NOTES

The first four lines which are printed in italics occur in a few MSS., and may be translated as follows:

'I am he, who once tuned my song on the slender reed, and leaving the woodland constrained the neighbouring fields to serve the husbandman, though greedy of gain-a task pleasing to farmers: but now I sing the dread arms of Mars and the man, &c.'; i. e., I once made pastoral poetry (Eclogues), then leaving that I next sang the fields (Georgics), now an Epic of war (Aeneid).

But the lines are clearly not genuine. They are in no good MS. and have only been restored from Servius, who quotes them.

Ovid, Martial and Persius all quote ‘Arma virumque' as the beginning of the Aeneid. G. suggests that Vergil wrote them and sent them to a friend, without meaning them to be part of the book: and this would explain Servius' story that Tucca and Varius, the scholars whom Augustus ordered to edit the Aeneid after Vergil's death, rejected the lines. Anyhow we cannot accept them.

[1-11. Exordium.]

I. Observe the emphasis in the first sentence on the leading points of the poem. Arma: a war-epic: virum, the hero Aeneas: Italiam, the national poem glorifying his beloved land: fato, the destiny of the people: Romae, the capital and centre of all.

primus, 'first'. The commentators are exercised because (242) Antenor is said to have settled previously at Padua. But (1) Antenor is insignificant (2) Padua is in Ĉisalpine Gaul, not Italy, as the Romans named it.

2. fato profugus, together, 'by fate exiled'.

Lavinaque, i. e. Latin, from Lavinium, old town in Latium, 8 miles from the sea. [Laviniaque, other reading, is the commoner form of the adj. and can be scanned by slurring the i into a kind of y-sound, like păriětě, ābiětě, but such a license is unlikely so early in the poem.]

3. Observe ille grammatically superfluous but vivid and emphatic: 'much wayworn he by land and sea &c'. So VII. 805, Camilla Bellatrix, non illa colo, &c. XI. 492, campoque potitus aperto aut ille in pastus armentaque tendit equarum.

iactatus, properly of buffetings by sea, used by rather a stretch with terris: a sort of zeugma as it is called.

4. superum, [old form of gen. cf. deum, Danaum, Aeneadum, caelicolum, &c.] 'the gods': though Aeneas' enemy is chiefly Iuno, all the gods are interested in his wanderings.

5• 'Much stricken too in war, till he should build him a city, &c.' Dum expresses a purpose always with the subjunctive: though here it is quite as much the purpose of fate as the purpose of Aeneas that the poet means. The full sense is 'enduring till the time should come when, &c.'

6. Latinum... Albani...Romae: we are told (265) Aeneas should reign 3 years over Latium, then Ascanius his son should reign in Lavinium 30 years, and after that transfer the seat to Alba (a few miles S.E. of Rome). There the kingdom should last 300 years, when Romulus should be born.

Observe that the first passage ends emphatically with Romae. See 33.

8. quo numine laeso, 'for majesty how outraged', i.e. 'for what outrage to her majesty'. So qui, quis, aliquis are used poetically for an adverb, 1. 181, Anthea si quem...videat, i.e. if he can see Antheus any where': II. 81, fando aliquod si forte...nomen, if the name at all has come. Pap. quotes aptly Cic. Rep. 1. 36: A Iove incipiendum putat. Quo Iove? i. e. 'why from Jove?'

9. volvere, 'traverse' by an obvious metaphor.

10. pietate, 'goodness': the regular epithet of Aeneas in the poem is pius: he is represented as the man who to his father and people and gods fulfils all righteousness.

II. impello is used by V. with inf. like many other verbs (hortor, oro, luctor, ardeo, suadeo, &c.) which in prose naturally have ut with subj.

In heavenly hearts can such wrath dwell?' a characteristic touch of the poet's gentle nature: with an undertone of sadness too, as though violence and passions are to be looked for on earth.

[12-33: Iuno protectress of Carthage, mindful of the prophecy that a Trojan race should destroy the African city, and wrathful for other reasons, prevented long the wanderers from landing in Italy.]

12. Tyrii; Carthage being a Phoenician colony, and Tyre being one of the leading original Phoenician towns. So Sidonian and Phoeni cian are used for Carthaginian.

13. contra, 'facing': i. e. on opposite shores of the great sea. No doubt the long rivalry of the two is also in the poet's mind.

14. studiisque asperrima belli, 'hardened in war's rough arts'. studia are properly 'interests', what you are 'busy' with. opum, gen. of respect, especially common with words of plenty, abounding (plenus, dives, abundans).

16. Samo: at Samos (island off Asiatic coast of Archipelago) Iuno

(Here) was supposed to have been born and grown up: and there was a great temple in her honour.

Samo: hic, observe the hiatus: common at the caesura and in arsis (stress of the foot, i.e. the first syllable of the dactyl or spondee).

17. 'That here should be the empire of the world...is even now her aim and endeavour': tendit and fovet describe a purpose cherished and carried out, and are so used (by a stretch of grammar such as is common in Vergil) with acc. and inf. as though the word were volt or optat.

So paro VII. 429, armari pubem...para: propero VII. 57, adiungi generum properabat.

19. sed enim, yet indeed', 'however' (like dλλà yáp). So 11. 164 where it comes later in the sentence: impius ex quo Tydides sed enim &c. VI. 28, magnum reginae sed enim miseratus amorem.

20. 'One day destined to raze the Tyrian fortress'; verto, variation for everto.

21.

late regem, together, 'of wide rule'. Comm. quote late tyrannus, Hor. Od. III. 17. 9.

22. excidio, dat. of end or purpose, like auxilio venire, subsidio, praesidi, &e.

Libyae, 'of Africa': the more extensive word poetically for the kingdom of Carthage. [C. takes Libyae dat.: possible but needless.] volvere Parcas, 'the course of Fate' [Parcae are the Fates]. The metaphor is perhaps a wheel, or a scroll.

23. Saturnia, Iuno, like Iuppiter, Neptune, Pluto, &c., was sprung from Saturn the father of the older gods.

24. prima, of old' as often in V. The 'ancient war' was the Trojan war of course.

26. manet...repostum, 'stored deep in her heart'.

27. The 'Judgment of Paris' refers to the well-known Greek tale that Strife threw a golden apple in among the feasting gods as a prize for the fairest that Here (Iuno), Aphrodite (Venus), and Pallas (Minerva) all claimed it; and that the Trojan prince Paris was made judge, and assigned the prize to Venus. So Iuno resented the judgment and 'her slighted beauty's wrong'.

28. genus invisum, 'the hated race', because Dardanus the Trojan ancestor was son of Jove by Electra: rapti Ganymedis honores, 'the honours of the stolen Ganymede', because the beautiful Trojan boy Ganymede was carried off by the eagle to Olympus to be Jove's cupbearer.

In both cases therefore it is jealousy which animates Iuno.

29. his accensa super; 'with these things inflamed yet more', (super adverbial as often) picking up the interrupted sentence which began id metuens veterisque memor.

30. reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli, 'saved from the Greeks and cruel Achilles' (lit. 'remnants of', i.e. 'left by': the subjective gen. as it is called).

Danaum (observe old form of gen., see 4), one of the many names of the Greeks: others are Grai, Achivi, Argivi.

Achilli, irregular form of the gen. So V. uses Ulixi, Oili.

31. multos: it was seven years: iam septima portat...aestas, I. 755. septima post Troiae excidium vertitur aestas, v. 626.

33. 'So vast a work it was to found the race of Rome': the keynote of the Aeneid (the destiny of Rome) struck at the close of the Exordium or opening passage, just as the first passage of the poetphilosopher Lucretius ends with the bitter and powerful line, Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.

molis, possessive gen. like sapientiae est, virtutis est, 'it belongs to', 'is a part of', 'requires'. The word means 'mass', 'weight' and so is used (like molior, see 414) of 'effort'.

[34-49. The Trojan fleet leaves Sicily. Iuno nursing her wrath exclaims 'shall the other gods defeat their foes and I the wife of Jóve be baffled?']

34. The poet avoids preface and plunges into the midst of the events. The foregoing events from the sack of Troy to the voyage from Sicily are told by Aeneas in books II. and III. Siculus, 'Sicilian': see note on 557

35. ruebant, 'were ploughing'. In 85 the word is used of 'upheaving' water with wind: XI. 211, of 'raking' or 'sweeping' bones and ashes from the pyre: G. I. 105, of 'levelling' ridges: the general idea seems to be nothing more precise than 'violent movement'.

37. mene... ...desistere, cf. 97, "I to leave my purpose baffled!' The inf. of indignant exclamation. So in English we say 'to think that' and in Greek σoû тò μǹ Opáσai ‘(The idea of) your not telling me!'

38. Teucri, 'Trojans' from Teucer, mythical first king of Troy, son of Trojan river Scamander and a nymph.

39. quippe vetor fatis, 'doubtless the fates forbid me'. quippe like so many particles of affirmation can easily be ironical, as here.

40. The most complete version of this story (which varies much) is that Aiax loved Cassandra and tried to drag her off from the temple of Minerva (II. 404). The goddess was angry, and wrecked the Greek fleet on their return at Caphereus in Euboea, and slew Aiax. Homer's story is rather different, and makes Poseidon slay the offender. ipsos, the men, opposed to the ships.

41. furias, 'frenzy': for impious boldness was regarded as a kind of madness. Oili, 'son of Oileus': for form see 'Achilli', 30.

42. ipsa, herself', because it was Iuppiter who properly handled the bolts, and she was usurping.

44-5. Notice the force: 'Gasping out fire from his pierced breast, she caught up in the whirlwind and impaled on a point of rock'.

46. incedo, who step forth queen of gods', describing the majestic gait of the goddess: a peculiarly Latin and dignified word. So 405, vera incessu patuit dea: and 497.

49. praeterea, any more': so Eurydice, Georg. IV. 500, neque illum praeterea vidit.

imponet, the fut., is rather odd after the pres. : but it is the best-supported reading.

honorem, homage', i.e. 'sacrifice'. honos is a favourite word of Vergil, and is used for a great variety of things: hymn, funeral, reward, beauty, leaves, sacrifice, &c.

[50-75. She goes to Aeolus the Wind-god who keeps the winds prisoned in their cavern, and asks his aid, promising the nymph Deiopeia as his reward.]

52. Aeolia is Lipari, volcanic island to the N. of Sicily. 'The mighty rumbling of the mountain' (55) common in a volcanic country, might naturally give rise to such myths.

53. 'struggling winds and roaring hurricanes'. Observe the finesounding lines 53, 55, 56.

58-9. 'Else surely would they whirl off sea and land in their wild course'. In prose we should have here ni faceret...ferrent, because it is a present condition where the supposition is excluded by the facts [he does it if he did not do it, they would bear]. The pres. subj. faciat treats the question as still open, and in poetry is found for the other.

61. molem et montes, 'the mass of mighty rocks', the two qualities given in two substantives instead of one, what is called hendiadys (êv dià duoîv, 'one by means of two'.]

62. foedere certo, 'by sure charter', foedus, Vergilian for 'law', 'condition'.

63. premere, 'tighten', laxas dare, 'loosen'. V. is rather fond of this periphrasis with dare: so III. 69, placataque venti dant maria: IX. 323, haec ego vasta dabo.

qui sciret, subj. of purpose, common with qui: the purpose here is the purpose of Iuppiter who appoints him.

65. namque; the reason put first, then the request, incute vim 69. 66. dedit, 'has allowed', so 79, with inf.: common in poetry. The verb follows the construction of verbs of permitting, sino, permitto, licet.

67. Tyrrhenum, Greek name for 'Tuscan 'sea, i.e. between Sicily and Italy.

68. Penates are the whole of the powers who preside over the household, whether any of the greater gods specially so worshipped, or sacred images or relics.

69. submersas obrue, 'sink and whelm', accumulated expression in Vergil's manner: cf. conversa tulere, fixum sedet, sublapsa referri, deceptam morte fefellit, &c.

incute vim, 'stir to fury' 'lash to fury', (C.).

73. Usually scanned cōnūbiō, the i being slurred into a y-sound (cf. āriětě, pāriětě, see note on 2): but Mr Munro, on Lucr. III. 776 gives reasons for believing it is cōnŭbĭō, the u only being long in arsis or the stress of the foot, as per conubia nostra, IV. 316.

[76-80. Aeolus assents.]

76. explorare quid optes, to search out thy will': the only task of the royal goddess is to interpret her own desires. This is the most natural meaning. Quid optes may also be taken deliberative, 'to search out what to wish for' [so C. in trans. but differently in notes]: but the other is more simple and natural.

78. quodcunque is only the modesty of courteous speech.

79. concilio, properly of persons, here extended to regnum and sceptra. This poor realm and my sceptre and the goodwill of Iove thou winnest me'.