and vera) is controversial. The 
 same name ' hippomanes ' was given to a tubercle on the forehead of 
 a foal at birth, which was a powerful love charm ('nascentis equi de 
 fronte revol.sus Et matri praereptus amor' A. IV. 515). The mare 
 devoured it if allowed to do so, and if not went mad. 
 
 Vergil implies that the real hippomanes was this discharge from the 
 wind-impregnated mares, which was likewise used in witchcraft. Aris- 
 totle gives the name to both. 
 
 282 — 3. w<w<rrrt, 'stepdame', the typical poisoner. The end of this, 
 and the next line, occur G. 11. 128. In line 283 non innoxia looks as 
 ii the hippomanes was a poison as well as a charm.
 
 NOTES. 75 
 
 Notice miscuerunt : so stethunt, iulennit, dedHrunt. 
 
 [284 — 294. But time is short: it remains to tell of sheep and goats.] 
 
 285. arnore, ' love ' of my theme. 
 
 286. armentis, ' herds ', of cattle and horses. 
 
 287. agitare, 'treat of. 
 
 289. animi. There is a difficulty about the explanation of this 
 case. If it were only used in such phrases as aniens animi (iv. 203), 
 praestans animi (XII. 19), we could explain it as the genitive of relation: 
 the ' thing in point of which " the adj. is applied. This genitive Vergil 
 uses a good deal, no doubt in part from the influence of Greek where it 
 is common. 
 
 But animi is also used with verbs and participles : thus angere animi 
 (Cic. Verr. Ii. 34), ctticiare aiiifui (Plaut. Mil. 1062, 1280, &c.), ne 
 fallit animi (Lucr. I. 136), poidere animi (common in Cic). It is also 
 used with a large number of adj., much more frequently than other 
 genitives : thus, anxitis, caecus, diibitis, egregius, felix, integer, lassus, 
 maturus, praeceps, &c. 
 
 The conclusion is strongly probable that this is a survival of the 
 locative (well known in httmi, domi, cordi, &c.), and that it simply 
 means 'in the mind', not 'in respect of mind' (gen.). It is just in 
 such words as these that the locative use would become ingrained in 
 the language, and remain, when the locative case elsewhere disappeared, 
 and the locative meanings were rendered by the abl. 
 
 See the complete note on the word in Roby's Lat. Gram. 1321. 
 
 verbis ea vincere, 'to treat these themes with success'. The phrase 
 is Lucretian, see Introduction. 
 
 291. Parnasiis, the muses' mountain, Castalia, the muses' spring. 
 
 292. iugis, 'over the heights', poetic local abl. 
 
 [295 — 338. Housing of sheep in winter, food and water and folds 
 for goats, use of goatskins. Goats will come home of themselves, 
 so their stalls should be comfortable and food good. In spring both 
 flocks go out to pasture. In the heat, seek water and shade : later 
 give them more water and then food again till evening.] 
 
 294. Pales, line t. There is perhaps a certain playfulness in the 
 extra solemnity which Vergil assumes when he is going to speak of 
 sheep and goats — the most difficult part of the farmer's breeding (288). 
 This idea is confirmed by the stately expression Ituipiens edico in the 
 next line. 
 
 295. edico with ace. inf. instead of ut : see on 46. 
 
 296. dum with present in the sense of /ill is rare ; cf. Ter. Ilatit. 
 IV. 7. 5 tu hie nos dum eximus opperibere. 
 
 297. felicum, 'fern' (filix seems to be the true classical spelling). 
 299. podagra (irob- foot, ayp- seize), 'foot-rot'. It is usually 
 
 employed of human beings and means 'gout'. 
 
 302. vends, obviously the northerly wind, as it is 'liirned to the 
 south' (ad medium conversa diem, 303). 
 
 303. olim should perhaps be taken with frigidus (as K.): 'when 
 Aquarius ofttitnes cold is now sinkmg', &c. 
 
 304. Aquarius, 'the Waterer', is the sign of the zodiac so named; 
 Uie stars which formed the constellation set in the middle of February.
 
 76 VERGIL. GEORG. TTl. 
 
 txtrrmo inrorat anno, 'betlews the closing year', because Aquaiius 
 was so named as l)elonjj;ing to llie rainy season, and the old Roman year 
 ended witli F'ebruary. 
 
 305. hae, 'goats': the other reading haec not such good sense. 
 
 306. General sense : goats are equally useful, though the best 
 sheep may be very precious. 
 
 JMilesia. The fleeces of Mihlus (rich Greek town on the coast of 
 Caria) were famous, as were the pur[)le dyes of Tyre, 
 magna tnutentur, 'are sold for a great price'. 
 
 307. incocta riibores, 'steeped in the dyes', the accus. being the 
 Greek use of the ace. after a passive, which is really an elastic 
 extension of the active objective ace. to the passive voice. 
 
 Thus the Greeks say: 
 
 Active Passive 
 
 tTiTp^iru) ffoi Trjv apxV" liriTlTpaxpai ttji' apxV" 
 
 iyypd<pu T^ 54\T<f} ^wOrj/JLara 5Atos iyyeypa/j./x^i'T) ^vvdrjiiara 
 
 This usage the Roman poets imitated, as well as the ace. after 
 the middle, which they very likely did not distinguish from the Other. 
 Other instances of the ace. after passive axe. fusus barbam A. X. 838: 
 inscripti nomina regiim Eel. III. 106: per pedes traiectus lora A. II. 
 772 : caesariitn effusae G. IV. 337 : caertileos itnplexae crinibus anptes 
 G. IV. 482. 
 
 308. hinc, from the goats. 
 
 310. pressis tnaniniis, i. e. at the next milking. 
 
 312. Cinyphii hirci: the goats of the river Cinyps, in the north 
 of Africa, running into the Syrtis, were a good breed. 
 
 tondent, 'they shear', i.e. the shepherds: nom. omitted because 
 easily supplied. 
 
 313. ttsum castroriun is illustrated by a passage in Silius Italicus 
 (ill. 276), who describes the Cinyphii, when in camp, as 'covering their 
 shoulders with the coarse skin of the goat'. 
 
 314. Lycaeus, mountain in Arcadia. 
 
 317. The rare rhythm of the overhanging spondee, ducitnt, 
 expresses almost playfully the slow approach ol the she-goats heavy 
 with milk. 
 
 320. virgea, 'of shoots': he had spoken of arbutus (301) as the 
 food for goats. 
 
 324. Lucifer, 'the Light-bringer', was the Roman version of 
 iftu)(r<p6pot, the Greek name for the morning-star (the planet Venus). 
 
 325. carpai/ius, used like carpere prata, carpere aelhera, carpere 
 litora, 'let us range'. So G. IV. 311 aera carpere. 
 
 327. sitim coUei^erit, 'has gathered thirst', picturesque personifi- 
 cation: 'the fourth hour of heaven' is ten o'clock, by which time the 
 Italian summer sun is very hot. 
 
 330. ilignis, no doubt conduits and troughs made of ilex wood 
 would last longest. The ilex is a common Italian tree, and the wood 
 is hard and close. 
 
 332. lovis, the oak was sacred to Jove. 
 
 (Notice the long syllable, by stress of the foot, before vowel.)
 
 NOTES. 77 
 
 335. tenues, 'the thin stream' whicli ran down the ilex-conduit. 
 
 337. The moon is (poetically) the source of dew. 
 
 338. 'And the shores echo the halcyon's cry, the thickets the 
 warbler's song '. 
 
 The accusatives are a kind of extended cognate, where an allied 
 notion is substituted for the true cognate. Similar expressions are 
 saltan Cyclopa (Hor.), 'to dance (in character of) Cyclops', vox 
 hominem sotiai, 'voice sounds human,' A. I. 328. 
 
 The alcyone or alcyon is generally identitied with the kingfisher ; 
 and the author of the delightful book 'A Year with the Birds' points 
 out that the description of the alcyon both in Pliny and Aristotle 
 agrees with the appearance of the kingfisher. 
 
 The same authority gives reason for thinking the acalanthis is not, 
 as traditionally translated, the goldfinch, but more probably one of the 
 'warblers', the reed- warbler, or sedge- warbler, or willow-wren. 
 
 [339 — 348. The immense pastures of Africa : flocks often un- 
 slu-liered a month at a time.] 
 
 340. mapalia were the huts of the Numidians, and are thus 
 described by Sallust {Jug. 18): 'the houses of the rustic Numidae, 
 which they call mapalia, rather long, with curved sides, resembling 
 the hulls of ships'. 
 
 m. raris habitata tectis is Vergilian and elaborate for 'scattered 
 huts'. 
 
 343. hospitiis, 'shelter'. 
 
 345. Amyclae in Laconia ; the Laconian dogs were famous, as 
 were also the Cretan archers. 
 
 These are good examples of the 'ornate' or 'literary' epithet, 
 intended rather to remind the reader of Greek poetry than to express 
 the actual truth. Thus the acorn is 'Chaonian', the bow 'Parthian', 
 the myrtle 'Paphian', the poppy 'Lethean', &c. See Introduction, p. 19. 
 
 347. iniusto, 'cruel'. 
 
 hosti, dat. in relation to the whole sentence (ethic) : 'and before 
 the foe unawares he stands in line, his camp pitched'. 
 
 [349 — 383. Par different in Scythia and tlie north. Description 
 of a northern winter : hard frost, frozen wine, icicles on the beard, 
 cattle and stags lost in drifts: hunting in the snow: merry life in 
 underground caverns, with good fires, drink and games.] 
 
 349. at non, i.e. 'not thus' they do. The verb easily supplied. 
 So G. IV. 530. A. IV. 520. 
 
 Maeotia. The sea of Azov was called Alaeotis palus. 
 
 These names .Scythian, .Macotian, Ihster (the Danube) and Khodope 
 (the mountain range of Tlirace nearest the sea) are simply exjjressions 
 for the North borrowed from Greek. 
 
 351. redit, 'turns': for the Khodope range has an easterly branch 
 as well as a n(jrtherly. 
 
 axis, 'the pole', often for the north: so G. \\. 2ji quae terga 
 obverterit axi. 
 
 .'"55- ifptt-mque aduirgit in tihias, 'heaped seven ells high' (R.). 
 With characteristic love of variety he says the 'earth rises' with the 
 snow.
 
 78 VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 357. pallentes, 'dim': similarly the word is often used of the 
 under world. 
 
 359. Oceani. This passage is a Homeric imitation (Od. XI. 14, 
 'There is the land and city of the Kimmerioi, covered with mist and 
 gloom : nor ever doth Eelios look on them with his beams, neither 
 when he mounts the starry sky, nor when he returns again to tlie 
 earth from heaven') and Oceanus has here its Homeric meaning, the 
 river which formed the boundary round the world. So below, IV. 233, 
 Oceani amiits. 
 
 361. ferratos orbes is explained by plaustris: the 'iron-shod' 
 wheels and the 'broad' wains are mentioned to give an idea of the 
 thickness of the ice that bears them. 
 
 364. utnida, i.e. which are usually so, 'the liquid wine'. 
 
 365. vertere, intrans. Vergil uses many such verbs intrans. , e.g. 
 addo, inisceo, potto, roto, sisto, supero, tendo, urgeo, volvo, &c. 
 
 Note the perfects of habitual occurrences (gnomic, in imitation of 
 the Greek aorist). 
 
 370. fnide nova, 'strange mass', gives the picture of the poor 
 stags helpless, bewildered, and astonished by the new-fallen snow. 
 
 372. puniieae foniiidine pennae, 'the scare of the puri)le feather', 
 refers to the custom of erecting at the avenues of the wood lines with 
 gaudy fluttering feathers, to keep the game in, and drive them into 
 the snares. This structure was appropriately called forinido, 'a scare'. 
 
 The line recurs slightly varied A. xu. 750. 
 
 373. niontetn, of snow. 
 
 377. totasque, see note on li^^. advolvere gnomic. 
 
 380. ' Mock the vine-juice with yeast and sour service-berries', 
 presumably fermentum referring to 'beer' and the sorbis to a tliin 
 'home-made' wine of service. (Others take it as one dnnV., fermento et 
 sorbis hendiadys.) 
 
 381. Hyperboreo, 196. 
 
 septem...trioni. Trio, originally said to be ter-io, a plough-ox: and 
 the name septem triones, 'the seven oxen', was given to the constellation 
 of the Great Bear. Hence a new word was coined Septemtrio for the 
 'Great Bear' or the 'North': and finally the two Bears were called 
 gemini Triones. The true meaning of trio was of course lost. 
 
 382. Rhipaeo. The unknown and imaginary mountains in the 
 extreme north were called 'the Rhipaean hills': afterwards when the 
 geography became better known they were identified with hills near the 
 source of the Tanais (Don) in Central Russia. So iv. 518. 
 
 383. vela/ur corpora, 'shroud their limbs', the Vergilian imitation 
 of the middle voice of Greek verbs: so Aen. 11. 722 insternor pelle, 749 
 cingor, 'I gird myself, in. 405 velare comas, formam vertitur IX. 649, 
 &C. &c. 
 
 See also note on 307. 
 
 saetis, 'bristles', unusual word for 'shaggy hide'. 
 
 [384 — 393. If wool is your object (sheep), beware of calthrops &c. 
 Choose best fleeces: beware of a ram (however white) with a black 
 tongue. Story of Pan and Luna.] 
 
 384. lanitium, ' wool -growing'.
 
 NOTES. 79 
 
 385. lappafqtu triholique, 'burs and calthrops', prickly weeds. 
 Notice -ijue (imitated from Homer, e. g. Ad/z7rov re KXuTto'j' re), 
 
 frequent in Vergil in this place of the line, usually before double conso- 
 nants, as (ustusqw pluviasque, terrasque tractusque, ensemque clipeum- 
 quf, font esq ue Jiuviosque, &c. 
 
 The prickles would tear and spoil the fleece: the over-rich food 
 would make it coarse. 
 
 386. contimio here seems to mean 'first', as G, 1. 169. It properly 
 means 'without break or pause'. 
 
 387 — 8. The ram that is white all over (ipse), if he is black in his 
 tongue only (tan(um) must be rejected. Aristotle says, Hist. An. VI. 19, 
 'The lambs are white or black according as the veins under the ram's 
 tongue are white or black '. 
 
 391 — 3. One story was that Pan, 'the god of Arcadia', beguiled the 
 moon-goddess to follow him into the wood, by changing himself into a 
 ram with a white fleece. 
 
 Vergil however seems to follow a version rather different: that he 
 won her love by the gift of a white fleece. 
 
 39 1 . si credere dignum est. Vergil f edeems the grotesqueness of the 
 story by these half apologetic words. So A. vi. 173 of the likewise 
 rather grotesque tale of jealous Triton drowning Misenus, 
 aemulus exceptum Triton, si credere dignum est, 
 inter saxa virum spumosa immerserat unda. 
 
 [394 — 403. If milk your object (goats), instructions about food. 
 Salt herbs make them thirsty. Milk pressed, and either sold or stored.] 
 
 396. hinc, from the salt. 
 
 398. iam excretos, 'from their birth', lit. 'a/^^rt^ when born', ex- 
 cretus, an unusual word, from excerno, 'to put away out'. [Others less 
 well take it from excresco. K. P. R. read etiani from one MS., which 
 improves the rhythm: but iam is wanted for the sense.] 
 
 399. prima adverbial (as so often with adj. of position), 'from the 
 first'. 
 
 The 'iron-pointed muzzles' prevent the kid from sucking, because 
 naturally the she-goat objects. 
 
 401. premunt, (oT cheese. 
 
 402. 'The shepherd before dawn bears away in baskets to the town'. 
 I follow W. L. K. in adopting Scaliger's exportans for exportant. 
 
 [If with C. we retain the latter, adit oppida pastor becomes so very 
 harsh a parenthesis: and the corruption is easily explained by the in- 
 fluence oi premunl, contingunt.] 
 
 It also makes better sense if we put a stop (with#IC.) at lucein, 
 understanding premunt: there is no likelihood in the antithesis 'they 
 press what they milk at dawn, and sell what they milk at evening'. 
 
 403. conliugunt (Vikepar^) expresses the small amount required, 'a 
 touch of salt ' as we say. 
 
 [404 — 413. Dogs and their food: useful for hunting wild asses, 
 hares, deers, and boars.] 
 
 404. y««riV jussive, the ordinary tense after nog. 
 
 4015. Spartae, 345. Molossian dogs (from Kpiros on N.W. coast 
 of Greece) were also famous.
 
 8o VERGIL. GEORG. III. 
 
 406. Whey is called 'rich' or 'fat' by an obvious metaphor. 
 
 408. He calls them iupacatos, ' rebels ', because those wiio had fought 
 the Romans and refused to settle would be just the men to become 
 fierce mountain brigands. 
 
 a tirgo, the attack being secret and unexpected. 
 Hihcros, ' Spanish '. 
 
 409. With a poetic licence, Vergil speaking of Italian farming talks 
 now of protection against the tiiicvcs of the Pyrenees, now of hunting ' 
 the (Asiatic) wild ass. 
 
 411. volutabrum, 'wallowing-Iair'. 
 
 [414 — 439. Smells to keep off snakes: the various kinds: viper, 
 coluber, Calabrian snake: ihe latter dangerous in hot dry weather.] 
 
 415. galbaniini was an Asiatic gum: this precept is from Nicander, 
 see Introduction, p. 17. 
 
 chclydros, Greek word, 'water-snakes'. 
 
 417. i-a^///w, 'the daylight '. 
 
 421. colla, ace. respect. 
 
 423 — 4. The elaboration of phrase here is meant to suggest the 
 intricacies of the beast. 
 
 ' When his mid-coils and trailed tail unwinds, and the farthest spire 
 writhes slow along'. 
 
 425 Calabria is the wild mountainous region of S. Italy. 
 
 430. atram ingluviem, 'his black maw', inglitviem properly the 
 crop of a bird. 
 
 436. nemoris Jorso, 'a wooded ridge': imitated by Hor. 2 Sat.vx. 
 
 9'- 
 
 437 — 9. Vergil uses these phrases again in a simile, Aeneid 11. The 
 
 idea of the snake bringing up a family is all imaginary. 
 
 439. Unguis micat ore, 'quivers with his tongue in his mouth': ore 
 local poetic abl. ; the two ablatives rather unusual. 
 
 [440 — 477. Diseases. The scab: comes from cold, dirt, wounds. 
 Wash them: use olive-lees, sulphur and drugs: pitch, bitumen and herbs. 
 Best of all, lance the sore. If fever comes on, bleed the sheep's foot. 
 Signs of disease: they seek shade, lie down to eat, walk slow. Kill 
 the diseased animal to prevent contagion. The danger of spreading 
 plague: warning of the great Alpine disaster among sheep.] 
 
 442. allius ad vivom persedit, 'has soaked through deep to the 
 quick', i. e. through the wool down to the flesh. 
 
 447. secundo aiinii, 'down the stream': secundus properly partici- 
 pial, from sec-, 'to follow', and used of z. current ol vi\x or \ia.i<ix goitig 
 with you. F* the form aintti see below note on I v. 164. 
 
 448. amurca (Greek word ifj^opyTj), 'olive-lees', a watery substance 
 in the olive, which was strained off ihe oil. 
 
 449. spuinas argenti, 'silver scum',«a kind of slag or refuse that 
 scums off in the meltings of ore from silver-lead mines. 
 
 vivat/ue sul/ura /da;asque, an unusual hypermeter or extra syllable, 
 elided before next line, like 242, above, but much stronger instance. 
 Others read et sulftva viva: but there is good MSS. authority, and 
 .Servius, in favour of the text. A similar ending arbutus horrida Et 
 occurs G. II. 69, also with various reading in ordinary metre.
 
 NOTES. 81 
 
 450. Jdaeas, Ida in the iroad being famous for pines. 
 pingties tinguiiie, 'rich' (i.e. soft) with oil. 
 
 451. scilla, 'squill': one of the bulbous plants, long used as a drug. 
 elleboros, 'hellebore', the famous ancient herb, supposed to cure mad- 
 ness. 
 
 graves, probably 'strong-scented'. 
 
 452. Notice the characteristic diction, the words being all rather 
 strained and emphatic. ' Nor is there any help more potent for their 
 troubles ',yi>r/i<«a being used of a successful chance or attempt to deal 
 with the disease: praeseiis in a sense resembling its common use of a 
 divine aid or interposition: A. XII. 152 si quitl praescntius audes: id. 
 245 signum quo non praescntius ullum. 
 
 454- tegendo, 'by hiding', i.e., if it remain hidden. 
 
 455. medicas, 'healing', 'skilled', so A. Xil. 402 medica manu. 
 The word was doubtless originally general in sense, of any skill (connec- 
 ted with medi-lor), and afterwards specialised to the healing art. 
 
 458. arida, the 'parched' fever, a slight transference of meaning, 
 but natural and effective. 
 
 460. inter ima pedis, i.e. between the hoofs. 
 
 461. Bisaltae, a Thracian tribe near the river Strymon. 
 
 Geloni, a Scythian tribe N. of the Borysthenes or Dnieper, i.e. in the 
 S. part of Russia. 
 
 462. The Bisaltian flies to Rhodope (349), the Geloni to the 'desert 
 of the Getae\ a Scythian trii)e N. of Danube, in the modern Roumania. 
 
 463. The practice of drinking mares' milk and horses' blood is 
 ascribed to various savages by the ancients (llor. Od. iii. 4, 24, Hom. 
 //. XIII. 5). 
 
 466. extrentam predicative, 'and lag bchinil '. 
 
 467. solam gives the contrast with the healthy Hock. 
 decedo with dat. ' to give way to', 'to retire before'. 
 
 468. culpam, 'the mischief, rather strained sense. 
 
 470 — I. 'Not so swiftly sweep the gusts over the sea bririging the 
 storm, as the jilagues of cattle come swarming', tarn creber corresponds 
 to quam multae, and the point of the simile is the quick succession of 
 the plagues. 
 
 472. aestiva, 'summer pastures': the word is a metaphor from a 
 camp, 'summer quarters'. 
 
 474. turn sciat...si quis...'he could tell of it,... whoso should see... ', 
 rather a stately-poetic way of quoting his instance. As he proceeds to 
 describe at length, there had been some time before {nunc qiioque 
 post tanlo) a destructive cattle plague in the Tyroicse Alps [Norica) 
 extending as far as 'limavus (a small river at the head of the 
 Adriatic i>et\vecn Trieste and Atjuilcia, A. I. 2^4) which is called 
 ' /apys' from the lapydes, a tribe living a little more to the west, in S. 
 I'aiinonia. 
 
 [478 — end. Description of tlie terrible plague: The victims died at 
 the altar: no proper entrails for omens: no strength or blood in the 
 animals. Calves died at jiasture: dogs, pigs, horses. .Signs: could not 
 eat or drink : cold sweat : dry skin : fever, gaspin^^ breath, bleeding at the 
 nose. Sometimes cured with wine through funnel : sometimes made 
 
 G. III. IV. 6
 
 82 VERGJL. GEORG. III. 
 
 worse: went mail, gnawed their own flesh. Jiulls fell dead in theact of 
 ploughing: though their fare had been simple and wholesome. No cattle 
 for sacrifice: no ploughing: all animals forsake their nature. Wolves 
 fly away, timid deer ai)|iroacii, sea beasts seek shore; seals swim up the 
 river. Snakes and birds ])erish: the wisest are at fault. It gets worse 
 and worse: the very carcases are useless: the wool cannot be siiorn or 
 woven: if it is worn, it brings the plague on the wearer.] 
 
 478. tnorbo cneli, 'from the infected heavens': so A. III. {37 
 corrupt caeli tractu. 
 
 483. sitis, 'fever*, addiucerat, 'had shrivelled': so we speak of 
 skin being 'drawn up'. 
 
 48.^. conlapsa, 'sapped', 'dissolved'. 
 
 4S7. Both victim and priests had a sacred band of white wool 
 {iiitiila) wreathed with a white ribbon (v///a). 
 
 4(;o. !>ii/f, 'thence', i.e. from that victim. 
 
 Jiirae, the ' threads ' or fine ducts at the extremity of the liver : the 
 appearance of these fibrae (presumably if unduly large or abnormalj was 
 one of the worst signs in augury. 
 
 492 — 3. Emphasis on vix and ieiuna : the meagre and diseased 
 victims had hardly any blood to shed. 
 
 496. blaiidis, 'gentle', to mark the contrast. A Lucretian epithet. 
 
 497. Note the compressed style: the line describes the cough, 
 (tussis), \\\^ gasping {i\xA\Az.), the choking {^wg^K), and the swollen (obesis) 
 throat. 
 
 498. Heyne, P. and others join stndiorutn atque ivimemor herbae: 
 l)ut infelif studioniin (C. K. L. W. F. &c. ) is more like Vergil, lit. 
 'unlucky in respect of his efforts ', i.e. his eager exertions (in the race) 
 which brought him glory {victor ecjuus) end in a miserable death. We 
 may translate ' hapless for all his effort '. 
 
 499. fontcs accus. accortling to the sense: avert iturhtm'g equivalent 
 to ' deserts'. Similarly \vc iind exeo, egredi, elabi, erumpo, evagari &c. 
 with ace. (See Roby 112 1.) 
 
 500. incertus, 'fitful'. 
 
 ille quidem, 'a sweat that is cold when death is near ' : for the use of 
 pron. see 2 17. 
 
 =,02. Notice the accumulation : he means ' hard to the touch ', but 
 boln ideas are varied and expressed twice. 
 
 504. crudescere, ' grows fierce ', lit. ' hard ', of fruit &c. 
 
 506. It is the groan which in common speech is 'heavy': but V. 
 with characteristic variation elaborates the phrase. 
 
 508. obsessas, bold word for 'stopped ', 'choked'. 
 
 510. Lenaeos latices, ' wine ', from Lenaeus name of Bacchus (\iji'6s 
 ' winepress'). 
 
 511. furiis refecti ardebant, sharply antithetic phrase: the 'new 
 Strength ' was only the ' fire of frenzy '. 
 
 513. The prayer (to avert such ills from the good and send such 
 nia.lness on their foes) is to point the horror f>f the dying horse devouring 
 himself. 
 
 5 1 4. ntidis completes the horror: it suggests the mad horse 
 drawing htack his lips and 'baring' his teeth.
 
 NOTES. 83 
 
 518. maerentem fraterna morte, characteristic touch of sympathy 
 with the animal : the two oxen who form the yoke are ' broliiers' ami 
 one mourns the other. 
 
 522. electro, -fjXfKrpov, originally 'amber' (so probably in Hom.), 
 afterwards an alloy of gold and silver fancifully named after it, from 
 the colour. Vergil here doubtless means ' amber '. 
 
 ima solvontur latcra, 'his flanks fail under him ' (R.). 
 
 524. (ievexo, 'drooping'. 
 
 526. Massica: Massicus was a mountain in Campania, in the 
 volcanic district, at the foot of which grew the famous Falernian 
 wine. 
 
 527. repostae, ' renewed ', ' replenished ' : a reference to the various 
 courses (fercula, 'trays") which formed the Roman caena. Suetonius 
 praises Augustus for never having more than six fercula. The touch 
 of half playful satire with which Vergil contrasts the wines and 
 delicacies of a rich man's feast with the simple fare and life of the poor 
 cattle is effective and even pathetic. Compare the famous passage G. 
 II. 461 ' Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis &c.' 
 
 529. e-JTtraVa, ' driven '. Lucretian word of swift motion. 
 
 531. tempore non alio, ' never before ' this disastrous plague. 
 
 532. quaesitas, 'were lacking': sought for, and had to be sought 
 for. 
 
 sacra lunonis. V. is thinking of the Argive rite, wherein the 
 priestess of Here (luno) was drawn in a car by two white cattle to the 
 temple. It makes no difference to the poet that the plague was in 
 Austria. 
 
 uri were the wild cattle of Italy : ' buffaloes '. 
 
 53.^. 'The high treasury' is only a picturesque expression for 
 ' temple ', which usually had a vault or closed chamber to keep the 
 gifts. 
 
 536. contenta (from contendo, Lucretian word and use), 'straining'. 
 
 537. insidias explorat, characteristic variation of phrase : he 
 means 'no prowling wolf lies in wait', but he says 'prowls his ambush', 
 insidias being a kmd of extended cognate. 
 
 538. curior cura, the ' sharper trouble ', is of course the plague. 
 
 543. proluit, ' wasiies up '. 
 
 544. curvis late/iris from II. 216, where the poet explained that 
 snakes found shelter in the ' winding; ' waterworn hollows of the lime- 
 stone. 
 
 545. adslantibus, 'erect', unusual meaning. L. quotes I'iaut. 
 Most. 324 'cave ne cad as : asta\ 
 
 ^^6. 'ion aequus, ' unkind ', like the common use o^ iniqtiiis. 
 547. The beautiful fancy of the dead bird ' leaving its life in the 
 sky' is repeated //. V. 517. 
 
 549. artes, 'skill ', of the healing art, as the next line shews. 
 
 550. Chiron, centaur, son of Saturnus and the nymph Philyra, v. 
 93 (here for metrical reasons i'hill.), laiii^lil by Apollo, and renowned 
 for sjcili in medicine, among many other accomplishments. 
 
 Afelampus, son of Ainylhaon, renowned as the fust seer and first 
 physician. 
 
 6—2
 
 84 VERGJL. GRORG. III. 
 
 To say these ' masters ' ccsscre, ' were of no avail ', is only an 
 artilicial way of saying that no healing skill was of any avail. 
 
 552. Tisiphone, a Fury, who here (as A. VI. 67) executes the 
 vengeance of the gods, a judgment from whom the plague is supposed 
 to be. 
 
 556. Imitation of Lucretius vi. 11 44 'inde catervatim morbo 
 mortique dabantur '. 
 
 559. ' Nor could any wash clean the flesh with water, or master it 
 with fire ' : he means neither water nor fire could remove the taint ; but 
 the language is highly strained, especially the word aboleo prop. ' to 
 destroy'. 
 
 56 1 . inluT/u, ' issue '. 
 
 562. nee telas — putres, ' nor handle the rotten webs '. The whole 
 sense is: the wool cannot be shorn (5^>i) nor woven (562) nor safely 
 worn (563—6). 
 
 564. papulae, ' pustules '. 
 
 565. sequebatur, 'ran down'. 
 
 longo tempoie a.h\. to describe ' in the course 0/^ no long time. With 
 moranti ace. would be usual. 
 
 566. sacer ignis, ' the holy fire ', was the name given by the Roman 
 physicians to a red eruption on the skin, by some identified with 
 erysipelas. In the Lucretian description of the plague, the eruption of 
 the sacer ignis is likened to that of the plague. 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 
 [i — 7. Subject: bees, their little state, kings, people, character, 
 pursuits, wars.] 
 
 I. aerii, ' heaven-dropt ' honey. Referring to the old superstition 
 that the honey fell like a dew from the sky on the leaves, whence the 
 bees gathered it. 
 
 In the golden age this honey was plentiful; and ceased to be so 
 when the golden age ended (niellaque decussit foliis G. I. 131): but 
 when it returns will again abound (durae quercus sudabunt roscida tnella 
 Eel. IV. 30). The notion arose no doubt from the substance called 
 honey-d^w, a sweet secretion of aphides much sought after by bees and 
 wasps and ants. 
 
 3. levium rerum, 'of a little state'. There is a playful irony all 
 through this book in the language used of bees: the poet intentionally 
 uses the high-sounding phrases which would naturally be employed to 
 describe human society. See Introduction, p. 25. 
 
 7. lacva, 'unfavourable', 'stern', the usual sense (si fata deum si mens 
 non laeva A. II. 54: laevo contristat lumine X. 275, &c.), opp. dextra. 
 
 [.Servius followed by some edd. says it means the opposite, 
 'favourable ' : because certain signs (e.g. thunder A. il. 693) on the left 
 were favourable: but in such places it means simply ' left '.J 
 
 [8 — 50. Choice of place for hives: sheltered from winds, beasts, 
 lizards, birds: if there is water, let there be bridges and stones: and
 
 NOTES. 85 
 
 fragrant herbs. Narrow opening, to avoid heat and cold: the bees 
 themselves caulk the chinks, and may be helped lo do so. Avoid 
 strong smells near at hand, as yews, burnt crabs, swamp-miasma: and 
 don't choose echoing places.] 
 
 9. sit, final use of subj. after rel. 
 
 II. insultent, literally, 'trample'. 
 
 14. pinguibus a stahnlis, 'the rich stalls', playfully as above, 3. 
 meropes, ' bee-eater ', a swift-flying insectivorous bird of the swallow 
 kind. 
 
 15. Procne was the daughter of Pandion wife of Tereus ; she 
 revenged herself on her husband (for violence done to her sister 
 Philomela) by slaying and serving up to him their son Itys. The two 
 sisters pursued by Tereus were changed into birds. 
 
 Procne in the Greek story is the nightingale, and her song is a 
 lament for Itys: but here (and Ovid Met. VI. 669) Procne is the 
 swallmv. 
 
 16. ipsas, the bees. 
 
 17. nidi, 'brood': the plural often used for the young in the nest: 
 so nidis loquacibus A. Xil 475 : nidos dukes A. v. ■214. 
 
 inmitibus, ' cruel ' from the point of view of the bees. 
 
 ■21. The 'kings' are what we call more accurately 'queens'. 
 
 11. vere suo, ' their own, their beloved spring', a pretty imaginative 
 touch : so sopor suus below 1 90. 
 
 23. invitet decedere, ' tempt ihem to take refuge '. 
 
 28 — 9. ' If perchance while they linger swift Eurus splash them 
 with rain, or plunge them in the mere'. 
 
 The last line is again playfully grandiloquent. 
 
 31. serpulla, 'thyme': Ihyinbra, 'savoury'. 
 
 All the plants are sweet and ' strong-scented '. 
 
 34. Read with the best MSS. (and R. L. P.) alvaria, as alvus is the 
 regular word for ' hive ' in Varro, Pliny, and Columella : alvearia 
 [usually read here : -vear- one syllable] is probably tiic wrong form, 
 though it is found in our texts of Varro. 
 
 Properly then, almts 'the hive', alvarium the whole establishment, 
 'the apiary'. 
 
 36. rcmittit, ' thaws ' : //'</. rem. an accumulated expression like 
 sublapsa referri, fixum sedet, convcrsa tulere, dectptam fefellit, sollicilain 
 timor anxius aiigit &c. 
 
 38. /("ww/a, dactyl, the M being half consonant. So gcnufi, pariSte, 
 SriCld. tenuia occurs i. 397, il. 121. 
 
 39. j//>(i/«ir/»/a, ' chinks ', 'crevices'. 
 
 Jiicus, 'dye', is generally understood to mean 'pollen'. 
 fuco etfloribus, rather a bold hendiadys for ' flower-i)ollen'. 
 
 eras, ' the edges ', either of the doorway, or the other crevices. 
 
 41. Idiie, famous for pines, Ml 450. 
 
 \y fovere, 'keep snug': the root idea of the word. It is most 
 often used u\ winulh (sol f., peclore f.), then o{ embraces, nursing, birds 
 •iiXUn^ close : ihcii of rubbing ur luashing (230): below .|6 the idea is 
 probably of (lo ing up tight. 
 
 4S. nre, not of 'roaslini'' to cat, but literally burning, which
 
 86 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 would make a far worse smell. Cral) ashes were used as a specific for 
 certain diseases. 
 
 50. offensa, ' struck', properly of the original sound, here transferred 
 to the echo which results. ' The echo of the voice strikes and rebounds' 
 would be similarly inaccurate : we might say 'rebounds from the shock'. 
 
 [51 — 66. In warm weather swarms will begin ; sprinkle the place 
 they are likely to choose with the right herb.s, and make a tinkling 
 noise, and they will settle where you wish.] 
 
 51. quod superest, lit. 'as to the rest', i.e. 'furthermore', rather 
 stately and formal connecting phrase. G. II. 346 : A. v. 796 (rather 
 differently used sometimes, A. v. 691, XI. 15) : also in Lucretius. 
 
 54. tnetunt, 'crop ': rather unusual sense of the word, when what 
 he really means is that they gather honey and pollen. 
 
 57. excttdunt, 'forge', another picturesque term : properly used of 
 metal (excudent alii spirantia viollius aera A. VI. 847). 
 
 60. ' And marvel at the dark cloud spreading on the wind ', i.e. as 
 the cluster flies it lengthens out. 
 
 63. melisphylla [Greek name = 'bee-plant'], 'balm'. 
 cerintha, 'wax-flower', the name of a fragrant herb. 
 
 64. Again the playful touch of grandeur, 'Awake the tinkling sound, 
 Shake the cymbals of the great Mother'. 
 
 Matris is Cybele, the Phrygian goddess called the Great Mother, 
 whose worshippers (Corybantes) celebrated her with wild rites, accom- 
 panied with drums, horns and cymbals. 
 
 65. medicalis sedibiis, 'the drugged' or 'scented resting-place' is 
 the tree which has been rubbed with balm &c. 
 
 ipsae, ' of themselves ' as often. 
 
 Varro's description makes Vergil quite clear: They lead the swarm 
 where they please by tinkling round them : not far off they smear a 
 bough with bee-glue and the herbs the bees like : when they have 
 settled, they bring, a hive smeared within with the same attractions. 
 Var. III. 16, 30. 
 
 66. ciitiabula, 'cradle', fanciful word for the hive. 
 
 [67 — 87. Signs of battle : buzzing and hurry, and sharpening of 
 stings and crowding: they fight obstinately and bravely. You can 
 stop them by throwing dust.] 
 
 67 sqq. Vergil's humour in describing the doings of the bees is 
 nowhere more delicate and effective than in this warlike passage. The 
 apodosis to Sin exierint is dropped, and only practically resumed at 86. 
 
 69. trepidantia bello corda, ' hearts beating for the war ' sounds 
 more natural in English, and several edd. take bello dat. : but the abl. 
 is more like Vergil, ' with war', meaning 'with the thought ' or 'prospect 
 of war'. 
 
 71. 'The loud trumpet's warlike ring' is the buzz of excitement. 
 
 72. By 'broken' sounds he means the rapidly changed note: 
 opposed to a prolonged and sustained tone. 
 
 74. 'They whet their stings upon their beaks and make ready 
 tlicir strong arms', a highly imaginative picture, the nearest approa>,h 
 in fact being the rubbing of their Kodies with their legs which is really 
 removing dust or anything that clings.
 
 NOTES. 87 
 
 [To take rostris as dat. 'for their beaks' =gen., C, or 'out of 
 their beaks', is much too artificial, and even further from the fact.] 
 
 75. praetorta, 'the general's tent ', playfully for the place where the 
 queen is : the whole description is of course imaginary. 
 
 76. miscentiir, 'crowd', 'swarm': a favourite word of V. for any 
 sort of confusion. 
 
 81. glandis, gen. after tantiim. 
 
 83. ipsi, ' the chiefs themselves'. 
 
 84. obnixi, Teg\i\a.rly o( Jirm pressure, here viefi/al, 'resolute'. The 
 inf. is a stretch of construction naturally due to the unusual sense uf 
 obnixi. See note on ill. 46. 
 
 85. subegit, vivid use of perf. indie, fc subegerit. So anteqiiain 
 and pritisquam: antequam opprimit lux erumpamus Liv. xxii. 50: 
 omnia experiri certumst, priusquam /irrco Ter. Andr. 311. 
 
 87. Pliny recommenils dust-throwing to stop the fighting ; Varro 
 the throwing of water sweetened with honey {aqua tnttlsa), the bees 
 crowding together to lick each other ! 
 
 [88 — 102. Kill the beaten queen — recognisable by colour: the 
 stronger is bright, the weaker sluggish, rough and bloated. The workers 
 on each side are likewise different in colour.] 
 
 89. fte prodigus obsit, 'lest he be a wasteful burden', 'to prevent 
 the harm of waste ', since the defeated queen was of no further use, and 
 only consumed honey. 
 
 92. tneiior, long before vowel in arsis. 
 
 93. ' The other squalid from sloth, and trailing dishonoured a 
 cumbrous belly'. 
 
 Varro merely says the bright one is the better. Vergil has developed 
 the idea. 
 
 97. Vergil plainly means that the inferior bees (which are dark and 
 rough) are like the spittle of a dusty traveller. The coarseness of such 
 a simile may be compared with the horrid descrijnions in the Aeneid, e.g. 
 the drunken Cyclops 111. 623, tlie battered boxer v. 468, the mangled 
 Deiphobus VI. 496 : which however are somewhat redeemed by tlieir 
 force. 
 
 99. paribus, 'even': one of the beauties of insects being the 
 symmetry of their markings. 
 
 102. ' Fit to tame the iiarsh savour of wine': the Romans were fond 
 of a kind of w^a^made of the commoner sorts of wine mixed with honey. 
 
 [103 — 115. When they tly aimless, kill the queen: also plant 
 crocus, thyme, pine: and place a statue of Priapus.] 
 
 103. caelo, poetic local abl. 'in the air'. 
 
 104. frigida expresses the result of t!»e verb (proleptic use) : 'leave 
 their hives cold'. 
 
 1 10 — ' 1 1. I'riapus was the god of fertility, said to have been born 
 of Venus at Lampsacus on the Hellespont, where he was worshipped. 
 He was naturally the protci.tDr >.A rsW produce, and especially of gardens, 
 where his statue stood armed with a ivilloiu cudgel to keep off thieves 
 and birds. 
 
 I 10. After (uslos yf)U wouM expect I'riapus, which is however 
 elaborated into tulela /Viapi, in Vergil's manner.
 
 88 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 funtm, 'against' thieves, a good illustration of the elastic use 
 of the gen., which can be used to describe almost any relation between 
 substantives. 
 
 113. tecta, ' the hives '. 
 
 1 1 4. /traces plantas, ' the fertile shoots ' of the pine trees. 
 
 [116 — 148. I should like to have sung of gardens, and all the 
 flowers and herbs, roses, endive, parsley, gourd : narcissus, acanthus, ivy, 
 myrtle. I remember an old Cilician gardener who prospered much on a 
 few acres in the plants and fruit and bees he raised — but time is short.] 
 
 117. ni...traha7n...canerem. In prose we should have trakc'iein, 
 because it is a present condition where the supposition is excluded by the 
 facts: [I am furling my sails: were I not furling them &c.] 
 
 The pres. subjunctive properly means 'were I not to furl ' and treats 
 the question as still open. So ^. l. 58 m facial .. .(\\x\^^^ ferant secum : 
 Aen. II. 599 circum errant acies et ni mea cura resistat..'\?i.\x\ flammae 
 tulerint: vi. 292 et ni docta comes. ..adrnoncat...inniat, S.c. 
 
 In all these cases the licence is taken in l>oth clauses of the con- 
 ditional : whereas in this passage the principal verb reverts to the 
 normal tense: just as it does in Tibull. i. 8, 21 faceret, si non acra 
 repulsa soncnt, quoted by C. 
 
 119. 'The rose-beds of twice-blooming Paestum ' : Paestum origi- 
 nally a Greek colony (Posidonia) on the sea in N. of Lucania, very 
 flourishing in fifth century B.C., afterwards decayed, and in Augustan 
 times famous only for roses. It is now known everywhere for the ruins 
 of its two magnificent Doric temples. 
 
 120. Instead of saying 'parsley rejoices in the banks' he says 'the 
 banks rejoice in parsley'. The variation of expression is characteristic. 
 
 122. cresceret in uentrem, a natural variation, 'swelled to a huger 
 paunch '. 
 
 sera, adv. ace. see in. 149 : comantem, here 'blooming'. 
 
 1 25. Oebaliae, ' the high towers of Oebalia ' are Tarentum, founded 
 by Laconians, Oebalia being a name for Laconia from a mythical king 
 Oebalus. 
 
 [The easier reading arcis, adopted by R. P. K. L., is unknown to the 
 old MSS. and Servius, and is doubtless an alteration.] 
 
 126. Galaesus, a deep clear river which flows S. into the harbour of 
 Tarentum. 
 
 127. Corycus, a seaside place in Cilicia : the gardens of Cilicia 
 were famous, and this old Cilician applied his native knowledge of 
 gardening to a piece of waste (lelicti ruris) near Tarentum. 
 
 128. ilia, best taken with seges: 'a land not made fertile by the 
 toil of oxen' &c., iitvencis being abl. instr. [Others take it dat. 'for 
 the cattle', i.e. regarding the cattle as the recipients of the fertility they 
 produce: a much harsher constr.] 
 
 '3'* premens, 'hide' 'bury'; fanciful word for ' plant': so II. 346. 
 
 vescum, 'fine' poppy seed, see note on iii. 175. 
 
 132. animis might be ' with his spirit' or 'in his heart': the plur. 
 is rather in favour of the former. It will then be a rather unusual but 
 effective way of saying 'he was as proiul (of his small possession) as of 
 royal wealth '.
 
 NOTES. 89 
 
 134. • The inf. here (and below 140) are best taken aher primus (erat 
 understood) and not historic inf. : for all the other verbs are indie. 
 
 135. etiatnnum, ' still ', because he is speaking of the end of winter : 
 he had the spring flowers before the spring. 
 
 137. tondebat, a long, an instance of Vergil's archaism, or fondness 
 for old usages, as this a was in old times long. Ennius has ' ponebat 
 ante salutem' and Plautus has it long. So A. v. 853, vii. 174, x. 383, 
 &c. all before stops however. 
 
 For Greek rhythm with Greek word (hyacinthi) see III. 60. 
 
 142. in Jlore novo, ' in early blossom ', i.e. in the ti7ne of flowering. 
 
 143. rnatura poma (not arbos, as C.). 
 
 144 — 6. The point is that with his gardening skill, just as he had 
 earlier flowers than others, so he could transplant trees later: the elms 
 already grown, the pear with hard wood, the sloes with plums on 
 them, &c. 
 
 144. in versuni, 'in line' : so the word is used [A. v. 1 19) of a line 
 or 'tier' of oars in a trireme; for ace. see in sfevt iir. 73, below 175. 
 
 145. spines, 'the sloes', which were probably grafted with plums 
 just as planes with apples, ashes with pears &c. 11. 70. 
 
 J 47. haec is the whole sub/ect of gardens and flowers, see 1 15. 
 
 spatiis exclttsus itiiquis, ' barred by too narrow a field '. 
 
 [149 — 218. The natures of bees: their common life, and toil: their 
 division of tasks, for food, building, feeding the young, getting honey, 
 guarding, — all busy like the Cyclopes. From morn to eve various 
 toil: they know the weather and fear storms, even carrying ballast. 
 They do not breed like other animals, but 7?W(/ their eggs: themselves 
 shortlived, the life of the community never ends. Their loyalty and 
 reverence to their sovereign.] 
 
 150. pro qua mercede, 'the reward for which', the reward being the 
 natural skill and powers, naturas. 
 
 151. The Cretan story was that, as Kronos (Saturn) devoured his 
 children, when Zeus (luppiter) was born his mother hid him in a cave 
 of M. Dicle in Crete. The Ctiietes (afterwards priests of Zeus) clashed 
 their weapons to drown the infant's cries, lest his father should lind him. 
 The bees, k<l by the clashing sound (64), settled there, and fed the 
 infant god with honey. luppiter in gratitude endowed the bees with 
 their wisdom. 
 
 153. solae. The ancients knew very little of the other social insects 
 (wasps, hornets, ants), 
 
 consols, usually of persons, 'sharer, ])artncr' : here of things, 'com- 
 mon' dwellings (j^a;^(/ instead of s/m/injif). 
 
 154. iiia/^nis, 'mighty' laws, see note on 67 and Introduction, p. 25. 
 
 157. ill medium, common phrase, 'for the common store', sd in in. 
 consulerc, dare, ccjnferre, cedcre, &c. 
 
 158. victu invigilant, 'walch o'er the gathering of food ', vidu the 
 old contracted form of the flat, common in Vergil. So venalu invig. 
 Atn. rx. 60.5. So we find curru, inetii, porlti, I'tc. 
 
 1^)4. stipaiil. 'jjack': the notion of force and tightness being given 
 in the sound (jf (he unusual rhythm, a heavy spondee overhanging, see 
 III. 317.
 
 90 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 165. sorU, probably old abl. like classi A. VIII. 1 1 : igniV. I. 234 : 
 and in Lucr. common, colli, tussi, orbi, sordi, pelli, imicroni, parti, itc. 
 See III. 447. 
 
 ad portas depends closely on custodia, a rare constr. ciiicfly with 
 verbal substantives. 
 
 169. fervet opus, lit. 'the work is hot': i.e. 'all is busy toil'. 
 
 The passage recurs (with slight alterations) A. \. 430, as a simile for 
 the busy labours of the builders at Carthage. 
 
 170. The original Cyclopes ('Round-eyes') were the cannibal one- 
 eyed giant shepherds of Sicily, in the Odyssey. It was a later tradition 
 which made them the giant forgers in the iuige foundry of llephaistos 
 (Volcanus) in the caverns of Aetna and the volcanic Liparaeaii isles off 
 N. of Sicily, Vergil gives a long account of the Cyclopes at work A. 
 VIII. 415 — 453, where he uses again these lines^ 
 
 173. 'Aetna groans with the anvil's wei,i,'ht' though the anvil is in 
 the heart of the mountain. A. viii. 451 gives more accurately 
 'antrum'. 
 
 1 75. in numertim, 'in measured beat', idiomatic use of in with ace. ; 
 so in morem 'duly' v. 556: in orbetn 'in a circle' viil. 673. Where 
 there is motion the ace. is quite natural. Similar instances above are 
 in span in. 73, in versimi IV. 144. 
 
 176. si parva...magnis, a half-grave apology for comparing the bees 
 to these mythical giant blacksmiths. 
 
 177. Cecropias, a picturesque literary epithet 'Athenian', from 
 Cecrops mythical king and founder of Athens. The Athenian honey of 
 Hyinettus, a thymy hill S.E. of Athens, was famous. The motive amor 
 habeiidi of course applies only to the bees: it is only the industry 
 (urguet) that is compared. 
 
 179. daedala, adj. (derived from Greek 5a(5oXo5 or SatSdXeoj 
 'cunning', generally of work in wood, metal, or later embroidery) and a 
 favourite word of Lucretius. 
 
 180. miilta node, 'late at night'. 
 
 183. ferrtigineits (from ferrugo 'iron rust'), a word used rather 
 loosely, usually of any dark purple, reddish, or violet colour: I'laut. 
 Miles wj%...ferruglneiini, nam is color thalassicus 'for that is the colour 
 of the sea'. In G. i. 467 it seems to mean 'lurid-red': and Ovid has 
 even viridis ferrugine barba, apparently 'sea-green'. Here it is clearly 
 'dark blue'. 
 
 184. qnies opcnim, ^xeslfrom labour', see no. 
 
 190. in noctem, ' far into the night ', in implying continuance into, as 
 A. VII. 8adsi>irant aurae in noctem. So in dies 'as the days go on' and 
 ih itnavTov in Greek. 
 
 sopor suus, 'their own slumber', 'welcome slumber', a beautiful 
 touch: cf. vere SKO, 22. 
 
 194. V. borrows the strange idea of bees carrying pebbles (as boats 
 have ballast) from Aristotle. Perhaps a load of pollen was mistaken 
 for gravel or sand. 
 
 \(/i. tollunt, the heavy spondee overhanging suggests the effort, as 
 above 164. 
 
 198. concubitu dat., 158.
 
 NOTES. 91 
 
 200. This other quaint superstition that bees pick their eggs off 
 flowers (also found in Aristotle) arose probably from pollen being mis- 
 taken for eggs. 
 
 201. QuiriUs, the old name for the Roman 'citizens', with playful 
 gravity applied to the inhabitants of the bees' commonwealth. 
 
 202. sujiciuitt, 'sup])Iy', regularly used of electing officers to fill 
 vacancies; so G. in. 65 aliam ex alia generando suffice prolem. 
 
 204. ulh'o, lit. 'further', a favourite word of Verg. of any action 
 beyond v/hsX might be expected: e.g. icltro compellat, affatur, increpat, 
 &c., of the being the first to speak: ultra occurro, venio, pcto, oi coming 
 uncalled: ultro offerre, afferre, of offering unasked. Here we might 
 render it 'freely': they sacrifice themselves for the common weal. See 
 265, 530. 
 
 207. excipiat, 'awaits them' : the word is used of anything 'coming 
 upon' a person, e.g. castes excipit A. ill. 318, cculi indulgentia exc. 
 terras G. II. 345. 
 
 non plus septima. nonplus and non amplins often thus used idiomaii- 
 cally as an adverb, without changing the case of the subst. So non 
 aviplius una III, non plus quingentos, non ampliits ijtiattnor viillia. 
 
 209. 'The fortune of their house stands fast, and grandsires' grand- 
 sires swell the roll' (P.). The rhetorical splendour of these lines is in 
 the same half pLiyful ironic spirit wiiich abounds in this book. 
 
 210 — II. These are typical eastern nations, whose grovelling sub- 
 mission to despots was a commonplace. 
 
 The Hydaspes is an Indian river (the Jeloum), eastern affluent of the 
 Indus, and is called Median with a truly poetic elasticity of geogra[)liy 
 (compare G. 11. 490), as the Hydaspes is nearly a thousand miles from 
 NIedia proper. However if we take Medus for 'Persian' (as it often 
 loosely is used) and remember that the great Persian empire in its best 
 days reached to the Indus, the expression may be (poetically) justified. 
 
 213. rupere, gnomic [lerfect, used (like Greek aor.) of habit. So 
 G. I. 49, 226, II. 24, 70, 443. 
 
 214. crates favorum, 'the ribbed combs', 'the combs' waxen 
 trellis' (R.), a picturesque expression for the jointed look of a section 
 of honeycomb. The word projierly means wicker or basket work, 
 and is used to describe various things constructed with cross pieces, as 
 a harro7u (Plin), the interlocked shields of tiie tesludo (l^ucan), a 
 shield-framework (Verg. A. vii. 633), the ribs oi the body (Verg. A. 
 xn. 503). 
 
 217. corpora hello obicctant, 'expose their limbs to the battle', i.e. 
 for the queen. 
 
 [219 — 227. Hence scjme have thought bees divinely inspired: for 
 the world-spirit is the source of all life, and underlies and informs 
 all the world.] 
 
 In tliis passage, as C. has shewn, the poet is mixing up two 
 quite difTirrent beliefs, (1) that bees are specially inspired witii 
 wisdom from the gods: (so Aristotle believed when he spoke of 
 l>ccs having tc Oilov (Gen. An. III. 10), and the skilful structure of 
 their hive and elaborate social arrangements led nnlurnlly to the 
 belief): (2) that there is a woild-spiril which pervades the world and
 
 92 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 is the source of all life (and is to be found in bees too). This belief 
 is more fully given in the famous passage in A. vi. 724, sqq.: 
 'First of all heaven and earth and the liquid fields, the shining orb 
 of the moon and the Titanian star, doth a spirit sustain inly, and a 
 soul shed abroad in them sways all their members and mingles in 
 the mighty frame. Thence is the generation of man and beast, the 
 life of winged things, and the monstrous forms that ocean breeds 
 under his glittering floor'. (From Mr Mackail's translation of the 
 Aeneid.) 
 
 This world-spirit is of fiery or ethereal nature: hence 'the 
 draughts of ether' which the bees inhale. 
 
 222. it'9-iasque iracticsque, this lengthening (like the Homeric 
 i\afXTrov re K\&n6v re) is common in V., always before liquids or 
 double consonants, aestusque pluviasqiie, liniinaque laiirusque, lappae- 
 que iribulique, tribidaque trakeaeqiie, fontesque Jlitviosqiie, &c. See 
 III. 385. 
 
 225. reddi...resoluta referri, accumulated, see note on 36. 
 
 227. sideris in numcriini, 'into their starry rank' (R.), rather 
 an unusual use of njiineriis, which may be compared with in iiidlo 
 mmiero esse Cic. De Or. 3, 56, 213: digeril in ntunertim Verg. A. 
 III. 446: parentis nutnero Cic. Verr. 19. 
 
 [228 — 250. If you take combs, you must wash first, and smoke 
 the hive. Two honey-harvests, spring and autumn. Their sting is 
 bad. If you save some for the bees in winter, cut away empty combs 
 — beetles and cockroaches &c. eat the combs : and other enemies are 
 hornets, molhs, spiders.] 
 
 228. angustam and atcgiislatn are both read by good MSS., the 
 latter the best supported. But angtistam is more natural. 
 
 229. relines, 'unseal', 'broach', metaphor from wine-jars, which 
 were closed with cork or wood, plastered over with pitch (or clay). 
 So corticem adstrictiun pice demovebit amphorae I lor. Od. III. viii. 20. 
 
 230- ora fove, 'lub' or 'wash' your mouth, evidently with water. 
 Yo'c fovea, see note on iv. 43. 
 
 The tradition of bee-keepers given by Columella (ix. 14) was 'not 
 to go near the bees after drinking wine, nor without washing : to 
 abstain from all strong-smelling food, as salt fish, or salt sauces, or 
 garlic or onions'. 
 
 sequaees, 'penetrating' smoke, to drive out the bees from the 
 combs which are to be taken. Sequax, a vivid word used of 'pestering 
 roes' G. II. 374, also oi fire and water. 
 
 231. _^ravidos fetus-, 'teeming produce' (R.), slightly unusual sense. 
 
 cogtint, ' they gather'. [Others make 'bees' nom. : but the bees were 
 always at work, and V. is clearly speaking of the taking of the combs.] 
 
 232 — 5. Taygete is one of the Pleiads, and the general sense 
 is jjlain, that the two honey-harvests are about the times of the 
 rising and setting of the Pleiads. 
 
 The Pleiads are one of the most marked constellations ; and as 
 the apparent morning rising (i.e. the day when they could be first 
 seen to rjse at daybreak) was about the 28th May, and their apparent 
 morning setting was about 9lh November, this constellation was
 
 NOTES. 93 
 
 chosen from very early times to mark the beginning of summer (by 
 its rising) and the beginning of winter (by its setting). These signs 
 are noted in Hesiod, in an astronomical treatise of the 5th century, 
 and in Julius Caesar's calendar : and no doubt all farmers' lists of 
 days would contain the mention of them. There is no need to go 
 closely into the question of days ; since Vergil only means that there 
 is a spring and an autumn honey-harvest. 
 
 'The Fish' refers no doubt to the sign of the Zodiac of that name, 
 which traditionally (though in Vergil's day no longer truly) corre- 
 sponded to the late winter. The poet accordingly describes the 
 Pleiades which set in early winter as 'fleeing before the Fish'. The 
 expression is astronomically as loose as can be, but poetically sufiicient. 
 
 233. Oceani ainnes, see III. 359. 
 
 237. morsibus. Vergil forgets that bees do not bite. 
 
 238. adfixae, 'clinging': it is really the stings that cling, not 
 the bees: but this sort of variation is quite in Vergil's manner: e.g. 
 volsis radicibus herbae, sopitas ignibus aras, tecinsque tenet se, &c. 
 
 It was an old belief that a bee could only sting once, left the sting 
 in, and died of it. 
 
 240. res viiserabere frattas, 'pity their shattered fortunes', i.e. 
 and leave them honey instead of taking a full harvest. The expression 
 has the usual half playful character : it would naturally apply to a 
 human society. 
 
 243. stelio, 'a newt': the i is half consonantal, and the word is 
 therefore a dissyllable. So arigtd, pariStibus, «&c. 
 
 243 — 4. The sense is, 'the combs are often eaten by newts, 
 cockroaches, and drones': but instead of saying b/attae, the expression 
 is elaborated into 'the crowded lairs of the light-loathing beetles' and 
 so the grammar strained, though the meaning is clear enough. 
 
 blatta. The dictionaries give 'cockroach, chafer, moth': a little 
 vague. The phrase 'light-loathing' and 'crowded haunts' point 
 to the cockroach: so also Horace's remark (Sat. 11. 3, 117) that they 
 are found in clothes-chests : and Pliny's statement [N. H. .\i. 28) 
 that they breed in baths. [I use the popular term 'beetle' although not 
 scientifically correct.] 
 
 244. immuuis, prop, of the citizen who does not take his share 
 of put)lic burdens : admirable word for the drones, who eat but 
 don t work. 
 
 245. inparibus, dat. 'ill-matched foe', because the bees cannot 
 defeat the hornet. 
 
 246. invisa Minervae. Ovid's version of the old Greek story 
 of the spider is as fijllows: The Lydian maitieii Arachne was so 
 skilful in weaving and spinning that she challenged Minerva to a 
 contest. Arachne wove a magnificent tapestry representing all the 
 sins of the gods against women : Minerva depicted the triumphs of Ihe 
 gods over impiety. Arachne in grief tore her work and hung herself; 
 Minerva in pity changed her into a spider — always spinning, and 
 always hanging. {Met. VI. i — 145.) 
 
 249. incumbttit, jiicturesque word for 'work', 'strive'. For inf. 
 see III. 4^1.
 
 94 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 250. forus, like forum, properly 'a confined space': generally 
 a gangway, jiassagc, alley : here boldly for 'a cell '. 
 
 ' VVeave their garners with flowers', a fanciful and poetic version 
 of V. 39—40. 
 
 [251 — 280. Signs of disease: colour, leanness, swarming at the 
 door, sluggishness, low humming. Drugs to cure them : honey, gall, 
 dry rose-leaves, must, raisins, thyme ; and the plant amellus stewed in 
 wine.] 
 
 251. Notice the rare caesura; much more frequent in later books 
 of Aeneid. 
 
 252. The apodosis to sivero is dropped, and only resumed 264. 
 255. luce carentiim, 'bereft of light', i.e. dead; a Lucretian phrase 
 
 Greek in its character. The Greeks used {i\l-Kuv 'to see'='to live', 
 \iiirn.v (pa.0% 'to leave the light '= 'die ': and'Ai57jj=d-f5ijs, 'the dark', 
 for the world below. 
 
 257. illae, the sick bees. 
 
 259. cont7-acto, ' cramped ', ' huddled ', transferred from the sufferer 
 to the cold which causes the suffering. Similar uses are sceleratas 
 stiinere poenas, cursum prospera discit religio, sagitta celeres transilit 
 umbras, &c. 
 
 260. tractimque snstirrattt, ' a longdrawn hum ' (R.). 
 
 261 . quondam. ' ofttimes '. 
 
 262. stricitt, the older conjugation, instead of the common strideo. 
 So V. \\zs> fei-vere A. IV. 409, /«/^<?>v VI. 826, stridere again G. II. 
 
 418, stridere and effervere iv. 556. 
 
 263. rapidus, see below, 425. 
 
 265. iiltro horiantem, 'even' cheering, 'himself cheering: see 
 note on 204. 
 
 267. tunsum artificially with saporem: it is of course the oakgall 
 which is bruised. 
 
 268 — 9. pingtiia., ' rich ', here means no doubt ' thickened ' : the fresh 
 wine or must (defruta) was boiled down to make it more concentrated. 
 
 psithia is the Greek name of some unknown vine: we learn from G. 
 11. 93 that it was chiefly used for passum or 'raisin wine', passiis 
 properly ' spread ' : so used of raisins dried in the sun. 
 
 270. Cecropium, i,L-e 177. 
 
 ceiitaurea, 'centaury', a bitter herb named according to Pliny (xxv. 
 14) because it was discovered by the Cenlaur Chiron, who was instructed 
 by Apollo in the art of healing. It was one of the various kinds of 
 panacea or Cure-all. 
 
 271. a/w^/////, the yellow aster. 
 
 273. caespes, usually 'a sod', 'turf, which cannot be the meaning 
 here : it seems to be also used of « clump or root of a bushy shrub : and 
 Vergil here uses it in this sense : many stalks and flowers (silva) from 
 one root. 
 
 276. nexis torqiiibus, ' with chaplets twined ' 0/ it. 
 
 277. tonsis, ' cropped '. 
 
 178. Afella, a little river about 20 miles W. of Mantua, falling from 
 the Alps into the Ollius, an affluent of the Po. This was in Vergil's 
 own country.
 
 NOTES. 95 
 
 [281 — 314. If the stock fail, try ihe Egyptian method: builil a liitle 
 air-tighl chamber; beat a bullock to death, keeping the skin whole, 
 and put the carcase with herbs into the chamber. Alter a short time a 
 -:warm of bees will emerge from the carcase.] 
 
 281. deficio orig. with dat., in classical times was regularly used with 
 acc. So we say ' strength fails me '. 
 
 283. The Arcadian nuisUr is Aristaeus, son of Apollo and the 
 water-nymph Cyllene, a shepherd and skilled keeper of bees. See G. 
 I. 14, where he is called cultor nemorum. 
 
 285. uisiticeriis, ' putrid *. 
 
 The superstition that dead bodies of animals gave birth to bees 
 ^rose no doubt from bees buildmg in hollow skeletons of animals, when 
 they could not find hollow trees or rocks to suit them. Compare the 
 well-known tale of Samson and the lion's carcase. 
 
 allius &c., ' I will unfold all the tale from the first {altius, 'far back'), 
 tracing it from its source '. 
 
 287. Catwpus, a large city on the coast of Egypt near the W. 
 mouth of tlie Nile : called Fellaeus, because Egypt was conquered by 
 Alexander the Great, and became part of the Macedonian Empire, of w hich 
 Pella (not far from the head of the Thermaic gulf) was the capital. 
 
 288. slagftantem, as the great inundating river. 
 
 290. ' \Vhere the border of quiver-bearing Persia presses close'. 
 Persia is used very vaguely, perhaps for Syria and Arabia as part of 
 the Persian Empire. 
 
 292. Indis, the Romans knew very little of the upper Nile, and 
 Indi is used poetically for the Aelhiopians S. of Egypt. 
 
 291 — 3 are read in various orders in liic MSS. : and the prolixity 
 and monotonous rhythm rather point here to our having (what has 
 happened several times in the Aeneid) different versions all niixctl up. 
 
 I have followed what seems the best order, that of Rom. MS. 
 
 294. hue arte, i.e. bee-breeding from carcases. 
 
 298. a ventis, 'on the side of, 'in the direction of, 'toward ', an 
 idiomatic use of a. So a fronte, a latere, ab orietite, a meridie, ab 
 decumana porta, where we say ' on ', or ' at '. 
 
 301. obstruitur, 'stopped', 'gagged'. 
 
 302. solvontur, ' mashed '. 
 
 viscera as usual is 'the flesh ' [not entrails as often construed]. 
 
 306. ante </utim rubeant, the sut)j after antequiiiii in its regular use 
 (where care is taken to do one thing before the other happens), usually 
 classe<l witliy?«a/ subj. 
 
 309. visenda viodis miris, lit. 'to be marked in wondrous wise', a 
 formal and antiqu.ited expression {mod tnir. Lucretian, see G. I. 477) 
 for the sake of inipressiveness. We may perhaps simplify in translating 
 ' marvellous to note '. 
 
 310. pedum for the ox(\'u\a.xy pedibiis, truncus being used like orbus 
 and vacuus, naturally with abl. but also (chielly Augustan) with gen. 
 The gen. may be justified as the Latin gen. of relation, ' in respect of: 
 but ni) doubt the much greater u->c maile of it by Augustans (esj). Vergil) 
 is due to the influence of Greek, where the gen. has also the ablative 
 nie.iiiing.
 
 96 VERGIL. GEORG J V. 
 
 311. miscenttir, 76. 
 
 aera carpunl, see ill. 325, ' take to the air ', ' range the aii '. 
 
 313. erupere, gnomic. 
 
 3 1 4. The Parthians are named as the most famous archers .. 
 skirmishers and are naturally called leves ' nimble '. 
 
 Where Vergil got this elaborate method, involving such a . 
 rural superstition, is not known : but the precept is given in eve. 
 greater detail in a work called Gcoponica (' Agricultural notes '^ 
 ascribed to a writer Florentinus about 900 A. D., who professes to gel ' ' 
 information partly from Varro. If so Yergil may have been follow 
 Varro, but in the latter's extant works there is nothing about it. 
 
 [315 — 381. The invention was due to Aristaeus, who lost his '•" 
 and called the nymph Gyrene his mother to aid him. She heard ' 
 she sate in the depths with her nymphs around her. Arethusa \ 
 to see what the cry was, and told Gyrene. The water parted anu 
 came down, and marvelled at the palace under water and the divers 
 river-founts. They feasted him : and after due prayers Gyrene spoke : 
 
 315. The address to the Muses marks as usual an important break 
 here the episode of Aristaeus : so he invokes the Gods below at the 
 beginning of the entry to Hades, A. vi. 264 : and the Muses when 
 Aeneas lands in Italy Vil. 37. 
 
 316. 'Whence did this new adventure of man find its source?' 
 strained and emphatic language. 
 
 317. Aristanis, G. I. 14: above 283. His mother was the 
 nymph Cyretie, daughter of the river-god Peneus. The river flows 
 through a very remarkable defile, between the ranges of Olympus and 
 Ossa, in N. Thessaly. called Tempe [T^/uttj;, Greek neuter plural]. 
 
 Where the story comes from is not known. [Heyne's suggestion, 
 that it was from the ancient cyclic poet Eumenes (adopted Ijy G. P. 
 F. &c.), rests merely on the tradition that he wrote a ^ovyoyla, and the 
 conjecture that this tale was there.] 
 
 319. ca/>u/ clearly the ' source ', as 368. 
 
 323. Thymbraeus, name of Apollo, from Thymbra (near Ilium) in 
 the Troad, where was a famous tem[)le of Apollo. 
 
 326. By the ' crown of this mortal life ' he means his fame as a 
 tiller of the soil, cultor nemorurn, and breeder. 
 
 328. te matre, 'though thou art my mother', and with thy divine 
 power mightest have aided me. 
 
 329. felix, 'fruitful ', the original meaning, connected with stem <(>v- 
 and fe- tus, fe- nus, fe- cundus, fe- mina: so nulla felix arbor Li v. V. 24, 
 felices arbores Gato dixit quae fructum ferunt Fe>t. 92. 
 
 331. molire, wield, used of any effort : hewing here : driving, m. 
 halienas A. xii. 327 : ploughing m. terram aratro G. i. 494 : hurling, 
 fulmina m. G. i. 329. 
 
 334. Milesia, 111. 306. 
 
 This passage about the nymph is from Homer's account of Thetis 
 //. XVIII. 34 ; — 
 
 'Achilles moaned: and his mother heard him as she sate in the 
 depths of the sea. ..and the goddesses thronged around her...Thaleia 
 and Kymodoke and Ncsaia and Speio...&c. '
 
 NOTES. 97 
 
 336. Drytnoqtu : see above ill. 385, iv. 221. 
 
 337. caesariem effusae, 'with their bright locks shed'; for the ace. 
 III. 307. 
 
 '" 338. This line is probably spuriousi, as it alone contains names 
 Homer's list of Nereids (see above 334) : it also recurs A. V. 826 
 •ifce it has come hither, no doubt). 
 340. Liicina, G. III. 60. 
 
 342. auro, belt, quiver, buckles, hair-snood, &c. These nymphs 
 "re huntresses clearly, like Arethusa below. 
 34.^. Ephyre atque. The Greek licence of open (long) vowels is 
 naturally used in a passage of Greek names. So Khodopeiae arces 
 "^J-'OW 461. 
 
 '<»6. This refers to the old savage tale how Mars (Ares) made 
 faithless to her lord Volcanus (found in Odyssey vill.). 
 ''•'' ' The phrase ' fruitless care ' will include love, anxiety, and vigilance 
 on the part of the deluded Volcanus. 
 
 347. aqut Chao, 'and from Chaos', i.e. from»the beginning of the 
 -Avorld. 
 
 densos, lit. 'thronging', unusual for 'countless'. 
 
 353. frustra, 'for nought', 'idly': there was a real cause for^her 
 alarm. 
 
 359 — 361. From Homer; see Homeric parallels. 
 
 364. The scenery under the water is like that on earth: only the 
 rivers are made to have their source there. 
 
 367. diversa locis, 'separate': /orw artificially added, lit. 'in respect 
 of their places ', not wanted in English. 
 
 Phasis, river of Colchis, flowing into S.E. end of Euxine. 
 Lycus, river of Pontus, flowing from hills of Armenia into the Iris 
 and so into S. side of Euxine. 
 
 368. Enipeus, river of S. Thessaly, a feeder of the Peneius. 
 
 369. saxosusque sonans, (i) note souttd imitntion of the dashing 
 rocky torrent: (2) the strained Vergilian use oi adj. saxosus: like 
 iucxpUtus lacrimans, densi tela intorquent, ostendit se Je.xlra. 
 
 Hypanis, a. river of Sarmatia (S. Russia) which flows into the sea of 
 Azov at the N.E. end of the Crimea. 
 
 Caicus in Mysia, rising in M. Temnus and flowing into the Acgaean 
 a little .S. of Lesbos. 
 
 370. pater, the reverent title of gods and rivers. 
 
 Anio rises in Apennines E. of Rome, flows past Tibur and joins 
 the Tiber just above Rome. 
 
 371 — 3. The Eridaiius, a fabled river of the western lands, first 
 in Hcsiod (?), 7'heogoriy, I. 338: Herodotos (III. 115) says it flows 
 into Oceanos in west of Europe. It was afterwards identitied with 
 the Po, even by Greek poets (Eur. //;//■ 737). and regularly by 
 Romans. 
 
 Vergil holds it in special honour, as the greatest river in Italy, and 
 of his own native Lomijardy: it is the 'king of rivers' (G. I. 482) and 
 its fount is in the abodes of the blest below (A. VI. 659). 
 
 371. 'With bull's head and both horns gilt': a double reference, 
 complicated in Vergil's manner: (i) river-gods were regularly represented 
 
 G. III. IV. 7
 
 98 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 with bull's horns or heads {tauriforinis Aufidus Hor. IV. Od. 14. 25: 
 'Y\\^\ix\%...corniger ^\x\'\\\^ A. viii. 77), doubtless as a primitive sign of 
 strength. (2) The sacred bull of the Roman triumphs was a white bull 
 with gilt horns: so the great festival of the triumph, at once national 
 and religious, is suggested by a word. Similarly the Bull (sign of 
 Zodiac) in (7. I. 217 is Cauduiiis auratis cortiibus. 
 
 374. 'Roofs hanging with lava', Veigilian variation for 'hanging 
 lava roofs': so pictas abide pttppes, virgulta sonaniia laiiro, immensa 
 voluiniHi: tcrga, liquontur sanguine guttae, &c. 
 
 The relation of the subst. to the phrase is changed from the more to 
 the less natural. 
 
 376 — I'i'O. So when the suitors feast in the Odyssey, they have first 
 the ' golden ewer and silver basin ' to wash hands, and then platters 
 with divers kinds of flesh. 
 
 Notice the choice language to dignify common things: water is 
 liqiiidos fontes, a towel is tonsis mantelia villis, incense is ' Panchaean 
 fire' : cups are carchetia, wine is nectar: hearth is yesta. So G. I. 295, 
 II. 234, A. vii. Ill, &c. 
 
 379. Panchaea. Euhemeros, a Sicilian, a courtier of the Mace- 
 donian king Cassander about B.C. 316, being furnished by the king with 
 money went a long journey of w hich he wrote a narrative. He became 
 famous for his method of treating the stories of gods and heroes as 
 exaggerated tales of mere men. He tells of an island Panchaea near 
 Arabia, very rich and happy. The name here practically = 'Arabian' 
 and the phrase means 'burnt incense', Arabia being the land of 
 spices. 
 
 adolesco,]\xstasadoleo, prop, 'to increase' or 'magnify', is used in the 
 technical religious sense of 'to burn' or 'fire' {verbenas adolere Eel. 
 VIII. 65 : altaria ad. A. vii. 71), so adolesco, prop, 'to grow ', is here used 
 in a corresponding intrans. sense ' to blaze'. 
 
 380. Alaeonii. Lydia was called in Homer Maeonia, and the 
 Lydian wine was famous, see G. Ii. 98. 
 
 382. Homer (//. XI v. 202, 266) calls Okeanos 'the source of all the 
 gods', and the earliest Greek nature-philosophy [Thales, circ. 600 H.c] 
 I bought water the origin of all things. Vergil's reference will include 
 both. 
 
 384. The ' hearth ' is called Vesta, as names of gods are often used 
 for the things which are their province : e.g. Mars, Bacchus, Neptunus, 
 Volcanus, Venus, Ceres. 
 
 [387 — 414. ' There is an ancient deity of the sea, Proteus, who 
 knows all things. Catch him with chains : hold him fast though he 
 changes form : and he will tell you what to do. I will lead you to a 
 place of ambush '.J 
 
 387. Carpathos is the soirthernmost isle of the Aegaean (except 
 Crete) and the Carpathian sea is the sea S. of the isle. 
 
 In Homer the scene is laid in 'an isle Pharos over against Egypt, 
 one day's voyage in a hollow ship': and Vergil does not probably mean 
 to change the place, but only uses 'Carpathian' with his usual elasticity 
 of geogra[ihical names. 
 
 388—9. Ihcpisces are sea-monsters, the front part like a horse, the
 
 NOTES. 99 
 
 hinder part a fish's tail : so bipedum equorum is merely another phrase 
 for the same. 
 
 'With fish-drawn chariot of two-footed steeds.' (R.) 
 
 388. caerulfus, 'sea-dark', used by the poets of anything belonging 
 to the sea: as sea-gods: Neptune, Triton, Nereus, Thetis, and nymphs 
 (Ovid): of Neptune's car {A. v. 819) and horses (Ovid): of ships 
 {A. V. 123): even of river-gods (viii. 64) and even their hair (Ov. M. 
 V. 432). 
 
 390 — X. Emathia, strictly the valley of the Axius in Macedonia, 
 here used for the whole of Macedonia: as in G. i. 492. Pallene, the 
 W. peninsula of Chalcidice. 
 
 Proteus in Homer is the 'ancient of the sea' who knows all the sea 
 depths, tends the seals (the flock of Poseidon) in Pharos, and lies down 
 amongst them to sleep. He knows all that is to be, and can change into 
 any shape. 
 
 The connection of Proteus with Macedonia is later. 
 
 393. The subjunctives are best taken, not as indirect question (P. K.) 
 but as indefinite or generic, ' whatsoever is, or has been, or shall be in 
 due course '. 
 
 397. ' And make the end prosperous'. 
 
 ^99. vim et vincula, mixed abstr. and concr., as often in V., see III. 
 182! 
 
 400. haec detmim, ^these\ emphatic: dernum is used as an enclitic 
 to emphasize demonstratives: ea dernum firma amicilia est Sail. C. XX. 
 4: hac dernum consistere terra A. I. 629: ilia seges dernum votis 
 respondet avari G. i. 47 : and turn dernum, nunc dernum. 
 
 doli, 'his tricks', Proteus'. 
 
 407. atraque tigris, 'dark' or 'evil tigress'. So we have atri 
 serpentes (V.), ater versus and atro detite (malignant), Horace. 
 
 [415 — 452. She rubbed him with ambrosia, and led him to Proteus' 
 cave. At mid-day he came to his cavern: the seals who followed lay 
 down, and the god sate on a rock. Aristaeus seized him, and held fast 
 though he changed form, to a beast, a fire, a river. He asked why Arist. 
 had come, and was told 'to seek an oracle'.] 
 
 416. /^t-i/mx/V, 'steeped'. The Homeric story makes Eidothee put 
 fresh seal-skins over Menelaos' companions, for an ambush: then she 
 set ambrosia before each man's nose to do away with the sea-stench of 
 the skins. 
 
 418. habilis, 'nimble'. 
 
 421. deprensis, 'caught' in a storm. ' 
 
 424. nehulis obscura, as in Homer regularly the gods can hide them- 
 selves at will in a mist. 
 
 resistit, ' stands still', 'abides'. 
 
 425. rapidus, 'violent' or 'fiery', used of aestus, 'noontide heat'. 
 Eel. II. 10: ignis, 'the fire' in a furnace or closed oven, G. IV. 263 : ami 
 Lucret. has rapidi leones, 'ravening', IV. 712. 
 
 'The fiery Sirius, scorching the thirsty Indians, was blazing in the 
 sky '. Sirius, or ' dog of Orion', the brilliant star .S.E. of Orion, famous 
 from Homer's day as the sign of the hottest season. At the time wlicn
 
 loo VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 the Iliad was composed Sirius' rising (apparent morning rising) in Greece 
 Monid be about the middle of July. In Vergil's time at Rome the date 
 was some three weeks later: but still no doubt the weather would be 
 usually hot enough to justify the traditional reference to Sirius. Indos 
 as the people who lived in the tropical heat. 
 
 There are two points in this passage: Sirius was blazing (it was 
 midsummer), and the sun had run half his course (it was mid-day). 
 
 ^27. hauseml, 'had devoured', vivid word for 'accomplished'; so 
 rapio, corripio are used of 'getting over the ground'. 
 
 427—8. Note the compressed and accumulated force of the descrip- 
 tion : cava, siccis, ad limut/i, tepefacta, coqucbant, all emphasizing the 
 heat. 
 
 The stream low between high banks is boldly and vividly described 
 as 'dry-moutht'd' (siccis faucibtis). fauces here has nothing to do with 
 the 'mouth ' of the river in its ordinary sense. 
 
 431. ros, lit. 'dew', is used oi lake water G. I. 385: oi rivtn- water 
 A. V. 854: q{ blood A. XII. 339: and here n{ sea water. 
 
 436. scopulo mediiis, characteristic variation for medio. So 
 cesserunt medii, advcrsafcrit, sese tulit obvia, &c. : see 369. 
 
 437. cuius, obj. gen. 'of seizing him'. 
 
 quoiiiam m its older sense 'when', found in Plautus and Terence 
 commonly, is quoniatn morilur Aid. Prol. 9: quoniam ille elociitus, 
 extciiiplo facio As. 11. 2. 83 [quoniam is quom-iam, and is only an 
 instance of the common change from temporal to causal meanings : cu7n, 
 quaiido, iird, on, ah, da, as, since, &c.). 
 
 445. 7!am quis', 'who then?' common colloquial particle in excited 
 questjons, usually after the interrog., quisnam, quidnam, and Greek 7ap 
 and apa. 
 
 447. An ambiguous line, which as far as the Lat. goes may mean, 
 (i) 'nor can aught escape thee ' (W.) ; (2) 'nor can one deceive thee in 
 aught' (H. F. L.); (3) ' nor canst thou deceive me in aught ' (C. P.). 
 
 I believe (i) is right, as being the most natural meaning. 'Thou 
 knowest, Proteus, thou knowest thyself, nor can aught escape thee: 
 cease to try to deceive'. An objection to this is raised that we have to 
 supply ya/Zd-r^ in a different sense after vclle: but we must remember that 
 the word being the same it would be far easier in Latin than in any other 
 language. 
 
 448. deunt, it was only the nymph Cyrene who had told him. 
 
 449. lassis, 'our wearied' fortunes, so Verg. uses fessis rebus. 
 Otlicrs lapsis, 'fallen'. 
 
 450. vi multa, ' much constrained '. 
 
 451. glauco, 'grey', .specially used of water-gods and their belong- 
 ings : so Father Tiber {A. viii. 33) and the nymphs (xil. 885) have 
 glaucum amictum. 
 
 452. fatis, 'to prophecy', dat. It might be abl. instr., but less 
 expressive. 
 
 f4.S3^.'527- Orpheus is wroth with thee : Eurydice, fleeing thee, 
 was slain by a snake. Orpheus was inconsolable, and went after 
 her to Hades. He charmed the shades: and the Furies and Cerberus 
 and even the tortured sinners : and got his wife again, liut at the
 
 NOTES. . loi 
 
 moment of escape, he turned and looked at her : she went back 
 reluctant to Hades. Seven months he wept for her, like the nightin- 
 gale for her young : till the Thracian women in a frenzy tore iiim 
 to pieces, and the Hebrus rolled away his head, still lamenting for 
 Eurydice.] 
 
 453. Notice nuUifts in arsis before vowel. 
 
 455. hatidqiiaquam ob mcrittim, a well-known difficulty. 
 
 (i) C. L. II. F. take it with viiserabilis, 'Orpheus hapless by 
 no fault of his': but the sense is weak, and the order is rather 
 against it. 
 
 (2) K. P. take it of Aristaeus, 'penalties undeserved by thee'; 
 but this cannot by any ingenuity be reconciled with magna luis 
 commissa. If Aristaeus was guilty, he had deserved the penalty. 
 
 (3) I believe Servius is riglu in rendering 'non tales quales 
 mereris'; a person suffers an oiiequate penalty ob meritum 'for his 
 deserts', and he may be said (logically though unusually) to suffer 
 an inaJequaie penalty handquaqiiam ob meritum 'nowise for his 
 deserts', i.e. less than he deserves. 
 
 ni fa/a resistant, 'should fate allow': the tense is right, as it is 
 not yet settled whether the penalty is to be suffered to the full or no. 
 
 456. coniuge, Eurydice a wood-nymph of Thrace. 
 
 457. cium te fugent. This is a unique use of dum in a final 
 sense with subj. Ordinarily the use is easy (whether (/«/w= 'until' 
 or 'while'), e.g. multum ille et terris iactatus...</«w conderet urbem, 
 i.e. 'he endured much by land and sea and wur... till he should biiild\ 
 A. I. 3 : rex quatluor millia armatorum, diwi recens terjvr esset, misit, 
 i.e. 'while the alarm should be still fresh'. 
 
 Here there is no other verb or act for the purpose diim fugeret 
 to depend on (for certainly the principal verb non vidit will not do) : 
 what Vergil really means is ^ while she was running away in order to 
 escape', and the real lielp to the analysis Is given by the word praeceps. 
 The best thing to say is that the fuller sense dam se praecipitabat ut 
 fugeret or dum praeceps currebat ut te fugeret is compressed into 
 dum te fugeret praeceps . 
 
 per, here stretched in sense, 'along'. 
 
 4 = 9. servantem, 'guarding', vivid word for 'lying' on the bank. 
 
 460. Dryadum (Greek word, SpOj, 'a tree' or oak), 'wood-nymphs' 
 (III. 40). 
 
 461. Rhodopeiae, III. 351. For metrical hiatus, see iv. 343. 
 
 462. Pangaeus was a mountain on the coast of Macedonia near 
 the Slrymon. 
 
 A'hesi Mavortia tellus is Thrace : Rhesus is nicnlioncd in the 
 Iliad X. 434 as king of the Thracians : as a savage warlike race 
 they were specially under the protection of Alars or AJavors, god 
 of war: so A. ril. 13, 35. 
 
 463. The Gelae were savages who lived near the Danube mouths 
 on the remotest borders of Thrace to N.K. (iii. 462). (Note hiatus 
 again.) 
 
 Hebrus (the Maritza), the principal river of 'I'lir.ice, draining the 
 country between the Halkaiis and Klii»doi)e. 
 
 7—3
 
 I02 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 Tlie ' Actian OreitJiyia wis daugliter of Erechthcits, mytlii al 
 king of Attica (anciently called Actc, 'the coast'), who was carried off 
 by Horeas (the north wind) to Thrace. 
 
 464. testudfl, lit. ' tortoise', often used for a tortoise-shell lyre. 
 
 467. Taenarias. Taoiarus was the south promontory of Laconia, 
 where was a temple of Poseidon, and a cave supposed to lead to 
 Hades. Dis is one of the Roman names for the god of the under 
 world (Hades or Pluto). 
 
 470. Hades is called in Homer (//. tx. 154) ^ he wJiom none can 
 soothe\ 'implacable' (auei'Xtxos). 
 
 471. Erebos (Greek word, = darkness), one of the names of the 
 world below. 
 
 472. luce carentum, 255. 
 
 476. maptanimum, old form of gen. plur. So V. has virum, 
 deitm, Massylum, divom, caelicohtm, &c. : but the form is rare in 
 adj. 
 
 This beautiful and touching description of the dead is used again in 
 A. VI. 303. It is partly imitated from Homer's account {Od. xi. 38) 
 of the shades that came up to see Odysseus : but it is more subtly 
 pathetic, e.g. 477 is all Vergil's own. 
 
 478. deformis, 'hideous'. 
 
 479 — 80. Cocytus (KwKuros, 'wailing') and Styx (SryJ, 'hate') are 
 well-known rivers of Hades. .The lines recur A. vi. 438. 
 
 480. alligaty 'binds fast', so that they cannot escape. 
 
 482. Tartara, the abode of the wicked below, often used vaguely 
 for the whole region : ' The homes -and inmost deeps of death '. 
 
 iviplexae angues, for the construction see III. 307. 
 
 The Furies (called Eumenides, the 'kindly ones', to propitiate them) 
 were commonly represented with snakes for hair. Vergil here slightly 
 alters the picture: though A. vii. 329 Allecto (a i\xxy) pullulat colubris. 
 
 483. Cerberus, the three-headed dog of Pluto. 
 
 484. vento constititi because the wind which moved the wheel may 
 also be said (by abating) to still the wheel. So Soph. Seti'wv r drj/xa 
 TTuev/jLaTwt' eKol/j.i.a€ (TThoura irovrov, 'the blast of the dread winds has 
 lullfd \hy ceasing] the roaring sea'. So nubes retexit montem. 
 
 Orpheus' song makes the wind stop, and that stops the wheel. For 
 Jxion see III. 38. 
 
 487. Proserpina, queen of Hades : corruption of Greek nep<r£(p6v7}, 
 
 4S9. Manes, prop, 'the shades', here used of the powers below 
 vaguely. 
 
 491. imme7nor, 'forgetful' of the condition that he was not to look 
 back at her, which we have to infer from V.'s rapid narrative. Ovid 
 Met. X. 80 is clearer, ' And this command the Thracian hero received, 
 not to turn back his eyes till he emerged from the valley of Avernus : 
 else the gift would be vain'. 
 
 victus aninii, 'overpowered at heart', i.e. his resolve overborne by 
 love. For aw////; see III. 289. 
 
 493- stagnis Avernis, ' the pools of Avernus ', properly one of the 
 volcanic lakes near Cumae in Campania : its banks were wooded and 
 dark, and the water gave out sulphureous vapours. It was supposed to
 
 NOTES. 103 
 
 be in direct connection with the lower workl, and the name Avenius is 
 often used as here fol- Hades itself. 
 
 496. natantia, 'swimming' eyes, not as we use it of weepiui^, but 
 of dying, to which the metaphor is quite as appropriate : it describes 
 the flickering uncertain sight of a dying person. So of eyes overpowered 
 with sleep, A. V. 856 natantia lumina solvit. 
 
 500. diversa, 'away', so diversus abis A. v. 166, xi. 855, div. ferri 
 A. XII. 495, &c 
 
 502. Orci, one of the names for Hades; the 'ferryman' is Charon, 
 who took the shades across the Acheron : see the splendid description 
 A. VI. -298. 
 
 504. faceret, ferrety moveret, the past deliberative, 'what was he to 
 do?' 
 
 508. Strymon, river of Macedonia not far from Thrace. 
 
 509. haec evolvisse, 'unfolded the tale' in song : Orpheus' power to 
 tame wild beasts and draw the trees along was famous. So Horace 
 {Od. III. II. 13) to the lyre : Tu potes tigres cornitesque silvas ducere. 
 
 517. HyperboreaSyiu. 1^6. 7a«a«, the Don, river of central Russia 
 falling into the sea of Azov. 
 
 518. Rhipads, in. 382. 
 
 520. Cicones, properly a Thracian tribe near the mouth of the 
 Hebrjis: here used (by a common poetic usage) for Thrace generally. 
 
 munere, 'service', a pathetic word for Orpheus' love and faithful 
 inconsolable sorrow. 
 
 The story was that Orpheus' ceaseless lament for Eurydice roused 
 the jealousy of the women (rnatres) of Thrace, who under the excite- 
 ment of the Bacchic frenzy tore him in pieces and threw his head into 
 the Hebrus. 
 
 524. cum medio, variation for medio simply : so madida cum vesta 
 gravatus. 
 
 Oeagrius, ' Thracian, ' from Oeagros king of Thrace : peculiarly appro- 
 priate here, as Oeagros was father of Orpheus by the Muse Calliope. 
 
 527. toto flumine, 'all along the stream', local abi. like caelo 
 ducitis annum G. i. 6, suffuderit ore i. 430, puteis nianare cruor 
 I- 485. &c. 
 
 [528 — 547. Proteus leapt into the sea: Cyrene told Aristaeus how 
 to appease the nymphs with sacrifice of cattle, which done, he would 
 find that Eurydice's vengeance no longer pursued him.] 
 
 529. vertex, ' the whirlpool ' made by the leap of Proteus. 
 
 530. non Cyrene, i.e. she did not leave him in his perplexity. 
 ultro, 204. 
 
 535. pacem, ' pardon' : so ' pace tua', 'by your leave'. 
 Napcuas, 'nymphs of the vale' (fawr;, 'a dell'). 
 
 539. Lycaeus, m. in Arcadia, III. 2. 
 
 540. inloita. It was a common ancient feeling that the animal 
 ofTercd should never have felt the yoke : Hoin. Od. ill. 382 (the unyoked 
 heifer to Athene), A. vi. 38 (seven unyoked cattle to Phoeljus). 
 
 545. Orphei, Greek dat. (inferias apposition to papaverd). 
 The poppy is called I.ethaean from Lclhc, the 'water of forgctfulness' 
 (Xjj(?7;), a nver in Hades where the souls destined to live again in othei
 
 104 VERGIL. GEORG. IV. 
 
 bodies drank oblivion of their former life, A. VI. 705. So commonly 
 applied to the sleepy and soothing poppy {G. I. 78)". The offering is to 
 soothe the shade of Orpheus and make him forget his woes. 
 
 547. The simplest explanation of this line is that of Lad. Con. P., 
 that when he 'revisits the grove ' where the oxen's carcases are he will 
 tiiid the bees, and know that Eurydice is appeased; then he must 'ofler 
 a heifer to the appeased Eurydice'. 
 
 [548— end. He offered the cattle : and from the carcases came 
 swarms of bees. Conclusion : tliis I write while Augustus is marching 
 victorious through the east, — I the poet of shepherds, and student at 
 Naples.] 
 
 556. strid?ie, 262. 
 
 558. uvam demittere, 'drop their cKister': bold use of iiva, which 
 means a grape. 
 
 560 — 2. This refers to Augustus' triumphant march through Syria 
 and Asia Minor in 31 B.C. after Aclium, when he received the submission 
 of the eastern empire. There was no fighting: and consequently 
 'thunders at the deep Euphrates with war' is a poetic exaggeration: it 
 was much more true that ' he gave laws among the willing nations'. 
 
 S(se notes on III. 26 — 33. 
 
 562. viamque adftctat Olympo, 'essays the path to heaven', for 
 Olympus (in Homer the snow-clad mountain in N. Thessaly, where the 
 gods lived) is in the Latin poets regularly used for 'heaven'. 
 
 The meaning is that Augustus sets out on the patli that leads to im- 
 mortality. On Vergil's feeling about the future deification of Augustus 
 see Georgics i. 24 — 36. 
 
 For dative (poetic use for ace. with ail) compare facilis descensus 
 Avcrno A. VI. 126, caput deturbat terrae (x. 555), proiecit _/?«z//o (xii. 
 256), &c. It is very common in V. 
 
 564. Parthenope, a name given to Naples from the tale that a Siren 
 so called was buried there. 
 
 565—6. pastorum refers, as well as 566, to the Eclogues, of which 
 the opening line addressed to a shepherd Tityrus, is Tityre tu patitlae 
 ucubans sub tegDiine fagi.
 
 ( I05 ) 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 (i) GRAMMATICAL AND GENERAL. 
 
 a, 'on the side of, iv. 298 
 abstract and concrete, ill. 182, iv. 
 
 399 
 abstract for concrete, verbere^ III. 
 
 106 
 
 adoUsco, 'blaze', iv. 379 
 
 adj. as subst., in. 124, 147, 291 
 
 — proleptic, I v. 104 
 
 — as adv., iv. 370 
 alcyone, in. 338 
 argutus. III. 80 
 aier, iv. 407 
 camurus, ill. 55 
 Cases 
 
 Ace. adverl)ial, in. 149, iv. 
 122 
 
 — after passive, in. 307, 
 
 IV. 337, 482 
 
 — extended cognate, in. 
 
 338. 537 
 
 — respect, in. 421 
 
 — after aTcrtor, \\\. 459 
 Gen. Achilli, in. 91 
 
 — after infdix, in. 498 
 
 — — quies, iv. 184 
 
 — — Ir uncus, iv. 310 
 
 — in -WW, IV. 476 
 
 Dat. agent after part., in. 6 
 
 — ethic, III. 19, 347 
 
 — agent after /(7i^., 170 
 
 — in -«, IV. i,i,8, 198 
 
 — for ace. with ad, IV. 562 
 Abl. material, in. 29 
 
 — local, 111. 149, 439, &c. 
 
 — in -«, III. 447, IV. 164 
 
 — course of time, III. 565 
 
 Log. animi, in, 289 
 crudus. III. 20 
 demutn, iv. 400 
 excretus. III. 398 
 felix, IV. 329 
 
 glatuus (water-gods), I v. 451 
 hipp07na)ies, in. 280 
 honeydew, iv. i 
 ille, poetic use, in. 217, 500 
 in spent y ni. 73 
 in version, I v. 144 
 in numeruni, I v. 175 
 in nodeni, IV. 190 
 laevus, IV. 7 
 mapalia. III. 340 
 middle voice, in. 3S3 
 niisceor, iv. 76, 311 
 molior, IV. 331 
 Moons 
 
 Indie, pres. w. dnm, in. 296 
 
 — perf. gnomic, in. 365, 
 
 377, IV. 213, 313 
 
 — perf. after duin, iv. 85 
 .SWy. jussive, ni. 404 
 
 — conditional, mixed, iv. 
 
 117 
 
 — final (with rel.). III. 145, 
 
 IV. 9 
 
 — — {(in/ei/uam), IV. ^06 
 
 — .— (dum), IV. 457 
 
 — indefinite, iv. 393 
 
 — indirect quest., in. 24 
 
 — — dep. on nodis, 
 
 III. 159 
 
 — delib. past, iv. 504 
 Polcnlial, ill. 1 4 i
 
 io6 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Infin. after aetas, in. 60 
 
 — ace. inf. after mos. III. 
 
 — ace. inf. after (r<//V<7, III. 
 
 — after incumbent, IV. 249 
 
 — — accitigor, III. 46 
 nam in questions, IV. 445 
 7iidi, IV. 17 
 
 nunurus, IV. 327 
 /^r 'along', iv. 457 
 plus adverbial, iv. 207 
 preposition dep. on subst., iv. 164 
 proleptic adj., I v. 104 
 promise of Aeneid, 111. 46 
 
 quidm climax, in. 258 
 
 quoniam temporal, IV. 437 
 
 river-gods as bulls, IV. 371 
 
 sacer ignis, ill. 566 
 
 sequor. 111. 40 
 
 spadix. III. 82 
 
 stridhe, IV. 262, ,«;56 
 
 suus, IV. 22, 190 
 
 ienus gtn., HI. 53 
 
 trans, verbs intrans., HI. 365 
 
 vento constitit, iv. ^84 
 
 vescus, III. 175 
 
 ultra, IV. 204, 265, 530 
 
 world-spirit, iv. 219 — 227 
 
 (2) STYLE. 
 
 accumulated expression : III. 502, 
 
 IV. 36, 225, 427 
 archaisms : 
 
 tondebat, IV. 137 
 victu dat. , IV. 158 
 sorti abl., IV. 164 
 visenda modis miris, IV. 309 
 effective phrases or passages : 
 nature description. 111. 23S 
 graphic and forcible, ill. 104, 
 
 117, 497, IV. 427 
 imaginative, in. 11, 37, 43, 
 
 337, 478> 54'5, iv. 17, 74 
 playful touches, ill. 54, 102, 
 163, 236, IV. 3, 28, 64, 67 
 — 87, 176, 209, 240 
 choice words, in. 259, 533 
 solemn or stately, ill. 294, 
 
 474 
 pathos, in. 228, IV. 476, 520 
 artificial, ill. 25, 251, 502 
 exaggeration. III. 254 
 Greek forms : 
 
 Pelion, III. 94 
 Aegyptos, iv. 210 
 Orphei, IV. 545 
 — words: 
 
 pompa. III. 22 
 hyinenaens, in. 60 
 
 oestrus, III. [48 
 
 podagra. III. 299 
 
 chelydrus. III. 415 
 
 amurca. III. 44S 
 
 elleboros, in. 451 
 
 electrum. III. 522 
 
 daedala, IV. 179 
 
 psithia, IV. 269 
 Greek constructions : 
 
 cui dictus, ni. 6 
 
 gnomic perf., III. 365 
 
 velatur corpora, in. 383 
 — metre, in. 60, IV, 137, 343 
 horrors. III. 514 
 litemry epithets. III. 345 
 metrical peculiarities : 
 
 hiatus, III. 155, IV. 343 
 
 arsis, in. 189,332, iv. 92, ^~,}, 
 
 hypermeter, in. 242, 377, 449 
 
 miscticrunt, in. 282 
 
 spondee overhanging, ill. 317, 
 IV. 164, 196 
 
 que. III. 385, IV. 222, 336 
 
 tinutd, IV. 58 
 
 tondebat, iv. 137 
 
 Stella spondee, iv. 243 
 sound imitations: 
 
 (crackle of ice), III. 260 
 
 (gallop), in. 194
 
 INDEX. 
 
 107 
 
 (heavy pressure), III. ?22 
 (wave breaking), III. 238 
 (slow gait). III. 317 
 (dashing water), iv. 370 
 
 stately words for common things, 
 IV. 376—380 
 
 stretch of construction: 
 
 irasci in corniia, III. 2 3 2 
 litora alcyonem resonant, in. 
 
 338 
 infelix studiorum. III. 498 
 aequabat opts animis, IV. 1 32 
 saxosus sonatis, IV. 370 
 scopiilo niedius, iv. 436 
 cum medio for medio, IV. 522 
 stretch of meaning: 
 
 haur'it corda pavor (tugs), III. 
 
 104 
 superesse (strong enough), iii. 
 
 127 
 culpa (mischief). II i. 46S 
 undis abolere. III. 559 
 metunt (gather honey), I v. 54 
 obnixus (resolute), iv. 84 
 consors (sharerl), IV. [53 
 crates favorum (combs), iv. 
 
 214 
 fetus (honey), iv. 231 
 farits (cell), IV. 2fo 
 
 caespes (root), IV. 273 
 adolesco (blaze), iv. 379 
 hauserat (of a course), IV. 427 
 fauces (bed of stream), iv. 428 
 ros (sea-water), iv. 431 
 uva (cluster of bees), iv. 558 
 ludo (of music), IV. 565 
 
 transferred epithet or parlic. : 
 aridafebris. III. 458 
 adfixae venis, IV, 238 
 contracto frigore, IV. 259 
 
 varied or artificial expression : 
 odor attulit auras. III. 251 
 raris habitata tectis, III. 340 
 septemque adsurgit in ulnas, 
 
 III- 355 
 trahit sinus ultimus orbes, III. 
 
 424 
 ad taction tractaiiti dura. III. 
 
 .-02 
 gemitu gravis, ill. 506 
 offensa resultat imago, IV. 50 
 custos tutela Priapi, IV. no 
 cresceret in vent rem, iv. 122 
 congesta cubilia blattis, for 
 
 blattae congestis cub., I v. 224 
 diversa locis, IV. 367 
 pendentia pumice tecta, iv. 374 
 
 (3) NAMES. 
 
 Achilles, III. 91 
 Actias, IV. 463 
 Admelus, 11 1. 2 
 Aetna, iv. 173 
 Alburnus, ill. 147 
 Alphcus, III. 19. 180 
 Amphrysus, ill. 2 
 Amyclac, ill. 89, 345 
 Aniythaon, III. 550 
 Anio, IV. 369 
 Aonia, III. 1 1 
 Aquarius, in. 304 
 Arachne, iv. 246 
 ArcaiHus, iv. 2><3 
 Ascanius, in. 269 
 
 Assaracus, ill. 35 
 Avernus, iv. 493 
 
 lielgae, iii. 204 
 IJisaitae, ill. 461 
 Britanni, ill. 25 
 Busiris, ill. 5 
 
 Caicus, IV. 370 
 Calabria, ill. 425 
 Canopus, IV. 287 
 Carpathius, iv. 387 
 Castalia, ill. 291 
 Cccropius, IV. 177, 270 
 
 Centaurea, iv. 270 
 Cerberus, iv. 483 
 Chaos, IV. 347 
 Chiron, 111. 529 
 Cicones, iv. 520 
 Cin\p!iii, ill. 312 
 Cilliaeron, III. 43 
 Cocytus, 111. 38, IV, 
 
 479 
 Corycus, iv, 127 
 Crete, ill, 345 
 
 Deios, III. 6 
 Dirte, IV. 151 
 Dryas, 111. 40, iv. 4^*0
 
 io8 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Elis, III. 101 
 Enialliia, iv. 390 
 Enipeus, iv. 36S 
 Epidaurus, III. 44 
 Epiius, III. 121 
 Erebos, iv. 471 
 Erichthonius, iii. 1 13 
 Eridanus, iv. 372 
 Euphrates, iv. 562 
 Eurystheus, III. 4 
 
 Galaesus, iv. 126 
 Gangaridae, 11 1. 27 
 Gargara, in. 269 
 Geloni, in. 461 
 Getae, 111. 462 
 Glaucus, III. 267 
 
 Hebrus, IV. 463 
 Hiberus, ill. 408 
 Hippodaine, lii. 7 
 Hister, ill. 350 
 Hydaspes, iv. 211 
 Hylas, HI. 6 
 Hypanis, iv. 370 
 Hyperborei, lli. 196, 
 381 
 
 lapys, HI. 475 
 Ida, III. 449, IV. 41 
 Idumaei, III. 12 
 Inachus, III. 152 
 Indi. IV. 293, 425 
 lo, III. 152 
 Ixion, III. 38, IV. 484 
 
 Lapithae, iii. 115 
 LaiDna, ill. 6 
 Leaiider, ill. 259 
 I>enaeus, ill. 510 
 Lethaeus, iv. 545 
 Lucifer, 11 1. 324 
 Lucina,iii.6o, IV.340 
 Lima, III. 391 
 Lycaeus, in. 2, 314 
 Lycu.s, IV. 367 
 
 Maecenas, III. 41 
 Maeonia, iv. 380 
 Maeotia, III. 349 
 Mantua, in. 12 
 Mars, III. 91 
 Massicus, in. 526 
 Medus, IV. 211 
 Melampus, ill. 550 
 Mella, IV. 278 
 \IUetu.s, III. 306, IV. 
 
 ' 3.H 
 Molorchus, III. 19 
 
 Molossus, 111. 405 
 Mycenae, in. 121 
 Mysia, iv. 370 
 
 Napaeae, iv. 535 
 Neptunus, 111. 122 
 Nilus, 111. 29 
 Niphates, in. 30 
 Noricus, III. 474 
 
 Oceanus, in. 359, iv. 
 
 Ocagrius, IV. 524 
 Oebalia, IV. 125 
 Olympia, III. 49 
 Olympus, III. 223 
 Orcus, IV. 502 
 Oreilhyia, IV. 463 
 
 Paestum, iv. 119 
 Pales, III. I, 294 
 Pallene, iv. 391 
 Pan, III. 2, 391 
 Panchaca, IV. 379 
 Pangaeus, IV. 462 
 Parnasus, III. 291 
 Paros, III. 34 
 Parthenope, IV. :.'j4 
 Parthi, ill. 31 
 Pelethronius, in. 115 
 Pelion, III. 94 
 pL-llaeus, IV. 2S7 
 Pelops, III. 7 
 Peiieus, IV. 317 
 
 Pliasis, IV. 367 
 Philyra, III. 93, 550 
 Piscis, IV. 234 
 Pisa, III. 180 
 Plias, IV. 233 
 Pollux, III. 81; 
 Polniae, HI. 267 
 Priapus, IV. no 
 Procne, iv. 15 
 Proserpina, IV. 487 
 Proteus, IV. 388 
 
 Quirinus, in. 27 
 Quirites, IV. 201 
 
 Rhesus, IV. 462 
 Rhipaeus, III. 382 
 Rhodope, in. 351 
 Rhodopeius, iv. 461 
 
 Sabellicus, III. 255 
 Saturnus, III. 93 
 Scythia, in. 197 
 Septemtrio, in. 381 
 Sila, in. 219 
 Silarus, in, 146 
 Sirius, IV. 425 
 Sisyphus, ill. 39 
 Span a, III. 405 
 Strymon, iv. 508 
 Styx, IV. 480 
 
 Taenarus, iv. 467 
 Tanager, in. 151 
 Tartara, iv. 481 
 Taygete, iv. 232 
 Taygetus, III. 44 
 Tenipe, I v. 317 
 Thymbraeus, IV. 323 
 Timavus, ill- 47.S 
 Tithonus, in. 48 
 Trio, III. 381 
 iros, III. 36 
 
 Vesta, IV. 384 
 
 CAMIIKIUUe: l-KINTEO BV J. I) I'E.VCK, M.A., AT THE UNlVliKSITV TRESS.
 
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